Unraveling Xbox Game Sharing Strategies, Tackling Gaming Tribalism, and Candid Game Reviews on Gamerheads

Curious about Microsoft's latest maneuvers in the game-sharing arena? This week on The Gamerheads Podcast, we're setting the record straight on the Xbox rumors, providing clarity amidst the chaos. We peel back the layers of Microsoft's strategy to share their first-party titles.

Tribalism in gaming can be as divisive, stifling innovation and growth. We're taking a hard look at this problematic loyalty, inviting you to join the debate on how it affects our beloved industry. Phil Spencer's thoughts on stagnant growth and the paradox of layoffs in a booming sector fuel our discussion, while we encourage fresh ideas that challenge the status quo. Get ready for some eye-opening perspectives, seasoned with the unmistakable Gamerheads blend of humor and candidness.

Finally, we're dishing out our takes on the latest games to hit the scene. including Suicide Squad'. Hear about the technical hiccups that had us scratching our heads, the supernatural VR workouts that have us flexing in new ways, and the Steam Next Fest demos setting our gamer hearts aflutter. Whether these new offerings are worth your time or destined to collect digital dust, we've got the scoop right here, on The Gamerheads Podcast.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This episode of Gamer Heads is brought to you by Magic Mind, the healthy energy drink that will help you take your creativity to a new level. Hi, I'm Celia Schilling from Yacht Club Games.

Speaker 2: 0:11

Hey, this is James from Mega Cat Studios.

Speaker 3: 0:14

Hey, this is Matt AK Stormer-Geddon from Reignite Screen Snark and the Fun and Games podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:19

This is Stephanie from the Boss Rush podcast and the Boss Rush Network. Hey, this is Mark and Keon from Bonta-Affold. Hey, this is Sebastian with theproteonerreportcom and the Single Player Experience podcast. Hi, this is Chris.

Speaker 2: 0:33

Mike and Garrett from Daylight Basement Studio. Hey, this is BaronJ67 from Level 1 Gaming. Hey, this is Todd Mitchell from Code Right Play.

Speaker 1: 0:41

Salutations. This is Mike Carroll from Stroll Art. Hey, this is Jeff Moonen from Fun and Games podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:47

Hey, this is Patrick from the Backlog Odyssey.

Speaker 3: 0:50

Hey, this is Rune from Runeit Codes. Hi, this is Andrew from Spalato Birds.

Speaker 2: 0:55

Hi everyone, jill Grote, here from the Indie and Former hey, this is Brimstone and you're listening to Roger Reichart on the GamerHeads podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:08

And welcome to another episode of the GamerHeads podcast. My name is Roger. Along with me are my co-hosts and very good friends. We have the CEO and president of GamerHeads, we have Phil.

Speaker 3: 1:22

Welcome. I mean thanks for having me, I mean welcome to having me.

Speaker 1: 1:27

Okay, welcome. Welcome, and Mike.

Speaker 2: 1:32

God, that sounds so pathetic. We got this guy and here's.

Speaker 1: 1:36

Mike, thank you.

Speaker 3: 1:41

We just got sued by the Shriner brothers.

Speaker 1: 1:43

That's right. That's right, that's right. Welcome guys. Welcome to our patrons as well. Welcome Jill, Welcome Matt, Welcome Sarah. Thank you so much for being patrons of the GamerHeads podcast, and if you would like to be a patron of the GamerHeads podcast, you can as well. For as low as $3 a month, you can sign up for GamerHeads. What?

Speaker 3: 2:06

did I do now what?

Speaker 1: 2:10

You're playing with your beer can over there. It makes me laugh. No, I'm playing with them. I'm going to bring this to work. Actually, see this new mic just picks everything up.

Speaker 3: 2:17

This is fucking ridiculous. Everybody has any idea how anti my hands are until I get a new mic and you pick up everything that I do in this room.

Speaker 1: 2:25

Oh my God. Anyway, welcome. You can join the GamerHeads nation as well, for as low as $3 a month. You can join the GamerHeads nation. Just join us at patreoncom slash GamerHeads and I'll put a link in the show notes as well.

Speaker 2: 2:40

And don't be a freeloader. Wow All the work that Roger puts into the show and you're not going to join on a Patreon. It's a matter with you. You make me sick listener.

Speaker 3: 2:51

Mike, did you eat the cold medicine early tonight?

Speaker 2: 2:53

I did. I followed it up with some Z-Qual too, so I am just tripping.

Speaker 3: 3:01

There was a gleam in his eyes, like my girlfriend in high school used to look at me like Wow.

Speaker 1: 3:06

What I wish. I had people to look at me, like Mike just looked at us.

Speaker 3: 3:12

It was the dawn of the night. Will is what the look we just got? Yeah, it was.

Speaker 1: 3:18

Phil, is there something you want to talk about today, anything?

Speaker 3: 3:22

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 3:22

Are you going to say this Were?

Speaker 3: 3:24

you going to say that? No, was that the line? I wasn't going to say anything. Geez man, really, what the hell is this?

Speaker 1: 3:29

Behind the scenes episode. I don't know, I don't know it is yeah.

Speaker 3: 3:32

I'm not sure if you guys you guys being the listeners cut onto the big news that happened today, the big sad, terrifying, tremendously horrible news that happened today.

Speaker 3: 3:42

But something gigantic happened in the world of gaming. It's kind of sad, it's very disheartening and I honestly can't believe that my favorite video game company has done such a thing. But they have decided that the games that they put out are so bad that everybody else should have the ability to play them as well, instead of Xbox owners. There's been speculations for weeks as to what kind of awful thing Microsoft is going to announce at today's podcast, and it turns out that all they really wanted to do was be generous enough to give you Sony elitists, Nintendo Switch snobs the ability to play some of their first party games on something that runs as an actual system and probably make a little bit more money off of it as well. As you people are so kind to purchase these games that Microsoft has put out, ending the reign of doom that had been speculated upon for the week about how Microsoft is dead in the water Turns out, their big announcement is they're giving everybody else four games.

Speaker 1: 4:43

Yeah, four games. Not Starfield. No, not Indiana Jones.

Speaker 3: 4:48

Not even Halo.

Speaker 1: 4:49

Not even Halo. No, it's a funny thing, actually, one of the things they pointed out in the podcast. I'm like oh yeah, why is everybody freaking out about this? They're like you know, minecraft is already on pretty much every system.

Speaker 3: 5:01

I'm like, yeah, that's a Microsoft property, you can't share that.

Speaker 1: 5:04

It is now.

Speaker 3: 5:05

It is now. They bought it, but still it's. Yeah, everybody made such a big hubbub about this entire situation that Microsoft is about to go through and how it's all doom and gloom. I shouldn't say everybody, but there is a large not a large, but a certain percentage of the population that was sure that this was going to be the end of the Xbox and it was all just going to go to like a live streaming type of a thing, or that consoles are done, being made, which they even addressed, that they've already preliminarily working on their next gen consoles. So it's haters are just going to hate and that's what they're going to do, and I admittedly do so with a switch and 98% of my switch hatred is ingest, like I don't honestly have anything against the switch, but people have.

Speaker 2: 5:41

Yes, mike what constitutes the?

Speaker 3: 5:44

2%, the shitty games that I've had to play for tales from the e shop, and the fact that the it's not called a we mode but the switch controller hurts the joy.

Speaker 1: 5:56

Yeah, the joy comes, destroy my hands.

Speaker 2: 5:59

You don't have a pro controller. I do, man yeah.

Speaker 3: 6:02

I never use my joy cons unless, like I'm on an airplane or in a hotel room or something like that.

Speaker 1: 6:06

But like these are. These are cheap. They are so much better than the joy cons and they I have these for like 20 bucks.

Speaker 3: 6:15

I also play my switch and handheld mode 2% of the time, so it's not like it's a huge deal. Yeah, uh, no, I just wanted to share the sadness of the Microsoft news that they've they're sharing for games. Yeah, like they're getting off of their high horse and their pedestal, letting other people play games, kind of like Sony did when they brought them over to the PC as well, and nobody shit on Sony for that. But here we are.

Speaker 1: 6:38

Yeah, I that was. So I mean, Mike, I'm sure you have thoughts. I just want to say something real quick on on, like the state of things, the internet. So first of, yeah, the internet. So first of all, I just want to say we talked about this last week. We do not report on rumors because that's just not what we do, because, like I'm not, we're not clickbait and if it means that we don't yeah, and if it means that we don't get as many clicks because we were like, what is what?

Speaker 1: 7:10

is it going to say, Like we're not, we're not, that's not who we are, so we're not going to do that. So that's, that's number one. Number two if you see rumors, stop spreading them. Like that's all I got to say.

Speaker 3: 7:23

The third thing is like whatever people today.

Speaker 1: 7:25

Yeah, I know, I know, but the the one. That's one thing this is actually a call out to, to the people that are, that are content creators like us that do spread rumors stop it, just stop it Like there is no, like. Your integrity should mean more than spreading rumors just to get clicks, just to get people to watch your content, because at some point people are going to be like I don't want to watch this anymore because all they do is just spread rumors. And this, none of this, is real. And why? For what? For what? So they could get a bunch of clicks. Come on, come on, people. Be better. That's all I'm going to say. Be better.

Speaker 3: 8:10

I mean, if you're going to look dumb and spread misinformation, that's on you. What we do is re-react to the news and we just sound dumb on our own, without speculating.

Speaker 1: 8:18

That's right. That's right. We don't need this from other people. Yeah, we don't need this.

Speaker 3: 8:22

Exactly, we need to be stupidity covered in tri-fold, not triforce trifold.

Speaker 1: 8:28

That's right. That's right. So I have other thoughts about that, but I just wanted to say about the podcast so that's the podcast. But I just wanted to say that up front that, like Mike, I mean Phil, I know you tweeted this out saying, see, I don't spread this, why don't tweet out rumors? I'm like yep, agreed, this is silly, how late was it that I tweeted that. Okay, that was like yesterday or sometime. Mike, I'll be damned. Do you have any thoughts?

Speaker 2: 9:05

It just reiterates my eternal belief that hardcore Sony fans are probably the most pathetic out of the all three.

Speaker 3: 9:19

Man, we are alienating everybody out of the game. I don't care, I don't want to troll with it.

Speaker 2: 9:23

You know what, if you here's the thing If you were gloating when the rumors are coming out that Microsoft was going third party and then now you're angry, you're going to be angry because they're not. That says more about you than it does Like. And I visited I, actually. So what I did is I put on my blue Sony hat and I glued a bunch of hair to my neck and my neck beard outfit and I infiltrated the push square comments section and just the amount of salt that was there, like I, oh man, it was just beautiful, the amount of salt that they were throwing out there. Just so many people were just saying, well, we didn't want their games anyway, or those games are bad anyways, or you know, it doesn't matter. This is why I play on PlayStation, just like just. It aggravates me because you're doing yourself a disservice by beholding yourself to one company that doesn't care.

Speaker 3: 10:41

Yeah, I'm gonna like it. Go ahead, mike. I'm sorry I'll cut you off later.

Speaker 2: 10:45

No, it's just funny how people are just so stupid and just like I'm gonna say stupid. So if you go to push square and you're a regular in the forums and you see stuff like that, then you're a jackass. You are a pathetic jackass. And not only that, but I see there's like what's even worse than that are the pathetic jackasses that go and see these other pathetic jackasses and then they like it because there's like little hearts and stuff like that and it's like oh, 35 people hearted this. So they're so pathetic, they're even more pathetic that they won't, that they can't even display their pathetic fanboyism on the comments, so they just like somebody else's pathetic fanboyism instead of just putting out their own thoughts. Basically, I'm saying push square commentators. I'd say probably 30 to 35% of them are pathetic jackasses. So that's my opinion.

Speaker 2: 11:54

And it goes like that for all the systems.

Speaker 1: 11:56

I don't know, and it's anything like Star Wars whatever, Everything has fandoms like this, but push square.

Speaker 2: 12:04

congratulations, you take the taco. I want a taco.

Speaker 3: 12:10

I was just gonna throw in there too, I could season it with the salty tears of. Oh, man, throw some cumin in there, A little bit of red pepper flake.

Speaker 2: 12:17

And, by the way, if you have any comments, come at me on Twitter, at pesguymike. I would love to hear your salty, salty comments. Who just changed his screen name to fpushsquare.

Speaker 3: 12:29

That's right, I was just gonna say tribalism in general is so stupid, like if you're a fan of something, you should want everything within that realm to succeed, unless they've done something so heinously wrong that they no longer deserve to survive. The pro wrestling landscape is the exact same way. You got WWE guys that hate the AEW. You got AEW guys that think that WWE just needs to go away and die Like it's good for business. The thing is you got people that are passionate about these industries that are making a living doing this. The more places that they can work, the better it is for everybody. The better it is for creativity, the more options it gives everybody. Tribalism is bullshit. Everybody just needs to stop. If you're a fan of something, just enjoy it. Don't hate one company or the other. I jokingly hate Nintendo. Do I want anybody at Nintendo to lose their job? Absolutely not. I want Nintendo to thrive, because it just pushes the other companies harder as well.

Speaker 2: 13:14

It's so stupid, like Marvel versus DC.

Speaker 3: 13:16

It's bullshit. It's all comic books. Enjoy it, read it, love it, embrace it. Embrace image, embrace dark horse. Embrace small third party companies across the spectrum. Go to indie wrestling shows. Buy third party indie games Like it's stupid. Tribalism is dumb. Support the industry. Support people getting paid for doing what they love and hopefully they put out good content and good creations.

Speaker 1: 13:36

Yeah, it's funny that you say that because this is years ago. But my wife was doing research paper on there's like some businesses in the area and one of them was she interviewed somebody at a bridal store and she said you're the only bridal store in the town, isn't that great? And she said no, actually it sucks. I'd rather have more bridal stores here, because one that means that people are actually gonna come here right and shop, like they're not gonna come to a town for just one bridal store, but two like competition allows us to be competitive with each other, right, absolutely and like. So it was really shocking to think about that.

Speaker 1: 14:24

As a business owner, you know like, oh, like I never even thought of that and you look at this all the time with car dealerships. Car dealerships always like they're always across the street from each other, right, because if you're gonna go shopping for a car, you wanna have a place where there's several different cars. That's why you see car dealerships crop up next to each other. That's why you see fast food restaurants crop up next to each other.

Speaker 3: 14:47

Sit down restaurants as well.

Speaker 1: 14:48

Yeah, because it gives you options. If it's just one restaurant, nobody's gonna go out to that one restaurant, right? It's the same thing with this. We want competition, you want a healthy industry, because if you don't, except for podcasts? Yeah, that's true, that's a good point. But if you don't have healthy competition, then you're not gonna get good quality products, you're just not, no, you're just gonna flounder.

Speaker 1: 15:20

Yeah, Speaking of competition, the other interesting thing that I thought was actually said in this podcast and probably the more interesting thing, I think is the talk about the industry and how Phil Spencer said that the industry isn't growing. The base isn't growing. That's what he was saying, right? So the comment was last year seemed like a huge year for success for all these games, but yet we're seeing layoffs. What is going on? And his comment was, yeah, layoffs. His comment was that the industry is stagnant, that it's not growing. Right, and that's one of the reasons that they're citing also is bringing games to other consoles to grow their player base so that they can start growing, and having more people be exposed to Other games in that, hey, maybe Xbox has other things out there that we would like to play right as well. I thought that was an interesting comment. I Know it's a very real comment.

Speaker 1: 16:26

Sorry, yeah, no, I think it's real. I just I thought it was an interesting thing, though, that the industry isn't growing and the fan that I shouldn't say the player base Isn't growing, and I I mean I don't know, it seems weird to me, but maybe that's true. I don't. It said, it seems like a weird, but I mean they would know more than I would, obviously, but it's just like not something that I ever thought of, like, because the thing that I've always struggled with is that this is like what did I say? This is like a 3.5 was a billion dollar industry or something like that, like the amount of money that is being made in the industry, ori Said to say that the net profit is is really really high, but yet that we see all these playoffs, like what is going on, and and yeah, I don't know, maybe, maybe, maybe expansion, maybe that's what his point was that expanding too quickly and that the, the player base isn't expanding as quickly as the industry is expanding itself.

Speaker 3: 17:23

I don't know, I Find that was an interesting comment, and I'm gonna take it kind of a morbid route as well, because I feel like people that are now currently being born and are younger are gonna be more apt to play video games as opposed to the older Generation that is unfortunately dying off was never video gamers.

Speaker 1: 17:40

Yeah, that's, that's actually Phil. That was my thought too. I feel like gaming culture is much more Acceptable and prevalent right now than it was when we were growing up. Like we growing up, first of all, you couldn't. Not many people could afford to have a system. Like we only had one system because we couldn't afford anything. It was $200 for an NES right. Like we couldn't afford.

Speaker 3: 18:04

Minimum wage was 175 an hour. Yeah, yeah, I got the glasses off. I hope he's got something big here.

Speaker 1: 18:14

Keep going okay and in I agree, that was my thought too. It feels like the younger generation, like we have more gamers, I guess growing up people playing games more, and it was just an interesting Comment that was made that the industry itself, the player base is, is not a stagnant, it's not growing, and I, and I don't know, I thought that was an interesting thing.

Speaker 3: 18:43

Yeah, I guess I can't really even go any further on that one, because it doesn't make any sense to me, because when I think of the video game industry, I tend to think PC and console gaming, not considering how many people sit there on their cell phones I'm guilty of it as well, looking at you Pokemon go and play mobile games or iPad games or things like that. But that's also still part of the video game industry. That's also part of the development cycle.

Speaker 1: 19:04

Well, and, and now we got VR too right, so that's another segment. I would say the VR segment is probably smaller right, because that it's a very rich. They're still breaking. It's very niche yeah to the other side.

Speaker 3: 19:19

I hate that fucking song, one of the five songs in my life I could never hear again and I wouldn't notice. And I love the doors.

Speaker 1: 19:28

Yeah, the other thing I'll just say too, and then if you guys have other thoughts, the other thing that they did say at the end was that there's gonna be Hardware, like they're working on new hardware.

Speaker 2: 19:42

Yeah, like they're, it's gonna be like a short this like I don't know. I don't like this idea of this being a shortened console life cycle.

Speaker 1: 19:50

Did you see the ps5? Comments? Oh yeah, that was other big news too, that no major first-party games, until 2025 at least and it's entering it's final stages of the PS5.

Speaker 2: 20:04

I don't like this. Like there there's. I'm sorry, but I haven't seen a single game. A Single game Xbox or PlayStation that's screened to me this is a next-gen game.

Speaker 3: 20:16

Yeah, I Almost I'm not. I'm gonna draw this analogy and I don't know how much I actually mean it or not, but I almost think we're kind of stuck in the same rut that Hollywood is, where there's not a whole lot of original new ideas coming through, and I think that might be part of the problem is that we're just the industry is just standing water right now, like we keep going in that standing water and there's nothing really fresh coming out of that standing water. And I don't think that's, I don't think that has anything to do with the people that are necessarily creating the games. I think it's the people that are the higher ups, which is why the indie games are getting so much love, because they are Really take those chances.

Speaker 3: 20:51

Yeah, your major studios are just like doing the same shit over and, over and over.

Speaker 1: 20:54

Well, because they're too afraid to take risk, because if they do right, the failure right. That's. You're right, that's absolutely right, why the indie scene is starting. The indie scene, I would say, in the last ten years has made more impact on the gaming industry than than the big, the big names have.

Speaker 2: 21:12

Mm-hmm, oh yeah, and they're in. The games are better too. Yeah, well, let me, okay. So yeah, and there's more variety, the games are better and and I'll be honest with you, I would rather take a Medi-o or a mediocre not a mediocre, but a lower budget game that gets me a sequel every other year, then a Grand Theft Auto 6. Mm-hmm which is right.

Speaker 3: 21:35

disagree, that's me you disagree. Well, that's just because I'm a big Grand Theft Auto mark. No, no, I'm not saying I know you're, I know, you were just using that as an example. Yeah, yeah, no, I know what you mean.

Speaker 2: 21:45

We're a game that takes ten years to make. Like, yeah, like, give me Red Dead Redemption 2 Half the size of the one that we got. Mm-hmm yeah and then two years later.

Speaker 3: 21:57

Give me Red Dead Redemption 3 or even if you really want to give us a chunk, a decent size chunk of DLC every year, year and a half, as you're still working on the next one in the process, like, I hate to say, like almost like a games, like a service. But almost like a games like a service, but not quite that bad, but like something where, if you put out something every year, year and a half it's 20, 25 dollars, is now done. I'm gonna buy that every year, year and a half. That's including your Grand Theft Auto, is your Red Dead Redemption's, any that kind of stuff, any game that I can sink my teeth into. That I'm just like holy shit. I want more this game and I know it's gonna be a long time before I get it. If you kick me some DLC from time to time, I'm gonna keep shoveling you money.

Speaker 2: 22:35

So let me ask you this All right scenario time. Would you prefer a new show every year, or would you? Would you prefer one MLB the show and then you're paying $15 a year for updated rosters Yep.

Speaker 3: 22:53

I've been making that argument for years and then maybe five years later.

Speaker 2: 22:56

Then you get a new one.

Speaker 3: 22:57

That absolutely I'll pay that $15 each and every year.

Speaker 3: 23:01

I do this. I don't play Madden, but I would do the same for Madden. I do the same for fee, for sure, I'd easily do it. I mean, hell, I give overwatch $10 every three months or whatever, whenever they roll out a new thing, just for season passes. It's the same even with fortnite stuff. Yeah, give me those small chunks of change and I'm okay with it. I understand that they don't make as much money doing it that way, but I think that they might be surprised at the reception They'd get. I mean, yeah, there's gonna be that handful of people are gonna crap on it, but it was the same handful of people that crap on everything. So it's that's neither here or there.

Speaker 2: 23:26

It's, it's, it's the push, square people.

Speaker 3: 23:29

Yeah, I'll take that. I'll take that $15.

Speaker 2: 23:31

Anytime people complain about, whenever we're talking about people complaining about something, they always they just push squared. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:39

No, I don't think there's enough changes in every year for Madden to constitute a new absolutely. Madden game or in the show like like.

Speaker 3: 23:47

I'll say that wholeheartedly, or play the show religiously, yeah, I.

Speaker 1: 23:52

And it's too bad because, like you, do you. And again, this is another example of good competition. Do you remember when ESPN like 2k2k5?

Speaker 3: 24:03

Was it? They throw out all their $20 games and everybody lost their mind and see yeah, and Scooped up all the licenses. That way, 2k could no longer do such things. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:11

Yeah, that 2k2k5 ESPN was the best football game I've ever played Absolutely. The fact that they had every week a recap on like their ESPN show was so cool.

Speaker 3: 24:25

And you could import your own custom soundtracks that whenever you did things, you could have it play whatever song you wanted to. I had a lot of dumb things playing when I scored touchdowns and things like that it was. It was amazing.

Speaker 1: 24:34

Yeah, it was really really cool. But again another example of like then going out scooping up all those lights, all the NFL licenses, madden, and then they sit there and they don't do anything with it. They do nothing, they come up with the same game every year.

Speaker 1: 24:51

And it's 10 million copies and it sells, people still buy it and they're like they see, we don't have to do anything different, you're still gonna buy it. Stop it, stop it. That's all I'm gonna say. Hey, listeners, tell me if this sounds familiar to you. To get me going, I start with a large mug of coffee every day, but by mid-afternoon I start feeling sluggish. So guess what I do? I go to the coffee shop and buy another mug of coffee to get me through the afternoon. The problem is the caffeine would keep me up at night and I'd be super tired the following day. So the same thing would happen again, becomes a vicious cycle, and I wasn't getting much sleep. I was losing productivity and creativity and I knew this wasn't healthy. Then I discovered magic mine a healthy energy drink that helped me break this vicious cycle. I found this little energy shot greatly improved my mornings. I take it once in the morning and I feel energized throughout the whole entire day, and the best part is I don't have that crash in the afternoon. In fact, I feel energized throughout the day.

Speaker 1: 25:59

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Speaker 1: 26:58

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Speaker 3: 27:54

Now that I got as good and worked up. Roger, yeah, we're like here. No, what games are coming out this week? Let's go that, okay, all right.

Speaker 1: 28:01

Are we? Are we moving on from this topic? Anything else anybody want to say before you go into the games that are coming out?

Speaker 3: 28:09

No oh, Okay so.

Speaker 1: 28:14

Let's let's look at the games that are coming out next year, then these are the games that come in next year oh my god, I know, I know. Let's look at next year, let's look at the games that are coming out next week that is the 19th through the 23rd of February. We have qualped you. That's coming on PlayStation 5, xbox series X and S, playstation 4 switch and PC. That's on the 20th. Last epoch, professor Prusa, right to one of February 21st Terminator, dark fate, defiance. Oh, my goodness, somebody was that noise?

Speaker 3: 28:46

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:47

I thought you a follow. I was super stoked yeah next to a bar, to about three bars actually. Yeah, what, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 28:55

Yeah, I'm so jealous. Do they have pull tabs? I?

Speaker 1: 28:59

Don't go in, I don't go into these bars, phil. I don't know, maybe, probably, today I don't know.

Speaker 1: 29:04

I Don't know, phil, I don't know. I don't go into these bars. Okay, I'm sorry, even though I'm a local, I don't go into the bars. Anyway, let's keep going. Terminator, dark fate defiance, pc, february 21st. Inculati I think that's pronounced it. I think I screwed it up last time too. But PlayStation 5, xbox series X and S, playstation 4, xbox one, switch of PC on the 22nd. Pacific Drive, playstation 5 in PC on the 22nd and sons of the forest, february 22nd Mike yeah you're a busy guy.

Speaker 2: 29:42

I you know, that's that's I am.

Speaker 1: 29:46

I do things, and then the things are done, and then later on I regret that yeah, but but because you're so busy, you've developed this uncanny ability to Just get the title of a game and then be able to talk about the game and tell it like in depth about what the game is about. So can, can you tell us about the game sons of the forest? What is this? What is this game about?

Speaker 2: 30:12

Oh well, yeah, so I'm glad you picked that one, because that is a very interesting game. Oh yeah, sons of the forest man, I gotta tell you, do you like first-person shooters? Squad-based first-person shooters.

Speaker 1: 30:27

I don't know.

Speaker 2: 30:29

Absolutely the question. Roger answer the question.

Speaker 1: 30:31

I do wait, unless, I mean unless it's with you guys. Short, oh yes. Yes, yes, I do love it, then then my favorite, it's my favorite genre.

Speaker 2: 30:40

Okay, good, because then this is the game for you. Okay, sons of the forest is a first-person Squad-based shooter and man is it what? Okay, okay so I'd based. Yeah, did I?

Speaker 1: 30:55

say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you did, yeah, you did so here's what's going on in this game.

Speaker 2: 31:04

Sons of the forest, you are a character played very well by prolific child actor Haley Joel Osmett okay, okay, All right all right, all right.

Speaker 1: 31:17

Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 2: 31:19

Yeah, and what he is doing is he circles the United States looking because he did oh, he does in the opening sequence, by the way. I don't know spoiler alert, but he does one of those 23 and me things.

Speaker 1: 31:38

All right.

Speaker 2: 31:39

And he finds out that he has several relatives, brothers, and sisters that lives in the country, or around the country, so he's gonna go recruit them all right. And here's the twist. I apologize if I'm giving this away, but his dad here it is. Dad, you ready for this?

Speaker 1: 32:06

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 32:07

Is Forrest Gump. There it is, so this is a sequel to Forrest Gump, where the son, the kid, is gathering all his brothers and sisters because, they are the sons of the forest.

Speaker 3: 32:25

That ran across the country and pregnant people. That's exactly what he did is that Forrest Gump was running around the country.

Speaker 1: 32:32

It's like pop a Dudley.

Speaker 2: 32:35

He was trying to bang at least one person in each state, oh my.

Speaker 1: 32:39

God.

Speaker 2: 32:41

There's like, yeah, there's like in the main hub you can actually see a statue.

Speaker 3: 32:46

Gump, one of those maps, like you see on the back of an RV, where people buy stickers for every state that they're in. Yeah, exactly, he's got a back to head two of the US and just fills them in as he knocks somebody up.

Speaker 2: 32:55

That's right. The only thing he was missing is Alaska and Hawaii.

Speaker 1: 32:58

So this takes place in the 90s?

Speaker 2: 32:59

Okay, and so you go, so there's 48 levels and actually 49, because the final boss. There's 48 levels in the game. And you need to go recruit the relatives of Forrest the junior. And here's the awesome thing.

Speaker 1: 33:24

It gets better. I was gonna say it's not awesome already. That's not the awesome thing, Okay.

Speaker 2: 33:29

This is just the background story. Okay, here's where it's awesome it's that this kid has powers.

Speaker 1: 33:34

Whoa, wow, okay, yes, he has forests.

Speaker 2: 33:40

Not only does he have Forrest Gump's power of speed because that boy can run, but he also has the power of his mom, because she did so much heroin and crack that it's all going through his bloodstream. That you know.

Speaker 3: 33:59

It's like a flash.

Speaker 2: 34:00

Well, if you say exactly, it's like the flash, so he goes at, you can go at speed, forest speed, then he can go at forest and Jenny's speed, which really is pointless because everything becomes a blur. Well, it's like it becomes a plaid, that's, everything around you is plaid. When you try to do that, uh-huh.

Speaker 1: 34:17

So you know, but it's nice, it's a nice feature in there.

Speaker 3: 34:20

It's an Easter egg, so it's a filter you can unlock.

Speaker 2: 34:26

It's a filter. Yeah, so you know, you go around and you recruit them, and so they're in the squad.

Speaker 1: 34:35

Why are you doing this? Why are you recruiting them? Oh, you're recruiting them to help you.

Speaker 2: 34:41

Yeah, to learn more about your trying to learn more about yourself.

Speaker 1: 34:45

Okay, okay.

Speaker 2: 34:47

And you're also trying to take out the guy from that he did ping pong against in the movie.

Speaker 1: 34:56

Oh, he recruited. Oh, okay, he also banned a bunch of people.

Speaker 2: 35:02

And here's the best part. And here's the best part. Oh wait, there's, yeah, there's more, there's more, there's more, because I'm, you know, making it up as I go along. And your main hub. It's kind of a rip off, but it's okay.

Speaker 1: 35:15

It's all right Because it's a cool idea, yeah.

Speaker 2: 35:19

You know how in the Arkham games you've got Oracle or yeah.

Speaker 1: 35:24

You know, or Barbara Gordon sitting in the wheelchair and.

Speaker 2: 35:28

HQ. You've got exactly like that, but it's Gary Sinise, so you got Lieutenant Dan in the wheelchair helping you out. So he's like, yeah, he helps you find your brother's, that's, that's Sons of the.

Speaker 1: 35:52

Forest Sons of the Forest. Is this a sequel to the movie of the girl?

Speaker 2: 35:57

Yeah, no, it's a sequel to the movie. It takes place right after the movie ends. What yeah, right after the movie ends, oh, yeah, because he was old, that's right.

Speaker 3: 36:08

Yeah, I remember this now.

Speaker 2: 36:09

He gets on the bus and then the Chinese. He's looking out the back of the window and the Chinese guy shows up and kills forest.

Speaker 1: 36:16

So he's like oh, so he's going to get his other kids.

Speaker 3: 36:20

There's a little kill bill involved.

Speaker 2: 36:22

Right yeah. He sees a dude and the kid says I'm going to need a team, and then it goes explosions, sons of the Forest. And the entire soundtrack is CCR Creedence Clear Rotary Vibes.

Speaker 1: 36:37

All right, do that. The entire soundtrack, Wow yeah, but it's only it's the best part of the game.

Speaker 3: 36:42

But it's only. Oh man, this entire game is dope.

Speaker 2: 36:44

It's just fortunate sun on repeat.

Speaker 3: 36:49

It's like crazy taxi.

Speaker 2: 36:51

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 36:56

Sons of the Forest. Oh, there's more. It's.

Speaker 2: 36:58

Sons of the Forest.

Speaker 1: 36:59

Yes, yeah, it's also.

Speaker 2: 37:02

Yes, it's, it's, there's also in it. You get a coupon for Bubba Gump restaurants.

Speaker 1: 37:13

I've never been to one, so I'm kind of excited you do yeah, now yeah.

Speaker 3: 37:17

Yeah, yeah. I wonder if the one in the Mall of America is still open.

Speaker 1: 37:20

It is, by the way, it is, phil.

Speaker 2: 37:23

What was the appetizer?

Speaker 1: 37:24

You got an appetizer One free appetizer.

Speaker 2: 37:26

Yeah, you get a free appetizer with the purchase of any seven other appetizers. So make sure you bring a lot of people with you.

Speaker 1: 37:36

Oh my god.

Speaker 2: 37:38

It's also. It also comes out next week.

Speaker 1: 37:41

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 37:42

And it's a PlayStation five first party game. So they lied, so play Sony lied.

Speaker 1: 37:49

Yeah, yeah, they lied.

Speaker 2: 37:50

Call it a shadow the forest.

Speaker 1: 37:53

Yeah, sons of the forest. Well, that that sounds like an interesting game, the game that.

Speaker 2: 37:59

I put a lot of thought into it.

Speaker 1: 38:03

The game that I I'm referring to is a survival game. It's a sequel to the forest that was released in 2014. And, similar to the forest, sons of the Forest puts you in control of a protagonist that's stranded on the island inhabited by cannibals, and then you have to build weapons and build buildings to aid in your survival. So, yeah, so it's. I mean, there are friendly NPCs. I guess there's one guy named Kevin. There is a guy named Kevin in the game.

Speaker 3: 38:38

Yeah, Good old.

Speaker 1: 38:38

Kevin Gump.

Speaker 3: 38:40

Yeah, he's from Kansas.

Speaker 2: 38:42

Yes.

Speaker 3: 38:45

So you played the game.

Speaker 2: 38:46

Phil I read the comics I watched a walkthrough.

Speaker 1: 38:52

So that's the Sons of the Forest. It's coming out next week, thank you. Thank you, mike, for that enlightening tail. I aim to please.

Speaker 2: 39:01

I aim to please.

Speaker 1: 39:04

Ok, well, let's move into the games that we're playing next week, mike you're playing next week.

Speaker 3: 39:10

What the hell? I'm not saying.

Speaker 1: 39:11

Psychic.

Speaker 2: 39:11

Roger. Well, next week I'm definitely playing Sons of the Forest.

Speaker 3: 39:14

Yeah, I'm going to try to recreate it to hell with playing it.

Speaker 1: 39:18

There are games we're playing, probably next week, but we're not going to talk about those yet because we can't, and we're all playing games we can't be talking about right now. But, mike, what games are you playing that you can talk about?

Speaker 2: 39:31

Good question. Well, the first thing I'll play is the one that you recommended, and that was at Bellartro.

Speaker 1: 39:39

Bellartro, bellartro, bellartro, bellartro, bellartro, bellartro. I don't know. It means gesture in some language, I'm not sure.

Speaker 2: 39:48

Then we'll go with that so. I'm playing the demo of that and that's a lot of fun. I'm enjoying it. I'm still a little confused by exactly how it plays, but I am definitely enjoying it. I like the pokerish aspects of it. But it's just the demo. But for what I played from the demo, I think it's definitely worth picking up.

Speaker 1: 40:06

They extended the demo actually for more people to play, so it's coming out next week, which wasn't on our list of things that are coming out, but they did extend the demo. So if you're looking to play that game, it's all on Steam. You can play the demo on Steam right now. Nice.

Speaker 2: 40:21

Yeah, and then honestly, other than that, I don't think I played a whole heck of a lot, just some more PGA2K23 and some more Fortnite.

Speaker 1: 40:32

Where was my invite?

Speaker 2: 40:35

You? I think you were working. I think I played Saturday afternoon.

Speaker 3: 40:40

Oh, it was definitely working yeah.

Speaker 1: 40:44

Did you play any Rise of the Tomb Raider trilogy at all, or not yet.

Speaker 2: 40:48

No, ok, I didn't play it. I promise I will. It's just been a week.

Speaker 1: 40:52

No, no, it's fine, it just. Yeah, that's fine, it just came out Cool. Thanks, Mike Phil. What have you been playing? Let's go I have made some.

Speaker 3: 41:09

No, no, it's not a switch this time. I've made some more progress in the Alan Wake too, because I'm kind of pissed off myself that I haven't beaten it yet, and so that's kind of on my front burner right now is to complete that. And as I say that, I'm mostly gonna say that I've played a lot more Overwatch, and I'm only bringing up Overwatch because they just dropped a new season I believe it's season nine where they've changed quite a few things in it. It's very strange I can't say very strange, but it's. Some of the choice they made were interesting. They changed the way the entire ranking system works. When you're playing competitive, all characters now heal themselves if they don't get shot for five seconds, and they've also increased the size of the bullets to make it easier to shoot other people because apparently the game was too difficult, which is very strange, so wait, so do you need healers anymore, then yeah, you do, because I mean you're continually being shot at.

Speaker 3: 41:58

So I mean healers still definitely play a role, but part of their logic and rationale for why they increased the size of the bullets is that way it's easier for DPS to take down healers. But it seems like a really shitty answer to me, because healers have gotten up problems, as is, because they're typically the most targeted people on the battlefield, for lack of a better term. But it's been a unique transition, especially with them resetting everybody's competitive rank and then changing the way that it's all done, and they're making it a lot more transparent, which is kind of cool to show, like, how you're progressing and how you're losing your progress as far as your ranking goes, which I kind of enjoyed that aspect of it. So outside of that, I've started playing Suicide Squad. Oh yeah, is that what the sigh was for.

Speaker 3: 42:40

That's kind of what the sigh was for. Yeah, and the game has made me laugh out loud on multiple, multiple occasions because it is very, very, very well written and the dialogue is super. Spot on. King Shark is hilarious. Captain Boomerang is hilarious. The way that the four of them interact are tremendous. Even just mission by mission is all. Four of you are standing next to each other type of a thing.

Speaker 3: 43:06

The game itself is so, so, very disjointed. It feels very discombobulated is the word that I'm gonna use because you go to a mission, the mission will take you a minute and 30 seconds and then you can move on to the next mission or go to a side mission, which is the side missions are very, very repetitive. Again, much like my complaint with Gotham Knights was they kind of just changed the table for it. So, for example, go to this place, secure these arrays or whatever, but now your guns don't do any damage. You just have to kill them all with melee instead, like it's very bizarre. And there's also winners and losers teach of the missions as well, as far as there's a points rating system that's in place. So if you don't get the most takedowns or do the most damage or whatever, like you don't win it, there's no real reward for it. You get rewards for almost everything as well, which is kind of nice, but it feels almost lootboxing gimmicky. There's a lot of aspects of the game that are very, very broken still, which I hate to say, because it is Rocksteady and I've enjoyed.

Speaker 3: 44:16

Everything that Rocksteady has given us so far is in lines with the Arkham universe. But every time that I boot it up and I start playing with my friend, I have to go through the same tutorial. It's at the bottom of the screen teaching me how to double jump and how to do slide landings, what Like you don't have to, but it's just hanging out there until you hit the double jump or until you hit the three slide landings, and then you can go about your business like normal and the pop-ups are no longer there. There's also some issues within. I'm gonna call them server issues, just to don't know what else to call them. But like you have to have both people on the objective to start a mission and you can have both people on the objective to start the mission and it'll look like it on one person's screen, but it won't look like it on the other person's screen and so it won't let you start the mission and it'll be like all right, countdown to 30 seconds until mission starts, but then the other person can't actually get onto the mission starting spot. This has happened twice to us now over the course of the last week that we've been playing. So like that happens when we're like F this, we're playing a couple of games we're watching instead.

Speaker 3: 45:14

The gameplay itself is it's decent enough. I've been playing as Deadshot. My homie, andy's been playing as King Shark and it's smooth enough. But there's a lot going on as far as button pushes going, which even for him, who doesn't play games in the state of mind that I play games gets a little confusing, even for his fingers, where it's like all right, what the hell am I supposed to be doing now to like make this happen? But it plays smooth enough, but we're I wanna say we're four or five hours into it and we're still just like all right.

Speaker 3: 45:48

Now you've unlocked the ability to do this and it's just like basic shit for your characters.

Speaker 3: 45:52

It's nothing that's super like complex and you kind of have to jump all over the place to do these missions, like there was one mission that we had to do where you're in the hall of justice.

Speaker 3: 46:03

You bail out of the hall of justice to go grab something, you go back to the hall of justice and then you just have to walk outside and go back in the hall of justice again to complete or, like, do the next mission. It's just like that doesn't make any fucking sense. Sorry, any sense. There's a lot of things that make me scratch my head about the game, but it's like not even kidding when I say that it's damn near brought me to tears, right and wise, a small handful of times, and that handful is not a butt reference, because that was one of the scenes that brought me to tears. There was, there was, a great scene with butts where somebody touches the trap that Luther's got set up and it freezes them to the trap and the next person comes up and try to pull them off and it freezes them then third person comes up and try to pull them off.

Speaker 2: 46:39

That part was funny. That part was funny, yeah.

Speaker 3: 46:41

And then Harley just sits there and stares at third person's butt and she's like I really have to do this. And everybody's like don't do it, harley, you're gonna get stuck. And she's like I can't even help myself. And then she goes and grabs the butt. Like I laughed really really damn hard at that. Dialogues, fantastic Storylines been really amusing so far, but again there's just certain gameplay choices that are so wonky and I'm not gonna use the phrase upset, but there's Riddler trophies in it again, which is like come on, rocksteady do better.

Speaker 3: 47:09

Why is it Riddler? You're a metropolis Like, why is Riddler even a metropolis? Maybe that gets explained for the course of time, but it's unnecessary. Give us a different. Give us a metipliker or whatever. Like doesn't need to be Riddler.

Speaker 2: 47:20

Well, that would be great to see.

Speaker 3: 47:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, right yeah you're a metropolis, why wouldn't it be? Yeah, like why is it Riddler so?

Speaker 2: 47:28

far, it doesn't make any sense to do, is there?

Speaker 3: 47:29

A lot of shout outs and like small little Easter eggy things that are there. One point you're playing through like a Gotham museum and all of the different displays have got those buttons that you've pushed that'll tell you about like the incident to the character or whatever. I thought that was a nice little touch. You see things in the backgrounds all over the place that are nice little like callbacks to Arkham and just the DC universe in general. It looks great, it plays really good. I'm not going to say great, but I'm going to give it really good at this point, just because of the glitches that are happening.

Speaker 3: 47:58

There's also a weird thing that happens Like sometimes you'll go into a place and it'll give you I'm not exaggerating when I say like a 1.5 second loading screen of just the Suicide Squad logo that twists like a half a turn and then you just back into it. It's just like you didn't even load anything at that time. Like maybe it does process things that fast because my brain doesn't mean that it doesn't happen, but it's just weird that there's just that weird little hiccup that pulls you out of the experience and then puts you back in. It's the same way with, like the end of mission screen as well. That pops up every time you complete a mission, like it pulls you out of the experience, which is why I say it's disjointed, because it just keeps pulling you back and forth throughout the entity of the game.

Speaker 3: 48:33

We also weirdly got stuck somehow where, like I said, I'm playing Deadshot, he's playing King Shark, but we had no Harley. We had two Captain Boomerangs in our squad and couldn't figure out how to get a Harley on our squad again, so Harley's communicating to us via headpiece instead of like being next to us in person. I'm going to keep playing it. I'll beat it, I know I will, but it's a very mixed bag of emotions for me coming into and out of this game thus far. Yeah, it turns out, all I got to do is play comic book games and then I talk weird.

Speaker 1: 49:05

We got to get more of those Written by a comic book. Well, this sounds like it's well written, so that's good.

Speaker 3: 49:09

It is Like it's legitimately funny, like Andy and I are both giggling the entire time we're playing, and it's even just like the banter on the battlefield is sometimes like it'll just make you laugh. Like there's times even like we'll complete a mission and it'll show who finishes in first place for the mission, because there's stupid rankings for some reason, and King Shark will say things like ooh, I get to be Deadshot now, like meaning that he's in charge of, like selecting the next mission. Even just that is a small little like kind of a ha ha thing, because he's kind of like poised to be the leader of the group. A lot of weird cameos that have kind of made us like start searching out first appearances of people that we didn't even know existed, just because they're there, which is kind of fun.

Speaker 3: 49:47

But yeah that's my take on Suicide Squad so far. I'm sure I'll have more to say next week.

Speaker 1: 49:52

Nice, huh, would you recommend it? No, no, you wouldn't recommend it. Okay, okay, that was fast.

Speaker 3: 50:02

Yeah, I mean, if they fix some stuff like this first patch came out, like they just had a patch that came out yesterday, I want to say, and it was a nine gig patch and all that it really fix that's huge, yeah, but it just nerfed a couple of weapons for members of the Suicide Squad as well as, like, fix the scoring system for missions, oh really, and it's like nine took you guys, nine gigs do that. But this is also the same game that was hindered by. If you bought it before release the deluxe version, you could play it, and as soon as you started playing it it told you you completed the game. So I don't really know what we're expecting from this at this juncture.

Speaker 3: 50:35

It's such a weird. Weird. It doesn't need to be this way. But I'm sure somebody not even Microsoft, I'm sorry, I'm not trying to figure it out, but it's Microsoft, you can do no wrong Somebody in Rocksday was like, yeah, we need to create a game. This is a service game and that's why it's this way instead of just being a straight up game.

Speaker 1: 50:50

Weird. I'll wait for it to come to the game pass. It's the move. Yeah, For me. What have I been playing this week? I started continuing on my journey with the supernatural VR workout. I know, Mike, I have to send you some invite of some sort. How many days are you at now?

Speaker 3: 51:16

Three weeks. I think you feeling better I do.

Speaker 1: 51:20

Yeah, it's crazy Like I haven't really lost a whole lot of weight, but like just my flexibility and strength is much I can feel it right, yep. So yeah, and it's motivating, which I like, and it's fun and the coaches are great and the community is great and yeah, I really like it. So I've been doing that and I did play a couple demos during the Steam Next Fest. That happened last week. I played the Balartro game, the poker game. That was really fun. I played a game called Ratwood, so have either of you played.

Speaker 3: 52:00

It's my forest gump.

Speaker 1: 52:01

God, yeah, that's right. Oh my God, phil, you played Caltz of the Lamb, right? Yeah, man, did you? Mike, did you play Caltz of the Lamb too? I am not. So it feels a lot like Caltz of the Lamb in regards to the level layout and the attacks, like how it works, and it's a rogue like too. And in this game you are dropped in the forest and there is something going on and you have to try to find your friends and save them from the forest because they're all lost, and then it seems like there's a community that you come back to this village and you're kind of building up your village, similar to Caltz of the Lamb, except a lot less like managing of that right, because in Caltz of the Lamb you're managing a cult as well on top of going out and fighting. But the animation is fantastic. It's just really, really smooth and slick. So I really enjoyed that. What else have I been playing? I got back into. I haven't played a whole lot of this yet, but do you guys remember Phoenix, immortal Rising?

Speaker 3: 53:14

Yeah, that game's awesome.

Speaker 2: 53:16

Oh yeah, I wanted to get back into that too.

Speaker 1: 53:20

So I've been playing that and I love that game. That's such an underrated game.

Speaker 2: 53:25

That game is so good it's quirky as hell. It's so sad that it didn't sell.

Speaker 1: 53:28

Yeah, I love the sense of humor.

Speaker 2: 53:30

It's just such a bummer that it didn't sell as well as it should have.

Speaker 1: 53:34

It's so sad because I feel like that game is one of Ubisoft's original cool games. I really like that game a lot.

Speaker 3: 53:46

I'm going to give that a yes and a no because it follows the same formula as both the Assassin's Creed and the Ark Rite. As far as climbing to the top of this unveil this, here's a bunch of stuff Just take out these checkpoints.

Speaker 3: 53:58

It follows that it Ubisoft tried in true formula, but it does so in a way that's much more different than the other two main points that follow that same formula, which makes it feel unique, plus the Greek or Roman mythology that's involved I'm not smart enough to separate the two Also gives it a unique twist.

Speaker 1: 54:13

Yeah, yeah, I really you're right. That is very similar, but you're right, the story and the characters and everything this feels different. I like that a lot, so I've been playing that a lot, playing some more, continuing my quest in Octopast Traveler 2. What?

Speaker 1: 54:34

do you have to now Almost 30 now, so I haven't played much of it since the last time we played, but I completed another chapter and now I'm in an area where which is cool, that some of their stories are starting to intertwine Like you'll come in and they call them I think they call them crossroads where like two characters' stories and their chapters intertwine in a certain town. And again I'm going to stand corrected, because when Octopast Traveler 1 came out, the complaint was that the characters didn't really feel like they interact with each other. They were just kind of like traveling together and didn't really have much to say with each other. And I said, who cares, it's still fun. Well, it is cool to see these characters interact and it is much better. And there's moments where they'll say do you want to hear dialogue between the characters? And you're like, sure it's optional, but just have funny banter between the characters.

Speaker 3: 55:30

It makes it feel more real.

Speaker 1: 55:32

It makes it feel more real, yeah, yeah. And it gives them character, gives them depth, gives them reasons why they're traveling together. It's a good game. I like it a lot. I will say, if anybody play if you play the first one, you fell off of it, pick up the second one. You don't have to play the first one to play the second one either. Yes, phil.

Speaker 3: 55:52

Can you change the outcome of the game slash story throughout your interactions with each other?

Speaker 1: 56:00

I'm not sure. I don't think so. I don't think so. The characters do like my party well, they'll talk to each other and work together and stuff like that. But I don't think it changes the overall.

Speaker 3: 56:16

There's no decision making that's made throughout the course of these interactions. Gotcha.

Speaker 1: 56:20

No, no, it's just more of like just banter between them, do you?

Speaker 3: 56:26

build like a camaraderie slash loyalty factor in between the different characters either, no, no, you know what?

Speaker 2: 56:32

I kind of like that, though, because that's just so much micromanagement. That's one. Absolutely Like yeah, I'm OK with that.

Speaker 1: 56:38

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 56:39

I was just asking to ask.

Speaker 3: 56:40

Mike, don't yell at me. Jesus man, you're all wound up still.

Speaker 2: 56:43

I am wound up, leave me alone. I'm not a push square, ok.

Speaker 1: 56:48

The one thing that is cool it has maybe we can do this in the first one, but you can have a character have two different jobs, so, like, for instance, my samurai warrior, he's not only just a swordsman but also made him a hunter, so now he has all the hunter abilities, and his abilities it makes him really powerful. So, like you can mix and match jobs with characters. Like you could have a healer and have him also do like magic, like fire damage magic, right, so it's cool. Yeah, I really like this game a lot, so I'm going to continue with that.

Speaker 1: 57:31

There are a couple games that I can't talk about right now because I'm reviewing them and the embargo hasn't left. I can say, though, I played 10 minutes of Tomb Raider and apparently I have to turn off the tank controls, which I didn't know that that was what that was called, and I was totally confused by that. It's bad on me, but I'm going to try that again because it was a struggle to play with the tank controls, because I'm just not used to it anymore, and I think back then it didn't really bother me, but it does look nice. You can switch back and forth, which is kind of cool. You can switch back and forth between the updated remastered graphics, or you can in-game play or hit the. I'm playing an Xbox, so the three lines would be like the pause menu or something.

Speaker 3: 58:22

You can call it the select button. Oh, the three lines. Select start button no select would be on the inside.

Speaker 1: 58:28

And you can switch between the original graphics versus the remastered graphics. Maybe you want to play on the original. I don't know why, because I looked back and I'm like this is so much nicer looking now. But yeah, I'm enjoying that. I mean, I think I'm going to enjoy it more now that I'm going to turn off the tank controls, so we'll see. That's what I've been playing. I think that ends our show. Then we're right at that hour mark, which is pretty awesome. We did a good job with that. So, before we head out, though, why don't we tell people how they can follow us on social media? Mike, how can people follow you on social media?

Speaker 2: 59:17

Send me your hate mail over to pesguymike on Twitter. You bunch of jerks.

Speaker 1: 59:27

Phil, how can people find you on social media?

Speaker 3: 59:30

You can find me at BeNow23 on the Twitter machine.

Speaker 1: 59:35

And listeners. You can find me on Twitter at NintendoRodge. You can find Gamerheads on Twitter at GamerheadsPod. You can also follow us on Blue Sky Gamerheads podcast. The other cool thing is now they're still being uploaded, but all the episodes of Gamerheads are on YouTube, so you can go to youtubecom slash Gamerheads and you can actually listen to all the shows there. So you can subscribe there.

Speaker 1: 1:00:02

We also put up some of our streams up there. The games that I stream on Tuesdays I tend to put up there as well, so you can watch that. Mike, I took your advice and I used my green screen and now I have a new look. It's a Dapper, I look Dapper, yeah, so you can check that out, and you can go to our website at GamerheadsPodcastcom where you can hear this show and other shows that we have on there and read our reviews, and I should have the review of Hellcard. I've been playing quite a bit of that too. I should mention that, but I talked about that last week, but you can watch my stream of that on our YouTube channel, and then my review should be up this weekend as well. So, mike, thank you so much for joining us this week.

Speaker 2: 1:00:45

Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: 1:00:49

And Phil, thank you so much for joining us this week, always, and listeners, thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule and giving us a listen. If you like what you hear, leave us a review. We want to hear what you have to say about the show. Until next week, everyone, stay safe and game on.

Speaker 2: 1:01:07

See ya so long, take care.