Almost Gamers
Join us in a casual conversation with friends about gaming. It's a humorous journey into what we are currently playing, sometimes poorly and not usually on trend. We also talk new and upcoming releases, gaming news, best of lists, and are never afraid to go off on crazy tangents.
Almost Gamers
Episode Nineteen: The Haunted Castle
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Welcome to a spooky journey into Hades... 2. Matt finally finishes his 33rd expedition, and Andy can lay Hollow Knight to rest and then digs up a creepy old game. Grab some peanuts and crackerjacks, cause they pick video game characters to play on their softball teams. It's a quick stop at the Emporium to talk about the gear that brings you this very podcast. Bethesda is back in the news, Matt wants a star wars knife, and Pittsburgh appears in games.
That was a riveting softball game we were at today.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um I'm thinking that might be the best sporting event I've been to in a long time. And I've seen the Pirates a couple times in the last couple of years. And I mean, similar skill level. You know, Munhall girls aged two to nine. Yeah. Pretty much. I mean, similar budget. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_02Well, you happen to go to the one of the best games. Probably because it was the last game. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03They all they're all veterans now. Yes. Well. That was so of all the uh the sports that you've observed your daughter, and she's a soccer and and and softball, right? Yeah, so far. What's your favorite?
SPEAKER_02Well, I think my favorite just because her skill improved so much was softball. I it was really impressive today. I you have no idea because this was your first and probably your last.
SPEAKER_03I mean, it was neat. I especially liked when you know they'd throw to a girl and she was facing the completely wrong direction.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. That would have been Liana maybe two games ago, but today for some reason she was on the ball. At least as far as that's considered she was very focused for what you saw.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, which is I mean, really keeping any kid's attention focused for an hour is is tough. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Well, I I'm proud then because that was pretty impressive. And I'm not a softball baseball guy, so I I don't know the ins and outs, but I was very impressed.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Next time I'm gonna start betting. I'm sure there's like a DraftKings uh Matt, you should just roll up with some a beer and start selling that, you know. I was thinking actually in the middle of them like, oh my god, if a beer vendor came by right now, he would make a fortune. Right. Absolutely. That's probably frowned upon. I would say yeah. If money goes project's proceeds go toward the team, they wouldn't care. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, money, money talks.
Intro
SPEAKER_03Hello, hello, hello. Ooh, halo. Yeah, hello. Okay, anyways, um welcome to episode one nine. One nine. We're in college. Yeah, we are. We're college or uh starting our long career at like McDonald's. There it is. One of the two. Yeah. So gotta make money. Yeah, you gotta do what you gotta do. Pay the bills. What you gotta do. So uh this is now going to be our third filmed episode. Uh, we just recently, last week, put up episode one on YouTube, which was kind of a terrifying moment.
SPEAKER_02I yeah, yeah, I agree. It's and I want to say this. I didn't say this last time because it wasn't up, so it's kind of worked out, but uh the one thing I did notice is that first episode was probably our longest episode ever.
SPEAKER_04It was, it really was.
SPEAKER_02And what's funny is we had a boss battle, as we always kind of do traditionally. Yeah. And it was, I think it clocked in about two and a half hours. Including the boss battle. No, the boss battle alone was two and a half hours. Really? Yes. Oh, see, because I haven't really No, I edited it way down to make it an hour and a half, which was a standalone episode. And it's hilarious because if I'm sure people probably who have watched it probably noticed, I we removed it and made its own episode. But if you see my demeanor from the first segment of What Judin's playing to Matt's Equipment Emporium, I look like I went through hell.
SPEAKER_03There is noticed there's a there's a clock in the background. Yeah, and there is like a all of a sudden jump tohead four hours.
SPEAKER_02So I was like nodding, I was like barely like awake because by that time we're about like maybe like 12, maybe 1 a.m. It was later.
SPEAKER_04It was it was later.
SPEAKER_02So in my defense, it was a long like three hour gap. It was it was a it was a hell of a filming day. Yeah, and uh that's why I kind of went from excited and like alert to like guy who's kind of like kind of like uh yeah, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So it was a little embarrassing, but yeah, sorry it was too long to include in the yeah, that's why we uh so the Borderlands will be its own standalone uh podcast coming out uh hopefully tonight.
SPEAKER_02If we can uh yeah, as the area uh recording of this.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we're hoping to broadcast that that will not have video because it unfortunately was out of focus almost the entire time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, 50% of it's out of focus.
SPEAKER_03Because we are almost filmographers.
SPEAKER_02It is it's a math phone.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean that's what we got. No, pixels are great and all, but you gotta do the bare minimum. Somebody give us some cameras. Hey, sponsor us, camera company. I don't know. Have a photographer come out here and film us. Yeah, yeah, make our lives easier.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we'll give you some beer.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, definitely, definitely. All right, and autographs. But uh so yeah, it's out there. So join us now on YouTube. No hate yet. We got two likes, I think. Yeah, oh really? I think the one was probably me.
SPEAKER_02You gotta like yourself.
SPEAKER_03If you can't like yourself, why even report on lots of platforms now, so please join us in all of them. And we uh as always appreciate the listeners. I do, and appreciate the future feedback that may or not one day happen. So thank y'all. Thank
What Yinz Playin
SPEAKER_03you.
SPEAKER_06What's playing?
SPEAKER_03Okay, this is a segment where we uh talk about what we've been playing. And I know we accidentally found out. That's actually funny, this never happened before, because obviously, you know, we're friends on all the gaming platforms like PlayStation. Some cases Steam. So they so they it pops up what your friends are playing. So it's funny that we've I don't think this has ever happened before that we got spoiled what the other person was playing. Yeah, no, yeah, but this time we both knew uh that we were uh playing the same game. Yep. So uh I don't know. We would just you want to start with that one?
SPEAKER_02Let's just start with that.
SPEAKER_03All right, Hades 2. Uh we're both fans of the first one. We we said it before on this broadcast many times that we are big fans of super giant games. Yeah, especially you because you did that. Yeah, the soundtracks amazing. So, but this is their first sequel, they have never done that before.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we've mentioned that too, yeah.
SPEAKER_03And this just like the first Hades was uh an open beta base the entire time. It was you know, early access. Yes. A lot of fan feedback from the entire from the get-go, basically. And uh everyone loved it, but um, I know and I mean you both aren't fan of early access. Like as good as it is, I want it to be done. Yeah, I'm I I just I would enjoy I would enjoy the finished product.
SPEAKER_02I don't want to, you know. I'm not I don't want to be part of the process of making it good. I just want to get in. Yeah. I don't know. That's just me. I mean then you save some money if you do get early access. And I I think I cut this part from the last time, but the my the guy I know, he played at early access and said it was pretty much polished from the get-go.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I heard that as well.
SPEAKER_02So it was almost like a full game. I think they added a few more features. The story wasn't quite flushed out.
SPEAKER_03And that's what I wanted to see.
SPEAKER_02I mean that's what that's kind of why I'm playing it. But I guess some people just want to be part of the process. I don't know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So this game is available now on Steam, Epic Store, and Nintendo Switch, and that is it. Oh, really? Yeah, it is not available on uh Xbox or PlayStation. It was a Nintendo Switch exclusive in the way that it's you know not available on the other consoles, but it's not, you know, it is available on PC. Interesting. Um possibly Mac. We never talk about Mac. I don't know. Are games made for Apple? iOS? Gamers. So there is that. Um it does have widescreen support. I'd like to always, you know, chime in on that. You guys are like, what do? But that's important. Some games don't come out with that. Um and this does it very, very well. It was like, yeah, I'm there and it looks great with that. It also, you know, uh, we're both playing it through Steam, I believe.
SPEAKER_02I yeah, I'm Steam.
SPEAKER_03Um, and it does support both Xbox and PlayStation controllers fully.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03I don't know if you notice, it does have the haptic feedback on the uh on the dual sense.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I play with that, so I should have um it's it's it's limited.
SPEAKER_03I notice the one thing is when you do capture the spirits, you have to hold the shoulder button and then switch to the other shoulder button. So sometimes you have to hold both shoulder buttons. You know the mini-game you're talking about? Oh yeah. If you try to hit the wrong button, it it it feels it's locked a little bit. It helps you, it actually helps you. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02I guess I never noticed that. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_03There you go.
SPEAKER_02But you get the frog, you don't have to worry about it.
unknownDid you know?
SPEAKER_02No, no, I've got the frog.
SPEAKER_03You didn't get the frog. Sorry. So, but I I did want to point out that I am an idiot. And that's our yes, that's our that's our go-to. So I've been, you know, well, in my defense, I do play a lot of, as we know, uh games through gForce Now. Hades is not on gForce Now, unfortunately, but it's not a real demand in games, it doesn't matter. No, it's not at all. So GForce Now you does not have full PlayStation controller support. Okay. Um you can use it, but basically you get the Xbox prompts. So it's confusing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I didn't mainly I didn't care because that was always happening to me for a lot of Steam games, anyways. Turns out I was doing it wrong. If you go into the menu where you set up, you can either do like Steam controller support or like or remapping or something like that, or like you know, native PlayStation controller support. And I kept hitting accept thinking I was switching to the native. It it was a stupid thing, but basically I was stuck in a loop realizing I was constantly turning it off. All I had to do is hit the back button, and I would have had full PlayStation support.
SPEAKER_02Maybe that's what I did.
SPEAKER_03I think there was something like that. It is confusing, maybe. I don't know. I think I maybe took a screenshot, maybe I'll throw it up on the YouTube video, but yeah, because it says like you turn it off or on, right? And if you hit the button that you would think, which is like, yes, except you're actually switching it back to the original one. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there was a prompt about controller support, and I didn't know what it was trying to say.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you might be, you might maybe that's why you're not getting the if you don't have that on, you won't get the the the force feedback.
SPEAKER_02I think that is an issue.
SPEAKER_03Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, check it out. I'll check that out.
SPEAKER_03I'll I definitely will then throw in some uh screenshot. I mean it it is obvious once you look at it, but I realized yeah, what I was doing. So yeah, wow, we both suck. Meh, cheers to that. All right, cheers.
SPEAKER_02Sorry. Speaking of video for the YouTubers, um this is our Halloween episode, technically. It is our, yeah. And I was thinking we could have like a ghost or maybe a spider or something. Oh, it's U F X man.
SPEAKER_03Um scary. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_02We could do uh we'd have nothing here, yeah. Well, we got tally.
SPEAKER_03Oh, we got a tally. Oh, we can also do uh Alexa. Turn the lights spooky. Ooh. Alexa. Oh, oh.
SPEAKER_01Ooh, I've set the lights to a spooky scene in the studio.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01Enjoy the spooky atmosphere. Anything else I can help you with?
SPEAKER_03Uh yes, actually, Alexa, could you turn the lights back to white? Thank you. Yeah, this is our this is our crew. We're relying on Hey, actually, we're pretty good.
SPEAKER_01I've set the lights back to white in the studio.
SPEAKER_03Good job. This is great content right here, folks. Us talking to AI. I mean, this is kind of the future of uh life anyway.
SPEAKER_02So that's where we're at. Okay, so that's good. Yeah, anything else to talk about Hades?
SPEAKER_03Um, well, we're before we get into like the gameplay itself. I want to talk about a little more spec stuff. So um, yeah, we're play both playing on an O L E D monitors.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And I I read a review, someone said that they never understood the OLED hype until they played Hades 2. And you think about it, it is a good game for it because there's because it's that painterly kind of style. It's very and there's a lot of dark blacks and like neon colors, it's that contrast between the two. It reminds me of like Borderlands, the cell shading a little bit. Yeah, a little bit, but yeah, yet again, it's that Gen Z Art Man, she's great as creating just these vibrant characters and they pop out.
SPEAKER_02The artwork is absolutely worth it. Yeah I love it. You know, even just the character design, everything. Just it all. It's kind of it's great.
SPEAKER_03And I always say any game you can pet an animal in automatically gets a like a plus one.
SPEAKER_02Although my big I one of my complaints is so you probably pet the little dog and there's like uh a ferret or a weasel or a mere cat or whatever. Yeah, it was like a cat and a little doggy.
SPEAKER_03Uh it's not a cat. It's a dog and like a she called it out by at one point. I can't remember, but it's not a cat. It's like a it looks like a cat. But it's like a mere cat, or it's not uh well you can't pet that.
SPEAKER_02It always pets the dog always pets the dog. A little upset. I want to sometimes pet.
SPEAKER_03I want an update when we want to pet the uh the other if it's not a cat, I want to pet with that, whatever that is.
SPEAKER_02So get on it. Next update.
SPEAKER_03I'm sure they're gonna listen to us. Uh yeah, I got I got a couple more things. Um now we can get into the game itself if you want to. Do you want to get into it? You got something so wanna start with?
SPEAKER_02Uh no, because I you know. Just go.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I mean, I don't like that.
SPEAKER_03I like it uh from a sequel standpoint. I think they nailed that. Like it's same but better.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Like the boons are better. There's just a lot of neat stuff already. I'm not that far in. I'm already doing some neat builds and stuff. Yeah, they improved that without changing it too much. Yes, yes. Um, yeah, and and they've always done good with their sound design. Like this makes good use of stereo. Like, if yeah, sometimes you come back to your bass, uh, what's her name is singing.
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03And if you're to the right of her, you hear more on the left singer. I I I will never forget and in Bastion, there was the first time you meet um Zia, the the the singer, if you will, uh, of that thing, she's in the center of the map. And the entire time you're you're going around and slowly kind of spiraling toward it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And so you can always hear you know where to go because in the stereo field, or if you're even luckier, the surround field points you toward where she is. Right. And it's just a little little subtle thing like that.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I don't know if you remember, but for um um their tr the transistor game, if you had it set up and you're playing on a PlayStation, when the transistor, the sword, the sentient sword talked to you, he would speak to you through the PlayStation controller, but the echo would come through your surround sound. So it would be reverberating in your room, and it was it was so subtle, but it's neat they took the time to code that because that was because a lot of people don't hated that PlayStation speaker on the controller. But that kind of shit, that was really cool, man. It was and it adapted, like if you were in a big area, it would reverberate more, right? Yeah, but the echo was actually only on the um the speaker on the speakers, but his voice was on the on the thing. That's neat. So yeah, it's little stuff like that. Like they know this is really neat little sound design and music tricks, man.
SPEAKER_02There's a reason they're probably one of the most beloved game makers at this point for especially indie type games.
SPEAKER_03Yep. Um I was having a hard time at first. But I realize you're supposed to. I really there's some there's some things that happen, you're supposed to die. Yeah. Like, you know, because they like in game, you learn your lesson, you know, you die in game, they kind of admonish you for dying, but that's okay, you know.
SPEAKER_02That's yeah, where I was at, uh still kind of. But you do get slightly better, and the cards are new to this game. Did you get to the you got the cards? That's fun. I like it. Yeah, that's a nice little change up, and they improve and grow too. So you're not quite as far as me, so I I don't think so. There's more to them.
SPEAKER_03I figured I figured there'd be some more cards, but yeah, I that's why I'm trying to get too frustrated. Um I'm like a second weapon.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was getting a tad frustrated, but then you have to remember you're supposed to lose you're kind of supposed to be supposed to die. As much as that's annoying, you you kind of are.
SPEAKER_03Oh I I missed this. So Artemis is the one. Yeah, Artemis. Yes, she seems uh have you duetted with her? Yeah, yeah. That was beautiful. That's neat. And that again reminds me of Transistor. And if you remember, there was a dedicated, I think R1 was the hum button. Okay. Remember, you could always the the premise of that is she was a singer that literally lost her voice. It was stolen from her, but she could still hum. So press R1 and did nothing else in the game except she would hum along to whatever soundtrack was playing at the time.
SPEAKER_02That's cool, you know.
SPEAKER_03And then that's reminding me of like this little duet. Like, I dude, I sat there for like 20 minutes just like humming along, singing along with Artemis. It was so fun. Yeah, it's neat. It is neat.
SPEAKER_02They really do have a lot of fun stuff like that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah, I'm uh I'm I am learning some bills are better than others. My my big complaint, it's not a complaint, it's just well, maybe if you're drinking a little too much, sometimes I forget which run I'm on. By that I mean I forget, oh, that cool ability I have isn't this run. It was last run. And I'm like, why isn't it triggering?
SPEAKER_04Oh, I don't have it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I guess we should say to the audience, it is a roguelite like game, if you will. So it's all about it, it's um procedurally generated to a point, but you die, you start back over, and it's a different scenario, different power-ups, different for the most part, every turn. A lot of stuff does carry over. Story very much so carries over.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the story, that's what's nice about it, and then you explained it pretty well. Yeah, you're technically try to beat the game in one run.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. But unlike a true rogue, yeah, you can't.
SPEAKER_02Right. Absolutely, they don't expect you to. I'm sure there is an achievement for doing it with a new save if you can do it, like in your first try. But if you're new to the game, even if you've uh well in our case, we're we played the first one, and I still got crushed my first try. Okay, I'm glad to hear you say that. Because I'm a little nervous first. Like Well, you got to probably like clam or the sirens with the clamshell, right? That's the second area.
SPEAKER_03Uh not very far, Oceania or whatever.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that boss is hard as hell. No, there's a lot of area effects, and it's hard to there's a lot going on. Smaller, there's a lot of smaller spaces. I feel like yeah, I feel like it's harder.
SPEAKER_03I feel like on some levels it's a little harder than there's no new enemies, you gotta learn their movesets and weaknesses and whatnot. Yeah, so but yeah. I think it's overall better. So yeah, we're both enjoying the shit out of it. Like I I I could I played like six hours straight that first time. Really? And I'm like, oh, it's just it was I didn't mean to, I just want to play for a couple hours.
SPEAKER_02But I just it's one of those games that you're always like, man, I could do better. Maybe I could do this, and then like you said, the abilities are fun because all the gods give you gifts or boons, that Matt said it's so and they're all unique and the combinations and how they work.
SPEAKER_03Did you really I haven't tried that? See, yeah. I that's when I when I found the I'm always nervous.
SPEAKER_02I can't get I guess you can't.
SPEAKER_03It was nice. You just scoot through them. And then stab them in the back, and it's powerful. Mighty powerful.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. I've had a few good ones. Uh, you know, I don't know. It's hard to choose sometimes. Yeah, yeah. There's always some not good builds. Yeah. I've done plenty of those. Weapons. Have you unlocked any other weapons? Trying to master the first ones? Yes.
SPEAKER_03Before I move on.
SPEAKER_02I've moved on very quickly.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I realized I should have, because once I moved to the sister blades, yeah. Um, I got way better. Yeah. Yeah. That first witch's staff just wasn't for me. I didn't like it. I thought I would. Yeah, cool. Well, sounds like you're having fun. Yeah, I think we both are, and we will uh keep everyone uh informed as we uh progress through this amazing game. I think yeah, it's a beth that's a it's a it's a it's a double thumbs up from both of us. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02If you're looking for a fun rogue, it's like 30 bucks. That's the other thing. It's a nice, affordable game. Yeah. Especially when some games are very expensive. So yeah.
SPEAKER_03Hades. Oh, also if you like Greek mythology. Yeah, well, yeah. I guess we shouldn't know. Yeah, it's you know, loosely based on uh Greek mythology.
SPEAKER_02Did you get the uh yeah, I guess you haven't got to you know how there's every run there's like a friendly character who kind of helps you through the level. I don't know if you remember.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I haven't gone far on the second level, so no one's helped me yet.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, um, I don't know if he's second or third, but nar narcissists. Narcissus is one of them. He's just funny, he's obviously so full of himself. Right. And then the dialogue is so you haven't done it, so it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, dialogue voice acting. Oh yeah, all of it. I don't know. I didn't notice until this game that the narrator, um, voiced by Logan Cunningham, who's done all their narration. Remember, Bastion. That was a big thing with Bastion, was the narrator. Yeah, uh phenomenal uh voice work, but he's supposed to be Homer.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's what I said. I said that. Oh, you did say that. Yeah. I I never realized that. She she hints towards it quite a bit in this one, and I looked it up because I was like, was I wrong after you didn't know?
SPEAKER_03And I was like, maybe I No, they they it's it's like a fourth wall breaking thing in this one.
SPEAKER_04They were I think that real people didn't get it, so they wanted to make sure you realize that.
SPEAKER_02And I think in the first game you could figure it out, but it had to unlock a lot of things eventually, and there was like they kind of said he was Homer. Yeah, but it it wasn't as like you said, fourth wall breaking kind of direct. But I was I was surprised and I liked it. That was cool. That's a neat idea.
SPEAKER_03Fun, great, all work together and other shit. Yeah, kudos to that team. So I finally completed fully, well, not fully, I got to the the end, the true end, if you will, of Expedition 33 Clairobscure.
SPEAKER_02I'm so excited to not say their name anymore.
SPEAKER_03Yes, so uh they also did officially say so the the name of the series, if you will, yeah, going forward, it's Clare Obscure.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03And this is Expedition 33.
SPEAKER_02Gotcha.
SPEAKER_03If that like helps you kind of figure out which is the main title, what is the subtitle.
SPEAKER_02Right, so the game is Expedition.
SPEAKER_03Um absolutely loved it. Fan fantastic. That never diminished. Uh at the end there, I was doing a lot of stuff, and I I don't want to go too much into the endgame. Uh, we've talked about this off camera, but because it it's impossible to talk about it without spoiling anything. So I just it was great. Start to finish. Loved that game. Um it always kept me interesting, always something different and new because you always had to kind of change your tactics and and things like that. I will say I probably grinded too much. There's a lot of bonus content at the end. Um, and I think you're meant to finish the game and then do a lot of that stuff, but I did that stuff first. So when I got to like the end-end battle, um I was I had to pull my punches. You know, you know, sometimes in RPGs, there's a battle and dialogue happens during the battle. Uh I didn't want to beat it so quickly that I couldn't hear that. Like I was literally doing like normal, like there's there's there's attacks and spells. After halfway through the game, I never did normal attacks, I only did like my special attacks. But I was just doing normal attacks because my special attacks were hitting for like several million.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_03Okay. So a little overpowered. Yeah, I get a lot of OP. Sometimes I like that, but at this point, I'm like, yeah, that's too much. Yeah. Wow. But it is fun because you can if you just yeah, build do builds out, it's great. I definitely wanted to uh do a shout out to the music of this game. I I I at first it was it took me a while to get used to it. It was more we talked about this with um South of Midnight, it's more songs than a soundtrack. There's a lot of singing involved, and it at first that's a little weird because a lot of games don't have that. But uh Laurian Testard was a composer and the main vocalist was uh Alice Duport Percier. Very French. The whole game was very French, yeah, French. But it had especially the standout track of the whole game is Lumière. Uh it's neat. Um uh we've talked about them before on this channel. Um, a YouTuber by the name of 8-bit 8-bit music theory talks a lot about the theory behind video game music, and a lot of it's over my head because I forget a lot about the theory, but it's neat. And he goes into you know, like why it's it's so unique and different. But one it's a lot of pop progression, um, but kind of minor, and the melody isn't your standard pop melody, it has a lot of uh dotted eighth notes and grace notes, so it has a lot of that syncopation thing, stuff you don't actually hear, so it has like a pop progression, but like the vocals are very broke, it's very broke French, and that's the whole thing. There's a full string sextete in there, you know, very classically strange. So it's like it all has this poppy feel, but it's super French, super French. You don't really hear that a lot. Nah. And so it's neat, it's fun, it's super catchy. Like it's one of those things where like when you stop playing it, you find yourself humming it for like the next several several days. Okay. So yeah. Music good, game good, game, game good. Game good. I hate to give this one a number. Give it a number. Nine and a half. Nine and a half out of what? I guess out of ten. Okay. But I always say, I don't think I've ever given a game of game a ten. There's no perfect game. Every game. Yeah. I'm with you there.
SPEAKER_02You know, I can't give a ten. Even if it's my favorite game of all time. I still don't know why. I can't give that ten.
SPEAKER_03In parts of this game, I wanted to be like a nine, because there's some there was some frustrating stuff. So depending on when you hit me, nine, nine and a half.
SPEAKER_02Nine or nine and a half, depending on Matt how many baguettes he ate that time.
SPEAKER_03Uh yeah, that's true. How fraunched I'm feeling. Yeah, it's just uh it it was obvious you gotta like that style. Well, not necessarily. Some people hate a lot of people always say, I hate turn-based RPGs, but I love this game.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, did you notice that? Was that a thing for you? I know I like turn-based. But that's what I mean. Did it feel different enough? Yes. Okay, so they changed the formula up a little bit. Fair enough. That is very different.
SPEAKER_03And I think a lot of the other annoyances of open world type, not open world, I don't call it open world RPG, but yeah of like a JRPG goes away because a lot of the you don't have to do a lot of it. Like basically, you know, the complaint is you know, it's like a you know anywhere between an 80 to a 200 hour game. Yeah. But you could probably beat it in like 40, I think. I'm not I'm not a fast guy, so I don't I don't know. But I I can see that some other annoyances would be in like the oh doing all this, but a lot of that has to do with the when the the open world map opens up and you have to do all these little side quests and that. But you don't, you don't really have to do that at all unless you want to smack the the end boss in like a half a hit. That does sound entertaining. It was kind of neat. It was kind of neat. Cool.
SPEAKER_02Well, great. So you uh yeah. Is it so far your favorite game this year with Hades taking over? I gotta play a little more Hades.
SPEAKER_03Um Hades might take it in the end.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Interesting. Yeah, we'll have to have a special episode for the Neki Neki. For the game, the game awards.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah. Well, we'll definitely have a game awards episode.
SPEAKER_02So it'll be interesting because I think Claire Obscure is definitely still tight lead.
SPEAKER_03The indie darling. Yeah, but it's a silk song, so is Hades, so it's tough here.
SPEAKER_02It's gonna be interesting for people who care about that shit. If you don't, whatever. Do what we do, just pick 'em and drink. Um so yeah, cool. Well, I can say I officially beat Silksong. You did did do you did it all's? I did, I got the 100%.
unknownReally?
SPEAKER_02Are you like on a leaderboard or a watch list? I should say, more like I might be on a watch list for sure. Uh yeah, I now I'll be fair, 100%ing in that game isn't what you I guess technically it's not a hundred percent, but it is. I guess there's still optional content that you might miss. But there's certain content that counts towards it.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so there there's gonna be stuff that maybe we don't even know about yet. Exactly.
SPEAKER_02It's one of those things, like there might be this crazy hidden boss that ha nobody has found yet. Okay, but it doesn't count towards the hundred percent.
SPEAKER_03Oh, okay. That makes it feel a little bit better for you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. In your but I did it with the help of a walkthrough because I wasn't gonna I wasn't gonna try to figure it out on my own. But um, yeah, so act three, I last time we talked, I did act two and I finished that. And you can beat the game in act two, but you get the bad ending. And then act three is the real ending, but it's really hard to get. And without a walkthrough, I'm not really sure how you'd figure it out. Magic. Yeah. Um bosses in act three were uh outrageously difficult. Um I I could talk a little bit about those, but the one that was the end boss was Dark Lace. And if you played it, you know who Dark Lace is. Uh she's uh I think I was uh well yeah, she just it took I think I I might have done it a hundred times. And there was points where I just wanted to crawl up on a ball and just cry and say, I'll never play this game again. That's I think as gaming I think as far as difficult gaming, this was the hardest game. Wow. But I don't I think there was so many things that were just uh slightly on the cheap side, like hitboxes that I thought were a little unfair, like elements people've I've seen people debate about this. Some people say, you know, you're the worst gamer, but other people say I think uh when a game like you can stun the enemy. So when every boss has kind of the same tempo where you get X amount of hits and they get stunned, and then you get a bunch of free hits.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02But while they're stunned, you still can get hurt by them. You can walk into them and get accidental collision damage. And I think if they're stunned, they don't give damage. They got they got fangs and spikes and aura. Yeah. I don't know, subtle things like that. And it's 2D, so it's hard to, you know, when you have collision I I you know, one thing Ender Magnolia didn't have was collision damage, just running into the boss. You didn't get hurt. You could uh there was always a clear attack spell or this game is notorious, like collision, everything is collision, you know. So there's things like that that make it more difficult, and I sometimes wonder if they're just making it difficult to make it difficult. And they are, and I think that's what they have fun. But I beat it, I'm done. I don't know if I'll ever play another hollow knight or whatever it is. Uh, but I did kind of scroll through some of the achievements, and I thought you'd find this funny. So there was an achievement for getting 100% and permadeath mode, which I think they call steel something mode. And I was laughing because most of the achievements are around a 3% range of people who actually achieved them, which is low. Yeah, that's low. But this one, you want to take a guess out to how low? Beating it on permadeath and getting 100%. So permadeath is exactly how it sounds. You die, you start over. You start over. It's basically a road game.
SPEAKER_03Um, one dude.
SPEAKER_02You might be right. Because I don't know what their numbers are, but it I looked and it was 0.07%.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_02And I was like, who did that? Who did that? That's me and my wife were talking about like we're debating what kind of person did that. That's insane. Anyway, so that was it. I'm glad to be done. I I was at times thinking I would never finish it because Dark Lace was uh her. She had three kind of moments, like you know, three stages to her battle, and the third stage was just so many particle effects, so much going on. I just got lucky. But it it probably took me a hundred tries. So that's just fun, man.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's it sounds like a blast. I'm actually gonna quit this podcast and just go play that game right now.
SPEAKER_02And then the other quick game I'll talk about. I haven't played enough of it. This is an old game, very old by our standards. Um very old.
SPEAKER_04All right.
SPEAKER_02Well, not I don't know. Now that I don't let you have me worried, but did you ever hear hear the game Inside?
SPEAKER_03Yes, that's another wait, you you you haven't played that? No, okay, yeah, yeah. You know it. Yeah, yeah. And you played it. I've I I actually beat that one, yep.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. Well then I don't need to talk much about it. Okay. But uh why are you just like pulling out all these classics? I like it. Yeah, I just randomly somebody was talking about it, and maybe in a reel or in a social media or something, and I was like, what is this?
SPEAKER_03And it's it's limbo's Yeah, yeah, the successful limbo, uh classic kind of puzzle. Uh puzzle 2D, not quite platformer.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Side scrolling. Um yeah, very unnerving.
SPEAKER_02Uh that's what I wrote. Anxiety. Oh, yeah, there is that, yeah. Like, because there was those scenes where dogs are chasing you and you have to like get away from them. And you and this is a game where you're just like a little almost a little kid. Yeah, you're a little boy, yeah. And you gotta run, and there's no guns or no am, you know, no way to defend yourself.
SPEAKER_05No.
SPEAKER_02You just gotta somehow get away from the dog or the person chasing you. Yeah. And it's terrible when you do die. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03They're kind of grizzly death.
SPEAKER_02They're usually grisly.
SPEAKER_03They're not gory. No, because it's you're you're you're you're small on screen. It's a very um it's not detailed. No. Um, everything's very dark toned, a lot of shadows. Yes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But wow.
SPEAKER_03That game is it was a lot. That was Yeah, that's interesting that you uh decided to just play that now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03That's a game that has a secret ending that I don't know how you do without a uh a guide. Oh yeah. Yeah, I mean I've probably played like an hour or two. So it's not that long. It's probably only a couple hours. Even for me, it was only a couple hours. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I think I'm on the trend. Yeah, finish that. Yeah, I would. And it's I I enjoy it, even though it is crazy dark and you know, anxiety rated. Yeah. And there's zombies. It's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. So I I didn't know if you played.
SPEAKER_03On the YouTube version of this podcast, it will uh pop up right here. Okay. Uh how old that fucking game is.
SPEAKER_02Actually, I can say it for our podcast listeners.
SPEAKER_03Oh no, no, they need their bots to find out. Just watch. That's your uh you'll never you'll never know. There's no way to find out when Inside was released unless you watch our YouTube video.
SPEAKER_04That's right.
SPEAKER_02Watch YouTube and find out. And just so you know, it's uh I'll say the platforms. I'm pretty sure it was yeah, Xbox. Xbox PlayStation. Oh, what's PlayStation 2? Okay. I thought that was. It says PlayStation 4 here. Four. Oh Nintendo Switch. So I'm giving you hints on when it was released. Um, and Apple TV, apparently. So I didn't know they had a game. Yeah, it was uh so that I played that for a little bit, but that's about it.
SPEAKER_03That's what our thing is. We've done some uh a little more borderlands. Yeah, which we still love. Yeah, still enjoying the shit out of that.
SPEAKER_02And if you want to know all about it, listen to the last episode.
SPEAKER_03There's a mammoth um info drop.
SPEAKER_02Oh man, man, you really outdid yourself.
SPEAKER_03That's crazy. I uh I forgot that happened. It's like it was a dream.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it could be a painting, like Claire Obscure, right?
SPEAKER_03You said you go. Light and dark. Light and dark.
SPEAKER_02All right. Good job, everybody.
Boss Battle: Softball Teams
SPEAKER_03Softball. All right, inspired by tonight's earlier uh festivities.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we talked a little bit about it.
SPEAKER_03We're gonna do a video game softball draft. Yes. We're we're gonna pick video game characters across all time and space. Yes. That we feel would uh make good uh softball team. I think. Yeah, really no, no loose rules. We said like if we won a specific position, we could say it. Right. But wouldn't necessarily have to be.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_03But um, yeah. We're not experts, so don't I mean, you know, I went to softball college. Yes, and I did.
SPEAKER_02But yes, so it's it's it's it's supposed to be fun, so don't take it too. That's right. Don't your favorite video game character didn't make the cut, it's yes, yes. We're sorry. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um all right, I'll I'll just start. Go for it. Okay. There's really no reason. Uh pitching for my team is Kirby. Oh. You know, I don't know if shooting a ball out of your mouth is technically overhand or underhand. Um I don't know that might break the rules a little bit, but come on, man. That man can launch it. Plus, I mean, he looks like a softball. He does. You know, he could be our mascot slash uh our pitcher.
SPEAKER_02What's sad is Kirby made my team. Oh, but not as pitchers. Not as a pitcher. Okay, well, let's go into it.
SPEAKER_04What's he doing? He's catching. Because he can stuck. Oh, because he can oh, he just stuck the ball into it.
SPEAKER_02The pitcher's throwing it. He's stuck in it. You double, you double the speed of the ball. We're doing fast pitch. Oh, yeah. If it's a lob, what are they called? Underhand, I guess it's the other way. Uh I don't know. But I'm going fast pitch.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I figured this is what's the pro here.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Wow. So Kirby was uh if we were doing this actual draft style. You want to get him. That's what we're gonna do this as a draft. Okay, we're just doing it. Plus yours, yeah, yours was different. Plus, I guess is there a second player Kirby? It might be. Is he green? Yeah, there might be. We don't know. Do you know anything about Kirby Lord? Kirby game either.
SPEAKER_02There might be more Kirby.
SPEAKER_03You know, he's one of those Nintendo characters that appears in other things. So I'm pretty sure in Mario Kart, I know he's in Super Smash Bros. Right. Um, so yeah. All right. Kirby, we both says. Yeah. So you get to go again. I get to go again. Okay. Um uh well, you want a good base runner. Uh I was thinking who's fast. Who's fucking faster than Sonic the Hedgehog? I can't believe I need to be able to get the little red shoes, man. He's like plus, if need be, he doubles as the ball.
unknownHe does.
SPEAKER_03He does roll up in a ball. That's right.
SPEAKER_02We just watched uh the movie with uh James Marsden. Oh, I've let's see the first one. Ben Schwartz. Yeah. We just watched it like three places series? Well, I think there's three. No, I don't know. I don't know about that. There's three movies. At least. No, I think they're working on a fourth.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. We're actually pretty good. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I mean after that redid the character model. Apparently. Remember that?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they tried to get it more hedgehoggy. I guess. Which no. It was a hybrid and it just didn't work. Go all in on one or two. I know, really. And then obviously actual hedgehog is.
SPEAKER_03I just feel bad for like the animation team where it was like, hey, because the movie was like ready to come out. They're like, we need you to change something. What? Right. Just Sonic and the way he looks. Yeah, just everyone. For the entire movie. Yeah. I mean, you think about how many frames they had to.
SPEAKER_02I feel bad for them. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So uh cheers to you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Sorry, animators. But you know, you did good work, and they're probably making good money now because there's three of them.
SPEAKER_03So who you got next?
SPEAKER_02Uh well, I'll just go with my pitcher. And since we're doing fast pitch and we have agreed on that, Birdo. Oh, that's a good one. Birdo and Kirby. That's a whoo, that's a fastball.
SPEAKER_03But is Birdo really a fast pitch? Is that recall you could slowly jump on the egg.
SPEAKER_04That's true.
SPEAKER_03And slowly ride. But he was a big thing. What do you got? Kirby sucking.
SPEAKER_04You got Kirby sucking.
SPEAKER_03They're both working in team. Okay. Okay. Suck. Blood blow. Plus, that might be their baby. So you're really going to swing a bat at that. That's true. Head games. We got it all. Head games.
SPEAKER_02My team is all about head games.
SPEAKER_03All right. All right. And speaking of head games, I'm going to go with Patches from the Soulsborn series. Okay. He, you know, I haven't played a whole lot of them. You know, I've only played Elden Ring. But he is the trickster, the guy that always fucks you over.
SPEAKER_02I vaguely remember this, but yeah. I played all the games.
SPEAKER_03He kicks you off the cliff a lot, apparently. Okay. I never fell for his bullshit because he seemed like a shady guy. But yeah, so you need a trickster. You need to need a shady dude, you know?
SPEAKER_02Somebody again, mind games. That's all a lot about sports. You know? Good. That's a good choice. Alright, alright. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So who'd you got? Who'd you got?
SPEAKER_02Well, now I'm getting into my the big dudes. Oh. The big guys who are gonna be the big swing for the fences kind of guys. Oh, okay. Oh, you went for some. I want some batters, you know, like these guys. And I went with it. One of uh you could pick any one of them, but one of the giants from Skyrim. They knew how to swear club. Remember when they would smack you and you wind you up.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, go into the uh in the stratosphere.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Okay. They get hit. Yeah. We get some home runs. So I'm going all power.
SPEAKER_03Little intimidation. Giants from Skyrim. Although I don't think I can wear a jersey. So it's alright.
SPEAKER_02They're good. I don't know what they'd play in the field.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_02Probably outfield to catch because they're so tall, they can catch.
SPEAKER_03Oh, that's true. Yeah, they'd field well too. All right. Very quick. Solid, solid choice. Okay. Alright, I'm going for my power batter. Okay. Um Frank West.
SPEAKER_02Now I don't know that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. I mean, I should know it. Yeah, yeah. From Dead Rising. Uh I know he was in the first one. I I I've I've played a lot of them. This is kind of the series. I believe there was an Xbox exclusive.
SPEAKER_02Um is that the game where you kind of make your own weapons?
SPEAKER_03Yes, yes. And you're in a mall. Yeah. For the first one, at least you're in a mall. You can just grab. Well, he grabbed a lot of bats, and he was good at uh swinging them bats or pipes or crickets bats. So he's a good batter. He's a good batter. Plus, he's good with crowd control. You know, I always say on any of this stuff, you gotta be ready for a zombie outbreak.
unknownThat's true.
SPEAKER_03And obviously, if a zombie outbreak happens at a game, Frank West is gonna be my guy. Frank West is gonna make it. Or even just like one of those, one of those instances where the entire team charges you know the mound. Oh yeah. A little bit of a fight. Yeah, he's gonna he's gonna do some beat down. Not murderous, always beat down, but you know incapacitate. He's incapacitate. That's right. That's right. Oh, plus he's a photographer. So you could uh he's a photographer. Yes, that's his whole thing. He's a photojournalist. So he can take the teams for this for the picture. Take the photos team picture.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03I mean to the year. He is a he's just a wonder. He's he's he does it all. Well, he sounds like uh just a wonderful man. That's right. All right, thank you, Frankie.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, all right, let's see. Where am I gonna go? So I'm in my big hitters, and I think this makes sense because they always carry they always have that baseball bat, super mutant. Uh series.
SPEAKER_03Oh, okay, yeah. I just find I was trying to think of characters that always have a bat, super mutant, yeah. They always tend to have the bat. And definitely a big hitter. They are, and uh as a radiation, we're all throwing up. Yeah, your man's just hitting dingers.
SPEAKER_02And then speaking, yeah, he's kind of a zombie-ish kind of a guy.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, there you go. So him and Frank can uh have at it. Yeah, but yeah, that's chewing each other's face.
SPEAKER_02So I just thought, yeah. They they they could probably, but again, not very quick. So my team's lacking on speed. All right, that's why later on I I adjust for that.
SPEAKER_03You're gonna roid it up. You're roided up.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm all roided up, ready to go.
SPEAKER_03All right, man. All right, my next one. This is this is a bit of a curveball, if you will. Okay. Joanna Dark. From the Perfect Dark series. Okay. I don't know if you're a little familiar with those games. Yeah, a little bit. She just seems like the person to be good at softball, you know? I have one like that. I actually think it's. I feel like so, you know, it's just like this this uh family syndicate thing of like super spies. And I feel like they might have a softball league, and I bet she's the star. I bet she's the one always practicing. Everyone else just kind of shows up drunk with like a cooler full of like Coors Light and Stuart. Yeah, there's always those people, but pasta salad. She's coming there to like cake ass. Pasta salad. Who the fuck brings pasta salad? To a softball game? Who brings pasta fucking salad? To like, you know, we're having like a North Park, you know. Uh all right. Pasta salad.
SPEAKER_04You heard it here. All right. Going in the dark ain't bringing no pasta salad. Pasta salad.
SPEAKER_02She's bringing the winds. She brings those hits and the runs. And not the runs from eating pasta salad, right?
SPEAKER_03Warm in the sun pasta salad.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03All right, man. Beat that.
SPEAKER_02Now this one, this one's kind of a little bit of a cheater, but I think we're already ridiculous. Oh, yeah. Goro. He's got all them fucking arms. From from Zelda?
SPEAKER_03I think of the little little guy with the no from um combat. What, six arms? Oh, what does it we get more arms? You get more bats? He has more gloves. He can catch every ball. Well, there's only one ball.
SPEAKER_02But you know what? Sometimes it's over here, sometimes it's over there. Alright. I don't know. I just have a lot of arms. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. And he and again, yeah, like you said, he can He's got you know, if these two arms are tired, he can go to these two arms to swing the van, right?
SPEAKER_03Switch it up. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And maybe Southpaw.
SPEAKER_03I don't know. He does different so so when you have that many arms, so you're not sure left-handed or right-handed, are you like left top-handed? Exactly.
SPEAKER_02He could be the picture as well. It'd be so confusing. Where's the ball coming from?
SPEAKER_03Goro, I like it. Uh I never would have thought of that one. All right.
SPEAKER_04I'm gonna do uh I'm gonna do um the dude or one of the dudes from RBI baseball.
SPEAKER_03Going with an action, I couldn't remember the back in the day. I think because I know Hawk, you had like the big guy, the skinny guy, and and like the fat guy. They were RBI baseball. Were they actual characters or just again, it was just I never played RBI baseball, so I don't know. I was wondering to think what Mario was the pitcher. Was he really? Or the catcher, or the ref. He might have been the ref. I think he was a ref.
SPEAKER_02I feel like he was a ref.
SPEAKER_03Alright. If I if my memory serves me. Yeah, so uh alright, you know what? Then I'm going with that. I'm gonna have ref in my games, Mario from RBI.
SPEAKER_02Alright, he's a ref. Macho's a ref. That's right. You gotta have a fair game.
SPEAKER_04Well, him and Patches might work together. I'm just saying.
SPEAKER_02Ooh. He's paid off the refs. Now we're getting no, no, threaten the ref. Alright. No subtlety there. Nope. Uh this one was just because I I that was my big dudes. And I needed somebody quick. And you can't get anybody quicker than Quick Man from Mega Man 2. I mean, it's in the name. I needed a speedster.
SPEAKER_03Alright, so I don't know Mega Man real real well. I'm assuming he just kind of like skirts around the stage, like leaving trails of himself behind him. Kind of. I think that's kind of what he did. I think he had a boomerang, was his weapon. Oh, that's how you got the boomerang.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Well, that's that's how Mega Man worked.
SPEAKER_02Like you defeated the boomerang.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you beat the boss, you get their power or ability, yeah. Okay. Quick man. Quick man.
SPEAKER_02So he he's our quick guy. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Believe it or not. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I mean on the nose.
SPEAKER_03All right. Quick man versus Sonic. Where's that game at? Ooh. Now we're talking. Okay. So now at this point, I'm going to introduce the coach of our team. Got a ref, now we got a coach. Yep. But he's not afraid to jump in if we need someone to actual play. Oh.
SPEAKER_02They can serve as both.
SPEAKER_03Uh, we're talking Commander Shepard.
SPEAKER_02Nice.
SPEAKER_03He's a good commander. If shit gets real rough, he'll just use an omniblade to just fucking slice that ball in half.
SPEAKER_02I thought just kill everybody. But yeah. Okay. Well, that's kind of fitting because I have my Mass Effect person. Oh, yeah? Jack.
SPEAKER_03Ah.
SPEAKER_02I just figured. Do that again because you think that she'd be good at me.
SPEAKER_03Sorry. I'm sorry. I mean, there's some stereotypes there, but I'm not. Without getting people offended. Yeah, but no, just in general, yeah, I think she'd be good. She probably sporty. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I think I think she'd be good. And conniving. Yes. Yeah, she would. She'd definitely be a little bit of a dirty player. You know, somehow, you know, giving you a little this or that when you run by. I don't know. There's dirty playing baseball, I'm sure. Or softball. Okay. So yeah, that was more of just Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, think they'll be good. Alright. Now, uh, this is actually my last pick. Um shortstop.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03Altair. From the Assassin's Creed series. Cause, you know, you think you're he ain't gonna tag you out. He's gonna tag you out. You know.
SPEAKER_04You get blinked in your neck. You think you're still on the base, you're gonna next thing you know, oh I don't know what happened, bro. Uh he just kind of fell over. Yeah. I mean, he's bleeding a little from the neck, but um I I don't know. I don't know what happened.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. That's not my problem. Your players have uh weak necks. Weak necks. They start bleeding all of a sudden. I don't know what happens. Seems like a recruiting problem there. Not my problem. All right. That's a good choice. All right. And so this is along with the Jack pick, but also because she's an extremely athletic alloy. Oh!
SPEAKER_03From um what series is that? Jesus. Um Horizon Zero Dawn. Yeah, or Horizon. The Horizon Zero Zero Dawn for Ben West. And she kind of looks like she could be it's funny, but yeah, I just I just picture her being on the team. Yeah. I think she'd be good. It's funny, both her and Joanna Darkhead were redheaded too. Ah, there you go. Like, you know, yeah. But I can see, yeah, yeah. She'd uh what was her what was her clan that she grew up with? You know the lore better than me. Yeah, but I can see her like like getting the team together, yeah. Making everyone play a little bit more. She's got a good outgoing and she's encouraging.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, she was definitely the manager slash uh star player. Yeah, I think she's good. And you don't have any more? Nah, that was it. And my last one, this is the guy who's gonna catch all the potential home runs, Dolzine. You gotta have somebody in the outfield, right?
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Got it. Yeah, I mean, shit, that is the ultimate outfielder, man. You definitely nailed that. So, yeah, that's my team. So we need we need now everyone at home. I'll try to throw up a uh one of those um uh vote things on the website or on the on the social media. Yeah, people chime in. So I want everyone to vote. Vote for the winning team. Uh the winning team. Um, do you want me? I can go down my team and you uh you'll do a quick rundown. Okay, yeah, great. So for Maddie Flames' team, I have Kirby as the pitcher, Al Tayer as shortstop, Frank West as the batter slash crowd control, Commander Shepard is our coach, Joanna Dark is just the badass player, um Patches is the little sneaky sneak. Uh Sonic, obviously our runner, and um Mario the Empire Umpire from RBI Baseball as the Umpire.
SPEAKER_02It's a good team. My team with Kirby as my catcher, Birdo as my pitcher, uh let's see, and then as my batterslash maybe outfielders, we'll see. Uh the giant from Skyrim, one of the giants, pick any of them. Super mutant, another just pick one. And Goro, those are my big hitters. Uh let's see, Quick Man, probably like a shortstop type. Quick man, because he's quick. If you didn't figure that out. And then Jack Alloy. Just because I feel like was it? Aloy. Aloy. Aloy. I always said alloy. I guess I said it wrong.
SPEAKER_03I imagine it comes from the word alloy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03But Aloy. They pronounce it Aloy.
SPEAKER_02And those are just a good all-around players. I don't have a position yet. And then Dalsem, probably my center fielder.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well, he left, center, and right.
SPEAKER_02We might not need anybody else. Yoga. So that's uh my team. I don't have all the positions figured out.
SPEAKER_03That's all right. That's that's that's he doesn't need so vote for me. Vote team. And uh the winner um has to um actually play. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you joining us on that uh crazy softball bass battle. Boss bass boss bass battle. Bass battle. I like bass battle. Bass battle.
Matthew's Equipment Emporium
SPEAKER_06Welcome to Bastid. Welcome back. This is the Halloween episode. I'm Maddie Skellington. Andrew, why can't you look at me?
SPEAKER_02I don't know. I can't figure it out.
SPEAKER_03So all right. For uh for tonight's uh spooky episode, we thought we'd just run down real quick for those of you at home who are wondering, hey, how do Yins make this podcast?
SPEAKER_02That's a good question.
SPEAKER_03So uh let's talk about our uh our signal chain, if you will. So we're getting a little bit in the uh in the studio recording audio video realm here. So if it's just it's just you uh just skip ahead. You know, run run run screaming out of my embodium. I won't follow you, I promise. All right. All right, so we are uh we're using uh Sennheiser MD421 microphones. They are dynamic microphones, in case you were curious, not condensers. Um they're set to the the M setting as opposed to the S setting. Um, if you're curious, so the M setting it it's basically full, there's no uh bass roll off, it's getting all them frequencies. Actually, our first episode, I I dialed it down a little toward the S, so we noticed we were a little too uh tinny sounding. So if anyone's curious why we sound different from episode one to episode two, that is why. Uh we're using some pop fills here, pop filters, filters here. Jeez, uh and man's is a uh uh uh Stedman, um, and I really like Stedman. That one actually broke, and I wrote to the company um about it like, hey, can I get a replacement part? Because I think it was the little hook there, like the screwing part snapped. I don't some minor part broke. And they're like, Yeah, we got you. Good news. It was like a lifetime warranty, and they just sent me a new whole top half. So uh shout out to Stedman. We like it when uh companies uh stand by their work. Yeah, they do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, these are DR um microphone stands, which we love, they are heavy duty, but literally heavy. Um, they're rock solid. Our only complaint with them is when the knobs do come off, they're really hard to get back up. But for the most part, they're they're my my favorite uh mic stands. Uh use them all the time in the studio. Uh then from that we are going into Ann Man's HP Omen laptop, uh, which talked about on the show a couple times because I uh helped him to drunkenly purchase it. Uh this is gaming laptop, but also works great as a good recorder.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um, we are currently running Cubase as our digital audio workstation. Uh both of us are super familiar with the software. It is um, I mean, it's great for it's a very good recording. Yeah, it very very much so, especially if we do multi-track recording mixing. Um yeah, that's what yeah, we've used professionally for years. And that is going by USB C, in case you were curious, uh because we're a PC guys.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_03Um, that is going into the Presonus HD8, which we've also talked about on the show. Yeah, a little bit more of a recent purchase, but we're going directly into that. That is a preamp slash audio converter slash uh audio interface. Uh we're not using any external preamps or uh compressors. Uh we kind of decided early on that was probably we didn't need to do that for this podcast. Uh we sound good and sexy. Uh so yeah, kind of going uh bare bones in, if you will. Uh to most people. Not dry bones, Carl. Yeah, but uh yeah, that's right. That's right. For filming, currently we're using my cell phone, which is a Pixel 9, which has been doing yeah, I think it's good enough.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_03Maybe we'll get more angles. Yes. If we get more shots, get all them angles. Yeah, um, for video editing, I just recently got uh Da Vinci Premiere, which I love it. It's it's pretty awesome, and it's free. Like it's like high super quality and free. It actually amazes me that it is free. There's a paid version, but so far there's not any additional features that I feel need to pay for.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, the free version is good enough for what we're doing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, for oh yeah, what we're doing. Um and that uh I actually do my video editing on my custom built uh PC with the tower. And uh and and for the podcasting uh distribution, we use Buzzprout, which so far has treated us well. Yeah, I think they're pretty fair. Maybe they're fair. We're not you know making any money yet, but uh you can change that. Yeah, yeah, you could. It does have That option. So, yes, that is how we come to you through the magic of uh electromagnetic um science. Science. The lightning bolt. And uh yes, that's uh if you were curious, that's how that's what we're doing now. Maybe we'll do an update if we ever upgrade or change or uh I don't know.
SPEAKER_02I think if you have any questions, yeah, Matt will be glad, I'm sure, to answer if you're trying to start your own.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, uh as an audio engineer, we're we're we're into this shit and we like to talk about it. So you know, I feel like a lot of podcasters don't talk real deep into the art of hydro. They may give you a little thing here and there, but they don't really get into like the nitty-gritty. No, yeah, it's so not as hard as you think. Yeah, it costs a little bit of money, but I mean we had a lot of this because of the studio you know, already set up, but uh yeah, it's uh it's worked well for us. And as I uh dangle my fingers to it, Andy, uh you guys uh uh the audio only version you guys are missing out. Go to the YouTube, it's super creepy.
News
SPEAKER_03Now it's time for the news. Right. Newsy time. Feel excited to uh throw down some uh current events. I miss that skeleton. Yeah, well, he he's dead now. He redied he redied, yeah. Burned them bones. Dim bones and bones. All right, I guess uh I'll just start here. Get it. Um, so I know we talked about this before that there is a very, very obvious knockoff of Horizon Zero Dawn. By Tencent. By Tencent. Yeah. And it's just not even trying. Right. So there's a lot of lawsuits. But one of the positive, if you will, things uh coming out about this is they're released a lot of documents, and um they said that they're so in uh if you remember in the game, there's a lot of very distinct tribes. Okay. Like there is the the Nora, which um is what Aloy was a part of. We couldn't remember that earlier. And there's like the Osram and the Banuk and the and the Karja. Remember, they all have very distinct looks and very, you know, like their their outfits. Like you can tell, like, oh, this is a this is a Nora, or they have this is a uh is an Osaram just by kind of the way they looked. And they said that um it was very expensive to develop and like kind of on purpose. They spent a lot of time kind of doing like a Mesoamerican style with sci-fi elements, which is like what it was. So they spent a lot of time and money like making sure, like, you know, hey, you know, an undetermined amount of time in the future, if you know the the US re-evolved into tribal elements, this is what you know, these in these different areas in the world or in the US is what they would look like. And it shows, I feel like it was neat. Like I could always like a tell one tribe from another just by their outfits. And yeah, so that was uh, you know, something neat to to hear about. They actually put the time and the effort that had like a whole team on just that. And that yeah, that was the uh something we might not have known about had uh Tencent not tried to copy it poorly. Well, there you go. So yeah, that's it for that. Oh, okay, that's cool. Okay. What do you got?
SPEAKER_02Oh, all right. Well, I as usual have probably a lot more than you, so uh let's see. I'll just do my kind of fallout the So October 23rd was Fallout Day, I think. It's 23rd. Did you know? Oh, is that that's the uh the day the the nukes fell? Yeah, I forget about that. So they have you know the Bethesda celebrates it. I mean largely it was disappointing, as you would expect, because the next Fallout game, which everybody wants, is years and years and years away. Yeah, yeah. So uh but some of the more interesting thing was I guess Fallout 76, which is still, you know, still going? Still going on it? I'm still working on it. Oh cool, but their next big update will have uh Southeast Ohio as the next area. Finally, right? Woo!
SPEAKER_03I've been hoping for that. Oh, so yeah, thank God we're finally gonna get get to see uh so I I guess that would actually include um the poor train wreck town of Southeast Valentine.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there we go. Well, it makes sense because the first the first the original game was West Virginia, so I guess they're kind of panhandle and yeah, going toward like so oh wow, but the bigger news for me, which I think I've given up on the game, but I have played Fall 76. I forgot about that. About you I think I bought it actually on PS PS5, I should say. Uh it looked dated graphically, as you'd kind of expect, because it's a pretty old game at this point. But the big news is they're actually next year, early next year, they're finally updating it to a PS5, Xbox Series X native. So I guess that means the graphics will and textures will improve, which was largely holding me back because actually it is kind of cool, it's pretty fun.
SPEAKER_03There's all kinds of events, it's multiplayer online, you play an MMO RPG, uh, which means massively multiplayer online role-playing game. There you go.
SPEAKER_02Thanks, man.
SPEAKER_03Yes. So meaning it is a uh the game uh largely evolves because of the players, the thousands of players in the world doing things.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and also the nature of it, the the the developers continually change the world, yeah, add content. Yeah, that's just kind of how they're Southeast Ohio But also it costs you. It also costs money, you know. Like they get you transactional fees if you're interested in that, new I don't know, clothing, new armor. That you know, most of it nowadays they've made it cosmetic because a lot of people get frustrated if it's actual good gear, so it's mostly cosmetic. But so I don't know. I I thought about going back a couple times, but I was like, ah man, this graphics are rough.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, even though it's not that old, but it's they're not just neon doing throwing a HD HD coat on it. They're actually updating. I think so.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it sounds like it's yeah. So I don't know, might be worth checking out if you're into the Fallout series because Fallout 5 won't be out probably for 10, 15 years.
SPEAKER_03Didn't they also introduce like an anniversary edition of Fallout 4? Yeah, there's some other things. But I don't know.
SPEAKER_02I mean we I didn't jot that down because I don't think people really care. Bethesda's known for reissuing yeah, that's what people are basically complaining about. Yeah, we get to play reissues of games. But I don't know.
SPEAKER_03Bethesda's taking a lot of hits lately. I did uh on a related news, I did I did see someone had said it was a developer, it was another developer, and they said had any other studio made Starfield, yeah, it probably would have been a hit. Yeah. And I thought that's interesting. And and I yeah. I agree. Yeah, you know, because they're just they're for one, I mean, they can't there's such a thing as being too good and ruining expectations. Yeah. So you're wearing your Starfield hat, which is actually awesome.
SPEAKER_02I I feel like I'm gonna get a lot of people. If we do eventually get people watching this, the people are gonna be very upset with that hat. But I wear it proudly. I love that game.
SPEAKER_04We both did, we both did. We will both define it.
SPEAKER_02And if you're gonna make fun of me, make fun of me. Go for it. I don't care.
SPEAKER_03Hey, if you like a thing, it's fine, man. Just like it. That's what I mean. People like cold play. We don't understand it.
SPEAKER_02We're getting the cold play game. Oh boy, this episode got unhinged. Sorry, folks. There's a at least you didn't make fun of Taylor Swift because we know that ends careers. Yes, yes. I like Tay Tay. I don't really listen to her. But my wife, who has good music tastes, and she'll be happy I said that.
SPEAKER_03She loves her and I respect that. There's some of Bonnie Vare I actually really, really like. Okay. So there we go.
SPEAKER_02So you didn't make fun of her. And that's good. Yeah, I won't go. Coldplay are cool. Anyway, they're from the uh from the UK, right? So we don't care about it. Yeah, that's right. They're not American. Alright. Let's keep going. Let's see. Do I have any more fallout? No, like you said, there was some other stuff, but I didn't bother to really look into it. Um oh yeah. Since you said Starfield, it won't be released until 2026. I don't know. The next I mean for PS5. Oh, oh, I forgot they're still doing it. Yeah, I I think there was rumors it might come out this year, but it's not.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02So if you're if you own a PS5, you're waiting for it, it's not too much.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'm surprised they're uh delaying it so much. I mean, I understand maybe it's a technical thing, but you would think exclusivity thing. Obviously, Xbox is done with exclusives now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's what I mean. They're they gave up on that. So Halo another Fallout funny, silly news. Uh before this, you know who Danny Trejo Trejo? Trejo. Trejo. Yeah, Trejo. Yeah, yeah. The crazy machete guy. Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah. Apparently, he's a huge Fallout fan. I think I might have known that. Yeah. And so he, I guess he was on social media saying, Come on, Bethesda, we're just waiting for a Fallout New Vegas remaster. And he was hoping that was going to be a big announcement. And he was like, like championing, championing it on social media. And didn't happen.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, there's a bit of uh bad blood there.
SPEAKER_02So uh yeah, apparently Danny Trehe Trejo is uh a huge fan of Fallout. I did not expect it.
SPEAKER_03I didn't I'd love to play as his character in uh he would be a good no, but you know, he'd be a villain, and I'd be terrified every time he I'm terrified of him.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but I'll I'll be honest. If you're looking for a really good taco recipe, uh look up his tacos. Okay, yeah, he's actually a really good chef. I I'm definitely doing it. Uh me some tacos. Uh he probably has a couple cookbooks at this point, but he he said he cooks on the sets of movies. And I don't know, I can definitely see that, man. And he and the recipe is vegan. Um, so he says, you never know on Hollywood sets. There's a lot of vegans, and so he's very cool. Oh, so he he makes vegan as much as any other. So he he can do it all. And it I'll tell you what, I made I made it, and it's still one of our favorites. We might uh met next podcast that might be the sneaky snack that we uh have. We'll do some uh Denny Treos tacos.
SPEAKER_03Nice. Uh well, you know, that rolls right into my news that had nothing to do with video games. Well, there you go. But it kind of does. Uh so a company came out with an ultrasonic chef knife that vibrates 40,000 times per second. Nice and requires 50% less force to slice through meat and produce. So apparently you can't, it's it vibrates so fast you can't feel it vibrating. And uh, this is the first they've had similar things before this first time where it's all it just looks like a regular knife. And you just hit a button and you just can very, very easily slice. But you realize, dude, Star Wars, this is a vibro knife.
SPEAKER_02A vibro knife. Uh yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you always it's like it's more the expanded universes for all you uh true uh nerds, but yeah, they always talk about vibro knives.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I only know it from the um mud. Oh, it's a common weapon in mud.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so I mean, but it's cool, man. Think about that. Moving up.
SPEAKER_02I want you know next thing is a lightsaber.
SPEAKER_03Well, yeah. We're getting there. We're getting there, we're getting there. But yeah, you know I'm gonna I'm gonna have this eventually. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I think you will.
SPEAKER_03There's no chance.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I'm curious. Maybe you'll talk about it on your equipment. Yes. Just what that creepo needs is a knife. Incapacitate you. There you go. All right. Well, there you go. All right, what else? So I'm gonna go down my AI corner. Oh no, oh no. This is Andrew's AI. No. Uh so there's a couple headlines. So former, I'm just gonna read the headline. This is from IGN, but they wrote former God of War Dev on use of AI in video game development. If we don't embrace it, we're selling ourselves short. So I guess they're pro-AI.
SPEAKER_03I know, I know this is a hot button topic. Yeah, that's why I but as someone who has done mind-numbing, menial audio editing, where I'm, you know, the so there are tools in audio editing that can strip silence. So basically take out the breaths, yeah, the small breaths, breaths, and the breaths and the pauses and basically clean it up. Right. But it never works too well. So me and you are perfectionists, we always go in and manually edit, and it could take hours. Right. If you get an AI to help me do that well, awesome.
SPEAKER_05Right.
SPEAKER_03So I feel the same thing in like video game development. Like, if I can be like, hey, again, I don't know development too well, but I'm sure there's a lot of stuff like that. Like, fix this ground so that nobody falls to the floor, you know? Make these trees not grow into each other weirdly so they look like actual forest. Right, that's true. So that's where I'm for AI, that kind of stuff that doesn't fire anyone, yeah. It just makes their jobs so much easier.
SPEAKER_02That makes sense. You know what I mean? Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So, yeah, again, sorry, I'm not trying to start shit, but well, yeah, now that spills into the next headline.
SPEAKER_02It's another headline on Game Rant. Uh Subnautica 2.
SPEAKER_03Oh no, we've already uh hated on Oh really? Yeah, remember they fired the uh the original developer?
SPEAKER_02Okay, well, this is this is great then because they commit to being AI first.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah. Well, we always said fuck that game. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02There you go.
SPEAKER_04So they fired the creative leads behind the game. And now they're just AI.
unknownThere you go.
SPEAKER_02We uh will definitely not be supporting that. I already was not, I already was not, so yeah, great. I just thought I was interested. That's so there you go. Thanks, Matt. For remembering previous and I've forgotten one little fallout news. Uh uh I have other stuff, but I've forgotten this fallout little news. And I it has already happened as of this recording, but a pro hockey team, and I didn't know this was a thing, the Texas Stars, which is an expansion team, but I forget who they but they're professional NHL. Yeah, I don't follow hockey that well anymore.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, because remember it was like the North Stars, the Dallas Stars, and then yeah.
SPEAKER_02But they have a fallout night. Did you know that? No, no, that's and then like here, and maybe for the video people, Matt will post this actually up on the video, but yeah, they have like cool jerseys. It's like a fallout style jersey.
SPEAKER_03But is there any particular reason why? Do they have I don't know. Well, I mean, you could read the article. No, but I'm not sure none of the Fallout games take place in Texas. Yeah, that's what's interesting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. But um and then they have like all kinds of goodies, yeah, they have all kinds of thematic stuff during the game. Like I said, this already this game happened already. So that's cool though. But I like it, and I wish like the penguins would do that, you know? And they have some history, they have the pit. Oh, yeah, the pit expansion. Like it makes sense.
SPEAKER_03But uh our long history of uh video games that take place in uh Pittsburgh. Yeah. Uh that was one last of us drove through Pittsburgh. Well, that yeah, the The Last of Us a whole thing. Yeah. Um yeah, they stop in Pittsburgh. They stop in Pittsburgh in the TV show, they changed it to Kansas City, I think it was. Yeah, they changed it. But yeah, in the game it was Pittsburgh. Yeah. I mean horrible things happened there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but the I think the show actually pays homage to it because they s show a Pittsburgh sign, I think. Like on the road. I think there was an homage to it, but I don't think they actually went to Pittsburgh, like the game. But uh yeah, I think that's it, though. That was the only two. We're we're worth a mention. That's right. Okay. Do you have any more news? Uh I don't. Okay, well then I'll just keep going. Uh I got a quit a couple more here. Um, this is another AI one. But this is I don't know why I even put this up here. But Elon Musk's AI game plans were called out by Larian Studios, which Larian Studios created most famously as of now, Baldur's Gate 3. Right. And uh they basically trashed his take on it and saying the AI just doesn't have the passion to create good uh worlds with that you want to be involved in. And it's just kind of the it'll create a loop that satisfies that dopamine hit, but does it have characters you really want to be involved with? He basically said, Yeah, we don't know.
SPEAKER_03I mean, there obviously it could be a point where it can and will, yeah, but that could be so far down the line that we don't know what life will be like then. Yeah, right. So yeah, I I think there's gonna be a hopefully uh a healthy medium between AI just helping the creatives do what they want to do as opposed to right struggling on menial labor. Right, that's true. But that's just my hopeful, hopefully. Wow, wow, I'm never hopeful. Yeah, you wait optimistic Matt?
SPEAKER_02What the shit? I don't know. I don't buy. All right, so this is I'm gonna go quick here. Uh the history of Metroidvania. Ooh. There's a book. Really? Yeah, it's that's what the book's called. The history of Metroidvania. And it apparently goes really in depth in how it was created and all the storylines involved. It's I don't know where you can get it, but it's $55, 232 pages. So if you're really interested in we've talked about it quite a bit because I play them and I it's one of my favorite genres to be honest.
SPEAKER_03Have you ever read a video game book? I mean like a fictional, you know. Oh yeah. Uh so the only one I've read was uh Masters of Doom. Yeah, I remember you repeating. That that that is highly worth a read. So that is about uh John Romaro and uh John Carmack and id Software and the history of Doom and and it's a very interesting peek into um that era of video game and and which is kind of like the the the early where it went from you know Mario to like cool shit. Yeah, right. We started to get really into it. But yeah, that that could be interesting. I think yeah, that maybe I haven't read a book in a while, so maybe there it is. That'll be in my future quiz.
SPEAKER_02Oh more Fallout news. I guess uh Fallout releases according to game rant. Fallout releases real life nuka cola and sunset Sas or Sark Sasparilla Sasparilla, yeah. I don't know why.
SPEAKER_03Uh I feel like someone else did this before. Wasn't there a Nuka Cola release before? Maybe like in the UK? Probably.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. But I'm sure But it's for season two coming out, I guess. Oh. Yeah, I love a Nuka Cola bottle. Yeah, me too. That would be cool. Yeah. I I love all the imagery from Fallen. Yeah. I could probably buy everything like in a shirt or some sort of form. But uh Oh, here's another one. I think you said this earlier. Next Halo will be live like service Fortnite style. Did you hear about that?
SPEAKER_03Wait, no. No. We were talking about uh Oh, it may be.
SPEAKER_02I shouldn't say you should be.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we're talking about the you know the PS5 and Halo. But um, no.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Halo World Champ uh. Next Halo game revealed. The report suggests that there will actually be two Halo games coming in 2026. Oh, the Combat Evolve remake, I'm assuming, is the one. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02They're working on a live service, long-term updating multiplayer game. That's according.
SPEAKER_03I mean, that makes sense, but how do you feel, man? I haven't I I haven't played Halo since Halo 4. Right. Um and a lot of people aren't happy with the direction the series is going in. Um I know there's big changes in uh 343, I think is no longer 343. Um who's making the game. Um so I I I don't know. I understand they're trying to find their footing. It's weird, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't know. I don't I don't know if this is good or bad for the game. I know it's just hit rough times.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so I guess if they gotta try something new, try something new. But um, yeah, I I I I I probably wouldn't have played it either way. So you're you're out. Yeah. It used to be one of your favorites, too. Yeah, well, because I love the story, but I felt like the story got Yeah, I was one of those weirdos that loved the the story of hate. Like I I was in it, man. I read some books, like uh the the the games came with like compendiums like going into the lore, and I loved it. It was very, very fascinating. Um Karen Travis actually. Uh yeah, she did some. Yeah, she did. Who uh wrote books and the game uh play for uh Years of War. Yeah. Um very interesting, very neat, but I felt we I I it kind of got to the conclusion, or at least it got far enough along to me, like because they start introducing new things and I get it and whatnot, but I'm like I'm good. I'm good. You're dead.
SPEAKER_02I'm good. Sometimes in life you just move on. Yeah, yeah. And uh so this one's kind of cool. Uh Silent Hill composer Akira Yamakoa, maybe Yamoka?
unknownI don't know.
SPEAKER_02I'm not, I don't speak obviously Javanese, so I I'm probably butchering it. But he's doing his first ever US tour. Yeah, I just an immersive live performance. Immersive live performance, huh? So I don't know. That's what I was gonna say. Unfortunately, if you're gonna if you're from our area, Pittsburgh, the closest was probably New York. New York. I ain't trying to do that. No. But uh yeah, Lost. There's only what's what seven? Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego, Orlando, Orlando, New York, Dallas, and Austin. I don't know if they'll add anymore, but the big cities, so that sucks. You know, the best we can hope for sometimes is Cleveland for some reason. Cleveland always gets Yeah. Why does Cleveland get so many shows? Do they have a lot of good venues? Yeah, it's a little bigger than Pittsburgh, so I guess they get have a little more venues. And then the last news, which is very appropriate for you. Oh and it's kind of interesting, Razor, which we've known may have talked about once or twice, is under heavy fire for their latest advertisement in its negative portrayal of females. Did you at all hear about this? No, I I have not. So you might rethink your love of Razor. I don't know. But yeah, what is it? So I saw the I saw a bit of it. I didn't see the whole thing. I saw a video, and it's essentially I guess what I gathered from the imagery I saw is a a boyfriend is a boyfriend of a girl is sitting there trying to play a video game, and the girlfriend or wife, I don't know, is constantly talking and talking and talking and talking. Okay, and then I guess the headphones help drown her. Oh, yeah. So it's basically playing up the stereotype. Your girlfriend, your wife is nagging you, how to block out all the noise. And it's yeah, I have to admit, that is not the best advertisement, considering that's alienating quite a bit of people.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I don't know. That was I mean, there have been some more things like a dog barking or like a just uh you could probably think of some better stuff.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but that's also not the worst thing in the world, especially I mean it's not like it's not a stereotype, and it's it's it's been a you know thing people have joked about a lot in the past. But yeah, I don't know, but apparently they got a little bit of heat for that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I get it.
SPEAKER_02I get it, I get it 100%.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, they could have easily just yeah, a lawnmower, have someone, you know, mowing the grass in the living room. Yeah, right. You could have done a lot of things. Why I don't know. I guess it's better than like a baby crying like, Daddy, I'm hungry. Yeah, that's true. Ignoring your starving child.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, kudos for them for not uh killing babies. Killing babies. That's Matt's take. My low bar. Matt is trying to still work his way into some sort of oh no, that's awful. He says the bar, I'm extra low for you, Razor. He'll still let you sponsor us. So yeah, that's this the that's the news as far as I'm concerned. Right, newsy, newsy, news.
Future Quests
SPEAKER_02Future quests.
SPEAKER_03Time to talk about what we're going to say we're gonna do, and then we won't do any of it because you know we're both just gonna play Hades and Borderlands. I mean, realistically, between now and the next recording. That's yeah, that's all that's gonna happen. I I do still have I oh I forgot about Doom. Dark Ages. Oh, you really did, did you? I might get back into it. Yeah, yeah, now that we're doing another first-person shooter, probably not. Yeah. I I do want to maybe again if I'm if I'm like something for a lot different, I'll go into um was it the beast I am? Oh remember? I am the beast?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And I really would like to try out Monster Train 2. I still haven't. No, I haven't. I just yeah. Do you own it? Oh, it's a game pass, right? I don't know. I I don't think I think it is a game pass. Is it? Yeah. Maybe just kill some time in an afternoon. So maybe I'll do that. Maybe I'll do that. But a game in the in in the not too distant future that I completely fucking forgot about. Okay. Is Outer Worlds 2.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah. Yeah, it just came out.
SPEAKER_03I know. I I mean I you played the first one, right? Just a little bit.
SPEAKER_02Well, not enough to probably give it a fair assessment.
SPEAKER_03I uh I played through the whole thing. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Yeah, you did. It was very it was more Mass Effecty than I thought it would be. Because it, you know, it was like Fallout in Space is what everyone kind of said again, because it's obsidian. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02They kind of leaned into the Bethesda formula.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And it had that, but there was um one of the reasons it reminded me of Mass Effect is there was spans of hours where I didn't do any fighting, it was all just dialogue and like talking to people and like exploring and doing shit like that. Yeah, that kind of reminded me of it. Uh, I was very surprised at that. Um yeah, um yet another game where I fell in love with a character uh voiced by Ashley Birch. I mean that's your girl. That's apparently how to do it.
SPEAKER_02If you want to go, you know, come on the show. We'll talk to you.
SPEAKER_03Matt's in love with you. Um yeah. Uh but yeah, I I really did enjoy that game. So I'm I'm interested interested, you know. I I don't know anything about this game. I remember seeing like the teaser trailer for it at the game awards like three years ago. Yeah. And then that's all I remember.
SPEAKER_02And the reviews actually have been pretty solid.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02Which you kind of expect from them. They're not gonna blow the you know the socks off of you necessarily, but they they make really solid. I enjoyed uh Avowed. Avowed, yeah. That which is interesting that they made this game pretty close on the heels of that. I know, yeah. And it it it didn't show because it's still, like I said, it got good reviews. So it wasn't like there was a quick turnaround that they were just like, let's pump this stuff out. They put time and effort, so but I yeah, I don't know anything about it, to be honest, other than the reviews. I saw some reviews scores. So Okay, yeah. I I don't know it didn't capture me when I first played it. I I don't know why. I I liked it, but I didn't love it, and I was like, Do I really want to stick with it? And ultimately I just said nah. I don't know why. Yeah, I just I don't know. Just some of the promo, yeah. But I I could see if I really pushed myself, I could probably love it. But I just didn't do that for whatever reason.
SPEAKER_03Reminds me a lot of Starfield, actually.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And that's probably the same thing a lot of people feel Starfield, like eh, it's not for me after like a couple minutes, but you really have to you have to immerse yourself in that world and oh yeah, I don't yeah, our universe where you have to uh put the time in to uh get in it then out of it. So yeah, yeah. So that uh you think it will play it though? I will. I definitely will adventure. Oh, I think I'm pretty sure it's on Game Pass. Yeah, it is on Game Pass. And I have the uh the cheater game pass, uh the Game Pass perfect PC, which wasn't as expensive.
SPEAKER_02Now Haley's gonna quit soon, I think. After I I told her that she actually hasn't had the chance to watch the episode where we talked about it, but I said, you know, we talk about it, they're raising the rates again. She's like, oh, that's it, I'm out. 30 bucks. I think that was the final straw.
SPEAKER_03I think it's 13 or 16 for me. Yes. That's worth it still.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I think we're gonna lose it. But out of worlds. So here's a game for you that I probably won't ever play, but it actually at first I was like, this seems dumb, but then I kind of I kind of looked at the review a little bit and I was like, actually, this doesn't sound too bad. It's called Dispatch.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, I saw a little bit about that. Yeah, you're working for like a superhero company of like the dispatcher.
SPEAKER_02You dispatch the superhero, yeah, it looks interesting, and it sounds like it's funny little mini games and dialogue. It's probably heavily dialogue.
SPEAKER_03Isn't it the new Telltale company?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. And that's exactly what it is. It's like a telltale game. Yeah, so I guess the way you interact with people and how you approach dialogue changes things, and it's episodic, so I guess this review is based on the first two episodes. But I'm guessing there's the reviewer actually says, like, I'm waiting to see how it plays all out at the end. Sure, sure. Because he feels like there's gonna, or whoever, I don't know if it's E, but whatever, they're gonna figure, you know, see where it all leads, these decisions on how you handle, but sounds funny, and like there's a good amount of humor to it. So I was like, that's actually kind of a neat idea. Yeah, yeah, and it sounds like they do it very well, which I didn't realize it was Telltale's company, so yeah, old the old company. So all right, I think that would be kind of entertaining, but most likely I'll never play it, like Matt said. Okay, but I I might try. If I see it, I'll definitely put it on my uh wish list or something.
SPEAKER_03Uh the other one I kind of have is I I saw it real quick. I'm like, maybe it's a VR game, and uh I think um what is this Sean Connery and Catherine Zaeta Jones movie where they're like thieves? Oh yeah and there's like that sexy scene where he creepily watches her go through like a laser. Oh remember, like it was like the lasers, you're you know, there's always those like that laser grid that you have to like kind of navigate navigate through. So this is it, but it's a so it's not VR technically, it's AR. So you're in your actual room, but there's like lasers, and we're like, that's cool. But I'm like, I ain't doing backflips in my room and like kickflips. Like I just I don't I'd kind of want to check it out, but it probably will suck.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's a game that sounds interesting concept-wise, but in practical might not be fun.
SPEAKER_03Entrapment? I want to say the name of the movie was Entrapment.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, sounds like a respawn.
SPEAKER_03No, no one cares. Is Sean Connery alive? That's a good question. Alexa, is Sean Connery alive? Everybody wait.
SPEAKER_00Sean Connery died on October 31st, 2020, at the age of 90 in Nassau, Bahamas.
SPEAKER_03Well, there we go. Halloween. Halloween. Well, there we go, folks.
SPEAKER_04That is a perfect Halloween. Perfect Halloween ending right there.
SPEAKER_03Unless you do have any more. No, that's it. No, future quests is done for me. So we are uh ending on Sean Connery's death.
SPEAKER_02So um sorry, Sean. The rock.
SPEAKER_03Sorry, buddy. Ah, The Rock. Um Yeah. I I guess um I'm Maddie Flames. Andrew Wilde. And uh Socket Trebec.