1
00:00:07,559 --> 00:00:10,720
Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, Welcome back to the Game Informer Show, a

2
00:00:10,759 --> 00:00:14,320
weekly podcast covering the video game industry. Join us every

3
00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:17,399
Friday for discussion about the latest gaming news, reviews, and

4
00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:21,280
exclusive reveals, alongside Game Informer staff and special guests from

5
00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:24,079
around the industry. I'm one of your hosts today, Alex

6
00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:27,519
van Aiken. Today I'm joined by Marcus Stewart.

7
00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:28,719
Speaker 2: Hey to Marcus.

8
00:00:28,879 --> 00:00:31,719
Speaker 3: Hey, I'm back from the Game Awards and they didn't

9
00:00:31,800 --> 00:00:35,280
give me an award. I, oh, yeah, you were supposed to.

10
00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:36,399
Speaker 2: That's what you were going out there for.

11
00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:39,240
Speaker 3: I thought that's what Keighley told me when I hung

12
00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:42,079
out with him in Japan. He promised me a game award,

13
00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:45,359
and when I approached him, he just kind of like

14
00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:47,240
backed away and acted like he didn't know me.

15
00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:48,439
Speaker 2: It was weird, huh.

16
00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:51,759
Speaker 1: They were also supposed to do an orchestral arrangement of

17
00:00:51,799 --> 00:00:54,799
the Game Informer Show intro music, and I noticed that

18
00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:56,359
wasn't in the show proper. I wasn't sure if that

19
00:00:56,359 --> 00:00:58,359
was in the pre show and I missed it or

20
00:00:58,439 --> 00:01:00,920
a special you know audience on nothing.

21
00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:01,320
Speaker 2: Nothing.

22
00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:04,599
Speaker 3: No. I blame this piggy, honestly, I think.

23
00:01:04,719 --> 00:01:06,760
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, there was a lot of drama.

24
00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:09,400
Speaker 3: A lot of drama. I was I saw some stuff backstage.

25
00:01:09,519 --> 00:01:11,040
I can't. I don't know if I'm at liberty to

26
00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:12,079
say between the two of these.

27
00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:14,079
Speaker 2: But is that the stuff that was on TMZ?

28
00:01:14,599 --> 00:01:14,760
Speaker 3: Oh?

29
00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:15,439
Speaker 2: Something different?

30
00:01:15,879 --> 00:01:19,719
Speaker 3: Well, you know, then maybe you already know if you're

31
00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:20,680
referencing TMZ.

32
00:01:21,439 --> 00:01:24,719
Speaker 4: Yeah, it just what does TMZ stand for? Too many

33
00:01:24,760 --> 00:01:26,480
bit's zany?

34
00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:26,799
Speaker 2: Yes?

35
00:01:27,319 --> 00:01:28,760
Speaker 3: Yeah? Actually? What?

36
00:01:28,799 --> 00:01:29,120
Speaker 2: Maybe?

37
00:01:29,159 --> 00:01:33,159
Speaker 3: What does I just realized? I don't Actually, I.

38
00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:36,519
Speaker 2: Guess I just told you. Charles Hart, Hello, how are you?

39
00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:40,519
Speaker 4: I'm I'm doing better now that I know that TMZ

40
00:01:40,719 --> 00:01:44,120
stands for thirty mile zone TMS.

41
00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:46,159
Speaker 2: Do you have the official name? Are you looking it up?

42
00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:50,680
Speaker 4: That's yeah, thirty mile zone, I know, really yeah. Historically,

43
00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:52,879
using the film and television industry to refer to the

44
00:01:52,879 --> 00:01:56,519
so called studio zone, an area with a thirty mile

45
00:01:56,599 --> 00:01:59,000
radio centered on the intersection of Beverly Boulevard in Los

46
00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:01,840
Cienaga Boulevard, Los Angeles, is that can call the studio

47
00:02:01,879 --> 00:02:04,319
zone because the number of film and television studos within it. So,

48
00:02:04,359 --> 00:02:07,719
I guess because it's like celebrity news, specifically Hollywood news,

49
00:02:07,879 --> 00:02:09,919
the thirty mile zone would be like the area that

50
00:02:09,919 --> 00:02:10,360
they would do.

51
00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:12,639
Speaker 3: Therefore, that sounds confusing if you work in the industry,

52
00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:14,360
like if you're trying, like if you live in LA

53
00:02:14,479 --> 00:02:16,560
or something, You're like, I'll meet you by the TMZ

54
00:02:17,159 --> 00:02:18,960
and then people are like, what you're talking to TMZ?

55
00:02:19,479 --> 00:02:21,919
Like no, no, no, the old one, the one that

56
00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:22,319
you know.

57
00:02:23,080 --> 00:02:26,159
Speaker 4: It's also you wouldn't meet someone by that's thirty miles zone,

58
00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:27,080
so that's.

59
00:02:26,919 --> 00:02:28,080
Speaker 3: Like a big area.

60
00:02:28,319 --> 00:02:31,960
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, like, I meet you in the Manhattan.

61
00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:34,639
Speaker 1: That's my favorite call diuty word or called didty mode.

62
00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:36,560
And I know that people. We'ven get a lot of

63
00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:40,319
comments lately on YouTube people don't like the word association jokes.

64
00:02:41,039 --> 00:02:44,719
And I say to those people, two damn bad, you know,

65
00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:46,280
two damn bad.

66
00:02:46,360 --> 00:02:49,000
Speaker 3: That's all we have, guys. I'm sorry, that's that's it.

67
00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:49,680
Speaker 2: That's what we have.

68
00:02:50,319 --> 00:02:52,919
Speaker 1: We have sweet treats, that's the and we got word

69
00:02:52,919 --> 00:02:54,080
association jokes.

70
00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:55,719
Speaker 3: Okay, our comedic ceiling.

71
00:02:56,639 --> 00:02:58,199
Speaker 4: Yeah, we have sweet treats.

72
00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:03,039
Speaker 2: I mean, I've got a Coke zero vanilla off Okay.

73
00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:05,360
Speaker 4: Yeah, but that's not for them, that's just like us.

74
00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:10,240
Speaker 3: You're saying for the class.

75
00:03:11,159 --> 00:03:14,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, did you ever have a teacher that actually

76
00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:14,879
did that?

77
00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:17,639
Speaker 3: Oh? Like the did you bring food all you out?

78
00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:20,960
I mean I class because I was I was a

79
00:03:21,120 --> 00:03:23,840
very good kid. But I have seen I've seen it

80
00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:26,319
happened to less good kids that brought food in. We

81
00:03:26,439 --> 00:03:29,439
were like, I'm trying, Oh did you actually have to

82
00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:31,520
like did they take it away and make you share

83
00:03:31,639 --> 00:03:32,400
or did they just know?

84
00:03:32,439 --> 00:03:35,000
Speaker 2: But I was like publicly shamed and I didn't like that.

85
00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:35,639
Speaker 3: What'd you bring?

86
00:03:36,960 --> 00:03:38,000
Speaker 2: It's just chips?

87
00:03:38,840 --> 00:03:40,840
Speaker 3: I mean, chips are class, that's what It's always chips.

88
00:03:40,879 --> 00:03:44,400
Speaker 2: Oh, there's always chips Son chips, Yeah, which is.

89
00:03:44,360 --> 00:03:46,280
Speaker 3: Weird because that's like the loudest thing you could eat. Like,

90
00:03:46,319 --> 00:03:48,759
it's not really good for sneaking, which is the idea

91
00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:50,439
of bringing food in class. And you're like, I'm going

92
00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:52,360
to open this bag, which makes a lot of noise,

93
00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:54,520
and then the every time I bite into this is

94
00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:57,479
going to sound like like stepping on glass. So I

95
00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:00,520
never understood why so many people tried to sneak, is

96
00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:02,240
like there's so many there's so much more QUI I do.

97
00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:04,560
Speaker 1: Just say it's a dumb rule, and people want to

98
00:04:04,599 --> 00:04:06,199
snack while they learn, they should be able to have

99
00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:06,639
a snack.

100
00:04:06,680 --> 00:04:08,360
Speaker 3: I wonder if it's still a thing in school, like

101
00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:09,479
his food still banned.

102
00:04:10,879 --> 00:04:13,039
Speaker 4: Probably depends on the Yeah.

103
00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:17,120
Speaker 1: Listeners, but I think it was a free to email us. Yeah,

104
00:04:17,120 --> 00:04:18,920
but I think it's also as a game offumer dot com.

105
00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:21,079
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think it's also a cleaniness concern because like,

106
00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:23,240
some kids are gross and they don't want people leaving

107
00:04:23,279 --> 00:04:26,199
food and getting roaches and rats and classrooms and stuff.

108
00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:31,360
Speaker 2: Okay, well they're kids. There's gonna be roaches anyways.

109
00:04:31,399 --> 00:04:31,920
Speaker 4: There.

110
00:04:32,319 --> 00:04:34,439
Speaker 3: Yeah, they all look like Pigpin from Peanuts.

111
00:04:35,199 --> 00:04:38,560
Speaker 1: Yes, all right, Well let's get into the show proper.

112
00:04:38,879 --> 00:04:42,000
We're gonna be talking about Marcus's trip to the Game Awards.

113
00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:46,199
We're gonna be getting into our Steam replays, which is like,

114
00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:48,879
you know, similar concept like Spotify wrapped. If you have

115
00:04:48,879 --> 00:04:51,120
a Steam account, you can get your Steam replay from

116
00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:53,839
the year. We're gonna be talking a bit about death

117
00:04:53,879 --> 00:04:57,959
Howl and Dogpile. It's Charles, and then then we're gonna

118
00:04:57,959 --> 00:05:00,839
be later on getting into our World of Warcraft Midnight

119
00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:04,560
cover story. Charles and I visited Blizzard Entertainment in Irvine,

120
00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:08,600
California during November, and you know, we can finally talk

121
00:05:08,639 --> 00:05:12,439
about what we learned, and that cover story is live

122
00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:14,560
if you want to go read it yourself, go to

123
00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:19,480
GameInformer dot com slash Wow Midnight and that's the coverage

124
00:05:19,519 --> 00:05:21,519
hub for everything that's in the issue. So if you

125
00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:25,000
have a digital subscription or print. If you have a

126
00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:28,920
print subscription, you are automatically have one, and uh yeah,

127
00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:30,560
you can go and go and check out all the stories,

128
00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:31,879
or you can wait for it to get to your

129
00:05:31,920 --> 00:05:37,160
mailbox or on newsstands in January. So yeah, Game in

130
00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:41,040
Former Magazine issue. That's three seventy four World of Warcraft

131
00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:44,079
coming January twenty twenty six. I think that's the official

132
00:05:44,319 --> 00:05:48,240
publication date. But of course if you have a digital subscription,

133
00:05:48,360 --> 00:05:49,720
you get early access to it.

134
00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:50,600
Speaker 4: Cool.

135
00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:54,120
Speaker 1: Well, let's get into the show for Opper Marcus. How

136
00:05:54,199 --> 00:05:57,160
was La speaking of? You were in the TMZ zone

137
00:05:57,600 --> 00:05:58,079
the TMZ.

138
00:05:58,319 --> 00:06:03,360
Speaker 3: We're in the TMZ I guess I I am TMC reporting. Yeah.

139
00:06:03,399 --> 00:06:06,040
So this was my first ever trip to the Game

140
00:06:06,079 --> 00:06:11,120
Awards Live. I've gone to some of the other killy events,

141
00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:14,879
like I've done SGF, I've done Opening Night Live games Com.

142
00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:17,279
This was like the last one. So I punched that

143
00:06:17,399 --> 00:06:19,560
last hole and I think I'm do like some sort

144
00:06:19,560 --> 00:06:21,600
of like discount now. I turned in my card right,

145
00:06:22,079 --> 00:06:24,199
and I get like fifty percent off ticket. I believe

146
00:06:24,879 --> 00:06:28,720
that sounds like yeah, but it was. It was cool,

147
00:06:28,839 --> 00:06:32,000
it was getting in was a bit of a pain.

148
00:06:32,519 --> 00:06:36,399
Like the event itself was fun and long, very long.

149
00:06:36,639 --> 00:06:39,040
They're they're always long, and it felt longer being there

150
00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:43,000
in person for reasons I'll get into, but I will say,

151
00:06:43,199 --> 00:06:45,160
neither of you have been to the Game Awards live, right.

152
00:06:45,839 --> 00:06:46,399
Speaker 2: I haven't been.

153
00:06:46,439 --> 00:06:48,879
Speaker 3: A yeah. I was like, that's right, you have, Alex,

154
00:06:49,519 --> 00:06:53,000
I have not. It was some rough things to learn.

155
00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:56,079
So for one, the line to get in was like

156
00:06:56,199 --> 00:07:01,000
really unorganized where there was just multiple lines that are

157
00:07:01,279 --> 00:07:04,160
I guess all the same line. But then I asked,

158
00:07:04,279 --> 00:07:07,160
I didn't know if my ticket was differently was different

159
00:07:07,240 --> 00:07:09,839
just because I received it as press versus buying it,

160
00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:12,399
And so I asked. I remember I went up there

161
00:07:12,399 --> 00:07:16,720
and I got there early, and I asked a person

162
00:07:16,759 --> 00:07:19,439
that was like the line police, and I was like, Hey,

163
00:07:19,480 --> 00:07:21,360
is there one line or are there different lines? Does

164
00:07:21,399 --> 00:07:23,399
it matter like ticket wise, like just trying to get

165
00:07:23,439 --> 00:07:24,639
the four one be like, I don't want to commit

166
00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:25,839
to this line if I'm not supposed to be in

167
00:07:25,839 --> 00:07:29,199
this line, and she's like, no, it's all the same line,

168
00:07:29,199 --> 00:07:31,040
and I'm like, okay, so I said, in the line

169
00:07:31,079 --> 00:07:33,000
for a very long time, it's not really moving. They're

170
00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:36,360
slowly starting to file people into the building. And then

171
00:07:36,360 --> 00:07:41,560
I would say, after about like thirty minutes of line occupation,

172
00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:44,800
I got to like the front of a line, and

173
00:07:44,839 --> 00:07:47,439
they start checking the tickets as you're in line, giving

174
00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:49,120
you wristbands so that you're just good to go when

175
00:07:49,120 --> 00:07:52,560
you get in. And then the moment she scans my ticket,

176
00:07:52,639 --> 00:07:54,680
she's like, you're not supposed to be in this line.

177
00:07:55,399 --> 00:07:58,600
And I was like, a class I asked you that, yeah,

178
00:07:58,680 --> 00:08:00,759
and she's like, no, no, no, you got because you didn't.

179
00:08:00,879 --> 00:08:04,240
This was like I forgot what the the criteria was

180
00:08:04,279 --> 00:08:06,560
like somethinking about purchase versus not purchable, like you need

181
00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:09,079
to go to the like directly into the entrance. I

182
00:08:09,120 --> 00:08:12,800
was like, all right, here we go. Also, I think

183
00:08:12,839 --> 00:08:16,720
this person was a questionable moral character because before this,

184
00:08:17,160 --> 00:08:19,720
as I was moving in the up the line, there

185
00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:22,879
was a gentleman who was running past. I looked like

186
00:08:22,879 --> 00:08:24,759
he was trying to get somewhere into the game awards.

187
00:08:24,879 --> 00:08:27,959
And as he was running like she was, I was

188
00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:31,560
following her because she was escorting us, like our section

189
00:08:31,639 --> 00:08:34,399
of the line forward, and I was in the front.

190
00:08:34,600 --> 00:08:37,639
And as this guy runs past us, his room key,

191
00:08:37,919 --> 00:08:41,240
his hotel room key falls out of his pocket and

192
00:08:41,279 --> 00:08:43,639
she's like a good two feet in front of me,

193
00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:45,960
and I noticed she sees it, so I'm kind of

194
00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:47,639
expecting her to kind of bend down and pick it

195
00:08:47,679 --> 00:08:50,600
up and be like, oh, sir, but she doesn't, so

196
00:08:50,679 --> 00:08:53,039
then I have to go get it. And then she

197
00:08:53,279 --> 00:08:55,559
looks at me and says, oh, I think that's that guy,

198
00:08:56,240 --> 00:08:59,000
and I'm like, well, in my headline, you will clearly.

199
00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:02,200
Speaker 2: Have to We all saw what happened.

200
00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:04,519
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then I had to chase this guy down

201
00:09:04,559 --> 00:09:06,120
and be like, hey, excuse me, sir, and give it

202
00:09:06,159 --> 00:09:08,639
back to him. And I was just kind of like, well,

203
00:09:08,679 --> 00:09:10,720
I don't know why you didn't do that. You you

204
00:09:10,879 --> 00:09:13,039
had your chance, and I had to step up.

205
00:09:14,159 --> 00:09:15,519
Speaker 2: So yeah, I had to step up.

206
00:09:15,799 --> 00:09:17,399
Speaker 3: I had to do my good deed for the day.

207
00:09:17,480 --> 00:09:20,159
And my payment was getting to stand in another line

208
00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:23,399
because I was told this line was okay. But anyways,

209
00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:25,919
and then also, and this is important for this story,

210
00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:29,039
I was very thirsty because I kind of had to

211
00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:32,559
I had to change hotels right before this, and.

212
00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:34,879
Speaker 2: I know there's no concessions in that line.

213
00:09:35,720 --> 00:09:38,200
Speaker 3: No, and there's concessions inside, but they may as well

214
00:09:38,200 --> 00:09:41,480
be useless. And I'll explain why because I so, I'm

215
00:09:41,519 --> 00:09:43,679
like thirsty, and I was like, oh, I'm waiting to

216
00:09:43,679 --> 00:09:45,120
get inside to get a drink. But then I had

217
00:09:45,159 --> 00:09:47,120
since I got shipped through another line, and the second

218
00:09:47,120 --> 00:09:49,480
line was right next to the Starbucks as in La Live.

219
00:09:49,519 --> 00:09:51,919
I'm sure you know of it, Alex. So I'm like, oh,

220
00:09:51,960 --> 00:09:53,480
I'll just run in there real quick because the line's

221
00:09:53,519 --> 00:09:55,480
literally out the door anyway. So I wait in a

222
00:09:55,600 --> 00:09:58,360
very long Starbucks line get a bottle of water. By

223
00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:00,679
the time I come back, the line has like dissipated,

224
00:10:00,679 --> 00:10:02,639
so I can kind of just walk inside and it's great.

225
00:10:03,200 --> 00:10:06,879
I unscrew this cap once take a sip, and as

226
00:10:06,879 --> 00:10:10,679
I'm going through the uh, the security, the lady's like,

227
00:10:11,639 --> 00:10:13,919
you didn't just open that bottle of water, did you?

228
00:10:14,639 --> 00:10:17,279
And I'm like, I mean yeah, because I took a

229
00:10:17,320 --> 00:10:19,879
sip and she's like, oh, you can't bring that in here.

230
00:10:20,759 --> 00:10:22,840
And I asked her, like why, what's wrong with it?

231
00:10:22,919 --> 00:10:25,399
And she's like, we just they don't allow open drinks

232
00:10:25,399 --> 00:10:28,279
in here. And I was like, I literally just opened it,

233
00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:29,759
Like you can't even tell that I drank it. That's

234
00:10:29,759 --> 00:10:33,480
how small of a sip. Yeah, And she's like, I

235
00:10:33,519 --> 00:10:35,840
can't let you in, so I had to throw it

236
00:10:35,879 --> 00:10:38,960
away and I this is like a good four dollar

237
00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:41,720
water and I'm still very thirsty. It's like I took

238
00:10:41,720 --> 00:10:43,279
one sip and then immediately.

239
00:10:43,399 --> 00:10:45,519
Speaker 2: It almost makes it worse, like you got teased with

240
00:10:45,639 --> 00:10:46,399
the water.

241
00:10:46,279 --> 00:10:48,159
Speaker 3: And yeah, and then I'm just looking at it sit

242
00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:50,240
on top of the trash pile, like this perfectly full

243
00:10:50,320 --> 00:10:52,840
like Ethos water bottle. So I get it.

244
00:10:52,919 --> 00:10:55,399
Speaker 2: I want to chucked it, rucked it in front of her.

245
00:10:55,559 --> 00:10:57,679
Speaker 3: Well, here's the thing, because like I heard stories of

246
00:10:57,759 --> 00:10:59,639
the Game Wars and you can attest to this two

247
00:10:59,679 --> 00:11:03,720
Alex is that they're very strict about bathroom breaks, Like

248
00:11:03,759 --> 00:11:06,679
you you can't just come and go during the show,

249
00:11:07,039 --> 00:11:08,840
Like if you get up during the show and go

250
00:11:08,879 --> 00:11:12,360
to the bathroom, depending on what's going on, like if

251
00:11:12,360 --> 00:11:15,039
there's anything happening in terms of a trailer or someone

252
00:11:15,080 --> 00:11:17,799
on stage talking, they the ushers won't let you back

253
00:11:17,799 --> 00:11:20,279
to your seat. They hold everyone in like the aisle

254
00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:23,440
and it's not till the excuse me, the ad breaks

255
00:11:23,720 --> 00:11:27,440
that they let everyone sit back down because apparently, I

256
00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:31,519
guess they don't like maybe the visuals of seeing people

257
00:11:32,600 --> 00:11:35,799
moving about up and down the aisles, even though I

258
00:11:35,840 --> 00:11:37,840
feel like a lot of the time when I watched

259
00:11:37,879 --> 00:11:40,840
the broadcast, the camera is almost like ninety percent always

260
00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:43,080
on the stage or on Jeff, Like, there aren't too

261
00:11:43,120 --> 00:11:45,879
many like crowdshots, and if they are, they're like centralized

262
00:11:45,879 --> 00:11:49,240
on one individual, not like look at everyone here, and

263
00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:52,120
so like because of that, I didn't really shots.

264
00:11:52,159 --> 00:11:53,080
Speaker 2: They probably would.

265
00:11:53,360 --> 00:11:56,279
Speaker 1: Really there's a big crane shots that will sometimes show

266
00:11:56,320 --> 00:11:59,320
you a lot of the theater and then just when

267
00:11:59,679 --> 00:12:02,519
Jeff soft to the side doing Muppet bits, you can see.

268
00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:06,200
Speaker 2: The crowd behind him. Usually, Yeah, but it's probably.

269
00:12:05,919 --> 00:12:09,759
Speaker 1: Just like a wide sweeping policy, so they I think

270
00:12:09,799 --> 00:12:10,679
their face is covered.

271
00:12:10,840 --> 00:12:14,519
Speaker 4: It's pretty common, like theater rule. This is kind of

272
00:12:14,519 --> 00:12:16,080
a weird event for it, But like, I don't know

273
00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:17,799
if you've ever been to I went to like the

274
00:12:17,840 --> 00:12:20,279
Ballet the other weekend, and that's the thing of like

275
00:12:20,440 --> 00:12:24,120
you can't exit and re enter unless it's like the intermission.

276
00:12:24,399 --> 00:12:27,080
Speaker 3: Really, I mean, I guess, I guess I get the

277
00:12:27,159 --> 00:12:29,000
mighty you don't want to disturb people. But I the

278
00:12:29,080 --> 00:12:31,799
live events I go to regularly are like wrestling shows

279
00:12:31,840 --> 00:12:35,320
and they don't care. Like you watch Monday Night Raw,

280
00:12:35,399 --> 00:12:37,600
You'll see like crowdshots, you'll see people moving up and down.

281
00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:40,320
So I'm like, yeah, like is a billion dollar company

282
00:12:40,360 --> 00:12:42,279
and they don't care. So I don't know if you guys,

283
00:12:42,559 --> 00:12:45,279
But anyways, that all that all was standing. That was

284
00:12:45,320 --> 00:12:46,679
my reason of like, I don't want to just chuck

285
00:12:46,720 --> 00:12:48,879
this because I was trying to like be very conservative

286
00:12:48,879 --> 00:12:51,960
with my water intakes. I don't want to leave and

287
00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:55,240
miss something. Uh. So I get inside, I'm you know,

288
00:12:55,279 --> 00:12:58,320
it's packed with people. I'm running into a lot of friends,

289
00:12:58,360 --> 00:13:01,639
and I actually ran into, uh some of the Obsidian

290
00:13:01,679 --> 00:13:04,360
folks who I worked with the over Wild's cover story,

291
00:13:04,399 --> 00:13:07,600
like almost immediately, so caught up with them. I ran

292
00:13:07,639 --> 00:13:12,639
into Jonathan Blow, and I wanted to introduce myself because

293
00:13:12,639 --> 00:13:16,320
I had done the order of preaking star in like

294
00:13:16,360 --> 00:13:18,679
I interviewed him about a week prior to the events.

295
00:13:18,720 --> 00:13:19,919
I was gonna introduce. I was like, oh, you know,

296
00:13:19,960 --> 00:13:21,639
it's good to meet you in person, but he was

297
00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:24,759
he was on the phone, probably quadruple checking like it

298
00:13:24,799 --> 00:13:27,519
is the trailer good is the trailer. Good right? Is good?

299
00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:30,200
Is everything? Okay? Steam Page is gonna go live? Okay,

300
00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:33,320
probably that kind of stuff. But they have like a

301
00:13:33,399 --> 00:13:37,120
concession's store in there, and I wait in line for

302
00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:40,279
like a long line to get another bottle of water

303
00:13:40,360 --> 00:13:43,240
to replace the one I just lost. I go through,

304
00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:46,360
I buy it. It's a very expensive bottle of water,

305
00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:48,000
like I think it's like it was like twice the

306
00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:50,960
price as the one I got at Starbucks. I guess

307
00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:54,039
because of theater inflation. And so I'm like, great, I

308
00:13:54,080 --> 00:13:57,120
open it up. I'd take again, just a little slip

309
00:13:57,159 --> 00:14:00,919
because I'm trying to, you know, kind of space out

310
00:14:01,039 --> 00:14:04,840
my my SIPs. I go to my seat and as

311
00:14:04,840 --> 00:14:07,799
I'm about to sit down because I'm like towards the

312
00:14:08,159 --> 00:14:11,840
middle front, this woman, one of the ushers, goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

313
00:14:12,279 --> 00:14:14,080
You can't bring that in here, and I was like,

314
00:14:14,960 --> 00:14:17,519
I can't. And I see like there's cup holders on

315
00:14:17,559 --> 00:14:21,080
all the seats, Like what are these four? She's like,

316
00:14:21,120 --> 00:14:22,840
you can't have drinks in the theater, and I'm like

317
00:14:23,320 --> 00:14:27,000
but I just thought, like I'm just like just dumbfounded

318
00:14:27,039 --> 00:14:28,080
at this point. And then also I.

319
00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:35,440
Speaker 5: Saw there there's one shape shifting woman that told you

320
00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:37,159
to get in the wrong line and then made you

321
00:14:37,240 --> 00:14:38,840
throw away two water bottles.

322
00:14:39,320 --> 00:14:40,559
Speaker 4: She's just like running on the theater.

323
00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:43,200
Speaker 3: I like to think it's just the three three identical women,

324
00:14:43,279 --> 00:14:47,840
like they're like Nurse Joy from Pokemon. But yeah, so

325
00:14:47,919 --> 00:14:50,240
then I had to throw that one away because the

326
00:14:50,279 --> 00:14:52,600
alternative was chuck it all now and then have a

327
00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:55,080
full bladder very soon, or just tough it out for

328
00:14:55,120 --> 00:14:56,840
three hours. And I chose the tough it out for

329
00:14:56,879 --> 00:15:00,440
three hours because I didn't want to ge. I didn't

330
00:15:00,440 --> 00:15:01,960
want to miss any of the reveals. There were a

331
00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:03,759
lot of them. I listened to last week's show. You

332
00:15:03,759 --> 00:15:05,639
guys went through most of them, so I won't, you know,

333
00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:08,840
regurgitate all that here. But being their live was it

334
00:15:08,879 --> 00:15:11,039
was like a fun experience. I mean, it's it's always

335
00:15:11,039 --> 00:15:12,639
fun to be in a room surrounded with like in

336
00:15:12,679 --> 00:15:16,279
that atmosphere. It was also quite revealing because I was

337
00:15:16,320 --> 00:15:20,679
sitting directly, like directly behind the production area, so I

338
00:15:20,720 --> 00:15:23,159
could see all the screens and all the like pretty much.

339
00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:25,200
I could just I could see how the sausage was made,

340
00:15:25,679 --> 00:15:29,639
which I kind of almost wish I had it because

341
00:15:29,879 --> 00:15:33,879
I had the startling realization that all of the stage

342
00:15:33,919 --> 00:15:38,559
banter is all scripted. Oh yeah, I could, but like

343
00:15:38,840 --> 00:15:41,799
I wish I understood for some stuff. But even the

344
00:15:41,799 --> 00:15:44,240
stuff that seems off the cuff, I would see like

345
00:15:44,279 --> 00:15:48,840
a guy's screen just like word for word, just telepropt

346
00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:51,000
the scroll, like like when Jeffrey Wright was up there

347
00:15:51,039 --> 00:15:54,360
with his son, like their whole little like, oh dad,

348
00:15:54,559 --> 00:15:56,600
I'm better than you know. I forgot what their bit was,

349
00:15:56,639 --> 00:15:58,200
but that was all like word for word smoke and

350
00:15:58,240 --> 00:16:01,919
I was like, no, no, that was the first speech.

351
00:16:02,399 --> 00:16:06,039
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm not going to name names. I have been

352
00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:08,080
in that room in past years, and I've been multiple

353
00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:10,519
I've been many years, so you won't be able to

354
00:16:10,519 --> 00:16:12,679
pin down which one it was. But I've been in

355
00:16:12,679 --> 00:16:16,639
that room before where somebody got emotional on stage and

356
00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:20,360
there was like a part in the script.

357
00:16:19,759 --> 00:16:21,120
Speaker 4: I know exactly what you're talking about.

358
00:16:21,159 --> 00:16:24,720
Speaker 2: I think I have, and it's it.

359
00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:27,600
Speaker 1: It was the wildest thing I've ever seen because it

360
00:16:27,639 --> 00:16:30,120
was like I forget what they said. Let's say they

361
00:16:30,200 --> 00:16:32,919
let's pretend they said like oh I'm choking up or

362
00:16:32,960 --> 00:16:37,720
something like that was in on this teleprompter, and I

363
00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:44,960
was like, this is maniacal. This is this is devilish, manipulative.

364
00:16:45,120 --> 00:16:46,879
Speaker 3: It didn't have a prompt be like cry now.

365
00:16:47,200 --> 00:16:49,559
Speaker 2: We were like, no, it didn't go that far.

366
00:16:49,639 --> 00:16:52,279
Speaker 1: But it was like, I was surprised that how much

367
00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:55,240
was on there because I was thinking I was watching

368
00:16:55,240 --> 00:17:00,519
a purely genuine moment and the there were emotions that

369
00:17:00,639 --> 00:17:04,640
obviously were real, but also part of it that I

370
00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:08,400
thought was genuine was definitely on the script.

371
00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:11,759
Speaker 3: And I should think I should quickly clarify that this

372
00:17:11,880 --> 00:17:15,960
only applies to like the presenters. The acceptance speeches were

373
00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:17,039
all off the cuff.

374
00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:18,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't.

375
00:17:18,519 --> 00:17:20,880
Speaker 3: I was checking, and there was no teleprompter for the

376
00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:23,920
acceptance speeches. It was just the presenters or just whoever

377
00:17:24,079 --> 00:17:25,920
wasn't there to get it an award if you're up

378
00:17:25,960 --> 00:17:29,240
here to sell something or do something. Yeah, yeah, except

379
00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:31,680
for maybe the street Fighter bit, because that was just chaos.

380
00:17:33,279 --> 00:17:35,599
Speaker 4: Actually, yeah that if that was scripted, I would have

381
00:17:35,599 --> 00:17:37,160
been shocked, like the degree to it.

382
00:17:37,680 --> 00:17:39,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know if it was. If they were,

383
00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:41,680
they they decided there's too many of us, what are

384
00:17:41,680 --> 00:17:42,160
you gonna do.

385
00:17:42,319 --> 00:17:47,160
Speaker 4: We're gonna say brackets make a dig at Mortal Kombat cast. Yeah, right,

386
00:17:48,599 --> 00:17:53,279
I I do think that's why there's some that some

387
00:17:53,359 --> 00:17:56,359
of the presenters when they're actors, it just feels more

388
00:17:56,440 --> 00:17:59,079
natural because they are literally reading off a script, like

389
00:17:59,079 --> 00:18:02,119
there's not there's no room for the I don't know,

390
00:18:02,160 --> 00:18:05,880
I just remember the Sometimes a developer will come up

391
00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:07,400
and they'll try to do their back and forth. You

392
00:18:07,400 --> 00:18:09,799
can tell it's kind of stiff. They're like in business

393
00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:13,279
presentation mode. And then I remember, like the Warframe people.

394
00:18:14,519 --> 00:18:16,559
I don't think they're actors, but I remember when they

395
00:18:16,559 --> 00:18:18,920
were like introducing the update to the game, being like, Oh,

396
00:18:18,960 --> 00:18:21,839
they seem like they've done this before in a way

397
00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:24,200
that like they're reading off a script, but they're comfortable

398
00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:26,599
and like loose, which is interesting.

399
00:18:26,799 --> 00:18:31,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. It was cool, I mean I was.

400
00:18:31,240 --> 00:18:34,400
It was weird seeing that stuff and also maybe the

401
00:18:34,440 --> 00:18:37,240
most horrifying thing. I saw something that I've tried to

402
00:18:37,240 --> 00:18:41,160
go my entire life without seeing, and unfortunately the Game

403
00:18:41,200 --> 00:18:43,799
Awards was the first place to to expose it to me.

404
00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:47,839
But from my vantage point during all the Muppet bits,

405
00:18:48,599 --> 00:18:56,079
I could see the actual puppeteers clearly, and I hated it.

406
00:18:56,160 --> 00:18:59,720
As a lifetime Muppets fan, I have somehow I'd gone

407
00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:00,839
out of my way, Like.

408
00:19:00,839 --> 00:19:03,480
Speaker 2: I don't even if you thought that they were real,

409
00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:04,440
you know, I.

410
00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:07,519
Speaker 3: Really did, Alex, I really really did. I thought Miss Pit.

411
00:19:07,640 --> 00:19:10,359
I thought just that Jim Hansen was just some sort

412
00:19:10,400 --> 00:19:13,640
of sorcerer. But like even I even have a hard

413
00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:16,720
time with like the like the Pines scenes documentaries. It's

414
00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:18,680
like I don't want to see them like as puppets.

415
00:19:18,799 --> 00:19:20,119
I just want to I don't want to see anything

416
00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:24,440
below their like chest, like yeah, or the times when

417
00:19:24,440 --> 00:19:26,039
they do show the whole body, it's just like their

418
00:19:26,119 --> 00:19:29,599
legs and you don't see the arm or anything. But yeah,

419
00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:31,839
like I could see I was like directly behind more

420
00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:34,279
or less where Jeff was standing, and I could see

421
00:19:34,319 --> 00:19:37,839
the person playing Miss Piggy, and I had to look away.

422
00:19:37,880 --> 00:19:40,839
I had to avert my virgin eyes to the screen

423
00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:43,759
that had the the the televised broadcast. And I'm just

424
00:19:43,799 --> 00:19:45,680
gonna watch that for all them up at bits because

425
00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:48,680
it's not it's just it's not Marcus at the game.

426
00:19:49,720 --> 00:19:52,480
Speaker 4: Glad to know that some for someone else, somehow. The

427
00:19:52,599 --> 00:19:55,079
Jeff Keeley Miss Piggy interactions were more disturbing.

428
00:19:58,200 --> 00:20:00,720
Speaker 3: The song was fun. People were clapping any rana and.

429
00:20:00,799 --> 00:20:03,440
Speaker 4: Song was great song is what I expect from the Muppets. Yeah,

430
00:20:03,480 --> 00:20:06,559
it's like yeah, yeah, yeaman.

431
00:20:07,160 --> 00:20:09,720
Speaker 3: But it was cool, like the wild stuff with like

432
00:20:09,759 --> 00:20:12,759
the I thought this the use of stage kind of

433
00:20:12,799 --> 00:20:15,480
like props or performances like wires. This year, like Jeff

434
00:20:15,559 --> 00:20:17,359
discovered wires and like what if you just hang people

435
00:20:17,359 --> 00:20:18,960
from ceilings during.

436
00:20:19,799 --> 00:20:22,720
Speaker 2: Like when the Divinity, Yes, stuff happened.

437
00:20:22,799 --> 00:20:24,599
Speaker 3: That was funny because like, so I was near the

438
00:20:24,640 --> 00:20:27,960
aisle and I saw all the performers dressed up in

439
00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:31,000
the like villagery outfits like on standby before for a

440
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:32,559
while before they went out there. So I was like, Oh,

441
00:20:32,599 --> 00:20:35,119
somethings about to happen, what this is about? And you know,

442
00:20:35,160 --> 00:20:37,240
they did a little marshal to ring and I also

443
00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:38,920
saw the wires hanging, but I didn't realize it were

444
00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:41,720
like for people and then yeah, they you know, hook

445
00:20:41,759 --> 00:20:43,279
them up and then they start raising them. And for

446
00:20:43,359 --> 00:20:46,160
me it was interesting because I had just seen like

447
00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:48,480
for my birthday a month prior, I had gone to

448
00:20:48,559 --> 00:20:51,680
my first CIRT day lay show, and there's a lot

449
00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:53,759
of like people flying around on wires. So there was

450
00:20:53,799 --> 00:20:56,200
a bit of like, oh, this is this again, you know,

451
00:20:56,400 --> 00:20:59,240
not nearly as like impressive, but still like, oh man,

452
00:20:59,279 --> 00:21:01,079
it's just people angling in front of me, and man,

453
00:21:01,079 --> 00:21:04,079
I hope nothing goes wrong, but it was cool. The

454
00:21:04,119 --> 00:21:07,640
coolest one though, was the control trailer, Like I don't

455
00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:09,359
know how much of it they I still haven't really

456
00:21:09,359 --> 00:21:12,920
watched the broadcast version of the show, but like the

457
00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:16,400
opening where they just have the big physical like cell

458
00:21:17,160 --> 00:21:20,160
for for Jesse's brother, and then they have the performer

459
00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:24,400
on wire just like lowering into the cell as the

460
00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:26,799
trailer starts, and they're like, Oh, this is a cool

461
00:21:26,799 --> 00:21:28,240
way to start this trailer. Like I don't know how

462
00:21:28,319 --> 00:21:30,079
much of this people are homer seeing or if they're

463
00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:32,160
just cutting to the footage or not, but like I

464
00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:33,359
saw the whole time. I was like, Oh, this is

465
00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:35,559
the coole start to this. And then he's just in

466
00:21:35,640 --> 00:21:37,960
there for like most of the trailer, just sitting there

467
00:21:38,079 --> 00:21:41,960
like you know, facing like back to us, and I

468
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:42,759
don't know, I thought it was.

469
00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:44,480
Speaker 2: Like a real screening the TV.

470
00:21:44,680 --> 00:21:46,200
Speaker 3: Yeah. I just had like a really like like a

471
00:21:46,440 --> 00:21:50,559
theatrical touch to this like game trailer that I appreciated.

472
00:21:51,039 --> 00:21:53,359
But yeah, I mean in terms of stuff that got

473
00:21:53,359 --> 00:21:55,079
the big reactions, and I again I don't know how

474
00:21:55,119 --> 00:21:57,400
much of this came through to broadcast, but like the

475
00:21:57,480 --> 00:22:02,440
Divinity trailer, Oh my god, Yeah, I was sitting next

476
00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:05,839
to uh to Ryan McCaffrey from from IGN, and we

477
00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:08,480
turned to each other and we're just like Jesus Christ,

478
00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:13,279
like like like what is happening here? And again this

479
00:22:13,440 --> 00:22:15,559
and as people are dangly in front of us two.

480
00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:19,839
Speaker 4: Where people are people like making noise when that's happening

481
00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:23,319
like ah, or like like what is the yeah people

482
00:22:23,359 --> 00:22:23,640
do to.

483
00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:26,119
Speaker 3: Like I mean this happens every sort of like game stricken,

484
00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:28,720
but there's always the like who like you know, there's

485
00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:31,200
always a lot of those from some somewhere in the

486
00:22:31,240 --> 00:22:31,920
crowd or.

487
00:22:32,240 --> 00:22:35,000
Speaker 4: When you're watching the skin boiling and the flesh being

488
00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:39,200
there was there audible discomfort.

489
00:22:39,799 --> 00:22:42,000
Speaker 1: I mean there was like a who guy really loved

490
00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:43,480
the on screen orgy.

491
00:22:44,240 --> 00:22:47,880
Speaker 3: I mean there's there was like kind of like the

492
00:22:48,599 --> 00:22:51,160
like gas not gas, but kind of like the crowd

493
00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:54,720
rise like the whoa like people just going. So it

494
00:22:54,759 --> 00:22:57,559
was like a lot of like probably like visceral reactions

495
00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:00,599
from like especially the more kind of like which is good.

496
00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:04,799
The general audience that was there, who were like mostly

497
00:23:04,839 --> 00:23:08,039
behind me. I will say when the street fighter bit

498
00:23:08,559 --> 00:23:13,440
uh cappened and Cody Roads and Roman Reigns came out.

499
00:23:13,559 --> 00:23:18,720
All the wrestling fans made themselves known immediately as soon

500
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:21,359
as Cody started talking, like a guy probably like two

501
00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:24,160
rows behind me screw. Oh did you hear that? That

502
00:23:24,319 --> 00:23:27,319
was that guy? Yeah, he was like two rows behind me,

503
00:23:27,359 --> 00:23:29,400
and I was just like, who's that? And then when

504
00:23:29,480 --> 00:23:32,000
Roman started talking, several people stood up and threw the

505
00:23:32,039 --> 00:23:34,640
ones up, which if in w W, that's like the

506
00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:37,559
thing you acknowledge him by throwing up the ones, and

507
00:23:37,599 --> 00:23:40,160
then I think you did it. Yeah, that's a little

508
00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:44,119
door here. That's like, that's like asking that you want

509
00:23:44,119 --> 00:23:46,880
to check when you're at a restaurant. Excuse me, can

510
00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:50,759
I get the bill? Please? So that was fun. The

511
00:23:50,799 --> 00:23:53,240
Resident Evil tray like the Leon reveal, that got one

512
00:23:53,279 --> 00:23:55,640
of the loudest reactions, like people went nuts for that,

513
00:23:55,759 --> 00:23:57,759
which I thought was interesting because I had kind of

514
00:23:57,759 --> 00:24:00,400
been leaked or had been totally leaked, so I was like,

515
00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:02,400
maybe most of the people in this room just weren't

516
00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:04,480
privy to that, but I was kind of surprised that

517
00:24:04,519 --> 00:24:06,480
it got like the raw reaction, like as if it

518
00:24:06,559 --> 00:24:11,240
was a complete surprise. So that was a good one. Yeah,

519
00:24:11,279 --> 00:24:13,319
the Star Wars like the Fate of the Old Republic

520
00:24:13,359 --> 00:24:15,000
that got a huge pop too.

521
00:24:15,119 --> 00:24:16,480
Speaker 4: Yeah, and but.

522
00:24:16,519 --> 00:24:18,759
Speaker 3: Yeah, overall, like it was a good I thought it

523
00:24:18,759 --> 00:24:20,519
was a good show. It's it's long.

524
00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:22,759
Speaker 1: Especially what was the reaction for High Guard, which was

525
00:24:22,799 --> 00:24:24,079
like the last game they showed off.

526
00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:29,279
Speaker 3: It was like it wasn't like crazy, but it wasn't

527
00:24:29,319 --> 00:24:32,000
like that. I've seen that that game's gotten some or

528
00:24:32,039 --> 00:24:35,400
it's getting some negative sort of flack around it because

529
00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:39,119
it's like like people are like, oh, here comes another concord. Yeah.

530
00:24:39,319 --> 00:24:41,559
Speaker 2: People people write stuff off way too quickly.

531
00:24:41,839 --> 00:24:42,559
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I do.

532
00:24:42,759 --> 00:24:45,079
Speaker 1: I do the same thing for some games, but like

533
00:24:45,599 --> 00:24:47,519
I'm gonna at least give it a shot. Doesn't look

534
00:24:47,559 --> 00:24:49,960
like it's exactly my thing. I don't really love, Like

535
00:24:50,359 --> 00:24:53,240
the theme was kind of a little weird to me.

536
00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:57,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think. I think with all the build up,

537
00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:01,160
like Jeff's whole speech about like this is yeah, respond

538
00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:04,319
diff they've worked on this in secret until now, and

539
00:25:04,359 --> 00:25:06,480
it's coming out sooner than you think. You know, he

540
00:25:06,519 --> 00:25:09,279
does the like the you know when he does the

541
00:25:09,319 --> 00:25:11,720
review now he's almost about to break out in tears

542
00:25:11,759 --> 00:25:13,559
where he's like I'm so honored to be the one

543
00:25:13,559 --> 00:25:18,720
to do this. Yeah, like yeah, yeah, and it's the

544
00:25:18,759 --> 00:25:21,359
last thing too. I think if this wasn't the last thing,

545
00:25:21,759 --> 00:25:24,599
it wouldn't be crapped on nearly as much like if

546
00:25:24,599 --> 00:25:25,640
Star Wars was last.

547
00:25:26,279 --> 00:25:28,480
Speaker 1: Like I forgot he did that whole speech because it's

548
00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:31,400
it sounds like he's setting up like, oh, oh a

549
00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:32,880
titan Fall Spiritual successor.

550
00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:34,839
Speaker 4: Yeah, well I knew.

551
00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:36,759
Speaker 3: That because he said it was a new studio with

552
00:25:37,039 --> 00:25:37,640
X response.

553
00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:40,559
Speaker 1: Well, I was thinking, yeah, I was thinking, oh, you know,

554
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:41,680
Spiritual Successor.

555
00:25:42,559 --> 00:25:45,240
Speaker 2: You know they're going to be mechs and stuff.

556
00:25:45,440 --> 00:25:47,559
Speaker 3: Oh oh, like a non tighten all I got saying I.

557
00:25:47,519 --> 00:25:51,240
Speaker 2: Thought they're making a new titan Fall since respawn.

558
00:25:50,799 --> 00:25:53,720
Speaker 3: Wall gotcha, Yeah, I'm.

559
00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:55,160
Speaker 2: That's that's kind of what his speech was setting up,

560
00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:55,680
I felt like.

561
00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:57,880
Speaker 3: But I didn't get the sense though in the in

562
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:00,759
the arena, like it didn't feel like nearly a cynical

563
00:26:00,759 --> 00:26:03,160
in arena like maybe the most I think the thing

564
00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:06,640
that set that turned people off was the immediate reveal

565
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:09,079
of that character and his weird hairstyle, where we're just like, oh,

566
00:26:09,079 --> 00:26:11,640
that's the guy we're playing. Before he kind of understood

567
00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:13,319
what the gamer like that's a I don't know that

568
00:26:13,319 --> 00:26:15,480
that's not the most appealing looking character models to hair.

569
00:26:16,799 --> 00:26:19,759
But yeah, I mean it seemed fine and I'll play

570
00:26:19,799 --> 00:26:23,039
it like I again, will reserve judgment until I play it.

571
00:26:23,759 --> 00:26:24,640
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, but.

572
00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:26,319
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a fun trip. It was fun to

573
00:26:26,799 --> 00:26:29,640
run into people and catch up with so many you know,

574
00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:33,680
friends and peers. I was at a Larry And party

575
00:26:34,839 --> 00:26:37,720
after the show and a lot of the Clare Upskier

576
00:26:37,839 --> 00:26:39,720
team came in, which they were the easiest to spot

577
00:26:39,759 --> 00:26:42,680
because they all have the mind outfits. Like I was

578
00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:44,839
in a restaurant afterwards and a few of them came in.

579
00:26:44,839 --> 00:26:46,519
But yeah, at the Larry And party later, a bunch

580
00:26:46,559 --> 00:26:48,519
of them showed up and everyone gave them like standing

581
00:26:48,559 --> 00:26:51,880
ovation for you know, like congratulations, and it was like

582
00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:54,039
they were like taking a back by down. It's really sweet.

583
00:26:54,319 --> 00:26:57,400
Ben Starr was there. I wanted to say high Did

584
00:26:57,440 --> 00:27:01,440
you say hi? No? He was busy. He we just

585
00:27:02,200 --> 00:27:04,079
I moved out of his way at one point, if

586
00:27:04,079 --> 00:27:08,079
that counts as he needed.

587
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:11,960
Speaker 4: It's such a funny accent. It was like years when

588
00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:13,640
I was like, you know, one time at a party

589
00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:15,799
I moved out of Ben's.

590
00:27:16,079 --> 00:27:19,039
Speaker 3: I was having a very nice conversation with Jan Ochoa

591
00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:22,160
from Giant Bomb, and then at one point Ben Starr

592
00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:24,119
needed to get past us and we were in his way,

593
00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:27,599
so I told Jan because Jan was his back was

594
00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:30,680
to then, so I said, jam Ben stars trying to

595
00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:33,519
get by, and then we side stepped him and he

596
00:27:33,599 --> 00:27:34,160
said thank.

597
00:27:34,039 --> 00:27:35,880
Speaker 2: You, thank you.

598
00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:40,720
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. Jennifer English was there too. Matt Mercer popped

599
00:27:40,799 --> 00:27:44,880
in for a spell. But yeah, like I said, it

600
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:47,279
was it was fun to go to see a bunch

601
00:27:47,279 --> 00:27:49,279
of people. And I was there for other things too,

602
00:27:49,359 --> 00:27:53,160
like other sort of like smaller demo events that were happening,

603
00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:56,319
like the day before the day of played a couple

604
00:27:56,359 --> 00:27:59,279
of games I'd like to touch on, one of which

605
00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:00,279
was Beach Drove.

606
00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:05,480
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, yeah, you guess familiar with real or was

607
00:28:05,519 --> 00:28:06,440
it before that?

608
00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:11,000
Speaker 3: Yeah? I was known before that, but I maybe Data

609
00:28:11,039 --> 00:28:13,359
Dance was maybe the first, like really big showing. But

610
00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:17,720
I went to a a demo session for that and

611
00:28:17,759 --> 00:28:21,160
played about an hour of it. It's a kind of

612
00:28:21,319 --> 00:28:26,920
cozy cooking game but also a like card based roguelike

613
00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:31,559
where you play as this like anthropomorphic kind of like

614
00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:35,759
fox Chef, who is like as far as cans like

615
00:28:35,799 --> 00:28:39,079
running a restaurant and you're building up this town and

616
00:28:39,119 --> 00:28:41,279
it's got a bit of it's got a bit of

617
00:28:41,319 --> 00:28:43,960
a day of the diver structure where it like your

618
00:28:44,039 --> 00:28:47,480
days are segmented, where a portion of the day is

619
00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:51,160
preparing ingredients, like preparing to open the restaurant. You're like

620
00:28:51,200 --> 00:28:54,039
going around town. You're you're buying ingredients or growing crops

621
00:28:54,039 --> 00:28:57,240
at some point. And then you have the opening the restaurant.

622
00:28:57,279 --> 00:28:59,680
You're running it where you're creating dishes and you have

623
00:28:59,759 --> 00:29:03,759
to appeal to patron's different taste and try to like

624
00:29:04,119 --> 00:29:06,880
you know, not screw up any dishes. And I like

625
00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:08,440
this part is all the cooking men a game. All

626
00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:11,039
the cooking we're like fun mini games where like oh,

627
00:29:11,039 --> 00:29:13,720
you're chopping the keras, you gotta like it's almost like

628
00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:17,559
a guitar hero esque like like no notes coming down

629
00:29:17,559 --> 00:29:19,119
the line and you gotta like hit it in the

630
00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:21,319
rhythm and sink. And it was like decently challenging to

631
00:29:21,319 --> 00:29:25,400
where it felt engaging or like to boil food. It

632
00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:27,480
was like this. It was almost like a shoot the

633
00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:28,720
hoop style. Then again, like you know, like when you

634
00:29:28,720 --> 00:29:30,680
shoot the hoops in arcades. It's kind of like that

635
00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:33,559
where you like there's like three basket or three pots

636
00:29:33,599 --> 00:29:37,119
of water, and depending on how long you hold the

637
00:29:37,119 --> 00:29:40,119
button down that comes to the or determines the trajectory

638
00:29:40,119 --> 00:29:43,119
of the food you're throwing in. And then they tell

639
00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:44,640
you which pots you need to throw it in, so

640
00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:46,079
you're like, Okay, I need to throw it in the

641
00:29:46,119 --> 00:29:47,559
closest pots, so I don't want to hold it down

642
00:29:47,559 --> 00:29:49,279
too long, so I need like a little baby throw

643
00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:52,480
versus longer throw for the last pot. Also, that's a

644
00:29:52,519 --> 00:29:55,519
terrible way to cook food. You should probably already if

645
00:29:55,559 --> 00:29:56,799
it's boiling, and even if.

646
00:29:58,240 --> 00:30:00,640
Speaker 4: Yeah, maybe it's overcooked, yeah.

647
00:30:00,440 --> 00:30:03,160
Speaker 3: Maybe a little bit. Yeah, but yeah, I don't recommend

648
00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:06,599
shooting your your food into boiling pots of water. Don't

649
00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:10,359
do it. But then after the restaurant closes is the

650
00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:14,480
roguelike part where you play where you don't play as

651
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:16,720
the chef, which you play is one of his buddies

652
00:30:16,799 --> 00:30:20,519
or different buddies, and they sort of like almost in

653
00:30:20,599 --> 00:30:24,240
media reds, they kind of like recount their trip to

654
00:30:24,359 --> 00:30:26,920
get like ingredients for you, where they're like, oh, yeah,

655
00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:29,079
I went out to a cave today and this is

656
00:30:29,119 --> 00:30:32,000
what happened, and then unfolds is this like cool puppet

657
00:30:32,039 --> 00:30:35,559
show where you're just playing like little Wooden Standys as

658
00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:38,039
the character, and then you're just walking down the line

659
00:30:38,119 --> 00:30:40,920
or you know, puppeting down the line, whatever you want

660
00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:42,920
to call it, and you're just running into enemies and

661
00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:45,359
then you're battling them in these like card turn based

662
00:30:45,359 --> 00:30:50,400
card battles where you're matching card synergies and are all

663
00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:53,440
like I believe, like types of food or ingredients, but

664
00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:57,000
it's all about like trying to find flavor synergies based

665
00:30:57,039 --> 00:30:58,880
on the enemies that you're fighting, where like if this

666
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:01,319
person has a certain car and they're all like color coded,

667
00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:03,240
then it's like, okay, do I have a card that

668
00:31:03,319 --> 00:31:07,319
has like that either enhances my cards based on like

669
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:11,079
a flavor profile, or does it like I guess, like

670
00:31:11,359 --> 00:31:14,680
directly beat one of their cards, and you know the

671
00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:16,400
cards are like a numerical value of like, well, my

672
00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:18,079
numbers higher, so I can I should be able to

673
00:31:18,079 --> 00:31:20,200
get over this. But this guy has a card that

674
00:31:20,319 --> 00:31:25,039
I don't have, like a a a flavor or type

675
00:31:25,039 --> 00:31:28,319
of card that is like emphatical to that one, so

676
00:31:28,359 --> 00:31:29,960
I either have the discard or take a hit.

677
00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:33,119
Speaker 4: But it was pretty fun, like the kinds of flavors

678
00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:35,680
would be. Is it just like spicy or sweet or

679
00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:36,400
is it like.

680
00:31:36,440 --> 00:31:40,039
Speaker 3: I think it's said, I forget if they're named. I

681
00:31:40,079 --> 00:31:42,720
know there's like there's like a reference guy that you

682
00:31:42,759 --> 00:31:44,720
can pull up that kind of shows you like almost

683
00:31:44,759 --> 00:31:47,079
like rock Peper, so like this beats this, this, this,

684
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:50,319
these flavors go together. These already in the sort of

685
00:31:50,359 --> 00:31:54,559
like the paths of Enhancement or whatnot. But yeah, it's

686
00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:57,599
it's it's like pretty it's like pretty good. Like it's

687
00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:00,279
it's decent. There's like some decent strategy involved. I don't

688
00:32:00,279 --> 00:32:01,720
know how much it involves. I was playing like the

689
00:32:01,839 --> 00:32:05,079
second the second like day two pretty much. So it's

690
00:32:05,119 --> 00:32:08,599
like like just afted the tutorial, which I think the

691
00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:11,039
Steam demo that's out now. I think it's like the

692
00:32:11,039 --> 00:32:13,319
first two or three days, so you'll be able to

693
00:32:13,319 --> 00:32:16,160
play the section that I played with. Yeah, it came

694
00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:20,920
out during Day to devs if I remember correctly. Yeah,

695
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:22,920
but it seems fun, like it's got like a nice

696
00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:25,119
little kind of like almost like DreamWorks the art direction.

697
00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:27,359
It's got like a cozy five to it. I would

698
00:32:27,359 --> 00:32:30,119
I would mess around with it some more, but uh, yeah,

699
00:32:30,119 --> 00:32:33,799
that's supposed to come out sometime next year. And then

700
00:32:33,839 --> 00:32:36,680
the other game I played that was maybe a bit

701
00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:38,200
of a surprise in terms of how much I liked

702
00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:41,880
it was Damon and Baby. Have you guys heard of this?

703
00:32:41,880 --> 00:32:43,960
Speaker 2: This is the I've heard of it?

704
00:32:44,079 --> 00:32:48,359
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, so this is the Arc System Works game.

705
00:32:48,680 --> 00:32:51,519
You know. Arc system probably best known for fighting games

706
00:32:51,559 --> 00:32:55,359
like Dragon Ball Fighters and Guilty Gear and Marvel Token

707
00:32:55,519 --> 00:32:59,799
next year. But this is a this is a like

708
00:33:00,079 --> 00:33:04,319
isommetric or like bullet hell game where you play as

709
00:33:04,359 --> 00:33:09,559
a demon who somehow becomes like demonically attached to a

710
00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:14,880
human child. And despite it being called Damon and Baby,

711
00:33:14,759 --> 00:33:16,440
the baby in question is a little bit more of

712
00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:18,880
a toddler. Is like, she looks like she's maybe like

713
00:33:19,119 --> 00:33:21,079
two years old just in terms of just her size,

714
00:33:21,119 --> 00:33:22,519
and she's got a full heat of hair and stuff.

715
00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:26,599
But regardless, she's she's a young a young person cannot

716
00:33:26,640 --> 00:33:30,960
speak very well. And Damon and toddler maybe we should

717
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:33,920
call it. But basically, for whatever reason, this demon has

718
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:37,440
like a is like demonically like almost like like a contract,

719
00:33:37,480 --> 00:33:39,400
like you are bound to this human no matter what,

720
00:33:39,519 --> 00:33:42,519
and he's not happy about it, and like the baby's

721
00:33:42,559 --> 00:33:47,319
like on your back and you're just exploring at least

722
00:33:47,359 --> 00:33:49,279
the section I played, like I played a toy. We're

723
00:33:49,319 --> 00:33:51,839
fighting in like hell or the underworld, and then eventually

724
00:33:51,880 --> 00:33:54,400
going back to the surface. And what I like about

725
00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:57,240
the game is that like it's an isometric bullet hell

726
00:33:57,279 --> 00:33:59,359
game kind of like twin stick shooter, where you get

727
00:33:59,359 --> 00:34:02,400
a bunch of different guns. You got like machine guns, handguns, shotguns,

728
00:34:02,640 --> 00:34:05,200
and you're just fighting these enemies at all fire back

729
00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:07,880
at you with like kind of like bullet hell style patterns,

730
00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:10,679
like a lot of spread shots and and like line

731
00:34:10,679 --> 00:34:14,719
shots that you're dodging. But it feels really good. Like

732
00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:17,000
one thing, I like how destructible it is. Like the

733
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:19,400
second level I played that was I don't know how

734
00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:21,440
deep in the game it was, but I was going

735
00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:24,320
through like a like a mansion like on on like

736
00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:28,039
in the real world, and I was trying to the

737
00:34:28,079 --> 00:34:30,199
mission I had to find some like the Lord of

738
00:34:30,199 --> 00:34:32,360
the manor who was locked up somewhere, but he was

739
00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:34,320
behind a bunch of locked doors. And it became this

740
00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:36,800
kind of like surprising exercise of like almost like a

741
00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:39,159
survi well maybe not survival horror game, but just the

742
00:34:39,159 --> 00:34:41,159
the extras, like oh I need to find keys to

743
00:34:41,199 --> 00:34:42,880
get through these various sores. Okay, where do I find

744
00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:45,480
these keys? I need to explore all these rooms, and

745
00:34:45,559 --> 00:34:47,880
like a lot of the rooms the enemies were like

746
00:34:47,920 --> 00:34:50,280
possessed objects, so I would like walk into a room

747
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:54,079
and then like the cabinet would start attacking me. Or

748
00:34:54,119 --> 00:34:57,159
there were like these dolls behind glass cases where if

749
00:34:57,159 --> 00:34:59,519
you accidentally shot them and broke them, the dolls would

750
00:34:59,519 --> 00:35:02,039
come to life and sprout these like long like spider

751
00:35:02,199 --> 00:35:05,559
arms and then just start like rushing you. And it

752
00:35:05,679 --> 00:35:07,880
sounds scary, but like it's got a really cute like

753
00:35:08,039 --> 00:35:11,119
arc direction, and it's not like a really big sense

754
00:35:11,119 --> 00:35:13,239
of humor. Like honestly, the humor reminds me a lot

755
00:35:13,280 --> 00:35:16,360
of the Diskaya series, which fits the sort of like

756
00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:20,519
underworld theme. Yeah yeah, like what if demons were funny

757
00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:25,079
kind of a thing. But yeah, it's it's so you're

758
00:35:25,079 --> 00:35:27,800
like blasting through all these environments. It feels like the

759
00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:31,920
shooting feels pretty good. You're finding Ammo like constantly, so

760
00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:33,760
it's like encouraging, like no, just go in there and

761
00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:36,639
just blow everything up, and it's like fun and it's

762
00:35:36,639 --> 00:35:38,840
like satisfying in that, like I just want to blow

763
00:35:38,880 --> 00:35:42,360
away everything. I like all the guns. There's different types

764
00:35:42,400 --> 00:35:44,239
of guns too, like they all have like different properties

765
00:35:44,239 --> 00:35:46,360
of like oh, here's like three different machine guns, but

766
00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:48,840
maybe one of them heals you, or maybe this other

767
00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:51,119
one shoots a little slower but has more power. Like

768
00:35:51,159 --> 00:35:54,199
you're kind of weighing different stats as you're picking them up,

769
00:35:54,239 --> 00:35:57,480
and you're also finding food and ingredients because you can

770
00:35:57,519 --> 00:35:59,679
cook dishes that heal you and give you all these

771
00:35:59,679 --> 00:36:03,360
different buffs. And you're also like there's like fun secrets

772
00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:05,880
you can find, and even puzzles like I found like

773
00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:08,119
all on the way, I'm like finding memos and then

774
00:36:08,119 --> 00:36:11,039
I need to use those memos for a like combination

775
00:36:11,639 --> 00:36:15,360
lock to access an important area. And again it was like,

776
00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:19,119
surprisingly it was survival horrory in that kind of like

777
00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:21,880
at least in the style of puzzle reminded me of

778
00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:24,800
that like a Resident for or something like that, which

779
00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:26,320
again I didn't expect in a game that I just

780
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:27,519
thought would be like, oh, you just go in a

781
00:36:27,559 --> 00:36:32,000
room and just blast everybody. But yeah, it's it's cool

782
00:36:32,039 --> 00:36:34,519
like it was. It was it's still very early, like

783
00:36:34,559 --> 00:36:36,960
the the pr was letting me know, like, yeah, this

784
00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:39,000
build is like this isn't even like a demo build.

785
00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:41,039
This is just like an internal building we put together,

786
00:36:41,159 --> 00:36:42,960
so it's it's going to be a minute. So it

787
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:45,360
was a little rough in spots, but even then I

788
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:47,360
had so much fun with it. And honestly, the whole

789
00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:49,639
time I was thinking and maybe because I was playing

790
00:36:49,639 --> 00:36:51,519
on PC, but I was playing on steam Deck. Like

791
00:36:51,519 --> 00:36:53,400
they didn't have any regular controllers, so they just had

792
00:36:53,400 --> 00:36:55,519
a steam Deck set up so you can either look

793
00:36:55,519 --> 00:36:57,239
at the monitor or you can just look down at

794
00:36:57,239 --> 00:36:59,480
the steam Deck screen. But yeah, it was like, oh,

795
00:36:59,519 --> 00:37:02,679
this feels like a good handheld game. Like honestly, like

796
00:37:02,719 --> 00:37:04,960
just the fun little twinstic shooter are going around. It's

797
00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:07,440
got like a goofy fun art style, just blasting everything.

798
00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:09,599
Like I could picture myself just laying a bed just

799
00:37:09,679 --> 00:37:12,440
running through this. And some of the like dialogue and

800
00:37:12,519 --> 00:37:14,880
conversations I was encountered are like, oh, there's like a

801
00:37:14,960 --> 00:37:19,119
charm to this. So yeah, this game was like kind

802
00:37:19,119 --> 00:37:20,639
of on my radar just because it was like a

803
00:37:20,639 --> 00:37:22,880
weird thing coming from Arcsist. But now it's like, oh,

804
00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:25,840
i I'm actively like looking forward to this now, and

805
00:37:25,880 --> 00:37:28,159
that's also supposed to come out next year, so Yeah,

806
00:37:28,199 --> 00:37:30,480
that's uh Damon and Baby.

807
00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:33,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, that one looks cool. I really liked the art style.

808
00:37:34,239 --> 00:37:38,920
There's like a nice bloom to everything a little bit,

809
00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:42,280
at least on the surface areas, and like like that

810
00:37:42,320 --> 00:37:44,679
there's like a dusty town that they're running through and

811
00:37:45,119 --> 00:37:46,039
I don't know, I like the setting.

812
00:37:46,079 --> 00:37:48,800
Speaker 2: It looks cool. I want to check it out. Also,

813
00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:50,320
I haven't played a twenty six shooter in a while,

814
00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:51,199
so me neither.

815
00:37:51,239 --> 00:37:53,039
Speaker 3: Actually, I trying to think, like I feel like that

816
00:37:53,199 --> 00:37:56,480
was they were like in vogue during like the early

817
00:37:56,679 --> 00:37:59,719
Xbox Live Arcade days, maybe like with Geometry Wars and

818
00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:02,960
like for Start as HD, and it felt like yeah,

819
00:38:02,639 --> 00:38:06,400
like or like what was the the zombie one that

820
00:38:06,559 --> 00:38:07,960
they did, like two of them for like p S

821
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:13,519
three Dead Dead something. I mean, you could play co Op.

822
00:38:13,719 --> 00:38:16,840
I know the word you're talking about, dead Side. No,

823
00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:20,159
this is gonna bother me. I used to play a

824
00:38:20,159 --> 00:38:21,360
lot of it with my friends on PS.

825
00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:23,159
Speaker 2: I know exactly what you're talking about. I can see

826
00:38:23,159 --> 00:38:23,519
the cover.

827
00:38:23,880 --> 00:38:25,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, let us know in the comments if you remember,

828
00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:28,760
unless I scream it out later on the show. But yeah,

829
00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:30,199
it was, like like you said, it felt like a

830
00:38:30,199 --> 00:38:31,519
fun throw about, like yeah, I feel like I don't

831
00:38:31,559 --> 00:38:33,159
play a lot of these anymore. This is this seems

832
00:38:33,159 --> 00:38:34,199
like this could be a good one.

833
00:38:35,039 --> 00:38:40,079
Speaker 2: Yeah that's dead Ops, that sounds right. No, that's not

834
00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:44,639
okay songs right, you're thinking wrong.

835
00:38:45,719 --> 00:38:47,800
Speaker 3: I'm thinking of something different when I hear it.

836
00:38:48,599 --> 00:38:49,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fair.

837
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:55,239
Speaker 1: Uh well cool, Well that's a bit about the Game Awards.

838
00:38:55,239 --> 00:38:57,719
Cool that you got to go in person and uh,

839
00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:01,800
you know, shake some hands, play some games, move out of.

840
00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:04,199
Speaker 3: People's way, get out of the way of important people.

841
00:39:04,800 --> 00:39:05,079
Speaker 2: Yeah.

842
00:39:05,159 --> 00:39:08,039
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought we would shift gears for a second

843
00:39:08,159 --> 00:39:13,239
and get into our Steam replays. Uh and I you know,

844
00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:15,280
I I predominantly play on Steam.

845
00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:16,880
Speaker 2: Uh so I don't.

846
00:39:16,920 --> 00:39:20,000
Speaker 1: I'm curious to see, like how ours compares to each other,

847
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:22,800
because I know probably Marcus, you're the next in line

848
00:39:23,079 --> 00:39:25,960
line in terms of like Steam usage, I would think, yeah,

849
00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:29,559
and then Charles you kind of dabble and Steam here

850
00:39:29,559 --> 00:39:29,880
and there.

851
00:39:30,480 --> 00:39:33,679
Speaker 4: I'm more, Yeah, I'll play something on Steam. Deck is

852
00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:36,519
usually my thing. So yeah, so it's not like my

853
00:39:36,599 --> 00:39:39,000
primary platform if it's like a big new game, but

854
00:39:39,039 --> 00:39:41,000
if it's like an indie thing, I'll pick it on.

855
00:39:41,280 --> 00:39:41,480
Speaker 2: Yeah.

856
00:39:41,679 --> 00:39:45,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, well I guess I'll start These are these are cool.

857
00:39:46,039 --> 00:39:51,519
I also got a Discord one Discord randomly gave me

858
00:39:51,639 --> 00:39:57,760
a replay as well. Is there because I yeah, actually, okay,

859
00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:02,320
because I play a lot of games that aren't on Steam,

860
00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:04,000
a lot of other PC like I play a lot

861
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:07,159
in Battlenet, and I play a fair mountain etic game store,

862
00:40:08,159 --> 00:40:11,320
and Discord kind of has all of them. And it

863
00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:14,800
says your favorite games. You played seventy one games this year.

864
00:40:15,320 --> 00:40:20,599
These were your favorites Number one with eighty four sessions

865
00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:23,519
logged League of Legends.

866
00:40:24,239 --> 00:40:26,800
Speaker 4: Oh congrass, you did.

867
00:40:26,639 --> 00:40:29,039
Speaker 2: It, yeah, and this was.

868
00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:34,639
Speaker 1: I posted this win December fifth, So I'm probably close

869
00:40:34,679 --> 00:40:36,159
to one hundred now because I've played a lot of

870
00:40:36,199 --> 00:40:40,199
League this month, So one hundred sessions will say or

871
00:40:40,239 --> 00:40:43,480
so of League this year. It says I put in

872
00:40:43,519 --> 00:40:46,599
thirty one Fortnite sessions, which is more than I thought

873
00:40:46,639 --> 00:40:49,280
I did this year. Honestly, maybe I played at the

874
00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:51,719
beginning of the year. I usually get back in around

875
00:40:51,719 --> 00:40:57,119
the holidays and then I'm out again. Twenty three sessions

876
00:40:57,119 --> 00:41:00,239
of World of Warcraft, but then another fourteen sessions of

877
00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:03,440
World of Warcraft Classic, So what is that? Thirty seven

878
00:41:03,559 --> 00:41:09,119
sessions of Wow, and then Deadlock with fifteen sessions.

879
00:41:10,159 --> 00:41:12,599
Speaker 3: That's the Valve game, right, Yeah.

880
00:41:12,480 --> 00:41:14,400
Speaker 1: It's the Valve Mobile. Eric and I have talked about

881
00:41:14,440 --> 00:41:16,920
it a few times this year on the show. That's

882
00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:18,519
my Discord one.

883
00:41:19,079 --> 00:41:21,719
Speaker 3: But let's get into the scene replay well real quick

884
00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:23,679
for Discord. Do you guys want to know who my

885
00:41:23,800 --> 00:41:25,639
two most called people are?

886
00:41:25,800 --> 00:41:27,920
Speaker 2: Like, oh, did you do it? Okay, yeah, I want

887
00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:30,599
to Yeah, it's it's YouTube.

888
00:41:31,400 --> 00:41:33,519
Speaker 4: Really, that's so funny.

889
00:41:33,599 --> 00:41:36,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, like Charles, You're my most it said Charles hard

890
00:41:36,679 --> 00:41:39,000
is the person I've spent the most time on Discord

891
00:41:39,039 --> 00:41:41,159
calls with, which makes sense because.

892
00:41:40,920 --> 00:41:42,400
Speaker 2: Of replay replay.

893
00:41:42,559 --> 00:41:45,639
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then you were number two, Alex, and I

894
00:41:45,679 --> 00:41:48,679
forgot who number three was, but it was probably another coworker,

895
00:41:48,760 --> 00:41:50,400
which makes sense. It let be use Discord a lot

896
00:41:50,440 --> 00:41:54,719
for the podcast and Kyle probably it probably was Kyle.

897
00:41:56,159 --> 00:41:57,320
Speaker 2: If not, we'll give it to him.

898
00:41:57,559 --> 00:42:00,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, but yeah, it was like oh, and I was like, oh, yeah,

899
00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:01,519
I guess that makes sense because like, yeah, I use

900
00:42:01,559 --> 00:42:03,800
Discord with my friends, but we're like when we don't

901
00:42:03,800 --> 00:42:05,400
do video, we're just like on a call call and

902
00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:08,039
we're not you know, just the sheer amount of hours

903
00:42:08,079 --> 00:42:09,800
as they come close to what we do for just

904
00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:13,639
you know, our work stuff. Yeah, work projects. I was like, so,

905
00:42:13,719 --> 00:42:16,159
congrats to you, Charles and Alex. You did it. Thank

906
00:42:16,199 --> 00:42:17,760
you in a second, you know, I look forward. We'll

907
00:42:17,760 --> 00:42:19,920
see if that changes this year. Maybe Alex you can

908
00:42:19,960 --> 00:42:20,800
overtake Charles.

909
00:42:22,119 --> 00:42:22,760
Speaker 2: I'm gonna try.

910
00:42:23,119 --> 00:42:24,760
Speaker 4: I'm really gonna replay.

911
00:42:24,880 --> 00:42:26,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah about a replay.

912
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:30,199
Speaker 2: All start a new series with Marcus, do it?

913
00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:31,239
Speaker 3: Wow?

914
00:42:32,079 --> 00:42:34,119
Speaker 2: Because we all have so much, so much room on

915
00:42:34,159 --> 00:42:34,639
our plates.

916
00:42:34,719 --> 00:42:39,679
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been looking for front of the project. This year.

917
00:42:39,719 --> 00:42:42,039
Speaker 1: You played a lot of new games, unlocked quite a

918
00:42:42,079 --> 00:42:46,639
few achievements. It says I played fifty nine games, which

919
00:42:46,679 --> 00:42:48,480
is one fewer.

920
00:42:47,960 --> 00:42:48,760
Speaker 2: Than last year.

921
00:42:49,599 --> 00:42:49,880
Speaker 3: Wow.

922
00:42:49,920 --> 00:42:53,320
Speaker 1: Forty nine of those were new games. Five of those

923
00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:57,880
were play tests. I unlocked two hundred and fifty four achievements,

924
00:42:58,480 --> 00:43:00,559
which I feel like isn't a ton, But I did

925
00:43:00,599 --> 00:43:05,599
get twenty seven rare achievements. Interesting, I played seventy five

926
00:43:05,679 --> 00:43:07,639
percent with keyboard and mouse.

927
00:43:09,639 --> 00:43:10,920
Speaker 2: And then.

928
00:43:12,519 --> 00:43:15,599
Speaker 1: How you compare stack your year against the rest of

929
00:43:15,639 --> 00:43:20,119
the Steam community. Wow, I'm I'm blowing them away, so

930
00:43:20,519 --> 00:43:21,440
the average away.

931
00:43:21,679 --> 00:43:24,519
Speaker 4: I'm past all these medians also, and I don't I

932
00:43:24,519 --> 00:43:26,960
guess I used Steve a decent amount. But I thought

933
00:43:26,960 --> 00:43:28,920
it was funny that, like, is it just a bunch

934
00:43:28,920 --> 00:43:31,199
of inactive accounts? Am I am? I more of a

935
00:43:31,199 --> 00:43:32,320
gamer than I thought I was.

936
00:43:32,400 --> 00:43:35,519
Speaker 3: I don't know if it's just like, especially for our jobs,

937
00:43:35,519 --> 00:43:37,400
a sheer amount of like we get a lot of

938
00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:41,880
PC codes, you know to play for check this game? Yeah, yeah,

939
00:43:42,199 --> 00:43:44,559
or like or just yeah you said downloading Steave demos

940
00:43:44,559 --> 00:43:46,880
that she checks the foul so that that's probably what

941
00:43:46,960 --> 00:43:47,199
it is.

942
00:43:47,239 --> 00:43:49,800
Speaker 1: If I had the guess, yeah, I figure I'll just

943
00:43:49,840 --> 00:43:51,519
go through mine and then we can just go through

944
00:43:51,559 --> 00:43:53,960
each each other's.

945
00:43:54,440 --> 00:43:57,679
Speaker 2: Let's see. Yeah, eighty four percent new releases.

946
00:43:58,400 --> 00:44:00,599
Speaker 4: Can I ask what your longest gaming was?

947
00:44:01,199 --> 00:44:02,679
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm going to get to that. I have to

948
00:44:02,719 --> 00:44:05,840
find it. It is on here though, Uh you are

949
00:44:05,920 --> 00:44:08,159
what you play. The spider graph shows the kind of

950
00:44:08,159 --> 00:44:10,960
games you spent the most time in twenty twenty five.

951
00:44:12,239 --> 00:44:17,360
My pie chart is honestly, my pie chart is almost

952
00:44:17,400 --> 00:44:18,519
full in every direction.

953
00:44:19,159 --> 00:44:21,880
Speaker 3: Not quite. It's like when you say, everybody out on

954
00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:23,199
a mission and dispatch.

955
00:44:23,400 --> 00:44:25,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, so ask and I guess.

956
00:44:25,800 --> 00:44:26,679
Speaker 4: Can I guess what it is?

957
00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:31,920
Speaker 2: Yeah? Well, there are multiple there are multiple tags. These

958
00:44:31,920 --> 00:44:33,920
are like the Steam tags.

959
00:44:34,840 --> 00:44:38,760
Speaker 4: I would I would guess Actually, yeah, no, I'm just

960
00:44:38,760 --> 00:44:40,639
gonna guess first person shooter is one of yours.

961
00:44:41,559 --> 00:44:45,679
Speaker 1: No extraction shooters on there, they're more specific. How about

962
00:44:45,719 --> 00:44:47,519
I tell you, how about I tell you my graph

963
00:44:47,920 --> 00:44:49,639
what's on there, and you can tell me which direction

964
00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:50,360
you think it is.

965
00:44:51,639 --> 00:44:53,159
Speaker 4: Well, you just said it was kind of all you

966
00:44:53,320 --> 00:44:54,480
do it? Do it for Marcus?

967
00:44:54,960 --> 00:45:04,559
Speaker 1: Okay, Extraction Shooter, Mobile Destruction, Soul's Life, party game, Hunting, hunting.

968
00:45:05,679 --> 00:45:08,000
I don't know what that fire up like a cabellas

969
00:45:08,039 --> 00:45:10,199
this year definitely.

970
00:45:09,800 --> 00:45:15,000
Speaker 4: Not so wait, what are we just doing like deer

971
00:45:15,079 --> 00:45:16,800
hunting simulators whatever? Reason not?

972
00:45:17,679 --> 00:45:21,239
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, I don't know what the hunting things from,

973
00:45:21,280 --> 00:45:22,800
but it's some game I played.

974
00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:24,719
Speaker 2: I guess had that on a tag because you can

975
00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:26,000
add like dozens.

976
00:45:26,760 --> 00:45:29,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, my my gra I'll just tell you my graph

977
00:45:29,360 --> 00:45:32,800
is just like maxed out all the way like touching

978
00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:36,639
the confines of the graph in Extraction Shooter or Mobile

979
00:45:36,679 --> 00:45:40,320
Destruction and Souls like then it kind of comes back

980
00:45:40,360 --> 00:45:43,360
to like the middle area for party game, and then

981
00:45:43,679 --> 00:45:47,800
hunting game is just kind of like I think hunting

982
00:45:47,960 --> 00:45:50,880
just I don't know there's even like there's not a

983
00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:53,719
point either going towards hunting. It's like party game is

984
00:45:53,719 --> 00:45:55,920
cutting across hunting to get the extraction shooter.

985
00:45:56,360 --> 00:45:57,440
Speaker 2: It's very weird.

986
00:45:58,360 --> 00:46:03,119
Speaker 1: I had fourteen new friends at popular screenshot shared eight.

987
00:46:03,119 --> 00:46:03,960
Speaker 2: Okay, this is dumb.

988
00:46:04,719 --> 00:46:09,159
Speaker 1: Let's take a closer look at your top played games. Blueprints,

989
00:46:10,719 --> 00:46:13,280
how many of your runs are ruined by the archives?

990
00:46:13,920 --> 00:46:20,360
Twelve percent of total playtime seventeen sessions, eight day streak,

991
00:46:21,280 --> 00:46:24,159
and I started it this year. My ninety six percent

992
00:46:24,199 --> 00:46:29,880
of my playtime in Blueprints was in April, which tracks deadlock.

993
00:46:30,360 --> 00:46:33,840
The baroness is always looking for new guests. Deadlock is

994
00:46:33,920 --> 00:46:36,960
ten percent of my total playtime twenty six sessions played.

995
00:46:36,960 --> 00:46:39,519
I had a six day streak. I played thirty three

996
00:46:39,559 --> 00:46:43,079
percent of that in August, and then September was sixty

997
00:46:43,119 --> 00:46:46,760
seven percent. Arc Raiders ten percent of my playtime nineteen

998
00:46:46,800 --> 00:46:52,320
sessions six day streak, seventeen percent in October eighty three,

999
00:46:52,360 --> 00:46:58,800
in November the finals. Another inmbark game, fifteen percent of

1000
00:46:58,840 --> 00:47:03,039
your playtime in the finals was in January, forty seven

1001
00:47:03,079 --> 00:47:05,679
percent was in March. That was definitely a new season

1002
00:47:06,440 --> 00:47:07,000
a little bit in.

1003
00:47:07,039 --> 00:47:11,559
Speaker 4: July that Blueprints was your number one, but doesn't seem

1004
00:47:11,599 --> 00:47:13,400
to be reflected on your chart at all.

1005
00:47:14,599 --> 00:47:16,039
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't get that. Yeah, it's not in my

1006
00:47:16,079 --> 00:47:19,719
puzzle like no puzzle games. Yeah, yeah, so I don't know.

1007
00:47:20,320 --> 00:47:24,440
Speaker 3: And Blueprints is an extraction shooter. That's why you have

1008
00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:26,360
to extract knowledge each day.

1009
00:47:26,480 --> 00:47:28,880
Speaker 1: I had twenty two sessions of the finals. Almost all

1010
00:47:29,039 --> 00:47:33,679
those would be with Leo Vader Elden Ring Night ringing

1011
00:47:34,519 --> 00:47:37,440
six percent of my total playtime eleven sessions, seven day

1012
00:47:37,480 --> 00:47:45,400
streak that was in May. Playtime by month, interesting. I

1013
00:47:45,400 --> 00:47:47,800
had a lot of playtime in April. That was the

1014
00:47:47,800 --> 00:47:49,119
biggest month of gaming for me.

1015
00:47:51,119 --> 00:47:53,360
Speaker 3: We were coming back too, like we were in the

1016
00:47:53,360 --> 00:47:53,920
midst of our.

1017
00:47:54,119 --> 00:47:56,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think we were. Probably I was.

1018
00:47:56,960 --> 00:47:57,960
I was energized.

1019
00:47:58,039 --> 00:48:02,639
Speaker 1: You know, sixty three games played on PC, eight on

1020
00:48:02,760 --> 00:48:08,960
steam Deck. I'm surprised it's not more. But of Blueprints,

1021
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:12,599
I played on steam Deck, thirty percent of ballocks Pit

1022
00:48:12,679 --> 00:48:16,719
I played on Steam Deck, and Citizens Sleeper, Cyberpunk and

1023
00:48:16,760 --> 00:48:22,400
Everybody's Hot Chop Golf, anything else interesting? No, oh, you're

1024
00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:25,760
asking about my streak, Charles. My daily longest daily streak

1025
00:48:25,840 --> 00:48:26,800
was eleven days.

1026
00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:29,159
Speaker 4: Okay, is that normal?

1027
00:48:29,159 --> 00:48:30,960
Speaker 2: That's pretty I beat yours.

1028
00:48:31,480 --> 00:48:33,320
Speaker 4: Yeah, I also did.

1029
00:48:33,119 --> 00:48:37,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have a life. What can I say, I

1030
00:48:37,480 --> 00:48:41,519
got things to do. It was probably it was probably

1031
00:48:41,519 --> 00:48:43,440
another launcher. I was playing League of Legends.

1032
00:48:43,519 --> 00:48:46,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, I assume it was a review. Like I probably

1033
00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:48,880
had a review that I had to do on Steam.

1034
00:48:49,159 --> 00:48:49,719
I had today.

1035
00:48:50,760 --> 00:48:54,920
Speaker 4: I had Baby Steps Hades to consume, me.

1036
00:48:55,599 --> 00:48:56,639
Speaker 3: Back to review.

1037
00:48:56,960 --> 00:48:59,800
Speaker 4: So I would bet that was. My streak was thirteen.

1038
00:48:59,480 --> 00:49:02,320
Speaker 3: Days okay, yeah, line was longer than that.

1039
00:49:02,559 --> 00:49:05,519
Speaker 1: It tells you what you played during them. My my

1040
00:49:05,639 --> 00:49:10,920
streak was May twenty second through June second. During this time,

1041
00:49:10,960 --> 00:49:14,119
you played four different games, skin Deep Expedition thirty three,

1042
00:49:14,760 --> 00:49:19,880
Elden Ring, Night Rain, and split Gate Arena reloaded. And

1043
00:49:19,880 --> 00:49:21,480
then they get into a really and they have a

1044
00:49:21,480 --> 00:49:22,920
cool I'm not going to go through all of it.

1045
00:49:23,199 --> 00:49:24,840
I'm not gonna go through it at all at all. Actually,

1046
00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:27,119
but they give you like a whole breakdown of every

1047
00:49:27,159 --> 00:49:28,599
game you played throughout the year.

1048
00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:30,320
Speaker 2: In a month by month timeline.

1049
00:49:31,440 --> 00:49:35,119
Speaker 1: There's really not a ton of super interesting picks other

1050
00:49:35,119 --> 00:49:38,199
than I forgot hyper Light Breaker came out.

1051
00:49:38,400 --> 00:49:39,440
Speaker 2: Yeah this year.

1052
00:49:39,519 --> 00:49:40,280
Speaker 3: That was January.

1053
00:49:40,320 --> 00:49:40,880
Speaker 4: Poor game.

1054
00:49:41,199 --> 00:49:46,599
Speaker 2: Yeah, poor game. Eternal strands about that one.

1055
00:49:46,599 --> 00:49:48,320
Speaker 3: It was also January or February.

1056
00:49:49,119 --> 00:49:49,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, that.

1057
00:49:50,960 --> 00:49:53,519
Speaker 4: Was one that we were like maybe gonna do for

1058
00:49:53,639 --> 00:49:57,960
our comeback review. Right, Yeah, I don't think we got

1059
00:49:57,960 --> 00:49:59,039
to March.

1060
00:49:59,239 --> 00:50:02,760
Speaker 1: I played a lot of mind Over Magic, which is

1061
00:50:02,880 --> 00:50:08,280
a colony sim like almost like Fallout Shelter style, but

1062
00:50:08,280 --> 00:50:13,360
you're running a magic academy. I played That made up

1063
00:50:13,400 --> 00:50:16,199
twenty seven percent of my playtime in March, with the

1064
00:50:16,199 --> 00:50:21,920
finals being at forty three. Uh oh, Door Kickers too interesting,

1065
00:50:23,840 --> 00:50:26,159
Ruin Escaped Dragon Wilds I forgot that came out this year.

1066
00:50:26,239 --> 00:50:28,199
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well.

1067
00:50:28,280 --> 00:50:30,480
Speaker 3: Like yeah, I lost an early access this year.

1068
00:50:31,800 --> 00:50:37,079
Speaker 4: I do want to move to ours real quick.

1069
00:50:37,360 --> 00:50:37,679
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1070
00:50:37,719 --> 00:50:40,039
Speaker 4: Please, Also, Alex, I know you had a hard out.

1071
00:50:40,079 --> 00:50:41,519
I don't know how close we are did that.

1072
00:50:42,159 --> 00:50:43,360
Speaker 2: We're okay, we can keep going.

1073
00:50:43,719 --> 00:50:46,719
Speaker 4: Okay, cool, I'll run through some of mine real quick.

1074
00:50:46,760 --> 00:50:48,440
I don't need to hit all the things. But I

1075
00:50:48,440 --> 00:50:51,480
had twenty seven games played this year, which is nine

1076
00:50:51,559 --> 00:50:52,719
more than last year.

1077
00:50:53,239 --> 00:50:54,559
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's good.

1078
00:50:54,639 --> 00:51:01,039
Speaker 4: Roman Raids. Yeah. My most played game was also Blueprints,

1079
00:51:01,559 --> 00:51:05,760
twenty two sessions, seventeen percent of my playtime, eighty four

1080
00:51:05,760 --> 00:51:09,000
percent in April and then sixteen percent in November because

1081
00:51:09,000 --> 00:51:11,760
the listen and I started up a new save go

1082
00:51:11,840 --> 00:51:12,840
to it my number.

1083
00:51:12,679 --> 00:51:15,480
Speaker 1: Two You had more more sessions, so many more sessions.

1084
00:51:15,679 --> 00:51:16,920
I forgot you picked it back up?

1085
00:51:17,039 --> 00:51:18,119
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1086
00:51:19,480 --> 00:51:21,360
Speaker 4: I also would play that game for like nine straight

1087
00:51:21,400 --> 00:51:24,920
hours and it would just like anyways, second most played game,

1088
00:51:24,920 --> 00:51:28,079
Monster Trained two, which is one of my Yeah that's

1089
00:51:28,119 --> 00:51:30,679
gonna be. I think we're doing like a bunch of

1090
00:51:30,760 --> 00:51:32,880
end of year articles about like games we want to recommend,

1091
00:51:32,920 --> 00:51:35,039
and that this is one that, like, I feel like,

1092
00:51:35,159 --> 00:51:37,280
is so much better than a lot of people. It

1093
00:51:37,360 --> 00:51:39,039
kind of went under the radar for a lot of people,

1094
00:51:39,079 --> 00:51:41,360
but it's just such an awesome game. And I played

1095
00:51:41,360 --> 00:51:43,079
a lot for the review, but I played before and

1096
00:51:43,079 --> 00:51:47,159
after that also because it's great. And then my third

1097
00:51:47,199 --> 00:51:50,639
most played game is Done and Ron but two Goodbye Despair,

1098
00:51:51,239 --> 00:51:56,119
Oh all in January. This is like a perfect game

1099
00:51:56,159 --> 00:51:58,639
for when you're unemployed because it's so long you just

1100
00:51:58,679 --> 00:52:00,440
kind of have to sit through a lot of dialog,

1101
00:52:00,559 --> 00:52:01,880
and it was just like the kind of thing where

1102
00:52:01,920 --> 00:52:04,320
I would wake up clock into Dog and romp with

1103
00:52:04,440 --> 00:52:07,519
two and then play it for six to eight hours

1104
00:52:07,519 --> 00:52:08,360
in a day or whatever.

1105
00:52:09,519 --> 00:52:11,440
Speaker 2: What was your graph? What you played?

1106
00:52:11,519 --> 00:52:11,599
Speaker 3: Like?

1107
00:52:11,639 --> 00:52:12,199
Speaker 2: Your tags?

1108
00:52:13,760 --> 00:52:13,960
Speaker 3: Oh?

1109
00:52:14,039 --> 00:52:14,800
Speaker 4: My tags?

1110
00:52:14,920 --> 00:52:15,039
Speaker 3: Uh?

1111
00:52:16,800 --> 00:52:20,159
Speaker 4: Roguelike deck Builder and deck Building are both maxed out,

1112
00:52:21,800 --> 00:52:25,920
and then walking simulator is pretty high and then fast

1113
00:52:26,000 --> 00:52:32,000
paced which is interesting, and then hand drawn for you No,

1114
00:52:32,000 --> 00:52:36,559
no hunting that is nothing to do with blueprints. Would

1115
00:52:36,559 --> 00:52:37,320
you say in market.

1116
00:52:37,199 --> 00:52:38,639
Speaker 3: That said you gotta get your hunting stat up?

1117
00:52:39,159 --> 00:52:39,800
Speaker 4: I clearly do.

1118
00:52:39,960 --> 00:52:40,719
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1119
00:52:40,800 --> 00:52:42,639
Speaker 4: And then my next one is Death Howl, which'll talk

1120
00:52:42,639 --> 00:52:46,039
about later on the podcast, and then Baby Steps, which

1121
00:52:46,079 --> 00:52:49,679
I had to review, which I suffered through, which is fine.

1122
00:52:50,559 --> 00:52:50,679
Speaker 3: Uh.

1123
00:52:51,199 --> 00:52:53,960
Speaker 4: And then I'm I'm actually sixty five percent steam Deck,

1124
00:52:54,000 --> 00:52:57,400
thirty five percent Windows, which surprised me. I guess I've

1125
00:52:57,400 --> 00:53:00,400
been playing more Windows for Death Howl and played Root

1126
00:53:00,400 --> 00:53:02,880
Trees are Dead on the cup a lot because it's

1127
00:53:02,920 --> 00:53:06,360
used with the keyboard and a mouse and that and

1128
00:53:06,639 --> 00:53:09,880
my longest street was actually in April. It was Blueprints,

1129
00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:11,840
Haste Arco and Monster Trained two.

1130
00:53:11,880 --> 00:53:14,320
Speaker 2: Oh Haste, Yeah is good?

1131
00:53:16,000 --> 00:53:17,559
Speaker 4: Uh Marcus, what about you?

1132
00:53:18,199 --> 00:53:22,800
Speaker 3: All right, kiddos, buckle up because I've had thirty nine

1133
00:53:22,880 --> 00:53:26,920
games that's played this year, which apparently nine games fewer

1134
00:53:27,199 --> 00:53:31,920
than last year. Let's see, I'm fifty four percent with

1135
00:53:31,960 --> 00:53:34,280
a controller, forty six percent keyboard and mouse, which is

1136
00:53:34,320 --> 00:53:35,639
more than I would have thought because I am not

1137
00:53:35,719 --> 00:53:39,079
a I guarantee that's more like it's less keyboard and

1138
00:53:39,079 --> 00:53:40,559
more mouse, because I played a lot of point click

1139
00:53:40,559 --> 00:53:42,880
games this year because I'm not sure I am not

1140
00:53:42,960 --> 00:53:45,519
a mouse and keyboard person at all. I plug in

1141
00:53:45,559 --> 00:53:48,760
a controller whenever I can. And then my three most

1142
00:53:48,800 --> 00:53:51,840
played games. Number one, to no surprise, Eugo Master Duel.

1143
00:53:52,159 --> 00:53:54,639
That has been my number one. That's my number one

1144
00:53:54,800 --> 00:53:56,840
plates the since that game came out. It's a bit

1145
00:53:56,880 --> 00:53:58,960
on the street. It's like up twenty percent of my playtime.

1146
00:53:59,639 --> 00:54:04,199
Second place, The Root Trees Are Dead really back in January.

1147
00:54:04,280 --> 00:54:05,960
I mean I put a lot of time today game,

1148
00:54:06,000 --> 00:54:08,079
and there are a lot of periods where you can

1149
00:54:08,079 --> 00:54:09,519
attest it to charge where you're just staring at the

1150
00:54:09,519 --> 00:54:12,000
screen and nothing happens for like hours because you're trying

1151
00:54:12,000 --> 00:54:14,480
to figure something out, so that I probably inflates the

1152
00:54:14,519 --> 00:54:19,199
playtime too. And then number three was Loreline the Laser Eyes,

1153
00:54:19,519 --> 00:54:22,679
which I started in twenty twenty four but I didn't

1154
00:54:22,719 --> 00:54:25,639
finish until the beginning of this year. But I still

1155
00:54:25,679 --> 00:54:27,440
put in a lot of time this year. And that's

1156
00:54:27,480 --> 00:54:29,639
another game where you're staring at things for long periods

1157
00:54:29,679 --> 00:54:32,519
and nothing's happening as you try to figure out this stuff.

1158
00:54:33,239 --> 00:54:35,519
So I was not surprised to see those last two

1159
00:54:36,320 --> 00:54:39,880
crack the top. Let's see here, I had My longest

1160
00:54:39,920 --> 00:54:41,559
play streak was eighteen days.

1161
00:54:42,599 --> 00:54:43,440
Speaker 2: Whoa gamer?

1162
00:54:43,960 --> 00:54:45,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, sorry, just real gamer over here?

1163
00:54:46,480 --> 00:54:47,360
Speaker 4: Whoa gamer?

1164
00:54:47,639 --> 00:54:49,960
Speaker 3: Let's see fifty eight percent of my games or new

1165
00:54:50,000 --> 00:54:53,320
releases in terms of my like tags on a little

1166
00:54:53,400 --> 00:54:56,920
circle chart thing. It's it's a lot more clear. So

1167
00:54:56,960 --> 00:55:01,159
the ones that are maxed out are Metroidvan and turn

1168
00:55:01,159 --> 00:55:02,039
based Tactics.

1169
00:55:03,000 --> 00:55:05,280
Speaker 2: Oh so turn based tactics.

1170
00:55:05,440 --> 00:55:06,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm trying to think of what I played, Like

1171
00:55:07,000 --> 00:55:11,599
metro Mania I could get because I played, Yeah, and

1172
00:55:11,599 --> 00:55:14,960
I played Possessors for review on Steam. I played I

1173
00:55:15,079 --> 00:55:17,960
finished Nine Souls this year, which was again I hold

1174
00:55:17,960 --> 00:55:21,599
over from twenty twenty four. And then also I played

1175
00:55:22,239 --> 00:55:26,000
inter Magnolia Bloom in the Mist, which I reveive was

1176
00:55:26,000 --> 00:55:28,440
one of the first reviews when we came back because

1177
00:55:28,440 --> 00:55:29,840
that when we came back, Yeah, that was like a

1178
00:55:29,840 --> 00:55:30,880
February release too.

1179
00:55:31,119 --> 00:55:32,199
Speaker 2: I have a question for you.

1180
00:55:32,519 --> 00:55:34,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've heard some people say that Nine Souls is

1181
00:55:34,880 --> 00:55:36,000
harder than Silk Song.

1182
00:55:36,760 --> 00:55:39,880
Speaker 4: We do agree with that. Interesting, I have I played

1183
00:55:39,920 --> 00:55:41,440
a lot more of Nine Souls than I did of

1184
00:55:41,519 --> 00:55:46,000
Silk Song, and I I don't know if I would

1185
00:55:46,039 --> 00:55:47,840
say it's harder, but I found it a lot less

1186
00:55:47,840 --> 00:55:51,039
frustrating because the Nine Souls you have a lot more tools.

1187
00:55:52,280 --> 00:55:54,280
Do you have a lot maybe maybe at the end

1188
00:55:54,360 --> 00:55:56,840
of the game, like it's more comparable. But Nine Souls

1189
00:55:56,920 --> 00:55:58,679
was a lot easier for me personally to get through.

1190
00:55:59,039 --> 00:56:04,199
Speaker 3: Nine Souls is it's easier to Charles's point, in a

1191
00:56:04,280 --> 00:56:07,960
sense that sort of equipping things, it's not as restrictive

1192
00:56:08,159 --> 00:56:10,400
as Hollow I is, where you really have to make

1193
00:56:10,440 --> 00:56:13,239
some hard choices about your loto. Nine Souls is a

1194
00:56:13,280 --> 00:56:15,679
little bit more flexible, like you can you can just

1195
00:56:15,719 --> 00:56:18,800
hold on to things more. And but like in terms

1196
00:56:18,800 --> 00:56:20,639
of the combat, it's it's because it's pretty much like

1197
00:56:20,679 --> 00:56:23,840
it's like two D Secaro. It's like very very heavy

1198
00:56:24,519 --> 00:56:25,199
and actually.

1199
00:56:25,000 --> 00:56:31,320
Speaker 4: Better at parrying than Silk Songs, just like avoiding kind of.

1200
00:56:30,519 --> 00:56:32,800
Speaker 3: They're both tough games, and I think they're both great.

1201
00:56:32,880 --> 00:56:35,800
Like Nine Soles is a gem from last year that

1202
00:56:35,840 --> 00:56:37,559
more people should play. I think it's a great game

1203
00:56:38,679 --> 00:56:41,320
and I I and I actually interviewed the team for

1204
00:56:41,360 --> 00:56:43,039
a Future a while back where I talked to him

1205
00:56:43,039 --> 00:56:47,119
about this game before it came out. But yeah, I

1206
00:56:47,159 --> 00:56:49,119
don't know. I think, yeah, if you like hard metro

1207
00:56:49,199 --> 00:56:52,880
vanias I guess to go for for sure movie, you

1208
00:56:52,960 --> 00:56:56,360
throw blasphemous in there too. But yeah, so like those

1209
00:56:56,400 --> 00:56:59,400
are in there. Let's see what else are we looking at.

1210
00:57:00,280 --> 00:57:03,400
Let's see, I'm just scrolling down stats trying to find

1211
00:57:03,440 --> 00:57:04,599
something interesting here.

1212
00:57:05,239 --> 00:57:07,880
Speaker 2: Let's see what's your playtime by month?

1213
00:57:08,480 --> 00:57:10,960
Speaker 3: I just got there. Good, my playtime by month? So

1214
00:57:11,039 --> 00:57:14,480
my number one is January, which makes sense because I

1215
00:57:14,519 --> 00:57:17,480
was unemployed and have more time and also reached.

1216
00:57:17,280 --> 00:57:22,599
Speaker 2: January was my the January and June.

1217
00:57:23,639 --> 00:57:26,440
Speaker 1: Uh, three percent of this year's playtime was in June

1218
00:57:27,079 --> 00:57:29,960
and four percent of this year's playtime was in January.

1219
00:57:30,280 --> 00:57:32,440
I might have been playing on other platforms and stuff

1220
00:57:32,519 --> 00:57:33,280
during those months.

1221
00:57:33,360 --> 00:57:35,519
Speaker 4: Or actually those are those high for you, Alex?

1222
00:57:35,599 --> 00:57:37,320
Speaker 2: Or is that those are my lows?

1223
00:57:38,039 --> 00:57:38,599
Speaker 4: Okay?

1224
00:57:38,920 --> 00:57:40,880
Speaker 3: Yeah? Oh you know what I just in June, I

1225
00:57:40,960 --> 00:57:43,559
just realized that most of my January playtime was not

1226
00:57:43,639 --> 00:57:45,599
Route traf. I forgot. I didn't play Route Trees until

1227
00:57:45,599 --> 00:57:48,760
early March. So like it was Lorale, it was. It

1228
00:57:48,800 --> 00:57:51,880
was the carryover of Lowerlei and then Nine Souls and

1229
00:57:51,880 --> 00:57:53,599
then also you know Yu gi Oh's and all of

1230
00:57:53,639 --> 00:57:56,800
these and then but yeah, my second most is actually

1231
00:57:56,800 --> 00:58:04,239
October because of Yugio Masterdool and then also let's see Possessions,

1232
00:58:04,239 --> 00:58:06,079
which I have to play for review, and also a

1233
00:58:06,079 --> 00:58:09,320
lot of Mugenics because I was playing a build of

1234
00:58:09,320 --> 00:58:12,719
that game for the big feature radio of Eugenics. Yeah

1235
00:58:12,760 --> 00:58:17,159
and yeah, and that build was more or less like

1236
00:58:17,199 --> 00:58:19,119
I think Edmund McMillan's tim He's like, this is more

1237
00:58:19,199 --> 00:58:20,920
or less the finished game because they're just in the

1238
00:58:20,920 --> 00:58:23,159
polishing phase at this point, so I could there's a

1239
00:58:23,239 --> 00:58:26,280
lot of game in that. And then my third most

1240
00:58:26,320 --> 00:58:29,159
played month is March, which had root trees taking up

1241
00:58:29,159 --> 00:58:31,760
the bulk of it, and then like inder lilies and stuff.

1242
00:58:33,280 --> 00:58:36,559
But yeah, and like I said, everything was like, yeah,

1243
00:58:36,559 --> 00:58:40,199
you play a lot with a controller, you weak PC person.

1244
00:58:41,360 --> 00:58:44,559
Speaker 1: You said your longest streak was how many days eighteen eighteen?

1245
00:58:44,639 --> 00:58:45,079
Speaker 3: Baby?

1246
00:58:45,480 --> 00:58:46,920
Speaker 2: Which games were in that?

1247
00:58:47,079 --> 00:58:48,039
Speaker 3: How do I see that?

1248
00:58:48,079 --> 00:58:49,920
Speaker 2: Do you have to click into it or if you

1249
00:58:50,000 --> 00:58:50,880
keep scrolling down?

1250
00:58:51,599 --> 00:58:56,320
Speaker 3: Okay at the bottom, yeah, oh here it is okay,

1251
00:58:56,360 --> 00:58:59,360
so long as daily three eighteen. So for from Tuesday

1252
00:58:59,400 --> 00:59:02,239
March eleven to Saturday, March ninth, and I played five

1253
00:59:02,280 --> 00:59:06,719
different games. They were Yugio Master Duel Spilled, which is

1254
00:59:06,719 --> 00:59:09,960
a really fun, cool little way in the game. Recommend

1255
00:59:10,360 --> 00:59:14,159
Intero Magnolia the Root Trees are Dead. And the demo

1256
00:59:14,480 --> 00:59:20,360
for Once Upon the Puppet It was like a puppet

1257
00:59:21,000 --> 00:59:23,039
puppet platform and it kind of reminded me a lot

1258
00:59:23,079 --> 00:59:26,519
of Do you guys remember Puppeteer for PS three? Remember

1259
00:59:26,519 --> 00:59:28,480
that game? I think it was I think it was

1260
00:59:28,519 --> 00:59:31,440
Japan's studio that made it. It had like kind of

1261
00:59:31,440 --> 00:59:34,800
that vibe a little bit aesthetically at least. But yeah,

1262
00:59:34,800 --> 00:59:36,760
I played a demo for that, I believe, actually, I

1263
00:59:36,800 --> 00:59:39,360
think because that was when we were just starting to

1264
00:59:39,360 --> 00:59:42,559
start back up, and I think our pr sent me

1265
00:59:42,599 --> 00:59:45,440
a bill to my personal email just to be hey,

1266
00:59:45,480 --> 00:59:47,679
you want to check it out? So yeah, I actually

1267
00:59:47,679 --> 00:59:48,960
forgot about it until I saw it here.

1268
00:59:49,000 --> 00:59:53,760
Speaker 2: But yeah, well cool, that's fun. I like that. So

1269
00:59:54,559 --> 00:59:55,480
we got to go through that.

1270
00:59:55,599 --> 00:59:56,800
Speaker 3: So who's the best them? Gamer?

1271
00:59:56,840 --> 00:59:57,000
Speaker 2: Is it?

1272
00:59:57,079 --> 00:59:58,440
Speaker 3: Is it you? Alex? Are you the best?

1273
00:59:58,559 --> 01:00:00,719
Speaker 1: I don't know, Marcus, I feel like you are you

1274
01:00:00,719 --> 01:00:04,199
the steamiest. Maybe I'm the steamiest, but.

1275
01:00:04,719 --> 01:00:06,519
Speaker 4: I'm glad I'm not the steamiest. I don't like that.

1276
01:00:06,599 --> 01:00:09,039
That's that's I just do for us it.

1277
01:00:09,559 --> 01:00:12,119
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'll take that. I'll take the steamiest award.

1278
01:00:12,679 --> 01:00:15,000
That's fine by me. I can hold that badge. I

1279
01:00:15,000 --> 01:00:18,239
can wear it well. Before we take an ad break

1280
01:00:18,280 --> 01:00:21,400
and get into our Midnight World of Warcraft Midnight cover story,

1281
01:00:21,679 --> 01:00:23,519
I do want to toss to you Charles, to chat

1282
01:00:23,559 --> 01:00:27,639
about two games. Even playing two recent games, death Howl

1283
01:00:27,880 --> 01:00:28,760
and Donk Pile.

1284
01:00:31,079 --> 01:00:34,199
Speaker 3: They sound like they're the same games. They sound vaguely,

1285
01:00:35,199 --> 01:00:36,719
they're so different.

1286
01:00:37,920 --> 01:00:41,719
Speaker 4: It's hilarious different there. So death Howl is interesting. I'm

1287
01:00:41,719 --> 01:00:44,599
reviewing it. It's taking forever because it's a big game,

1288
01:00:44,639 --> 01:00:46,559
and that's fine. It was kind of a last minute

1289
01:00:47,719 --> 01:00:51,320
agreeing to do. But I if I had a one

1290
01:00:51,440 --> 01:00:54,159
pager for every time I started reviewing a game and

1291
01:00:54,199 --> 01:00:56,000
ended up being like forty hours long, I could write

1292
01:00:56,000 --> 01:00:59,800
a whole freaking issue game. I tell you, I'm thirty

1293
01:00:59,800 --> 01:01:03,159
hour is in right now. I have beaten three of

1294
01:01:03,199 --> 01:01:06,159
the four main areas. I'm like halfway through the fourth,

1295
01:01:06,159 --> 01:01:08,559
and then there's like a final kind of boss area,

1296
01:01:08,599 --> 01:01:13,159
I think. But it is a Soul's like deck builder,

1297
01:01:13,519 --> 01:01:15,800
so it is. It's not a roguelike deck builder. It's

1298
01:01:15,800 --> 01:01:18,440
a souls like deck builder, So there's like bonfires where

1299
01:01:18,440 --> 01:01:20,320
you heal and it's kind of like an open ish

1300
01:01:20,360 --> 01:01:24,039
world and the enemies will respawn at different places, and

1301
01:01:24,119 --> 01:01:27,039
it's hard and it's really it's like a very I

1302
01:01:27,119 --> 01:01:29,039
kind of didn't love it at first, and it grew

1303
01:01:29,079 --> 01:01:30,400
on me a lot, which I think is a lot

1304
01:01:30,440 --> 01:01:32,280
of Souls games as you start out and you're like,

1305
01:01:32,280 --> 01:01:34,239
this is so hard that it's mean, and then eventually

1306
01:01:34,280 --> 01:01:36,679
you like it clicks for you and it starts getting

1307
01:01:36,880 --> 01:01:38,599
I don't know better. That's kind of my arc with

1308
01:01:38,719 --> 01:01:42,880
a lot of really hard games. But it's like a

1309
01:01:42,920 --> 01:01:45,800
grid based combat and you have a deck of cards

1310
01:01:45,880 --> 01:01:49,599
that changes over time, and the whole main mechanic is

1311
01:01:49,639 --> 01:01:52,239
that each card has like a realm, so there's different

1312
01:01:52,239 --> 01:01:55,079
parts of the spirit world that you're exploring and cards

1313
01:01:55,079 --> 01:01:57,760
are tied to certain realms, and depending on what realm

1314
01:01:57,800 --> 01:02:02,079
you're in, those cars will be like normal cost or more.

1315
01:02:02,559 --> 01:02:02,760
Speaker 3: So.

1316
01:02:02,920 --> 01:02:05,039
Speaker 4: There's like realmless cards, which are like your base cards

1317
01:02:05,039 --> 01:02:07,559
that any deck can use, but depending on where you are,

1318
01:02:07,599 --> 01:02:10,000
it'll kind of lock you into certain play styles and

1319
01:02:10,039 --> 01:02:12,639
like certain cards, you can unlock an upgrade if you're

1320
01:02:12,719 --> 01:02:14,719
using a realm of a card in a different realm,

1321
01:02:14,760 --> 01:02:18,039
it costs one more, which is like prohibitively expensive. Most

1322
01:02:18,079 --> 01:02:19,559
of the time, there's like no reason to use a

1323
01:02:19,599 --> 01:02:22,239
card not the realm. So it's it's a fun game

1324
01:02:22,320 --> 01:02:24,000
in that, like I've been playing it for this long,

1325
01:02:24,039 --> 01:02:25,559
but it still kind of feels fresh because every time

1326
01:02:25,559 --> 01:02:28,280
you start in a new area, it's like, well, this area,

1327
01:02:28,440 --> 01:02:30,599
all the cards are built around block, so you'll get

1328
01:02:30,599 --> 01:02:32,440
a lot of block and that'll make this do more

1329
01:02:32,480 --> 01:02:35,400
damage and they'll make this cost less or whatever. My

1330
01:02:35,480 --> 01:02:37,800
favorite area was based on like movement, so it's like

1331
01:02:37,840 --> 01:02:40,239
the more that you moved on the grid, which usually

1332
01:02:40,280 --> 01:02:42,400
takes up like when your action points, the more like

1333
01:02:42,480 --> 01:02:45,400
damage you'll do or the more things will cost less. Yeah,

1334
01:02:45,440 --> 01:02:47,800
And it's just really it's a really fun arc to

1335
01:02:47,880 --> 01:02:49,440
start out and be like, oh, I just have like

1336
01:02:49,480 --> 01:02:52,199
my plane cards again, that's annoying. And then as you

1337
01:02:52,280 --> 01:02:55,199
slowly unlock new cards, you like literally build a new

1338
01:02:55,239 --> 01:02:57,840
deck in the way that you like, and so I

1339
01:02:57,960 --> 01:03:02,840
enjoy that. Like loop Esthetically, it has like a very

1340
01:03:03,039 --> 01:03:05,960
very specific atmosphere. It's like pixelated. I think I want

1341
01:03:06,000 --> 01:03:09,639
to say it takes place in like h this is

1342
01:03:09,760 --> 01:03:17,000
like kind of caveman Ish times and it's a Danish developer,

1343
01:03:18,639 --> 01:03:21,599
so it's this like old European kind of folk tale style,

1344
01:03:21,880 --> 01:03:24,440
and you're playing as a mother who's like chased her

1345
01:03:24,519 --> 01:03:28,000
son into the after life because I presumably he died

1346
01:03:28,239 --> 01:03:31,360
or he's gone into this spirit world. She's trying to

1347
01:03:31,360 --> 01:03:35,079
get him back. So it's a story about grief. She

1348
01:03:35,199 --> 01:03:37,079
interacts with a lot of these like big, larger than

1349
01:03:37,119 --> 01:03:39,719
life spirits and kind of like learns life lessons, but

1350
01:03:39,760 --> 01:03:42,760
she's very angry and upset. And then just the fact

1351
01:03:42,800 --> 01:03:44,559
that the combat is so hard kind of like fits

1352
01:03:44,559 --> 01:03:48,920
into the whole vibe of everything. But yeah, and it's

1353
01:03:48,920 --> 01:03:52,440
a game that it's called death Howl because when you

1354
01:03:52,480 --> 01:03:54,440
kill someone, you get a death howel it's essentially the

1355
01:03:54,440 --> 01:03:56,400
same way as naming the game Dark Souls, because you

1356
01:03:56,480 --> 01:04:00,440
kill someone, you get souls. But you spend death howls

1357
01:04:00,480 --> 01:04:02,920
either to like level up your main experience, which you

1358
01:04:02,920 --> 01:04:06,360
can get you likabilities, and that's also locked to the

1359
01:04:06,400 --> 01:04:13,920
specific realms. So in the movement one, for example, if

1360
01:04:13,920 --> 01:04:15,920
you use up enough stuff, you can unlock a like

1361
01:04:16,000 --> 01:04:18,239
a meter to fill up that does a bunch of damage,

1362
01:04:18,280 --> 01:04:20,639
and like a T shape that goes up from your

1363
01:04:20,719 --> 01:04:23,039
character versus another one might give you more like man,

1364
01:04:23,159 --> 01:04:26,079
another one might give you more help, et cetera. Sure, yeah,

1365
01:04:26,559 --> 01:04:28,400
So there is an element that's nice and that is

1366
01:04:28,480 --> 01:04:31,199
like a dark soul's which as hard as dark souls is,

1367
01:04:32,119 --> 01:04:34,159
one of the nice things about like an RPG that's

1368
01:04:34,199 --> 01:04:35,800
being a soul's like is if you're ever having too

1369
01:04:35,840 --> 01:04:38,480
much trouble, you can stop fighting that boss and go

1370
01:04:38,559 --> 01:04:40,760
grind on some enemies and like level up a bit,

1371
01:04:40,840 --> 01:04:42,599
make yourself do more damage, get more health than.

1372
01:04:42,599 --> 01:04:44,679
Speaker 3: Also, I'm going to change your phrasing. You want to

1373
01:04:44,719 --> 01:04:46,960
go kill some enemies, not grind on them.

1374
01:04:47,320 --> 01:04:54,039
Speaker 4: Sure, grind by game. Yeah, in this game you can

1375
01:04:54,199 --> 01:04:56,360
do that. Also, if you're having a hard time in

1376
01:04:56,400 --> 01:04:58,920
a certain spot, it's like, stop doing that, go somewhere else,

1377
01:04:59,360 --> 01:05:01,559
level up more or unlock more cards, and you'll be

1378
01:05:01,639 --> 01:05:04,039
surprised by like how big of a difference it makes

1379
01:05:04,039 --> 01:05:08,000
when you have more like totems, which are like little

1380
01:05:08,840 --> 01:05:10,840
things you can equip that give you like passive abilities

1381
01:05:10,880 --> 01:05:15,440
and stuff. So it's like a big game. I think

1382
01:05:16,639 --> 01:05:20,440
it's definitely like it's such an annoying thing to say

1383
01:05:20,440 --> 01:05:22,239
this when you're reviewing games. Like, either you're gonna like

1384
01:05:22,239 --> 01:05:23,760
it or you're not gonna like it. But it is

1385
01:05:23,880 --> 01:05:25,480
very much that type of thing where it's like kind

1386
01:05:25,480 --> 01:05:28,039
of an acquired taste. It'll be too hard for some people,

1387
01:05:28,039 --> 01:05:30,199
but a lot of people really click with it. I'm

1388
01:05:30,280 --> 01:05:33,599
enjoying it, and I think it's definitely definitely worth checking out.

1389
01:05:33,639 --> 01:05:35,320
It came out like two weeks ago. I believe it's

1390
01:05:35,360 --> 01:05:38,800
on game Pass, So if you're interested in playing it,

1391
01:05:39,960 --> 01:05:40,760
I would recommend it.

1392
01:05:40,880 --> 01:05:44,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is the Outer Zone. Who did the last

1393
01:05:44,360 --> 01:05:47,800
game before this was Taught or Scanners? Mind Scanners?

1394
01:05:48,360 --> 01:05:49,960
Speaker 2: What? I haven't heard of that.

1395
01:05:51,960 --> 01:05:54,800
Speaker 3: Twenty one game. I never played it, but I remember

1396
01:05:55,199 --> 01:05:58,639
I remember. Yeah, look, it's got a similar art direction,

1397
01:05:58,719 --> 01:05:59,599
but more sci fi.

1398
01:06:00,440 --> 01:06:02,119
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, yeah tracks.

1399
01:06:02,639 --> 01:06:03,960
Speaker 2: I really do like the pixel art.

1400
01:06:05,280 --> 01:06:08,920
Speaker 4: It's beautiful, and the music is good. It's very very vibe.

1401
01:06:08,960 --> 01:06:12,559
But it's also a good game to like. Like I

1402
01:06:12,559 --> 01:06:14,000
I've for a lot of my playtime, I'll have it

1403
01:06:14,079 --> 01:06:15,960
muted and I'll have like I'm watching something on the

1404
01:06:16,000 --> 01:06:17,920
other monitor, like it's something to just kind of like

1405
01:06:18,440 --> 01:06:20,199
take up time and play, and I kind.

1406
01:06:20,079 --> 01:06:20,639
Speaker 3: Of just like that.

1407
01:06:20,719 --> 01:06:22,599
Speaker 4: It's just a big long adventure. You can kind of

1408
01:06:22,639 --> 01:06:23,440
sit through for a while.

1409
01:06:25,000 --> 01:06:25,199
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1410
01:06:25,840 --> 01:06:26,760
Speaker 2: Hell yeah.

1411
01:06:26,840 --> 01:06:30,159
Speaker 4: The other game I've been playing it is called dog Pile,

1412
01:06:30,880 --> 01:06:32,000
so different.

1413
01:06:33,719 --> 01:06:34,280
Speaker 2: It was.

1414
01:06:34,679 --> 01:06:36,480
Speaker 4: I don't know if it was revealed during Day of devs.

1415
01:06:36,519 --> 01:06:38,639
I believe it was, but it was also shadow dropped

1416
01:06:38,679 --> 01:06:40,519
during day of the devs. It was a game that

1417
01:06:40,559 --> 01:06:44,880
like came out very suddenly made by the developers of Gubbins.

1418
01:06:46,480 --> 01:06:46,719
Speaker 1: Game.

1419
01:06:47,320 --> 01:06:50,639
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then they're partner with another developer and they've

1420
01:06:50,679 --> 01:06:55,519
like they portmanteaud their two developers to be called foot Games.

1421
01:06:55,679 --> 01:06:56,519
I can't remember what.

1422
01:06:56,480 --> 01:06:59,559
Speaker 3: Like the two. I think one of the most games

1423
01:06:59,800 --> 01:07:02,400
or foot games is the combination.

1424
01:07:02,119 --> 01:07:04,679
Speaker 4: Foot is the Portmanteau. Yeah, that's when they combined.

1425
01:07:04,760 --> 01:07:06,519
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1426
01:07:06,599 --> 01:07:09,320
Speaker 4: Anyways, this is a if you've played like sweek a game,

1427
01:07:09,360 --> 01:07:12,480
which was like a big popular game last year. Yeah,

1428
01:07:12,599 --> 01:07:14,480
just one of those games where you're just dropping stuff.

1429
01:07:14,840 --> 01:07:17,800
Dogpile is sweek a game, except it has like roguelike

1430
01:07:17,920 --> 01:07:18,960
cards system.

1431
01:07:19,159 --> 01:07:23,519
Speaker 1: So that's what makes it interesting to me. So what

1432
01:07:23,519 --> 01:07:25,400
does that look like that combination?

1433
01:07:26,480 --> 01:07:28,639
Speaker 4: You start off and you have a deck of cards,

1434
01:07:28,800 --> 01:07:31,440
and your base cards they're like numbered the way that

1435
01:07:31,480 --> 01:07:33,840
like playing cards are. So it's aces are low of

1436
01:07:33,880 --> 01:07:36,280
ace two, three, four, et cetera. Combine two aces, it

1437
01:07:36,280 --> 01:07:37,760
gets to two combined two as you get a three,

1438
01:07:38,039 --> 01:07:40,360
And all these numbers are represented as dogs, so like

1439
01:07:40,400 --> 01:07:44,360
an ace is a little chihuahuah that's all balled up, okay,

1440
01:07:45,079 --> 01:07:47,559
and I think a two is like a fluffy Pomeranian

1441
01:07:47,559 --> 01:07:51,119
that type of thing. So that's the basic game plays.

1442
01:07:51,159 --> 01:07:53,639
You're combining them. But then also as you're going along,

1443
01:07:54,599 --> 01:07:58,719
you're adding like modifiers to your cards. So like Barkie

1444
01:07:58,880 --> 01:08:01,000
would be one that like makes dog bark and they

1445
01:08:01,039 --> 01:08:03,960
will like bark and all the dogs around them will

1446
01:08:03,960 --> 01:08:06,800
be like repelled backwards. So sometimes it's cool to like

1447
01:08:06,880 --> 01:08:08,800
drop a barkie dog in the middle of something where

1448
01:08:08,800 --> 01:08:11,320
you don't make space, yeah, and it'll will kind of

1449
01:08:11,320 --> 01:08:12,039
like shuffle them.

1450
01:08:11,960 --> 01:08:14,400
Speaker 2: All around, ah okay, yeah.

1451
01:08:14,239 --> 01:08:15,599
Speaker 4: And then it'll just be good. It's just good to

1452
01:08:15,639 --> 01:08:17,159
get kind of movement. And then they'll have they can

1453
01:08:17,199 --> 01:08:19,279
have negative traits, so there's one where it's created where

1454
01:08:19,279 --> 01:08:21,199
they'll kind of be covered in like a blue ring,

1455
01:08:21,520 --> 01:08:24,039
and then it can't bond with other dogs, even if

1456
01:08:24,039 --> 01:08:27,239
they're the same number, until like a certain number rounds passes.

1457
01:08:27,520 --> 01:08:28,000
Speaker 2: That's sad.

1458
01:08:29,159 --> 01:08:33,000
Speaker 4: It is sad. And then the farther you go. The

1459
01:08:33,279 --> 01:08:36,079
goal is that whenever you bond two dogs, you get bones,

1460
01:08:36,239 --> 01:08:38,439
which is just kind of like experience, and you just

1461
01:08:38,479 --> 01:08:40,760
have different milestones of how many bones you need to

1462
01:08:41,279 --> 01:08:44,000
get in order to progress further. So at first it's like,

1463
01:08:44,359 --> 01:08:46,439
get like a hundred bones, and that's pretty easy, and

1464
01:08:46,439 --> 01:08:48,760
then it gets higher and higher and just demands you

1465
01:08:48,800 --> 01:08:52,199
to make bigger matches with dogs, until eventually it fills

1466
01:08:52,279 --> 01:08:53,920
up too high and you can't match them anymore, and

1467
01:08:53,960 --> 01:08:57,880
then you have to restart. Pretty simple game. I think

1468
01:08:57,880 --> 01:08:59,399
it's just on Steam right now, but it's the kind

1469
01:08:59,399 --> 01:09:00,800
of thing that I really wish it was a mobile

1470
01:09:00,800 --> 01:09:05,720
game because it worked really well on mobiles.

1471
01:09:05,800 --> 01:09:06,439
Speaker 3: The closest thing.

1472
01:09:07,279 --> 01:09:09,159
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, and this is when I've just been

1473
01:09:09,199 --> 01:09:13,520
playing on desktop. But yeah, it's it's like super chill,

1474
01:09:13,560 --> 01:09:16,560
super casual game. I showed. I showed it the the

1475
01:09:16,920 --> 01:09:18,479
It was breaking the rules, but it was fine. I

1476
01:09:18,520 --> 01:09:21,359
showed a list of my fiance the pre brief trailer

1477
01:09:21,479 --> 01:09:22,279
for dog Pile.

1478
01:09:23,159 --> 01:09:26,359
Speaker 2: You showed your fiance a pre briefed, embargoed trailer.

1479
01:09:26,640 --> 01:09:28,399
Speaker 4: I did because I knew she would like it and

1480
01:09:28,399 --> 01:09:33,640
you should, I'll have your job. But she was like

1481
01:09:34,359 --> 01:09:35,880
and it's out today. And I was like, well, it's

1482
01:09:35,880 --> 01:09:38,359
not out today, it'll be out when the thing comes out.

1483
01:09:38,399 --> 01:09:40,720
And she was like oh yeah, and she was like devastated.

1484
01:09:40,920 --> 01:09:43,720
She really wanted to play it. Day it came out,

1485
01:09:43,800 --> 01:09:45,640
I posted about I did like a whole round up

1486
01:09:45,640 --> 01:09:47,520
of things, and I said, like, this game looks really

1487
01:09:47,560 --> 01:09:49,680
good and I want to play it. Dog Pile PR

1488
01:09:49,760 --> 01:09:51,760
reached out to me and they were like, hey, we're

1489
01:09:51,840 --> 01:09:53,640
glad that you were interested in the game. Here's a

1490
01:09:53,640 --> 01:09:55,920
code for it. And I was like, oh awesome. And

1491
01:09:56,000 --> 01:09:58,119
I was like, and while I have you just as

1492
01:09:58,159 --> 01:10:00,079
a funny story, because you know, developers like it with

1493
01:10:00,119 --> 01:10:02,119
people like their games. I showed the trailer to my

1494
01:10:02,199 --> 01:10:04,359
partner and she was really excited about it, but she

1495
01:10:04,399 --> 01:10:06,199
was mad that she can play it. And then they

1496
01:10:06,199 --> 01:10:07,439
sent her a code.

1497
01:10:07,680 --> 01:10:09,359
Speaker 2: I was like, Oh, they're going to say they canceled

1498
01:10:09,359 --> 01:10:12,079
your your Steam code. They're like that's not allowed.

1499
01:10:12,479 --> 01:10:12,800
Speaker 3: Allowed.

1500
01:10:13,000 --> 01:10:15,079
Speaker 4: No, they were like they're like, oh, that's so glad

1501
01:10:15,079 --> 01:10:16,760
that she wants to here's a code for her. Also,

1502
01:10:16,920 --> 01:10:21,039
so we have matching Dogpile codes. Yeah, so shout out

1503
01:10:21,039 --> 01:10:22,800
to that PR company. But also the game is good

1504
01:10:23,159 --> 01:10:24,760
and worth checking. Out. I think it's like ten bucks

1505
01:10:24,760 --> 01:10:25,399
on Steam right now.

1506
01:10:25,399 --> 01:10:27,840
Speaker 3: Not even that it's actually hours on sale currently for

1507
01:10:27,880 --> 01:10:29,560
the I get, I assume for the winter sale, it's

1508
01:10:29,560 --> 01:10:31,439
only seven dollars six nine nine.

1509
01:10:31,520 --> 01:10:31,880
Speaker 4: Oh heck.

1510
01:10:31,960 --> 01:10:35,479
Speaker 3: Yeah. I like the art style. It's got a very

1511
01:10:35,560 --> 01:10:40,039
like twenty tens Cartoon Network vibe. Yeah, it seems like, yeah,

1512
01:10:40,159 --> 01:10:41,920
like it's like in the vein of something like an

1513
01:10:41,960 --> 01:10:44,920
Adventure time or like an Uncle Grandpa. It would have

1514
01:10:44,920 --> 01:10:46,239
come out in between those two.

1515
01:10:47,159 --> 01:10:48,960
Speaker 4: Yeah, kind of annle that'll that'll pull out of people.

1516
01:10:49,079 --> 01:10:51,159
It's kind of kind of an Uncle Grandpa aesthetic.

1517
01:10:51,439 --> 01:10:53,359
Speaker 3: Everybody does a Cartoon Network show.

1518
01:10:54,119 --> 01:10:56,039
Speaker 4: It has a lot of You can go into the

1519
01:10:56,039 --> 01:10:58,199
settings and change like the color pallet of the background

1520
01:10:58,199 --> 01:10:59,640
if you want to. So I have mine on kind

1521
01:10:59,640 --> 01:11:02,800
of like a ink bubblegum pop kind of vibe. You cool,

1522
01:11:03,000 --> 01:11:06,159
change change it to just match your aesthetic. It's just fun.

1523
01:11:06,760 --> 01:11:07,319
Speaker 2: That rules.

1524
01:11:08,159 --> 01:11:10,479
Speaker 1: Well, we're going to take a quick ad break and

1525
01:11:10,520 --> 01:11:12,319
then we're going to come back and chat through our

1526
01:11:12,680 --> 01:11:15,680
cover story trip for World of Warcraft midnight, and then

1527
01:11:15,720 --> 01:11:18,359
we'll be out of here. So we'll be right back

1528
01:11:18,560 --> 01:11:21,439
right after this. Welcome back to the Game Informer show

1529
01:11:21,880 --> 01:11:25,640
it's time to dive in to our World of Warcraft

1530
01:11:25,880 --> 01:11:32,239
cover story that I wrote. Charles and I visited Blizzard

1531
01:11:32,880 --> 01:11:37,520
in early to mid November and we were there for

1532
01:11:37,560 --> 01:11:42,439
a couple of days. Charles wrote a really great retrospective

1533
01:11:42,880 --> 01:11:46,159
that if you are you haven't played well before, and

1534
01:11:46,199 --> 01:11:50,000
you're you know, you're interested because of this this cover story,

1535
01:11:51,039 --> 01:11:54,319
you know there's a great that's a great primer for like,

1536
01:11:55,000 --> 01:11:56,960
here's what's been up with this game for the last

1537
01:11:56,960 --> 01:12:01,039
twenty one years. And so then that goes into my

1538
01:12:01,119 --> 01:12:05,720
twelve page cover story, which is about the new expansion

1539
01:12:05,720 --> 01:12:10,319
that's coming out March second. But I think point being

1540
01:12:10,399 --> 01:12:13,680
like now is a great time to get into Wow.

1541
01:12:14,760 --> 01:12:19,000
Even though this is the second game in a trilogy

1542
01:12:19,279 --> 01:12:22,560
for Wow. Wow is currently in the world Soul Saga,

1543
01:12:23,000 --> 01:12:27,159
which is a trilogy of three expansions, the War within Midnight,

1544
01:12:27,319 --> 01:12:29,479
which is what our cover story is about, and then

1545
01:12:29,520 --> 01:12:33,479
the Last Titan, and then Wow will still continue after

1546
01:12:33,520 --> 01:12:37,439
this trilogy concludes, but they're trying to tell stories over

1547
01:12:37,479 --> 01:12:40,760
three expansions. It gives them more breathing room for like

1548
01:12:40,880 --> 01:12:44,680
character development and kind of planning seeds and paying them

1549
01:12:44,680 --> 01:12:47,680
off later. It's it's it's working well so far. I

1550
01:12:47,720 --> 01:12:52,359
think the War Within was a great expansion. I actually

1551
01:12:52,439 --> 01:12:56,840
recently finished it myself and has probably my favorite ward

1552
01:12:56,840 --> 01:13:00,000
of Warcraft Zone in a very long time. And how

1553
01:13:00,039 --> 01:13:03,600
a Fall that place is awesome. But Midnight is kind

1554
01:13:03,600 --> 01:13:07,439
of the expansion is kind of like picking up mid Conflict.

1555
01:13:07,520 --> 01:13:12,920
There's like this really bad There's there's a villain named

1556
01:13:13,039 --> 01:13:20,960
Zalatat who actually players have known about for secretly for

1557
01:13:21,000 --> 01:13:24,760
like ten years now. It was a in the Legion expansion,

1558
01:13:24,760 --> 01:13:29,439
which came out in what twenty sixteen or so, I

1559
01:13:29,479 --> 01:13:32,239
don't quite remember. Let me look at Charles's retrospective.

1560
01:13:33,920 --> 01:13:36,760
Speaker 3: Charles, do you remember from writing a retrospective when Legion

1561
01:13:36,840 --> 01:13:37,159
came out?

1562
01:13:37,239 --> 01:13:43,159
Speaker 4: Trying to remember so lych King was twenty two thousand

1563
01:13:43,199 --> 01:13:45,520
and eight, twenty eight, and then twenty.

1564
01:13:45,359 --> 01:13:49,800
Speaker 1: Ten was like two years missing the panderia, So maybe

1565
01:13:49,840 --> 01:13:51,319
it was twenty fourteen Legion.

1566
01:13:52,199 --> 01:13:55,039
Speaker 4: That sounds right, Well, no, because there was Warlads a

1567
01:13:55,079 --> 01:13:56,640
Drainer in twenty fourteen, so no.

1568
01:13:56,720 --> 01:14:00,560
Speaker 1: Shoot, you're right, yeah, okay, yeah, I've been I've I've

1569
01:14:00,560 --> 01:14:04,960
retained it. You have it an elaborate test impromptu gi

1570
01:14:05,079 --> 01:14:06,640
auto know, Okay, I was right.

1571
01:14:06,640 --> 01:14:07,560
Speaker 2: It was twenty sixteen.

1572
01:14:07,680 --> 01:14:11,359
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's just so there's a lot of expansions. But

1573
01:14:11,520 --> 01:14:14,079
this this bad guy, it was actually a weapon, was

1574
01:14:14,079 --> 01:14:18,319
trapped inside of a weapon that priest players used during

1575
01:14:18,359 --> 01:14:21,800
the events of that expansion. Now a decade later, what

1576
01:14:21,880 --> 01:14:23,920
kind of that bad guy's been released? It was a

1577
01:14:24,000 --> 01:14:26,960
dagger called Zalatat and it would actually speak to you,

1578
01:14:27,039 --> 01:14:29,039
like you could tell there was something trapped inside of it.

1579
01:14:29,600 --> 01:14:33,800
And now ten years later that that that villain is

1580
01:14:33,880 --> 01:14:36,960
like in human form and is like, you know, trying

1581
01:14:36,960 --> 01:14:38,399
to do a lot of bad things and it's up

1582
01:14:38,439 --> 01:14:41,920
to the heroes of Azrath to beat them. But in

1583
01:14:41,960 --> 01:14:46,800
many ways, this expansion is re is analyzing a lot

1584
01:14:46,800 --> 01:14:49,920
of long held systems in the game, simplifying a lot

1585
01:14:49,960 --> 01:14:54,279
of things, reworking mini systems, as well as introducing big

1586
01:14:54,319 --> 01:14:59,359
features like player housing, which has been a long requested

1587
01:14:59,359 --> 01:15:04,960
feature and is really kind of a brand new reward.

1588
01:15:04,520 --> 01:15:07,600
Speaker 2: Vector for players.

1589
01:15:07,640 --> 01:15:11,199
Speaker 1: It is, and it's also reinvigorating old content. And so

1590
01:15:11,920 --> 01:15:14,119
let's say you you get a house, which is very

1591
01:15:14,319 --> 01:15:17,359
simple and wow. Now and if you it's like this

1592
01:15:17,439 --> 01:15:20,800
feature is out already. So if you pre ordered Midnight,

1593
01:15:20,880 --> 01:15:24,399
you have access early access to housing, and so I've

1594
01:15:24,479 --> 01:15:29,479
done that. I've I've been working on my house. And

1595
01:15:29,760 --> 01:15:31,520
in order to like craft equipment and stuff, you have

1596
01:15:31,600 --> 01:15:35,560
to use professions. And they're like kind of reinvigorating a

1597
01:15:35,600 --> 01:15:38,800
lot of old professions that have long been dormant because

1598
01:15:39,159 --> 01:15:41,640
you know, they're tied to old expansions that aren't really

1599
01:15:41,680 --> 01:15:44,760
relevant power level wise anymore. You're not really going back

1600
01:15:45,439 --> 01:15:48,920
and using those professions when the new expansion is where

1601
01:15:48,920 --> 01:15:51,279
you get all the gear that you actually need for

1602
01:15:51,399 --> 01:15:54,359
current stuff. And so this is a really clever way

1603
01:15:54,439 --> 01:15:58,920
I thought for them to kind of, you know, give

1604
01:15:58,960 --> 01:16:01,359
incentive to go and check out those old zones, those

1605
01:16:01,359 --> 01:16:05,880
old professions, and you can like make furniture with them,

1606
01:16:05,920 --> 01:16:08,680
and you can make furniture and sell it to other players.

1607
01:16:09,039 --> 01:16:10,199
Speaker 2: It's a really cool system.

1608
01:16:10,800 --> 01:16:15,239
Speaker 1: And housing furniture housing decor is what like it's actually called.

1609
01:16:15,800 --> 01:16:15,880
Speaker 3: Uh.

1610
01:16:16,039 --> 01:16:17,319
Speaker 2: You get those.

1611
01:16:17,119 --> 01:16:21,640
Speaker 1: Rewards via quests and dungeons and raids and all sorts

1612
01:16:21,640 --> 01:16:23,039
of So that's why what I mean when I say

1613
01:16:23,039 --> 01:16:26,079
it's like a new reward vector in the way that like, oh,

1614
01:16:26,239 --> 01:16:29,199
gold is a reward vector, Like I get gold from

1615
01:16:29,239 --> 01:16:32,239
doing this and that and this and that, and housing

1616
01:16:32,279 --> 01:16:35,800
decor is like a new kind of wide ranging universal

1617
01:16:35,840 --> 01:16:38,760
reward that you see and all sorts of content and

1618
01:16:38,760 --> 01:16:42,640
it's really exciting and it's a great housing.

1619
01:16:43,119 --> 01:16:45,880
Speaker 3: As someone that has never played Wow, excuse me if

1620
01:16:45,880 --> 01:16:47,760
I'm gonna ask a dumb question, but housing, that's like

1621
01:16:47,800 --> 01:16:49,319
I've never been in a game until now.

1622
01:16:50,199 --> 01:16:50,560
Speaker 2: Correct.

1623
01:16:50,680 --> 01:16:52,439
Speaker 3: Yep, that's kind of surprising to me. I don't know

1624
01:16:52,479 --> 01:16:54,439
what I think of just what Wow is and how

1625
01:16:54,439 --> 01:16:56,079
long it's been around. That sounds like something that would

1626
01:16:56,079 --> 01:16:56,840
have already happened.

1627
01:16:57,520 --> 01:17:02,600
Speaker 4: Yeah, I had what would they call North uh Strong.

1628
01:17:02,680 --> 01:17:06,399
Speaker 1: Yeah, there was like a whole base building sort of.

1629
01:17:07,680 --> 01:17:09,239
Speaker 2: It was not very well implemented.

1630
01:17:09,640 --> 01:17:11,279
Speaker 4: It's not the same thing at all, but I think

1631
01:17:11,319 --> 01:17:14,159
that would be like in there in someone's head, they

1632
01:17:14,319 --> 01:17:16,800
maybe were like, this is the finally we're getting houses

1633
01:17:16,840 --> 01:17:18,319
in Wow. And it was that which was kind of

1634
01:17:18,359 --> 01:17:21,520
a disappointing feature. So now years later they're like, let's

1635
01:17:21,600 --> 01:17:22,880
let's make it good.

1636
01:17:23,039 --> 01:17:26,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, And these are like in instance, neighborhoods where like

1637
01:17:26,760 --> 01:17:29,000
your neighbor will always be your neighbor unless one of

1638
01:17:29,039 --> 01:17:31,319
you decides to leave the neighborhood and go to a

1639
01:17:31,319 --> 01:17:32,039
different one.

1640
01:17:32,960 --> 01:17:34,560
Speaker 2: It's a very cool system.

1641
01:17:34,680 --> 01:17:39,720
Speaker 3: Or other players your neighbors. Yes, that's Steve Money.

1642
01:17:39,800 --> 01:17:43,800
Speaker 1: Yes, So each neighborhood has fifty five housing plots on it,

1643
01:17:45,039 --> 01:17:47,199
and so you could do a private neighborhood where.

1644
01:17:47,119 --> 01:17:48,880
Speaker 3: It's you and your friends, data community.

1645
01:17:48,920 --> 01:17:51,479
Speaker 1: You could, Yeah, you could do a guild one. I'm

1646
01:17:51,520 --> 01:17:55,000
in a guild uh neighborhood, and so a lot of

1647
01:17:55,000 --> 01:18:01,439
my guild mates Red Valentine for instance, is and Mick

1648
01:18:01,479 --> 01:18:03,279
Abrasom or two of my neighbors.

1649
01:18:04,279 --> 01:18:06,760
Speaker 3: You have to invite people into this, I assume, like.

1650
01:18:07,000 --> 01:18:09,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so it's more of a private neighborhood.

1651
01:18:13,560 --> 01:18:16,520
Speaker 4: You could theoretically for that.

1652
01:18:20,720 --> 01:18:24,159
Speaker 1: But yeah, player housing has been a really great success

1653
01:18:24,199 --> 01:18:26,560
so far. I've loved being on the reddit and just

1654
01:18:26,600 --> 01:18:32,239
seeing people share their creations. There's some wildly inspiring houses

1655
01:18:32,279 --> 01:18:36,840
that people have made already. But Midnight is also bringing,

1656
01:18:36,960 --> 01:18:42,439
you know, they're reinvigorating, reimagining the Blood Elf Homeland of.

1657
01:18:42,479 --> 01:18:43,279
Speaker 2: Kelp A Loss.

1658
01:18:43,920 --> 01:18:46,359
Speaker 1: It's uh, this was a zone that was made back

1659
01:18:46,399 --> 01:18:50,600
in uh the Burning Crusade in two thousand and six,

1660
01:18:53,119 --> 01:18:58,680
and it is now, you know what, nearly twenty years later.

1661
01:18:58,720 --> 01:19:02,760
They're coming back to it and they are redoing all

1662
01:19:02,800 --> 01:19:05,600
of it and reworking it and they're showing what has

1663
01:19:05,640 --> 01:19:08,880
this city looked like now that it has gotten more

1664
01:19:08,920 --> 01:19:12,840
resources and had the chance to heal, because part of

1665
01:19:12,840 --> 01:19:15,159
the story back in two thousand and six was this

1666
01:19:15,239 --> 01:19:18,680
is like a scarred land. The Lych king Arthurs had

1667
01:19:18,720 --> 01:19:22,720
previously invaded this area and so there was a lot

1668
01:19:22,720 --> 01:19:27,600
of like remnants of you know, like desolation and war.

1669
01:19:28,239 --> 01:19:30,960
And now what does this look like now that you know,

1670
01:19:31,560 --> 01:19:33,399
so many years have passed and it's had a chance

1671
01:19:33,439 --> 01:19:36,000
to heal. And it also is serving as the sort

1672
01:19:36,039 --> 01:19:42,000
of staging grounds for the kickoff of the Midnight expansion

1673
01:19:42,479 --> 01:19:46,680
because in Calthalas, Silverman City is the capital and it

1674
01:19:46,760 --> 01:19:50,000
is home to the sun Well, which is like a

1675
01:19:50,199 --> 01:19:54,960
very it's like a magical fount that essentially connects to

1676
01:19:55,279 --> 01:20:00,000
the primordial energy of Azarroth the planet, and that's like

1677
01:20:00,199 --> 01:20:03,239
a big subject of the War Within and the world

1678
01:20:03,399 --> 01:20:07,640
Soul saga. It's about Azarroth that has a soul essentially

1679
01:20:09,079 --> 01:20:13,119
and like it is it is kind of being, it's

1680
01:20:13,119 --> 01:20:16,760
in jeopardy, and so there's all there's a lot of

1681
01:20:16,760 --> 01:20:21,159
story about that. But this new reinvigorated zone is like

1682
01:20:21,279 --> 01:20:23,680
the subject of one of the main focuses of the

1683
01:20:23,720 --> 01:20:26,439
next expansion. So we got a really great uh, we've

1684
01:20:26,479 --> 01:20:30,239
got a really great insight into what the process was like.

1685
01:20:30,359 --> 01:20:32,920
You know, one of the interesting things that Maria Hamilton said,

1686
01:20:33,920 --> 01:20:37,600
who is in charge of content of Wow, so she's

1687
01:20:37,640 --> 01:20:40,199
in charge of the quest team, Uh, anything that kind

1688
01:20:40,199 --> 01:20:41,239
of like touches.

1689
01:20:41,000 --> 01:20:42,720
Speaker 2: The world of Wow.

1690
01:20:43,640 --> 01:20:47,479
Speaker 1: I talked to her and Gabriel Gonzalez, who is uh

1691
01:20:47,560 --> 01:20:50,039
leads the art team on Midnight.

1692
01:20:50,039 --> 01:20:50,439
Speaker 2: And.

1693
01:20:51,960 --> 01:20:55,000
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting they were Maria was saying, Yeah,

1694
01:20:55,039 --> 01:20:57,760
one thing one of the concerdnedation considerations we've had to

1695
01:20:57,800 --> 01:21:01,439
do and remaking the zone is, you know, our standards

1696
01:21:01,479 --> 01:21:05,039
for making environments has changed a lot in twenty years.

1697
01:21:05,039 --> 01:21:05,560
Speaker 2: As a team.

1698
01:21:06,079 --> 01:21:08,600
Speaker 1: You know where back in the old days, you would

1699
01:21:08,600 --> 01:21:11,000
have flat land and then it would essentially just butt

1700
01:21:11,079 --> 01:21:15,000
up to a mountain, and you know that was that

1701
01:21:15,159 --> 01:21:18,079
was the standard. But now we have internal procedures where like, no,

1702
01:21:18,159 --> 01:21:20,159
if we're going from flat ground to a mountain, we

1703
01:21:20,199 --> 01:21:23,279
need to have a series of hill foothills that naturally

1704
01:21:23,359 --> 01:21:25,920
lead up to the mountain. And like all of these

1705
01:21:26,079 --> 01:21:31,880
considerations to make it a more natural feeling location.

1706
01:21:32,279 --> 01:21:34,159
Speaker 2: I thought it was really interesting. So we have a

1707
01:21:34,199 --> 01:21:34,520
lot of.

1708
01:21:34,439 --> 01:21:37,000
Speaker 1: Insights into that and sort of what it was like

1709
01:21:37,119 --> 01:21:41,359
revisiting this old you know, but I would say beloved

1710
01:21:41,399 --> 01:21:45,920
location for Horde players and making it something where both

1711
01:21:45,960 --> 01:21:48,119
Hoard an Alliance players are going to go to at midnight.

1712
01:21:48,760 --> 01:21:53,600
We also chatted about new new class changes to like

1713
01:21:53,680 --> 01:21:57,439
the Demon Hunter and like the Devourer class, and just

1714
01:21:57,479 --> 01:22:02,520
like Blizzard's philosophy on like you know, in their in

1715
01:22:02,560 --> 01:22:05,479
their opinion of Paul Cubitt, who is their associate game director,

1716
01:22:05,760 --> 01:22:07,680
he's like, there's nothing more exciting that we can do

1717
01:22:08,560 --> 01:22:12,399
for World of Warcraft than to introduce new class fantasies,

1718
01:22:12,880 --> 01:22:17,680
whether that's through a rework or an additional specialization. People

1719
01:22:17,680 --> 01:22:21,720
have played Diablo, you know, it's similar to how like,

1720
01:22:22,560 --> 01:22:24,920
you know, a Diablo class you could be a Druid,

1721
01:22:24,960 --> 01:22:27,640
but you could specialize in you know, three or four

1722
01:22:27,640 --> 01:22:31,760
different sort of like build types like you don't you

1723
01:22:31,800 --> 01:22:33,800
could be a Druid that doesn't transform.

1724
01:22:33,359 --> 01:22:34,239
Speaker 2: Into a bear at all.

1725
01:22:34,840 --> 01:22:38,479
Speaker 1: In Diablo, you could just be yeah, right, you could

1726
01:22:38,479 --> 01:22:40,479
be somebody who's more of like you know, they summon

1727
01:22:40,560 --> 01:22:44,279
companions and they you they wield and morph the earth.

1728
01:22:45,239 --> 01:22:49,239
Similar concept in Wow, where you know, everyone can be

1729
01:22:49,279 --> 01:22:51,279
a mage if they want but are you going to

1730
01:22:51,279 --> 01:22:53,920
be a frost mage or fire mage an arcane mage?

1731
01:22:54,279 --> 01:22:58,800
And within those there are even other specializations and choices

1732
01:22:58,840 --> 01:23:00,800
you have to make within those like kind of make

1733
01:23:00,840 --> 01:23:06,399
the class and the character unique to you. And you

1734
01:23:06,439 --> 01:23:11,239
know they they are introducing another specialization to this demon

1735
01:23:11,279 --> 01:23:14,960
Hunter class and it's all about like you have this

1736
01:23:15,279 --> 01:23:18,439
uh scythe that you're kind of like jumping in and

1737
01:23:18,479 --> 01:23:21,239
out of melee combat with. So you're like jumping in,

1738
01:23:21,720 --> 01:23:27,439
cyfing people, jumping out, using like void abilities and it's

1739
01:23:27,439 --> 01:23:29,560
like this really dynamic class where you're like in and out,

1740
01:23:29,560 --> 01:23:32,039
in and out and like, uh, you know when you're

1741
01:23:32,079 --> 01:23:34,920
jumping in, you're using certain abilities to then trigger to

1742
01:23:35,039 --> 01:23:36,760
unlock other abilities in your rotation.

1743
01:23:37,560 --> 01:23:37,760
Speaker 2: Uh.

1744
01:23:38,000 --> 01:23:41,000
Speaker 1: Very like feels like very like combo heavy sort of

1745
01:23:42,359 --> 01:23:45,359
and seems really exciting. We gotta we got we talked

1746
01:23:45,359 --> 01:23:48,520
about you know, there's new Allied races coming. If you

1747
01:23:48,560 --> 01:23:50,199
don't know what that is, I realize like a lot

1748
01:23:50,199 --> 01:23:53,600
of our audience probably doesn't play WOW. A lot of

1749
01:23:53,600 --> 01:23:55,640
the core game and former audience. I know there's definitely

1750
01:23:55,640 --> 01:23:58,640
people out there who are are excited and and and

1751
01:23:58,720 --> 01:24:02,000
our wold players, but forgive me if I am if

1752
01:24:02,039 --> 01:24:04,479
I'm over explaining, but I.

1753
01:24:04,439 --> 01:24:08,039
Speaker 4: Can also uh just real quick talk about the four

1754
01:24:08,079 --> 01:24:10,800
new players someone like me who has hidden wow at

1755
01:24:10,800 --> 01:24:13,439
all that One of the things they're talking about adding

1756
01:24:13,520 --> 01:24:17,880
is a feature called lore Walking, which is a I

1757
01:24:17,880 --> 01:24:19,640
don't know if this this is already in the war Within.

1758
01:24:19,640 --> 01:24:22,560
Speaker 1: This has been in the game since okay, war Within,

1759
01:24:22,680 --> 01:24:25,239
I think the last expansion, but.

1760
01:24:25,239 --> 01:24:29,279
Speaker 4: It is a feature that basically lets you experience past

1761
01:24:29,359 --> 01:24:33,600
expansions and get yourself caught up on the story and

1762
01:24:33,680 --> 01:24:35,279
kind of get like a head start on some of

1763
01:24:35,319 --> 01:24:38,119
the like gear and leveling stuff. Just be like, if

1764
01:24:38,159 --> 01:24:39,920
you if you don't know, this is the middle of

1765
01:24:39,960 --> 01:24:42,680
a you know, three expansion arc. So here's what you

1766
01:24:42,680 --> 01:24:46,079
need to know. It's an abbreviated version of the story essentially,

1767
01:24:46,079 --> 01:24:46,640
and now you're.

1768
01:24:46,520 --> 01:24:49,960
Speaker 2: Up to speed and stuff and gotten gear.

1769
01:24:50,279 --> 01:24:52,760
Speaker 3: Is this like how does that? I'm trying to wrap

1770
01:24:52,760 --> 01:24:55,720
my mind right, It's it's sort of like like you

1771
01:24:55,920 --> 01:24:58,520
just run through an expansion, like in a bridge version

1772
01:24:58,560 --> 01:24:59,800
of an expansion, Like do you play so.

1773
01:24:59,760 --> 01:25:01,760
Speaker 1: You'll go and talk to you'll go once you make

1774
01:25:01,760 --> 01:25:04,039
your character and get out of the starting zone. Yeah,

1775
01:25:04,199 --> 01:25:07,880
you're automatically taken to if your warde, you go to Orgramar.

1776
01:25:08,159 --> 01:25:10,159
Speaker 2: If you're Alliance I really, they send you to Stormland

1777
01:25:10,800 --> 01:25:14,479
and there are there are, there's an NPC in each

1778
01:25:14,520 --> 01:25:15,159
of those cities.

1779
01:25:15,560 --> 01:25:17,920
Speaker 1: You go and talk to them and then you can

1780
01:25:17,960 --> 01:25:19,960
pick you know, they have lore walking for all sorts

1781
01:25:19,960 --> 01:25:22,560
of things. So one example they gave us was, oh,

1782
01:25:23,159 --> 01:25:26,640
I don't know much about the elves and Wow, let

1783
01:25:26,680 --> 01:25:30,880
me do an elf lore walking and it will show you.

1784
01:25:31,000 --> 01:25:35,640
It will take you through a series of like custom

1785
01:25:35,800 --> 01:25:40,079
sort of like shambled together quests of like here's what

1786
01:25:40,119 --> 01:25:42,159
you need to know about elves, and you're like actually

1787
01:25:42,239 --> 01:25:46,000
playing through these quests and these moments in Wow's history,

1788
01:25:46,880 --> 01:25:51,640
but in sort of like an instanced kind of version.

1789
01:25:51,720 --> 01:25:54,359
It's like and same thing with what Charles is talking about.

1790
01:25:54,399 --> 01:25:56,800
There's a war within recap where it's like it's an

1791
01:25:56,800 --> 01:26:01,520
abridged version of the expansion, and so it'll like pick

1792
01:26:01,560 --> 01:26:03,680
and choose the most important pieces that you need to

1793
01:26:03,680 --> 01:26:06,119
know as a player and run you through them. And

1794
01:26:06,159 --> 01:26:08,439
it's a like, like I said, it's a bridge, it's

1795
01:26:08,520 --> 01:26:13,359
much shorter, but meanwhile you're getting this story while also

1796
01:26:13,880 --> 01:26:16,039
you're getting the rewards from those quests and you're leveling

1797
01:26:16,119 --> 01:26:18,720
up and the ideas that you can get caught up

1798
01:26:18,720 --> 01:26:23,680
the speed and enjoy current Wow while also having the

1799
01:26:23,760 --> 01:26:26,399
chance to like fill in your knowledge on these various

1800
01:26:26,439 --> 01:26:28,760
subjects good or expansions.

1801
01:26:28,880 --> 01:26:29,119
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1802
01:26:29,319 --> 01:26:31,439
Speaker 4: Yeah, because it's been around, you know, twenty years, Like

1803
01:26:31,520 --> 01:26:33,960
there's a lot of stuff to get cut up on

1804
01:26:34,000 --> 01:26:36,920
if you were trying to join now. And I think

1805
01:26:36,920 --> 01:26:38,640
that was another thing that was fun about just all

1806
01:26:38,640 --> 01:26:41,920
our conversations with the developers of their talking about kind

1807
01:26:41,960 --> 01:26:47,680
of like their collective arc, specifically post Shadow Lands, of

1808
01:26:47,720 --> 01:26:50,720
being like, what what do players want from this game,

1809
01:26:50,880 --> 01:26:53,119
Like we're making it for them. We need to be

1810
01:26:53,199 --> 01:26:54,640
on the same page about.

1811
01:26:54,359 --> 01:26:58,199
Speaker 2: Like our shadow Lands count in twenty twenty for reference.

1812
01:26:59,199 --> 01:27:02,880
Speaker 4: And is not not popular expansion despite being like I

1813
01:27:02,960 --> 01:27:05,039
think during COVID a lot of people were playing Wow,

1814
01:27:05,159 --> 01:27:07,560
but that specific content was not like people were fans of.

1815
01:27:08,399 --> 01:27:12,199
So it's interesting to hear them be like these are

1816
01:27:12,359 --> 01:27:14,880
people want to make you know multiple characters and do

1817
01:27:15,039 --> 01:27:16,720
lots of stuff with them. People wanted to get caught

1818
01:27:16,800 --> 01:27:18,520
up and play with their friends as soon as possible,

1819
01:27:18,760 --> 01:27:21,039
and kind of instead of being like this is the

1820
01:27:21,039 --> 01:27:23,439
way world of Warcraft is, and you're going to play

1821
01:27:23,479 --> 01:27:25,680
the way that we've designed it kind of like meeting

1822
01:27:25,720 --> 01:27:28,239
people in the middle more and being like, we should

1823
01:27:28,279 --> 01:27:30,640
be more welcoming to people, we should be doing this

1824
01:27:30,960 --> 01:27:32,800
X y Z. And it's just cool to hear them

1825
01:27:32,840 --> 01:27:36,319
talk about that. I'm hoping that when you Know Midnight

1826
01:27:36,359 --> 01:27:39,840
comes out, players feel like they have executed it well enough.

1827
01:27:40,880 --> 01:27:43,159
But it's it's all promising sounding to me.

1828
01:27:43,800 --> 01:27:46,399
Speaker 3: That's good. Like I again, I've never played Wow. The

1829
01:27:46,439 --> 01:27:49,479
most Wow gameplay I've ever seen was that South Park

1830
01:27:49,520 --> 01:27:50,680
episode from twenty years ago.

1831
01:27:51,199 --> 01:27:53,720
Speaker 4: Of course, yeah, a lot of the developers were like

1832
01:27:53,800 --> 01:27:55,359
and that was a big deal that self, but like

1833
01:27:55,439 --> 01:27:57,640
it it's a significant moment for them as well.

1834
01:27:57,720 --> 01:27:59,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, I kind of made it like a household name.

1835
01:28:00,239 --> 01:28:03,600
Speaker 3: That's that's when I really understood. That's when I because

1836
01:28:03,640 --> 01:28:05,239
I had heard a while before that episode, but that's

1837
01:28:05,239 --> 01:28:07,399
when I like really grasped how popular it was was

1838
01:28:07,439 --> 01:28:09,800
that South Park would dedicate a whole episode to it

1839
01:28:10,079 --> 01:28:13,079
like an engine too. It's like, oh man, this is big.

1840
01:28:14,159 --> 01:28:18,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I secretly want to do a replay series

1841
01:28:18,680 --> 01:28:23,079
of Ward of Warcraft and convince several of my coworkers

1842
01:28:23,119 --> 01:28:24,159
to play, and.

1843
01:28:24,279 --> 01:28:26,960
Speaker 3: Even like, unless it's like a one off replay or

1844
01:28:27,079 --> 01:28:30,159
super replays. This sounds that the latter sounds like super replay.

1845
01:28:31,199 --> 01:28:34,960
Speaker 1: So just forever, just never no, no, just like like

1846
01:28:35,039 --> 01:28:37,880
will beat, we'll beat, We'll pick the expansion, will beat it?

1847
01:28:38,560 --> 01:28:40,039
Speaker 3: Like you would have to be I mean, I guess

1848
01:28:40,039 --> 01:28:41,760
we would trust you. I would if we did that.

1849
01:28:41,800 --> 01:28:44,159
I would like to hop bongs like wow is probably

1850
01:28:45,279 --> 01:28:48,720
there's others, but I think it might be the biggest

1851
01:28:48,880 --> 01:28:51,840
game I've never played, or like like the most important

1852
01:28:51,840 --> 01:28:55,159
game that I've just never touched whatsoever, just because I

1853
01:28:55,199 --> 01:28:57,279
didn't grow up a PC gamer, so I have no

1854
01:28:57,319 --> 01:29:00,680
affinity for a Blizzard from like a personal level, like

1855
01:29:00,760 --> 01:29:03,640
I got him with Blizzard. The only Blizzer games I

1856
01:29:03,680 --> 01:29:06,680
played were Diablo three four and og Overwatch and that's it.

1857
01:29:06,760 --> 01:29:09,760
And that's like much later in my life. And I

1858
01:29:09,800 --> 01:29:13,520
almost felt like when I did the Bliger Tour last year,

1859
01:29:13,720 --> 01:29:16,640
like I visited them for the Diabolo for it was

1860
01:29:16,640 --> 01:29:19,520
a Vessel Hatred expansion and they give you the big

1861
01:29:19,520 --> 01:29:22,960
tour and stuff, and I almost felt like like a

1862
01:29:23,079 --> 01:29:27,640
fraud being there has his reverence for Blizzard, and I

1863
01:29:27,720 --> 01:29:29,880
respect the hell out of Blacher, like I recognize how

1864
01:29:29,880 --> 01:29:32,239
important they are but you know, I don't have the

1865
01:29:32,359 --> 01:29:35,640
like personal like this is my childhood. This is like

1866
01:29:35,840 --> 01:29:38,439
a or guy, I know who that is. I'm just like, oh,

1867
01:29:38,520 --> 01:29:41,840
I know Tracer. That's cool. See that Tracer's statue. She's

1868
01:29:41,880 --> 01:29:45,680
one of my favorites. Did you guys get the Blucherd

1869
01:29:45,720 --> 01:29:48,279
Tour by the way, or either of you been the Blizzard.

1870
01:29:47,920 --> 01:29:52,479
Speaker 1: Oh yes, this is the first time, so you never

1871
01:29:52,520 --> 01:29:55,079
got it, was Alex, No, I haven't had the chance.

1872
01:29:55,960 --> 01:29:56,520
Speaker 3: Cool for you?

1873
01:29:57,039 --> 01:30:00,199
Speaker 2: Oh yeah it was because while is my favorite game.

1874
01:30:00,279 --> 01:30:04,359
Speaker 1: I mean I grew up playing Warcraft and Warcraft two

1875
01:30:04,479 --> 01:30:10,079
and StarCraft, and I love Overwatch, and I played casually

1876
01:30:10,159 --> 01:30:14,199
the diabolo games, like every Diabolo game very casually. So yeah,

1877
01:30:14,199 --> 01:30:15,800
it was like a big It was a big deal

1878
01:30:15,840 --> 01:30:18,359
for me. Did you just like for anybody though, Like

1879
01:30:18,399 --> 01:30:21,199
it's it's an impressive place, I think.

1880
01:30:21,520 --> 01:30:23,640
Speaker 3: Did they give you guys the full campus tour?

1881
01:30:24,479 --> 01:30:27,479
Speaker 4: Yeah? They have like they have their own if for

1882
01:30:27,560 --> 01:30:30,199
the listeners who have not been to Blizzard campus, presumably

1883
01:30:30,319 --> 01:30:32,840
they have like their own Starbucks there with a secret

1884
01:30:32,880 --> 01:30:34,479
menu of Blizzard themed drinks.

1885
01:30:34,560 --> 01:30:37,079
Speaker 3: Yeah it crazy. I wasn't able to get one and

1886
01:30:37,199 --> 01:30:39,039
have time to get one. I kind of wish I

1887
01:30:39,079 --> 01:30:39,680
had one.

1888
01:30:39,560 --> 01:30:41,159
Speaker 4: We did which we went twice.

1889
01:30:42,079 --> 01:30:44,000
Speaker 3: What was good? How did you get?

1890
01:30:44,640 --> 01:30:47,560
Speaker 4: The really good one was the Flappuccino, Yeah, which is

1891
01:30:48,000 --> 01:30:51,520
themed after the World Warcraft dragon Flight. But it's like, uh,

1892
01:30:51,880 --> 01:30:53,039
I have to look.

1893
01:30:52,960 --> 01:30:58,760
Speaker 2: Up the flavors passion for it's interesting almond or something.

1894
01:30:58,960 --> 01:31:02,159
Speaker 4: It was almost like brown sugar like it wasn't super fruity.

1895
01:31:02,239 --> 01:31:02,960
It was just really good.

1896
01:31:02,960 --> 01:31:04,640
Speaker 3: So you're naming so many different ingred.

1897
01:31:06,199 --> 01:31:08,960
Speaker 4: It didn't look good to me on the page. And

1898
01:31:09,000 --> 01:31:11,119
then our PR guy was like, this is our face.

1899
01:31:11,159 --> 01:31:12,720
This is my favorite one. I was like, okay, I'll

1900
01:31:12,720 --> 01:31:13,960
try it, and then I was like, oh, yeah, this

1901
01:31:14,079 --> 01:31:18,520
is busted. But yeah. Other than that, there's they have

1902
01:31:18,600 --> 01:31:22,000
like they have a library there, board games and video

1903
01:31:22,079 --> 01:31:28,319
games books. They have you know, gyms and that sort

1904
01:31:28,359 --> 01:31:31,359
of thing. It's it's it was a fancy like tech

1905
01:31:31,720 --> 01:31:34,640
level office, you know, like they've they've got oh we get.

1906
01:31:34,479 --> 01:31:37,520
Speaker 2: We can get massages, uh you know once a week

1907
01:31:37,560 --> 01:31:38,359
in this room.

1908
01:31:38,159 --> 01:31:40,920
Speaker 3: And that kind of we get massages from Diablo in here.

1909
01:31:40,960 --> 01:31:45,520
And it's just like a person dressed big demon.

1910
01:31:45,479 --> 01:31:47,880
Speaker 2: Dress cane exactly.

1911
01:31:49,239 --> 01:31:55,560
Speaker 3: Wait, I can name Blizzard Carrot. There's a Karrigan, right, StarCraft, Caragan,

1912
01:31:55,680 --> 01:31:59,039
that's a StarCraft person, right, yeah, Caragan. Yeah, Okay, I

1913
01:31:59,119 --> 01:32:01,640
read Jason Tryer Blizzard book. That's a very good book

1914
01:32:01,680 --> 01:32:04,960
there there. Yeah. Yeah. Stuff.

1915
01:32:05,760 --> 01:32:06,720
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1916
01:32:06,840 --> 01:32:09,760
Speaker 1: But for the people who do know wow and want

1917
01:32:09,800 --> 01:32:12,840
to learn more, please consider going to pick up a

1918
01:32:12,840 --> 01:32:16,840
game Former subscription Game Informer dot Com slash subscribe. This

1919
01:32:17,000 --> 01:32:19,680
is a I've I've been hesitant to show off the

1920
01:32:19,720 --> 01:32:22,119
cover of this because this is a samp.

1921
01:32:22,159 --> 01:32:26,680
Speaker 2: This is not the U like the finished put product.

1922
01:32:27,159 --> 01:32:30,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a test run so on on other people.

1923
01:32:30,600 --> 01:32:32,840
I mean the cover story is, the art is gorgeous,

1924
01:32:32,840 --> 01:32:37,159
but on the actual uh like production version, the one

1925
01:32:37,199 --> 01:32:39,479
that people are going to get at the store.

1926
01:32:40,119 --> 01:32:41,840
Speaker 2: This gold Game Informer logo.

1927
01:32:42,920 --> 01:32:46,319
Speaker 1: We kind of simulated it here for our purposes, but

1928
01:32:46,439 --> 01:32:50,520
it is a like metallic gold spot ink color, and

1929
01:32:50,560 --> 01:32:54,680
so it's like shiny I r L. Where are like

1930
01:32:54,760 --> 01:32:57,640
test versions they are not shiny.

1931
01:32:57,720 --> 01:33:01,199
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like for for TCG fans or GEO fans,

1932
01:33:01,199 --> 01:33:03,479
like getting an ultra rare Yu gi O card, you know,

1933
01:33:03,760 --> 01:33:06,159
get the gold.

1934
01:33:06,560 --> 01:33:06,800
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1935
01:33:06,960 --> 01:33:09,560
Speaker 3: Is this is this an named characters or is this

1936
01:33:09,680 --> 01:33:09,960
like a.

1937
01:33:10,079 --> 01:33:12,239
Speaker 1: Just no, no, there's this is just a blood off

1938
01:33:12,279 --> 01:33:15,159
character going into their Horde style neighborhood.

1939
01:33:15,399 --> 01:33:18,039
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, this is the neighbors.

1940
01:33:18,359 --> 01:33:20,600
Speaker 3: Just there's an or on a motorcycle.

1941
01:33:20,600 --> 01:33:22,840
Speaker 1: I want to know more about Goblin. They're on a

1942
01:33:22,880 --> 01:33:28,439
Mechano Hog. That's a mountains getting engineers called Mechano Hog.

1943
01:33:28,840 --> 01:33:34,159
Speaker 4: Marcus. There was a for at the Blizzard office for uh, Alex,

1944
01:33:34,199 --> 01:33:39,680
remind me what the the under undermine undermine they there

1945
01:33:39,720 --> 01:33:42,560
was some YouTubers that make cars and they made a

1946
01:33:42,640 --> 01:33:45,520
car from this Undermine update for World of Warcraft that

1947
01:33:45,600 --> 01:33:48,720
is parked in the the Blizzard parking garage.

1948
01:33:49,119 --> 01:33:50,399
Speaker 2: Oh, it's actually driving.

1949
01:33:51,319 --> 01:33:53,159
Speaker 3: Okay. They're like a West Coast Choppers, kind of like

1950
01:33:53,319 --> 01:33:54,319
Channel Yeah.

1951
01:33:54,279 --> 01:33:57,039
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I guess yeah. And it looked it looked

1952
01:33:57,119 --> 01:33:59,920
like blocking and cartoonian like Blizzard style.

1953
01:34:00,800 --> 01:34:05,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, very cool. But yeah.

1954
01:34:05,399 --> 01:34:09,279
Speaker 1: This issue is also twenty five percent bigger. It has

1955
01:34:09,319 --> 01:34:10,920
twenty five more percent more pages.

1956
01:34:10,960 --> 01:34:14,000
Speaker 3: I should say that with two c's.

1957
01:34:14,079 --> 01:34:16,920
Speaker 1: It's thick, and it's to celebrate our end of year,

1958
01:34:17,720 --> 01:34:19,159
all of our end of year content. So this is

1959
01:34:19,159 --> 01:34:21,359
our special end of year issue. At the end of

1960
01:34:21,479 --> 01:34:24,720
each year, you're going to get a bigger magazine that

1961
01:34:24,800 --> 01:34:27,239
has special treatment. In this case, we went with the

1962
01:34:27,279 --> 01:34:32,880
metallic gold logo spot ink treatment, and we've got our

1963
01:34:32,920 --> 01:34:38,000
top ten games of twenty twenty five in here. We've

1964
01:34:38,000 --> 01:34:41,399
got our Best and Brightest, which is our end of

1965
01:34:41,479 --> 01:34:46,239
year awards and editor picks. We've got our individual personal

1966
01:34:46,279 --> 01:34:48,359
top tens in there, the best board games of twenty

1967
01:34:48,399 --> 01:34:54,600
twenty five. We've got a huge, really cool feature from

1968
01:34:55,039 --> 01:34:58,359
Brian Shay in here called I think you called it

1969
01:34:58,439 --> 01:35:03,840
The Soul of Souls, like right, yeah, uh, and it's yeah,

1970
01:35:03,960 --> 01:35:07,680
it's it's a look back at how the genre rose

1971
01:35:07,720 --> 01:35:11,800
to prominence. He's got quotes in here from I believe

1972
01:35:11,880 --> 01:35:18,359
Miyazaki as well as several other prolific uh dark.

1973
01:35:18,199 --> 01:35:22,359
Speaker 3: Soul yeahs, like the developers.

1974
01:35:20,880 --> 01:35:22,279
Speaker 2: The team.

1975
01:35:22,600 --> 01:35:27,720
Speaker 1: Yeah. He also did a feature correct me if I'm

1976
01:35:27,760 --> 01:35:35,880
wrong on was it Fallout? Fallout to the point where

1977
01:35:35,920 --> 01:35:39,479
like we we also got new details about like status

1978
01:35:39,560 --> 01:35:43,000
updates on the Elder Scroll six. Yeah, that's in here

1979
01:35:43,039 --> 01:35:47,399
as well. It's a really great book, uh, Like I said, bigger,

1980
01:35:48,359 --> 01:35:51,640
way more pages, and we've got our typical reviews and

1981
01:35:51,680 --> 01:35:53,840
previews and stuff in here too. But really we wanted

1982
01:35:53,920 --> 01:35:56,479
to be a celebration of the end of the year

1983
01:35:56,640 --> 01:36:00,600
and celebration of twenty twenty five in games, it was

1984
01:36:00,640 --> 01:36:05,279
a big year for US Game Informer coming back. So

1985
01:36:05,359 --> 01:36:09,479
this issue you can get early digital access Gaminformer dot

1986
01:36:09,479 --> 01:36:13,840
com slash subscribe. If you do already have digital access,

1987
01:36:13,840 --> 01:36:16,800
you can read the cover story early by going to

1988
01:36:16,880 --> 01:36:19,720
Gaminformer dot com slash Wow Midnight. That I'll get you

1989
01:36:19,800 --> 01:36:22,399
digital access to all of the stories in this book.

1990
01:36:22,680 --> 01:36:24,319
Of course, if you want to wait for the proper

1991
01:36:25,119 --> 01:36:27,399
print magazine to come to your mailbox, that will be

1992
01:36:28,000 --> 01:36:32,239
arriving in uh I think mid January, as well as

1993
01:36:32,279 --> 01:36:34,520
on newsstands around the world.

1994
01:36:35,119 --> 01:36:37,640
Speaker 2: Uh in that time that same that same time window.

1995
01:36:38,800 --> 01:36:42,920
Speaker 1: So yeah, really excited about this book. Uh, really stoked.

1996
01:36:42,960 --> 01:36:46,720
I'm gonna have a bunch of features on uh World

1997
01:36:46,720 --> 01:36:50,199
of Warcraft Midnight as well as uh, you know other

1998
01:36:50,399 --> 01:36:53,279
other I I really took the chance and took the

1999
01:36:53,319 --> 01:36:56,520
opportunity to ask the questions I've wanted to ask about

2000
01:36:56,520 --> 01:36:59,560
Wow for a very long time, and so I think

2001
01:36:59,560 --> 01:37:01,199
those will make some good breakout stories.

2002
01:37:01,600 --> 01:37:01,760
Speaker 3: You know.

2003
01:37:01,800 --> 01:37:05,159
Speaker 1: I asked about like theorized classes that that fans have

2004
01:37:05,399 --> 01:37:08,520
wanted for years and if those have been considered or not.

2005
01:37:08,720 --> 01:37:13,279
Speaker 2: That kind of stuff. Just no, but but that would

2006
01:37:13,319 --> 01:37:13,680
be cool.

2007
01:37:15,600 --> 01:37:18,560
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about got a couple of exclusives

2008
01:37:18,560 --> 01:37:21,159
going up on like what North End is going to,

2009
01:37:21,479 --> 01:37:23,760
the kind of the philosophy of going into North Rand,

2010
01:37:24,239 --> 01:37:27,079
and the Last Titan, which is the expansion after this one.

2011
01:37:28,279 --> 01:37:32,039
No necessarily concrete details, but I really I thought a

2012
01:37:32,079 --> 01:37:37,640
fascinating conversation about the considerations of returning to arguably World

2013
01:37:37,680 --> 01:37:41,880
of Warcraft's most iconic location in North Rend, which was

2014
01:37:42,520 --> 01:37:45,880
the subject of the Wrath the lych King expansion in

2015
01:37:45,920 --> 01:37:49,680
two thousand and eight. Arguably wows, I mean, it was

2016
01:37:49,720 --> 01:37:52,760
at its peak at numeratime, numerical peak.

2017
01:37:52,840 --> 01:37:54,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then and.

2018
01:37:54,680 --> 01:37:56,439
Speaker 1: In the Last Titan, we're going to be returning to

2019
01:37:56,479 --> 01:38:00,319
that place. So I took the opportunity to ask them

2020
01:38:00,680 --> 01:38:03,359
about what they're considering when they go back to that

2021
01:38:03,439 --> 01:38:07,520
kind of space. So we'll have online articles on GameInformer

2022
01:38:07,560 --> 01:38:10,199
dot com, as well as videos on YouTube dot com

2023
01:38:10,239 --> 01:38:14,239
Slash Game Informer. But fellows anything else before we before

2024
01:38:14,239 --> 01:38:16,279
we get out of here, I don't know.

2025
01:38:16,439 --> 01:38:20,640
Speaker 3: Tune in to the super replay. That's still a thing

2026
01:38:20,840 --> 01:38:21,520
that's happening.

2027
01:38:21,640 --> 01:38:23,279
Speaker 4: That's true, we're hoping to finish it.

2028
01:38:23,800 --> 01:38:26,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, by the time you're listening to this holidays, it

2029
01:38:26,680 --> 01:38:29,880
might be done or might still be going.

2030
01:38:30,000 --> 01:38:32,239
Speaker 2: We are Twitch dot TV Slash Game Informer.

2031
01:38:32,720 --> 01:38:34,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, we are at the end. We're we've been at

2032
01:38:35,000 --> 01:38:37,199
the end for a while, but we're like knee deep

2033
01:38:37,520 --> 01:38:39,159
in the end. We're hoping to see if we can

2034
01:38:39,199 --> 01:38:41,199
get it done before the before we go on our

2035
01:38:41,199 --> 01:38:43,000
holiday break. So we're actually going to do like a

2036
01:38:43,680 --> 01:38:46,439
longer stream, or we would have already done probably by

2037
01:38:46,479 --> 01:38:47,880
the time you listen to this. So you can tune

2038
01:38:47,920 --> 01:38:52,239
in Twitch up Colm or TV whatever Slash Game Informer.

2039
01:38:52,319 --> 01:38:54,560
And also it's on our YouTube channel. It's there too.

2040
01:38:54,720 --> 01:38:58,159
Speaker 4: Yeah, go watch it and I'll say, Marcus Lilties, I

2041
01:38:58,279 --> 01:39:00,359
have a surprise to reveal to you, and we do

2042
01:39:00,479 --> 01:39:04,239
that stream. Oh oh okay, so that'll that'll be a

2043
01:39:04,279 --> 01:39:06,640
little teaser. I was like, should I tell him now?

2044
01:39:06,680 --> 01:39:07,680
He's like no, oh wait, oh wait.

2045
01:39:07,760 --> 01:39:10,840
Speaker 2: Wait, I hope it's an announcement of an announcement.

2046
01:39:11,319 --> 01:39:13,399
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh yeah. You do work in the game industry,

2047
01:39:13,439 --> 01:39:13,720
don't you.

2048
01:39:15,760 --> 01:39:18,560
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is the full CGI teaser that just says

2049
01:39:18,680 --> 01:39:21,920
Friday on it and then yeah we'll actually get gameplay.

2050
01:39:22,560 --> 01:39:22,760
Speaker 3: Yeah.

2051
01:39:23,680 --> 01:39:24,159
Speaker 4: Well cool.

2052
01:39:25,199 --> 01:39:28,319
Speaker 1: Thanks everyone for listening for watching this episode. Be sure

2053
01:39:28,359 --> 01:39:31,920
to follow Marcus here at Marcus Stewart seven on Blue Sky.

2054
01:39:32,000 --> 01:39:35,199
You can follow Charles Heart at Chuck Duck three six five,

2055
01:39:35,680 --> 01:39:38,279
and you can follow me at It's man Akin on

2056
01:39:38,359 --> 01:39:41,039
Blue Sky. And actually I am using Instagram more than

2057
01:39:41,119 --> 01:39:43,439
any of those places, so if you're on there, feel

2058
01:39:43,439 --> 01:39:46,199
free to follow. But that'll do it for the week.

2059
01:39:46,560 --> 01:39:48,079
We'll see you in next week. We're gonna have a

2060
01:39:48,119 --> 01:39:50,680
bit of a different episode for our holidays. I think

2061
01:39:50,680 --> 01:39:54,000
we're gonna be chatting through our top ten lists for

2062
01:39:54,079 --> 01:39:55,840
the year, which would be a lot of fun, so.

2063
01:39:56,439 --> 01:40:00,840
Speaker 2: Stay tuned for that. Be well, be safe and happy holidays. Goodbye,