Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to side Quest. This is our weekly
video game show here at Gie First. I'm your host,
Eil must Night with me the clown Prince of podcast.
This is your second cast back technically on side Quist,
but your first main one. We're just me and you
talking about games, so I'm excited to have you back.
Speaker 2: How are you doing tonight?
Speaker 3: Good?
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I'd say I'm excited to talk about today's
I am excited about today's topics, but they're like depressing
topics to talk about, luckily, just first world depressing, right,
But it's not like I think there's a juicy discussion
to have there. But I don't like that we're discussing
because all the news we've tabledlaiter just bad news. So
it's nothing, nothing great. But I'm excited to be back
on doing a solo one with you.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, we Today's episode is really just to
be two things. So one is talking about WB games
and just the status of them as like a publisher.
I guess you could say there's been a lot of
news around that and that's the depressing news that you're
talking about there, and then just some of the games
we've been playing, which you know is in large part
just what you've been playing over your kind of pat
Lee here over the last few months. And then I
have one game that I'm very excited to share with you,
But why don't you take it away first? What have
you been playing over these last few months?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so start with the juiciest one. So I played
Alan Wake completely done and beat. So I have this
new kind of method I want because there's we tell
this all the time backlog and then we tell them
on side quest. Like there's so many games that I
haven't finished or want to play, and there's I get
in that cycle of new game comes out and then
how I buy that, then something goes back.
Speaker 3: I really feel like.
Speaker 4: This year I'm only gonna be buying Desk Tranding, GTA,
and WW and that's maybe ghost Ghost.
Speaker 3: I need to see more ghosts.
Speaker 4: If they have the legend moll the multiplayer like day one,
then I'm in there right away because I'm like we
talked about that was off, like that's like I want
to be dropping with the boys. But because I think
I was, like you were that first trailer, I was
a little underwhelmed, but it's one just because I want
to I don't know how much time I got for
all the newer games, so I want to focus on
like Desk training DJ those ones are gonna be very long.
But two, it's just there's just so many games that
are now, like with I don't wait, I got for
ten bucks, and it's like these are games I actively
really want to play, but I'm like, it's like, oh,
something's coming out, so I go and drop like one
hundred dollars on it and still play it and like it.
But it's like I could buy that game maybe six
months from now whenever, and it'd be like a little
bit less. There's still games, and I'm sure even when
we get to summer there's gonna be games again now,
so it's like, Okay, I gotta buy that one, you know,
like we don't know even at ten I was directly
when the Switch two comes out, yeah, like met Troid,
that would be one like Okay, I gotta buy that.
But that's just like on the dock where its okay,
there's some that I want to justify. These are the
big ones I know I love, and then there's just
so many games that like just even stuff like I'm
starting to make a list, but like Resident Evil eight,
which I know you played ages ago, but it's like
I really liked seven and most people say like it
it's like a bit of a step down, but it's
like I want to play it, and I see it
on the store again for like you know, ten dollars
or whatnot. So I got but.
Speaker 1: They have I think two and three remake on game
Pass currently, So those are's a lot of good ones
to easily jump into.
Speaker 4: And though it's weird, I think I might own one
of those already, Like I think I bought on a sale.
Speaker 1: I think there was one of them on like a
PS plus.
Speaker 4: Or yeah like that, and they're just sitting there. It's
just it's stuff like I don't ever play it. But
like one day I bought like Watchdogs too because it
was like on like a ten dollars sale and I've
never touched it. So that's where I like, I want.
So my new method is I am doing either finishing
a game and then a backlog game. So right now
I finished down Wake and then I'm gonna do we'll
talk about next. I'm gonna finish Indie or finish what
I feel like. Okay, I've satisfied I played the main
campaign and whatnot and a little bit more. But that's
my idea is there's a few games like Hogwarts Legacy
I've never beaten and I still liked it. Okay, I'm
gonna go back and fully beat that. So that's my
switch off is game I'm you know, fifty seventy five
percent not done and or done hopefully and then onto
a new game. And then my trajectory right now is
doing allan Wake one. Two is gonna be next, and
then I'm gonna do uh control. I want to do
the whole remedy, remedy Spear and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: And yeah, it was.
Speaker 4: It worked out well because for what was it for
boxing or no for Black Friday? Alan Wake was on
for like ten bucks and then al Wake two was
on a sale but it was still like forty four dollars.
Speaker 3: I was like, like, I feel like.
Speaker 4: It could drop more, so we'll see and I wait
for Boxing day. Alan Wake one was not on sale,
but then al Wake two was on sale for like
twenty five bucks. So I played it, Oh, completely right,
great deal, but then I played it a little bit
wrong where there was someone where like if you bought
Allan Wake two on a sale. You got all Wake
one for free, so I missed it on that one.
Yeah so I but I spent yeah about three dollars. Yeah,
I played Alne Wake. That's a game that even with
two like you and many other people just know what
I like. I've always like you go out to play
this and that. So that's why that was at the
top of the list, just because that's when I keep
everyone will say like, oh, that's a Travis game, and
it completely was. I absolutely loved it. There's some things
that like, yeah, I played the remastered to be clear,
it's like there's somethings like a like a little bit dated,
but like on an enjoyment level like that for me
is like a ten AD ten a technical level maybe not,
but I enjoyed the whole way through. And my new
method for playing games is for new games is if
it's a month, if we got four weeks, there's one
night a week I play you know the game, and
then last week, each night I just play it and
just go because that's the thing I found my method
of kind of all play and then come back to
eventually then I'm lost. I don't know what I'm doing.
I've forgotten some stuff. So it's like when I've picked
a new game or like a game, I just want
to be as fast as possible and then maybe some
time in between the next one.
Speaker 3: And that's why I did on one of my last weeks.
Speaker 4: It was just like two weeks of like six days
in a row, just Allen Wake, and I absolutely loved.
I didn't know this, how did the game because it
was it's in chapters or episodes whatever?
Speaker 3: Did the game release like that back in the day,
because I never played it at all?
Speaker 4: Even back then people also traskan, but like, did all
release it one? And was that just a storytelling way?
Or did they release it in six chunks?
Speaker 1: Do you know they released it all at once?
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 1: Is there a deal seed that you know?
Speaker 3: Is there's two chapters which I got to play, but
I have.
Speaker 1: Okay, so I don't think I've sorry, do you mean
with on way two or one for.
Speaker 2: The deal see one?
Speaker 3: Sorry?
Speaker 1: Not?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Okay, So I don't know if I ever actually played
that stuff, because I think I played Alan Wake at
launch and I'd never gone back to it, So I
couldn't tell you exactly, but I know what they did do.
One of the things that got me really hyped on
it is like they had like a YouTube series leading
up to the release of the first game. This is
maybe like half an hour hour's worth of content that
was like live action stuff, and it kind of led
up to the events of the game, and then obviously
the game was like all at once, and then Yeah,
I actually don't know what's going on with the DLC
there because I never checked that stuff out, and I
don't really remember how the game was chopped up in
terms of chapters and stuff.
Speaker 2: But yeah, Allen Wake two is like very.
Speaker 1: Much like chapter one chapter and like, okay, it feels
like a TV series right in the way it's written.
So yeah, I don't have an exact memory on I was.
Speaker 4: Gonna say, two did you have like obviously they probably
be different, but did you feel like there was a
lot of time, Like I feel like the first game
was kind of like four hours ish was a chapter
in a sense. Hmmm.
Speaker 1: I feel like that they seem to maybe a bit shorter,
and I guess it with allan Wick two as well,
Like since you have two characters and they swap between
them at different points in time, I think that makes
the breaks a little more clear, perhaps since you're like
not just going from one location to the next, You're
kind of zipping back and forth between these two characters.
So I think it maybe feels a bit more broken up.
But yeah, once again, Alan Wake too, I played it
in like high school, and I haven't ever revisited it,
so I'm I'm very fuzzy on the originals.
Speaker 2: That's why I'm glad that you were checking it out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And that's somehow gave because I feel like it's
the same thing where it's like I feel like in
a film sense that's comparable to Blade Runner, where the
first film was like really well regarded and not a
massive hit. I feel like Alan Wick like it was
like like a hip I don't think it was also
like a huge hotcake style, right even with Alan Wake two,
I think it was like last year. They still report
like they had made a profit on but it has
like such critical acclaim, right. So, but somehow I'd never
been spoiled on it, Like I didn't know it was
about his wife going missing, and I love, like, Okay,
you start and you go, you're on some certification because
he is writer's block and he's gonna write you go
this island, and then the chapter the wife goes missing,
and then when they find you.
Speaker 3: This is where I love.
Speaker 4: It's just like, oh, yeah, that cabin you went too,
the island thing that doesn't even exist, that's not even there.
So right away it's like, Okay, we're into for some
really wild stuff. I kind of figured that because I've
seen aunt Wake two stuff. I feel like I'm not spoiled,
but more knowing of stuff in Down Waight two than
the first one. But then I was like, okay, we're
very heady. I love the way that the game has
like a like you are off the oun Wake, but
it has this narration throughout. I love the finding the
chapters and it's stuff like you'll be like, oh, you know,
things were going well and then the bulldozer came in,
but that won't happen for a few hours later, Like
you start to find chapters.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's so cool.
Speaker 4: I love all the light mechanics, and I love that
each chapter you kind of get something new, like whether
it's flashlight, mega flash, like ultra flashlight, like shotgun popchunt gun,
and I like there's certain times where they all come together.
You do have the classic like every chapter for some reason,
Alm Wake like falls down and loses all this stuff. Right,
so you're ever.
Speaker 3: That's the tough thing.
Speaker 4: Like I felt like near the end not so much,
but the chapters like one to three, I was consuming
like batteries, uh ammo, like I was making sure I
had so much as possible and then okay it goes away.
So then near the end like I'm just gonna start
using this all. I was just not consuming conserving it.
But yeah, I had a great time with it. It's uh,
you know, unfortunately he passed away recently. But there's uh
David Lynch, who's a great director. There's a show called
Twin Peaks. I'm not sure if you've ever seen it,
but it's just known for like it's a lot of weird,
heavy stuff, but it's just it has a lot of oddball,
screwy characters, a lot of characters that stand out and
like are memorable and even if they're in it just
for a scene or two, you think about that moment.
And that's why I loved about this. Where Alan Wake
and his wife and there's a couple other people that
are you know, i'd say just normal, but everybody else's
has some something off about them or something weird.
Speaker 3: I loved. I'm not sure.
Speaker 4: Maybe it happened to al wait two. Oh gosh, there's
a TV show. I can't remember what it is.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's like the Twilight Zone.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was fantastic. I watched every single one of those.
I had such a good time. Some were like, oh,
that's really good. Some of like that's felt pointless. But
I loved like it just felt like such a well
thought out world like it to me was I was
mad at myself I'd not played it sooner because it
just was like the base game by itself is fun.
It's just like a survival. Make sure you got enough batteries.
I like the it's a very simple game. You know,
bad guy pops up, shine a light on them, shoot them.
Speaker 3: That's it, you know.
Speaker 4: And they do get new enemies as far as like
trucks and stuff start to come alive. And I love
the fourth wall breaking where they'll talk about like that'll happen,
and then you'll talk about, well, Stephen King had Christine
and all these other vehicles and stuff. And from a
story point of view, I love that there's like three
angles where either it's all happening, you're crazy, or it's
just like a story come to life that's like really happening.
Or there's like some of it's like maybe you could
be like within a story, within a story, and like
each chapter they kind of like play up multiple avenues,
so you really don't know until I'd say, at the end,
they make it pretty clear. I am very curious what
they do with alan Wake two because they feel like
alan Wake won the show. Okay, this is the path
you're on and this is the end of the story
where too it's okay, that's kind of revealed. But uh, No,
I absolutely love the game, and I actually really like
because that's what I would do every night. I'd be like,
can get to the chapter and then with that's when
I'd be done. So it was always like a really
good stopping point for me, and I would really I
could really plan out, like, Okay, this takes three to
four hours depending on some situations. There's some that are
like harder levels or areas. But no, I absolutely loved
everything about this game. It was such a good time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I a few questions for you because I'm just
so happy that you that you have loved this game.
One thing that I love about this series and something
that I didn't really appreciate back when I played this
game back in high school, but I can kind of
appreciate now is that Alan Wake is a writer and write.
Speaker 2: The whole story is about that.
Speaker 1: As you're talking about there's like things they get it
written in or out of the world, and you're finding
these manuscripts and whatnot. But I love that, Like he
is supposed to be kind of a bad writer, and
it's like interesting from thinking about that of like them
writing them doing good writing to write a character who
is a bad writer. And I'm curious for you, as
someone who has written scripts and written all sorts of stuff,
how do you how do you feel like about that?
And like, especially once again since I'm very foggy on
Allen Wake one, did that kind of come through in
the same way or is that more something.
Speaker 2: That you think the sequel's going to do.
Speaker 3: It comes through a little bit, I'd say at the beginning.
Speaker 4: I think once you get to chapter four, that stuff's
pretty much gone because you're really in the you're like
going in caves, you're going like you're in a mental
like they do the full, which is it's funny because
I this game.
Speaker 3: Came out before we had reviewed Moonnight.
Speaker 4: There's that episode where moon Night ends up in the
asylum and they're all like, oh, none of this happened,
you see, like all the things that could have been,
and there's an episode in the game that is like that.
Speaker 3: I was like, man, did.
Speaker 4: These writers of the combook play on a way? Because
I always thought all that was a Moonnight thing. Now
and I watch or play this, I'm like, oh, man,
I wonder if any of these people play this game.
It was like, Oh, that'd be a great idea for
a story. So it lessens as the story goes on,
as it gets more venturous. Obviously at the beginning they
kind of talk about like how schlocky it is, and
even they have times where you seem in interviews he
comes off as very like pompous and like like I
know people might say like, oh, that's a lot of
writers or actors or whatnot, but in a way where
it's like, ah, this stuff isn't maybe as good as
you're saying, but.
Speaker 3: I like that kind of.
Speaker 4: How even with when you find little pages, it feels
like he's a little full of himself, but I love
the actor's voice, act like he did such good Joe
and he's narring, like I walked through the woods and
I couldn't my cold clammy thoughts, like I really love
his voice. I don't know what else he's done. I
want to get that guy in like movies too, like
pigs or stuff. I really liked Alan Wake's voice. But
and it's like, because I looked up, because I know
they're connected. I looked up should I play control before
Allan Wake two? And people said, oh, there's some stuff
in there, but nothing like huge you need to know about.
Speaker 3: So I still want to play too.
Speaker 4: But that was one of the most popular red threads,
was like is Alt Wake a bad writer? And there's
like I went down the wormhole a little bit of
people like making examples and stuff.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that was that.
Speaker 4: That was a fun journey to go down with, especially
at the beginning.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, and I also, yeah, I'm very excited
for you to get to the sequel because like the
the Twin Peaks things, like there's even more of that,
those like very direct comparisons, even though I still have
not seen Twin Peaks, but just like afterwards, hearing like, oh,
this diner is like the Twin.
Speaker 3: Peaks the Diners.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like that comes back, and there's certain characters.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's just like stuff like you have the old
Like that's why I love you these guys that are
first they're just old geezer rock and roll people in
a band, and then when you meet them in asylum,
they think they're like thor and some other like they
they're like dogs and stuff. So it's like that, and
that's why I love. It's a it's a full immersion
of the world, and things come back. That's why I
love Like even the tiniest things in the game come
back later on and you feel and that's why again,
that's why for me, I'm trying to play games all continuously,
because that's game where let's say, even enjoying it, I
play it and maybe take a month or break and
you just don't you lose some of that. So that's
why I'm okay, when I start a game, I'm making
it in a time where I can just power through it,
and uh, you know, not in the sense of like
reviews where I had to be like, okay, last of
Us too, I'm like powering through it. Like a nice
rate though, where it's like, Okay, I just want to
be able to remember and recall things.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and then another one, like, I like my
favorite part about Allan Wake two is just the use
of mixed media where obviously it does a video game
and there's video game graphics, but then there are like
live action sequences. There are the TV shows that are
kind of contextualized with in the world, but then some
of that's live action.
Speaker 2: They have like music videos and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, like I didn't really remember any of that
from the first game, other than obviously like the YouTube
series which was a live action leading into it. But
are there are the shows in the game like live action.
Speaker 3: In live action?
Speaker 4: Okay, I totally forgot about that, even like in the
last chapter one of those interviews as to hum where
he's like on a Tonight show sort of sense, he
it's a lot it's down host and it's a guy
I can't remember his name, the guy that did make
the game.
Speaker 3: I know he's more prevalent in.
Speaker 2: The sound lake. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but like in the first game, he's just like
you know, on a Tonight show when they'd be the
first guest and the second guest and the old school
that used to sit on the couch with you. Sam,
like's just like just beside him, just like listen, he says,
nothing does nothing. But now playing this like no, it's like, oh,
that's a really fun East egg there. So yeah, all
that stuff in World World is all live action, and
uh it's uh, it's it's it's interesting. I can see
why some people might be put off by. I think
it's similar like when we got across the Spider Verse
and you had like a live action donklover. It is
like a weird I just think it's like those like
images where it's like like like what am I? What
am I doing right now? What is the eyes thing?
It's always like it's oh, Squint's that it is Okay,
It's like squint and you'll see this image and that's
how I feel.
Speaker 3: Sometimes.
Speaker 4: It's it's weird seeing like you're playing as Allan Wake,
the video game character. Everything's video game, but then you
have this TV that it's like real people. It's just
it's like offsetting. Not in a bad way, but it's
just it's it's an odd sight to see.
Speaker 3: So, but yeah, lots of that stuff in there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it's so fun to hear. I really am
so foggy on that thing. I think it's because like
when I played that game back in the day. I mean,
there was that hook initially that YouTube series that got
me into it, but I think I more enjoyed it
as like, this is a scary game that's like fun
to play, as like a horror experience, and that was
a series I hadn't really played back in the day,
and it was terrifying for me. But I also played
it like only at night with the headphones on really
loud in the scary room. Nice, I'm glad you did that.
And then it's funny like the It's kind of like
flipped with Alan Wake two, where I still there was
some moments that were scary for sure. There's a lot
more like jump scares in the second where there is
a lot of jump I can't say more because I
don't remember much of the first game, but first I
hated them. Yeah it's not as over, yeah, but I
but I going into the second one, like I just
kind of hated the combat. I eventually just like turned
it off, like turned the difficulty down to like nothing,
and I just enjoyed the story in the world and
the crazy characters and stuff. So it's funny that there
was almost like a one eighty flip. And I think
it's just because, like whatever, fifteen years have gone by
since I've played that, and I'm like looking for different
things in games.
Speaker 2: But yeah, did you since you were playing in that
kind of mode?
Speaker 1: Was it like scary when you compare it to like
other horror scary games you've played.
Speaker 4: There, I don't think as like i'd have to think,
but like I feel like Outlast probably scary. I'm trying
think horror games I've played in the past, like five years.
I would put out Lasts over it. I'd put like
The Last Resident Evil over it. So I think it
has it's its moments. I think I love the atmosphere
it has, especially there art times where it's just like
you're in a bunch of bushes and things.
Speaker 3: Could pop up.
Speaker 4: I'd almost love it, though I'm not sure if the
second games does this, but the first game, it'd be
like you'll be walking and then it makes it sound
effect where it's like and it's like this, you start
to slow like it goes slow motion, and then they
show the guys coming I almost wish there was less
of that because it's good from a commat point of view,
because you know, okay, flashlike gun reygo, let's fight. But
there is a point of view where it's like, oh,
if I didn't know that coming, it might be harder,
but it could be even scarier.
Speaker 2: So I'm not sure. Yeah, I don't know how.
Speaker 4: They tackle that on the second game, but I think
there's some moments, but I don't think it's as probably
jump scary as what you're described with Alan Wake Too.
That sounds like it might be more on the scarier
where this says a lot of because there's a lot
of downtime, like like when a car comes up there
and starts shaking. It's not the scariest, right It's because
I think there's a lot of cheese in it where
I think, like I don't Wake Too sounds like it
has that but still has leans.
Speaker 3: A bit more on the horror dramatic side.
Speaker 4: But I'm excited to find out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm really excited to hear you get to the
second one because I think it's a great thing. You
waited one, you saved yourself a lot of money, but
also the game was very very buggy when it first
came out, having crashes like the opening cut scene, the
audio bugged out, the al't Wake two I'm talking about,
Oh oh yeah. Yeah, So that's why I'm glad for
you to get into the sequel and like you'll have
presumably a much like smoother experience than I had. That
really distracted from a lot of like the opening and
the literally the first cutting in the last cut scene
that completely bugged for me. So that really like took
the window to the sails of like my first impression
of my final impression of it, and then through the
middle wasn't too bad. But yeah, I think you'll have
a much smoother ride.
Speaker 2: So that's good.
Speaker 3: Especially with that game. You could be like is this
part of it or not? Oh?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, it's like always there's supposed to be no audio here,
like the game is supposed to cut.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I see what they're doing here.
Speaker 1: I see there's the kind of studio that would intentionally
crash your game to make it feel like that was
written into the story or something.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like I feel like I tell this story every
few years and you might remember. But just for anyone
that does that, I remember when my Emily and my sister.
We saw the first Conjuring theaters and there was broken speakers,
so when it popped the right studio, like who was there?
It was like but when you watch the Conjuring, it
still starts with like loud or creepy music. But we're like, okay,
I guess this is a choice, Like this is really loud,
but I guess this is what they're going for. And
then you know, Jimmy two Shoes walks out and was like,
oh no, this this broke, and we need to give
you free popcorn.
Speaker 3: But it was like, is this what they're going over?
I can't remember too.
Speaker 4: I knew somebody uh oh, I can't remember who it was,
but quiet place two in that Oh, I think maybe
it was handsy. I could be real handy of it
too show. But I feel it's one of our female
listeners or someone in our spear that they saw a
quiet place too, And the first twenty minutes there was
like no audio, but they thought it was like a choice,
but then saying like oh no, it's broken, but like,
oh I get it, They're going it's a quiet place
for audio. So it is funny when those you have
those movies that are a bit more artsyer have them
some of the styles when you that's it never happens
like with a Marvel movie right right now, Oh this
isn't This isn't a take. It's like that where it's
like conjured Allen wake if you were to tell me
there could be a bug. There's multiple times that doesn't
have like Honestly, the greatest example I think, I think
that's why it's a good one is and you've played
it at least is in that first Arkham Asylum game
when they do like a random bug and it makes
it look like your game crash. Like that's why that
was so good because it just happened like a like
a game you and thing right like a Batman game,
which we'll talk about later. But yeah, I do do
do intentionally more of those, not uh not unintentionally with
the mistakes of the beginning.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I feel like Kojima does a good job
of like implementing fourth wall the video gaming things to
mess with the player experience, but definitely need some more
room for that if it's used tastefully cool what else
you've been playing?
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then this is not like so much because
it'll be the next time too. Uh, it's a me playing,
but it's a helping. So I Dylan luckily wise off
remind me, hey, if you got any of those Nintendo vougers,
use them because they're expiring.
Speaker 3: And I did. I'm because those were I just.
Speaker 4: Spam them for a while, just like okay, get this
and this and this. That's okay, what do I want
to get? And I talked about like even Luigi's mansions too.
I want to but I'm gonna go like wait, eventually
drop a little bit, Peach. I'd heard your guys' thoughts,
and again, like I still look for more multiplayer games
on Nintendo for me and the girl.
Speaker 3: So that's where finally just did the Plunge.
Speaker 4: Got Smash Ultimate, a game that, like I said, I'd
never bought, just because I felt like in the Gauntlet years,
I was playing that thing weekly, you know, like it
felt like I didn't own it, but it's pretty much
felt like I owned it. And then because anytime I
come to Dylan's place, it's like, oh, I got this
person to lock this person and then you try and
for a bit you play them. But this was more
sort of like okay, trying to get them into games
that are bigger now as far as just older and
because they've played Mario and now they're starting to play
Mario Party by themselves like they like before it was hey,
give them a controller, you know your peach right, like
you know quotations, but now they're trying me and Emily
said on easy right.
Speaker 3: So for us, the even though I've never actually won a.
Speaker 4: Mario Party with as a family, uh, we've played three
times and for some reason, I just get I got
one time, screwed over by a chance time and lost
like the Hot Stars. Yeah it was. It's not great,
but so yeah we did smash because they're just all
I've played so far by themselves is like Bluey the
video game, you know, or there's like one other one,
but it's like that where it's okay, these are very
kid games.
Speaker 2: Are very based on the Patrol game. Maybe that was
on game, yeah, Paul Patrol.
Speaker 4: There's Paul Patrol Pop Adventure and like there was a
Mario Kart version of it, so yeah that's the other one.
Speaker 3: So only that and they played like we did the
Ninja Turtles games together.
Speaker 4: But that's still pretty easy too write, Like you just
sit side scroll and hit buttons. I need Emily because
like at the time we played it not the best
them let me die a lot. But I digress. So yeah,
we did Smash and I was curious because I didn't
like so my tool stars seven to five. They're the
ones that play at Ellie who's three, is in the
stage where she gets a controller that is uh, you know, dead,
not a real control. But I was curious because like
I like, I'm trying to think when the sixty four
came on that version, but you just don't remember that, right,
you just remember, Hey, I as a kid that's played
this game, but I didn't remember. Oh I was specifically
eight and a half. Is this I just it just
came into my life. So I'm like, I think they're
ready for this, but I wasn't sure, especially Logan who's
only five. Like, I think they're ready enough, so let's
test this out. So this is what we did, so
we bought it. We would do always. They've done a
few solo matches, but usually it's like the three way,
which that's why I love Smash Ultimate in the new games,
where you can do like the multiple teams and everything
like that. So yeah, we always do it's like me,
Gwenn and Logan and then Fli's around. We putting a
CPU right now, they're playing the CPUs at a level
of three that seems to be like the the right amount.
Did a four once and they kind of got a
little bopped, so three is like that's their right level
where it's like, Okay, we can do this. But yeah,
it was honestly, so we played at boot up and
then I said this in the discord, but it was
one of the greatest nights of my life because they
just absolutely loved it. We play try to play once
a week, if not every two weeks because and the
gimmick of unlocking characters I just forget, like how hype
that is as a kid, Yeah, to like, you know,
new full Point, because even if it's like they don't
know shit about Marv, but it's still like, oh there's
a new character and this, and then there's that hype
of and it's always me playing They've never done that,
but they want unlocked, especially when I kind of forgot this,
like the opening game, you don't have Peach so Ellie
the whole time is like, oh, when's peach Win's Pezza.
So when we got Peach.
Speaker 3: That was like a big moment.
Speaker 4: And the first night we legitimly played it was I
don't know, six seven hours, like we had a huge
It went on for a long time and it.
Speaker 3: Was just fantastic to see them sitting there playing it.
Speaker 4: And yeah, they for the most part, you know, we
are playing with weapons because a little more hype with
kids right now. I did explain to them why some
people don't play with weapons and stuff, but you know,
they they've gone the hierarchy of hey, when the trophy
or poke ball drops, you go for that right away,
the ultimate go for that right away. You know, I've
taught them all that stuff. They learned how to throw
away weapons because now I could see them before hype
of getting weapons so like this is annoy Like I
don't want this weapon anymore, Like how do I get
rid of it?
Speaker 3: So but it was tons of fun to know.
Speaker 4: They've they've picked it up pretty well. Logan's danger is
the corners. She's even if she's not playing as Little Max,
she's very like she gets that corner. That's been the
hardest thing is the mastering of like the special tag
b I don't know they're called, but like the b
bun that's been the like okay, doing the combo of
like not just hitting that, but hitting it to left
to the right, like hitting it up.
Speaker 2: To specifically the recovery moves to get back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's the toughest thing. I thought.
Speaker 1: I guess you could just pick stages that don't have
a ledge.
Speaker 4: We usually do, but now they've been last week when
they played, they've been adventurous. Okay, yeah, because like that's
the thing where it's like you can do the stages,
but like all the platforms look pretty boring, right, like
it's just a platform and then the background of whatever
it is when they see like the racetrack, like Gwen
want to she picked the Mario Kart circuit when I'm like,
you guys are gonna get roasted on here. Actually want
to try and they lost, like they just like the
CPUs destroy them because there's many times and that's a
great thing the game is because with the twins anymore,
I need to help. I can just okay, be out
this round, and I set it to a CPU to
help them out because I was like, you know, give
them one person to be with their and they can
still do it.
Speaker 3: Like Gwen and uh.
Speaker 4: Logan did her first one v one last week and
Gwen said a couple of them she wants to do
them on her own. So but yeah, so they've been
starting to do the bigger stages that have those falls
just because like they look so cool. You go over
them like, oh, I want to do this, I want
to do that. So I think that is like it's harder,
but it will also teach them sooner, like hey, you
do have to rely more on recovery or getting up,
and yeah, it was. It was interesting because the first night,
I think they're level one and level two. The first
night they never lost. I wanted them to lose, but
they never lost because like, oh I need to teach
them like they got they gotta love, they gotta know
what it's like. And now we went up to three
and that's way more stage dependent, you know, I independent,
but also fighting and yeah, it's uh uh. Gwen's i'd say,
is Kirby. That's her kind of go to very good yeah,
and Logan's kind of all over the place.
Speaker 3: I respected Gwen too.
Speaker 4: At one night she did this thing where she just
started at Mario and just played everybody.
Speaker 3: She's like I'm gonna try every single character.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the whole way. Yeah, and Logan, I'd say definitely
goes more towards like the bigger characters, like the don Kan,
the king Ds, the Bowsers, That's what she's liking right now.
They were a fan of Sonic, but also Sonic three
just came out, so I feel like there's some bias there,
like like I just thought, oh, we love Sonic. But
and it's been fun for me because anytime I played Smash,
like recently, it has always been the streamer competitively.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, so now I'm like, I've played with Sonic
a bunch.
Speaker 4: I'm like, man, I actually really like Sonic, where before
I would never dare to play Sonic in the Smash thing.
So now next time we go around, say, okay, I
have a few more people I want to try, like
Sa something like in Cineroar. There's a few other people.
But no, it's been Yeah, it's been fantastic. It's definitely
been a great highlight. And I'll be disappointed once we
have unlocked them all, but it's been it's been a
really good time. And yeah, that first time when we
played it was just like just hours and hours of
fun and that that's where it's fun seeing them kind
of you know, you're seeing myself like relive those moments.
But lots of times it was like me alone, like
in my room, like I unlocked this person. There's no hype,
you know, Like that's why I was hype when we
did you know, the night when you got the first time,
because it's fun. Yeah, as a unit doing that stuff, right.
Speaker 1: They were hard and ultimate too, like they really Yeah,
I don't know what it's like if you're playing against
like lower level CPUs, if they know they boost.
Speaker 3: Up, they boost up hard.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because I felt like the first few were not
I don't know if it's with each person, but I
fight the first few it was very much like dropped
down a couple moves, beat them easily, but like, yeah,
there was somebody that I thought was gonna be an
easy opponent and they like I won't say they creamed
me because it was closed.
Speaker 1: I definitely lost a few in the game came out,
which I was very surprised about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's tough too.
Speaker 4: I feel like lots of times when they're playing, that's what.
Speaker 3: I'm sitting out.
Speaker 4: So they've picked the CPUs and They've picked characters that
are not maybe my my forte so it's like I
can for me, I can only do so much with Peach.
I'm not a Peach guy, so it's Peach and it's like, oh,
I gotta fight Snake. It's like, this isn't going well
for me, you know, so just try to do my
best to get them on the side and just push
them out. But yeah, that's so, that's why I still
do them, because they're not they would kill Gwen.
Speaker 3: And Logan, like they would just destroy them and stuff.
Speaker 4: So but no, it's it's been a great time and
I'm very happy they responded to it well, so because
I wasn't sure I was and either way, if they didn't,
then I was gonna play it and they would watch.
But even before I bought, I showed them like some
gameplay and showed them some people. I said like, Okay,
this is the type of game, this is what it's like.
And I think at first it looked like it was
gonna be a lot because it is like a big stage,
lots of characters. I think they were a little overwhelmed.
But now like literally they could just fire up the
switch and go without me other than like some menu said,
up we do five stocks just because like I want
them to go a little bit longer, no time limits,
and then right now, all all weapons, all all banans.
I'm a weapons guy, and I understand why we don't
use weapons, but I love uh and it can't help
but turn the tide or teaches them that, hey, you
gotta watch out for some of these CPUs and they
can just destroy you very quickly.
Speaker 3: So no, it's been fantastic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that, and I'm very jealous of that
that you have just a squad of smash players in
your house. That's amazing.
Speaker 4: I guess the first time them versus me, and it
was one time, one time they beat me again, little
Mac falling off some stages. It was I didn't know
it was a moving stage, one of those, yeah, a
little mac, so it was not going well form. But
it's also three versus one and they're gwenan Logan and
one CPU on three, so it's it's it's a lot.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, I'm guessing you didn't scoop up the
DLC characters yet, right.
Speaker 3: Not yet.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna buy bang you next time we play, just
because I kind of forgotten yet.
Speaker 3: And then there's a couple I might get.
Speaker 4: The Parana plant and Cloud is he a DLC one?
Speaker 1: No, but is okay if you want the other Final
Fantasy Guy, which I don't know if you would.
Speaker 4: I think I'm okay at that. And then is Sore
as a DLC right from Kingdom Hearts?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: So I think playing Banjo and Sore are the ones
that I will be purchasing. Banjo for sure, I should
have gotten it before now, but I think I'm just
gonna unlock all the characters first and then do that
after the fact.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm just looking at the roster right now
to see what other characters you might be. I guess like,
if you guys are playing Minecraft now, maybe you could
pick up the Minecraft characters.
Speaker 2: Steve's in there?
Speaker 3: Oh, Is he's a one to buy though? Yep?
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, And we'll talk about the next time moment.
But yeah, because Gwen is starting to dabble the toes
in the Minecraft, which I'm scared about with the movie
coming out that I feel like I'm.
Speaker 3: Gonna be roped into that.
Speaker 2: But watch that every week.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, you're right though, Steve actual would probably be
a hype one to buy, so I probably will get that.
Speaker 2: Then at least the even just the map is great
to have.
Speaker 1: I just I I don't really like the character a
whole lot, but I love just playing on that stage.
Yeah yeah, cool, that's uh yeah, that's great to hear.
I'm excited to hear you keep playing more of that.
Do you think you'll ever invest time in the single
player like when you have just time on your own
when the girls have gone to sleep, do you think
you'll play any of that single player mode stuff?
Speaker 4: I feel like I have to ask what is a
single player mode again? Because I remember obviously like with
like the last one at the great like Space Embassy
or whatever it is, right a space, Yeah, subspace, Yeah
that it is like an all time like so fantastic.
Speaker 3: What is the sole player with this one? Because its
been so long?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean there is the classic stuff of a
classic mode, all Star mode, and you know, home Run Contest,
all that random stuff that you can always expect. And
then there's it's called the World of Light is what
they call it, and there isn't there isn't really cut scenes.
I think there's maybe a couple of cut scenes that
pop in there, although some of most of those were
like things you would see in trailers anyway. But essentially
it's like a giant world map. It looks a little
similar to like the the board game mode that they had,
although it's like a way bigger map and you kind
of cruising around different directions. It's a good way to
want WoT characters if you're not just playing battles over
and over again. It's huge, though it's really expensive. There
are some really fun like boss bights and things you'll
do in there, but most of it is still just
like there's no like platform in stages like Subspace Hat.
It's it is just regular battles with like modified things
and whatnot. And then there's like your online it's like
it rather than trophies that have like stickers, I forget
what they're called, exactly like, its just different characters. And
then there's like outside of the world of like mode
you can go in and there's like a huge challenge
board of all these different characters. So it's like it'll
take a character, modify them a little bit to make
them feel like like there's like a you know, a
sonic one that makes it like kind of like what
Shadow would be like if he was in the game,
and then you can unlock Shadow as like a sticker thing, right, So.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's yeah, it's okay.
Speaker 1: I mean it's not amazing, but I definitely played through
all of it. It was still fun to go through.
Speaker 4: I would love them like if they were like, hey,
we're not making another Smash game, but we are just
going to do like a subspace type of game, Like
I would love that, like it was like an offshoot
of Smash, because that was that was fantastic because and
what was the the Melee mode?
Speaker 3: It had something similar, right, not as.
Speaker 1: I guess Melee had Adventure Mode is what they called it. Yeah,
even so you go through like the Mushroom Kingdom level,
the like High Rule Maze.
Speaker 3: Yeah, hours in there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because it was like that was like it you
got the stages, but that was like oh seeing Captain
Falcon and like a Zel the world. That was so cool,
like crossover stuff. So I would love it if they're like, hey,
we're not gonna do Smash again for a little bit,
We're just gonna Pour Ultimate, but we're gonna do this
type of game and that because I are you imagining
that's what's gonna happen. They're not gonna make another smash, Like,
for do you think the switch to er will get
a smash or they'll just.
Speaker 1: I mean, first of all, this is a topic I
definitely want to do as like a full episode just
talking like yeah, but I do think you will get
a smash on the next switch. Is it the exact
same team that makes it?
Speaker 2: Not sure?
Speaker 1: Is it just like an Ultimate version of Ultimate where
they have bunned all the characters and then add a
few more. Even maybe they do that, but I think
it's just one of those series that for how well
it consistently.
Speaker 2: Sells uh and the DLC.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they made a killing on just DLC alone
that probably made more than a lot of their other
first party games, just selling freaking Steve and stuff. So
I'm there's no world where they don't make it happen.
And if Zakarai doesn't want to do it, he wants
to take a break, I think they might get someone
else to try it.
Speaker 4: I don't know, And even just like I don't think
Natano cares this much about that, but if anyone does,
and they feel like they might be a bit more
business oriented, right now the type of like who the
next fighter is like reaction.
Speaker 1: And I mean that's that's a huge way that advertises
their other characters, right. It's like, I'm sure a lot
more people got interested in arms after min Men was
added into Smash, And there's probably bigger examples of that too.
Speaker 2: So well, for.
Speaker 4: Example, like I messaged you and we didn't do it
because you made some good points, but the kids liked
the splatoon area and the character and I was like, oh, yeah,
well it's this type of game. But then when you
said like there's no couch call, I'm like, well that's
dead right away, cause that's like, that's just what we
would do, right And I guess we could get it
and do one all and maybe we'll down the line,
but it's still that was like, oh, that could have
been a fun experience for us all, But you're right
where that propels people to be like, oh, what is
this franchise?
Speaker 3: What is that?
Speaker 4: And especially like I said, you can say it for
that cast, but now that we're an error where Xbox
is kind of just willing to like play with a
bunch of other people and license their stuff out, it's like, man,
they're like I leg like we're seeing master Chief one
hundred percent of the next match.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean Banjo was technically is owned by Xbox
and they allowed it. So is Steve, so they they
there are already those connections happening there. And then obviously
Sony has like well I guess Square Penix owns Cloud
and stuff.
Speaker 2: There's yeah, a couple connection points.
Speaker 4: I think we're getting those Xbox icons next score around, like.
Speaker 1: I think master Chiefs should have Okay, I don't. I
don't know Marcus Phoenix, but master Chief would be amazing.
Speaker 3: If you can have.
Speaker 4: Like eighteen people with swords, you can get Marcus Phoenix
in there, you know, just even think for this the
Gears were stage though, Dylan, the Gears were stage, I
bet yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'll take I would take Halo.
Speaker 1: I would take Doom before there's other if we're making
an Xbox teerless, I would go a fuel characters before
Marcus Phoenix.
Speaker 2: But I know there's a.
Speaker 4: Lot of get into the fans.
Speaker 2: No, I know that that would be interesting.
Speaker 4: Indie like last time we because I know we'll talk
about like their cast one day in the Indian Jones.
Speaker 3: I think would be a phenomenal Smash character.
Speaker 1: I mean what they should do instead is just put
like this Spelunky character in because he's like just a
rip off of Indiana Jones. So that I mean back
in the day in Melee, like, there was definitely a
lot of rumors and there's like Sakarai has since confirmed
that they considered uh like James Bond because of gold
and Eye right, and so like they considered it, and
they never have gone down that route, and I don't
think they will at this point unless maybe Sakari leaves.
Who knows, like the next director what they all want
to do with it. But yeah, I think I think
I think there's some characters that could fit in there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we should definitely get even.
Speaker 1: Just like Spider Man. Make an exception for Spider Man.
I know they've said before it's like has to originate
in video games, but like, you know, let's make an exception.
Speaker 3: But Spider said.
Speaker 4: That rule has to origin in video games.
Speaker 3: So I guess that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Sacarai has has said that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, okay, no, it'd be fun to talk about,
but yeah, no, it's been Yeah, like I said, not
a big surprise me Smash like that's like I agree.
I understand why you and other people got Melee up
in the number one spot or like even taught ten.
For me, I got Ultimate just because even before I
used to have Smash Melee in my top ten. But
it's like it's like a time I'm just becau Ultimate.
It's just like it is like it's crazy that game
exists and how great it is and everything.
Speaker 3: It's just like it is the Ultimate game.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean yeah, even though you know Melee,
I'm diired because of the mechanics there. Like Ultimate is
still like top fifteen all time game for me, Like
I love it so so much and I still play
it frequently, so it's it's great. I My last thought
is just like I'm so getting out that your children
are experiments. But I'm just like thinking, like ten fifteen
years from now, the fact that they're starting with this
game that has eighty characters compared to like us back
in the day who had eight, you know, to start with,
and then for more unlocks in that original game.
Speaker 2: Just like man, that is wild.
Speaker 1: The expectations that like young gamers might have for a
certain series now that they're already so like, if that's
the first one they're playing like that is insane to
just think about.
Speaker 2: It's inc just that many characters at your discs that.
Speaker 3: All that stuff.
Speaker 4: It's just like what we talk about with like because
we're doing the Harry Partter rewatches and then we're gonna
go on the Star Wars and do somemorrow stuff. It's
just like they could bang out the Infidney Saga in
a couple of weeks, you know, or that was ten years.
That was ten years of our life. Endgame was such
an event. But to them now it's just like any games,
like it's another it's another movie. It's like, oh that
that's a chapter there. Same with Harry Potter. It's like
they watched one and then part two is right there.
So yeah, it's interesting because even how much has changed
is my dad he started me on the very first
Mario game that was the first game ever played.
Speaker 3: He started me there, and I was like, oh, should
I have gone that route?
Speaker 4: But no, it was already just and just they do
even like movies that like when you talk about different generations,
they just respond better to the the graphics the way
they are right, like just even talk about that. There's
certain Disney movies they just don't care for just because
like it just looks old like that, Like to them,
it's like when they see this type of animation, like
that's what they're used to. It's kind of like people
in our generation that might be like, oh, like a
black and white movie.
Speaker 3: Like that happens.
Speaker 4: So it's funny to see, Like anytime you try to
pitch like a Disney hand drawn one, it's like there's
only a few, but most of them like no, no,
and that's all we end up back to like two
thousand and six and on, because it's like, oh, well
that's that's that's old.
Speaker 3: That's old.
Speaker 4: Now, that's the same same thing. I wonder if I
would starting them on Mario, if they would have been like, oh,
like i've seen the games you play are around, like
this isn't the same where Mario, I think was still
comparable when I was like ten to what was coming
out now, even though like the Xbox was, I was like, oh,
I can see the Leap, but now like the Leap
is it's massive.
Speaker 3: So mm hmmm.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, and obviously you've been gaming since the nineties,
but I'm curious how you would how your thoughts would
have changed how you play Alan Wake the original rather
than just you know, the remaster. You know, like maybe
there's just like subtle differences or things they enhanced or whatever.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's uh it.
Speaker 1: Definitely just like a lot of people are sick of
remasters or we want people to just make new games,
but like there's definitely justification for certain remounts. We don't
need a Horizon, Okay, I'll stand by that. We didn't
need a Horizon zero.
Speaker 3: Don Horizon other than sales.
Speaker 4: We don't need Last of Us as well either, like
the fact that they like it's, oh I get this.
Ou it's like the game came out, I get it.
There's a show, very pop, but you want to sell copies.
But just like, what is there to really remaster at
this point?
Speaker 2: You know, I will say I was at it.
Speaker 1: I was at a game store today and they had
Last of Us, like part one, the remaster, next to
Part two, and those box arts look so great next
to each other, and like the original Last of Us
box art, it just it doesn't mesh with the second one.
But now they're like conjoined, so like they looked great
on a shelf. So that's that's the one benefit Okay,
let's take our first ad break.
Speaker 2: We'll be right back. All right, we are back.
Speaker 1: Did you have any other things you wanted to show it?
Or should I go into my game?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: No, I'll save it for the next time because I
only talked about this a little bit on Gosh what
was on the video game draft where that the only
game next March is WWECS And that's why I know
I won't be playing a new game at least until
probably like May ish, because they got a lot of
cool stuff on there. I mean, the Gimmick Boys look out,
we will be We're gonna at least do one stream
of GMO. We're gonna try and play entire season together,
so David, they're training up. So yeah, we got some
fun stuff like s bubs. We're gonna do all creater
Wrestlers where we create ourselves and to decide the draft
order instead of spinning a wheel, we'll have a match
and stuff. So we got we got some fun stuff.
So if people like it tune in, then maybe might
do some like record a bunch and do a series.
But yeah, so that's why I'll save the other one,
because in the future it might just be like I'm
still just playing ww MO, so that's where, you know,
especially because like soon we'll have some other bigger games
come up, like hopefully Desk Stranding and hopefully GTA. So
but yeah, I'll save some other stuff, but I got
some stuff on the backlog that I want to know.
Speaker 3: I still predict i'll be done.
Speaker 4: Out on Wake though before like springish, because only too
like I'm taking a little break, but I'm I'm very
interested to get there and control like.
Speaker 2: Ten twelve hours pretty pretty short games.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the first one's like that too, and then Control
I just haven't looked into as far as the Saale
and then I guess the other only game you.
Speaker 1: Might have on your PS plus account check that because
I know it was on there at some point you
might have.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then probably at some point I'll talk about
The Quarry because that was a game that was on
for like five Butcher in Boxing day and like Taylor said,
it's a great thing to play with a couple. So
me and Emily, when she's done her book, we're gonna
dive into.
Speaker 1: That's so cool cool, Okay, So yeah, I have one
game share with you. I'm very excited about this. You
might have got a sneak peek of this. I know
you listen to some episodes dropping your February first notes
in here, so you may have got slightly spoiled in this.
But I shared my impressions for this game. But I've
now rolled credits on Days Gone.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, okay, I was so. I was surprised when
I saw a notification on my phone day and I
saw Days Gone and I was like, who is playing
Days Gone right now? Like, see that's one Well, depending
on what your thoughts are, but yeah, how did that go?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I have now rolled credits on the game.
It's weird that after you roll credits there's like still
more main quest stuff to do. So I don't know
if you can roll into New Game Plus right when
you credits, or you have to go and like do
these additional like almost epilogue. They kind of just wrap
up other storylines that aren't like the key crucial storyline.
Speaker 2: Kind of strange.
Speaker 1: But anyway, I've done that now, and then I've done
gone around and you know, complete some other hordes and
other random side quests and things like that. You know,
I think I mentioned this to you last year when
we talked about mad Max and how I just I
love to have like a mindless, open worldy game that
I can just play with a podcast on or play
while I'm watching YouTube, and then like pay attention when
I want to for like story bits and stuff. And
Days Gone was a perfect version of that and has
been for me for the last like month here especially.
Speaker 2: You know, I've had a very weird.
Speaker 1: Stressful, strange month and so just have a game that
took very little like mental energy, but just enough that
I'm still like actively playing it. It was kind of
like the perfect mindless game for me in that point
in time. And I think, you know, as far as
the game itself, like it is a it is the
most buy the books thing and it's only like six
years old. But it's just like open world game with
like map markers everywhere. You know, you're following the yellow
line to get to your next quest. You click the
right stick in to like see footprints and follow like
clues and stuff like that, you know, picking up resources.
Enemies are just hiding behind chest high walls. You wait
for their head to pop up and you shoot them
in the head. Like it is the most bare bones
like basic game in that way. I feel like it
is kind of like a middle ein experience for the
most part, because it just doesn't feel super unique or innovative.
But I think the other thing that really surprised me
about and now I can say this for sure as
I've now rolled credits on the game, is that I
think the big distinction for me is that, like Days Gone,
it's not a zombie game. It is a post apocalypse game,
and so like the differentiator for me there is that
like now that I've finished the main quest, I'd say
maybe only like twenty twenty five percent of those main
quests ever, have you like interact with a zombie, Like
there is just a ton of stuff outside of the
actual zombie stuff, which.
Speaker 4: Which was maybe like the E three remember that first
p Yeah, he was just like the hordes, like you're
fighting so many. That was them.
Speaker 1: That was the selling point of the game. And that
stuff's great, and there is a lot of it in
the game for sure, but a lot of that just
ends up being like, if you want, you can go
kill some hordes, but like we're not gonna make you
do it in the main story a whole lot, and
then there's a lot of other stuff on the side,
like you know, you're fighting other survivors. There's like this
cult group that like worship the zombies, and there's like
that faction that you're fighting, and then you're just like
walking around talking to people, and then you're you know,
doing like these other stealth missions and stuff, and so
there's just a lot of stuff outside of the zombie stuff.
And I think that's where the game also kind of
comes down a bit, is like the zombie stuff is
super duper fun. It's the best part of the game.
It was the most enjoyable stuff, like in terms of
that selling point. When I went to that freaking saw
mill and did that horde, it was great.
Speaker 2: It was super fun.
Speaker 1: It maybe wasn't quite as cinematic as like the trailer
at you know, the PlayStation conference, but it was still
super great. And then everything else is like not that good.
It's like very like basic. It gets the job done,
it's fun to shoot an enemy in the head, but
like it gets kind of boring pretty quickly. And I
think maybe the biggest detractor I have against this game
is that the just the quest design is absolute garbage
in this game, Like this game has fun mechanics, like
the game controls really well. The bike's really fun, Shooting
your gun feels good. The zombies like all that stuff
feels really good. But like the quests around it, maybe
it's the level design. Maybe it's just like the way
these quests are set up. So many of them are
so bland and so boring and.
Speaker 2: So slow paced.
Speaker 1: There is a quest in this game where you have
to there's like, you know, an evil government agency. They
like fly in with their helicopter and then they're gonna
like go test these samples, and so you have to
like sneak up to the base. If you get caught,
it instantly fails the mission and you have to restart
it from scratch. Even if you're in this mission for
like six or seven minutes, you get caught, you have
to start again.
Speaker 2: You just have to sneak around.
Speaker 1: You're not allowed to attack anyone, you can't deal damage,
so you just have to hide in like bushes.
Speaker 2: Of course, you.
Speaker 1: Have to roll don't get caught, and then you have
to get close enough to like listen to the scientists
as he's like, you know, exposition just dumping this random dialogue,
and then you have to like exfral trait and the
twist that there are like six or seven of those
missions in the game, and every time they absolutely suck,
and I hated every single one of them.
Speaker 3: Were any of.
Speaker 4: Them because I said, like, like quests, are those in
the main story or is it a mix of some
main and some not main?
Speaker 1: Those ones are all main story stuff. And then it
gets a little funky because like the you know how
most games, like the main quest markers they're like yellow
and the other ones are like gray.
Speaker 2: Or something like this.
Speaker 1: In this game, it's like a lot of like there
are different There's are some gray markers and yellow markers,
but it seems like there are some of these yellow
ones which seem like main quest stuff that is maybe
optional to some extent.
Speaker 2: And that's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: Like even once you rolled credits, you're still getting these
like yellow marker main quest things, So it's like, I
don't know how many things things you can skip. I
think all those boring ass helicopter missions, I think all
of those are mandatory because they kind of set up
the story of the world, and like the main pro
main like one of the main antagonists, I guess kind
of characters is kind of connected with that so yeah,
it's it's like a weird mix of emotions for this
game where I honestly did have a lot of fun
just playing it because the game feels so great, and
even doing like boring things that wasn't just like sneaking around,
but like if I'm just doing any combat sequence, it
was good enough.
Speaker 2: I was having fun.
Speaker 1: And then it was just like with certain peaks where
some quests are really well designed, they're just like very
few and far between, and then like any of the
zombie hordes stuff is really really good. It honestly, it
gets a little tiring just because there's like a lot
of it. It gets to a point later on in
the game where like the hordes of zombies, when there's
like a huge amount of them, like those are actually
straight up on the map and you can like click
that on your map and get taken there, and then
you'll go and like fight the hordes, so you can.
Actually it's funny that they're just like kind of a
marker on the map to find these specific hords that's
set up in like certain maybe set up in this school,
set up in this cave system, that kind of thing,
and there's just a lot of it I think my
plan was like, oh, I really enjoy this stuff. I
think I want to go through and knock all these
off the map because they're fun.
Speaker 2: And then eventually got.
Speaker 1: To a point where it's kind of just a bit
of the same same thing every time, And maybe that's
a bit of a user err because I'm just using
the same weapons. But it's like, Wow, this massive gun
is like really really strong. I'm just gonna keep using it,
Like if I use a crossbow it'd be a lot harder,
and like I could do that, I guess, but I'm
just not. I just don't feel like there's a lot
of incentive to really switch up your style. So maybe
I'm just like playing it in a boring way. But
I just after doing a handful of them, I felt like, Okay,
I think I'm done with the game now, Like I
feel like it's kind of shown me everything it had
to show.
Speaker 2: It's played all its cards. At this point, I was.
Speaker 4: Gonna ask you because I was just looking at the
Metacritic because it's like not a huge vibe but still
divide nonetheless, Like the critic score is a seventy one,
so in the yell, but then the.
Speaker 2: It's actually a lot lower than I thought it would be.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the user score is an eight point five in
the greens, it seems. And I kind of remember that narrative,
I feel, like early on where it came out, because
it was a part of that like the Dynasty era,
right of like got a War Last of Us two
Spider Man and that was in there. And I think
they even show Ghost too, like around that same that,
like the the Showcase of Dreams or whatever, and I
remember when that came out, it got like kind of
those lower scores and it being kind of written.
Speaker 3: Off of like a, oh, this is a failure.
Speaker 4: You know, it's not a failure, but just like it's
not meaning the mark of the other one. I even
remember that creator kind of throwing some shade PlayStation when
goes to Ssushima hit a sales bench there.
Speaker 3: He's like, we did that, like.
Speaker 4: We had hit that same number, right, but we never
got that like day's gone massive success blah blah blah.
So it's like because it kind of got reviewed that way.
But then I remember there's like a second wave people
that played it that enjoyed it a lot more than
kind of that first buzz, And I guess like I said,
those still score kind of show at where seventy one
to eighty five, So I feel you're more like the
eighty five kind of camp like or eight point five
whatever some point one.
Speaker 1: Man, that's that's interesting. Like, I guess I don't really
even now that I'm doing review scores again, like I
don't really do them for games still, and I don't
know why that is. Maybe it's because like games are longer.
Maybe when I talk about it on side quests, I'm
not necessarily like done with it or something. So I
think I would drop a number though, like a bit
lower on this game even if I enjoyed it, just
because when I look at it critically, I do think
it has like a ton of flaws, but like as
a mindless game that I could play, Like, you know,
I got a lot of enjoying about this game because
I played it. I had a podcast on that I enjoyed,
you know, So I'm like, there's another thing that I'm
enjoyed while I'm playing it. I think if I just
played it, I was forced for fifty hours to only
focus on this game and have no distractions and be
a reviewer, I think I would have found it a
lot more tedious, and it would have driven me even
more nuts because if I had to do this boring
stealth mission, at least I could just like watch my
YouTube video on the side, you know. So it's like,
I feel like it's a different experience than critic you
don't want to, Yeah, it's just like and this game
is long as long as f and I remember one
of the criticisms I heard when it first came out
was people complaining that, wow, it takes so long to
get to the Horde stuff, and that is true. It
takes a very long time before you encountered the first Horde.
You know, you'll find zombies before that, but like at
most maybe eight or nine or ten, but before you
get to like that trailer moment hoard where there's literally
hundreds chasing you through like a set piece location that
takes a long time.
Speaker 2: And then by the end of the main quest.
Speaker 1: There's only two, I believe, two forced Horde missions that
you have to do, and the rest are just like
random encounters that you would come across in the world,
and there's a lot of them there, but there's only
like two that are really on that scale at least
that that I found. And then there's also like bonus
mode stuff that I think they probably added post launch
that are like bonus missions and things like that, where
it seems like they've kind of added some more through that.
Speaker 4: Because I was gonna ask, because of the what's in
the yellow metacritic and a metacritic that it's says mixed
or average, would you agree with that, because then the
green jumps up the generally favorable and then universal claim.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do think that's very accurate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that the more I think about it,
the more I feel like that, like a low seventy
does kind of feel like the right spot for it,
even if like I got the enjoyment of like an
A out of ten out of it. I know that's
like very confusing, but that's just once again, number system
for reviews is flawed. And that's why because we're attributing
like emotions to like a literal mathematical number, but switched.
Speaker 4: To the color. You know, no longer give number. It's
just it's red, it's a yellow, it's.
Speaker 3: A green, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what's a little purple.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, you know, in terms of the talk
about the strength, the biggest strength of the game is
as I mentioned, fighting the hordes that sawmill gas station
or the saw mill thing from the trailer, it was
super fun.
Speaker 2: It was funny. I actually had like a friend over.
Speaker 1: He was hanging out of my house and I was
playing the game, and he's like, I kind of want
to see this GA's about. And I'm like, ah, I
remember when the trailer was a saw mill, Like maybe
I should go see if there was a hord there
right now, because I'm like, I want to show him
what this game's all about. And so there is a
main quest that eventually takes you there, of course, but
I just drove there on my own and went and
then there, in fact was the full hoard there, and
it was funny after I cleared it, when the main
quest took me back there, it let me skip that,
like it didn't respawn all the zombies, which I thought
was gonna happen, but it took me multiple tries and
it was super, super intense. And I think the reason
for that is Deacon's run speed or like when you're
moving the stick fully forward like I see your light
jog sort of speed, like zombies will catch you. And
unless you're going like off ledges, jumping over things. Maybe
you can outrun them that way, but like if you're
not pressing the sprint button, then they will catch up
to you. And you don't have a whole lot of stamina.
At least I didn't have a ton of stamina at
that point. Stamina is a stack you're upgrading by doing
all these other collectibles and whatnot, and so that makes
all these Hord encounters super intense because you really do
have to juke and dodge and climb buildings and jump
off ledges or set up traps in advance. And I
think a huge key for me was, like before I
actually go to where the Horde is hiding out in
the barn, I gotta investigate this map. I gotta find
where the explosive barrels are. I gotta find where like
the ledges I can climb over, what are some shortcuts
I can take? And the inception way where what are
the short cuts through the maze.
Speaker 3: It would be batman. You need prep time to take
on these Hords, you.
Speaker 2: Know, absolutely.
Speaker 1: And I laid down some mines other things like that,
but man, like just doing multiple laps of that thing,
going through a different pathways trying to get as many
next to this propane tech as possible before I blow
it up. Super duper fun. The first Horry you have
to fight is at like this big gas station set
piece where there's multiple buildings, and that was just as
good because there's of course it's a gas station with
the explosives everywhere. But that was the first one, and
I was so weak at that point in the game
relative to where I was fighting stuff later on in
the game, where I just couldn't sprint for very long,
and man like, it's it's so good. I think the
maybe the little bit downside here is like there isn't
a whole lot of enemy variety with the with the
zombies itself, Like when you're fighting a Horde, there's it's
just the one type and they'll hunt you down, and
then eventually there's like these screamer types kind of like
a witch from Left for Dead. There's a big tanky one,
and there's one kind of like an ape almost and
he'll like jump and he'll like retreat and then come
back and like sneak up on you in weird ways,
and that's kind of it, Like there's just like four
types of zombies and there's more enemy variety through, Like
I mean there's like zombie bears. I guess you could
count that too, like zombie wolves and whatnot, but they're
not like they're not aligned with the Horde.
Speaker 2: Like they'll fight.
Speaker 1: They'll fight each other if you just stand on the sidelines,
which is fun to watch them do. So yeah, the
Horde stuff, it's great, it's super fun, but I think
it makes the game hard to recommend because it's like
you're waiting so long before you get even get to
that stuff, before they even unlock, and then you're also
even not having to wait longer before you're having enough
upgrades and you're strong enough to actually fight them in
like a meaningful way. So it's it's it makes it
a tricky game to recommend in that sense, and I
just I can't. I don't think I really recommends you
like want that mindless open world experience, which is like
those are fucking everywhere. You don't need this game for that.
You those mechanics are cool.
Speaker 3: You're saying it's more apocalyptic.
Speaker 4: That made my like made me more interested, But it's
the same time of like, how many other great games
is there that, like, I want to do first, But
that's always been my list, like one day because I
think I own it too. I think I got on
like a PS like this.
Speaker 1: It's on the PlayStation catalog PS plus thing if you have.
Speaker 4: That subscriber that somewhere maybe one day because it sounds
there's some interesting things. But uh, yeah, well I'm glad
we finally got a review six clar for days going out.
Of those games we talked about, that's the only one
I never got touched.
Speaker 1: So I feel like I've finally checked the PS four
box off completely.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Two last things.
Speaker 1: One, okay, maybe my thing that I like even more
than the Hordes is you know how like on a
motorcycle you have like the gas tank is like kind
of right in front of where you sit. It's like
a big, you know, tank right there. I don't know
when they added this, presumably post launch, but there is
a Death Stranding cosmetic where you could have BB as
the gas.
Speaker 2: Tank right there.
Speaker 1: And it's also the best gas tank in the game
and has like the highest capacity. Uh And I was
so stoked, And yeah, I kind of like in the
same way in Desterin it kind of like will go
opaque or not can like c BB at certain points
and other times you can't. And that added so much
to my experience of just being feeling connected with my
bike because now it's my baby as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah that's cool.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you'd say it's like it's pre before it was
starting to use babies before it all goes to shit,
you know.
Speaker 1: So yeah yeah, which which I really which is it's
also is funny because like I guess minor spoilers for
like story lower stuff in the game is like something
about the virus that affected people and turn them into freakers,
which of course is what they call.
Speaker 2: Zombies in this game.
Speaker 1: Uh it like it just like human I forget what,
Like it just pretty much completely annihilated children, Like there's
no children in this game, which I think is more
than like making a design decision and they like, okay,
how can we weave the end of the story. But
it's funny then to have like a baby and I
guess the baby is protected because it's in the like
canister or whatever. But there's like not a single child
that I camp in this game, and like they're just
completely wiped out except for baby that is the one
infant that is a lot to.
Speaker 4: Make it that people can't reproduce either.
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm sure that came up at some point,
and I don't know. I've not seen a baby. I've
not seen a kid.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know. If they can't reproduce,
maybe they're like I don't know.
Speaker 1: I will say I didn't skip a lot of cut
scenes in this game, so maybe it did come up.
Speaker 2: But I skipped a lot.
Speaker 1: And that's where I feel like it's hard for me
to also criticize the story too much, because I really
did not give it my all. As I said, I
was paying attention to other things as I was playing.
I was skipping a shit ton of cut scenes. But
there were certain characters I won't spoil who that I
was more invested in, and I wanted to see what
was going on there, and so I did pay attention
to a lot.
Speaker 2: Of cut scenes.
Speaker 1: There is some really good story stuff in here, and
I think as a post apocalypse game, as I mentioned there,
rather than it being a zombie game, it does some
of that stuff really well, Like these different factions, what
they want out of the world, the things they're doing.
I think it's once again this happens with like Uncharted
people always talk about like Nathan Drake's like a mass murderer,
like makes it hard to like. And I felt a
lot with Deacon in this game where he feels like
a very sympathetic person. He's fighting for all these camps,
but then I'm killing hundreds of survivors in a world
that doesn't have a whole lot.
Speaker 2: Of people left.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, like you got to suspend your
disbelief in that sort of sense. But yeah, I think
there are some really good points of the story, especially
maybe even like in the third act, so it takes
a while to get to some of that stuff, but
there are some good moments there, some good character stuff,
really great acting I think across the board, and I
actually really grew to love Deacon as a character. I
think he's a really great protagonist. He's not necessarily one
I would normally think of the biker gang kind of guy,
but he has multi he's multifaceted.
Speaker 2: And I quite liked him.
Speaker 1: Minell once again, the performance I think is really great.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's weird.
Speaker 1: As you mentioned earlier, this game did sell really well,
but obviously they didn't green light a sequel, and now
that studio was working in a live service game that
got canceled, and then they laid off people, which I predicted.
Speaker 2: That was gonna happen.
Speaker 1: Of course it was gonna happen when they canceled these games,
And so who knows what the future of Bend is
even gonna look like as a studio. But I don't
I don't even know if I want to say that,
I'd be bum that this game doesn't get a sequel,
But I do think there was there is a lot
of potential in terms of taking what you had here,
refining it, adding some new mechanics, maybe even just in
the Ghost of Sushima way, like just change up the character,
get a new protagonist in a new place, even though
I do like Deacon, maybe have them in the world
or something. But yeah, I do think I had a
good time with this game, even if it's kind of
objectively mid I guess is my final thesis point I
can say about it nice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1: There is days Gone, and uh yeah, that's also the
last thing I like about. Whenever you pause the game,
it has like you know, starts out like seven hundred
and ninety days Gone and then as you like are
going through it, eight hundred days gone, eight thirty days gone.
Speaker 2: I don't know how.
Speaker 1: I guess it's just you know, when you you can
sleep in the game, time passes for certain missions and whatnot,
but that number just kind of slowly goes up. Okay, yeah,
there you go. Those are the games we've been playing
and our last topic for the day. It's a bit
of a mouthful, I guess. But WB Games as a
publisher on a turmoil going on lately. It's you know,
I think it's been a multitude of things, but primarily
it was last year with Suicide Squad and how this
game just completely bombed. It was one not what people wanted.
It took a little long time to come out, and
then it just didn't have the audience. And yeah, now
it's already like they announced that their final season whatever.
Maybe it already happened, but like the that's how a
little like, yeah, there you go, it's already done, even
though it's supposed to be a game that was supposed
to be a game of service, lived for many, many years,
and so I think that's kind of what That's not
really what kicked it off. There's been other issues with
the games, but I think that's a big one. So
along with that, actually maybe we'll maybe we'll start there.
So just looking specifically at rock Steady. H So obviously
that suicide squad is done. I forget if there was layoffs.
If there wasn't, I'm sure there will be, it would
I would.
Speaker 3: Be surprised if there was, I think it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh yeah, all the like big head directive or
creative people I feel like left over the last few years,
which is too bad, but we have now there's a
lot of these things are rumors. They're the only thing
that's really confirmed is the multi versus thing. Everything else
is kind of just a scuttle but to use the
Travis word, but yeah, the scuttle butt around town is now.
Rock said he is officially back to making a single
player Batman game, which you know makes sense. Go back
to the well, I guess, but what do you what
do you think about this?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 4: I think you know, I'm not right about everything, but
every once in a while I'm right. And that's why
I named my show Tres Told You because I remember,
I think it's when we did fandom, Yeah, fandom during COVID,
That's when they revealed Gotham Knights, and that's when they
revealed Suicide Squad. You think Gotham Knights was not a
live service game, you can check out me into review
for it. It was like a fun like that was
a game that we had tons of fun playing multiplayer,
meinteraior together. But it was a very it felt like
a bare bones Arkham game, right. It felt like a
lesser then, not a continuation or an add on to
just felt like, Okay, this is a you know, baby
brother version of that and Squad I looked at that
and I I always was like, I don't know about
this game, and then we learn more and more about
it and after Avengers, and it was weird because I
felt like they did this thing where they're trying to
I guess they never said it wasn't live for service,
but I felt like they're almost trying to walk it back,
because I remember it's like they were showing it off
and it was quiet for a long time, so we
all kind of thought, oh, they're doing which we'll talk
about with Wonder Woman, maybe they're maybe taking a lot
of that stuff out. But then when the game came out,
it still had a lot of those aspects of the
live service, the weekly updates, the grinding, everything like that.
And I said, back then, I said, what's gonna happen
is these two games are gonna flow up and then
we're gonna just go right back to Batman. And people
might think like I'm happy about that, but like I'm
really not, because one the state of Rock City right now,
I don't have faith we're gonna get those Batman games,
even like because origins, it's funny origins some people think
is the best or the worst. I still think it's
like i'd still, you know, on that green color thing,
it'd be the great, like it'd be like overall great,
like all those things. And that's where it's like for me,
I still all know on PS four or whatnot. I
get they gotta sell them, but for me, I don't
have I will buy it. And there's tons of routes
with Batman you can go, but I don't have that
itch that needs to be scratched. I got to me
four very good to great games. I'm pretty happy DC
has a pluth row of characters. But I just knew,
like what you said is that's what all these businesses do.
They're gonna go back. Oh what we tried, didn't work.
We're just gonna go back to old faithful, right, we
tubble this whole time with the movies and newscast wire
Chris Evans or Robert Downey coming back for re Vengers
while we've got a bumpy couple of years. So let's
just go back to what works. And like there is
and again, you can't say it's wrong, right because people
are gonna go see that movie and the Batman game
will probably sell. They'll probably even be a sucker and
maybe use the Arkham name right and do something with it,
just because that's like their brand. But for me, it's
just like there's so many characters and so much in
the world where it's like take a risk, and it's
tough because like we've seen multiple comic book games fail,
Guardians Midnight Suns like, so I get it. But even then,
it's like like the fact that nowhere in these rumors,
like there's not even a Superman game like a sniff
of it, like he is the second biggest character they have,
and they're just like, now, let's just not do anything.
And that obviously you can't time it with the movie, right,
that movie's coming out has lots of hype.
Speaker 3: It seems like that.
Speaker 4: But even then it's just to me feels like a
no brainer of hey, like, I feel like, what Sony did.
Speaker 3: We did a Spiderman game? You know, we shoot next
who's probably the next biggest next two Spider Man, I
would say Wolverine. As far as like the mainstream audience, well,
let's do a Wolverine game. So it feels like just
even easy layups of Okay, we can't do Batman, what
should we do?
Speaker 4: While we'll do Superman. I thought wonder Woman was a
great idea, but obviously we'll talk about that. So it
is disappointing. I'll be excited for a Batman game. I'll
be excited to see what they do casting wise, because uh,
Mark Hamill's not playing the Joke River again and we
lost Kevin Conroy, so they do kind of have to
go on their own way there. You don't have that
kind of nostalogia because there's tons of people that from
the animated series when they announced those two got them like, oh,
this is like a continuation of that show we love,
and it's very it's like ninety X Men ninety seven,
but it's a very classically like when you.
Speaker 3: Look at Batman, that's Batman.
Speaker 4: That's what people picture, right, So it's it's I'm disappointed,
to be right, not that I thought Squad was way
more of a disappointment that I even thought, like I
thought it was gonna be disappointed, but it was. It
really tanked super hard. And I do own it now
because they it was on the it was a PS
plus game last month. Yeah, so I picked it up.
I don't think i'll maybe ever. That's not one on
the not one on the backlog list. But that's something
where it's like, you know what again, I like to
picture when I'm fifty five and hopefully retired and I have.
Speaker 3: Nothing to do.
Speaker 4: It's like, oh, let's try that Suicide Squad game finally
and see what it's like. But yeah, so nothing surprising here,
just to go back to Batman. Very disappointing in my opinion.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think you know this one. For me,
I'm not a big rock Steady guy. I've played those
first two Arkham games and I haven't even beat City.
You just played a few hours of it, So I
don't have as much skin in the game, and so
it doesn't affect me as much. What they're necessarily doing here.
But I think what what this situation reminds me of
is BioWare, where you know, they make all sorts of
games over the years, but like most prominently in Mass
Effect trilogy, which people love, even if three was maybe
not quite as good as two. And then like years
ago by, they make a Mass Effect Andromeda, big disappointment
for people, anthem, big disappointment for people, and then they're like, okay,
we're going back to formula here. Let's make a dragon Age.
Uh yeah, follow up to dragon Age with dragon Age.
Vailguard comes out last year, once again in the Green.
Seems like it's good, the great game. People really enjoy it,
but just the audience just wasn't really there for whether
it was the goodwill that was lost over all these
years of like biowear changing, huge creative people that we
associate with those games leaving over time, and also maybe
just like the luster kind of wearing off a little bit,
And so it worries me for Rock City for sure.
If they're going back to the well here, as you mentioned,
I do think, you know, those audiences are a bit different, perhaps,
but I thought Dragon Age should have been a freaking
Layup and maybe also Dragon Age was affected by in fact,
the bulgers Gate came out the year before, which is
like just the best execution of that very idea. But
as you mentioned, like there are other people making superhero
games now. When like Arkham was doing it, they were
kind of the top dog, but now you have Insomniak
who's making like really kick ass games, right, even if
maybe I guess I don't know, what do you think
people consider to be like the stronger games overall and
the just annals of overall video game icon status. I
think Spider Man or Batman, I.
Speaker 4: Think gameplay wise it's identical, Like I think you'd think
the exact same, like I feel like you feel like
that and you feel like Spider Man. I think the
Arkham stories have more depth to them, So I think
that's where even with Spider Man two you can listen
to kirklands I review, there's just they.
Speaker 3: Just still kind of miss the mark.
Speaker 4: They're not bad stories, but they just always feel like
it's a little lack of a little predictable where the
Arkham games would take some chances. I think that was
the biggest strike against Arkham Knight. That was the first
game that actually didn't feel like it was its own story.
It felt like it was everyone said, hey, this is
the reveal of game, and we got the game that
was the reveal Where Spider Man it's the same thing,
right of like when we plugged it in, we all
know what was gonna happen to Doc Ok. There was
not a chance he was gonna be a good guy, right,
Same with Spider Man two. Like the second you play it,
you know the beats of the Venom story. You know
how exactly it's gonna go. So I'd say that's the
only thing with Night that gives it a little edge.
Just those first three games had a bit more unpredictability
about them, which made it fun as you know, uh
as a as a player. But I think they're pretty
They're pretty equivalent. They are like for the Marvel like
if you're if you have a coin, those are the
two games that are on that coin.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess it's just like, man,
it feels like scary how much pressure will be on
rock Steady now with this Batman game one. I mean, like,
you know, if they're starting it now, that's gonna take
at least five years, so we're not gonna see that
until twenty thirty, let's say generously.
Speaker 2: Oh, which is insane, right.
Speaker 4: Because Arkhamight came out twenty fifteen, so it's gonna make
yea eighteen years later.
Speaker 1: And that That's what I was just gonna say, is like, man,
look at some of these like other companies, and like
just the amount of pressure that lays on over time
when you take such a large amount of time off,
and especially like like I think of SKYRIML just Roll
six is gonna have a lot of pressure on at GTA,
and I think those ones seem like they're gonna be
you know, they're gonna be good to go fine, Yeah,
but maybe they're on like a slightly different tier. But
I still think the same thing stands where it's like, man,
people wait for a long time. Me as a big
Older Scrolls fan, I am so excited for that game.
I have so much on the line, and if it underwhelms,
even like a bit, it's like that's gonna be at
at least a disappointment, which sucks to say. I feel
like GTA maybe is a bit of a different story
just because it's a rock star there. But I think
like rock Steady, especially because how many people have left
and I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't. I can't say that.
Speaker 1: I know who was the creative director of those original
games and if they didn't have people leaving in between them.
But like those games came out what every two or
three years or something.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's enough because I think the two guys that left,
I don't know, like you said, like who's lead and whatnot,
But I remember when they did leave, there are two
guys that were heavily involved in the Arkhamen Yea whichever way,
it was like they had a lot of input there
and I could see why too, Like we've talked those
multiple studios. Obviously there's not like Video Game move. I
think the closest that happens is like Jason Schreier and stuff.
Speaker 3: And maybe there is.
Speaker 4: Maybe there's a great YouTuber whether you know one or
our listeners let me know. But I feel like in
five to ten years someone's gonna make a great semi
documentary about the lives of game service era, right, and
like the massive pros and the massive cons. Like while
I was off, we talked about it because what was
the other game there was one of the games that
got shut down or canceled or something like that, right,
where it was another games.
Speaker 2: For Service multivers different thing.
Speaker 4: You're saying it was a different it was a different one,
and they think it was just like it was a
list of like, oh, they were making Last of Us,
but it didn't happen.
Speaker 1: They were making the spiral on Oh yeah, all the
Sony stuff. Yeah, yes, with Bend and.
Speaker 4: That's what it was. Yeah, because I think we were
talking about with Mike, because Mike's like, who in the
right minds making a God of war games for Service? Right,
And that's where it's like, I think there's a fascinating
documentary about the all the behind if you can get
people to go on record or some people go on
record and talk about that same thing of like you
look at rock Steady, they didn't do that much, right,
it was just the Batman games. Even people said like
why aren't they doing like Ninja Turtles or something else?
Speaker 3: And uh, Warner Bros.
Speaker 4: That they own like some other ip that at that point,
like why don't you do something else? But like, Okay,
they're doing Batman and DC stuff And I just feel
like such a strange pivot. You have these guys that
are heavily involved in making a huge.
Speaker 3: Single player game.
Speaker 4: Story looks great, like, hits all the benchmarks you want,
sales great, right, and it's just like, okay, now let's
do a complete one eighty and make these type of games.
And you never know, because we've talked about this before,
like look at kill Zone to Horizon. It can work.
You can have a studio that can do both, but
it's not like a given and especially too like that
at least feels like that was a pivot by like inspiration.
I don't know if those guys woke up. Maybe I'm
wrong and that could be the case, but I don't
know if anyone woke up after Arkham Knight said I
want to make this type of suicide squad game.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: It was definitely definitely the suits upstairs in the in
the CEO boardroom who would just like look at numbers
all day and don't think about the artistry of game making, right.
Speaker 4: So, and that's I think. There's just all these studios
and all these stories. I hope one day somebody out
there makes some sort of documentary. Hey maybe maybe geek
for thank you for some ten years when we got
GVS going Strong, Will make docs because I would love.
I'm just fascinated by how it all works because it
like obviously there's massive games that like it's huge for right,
massive money makers, so you kind of get it, but
you have.
Speaker 3: To pick and choose.
Speaker 4: But I want to ask you before we moved any forward,
if they were to city down, it's saykay, we've heard sidequests.
You know, we know Deal's not the biggest Batman fan,
but want his opinion? Do you what do you think
is the better approach for them to be Like, Hey,
we're gonna be cause both have their merits, but we're
gonna do an Arkham five like something in that world
or just completely new, fresh start type of Batman thing,
because clearly they're making a Batman game, So what do
you think would be? And not even for yourself, just
like what do you think is better for the mark
because like you said, you go with the nostalge, But
if this game's not till like twenty thirty, like that,
are those people maybe not even nostalgic for a bad
Are they like moved on?
Speaker 3: Are they not playing those games?
Speaker 4: Like when yeah, it's the best route because then you
have the pitch too that Arkham is like very big
franchis and we've seen multiple games come back, like God
a War and it came back it was a massive hit, right, So.
Speaker 1: Man, that's this is why I have sympathy for some
of these people at times where it's like that is
an impossible decision because there are examples and counterexamples for
either side of it.
Speaker 2: So I don't know.
Speaker 1: I like my gut would be to say, you know,
make it in the same Arkham verse, because that would
maybe buy you a little bit more favor right off
the bat. You're gonna get the nostalgia hits and stuff
like that. But I don't know would people be just
as nostalgic as long as it just like is rock
Steady involved. But then you have GA level people who
don't necessarily think about which studio makes a thing. They
just only think about the game series and the name
and whatnot. But I think what you would probably do,
and I don't know if it would be just rock
Steady making this would be a remaster collection. I'm sure
they've done that before, but like another one, yeah, you
would do another one, because once again, twenty thirty, so
we're talking years away. Next console generation at this point
you'd have like a collection in there. It would get
it top of mind again. People would be playing that
stuff again, and then you hit them with the new game,
which once again, yeah, if rock Steady's doing all of that,
all these remastered because what was the studio that.
Speaker 2: Made Origins, right, it was a different one.
Speaker 3: That made that Montreal or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I don't know what the heck they're doing
if they're still around even, but like you get another.
Speaker 3: Studio like that night, I'm pretty sure, Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 1: So maybe you get them or a studio like that
to do the remaster part of it, and then you
can like combo it and hopefully.
Speaker 2: You build up the hype that way.
Speaker 1: But yeah, once again, I think Dragon Age is a
great example to look at a game like that that
kind of came back after all these years and I
don't know how connected it was to the previous games,
but just audience wasn't there for it. I do feel
like Batman is an evergreen thing, but I also kind
of thought Dragon.
Speaker 2: Age was, so I don't know. There, it's just it's
so hard.
Speaker 4: And so much changes, right, Like that's where it's all
about the games for service. Look how it a short
time that change and like there's still successful versions of it,
but it's like not everything, and there's it's more like, okay,
people find their camps and they stay and then there's
the odd one that come out. But it is interesting,
and yeah, I really don't know what I would have
them do. I wonder if there's a a middle ground.
I know at one point another game that they throw
out they're working on, like a Batman Beyond, where that's
always a story of a younger character finding out Bruce
Wayne was Batman when he's like in his seventies and
he like trains him. And what I've always loved about
Batman Beyond. It's Batman but in a Blade Runner setting.
It's a cyberpunk world and that's what I'd love. But
at the same time, I would personally give me something new.
Speaker 3: I want that.
Speaker 4: But do people see they go, oh, well, that's not
the Batman game I want. I wanted more like the
old school. So I feel like it's a good dan
if you do, damn if you don't, And uh yeah,
I'll be there. I'll be interested to see what they do.
But my hope is they do something completely new. Especially
with the voice actors not coming back to it's like
because then if it works in something completely new, then
it's like, oh, we can go on for a while
where now they do start to feel redundant. But if
they do come out and say it's you know, oh,
Arkham Castle, Arkham Beyond, I'm like, okay, I get it.
Speaker 3: You gotta go for the name.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, I mean if you look at Insomniac,
I mean when they're one of the few, like Triple
A Studios that's able to put out games at like
a frequent pace these days. But like a big part
of that is like, Okay, make Spider Man, then you
make Miles, and then you make Spider Man two. Maybe
this Venom game, if it happens like all of those
built off the same engine, use on the same assets
and characters, and it can make things just a lot smoother,
and it can reduce those development times because you're kind
of re use lizing things and iterating I guess, And yeah,
maybe that's something they could.
Speaker 2: Work towards with Batman.
Speaker 1: Whether that is because of the remasters of remaking those
old games and then like building off that for the
new game or what not. Who who knows, but yeah,
it'll probably be a very long time before we see
any of those things come to light. Let's take our
last ad.
Speaker 2: Break and we will be right back. Okay, we are back.
Speaker 1: Maybe this one will be a quick hit here. But
a couple other things that came out. One is that
there's a couple of games that were maybe rumored or
maybe considered or maybe pitched, but we're eventually not We're
I guess eventually not greenlit by wb that being a
Constantine and a Flash game. It seems like the Flash
one maybe it was somehow connected, like they saw the
movie come out, he didn't perform super well and then
they canceled it. I don't know how much I believe
that side of it. But also, can you film me
on a Constantine as a character, and like, I don't know,
do you do you wish either of these games did
get greenlit and we we got these.
Speaker 4: So it's funny we talked about Don't Wake Day because
when the Constant news came out, I saw so many
people in the game speries be like an Allan went.
Constant game is like the way you could have gone.
He is a supernatural. He is not the exact same
as Doctor Strange, but it's that type of power set
where it's wizard wizardry. He's like, a, yeah, he's dealing
with the devil and demons and monsters and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: He's think he's a monster hunter. So that's where I think.
And you never know what the budget of.
Speaker 4: These games is, right, because could I say, hey, go
make a massive mudget budget Constantine game. No, But like
even with Alan Wake, I know it's a like it's
still bigger game, but it's still not on the level
of like a GTA or even probably what Batman. I
would venture to guess, like some of the Batman games
probably cost more than Alan Wake, right, just in general.
So I just feel like if you could make something
on the smaller side, I think there's some cool stuff.
Speaker 3: I don't know I would have liked that.
Speaker 4: I don't know how that would have sold because he's
a very lesser known DC character. He's been in a
few things the past couple of years, and he has
a movie I'm not sure you're seeing. Keanu Reeves played them,
so they have that interesting there. Yeah, there's a Canter
Reeves movie. Maybe one day we'll retch with But I
think the I could see a great pitch for that
the flash thing. I'm with you where it's tough, where
I think there's tons of fun stuff you could do anytime.
I'm one of the speezers in like Lego games, it's
always a great time, you know. I always like, Man,
I'd love to do this in real life, play a
character where you're on the ground and it's moving around
really fast. Like I feel like there's a not a
what's an easy way to do? But I feel like
where video games are now, there is a way to
do that and make it enjoyable. I have a hard
time believing about the movie thing, but to me, if
it is true, that shows to me they're in really
big trouble because I get the correlation of all the
movie bombs.
Speaker 3: So maybe people want to play our game, let's not
do that character. But I think they're for the most.
Speaker 4: Part different audiences. The hardcore gaming audience is gonna spend
money versus the movie audience. I don't think that's a
one to one comparison. So if like, if you made
something out there that's a really great, quirky, fun loving
like very because I think like all the Supero games
we don't have a main speed surface. So I feel
like right away, peoplic oh, like how does that work?
And if it looks cool, that could be your gateway,
and like, oh, this is something a little more unique
than Batman Inspierman, which have different move sets. But it
is like a guy with your you have the same
counter attack. You have like press A and B to
do a big combo finisher. Like I hope the flash
is maybe a little bit different because it's quite a
different power set. Like even Batman and Spiderman they both
got gadget reels right, like they have like a thing
where you pull up. So, uh, if.
Speaker 3: It is true, because maybe it is.
Speaker 4: These are the same guys that made them go from
Arkham Night to Suicide Squad. Maybe they did go you
know what, yeah that movie bomb. We can't do this anymore.
But I think that would have been a fascinating game
to see it play out. So but yeah, it doesn't
sound like that's yeah, that's happening.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean I think that way you can
look at Marvel as that is as just an exact
one to one of Marvel's Avengers and Ultimate Alliance three
came out at like the ideal times, Like Ultimate Lines
three came out like a couple of months after Endgame,
I think, or one of the two, right, twenty nineteen.
So yeah, it's like and you know, I think Ultimate
Line three was age.
Speaker 3: Six, Yeah, so two months after endgame and they had
fan like a.
Speaker 1: Month after Spider Man, I think the same character you
could play.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 1: It's like that that game was a success for what
it was because I think it had a really low
budget and so it sold like a couple of million copies.
Speaker 2: Whatever. It was good to go.
Speaker 1: Marvels Avengers, the only other side of the coin, was
considered a pretty big failure. But even though Ultimate Alliance
was a success, it like that should have sold ten
million copies based on how.
Speaker 2: How high the Marvel Yeah yeah, And so.
Speaker 1: I think it just kind of goes to show that
people aren't necessarily like I don't know, maybe Marvel is
a different example, just because they are churning out so
much content that you don't feel like, oh man, I
need a game to fill the void because you're getting
shows and TV shows end movies like every year, so
maybe you don't feel that drought as much. And DC,
who knows, we'll see like I guess the cadence is
gonna pick up here. But even then, like they've been
doing stuff semi semi consistently for the last few years, right,
So yeah, I don't know how how real that would
have been. I'm interested in this Constantine character, so it
sounds like something you look.
Speaker 4: More up your I don't know if they're gonna At
one point they announced they were doing like a Legacy
sequel with Reeves, but that was kind of around the
time then took over, so I don't know if that's
the thing.
Speaker 1: But I think I've seen that movie like DVD case
or something, but I never associated with like DC, so yeah.
Speaker 4: No, and it's it's a fun movie. It's a it's
it's a good time movie. And they also did a
TV show as well back in the day. So uh,
there's lots of stuff with Constantine.
Speaker 1: Another quick hit here is you know, just some more
talk that like Hogwarts Legacy two is definitely happening. Also
something that like apparently they're maybe thinking of doing DLC
for the first game, which to me that feels too
far gone at this point. Yeah, focus on Yeah, but
like that is I think that's come up multiple times
and it's like, that's the surprising thing ever, because that
game was I think the second or third best selling
game of the year. It came out after like Call
of Duty, right like it was huge. So yeah, no
surprise of course that that game is carrying WB on
its back right now. I feel like, so, yeah, so yeah,
that's definitely happening. I'm really curious to see what they
do there. Is it the same map but they go
to a different like obviously it's not Hogwarts if you
go to a different school. I don't think they would
do that, just because it's not a safe decision to make,
and WB probably gonna take it pretty safe right now.
But yeah, yeah, I'm curious to see what what's going
on with that sequel.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think that's the toughest thing.
Speaker 4: It's very similar to me because we had these conversations
before with New York and Spider Man, right of like
you've already done New York, what do you do? And
even with Speriman two, they added like a little bit
more of New York. But that for me is easier
because you can always be like we're gonna go to
the os Corp Layer, We're gonna go to like there's
other locations that maybe you didn't go to in the
first game.
Speaker 3: They're in New York, right, we're hogwarts.
Speaker 4: I think that's what they're gonna do is it's gonna
be something like Chamber of Secrets, where it's like there's this.
Speaker 3: Part of the school that you never knew about.
Speaker 4: Are this there's like because there's lots of mountains or
like forest area. It's gonna be like there's a you
know something out there's a cave out there you didn't know.
Because I feel like the school you got to keep
because people like that as the home base.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe add some new areas to it. You know,
Quiddage wasn't in there, so that's an easy free bee on.
Speaker 4: Maybe there's a couple of rooms now that are open
you can go to. But that's my prediction. They'll add
some sort of Chamber of Secrets esque area that it's
part of the school, but you know it's never been
there before and it doesn't like break Cannon or anything.
But that was kind of a no brainer. And even
then like the same thing to me, the correlation of
the show's coming out, and again I didn't like those
reports of it being maybe tied to the show, but
I still think it's smart too. Show's gonna come out
hopefully be a big deal for them, and then the game.
It's smart to have like that synergy going on. They
don't have to be connected, but just finish an exspect. Oh,
I'd love to be a wizard right now? Boom, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then I don't know why I went away
from DC, but let's go right back to Dacre because
Wonder Woman. So you know, this is a weird one
where the game was teased announced what every want to say.
I think it was like three or four years ago now,
so it's been a bit and I feel like last
year in particular, is when, at least for me, it
was like, Okay, we're gonna get announcement this year, whether
it's like that big summer gamefest situation. Then that didn't happen,
so like, okay, maybe game wards, Like I feel like
prediction that I was making was like, yeah, I think
we're finally going to see Wonder Woman. We didn't, of course.
And then there is this rumor, kind of some talk
here that it seems as if potentially Wonder Woman last
year twenty twenty four kind of restart development, being rebooted
with a new creative director at the helm of it.
And so that if that is true, and it is
like a frum scratch thing and they can't reuse a
lot of it, that puts it another five years out
at least once again. Twenty thirty is when we'd be
seeing that thing, if WB can survive that long without
having to close the studio or about canceling this project,
which that's the worst case. But I mean, it's happening
in like every day right now the game industry, So
it wouldn't shock me if that did happen at this point,
if if this rumor is true. But man, if that
is the case, I think that is such a huge
disappointment and clearly just a huge mismanagement of whether it's
this upstairs or like the heads of the studio there,
or likely a little bit of both. Wow, what a
massive fumble and obviously not great timing considering all their
other failures right now, And and I hope this is
not true, but it seems like it might be the case.
Speaker 4: I think it is because I remember I can't remember
what it was because I still listened to kind of
funny I listened to Colin Show Up. So those are
usually my two main ones other than Side Quest. So
I remember around the time of some Predictions cast because
it also spread around the internet too, and he had
to address it. But whether it was like for Summer
Games Fest or Game Awards that Greg Miller had said like, oh,
I'm hearing some stuff for people that like this game's
on good shape, and then like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I kind of thought about that, but good point.
Speaker 4: I remember, yeah, I can't remember if it was before
or after, but remember there was that rumor at one
point that Wonder Woman had live game service elements in it,
and they came out.
Speaker 3: And say like no, no, no, that's not the deal.
Speaker 4: But they also did that with Suicide Squad, and Suicide
Squad did and so that's why I think that it's
kind of the you know, if it walks like a duck,
talks like a do like you have scuttle butt from
insiders and then you have other people saying, hey, there's
this going on, and then all of a sudden, it's like, oh,
there might have been a reboocause the same thing if
that game had any sense, And I it's like what
Mike was saying thought of war. If you say, okay,
we're not gonna do Batman, and I say do Superman
and you go, no, we're not doing that to me.
The third one would be k do wonder Woman. So
that was a smart deal. Okay, for some reason, they're
very scared to make a Superman game. The guy flies
shotslaz like shoes, Slazer's ice like, the guy has a
move set built for video games. It's not like, oh,
how do we like case Spiderman has his webs, but
we need like all these different gadgets like this guy
super speed super like he has five powers already, Like
I can see the skill tree for like get colder, breath,
get like what haerever is right like, so it's like, hey,
you're not doing that.
Speaker 3: We're gonna do wonder Woman. This makes sense in the
hierarchy of DC.
Speaker 4: Okay, and if this was any truth at any point,
but we wanted to be live game service, Like how
is that even? Like what in the world would a
wonder Woman as a games of service work? Ass Like
why is that anywhere near it? And again that's not confirmed,
but it just feels like it's odd that that was
a rumor and now like what why would they be
rebooting the game?
Speaker 3: Like what is there?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 3: How bad? Was it?
Speaker 4: It sucks too because this has that what's the system?
Is it just called the enemy system or menis? Yeah,
which is like fantastic in the Lord of the Rings games.
It's one of the best things in gaming ever. For me,
I love it. So it's like, oh, as Wonder Woman,
Like to me, it's just as bad. It sounds if
you're going to make a semi Shadow of War reskinned
as Wonder Woman's like that works like it makes sense.
She has some powers a sword and Nemesis system go.
So that's where it's like. Either way, it just feels
like I'm not saying it's easy making video games movies
t shows not easy, but just feels like there should
have Like I feel like the roadmap would it would
be easy to make the pitch of point A to
point B of this is what the Wonder Woman game
should be. So this is why I'm confused of where
it was go like what happened? What got us on
this track to maybe it's booting We're not gonna see
it for another four to five years, and uh yeah,
same thing. It's like I feel like that game is
gonna have of hopefully a good showing, but I feel
like it has like little hype now because like it's
announced and it's just gone. It just reminds you of
like the Kotar remake. It's like that's the things like
do we actually ever see this game now?
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: It's like because there's multiple games we've talked about. Warner
Brothers was making a different two side squad game at time.
There's two other Batman games that were in development that
they scrapped. So it's not out of the realm of
possibility that in two years we're talking about some Jason
Schreier report where it's like, yeah, that Wonder Run game's
just dead and it never went anywhere, and it's just
like again sunk in money costs.
Speaker 1: And I mean this stuff is coming from Jason Schreyer,
which is usually the nail in the coffin of a
game if he's reported on you, it's it's not looking good. No, yeah,
I mean I it sucks because I am excited for
this game. You know, if I'm not a big DC guy,
I think it's just a great idea, and so it
sucks that for whatever reason, as you mentioned, probably because
the live service stuff is the reason why it would
be getting rebooted. And now it's like a new Crave
director who knows what the heck is going to go
on now, because it's even the same people anymore that
were like really working on this Lord of the Ring stuff.
And I think once again, like I to some extent
understand why companies would want to patent video game mechanics
if they come up with something really cool and innovative
and they want to make sure it's only for them, Sure,
but I it's generally something I just absolutely hate.
Speaker 2: I think it just flies in the face of.
Speaker 1: Like creativity and iteration and how much like how much
stuff did that Lord of the Rings game quote unquote
rip off from other games? But it's not ripping it
off because that's just video games. And you look at
what other games did, you learn from their mistakes, you
see what they did right, and you kind of implement
some of that stuff. And so the fact that they
patented the Nemesis system and now they just haven't released
a game since they've done that, and no one else
is allowed to use it unless they're like obsucated enough
that it's not even the same thing anymore, and then
this game like maybe it just never comes out, and
then that patent it just exists in some fucking drawer
in WB somewhere, gathering dust and like never gets used.
I just I hate that, Like Nintendo has so many
random patents on stuff.
Speaker 2: I hate it.
Speaker 1: I remember reading recently that there's a patent on video
game loading screens having like a minigame in it. So
that's why, like that's just not a thing that happens
because some studio a company whatever has patented that. Nowadays,
like PS five and stuff, there's not a lot of
load times and whatnot. But it's like that's a great,
great thing, a little little mini gaming play while you're
waiting for game to load. But like, nope, you just
can't do that because some company decided to pat in
that stuff. And I mean, also if the judges and
courts who are like granting these patents are really stupid stuff.
So that's a whole nother soapbox. But I just really
hate to see it for this Nemesis system because it
is such a great idea and it's like perfect for
a freaking comic book character game that has a huge
roster of interesting villains and whatnot. So the fact that
we were like promised it and then it's just not
happening and maybe will never happen.
Speaker 2: We will see.
Speaker 1: Just with how WB's going, it like seems likely that
maybe just never ends up happening.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I hope, I hope there.
Speaker 1: Is some good news that comes around this game, but
I don't. Once again, probably gonna be years and years
before we hear anything on it at this point, which
is a huge bummer.
Speaker 2: So that that sucks neat to see it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's tough because like it's when of these situations now,
if things do get better, it's not gonna be for
a long time.
Speaker 3: It'd be different if at least at least.
Speaker 4: One of the two, whether it's Arkhamites or Suit Saide
Squad hit because you'd be like, hey, we really got
hit hard with Suicide Squad, but at least this was
a way, and then we can kind of there's done
a bad taste. But it's like like I said, I
think Arkamites was just like a fine, fun, decent combook game.
But you're you're gonna be away for a little bit
with not much to show, not much like hype around you.
You know, even if Wonder Woman would be working, it's like, okay,
that can come out. Then we could figure out Batman
or anything else. So it's it's gonna be a while.
But maybe at the same time, that's the reverse that
maybe that's a good thing, is you go away for
a bit, you get missed, and then when you're back
and hopefully you come out strong, like if you get
Wonder Woman next time you showed off like that, it's
like it's coming out next year, this quarter. We're really
happy with this, this, this, here's the voice cast, all
the stuff. It's not I don't want another teasing a
couple of years be like, oh, Wonder Woman's still cooking
and then nothing. It's like no, now you have to
be quiet until you're you're ready to go.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I know, you know, we just talked about
how like we don't feel like there is much of
a correlation between there being big movies for these characters
and then like the game is gonna succeed or die
because of the success or not success of the movie.
But has has James Gonnen talked about like Wonder Woman,
how that character is gonna be interacted in the new
DC universe.
Speaker 4: All they've been out so far as there is a
show called Paradise Loss and it takes place on themascare
people kind of act like it might be act as
the origin to Wonder Woman. Then that might transfer into
the movies, but it's obviously not gal And yeah, we'll see.
But I know James is gonna last week, I can't
remember who was. But because there's always a big deal
on threads, he started to fallow some some developer that
has like some good praise, but like, oh and because
he's taught about before that, he's wanted to do the
thing where it's like, hey, if we make a Superman game,
David corn Sweat would voice that character right, not in
like a movie adaption game where that it's tho shooting
games like something where it's like, no, we want to
make games set in this universe. So that's another kind
of shoe that hasn't dropped yet. And same thing. It's
not connected to the movies, but I do think it
can indirectly help the studio of that franchise starts to
pick up, you know, like success people. There's a drive
for it that can kind of raise all boats. So
we'll see.
Speaker 3: But I just know James Gunn wants to make games
in DC.
Speaker 4: Maybe it's just gonna be a crypto game though, maybe
it's just gonna be some dog like Hairstyler game and
you know, start simple.
Speaker 1: Go for like a nice indie you know on the
iPhone iPhone exclusive.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, they really should do a type of
game like there's that John Wick game that you've played.
That's what I would That would be my other focus
with him, James Gunner, that is, put out something in
the next because let's say they don't put any DC
games until Wonder Woman and Batman put out something the
next two to three years that's smaller but like has
a lot of love put it into it, and it's
like just a cool game somemore. You know, Hey, that's
probably not gonna guess lost sales, it's not gonna be
number ten on the charts, but like something where oh
I really like this this was even so I could
get some like nominations in the year, get some buzz,
Like that's what I would do if I was there.
Speaker 2: Small budget, small game, but just like overall boosts the brand.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yes, just just something a couple of games because
DC has thousands, literally thousands of characters.
Speaker 3: That again they all oone. Now. Marvel does own.
Speaker 4: Their characters now, but like w b's always own these characters,
like there's nothing holding them bad for making a like
I said, a smaller constant game. Make it something like
an Alan Wake style. Don't have to make a huge
triple A game. But who knows.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think that'd be cool. And I think
even what you mentioned there, I kind of forgot about
that of the idea of bringing in some of these
live actor live action actors, bring them in as like
a voice actors for some of these games. I think
that maybe could have an effect that would boost some
of the sales of these games in a way that
we feel like there's such a big disconnection from the
the gain like the Marvel games and the Marvel movies,
they just feel like they're in their own lanes completely
other than like, oh, we're focusing on Thanos right now,
that kind of stuff, but it's like not the same
voice actors and stuff. So I think that that would
be interesting. I'd be curious to see how that if
that pays off in a big way, and if it doesn't.
It's like probably not a huge gain. I mean for
some of them, for Kornsweat, I don't know how how
much it costs to get them in like a.
Speaker 2: Game for a few lines of dialogue.
Speaker 4: But and again, Superman can come out July bomb and
then it's just a whole another conversation.
Speaker 3: Right, the universe is dead and there's no game.
Speaker 4: So that's that's why I think they're smart that they
haven't announced any games yet, because I feel like, more
than TV showing movies, games is something where like, if
you're gonna make a game set in the DCU, you
got to be proven, because imagine if you put the
game into production, it's like, oh yeah, people actually don't
care about this universe, and then like, oh well we
have a Superman game and David corn swet Superman. But
everyone's like we didn't. We don't jive with that. So
it's like, now the MCU could do something right. You
could put out some sort of I've always said, like
why not make a Chachaka game and be like, hey,
we're gonna set this in the sixties to forties of
him Black Panther. Like I know they're supposedly making a
Black Panther game. I think it's Yay or somebody right, like,
I can't remember they announce it.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that does still exist out there. I forget
who's making it, but don't.
Speaker 3: Forget right because I saw this, Yeah it was.
Speaker 4: It was a tweet. It was Wonder Room, Wolf, Hierman,
and Black Panther and they were all announced within like
a year and a half of each other. Like these
games are three to four year old announcements and there's
like nothing about them. But like MCU is what I'm
saying is you could say, like, hey said something will
Conda forty years ago. You're fine, We're DC. You do
have to it'd be weird if James goun like. And
also in the slate we have Superman the.
Speaker 2: Game and it's like okay, so yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: And then the last bit of WB news here is
that multi Versus has officially announced that with I think
it's season five, this is their current season or upcoming
season will be the final season of the game. And
then they are turning the servers off. They're flicking the
off switch on the servers there and the game is
going to die right then and there, because it's a
live service game, and they're selling it this way, and
so you won't even be able to play online after
that point.
Speaker 3: So I'm playing couch co Ops hard enough as we
found it on this.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, it's fucking impossible.
Speaker 1: Hopefully, one of the things I was reading made it
seemed like maybe that'll be easier, like maybe they would
unlock turn something that off. But I have low expectations
that if the game's die and they're just looking to
like get any lass dollar they can, that they're gonna
try and add that feature to a game that's like
gonna get delisted from the.
Speaker 2: Store at some point, Like they don't, they're not gonna
care about that. That's you know it is because it's
a free game anyway.
Speaker 1: But uh yeah, I this is really really disappointing for
me because I really like Multiverses. You know, it's not
as clean smooth gameplay wise as as Smash of course,
And honestly, I was playing a few months ago, I
was playing the Nickelodeon All Star Bro of the sequel one,
and like that game actually plays pretty well too, and
I actually think it maybe plays a little bit better
like gameplay wise than Multiverses. But I still have a
lot of fun playing the game, And you know, it's
one that when I re launched last year, I played
a lot of it when it came back, and then
I was even playing it just you when new characters
came out, I was jumping back in checking some of
them out. But Matt, I just I just hate how
much this game has fumbled in terms of coming out
and like a weird ambiguous like alpha beta stage and
then launching and then going off line for like whatever
six months, and then coming back and then obviously that's
just not a great way to market a game in general.
But then for me, it's always gone back to I
hated the live service set up for this game, and
I would love to see an alternate dimension where if
they had I think it would have been a hard
sell of eighty ninety bucks. But if like Nickelodeon all
star Bro, they charged thirty forty bucks for it, I
would have one hundred percent bought the game if I
just had access to all the characters, and like you know,
I can unlock You can still have the characters unlockable,
but not as much of a grind as it takes
Nick right now to get the characters in there, and
I definitely would have been a purchaser. I wonder how
many other people would have been. And if it would
have been able to make the game, I mean one,
it would have just made it so you didn't have
to support it with live service stuff to keep it going.
You know, it would have just been able to like
just exist and stay alive. And eventually they turned the
servers off. Maybe it could have got a few more
years out of it. And you know, I'm I'm just
bummed that we never got to the Lord of the Rings.
We never got to the Harry Potter stuff, like we
just they just they we did way too much DC
stuff in my opinion. Obviously that rights to it. They
could go buck wild, but they they did, like I
would have seen some of these other ips that you know,
clearly it's not I'm sure they would have loved to
have Lord of the Rings in there. It was not
the developer's fault, but I just hate the way this
game was designed in the first place. Because I the
idea of a plot for a fire with all these
great characters crossover super fun, and I liked the game,
but yeah, this was not the right way to do it.
And because of the way that they did it. I
have not given a single dollar to it, so I'm
part of the problem in a sense. But if they
had just charged me thirty forty bucks right up front
for everything, you would.
Speaker 2: Have had me. So just a massive bummer.
Speaker 1: And it's too bad because I would have continued to
keep playing this game, but now I just won't be
able to in a couple months.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I agree with your statement. They would have
had my money as well. I remember when it first
came out, you, me and Emily were doing like some
online match together. We had a fun time, and then
that I think that release was the start of it.
Not saying it's not you can't recover, but it just
felt like the hype got taken out and it was
really weird, like, hey, it's done and we don't know
what's coming back. Not even like a q on. This
was just it was gone and they went like silent.
It felt like it just it almost felt like the
game wasn't coming back. So when it did, it was like, oh,
I guess it's coming back. And I agreed to the
DC point where like you can't just rely on that. Also,
it's one of their bigger brands. But I think for me,
I'm just bummed that I really want because like you
got Nickeloeon got that obviously the PlayStation all starts didn't
work out. I just I'm hoping in the twenty twenty
five now, I guess not in this decade, but in
the next ten years. I would just love someone to
make a platform fighter that is I can't say, like
as good as Smash, but something successful, not even the
same amount, but just uh, a competitor one way or another, right,
because I feel like these games come out and like
they're they fun, they have a little audience, but nothing
ever to the amount of like one A and then
one B.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying you're gonna.
Speaker 4: Beat Smashes been around since at sixty four, not gonna
say it's gonna be better.
Speaker 3: But I've just been wanting something where it's.
Speaker 4: Like options, right, or like we've talked about, we've wanted
like like have like have something successful. So Disney might
be like, let's do one where it's like we got
Marvel Star Wars Disney characters like yeah, and even this
like the roster is still pretty cool, like Beatle Juice,
Agent Smith, Lost DC characters Jason Vorhees, the Great.
Speaker 3: Lens people from Rick and Morty.
Speaker 4: You got some Scooby deal and they're like, there's tons
of different brands in here. I think they just I
agree with you that we don't know. We don't have
that answer, but I would love to see if you
release the game with let's seventy five percent that roster,
and then you as DLC, adds some more because I
feel like that's that keeps it more alive. The here's
a Smash roster, here's people gonna lock. But then every
few months we're releasing still new fighters for DLC. Right,
first's the here's your fighters, but then there's still more,
like you know, kind of you know quote unquote main
roster fires that come, but that's gonna be down the line,
and you kind of forget about it, right, And it's
just one of these things that it's tough to do,
especially like when you're Smash, you could do that because
you're the big dog, right, but when you're trying to
establish audience, I feel like, just go for everything. And
I agree with you now and retrospect the thirty forty
might have been a better way, because yeah, I would
have bought it, and I feel like I would have
been more inclined to keep my eyes on it if
it had more of the fighters to go.
Speaker 3: And yeah, it was disappointing. Same thing.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure what happened legally there. Who knows what
over the rings because they have rights all over the place,
right but Harry Potter, I don't know how they never
worked that out because they are warnbles doing everything with them.
So yeah, it's just disappointing. And yeah, it's little stuff
Like I was telling that Demily day because like, oh
remember that game.
Speaker 3: Because I was going over some of the topics.
Speaker 4: She asked what we were talking about day and like
I remember Multiverse, Like oh yeah, yeah, Like I kind
of wanted to explain it to her, and then I
try to explain her like what happened in the stream
when we try to all play it together, and like,
that's that's quality of life stuff in twenty twenty four
or five that should not be happening. That's stuff that
it should be easy, like the fact that I can
just hit smash, get the controllers on, and the kids
can go great. But if I were to give that
to Gwen and Logan be like, hey, get this going
like you can't like you gotta log in get a
different like what are you think? And I know couch
Cope is not like all the bel end all, but
it's stuff like that, right, because it's stuff like us
and not saying we have a massive audience or anything,
but it's like we would have played Multiverse probably for
like an I don't have two hours, right, that's like
free publicity of if someone watches and they see, oh
that's a cool game, like look it's Bugs Bunny versus
Iron Giant. But the second we fumble around with it
for fifteen minutes ago, this is a hassle turn off.
Speaker 3: You lose that.
Speaker 4: And I feel like that happened with just like in general,
it wasn't streaming or wasn't a big deal when it
came back.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's just more disappointing.
Speaker 4: And I'm wanting someone up there other than Nintendo to
step up and make like some sort you know. And
like I said, I'm looking at the All Powerful Evil
Disney is like they're the ones. I feel like they're
the ones. You've got to find somebody and be like,
hey here's our ip use it all make something go,
you know.
Speaker 3: But I I won't.
Speaker 4: I just worry if developers soon look at this and
just go like, got, that's just that's just a Nintendo
and smash, you know, like you can't recreate that. We
we tap, you know, So I don't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's it's tricky when you compare it
to Ultimate at this point, which is a game that's
had five games lead up to it, right or four
games to lead up to it, So now you just
have all this years of iteration design and like creating
a genre and then making the blueprint. So it's just yeah,
it's hard to hard to compare for sure. But yeah, yeah,
I mean quick quick, quick rant as well as like
playing Rocket League with Sarrus last night, and you know,
we played Rocker League often and just jumping on Steam
there and I went to go play the game and
it was like, oh, you have to log into your
Epic account because at some point Epic bought Rocket League
years and years ago, but I bought it on Steam
way before that acquisition happened, so I never had to
worry about it.
Speaker 2: But last night, we're going.
Speaker 1: To play, and it was just not letting me play
until I linked my account and then I would click
the button, it would pull up the epic thing, and
it like it only allowed you to create an epic account.
I couldn't log in with the one I already had,
and I had to fuck around with it for like
a half an hour.
Speaker 2: It was the most annoying thing ever.
Speaker 1: Like, it's one of my biggest pet peeves of modern
game And I had a friend come over recently to
play Halo. We just wanted to play some online and like, yeah,
you have to make a second account on the Xbox
that had access Xbox Live is like such a mess,
and I obviously that's just not that's such a small
part of the market these days. I guess that they
don't care at all. But it's like, man, does any
of these developers care to make this like an enjoyable experience.
It's just they don't care about the split screen couch
community anymore, which is just annoying, very.
Speaker 2: Pet peeve status stuff.
Speaker 1: There, I agree, yeah, uh yeah, anyway, there you go.
This is a very juicy, heated episode. Trev is really
really fun. Great to have you back here on side Quest.
Very excited this next couple of weeks here. I'm gonna
be a happy lad. Because I got a Civilization coming
out in like three or four days, and then the
week after that is avowed, So you're gonna get a
couple of juicy episodes here and me playing some fun
new games. Thank you everyone for listening.
Speaker 2: And we'll see you and next time. Bye bye