Unofficial Controller Podcast
Your number one weekly gaming podcast for all the latest Sony Playstation , Microsoft Xbox , Nintendo Switch and PC News. Retrospectives , Readers Mail and Industry Chat.
Unofficial Controller Podcast
Gaming Innovation & Franchise Challenges: From Yakuza Debates to Dragon Quest Discoveries
What if the rapid rise in game releases is doing more harm than good to our favorite franchises? Join us as we explore the fine line between innovation and oversaturation, especially with beloved series like Yakuza and Final Fantasy. We share the joys and challenges of engaging with remasters, while reflecting on how new entries stack up against the classics. Expect plenty of humorous exchanges, especially when George admits his excitement for the Horizon Zero Dawn remaster and Triple S reveals his newfound love for Dragon Quest 3 HD.
As gaming hardware evolves, so too does the debate over whether to snag the latest consoles like the PS5 Pro. We examine the historical cycles in console wars, ponder the balance between game quality and hardware specs, and even delve into Nintendo's strategic successes. Our conversation also covers the shifting dynamics within game development studios, pondering how changes in leadership might shape projects like Perfect Dark and what it means for the industry's creative future.
From the engaging world of Frostpunk's moral quandaries to Ubisoft's intriguing game design and marketing decisions, we cover a vast terrain. We critique Astro Bot's place in the game of the year conversation, discuss the implications of Nintendo's music app, and even highlight the adventurous narrative of gaming as storytelling. As always, we wrap up by inviting you to connect with us through Discord and share in our gaming plans for the coming week, setting the stage for yet another exciting episode.
hello and welcome to the unofficial Controller Podcast, your weekly gaming podcast, episode number 243, with me, george, and this week joined by Triple S, king of the cults to my barely an adult. How's it going?
Speaker 3:We're starting off like that.
Speaker 2:I love it Sometimes you've got to work the uh to make it work for you that time I love it.
Speaker 3:I love it. Everything's going well. Um, you know it's. It was kind of like this year in gaming has been the quiet before the storm. That has been like the late q3, q4 or early q4 time for me. So I'm like sure this is the most exciting I've been about video games this year and I'm loving it so far. What about you, george? How you been?
Speaker 2:Similar, I mean without ruining what you're hoping to play. So probably save people a few hours. I'm really, I'm absolutely stoked and by the time you hear this good listener, I'll be knee deep on the Horizon Zero Dawn remaster.
Speaker 3:Oh, you've gone back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, forbidden West hit for me in a real great way. I played the original and then got into Zero West and it blew me away the improvements and the way it played. I know everyone else in the cool yard was playing Elden Ring but old loser boy over here was playing Forbidden West and loving it. I was the same way.
Speaker 2:The fact that everyone ran off and played elden tree made it feel like it was a bit more of a personal experience. I do like it when I get the wrong end of the stick in terms of gaming, because you end up with a more sort of rewarding personal experience. So when you do get bored or you have a break and go on your phone I was just seeing shots of elden ring and I was like, yeah, this is great because I'm in my little special place. I'm in forbidden west. You aren't so off you go and I know millions of people are probably playing it, but when you don't see the buzz as much, it makes it feel special. Now I love the graphics and everything they did with forbidden west for them to roll that back through into the first one. I know we're all a bit sick of remasters and whatnot, but it's been long enough and for £10, and considering they gave the game away for free during COVID it's not bad.
Speaker 2:It's pretty good and the effects and the differences look great, although I was watching a video of the intro and it did look like Ross, your sort of adoptive father, had had some work done. You know, all his wrinkles and lines had gone and he just had this smooth, almost 360-like texture finish to his skin and I was like, ooh, that's a bit egregious when you label it as a remaster, when he looked a little bit grittier in the original. But that's that's, that's splitting hairs, everything else yeah, modern there yeah, a massive improvement.
Speaker 2:So I'm not here to say it's awful, it's not. I was literally blown away by everything that I've seen, so I'm looking forward to just tearing into that now. What we've done here is we flip the show upside down. So let's get it back on track, as I ask you, and I heard you doing an imitation of this. Oh, yeah, a terrible one.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think you realized that through that mimic artistry was discovered and you actually tapped into my persona, uh, more than I think you give yourself credit for. So let me see, let me give them what I would now call the second place what you've been playing, because you own the first place position triple s okay contract contractually, I'm obliged to ask you been playing oh, I love it.
Speaker 3:I love it. You. You got the um the. What is it? The guy who loved the family guy, guy who like creeps around on the youngest or the oldest side hello, there, son. Yes, yeah you kind of had that vibe to it. I love it.
Speaker 2:I love it um I didn't know, I made it pervy, but do you know what? If anyone was gonna, it was gonna, it was going to be me, wasn't it?
Speaker 3:I like that, though it adds a little bit of flavor to it. What have I been playing, man? I've been, you know like, had a little bit of that P Diddy flavor. Yeah, it kind of did it, kind of had a little baby oil to it, but I it's an interesting thing though, because I'm like I was thinking about this before we started recording, though I was complaining a lot about this year and what this year was and how samey a lot of the games felt, and then, ironically, the games that I'm most into are in the same ilk and genre of the games I was complaining about at the very beginning. Yeah, so I'm like, I'm really, you know like I play I've been playing dragon quest um 3 hd.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've been working out. It's not, it's not. I've been working out. Well, if I'm being honest, I think the game looks phenomenal. Um, it has that, you know, 2.5d um, octopath traveler. Look that people are raving about and love, and I love that art style.
Speaker 3:It's just I made the taboo scene of playing that after playing Metaphor and I think like Metaphor, even though they're very, they're different types of JRPGs but then, like Dragon Quest, has the cardinal scene of also starting off really slow. That first three hours I think are like old school. This is like. This is the tale of a kid who want, who needs, to get out of this village. He's now the chosen one. He basically goes off to save the day. He meets some friends along the way and it's like it's.
Speaker 3:It's an episode of a show you've seen a thousand times, just done with a new skin, and I think, like them, starting off slow, especially with the tutorial session, doesn't do that game any favors. I think, like, if you played this game back in the day, I think you might have that nostalgia boost of saying like, oh, this is a lot better of a game that I had played growing up and I want to revisit those memories. If you're like me you're experiencing this for the first time then you're like well, I kind of have some other JRPGs that I want to play. And this, you know, even though it looks like a modern game, because of the 2.5D aesthetic it feels, plays and the storytelling, it feels like a 1998 game.
Speaker 2:So this is Dragon Quest.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this is Dragon Quest, but I'm obsessed with metaphor, though that's been my JRPG right now, give me the lowdown on that then, because that's passed me by that one.
Speaker 2:So I would like to know a little bit more, if I may be so bold.
Speaker 3:So a little history on me. I never really played that much of any Atlus game until Persona 5. And fell in love with Person 5 around. Was that 2017, late 20 or early 2018 around. That time loved it, played, um, played. I want to say 80 hours on my first playthrough and just was salivating for more. Then, you know, persona 5 royal came along. I devoured that as well, even though it's a lot of the same thing as the original.
Speaker 2:Did you take some slightly different routes when you played? Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure for sure.
Speaker 3:I'm like different love interest. I mean they added so many different like people to your party that you can actually explore a lot more of the story. Um, there, I think, like one of the party members, that you get late in the original game. They expand upon his like story as well in Royals. So, yeah, there's a lot more meat on the bones of Royals. I think that's the definitive edition of the way to play that game. So I spent another at least minimum, probably 60 to 80 hours in that. So I'm like overall 160 hours, probably at least a minimum of 150 hours in Persona 5. Went to Persona 3, didn't quite hit the same, but I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:I think it's hard for me to go from 5 to 3 and say like oh, even with the tweaks, it was always going to be a big ask that, because they're split across, let's say 5, best case scenario landed on. Well, they released it on PS3 to make sure that they fulfilled their promise.
Speaker 2:But you know, we're comparing a late PS3 game or you could more appropriately class it as a PS4 game versus what really was Free Persona 4, a very early, early-ish PS2 title. That's going to take some quite significant work to force in those quality of life improvements that we've now experienced, almost two decades on from that game's release, I'd imagine and even the storytelling.
Speaker 3:I think persona 5 had a more mature way of telling, like modern day stories of abuse and like uh have you played for ration? No, I that that's that's the missing link.
Speaker 2:That's pro magnum man for is for you. I think if you went to four it would click and you'd be like, oh, now this makes sense to me. Now I can see the progression, because to me four or five they're almost back to back. They're almost kind of rubber sole revolver they're. They're very similar in their kind of the gameplay, the, the screen transitions and other bits and bobs which I've noticed from the remake of persona three that they've tried to incorporate that overview and they've tried to. Admittedly it's been a long time since we've even looked at the original, but they went for that blue aesthetic. Four is the yellow aesthetic. Five is the red. It almost looks to me like they're trying to bond these colors in a little bit more. So we kind of see the blue, we immediately think of three, we see the yellow, immediately think of four, we see red and we immediately think of five and they each have a different like, also music aesthetic too, like different music aesthetic and such like that, different like settings and such.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, it's, it's different than pokemon to where, like red, blue and red, blue and red, like red, blue and yellow, are basically the same game, except you know, swashed out your different starters.
Speaker 3:This is like, oh, a completely different setting, different cast, different vibe, um, different music aesthetic, like different interface oh, yeah, uh, into the for one of a better word the dream world yeah right, you know different every time, which I also think is cool so I think, like this is metaphor to bring this back to your original questions like metaphor is what I wanted from more persona 5, but in a, in a, like a medieval setting and twist to it to where, like it feels like they've added a lot of more.
Speaker 3:I guess you could say layers to combat, like instead of you just having a pokemon style battle against a pokemon out in the wild, which is basically what persona is. Um, this is like you are, you, everybody has weapons and you don't have a pokemon. You have weapons that you play with and the, instead of you changing your persona, that you, in the grand scheme of things, that would basically change your moveset, you change your weapon type. It's almost like you're and you're not going to want to hear this it's almost like yakas are like a dragon meets persona, but they have so many. I think it's more. I think it's more streamlined than the job system in Yakuza. Like a Dragon, oh it needs to be.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Because while I've not seen you, I had to go on another grind-a-thon to get that game finished.
Speaker 3:Did you finish it though?
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course I did.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I can understand that.
Speaker 2:I will just cut back to you shortly, because I talked about this last week and I wanted to say this to you by the end.
Speaker 2:I just did not care it's too much it wore me down, like I try and do everything that I stumble across. I'm not actively looking for everything in these games, but if I see something I'll dedicate to it. My hour counter on that game was ridiculous. When I finished I looked at it and was like that's embarrassing, mate, you need a hobby. And by the end of it I was just kind of click, click in, I'd just lost. I don't think I bond with Ichiban as well, but I think the world is better realised. I felt it a bit like yeah, I knew they might have to pop up the cameos and I did think crikey, just let these guys shine in one game of their own. You say you quite harshly dump in all the backstory and that's what you tell me. And then guess what? You lied, it's all here laid bare in front of me, um, and it just was a stark reminder of like I wish I was playing as him I understand that I also like.
Speaker 3:I'm also wondering if we're reaching an oversaturated point of Yakuza as a whole.
Speaker 2:I think that's a fear, because they are not short games and if you play them and finish them especially in the order that they've been re-released and you're catching up and you kind of, it must take as long to finish a Yakuza now as it does to make one. I don't know what they've done in the studio, but they've streamlined it with the ability to spit a game out every other afternoon. I mean, I've no doubt you've seen the Goro Majima Pirate.
Speaker 3:That's a pirate one. Yeah, coming up. Yeah it's.
Speaker 2:God, guys, this barrel is barely empty, but if you wring that wood out you might get another hex worth of water out of it. Fair play to them, but I get it. They're in danger of killing the franchise I think that's.
Speaker 3:I think that's true, I think that's like that's part of the reason why I also feel like final fantasy 7 sales were soft and final fantasy 16 sales were a lot softer than square anticipated is because, like you are beating the drum of your ips to death by just like rapidly putting them out. They don't feel special. You know like absolutely not, they don't feel special. Even seven, which is like the king of final fantasies, evidently didn't feel special because, like it for one, it's a, it's going to be a trilogy, so I mean that's a lot of homework for a lot of people to want to like, commit to. And then two is like you just had 16 come out. You constantly have this MMO that you're pushing as well and there doesn't seem to be any midnight release build of like this feels like a main event game anymore.
Speaker 2:I tell you what they've done. I tell you what we've done as fans. I don't lump myself into this, but this over-adulation of 7, to the point where nothing can compare with our teenage wet dream, means that we've had some really great Final Fantasy synths that always get measured against a PlayStation 1 game as a yardstick and I think what the hell?
Speaker 2:And 15 came out and I thoroughly enjoyed it, and then we started the whole schmoz of all we're. You know we was this an admittance by them that they haven't done anything as good since seven. So they're just going to remake seven and capitalize on the fan jury of it all, but but to the detriment of a modern day kind of full new game release. I think was a mistake. Final Fantasy 16 barely got its moment in the sun. It's a shame that it didn't hit for me as well as I thought it would do. I don't think I like the real time combat, and this is me right. Who didn't like?
Speaker 2:Yakuza because it was not what I'm used to and didn't like final fantasy because it's not what I'm used to and the games are basically just yeah, flipped on each other, yeah, but the evolution of the I mean final fantasy 15 had real time in it, but behind the scenes there were some dice rolling things going on. For me, the absolute peak of people are going to write and complain about this comment, but for me, the peak of the final fantasy real-time battle system and it was maligned, although I love it. Final fantasy 13 I thought they had that really good and I think it was called the chrysalis system as well, where it kind of unfolds and you skill up and level up. It was just great, it was a natural progression, it was great.
Speaker 2:Well, that's all gone in the bin and I just wonder if I say this all the time. But Steve Jobs famously said if we'd asked people who used mobile phones at the time we launched the iPhone, what do you want to see? The iPhone would have just had really big buttons and a tiny little screen. Sometimes you just got to give people what's next. And I think the gaming industry can be a little guilty of listening to what we want and therefore innovation doesn't come as thick and fast as we do if we just put some grown men in a room with a laptop and say make me a game from your wildest fantasies.
Speaker 3:We don't get that anymore here anyway, back on that notion just a little bit, because, like, come at me, come at me, I don't think it's the actual thing. I think this is more like uh, I think you're right on one half of the industry. I think like, if you're from a triple a standpoint, I feel like you're right. I think that's a hundred percent like triple a standpoint, I feel like you're right. I think that's a hundred percent like a little bit more. Too much fan service, not enough innovation. Also a little bit too much bloat, too many ips coming out, a bit like over saturation. There's also like a growing sentiment of like, what is a premium game in 2024 if we're paying 70? So we're really getting a 70 premium item. There's a lot, there's a lot going on there and there's a lot there's on the other side. I do think like the indie side is where we get our innovation games. It's just we're not playing like, we're not supporting the indie market like we should, because it's oversaturated shit too, excuse me.
Speaker 2:Well, that's the problem. Every now and then I pull on my indie boots and a mask a mask of you, basically, and I pretend to be the king of indies. But after wading through a couple of sort of cat owner simulators and litter box empty, a 5000 simulator and supermarket simulator and a load of other drivel, I've lost interest yeah, you just want to get back to your game.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, I just want to get back to your game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, I just want to play a game, and I've said it before, I'll say it again A digital storefront doesn't just mean you can dump a load of stuff in there and go there's your games. I've noticed there's an element of curation creeping in on the PlayStation store which has probably been sort of forced upon them by the, the alignment of the street, their streaming service. But there needs to be a hell of a lot more curation. Nintendo are really guilty of it. There is barely any on there and you get all excited, you go on your switch, and I know so. You said that sounds like a man smashing two rocks together to try and start a fight. I give it, though.
Speaker 2:I give it, but I go on there. Here's my little indie machine. Let's have a little skit around on here. What's going on? I'm laid on the sofa. I want my next big indie game. No, no, they need a section that says indies and they've curated them and they've got like an indie seal of approval. Their gold seal means nothing because they'll stick it on anything. It just means the game's going to run. But they've taken something that I used to view as a hallmark of quality and they've driven it into the ground. This generation. There's an absolute tap of that gold label on it Disgraceful.
Speaker 3:So here's. I think like I don't think we give them enough credit in the industry, so let me give this part of the industry credit. I think this is where Xbox actually excels. With Game Pass and with, like, their storefront, I think it's the better out of the big three storefronts.
Speaker 2:It is really good. My only slight gripe with it is it can be a bit busy and a little bit confusing. I think we just need it super simple. I think so, and one of the things that disappoints me with their store is they've got some really great. Admittedly they're not new franchises, but you could I think I've said this before on the show but you could create an area of the store that's like games pass even the history of gears of war and it's got like I don't know, a 10 minute documentary sandwiched in and around the games or on a page that you go to on the. You know it. It's playing silently in the background while you look at the games underneath, with some little data cards about when they're released, etc it needs to be disney plus to where you know.
Speaker 3:Have you been on disney plus, where they have, like the breakdowns for each section? You can go to the Marvel section. Everything's there.
Speaker 2:That would be the dream, although what I think about video game companies is that they could do that so much slicker. The media could be existing almost simultaneously. Xbox is an example. They've got their cloud streaming nailed on in terms of the ability to quickly try this. Yeah, the quality is. I'm not here to argue about who's got the better quality.
Speaker 2:It's really irrelevant they could have the game running and then you could just go straight into the level. You know. It wouldn't even be difficult for them to manifest that on the page, um, or like oh, here's a scene to remember from gears of war 2 and you look at the scene and instead of just watching it unfold, you can click a button and you can immediately be playing the scene. I know PlayStation put there were some patents going on not that long ago where they were kind of offering they were trying to lock away that functionality and get a patent for it, um, which I thought was pretty cool. But you know, a patent is one thing, utilizing the technology in a fruitful way, that's something else.
Speaker 3:Um, but yeah yeah, that seems like it's, I think, like I think their technology is there. That's something you save to make people actually want to buy a new console, though wow, okay, well I, I I'm just saying I'm like the green, the marketing person in me, that I completely think that's what they're doing there.
Speaker 2:I agree, um, it's um, it's a shame that they would do that. Uh, it'd be nice to see that functionality make its way into the store, cross-platform, like right now. But yeah, you're right, you know why give something away for free when you can make someone pay for it, I suppose I mean that's capitalism, right, we wouldn't be here without it.
Speaker 3:So especially when people are already questioning should you get a ps5 pro at the moment, like what is the new xbox going to offer that the new xbox can't do. You know, like you have to make some, you have to make it feature rich. At that point, you know I'm.
Speaker 2:I'm actually starting to err on the side of throwing caution to the wind and grabbing myself a pro. Uh, maybe I knew you would I knew you would.
Speaker 3:Anybody who's gonna buy a portal, I'm gonna buy the psvr too. It's gonna buy the pro they got you, man. They know who their audience is the thing is right.
Speaker 2:I was like now, the portal I've come around on right that was that actually was well executed in the end and it's fulfilled a lot of my requirements in terms of broadening my ability to game. Uh, the ps5 pro would just be a. It would be a very, very self-indulgent thing to do. It's 700 bucks, right, and I have mine horizontal, so I've got no aspirations of getting the stand, the vertical stand, but I have aspirations getting a disc drive right. So that's in the bin. I did read today that, although they say that everything was interchangeable with the pro from the slim, people have been trying to fit slim face plates to the Pro. They don't fit.
Speaker 3:Nah, man, they gotta sell you. They gotta sell you the new face plates and everything.
Speaker 2:Sell you the Pro plates, and I was like, oh, this needs to simmer down now. I think PlayStation have risen to the point of being, you know, the bigger boys, nintendo, and they are experimenting and successfully getting away with raising up the RRPs to build like a premium brand, which is obviously, from a marketing point of view, a good direction to take it in. When you've hit the ceiling, what else can you do to extrapolate revenue while you've got to present yourself as a premium product?
Speaker 3:you know whose fault this really is. It's like there's a lot of people's faults, but like xbox could have prevented this, like if there's competition, like actual stiff competition, you don't make these kind of like egregious things, like you only do that from a power of strength.
Speaker 2:If Xbox had come out the gates this is PS3 all over again.
Speaker 3:You know, like this is them kind of having their hubris about them and such like that before Xbox 360. Really just kind of clean the clock that generation, at least from the start of the generation, you know.
Speaker 2:And I wonder if that's what's due next. You know the PS6 is gonna. You know the PS6 is going to. You know, maybe because we do know that Xbox want to get out the gates early. We know that for a fact. Yeah, history is repeating itself a little bit. A little bit. But you know that means they kind of got away with their second version of the PS3 and the PS5. And you're like, oh yeah, lightning doesn't strike twice, guys, because they came out of that with a fresh face and a new attitude and that was great and that has done them a world of good. I actually think they're probably at their worst in the PS2 era, which the PS4 kind of duplicated. But they didn't quite lose themselves like they did with the ps3 and the ps5. I was a little bit nervous. I was like, oh, it's starting to smell a little bit like ps3 all over again. I'd have to wait till the end for some good games. We're waiting to the end for good games it is.
Speaker 3:It is kind of history repeating itself. But I kind of like that though, because I'm like if xbox and I know we probably say this every year if they are able to hit on the litany of games that they've advertised from the brilliant Xbox showcase what was that earlier this year and then part of last year I'm like you can have that 360X feeling You're at the gate first at this point If you come out with some games that's all people really want. I'm going to be honest with you. It's hard for me to come to terms with it, but people don't necessarily care about having the biggest, baddest console. They want software more than they actually want hardware nowadays it's good to have that double win.
Speaker 2:If you get lucky enough to be able to execute the double win, I mean you're laughing. If you can't, then you need some games right.
Speaker 3:That's what Nintendo's living on. No one in the history of like who has two brain cells thinks Nintendo's hardware is premium Like. That's why they're not priced as a premium item or anything like that. But they love the software. It's premium.
Speaker 2:I'm contractually obliged to tell you. It's premium.
Speaker 3:At this point it's like you could pick up two generations of phones ago and you're really out in comp of being better than the Switch, but it is.
Speaker 2:They ring performance out of that machine, though.
Speaker 3:They really have. They are geniuses. But no, it's like I really, you know, to give them a lot of credit, though, like they have really pushed their software to that next level of like if you look at like what they're actually doing, if you look at the indie landscape, they're not doing anything too dissimilar to from what a lot of indie games are doing. They're just doing it.
Speaker 2:They're super indie at this point and like, yeah, I agree with that, although I do feel like they are kicking the wheels out of the kind of game engines that they created for the switch era. Some of them kind of have roots in the wii u era. Okay, and they've milked that dry. They have milked this era completely dry and, yeah, I mean, they've got a game coming out in the mario brothership yeah, in the release in the release window of this show they will have a new game out Mario Brothership or Mario Luigi Brothership.
Speaker 1:Did you play the?
Speaker 3:original, by the way, because I never played the Mario, luigi games and Luigi games.
Speaker 2:This one feels to me like it's. I haven't deep-dived on it because it's just not really for me, but it feels to me like a quick rehash of the Mario RPG engine. I could be wrong, but I'm sure I saw turn-based mentioned on the website. I went to get the blurb for for the show notes.
Speaker 3:So let me let me, before we go back to anything, let me give you the quick pitch on why I think you you especially, since you like Persona would like Metaphor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because all that amble that we did there considering this is a short show. Once we get together, we're dangerous. Yeah, we really are. Give me the takeaway highlights of why I can't even say it Metaphor refantasia, metaphor, refantasia, metaphor refantasia. It's a Georgie game.
Speaker 3:Okay. So if you liked Persona 5, and this is all the streamlinedness of Persona 5, it still has the persona-ness of you having to manage your time, manage your days, and you have a team. Does it have the slick transitions? Oh, my goodness, I think it's almost near. Probably a little slicker than Persona 5s, but I think it is. But I think that's a high bar.
Speaker 2:I think you also but they're really for me. Those transitions are what really makes those.
Speaker 3:So good. And here's one of the cool parts that I'm enjoying about Persona or Metaphor right now is like you can put on different costumes from different era of atlas games and say all your, all your people, all my people, like I personify, is my favorite, uh, the lineup. So I have all my people dressed in like persona 5 school uniforms and I love it. And yeah, so like, if you do that, all of like, after you beat like one person out in the wild or something like that, like it transforms your your end scene where it gives you the stats and you know, like this is how much money you got, this is how much experience you got, and all that kind of stuff. It changed to the persona 5 one to where, like, it's the same as the persona 5, where they're all walking and it's in the red font and the red background. Now Tell me about the music. Oh, the music is more orchestral. This is their, I think. Oh, excuse me for a second. Okay.
Speaker 2:I don't know what's going on on Seb's side of the cult, but it looks like he's having technical issues. No, he's back with us. He had to inject Biscuit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure, so like to bring it back though. Yeah, the music Biscuit's.
Speaker 2:Allergic to Longhorn.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, biscuit's only allowed when Longhorn's not here for the day and such, but no, like the music's orchestral, it feels like you know how I told you. They have a different vibe. I think like Persona 5 was the jazzy, the jazz soundtrack to, where they leaned hard, and the lo-fi and jazz music, yeah.
Speaker 2:Persona 4 had that.
Speaker 3:Yeah for sure, yeah for sure so I'm like this one is more like the orchestral lord of the rings meets kind of like that soft rock kind of like kind of aesthetic there and it really kind of it really flows well with the medieval um weapons and all that they're going for.
Speaker 3:I also will say like I think the I here in america we are in a political time in our country to where like it's election season and having a game that is about a election and like you electing a leader as far as, like your whole country, a new country, is going. It's, it's meta in a way that it feels like they plan this, but it's also like there's so many different factions that have like ideological differences and those are kind of like a little meta as well, of like, oh, this could be this party, this could be that party, this is like a party rooted with like heavy, heavy ideologies from the church and such like that. So I'm like I feel like this is their smartest, that they've been in writing something that feels more modern and also more thought purposeful or just good timing?
Speaker 3:I don't know, because I'm like it feels like this is good. I think, you know, it could be a happy coincidence that this is maybe like it's happening right now, but I also think, like you put it out right before election time in america, like election day is coming, and this was like a couple weeks before that. So I do think there is a little bit of intention behind that as well. But, like, I do think like the fact that you're not constantly having to like fuse personas or like catch a persona. Instead, you're working on, oh, this part.
Speaker 3:Like each weapon type is tied to a person out there that you are having a bond with. In the same way, you know, like you had a bond with um Ryuji and all the other people in the older games and they, in that, in turn, made you like better with a certain type of persona. This makes you better with a certain type of weapon style and that weapon style gives you like, maybe, maybe then you're like I, I got better with this guy. Now I can like raise his ninja class up and, in turn, like, also like in persona, like ryuji and all those other people. They were locked to their own like personas you know like, yeah, you can, they were locked to that class, you couldn't do anything. This one if you unlock that class out there in the wild, you can mix and match your team based on whatever like weapon style you think they'd be best with that's a bit different, isn't it?
Speaker 3:that's oh, and it gets better like there's formations now, so like, um, you can still have four people to a row. But one of the cool parts about it is, like you can say, like I want two people in the front, two people in the back. The two people in the front will take more damage, but they also dish out more physical damage or dish out more damage oh.
Speaker 2:So it's a bit like darkest dungeon where you can arrange arranged people in the rear yeah, that's exactly what it is.
Speaker 3:So I'm like in the back, though you can also like there are special classes that take advantage of being a back formation class and they you can either raise like people's stats up. You can also like I have I, I have this guy on a crossbow. He's very good at crossbowing but he's also good at magic, so I can take advantage of having him dual will. It's like joe rogan. Yeah, it really is like joe rogan shooting the cyber truck sort of thing. But yeah, it's like it is more thought-provoking because I feel like playing persona 3 made persona 5. I went back and thought, okay, well, like that's a fun game, but I can kind of see like how this would get old after three installments. This freshens all that up because now you're playing with oh, I got spear guy, I got a samurai guy, I got a healer and I got a crossbow person. But this boss coming up, he's weak to piercing and pierce damage and electrical damage.
Speaker 2:I can change my whole people's classes to reflect on how better like to pursue that boss and also like persona you could do that, or you could just walk backwards through the game and grind through every enemy and then grind through every enemy on the way back and beat any standard class. I mean you could do that you could do that.
Speaker 3:But I mean, like this game also, like it's also a lot more anti-grind friendly and the way that, like in persona 5 and persona 3, they encourage you to go and grind through like the I can't remember what the worlds are called, the like the other dimensions where all the like monsters and everything like that is dungeons for sake of argument?
Speaker 3:yeah for sure, like the, you can do the dungeons and all. Like that is the dungeons for sake of argument? Yeah for sure, you can do the dungeons and all that kind of stuff. And this one they give you XP-based items that will allow you to build up, not necessarily your levels, but it'll allow you to build up your classes.
Speaker 3:You can be under-leveled, but if your classes are high enough, you can actually take down people much higher levels than you and also like yeah, and I think like one of the cool parts about like some of the some of the thoughts and differences and like the way atlas has like thought about progression, since like persona 5 especially, is the fact that like you can go out and there's some people you can buy like informant sheets from. These are like dedicated informant guys you can buy. You can say, hey, I want all the weaknesses of this upcoming dungeon or this optional dungeons and you can just buy that from that person and then.
Speaker 2:So instead of you playing like trial and error of going in of each dungeon trying to figure out everybody's weakness, you already know that going in and that's a quality of life improvement, like, yeah, maybe in the past going in the dungeon and learning what was in there, or it normally often linked around your latest skill, right, uh.
Speaker 3:But knowing that ahead of time just is a bit more respectful of the one commodity that costs more than money in this day and age, which is time yeah, yeah, and they have so many, like, so many quality of life improvements and then like, so you know, like in the old persona games you're always building up, like you know, crazy attributes for your own personal character, like his integrity, his courage and all that kind of stuff that's still in this game, but they limit it to just five, and those five can also be done in your home base. That moves around from like place to place in the country. So it's like they, and also like they think about okay, so, instead of giving you five semesters or three semesters where we're really kind of like pushing out content of like, oh, we're gonna give you quizzes and such like. That might not really matter in the grand scheme of things, it's just ways to kind of like fluff out the game and like, say like, oh, this will improve your wisdom. They give you like thought provoking ways of saying like, hey, we're going to do that similar in your home base, but it's not going to kill your days.
Speaker 3:And there's so many other quality of life things. Different people unlock different certain things, and they have this future site that you get early on in the game that will tell you which person you want to build your bonds with because it'll give you a certain boost in the future. There's this girl, maria, for instance. From the very get-go they tell you early on in the game, like with your future site. You can see that if you build a relationship with this girl, maria, she gives you double xp as you keep going on. So even more incentive of you, like I, so I can get a bond with maria and it, and even while I feel like I might want to grind out in a dungeon for a second, because I have a bond with her, it gives me double XP and double XP and double XP. Oh wow, because I have a bond with that girl.
Speaker 2:A bit like me drinking a boss coffee.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So I'm like it is very much one of those things to where I'm like I think she they thought about so many quality of life improvements.
Speaker 2:Is this a 70 bucks game or is it like a 50 bucks game?
Speaker 3:It's a 70 buck game If you have the big two, if you have like Steam, I think it's 59.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, so that's basically it.
Speaker 3:Sorry, let me put a pin in it.
Speaker 2:No, you're all good. I wanted to know about this. It's a game that's piqued my interest. I haven't actually done any learning on. I'm currently obsessed with the beatles. So my uh neurodivergency undiagnosed, diagnosed by instagram. Like most people, it might.
Speaker 3:It's, it's with astrobot right now for my like front runners for game of the year it's time I talked about astrobot oh, you dove in yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:I don't say these things to go against the grain on purpose, but it's just more of the same and it's fun and it's friendly and it's nice and it's well executed. But a lot of these enemies I've seen before, a lot of bosses I've seen before. The gameplay is innovative yeah, don't get me wrong, and it's. It's a friendly twist on what's gone before and maybe I'm expecting too much from it, but I definitely wouldn't have it. Well, in lieu of anything else appearing okay, I wouldn't have put it as my game of the year so far. I don't think I would have, although that renders my opinion not that my opinion is valid or not valid in this world right, because it's my opinion but that would technically put Star Wars Outlaws above Astro Bot in my year's ranking. Wow, wait. And I know, as I'm saying that that's going to get me probably banned from the internet as a heretic. I just I'm just not in for the hype on Astro Bot.
Speaker 2:I'm not here to say a bit like the reverse of Star Wars Outlaws. I'm not here to say it's a bad game, right, I'm not. It's a 10 out of 10, and everybody's appreciation of it. It absolutely is, and I can see why and I can understand the critical response from yourself and others as to why it's got this big score to it. I can also see why that throws it in the game of the year bucket right for consideration, and probably he's going to take home a gong all three. He's probably going to clean up at the Ponces this year. That's our award ceremony, and if anyone wants to know where Pastor is, he's out making America great again on the campaign trail in El Paso. That's all I've got to say. But when he's on the campaign trail we can record in our normal clothes. We don't need the cult smock. Everything's a lot more relaxed here. You know we break out Twister and do all that sort of stuff, but anyway, astrobot.
Speaker 3:It's good. Are you a platformer guy? I'm. I'm generally not usually typically like a platformer guy generally.
Speaker 2:No, the last one that I played 3d was probably mario odyssey played that last year, didn't? I got to a bit late, uh, and I kind of liked it but didn't love it, did you? I liked it, but very much towards the end I was was like I'm a bit done with this, so please end now. I beg of you to be the last boss. Please don't mess me about. Now Be the end of this game. Were you the same on.
Speaker 3:Galaxy as well, like Mario Galaxy games.
Speaker 2:It was a different time and maybe a little bit more. I think Odyssey was slightly more respectful of your time and it was fun, but by the end I wanted to throw Cappy in a bin not wearing for the next 10 years, and I hope that they rest Cappy, because if Mario Odyssey 2 is what we're getting on Nintendo not wearing for the next 10 years and I hope that they rest cappy because if Mario Odyssey 2 is what we're getting on Nintendo Switch 2, that's a mistake. Anyway, back to Astro Bot. Music's great. Your sense is great. The platform's fun. I never die because I think all this game's broken. I die because I've overreached myself in terms of the jumps or my abilities to do the timing. It's a good game. If you're out there thinking, do I get it or do or not? Yeah, get it. I'm just trying to reframe this in the game of the year conversation and I'm struggling to. I'd give it a solid eight, right, but 10 out of 10. There's no better game ever. Nah, absolutely not.
Speaker 3:No, I'm right there with you. I don't think 10 out of 10.
Speaker 2:I don't think there's 10 out of 10 this year 10 out of 10s banded around for Astro, but it's made me lose faith a little bit in critical gaming reviews. If I'm honest with you, it's made me kind of go hmm, I think we.
Speaker 3:That's a separate conversation. I think that's one worth having, but, like, I do think like there has been a little bit more lax I would say is the best word for it like I think, like growing up, 10 out of 10s were rare and they also, like meant something. They meant a lot. To that point, I feel like nines meant a whole lot too, because, like they were hallowed ground, mate, absolutely, yeah, for sure. And I feel like like right now it's almost like this new generation is more how do I put this like they're more compassionate, almost like they're of the new generation, they're almost more compassionate. They see, like growing up, we, we saw a game as a game. Like now there's more like nuances of saying like, oh, these are, this is something people made. It's more like they see it as art. So like, yeah, new. Like this new generation reviewers, I think, reviews everything almost a notch too high, like it's not to offend anybody yeah, yeah, I'm inclined to agree with you with that, but that means star wars, outlaws.
Speaker 2:Critical reception meted down to a metacritic of about five out of ten.
Speaker 3:I'm okay with that personally. But no, all jokes aside, I'm getting the DLC for that Deadly Deadpan, deadpan.
Speaker 2:This is a serious episode so I don't need to. The script doesn't need to say play it, deadpan. Okay, I mean it. Wow, I sold that laws with a 5. Such a good game and the DLC is going to make up for everything. It's going to be great.
Speaker 3:I wholly believe it. I wholly believe it Because this is going to be self-referenced talking about here. You know.
Speaker 2:Although they keep refining the stealth, and they just need to leave it alone. There's plenty of other bugs in that game that were completely ignored because someone moaned about the stealth in the first level. My good God.
Speaker 3:It has way more cardinal sins than just the stealth. There's so much more, way more.
Speaker 2:The way I ended up playing. It was I just literally rough-shot my way through everything and everybody using some of the attributes and skills you get later in the game, Like if you bum-rush someone and take them down with melee, you get a top-up of your health bar, which means I basically ran through a hail of laser fire, most of which was hitting me, punched me three times with the punch combo button and I was full health again. So I just ran 200 yards to the next guy and punched him in the face. Full health Doesn't even matter if you're down to one pixel. As soon as he drops, you get your health back.
Speaker 3:You're playing this like a PS3 game, like double-A game, like you remember, like what was it? What was the Infamous you were going to say? Is that the one you were going to say? I was going to say not infamous, but what was the almost like the symbiote game back in the day where you were just running around killing people? Yeah it is infamous is it infamous.
Speaker 1:I don't think it's like the ps.
Speaker 3:No, no, no. This one is the one where, like you actually were, it was a ps3, xbox 360 era game you were actually like a had a sequel. You were playing as almost like a symbiote, venom-like character and you would go around basically absorbing other people who had very much similar symbiote abilities. Oh, wow, well, anyways, you're going around like the hulk game back in the day, where you're just beating people down yeah, and that's how I played it.
Speaker 2:Anyway, we've gone way off track here I thought I thought it was time for me to mention Astro Bot. I haven't done it on the show to this point and I thought it would be rude not to. And I know everyone's going to be writing in saying, george, you know what you're talking about. It's the best game ever made. Are you just saying it to have a, the vr version? And I'm not saying I don't love this, just kind of wanted more. Um, if you've been on every astrobot train going all the way back to the ps4 camera, you I kind of wanted a. I just wanted a bit more from the little guy. That's all.
Speaker 3:That's all I think this is more of the same in a lot of ways.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, but I haven't seen one review kind of go, saw that boss in the VR worlds or the VR packing demo game or oh, hang on a minute, we saw that technique in here and it's all presented as new and I'm a bit like, oh no, don't present it as new. I've played, I've done this before. Like I say, it's a personal gripe and maybe I've spent too long on the Astro Bot train and therefore needed to get off.
Speaker 3:Prototype is a game I was referring to. By the way, the series.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. Anyway, the reason I actually wanted to tell you about a game I have been playing and loosely enjoying is a game called Frostpunk. Now, it came out years ago, but I stumbled across it on the old Sony Games Pass whatever that's called premium, ps premium, is it? Yeah, every game streaming service from now on in will be known as the XYZ Game Pass. You get there first, you get the name, and I genuinely think you would find some enjoyment from Frostpunk.
Speaker 2:Are you playing the first one or the second one, number one Okay, gotcha, and I like the amalgamation of like Anno and something like Darkest Dungeon, you know, in the frame up of how it plays and how it looks, and you get these little cues where it's like, oh, hang on, there's a problem with an individual in the city and you click on it and it normally presents you a morality choice, uh, which I find quite, which I found quite interesting and I found quite, uh, a challenging way to play when you're right up against it and someone's like we need a hospital, and you're thinking, yeah, but you also need coal, and you're all going to get a lot more ill if I don't heat this place. So the choices that you get are actually quite tough. Um, I've not had that much longevity from a city yet and that's been quite frustrating because I'm doing every time I've learned a bit more. I'm like, right, let's get the coal going on, let's get the food going on, no complaints.
Speaker 2:And then there's complaints and you're like, my god, people, you do not know, you do not know how good you've got it so this is a city skyline like city city builder simulator that actually has like real stakes it's very niche in the fact that there's nothing else like it, because they've kind of created this law of this frozen world and these heaters and the range of these heaters where you can have habitable zones and non sort of habitable zones, and how that affects their kind of despair or their hope, um, which you have to keep either up and the other one down. See, I don't need to explain to you which is which. And you get presented these kind of morality choices of like, oh, someone's died because you've looked after us so badly. And then it says do you want to open the book of laws and force people to bury their dead at this cemetery or do you want to just leave it up to them? And it's like oh crikey, what do I do normally with the corpses?
Speaker 2:I build a cemetery, but one I've been presented several times and I mentioned it last week, but I think you'll find this interesting is someone lost, uh, or got wounded, uh, doing a job in the mine or whatever. And you bring them out and the the doctor presents to you and one of these morality choices where he says right, the guy, we need to save this guy's life. He's saying we can't take his leg. I'm telling you, if we don't take his leg, the guy will die. So I thought well, I don't want to go down the route of forcing people to have medu, because ross punk can go dark at the click of a switch. Right, because one minute you're struggling for labor, then they present you a morality choice of oh, I'll tell you what. Why don't we just make all children work?
Speaker 3:it's like oh, crikey guys, simmer down this is giving me cult of the lamb flashbacks it's a very edgy version of cool, but they're the sort of choices you presented.
Speaker 2:Anyway. I said to this guy like right, I'm not forcing medical procedures on someone. If you don't want his leg amputating, it's on him anyway. Five minutes of game time later pops up morality choice. Oh, by the way, that guy died and I can't remember what the choice was. Well, that's on him, or we ought to do something about it. So it gives you a chance to revisit. But I'm like nah, if he didn't want his leg chopping off and he died, he knew the consequences. He's passed away. Here's what it is. If he'd asked us to fix his leg, we'd have done it immediately. It's on him. So I find it quite interesting. It's particularly tough, especially in this sort of early phase, because grinding through the book, the book of laws, is almost like your trill trillski you're playing on ps5, I imagine skill tree.
Speaker 2:Yeah, ps5 on a backwards compatible mode on the ps4 original and I'm sure frostbunk probably came out in like 2015 or something daft maybe 2016.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the steam page is 2016. Uh, steam has. They have a pretty good sell for it for 449 right now.
Speaker 2:That's not bad at all honestly, mate, if you've never played it, you're slightly intrigued with 449. I'd say, definitely pick it up. Um it. It plays real time but it has like Civ elements to it where you're kind of picking things slow time and the game day-night cycle. When you're playing it without any fast-forward on it just feels right. Enough time to make a choice, but not enough time to kind of drag the game on, which I actually think is fresh and nice in one of these it's. It's a halfway house between ano and civ, I would say, but without the historical elements in it. It is complete fantasy and so far I haven't come into any kind of that's good situations. Yeah, I think you'll.
Speaker 2:If anyone's listening now they're not sure and it's available on games pass. I know it's available on Games Pass. I know it's definitely on premium. I don't know if it ever got a Switch release, but if it's cheap enough you should pick it up. It's one of those games that you can just do half hour on and feel like you've achieved something. That's enough of that. I believe it's time for some news. Seb, have you got your news pants on your big boy pull-ups or not?
Speaker 3:I do not have my pull-ups on, but I will very much love to hear a lot about the news.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, we're in the very darkest region of the internet to bring you the latest stories. First up, let's face the music and dance News. I never thought was ever going to come, partially because no one ever asked for this. But Nintendo and dance News. I never thought was ever going to come, Partially because no one ever asked for this, but Nintendo's launched a dedicated mobile app. Isn't?
Speaker 3:that alarm.
Speaker 2:No, this is better than that, mate. This is Nintendo Music for the Switch Online members, allowing users to stream and download a variety of music tracks from the firm's wide range of franchises. It's available now on iOS and Android. I checked because I couldn't quite believe it is there. The app contains music from new releases, along with retro classics from Nintendo's library, and also includes the ability to hide certain tracks that may contain game spoilers, as well as extend or loop tracks, so you can keep listening for longer. Oh, is Donkey Kong on the stairs from the underwater world on? Oh, my goodness, gracious me, mumsy, I mean Pastor, he's out. I'll download the app, you'll be able to create something.
Speaker 3:Why is this?
Speaker 2:a thing. You can just listen to it on YouTube or something. Hey, they've seen an option to give us more bang for our bucks and they've spent a big switch online books on seen an option to give us more bang for our books and they've spent our big Switch Online books on creating an app to store their music on Better play to them. Maybe they're hoping it's going to stem piracy. Who knows of them anymore? You can make playlists, blah, blah, blah, blah. More music will, of course, be added in the future, but franchises highlighted in the debut trailer include the likes of Splatoon. No one will be listening to that. Zelda. Some might listen to that. Metroid, yeah. Mario, yeah, uh, pokemon, probably donkey kong, yeah, I don't want to imagine starfox fire emblem. And more essentially then it sounds like nintendo's take on spotify, which is pretty awesome for switch online members at the moment.
Speaker 2:We've been able to verify its availability in North America, the UK, europe and Japan. It's available to download via the Google Play Store and the Apple iOS App Store. Before I ask your opinion on that, seb, it's reminded me there talking about Europe and Japan and all that that I must say. Sweden, I see you downloading episodes like you're doing. I appreciate you as well, and all the folks in Malaysia. You heard the call, you picked up the baton and you ran with it. Welcome to the UCP family. We see you and we appreciate you, and thank you for listening. Seb, let's switch it up and get all newsy on it. Sir Ass, what do you make of this pile of drivel? Really, did you hear it? What was that biscuit doing?
Speaker 3:a little um no, I tried to do the little switch snap like oh, okay, okay yeah.
Speaker 2:Is that the sound of a man who's into this or a sound of a man who's not into this?
Speaker 3:no, I'm not into this at all. I'm like I feel like you don't. You don't make youtube when youtube already exists.
Speaker 2:You know like I brought this here, though, because I want to understand, because these things aren't cheap. So someone, somewhere said we need a nintendo music app. What drove that decision?
Speaker 3:I would love to know weird nintendo decisions, that's. That's basically the, the mantra they live by. It's why, even though the switch 2 isn't, it should a slam dunk, it should just be the same thing over again, just higher, better.
Speaker 2:I mean, have they gone on YouTube and seen? Obviously, because this all now makes sense, reframed around some news that we had a while ago. If you recall, I think it was an episode you and I did where Ninty were serving notices on people for doing and it's always a sign people were doing covers of their music on YouTube and then they were getting copyright struck and the video had to come down, because they had claimed the video and told people not to create music anymore just be kind people.
Speaker 3:Now we know why I'm like what does it hurt, though one thing? What does it hurt? You know why I'm like what does it hurt, though? I mean one thing, what does it hurt, like doesn't hurt all the people in nintendo switch online.
Speaker 2:They're the people more than likely hardcore members that are already listening to this music on youtube. You're gonna get ad revenue from that, nintendo, so why are you now making this app to give them it here? What? What? You don't want them on YouTube looking at videos about your games or what? Because your ecosystem is diverse.
Speaker 3:Nintendo also has their own channel on YouTube. Just put it on your own channel.
Speaker 2:Maybe this was a better way of paying service to it. I just don't really get. I can normally see some form of logic, but seeing as this is a free app if you've got an, only available for free, technically, so it's not free. If you've got Switch Online, who wants to pay more though? Well, let's talk about the arrow of wedge of people that have Nintendo Online and will be that interested that they're going to go onto their app store and download this music thing.
Speaker 3:No, just put it on Spotify, put it on YouTube, put it on like. You have a plethora of music options that people are already adapted to. You know how much harder it is to get like people into new technology on their phones.
Speaker 2:I'll be honest, based on their success of their apps mario run, animal crossing, mario games though you know, yeah, but they didn't even hit. Yeah, how the hell is this gonna hit?
Speaker 3:it's not. It is not just go like in business. You go where people are. You don't necessarily create an oasis where people are already there. It's why live service games aren't thriving right now, because people already have live service games. You'd be better off making mini-modes in Fortnite than you would trying to make another Fortnite.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Yeah, I agree with that Well.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what then.
Speaker 2:Let's park that burning Nintendo dumpster there. No doubt that will be the most downloaded app for November, and I shall come in wearing a face mask of Shigeru Miyamoto. What's this?
Speaker 3:I don't have the email, so I don't know what the next story is.
Speaker 2:by the way, oh, okay, I'll do it too. Marvel's Wolverine has lost its original. No, hang on rewind. I paid money here for the headline slash and burn.
Speaker 2:slash and burn marvel's wolverine has lost its original creative director, brian horton, to xbox's upcoming perfect dark title. This is not the staff movement I expected. I'll be honest with you. A game GameFi report was revealed, as confirmed by both Sony and Microsoft representatives. Horton made the switch in the summer and Marcus Smith has taken his place, who served in directorial roles at Insomniac Games on Marvel's Spider-Man entries and Ratchet Clank Rift Apart. That's why Horton moved from Insomniac Games to sources speaking directly to the outlet claimed it was due to creative decisions around the game. Sony client to comment on this claim, however, only confirming smith's new position. In addition, mike daly is the new game director for marvel's wolverine. Speaking to game file, an xbox rep said horton will hold the same creative director role on perfect dark, allowing him to bring his wealth of experience to the upcoming reboot of the classic Secret Agent series.
Speaker 2:First revealed almost four years ago, perfect Dark reappeared with a gameplay presentation earlier this year and did look all the better for showing us something. Marvel's Wolverine, meanwhile, was announced roughly nine months later in the PlayStation Showcase of 2021, and we haven't seen a dicky bird since, except in leaked gameplay via a hack of internal insomnia documents. The developers said it'll share more when the time is right. Um, what do you make of that wolverine situation? Meowed fruit.
Speaker 3:What's the word you said in there, because I would love that, I would love you to say that again. Dickie Dickens, what was that? They haven't shared, dickie, something since.
Speaker 2:Dickens. They haven't shared Dickens.
Speaker 3:No, it was like Dickie Pickie or something. You were reading the story and I was like it was something European and I was likeinky Piki or something. You were reading the story and I was like it was something European and I was like I love that. I want to hear that again, but anyways, I forget what I said, mate.
Speaker 2:To be honest, I have a script, but I did add some words into it. I love it A little bit on the fly and I thought, yeah, but now I've forgotten what you said. A Dickie Bird, was it a?
Speaker 3:dicky bird. Dicky bird yeah, it was a dicky bird. I was like what is a dicky bird? I love that Dicky bird's just a little.
Speaker 2:I don't even know what a dicky bird is. It's just something that we say when you've heard nothing about it.
Speaker 3:I've not even heard a dicky bird out of it. I haven't heard a dicky bird, I love that that's so funny.
Speaker 2:It's only in these moments. You know, day to day I speak to people who have probably a limited grasp of English and I think you know that I turn up with some very bizarre words. And now you've zoned me in on Dickie Bird. It probably makes me realize that for half of the time I'm talking they're probably looking at me, going what the hell is this dude talking about?
Speaker 3:I love it. I love it Don't ever change what is a dicky bird, I don't know I don't know right in. If you know, uh, yeah, let us know in the corrections or right in. But um, I I don't think this is very much of a story. I think wolverine's cooking and I like it's not. It wasn't in the list of canceled games that they cancelled, like the Spider-Man multiplayer. I'm like let the game cook then at this point, yeah.
Speaker 2:I agree it's coming. Let it cook. I just found it strange that someone would exit there over a creative decision and find themselves at the initiative. Is it that's making Perfect Dark? Yeah?
Speaker 3:it's the initiative.
Speaker 2:Considering they've had creative difference issues, that's caused perfect dark to be mired in its own up to its own axles in mud. It kind of sounds like frying pan to fire.
Speaker 3:I don't know it's one of those things to where I'm like, I think. I think this was just a way that someone said I want to move from one company to another, and let me just come up with an excuse for it. It could have been creative differences, but it could have just been like hey, I'm getting tired, I want to move to a new company. They're paying more.
Speaker 2:I don't see why that's such an egregious thing to say in this day and age. Listen, we've come to the end of the road together. I want to move in this direction with my career. The game's cool, right? I haven't got any creative issues, I just want to leave. I want to move no, it's like I.
Speaker 3:I don't get it either, but I'm like it's. It is one of those things to where I'm like I. I don't think it's a story that Marvel's Spider-Man is like, especially after the leak, going through some development. You know where they really have to hone in and decide what this game is going to be, taking some of the criticisms of all that and then go from there. I also don't think it's like a big story that a guy left and wanted to work for another company because, like creative decisions right now. It'd be different, I think, if Insomniac was a hellhole right now. You know, like a dicky bird.
Speaker 2:Insomniac Games isn't a company. From what I have researched or seen, that is one of those classic toxic businesses that exists in the industry.
Speaker 3:No, they're not Ubisoft right now, that has all exists in the industry. No, they're not. They're not ubisoft right now. That has good guys yeah, they're not ubisoft that has everyone striking, you know, like once every month at this point, but like it's, it might just be. You know creative differences. It might also be that you know like a lot of places are you you know, work from home friendly, some aren't.
Speaker 2:You know like there's a lot of things that go into creative differences you know, the one main thing that I think could be incorporated into the, which could be a good thing for the industry, is spreading some of that PlayStation studio technique into others, into studios, playstation studio technique into others, uh, into the studios. And to see that land at the initiative which, considering it, was like a, a tentpole studio to attract the best talent, it's not exactly been marred in anything other than dirty rumors and controversy, with very little to show for it. So it takes someone that's, according to the research, has shipped some high brow games against some pretty tough deadlines in the end. I think is a big boon for the initiative, and they were struggling with direction. If this comes and gives them a clear point of travel, it's good news.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I wonder how much one guy is going to be able to do.
Speaker 2:but you know, I think this is a good news If you've got your hand on the tiller, you can probably make some effective changes If he was going in as like. I don't know engine creation or something like that, but creative director is is pretty good, but we know the game's quite far along, and so I wonder what a creative director is going to be doing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this far along, though, you know, like I I feel like um, and also with the studio, like as big as the initiative, I feel like if it was a 15 person team, one person means a lot and yeah for sure. Yeah, if it's like a, I'm just gonna be generous with the numbers. If it's 130 person team, I'm like I'm not quite sure. You know, like, at this point, you might depends where the game.
Speaker 2:I suppose you know if you're completely rudderless and the guys are all kind of working through their work dockets and doing their bits, but then they need someone at the top. That goes right. Johnny's finished that, mavis has finished this, barbara's done that, sean's working on this. Now we stitch them together. Let me see what it looks like. Yeah, I hate it. Do it again Like a director at that point. Yeah, yeah, create a director. Right, he's helping the creative, so he's helping them come up with the ideas and the techniques. One would imagine It'd be nice to get someone in to explain to us exactly what the creative director role is, but I think it varies from studio to studio. But close your eyes and imagine what it looks like, and it's pretty close. I think it's good news in a way.
Speaker 3:This tells me that the game's probably like 2026 versus 2025, like a lot of people.
Speaker 2:Well, that was the other discussion point. You know, a creative director comes along. What if it doesn't like what the previous creative director has done? We've seen footage of this running. I thought it looked pretty snappy. I think it needed to do something a little bit different, but you know, know, they've gone for it. This guy coming along at this point is either to bring it home asap or it's to pick it up and kick the can down the road and add some of that you know insomniac juice to it.
Speaker 3:Maybe I I don't even know anymore I'm hoping that this is just to streamline some systems and stuff like that, maybe like helping out with side quests and such, you know like well, that would be cool because you know you integrate them well and things start to look up, don't they?
Speaker 3:yeah, so I'm hoping this is just more like adding a little bit more fluff. I'm hoping, though, like to be fair, I also don't hope it's adding in a little more fluff, because I think I want us to get into a point in this generation to that, and I want this to be with the Initiative and Perfect Dark and Wolverine, for that matter. I want those games to be shorter and more highly polished, shorter experiences, and I don't think games like those Ilks need to be over 10 hours, I think like nine hours and below, yeah.
Speaker 2:Miles Morales hit just right for a superhero game. I think Spider-Man 2 reminded me that. I don't know why, but he always sit well with Spider-Man 1. Something about the pacing, the look. It's permanently been on my PS5 hard drive.
Speaker 3:This is more sometimes, you know.
Speaker 2:The day I got it, you know, and one fit Mars Morales was the perfect accompaniment, but it didn't overstay its welcome. Spider-man 2 rocked up and yeah, good game.
Speaker 3:but OMG, I felt it in that third act, especially with the Venom, where he was lifting up the city and all that. I'm like, oh, I'm feeling the drag here. Now you did not have to turn that game into Web of Shadows at the end to add another Spider-Man game on top of the Spider-Man game we already had.
Speaker 2:I felt like it could have took it down a notch or two and still have hit as hard. Um, and while bringing it down a notch or two and cutting maybe I'm gonna chuck it out there, mate cutting five hours out the mid to end game, possibly some out the beginning as well, would actually have made a lot more consolidated product. You know what the video game industry is like. It's a bit like the motor industry. Oh well, you know, previous model went well, so we've got to make this one bigger, wider, longer, faster and you know some of the bizarre metric.
Speaker 3:It's like you don't need to do that here, If any game could have used a part one and a part two. It was Spider-man 2, like to, where, like split that game in the middle, make craven like the main villain of part one and then make venom, the main villain of part two that would have been beautiful yeah, make them both miles morales size, but like split them off.
Speaker 3:And then you could have gave one of part one last year, part one part two this year and I think like the whole narrative about that game would have been like way higher I think especially if it left us just wanting more oh yeah at the end, oh yeah, and like like you said at the end of it.
Speaker 2:You're like, yeah, venom, just get on with it, mate, because I'm done.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, imagine if they split like this is very, very light spoilers for spider man 2 people but like there's a mary j light spoilers for Spider-Man two people but like there's a Mary Jane part that happens in Spider-Man two where, like, she goes through a bit of a transformation herself as far as, like, where her character is going through. If they split off the second game at the end of like or when you see the Mary Jane stuff happen and I would have been like, oh wow, I really want to know what's going to happen next.
Speaker 2:Imagine leaving it there as well, before any blows are traded, and then the next game opens up, with you going toe to toe. Oh yeah, yeah, that would have been saucy, wouldn't it? I think I would have been, because it's, you know, it's a fight that in its own, in the middle of the game, and I was kind of like, and how, how daring would it have been to go out on a non-boss finish as well.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, this is what I'm saying. I think, like I think if we get to that Lost Legacy point where, like Lost Legacy, miles Morales and that's like the standard for all AAA games going forward, and then occasionally you do have your big 60 to 70 hour games but like, for the most part, keep them that nine to 13 hour games and I think people as long as they're premium people are still going to appreciate that I could stomach a 25 hour completionist. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:To give you a day's worth of activity to you know, because there's been times where I've sat down and plunged 15 hours into one gaming session. Well, that would be that done Broke chop, you're out of here. Stone flaming table May young giving birth to a glove, all that good stuff.
Speaker 3:The hands with Mark Henry. Oh, six from chocolate, but. But I think like, yeah, no, but you're right though, but I'm like I think like we don't necessarily need every game to be an ubisoft, open world adventure odyssey game, especially like in our triple a space well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna chuck this out there.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna have to get a tie with I'm not careful. Outlaws did not overstay its welcome I think that's the one thing for ubisoft about that. Yeah, I was shocked by that. The end game sort of snuck up on me. I knew it was going to be short, but I didn't expect it to be that short, uh, and I tried to hold off as, as you know, I was like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, and in the end I embraced it and then the world was like still livable.
Speaker 2:For me it was still livable. I'd just fly around playing Sabacc. A little bit of Sabacc.
Speaker 3:I want that to be a side game that they give for like $5, and I'd be all over it. I don't want to have to go and live in that world again. I just want to.
Speaker 2:I just want to play my sabacc yeah, but it feels good walking into the tatooine sort of sabacc place, brushing sand off his shoulders, sitting down throwing a couple of why aren't the high stakes games more high stakes? Yeah, like you're still playing for 100 star wars dollars. Right, it's like no high stakes. I expect that to say like 25 000 star wars dollars no man.
Speaker 3:Here's the here's like the lesson they could have took from starfield on that. It's like give us like interchangeable ships and you and like ships are on the line, and because that's star wars, you know, like star was like, you'd have to win back slip, pink slip it up I was like make it to where they feel like there's big stakes, to where, if I win in this game, this hand, I can win like this big cruiser.
Speaker 3:You know that I can sell, or that I could fly in or different things like that. I'm like I think there's so many quality of life things they could have done differently, but also, like stakes, things they could have done we are never seeing a sequel for that game. Is that sad? I?
Speaker 2:think that it is. I think that the lessons learned from the release of this first one would have produced an absolutely banging sequel.
Speaker 3:Here's my thing If we got a sequel, I wouldn't have wanted Massive to do the sequel. Massive, the same people who did the first one, and the Division people. I would have wanted another team from Ubisoft, maybe even one of the Assassin's Creed teams, because I think a lot of lessons to be learned there.
Speaker 2:I think the danger was that they didn't put them on it in the first place, even though it ended up being almost that, the Mirage team.
Speaker 3:They do smaller kind of like skill things. I'm like the Mirage team. I would have preferred them on this.
Speaker 2:Sadly, they were busy making Mirage.
Speaker 3:Yeah, then nobody wanted to play, nobody wanted to play.
Speaker 2:I've seen that game at some frightfully low monies. You know brand new and Mirage got done dirty more than Outlaws, I think but because it didn't have a big name attached to it, it was their own product, it was easier to brush under the carpet. I think that Outlaws was always going to have a lot of eyes on it because it's got the big name attached. Outlaws also had a pricing issue.
Speaker 3:I too like I think for 70, that was a hard pill to swallow, especially considering how short it was and all that kind of stuff. It's like if that would have come at the same price that prince of persia came at around that 40 point, I think the narrative about that would have changed.
Speaker 2:We would have lessened our expectations about it yeah, but that's when you've got to pay disney the big fat monies for all that star wars stuff. 70 bucks was going to be the cheapest that game was ever going to be.
Speaker 3:So here's the problem with that, though. It's like if disney and in ubisoft were going to come to a deal and with those kind of price margins, they went to the wrong studio, because Ubisoft Games and everyone who knows games and buys video games knows that that is the studio known for putting out a game that goes to the bargain bin faster than any other studio in the face of the world. This is the same team that put out Avatar, and this is why I bring this up, because Avatar another Disney property world like this is the same team that put out avatar and this is why I bring this up, because avatar, another disney property, came out and was 20 reduced almost three to four weeks after it came out.
Speaker 2:yeah, I never. I just found that a really odd choice from the get-go like avatar. Wait, hang on really I.
Speaker 3:I think it is a really odd choice. But far cry avatar. But the point is it's like they had and they had a sample of size of saying like, oh, your game's going so fast our price margins probably aren't going to align on on, like, disney taking their cut of the licensing fee versus ubisoft production fee and all that kind of stuff, that game wasn't going to be profitable the way they wanted to be profitable from the get-go is what I'm saying. It's like, and no one, like very few people, buy Ubisoft games day one. They're, they're the Black Friday sales, they're the salesman games to where, like, people will wait for those games versus any first party sony game, like any first party nintendo game. Those are like day one buys. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Like zelda is not like a lot of people don't wait for zeldas. They go out and buy zeldas immediately when it comes out. Like gtas, they go out and buy those media when it comes out. When an Ubisoft game, assassin's Creed for instance, is like oh, when that drops on sale or when I have a gap in my schedule, that's when I'll go buy that game. You know, and I feel like on a licensed game you don't. You have to think, you have to think better than that. Like you can't, that's not the studio for you. Then, like, that's why I think like Spider-Man works so well, at least like the first two games work so well, because, like there's expectations there that are different for PlayStation than they are for Ubisoft.
Speaker 2:We had a little bit of time, to be fair, to delay it into December, and I think that would have a pop-up store standee for Star Wars Outlaws in the month of December where mumsy and dadsy are prowling the shops. That would have been.
Speaker 3:Excuse me. That's why I think Indiana Jones has the benefit right now Of like Indiana Jones is coming out in December and you know like for Disney, there's nothing else and none of their other properties competing with them, and also very many games, not very many of their other properties to compete with them and also not very many games are coming out to compete with it.
Speaker 2:I find it odd that they would. They're going to do their numbers on that on Games Pass, so that's not even going to benefit from store displays.
Speaker 3:No, bless you again.
Speaker 2:They're going to get the money Every time they're going to benefit from the store displays when PlayStation put one together for them.
Speaker 3:Or, you know, I hope they do Steam Day 1. You know, like Steam Day 1, and then PlayStation Like Steam, they might do like Hi-Fi Rush numbers, which isn't great. At least is at least some profit there. When playstation gets it, it'll be a lot.
Speaker 2:It'll be their second wave of profit oh yeah if that game is half decent, it'll be a tidal wave. Um, I want to quickly at this point, sir, if you check your beautiful little discord messaging app, I want to just shout out our wonderful loyal supporters. The show is free. It will always always be free. But if you've enjoyed or had very minimal pain from what you've listened to, guess what, we've got some tiers. $3 is going to get you a readout on every show, just as you're about to experience. $5 is going to get you a readout on every show, just as you're about to experience. Five dollars is going to get you a readout on every show and art merch, yearly eight dollars is going to get you read out on every show. Arm and cheerleading access to the inglorious chat, a little private section for paying members on the discord. The discord is free, don't freak out, everything is free. But if you want to pay a little bit, it's just a little bit of a tickle under the chin. Ten dollars is going to get you all of the above tiers and it's going to get you access to our quarterly zoom meeting. Um, which we're due. I think we're probably overdue one, actually so, and that will just be a very light get together of all of us like-minded characters where we show each other our pickups and other various behind the scenes-scenes UCP activity.
Speaker 2:Now those brave adventurers that have supported the show, and here's a special Georgie offer that some of you have benefited from. And if you're sat on the wings, you're in Sweden, you're in Malaysia, we've even got listeners in Ukraine, all over the world. If you're listening and you think, actually, do you know what? Yeah, I was about to go buy a T-shirt, but for the price of a coffee I get a T-shirt. So sign up right now and you get a T-shirt, regardless of what tier you're in. I'm just feeling generous and very grateful for your loyal support. Straight out the gates, the first person with their loyal support is Carlos, who's? Next? You got Trussell's New York, so I get Firm Returns and you get Bada Bingster. I get Tingle Tuna, digital Monkery and I get Roast Space Monk.
Speaker 3:The Gaming Rad.
Speaker 2:Boulder Border Boba. He said like Emperor Palpatine Boba.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was kind of trying to go for it. Take this discord and strike me down. Join me at your father's side I get.
Speaker 2:He's still in it, right. He's a member of the cast now, but he's still paying his own. He's paying his it right. He's a member of the cast now, but he's still paying his own. He's paying his way. It's marathon gaming give him.
Speaker 3:Give him some unique voice, because I'm like, if he's going to stay there, at least give him a voice.
Speaker 2:I don't know what he'd want marathon gaming that's good.
Speaker 3:We'll workshop that one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, listen, you wanted something. You put me on the spot. That's what I came up with. It's not my best work seal master elliot my red-headed stepson ginge and we'll just check now with uh, is she on the apps or not? Said emma sharp is she on the apps? I, I'm going to say yes this week. Oh, commiserations, but you know, hopefully you find Emma's not on the apps. Okay, it was a misspeak by OG Tom and it's ended up becoming law. I get Harvey Retro Nowhere near Berlin.
Speaker 2:The beloved mumsy's put money in the box the RGT fan club apologies, because Carlos should have been the one man George fan club, because even I deserve something, which means I get the immortal Pete Brocklehurst.
Speaker 2:Billy Marmite oh, look at the way this has worked out, which means I get Simon Pryke and you get there's the Val Venus version for you. If you've heard your name, he read out. We're very grateful to you. Thank you so much. If you're listening now, don't panic, the show's free. It'll always be free. It's always going to be in your free feeds. But if you want to contribute and get a little bit more involved, you can do the first step for the road. For that is the discord. It's free. Ratchet up the tears if you want to get even more involved and the world opens up like a flower. Uh, community corrections. Uh, we've got any, any. But uh, did we miss an opinion or take on the news? Uh, if so, um, seb, how would they get in contact with us and let us know that we just have no?
Speaker 3:clue. Look in the description of the episode. You will find all the links there. You can also go to discord. You can hit us up on the discord's more important, but you can hit us also up on the instas and all that kind of stuff, um, on the ucp, on the ucp channel, and that's pretty much it. You know like. You can also email us at the email in the description below as well. So you know, you got plenty of ways. I would recommend that, that discord button though oh, you make some like-minded gamer friends.
Speaker 2:I would say, if you do want to support the show you listen to this on a podcast or on the YouTube go download it on Spotify. Go in the description Little link at the bottom, all safe and secure. You can support the show there for as much or as little as you would like within the £3.10 tiers that we've created. That's all that good stuff done From the end of the show. We're peering perilously close to the precipice of the end game of the show and to that end he's been.
Speaker 2:He's fresh back from the campaign trail wearing his make America great again hat. He's looking what I would call fired up with campaign trail energy. So it's time for a peek in what we affectionately call these days, past a longhorned smock. What's nestled between some cult paraphernalia and a dodgy copy of Battlefield Earth this week these are new release highlights for the week. Ha ha, you might freshen up the script, georgie boy, but did you freshen up the dates? No, november 4th to november 10th. Listeners, these are digital or physical, or will be by the time this podcast in your feed, but could be region dependent. Now, who wants to give them a reach around first, me or you I?
Speaker 3:do not have the list, so I'm just gonna say you go first and I will workshop.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, you work with me here, sir. I got first game. Let me reach around Now. He's tuning up his guitar. It looks like his G string is a little tight, so I'm going to help him ease that off while I grab planet coaster to on the PC, the export series X and PS five November 6, 2024. Now, the first one was a big favorite of mine during the launch of the ps5. Create a splash with planet coaster 2, sequel to the world's best coaster park simulator. Can't argue with that. Pre-chip. Purchase planet coaster 2 now to receive the bonus ride collection containing three thrilling rides designed to give your guests an extra boost of fun. Out next from his little flesh pocket is Mario and Luigi Brothership on the Nintendo Switch Flesh pocket. Just play it deadpan.
Speaker 2:December 7th 2024, the brothers return for a new adventure on the high seas. Set sail with Mario and Luigi exploring islands, enjoying action-packed encounters and tackling turn-based combat in Mario and Luigi Brothership on Nintendo Switch. Last one, and considering where I'm getting it from, this one's got a dubious title. It's Slitterhead on the PS5, xbox Series X PC. That made the list. Slitterhead on the PS5, xbox Series X PC.
Speaker 3:That made the list. Slitterhead made the list.
Speaker 2:It's allowed me to make a joke about Asta's manhood. These games are here for many reasons, some of which are script aiders. November the 8th, 2024, I must eliminate them all. The bodiless Hayuki hunt down the brain, devouring slitterheads, lurking in the alleys of a neon lit city sounds like Ghostwire Tokyo. But what do I know about video games? We've only got a podcast about them. With all that said and done, this one's a week. I will recommend you join me hand in hand at the Hotel of Matrimony as we play Planet Coaster 2. I will do my best.
Speaker 2:Recommend you join me hand in hand at the hotel of matrimony as we play planet coaster 2 um I would do my best, unless you want me to send you a nintendo switch oled with mario and luigi brothership attached yeah, you got me in a hard spot.
Speaker 3:I'm nah. Yeah, I'll do planet coaster 2. I don't like horror stuff and the switch gives me hives now, so okay, some people are struggling to eat and we're getting hives off technology.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. With all that said and done, we've decided our pasta vasa. That's all sorted. We've sipped the kool-aid, all done. Pasta. Sat down cross-legged on his sort of rug, he's tuning his guitar up ready for the outro. Now, before we get to that, I ask you, triple S, what are you hoping?
Speaker 3:to play. Alright, 30 seconds to list. I'm hoping to play these following games everybody. I'm going to try to polish off metaphor refantagio I games everybody. I'm gonna try to polish on metaphor refantagio. I'm on like hour 40 probably out of that 80 hour game. I'm hoping to polish that one off. Um, I'm probably going to. I'm playing the call of duty campaign. Call of duty black ops 6 wow, okay. Yeah, this is my first call of duty actual, like deep dive into it and probably like who even are you? Yeah, I'm gonna play the campaign. Only I'm not a multiplayer guy, but so far I will. Going to play the campaign only. I'm not a multiplayer guy, but so far I will say the campaign's pretty good. It reminds me of 007 and Hitman more than it actually does Call of Duty Wow yeah. And it feels like a Mission Impossible game, almost in a Call of Duty setting, and so right now I'm having fun with it. They say it's like a six to eight hour campaign. It doesn't need to be anymore, does it? Yeah?
Speaker 2:perfect.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I'm hoping to play that. I'm playing a little bit more of Undisputed, the boxing game. I think it's a little shallow in some of its parts, but I enjoy it for what it is. Boxing game was always going to be mate. Yeah, for sure, for sure, especially with all the licensed fighters missing a lot of the losses, fighters missing at least, and then I'm probably just going to um, I don't know, there's a game that I was sent a code for that I might have to play, called farming simulator 25, and I'm not really sure this is my?
Speaker 2:is it? Is it a Steam code?
Speaker 3:I'll check the email after we're done and then, because I'm not really sure, off the top of my head I haven't even opened that email up.
Speaker 2:You just simmer down.
Speaker 3:I'm trying to do 30 seconds of this. I'm sorry, that's my game.
Speaker 2:I was playing 22 last night night.
Speaker 3:That's how much of a fevered weirdo I am, oh god I didn't feel the need to mention it, because everybody knows I play that yeah, yeah, we, we kind of figured there was gonna be that or ano or or something of the ilk you know I don't trade all my dirty secrets on air, just the ones I dare talk about and that is pretty much it. I'm going through a rule. I want to play, I want to get back to horizon, but I have this rule for this year that I'm not going to replay a game I've already played this year and that's fair enough.
Speaker 2:I think that's actually solid. I just haven't played this for a hot minute and I want to see the world in this new fidelity that they've presented it in and also just see how it changes my general sort of perception towards it. Forbidden West hit the high notes that maybe Zero Dawn didn't hit. For me personally, it kind of picked up. I like how they took the time to reframe Aloy as well, like soften her during the course of that 60-hour game. It wasn't just an overnight snap.
Speaker 3:Oh, new game, new Aloy.
Speaker 2:It took time to see her water down and then by the end of it it's like I don't mind spending time with this girl now, but in Zero Dawn it's a bit like Aloy. Why would you do that? You know it's frustrating, but she was young, naive, didn't know a great deal, very inexperienced. I like Aloy.
Speaker 2:Locked away in solitude, as she was for the early part of her life, was always going to make interacting hard. But it wasn't signposted that clearly for a lot of people. They just thought she was obstinate for no reason. But there is a reason which is played out beautifully in the sequel. So it'd be interesting to see how some of that meshes in again with the lens of the sequel. I'm quite intrigued to see how that oh, the last game I'm going to play before I go um, dragon age fell guard.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Um, I'm a dragon age person so I'm excited. But I'm not excited about the new game placed out because I played dragon age, because it was like a lot more of a strategy game, like a strategy with a light gameplay elements that had like action adventure elements to it. This one is, yeah, an action adventure game that feels like you're playing more like mass effect 2 meets like actual, I'd say, like god of war, than actual dragon age.
Speaker 2:So that kind of ticks me off yeah, that's thing is, when you've got a game like that that's had its roots on older consoles and you're going to bring it here, you got to maybe pretend to try and freshen it up a little bit. Now that comes at the risk of alienating your existing users that have carried it on their back to this point. But you're desperate for new users. You're desperate for a new age demographic as well, because I would say, quite a lot of dragon age gamers are old farts, yes, these days. Yeah, old farts for sure. But if you want to, you've got to freshen it up. You're not going to draw them in with the same worn out mechanics that you've had for the last, however many games yeah, it's weird, though, because this one plays like you know how you were kratos in ragnarok and you were.
Speaker 3:You can lightly control what atreus and the other people did around you. Yeah, this one plays like that, versus you being able to like. It plays like that in guardians of the galaxy the latest guardians of the game where you can just activate different people's skill sets which is a far cry from what it actually was, yeah, which is great, but it doesn't and this is a problem.
Speaker 2:You see, and this is what I alluded to that doesn't sound like a Dragon Age game to me. No, no, it sounds like Hollywood's take on Dragon Age, which maybe is what it needs.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I like Bioware but I know, like Dragon, a lot of people love Mass Effect and Dragon Age has always been the little brother. This might be a way to kind of like make that different. But it's already come out. The reviews are already so divisive on it. It feels like it feels like this is this year's Starfield to where, like, the people who love this game are going to fight for it, but everybody else is going to play it and just be like done with it in a week yeah, I I agree.
Speaker 2:I think people will get it. There'll be some people there that have got some nostalgia. There'll be some people there looking for a little bit of something, something. There'll be some boulders gate three fans rocking up right. There's going to be all of that. Carry on. So this game is going to be expected to do a lot that's not necessarily designed for. So, yeah, I think there's going to be some bounce off early doors. I think there's going to be some people that have read about Dragon Age but never played it, maybe watched a video on YouTube. They're going to wade in and it's going be quite jarring, I think, for them. So it's interesting that the reviews have kind of hit that sort of division point. Um, I think if you've got memory of dragon age, you might come in with some rose tinted. If you don't really have any at all, the game's gonna get probably a pretty straight appraisal based on it's what it's presenting right now.
Speaker 3:Uh, you know this is a topic for another show but, like I, I think this is the topic worth having. I want to broach it here so I don't forget it. Like I think with dragon age, with bioware, with um, with starfield and bethesda, I think there might be a conversation here of like have have the? Are these old studios reached their apex and now are living off their glory days? Are like is this, are they still relevant? Are these studios still relevant in 2024 of gaming? Because I'm like starfield ain't hidden, like it, you like it, like it was supposed to, which brings on fallout 4 didn't hit like it was supposed to. Bioware with Anthem, with Mass Effect, andromeda and now a divisive Dragon Age game. Is Bioware hitting like it's supposed to? Or has Gamera?
Speaker 2:Yeah, hang on a minute, though Isn't my memory saying that there was a Around the same time as Mass Effect, andromeda using the same engine? Didn't they crunch out a Dragon Age game then?
Speaker 3:No, that was Inquisition.
Speaker 2:yes, yeah, that didn't hit as well, did it?
Speaker 3:Inquisition was like IGN's game of the year, but it was also like it has a Metacritic score of like 84 or 85.
Speaker 2:I just don't remember anyone talking about it.
Speaker 3:I love that game, but I also know that that game is a niche game that also probably shouldn't have won game of the year for a lot of outlets. Considering, like, if metal gear solid phantom pain was a complete game and hideo didn't have the, the split metal gear would have won that year it's like it.
Speaker 3:It's like the, the mlb team that won a championship but, like the favorites going into that year all got hurt and you're like this is kind of a mickey mouse championship. We know, you know, if this other team didn't get hurt, you wouldn't have got even close to game of the year. Also, like it doesn't. It doesn't help that that year also had, like its top five contenders are high 70s, low 80s, so I'm like it was the one the weakest years in video game history. So, anyways, what else are you hoping to play besides that?
Speaker 2:and a little bit of frostbunk, probably a little bit farming simulator, and and that's me done, I'm not looking at being too greedy and I'm probably just looking to sink the weekend into Horizon Zero Dawn.
Speaker 1:Sounds good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've got nothing better to do.
Speaker 3:So why not? Are you ready to tune up, pastor? Yeah?
Speaker 2:I think so. Yeah, start strumming. That's all we have time for this week. Listeners always thank you for your time. We look forward to the pleasure of speaking to you again next week. Until then, happy gaming.
Speaker 1:Remember there's nothing wrong with being given the unofficial control. It's what you do with it that counts. See you? Set bye, take it away pastor george and sarah rolling down the road rgt, riding shotgun heavy load, pastor Longhorn waiting to unfold.
Speaker 3:I love the way you get that note in your staff the.
Speaker 1:Texas, tale's been told. One arm big a sight to see. Pastor preach, preach. Set you free, george and Seth. They'd bend the knee. Rgt nodding yes and glee. Join the Colton El Paso town when Pastor Longhorn's got his crown One arm high, the other down. We're the wildest show around. Sunday's hot, the desert air. Georgians said oh, feel the glare. Longhorn's words hang everywhere. Salvation found without a care. Sunday's hot, the desert air. George will set both. Feel the glare. Longhorn's words hang everywhere. Salvation found without a care. Rgt plays a sacred tune Underneath the El Paso moon. Longhorn grins from afternoon To the night. They'll see it soon. Join the cult in El Paso town the night. They'll see it soon. Join the cold town where pastor longhorn's got his crown, one high, the other down. We're the wildest show around. We're the wildest show around, mwahahahaha.