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
Almost Gamers Episode 25: Quick Match
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Bonjour and Konnichiwa! Thy gang is back in the home studio and they only had time for a quick (relatively) adventure. Matt finally dives into Crimson Desert and he has notes. Andy engages with some Vampire Crawlers. Matt gets a lot of games and developers confused, but gets some info right, so it's par for the course. Andrew brings the usual news about AI and adaptations, but throws in some coffins to change it up.
Did everybody catch the fish at the end?
SPEAKER_01I'm sure. I mean I I caught it.
SPEAKER_02Did you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean I didn't literally catch it. Sitting here eating a goldfish for dinner. I mean that that's how Peffridge Farms does it. You don't know people. Those are tiny, tiny fish that they're frying up. Goldfish. Feed them pizza. That's how they get a pizza flavored ones.
SPEAKER_02Pizza.
SPEAKER_01There you go. There you go. Flavor blasted. You don't want you don't want to know how they get flavor blasted.
Intro
SPEAKER_01Bonjour. Mon frère Esseus. Did you actually take French? Yeah, I took like four years of French in high school. Really? Yeah, it's it's crazy how much I kind of remember. But uh not really. Like, yeah, if I were to try to have a conversation with people, no, I would not do well. But uh four years. Yeah, four years.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Yeah. That's one of the harder ones, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01More difficult. It's because it, you know, like any romance language, it has the um uh feminine and um masculine words, so you have to learn what they are properly. Which makes it kind of difficult, but yeah, I don't know. It's it's easier than Japanese. Oh yeah, you're still doing that? Very, very slowly.
SPEAKER_02We'll say hello in Japanese. Um can you do this? Umichiwa. Oh yeah, Kanichiwa. I should have known that. Is that from like Muppets or something? Possibly.
SPEAKER_01I don't know. I think I learned that. So hey, I can think we're doing a podcast. Right. I forgot about that. And we're back, we're back home. For those of you can see, and here we discussed that it sounded different when we were away from home. Yeah, yeah. So it's I blame it on the fish. Yeah, the fish was fucking up our entire episode. Yeah, for that, the whole episode, I apologize a little bit. And yeah, let's blame the goldfish. Yeah, because it was just He kept staring at me. Yeah, three me off. It was a weird, weird one. We weren't we weren't super high with our segments, but um there were segments, they happened. And yeah, now they're done. And some people listened. Yes, quite a few. We're still growing. I think we got another country. I could I couldn't I didn't know which one because there's just so many I don't have them memorized. But really bizarre. I want to say Uruguay.
SPEAKER_02Uruguay? Yeah, yeah, I I think I noticed that one.
SPEAKER_01I noticed Vietnam. Yeah, yeah, that was that's an interesting one. Yeah, more than one. That was the more than one episode. Yeah, they had two in Vietnam. Yeah, it's interesting when we get just the one listen, but when you have the more than one, I'm like, so they total buddy, or I guess they listen to more than one episode. I don't have exactly how that works. No, yeah, whatever. But thank you, everybody, for continuing to listen. And the four or five of you that are actually watching also appreciate that. Feel free to subscribe and subscribe and like and hit smash that notification bell. That's right. Don't forget. That's right. We need we need, I want to do a blitz. I want to I want to get a campaign up there, get that, get them 1,000 subscribers. We're all always hit uh 500 downloads on uh on the podcast. I don't know if you notice. We're like oh yeah, the the achievements. Yeah, achievements. So I'm excited. Yeah, what we get. Maybe we'll get a first nickel. All right, yeah, we'll hang that nickel right up. Right, yeah. First time we earn a nickel. What's going up on the on the studio? We ain't spending it. No. Saving that. So I think you got some uh speaking of all our socials, I think we got some news.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I I I followed through with my word and I'd created my first Reddit and uh I failed at it first time, so that was good. Um Did you create create an account or did you sign into the uh I just signed into Almost Gamers? Okay, and I just went on our general profile and created a uh I guess it's a thread. Or subreddit, I think I call it a subreddit. And then Steve Miller, who's pretty much the only person active on our, he said, I thought there was gonna be a hot tamale quiz and I was confused. And then I realized you have an a subreddit for Almost Gamers Podcast. So I guess he was thinking I would post it under the podcast thread or whatever.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's the only one that we have.
SPEAKER_02Well yeah. That's what I I I was so confused. Okay, but I guess I should post everything on the podcast thing. Oh yeah. Yeah, I don't have any other threads. Yeah, I just posted in general on our profile, I guess. The first time. So it didn't show up under the thread. It wasn't like and I guess nobody could see it. I don't know. I don't know how it works.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I don't what? Did you make a thread outside of Yeah? You might have made, yes, you might have made a general thread just on Reddit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, that's what you did. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_01And I Because you because Almost Gamers isn't isn't uh the what you logged in. Here we go. In live action, I'm explaining Reddit to Andy. So Almost Gamers is is it's a person. It means it's a person. You can't create a a uh a you know what I mean? Okay. So you as a person of Almost Gamers podcast created your own random subreddit. Yeah. Yeah, that no one's gonna find. No. Yeah. So yeah, you need to you need to put it on our subreddit. Yes.
SPEAKER_02Okay, did you do that?
SPEAKER_01I did because I saw that.
SPEAKER_02I consulted my wife who helped me.
SPEAKER_01I didn't think about that. It's kind of complicated, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and it's it's different. Um so he was a little disappointed. So I told him I'm sorry. So I put it okay and I made the listener poll, and I I was worried. There were so many votes now. We must we needed a recount now. Uh we had two votes. Wow, that's more than I thought because I forgot about it, so it wasn't me. Well, one of them was my wife. I was like, make sure this works. Oh, okay, got it. And um the other one was for Steve Miller, obviously. So are the results in? The results are in. All right. And they got it correct with Steve Hutcheson. Oh, it was Steve Hutcheson.
SPEAKER_01Yes. For those of you in suspense, you can uh you can sleep now, knowing that we uh knew the answer.
SPEAKER_02Matt does technically, oh yeah, handful of hot tamales? Yeah, at one time. Okay. And uh I didn't bring them because I never got to get them. Right. The candy. The candy. Right. Not an actual hot tamale dish. Yeah. It's a little cinnamon candy. Yeah, that are so they're similar to good money. Future Andy. Make me a letter. Remember backwards, future and wrote me a letter and he said, You're all fucked. So you didn't vote enough, I guess.
SPEAKER_01Oh that's right. This was to save the future.
SPEAKER_02So that's all he wrote. No more information.
SPEAKER_01All right, all right, Reddit. You've you failed us all. So I am sorry, not sorry. It's your own faults.
What Yinz Playin
SPEAKER_01All right, so here we go. This is our increasingly shorter and shorter segment where we talk about what we've been playing. And man, and man, let me let me tell you what happened with me. Oh god. Okay, so last Saturday, I randomly, no, no, two Saturdays ago, I found myself with uh a free day. And I'm like, cool. I'm gonna wake up, maybe go for a little bike ride, do some shopping done, maybe work on some video editing or some shoot some new film for the podcast. And then if I got time, I'm sitting down and I'm gonna game. Well, I'm sorry to say that didn't happen.
SPEAKER_02It almost happened.
SPEAKER_01Because Friday night, I'm like, fuck it. Downloaded installed Crimson Desert, played it for two hours and decided waking up in the morning and playing it till my eyes bleed. And I did bleed. Well, they didn't quite bleed, but this might be a long segment. You gotta learn it today. Oh, I I do. I got pages. Okay. So I spent, you know, I I did it Friday night. I kind of created the character and the settings, all the stuff that's not fun. Then I played about eight hours straight on Saturday. Wow. So I got some notes.
SPEAKER_03I'm ready.
SPEAKER_01Tell me. So we're talking about Crimson Desert. Available on PlayStation 5, Xbox, Xbox, X and S, Windows, and Mac. Always find it fun when they're uh out there for Mac. Yeah get them, them gamers have some good time too. Uh my usual spiel. It is uh uh does have settings for ultra-wide monitors, no big surprise there anymore. And it does have um it is on uh G Force now, uh you know it's my big thing, the uh the streaming service. So if you own the game, you can stream it uh basically using uh top-notch uh graphics, and I did. I turned on all the stuff. And it took me a while to get it going great. Um, and I'll I'll tell you why. It was kind of my own fault, but uh for those of you wanting to know if you are playing it on gForce now, uh use DLS setting 4.5. I know that was a thing. Um those damn points, these tech companies level like 4, 4.1, 4.5. Not DLSS 5, which is uh a whole other serold podcast. We're not there yet, but we're I guess we're halfway there. Right. Um, and that's about all I'll say about that. All the other settings really didn't kind of matter. Um, it it's interesting, it does have HDR10 Plus. I think did we ever talk about HDR on the uh nah, that'll probably be in a future emporium. But, anyways, there's apparently only about 15 games that actually take use of HDR 10 Plus, and this is one of them. And my monitor has to be one of the few monitors that uses HDR 10 Plus. Okay, and it doesn't fucking work.
SPEAKER_03Of course.
SPEAKER_01Uh we I I talked about it once before. The plus means it auto sets the brightness. You don't have to worry about fixing that yourself, which I always hate. I'm like, I don't know, is this too bright? Is this too dark? It automatically picks the right setting. Well, that's nice. I hate that. Well, again, it doesn't work, so I'd pick my own setting. But it does run pretty damn great. Um, I get about 120 um uh frames per second. Um, it does though, and here was my problem why I ended up playing around with it for like an hour or two, not real happy with it. The game has a very stylized look, is the only way I can describe it. Um, the lighting is fantastic, the textures are fantastic, but some of the like the environmental textures and the things around people, it looks almost blurry or smeared, especially when you're outside. When you're inside, it's okay. When you're outside, again, I thought it was a weird visual glitch, but for what I can tell, it's just kind of the way the game is. This is kind of an indie game, kind of not it it's hard to describe, but remember the the previous list they made a huge, like basically mobile MMO. Yeah. So think think about games like think about your Tibbo MMO RPG. That's massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Those of you uh don't know. And usually they tone down their graphics because there's so much happening, you don't want too much detail because it'll crash and whatnot. Yeah, I think it's the issue here. They're trying to give them too much detail, and this is kind of the way they make up for it. Right. Um, but that's why it really helps if if you have the ability to do, you know, the DLSS or the frame gen. I'm not gonna do all that stuff what it is, but turn it on, folks. It people for some reason don't like that shit, but it it really helps. It makes it run smoother and better. But you're never gonna get weird of that rid of that weirdness, weirdness, at least for now.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um, so yeah, don't be like me and like that grass doesn't look right and spend 45 minutes trying to make the glass grass look better.
SPEAKER_00It doesn't fucking matter.
SPEAKER_01Let it go, Matt. Let it go. Anyways, the game looks great. Uh, you know me, I love a good lighting. Right. Um, so especially at night when everything's lit by like torchlight. Uh you know, so we're getting a lot of games now that use um dynamic and realistic lighting sources. So you know back in the day, it just runes are lit up because they were lit up. Now we're getting more sophisticated, they're lit up because there's something there to light it up. So you know, and there's not like a just a magical element that lights it up. So this, like when you're in a little town, the only light, especially if it's cloudy and there's no moon, the only light you can see is coming from like the torches. That's really fucking cold. That is. I you know, it's just I really appreciate that kind of shit. And the armors are kind of shiny and looking good. There's very good uh ray tracing and that kind of shit. So you know what I mean? I love that. And like the marble statue, nice and shiny. Oh man, but just to buff these flaws out. Uh and it it um, so it's your typical, well, I thought, do I want yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna go into it so I'm gonna spoil just a little tiny bit, okay? Only because I knew nothing about this game really at all. I'm sure you yeah, you didn't. But uh it it's your typical looking, you know, fantasy RPG. But I'd I'd call it not as much an RPG, more on the action adventure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And it surprisingly it reminds me of Assassin's Creed for more than one reason. Um, but because that combat style kind of blends the action adventure plus the RPG. And it also, secretly, if you will, but if you see any trailer, you'll know this, blends kind of a mystical, modern I don't know, is it like a matrix? Is it magic? I don't know, but there's some sort of like a futuristic feel to it. Like there's a whole upper section um where you can get teleported to, and and yeah, it's it's it's very and you can like glide down using your uh thing kind of turning to like this kind of blocky digital crow looking kind of motherfucker. Yeah, it's it was wholly unexpected. I mean, it added a whole other feel to it. Right. That I'm like, oh, so this isn't you know, you're you're medieval, but there's there's more shit going on. I I kind of like this. I'm really liking it.
SPEAKER_02You're a fan of that.
SPEAKER_01I am, I am, and the voice acting so far is is pretty good. Um, it's a lot of uh the main guy's kinda kind of like a Scottish uh accent going on, and uh learned a fun new word cock swaggler. Cock swaggler. I'm gonna be using that a lot because that's just fun to say. You cock swaggler, swaggers. So yes, it's fantastic. The only thing, and I think is what a lot of people say, and other reasons. So a big thing with this game is people say, you know, it takes about 10 hours before you really get into it. And that is true, but for a lot of different reasons. And I think that's what throws people off. It is mechanically odd. Like things and menus and shit that it it doesn't do it the way most games do. Like we've come to a place in the world now, especially with RPGs, there's a lot of conventions. This game doesn't it it shies away from them, which makes it feel fresh, but it's also just like wait, what? So the combat in general, the way you use the buttons isn't your normal. Um and some decisions are weird, like the pushing in the left stick, which is my least favorite button in all of video games, is both crouch, fine, and using one of your main skills in the game.
SPEAKER_00Yes, that face that is a perfect face because that's once I figured that out, I'm like, wait, what? It's mapped to the same button, it's just matter how long you hold it. Oh man.
SPEAKER_01You get kind of used to it, but I don't know, man. I don't like it. And you know, some of the even like the main menu is weird, and I didn't like it because everything was tied to the basic the start button. You know, everything included the map, your inventory, the save screen. Everything. Yeah, and there's no like separate button that does like sometimes like the settings on their own thing. No, the settings are under like under other. You gotta go to other. It took me while not the settings, the save. It took me a while to find the fucking save button. That's so that's yeah, it's not great. Although I just realized last night I was playing for a little bit. If you hold in the start button, it picks up a quick select for the menu, which is a little better, yeah, but still I shouldn't have had to do all that. Right. And your inventory is uh confusing, and I don't know why to describe why it's confusing, but it just is. But apparently it's better, it was apparently worse.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_01Um, like you can't unequip your main sword and shield, like you always have them on you, and they're always your in your main slot. You can change your slot two to whatever you want, but you can't unequip slot one, but it doesn't really matter because the way the inventory, the switching works. And I guess I get it. The reason it's there is because you ever get weirded out and they have cutscenes and it switches back to the default. Oh yeah. So that's a way around that is well, you always have it equipped, so it's and I'm like, I get that, but it's just it's weird, and it you know, I waste about 15 minutes trying to figure out how to switch my fucking weapon off. Like, you can't. Oh, you just switch, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_01But there are there are some issues. I know there were a ton more issues uh when this game first released, but apparently they have been crazy. I mean, I get I guess what I'm playing is so much more polished. I only play it like a month later, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01But they're just on it, apparently, they're constantly fixing things. So give them that. I didn't run into any crashes or things like that. Um, there is kind of a long ass loading screen when you first start it up, like long. And um, if you reload, it's almost as long. Um, but if you fast travel, it's not as bad. And then other than that, there's no loading screens. So for a big open world, I guess that's kind of the trade-off. Yeah, there's not even like a fake loading screen. Like you own a building, you're inside the building, there's no, there's not like a transition or anything. Yeah. So I guess that was kind of the trade-off. So yeah. Uh but uh interacting with people and things, that's the weirdest part. You can't just walk up to someone, hit the interact button. You have to hold that left bumper to look at specific things, and then you can interact with them. It's throwing me off, and I'm like, how often am I trying to pick up a fucking block and I pick up the apple next to it? Yeah. So this kind of f makes it easier to focus and do the exact thing that you want it to do. Plus, then a sub-menu will pop up of uh talk, buy, steal, threaten, so you don't accidentally punch a guy instead of just trying to shop from him.
SPEAKER_02Gotcha.
SPEAKER_01So it's so some of these decisions, I'm like, oh, this is actually smart. I'm just fighting against convention. Right. Which maybe's what we needed. Maybe we needed a game like this to shake up our conventions to make us try and do even better things. Okay. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02You know, there's gonna be a lot of cobby cats based on the season. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Oh, definitely, definitely. So this is the new yeah. Um, there are some you know, neat things. Your body temperature comes into effect. Um, I haven't had to deal with that yet, but like apparently from the cold environments, you move slower. You have to get heated up by like a fire and opposite for hot environments. I haven't had to deal with that yet, but I'm kind of interested. You see that kind of mechanic. Um, I already fell in love with someone. Um, and you'll see why. This is a barmaid named uh Dahlia. No, no, she just I don't throw this up on YouTube, but she just kind of gives you like a sultry. Yeah, she's got a little sass to it. A little sass. And I just like walked up to her trying to buy something, and she's like, hmm. Whoa!
SPEAKER_03Okay, checking out the default armor.
SPEAKER_01That's right. You can pet animals. Always, always you know, instant loss of two points if you can't pet animals. Right, that's giving. Uh, there are no there's a notification list to see pop-ups you missed and rewards. So you ever like complete a quest and like six things pop up, I get this, get this, and oh, and it tells you what to do next. They pop up for a little bit, then they go away. Yeah. Well, there's a whole sub-menu that we can go in and see all the things that you missed. Okay. And you can clear them out if you want to, or you can leave them there forever if you want. That's good. And I'm like already hugely grateful for that because I don't know what a lot of these things are, so it's nice to go back and see, like, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02That's really nice.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Uh the the the skill tree is also confusing. I will there's kind of some hints I want to give on that. A lot of these things I want to give hints, but there's way better YouTube videos that are gonna list all these hints and tips. Uh I will say the skill tree is confusing. There are skills that you can learn by watching people do stuff. Um so, but if you're worried, like, well, but you can spend a skill point to do it. If you reset your skill tree, it'll get you get that point back. If that makes any sense. Like if you're worried, like so you're like, oh, I spent money on this, now I learned it for free. Um so you don't get that point back immediately, but if you were to reset all your skills, okay, that what you learned naturally stays. Oh, okay. You can spend your free points somewhere. I was worried about it. I'm like, oh, I'm not gonna buy this now because I'm probably not gonna get to learn it later. But I really want it now. Yeah. Feel free to go ahead and learn it now. And some skills, when you learn them, turn white and some turn on the color of their tree you're in, like green, red, or blue, I think is the other one. Um, I thought that meant something. Like white was level one, green was level two. No, they're just gonna be random fucking some are colored, some aren't. So again, don't spend 45 minutes like I was looking at why the fuck? You know, this one's at level one, that one's level two. No, there isn't. I'm sure somebody's yeah, yeah, there's a lot. That's the thing, but the whole community is kind of coming together and like learning this game together. So that element's kind of fun. Reminds me a little bit of uh Elden Ring. Yeah, uh, where they didn't explain a lot of stuff, but they do it on purpose, be obtuse. Yeah, this game's I think they're just they're not on they're not on purpose, they're just they're they're they're learning as we are learning. Yeah, it's a whole new idea. Yeah, it it definitely is. Um, but my my most my biggest advice on this is just go with it and don't worry, because a lot of stuff that I was not understanding about skills are just explained during the normal course. Um, there's a lot of side quests are gonna pop up, and I know this is a game where there's a certain point where you want to stop doing main quests and just do side quests, but um where I tell it's like chapter five, six, or even seven. Okay. So just go with a main quest. Right. You'll learn naturally how to do a lot of things, a lot of things get answered, and you will start to immediately pick up on mechanics and the way things work. Like I was trying too hard to understand everything all at once. Yeah, um, because there is a little section you think is a tutorial section, it's like an hour too long. No, that's like your pre-tutorial. The the the the tutorial, I'm yeah, I'm 12 hours in, I'm not really done with all the tutorializing. There's still a lot more.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_01So just go with it, don't worry about it. Just explore, and exploring is worth it. You might find something neat, and rather than you might just learn lore from it, but you might find a random treasure chest there or learn a skill point for some random dude doing something. But it's neat, it uh it definitely rewards exploring, and I think that's what the most addictive part. Yeah, because kind of events, kind of crazy quests, just crazy shit. And I'm not even that far. Wow. And another thing, traversal gets like it's a huge open world. And even if I just had explore the whole thing by horseback, that'd be okay. But no, again, talking about that whole hidden mysterious element to it, there's some crazy traversal methods you're gonna get to learn where you can go very, very far very easily. And I'm already kind of there, but it's like a little bit of skill. Um, it's not just a go here, it's almost like platforming, not hard platforming, so I like it. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_02We know you you don't like platforming.
SPEAKER_01Uh so yeah, uh, and one other thing I would say. Um it took me a half hour to figure out how to flip up my visor on my helmet. I knew someone said that it was able to do it, but even if you look up how to do it online, there's like six or seven complicated ways to do it. The game doesn't make any of them very fucking obvious. That's one of the things that just it it baffles me. Like there are quite a few things that are just like but that doesn't didn't fucking matter. You know what I mean? The end of the day I shouldn't have worried about my visor. Right. I mean just it sounded like I was at my helmet, I was in helmet, you know, having I sounded like that. So it bothered me a little bit. Uh sorry, scholarship. Oh, sounded like that.
SPEAKER_02It didn't impede your vision at all, did it? No, it's third person. Yeah, Kingdom Come does that. Oh god, no.
SPEAKER_01No, no, yeah, this is all third person.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's right, it's third person. It's third person. So I think Witcher.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Witcher. Yeah, it's very it reminds me a lot of Witcher on that. The combat's different and everything you gotta kind of learn. But um, yeah, folks, so that's my my advice to you is fucking just play the game. And it was $70. That's expensive. It is, but I would gladly pay it, and I'll gladly I'd pay it again. The music's good. I said the graphics are good enough. Don't worry about the fuzzy little details. I want my grass looking good. Um, and I think everyone does say this this the overall story is not great. Yeah, uh, the main character uh is not very fleshed out, and I believe um I read something on then regards like the main writer left or Andor was fired somewhere in the middle, and they couldn't use his stuff they had written, so they kind of scrambled. That was supposedly. I don't want to start too many rumors, but that's what I had read, and it it kind of feels that way. It feels like the the main character's arc was an afterthought. He's sometimes just a silent protagonist, you know, which again is fine, but you you it's in between the two, you know. You can't be you gotta be Geralt or you gotta be the dragonborn, you can't be something in between, and that's the problem, it's somewhere in between. That and there's two other main characters, or two other characters you can play as, but you share skill points, and there's not enough points even for the one main character, and you can't do any of the main story beats with those two other characters, so it's like, did they accidentally include them? Or it feels more like, oh, I bet there was gonna be a lot more with them, and maybe there will be with expansions. Yeah, expansions. So that's kind of sad. I was looking forward to playing with other people, but I was like, no, don't you unlock them, don't even fucking use them. But it's neat that they act like GTA 5 style, where like you can switch them at any time and you'll go to wherever they were. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, I thought that was neat. Yeah, that was neat about GTA. Um, apparently our tablet fell asleep, but I think we're still recording. Well, considering I put my tablet to sleep, I think that's a good stopping point for me talking about Crimson Deserts. Wow, I can't believe you got it. I can't either, but I was I was determined. I had a lot of fun. It was neat. It was very exciting to uh just game all day. I've done that in a very Yeah, that's a that's a fun feeling. Very long time. Good for you, man. Did it for you, Andy, and you the listeners.
SPEAKER_02Well, I mean, I I think overall I'm I'm interested. I don't I don't know if I'm I'm not gonna buy it for 70. Maybe it'll be uh cheap ass. I'm a cheap man. Very cheap. It's all right, it's all right. I don't know. I'm still not 100% sold, but you I I'm definitely more sold now that you told me all that. All right. I'm glad, I'm glad. Should we go right into uh what you played? Yeah, I mean, uh I'll try to keep it because this is gonna be long, but I'll just keep it. Other seconds are probably shorter. I played a game that was on, I think, one of our future quests. Um in this one, I don't know. I was worried you might have played it, so I was kind of glad when you said that. It's Vampire Crawlers.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I thought about after doing um after my day of gaming this, that's being my drunken game later. But I ended up I ended up playing just playing that all night.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so for everybody new, vampire crawlers is uh the first spin-off of vampire survivors. So survivors was just kind of you killed a bunch of things that attacked you. It's hard to describe.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because it is its own, it became its own genre.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's its own genre. Yeah, so this is the spin-off. A brotato is kind of what it calls. Have you played Brotato and some other auto shooter? Auto shooting, yeah, and leveling up and quickly. It's it was unique to say the least. Crawlers gets a major thumbs up. It's worthy. Is it a card-based? It is okay. So yeah, this is a first person game. So it's like Survivors was top-down. Yeah, you looked at your little classic. Yeah, and this is the same retro graphics, but first person, and it's a grid system in the sense that it's like old school like uh games that I thought of was like wizardry or even like the first mist, or if you're played Legends of Grim Rock, where you you push up and you move one space. Okay, right. But it's still 3D and like you know, but it's not f yeah, it's not free roaming here, here, here, and there. Yeah. All the monsters are just like old school RPGs, they're just standing there. So if you get close to them, you engage in combat. Okay, okay. And then levels they don't move at all. They don't move at all. Levels are very small. The map, they they have a little map for you to look at, like a mini-map.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02They're probably like 30 or 40 tiles, because it's all quick, it's all real quick levels. Um, kind of like in the same vein as survivors. But yeah, so the main thing is the combat is all turn-based cards. So your delta hand, you have you well, you start with a deck of cards, and then your dealt when you start combat, you get your hand, and it's designated like five, I think, four or five cards, but that you can make it grow in different ways. But and they have like they're like a classic card thing where they have they cost mana. So this is like a deck, this is a deck building, yes, it's very much a deck building. So yeah, cards cost mana, and then you have a designated amount of mana that you have per turn. And overall it's you know, plays just like that. But one of the unique things about the combat, which I really enjoyed and actually took me a little bit, unfortunately, to figure out is there's a multiplayer element. And so when you play a zero card, the multiplayer. Well, this is an example. If you play a zero card, you get a one multiplayer. So if you go and multiplier? Yeah, it's kind of well, that's what I was I I meant to look this up. I I don't know how it exactly works. I I call it a multiplayer, I think that's what they called it. I don't know how it works, but you build this multiplayer up so you get a one-time multiplier. So if you play a one card, a one like it costs the man a one, then it goes up to two. Okay, and then so on and so forth. So if you play a two next, it goes up to whatever, and it just keeps going up and up, and you can almost with wild cards, you can make it go infinitely, essentially. Like the I actually got it up to like a hundred at one point, but it that's that's end game stuff. Um, but it really changes the combat because you're you start looking at those numbers and trying to figure out coordinate as how you can get the biggest multiplayer you can get. And I I really thought that was a little unique twist to their combat. Uh the cards, so there's I think red, blue, purple, and yellow. Red is your typical it does damage. Okay. Blue is healing or armor. Purple is build up your mana. Uh, and yellow is like power-ups. And all the old things from Survivor here, like you get your garlic, your whip, those are on the cards, and they have stats and yeah, I saw that. Yeah, I saw the cards where they're there, and the power-ups are like candle thing where it makes you do more spread damage, and yeah, okay. And so it's and they all work really well, and it just works. It but it's so simple, and it just works so well. And you have those moments where you just destroy, annihilate monsters, and it just you giggle, you laugh. It it it and then like the monsters themselves are kind of that's probably one of the more downsides, they're kind of boring. They either attack or they build up their armor or do both. And I I actually I didn't even notice it because it kind of got lost in the retrographics. I didn't even notice that it was popping up their intentions above their head if after the turn's over that what they're gonna do to you. I was I was winning anyway, because it was it wasn't that terrible. You need no hints, yeah. But it helps because the bosses are slightly different, they have a countdown meter, and then it's and then like at the end of that, they'll do like something. They usually give you like a random card sometimes, which will mess up all your cars somehow, or freeze cards, or do stuff like that. The the bosses add a little bit of difficulty. Um let's see, what else do I have? Yeah, yeah, you get a hero, and that's like all the old heroes from Survivor, and they all have their innate special abilities. Oh, okay. They all have the unique decks too, or yeah, unique. Well, yeah, they start like all the cards are uh available to everybody, but they start their starter sets. Yeah, right. Okay, it's like the game. Yeah, yeah, okay. And then they're usually funny and they're cool. Neat. Yeah, it's I'm in. It's absolutely worth it. Actually, it's on um well, I I have it here. It's on Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch. Um, and I saw it was on Xbox Pass, whatever it's called. Game Pass. Game Pass. So you could play it. And I was actually thinking maybe it'd be fun if you play it, and then we can do for maybe the next boss battle, we could do for the cards, we can maybe do an S tier ranking.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Because I took I I already 100% of it. And it took me like 37 hours.
SPEAKER_01Woo! You put some time into that game.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, that's oh yeah, and like the cards, like your weapons, you can evolve them. I don't know if you remember that from Survivor, you can combine them, and that was fun. Lots of unlockables, like different characters aren't available right away. Sure. Yeah, different cards aren't available right away. The only downside I would say is it's a little short. It was like I feel like it was only like 12 levels, maybe 11 levels. Yeah. And I didn't get all the unlockables, so you have to kind of just replay the levels. There's no incentive to keep replaying a level either. Yeah, I feel like it's needs a little bit more. But honestly, the enemies, other than the graphics, they do the same stuff over and over again. I wonder if it's more than just the one dude.
SPEAKER_01Because Vampire Survivor is one guy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, this one had pretty decent size credits. So that's good. Good. So I think the team is a lot bigger now. Good, good. But uh, it's it's it I've I've had so much fun with it. It's actually, if it wasn't so short, it would probably be my game of the year. Oh shit! It's uh it's it they they know what what well he or they they know what they're doing at this point. Have fun, have fun.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's it's such a game. Simple. Have fun.
SPEAKER_02And that's what I had. All right. I think that covers everything for me. Go. Yeah. Go, go, go, go, go, go. Let me just check my notes real quick.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay, we'll go with that. I'll probably get mad myself because I forgot something, but bad way.
SPEAKER_01Alright. Uh, so that was all I had for playing. That was it. That was all I was like. All right, we're both we're one one one one game players, but played a lot of it. Well, you played a lot more than me, but I did. I played it on quite a bit. I was all happy with how much I played. Damn it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, that was the only game I played for the last like three weeks, two weeks, whatever.
SPEAKER_01Alright. Dedication. That's what I like to see. Putting in the work. Yeah. Putting in the work. That's right. Right. I realize this microphone's been covering my face the entire time. Sorry, studio. He's hiding. We'll show you for the next segment. Coming up now.
Respawn
SPEAKER_01Alright, here's our uh response. That's right. So I do have some things. Uh, last segment, last time we were together, we talked about what a lot of people were talking about, uh, the Mass Effect show.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01And how the uh apparently the word on the street was that the like one of the studio heads uh wanted them to do some rewrites to make it appealing to non-gamers. Yeah, yeah. So one of the co-showrunners, Daniel Casey, responded to that and he denied the demands that it had to be rewritten for non-gamers. He says it was just a rumor, you know, how it started, and but you know how these things spread. He says that is not the case. Things are going good. I wasn't even worried if they were, but uh yeah, so they're not. So cool, cool, cool. Fuck everybody. Yeah, I'm still stick to the hardcore fans. That's right, make it too obtuse.
SPEAKER_02Matt knows all the lore, so he's in the right. I didn't forget a lot, but yeah.
SPEAKER_01I like it. Okay, another thing. Um, this is I didn't get it too wrong. Is I I thought I got it very wrong, but when I listened back, it wasn't too bad. But I I I basically mixed up my evil make no, not evil megacorpse, but kind of eagle. I mixed up my conglomerates. There's been a lot of consolidation in the video game industry where people are buying up a lot of IP. So I mixed up Embracer and Crafting a little bit. Okay. So Embracer is the group that bought out THQ Nordic and Crystal Dynamics and I know Montreal. So think games like um the new uh Deus Ex reboot and Darksiders and Time Splitters. Oh yes. So that was no good for that. Yeah, that that was that was no good and sad. Um, but they're not necessarily evil, they just were mismanaged. They bought all these IPs thinking they were gonna have this amazing deal with uh the Saudis. There was like a Saudi group, yeah. Um with where it was a worth billion-dollar deal and ended up falling through. So they were just in like ho geez words, so they just started canceling games left and right, and um the new the third ending, if you will, the the to the trilogy of the Deus Ex reboot was one of the ones that got got canned. And then they all they also cancelled the Time Splitters Comeback Reboot sequel, which is very sad. That's a big one for you, yeah. And uh but uh in among that sadness, um, they are making a new Darksiders game. Remember, that's supposedly coming out. I did it have a release date, remember? It had like a it had one of those teaser trails or like is this really happening? That had a slightly better chant trailer, so I don't know if we're actually getting Darksiders. I guess technically this would be four, yeah, three and a half, four, because there was that Darksiders Genesis, which was kind of a Yeah, I didn't play that anyway. So hopefully that's coming. But then they also own Metro, that IP. Oh, that's definitely coming out. Yeah, they did a big deal. Yeah, so they're in a they're in an interesting spot. They're they're apparently hurting and in some financial ruin, but they are the ones that own the uh Lord of the Rings IP as well. They said that's like that that's what the thing is about the bread and butter. They also own like Coffee Stain Studios, which is uh uh Goat Simulator. And um, remember what was the game that we loved? That tower defense game that was also a first-person shooter. Oh, yeah. Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it was the second one. Future spot respawn.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, respawn on the respawn shit. Oh, I did it. You did it. No, it was like a cross between defense grid and like Halo. That was like we couldn't beat the boss. No, the final final boss was unbeatable. That was insane. That was, and then it's so sad too. I know, and then they started making Goat Simulator. No, I believe that company, oh geez, we're going in the weeds here, is a spin-off of uh people from People Can Fly games, which made um oh boy.
SPEAKER_02We're gonna have a record of future respawns on this segment.
SPEAKER_01Respawn hell. It's a game that we both really loved where you had that lasso and you would do crazy finishing moves, like the gruesomer, the the funnier, the more points you would get. Wow, a lasso? Yeah, bullet storm. Oh, bullet storm is that game that I'm thinking of. Yes. Okay, there it is. And then they spun off and made Outriders. Oh, Outriders, yeah, yes. So, but I that was fun. Yeah, so there's there's something with some developers in that crew went with to make Sanctum Sanctum 2. I knew it started with an S. No respawn on this respawn. Where were we? Oh, so some good has come out of the Embracer group.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01I mean not all, but yeah, it's just it's interesting. Remember, THQ Nordic in and of itself was someone that bought old dead IPs and already had died, and then Embracer came in. So it's just it's just a new name. Yeah, new more people buying old shit and trying to revive, and just it doesn't happen. It's it's very sad. But Crafton is another group that buys up old games. Okay. Or IP in in in development studios, and they're the ones that bought Subnautica. We've talked before about that whole mess. Although apparently that's back to okay now. I think the old owners are back. But they also bought Last Epoch, which you've talked about.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's what people are mad about.
SPEAKER_01Yes, because they did the things that Last Epoch said they would never do. Yeah, yes, yeah, that's what I heard. And I don't know if that's changed or not, but yeah.
SPEAKER_02Did we ever talk to Scott?
SPEAKER_01Uh no, no.
SPEAKER_02I forgot. I should write that down because it's still on my wish list. Yeah, and I'll find out, I'll find out more about that.
SPEAKER_01He might have it might be nothing about this game. Okay. Um, so it's easy to call them evil, but they're also the ones that bought Tango Gameworks and possibly saved Hi Fi Rush. Oh, did they? Yes. So it's like alright. I guess they're trying. I mean, they're obviously well we know from they're dealing with Subnautica, they're all about the money. Yeah. And they probably just saw money. But sometimes good things can come with that. So bottom line, I'd hate to call, you know, these big companies that buy up these smaller companies bad, but sometimes it just the worst is when they let the IP die with them. Like they won't sell it back or won't sell it to anyone else, and it just dies. That's why I always see it happening with Time Splurris or TSX. I'd love that series to come back. But sometimes these companies be like, nope, if you can't have it, no one will. That's sad. And that is all the respondage that I have. That was a lot of spawn. It was that was some good spawn.
News
SPEAKER_01Now it's time for the news. And now tonight's evening news with your anchor, Andrewson and Matheson. Live from Channel 4. Alright. Yeah. So I got I got some newsies. I know you have some newsies. Yeah, quite a bit. Uh, you want to start? Alright. I'll start. Do it.
SPEAKER_02This one, I'm gonna keep them hopefully a little quicker because I don't I don't, you know, there's really not a ton to talk about each one. So this first one is a little headline for you, Matt. I don't know if you know about Slay the Spire 2, right?
SPEAKER_03Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02We're fans of it. I'm a bigger fan probably than you. I like deck building games. But I guess it's being reviewed, review bombed.
SPEAKER_01Did you hear about this? May I think maybe I did, and I I and I it was for a dumb reason, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, this this like according to GameSpot. So he I guess they did a little think piece on it. Okay. Because they're, you know, explaining it and wondering why themselves. So yeah. Because it's early access at this point, so it's it's not officially released. Uh oh yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_01That's the other thing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So apparently it's like a huge portion of Chinese like from the country China, just Chinese players are review bombing it, and they're getting into why that might be. And it sounds kind of way too complicated for this silly podcast, but ultimately I think it's kind of comes down to they just want to express they have problems with the game, so they use that as a oh as a way to express that there's something wrong with the game, they think. And I I guess there's no real easy way to express that any other way, because they there's no real website.
SPEAKER_01Oh yes, because of the uh because of China's kind of ban on social media and communications, that's right, that's what it was. Maybe something like that that they think that's what yeah, um but that you don't have other any other way to communicate other than giving bad reviews, which uh Yeah, and that's what like it this article gets into the deep, but I don't know if you have a lot of people. That's a shame. But I think I think the game will be alright. Well, yeah, I'll climb to the top.
SPEAKER_02The only thing there's one guy I work with, he's obsessed with the game. That's his like favorite game. The first one is the only thing he told me in brief, because he hasn't been at work for a long time, and he was passing through, and he said it's hard as shit. Oh. So I guess they're still figuring out the balance. Sure. It's early access. Early access, you can't give it to him. Apparently, it's hard as shit so far. But I won't play until it's officially released. But I that is a game I will play.
SPEAKER_01Okay. That um, yeah, I I may or may not check it out. I realized that m Monster Train. Yes, I never but I I gave up on it. Not that I gave up on it. I guess, yeah, you know, I just there there's too much out there, and I d I I ain't nobody got this guy, ain't got no time for that. That's true, man. You're a videographer now. That's right. That's right. Got my busy schedule filming filming movies. Uh like this movie right here. No, uh, so what you know, it's not a it's not a almost gamers podcast without without us talking about uh Metallica or in flames. Oh yeah. Um AI or Game Pass? We gotta do the game bingo card.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, almost gamers bingo card. That'd be great.
SPEAKER_01Someone needs to make that. Well, I don't know. My wife will probably get up. All right, so Xbox Game Pass. I'm just seeing the news, you know, with the new CEO. Yes. Um, she said Xbox Game Pass is too expensive. She said that. And we're all like, yeah, no shit.
unknownNothing.
SPEAKER_01So they've already decided that they're raising, they're lowering the ultimate from $29.99 to $22.99. And which I find funny, the one I wasn't complaining about, the Game Pass for TV for PC, I'm sorry, is going from $16.49 to $13.99. So they're even lowering that one by two bucks.
SPEAKER_02So that's how much you pay for the ultimate?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And they're they really are hosing.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I know. I told you, dude.
SPEAKER_01Now is that per month or is that per month? Uh no, I actually dropped it. Um, I don't have it this month. That's so unfair. Yeah, it is very unfair. I know it's what it's what's it's that's what's in crazier. She's like, it's too expensive. And should we should we lower it for the case? Couldn't they make it the same price?
unknownNope.
SPEAKER_01Um, and then there's rumors that they're gonna do kind of a pick your own plan. Because right now, you know, the ultimate throws in some like Fortnite bundles and shit like that. Okay. That you know, so I get that. I don't know. But they also announced that will no longer include, you know, the ultimate is the only one that gets the day one uh releases on it, but the Call of Duty games are no longer gonna be on that. Oh, which is interesting because I've always thought it's weird because that's their huge moneymaker. Okay. It's weird that that was on Game Pass, but that's also probably the only reason a lot of people are get Game Pass is for that. They're basically gonna be a year behind, so you'll get this year's Call of Duty next year on Game Pass. Um I don't care, obviously, at all, but that's an interesting shift in strategy. But I I think it's a smart move for them. So I bet that is a huge, I'm sure that's a huge moneymaker for them. Yeah, I bet. And I think what they're made up for in added subscribers isn't worth the revenue they'd lost to people buying that game. I think well, that's obviously. I mean, they have the numbers that I'm sure that's what they ran and said, Yeah, yeah, hey, it ain't worth it. But I wondered, it didn't say anything about the exclusivity, and I wondered about that because that was the big thing. You know, once they owned Call of Duty, were they gonna make that exclusive? And they literally had to swear to the government that they wouldn't. So I'm curious if they're gonna try changing that because I always wondered about like what the FCC, like they always tell these companies they have to do this, they have to do that, but I've never heard of them like down the road being like, Oh, you didn't do it, now we're gonna undo that merger.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, what do you do? I don't know.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, that's almost on the line of political, so we're not getting into that. Yeah, we don't do that, but it's just it's funny, like, even finally Xbox knows hey, game pass, game pass is a little fucked up. We might need to do something about this. It's still fucked up, Xbox. But they're trying, so I'm curious.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there's a few games now that are on that premium pass that I can't play, and there was three or four. I was like, ah man, I want to play them. But I have to actually use my money.
SPEAKER_01All right, what else you got there, sir?
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. Let's here's another quick one. Atom Fall. You played that. Yes, it's gonna be a TV show. Mmm, yeah, I'm in. So 100% in. It's TV deal. This is on GameSpot with fleabag writers.
SPEAKER_01Oh.
SPEAKER_02I don't know what that means.
SPEAKER_01I I was thinking immediately just because of maybe the Russian Kernet connection, but remember uh Timo Bechmininov, that crazy director, he did um he did Night Watch and Day Watch. Oh, okay, and wanted. Yeah, he does some weird stylized shit. That's what that game is. Okay. Um, that's coming off the sequel, I think, pretty soon, oddly enough. Wanted? No, um, sorry. Um Adam Fall.
SPEAKER_02Oh, really?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Wait, am I confusing? Wait, you said Adam Fall. Yeah, Adam Fall. Are you getting a little bit confused? Yes, I was thinking Atomic Heart. Adam Fall. Okay. Isn't interesting. Uh remember, that was a game. I actually reviewed that on here. Yeah, that's what I was saying. I enjoyed it, but I just it just wasn't for me. So it's gonna be a TV show now. But Atomic Heart. Now I really want to see Atomic Heart of the movie because that or the TV show, because that that was unhinged. The game had some issues. That was that was just before I do remember you timing that. I think it was just before we started this podcast. Yeah, I think we remember you talking about that. I might have to do the retro of that one. But um Okay, I would love because that game, mmm, I really enjoyed the visuals and the craziness.
SPEAKER_02Anyways, Matt's lukewarm on Adam Fall, but once it's out, I'm gonna get heart. That's right, baby. All right. Okay, here's another quick one. I'll just I have quite a few quick ones. Doom, doom. So another GameSpot article here is talking about you can be laid to rest in a Mario car coffin.
SPEAKER_01Yes! Did you see this? No, I just want to be.
SPEAKER_02No, they're not official.
SPEAKER_01No, wait, they're oh not officially licensed by Nintendo. Okay.
SPEAKER_02But apparently a Brazilian manufacturer. He'll paint it. Oh Brazil. Yeah, he'll paint it for you, and or they'll paint it for you, I should say. And so you could be laid into rest. Which cart would you pick? I want the Cooper Trooper one. Oh, you th cart?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02What's it? Cart coffin? Mario Kart Coffin? Oh, I didn't expect a cart coffin. Wait, is that what you said? No. Mario coffin. Oh, why didn't it sort of the word coca coffee? Well, maybe I missp, you know, maybe I stuttered and misspoke a little bit. But if we're going with carts, oh, that's tough. I like um off the top of my head, like Yoshi's motorcycle. It'd be hard to make it into a coffin, though.
SPEAKER_01Used to be big. Well, if you died in a couple of things, I thought you were gonna just draw it on the side. Oh, I'm assuming the coffin is shaped. It's literally the shape of it. So if you died driving a motorcycle, then there you go. You know, you're gonna die.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Now I was gonna ask you, yeah. Pick a franchise. What what would you want on your coffin? Painting. This isn't an actual little Nothing.
SPEAKER_01You don't want anything. I mean, if it's if it's just painting on there, I don't really want a big coffin. I'd rather just You want a shoebox. I'd want cremated or like sky burial or or something like that. So no nothing painted. You don't want decals. No, no, no. If if I want I would want like a cool futuristic looking coffin, like Spock's coffin, you know, from Spock's. Oh, trying to send it into space. Yeah. When they make it definitely. I don't know how Spock died or looked at it. Um into a proton torpedo. It looks like it looks like black looking um uh pill.
SPEAKER_02What if you were cremated? This is uneduched. Never mind. Cremated and put inside a dildo. I'm sure it's been done. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, yeah, I'll be done with that. I'll be fine with that. No problem. There you go.
SPEAKER_02Alright. You want me to keep going, or you just want to jump in here?
SPEAKER_01No, I got another one. I got another one. Do it. Uh so what do you just real quick? Because we haven't yet to talk about uh marathon at all. Um I'm not even quite sure what that is.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so you haven't following it whatsoever. I zone out as soon as I see marathon. Okay, so running and games.
SPEAKER_01Fair enough. Uh yeah, it's it's it's okay, then yeah, if you if you're not really interested, I'm not really either. Our boy Paul Tassi is. He reports on it a lot. Yeah, but I kind of feel bad for Bungie. They're not that they're hurting, but they made a game for a limited audience and they've maxed out that audience, and I don't see it growing beyond that. I have no desire to play an extra extraction shooter. Um for those of you don't know, an extraction shooter is basically you you land on the planet, if you will, kind of Fortnite style. Um you'll collect shit and then before maybe be completing the objectives and then going to a place where you're extracted then from that thing. If you die, you don't get anything that you've collected the entire time. Um an extraction shooter light, if you will, is a Helldivers is actually a kind of an example of that. Yeah. Something I know that you've played. Yeah. So and I know those games are very frustrating. Like a Helldivers, Helldivers 2, you do keep some things. Yeah. Remember, Helldivers 1, you died nothing, no XP, no loot. A lot of these are, so you could waste hours. And that doesn't appeal to a lot of people. Yeah, I can see that, yeah. So yeah. So yeah, that's that's kind of all I have to say. Is it's kind of I I feel bad for Bungie, but I don't have an answer for them, obviously.
SPEAKER_02So they're just struggling.
SPEAKER_01Not that they're struggling, it's just they spend a shit ton of money, and I don't see them making it back, let alone reap the benefits. Um it is a paid game. There is some talk about, well, could they go free to play? Sometimes that can help, but their game isn't based on any model of buying shit, and that would piss off those players that already paid for it if now it's free for everyone. So they're in a lose-lose situation, I feel like. But people are enjoying it, are enjoying it, and good for that. I hear it's a great game. Just operate one. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02What else you got? So uh this is kind of maybe a future purchase or an emporium thing. Oh steam came controller.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah. Oh, I I didn't look into it because I'm like I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's I I I I mean, I didn't really look too many details, I'm just kind of reading the headline to you. But it sounds from the review, it's engineered to its death. Yeah. It's $99, though. They say that it's not necessarily the best controller in the market, but for that price and all the engineering that went into it, it's a really good thing.
SPEAKER_01So they're saying not the best controller as in like one of those pro controllers, not like the standard Xbox, the standard PlayStation. I'm sure it's way better. Yeah, like it has way too many. I think are like $70, $80 now, anyway. Yeah, so what the fuck?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so it's not that much more, and it's engineered the shit out of it. I'm curious because some of the neat features of the please. Well, uh the one thing I just saw was neat is they don't have D pads, they have the touch pads. Right. Which is kind of neat. And then they use the better, I think they use the better thing that's not doesn't get stick drift if you know if you're better, better thumbsticks, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Some things like that. And I I think there's a lot of other shit. And then I am assuming it's you know compatible with all Steam launched games.
SPEAKER_02And I think it's also really good for PC. I think it has features that are really beneficial for PC.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because I wonder because you know, I'm always I'm always torn between the Xbox controller, which I like some things about it, and my PlayStation controller on the PC. Some games don't really support the PlayStation controller. Right. Especially if I'm playing for GeForce now. Yeah, right. Um, so I'm wondering if this I'll have to look into if this is fully supported by GForce now, that might be worth it for me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Because I hate, I know it's it's so dumb, but I hate playing my X my PlayStation controller with Xbox prompts. Yeah, right. Drives me nuts. That is annoying, right? So yeah, I might, I might, hmm. Hmm. We'll see. How am I have a I can write right off as a business expense? Yeah. There you go. Hey, let us know in the comments andor um Reddit. Reddit. You want us to uh review a play uh Steam controller.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Steve, let us know. That's Miller. We're not gonna have another. Yeah. Who which Steve?
SPEAKER_01All right, I think I got some others. Oh, yeah, this one's kind of sad, but not like death sad.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01But I'm sorry is a quote from the legendary Castlevania composer. Because she's confirming she's not working on Belmont's Curse, which is the newest Castlevania, true Castlevania game. Or I never realized she did the original blood stained.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I heard that too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was surprised to hear that. Yeah, um, her name is uh Michiru uh Yamane. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, I yeah, I didn't I didn't make the connection there, and it was like she did Symphony the other night. Yeah, so yeah, I mean she specifically did Symphony the other night, so it's like that game really was the spiritual successor sequel in so many ways. Yeah, so that's sad. She doesn't go into if sh sh it it makes it seem like she wasn't even asked.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think I saw an article too that said I think she actually did their spin-off. I think they did a spin-off.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they did like some retro style spin-off.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they were sanctioned too. It was like they and based on how well they did with the IP, they that's why they got the the rights to do the full Castlevania game. Oh yeah. I think based on that, like I think it was a DLC or something like that.
SPEAKER_01It was it was one of those things where it was yeah, it looked like a DLC, but technically it was it was a full-on spin-off retro style bloodstain, but it was even more so in the in the in the vein of uh Castlevania. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, she didn't use it for those. Yeah, I didn't use it for either one of the either one of those new ones. Yeah, which I didn't know.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I hope it's not a bad thing, or she maybe she's busy. Yeah, I mean we don't know. That's what I hope. No, we yeah, we don't know.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so we don't want another uh doom type situation, yeah. Yeah. So, but that's that was that. Okay. Um, I just have one one. I got do you have any more?
SPEAKER_02Oh, I got plenty of more. Okay, go ahead. All right, do do a couple. Okay. So Elden Ring is now going to be a movie. Did you hear about that? Yeah. Did we talk about this? I don't know.
SPEAKER_01There's some things that we um but some of the names are interesting. Yes, I don't think we did. I think I think here's the here's what happens. I think during my lunch break, I always read about Paul Tossi. In my head, I have a conversation with you about what we just talked about.
SPEAKER_00What we just read. Yeah. Because I know you're probably doing the same thing at the exact same time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, probably 80% of my news is stupid video games. Uh but Okay. So no, I don't I don't I don't know that we have. Um if we have to touch on it very little because the whole thing of you know, we have because we always touch upon the whole thing like, what the fuck are they gonna do? What kind of a story?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there's no there's nothing. Well, as as of the recording and this article, which this article's from month ago now. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um maybe it's changed. They've cast a bunch of people that I'm sure we don't know, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, here's some names, but the big one I know is Nick Offerman.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yes, that's right.
SPEAKER_02Ron Swanson for people who yeah.
SPEAKER_01Do we know who, though?
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_02No, right, they said people. Nothing, but yeah, apparently they're signing people, but they're not telling us who. Who who the fuck would that's probably the last person I would picture. I don't know though. I bet he's he's good.
SPEAKER_01So I mean, I love him. I love it. So I wonder if he's like excited, if he's gonna play like uh who was who was the badass king who you thought was half horse or on a big ass horse. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can actually see him playing him. Yeah, it could be eight. You know? Yeah. Or even a voice, I'm sure it's gonna be a lot of CGI, but him playing a bigger than life character.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it could be a voice. That's a good point. Or just crazy makeup. I'll hope.
SPEAKER_01I'll have to go more practical effects for that. I just this could be because this could be all CGI, which is just the fucking game. Yeah. I don't want that. I want I want something neat. I want something very neat. Yeah. Do we know who's directing it? Isn't it someone promising? Let's see. I don't know if they have a writer, director attached. I don't know. There's so many video game projects in the work right now that I can't.
SPEAKER_02The project is being developed by A24.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, A24, okay.
SPEAKER_02With Alex Garland.
SPEAKER_01Yes, Alex Garland, yes. So that's right and direct. There you go. So, I mean, that has promise. Is that right? Yeah, you know, Alex Garland. He did um 28 Days Later.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01And um, he was attached to the original Halo franchise, which didn't work out, then he ended up making District 19 or District 24. Remember that?
SPEAKER_02I like that movie a lot.
SPEAKER_01So think about that. That was all right.
SPEAKER_02I'm in. Now I'm in. All right. Thanks, man. Everybody else you should be into. Uh there's this might be a future quest, but I'll just kinda jump on here. GameSpot said Seros, which is a new release. Seros. I guess it's they came out, which I almost like until I got out. I forgot.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm surprised you had.
SPEAKER_02I was gonna House Mark. Yeah, House Mark. Is that how you mark? It's not Mark E. I don't know. I always hear like, oh, it's that way. And then but apparently it has a really special haptics on the PS5's dual sense controller.
SPEAKER_01I heard that. I have heard it because it was the first part. It's almost a first party title. Not a first party. Do they call that a second party? I think it's one of your few second parties, meaning it's wholly owned. It only produces games for PlayStation. So we're they work very closely with PlayStation. Yeah, they're very so the other game had good haptics plus good uh three uh what do they call that? Binaural sound. Right. Which you know, surround sound, but technically a surround sound on headphones, if you will. Right. Um yeah, so I I heard I heard about this, but it should have uh that. So oh, does that mean I think it's only available on PlayStation, right? Yeah, yeah, you have to bring out the PlayStation. Oh, dust that fucker off. Yeah, it does need this. But I've been early reviews of that game looked pretty good. Yeah, it looked to be from what I saw and read, it was a more approachable um that game was hard. The first whatever. Yeah, what the fuck? Returnal. Returnal. Returnal, I loved that was tough. I was so fucking bad at I was so frustrated.
SPEAKER_02I was bad for a long time, but I beat that.
SPEAKER_01But I think I think a beat it beat it. It's like a beat it beat it too. Yeah, you have to like play it a lot of times. I think they they said they learned their lesson and then made this one a little more. I mean, all you really need to make those games a little easier is there's more carryover. Yeah, and that's that's it. That's it. Yeah, power-ups at last.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because it's again a rogue. It's a rogue rogue.
SPEAKER_01Is that a full rogue? I mean, almost. Yeah, some little stuff carried over. Yeah, remember to be a true rogue. Yeah, your hundredth playthrough has to be the exact same as your first playthrough. And I think the only difference is your skill. My skill sucks. That's why I can't beat rogue. You gotta get good. I try to get good. All right, it's running a future quest somehow, but uh it's a little bit of a future quest for you. All right, I got one more. I'm gonna I'll just do one more. All right, and this is from a Paul Tassy article. Paul Tassy, Paul Tassy. Um, and I just want to touch on it because I'm I'm the hype has gotten to me. The hype has gotten to me. I'm talking about six chicks here, baby.
unknownSix chicks.
SPEAKER_01I know, six chicks, four or four or five guys. Talking about GTA six. Oh, you're getting hyped up. I think I am. Um, I didn't realize how long it's been since GTA 5 came out. Um and I remember that was three consoles ago. Yeah, isn't that insane? That was, dude, that was PlayStation 3. That was a fun game because that was one where we passed the controller. Yes, and I remember thinking at a time like how good that game looked. Like, is it's funny, like they put more time and effort into that game than they needed to. Yeah. But, anyways, and on that regard, Paul was talking about how there's a chance that they spent a billion dollars making this game. Most times to say somewhere between 500 to 750 million only. Right. But his thing is like it'll make that easy probably in the first week. Yeah, he calls it it's probably gonna be the biggest release, biggest consumer release ever. Oh, yeah. Mean topping movies, uh, iPhones, like everybody. Yeah, at this point.
SPEAKER_02I mean the hype I I just heard people talking and they're already talking, and and if it's true, it it's gonna be groundbreaking. I mean, I forget like they oh yeah, one of the things I've heard, and I don't know how they know this, and again, this is probably rumors, but they were saying you could follow an NPC around all day, and there they would go through a whole average day of a person. Just a generic NPC. I bet. And you could literally just walk and walk with them and follow them, and they might have a whole day planned. It it could be very interesting, but I don't know if that's true.
SPEAKER_01I it sounds like it could be.
SPEAKER_02But I based on how long it's been in development, I feel like that could be interesting.
SPEAKER_01And the money spent. So to give you an idea, um, they're pretty sure the first game cost around 250 million. So we're talking at least triple, possibly quadruple the budget.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I'm just thinking it's gonna get delayed again. I I just feel like it's gonna be delayed one more time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, again, I don't care.
SPEAKER_02I it doesn't matter to me at this point.
SPEAKER_01It's gonna happen, but it just but so now I'm I'm starting to get a little excited because I do remember past the controller. I I will I think we'll play it. We'll have fun. Couch co-op. Couch co-op. Well, uh well, couch kind of co-op. Yeah, that's what I mean. Couch take turn easy. Yeah, but uh yeah, I think it could be I think it'd be interesting.
SPEAKER_02I you know, at the end of the day, they're always pretty damn good games. Yeah. I I I enjoy every one. I just it's just it's been so long, I I don't know why. I'm just not but I I see why you're getting excited. You know, as it gets closer, I'll probably it's not our typical games that we play. No. No, but there's always you know, they always The story was actually really great.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I actually love the story. Our characters were they were wild and funny. Trevor Burrus, kind of the best characters ever, so yeah. So although Steve Og does not like Yeah, I guess he was well, he doesn't he's like, go read a book if he's asked about it. Steve Og is an asshole. I guess you might not be Steve Ogg, I love you. All right, uh subscribe to our TV. Subscribe, Pot. Come on here. Talk, talk about books. Yeah, yeah, we'll talk about books. Alrighty, rights. Okay. Um any more? No, that thing's it. I gotta uh that wait, we'll make sure there's no more timely ones. There wasn't only timely ones, so go ahead if you got others.
SPEAKER_02Well, speaking of movies, Bloodborne is being turned into a movie. I may have heard that. Apparently, I guess some Jackseptics eye or yeah, Jack Jack Septics Eye. I guess he's like a content creator and he's producing it. He said he was born to produ make this film or something like that.
SPEAKER_01Oh, is that gonna be live action?
SPEAKER_02I don't know that much.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02Oh, animated. Here it is. Animated. Oh, okay. That makes more sense. Yeah. So we're gonna do He promised is gonna do justice. And speaking of French, I know I thought it was very topical, and we talked about it. Castlevania Belmont's Curse is twisting French legends into nightmare bosses. Oh, interesting. It's gonna be like France and like this, whatever.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there are a lot of French French lore.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And uh Le Monsters. 1499, Paris. So twenty-three years after Dracula's curse. So they have Joan of Arc in it, I guess there's one of the Gendarc. Oh there's that French coming in. Oh boy. No French listens. Maybe we'll get one now. Oh, yeah. Um I don't think France. Uh no, I don't know. Uh uh quick one. Jack Black weighed in thinking if if they do a Red Dead Redemption, the Red Dead Redemption movie, he has an idea who he'll play.
SPEAKER_01Oh, so I saw that headline and then like my phone crashed or something weird. So I never got to read. So who? Who does he think he'd play? I don't know. I didn't actually look you didn't look either. I mean it wouldn't be I mean, I only know the main character.
SPEAKER_02I think he said himself. I think he wants to play like himself in a red dead world. Oh. I think that was what the gist of it.
SPEAKER_01Oh, like a him type character?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Like a Jack Black Cowboy Jack Black.
SPEAKER_02I think that's what it is. We're gonna go with that. Even if it's not. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. You wanna go? Anything else? No, that's all I got. Uh and this is kind of a little bit of sad news for people who uh probably didn't even know this game existed, but Elder Scrolls Mobile is shut down. This was probably this is very old.
SPEAKER_01Oh, the I meant to bring this up last blades, blades.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's officially done. Gone and done. So someone was playing it. Or not. And they actually like for for like the I think remember this, I think it was like the last month or last week, they gave all like the things that were behind paywalls that's good. Car blonde. You could have whatever you want, do whatever you want. Fire cell. And then here's some dual kingdom come deliverance news. Okay. You know me, I'm a big fan. So the first one's happy news, good news. They actually the week of, and this was in April, uh, as this article from I forget who this is, but as of April, so this was passed, that for a whole week they donated every dollar of a copy sold to helping preserve a real actual castle that had ties to the game. So all that money would help preserve it. And it's I'm gonna butcher it because it's spelled P-I-R-K-S with this little symbol S-T E J N Castle. So Perksin. Polish, right? No, check. I think it's check, check, check. I think it's check. I'm probably wrong again on that. Respawn, we'll get that right. And then the bad news for Kingdom Come, they're always kind of getting caught up in this.
SPEAKER_03Uh-oh.
SPEAKER_02So they've had some AI issues. I think they got caught using AI at some point for something, or maybe in early development. Got caught with AI. I don't know. It's like such a dirty word these days. But I guess their translator said he was fired and he was replaced with AI. So their translator was pretty mad.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I don't know, man, for at least a smaller company using AI translation. That's kind of hard to do.
SPEAKER_02Apparently they had like an open I don't know, maybe like a Reddit or something where they can it communicate with their and they had like a question QA with their fans and like something. And apparently 99% of the questions were all about their AI and how they're using it. And like people are freaking out.
SPEAKER_01I think it was them who did that. It's tough. It's a tough topic. I get it. It's tough, but I won't talk about that.
SPEAKER_02And I guess scientists have a new scientific study concludes that post-game depression is real. Yeah. And RPGs have the biggest effect on that.
SPEAKER_01I yes. There's something about beating the end. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I mm-hmm. It's a sanctioned thing from Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I don't think that like it's just well, you're not in that world anymore, and just uh Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So there you go. A little bit of sadness for Matt. Alright. That's I think that's it. That's all the news I have.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was good news. That was a uh try to keep it. That was a uh informative segment, I feel like. Thank you for uh being with
Future Quests
SPEAKER_01us. Alright. So yeah, I know I'm trying not to even look to the future a whole lot for these uh quests because I got too many current quests. Yeah, you got current ones. Although I'm gonna have to let I'm gonna have to let some go, man. I I think well, I already said I'm I'm loud, I'm letting I let go of um the outer worlds two. You're done. Um I will not let go of Fallout New Vegas. Um I will definitely get back to that. Now that Outer Worlds is gone, I think though, because they were too similar.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um obviously I'm gonna be playing some more Um Crimson Desert. That's my main focus. Good. But that makes it hard to segues into my next thing. Makes it hard to get back into Assassin's Creed. Yeah, they're both the same style. Um uh, excuse me, uh Shadows, which I I I did say, I think I said on here that if I do go back into that game, I need to stop doing all the side activities. I just need to I just need to straight mainline the quest. Which I was that it wasn't that I was getting burnt out on them, but I think I'm about to. So I need to just finish that game. Um because a future quest I am very excited for the world's worst kept secret is the Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynct. So this is the remaster, or technically it's almost it's more of a uh well, it's not a remake, it's more of a remaster Assassin's Creed Black Flag, which is one of the very few Assassin's Creed games I've never played, which is funny because most people say it's one of the best ones.
unknownThere you go.
SPEAKER_01So it I don't know if you followed or looked at anything.
SPEAKER_02I s I think I saw images popping on people comparing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it looks great. It looks like they've kind of brought the new to the old, but can still keep some of the old, which I'll be interested to go back into the old.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01Um, I don't know how the whole thing. Well, I don't know how much I'm into the naval combat, which is the whole thing, like the pirate stuff. They had a little bit of that in Assassin's Creed 3, and they had a little bit of that in uh like Assassin's Creed origins, I want to say. Um, and I was never really into it. Okay. So I don't know. I guess I don't know, but it is funny to me, like this is coming out and getting like so much hype and so much love, and yet we always talk about their poor, poor foray into the standalone uh pirate game, which did terrible and no one wanted, and no one played. That's so weird.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they spent so much time on it. Yeah, only make a worse version of it.
SPEAKER_01But I'm kind of uh I'm kind of excited to jump into it. And there's a lot of there's a lot of sea shanties. That's and there's even more sea shanties now. So that's the uh I like a good sea shanties. There is there is that. So we'll see. I don't know. Um it comes out on July 9th, so kind of soon. Uh both it's on the uh gonna be on the PS5, Xbox SS, and X and S and the PC. If you notice none of these games we ever talk about are also available on the Switch. Nope, not too much. Even though the Switch 2 is apparently more powerful, still just not good enough.
SPEAKER_02Not yet. Uh but they do their thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, good for them. But that's yeah, that's probably it. Um Ender Magnolia.
SPEAKER_02That's done.
SPEAKER_01I don't want it to be, but I just don't have the time. They'll practically see me getting back to that. Yeah. Um maybe ball pit. Yeah. But again. I don't know. Sad, but that's the way of the world. Limited times. Yeah, we're limited. So what's on your radar?
SPEAKER_02Unless you get millions to do this, right? That's right. Start subscribing. Yes! For me, I don't actually I just today I just literally finished the Vampires uh Quarters. Okay, okay. So I I'm looking post-game depression. Yeah, so I don't really have anything, but Seros looks good. So that might be up there. Uh so that might be. I'm kinda itching. I I think we're at a point, I don't know, I might have to just dive into Borderlands finally and experience that.
SPEAKER_01Shit, I completely forgot about that. That's yeah, every time I think about that game, I'm a little sad.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I I kind of want to at least finish the story. Just to say I did. Are we gonna have to say it? Just we'll we'll know. But we'll see. We're not gonna discuss that on camera necessarily. I'll be all personal deep-hearted discussion. That's right. What's up? This is a future quest. I don't know when it's gonna be released, but I wanted to talk about it because it got me really excited. A new game called Flash Loop. So this is a 2.5D sci-fi metro void uh metroidvania.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02But it's in uh it's a callback to a famous Genesis era. Flashback. Did you ever play flashback or hear flashback?
SPEAKER_01Yes. I don't think I've ever I've heard of it, I don't think I've ever played it. They try to do a reboot maybe not maybe like 10 years ago. Really? No, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I'm hopeful for this because this is at first time I'm hearing of it. But flashback, me and Dr. Sean Williamson back in the day, this was a random Genesis game he owned, and it was so cool because it was sci-fi, but it was very grounded reality game, which made it hard as shit. Like if you fell too far in that era, fall damage was a thing. It felt it felt like he it was gritty, it was it was just a really gritty experience. It was hard as shit. That probably could have made my hardest games ever.
SPEAKER_01Was that the game where like the cover art was a dude in like VR goggles? Yeah, I think that's or maybe just futuristic goggles or something like that. I feel like that's I don't have an image in my head.
SPEAKER_02I could probably pull it up. Maybe you'll do it when I'm gonna pull it up if you can find it. But I just remember we loved that game. It was just such a cool, gritty sci-fi experience. It was grounded in reality, it wasn't super over the top, and he'd like rolled and he did like realistic things that you kind of expect a dude who's just yeah, kind of fighting his way through robots and crazy shit. But it was hard. Robots. Yeah. There's a little bit of puzzle to it. But I we'll see what this one. I so I hope it's coming out soon because I I'd love to play that if it's turns out to be as good or similar.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, I'm glad. Yeah, yeah. There was a lot of remember being promised for for its uh comeback and it didn't work. So maybe this this will be the one. Yeah, maybe this will just but that's about all I got. So uh future looks grim. Backward hat Andy was very right. We are fucked. Everybody fucked. So play the games now. Yeah, it might be your last chance. You never know.
SPEAKER_02Should have voted. Thank you, Steve, for voting.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and uh, thank you to all our fans for sticking through us and uh listening in all these countries, and we really do appreciate you. Absolutely. So until next time, I'm Matty Flames, Andrew Wilde. And remember, if you grow up, you won't be a Toys or Us kid.