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 Twenty One: The Final Boss
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Join us for the exciting season finale. The adventure begins yet again in Hades. Matt somehow braves through (some of) Wu Chang Fallen Feathers, but his nerves give out. Andy grabs armor and a cape and starts Doom Dark Ages, but still has time to finish his Mine Craft castle. For the main event, they discuss The Game Awards. But not the awards themselves, the true winners are the trailers. AI is back in the news while the party laments needing to re-cap TV shows. They end the year with Quests for the New Year.
It's been a while since we met and I don't think you remember very well, but we did the Game Awards fun time, right?
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes, we did.
SPEAKER_01And it was a crazy for Pittsburgh it's a little bit of a snowy day. Yes. And then we had a cold streak, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, we did.
SPEAKER_01And uh I was laughing because in my mind I was thinking, you know, Pittsburgh, we're and especially this time of year, we'll have a really cold streak and then some w weird warm days. Yeah. And then we have some warm days and then classic uh dad or a classic Pittsburgh joke is some people will be wearing shorts.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I I'm guilty of that. Like if we have a bunch of 20 degree days in a row and then it's 50, I'm in shorts. Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. I don't know why, but it was it dawned on me. I think like next time that happens, I think I'm gonna go one step further. I'm just gonna pull out my fucking lawnmower, start cutting grass.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm thinking that's the ultimate power move. I'm sure people do that. Like in December, like, well, it's kind of dry out, you know. Maybe I'll make it easier next time in the spring. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. All right. So yeah, ultimate dad power move. Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh dad.
SPEAKER_00Right.
Intro
SPEAKER_00Andy. Are you ready to jingle some bells? Cause here we are with episode 21, our holiday episode, if you will. Hopefully, it's not too far removed from the holidays when this is out. Um, we are recording this on December 29th. Uh known worldwide as the birth date of the Andman.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_00So happy birthday, buddy, and happy podcast day.
SPEAKER_01And actually, I'm 43 today, but I wanted this was one of the respawns that I was thinking about a long time ago, but probably second, maybe third episode. I was a little nervous and I said I was in 40. And I meant to say in my 40s. It was based on Minecraft. And it was, you know, I was a little nervous, so I I don't know why I said in my for I was in 40.
SPEAKER_00Oh, so you just you just want to show around out there that you were uh, you know, I was alive by like three years. Yeah, I wasn't trying to lie. Like a Tinder profile. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01I'm actually 43. And yes, I still play Minecraft. But anyway, so and then also I wanted to mention this shirt. You didn't actually notice it.
SPEAKER_00I didn't notice you were you're very flannel-y. Yes.
SPEAKER_01This is a gift from my brother-in-law. Oh, okay. Yeah, you have my secret Santa. But the key thing is what uh I was trying to figure it, like is that it says in flames. It is in flames, and so I don't know where he found it, but these are like special flannels. No, what has a little flames, and then on the tag, you can't see it. It would be hard to see. Oh, just her head. Yeah, but uh it has uh no, it actually has like the album, almost the album cover of I forget the first um something moon, but in flames is technically first album. It's like subterranean subterranean, yeah. Something shield. And so that's like that's a pouch on the back.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I didn't recognize that font. That's one of those typical metal fonts that you cannot read at all. So that was uh so for you. Okay, I wonder why you're wearing a flannel.
SPEAKER_01I'm like, hmm, all right. And he got it for me, and I thought for the podcast I would show it off a little and also say thank you, Kurt. I love it. All right, it's different.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I don't did we talk about this? Um, I asked him about the teleportation uh not too long ago. Yeah, and that's what we're gonna say. Yeah, he confirmed that he cannot teleport.
SPEAKER_01So that's that, Kurt.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So a little disappointing. Yeah, yeah. I'd rather have not known.
SPEAKER_01Me too. Should have kept a mystery.
SPEAKER_00All right, podcast moving on here. Sorry, yeah. Uh I finally started a Reddit uh community. It's called a community. I realized it's almost gamers. Um yeah, just almost gamers. Uh go ahead, check it out. If you're a you know a member of Reddit already, you can start commenting right now, and we would appreciate people. I think it's a good place for everyone that has like because I know sometimes like people make comments on the Instagram posts. That's a hard way to kind of communicate and comment on episodes. Yeah. So I feel this would be a good place where people can, you know, make fun of us, not knowing the word umpire and such wonderful things like that.
SPEAKER_01There's plenty of material to make fun of us.
SPEAKER_00Yes, which we encourage again, but I do want to be a happy community, you know. We're not you know, you can make jabs as long as they're fun and in good taste. We're fine with that, and also suggest new episode ideas or boss battles would be great. Yes, please or games, or just stuff you want to hear. Just yeah, come on and hang out with us because this is a podcast of me and Ann Man hanging out. So we'd love other people to just join us in this community. So check out Almost Gamers on Reddit. Um, actually, by the time this episode airs, the poll will probably already be closed. But um, I had did have a poll up there for voting for your for the softball team. Uh, you can only make it a week long at the longest. So I couldn't make it any longer. Right. But uh yeah, so I hope we have more stuff like that uh with the new year and the new season, hopefully coming out soon. Hopefully. I just wanted to share that. And uh another thing with uh the community. Um I went back and listened to to make sure I wasn't crazy, but I was positive after we made fun of Coldplay, we very much so on purpose gave Taylor Swift props and said, We like her, yeah, we like her like her, and if we didn't like her, we would never talk bad on her because she has a very fervent fan base. Yeah, I was very clear. My niece, Ryan, like gave me some shit because apparently said, Well, you kind of said it should have been about Tay Tay. And I'm like, no, we didn't, we didn't. But I was like, it was even like because it was next to a negative comment. Like, I don't know. Like, you gotta be careful, man. So I want to put it out there yet again that we like Taylor Swift, have no problem with her, her fans are great. Okay, all good, happy, happy time. We love you, Taylor, and your fans. That's right. I guess there's a big crossover with uh almost gamers and Taylor Swift, which makes total sense to me.
SPEAKER_01We'd have her on the pod, yes. Sure, why not?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that would be yeah, that would be fun.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I'm trying to picture what game she would play.
SPEAKER_00I know. I feel like we don't really know her music that well, and she doesn't know gaming really well. In the end, I think it would work out. Yes.
SPEAKER_01It could it could be uh match made in heaven. All right, all right, so Taylor, we love you.
SPEAKER_00Yep, make it clear we love her, and and Reddit, we also love you, and we love Reddit. And uh anything else for this little intro segment here? I have nothing. Alright. All right, moving on.
What Yinz Playin
SPEAKER_04What Yin's playing!
SPEAKER_00Okay, folks, everyone's favorite segment, and actually kind of the whole reason we uh did this whole thing to begin with. Uh What Yin's playing. We're talking about what we've played since uh me and you were last together.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Which is about about a month now. That's crazy. So I actually don't have that much, but you know we both have been playing some Hades 2. Hades 2. So we give it, give us some updates there, man.
SPEAKER_01Well, I've been I played that the most out of all the games I've played. And I I don't have much to add other than the fact that I think I'm kind of coming to the end of it. Do you know how many runs you've you're at?
SPEAKER_00I'm at a lot of runs. How many I won?
SPEAKER_01I don't think I don't know that.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Because I'm at like 50 and and I and I have yet to beat um Kronos? Yes. Really? Yes. So I'm wondering how bad that is. I was so close last night. I was so close. He had like a little, a little, little sliver, little sliver of life, and like you got me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I I definitely I feel like I'm over 70 at this point. 70 nights, 80 nights. But I've beaten Kronos. I think I'm on I'm I'm pretty far along with the story. Yeah. Um I don't know. I I I'm starting to get tired of it. And I hate to say that. It's just you're doing the same, yeah over and over again.
SPEAKER_00But you still people still are still still saying new things.
SPEAKER_01The new dialogue is what's keeping me and the story.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I that's why I'm amazed at like you know, I'm I that's why I'm not too worried that I keep losing because they're still getting fresh things. It seems like it's it's a lot, a lot. Yeah, you're gonna get what dialogue do they record?
SPEAKER_01I feel like they like I feel like yeah, they recorded a million lines. I mean, it might be a record, I don't know. Because every time I go through, it's always new stuff. I just I'm starting to peter out a little bit. Sure. And so and like you have always said, once you had your fun with the game, sometimes it's time to move on. So I uh I don't know, I I I'm slowing down quite a bit. I'm at the point where I'm drifting towards not playing it as much. And there's other games I really want to play, and so that's kind of where I was at. But overall, the one thing I do want to say was I was a little harsh. I felt like I listened to the last podcast and I was like, man, I know I said it wasn't as you know, um, game of the year, which it didn't win. Yeah, we'll talk about later. But I I there's a lot different and new about this. It's a proper sequel. I just didn't want to make okay, I didn't want to come off.
SPEAKER_00I didn't feel that way. I just well, I think your main thing was you knew it wasn't gonna be game of the year, but that's a whole other reason. Right.
SPEAKER_01And and honestly, when it started getting tens from places where I think the first one got like nine and a half, so I was like, wow, this must take it to the next level. And it there's enough different, it's a proper sequel. I just I was expecting a lot more.
SPEAKER_00Okay, and yet it was a lot more the same.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it felt a refined same.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was a it was funny because it was like the point of time where I think I would have played Hades again. Yeah, but I didn't have to, I could just play Hades 2. Right. And it's what it felt like a refresh.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and and all the new elements, I just started thinking about all the new stuff they added, and it does enhance the game. So it is a proper sequel, and I I just want to make clear that I I don't think it was a DLC, if you will, but it it does feel like a sequel. I just from all the amazing reviews from the first one was amazing, but this one was even better. I thought there'd be even more difference, but it yeah, it wasn't as different as I thought going in. So I was a little thrown off by that. Okay. Yeah, that's nice. And that's all I had to say. That's fair. But you had more.
SPEAKER_00I I have a lot. I wrote down a lot. I wanna I don't want to touch on all of it. It's just as I play now, I I write my I just scribble my notebook when when things hit me. Um the one thing I wanted to say, and this this is very obviously, yes, that's what they did, but you would they stick to the Greek mythology and the Greek gods, which seems, yeah, duh. Right. But us, especially as in the US as a society, we switch a bit between the Greek and the Roman gods sometimes.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh basically the the the the Roman gods just kind of stole off the Greek mythology and they kind of used their own names. Right. But sometimes we it's funny because some words we know better in um Roman. Most of them, I think most people know most of the Greek gods, but there's some Roman gods we know better. Um Hephaestus is one that's a Greek god of fire, but I think a lot more people are more fell are more familiar with Vulcan.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um and another the big one which I find funny is you know, everyone knows Hercules. Yeah, Heracles. It's Heracles in Greek.
SPEAKER_01I was actually gonna look it up because I was a little confused and I was like, have I always been pronouncing it wrong?
SPEAKER_00No, yeah, that that's the difference. Is that the subtle difference? So it is Hercules, but it's yeah, it's Greek. Heracles was yeah, which is but so again, I'll just need to get that way. Uh another way we also kind of know is um the planets are named after the the Roman gods, but their moons are named after the sunshine. I remember in Greek. I'm not gonna go into that, but yeah. Uh yeah, Mars is paired uh compared to Aries. Right. Right. Yeah. It's interesting that that whole thing. Well that was definitely tangent.
unknownWoo!
SPEAKER_00Uh oh, I want to ask you this. Have you ever quit a run? Have you ever been in the middle of a run like I'm not gonna make it? It's not wasting my time.
SPEAKER_01I can go all the way until I die. Even if it's a waste of my life.
SPEAKER_00I almost did yet last night. Oh. Then I realized, so you don't just quit, you restart from before you went. Meaning you don't earn anything or pick anything. It's like you never even tried that run to begin with.
SPEAKER_03Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00And I'm glad I didn't quit because I ended up getting to the end boss of the top side.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, yeah. Finally. That's the one thing I kind of I feel like the story, but that is the one boss I haven't beat, so I kind of feel like I should at least beat that boss. That was tough. Very tough.
SPEAKER_00Did you beat him? Very close. I think I don't know how many stages there were, but I felt like I was.
SPEAKER_01I was very close the other day, and I it was devastating because I think I was probably like four hits away from winning. I just felt it. I felt like I was there, and I just that that's kind of why I haven't played it in the last like two weeks.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I guess that's my uh my disclaimer to people think there's no hope. I thought it was done. And then uh oh, speaking of the god of war, uh Ares, one of the harboons, is replenish all of your uh what what what happens when you die and you come back? God says survives now. And basically your extra lives. Yeah. Yeah, she replaced all of them for him.
SPEAKER_01Was that Ares or Athena? I thought Athena helps here. Maybe it is Athena.
SPEAKER_00I think Athena. That's another thing confusing because Ares is the god of some kinds of war, and Athena's the also the god of like battle. Some sort of now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I don't know the gods very well.
SPEAKER_00I mean, those are gods. I playing our video games are involved to know that it's confusing, and most of them fuck each other. Yeah. That's true. Yes, or animals or give birth through their head, or yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's a weird.
SPEAKER_00Not as fucked up as the um this podcast? This podcast, I was gonna say the um you know Egyptian gods. Oh yeah, I even know less about that. Yeah, Egyptian mythology is like reading through like um uh Game of Thrones books.
SPEAKER_01It's a lot of well, he draw a lot from history and probably Egypt.
SPEAKER_00I bet you a lot of Targaryen's based on Egypt. A lot of incest.
SPEAKER_01Lots of incest. But yeah. Sounds like fun. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Wow. We were talking about video games, weren't we? Yeah, I'm just gonna real quick. Incestual video games. Luckily not.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_00Uh the other thing I would say is so I finally unlocked the black coat, which is one of the weapons. Okay, which is basically like a Robotech jetpack slash missile launcher. Have you even used that? You probably played it once and like skipped it, huh?
SPEAKER_01Well, I remember I just unlocked that myself, I think, not too long ago. Oh, and it was just like weird. It's like out of it.
SPEAKER_00It was neat. I kind of like it. It's almost anachronistic. I I I I kind of like it. Have you used it? Like twice. I haven't used it.
SPEAKER_01I just said, no, I'm barely good at the normal weapons. I'm not even going to try this advanced power fist type weapon.
SPEAKER_00Is that the one?
SPEAKER_01Like as a power fist? Yeah. Yeah. I was like, no. I've been trying out other weapons and I've been failing miserably.
SPEAKER_00I've been, so actually, uh Schliemas, Schlemus, the the um the the the the skeleton guy who trains the troops. He actually suggests at one point, I'm like, and it's something I kind of I used to do in Hades 1. Is you know, everyone every night one of the weapons has that glow around it and you earn extra bones. It's not much, but I sometimes if I don't know what to do, I'll let that pick for me. So it forces you to pick maybe something you want to do. Oh, yeah, the chaos thing. Yeah. Yeah. No, not the chaos thing. Like you probably don't even notice. Like every night, one of the weapons is I wish I wrote down what it's called, but there it glows and has like a ring around it. You probably never probably never even noticed. And if you use it that night, every time you pass through a zone, you get a bonus um uh bones. Really? Yeah, it's called thirst or something like that. Thirst. Yeah, so it's neat. It's one way, like if hey, it makes you kind of pick new.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, again, there's so much to these games. They're they're they're really not even full, like well considered full price.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, there's so much there is, and I do want to say, like you were saying with that that pillar where you have to go through certain scenarios. Yeah, I had a lot of fun with that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, me too.
SPEAKER_00Um, there was they basically I didn't realize it just doesn't well at first it just kind of gives you like a weapon that you have to use, but later on, it it's like a build scenario, like it gives you a weapon and very specific blessings of the gods. Did you notice that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like there is one for the axe, it's the trowel of Brawn, and it is fun as shit. Yeah, it really is.
SPEAKER_01Some of them are so OP.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes, and you just feel like crudge.
SPEAKER_01Like, this isn't even a what am I doing? But it's fun, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I'm glad I tried those later on. I think you I think you should wait because maybe you can't do them until you unlock certain gods and boons. I think so. Some of them. So, but yeah, I had I had a lot of fun doing that. And uh on the other one thing I want to talk about. You know, we talked about narcissists. Does he remind you of Andy Sandberg? Yes. Are you kidding me? No, I was glad you said that. That is crazy. It's not him, though.
SPEAKER_01No, it's his Nick Cage impersonation. Did you remember that? Yeah, Nick Cage with Cage. Yes. And he talked that's what it is. I was like, is that I thought it was Andy Sandberg doing the voice. I looked him up. That's how much I thought it was. I thought it was him doing his Nick Cage impersonation.
SPEAKER_00I wondered too, like, why do I think it's Andy Stanberg? It doesn't sound like him, but you're right, it's him. Oh my god, that's great.
SPEAKER_01So I'm glad you brought that up. That was one thing that was killing me. I was like, this sounds just like his Nick Cage impersonation. I praise. You know, I don't know. You have to check the skit out. I'm not doing it justice there, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00So there you go.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I feel but it's fun. I don't know. I feel like it's to be.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's great. Um, the only other thing I wanted uh is a is a uh, you know, uh for uh uh a pro tip for some people out there. So there's the communal visits you can do with your uh your your friends, like go to the bar with them or go to the hot springs with them.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00And I realized, all right, that's a cool little moment, but it also passes time. So if you're waiting for an item to grow or or um sometimes things in the fountain take time to brew, or the the the chest from Karas, um, it takes time for them. So if you need to kill 20 or 40 uh times, it's basically the amount of encounters.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00Um so if you want to do that without you having to do those encounters, yeah. Like the bar visit is like 20, so automatically pass 20. I didn't realize that before. Oh, okay. So I I hung out with uh Odysseus, I think, at the bar, and my flowers grew. That sounds like that's a that's a weird sentence to say on that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was gonna say sounds like a lyric.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, that's all I wanted to say. Other than that, yeah, I'm gonna keep chugging away at uh Hades 2 and keep loving it.
SPEAKER_01So besides Hades 2, uh I've been playing quite a bit of Halls of Torment, but just like Hades 2, I'm kinda at that point where it's starting to get old. It's got only so many hours you can see.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think I put in a little some time on Megabonk. Right. Maybe I don't remember because it's it's just a game I played.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I kind of picked it up for fun, so I didn't really it's a throwaway game for me. But I still recommend Hall of Tonk.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'd find too. I just yeah, it's not a game you're playing for 20, 30 hours.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, after a while you get old. But the other game that I meant to mention last episode was uh inside, which I finally I mean I beat. Oh, all right. Yeah. And uh that was a that was an easy one.
SPEAKER_00So you got to the end with the like ball of flesh?
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Ball of flesh with yeah, yeah, appendages.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and it is quite creepy and quite different. But I I don't I didn't get the secret ending because I did try to look that up after I beat it.
SPEAKER_00And yeah, as I recall that that's one of what you're not getting on your own. You almost need to use a guy to figure that out, and it's very meta like interesting because in the game you were controlling the monster, but in real life you're controlling the guy that's controlling the monster or something like yeah, that's not almost Christopher Nolan Head Scratcher, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kind of yeah, good game.
SPEAKER_01I loved it. Yeah, a little short puzzle game, but worth it. But it's Probably on a weekend. Yeah, easily. So if you put the time in, sure. Yeah. So that's it. Oh, I'll let you go. There's a couple more for me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I um I played one I know is gonna surprise you. One because you've never heard of it. Um, it is Wu Chang Fallen Feathers. It is very much so a a um uh a Souls born type. For you. Yes, for me. I don't something hit me, and I just really wanted to play like that kind of an action game where you know swing and dodge and whatnot, and I'm like, ah, they just hit me. So I'm like, all right, check it out. There's been a there there's been two that have been on my radar in the past year. The other one is Black Myth Wukong. Ah, you didn't play that. No, I didn't play that. I've I've heard great things about that one. It's it's a take on the very famous uh Chinese uh story of uh Journey to the West, which I played another adaptation of it was um on the Xbox 360, and uh the name is escaping. Uh um Enslaved, Journey to the West, I believe was the name of that. Uh well oh we should I should talk about it. We probably talked about the game before. Andy Circus does the uh uh one of the villains. Or no, no, no, he does the uh the good guy. He does the main, he does the voice of the main the main character, monkey. Anyways, so I was trying to try to choose between the two, and everyone said that Black Myth is way better. But Wu Chang, and I'm I'm gonna give a shout to Skill Up, he sold me on it because it is no blocking. You can't there's some weapons you can block, it's all Dodge. Oh you know me Team Dodge on Team Dodge. That's right. So I'm like, all right, I'll try it out. Oh, and it's on Game Pass. Convenient, convenient, nothing to lose. All right, let's let's give it. So here's here's my breakdown of it.
SPEAKER_01Quick breakdown.
SPEAKER_00Um, apparently there were some graphic problems at launch, which isn't surprising. It's it's a fairly new studio. Yeah. Um, there was some issues I had graphically. I had to kind of toy around with all the settings and whatnot. I I did play this on uh GeForce now. The big thing was do not play it with HDR on. For some reason, the HDR makes everything just super bright and washed out. In fact, it looked terrible. The first 10 minutes I'm playing this, I'm like, this looks like a shitty game. I don't know if I want to play this. And as soon as I turned HDR off, um no, I'm sorry. I did that complete opposite. You have to play with HDR on. With HDR off, that's where, yeah, it just looks HDR on. Oh yeah, you want it on. Okay. Yes.
SPEAKER_03Whew.
SPEAKER_00Sorry, that was very confusing. I'm still confused. Yeah. Um but here's what I learned is I can't just play a PC game. I can't just turn it on and start playing. Like there's usually an hour or two of like tweaking settings and figuring out like, oh, do I want the HDR on or HDR off? And this this issue, the thing was originally it said if you turn HDR on, that's right, you couldn't use frame generation. I don't want to get into all that. That's what I wanted to make it run smoother, which it did, but that's why it looked crappy. So then way later on, I just turned HDR off and turned frame gen off, and it ran the same, but it just looked like a completely different game almost. It's crazy. Um, it does have ultra-wide support, um, but it doesn't have any options. The HUD is gonna be on the very far edges. You know, I've talked about this before. Sometimes the games let you put the HUD more toward the center, yeah. Um, which I'm more and more not liking. I like it on the edge. Sometimes you have to turn your eyes a little bit to look at the HUD, but I kind of like that. You can just focus on like the center of the screen and the action. If you need to look at your life bar or the things, it's just like a real HUD. I think it should be in real like real life, it should be out of your periphery. Yeah, so but it is your typical souls, souls born. Um, the very first boss you fight is unbeatable, technically unbeatable. You probably could if you were like insane. Um and then after that, I'm like, oh okay, yeah, that's right. I had realized that. I'm like, okay, okay, okay. And then like the fourth enemy I went against, I must have died 20 times trying to kill him. It was just some random dude, and I was getting so frustrated. Sounds funny and I'm like, mother. Then I realized, remember the tree sentinel or the tree knight from Elden Ring. Yeah, you're not you're not supposed to beat him yet. He's just there to like, yeah. And I realized the game is very it's not open world, but it's very good at kind of like doing branching where they kind of loop back around once you get the item to open up this door. And he was standing in front of the door that I hadn't not had the key yet to open. After many hours of the game, I got to that key and it naturally looped me back to this place. And that's when I was supposed to beat this guy. And he's one of those enemies, there's a lot of them. It is it's just like uh the Souls games, you know, if you rest and and heal, the enemies come back. But some enemies are a one-time deal. You don't come back. He was one of those. So as soon as I realized that, I'm like, oh, I wasn't supposed to beat him. But I did, I ended up beating him. Nice, like, and it got me like an item that I couldn't use for like 10 hours. Well worth it. Yeah. But it is, it is I enjoyed it a lot. Um, you know, it's funny the music is okay. Like they could have done a lot more with it. You know, do a lot of the the Chinese ancient-ish instrumentation. I don't think they do enough with it. It's just kind of there. And I was very disappointed because it had a lot of potential.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00It was just okay. The graphics are fine. Um, the the controls are very tight, the the the fighting's very tight. Um, the motherfucking axe is kick ass, dude. Kick ass axe. Yes, I I you know, I don't usually go slow weapons, but the axe was nice. It was nice, but got to a boss that was hard, I feel like, for the sake of being hard. So one of the things I learned was the stun move on the on the axe is just you can just stun the shit out of things. Um I even had a skill where I didn't have to do the slow wind up, I could do it real quick. So I do basically do a heavy, a normal heavy attack as opposed to a wind up heavy attack and just insta stun, and that's the only way I had a chance on some of these bosses. But this boss, as soon as you went to wind up, no matter what, it would dash away. Like even if you would have wound up, they would have stayed put. Oh, you know what I mean? Like it was almost like let you controlling you a little bit. Yes. I was so mad. I was so mad. I almost gave up. I all but after like, I don't know, a couple hours, and I never spent that many time with the boss. I beat it. My heart was pounding. Yeah, that's a good feeling. Oh, it was great, and I beat it, and I'm like, yes, it feels so good. Now you're in it. I'm done with the game. That's it. I played a little bit after that, but I'm like, that's that was cool, but I can't keep this up. My heart ain't into it. And then the next boss I actually crushed and then the game crashed, and I wasn't able to load the game back up. It kept crashing. Yeah. So I'd probably find a way. I think it's because of G Force now. I think if I loaded it up right within Steam, it might, or Game Pass, it might work, but I was like, nope, I'm done.
SPEAKER_01That that kind of reminds me, Halls of Torment. So with that style of game, like vampire survivor, yeah, you survive for X amount of time. So you're in this level for 30 minutes and you have to survive. And I remember I was doing this one very intense scenario in like minute 29, and I had like one minute left, the game crashed, and it just completely wiped out all the progress I made. And that was the point I was about to quit. So, yeah, that's that's that's the shit that ruined it. Like when you force me to play a game for 30 minutes and then you fuck it all up.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but you're right. If you're already on the fence, yeah, and that happens, that's why yeah, I'm out, I'm out. And but I enjoyed it, I had a good time with it. But here again, I don't mean to bring the hate. Uh oh, here's the hate. Here's my problem with the souls-born genre. Yeah, because it's definitely a genre. There's so many games that stick to that formula, but they stick to it a little too much. Okay. Like from software, that's their thing, man. Stick to it. But we talked about it before. Again, what was the story, the plot to Elden Ring? The game we both spent hundreds of hours on. No, no idea. Games don't need to be that esoteric to be a souls boarding game. Right. You can come up with a fun, difficult combat mechanic, but make your story easy to follow. Right. Or I don't know, make some of your skills so you understand, not you have to Google them and go on Reddit to understand. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yes. And this game very much did that. And I'm like, why? You didn't, you don't, you don't have to do that. You can skip that shit. Yeah. Make this an easy to figure out, uh very front. You don't have to meet all these brooding characters just like, I once was walking down to the old temple and I heard a siren, and now it is my curse.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And then somebody you have to go on a Reddit and they're like, oh yeah, that's obviously so and so, and then you have to go do this.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you find a random item with a weird description, and I just happen to turn it into the guy, and then I realize later, oh, this other person wanted it too. And I'm like, Well, who the fuck would I know? Which one I'm supposed to give it to? I don't know. Is this gonna ruin me from the getting the good ending because I gave a book to the wrong person?
SPEAKER_01Oh man, those games are insane. And people are obsessed with that shit. Not me. They don't all need to do it, man. Yeah, to be a Soulsborn doesn't need to be that. But it's a good game if you like soul.
SPEAKER_00If you like that shit, Wu Chang Fallen Feathers is actually very good. Okay. Um, oh I did want to show you. Oh, it's on my phone. I'll show you. Yeah, it's here, but I recorded it on my phone on a nice video. Uh-huh. And maybe I'll pop it up uh right here during the YouTube video. But it is very much the game. There's a lot of jiggle physics. And it didn't need to be, but there's there's like you collect a lot of skimpy outfits. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01Now you're selling us. You should never wet with this.
SPEAKER_00And just yeah, some of those Eastern games, man, they just make sure they're really like yeah, you'll yeah, yeah, yeah. You're you're pitching it exactly right.
SPEAKER_01I like it.
SPEAKER_00All right, Wu Chang, fallen feathers. Fallen feathers. Jiggling hard.
SPEAKER_01Did you ever figure out why the feathers fell?
SPEAKER_00No, again, because of the esoteric fucking storyline.
SPEAKER_01So we'll never understand why the feathers fall. Go to Reddit to figure out some more.
SPEAKER_00All right, man, what else? Is that it for you? Well, I got one more short one, but yeah, you can't.
SPEAKER_01Okay, I'll do a quick one and then I'll do my last one. The quick one was I finally caved because it was 50% off. I bought Doom. Oh, the latest one. Yeah. Nice. And uh, I've only played I think the one night I was, I think it was Christmas Eve. I was I well no, I I think I bought it the day after Christmas because I was like, I was waiting to see Christmas gift start out, and I was like, I'm gonna buy this for myself because it was my own Christmas gift. And yeah, and I played it probably like 40 minutes because I'm not like ready to dive right into it, but I wanted to get it because it was on sale, and in the first 40 minutes, it's absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_00You need to be in the mood to play with it.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god. It like it's so satisfying. It's like you said, bullet hell dodging a little more than the previous ones, like they're slower, but it's in such a good way.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it is.
SPEAKER_01I I don't feel um intimidated by it. No, and you just like you just obliterate enemies, it's just good doom. It is. I I'm so excited. So that was my quickie.
SPEAKER_00I just having so you had played the the other two. Yes. Is the storyline a continuation or is it just out of nowhere?
SPEAKER_01Honestly, I was kind of a little bit drunk, so I don't remember too much.
SPEAKER_00I'm pretty sure it's out of nowhere because it doesn't it's medieval, so it's a prequel. So I don't know. Is it medieval? I mean, he's just you know, he's in the same armor, but he has a uh uh an animal cape. That's all you need. That's it. That makes it medieval. Technology's exactly the same, but the coat technology is older. How do you stay warm? That's right, all right, I guess it's you're in an amazing hermetically sealed spacesuit, but it gets cold. You need to be coke.
SPEAKER_01And what's it made of? Animal fur? That's right, or synthetic bullshit. Okay, I can argue it. It's great. All right, but it is. I'm so excited. It it's just everything I love about Doom.
SPEAKER_00I'm glad.
SPEAKER_01I'm glad you uh I I don't need much more to know it's gonna probably be one of my favorite games. But I I I'll give it more uh playing, hopefully, for the next one. I mean, I maybe I'll give my synopsis, but obviously we've talked about it. You've talked about it, I should say.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I need to get back in.
SPEAKER_01And then lastly, because we're on YouTube now, I I decided to I reinvigorated me to finish my Minecraft castle. Oh, and I was thinking, um, I've been working on it quite a bit in the last I say week. And uh I was thinking for one of our maybe a bonus thing. I don't think it could be a BB because I doubt people on the podcast would really want to hear you verbally talk about my castle. But I don't know. Oh, you want to mean like I do a you do like uh walk through the castle, essentially.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it'll be a bonus uh YouTube video.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I could see us like filming it and then you talk and then I'm there.
SPEAKER_00We can kind of just I do want to for the new year, do some additional content.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I was thinking that would be a fun chance because my goal is for maybe next episode, possibly the next one after that, but maybe it'll be ready for you to do like a playthrough, a tour. I like it, and then we'll we'll see what happens. I like it. So yeah, that I'm I'm I'm pretty close to finishing it. Finally, finishing the castle. But I talked about bookend from the first episode, probably.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. Oh, what a close out the season. I like it.
SPEAKER_01So that's it for me.
SPEAKER_00I got one more. Uh last night, or uh yeah, it ended up being night, but uh yesterday afternoon, late early evening, uh I got back from bike ride and I decided I had to get I'm gonna have a good day, a very productive day. That feels good, man. I I I I published our the YouTube video, went for bike ride. I'm like, all right, let's do some gaming. And I wanted something new. Right. And I spent like the next two hours agonizing over what to play. Two hours. So yeah. Yeah, I was gonna get um because it's on sale, um, not Ender Lily, Ender Magnolia. Yeah, but I just played like a soulborn game. I wasn't in the mood for that. There was a couple other games on sale. I'm like, eh. Then I just you know, I said, well, check out Game Pass, see what's if anything new. And there is Banishers is on there. I don't know if you remember this game. Um is well the one where you play as like a banisher, you banish evil spirits. It's from uh Don't Nod Studios. They've made some good stuff, mainly story-focused stuff. And uh, and your your your companion is your like dead lover. Um she's like a ghost. Um everything I heard the game is um but the story and like the the side quests are very neat and very cool. But I've heard like the the the gameplay and the actual combat is just kind of very boring and dry. I'm like, all right, let's try it, let's try it out. Okay, you know, give it give it a fair fair stake. Um I couldn't get it to work on gForce now at all. Um like fine, I'll just play it on Game Pass. But I originally booted up on Game Pass, it was running buggy as shit. Yeah, so I'm like, well, let's try it on GeForce now, maybe it'll help. Maybe it's my laptop, even though it's it's an older game, it's like a year or two old, and my laptop's pretty decent.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's good decent.
SPEAKER_00So I'm like, all right, well, GeForce now is an option. Go back to uh just running it right off uh the Xbox app and it would stutter every eight to ten seconds.
SPEAKER_01Nah, that that's it for me. I'm done.
SPEAKER_00See, I thought I could get through it. A lot of people said everyone seems to agree that it's a shader thing, like they don't compile their shaders ahead of time, um, which I know that's a big thing with games of like the past years, it takes so long to compile shaders. But once that's done, game runs great. Right. So I think maybe this was pre that before they really but not really here's what I think it's a shitty port to Game Pass, the the Game Pass PC. Okay, and I've done that before. There's been a couple games that are uh what was that? Um the the id software game that was like Mad Max. Um remember you uh Rush Rage Rage 2 wouldn't even boot up on Game Pass. Like I wanted to give it a shot, even though it got middling reviews. I'm like, well, I'll try it. It literally wasn't playable.
SPEAKER_04Really?
SPEAKER_00It would not boot. And if you saw the reviews on Game Pass, they were like, doesn't load, doesn't load, doesn't load.
SPEAKER_01That's the game that it's like online and they didn't get a fair shake because I love that game.
SPEAKER_00Rage 2, though?
SPEAKER_01Rage 2. Oh, really?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, see, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I played it probably two or three years later, maybe.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, I wanted to play it, couldn't play it. So this is the same thing. I think it's just a bad port. A lot of people said to turn off turn on the HDD support. Because a lot of games now require a um obviously, a um a drive that isn't a hard disk spinning. Um solid state drive. Solid state drive, thank you. Um because that's just the standard. But some games will have a back compatibility so you can play it if you have an older computer. So some people suggested, well, turn this on, turn off frame gen, um, put on a lower uh uh FPS lock, you know, like 60 or 70 FPS. No, no, not really no still. Nothing, still, and I'm like, well, maybe I'll give it a try. But I'm like, I'm already bored with this combat, and I know I'm in a tutorial stage, but I don't see getting it. It seems like hard hit, you know, hard swing, light swing, magical ability. And I'm like, and from what I read, it that's all there is, they just changed slightly, and then it got stuttering, got worse and worse. And it was consistent, like walk, walk, stutter, walk, walk. Oh, yeah, you know, and I'm like, nope. So that was three hours of my life wasted.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's kind of like Kinglin Cumbe deliverance one where there was just so many flaws. I I and I kept looking up fixes, and people had fixes, but they didn't have to be away. They weren't going to my init file, and I'm like, no, there was things like that, and that and I just at the end of the day, like I mean, I put probably a hundred hours into that game, but I I just it started to wear on me. But I couldn't imagine, you know, like yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's a game that already got middling reviews. I wasn't very excited for it if it ain't playing good.
SPEAKER_01Right, it's not gonna I'm good.
SPEAKER_00So Banishers, um, it actually has a subtitle that I don't remember. Okay. Um Ghost Ghost of New Eden, actually. Yeah, Banishers, Ghost of Eden, New Eden. Wow, um, it might be a good game. We don't know. I will never know.
SPEAKER_01I just wanted to mention real quick, I did actually play one of the games that was on Game Awards for another like 20 minutes with my daughter. I just jokingly I downloaded it because I was kind of curious. Ball X Pit or Ball versus Pit. Did you hear about this game? No, so it's a rogue game, and basically it's an onslaught of enemies, it's kind of pinball rogue game. Sounds fun. Yeah, so it's not like pinball, I would say is kind of a loose term, but basically, you are a guy and you shoot your weapon, but it has like a ping-pong bouncy effect, kind of snootish. It bounces, but enemies just keep coming. It's waves and waves and waves of enemies, but you can kind of play the bouncing effect off the walls, off the enemies.
SPEAKER_04Interesting.
SPEAKER_01And it but it's a very like ongoing game. It's not like you play and then they take a turn. It's just like you just keep coming, and it's really difficult first. Then there's leveling up, and it's a rogue game, so you get level ups within the game, roguelite, and then outside the game you get permanent upgrades to your game. Oh, okay, okay. And then there's also kind of a town building mechanic. Oh, yeah. So you can build your town up and get better uh heroes, as they call 'em. And also reminds me a little of
SPEAKER_00Um man. What was that? Um that dun Darkest Dungeon.
SPEAKER_01Similar. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So if you merge that with a pinball game, I guess. I don't know. It was actually kind of cool. Is it multiplayer or? I don't know. I don't think so.
SPEAKER_00Um what was it again? What was it called again?
SPEAKER_01Ball X Pit, but like the X is stylized. So I think it's like ball versus Pit.
SPEAKER_00You know what? That's that's very interesting you say that because there is a lot of usually Japanese games and anime that do the something X something. And I've always been curious how to say it. Yeah. Because it seems like it should be a verse.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like, you know, or that's what I or is it like ball cross? You know. Like I are are we missing a whole use of the word of the letter X help us out, help us out. You um if we get a Japanese listener, maybe. Yeah, that'd be yeah, we haven't yet.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, maybe. I don't know. Maybe they'll clue us into the intricacies of the X. Yeah, the X. But it actually was pretty cool, and it was up for some awards, I think. Or one award, maybe. But I uh that was a quick one. I forgot all about that. I just wanted to mention it I I recommend it. It's on Game Pass as well. Oh, really? Well, that's right as hell. Yeah, just write it X P exactly. Underline it twice. Yes. So if you have Game Pass, obviously it's a no-brainer. It's a it's not and it's retrographic, so it'll take like 10 seconds as I'm gonna. Oh, yeah, there you go. So it's an easy, quick play if you and if you don't like it, move on. But not much investment.
SPEAKER_00Co, co-co. All right, that's it for me. All right, thank you guys for this uh not real quick uh rundown of what we've been playing over the last month.
Boss Batle: The Game Awards
SPEAKER_00Okay, this is uh a mini boss battle, or uh technically this is the final boss battle. Yeah, but uh let's talk Game Awards 2025. Yeah, Jeff Keeley's uh big big day, and uh we always have fun with this. We try to make it an event. I think me and you have watched it together or semi together probably for about the past five years or so. Yeah, ever since um the first reveal of Elder Scrolls 6, which you know has been progressing so fast since I think it was the first one, I think it was the first one we watched together.
SPEAKER_01I think that was the first one.
SPEAKER_00It was really cool. It was. We were like I know, and that that was also revealed Starfield, which has come out and we both we both loved. Yes, I think the world hated. But let's not then let's talk about now. Right, let's get so not only do we watch, but we made it we usually make an event out of it. Uh yeah, we all we bet on who's gonna win every category. Yeah, we make a little even the categories like you know, best esports athlete, which we have no clue on. Because yeah, we don't watch esports.
SPEAKER_01But I want to clarify, I I think maybe we left off it was hazy, but I think I said we tied, but I think you won.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I was gonna ask. I don't remember what happened. Yeah, I think you won. Okay.
SPEAKER_01I counted wrong. I don't know. I still don't even know. But I I'm going with officially you won. Okay, go me. Yeah. Woo! Good job, man. I mean, it was I think you won because you picked more. This was a year. The more you picked Claire Obscure Expedition 33, you win.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but I didn't want to. Me and you both. I tried to avoid that. Oh, let's let's hope somebody else. But um, yeah, they they cleaned house kind of deservedly so. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Wow, you would know better than me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Uh but let's not, yeah, we're not talking about let's not talk about the uh the winners or the losers. We're talking about the we're talking about the real reason on people joining on the game boards is all the world premiered trailers and how awesome and right uh mediocre some of them are. So we have notes, you have some basic tiny notes which are completely incomprehensible. My notes are semi-comprehensible. As as true gamers, we will went back and re-watched all those trailers and took in some more notes. But we are not that, we are almost gamers.
SPEAKER_01So we are going to try our best.
SPEAKER_00Try our best for my crazy notes in our very hazy memories. Yeah. Talk about the trailers that we really enjoyed.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00Let's go. Let's go through. Okay, the first one more hour. The first one thing we both thought was this is pretty cool, is Bradley the Badger. Yes. This was kind of like a genre homage, like um it had the one scene looked like a banjo Kazooie level, another one looked a Soulsborn level. So it seems to be like they're kind of that are kind of making fun of slash sending up different genres. Yeah. So it could be interesting. It could be terrible. Um yeah, there was like a whole I think it devolved into like a live action section, too. I feel like you're right, yeah. Yeah, it was weird. So, all right, I'd you know. It's on the radar. It's on the radar, definitely on the radar. Um, one of the first big ones is Fate of the Old Republic. Yeah, which is I don't know. Again, we should have looked at it. I don't know if it was a spiritual successor or prequel or sequel to Knights of the Old Republic, but it's Knights of the Old Republic.
SPEAKER_01Yes, very much.
SPEAKER_00Um, and I we I don't know who's which uh development studio is doing it, but Casey Hudson ex-bioware, well, if you remember Bioware was who did Knights of the Old Republic, I don't know if I don't think they are doing this because Casey Hudson rejoined and quit Bioware several times, mostly when he m went in and saw, wow, this is a shit show. I'm leaving. I love you, Bioware. Please be good again. No. Um, but anyways, he regards of what studio, I know that Casey Hudson is lead on that, which is very exciting. So I never played Old Republic. I thought you did. No. Oh, okay. Neat. So hey. I'm excited. Me too. Very, very much.
SPEAKER_01So I anytime you get in the old Jedi lore, I'm in the Sith lore.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I think that's like my favorite time period that they don't ever do in Disney for whatever. Well, then they started to dance on it with what was that late, like we'll talk about Star Wars.
SPEAKER_00Right. Sorry. No, no, we're good. We're good. We're excited to jump into that world. Yeah. All right. Uh, another one is Auntos, I believe. O-N-T-O-S. Um, it is by Frictional Games, who's known for amnesia, uh, dark descent. Okay. Kind of those very atmospheric, very kind of walking simulated games, but also very terrifying in a lot of ways. But a big thing of this is uh Stellan Skarsgard is uh Oh, that's right. Yeah, I don't know if he was yeah, the voice actor, probably the character model too. And I am a huge fan, speaking of Star Wars. Like I love Andor. Oh my god, he's he's he's actually one of my favorite actors of the past couple years. Yeah, he's between that and um Chernobyl. Chernobyl. He's so he's so good at just I don't know, man. I know, so I'm very excited about the Swedes. Yeah, the Svids, and apparently he has very hot children. Yeah, all his sons are good actors. Does he have any daughters? Do we know? I don't know. I think we would know about it, right? Yeah, you would think. Yeah, it's all dudes, tall dudes. He's tall himself.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's funny.
SPEAKER_01He's just his look, but sometimes he stands. Did you watch um Murderbot? Yes!
SPEAKER_00That's speaking of his son, I really enjoyed Murderbot. Yeah, it was very not what I I knew it was irreverent, but watching it was wow, out there. But great, yeah, very good. Interesting.
SPEAKER_01It's still going, so I think it's gonna keep going.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think so too. All right, moving on. Yeah, we are all Scarsgard fans. Um, very exciting to know he's still alive and working on video games again. That was my biggest Jonathan Blow is back. That was my number one, I think. From Braid and uh The Witness. I think those are his only two games. Like he kind of disappears, and now he's come out with Order of the Sinking Star. I actually don't remember anything about the trailer. I'm I might as well just pre-order it now. I'm gonna play it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna buy it, play it, probably fail play.
SPEAKER_00I am curious if it's just him, if he has a team now, or what's going on. Yeah. Considering we haven't heard anything from him in about a decade, probably just him again.
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, he and this could be the news, but I don't have it in my news. I forgot to to bookmark it, but he's doing his own um Quentin Tarantino moment where I guess he's coming out hot with some takes, and he basically said Elden Ring was an amazing game, but there was like no design to it. It's essentially just one enemy after another. So he's just he's saying there's like no real design to it. Okay, and uh I was like, all right, Joey, well, you're trying to get some press, I guess. I don't know, man. Nah, he's just but I think he's in his own. He's okay, he's out there, but he's good.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, he's great. I mean, yeah, I'm gonna play the damn game. His games are on another level that I will never be at.
SPEAKER_01Again, he's Quentin Tarantino type. I mean, he's got that.
SPEAKER_00Unfortunately, it means they're not for everyone and they'll never be a huge commercial success. Yeah. But he seems to be happy. I mean, he's still, like I'm assuming, making a living off of it. Yeah. Alright. Yeah, so that was a good one.
SPEAKER_01That was my f my big one, I think.
SPEAKER_00Uh another one uh we've seen trails before for it before. Um it was funny because we we were all watching it, me, you, and Haley, and we're like, oh, this has like mass effect violence. Yeah, I remember that game. And at one point there was like a mechanized bear popped out. So the game is Exodus. Um, I've been kind of following it for quite a while. They and I realized, oh, that's right. I don't know if you ever watch Secret Level on Amazon Prime. It was their um comp anthology show about a bunch of video games. Okay. Um like there was some where they're known, known um and very well liked uh titles. Unfortunately, one of the episodes was about Concordia Concord title. Yeah, I feel bad for that studio. Anyways, one of them was a game that hasn't come out yet. It was about Exodus.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_00And the thing that stuck out to me about that episode and this and this game, um I don't know if you know this, but um, alright, alright, alright. Um Matthew McConaughey. Matthew McConaughey is a big part of the game. Um, not only like just as voicing one of the main characters, he's like really into it and like helped like with development and stuff like that. One of the reasons they approached him, one of the reasons he liked it, is because it die it deals with time dilation, uh very much so like the movie Interstellar that he was in. So it's interesting because for those of you don't know, uh we definitely can't get into this, but when you travel at the speed of light, time moves slower for you, sorry, faster for you than people not traveling at the speed of light. Right. So essentially, like you're all right, so you're at your home base, you pick a quest, you pick a squad, you go off to a distant galaxy to um do a thing. When you come back, you may have aged a couple months, they may have majed a decade or more. Right. So they That's an interesting so it's so it's interesting because if you pick a different squad, then that's gonna be different. So it kind of adds that aspect and it hurts my mind a little bit. I love it. But they said the rain, the rain reason they did it and why Matthew Conway enjoyed it because it allows you to play out tens to hundreds of years of story without actually taking that long a time. Because you as a character, it's only gonna be the entire game, maybe only be ten years to you. Yeah, but everyone else it could be generations, so it's like all right, all right, bring it. I'm excited for it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. It might suck, but we don't know. That's what you gotta take chances, right?
SPEAKER_00Um, I have written down here Warlock DD Trisher, Trisha Helfer. So I'm thinking that Trisha Helfer does a character for a DD game called Warlock. Sure. I'm in. If we're completely wrong, but that's what I wrote. No, it must be true.
SPEAKER_01It's gotta be true. Matt doesn't take bad notes. Just ask this DD crew.
SPEAKER_00Uh but yeah, the next big one I was blown away, was not expecting was from Remedy, uh, basically control two. Um called Resonance. Yeah, you forgot about it. There's so many like quick uh's, but oh, oh so when Alan Wake 2 to Control 2, you know, there's gonna be some more tie-ins. I'm so excited to see how those worlds collide.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, and it looks to go more in on the um, it looks different. Remember, I remember looking different from control. Like I think they're going to kind of an even more different yeah. So good for them, man. Remedy, remedy, take some swings. And I know they don't, it's funny because I see them like Alan Wake 2 broke even in like two years. Like, and they were super thrilled about it. Yeah, that's the you know, it it critics love it, fans love it. It's just it's not a GTA, man. And it sucks, but they're still going for it. So I'm glad I'm glad they're they're still going for it.
SPEAKER_01I just wish they'd bring back Max Payne, right? They didn't Max Payne.
SPEAKER_00They are. They're uh well, they're redoing. Are they? Yeah, they're doing remakes.
SPEAKER_01I thought I heard something.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they bought back the rights to Max Payne.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So first they're redoing the old ones. I bet they'll come out with another one. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's good news for me.
SPEAKER_00Um, I there was something called Cosmic Invasion for Marvel. I remember both of us were like, that might be a good warm-up game. You know, sometimes we like a silly drinking game before we start every game. Just to have fun. Have fun, couch co-op. Yeah, we love a little. I had that. Uh there's a new, they're both rebooting Tomb Raider and making a new Tomb Raider. They're rebooting it again. Whatever.
SPEAKER_01I never played any of them.
SPEAKER_00So I uh there's a Diablo 4 uh DLC, which is bringing back the the paladin, which we were kind of excited. Maybe we'll jump back in, but we probably won't.
SPEAKER_01No. I do love Diablo games. Yeah, I just love that mechanic. But yeah, Borderlands does it well too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's true. Yeah, we don't get time for that shit. Um Lords of the Fallen 2, which is technically Lords of the Fallen 3. Yeah, ignore that. Yeah. Uh Seros, which is the new house marquee, house mark. Yeah, follow-up two. Which I looking at it, it looks like it's going to be very much. What was our last game? Um, I was trying to think. Uh Redemp Redemp Whatever. The game that I was terrible at. You were? And this game looks like it's gonna be just as hard. I probably won't play it. Yeah. Uh oh, one thing I did want to, we weren't we weren't really talking about you know the winners and losers, but I don't know if you remember when they announced the winning music, you know, musical score, music of the year. Yeah. You know, they have all the nominees up there on stage or up on the screen. And uh as soon as they said obviously uh Expedition 33 was the winner, it it showed you you could see Darren Korb because he was up for Hades 2. Yeah, and he just kind of shook his head like, yeah, yeah, I knew it. But it wasn't a sad way, he's like, yeah, he's like he it seemed like he enjoyed it, he knew he was gonna lose to it. But we love you, Darren. You did amazing, you always do amazing work.
SPEAKER_01So appreciate you, but I do enjoy the soundtrack.
SPEAKER_00Um Ace Combat 8. Have you ever played any ace combat games? Nope. I think here and there, they're weird. Don't care. I don't know what that means, so we're gonna ignore that.
SPEAKER_01Or that or that was that outer world?
SPEAKER_00Outworlds stop motion co-op.
SPEAKER_01I vaguely remember that, but I don't know what that means.
SPEAKER_00Uh too many babies? There are too many babies. Was that the name of the game? I think that's just a general observe. Something about a Mega Man, I guess it's a new Mega Man game. Oh, yeah, I didn't remember the Mega Man. And then yeah, that's basically it.
SPEAKER_01I Yeah, that's you've covered everything for me.
SPEAKER_00So, yeah, there's some interesting stuff on the horizon that we're very excited about.
SPEAKER_01Some I'm conscious about it, but uh, I was starting to do that. Oh, that was on the horizon by Endangered Minds.
SPEAKER_00Uh I was gonna say out now, but no, no, that never got released. Do we actually it may have got lost? We might not actually have a recording of that somewhere. Uh it's fine. Yeah, that was Game Awards 2025. Obviously, Expedition 33 cleaned up, but I feel deservedly so. I just feel bad for every other game. Yeah, that's what it is. It's like you can have the best game in the world, but timing is everything.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that was what happened this year. A lot of games would probably have won, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00I mean, yeah, I remember when everyone was like, oh, Blueprints is gonna clean up. Yeah, there was times, yeah.
SPEAKER_01All along this year. Yeah, there's games. It was just like, this is it.
SPEAKER_00This is it, this is it. And then that game and then that game came out. Yeah. All right.
SPEAKER_03So I guess that's Ball Spott.
News
SPEAKER_00Now it's time for the news. News time. Although I guess, you know, a lot of that uh game awards was kind of news. Now it was news. But this is outside of uh actually, one of my news is uh a different game award, but it's fine. Okay. I don't know, I'll jump right into that one then since we came right out of uh Claire Obscure Expedition 33 cleaning up everything. Yeah. Um, so the Golden Joystick Awards, which is another kind of prestigious um they won. Came into the year. But um, and it was the is actually the first award they had won. And the director, the game director came out and he basically said at the end of his speech, play dispatch. Um to a game that has gotten not quite as much love, but apparently people are loving on it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's definitely high on my maybe list.
SPEAKER_00It's super high. Yeah, I'm I'm very excited. I didn't realize how many like known actors are in that. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Aaron Paul was like the main guy. I'm like, oh, okay. Yeah. I'm very excited to play that. Yeah. Yeah, I think that could be a fun, yeah, very fun game. For sure. All right, what else? What do you what do you got?
SPEAKER_01Uh there's a ton of little headlines. I guess we're always in this AI world. So I have quite a few AI heads. Oh, yeah. So I guess um this is just a real quick iter, but uh convincing AI generated GTI, GTA 6 gameplay leaks are getting millions of views on social media. So I guess we're at a point where they're creating AI versions of trailers or gameplay loops of uh that. So take that however you want. I don't know, it's funny. Not surprising, yeah. And then the rock star ex-rockstar boss Dan Hauser issues stamina on AI. And um I forget exactly what he says. Okay, he basically said people who use AI aren't very creative. Oh, yeah, I think I actually don't remember that. And that's essentially all we said. So there's that AI. Let's see, there I think I have one more. Oh, yeah, Baldur's Gate come under heat. Uh three. Oh, I did hear that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And so there's this whole thing about them with AI and they technically used AI, but or he's going to use AI. It I think they were using like the pre-alpha. Yeah, like I said, like, yeah, it's just to get through the mundane tasks.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, right, right.
SPEAKER_01But everybody is in mundane, it's the way.
SPEAKER_00Sorry, folks, it's it's it's that's how it's gonna be now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like the mundane, boring tasks, he's saying like everything else is created through human creation, but some of the more mundane, boring medial tasks that gets the game out there faster and better. Yeah, I'm all I'm all for it. And now I guess they're gonna have a QA. I don't know, that probably happened as of the airing of this for sure, but probably now too. Uh I guess they're gonna have a QA with their fans because I guess they're all worried. Like, are they an AI user and you're abusing AI?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So that's I mean it it's it's Here's the thing. If there's a company that's saying they're not using AI, they're lying.
SPEAKER_01Well, my last AI, I think, article is because I think oh yeah, Claire Obscure and Indie Awards lost their indie award because technically they used AI. And if you're gonna be true indie, you can't use AI, apparently.
SPEAKER_00Oh, is that what it was? I saw that I kept ignoring that article, but I thought again, it was I think it was pre-development. Like they used to make basic assets that then they then replaced later.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_00It was like con during the concept stages. They use a bunch of AI.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I didn't read into this. Yeah. Obviously, I'm in I'm I'm a big well, I don't have my thesaurus anymore, but I'm an idiot. Yeah. So I haven't been following a lot of this, but it gave because of that, it went to the next runner up, which was Blueprints. That's right, I did see that. And Blueprints has officially come out and said we use no AI at all in any of our development. So there you go. There's a game maker. If you don't want to support AI at all, play blueprints.
SPEAKER_00Play blueprints. Get a notepad though.
SPEAKER_01And you won't solve shit. You might get to need AI to beat Blueprints. Yeah, oh God. I mean, I play some brain twee or you know, I play play some crazy.
SPEAKER_00It seems like a lifetime ago, that game. It really does. But that was like what, March, April? So that's my AI corner. Oh, Andy's Andy's AI corner. I like it. I like it.
SPEAKER_01So go ahead, man, if you have anything else before I continue. Uh I do um I guess. Wait, I'm sorry. I'm gonna cut you off. There's one more AI. I'm glad I read my notes. Fallout had some recaps of season one and it was done AI. And they got things wrong. Oh no. So if you're watching any.
SPEAKER_00Oh, was that the that was the um okay. So that isn't and that's technically Fallout. Um Amazon has started.
SPEAKER_01That was an Amazon thing for me. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00I like. Yeah. Because some shows don't have a recap. Yeah. So I need a recap. Me too. But that is funny that yeah, obviously it's got a lot of people.
SPEAKER_01They used AI to do the recap and they got things wrong.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And if you're gonna well, I I can't plug them, but me and uh my wife, we're we're terrible at remembering anything. I I mean, if you listen to this podcast, you know I'm terrible remembering things, but uh there is a recap specialist on YouTube. I think he's called King Recap. I don't know, he has some certain name, but he is the best recap girl. Oh, I need that. I need that. And he does almost every show. Every time we look up a show, he's he's on it and he's quick, but he nails everything you need to know.
SPEAKER_00That sometimes because a lot of times, like I mean, look a lot of shows now. There's like three years, like Stranger Things. Yeah, I usually I mean I had to rewatch season four because I that was so long ago. Well, that's what I was no idea what happened. Did you watch Pluribus? No, I've heard good things out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a show, and I saw uh and I shouldn't mention Paul Tassey because I want to get our numbers up so that we become the number one podcast that mentions Paul Tasse. So Paul Tassey did an article and said Plurbus is going to have this 18 episodes, whereas Breaking Bad, because it's the same maker of Breaking Bad, has he in the same amount of time, Breaking Bad had 60 episodes, whereas Plurbus is gonna have 18 episodes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I heard the next season of Plurbus is like two or three years away. So I'm gonna wait.
SPEAKER_01I enjoyed it, I liked it, but I'm I'm gonna be honest. If it's gonna take three, four years between seasons, I'm done.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm done.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna wait until it's all out.
SPEAKER_00I heard ending on a cliffhanger, too. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm not. Um I'm gonna wait till season two comes out to watch.
SPEAKER_01I'm not I'm done with this. I'm just gonna wait until they're all out and done. I can't do that. No, no, I don't stay interested enough, and I don't remember shit.
SPEAKER_00Right. It's tough, but I'm glad you know there's a guy. So anyway, what were we talking about? Um recount king, redo king, recap king, the YouTuber. Yeah, the re two.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'll I'll look it up post the show, and maybe I'll on a respawn, maybe I'll mention the actual guy, but he's worth it, and he's really good. And he has like million views, so he's he's good.
SPEAKER_00We need a uh previously on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the classic. So, did you have anything else? Um, I had um Oh yeah, I cut you off. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00That's what I'm I I wanna I I hate to bring it down, but I feel like we gotta talk about the tragic death of uh Vince Zampala. I don't know if you caught that at all. Oh, no, okay. Um uh very famously, like he was the guy that created Call of Duty. Um we've talked about those channels before because he almost famously got screwed over by Call of Duty and got out of all his bonus money for bullshit reasons. Yeah, that's probably right. And he went on to start his own studio uh respawn. So they made uh Titanfall and uh the newest Jedi games. Oh yeah, so he was the lead on all those games. Very sorry. Very major figure. Uh he died in a car crash. Oof. Like not, it was kind of gruesome, but I won't get into all that. But yeah, he uh just died uh this past week. So very sad. A lot, a lot of love came up from uh the video game community, and it's just it was an icon, man. Yeah, it was an icon. So Vince, uh, we love you, man. Appreciate all you did for this industry. And uh hope you're up there in Valhalla, buddy.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah. That sucks, man. You just can't take anything for granted.
SPEAKER_00That's true, yeah, no matter no matter what.
SPEAKER_01All right, let's um let's bring us back up, Andy. Sound a little happier. All right, I I think I got something that's gonna bring our spirits up. Let's talk about Oh yeah, Fallout season two. I well now as of this is airing. But I guess they're not giving any this is gonna bring anything out, but they're not gonna weigh in. I guess everybody wants to know what the um canon ending to New Vegas is. Did you hear about this? No. So they basically are saying they're going to avoid it altogether by saying it's fog of war. So I'm guessing fog of war is essentially just kind of like stuff happens, you just don't know.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01So there's not gonna be everybody wants to know, are they? I guess. Did you play New Vegas? Did you finish New Vegas?
SPEAKER_00No, I famous infamously only got about 20 hours into New Vegas. Yeah. Um loved it. I've actually very much thought about going back in, especially with the new New Vegas mod I hear is great and uh automatically installable.
SPEAKER_03Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_00Yes, if you at least if you sign up for Nexus Premium, which you can get a three-day pretrial, just sign up for it and just but yeah, it's instead of install like doing a bunch of shit, you just install a thing, you download a thing, hit install, and installs like 900 some mods. Holy shit.
SPEAKER_02I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Steve, Steve Hutch is sin, who we talked about here a lot of times. Um he says he just replayed that game like last year or two years ago.
SPEAKER_01I replayed it like last year.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I've heard it stands up with great.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean I I think Fallout 3 stands up better. Interesting. I enjoy it.
SPEAKER_00That's a hot take, man.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I still think Fallout 3 is better. I I don't know where all the love for it is, but I I enjoyed it. I just you know, do you like brown or green?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, really, that's what it comes down to. It's very brown. Yep. And Fallout 3 is very green.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I um I don't know, Fallout 3 just to me is Okay, interesting. I but yeah, there's there's quite a few endings because you you could there's house, there's Mr. House, and you could help him, or you could go against him, or you could kinda go against it's there's a bunch of variations, and I forget I kind of forget what I did, but anyway. So I I guess they just avoided it altogether. Smart, yeah. I don't care. I don't know why people care so much, to be honest.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, that's a like what is even that's a general thought in general.
SPEAKER_01Like, what do people care? It's like canon, who gives a shit? Alright. Anyway. So there was that. Let's see. This is kind of I don't know. I say this maybe you care. Some people probably care. But Sony said to publish a four-player co-op shooter developed by JJ Abrams Bad Robot Games Studio.
SPEAKER_00I think I maybe heard of anything of that. So there's a little end flare.
SPEAKER_01And kind of this is kind of maybe on the not good news. I guess Recreation Studio, which is Three Fields Entertainment, you remember that.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, they're the they're the the team behind the burnout games.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I guess the the founder put former burnout devs puts employees on redundancy redundancy notice. I think they're they're making an it sounds like I I from what I remember this article, because again, a lot of these articles I read months ago or a month ago, and it sounded like they're not doing really well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so redundancy is the UK term for unemployment. Uh laid off. Thank you. Yes. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Now the article makes a little more sense.
SPEAKER_00I wondered if you were like, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But it basically sounds like they're making another wrecking game. Oh. But it's not obviously burnout.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I don't know. We we've kind of enjoyed all their games. Remember the golf game? The golf game.
SPEAKER_01What was the other one we played?
SPEAKER_00Um, it was it was basically the uh shit. Yeah, it was it was it was the rec mode of burnout, but way more complicated. Yeah. But me and you were like nationally ranked for a long time. Remember that? Like we obsessed for some reason I was trying to get those platinums. And I'm like, yeah. Yeah. Danger zone. Danger zone. It was dangerous on one and two. It was one one we hit some national actings somehow.
SPEAKER_01So basically, I think the game is not doing great, and it's getting it's getting in, I guess, development help.
SPEAKER_00Dangerous golf was the golf. Yeah, dangerous golf, danger zone. And then they did make a a more racing burnout one, right? Called Dangerous Driving or something. Yeah, something like that. And that one, I know. Yeah, Dangerous Driving. Yeah, we never even tried that one.
SPEAKER_01I heard that one was so this new game is gonna be like another racing game, maybe open even open world. Kind of one of those racing games where it's not like open world in the sense, but you can drive around the world. But I guess he's saying you guys are gonna lose your job because we're we're kind of out of money.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So I don't know. That sucks. I mean we kind of want it just a burnout. I know for the love of God, can we just have another burnout? I don't know. But I've I honestly completely forgot about that company. Yeah, because they were never great.
SPEAKER_01Eamon loved them. Oh, yeah, Eamon played the shit out of that dangerous thing or whatever the shit it was called. Danger zone. Danger zone. Todd Howard, this is kind of interesting news. Todd Howard, based on kind of the success of Fallout, has not completely, as previously stated, ruled out a uh Elder Scrolls adaptation.
SPEAKER_00That is I found it very interesting because I remember 20 years ago him saying that Elder Scrolls will never go to other people.
SPEAKER_01He softened based on Fallout, I think.
SPEAKER_00But he's right, I think 20 years ago, at the way video game adaptations were no, you should not. It's a whole new era.
SPEAKER_01It's a whole new era. Yeah, so I I'd be very much interested to say that.
SPEAKER_00I mean, that could be I mean there's so many stories to tell. Yeah, really. And I would that would definitely he would in the same like a Fallout, he would tell a story not of a game, just of a whatever, and it'd be amazing.
SPEAKER_01It's like Lord of the Rings, but not Yeah, you don't have to tie it to anything. Yeah, whatever you want. Books, there's numerous books. You could just take whatever story you want. I I would I would love to see that if they did it right, obviously. But you know, whatever. Even if they did it wrong, at least we're trying. Yeah, I'm cool with that. Uh this is kind of interesting news. I don't really know anything about this, but I do like the Tekken games. I guess the chief Katsushiro Harada Harada. He's leaving he's exiting after 30 years. Do you know who he is?
SPEAKER_00No, I realize it's the same guy who'd been working at Tekken that's gonna be a good thing. The King of Iron Fist, it says. Wow, that's crazy, actually.
SPEAKER_01So he's done.
SPEAKER_0030 years. That's a long time.
SPEAKER_01I don't know. I probably butchered his name, and I don't know who he is, so but I thought some gamers might care. Yeah. And maybe you. I never played Tekken that much, but uh wow. And then my last news, I might as well finish up. Uh French president Emmanuel Macron Macron is back on Instagram celebrating Claire Obscure Expedition 33. They're all celebrating, and I guess they did some special stuff.
SPEAKER_00Name another French game. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01So I guess he did a nice big celebration. Country's celebrating. They're all happy.
SPEAKER_00I mean, can you imagine like America celebrating a game? No. Yeah. Not at all. GTA probably. But no, I mean GTA, they condemned, remember? The whole Senate. Oh my god. That whole thing. So that's my so I got I got one. Uh, just I just saw this one today. This is uh via game ranks, they always do weird gaming stories, and this is one of them. Um Total War, which you know, I mean, we both have an infamous history with because we bought Total War Rome. Yes. Um, full price. Yeah, failed. And failed. We both played the tutorial like four times, and nope, not for me. It may give you some solace here. So the entire battle system was coded by a person that had never coded anything ever before.
SPEAKER_04There you go.
SPEAKER_00Apparently, they went in and then saw a guy like, hey, can you code? And he's like, Nope. And I'm like, Cool, you're in charge of this game. That sounds like a sit call. In a way, it leaves it open to like he's got a fresh take on everything. You know, he's not yeah, but it also makes why it was so janky and complex and hard to fucking figure out. At least that in my mind is the excuse I'm using for why we just sucked at that game. There it is. Solves. But their entire series has stayed. Apparently, whatever base code he wrote through the years they keep going, it's still from this guy. So good for him. Yeah, he might be a lasting legacy, but uh he owes me 60 bucks.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, please. I'll take it and PayPal Venmo.
SPEAKER_00It's like because this is this was right before Steam used to give refunds. Remember now, if you play under two hours, I probably, yeah. I probably played over two hours. It was only because oh, I bought it. Yeah, I tried to try it again. Let's try it again.
SPEAKER_01I definitely tried it twice.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I at least went through the tutorial twice, but yeah, that that was it. RTSs, man, they are tough. Don't get involved unless you are a nerd. Involved. Yeah, you like minutia.
SPEAKER_02That was the new
Future Quests
SPEAKER_02quests.
SPEAKER_00Right, welcome back to the season finale of Almost Gamers. Might be a little bit till we're back again with all y'all fine folk. So, yeah, there might be a lot. I mean, I this is like a uh a new year wish list, I think. Okay, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I am hoping to actually, yeah. My main thing is uh I want to beat Hades, at least but I think I am really in the mood. As I mentioned before, I kind of wanted to go back to Fallout New Vegas, eh. But I'm like, well, I'm the move to that type of game. Why not play Outer Wild Outer Worlds 2?
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's right. That's on your list, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and it is on Game Pass, and I've I've I've heard right a lot about it, and I'm like, you know what? Go for it. I think it's you know, I'm I might unfortunately uh have a lot of free time in the next coming weeks. So I think I'm gonna I think I'm gonna do old school, like do day it, you know, like wait like play it all day long, you know, like get in in in here. Get in in it in it. I like it. So that yeah, that that and maybe maybe try to get back to uh Doom again. I just gotta be in the mood for it. It's been a while now. I can remember all the many, many buttons. Yeah, I think it's many buttons.
SPEAKER_01I think I just made it.
SPEAKER_00I don't think I have either. Um part way through the two. I got three a bit. So yeah, that's my thing. Um, I think I'm kind of done with all the other games I'm like in the middle of, except for Assassin's Creed Shadows. I will keep chugging away at that. Um, yeah, I'm at the point where I I I kind of wish that game was a little smaller. It's not quite as blowed as the other ones, but it's just oh yeah, I'll keep having at it. Um so yeah, that's that's probably it for me. Unless something else pops up that I forgot about. But yeah, that's my new year plan.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think there's only one game in that made the news that I was interested in. I watched a video on, and it's actually on Game Pass, so I might well my wife keeps saying she's gonna get rid of Game Pass, so she still hasn't. Yeah, she still has it, so I don't know. But it's called Routine. It's an ultra-realistic horror gameplay in space, is what it's described as.
SPEAKER_00Hold on, hold on. I forgot I wanted to actually talk about routine. Um, and I wish I still had um the game informer. There it is. I had the 2013 game informer copy, which first introduced routine.
SPEAKER_01Really? That long ago.
SPEAKER_00I it's funny, I just threw it out about a year ago because I was finally like, all right, it will never happen. And then like a couple months later, I saw a trailer. I'm like, oh my god, it's actually happening. There you go. 12 years I've been waiting for this game. Wow. And it's it's changed a lot, and I get why they changed like the scope and whatever, but it's just I I can't believe this game came out. Really? And it's definitely my writer. I I have to play it again. I've been waiting so long. It's on game pass. Is it? I didn't I didn't know that. I didn't know that either, but I was looking at her game pass. Yeah, it looks neat. It's so the entire thing, it looks what are they called? Oh, yeah, their title says it all killer robots, floppy discs, and atmospheric sci-fi. Yeah, and that's from 2013. And I've looked at the trailer, that's exactly what it looks like. It's a retro futuristic.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and these robots are creepy, but they're like robotish enough. They're not human, they're just very robot y, but they're like almost sentient. So like they it's weird. They they track you and they run at you. It's very like jump scares.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's it's a survival horror-ish, but uh yeah, it looks neat. The aesthetic looks neat. It looks like the the entire game has a feel to it. Yeah. So I'm excited.
SPEAKER_01And honestly, I I saw some early reviews and getting very decent to good reviews.
SPEAKER_00So I just can't believe that game came out.
SPEAKER_01So there you go. It it came to fruition and it's pretty successful, it seems good for them. Good for them for them. I'm not a huge horror type game, but that caught my eye because it's space. It's kind of neat space station. Kind of that kind of neat aspect. So that's on my radar. I don't I don't know if I'll get to it, but Matt apparently might so you might hear about it.
SPEAKER_00I've been looking forward to it forever.
SPEAKER_01But for me, mostly for mostly for me, it's Doom is gonna probably be a big one for me, because once I get into Doom, I'm in. And then finish my castle. So Matt can do a walkthrough. I'll slip into your castle. Yeah, Matt can slip into my castle. Look at all your nooks and crannies. As dirty as it's uh yeah, I don't think there's any other real big games for me early on. Still waiting for Oh, El um not Elder Scrolls, but um big news from Bethesda. Sounds like they're doing a huge update to oh, I can't remember it. Starfield. So Starfield's getting a major update sometime this year, early this year, I think. So I'm excited to see where that goes. Because I want to finish the game and I love the game. So I'm excited to see. They say space travel might be a little more rewarding, some other things.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, we'll see. I don't think it's gonna be that much.
SPEAKER_01Some people said damper your expectations, but uh any update at this point, it's been a they went a whole year without an basically a real big update. Like I don't know if they did any updates, but it I it's been pretty quiet all year long.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01So I'm I'm excited to see where that goes. So if that if they come out with something substantial, I think that'll be enough for me to jump back in and at least finish it. I'm waiting because I I love to see.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'd like to jump back in. I don't remember anything about my character and all that. When I'll see the DLC. Jump in together.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so that's my future.
SPEAKER_00Separate. I I do have one more I just remembered by where we were talking.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um, which possibly we could even play tonight.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00I mean Ultimate Sheep Raccoon. If that sounds familiar-ish in a weird way, is it? It's a chicken horse. It's a spiritual success for an ultimate chicken horse. Yeah, I think it's uh same thing, but think add trials fusion to it. Where you're on bikes and you have to like cross a course instead of jumping, you're on a motorcycle. That could be pretty cool. That that'd be a good thing. That'd be an end of the night. Yeah, yeah. I mean, so yeah, that's my other one. All right. What a way to end the year. Ultimate sheep raccoon, which is yeah, how we thought we'd end this end this season. I want to thank all our fans and followers for uh sticking with us. Um, we have some trials and tribulations, we're figuring shit out. Yeah, but for the most part, it's just me and Ann Man and you guys at home, and um happy new year. Yeah, happy season, and uh hey everybody. Just keep gaming, man. Yeah, keep on gaming, keep on gaming.