Speaker 1: I don't think I have enough Hans.
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, yeah, more pizza, I guess is that or
Speaker 2: I should have more Jake's French fries last night?
Speaker 3: Oh maybe that's why I was hung over. To Sorry,
Speaker 3: I'm looking at the wide and it makes me look
Speaker 3: like I have a halo, you know those like pain.
Speaker 1: You look like. I don't want to like drama from Discolisium.
Speaker 1: His car like is like one of those one of
Speaker 1: those Jesus candles.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is a great joke since no one's going
Speaker 3: to see the video for this, but I think it's
Speaker 3: I think it's kind of rad.
Speaker 1: We'll save that for another episode.
Speaker 2: Anyway, everybody, Welcome to Games About after Dark episode. I'm
Speaker 2: just gonna take a guest because I didn't look it
Speaker 2: up this morning.
Speaker 1: To sixty, that's it, you nailed it? Is it? I
Speaker 1: have no fucking idea.
Speaker 2: You only you, dear viewer, know the true answer. So
Speaker 2: what episode this podcast is on this week?
Speaker 1: On Unsolved Mysteries? Uh?
Speaker 2: That is Curtain of Vina Hi give me uh uh
Speaker 2: it's Unsolved Mysteries, the one with Jonathan Fakes.
Speaker 1: No that you're thinking beyond belief?
Speaker 2: Okay, the one Unsolved It's friction. Yeah, no, so uh true.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Beyond Belief is the great one where he's like,
Speaker 1: have you ever tied your shoe in a busy subway station?
Speaker 1: And while man while a man farted next to.
Speaker 2: You, occasionally put like that compilation on of just all
Speaker 2: of him, asking all those questions, and it's so funny.
Speaker 1: Have you ever put a hot plate? Have you ever
Speaker 1: sat on a hot plate and whistled, twinkled tiggle, little star? Well,
Speaker 1: this is what Sarah did in tonight's Beyond Belief. No,
Speaker 1: so that's what Jonathan frakes and then Unsolved Mysteries is
Speaker 1: with Robert Stack the man.
Speaker 2: Who Oh is that the one where they do re enactments?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah. Beyond Beliefs whole thing is they tell
Speaker 1: you three stories and you have to guess whether they
Speaker 1: were fast fiction. That's like have you ever left an
Speaker 1: ice cube out in the sun on a warms on
Speaker 1: a warm summer day. And then it turns out the
Speaker 1: stories about like a man who was like stabbed at
Speaker 1: death when I with an icicle And then you have
Speaker 1: to and there's no evidence of his death, you have to.
Speaker 1: This is not from Beyond Belief. This is from an
Speaker 1: autopsy book that I read. This is a true story
Speaker 1: about a man who was killed. They couldn't find the
Speaker 1: murder weapon, but it's because of Icol killed him and
Speaker 1: Melton anyway, perfect murder weapon. Yeah, that perfect crime. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's beyond. That's Jonathan fakes. What about Jonathan Ferguson.
Speaker 1: Jonathan Ferguson, Yeah, that's the guy who shows you guns
Speaker 1: and asks if they're actually you show him guns and
Speaker 1: then ask is this factor fiction? And then Jonathan like,
Speaker 1: have you ever walked out the side of seven and
Speaker 1: then it melted because they made of ice? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Uh, actually not to kind of derail it, I guess.
Speaker 3: But like our our friends launched exp yes, they did,
Speaker 3: and I feel like we should we should plug that.
Speaker 1: No, I'm happy to plug that.
Speaker 2: Yes, So it's sick if you find folks enjoyed uh
Speaker 2: the Firearms Expert Reacts series or any of the Expert Reacts.
Speaker 2: Those were done by the Lovely UK Boys Adam David Chris,
Speaker 2: who were unfortunately made redundant last year and are no
Speaker 2: longer with the company, but they have decided to continue
Speaker 2: that venture on their own. They launched a Patreon called
Speaker 2: e xp where they're basically.
Speaker 1: Doing the get same thing. I was like, I'm like
Speaker 1: so impressed that e XP is not a thing that
Speaker 1: they were able to they were. Yeah, it feels like
Speaker 1: fate that they got it. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So yeah, if you enjoyed that kind of stuff and
Speaker 2: want to see that continue, should go support them. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and they're and their ventures watch EXP on YouTube.
Speaker 1: Watch.
Speaker 3: I think it's similar thing every Saturday. Jonathan Ferguson. They
Speaker 3: still still got that ban, Yeah, but there's still more.
Speaker 3: There's more stuff they want to do on top of
Speaker 3: that now that they don't have to worry about like
Speaker 3: game spot duties that they had before.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But yeah, I'm super happy for them. They have
Speaker 1: a Stalker two one coming cool.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, because I mean that game does actually
Speaker 2: some really cool like things with guns.
Speaker 1: Well that's what yeah, I mean, I'm not you. I mean, like,
Speaker 1: I love the work they do, and I love Jonathan
Speaker 1: as an entity and a personality. But I mean that's
Speaker 1: could be here. I usually just watch it for Jonathan
Speaker 1: and Dave rather than the game itself. But Stoker two
Speaker 1: is one of those games where like they do like
Speaker 1: those guns.
Speaker 2: I've seen videos of people like talk about Yeah, some
Speaker 2: of the details the guns have already and I was
Speaker 2: sitting there. I remember watching them being like, man, I
Speaker 2: kind of wish I wish I had Jonathan Ferguson right
Speaker 2: now to tell me about this, even.
Speaker 1: Like which in the AMMO and the shotgun and the
Speaker 1: pump action shotguns that every time you switch the AMMO
Speaker 1: that he has to take out all the other cartridges
Speaker 1: before he puts in the new Oh, I didn't even
Speaker 1: know that. I havn't used the shot and it has Yeah,
Speaker 1: it has great like where you can put it, like
Speaker 1: there's always the extra slot that pump action shotguns through
Speaker 1: the chamber you call it. Yeah, And I love using
Speaker 1: the pump action shotgun of that game. But it's definitely
Speaker 1: if I empty that in a gunfight, I'm not reloading it.
Speaker 1: The gun fight's over. I switched all my other guns.
Speaker 2: I mean that's that's I feel like that's realistic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I know that thing feels like I'm not
Speaker 1: sitting here and pumping seven more cartridges in this thing.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I had to watch that. Yes, Uh, that's
Speaker 1: a good show. Jake. Also, Jake Decker didn't get introduced
Speaker 1: you yet.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I'm here, Angelic and ship.
Speaker 2: There's a lot. There's actually a lot to talk about.
Speaker 2: Oh well, first off, we weren't here last week. We
Speaker 2: we missed a week and that's because we had we
Speaker 2: had a big shoot in the office that was like
Speaker 2: all consuming for several days, and because of that, we
Speaker 2: just weren't able to fit in like time to record
Speaker 2: this podcast, which is why we weren't here last week.
Speaker 1: So apologies for that.
Speaker 2: But because of that, we actually have like a lot
Speaker 2: of stuff to talk about, because there's been some gosh
Speaker 2: dang video games that have come out, but I want
Speaker 2: to talk about Shocker instead.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, hey everyone, this is a video game podcast.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about video games eventually.
Speaker 2: Kurt, please explain to the audience what Shocker is.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, I mean Max just asked her to do that,
Speaker 3: and Kurt's like, I don't.
Speaker 1: Think I can, or more do I want to? How
Speaker 1: much do I want? No? I do, because I I
Speaker 1: think it's really important that everyone knows about this movie.
Speaker 1: I agree. Okay, So where do I begin? I guess
Speaker 1: I'll start with a It is a Every time I
Speaker 1: think of a word to describe it, even a genre,
Speaker 1: it doesn't quite make sense.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you could start with the director, that's ado.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well okay, so it's a It's a film from
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, directed and written by Wes Craven. You
Speaker 1: may know Wes Craven most famously for Nightmare and Elm Street.
Speaker 1: He did the first film, none of the others except
Speaker 1: for New Nightmare, and then he went on to do Scream.
Speaker 1: He's kind of seen as you know, who the fuck
Speaker 1: Wes Craven is. So, but during there was a certain
Speaker 1: period of time when Wes Craven was making a lot
Speaker 1: of interesting films in the eighties, and one of them
Speaker 1: is Shocker. Shocker was Wes Craven's attempt at trying to
Speaker 1: start a new franchise like Nightmare and Elm Street because
Speaker 1: he was unhappy with how the sequels were coming out
Speaker 1: for NIGHTMARELM Street. So he was like, I want to
Speaker 1: make a new one. But instead of a guy that
Speaker 1: comes for you in your dreams, I'm gonna make a
Speaker 1: guy who comes out of your TV sort of kind
Speaker 1: of the rule Baby.
Speaker 2: The rules of Baby of the Villain are less.
Speaker 1: Any rules.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there are no rules, and that's kind of what
Speaker 2: makes it amazing.
Speaker 1: Is also a film that has dreams that actually, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: break the dimension of reality where people can come and
Speaker 1: go into dreams and get objects from dreams.
Speaker 2: It's funny how much he like is both trying to
Speaker 2: like get away from nightmare but also is like almost
Speaker 2: trapped by it in some ways, like or or I
Speaker 2: don't mean, I don't even.
Speaker 1: Know if he was trying to get away from it.
Speaker 2: I just can just feel it, feel that energy. It
Speaker 2: does have that like I'm gonna make my own.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but just just but just to kick it off,
Speaker 1: this movie is fucking absurd. It fucking rules. It has
Speaker 1: the hardest fucking hair metal soundtrack does any movie I've
Speaker 1: heard in the fucking eighties. Uh, it is batshit insane.
Speaker 1: It goes from being.
Speaker 3: Like it's also like three movies in One's five movies.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it goes from one movie. It starts off as
Speaker 1: like college football guy kind of comedic, yeah, for like
Speaker 1: five minutes, and also it's like, oh, now you're in
Speaker 1: a nightmare scene, not only anymore.
Speaker 2: You know college football, and then suddenly like it hard
Speaker 2: cuts to let's go back home, and then the color
Speaker 2: palette yeah, completely shifts from like bright and poppy to
Speaker 2: just like, Oh, we're in a horror movie, and I
Speaker 2: was like, what is going on? Why has this movie
Speaker 2: changed into a different movie.
Speaker 1: Yes, but I find this movie so hard to sell
Speaker 1: because even when I told Jake and John Luke about it,
Speaker 1: it was just a text. I was like, I watched
Speaker 1: a movie called Shocker. You need to watch Shock. No
Speaker 1: one said a fucking word back to me. But it's
Speaker 1: because I was like, I don't know how. I just like,
Speaker 1: you have to trust me in good faith because even
Speaker 1: if I tell you about certain scenes, I can't because
Speaker 1: you need to experience it in real time. So yes, Also, uh,
Speaker 1: Shocker stars Mitch Peleggi, who is most well known for
Speaker 1: playing Walter Skinner and X Files. He is incredible, And
Speaker 1: so it's Walter Skinner, who was like Fox Molder and
Speaker 1: Dana Scully's boss. But it's him basically doing a Robbert
Speaker 1: England like Freddy Krueger version, but he's like a.
Speaker 2: And he kills it. As far as I'm concerned, he yeah,
Speaker 2: so good.
Speaker 1: He's a very prolific serial killer in this movie. He's
Speaker 1: killed like thirty people by the time the movie starts,
Speaker 1: and he just keeps getting away with it. The main
Speaker 1: character's father is a detective who just kind of looks
Speaker 1: bewildered the entire film. Yeah, everyone's like one expression, the
Speaker 1: fuck are you doing? Why can't you catch this guy?
Speaker 1: What's the deal? Until finally they catch him, they put
Speaker 1: him the electric chair, and by doing that, he then
Speaker 1: becomes this electrical entity that can transfer himself to bodies.
Speaker 2: But sure, then I was gonna say, don't even I
Speaker 2: don't even don't even spoil where it goes from there,
Speaker 2: because because the whole the experience of watching this movie
Speaker 2: was a scene happens like like you get ten minutes
Speaker 2: in and you feel like this is where like the
Speaker 2: climax of a of another movie.
Speaker 1: Would have happened.
Speaker 2: And then Kurt said, oh, you haven't seen anything yet,
Speaker 2: and I said it like, and then you can tend
Speaker 2: times ten times, and you were right. Every time I
Speaker 2: was like, well, hurts glooming bullshitting. It can't keep escalating,
Speaker 2: and it does up until like the very last fucking minute.
Speaker 3: It's incredible, even even the beginning, when uh did I
Speaker 3: forget the main character's name that Jonathan is like trying
Speaker 3: to convince his dad that his dreams might be able
Speaker 3: to help him find this this killer or whatever, and
Speaker 3: and you know, my brain's like, okay, so like the
Speaker 3: crux of this movie is going to be him trying
Speaker 3: to explain his dreams while they try to and they
Speaker 3: try to fill that's like two minutes and then it's
Speaker 3: just like a gone to something else.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, okay, what's happening? And then you got it
Speaker 1: baby happens. And then I want to give no context
Speaker 1: to that. I just know there's a phenomenal turning point
Speaker 1: in that film when a voice says you got it baby,
Speaker 1: and then that's when it that's again. That was one
Speaker 1: of those moments where I was like, buckle the funk
Speaker 1: up because I'm not seeing a.
Speaker 2: Ship yet and I still don't know what that that was.
Speaker 1: I know they don't explain it. I know it's great.
Speaker 1: The last thing I'll say before we move on, other
Speaker 1: than everyone who's listening, just go watch it. Just please
Speaker 1: go watch it. Get a pizza, get a friend, if
Speaker 1: you have one, you.
Speaker 2: Should definitely it's this is a crowd pleasing, Like watch
Speaker 2: it with a bunch of people.
Speaker 1: Go in. It's one of those things where I say, like,
Speaker 1: go in blind. It really doesn't matter. Just like just
Speaker 1: expect that whatever you see you read online like won't
Speaker 1: prepare you for like how the thing unravels in the
Speaker 1: way that it does. Also like even I'm talking about
Speaker 1: like even the cooler dramatic scenes that happen. But the
Speaker 1: last thing I'll say is this movie was I read
Speaker 1: last night. I went through thirteen revisions until it got
Speaker 1: a rated R. Yeah, because it was getting kept getting actually,
Speaker 1: so they had to go back and do thirteen cuts,
Speaker 1: which for Wes Craven has been every film he's ever
Speaker 1: I would love that about Wes Craven that he just
Speaker 1: goes so even scream every time. He goes so hard
Speaker 1: that they're always like, dude, you need to relax the chill.
Speaker 3: Way he thinks of like I mean passed away, but
Speaker 3: like if he could see like what's going on with
Speaker 3: with horror now and like, uh, the Terrifier movies, how
Speaker 3: those have just kind of like side skirted the whole
Speaker 3: rating system and have been made millions of dollars.
Speaker 1: Oh that's a good.
Speaker 2: Yeah. There is something about like Wes Craven in an
Speaker 2: era where you can easily release unrated films and find
Speaker 2: an audience for that and still like make money.
Speaker 1: I mean, he did get his start with films like
Speaker 1: Last House and The Left in the Hills of Eyes,
Speaker 1: which if ever, I don't actually don't, don't quote me
Speaker 1: in this, but I'm pretty sure those movies are not
Speaker 1: rated because they are fucked up.
Speaker 2: Sure, and he did get away with a lot of that.
Speaker 1: It wasn't I would probably say not until Nightmare elm
Speaker 1: Street was his big commercial breakout. And even that movie
Speaker 1: had a fuck ton of revisions, a lot more gore.
Speaker 1: They still got away with a lot in that movie.
Speaker 1: And then of course Deadly Friend happened, and I don't
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go ramble about Deadly Friend, but Deadly Friend.
Speaker 2: Is also incredible.
Speaker 1: The opposite where he made a PG thirty film and
Speaker 1: the studio is like, no, you're what's cravey? This needs
Speaker 1: to be r and he was like, all right, and
Speaker 1: then then we can't release this. You need to cut
Speaker 1: this cut down. It's so funny. But yeah. Scream also
Speaker 1: had an X rating version that came out where some
Speaker 1: some of the gore scenes were extended, most famously in
Speaker 1: the opening Drew Barrymore She's hung in the like first
Speaker 1: ten minutes that film, and the original cut it was
Speaker 1: a very slow push in on her body being hung
Speaker 1: from the tree, and they were like, this is too much,
Speaker 1: so they had to like theatrical cut. It's like all
Speaker 1: flashy and like, don't entirely see it. Her boyfriend's and
Speaker 1: testines like you see them actually like fall out of
Speaker 1: his body in the X rated cut. But they like
Speaker 1: trim that, they like crop the image for they are
Speaker 1: rating one.
Speaker 2: The fact that we'll never get the unrated cut of
Speaker 2: Shocker it bums me out, I know, but I also
Speaker 2: think that movie's perfect. Oh no, I agree, but I
Speaker 2: do think it would be even better.
Speaker 1: Some of the quotes in that movie, Uh, take a
Speaker 1: ride in my vault wagon? What was the other one?
Speaker 1: Fingerlicking good? I mean there's a lot. Every single time
Speaker 1: this guy speaks, he has the only vocabulary is like dick,
Speaker 1: just like gurgle, Like sometimes are just making gurgling sounds
Speaker 1: like I don't even know what he's saying.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I unfortunately am that guy. And I looked at
Speaker 3: the letterbox score and it's a two point eight. So
Speaker 3: if you see this movie, you saw you looked at
Speaker 3: before We want no after after we were done.
Speaker 1: So if you see this movie, did you leave it.
Speaker 1: Let four and a half stars getting it up there.
Speaker 3: So if you see this movie, nothing below four and
Speaker 3: a half stars, we gotta we gotta get this radio.
Speaker 3: There's not a whole lot of reviews for this, so
Speaker 3: I think I think we can sway it pretty easily.
Speaker 1: What was your review?
Speaker 3: I didn't write, but I should I was. I've been
Speaker 3: thinking like what i'd actually said.
Speaker 2: All right, So there you go, audience, go watch Shocker
Speaker 2: and then go leave a four and half star.
Speaker 3: Or five or feels so compelled, let's get that rate.
Speaker 3: I think I'll probably bump it up to five because
Speaker 3: I was thinking about it all night, didn't.
Speaker 1: Even sleep thinking about this morning. So yeah, I might.
Speaker 1: I might go back and change that. Yeah. I was
Speaker 1: gonna say, like the last twenty minutes of that film,
Speaker 1: but I was like, but the twenty minutes before that,
Speaker 1: and then the twenty minutes before that, yeah, which all
Speaker 1: feels like it could have been last twenty minutes. That
Speaker 1: movie ends like four times and then it keeps going.
Speaker 1: That wouldn't change a single thing. Yeah, even the ending,
Speaker 1: even the actual ending is like how did that work?
Speaker 1: How did that happen? Yeah, but you know it wasn't
Speaker 1: tend to be a franchise TV show apparently would have
Speaker 1: completely changed the trajectory of Mitch Poleggy's career. He would
Speaker 1: have never been Skinner and cinema as a whole. Who knows, fantastic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, great, let's talk about some video games.
Speaker 1: It's fine, you know what she's talking about, The Suffering.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, I actually I am planning to play it now.
Speaker 2: I am planning to play The Suffering. For context, The
Speaker 2: Suffering is a PS two era game where you're like
Speaker 2: a man in prison.
Speaker 3: I remember that box art so too, like going to
Speaker 3: Blockbustern seeing it, being like, I'm not old enough for this,
Speaker 3: But one day I'm going to play this, and I
Speaker 3: never did.
Speaker 2: So Apparently like the main villain of that game is
Speaker 2: directly inspired by the villain from Shocker. Yep, so I
Speaker 2: now feel obligating Pinker is a direct TV repair man
Speaker 2: to play The Suffering.
Speaker 1: So no, yeah, but we'll talk about that next.
Speaker 2: Yea, we'll talk about that next time.
Speaker 1: We'll do that.
Speaker 2: Video games a couple have come out the technically we
Speaker 2: have not talked about. It's kind of a weird one
Speaker 2: because I feel like I haven't played enough of it
Speaker 2: to fully form an opinion. But Avowed, M hmm, it's
Speaker 2: a game that came out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've only played like four or five hours. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I want to play more. But there's another game that
Speaker 3: we can't talk about yet that has just been.
Speaker 1: Like consumed everything. It's like all I want to do.
Speaker 1: I played a good ten ish hours of a Vowed.
Speaker 1: How'd you feel about it? So I where do I begin?
Speaker 1: For everything I do not like about Avowed is made
Speaker 1: up like tenfold for its actual design and gameplay. I
Speaker 1: think like the actual design of that world, like the
Speaker 1: way that the moment to moment gameplay of like exploring
Speaker 1: that world, doing the parkore, finding the nooks and crannies,
Speaker 1: like finding interesting things. The actual combat is like top
Speaker 1: tier phenomenal and rereading in. But I think everything else
Speaker 1: is from its writing, from its setting, from its characters.
Speaker 1: Isn't bad but just surface level enough to be like
Speaker 1: it's good and it's like and if if if the
Speaker 1: game was only those things, I would definitely be like,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna play this. I'm not going to enjoy this.
Speaker 2: Oh weird to me because it is like the polar
Speaker 2: opposite of like what I come to expect from Obsidian,
Speaker 2: which is I come to expect like interesting but very
Speaker 2: janky like gameplay mechanics, but like really stellar writing and
Speaker 2: like world building, and this one's like kind of the
Speaker 2: opposite for me in that sense where it's like I
Speaker 2: think the I think the gameplay and the exploroation is
Speaker 2: like great in a way that I'm like wow, Like
Speaker 2: that feels like a huge leap for Obsidian as a studio,
Speaker 2: Like normally I don't expect that from them, But then
Speaker 2: I find the writing to just be just.
Speaker 1: It's just good.
Speaker 2: It's it's just good, Like it's okay, it's it's it's
Speaker 2: it's very wordy.
Speaker 1: It's over explaining how I is, how I've been putting it.
Speaker 1: It's like every everything.
Speaker 2: I really want you to know about their lore really badly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And but they do it in a way that
Speaker 1: just doesn't feel like a natural conversation between examply. There's
Speaker 1: also this is like a nitpick that I've talked about
Speaker 1: a few times, but I think, to me, it's really
Speaker 1: emblematic of how I feel about the dialogue. There's a
Speaker 1: scene early on in the game when you're going when
Speaker 1: you first make it to like the paradise, the area
Speaker 1: and you go to like a merchant and if you're
Speaker 1: with Kai, your first companion, yeah, the merchants, like Kai,
Speaker 1: I thought I told you to stop coming back here,
Speaker 1: and in a situation like that, uh, high responds and
Speaker 1: he's like he's like, what you're still mad about that
Speaker 1: hunting knife? And there's something like that to me is
Speaker 1: like you really didn't leave a lot to as me
Speaker 1: as a player, to like imagine what the situation was.
Speaker 1: I also just think it's unrealistic if somebody came up
Speaker 1: to be like Corre thought I told you not to
Speaker 1: come back here. I wouldn't just explicitly say like what
Speaker 1: I have, says you at that time, I pede in
Speaker 1: your coffee, Like no, I would have been like I
Speaker 1: could imagine myself being like let it go, like just
Speaker 1: chill out, and then the person who I'm with has
Speaker 1: to kind of unravel like what the fuck was that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And that's the intrigue that yeah, missing like that like
Speaker 1: small natural of course, is like well what did you
Speaker 1: do about the hunting knife? Like I don't care about that.
Speaker 1: It's like the natural intrigue of being like, well, what
Speaker 1: the fuck was that? And I don't know I just
Speaker 1: feel it felt like a little robbed of my imagination,
Speaker 1: and that's fine. The rest of the conversations kind of
Speaker 1: fallow suit in that way where it's like you are
Speaker 1: explained everything that's happening at all times to a point,
Speaker 1: and then like it's cool that you can dig as
Speaker 1: much as you want into the Lord because they have
Speaker 1: that thing that was impentiment, right, Sure you can be
Speaker 1: encyclopedia thing. Yeah, yeah, which is cool, but again it's
Speaker 1: still done in a way where it's like it's just
Speaker 1: like noise to me, like there's just so much information.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, but I do. And also like, again this
Speaker 1: is the Kurt problems, but like if you squint your eyes,
Speaker 1: the game doesn't really like have much of an identity.
Speaker 1: Like it looks good, it looks great, it plays well.
Speaker 1: The art is phenomenal, but it's not. This goes to
Speaker 1: something I was complaining about a few weeks ago, where
Speaker 1: it's still like fantasy setting and it's like clean and
Speaker 1: in offensive. I don't I think you agree. I think
Speaker 1: it evolved, like not evolves, but I think.
Speaker 3: Like because I I haven't made it to this point,
Speaker 3: but I've seen what some of the areas look like
Speaker 3: the further along you get, and I feel like it
Speaker 3: does start to kind of forge its own identity in
Speaker 3: that way. Like I said, haven't made it that far.
Speaker 3: And I should also say I worked on this game.
Speaker 3: I'm in the credits, so like I are going to
Speaker 3: be somewhat careful about to say, and like you know,
Speaker 3: don't take my word for it if you're like deciding
Speaker 3: whether or not you want to buy this game or not.
Speaker 3: But I do think, like what I've seen of the
Speaker 3: later stuff, it feels like a little more confident in
Speaker 3: its style. Maybe I do think I do.
Speaker 1: I want to say, like it's hard for me to
Speaker 1: figure out the wording for my criticism because like it does,
Speaker 1: it does appear confident. It does on paperway look cool.
Speaker 1: It's just not in a way that's compelling me personally. Sure, Yeah,
Speaker 1: just like first impressions, first ten hours of the world,
Speaker 1: I was like, this is pretty and that's kind of
Speaker 1: like how I feel. And also if you go into
Speaker 1: the third person mode, I my fiance said this comment,
Speaker 1: and I can't un see it. She says, it looks
Speaker 1: like a fake video game you'd be playing in a show,
Speaker 1: like a TV show that we're playing it. It's just like, oh,
Speaker 1: that looks like a video game.
Speaker 2: Sure, it's it was clearly designed for first person.
Speaker 1: Yeah. First, but my last things will I will say
Speaker 1: is I'm usually not a very mechanics driven person, very
Speaker 1: only very specific games. I get really like into the
Speaker 1: like the actual feeling and design of games, mostly like
Speaker 1: Resioneaval games when they're done well. But I do really
Speaker 1: enjoy like the unabashed gamification in this game. It's good
Speaker 1: that like is very clearly missing from other big open
Speaker 1: world RPGs.
Speaker 3: In Elder Scroll I think too, like you mentioned it,
Speaker 3: but like oddly enough, like the platforming is kind of satisfying.
Speaker 3: It's very like, yeah, like there's not a lot of
Speaker 3: decent first person platforming games, especially in this genre, right,
Speaker 3: Like I think of like Elder Scrolls and it's like, yeah,
Speaker 3: you can jump like and.
Speaker 1: Glitch your way up a mountain. Yeah, that's kind of
Speaker 1: like the extent.
Speaker 3: Of the platforming where it's like I'm not following that path,
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna hop up. But like actually like using
Speaker 3: the verticality, using the platforming in order to like get
Speaker 3: on top of a building break open, like uh, you know,
Speaker 3: some boards in the ceiling and jump down and like
Speaker 3: or like fire arrows through there is like is is cool?
Speaker 3: And like kind of what you were saying, Like mechanically,
Speaker 3: this feels like such a big step for Obsidian that
Speaker 3: does maybe maybe people don't always expect.
Speaker 2: I mean just going off because I'm comparing this game
Speaker 2: a lot to their last game, Outer Worlds, because structurally
Speaker 2: it's kind of similar. I would say their last RPG,
Speaker 2: their last RPG.
Speaker 3: Sorry yes, throw that in their last.
Speaker 2: Big first person three RPG that game. I remember the
Speaker 2: open world stuff being not as memorable, like like I like,
Speaker 2: I remember like going from like a town to like
Speaker 2: a place to do a quest, but I remember just
Speaker 2: like I would walk to that quest, and I wouldn't
Speaker 2: really everything in between that is kind of a blur
Speaker 2: where in this game, I am constantly getting distracted where
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, I'm gonna walk to this quest, and
Speaker 2: every moment I'm like, oh, what's the direction?
Speaker 1: What's so for that direction?
Speaker 2: And it's really well designed where it always rewards me
Speaker 2: with something, even if it's just like hey, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: climb that thing and it's like, oh cool, I found
Speaker 2: like gold in a bird's nest, which is like a
Speaker 2: small thing, but it like I was like, oh, there
Speaker 2: was a thing here, and so then it makes me
Speaker 2: want to do that every time, and like, so far
Speaker 2: I'm always rewarded with something. I think it's incredible. That's
Speaker 2: what makes the game incredible well designed.
Speaker 1: The amount of times I've just walked, I've come across
Speaker 1: a building or a structure or thing and I find
Speaker 1: my own way into it and realize there's like fucking
Speaker 1: twenty other possibilities of how I could have gone into
Speaker 1: that building with through the front door, like some out
Speaker 1: like oh I have to get into this building, and
Speaker 1: like went through the rooftop instead. When I realized the
Speaker 1: entires time I could have just walked in, Why did
Speaker 1: I do this? How did I do all of this?
Speaker 2: But it's great and and and despite like the map
Speaker 2: being really seemingly small, it is very dense where it's
Speaker 2: like that maybe the footprint is like small for an
Speaker 2: open world, but I feel like the amount of like
Speaker 2: exploration I can do within that area is much more
Speaker 2: than like any other like other games of its of
Speaker 2: its ILK. So yeah, I think that part is compelling.
Speaker 2: I was sayn the combat is just like really really fun,
Speaker 2: especially the spell casting stuff, like it's it's kind of
Speaker 2: hard to make fun like spell casting in first person,
Speaker 2: and like you just have your spell book and you
Speaker 2: have your wand or you have your double wands, and
Speaker 2: you're just like maybe you're just like throwing off spells
Speaker 2: left and right, and it actually gets like surprisingly complex
Speaker 2: in terms of like enemy you know, like shields and
Speaker 2: like what they're weak too, and being like okay, I
Speaker 2: have to like I have to like prioritize this enemy
Speaker 2: or they're gonna like keep buffing this person. Like like
Speaker 2: like I think that combat is like exceptionally well made.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's why I keep it. That's why I compared
Speaker 1: it to an MMO when I was previewed it, And
Speaker 1: that feels the same way, where it's your crowd controlling
Speaker 1: and you have like a rotation of moves that you
Speaker 1: kind of get into rhythm of, or you realize that
Speaker 1: there's like someone buffing another player, so then like you
Speaker 1: have to put all your attention on that in a
Speaker 1: really interesting cool way, which I get like brings me
Speaker 1: back to like I have, like I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: a muscle memory of like World the Warcraft days.
Speaker 2: It feels much more than just oh, there's the enemies.
Speaker 2: I'll spam that attack and that attack, and you're just
Speaker 2: kind of like clicking on all your attacks. You have
Speaker 2: you do actually have to put thought and care into it.
Speaker 1: There's something sick about like having a two loadouts where
Speaker 1: you're like sword and shield and you go in and
Speaker 1: then you can just switch to a book in a
Speaker 1: wand and like do all this sick crowd control. Like
Speaker 1: I don't know, I think there's something really sad that's.
Speaker 2: Want in a gun and just yeah, like there's the
Speaker 2: variety and the ability to mix and matches is super cool.
Speaker 2: I've heard that like that the that kind of becomes
Speaker 2: a problem later and that like the economy of skill
Speaker 2: points is like an issue where I guess like there's
Speaker 2: not enough in the game and it makes it interesting
Speaker 2: difficult to actually like experiment. But I also haven't gotten
Speaker 2: to that point, so I can't speak on it. I've
Speaker 2: just heard that's an issue. But at least in the
Speaker 2: early game, like I do that first area, you are
Speaker 2: pretty you get a chance to like really like try
Speaker 2: mess around and try everything out, and that's like very
Speaker 2: fun and satisfying. So yeah, I think it's cool. I
Speaker 2: do want to play more, but I do feel like
Speaker 2: it's slowly slipping away from me. Yeah, these other games
Speaker 2: are starting to kind of come in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I will say the one thing that it's actually
Speaker 1: and this is not a fault of the game, it's
Speaker 1: just it's just my play style for how well condensed
Speaker 1: and designed everything is. I do realize how much I
Speaker 1: enjoyed just simply wandering around in games without the feeling
Speaker 1: of getting distracted, if that makes sense, just like a
Speaker 1: meditation and walking in games. So when I do look
Speaker 1: at a game to play, whether it's Avowed or Stalker two,
Speaker 1: which are the two games I'm playing the most right now,
Speaker 1: I often play Stalker two purely because I just enjoy
Speaker 1: moving through an environment and walking for a while and
Speaker 1: just absorbing in an atmosphere. So that's all I mean.
Speaker 1: The sky turns red and you just die And what
Speaker 1: the book or you what happened to me where I
Speaker 1: like was moseying along and all of a sudden my
Speaker 1: radar thing wasn't going off or an anomaly and it
Speaker 1: was like an explosion of electricity, and I was like,
Speaker 1: what the fuck does happen? And then you ever played
Speaker 1: a death Rain? What are we talking about what are
Speaker 1: you doing? What you are here?
Speaker 3: No, I was playing a good amount of stalk or
Speaker 3: two to finish up this dock we teas the.
Speaker 1: Couple months ago. We'll talk about the end of the
Speaker 1: pod again. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I was playing something and like, I'm so
Speaker 3: consistently impressed by like how surprising Stalker two is just
Speaker 3: like and how like it just doesn't feel the need
Speaker 3: to explain half the ship that happens in that game.
Speaker 3: Like I see like the most ridiculous looking anomaly that
Speaker 3: is like sucking in, Like all the trees in your
Speaker 3: by are like getting sucked in. I'm watching cars get
Speaker 3: crushed and then and like I'm like I should get
Speaker 3: close to that. And then I get sucked in and die,
Speaker 3: and I'm like maybe there's something to figure out. And
Speaker 3: I go back and get sucked in and die, and
Speaker 3: then I'm like this time, I'm gonna figure something out,
Speaker 3: and I just get sucked in and die and I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna let this thing what it looks cool, Uh,
Speaker 3: clearly I shouldn't touch it.
Speaker 1: And then I go on and do something else. I love,
Speaker 1: I absolutely love something.
Speaker 2: About like a because your video game brain like obviously,
Speaker 2: and then it's like the deaths were like no, it's
Speaker 2: like a your fox. It's like a thing that kills you,
Speaker 2: like you're not You're supposed to not go near that,
Speaker 2: like standing.
Speaker 1: Over throwing bolts at it, Like what does this do?
Speaker 1: What does this do? I'm just like I just die. Okay,
Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah that's great. Yeah. There's also been
Speaker 1: a few just great unscripted moments where I think you
Speaker 1: experienced it where this guy was like, hey, can you
Speaker 1: go in that uh that radio active plan over there
Speaker 1: and just give me back something, And the moment you
Speaker 1: walk through the door, there's like this creature I've never
Speaker 1: seen before that like.
Speaker 2: Multiplies into like oh yeah, other things, and I'm.
Speaker 1: Like, I have no idea how to do it again.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you saw me like climb onto a
Speaker 3: box and I'm just standing there while these other people
Speaker 3: are fighting it and like, you guys, take care of this.
Speaker 1: I have never seen this thing. I don't get down
Speaker 1: with radiation. Yeah, okay cool. I also does appreciate that
Speaker 1: games on RPG in the way that like you don't
Speaker 1: have a constant feeling or need to level up or
Speaker 1: upgrade like of course you upgrade things, but there isn't
Speaker 1: that sort of gameplay loop of where if you come
Speaker 1: up as an enemy and you just are getting fucking
Speaker 1: destroyed by it. It's not like I can go but
Speaker 1: just grind out and level but no, but just avoid.
Speaker 1: I can't deal with this thing, Like yeah, you just
Speaker 1: just walk away from it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then you can find like an artifacts or
Speaker 3: not artifacts what are they called? Like, uh, those things
Speaker 3: that give you like pretty cool buffs, but like many
Speaker 3: because you have to work to get them. But you
Speaker 3: find one and it's like, oh, this is worth a lot,
Speaker 3: or like you just decision making you have to make.
Speaker 3: I think that game is very good.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to play more.
Speaker 2: Shift into a different game. I played like a Dragon
Speaker 2: Iuza in Hawaii God. We gave it a seven out
Speaker 2: of ten on game Spot. I think that's pretty accurate.
Speaker 2: To be honest, I would say this is a it's
Speaker 2: so dumb, it's so it's it's and and there's an
Speaker 2: interesting conversation to be had about like has this game
Speaker 2: both metaphorically and physically jumped the shark of like what
Speaker 2: is Yakuza.
Speaker 1: Jumped the plank? Jump the plank?
Speaker 2: I mean there there are sharks in the game, sure,
Speaker 2: but uh, like, what is Yakuza anymore?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 2: Like you know, because it's always been this balance of
Speaker 2: like serious and like goofy. And I would say this
Speaker 2: is like goes more on the goofy side in a
Speaker 2: way that's just like like.
Speaker 1: Have we kind of lost the plot here? Yeah, a
Speaker 1: little bit. I think it's always been interested with that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because the series as it started, I mean, it's it.
Speaker 1: It was always a crime drama, yeah, and then the
Speaker 1: thing the comedic moments were like sprinkled and lightly infused,
Speaker 1: and then it like got more balanced as time went on.
Speaker 1: But now it just feels like they completely switched.
Speaker 2: Well, at least with this one. I I and and
Speaker 2: I do think the balance for you, because it is
Speaker 2: like the reason the comedic moments works so well is
Speaker 2: because it's so fucking dramatic and exactly like you'll watch
Speaker 2: a cutscene that's like extremely dramatic and soap operaty and
Speaker 2: just like intense and like violent, and then immediately it's
Speaker 2: like you see a man in his underwear like running
Speaker 2: around like nabido and you.
Speaker 1: Know, like human statute needs to take a shit exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, and it is just like that contrast.
Speaker 2: So this game leans more into that goofy side. But
Speaker 2: I think the fact that it is a side story,
Speaker 2: it's not the next like big tent pole, like you know,
Speaker 2: narrative storyline the franchise, like it can get away with it.
Speaker 2: It can be like it's like fine, It's like it's
Speaker 2: just you know what. This is just a weird side
Speaker 2: thing where Modima gets amnesia and then decides to become
Speaker 2: a pirate. Why are their old timey pirates hanging around Hawaii?
Speaker 2: Don't ask, it doesn't matter. Just get on your pirate
Speaker 2: boat customize. I have the stupidest boat. My boat has
Speaker 2: all of the like neon signs from Camarocho, like bolted
Speaker 2: to the side, and then my sails is a giant
Speaker 2: image of Kuru's face. But because of the way the
Speaker 2: sale like bends, it like stretches his face out, so
Speaker 2: it looks like distorted and wide and every and it
Speaker 2: shows up in the cut scenes so you'll like be
Speaker 2: they'll be like a dramatic cut scene of like we're
Speaker 2: gonna fight those pirates. Your face, you stupid face on
Speaker 2: my sails, And I'm like this is so dumb.
Speaker 1: So if has amnesia, does he know that he's put.
Speaker 2: I would like to imagine, because the whole thing is
Speaker 2: Modum is like obsessed with Kru. It's like, even with amnesia,
Speaker 2: he's still like I love that guy.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I.
Speaker 2: Don't know why, but I'm like, I know that guy.
Speaker 1: The one question, the one question I want to ask
Speaker 1: for you is a long term hardcore all right, I
Speaker 1: mean just in general, like do you think so like
Speaker 1: Nintendo has this thing where instead of coming up with
Speaker 1: new ips, they come up in new games and then
Speaker 1: they see how they can apply an existing IP to
Speaker 1: that game. So it's like they come with new mechanics. Yeah,
Speaker 1: right right, so it's just like yes, exactly new mechanics,
Speaker 1: or even like a sports game, like oh, we want
Speaker 1: to make a sports game and like we'll just put
Speaker 1: our existing Mario characters in it, and same thing with
Speaker 1: like yeah, it's like, oh, we came up with this
Speaker 1: cool mechanic. Do you think that's what RGG is doing
Speaker 1: where they're just like, we want to make a pirate game,
Speaker 1: but we don't want to come up with a new thing.
Speaker 1: We just want to make a good pirate game and
Speaker 1: just be like some fucking play some degree. I mean
Speaker 1: they you know, maybe not entirely because every game is
Speaker 1: sort of still iterating and brings in like elements, but
Speaker 1: it definitely felt like they were just like, hey, what
Speaker 1: if we just make like a black flag pirate thing.
Speaker 1: They're like, yeah, we could do that. Yeah. I will
Speaker 1: say I interviewed the director, the most recent director in
Speaker 1: lead of the Like A Dragon games and his whole
Speaker 1: I mean, the phiosophy of the studio is that they
Speaker 1: do operate story first. They always come up with the
Speaker 1: story first, interesting because and then they'll design the mechanics
Speaker 1: around it makes most sense for that character. So that's
Speaker 1: why I Like a Dragon became a turn based game,
Speaker 1: because it's like, well, Itchibon Costuka is not a brawler,
Speaker 1: he's obsessed with fantasy and dragon quest, so therefore the
Speaker 1: mechanics have to match that.
Speaker 2: That's interesting because I feel like this game feels the
Speaker 2: opposite a little bit, where it does feel like maybe
Speaker 2: they had the mechanic first and then came up with
Speaker 2: the game because the story in this game is like
Speaker 2: pretty whatever. In my opinion, I haven't actually finished it.
Speaker 2: I've heard like the very end it gets like it
Speaker 2: kind of gets a little more like emotional and serious,
Speaker 2: but like the majority of the story is like basically
Speaker 2: just here's an excuse to go do wacky like gameplay
Speaker 2: pirate shit like it. It is like the story feels
Speaker 2: more in service to the gameplay than the other way around,
Speaker 2: which again, because it's a side story, I don't mind it.
Speaker 2: I'm not like upset about it, but I do think
Speaker 2: when you look back on it, it's like, yeah, it's
Speaker 2: like this is fun, but like, is this going to
Speaker 2: this isn't going to like stick with me and hit
Speaker 2: with me, because like even a game like the last
Speaker 2: spinoff one they did Man Who Raised His Name, I
Speaker 2: would say the majority of that story is like not
Speaker 2: super good. It's just kind of spinning its wheels a
Speaker 2: little bit and you're like where's this going. But then
Speaker 2: the ending like just absolutely gut punches you in a
Speaker 2: way that's like, oh, like that's why this game exists,
Speaker 2: in a way that like I was like, yeah, this
Speaker 2: game is great, and this game is like justified itself
Speaker 2: and feels like it serves a purpose where this game
Speaker 2: and maybe again maybe this game will do it at
Speaker 2: the end, but from what I've heard, it really it
Speaker 2: doesn't to that degree. This game just feels more like, ah,
Speaker 2: we just wanted to have a fun little part adventure
Speaker 2: and I'm okay with that. There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 2: But I think that's kind of why for me, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's like a seven. It's fun, it's a good time.
Speaker 2: If you like Yakuza and you just want more of that,
Speaker 2: like you'll have a really good time doing it. But
Speaker 2: if you're like I want the next big thing. I
Speaker 2: want like the next evolution, you don't have to play this.
Speaker 2: You could wait, especially if you just played It's like
Speaker 2: Infinite Wealth is like one hundred hour game. This is
Speaker 2: not is more like a twenty to thirty hour But
Speaker 2: even then, but even then, it's like, you know, if
Speaker 2: you're just like, hey, I maybe want to break for
Speaker 2: a minute, you know, because they make these games so often.
Speaker 1: And they put like what like three.
Speaker 2: D yeah and no, like they pump them out a lot.
Speaker 2: And I also am like, well, eventually we're gonna hit
Speaker 2: I am wondering, like when we will hit the point
Speaker 2: of like fatigue.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well the next their next game is that.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that game looks sack fause that is like
Speaker 2: it has nothing to do with the ocasite.
Speaker 1: It's not in the same universe. Yeahs own thing and
Speaker 1: isn't like take place in like nineteen ten or like
Speaker 1: in nineteen twenties. Yeah, like Japan.
Speaker 2: And that looks awesome and I'm super excited for that,
Speaker 2: and I think that's like I wonder.
Speaker 1: If that game is going to be funny, because that
Speaker 1: truly didn't look funny. No, that came really seriously. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be surprised if they took it as an opportunity
Speaker 1: to kind of do something different DVA. Yeah, I would.
Speaker 1: I would love that. And then of course then they're
Speaker 1: doing Virtue Fighter too, like RGG Sega is just like
Speaker 1: you can take care of everything. Yeah, you can do everything.
Speaker 1: And they make monkey Ball too, Oh my god. And
Speaker 1: that one that one zombie shooter game is there like
Speaker 1: a Dead Souls. Yeah, it's called yea, the Dead Souls.
Speaker 1: It's like a non canonical like what if zombie showed
Speaker 1: up and they all had to fight?
Speaker 2: Like so that's the thing like in a world where
Speaker 2: like there was already a spin off game with like
Speaker 2: you're fighting zombies like is being a pirate? Like really,
Speaker 2: That's why I'm just like has it jumped to Shark.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I don't know. We already had like a
Speaker 2: weird spin off with with Zombies.
Speaker 1: I just think RGG is positioned in a different way
Speaker 1: in the zeitgeist, and they.
Speaker 2: Were then they were, and also they were technically this
Speaker 2: game cannon in a way that other game was not.
Speaker 2: But also I also go like, it's again, it's a
Speaker 2: spin off.
Speaker 1: It's fine. I don't.
Speaker 2: To me, it's it doesn't like, oh the canon is
Speaker 2: ruined now, like, what are you doing pirates crazy?
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, it's fine. Do you think they're gonna
Speaker 1: keep putting these games in Hawaii?
Speaker 2: No, I don't think they'll. I think they because the
Speaker 2: whole thing is they love to, like they bank all
Speaker 2: that stuff so they can go back to it. I
Speaker 2: think having because because they love to just like reuse
Speaker 2: their assets. They're very economical about the way they make
Speaker 2: their games in a way that I actually super expect.
Speaker 2: I think it's kind of brilliant, like to like, I
Speaker 2: think it's extremely brilliant.
Speaker 3: Do that. You know, It's like we have this whole
Speaker 3: space built out for the player. We could like late game,
Speaker 3: we can have them return and it feels very natural,
Speaker 3: Like I personally.
Speaker 1: Love that stuff. I think it's cool they want to
Speaker 1: learn that city you start to experience in a different way.
Speaker 2: I agree one hundred percent. But I also think they,
Speaker 2: at least so far, have like known when to like, Okay, well,
Speaker 2: well we'll take that one away for a while so
Speaker 2: you don't get too fatigue and will come back. So
Speaker 2: but it makes sense that they did it with this
Speaker 2: one because it's like, here's the spinoff that's building off
Speaker 2: a lot of what the last game was. It's what
Speaker 2: like like Lost Judgment was did the same thing where
Speaker 2: like after seven came out, Lost Judgment took place in
Speaker 2: oh Yokohama, and it's like, Okay, we're reusing the map, but.
Speaker 1: It's with different contacts. Smart. I think it's smart.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think they'll probably I'm sure they'll
Speaker 2: use Hawaii again, But I also think I don't think
Speaker 2: like the next main game would take place on Hawaii.
Speaker 2: I think they kind of know, like that's the opportunity
Speaker 2: to like really bring something new.
Speaker 1: Jake, where do you want to take place? San Francisco?
Speaker 2: Yeah, if they've opened they've opened the floodgates for like
Speaker 2: non you know, Japan because I think.
Speaker 3: It was during Summer game Fest talking to Stu about it,
Speaker 3: and Stu was like talking about like how they could
Speaker 3: use San Francisco.
Speaker 2: I mean, Chinatown would be like such an obvious.
Speaker 1: That kind of on North Beach, Japantown, Japantown.
Speaker 3: I mean, like there's not many Japantowns in the United
Speaker 3: States and like officially recognized ones, and those Japanese characters,
Speaker 3: how they would like interact in interpreting and almost.
Speaker 2: Criticize or like the idea of them like making up
Speaker 2: like a fictional yakuza that is in like the San
Speaker 2: Francisco like Japantown or loss. Yeah, but like imagine definitely
Speaker 2: not a fake.
Speaker 1: Fighting on the top of like the Salesforce tower or whatever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, throwing someone out the window of that. Yes, and
Speaker 3: you can play on the fact that half the building
Speaker 3: San Francisco is sinking because of you know, like I
Speaker 3: don't know, there's plenty of fun. There's a lot of
Speaker 3: you know, interesting characters. There's what the bush Man that
Speaker 3: they tried to put in uh uh watch Dogs. They
Speaker 3: did put it and watch it, but it was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: that's a funny joke, but I feel like there could
Speaker 3: be an entire sub story.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes that character, Yeah, oh that person. San Francisco
Speaker 1: is weird. So San Francisco is so weird.
Speaker 2: The amount of story, like side stories you can make
Speaker 2: about like tech bros and like even weird hippies and
Speaker 2: like plays Valley or Likenshbury.
Speaker 3: I feel like we're naming all these districts, though they'd
Speaker 3: probably only just take one. I know, it's like they
Speaker 3: would be okay, I don't know, like I just be
Speaker 3: I think that there's a lot of version of San Francisco.
Speaker 3: But yes they would. I would personally.
Speaker 1: I do you think it would be sweet to play
Speaker 1: is like see like Madrama and the Hate Ashbury. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like around that could be great.
Speaker 3: I mean the Nag's head could be a whole story,
Speaker 3: you know, like yeah, like it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they should hit us up and well this is
Speaker 2: what you here's all the spots put this in there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would love that. That would be so good.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, anyway, anyway, come with a better one than that.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't have a better one. Rochester, New York.
Speaker 1: The most boring places you could possibly do anything.
Speaker 2: I mean, it would be cool to see them go
Speaker 2: to I don't know. It's like part of me is like, well,
Speaker 2: they could go to other places in Asia, but I
Speaker 2: would be like nervous of that in the sense of like, uh, dude,
Speaker 2: like I don't care when like other countries like use America.
Speaker 2: It's like a setting because like one, I think we're
Speaker 2: so prolific that like it's not hard to understand us,
Speaker 2: and also like you can make fun of us. Yeah, fine,
Speaker 2: but like when you have when you when if you
Speaker 2: had like Japan, like go to like another Asian country,
Speaker 2: you know, like say South Korea, it's like, wow, there's
Speaker 2: a history of Japan and South Korea, and like maybe
Speaker 2: there I can see that being more like, oh, do
Speaker 2: you guys actually like culturally understand this place in a
Speaker 2: way that would land. So I don't know if they would,
Speaker 2: if they should do that, or if even they would feel.
Speaker 1: Comfortable doing that. In most cases, it's better for probably,
Speaker 1: like for I can imagine it'd be easier and better
Speaker 1: to do something that is more alien and removed from you,
Speaker 1: removed from.
Speaker 2: Your culture in a way so or so laser focused
Speaker 2: on because I think what makes Yakas are great is
Speaker 2: like they understand their culture so well and they're able
Speaker 2: to like lampoon it in a way that's like very
Speaker 2: like fun and satisfying and like you like you can
Speaker 2: like even as like an outsider, you can tell like yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, oh okay, you guys are you know you
Speaker 2: you you're really honing in on this like specific element
Speaker 2: of your culture and making.
Speaker 1: Fun of it in a way that's fun.
Speaker 3: So anyway, hire us to give you the spot everything
Speaker 3: to make fun of in San Francisco and all the
Speaker 3: sub stories, well all the points of interest.
Speaker 1: It'll be it'll be great. Yeah, there would be such
Speaker 1: a funny storyline with like tech bros like like I mean,
Speaker 1: like again, I can't like you know, imagine one of
Speaker 1: the character it writes itself. It's just like you would
Speaker 1: you could the mini games of the apps, like I
Speaker 1: don't know, I could already see like oh yeah, there
Speaker 1: would definitely be a you know, a stock market like game,
Speaker 1: but you're doing it for an app that you're like
Speaker 1: I don't know, like building or doing I don't know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's all there. You take way most to get around
Speaker 1: yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or you operate whatever, yes yeah, yeah exactly, I
Speaker 2: mean they already have stuff like that, exactly so it's
Speaker 2: like that that translates so perfect.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you manage you manage waymos. I have to deal
Speaker 1: with that and like people who do weird ship in
Speaker 1: your cars. I mean there was a whole taxi mini
Speaker 1: game in five exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just bring that back.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's all there took away middle last night
Speaker 1: listen to death upward. Who would have thought, good for you?
Speaker 1: Thank you?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: What else have we been playing that? You know?
Speaker 2: There was something I played. Now I'll wait till next
Speaker 2: week because I haven't finished it and I want I
Speaker 2: want to give my full it's it's Shouts of the
Speaker 2: damn to PreMaster.
Speaker 3: Mmm.
Speaker 2: I played half of it. I didn't get to play
Speaker 2: any last week. So this week and I'm going to
Speaker 2: finish it and I'll report back in my thoughts.
Speaker 1: Then. Yeah, because the game that most of you are playing,
Speaker 1: I can't talk about next week, so and I haven't. Boy,
Speaker 1: I cannot wait.
Speaker 2: I could probably guess what it is, but we're very
Speaker 2: excited to talk about it.
Speaker 1: True fear for.
Speaker 2: Those suffering one and two? Was there second suffering the
Speaker 2: ties that bind? Oh, it is the name of the
Speaker 2: second one.
Speaker 1: I thought that was the name of the the suffering,
Speaker 1: got got more got a franchise than Shocker did. That's
Speaker 1: a shocker Damn.
Speaker 2: I think that's a podcast.
Speaker 1: So it's good. I think we're gonna keep this one night.
Speaker 1: You Got a Baby.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much everyone for listening. Before we go, Jake,
Speaker 2: let's talk about that project we've been working on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're getting close to the finish line. For those
Speaker 3: who may have missed it, we teased it like end
Speaker 3: of last year, I think, but we've been hard at
Speaker 3: work on a uh Stalker two documentary that documents the
Speaker 3: the evacuation that a lot of the devs went on
Speaker 3: in order or after the full fledged invasion of Ukraine.
Speaker 3: We went to Prague to interview seven developers and then
Speaker 3: we interviewed two more who are still in Kiev, uh
Speaker 3: and in Ukraine over Zoom and that is Finally we
Speaker 3: are approaching the finish line, hoping to have it out
Speaker 3: before the end of the month, maybe early next month.
Speaker 3: But a lot of TLC has gone into this, a
Speaker 3: lot of research, a lot of preparation, a lot of editing.
Speaker 3: I mean, we've tapped a lot of people, including folks
Speaker 3: who used to work at GameSpot. Joey Ye has done
Speaker 3: a ton of graphics for it as well, which is
Speaker 3: really cool to work with.
Speaker 1: Joey again also.
Speaker 3: Incredibly talented of course, and then you know, you guys
Speaker 3: have helped lay that foundation. Richard and I have been
Speaker 3: like hard at work editing it and like.
Speaker 1: Shout outs to Richard in particular, I feel like Richard
Speaker 1: had brought this thing back on track, because this.
Speaker 2: Project I feel like would have potentially died. It's funny
Speaker 2: Richard hadn't come in and like helped us finish it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's I was thinking about this and it's
Speaker 1: in no way whatsoever comparative to what the team of
Speaker 1: Starker two did, But there is something sort of ironic
Speaker 1: out how like even like that team went through so
Speaker 1: much shit to get that game out, and then during
Speaker 1: the time of us putting this thing together, nothing comparable
Speaker 1: in the slightest, But it just feels like we've we
Speaker 1: ourselves have been through so many, so many roadblocks, and
Speaker 1: so many roadblocks like between just resources ands and like
Speaker 1: stuff like that were like their personal yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: just everything. We're just like I just need to get
Speaker 1: this fucking thing out the door. And you know, of
Speaker 1: course there's only a few of us compared to the
Speaker 1: four hundred four hundred people at GS.
Speaker 3: About I think, yeah, I think just over four hundred.
Speaker 3: But uh yeah, I would say, like, I'm sure a
Speaker 3: lot of people have seen the war Games documentary that
Speaker 3: Xbox in the Stocker team released end of last year. Yeah, hm,
Speaker 3: and this feels like somewhat of a continuation of that.
Speaker 3: I'd say I haven't watched it. I didn't want to
Speaker 3: watch it because I didn't want to kind of influence
Speaker 3: how we make this documentary.
Speaker 1: But from what I understand, a.
Speaker 3: Lot of this stuff covers stuff that, like like the
Speaker 3: x Buck documenting ends at a place and then we
Speaker 3: kind of pick up from there maybe.
Speaker 1: A little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I watched it because I kind of wanted to
Speaker 2: just like make sure we weren't we treading the exact
Speaker 2: same ground, and that that Xbox Dock very kind of
Speaker 2: covers a lot of of them leaving like like the
Speaker 2: actual evacuation, but it kind of ends once they then
Speaker 2: get to.
Speaker 1: Prague and then it kind of skips so ours actually
Speaker 1: talking to people who are continued and they're still in
Speaker 1: Progus exactly. So like we do cover the evacuate, we
Speaker 1: do cover the evacuation because you know, we want to
Speaker 1: like make sure that's explained and understood. You know, like
Speaker 1: we're not gonna assume people have watched that doc, but
Speaker 1: like it does go more in depth on like the
Speaker 1: process of like resetting up their lives after and I
Speaker 1: would say it it you know, we we maybe hone
Speaker 1: in on a few people that we're some people.
Speaker 2: There are some people that were in both, but I
Speaker 2: would say like we kind of like get a little
Speaker 2: more in depth with with some people and some of
Speaker 2: their their personal stuff. So yeah, I do think I
Speaker 2: think if you watch that doc, like it's still worth
Speaker 2: watching ours because we do talk about more things that
Speaker 2: weren't covered in that one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, things that like didn't happen when they like like
Speaker 3: there was a studio fire like that was covered in
Speaker 3: the Xbox document. Doesn't talk about that because it didn't happen.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that that doc, like they get to Prague, it
Speaker 2: skips time and then it ends with them like the
Speaker 2: first time they showed it at like Games Calm, like
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think so, like there's like a whole year's worth
Speaker 2: of stuff that has happened since and feelings and emotions
Speaker 2: that like we've gotten to capture and you know that
Speaker 2: that weren't in that thing.
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, anyway, very excited for to finally get
Speaker 3: that out the door. Like I said, a lot of
Speaker 3: people have been working very hard on that, and I
Speaker 3: think folks will hopefully and maybe not.
Speaker 1: Enjoy it that seems like the wrong one, but maybe
Speaker 1: get more context.
Speaker 3: In terms of like how that game was developed, in
Speaker 3: the insane situation that that team was put under in
Speaker 3: order to ship a game, and the legacy that the
Speaker 3: potential legacy that that game has given everything that happened.
Speaker 1: But I don't want to say too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's one thing the world needs more right now.
Speaker 2: It's it's like just the opportunity to like empathize, understand
Speaker 2: and understand people and like what they've been through and
Speaker 2: what they're still going through.
Speaker 1: So yeah, anstocer To is a good game to game.
Speaker 2: So you know, if you haven't played it, you should
Speaker 2: do that.
Speaker 1: Maybe it'll encourage you to. Anyway. Thank you so much everyone.
Speaker 2: We really appreciate your continued to support on this podcast
Speaker 2: and just all the things we do here that game
Speaker 2: spot and and all that jazz. Thank you you too
Speaker 2: for being on they get a maxim the back max
Speaker 2: I love you making this thing go.
Speaker 1: Funk off and with that, we'll see you next time. Goodbye,