Corporate Games Media Thinks You're Stupid

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: A corporate reviewer tells you that you just don’t "understand" the difference between quality and popularity. Translation? Your fun is technically incorrect.

On this episode of Aggressively Casual, we’re skipping the "Let's dive in" bollocks and getting straight to the rants. We’re breaking down why Nintendo’s monster-catching patents just got laughed out of the room, how Crimson Desert is terrifying western developers, and why Marathon’s $250 million silence is the most expensive mistake in gaming right now.

Plus, we’re looking at the theory that GameStop actually birthed the live-service nightmare we’re all living in. Press play. Immediately regret it. Rant anyway.

𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗜𝗗𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗢𝗦:
❌ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗪𝗮𝗿: Nintendo loses its claim over monster-catching mechanics. Apparently, they didn't invent the genre.
❌ 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘃𝘀. 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗹: Addressing "THAT" reviewer who thinks popularity is a flaw.
❌ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲𝘆𝗮𝗿𝗱: First Descendant loses 96% of players and Marathon’s $250M silence is getting loud.
❌ 𝗖𝗿𝗶𝗺𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘁: Is it a masterpiece or just frighteningly broken?
❌ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘆: Did GameStop accidentally birth the live-service era?

𝗪𝗛𝗢 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗦𝗘 𝗚𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗦?
 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗫 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗸𝗶𝗽 is media for people obsessed with games, movies, and the messy space in between. Built by fans, for fans. No ads, no sugar-coated takes, and zero corporate synergy. If you’ve ever ranted for an hour in a Discord about a patch note, you’re home.

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🔗 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺s:   / pressx_toskip 

#PX2S #GamingNews #Marathon #CrimsonDesert #Nintendo #LiveService #AggressivelyCasual

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So here's the the the last two paragraphs of the article I wrote, I w I I I I I want to read them because it kind of says what I wanted to say here. Um it just says Bungie needs to start talking. Welcome everybody to Aggressively Casual Season 2 episode Lucky Number 13. I am Freebird as always, and with me to my internet left is Cheeks. Say hi, Cheeks. Hello. How are you, sir? What's new? What's up? What's happening?

SPEAKER_05 0:40

You know, just playing a new game finally. What? Giving Crimson Desert a little bit of a rest. It won't last. Don't get me wrong. Don't get me wrong. Oh, God. Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Okay, how many how many hours do you have in Crimson Desert now?

SPEAKER_05 1:00

114. I know that off the top of my head because I looked earlier.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Okay, fair. Fair. I think I I think I'm a little over. Let me let me look. Let me pull it up actually.

SPEAKER_05 1:12

It's actually, I think, 113.9.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

I'm uh I'm I'm just I'm just over 90 for me. So you've you've got me by you've got me by a bit. Um you've got me by a bit. Uh but man, that game, man, Crimson Desert. Oh, oh man. Let's talk about it. Just past 5 million copies, by the way. Either today or yesterday. Yeah, either today or yesterday, which is amazing because if i i i if you think about it, um uh uh uh Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 took a year to sell 5 million copies. Um Assassin's Creed Shadows took months to sell 5 million copies.

SPEAKER_05 1:55

There are ultra popular games that have never sold 5 million copies. Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

So the the for all intents and purposes, this thing's a this thing is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:10

And you know, and uh while we're on the subject, I mean we're gonna talk about Crimson Desert a bit tonight anyway. So you know what? We might as well just start with that. Sure. Um So the th what was I gonna shit, I lost what I was gonna say. Um the few things about Crimson Desert, the game, the one of these games, this is a game that the more you play it, the deeper the rabbit hole goes. Right. Um you see these videos all the time of this is overpowered, or holy crap, this needs to get changed, this is broken. Yeah. Here's the thing the deeper you get in this game, quite often you discover that, oh, yeah, it's over this item is overpowered for this activity, but this activity is why this item exists.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Yeah, it's true.

SPEAKER_05 3:01

Um there's a lot of that of what you know, and so and the game the game is interesting, isn't it? It plays into the power fantasy because after a while you can take on like a hundred regular dudes without too much problem, really. Once you start groking to the um the combat system, yeah, and that's grok is in hindline, not that stupid AI. Right. Umce you start into the combat system and start feeling out and understand that the combat system is all about creating space, yeah. Absolutely, Buck. It is absolutely one of the few games that I will say is worth every penny you are going to pay for it.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Yeah, absolutely. The the the the the the that I'm trying to remember the name of the ability, and I can't right now, but it's the one by the explosive one? Yeah, the one where you like shoot fireballs and it like it shoots and and and it like sends fireballs from you out around you.

SPEAKER_05 4:06

I think is what that's called.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

What was it?

SPEAKER_05 4:09

I think it's volcanic embrace or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Yeah, volcanic yes, the volcanic something. It's fucking amazing because it clears shit around you so fast.

SPEAKER_05 4:17

It's great for AoE stuff. It's really good for AOE.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Especially like, especially when when when we we were talking we were talking the other night, and I was like, oh, these fucking shadow harpies, right? And I'm trying, and I'm trying to deal with the enemies around me and the fucking shadow harpies. And I'm like, alright, fuck it. And I start spamming that button.

SPEAKER_05 4:38

Right.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

What I take care of the dudes around me.

SPEAKER_05 4:41

I just ignored the shadow harpies until I took care of all the dudes. Well And then concentrated on the shadow harpies. I tried that. Like if I could take out a couple, I would. But for the most part, I found that I needed to concentrate on the dudes before I did anything else.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

So I I tried that, but the problem is the the shadow harpies would like stun block me hard, and I don't know why. Um like they would they would swoop down in the middle of like getting stun locked by something else, and then it would be like stun locked from the guy on the ground, I would just get up, the shadow harpy would come down and stun block me, and then I would be dead. And I was like, oh, so that happened a bunch until I finally figured out if I if I used that volcanic, whatever the ability is called, I can't remember that the um and took care of the guys around me, it also kind of kept the shadow harpies off of me, and then I could use that flame ability with the LBRB uh light l light ability to take care of shadow harpies. But God, they need a better way to take care of those shadow harpies, because spamming that button and moving your controller stick around is the dumbest way to do that.

SPEAKER_05 6:17

Um, it's annoying. Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

The dumbest way to do that, let me tell you.

SPEAKER_05 6:25

Um but like But the whole point is there's usually something if you find a thing that's like giving you trouble, there's usually something in the game to counter it. For example, Shadow Harpies. Turns out that throwing fireballs at them is really effective. Um, you know, or lightning or uh any of the imbuents really is effective. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Uh so yeah, absolutely. Absolutely ludely. Um and and uh so I put I wrote I wrote I wrote uh uh I wrote our Crimson Desert review the other day. Um because I finally figured I had I had enough I had a I had a handle enough on the game to figure to I'm like alright, I'm gonna write the review, right? And and the review kind of turned into a review, plus also talking about the discourse about the reviews of the remote. Oh, we haven't got there yet.

SPEAKER_05 7:30

We haven't got there yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_05 7:34

For example, the uh we're gonna call them big corporate reviewers, have taken now the stance of you, the gaming public, do not know the difference between quality and popularity, or quality versus mass appeal.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Yeah, yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_05 8:00

I say let me quote Fuck off.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

That that's a stance to take.

SPEAKER_05 8:07

Yes, that is a view. My first question is five million copies. Your opinion is invalid. Right? It doesn't matter. It it literally doesn't matter if the game sucks. Right. It sold five million copies. Right. And I it's been my experience anyway, right? Bad games don't do that. Literally for a very long time. Right now, there may be games I don't like that do that. I'm kind of looking at you most Call of Duties, not all of them. Sure. Um, I don't particularly care for the modern ones. Uh that's just a my it's a me thing. That doesn't take away from the good the games are fine. They play well, they're well done, it's just not my jam. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Um but that but that doesn't make the game bad. Right. Literally, the headline the the the H2 for this section of the review is called the review discourse. Fair criticism, and then there was IGN.

SPEAKER_05 9:17

Well, yeah, and and IGN is the driver, but they're not the only one.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Right. So, you're right, and then but then I I I I I in fairness, I used IGN as a scapegoat here, but they are not the only ones that made this kind of statement. Now, that being said, there were more, there were over 100 critic reviews at the time that I wrote our review, right? Only seven of them landed in the 60s or below. IGN's was one of them, right? When you are that far outside of what is considered the consensus, with that little time invested in the game, because the guy who reviewed it for IGN said he didn't get that far into the game, right? Right. You don't get to call that a take. You just got it wrong, man.

SPEAKER_05 10:13

Right. Um, well, and here's the thing. Now, that is the problem with Crimson Desert, because it is not an instant gratification game. Sure. In any circular form. Sure. Which is part of the problem that the Western audience is having with it. And by Western audience, I mean that the other devs and the reviewers. Right. This is the problem they're having with it because in the Western world, the paradigm is gratification, gratification now to keep them opening their wallet to make the next microtransaction. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, so like we Crimson Desert doesn't have microtransactions, probably will have DLC. Yeah. They're patching it, they're fixing things that the community has decided is broken. Yep. Now they're not always giving the community exactly what they want, but they are listening and going, eh, you know what? Maybe you're right. Let's tweak that a bit.

unknown 11:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 11:10

You know, um, and of course, with every change, there's always that crowd that goes, it was better the other way. Because you can't win. Right. You literally cannot win. And so it has to be, but you go to where the majority want it, and that's just the way gaming works. Right. Um, and so far at least, I don't think they've compromised their own vision for the game. No.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

And I mean, we we talk a lot, especially on this show, we talk a lot about you know, reviewing the game you have, not the game you want it to be, right? Right.

SPEAKER_05 11:44

Meet the game where it is, not where you want it to be.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

It is a principle that you and I have held for years because it matters, right? And I understand, I can understand why at launch the game sat with some people at that kind of mixed rating, right? Because there were complaints about controls and UI and performance issues, right? The complaints were real, the experiences were real.

SPEAKER_05 12:07

It probably took me a good three days of solid play to start to feel the control.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

Yeah, the inventory management was a fucking nightmare. Quality of life features that should have been there on day one weren't there. They're fucking there now, sure, right? Sure. But on the other hand, right?

SPEAKER_05 12:26

There was so much stuff that was there on day one. You can almost forgive some of that stuff. Um you can certainly you can certainly go, but they fixed it. Right, right, right, but but we're patching within the first week.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

Right, right, right, sure. But so when when when when these reviewers that the the the what when they bounced off the combat, right, or or when they hit these, you know, a quest breaking bug, or they scored it accordingly, whatever. I get it, right? I don't agree with it, but I get it. Right? Sure. That's that re that that that that that that that that that's what we preach, right? That's the review of the game you have at the game you want to be doctrinated action. That's what we say, right? That's what we say that we want, right? But however, however, I think that undervalues the overall experience.

SPEAKER_05 13:21

Well, I think part part of that problem is especially for big we have a we have a luxury. You could spend 70 hours before you made your review. Yeah. Yeah. So those reviewers often can't. Yep. And so I will I will grant them that quite often they don't have the time to spend with Crimson Desert to truthfully the 20 to 30 hours it takes before it starts to fall into place. Now, with that being said, the game is still interesting from for me, it was good from the get-go. Yeah, there was enough there to go, okay, you're not ready to put this down. Yeah. Oh yeah. Unlike some other games that we've played recently, that I'm like, yeah, no. Yeah. There's just nothing to hold me to make me want to try to progress and learn more about this game. And no, I'm not talking about marathon at this point.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

No. I mean, I mean I mean I mean, uh, look, let's look at fucking like RuneScape Dragon Blocks. That that on paper is a game you should do.

SPEAKER_05 14:30

Should work. It doesn't really work for me. Where you're yeah, where we're not enough there to to hold that. Oh don't worry, we'll get to marathon. I'm just not talking about marathon at all.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Oh yeah, we'll we'll get to marathon.

SPEAKER_05 14:45

So the other thing you hear about Crimson Desert, the story. Right? Is it good? Yes. It is good. It's very tropic, don't get me wrong. It is full of story tropes. Understand something. Yeah. Oh, yes. This game is unapologetically Korean. What I mean by that is if you're familiar with Korean media at all, they lean in to story tropes. You can find a hundred movies that basically tell the exact same story, quite often with the same characters. That's correct. Pi May? Anyone? Yep.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Yeah, that Pime. Hell, hell, look at the show. But you probably know still bill. No, no, you wanna you you wanna talk about you wanna talk about uh about tropic and you want to talk about uh fucking uh uh uh what the what the fuck is the other the other game you wanted to talk about tonight? Um the the the the nexon um Korean game First ascendant First Ascended Tropic as hell tropic as hell and jiggle physics um you know uh also unapologetically Korean.

SPEAKER_05 16:02

Yes, right? Um probably even more so than Crimson Desert. Yes. Um I watched a video today, I shared it in our little group about a guy analyzing the armor in Crimson Desert. Oh, I'm watching that because I had some of the exact same thoughts. Yeah. Um one most of the armor lacks neck protection. Like, your head is covered completely in metal, your body is covered completely in metal, and there's this nice little three-inch gap of nothing but flesh neck. I'm like, Gorges existed and were vital. But then you get to another set of armor and it's almost completely accurate. So I I by the end by by now, I've always like, can we get some consistency, please? And then towards the end of the video, he's like, My problem with all this is it's inconsistent. Some of it is very good. The horse armor, for example, is almost exactly historically accurate. Right. Don't get me wrong, I don't care. It's rule of cool at the end of the day, right? But to me, that uh that lack of neck protection actually takes a little bit away from the look. Yeah. Because now it draws my eye, and I'm like, good lord, somebody's gonna stick a sword in that. Um but anyway, it made me chuckle. But overall, they definitely took a historic uh inspiration from a lot of it. Not the Pokebits, because that's pure fantasy. Um Pokebit, everybody wants Pokebits on their and sticky outie bits on their armor, and that's just pure fantasy. You actually want your armor to get as close to you as possible. But anyway, back to the story. Is the story good? It actually is good, it gets better as it goes along and it starts to twist and turn. But I think I still think they missed the point at first that this is told from the point of view of some dude who doesn't have the internet. Right. And has no idea what's going on in the world around him until it happens around him. Right. And that's how this story is told, and it's told a little bit, it's not told in that whole cinematic style of evil guy monologuing and telling us his entire plan. Um but the story does get good. I I got at one point for the first part, I was like, okay, I'm gonna do the story up to here, because you have to do the story. Um also if you get in the game now, follow the story until at least chapter four. Yeah. Leave the side quest alone. Because the story, at least until chapter four, is also serving as a lengthy tutorial and introducing things to you, systems and items and things like that. Um and it's not long after that where I found that because I went back to do some more story, because eventually you have to do that to open up other things in the game. And suddenly I was like, I had been I realized I had been doing nothing but story for like twenty hours. All the side questing had gone away. So something about that story pulled me in. Is is my point there. So is it good? Yes. Is it is it the same story we've seen a thousand times? Yep. I mean, it's essentially the same story we saw in Skyrim. It's the same story you see in The Witcher, it's the same story you see in every fantasy game ever. We haven't seemed to care before now. Why why do we care now? Right. You know, um, it's the hero's journey.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Well, well, well, we uh we care because somebody on the internet that has a YouTube channel told us to care.

unknown 19:51

Sure.

SPEAKER_05 19:51

Well, and I'm I'm I have a YouTube channel and I'm telling you not to. Exactly. Take that into web. Right? Alright, enough, but enough about Crimson Desert. Um, yeah, yeah. Um you talk, you mentioned you brought up First Ascendant. Yeah. Uh Nexon is now saying the first ascendant is a failure. Yeah, it's a failed experiment. 95% of the player base has left. They've been unable to hold them. Doesn't surprise me. It doesn't surprise me because it after a while there is nothing left to do.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

I mean, you you you and I talked about it when that game came out. We were like, this is a flash in the pan game. This is a come in, see the sights, play the game, get out. There was there's nothing to hold you there. Nothing. Yeah. Unless you liked grinding characters and to to see number go up.

SPEAKER_05 20:42

Right. And I mean grind.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

Yeah, but I was about to say, and I mean good.

SPEAKER_05 20:48

It's very Korean. Yeah. It's very Korean in that culture, Korea, China, things like that. Those games are ultra, ultra grindy. And Crimson Desert has that too. Do not misunderstand. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:02

Need more copper, need more iron, need more, yeah. Um, and you're only getting one or two pieces from a node. So the grind is real. But it's the the weird part about grind is if you like the game overall, you're more tolerant of the grind to a point. There does come a point where I'm just like, okay, now I'm just grinding for the sake of grinding. Right. Now I'm looking at you, Destiny. Um you knew I wouldn't get out of this show without a Destiny reference. Um, but First Ascendant is that way. It's it's very much that way. Um But yeah, so Nexon is now saying it's gone. Uh speaking of companies, um Nintendo lost their patent over the last couple of weeks. Okay, so for those of you that are new, this show only happens every couple of weeks. So if some of this news is old to you, I apologize, but this is what we're talking about because it what had not happened at the time of the last show. Right. Um Nintendo lost their copyright on monster catching. Yep. They reconsidered it and said, This is bullshit. Yep. Which is great. Um, because Nintendo took it, by the way, they didn't invent it. Nintendo didn't invent the catching monster pet thing.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

No.

SPEAKER_05 22:25

Um, it was just Pokemon that really popular popularized pop geared.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Nintendo didn't use my words. Nintendo tried to patent catching monsters, and the U.S. government basically told them they didn't invent gravity.

SPEAKER_05 22:36

The examiner said none of the 26 elements described are new or inventive enough to qualify for protection. Basically, they said, listen, you copied this shit from somebody else and we know it. Yeah. Um there's a French lawsuit against Ubisoft from Stop Killing Games. That on the surface, okay, so on the surface, I I applaud what Stop Killing Games is trying to do. Yep, same. But I think there's going to be there could be some unintended consequences here. Yep. Because if this lawsuit succeeds and Ubisoft is now required to keep any game active forever, which means if it's an online game, they're going to be required to release a server code, make it playable offline, etc.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

So here's here's the thing. Right. So here's here here's a thing. Uh the the uh Stop Killing Games two days ago threw its weight behind a California bill that would force companies to either keep games working independently after server shutdowns or issue refunds. Well, right, which is dumb. Um which is which is again great on paper, terrible in practice.

SPEAKER_05 23:57

Yeah, I mean it it's it has unintended quant consequences.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

Exactly. It had it it has it has so many unintended consequences that I just don't think kill online gaming altogether. Right. I think I I I I I just don't think that people have followed that thread far down the chain enough.

SPEAKER_05 24:18

No, because people don't want to follow the thread to the bad ending, they only want to they only see the good ending. Right. But but the world we live in says we're gonna get the bad ending.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

Right. Nobody wants to go to the bad place, they only want to go to the good place.

SPEAKER_05 24:31

Right. Um uh jumping over real quick. So we'll see what happens. I mean, uh yes, are there online games that I miss? Absolutely. I'm looking at you, EGA multiplayer battle tech, air warrior, legends of Cash.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

I'm looking at you, actual Star Wars Galaxies. Although, to be fair, to be fair, Star Wars Galaxies restoration is fucking amazing, and what they are doing with that game, Sony on Entertainment, never would have done. Never would have done.

SPEAKER_05 25:03

Auto Assault, Dungeon Runners. That was such a fun game. Oh, Dungeon Runners. Dungeons Runners was so fun. Um online multiplayer, massive multiplayer, Diablo-like, and it was so cool.

SPEAKER_04 25:21

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 25:22

And it was so much fun to play. And it was a game you could just get in, play for 30 minutes, go do something else. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

You know, uh so many games and and and move and be in.

SPEAKER_05 25:35

We need more games like that. We move on, technology moves on, yeah. You know, this is you and you're talking to a guy who has a MAME emulator and a bunch of other emulators, so it's not like I don't like old games. But at the same time, I don't expect Dune Awakening to last forever. Right. I don't expect I don't expect Windrose to last forever. I don't even expect WoW to last forever. It will shut down at some point. Right. Because it will become no longer financially viable. Right. Um because that's what happens. That's just the nature of the beast. Now, with wow, it'll take a bit. It'll take a bit unless something drastic happens. Right. You know, unless they screw the pooch hard, it'll take a bit. It'll take a while. But it will happen. So so anyway, uh that's some unintended consequences that I that I worry about with Stop Killing Games. Um hopefully we're very wrong and it all works out for everybody in the end. Absolutely. Um reviews for a minute. Yeah. And as a site who sometimes reviews games, well, he does. I I I tell him what I think, and it it eventually makes part of its way into the review. Um I have thought of a series that I think that we should try. Yeah. Um, just because I'm just gonna throw this out here right now so that we at least have a document and go, oh, yeah, that thing. Um not so much contrasting reviews, but review possible rebuttal. All right, all right, I like it.

SPEAKER_02 27:11

You know, I like it.

SPEAKER_05 27:12

This is my opinion, this is Bird's opinion, on the other hand, you know, that's that sort of thing. I like it. I don't know how that works. Um, you know, don't get me wrong, we do that live here, so that's basically what we do, and we talk about these games, and he's like, Oh, I love this, and I'm like, You're nuts. You know, that sort of thing. Um but yeah, we'll see what happens. But so anyway, reviews, should you read them or should you just play the damn game? The answer is yes. All of the above. Yeah. Reviews are not bad. Reviews in and of themselves are not bad. What I will tell you is to find a reviewer that kind of thinks that you think has the same views on games that you do. Right. So that when that reviewer says, I like this, you know that you're probably inclined to like it. When that reviewer says I don't like it, you know that you might be inclined to not like it. Now, with that being said, if a game looks good to you, play it. Yeah. You know, unless unless the reviews say it's unplayable because it won't launch, it there's massive bugs, there's massive this. I get that. Especially.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

Especially with the with with the rise of with the rise and return of the demo. Like demo's back. Like, like you, you you don't really have an excuse to not try something. At most, it takes up a few gigs of space on your hard drive, especially if you're on PC. Steam Nextfest runs you know once every couple of months, once every few months at this point. And you they get I mean, there's a million and one demos that come out during that. And there's so many cool things to look at, try. And I've every every Nextfest, I've found one or two games where I'm like, yep, that's on the ton of demos this last Next Fest. Yeah, buying that.

SPEAKER_05 29:09

Absolutely. I still have some on my computer. I still have the Alliance Tales Battle for the Frontier, Spacecraft demo, uh, Stellar Wanderers demo, Starship Commander Ryan Spur demo. I sense a theme.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

I'm getting a theme here. Right. I'm getting a theme.

SPEAKER_05 29:29

That's odd. It's not odd if you know me at all. It's not odd at all. Um but anyway, yeah, go try it. Go play it, go do the thing. Oh absolutely. Uh so oh I missed this one. Slipping back to Crimson Desert is the real problem with Crimson Desert. Yeah. The fact that it terrifies Western developers.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

Maybe.

SPEAKER_05 29:55

Crimson Desert has raised the bar. Yeah. Has raised the bar for the open world RPG. The bar was technically Skyrim. Yeah, that I guess the bar. Yeah. Now Crimson Desert is the bar. And it's gonna be bar in play systems, the way it looks, because it's friggin' brutal. Holy crap, it's pretty.

unknown 30:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:21

Jesus, it's pretty. Well, I saw it.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

Okay. But so so Skyrim was the bar. If Skyrim was the bar, by that vein, why wasn't Red Dead Redemption 2 the bar after Skyrim? Okay.

SPEAKER_05 30:37

Put Red Dead Redemption 2 on the bar. Okay. It still falls short to Crimson Desert as so far as features, and everything except for the way it looks. Yeah, fair fair. Because Red Dead 2 is still possibly the most beautiful game ever made. Yeah. Holy crap. I don't know what magic they worked ten years ago. But they threw some voodoo and sold a few souls.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

They sacrificed a few souls on a Ouija board.

SPEAKER_05 31:04

Sure, Skyrim is easier to mod. I'm not saying Skyrim's bad. I have we won't talk about how many hours I have in Skyrim. Yeah, we're not going to talk about how many platforms I own Skyrim on.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

And how many times I bought Skyrim.

SPEAKER_05 31:17

Right. You never hear me say Skyrim bad.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

Nope, Skyrim bad.

SPEAKER_05 31:22

I preferred Oblivion, to be honest. Um I have more hours in Oblivion than I do Skyrim.

SPEAKER_00 31:29

Skyrim's so good.

SPEAKER_05 31:30

But yeah, it's it's really good. And until now, I used to go back to it. This will be what I go back to now. And and there are plenty of mods out there for this. Um and modding will get easier as it goes forward. That's how that works. Uh I will never say Skyrim bad, and I will never tell anybody not to buy Skyrim. Yeah. Um, get it dirt cheap these days at times. You know, like all of it. Yeah. You know, but I think it scares them because why? No microtransactions. It's a complete product. It's a complete product that mostly worked at launch. Yeah. Um you know, it's it's not a live service game. Yep. It's got all this, and I'll be honest, it's got so many systems in it, you're like, this thing is gonna fall apart, and then it doesn't. Right. So now do I do I mean that every new RPG that comes out has to have all of this? No. No. Not at all. But you're gonna have to bring something to the table that's compelling. Right. Whether that's a new iteration on something or completely new, completely new is you know, debatable. Um I think I think Crimson Desert raises the bar. I think so too. And it raises the bar to an area that Western developers don't like. Absolutely. Because it gives players agency and it doesn't chain them to the microtransaction. And even Skyrim chains you to the microtransaction these days. Creation Club, anyone? Yeah. Um, you know. And it's a successful game that didn't come from the Western Hawk market.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

Well, well, and and then here's the thing, too. How many times have you and I said on this show that the formula to money when it comes to video games is to make and sell a good video game? Right. Look what happened. Pearl Abyss made and sold a good video game, and they sold five million copies. Right. I'm just it's like we know what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_02 33:48

You know. It's weird. I know.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

We heard that.

SPEAKER_02 33:55

Alright.

SPEAKER_05 33:56

But yeah, I mean, I think it raises the bar. I think it scares the hell out of Western developers. Um I would like to talk about MLB the show, but I can't play it, so that game can get bent.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

Um, salty about that game.

SPEAKER_05 34:18

First baseball game in a decade I've wanted to fucking play in a camp. It's so funny. I just need to be able to do it.

SPEAKER_03 34:25

I'm kind of leaning into it at that point.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

I don't know why it makes me so funny.

SPEAKER_05 34:31

I'm kind of leaning into it, but every time I see a new feature, I'm like, oh. Um now for something completely different. Yeah. I read an article the other day. I was reading a big article the other day. It was talking about um what caused live service games to come into existence.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 34:53

And I was like, okay, let's let's see what's that and I and I'm reading this, and then I watched a couple videos on it. I'm like, that makes a lot of sense. Okay. The answer is twofold. Yeah. One, GameStop. Yep. GameStop, re GameStop, and other resellers are part of the were part of the problem. Great for the gamer. Yep. But man, I used to spend a lot of money in the secondhand bin at GameStop. Um back in the day, I used to spend a lot of money in the bargain basement for PC games, too. Were they dropped into the $5 bin. And it was funny too, because like my granddad occasionally back in the day, I would ask, hey, would you buy me this game? And if it was like one game for 30 bucks, he'd be a little hesitant. But if I had a stack of six games for 30 bucks, never a problem. I thought a lot of gems that way. And I got a lot of stuff. I was playing it after it was the new after it was no longer the hotness, but I didn't care. Oh yeah. You know, but GameStop, and then the rise, the death of the arcade, and the rise of the home console. Yeah. Specifically pointing to Street Fighter. Yep. Because Street Fighter was the first game on home consoles that was pretty much exactly like the arcade version. Yep, yep. So arcades died. Resellers now were taking money out of the cons out of the consoles and everything else market. Yep. And this is what caused the rise of the live service game.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

Yep, because you had to buy it.

SPEAKER_05 36:39

Yep, because you had you. It also pushed us towards downloaded games, no longer buying a disc in a box. Yep. Now, I personally think they could have solved that by somehow coming to an agreement that they got a small percentage of the second sale from stores. I agree. There's nothing you can do about Ed deciding to sell AJ his copy of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 for the Xbox. Right. Nothing you can do about that. Nothing you can do. Well, you could have gone to GameStop and said, you know what? We're gonna pull all our product if you don't start giving us a percentage or two of your resale.

SPEAKER_00 37:20

I mean, even if it even if it's 1%. Right. Because at that time, GameStop was still doing numbers.

SPEAKER_05 37:29

Yeah, they were doing great numbers.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

And I mean, and and and and and and and and and let's be real, they're still doing decent numbers now. They're not doing bad, yeah. Like the the the the the the doom and gloom of GameStop is not anywhere near what people make it out to be.

SPEAKER_05 37:45

Um I go in the ones around here, I'm always kind of like Yeah, they they still put up decent numbers.

SPEAKER_00 37:53

I mean, nowhere near what they were years ago, but but they still put up decent numbers. Um but yeah, yeah, I I I 100% agree that they should have uh that that Xbox and and and and and and all whoever should have come should have come to an agreement with with with GameStop, with who uh uh uh Best Buy the time was do it was doing res uh resell of games. Whoever was doing those should have come to an agreement to to make that happen.

SPEAKER_05 38:26

Absolutely. But anyway, it was it was an interesting it was an interesting kind of aside. Um it made a lot of sense. Yeah, absolutely. So all right, let's talk about that game.

SPEAKER_00 38:40

Oh, that that game. That game. Okay. Well, we we said we said we get here, so we might as well talk about it. So uh so I wrote an article uh over the weekend uh about marathon. Um because the cracks are starting to show. And uh it's it's it's to the point where it's concerning. And yes, yes, I I'm tired of talking about this as much as people are tired about hearing hearing about it. But the thing of it is is that this isn't doom and gloom talk. I'm not s we're not gonna sit here and oh, marathon is is destined to blub. No, no, no. We're just talking about realities here, right? Like the player count is falling, Bungie spent apparently, according to fucking Paul Tassi at Forbes, 200 to 250 million dollars on this game. And now they're saying nothing. Like, right they've lost 71% of their player base since launch. You you can't you can't It's fine.

SPEAKER_05 39:56

We didn't hit an iceberg, everything's fine here.

SPEAKER_00 39:59

The the the most recent 24-hour peak at the time of the article was written was at 25,000 concurrent players. And before you say, well, not every game needs Fortnite numbers, you're right. But every game needs enough players to function. Well, you do if you spent 250 million on it. Right. But this particular game is an extraction shooter. The entire design philosophy depends on other humans being present, armed, and willing to make your life difficult. Right. When that doesn't happen, when cues stretch, when shit breaks down, I don't know what to tell you.

SPEAKER_05 40:46

And I I think Bungie needs to come out and flat out go, we're fine, or we have issues.

SPEAKER_00 40:54

Right. So here's the the the last two paragraphs of the article I wrote. I I I I I I want to read them because it kind of says what I wanted to say here. Um it just says Bungie needs to start talking. Not blog posts, not vague commitments to longevity like they do with Destiny, and seasonal roadmaps that could literally mean anything because they haven't actually created content yet. Real transparency needs to happen about what the studio sees when it looks at these numbers, what internal benchmarks exist, and what the actual plan is to reverse the retention curve before season two arrives in June. I I just I don't see us getting there, right? The players who are still there, grinding cryo archive and waiting for whatever the next experimental queue turns into, deserve a developer that speaks to them like adults rather than customers to be managed. The goodwill that exists in the community that remains is real, but it's not infinite. Right. The bill is already here, and Bungie should probably look at it. True dad. That's where we're at. That's where we're at.

SPEAKER_05 42:11

I agree. Alright. Yeah, they're gonna I I can't help but think that this is not a good picture for Bungie. Um which kind of sucks because not a good picture for Bungie means not a good picture for, say, uh Destiny 3.

SPEAKER_00 42:29

Right. But but it's it's not even that. Not a good picture for Bungie means not a good picture for Sony. Because you have to remember, Sony is still four billion at the end of the day. Sony is still four billion dollars in the hole. They're still I should say, they're still trying to dig out of a four billion dollar hole that they spent trying to buy them.

unknown 42:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:54

How and and and and when when and when you realize that every single thing that has happened since that acquisition has been an abject failure except for the final shape. Right. And you are, and I'm sorry, the final shape did not make four point three point six billion dollars. You have to wonder how much of that hole Sony still has left to dig out. Right. And at what point, or can they, and at what point do they go, okay, we're just going to bury the hole and take the tax write off. Right. Because that because real absorb the developers and Sony. This isn't this isn't doom and gloom talk. This is realistic, real world business needs. Sony is a business. This is where we're at. No. Alright. Happier things. Happier things.

SPEAKER_03 44:05

Not a bit this.

SPEAKER_00 44:06

Happier topic. Happier things. Windrose. First impressions. Cheeks go.

SPEAKER_05 44:12

First impressions good. It's got a bit to go yet. It is definitely early access. But the first impressions are really good. We'll be playing it as soon as the show ends, actually.

SPEAKER_00 44:26

Yeah, uh, once the show ends, once this show ends, chat, I'm going to end the stream so it ends the podcast portion of the show. Then I'm going to flip over to Winterfrey.

SPEAKER_05 44:37

Yeah, the first impressions are quite good. It's pirates. I was joking around on stream last night. Welcome to Skull and Bones. Or I mean Wendros. Uh what Skull and Bones should have been.

SPEAKER_00 44:50

But um somebody commented, it's Atlas! No. Right. Atlas only better. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 44:59

Although, I mean, to be fair to Atlas, I had a pretty good time. I really did. But I knew what I was getting, and again, you meet the game where it is, not where you think it should be.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:09

And that that makes things a lot better.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

Um Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 45:16

Yeah, it's good. My first impressions are good. Uh there's a few things they need to fix. There's a few things I would like to see them add. Yeah. Maybe some not fix is clarify even. Um I would like to see them add more uh editable settings to the server. Yeah. Uh there's a few things I would like to change just because I'm like, oh my god. And and some of again, it's consistency. Why can I instantly make, and I mean instantly make a hundred bandages, but then have to wait five minutes per copper in game. Right. It's not that consistent. Um so I would like to see that fixed. But but anyway, overall, first impression, yes, yes, yes, and the pirate. Right.

SPEAKER_00 46:12

Well, I I I've been waiting for a for a pirate game like this for a long time. I wanted Atlas to be in.

SPEAKER_05 46:22

For a game like Cut to the Cheeks. Come on, that was a good one too.

SPEAKER_00 46:32

Oh it should hit. Oh, it didn't hit. Why didn't it hit? Sad. Oh, I tried. It hit the counter, but it didn't hit the it didn't show the thing. That makes me sad. Oh it didn't hit the little splash graphic.

SPEAKER_05 46:52

Oh. I thought it was. I haven't the splash graphic only works like half the time. I don't think it's a good one.

SPEAKER_00 46:57

Well, it it only it only works on the gaming scene, and I can't figure out why, because it's copied in every page. So I wonder if if in copying it I broke something.

SPEAKER_05 47:07

Oh well, it happens.

SPEAKER_00 47:09

Um but anyways, um I I I've I've wanted a game like this for a while, right? And I and I wanted Atlas to be it, and it wasn't it. I mean, I I liked it, but it wasn't all that I wanted it to be. Um and and this this has the makings to kind of be that game, especially with that shared progression thing. Um I'm a little it's a little weird that the shared progression thing only works when all of us are online.

SPEAKER_05 47:40

But yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, but today I confirmed what we were what I was wondering about. Okay. I was pretty much able to just walk over to a couple of those clamp camps, open the cages, open the chest, be done.

SPEAKER_00 47:51

Oh, okay. You were okay, okay, so so so so so so so that's how that works.

SPEAKER_05 47:55

Okay. Yeah, so and I know Jeff did the same thing later. He's like, Oh, I uh because he was felt finishing that one little island, and he was like, Oh, there's no bad guys here. There's not even anybody left in the cages. But the chest is here. Got it.

SPEAKER_00 48:12

So, gotta be a good thing.

SPEAKER_05 48:15

Yeah, but if but that's because he was online when we got that step. But if he was offline, they would have been in the cages as well for him to talk to. So I'm a little I have I have my my worries are slightly alleviated on that front.

SPEAKER_00 48:31

Okay, okay. So that that that's fine then. Um and then uh they they need to fix some little things. So like I said, the the respawn timers on some things are a little wonky. The Discord is full of some weird connection issues for a lot of people, oddly. Um they actually they actually put an announcement out today, like they they were trying to get some connection, like some connections with like some like ISPs to get some issues resolved. Yeah, which I mean I mean again, good on them. Like good on them for actually trying to solve the problem.

SPEAKER_05 49:06

It's not a problem on our end. Um that's cool. Right? Good Windrow's good.

SPEAKER_04 49:13

Yeah, Windrow's good. I think is Windrow's good. Windrow's good.

SPEAKER_05 49:18

Oh, excuse me. Yar Windrow's be quite good. Go and buy it if you want to. I hate that voice. I hate that voice. I've always hated the mod the quote unquote pirate accent.

SPEAKER_00 49:28

Oh, I hate it too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 49:29

One, it's very hard on the voice.

SPEAKER_00 49:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 49:31

But there's there there's a reason you only exist because of Treasure Island, the movie.

SPEAKER_00 49:36

Yes. There's there's a reason you never saw it in the show.

SPEAKER_05 49:40

Right. There's a reason that my pirate is Scotch Irish.

SPEAKER_00 49:45

There's a reason you never once there's a reason you never once saw that happen. By the way, uh our our uh uh garbage stream this weekend, you want to make it happen?

SPEAKER_02 49:58

Maybe.

SPEAKER_00 49:59

Yeah? We might, yeah. Yeah, we might fail for the top part of it, so you know.

SPEAKER_05 50:05

Exactly. I already got the head rag on.

SPEAKER_00 50:08

I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, you you may have to wear the fish pants. I just I just I'm just I just you know, you may have to wear the fish pants.

SPEAKER_03 50:23

But yeah, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:26

But yeah, um, and then then the last thing I want to talk about was just something we haven't talked about for a while. Um what upcoming games are you looking forward to? Is there anything on your list that you're like, ooh, this is coming up? Yes, please.

SPEAKER_05 50:37

There's one that's already out called Space Empires. It's a 4X game. Uh, if you like Masters of Orion, it's along that vein.

SPEAKER_00 50:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 50:45

Um still hoping that Exakiller gets released at some point. Sinking City 2 is on the slate. The expanse Osiris Reborn. See, you didn't expect me to have a list, did you?

SPEAKER_00 50:56

Well, well, hold well, hold that that that that hits beta this year. That gets full release next year.

SPEAKER_05 51:03

The other game that we demoed at the same time as Windrose, Guardians of the Wild Sky. Yes. So that's so also pirates, but also airships, yes, and pets. Yes. And it's Guardians of the Wild Sky. I remember when the demo I described this, it's basically the Crimson Desert of survival games. And what I mean by that is it's every survival game ever mashed into one. Yes. Yes. Because Crimson Desert is like every open world RPG ever mashed into one.

SPEAKER_00 51:35

Um so May is gonna be busy because uh we're gonna be in Windrose, we're going to be in um uh Crimson Desert still, I assume, and then at the end of May, right? Uh we have um Well, we say we're gonna be a little fair. Uh at the end of May.

SPEAKER_05 52:02

Our last show is in May, so I won't be around for two weekends. That's true. And then two days after the last show, they cut me open.

SPEAKER_00 52:09

That's true. At the end of May, uh we get um uh uh uh uh LEGO Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight, which looks incredible. And then we also get uh the new 007 game from I.O. Uh which is the Hitman Guys. Yes, please! Um and then uh um Summer looks kinda wonky because there's not much that I'm like, ooh, I need that. And then in September is Wolverine. And that's uh that's about the list of things that I have right now. Because everything else that I'm like, ooh, yes, please. Doesn't have a many stealth.

SPEAKER_05 52:58

Stealth games, space games, and survival games. Triple S.

SPEAKER_00 53:02

Triple S. So so is a way I got it.

SPEAKER_05 53:05

Not to be considered triple S, because my other job.

SPEAKER_03 53:11

Come on! Come on! Give it to me. Give it to me, Daddy.

SPEAKER_00 53:18

God damn it, chicks.

SPEAKER_03 53:20

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 53:21

Count it. I hate you.

SPEAKER_03 53:28

Oh no, you don't.

SPEAKER_00 53:30

Oh yeah. All right, chat. All right, chat. That's gonna do it for us this evening. Thank you so much for hanging out with us. We'll be right back if you're hanging out with us live. We'll be right back for Winrose. Uh, if not, we'll check you guys in a couple of weeks. Thanks for hanging out. We love you all. We'll catch you in the next one.

SPEAKER_05 53:50

See you next time.