Video Game Reviews - Busted Buttons Ep. 18

Red and I start with an update on The Last of Us Part 2 spoiler free. How far are we into the game? What are our impressions so far? How do we feel about some of the bad reviews it is getting.

We then turn our attention to video game reviews in general. Are they something we look into? Does it affect if we will buy a game or not? What publishers do we check out? 

Afterwards, we address the new information we got for Halo Infinite, Marvel Avengers, Pokemon Unite, and Cyberpunk 2077.

We end with a discussion on Nintendo and whether or not they need to get away from the gimmicks and focus mostly on power.

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Transcript

Red: 0:17

What's up gamers Welcome to Episode 18 of the Busted Buttons video game podcast. In today's episode, we're going to continue talking spoiler free about The Last of Us part two, our experiences with it so far, and also kind of the review bombing campaign that it's been going through here the last week or two, we're going to spend some time talking about just video game reviews in general, are there any that we like? Are there any that we don't like? Do you even read them, and then we're going to kind of talk a little bit about some more teasers that we've gotten here in the last here just recently. I feel like those teasers are coming hot and heavy here as we get closer and closer to the releases of the eventual PlayStation five and Xbox series x. And while we're talking about the future, we're going to talk a little bit about the future of Nintendo and how we'll have a good discussion about if it needs to compete with Sony and Microsoft on power. And then while we're you know, we're just gonna talk a little bit about triple A video game budgets. And then unfortunately we're going to spend just a couple of minutes kind of talking about the kind of the darker side of video games there's been some unfortunate news and accusations led me to some pretty prominent characters so unfortunately we got always got to have a bad note in there somewhere we

Hick: 1:23

had to have one negative thing in there going on two weeks ago this one's a little more positive but you know Yeah, since raised in Atlanta, we got a little shot a little negativity in there.

Red: 1:34

Unfortunately, gaming is not all fun and games every now and then especially the industry but we're gonna kick right off here continuing like I said, spoiler free discussion of The Last of Us part two, I am happy to announce my girlfriend did give it to me early before my birthday so I have actually gotten to play a little bit but I know your hands on it for a little bit longer than me so have you had any other impressions or things you've loved things you haven't loved about the game so far?

Hick: 1:59

Man it's just he's just one of those games on me I'm seeing the reviews I'm like there's no way people are just kind of being you know trolls is thanking and then I'm playing the game I'm brown 10 hours in right now and man like I don't give too much away but kind of there's like a big like a mike tyson gut punch and like two and a half hours and then after that and this is what people complain about. The storage is kind of has a little after that and then recently like I said around the nine and a half 10 hour mark there was another part of the story like a cutscene that I really did enjoy but just that look like there's a really long low and yes, I am enjoying the game so far. But here's the thing, the first game it was a story at least for me that's what made the game and you had like you know, like the cutscenes where there were a ton of them but they were more consistent throughout the game like you're against story story story and that's what made us so great. Yeah, this one like there's a lot gameplay in that's cool but that's not why I love The Last of Us I love it because of that story and so yeah, me like okay, the game is beautiful. Bryce said that like I don't know if there's a better looking game out there. The gameplay is solid I'm kind of changing the weapons in like swapping weapons is given to me a little bit. But you know what, that's you know, a mechanic I can get around I'm not too worried about it. So as far as like how the game was developed and stuff, I'm as I'm really really enjoying it, but there's that magic so far. 10 hours and there's that magic at the first game that for me is somewhat missing in some of these reviews. Now the ones that are like zero and two and three. No, yeah, I think you can completely take away the story. But you've just used them like the beauty of the game and the mechanics and right there it's higher than like a zero or a three but I kind of understand people's complaint so far the story is just not strong. But you know, I want 10 hours in you know, like I said don't hopefully it's nice spoilers you know, it's definitely nice spoilers now for the stories kind of just talking about, you know, the father now will do what, but hopefully it gets a little bit better, but I do, like I said, I understand people's complaints. You know, how do you feel about the game so far? Like, how far are you in First of all, and then how are you feeling about it?

Red: 4:13

Well, I'm only a couple hours in so I have not really gotten into that like little period that you're talking about. But I do kind of agree with like your general sentiment. I know that this game and I'm sorry, my cats like trying to hack up a hairball next to me. So if you guys hear a little bit in the background, that's my fault. But anyway, um, so no, I totally lost my train of thought. Thanks, cat.

Hick: 4:34

Well, it's like a drink of water when your cat was causing problems. So I just kind of wasn't even paying attention to you. You were talking about the last of us part. Can you think

Red: 4:41

Yeah, no, it's only a couple hours in like you said it's an absolutely stunning game. In terms of the beauty of it. The controls feel already a little tighter than they did in the first one. That was one of my few complaints with the first The Last of Us it just after going from Uncharted straight to the last of us. The controls felt a little less precise. And that may have been intentional because it's more of a survival game than a straight up action game, like the Uncharted games were. So for the last of us part two, the controls feel a little tighter, you've maneuver a little better, the shooting feels really solid. I can't comment on the story I just because I haven't got to experience much of it. I'm basically in the prologue still, but I do know that they this game was

Hick: 5:19

so have you gotten that gut punch yet, because you know what,

Red: 5:21

not guns, I have not gotten to the gut punch yet.

Hick: 5:24

So you'll know when that when you hit,

Red: 5:25

I'm sure. But I know, they said that this game was going to be 10 or 15 hours longer than the original. And when that kind of news came out that that made me a little concerned about what you're talking about that low in the story where you're just gonna have some dead time where it really is just gameplay. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Like, I don't want an entire game. That's just cutscenes Yeah, but you know, when you're trying to pad the length a little bit, even if it is to introduce more gameplay mechanics or like bigger fights, more strategic fights, whatever, it's, you always run to that risk of just padding a little bit, just padding it, and it's like, Is it really worth it? Or would you rather have a more condensed experience that is like keeps you going all the way through and doesn't have those like story downtimes and I think naughty dog has always done a great job of walking that fine line like the Uncharted is rarely have downtime. The first, the last of us had almost no downtime. It's like your your heart's racing, you know, all through their games. So when they said it was gonna be a longer experience, I was a little worried that something like that could come out.

Hick: 6:28

Now when it comes to the rhythm. How do you remember how long the first game took? I think it was under 20 hours. I was thinking like 15 to 20 hours. So I mean, that's Yeah, it's like a 35 hour game like, you know, for a linear game. That might be a little too long. But go ahead.

Red: 6:42

No, I'm with you. But you kind of touched on, like some of the ratings out there. And that's something I really wanted to spend a few minutes talking about is just this, it seems like this review bombing campaign, as they call it, it's going on against this game, because if you jump on a site like Metacritic, you see like the critical scores from like actual game journalists are sitting there at 9.4 9.5 in the user scores are down at like 4.5 therefore, while they were around three, and it's just part of it, it's like it makes you wonder why, like, what are people frustrated about because like you mentioned, if the mechanics are great, and the graphics are great, but you don't like the story, you're still talking you know, to two of the main three components of the game in my opinion, are there I mean, you can't give it a zero or a one because you don't like the story to me that is absolute utter bullshit. It's fucking just people being bitter about whatever it is and I'm honestly like I have not read hardly any of the zero or one out of 10 reviews because I don't want to get the game spoiled I don't want to get the sport I don't want to get the spoiler so but I have read a couple articles that kind of talk about some of the reasons why and it seems like one of the biggest ones is just like people were pissed that it got so many 10 out of 10 ratings from the actual publications like a lot of publications have given it a great score I mean as you see from that critical 9.5 and I think just first of all another person's review should not impact your enjoyment of a game if your face because a game you may not be interested in or you don't think deserved a 10 out of 10 guess what that should not impact your enjoyment or lack of enjoyment of a game whatsoever so I it blows my mind people be like oh there's no way this is a I don't want this to be the highest rated game ever blah blah blah whatever so I'm going to give it a zero or a one to me that is just fucking sour grapes and it pisses me off that some people might just be that bitter because I'll someone else really enjoyed this game. I'm not interested in it though. So I'm going to give it a zero just out of spite

Hick: 8:37

not gamers are there love them? Like I love you all gamers I do like I really do. But I hate you at the same time. You know it's a love hate relationship sometimes because there are a lot of gamers out there they're just bitter that just want to over semi ranked is really good. Oh, I don't agree exact with their ranking, so I'm gonna drop it down their fucking bitter man. And we've learned about these types of gamers. Not all gamers are like this. There are a lot of gamers out there that do appreciate their art, but there are a lot of gamers there. Honestly, punk ass pitches. That's what they are. And so sorry if that makes you mad gamers. But there's you're out there. You're out there. I'm not gonna hold back. This is tg PC gaming. Dammit. We're more edgier. We're a little more in your face. So yep, yeah, the reviews. This game. No way in hell, this game is a zero or a one or two. As I said, you have like two or three of the main components that are just nailing it. Yeah, the story's not there yet. But I think what's happening is is these gamers, you know, they're getting their panties in a bunch and they're get upset because they expected this great story and so far, because there's no way people have fish, regular people. There's no way they got it and finished it that quickly like

Red: 9:46

us. We're going up within a couple hours. Yeah.

Hick: 9:49

Yeah. So you played it for three, four hours. You didn't get that hard? Well, you did get a gut punch, I think but maybe it didn't like it wasn't as much as the first game and you will online and you pitch people just jumping the gun and that's why you got to play the game all the way through. You got to get the full experience because yeah, the story is so far from what I've gone through is kind of you know, bland not as great as the first one but in my pickup so you can get that full experience don't play game for five hours and going on in bitch about it if y'all want, man, this is the first podcast that ran our aren't drinking, because we're recording it and like 11am so you know, that's a little bit too early to start drinking for a living edge right now. You're not drinking we're little man. You know, I don't have that beer to calm me down. So I might just be pissed off the whole damn podcast bought up a

Red: 10:39

nice one.

Hick: 10:40

Yeah, here's one thing that I found actually kind of cool, but not cool. But the game. But you know, most of it takes place. I think most people know the city by won't say it, but takes place in a city. Um, how cool would it be if you lived in that city? And like you're going around the game, you're seeing all these landmarks? Like, okay, the game doesn't take place in Indy. I wish it did. Because I see all this stuff that No, and I just thought, you know, that would be so cool. It's kind of a random, like, you know, off topic, we really got to go into it. Because I want those something back to you. So I just thought that was cool. It would been really cool to live in that city and kind of see these, you know, I'm sure there's some fictional stuff. But you know, there's gotta be some similar abilities because they have got they got hold true to what the place actually looks like. But anyways, here's kind of a touchy subject. And we try to stay away from subjects like this, you know, because it just we try to be light hearted, even though most of outlines are negative, we do try to bring a lot positivity, a lot of light heartedness. A lot of fun. Just we want people to laugh. Have a good time. But let's have a hard hitting subject right here. Do you think people are somewhat against the game? Because there's a gay or lesbian lead character? Unfortunately,

Red: 11:51

I'm sure there are some I mean, even in what is fucking 2020? Yes, we're halfway through 2020. And there's still a lot of people out there who are who are against gay, LGBT, you know, whatever characters and, or even or characters but like in real life. And so I do think there is an hopefully, it's a very tiny minority of people who feel that way. But it unfortunately, is something that rears its head sometimes in not just video games, but movies, you know, TV shows, yeah, like every now and then people will be like, certain people, like I said, hopefully it's a very small, small group of people. They're like, no, this is a bad influence. You shouldn't be showing LGBT characters, you know, anything like that. And so I do think that there's a small, small, small, small percentage of people who probably argument at zero or ones because it's like, no wonder why we can't have this gay main character there is first of all, there was nothing in the first one about her being gay. Now you just thrown it in there, people accusing Naughty Dog of being you know, the wife,

Hick: 12:49

or five years younger than the first one, right? She might not know what her sexuality was at that time.

Red: 12:54

Exactly. But you know, some people will accuse like the developer of being like a social justice warrior, and they're like, Oh, they just had to put it in there. You know, I do think that there's a very small minority of people who feel that way. And to those people, I just say, fuck you. It's 2020 love whoever the hell you want. Is that such a bad thing? So that's my opinion.

Hick: 13:13

Like, I thought, I know we're not past this, but when you put this on the last like, Man, you know, we got to get past this. Because like, when I found out she was a lesbian, I was like, I don't even think about it. I was like, okay, she's a lesbian and I moved on to the in the game. Yeah, like it wasn't even a second thought. But like he said, there are people out there that you know, are homophobic, that's what they are. It's just it's sad because yes, it's 20 Let's get past this. Like, it doesn't fit your life. So it is why do you even care man, so I just I don't know. It's not it's not thinking like I just didn't care. I was like, okay, she's a lesbian fine. Like I moved on I didn't think about Yeah, also plus, she said that we're not past this point yet in the year 2020. But

Red: 13:55

plus, this poor girl lives in a small community her love options of people her age are pretty big.

Hick: 14:02

And there's fucking effective walking around people.

Red: 14:05

I love wherever you can get it in that your

Hick: 14:07

life. If you had effective walking around all the time trying to heal you you might you know, you might do things a little bit differently. You don't know you never been in that situation. But anyways, God I hope not. It's kind of let's get off of the The Last of Us part two, and kind of speaking about reviews. Um, let's just really talk about video game reviews in general and I kind of I'm gonna throw it to you on this. Um, yeah, like reviews like do you like pay attention to them? Do you read them? Do you watch them? What's kind of like, you know, because we've been bashing reviews so far, but yeah, we have what's your overall opinion of them?

Red: 14:41

I honestly I don't I don't leave. I can't even talk right now. I need that beer now. I don't I don't read a lot of reviews. For one thing I don't want a lot of them are spoiler heavy, and they try not to be but you still get spoilers when you read reviews. And for me, you know, I keep enough of a finger on the pulse of the video game. Just Kind of what's going on that I know when a game that I want to play is coming up. And if I already had my mind set that I'm gonna play a game, then I'm going to I mean, regardless of reviews, like there's like cyberpunk 2077 is coming up, I'm gonna buy that sight unseen, like that is a must buy, like, I don't care if reviews come out, start bashing it, I'm still gonna play it myself. Like I want to experience it. So honestly, I get more of my like news about good games or surprise good games from social media. I found like a lot of gaming stuff, a lot of gaming people on Twitter. And just that's what I found out. Like, I know, we've used Spider Man as an example before of a game that kind of came out of nowhere and surprised us. Yeah. For how good it was. That's where I picked up the buzz from that game was just reading on social media that people were like, wow, this was like a surprisingly great game. I'm like, Oh, well shit Black Friday sale, I'll pick it up for myself and try it out. So So for me, I don't pay a whole lot of attention to reviews. Part of it is I can't get to most gaming websites on my work computer when I'm at work. Thanks, Websense or whoever our filter is. But But yeah, so for me, it's like Twitter or Facebook feed or discord now that that's been up and running for a little while. I feel like that's where I hear about games now. And to be perfectly honest, I know a lot of people out there play a lot more indie games and smaller games. But to me, you know, if it's a big AAA game coming up, we generally know about it. And that's kind of what I play more than anything just because time honestly. And I don't have a lot of time to weed through a lot of like smaller indie games to find the good ones from the bad. But with those triple A games, there's some level of quality to them. You know, they're not just going to put total hopefully, they're just putting total absolute garbage out there. So So for me, I don't really read a lot of reviews. How about you? Do you like go digging into them? Are you usually kind of jump in sight unseen with games?

Hick: 16:55

No, I really don't pay too much attention to them. I mean, I do. If I do watch or read anything. It's usually IGN video reviews. I like watching the video review, actually more than I do read it. But now I really don't pay attention to them. Because I know what I want to play. Yeah. So like, it doesn't matter what the reviews are like, if I'm like, Okay, I'm going to get that game. It doesn't matter if it's a zero or 10. I'm going to get it now here's where it kind of not necessarily reviews. But you hear people talk about Okay, let's have this take a game like he said, Spider Man that we really don't think we're going to play. If the game is good. Like you will hear from it. Like you know, word of mouth, you will hear that. So, you know, that's kind of why I pay attention to Okay, I have these games. I know I'm going to play them out most likely will enjoy them because that's why I'm buying them because I think I will enjoy them. And then after that it's just word of mouth man. You hear enough people talking about a game is like shows really, if a show or a game or movie is good. You hear enough people talking about it into where you're like, Okay, maybe I will go check. When it comes to reviews, no, I don't really pay attention to them. I'll check out one here and there. I'll usually check them out for older games. Like let's say, three years. I'm like, you know what, I can't want to go back. You know, I might watch an IGN review, like video review and see kind of how they rank that game. But as far as new games, I don't really check them out because you made a good point spoilers. Now a lot of them do stay away from spoilers. They do. All things like saying, you know, all the stories not that good? Well, it's not necessarily a spoiler, it kind of tells you something about how the game

Red: 18:29

plays out. So let's something like that contain your mindset when you go into the game. I don't actually on our Discord server. Someone was talking about that, like when you read something, whether it's positive or negative, that's just implanted in your head. Yeah, when you pick up the game to play it yourself. So like all these people talking about the last of us, you know, the story not living up to the first one. I'm like, now I'm going in with this mindset. I'm like, I'm still gonna like this game, but I don't think it's gonna be you know, and you don't want having that negative term Association when you go into a game. So I know we've talked a lot about the last visit and we're trying to talk about general reviews but that's just a good example of where a review saying something like that, like the story is not as good, you just, it's gonna negatively affects the way you look at the game going in. It's just and I, I try to avoid that as much as possible, you know, so, but that does go both ways. I remember people talking about spider man's a great example. People talked about how good swinging around New York City was. So when I jumped in there, I'm like, holy shit, this really is awesome. So sometimes it's not always negative. Sometimes it's positive. But

Hick: 19:28

like I said, that was word of mouth for me, like I just heard you talking about I was like, Okay, I'll check out this game. And then like God of War, like, I didn't plan on getting that at first because I never really got into the franchise. My heard of Cretan people you included you talking about that game? So I was like, I think I actually did watch a video review on that one. And I was like, okay, all these people are talking about it. So I'll check it out. But as far as like I said, like new games going in? No, I don't really check out the reviews. I don't really care, to be honest with you, because there's too many differing opinions, in my opinion is not going to be the same as that. Any of those other people's opinions. So to me, it doesn't matter. I know you kind of talked about, here's the thing with the reviews, you know, some of them rank a game highly, because they might have that certain person paying for advertising on their site, or there's some kind of financial relationship, there's an ad going on. So you know, they are skewed a little bit, which, you know, what people like I always say, you know, you got thinking about things from the business side, sometimes you go sit, there you go bitch about it. Well, if you had a website, and your own company, you know what, you're gonna take that money to do stuff like this, too. So, you know, here's the no beard talking again, shut up, shut up these people, like, you know, they're trying to make money. They're trying to make money, so they can do more with their websites. So, you know, if somebody like NIH dog pays for an advertisement on your website, and you're ranking a little bit higher, you know, what, that's how the pimp or that's how the business world works. You know, you scratch my back, I scratch yours, but you know, that doesn't really bother me, because that's sort of what I expect, you know, okay, yeah, you're paying somebody some money somehow. So you're gonna give them a little berry view. That's how human nature works. That's how the world works. But you know, kind of what's your opinion on it,

Red: 21:09

I expect to that like for most games that have the kind of buzz that the last of us did that, you know, any big, massive piped release, like that is generally going to review higher. I mean, whether it's because of advertising money, whatever it is, or people just go in with a preconceived idea, or they're just like, Hey, this is a big triple A game, like we talked earlier, there's going to be quality to it, like it's going to look good, it's going to control Well, most likely, you know, everything else is kind of margins, they're important margins, you know, they make or break, there's doing a 10 rated game and a Sam rated game. But you know, I feel like there's a certain floor for most highly hyped triple A games, like it is not going to get below like a seven. Yeah, and I'm fine with that. Because the quality will be there with a big triple A game, you know, and yes, you may not like some of the mechanics, you may not like the story, you may not like whatever, but at the same time, it's like, you know, there's a certain level of quality there, that automatically means it's going to do okay, and the other big thing other than like the, the advertisements, things like that, you know, a lot of these journalists or you know, gaming journalists get advanced copies of the games to review so they can have a review ready to go as soon as like it's released. And I've heard cases online and you know, all of its its you know, it's unconfirmed. It's hard to know for sure, it's all he said, she said, but you know, people are like I gave a game a bad review. So for that developers next game, they didn't send us an advanced copy. Yeah, so so we could it's like a little bit of that. Hey, you bashed us last time? Why am I gonna help you, you said it's that you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours thing it's like so I do get it. It is a business and a lot of these websites run on advertising revenue. And so they got to get those reviews up quick and they got to make money off their ads. So it's one reason that I will always take some these professional quote unquote professional reviews with a little bit of a grain of salt, but I will still trust them over these user reviews. As we've seen with the last summit there's no way in hell this is a zero out of 10 or one out of 10 games so I will take the slimy business side and you still get a decent critical look at the game over these fucking internet gamer trolls who have a stick up their ass about something here the hell knows what so Oh, God, we both duty more beer.

Hick: 23:23

No beer podcast,

Red: 23:24

we're just turning into an angry episode. Oh, well, let's try to switch from from bashing on you know, these reviews and stuff have passed. There has been some good news. Here in the last couple of weeks. We've gotten some teasers. I know we've talked a lot about teasers here with the PlayStation reveal. We've got the xbox one coming up in July. But we have seen a little bit teasers for a couple of games that are upcoming that have definitely caught my interest here recently. And one of them. I'm a little disappointed that we haven't got any gameplay or cutscenes or anything like that. But we did get a tiny little teaser for Halo infinite, which we all know is an Xbox series x launch title. I'm very stoked for it. But all we got was a little bit of a voiceover and I know we're gonna get a lot more in their July event. I don't know the exact date for that off the top of my head. But what are you hoping to? I know like what are you hoping to see when they finally reveal some Halo infinite action?

Hick: 24:15

First of all, like all these points on these games, I didn't watch any of this stuff. Yes. I'm busy with the house. We just moved to a new house. So yeah, not really didn't check it out. But here's my thing. Okay. It might just been a small voiceover, but it's something that I talked about this like The Elder Scrolls six. Like all we've seen so far is like a little flyover. Not much of the game. But it tells you that hey, we are working on it. It's just something simple like just exists. Like Nintendo needs to do more of this with Zelda. We got Breath of the Wild trailer, like over a year ago, and we've not seen anything since is that God doesn't even have to be a lot. Like it can literally be like 10 seconds of just Ghandour talking or hey, yeah, let's get link talking about y'all know my point of view on this. Let's link talking so we can move him into the Future to compete with these other games. We're all the fucking protagonists talk God. Dang.

Red: 25:06

Yeah, I do wish Nintendo would dole out just a little I know we're getting a little off the top. Yeah, talking about just give us a little bit of something because you see every time anything about Zelda comes out, you see the online community explode like youtubers content creators, streamers, all dissect it and break it down. So you can imagine you can keep the buzz going about your game, just by dropping little 1015 22nd clips. I mean, they can be cryptic, so that people are trying to decipher it they can be or they can be, you know, in your face. And people can react to that. It's just it keeps it in people's consciousness if you give us something so anyway, go ahead. I was on that one

Hick: 25:45

with Halo infinite. First of all, I just want to see like, what the graphics look like now. No, that's not gonna transfer over. You know? Well, because like you're streaming a 4k but then some I might be watching it on a 10 ADP, so that's not gonna go over so well. So I just want to see the graphics. I want to see the location. I mean, it's a Halo game for the most part. We know what it's going to be like but yeah, maybe a little bit of the story in there maybe some new vehicle some spaceships, some weapons here and there, but it does. It doesn't matter. Like I don't need that much like you could show me nothing of a new Halo game. And I might

Red: 26:18

Yep, I'm with you there.

Hick: 26:20

You know can't comes down to that point. Like when you're going to buy a game. I don't like to see a lot of it because I want there to be as much of a surprise as possible. So like just little things like right here, like here and there. I would like but overall, you know, just change it to fucking Halo six and I'll be happy. Why don't we get get some medical with the name? What's his his spin off? Is it a regular part of the series? Well, if it's a regular part of the series, name six, you know, so why can't you change your damn name change the damn name of Halo and change a damn name of your new Xbox system. And I'll be a lot happier about that stuff that will get a thing on Halo, but um,

Red: 26:58

Microsoft's all over the place on these damn naming conventions.

Hick: 27:01

They really they really are but um, I know like I said, I'm not checked out either these looked into him. So hopefully you ever know more about than I do looked into, but I know they also kind of talked about the Marvel's Avengers stream where um, yeah, I know nothing about that. And then also pokemon pokemon. I don't know how to say is it poking? poking poking Pokemon? Yeah, and I like I mean, go ahead. What have you heard about those games? What do you think about what you know the games and what do you think about the game?

Red: 27:29

Well, I'll actually start with Pokemon unite. It's like it's a five on five what they call a MOBA multiplayer online battle arena. It's basically five on five you're trying to take over control points and eventually destroy your opponent's base. League of Legends is the biggest one in the world right now. And you control these hero characters. So I thought like just basically replacing heroes with Pokemon. It's a natural fit, because every Pokemon has its own unique attacks and Pokemon games at their core, our battles, you know, you always say about the Pokemon battles. So I think it's a good fit. I hope it's a success. I I am not a Pokemon fan, or a MOBA fan. So this one's not really on my radar at all. But it is I know, there are people who love MOBAs, as you can see by the popularity of League of Legends, and there are people who love Pokemon, so I it seems like a natural marriage between the two. I hope it is a success just for Nintendo sake. But it's not something I'll be checking out. There's no release date, but it will be coming to switch and mobile and they're supposed to have cross play between the two so you could play people on switch while you're on your mobile and vice versa. So now Marvel's Avengers I'm a little bit more curious about it's like a multiplayer, cooperative, co op action game where you're playing as the Marvel characters The Avengers, and we got a good stream of it. I didn't watch the whole thing but I kind of clicked through they showed some like story points for Thor and also showed some like the co op action and the way some of your powers can be combined and use together so I that was kind of on my radar but that is one I'm going to wait and see what the word amount like we talked about what that word of mouth is out there on the street when it comes out because I mean, I like the Avengers. I've liked all these Marvel films but I'm not like such a diehard fan that it's a day one by And plus, I just I don't play a lot of Co Op games anymore at this point in my life so and if the single player experience isn't really there, they are not very beefy then you know it'll probably be a skip for me but I'm waiting here I am waiting to hear I hope it's a success. Like I said I like the Avengers. It's fun. And that's supposed to be coming out September 4 for the PlayStation four Xbox One PC and then I'm sure that they'll be backwards compat with the the PlayStation five and the series x once they come out so because I know that Marvel's put in a lot of money into that and you know it I hope it's successful. I really both of those, like Avengers and the Pokemon unite. Neither of them are right up my alley, but I hope they're successful just because I don't want to see games fail. Yeah, like the more good games that out there, it's better for everyone. It's more variety more choice so

Hick: 30:03

Pokemon almost always succeeds. I'm sure there was a bomb here there maybe like Yeah, not Pokemon fan so I don't know. But yeah, most part these Pokemon games they are successful. And then Marvel's Avengers. I'm kind of like you saying bow, you know, I can check it out see what people are saying, you know, one super one superheroes powers are enough for me. So all these other ones, you know, that's one of those. There might be like a little bit too much going on for me like you're talking about attacks and all that, like, I have a hard enough time. Remember my own attacks and my own skills in like God of War, I got all these skills and abilities and I'd even use most of them. So I'm with you there. Now one thing I know, I'm kind of Marvel's Avengers. I didn't get you know, I watched like one of the one I've watched more than one. I watched a few of the like 1556 video or movies that they released. You know, I didn't watch all of them. I'm not into all the superheroes. So for me, I'm thinking probably a pass but you know, I'll keep my ears to the street kind of hear what everybody's talking about. Yeah, you know, then make my decision. You know, maybe you'll buy it and then I'll kind of like talk to you about it. But I'm kind of going along with the last one. cyberpunk, cyberpunk 2077 There was also a live stream about that. Guess what? I didn't watch it. So I actually I actually did plan on watching this one and that just got a little busy yesterday like I said, I'm I got a ton of stuff. Would you commit to a new house? I got tons of stuff I'm doing around the house. So I did have this one up. I started it Oh, that's when the plumber calm came? Oh, yeah. podcast yesterday, I came because of grub hub. And then also the plumber or the plumber actually wasn't supposed to be there. And then he came during literally would have been doing the podcast and that's the time that is designated since the podcasts are canceled to watch the cyberpunk 2077 so when you guys wonder why can't get the crap, it's crap like this in my life. That happens where I can't watch something but real life

Red: 32:03

does get in the way.

Hick: 32:04

Yeah, it doesn't. cyberpunk 2077 It doesn't matter. Like Yeah, I can watch a live stream. I can not watch a live stream. I'm going to buy CD Projekt RED, they made the Witcher three Okay, doesn't matter. You got me. You got me. But did you watch the live stream? If you did kind of what what are your overall thoughts on it?

Red: 32:23

I did. And the first thing that jumped out and of course I know for like a live stream and trailers, this is almost always going to be the case. It looks beautiful. Like it looks amazing. If you've played the Witcher three, you know that what you have done, but our listeners if our listeners have played Witcher three, you know that CD Projekt RED is capable of putting out some beautiful, beautiful graphics, both their their character designs, their scenery, like the setting all that stuff. And I do love the look of the setting for this game. Like it seems it's a very dark city, it seems like everything that we've seen has mostly been nighttime, but it's all neon, there's so much neon It reminds me of something like Las Vegas at night. And I know that's like the whole like, you know, Blade Runner, cyberpunk visual. It's like very dark, very gritty, but then just lit up with this neon. So I'm very excited to. But then we did also get to see driving around actually in this desert area that they said is outside the main city and it looks like a desert and it's daytime. And to me it was just a very like good contrast to what we saw in the city. He's got like the dark, gritty, neon lit city, and then you're driving out in the desert. And it kind of made me think a little bit of like Grand Theft Auto five, or you've got the city you've got all this giant, giant city, but then you've got the desert out around it, you know, it just it made me think of that. And just more than anything else, this is clearly going to be a very mature game. I mean, even just in the trailer, they were dropping f bombs. Yeah, lots of violence. I mean, it's just the light, you know, the language sex is supposed to be a big part of this because just this whole, like just gender identity supposed to be a big a function in this game where you can replace body parts of a cybernetic. So like At what point are you even a man or a woman anymore? You know, so and then just, there's this kind of investigative concept that they're calling brain dance, where you can actually relive, like a crime scene or series of events from either like a first person view of the person who experienced it, or you can even pan out and kind of like, see and hear what was going on around the person and it's just, it seems like it's gonna be a very fun way to investigate crimes. It reminds me of like, if they took like the Witcher cents from Witcher three, and just put it on steroids and they blew it up. And my only concern is I hope that like that kind of investigation stuff doesn't drag down the game too much, like slow it down too much. But it looks really interesting and a fun way to like investigate whether it's crimes or whatever it is the year investigating. It seems like a unique concept to be like relive it through someone else's eyes. So I'm curious to see how they implement it. I hope it's not just something that's gimmicky, but but we'll see. We'll see. Like you said CD Projekt RED has my trust undisputedly so I'm going to be buying cyber 20 cyberpunk 2077 when it eventually comes out, but

Hick: 35:08

the thing you have to remember is it is an open world game in the Witcher three the lane was humongous. So yeah, it was while they're showing, like, you know, all this stuff happening in a dark city, you know, the game is so much larger than that. Oh, exactly. Show that stuff until it gets closer to release. So I'm with it's going to be like, I don't know, I don't know if it's going to be a great game. But I feel like it is going to be a great game. You know, they're going to have like you said, Some cities like you know, this dark, all this neon stuff going on? Anything you know, there's gonna be like some desert out there some light like it's open world, like you're going to have different landscapes in the game, so I'm really excited for it. I can't wait for what I had to wait for. I don't have it yet. But I'm excited for it to come out. No cow while we're talking about future games. We had an interesting discussion on our discord lately about Nintendo and his future. And this revolved a lot a lot around. Okay, talk, he knows that this is an open podcast. I can't you would think that can talk better without beer. But apparently, I cannot. But I'm kind of going along with the future on Nintendo. This conversation was based around power, like, you know, okay, they got the mobile aspect. They got that gimmick going on? Obviously, obviously, it's working because the Nintendo Switch is selling like crazy. But and I'm going to like, transfer this to you here in a second. Like going forward, like the tendo is going to run out gimmicks. Like there's always going to be a gimmick there. So if they want to keep competing in the future. Here's my question to you. Do you think that they need to have power and compete with Xbox One and Xbox One, Xbox and PlayStation?

Red: 36:48

At some point? I really think they need to. I mean, like you said, Nintendo has been running out gimmicks for their last what three or four consoles. Now going back as far as the the we, you know, the waggles, the Wii U had the gamepad. And now the switch is a full blown convertible, for lack of a better back lack of a better name. Yeah. And at some point, you're gonna run out of ideas. And as Sony and Microsoft continue to flaunt the power and the speed of their systems. I mean, yes, Nintendo will always have its built in loyal fan base for its first party games. But come on, at some point, Nintendo, you got to get into the 21st century and like, really start competing with these guys in terms of power, because 4k is almost the norm now, especially for people buying video game consoles. And the fact that we don't we're not even heard of like a switch Pro. I know, there were rumors at one point of a switch capable of doing just 4k Gaming. I'm not saying you need ray tracing and HDR and particle effects and all this other craziness. But just getting into 4k, would already put it on not equal footing, but closer to equal footing with Sony and Microsoft. So I do firmly believe at some point that Nintendo needs to get there. I don't think they'll ever be 100% like one for one in terms of power, just because that's not been their strategy going back as far as what the GameCube or so. So I'm, I'm curious to see what it's going to take how many generations it takes for them to decide, okay, we're not going to compete necessarily one for one, we at least need to hit a minimum threshold, like a minimum bar of power and graphics, if we want to hope to stay competitive. And you know, as prices continue to rise for these consoles, people aren't going to keep paying for$500 for a system that's not doing 4k and looking really gorgeous. So to me, I do think at some point, they need to step up their power game. I know like the Wi Fi was just a massive success. The switch so far has been a massive success without the graphical horsepower of the rest of them. But at some point, I think they got to step up to the plate and say, hey, yeah, okay, we can do 4k as well. We can do all these other gadgets and effects as well. You know, it's just at least to hit some kind of minimum threshold. But what about you? What do you think about them trying to eventually catch up in terms of power with your Microsoft and Sony's?

Hick: 39:11

Okay, first of all, I think they can definitely compete one to one. I think they can blow Sony and x or Microsoft out of the water like Nintendo. I've always said they have that magic. Like they always do stuff that you don't think that they can do. And so I completely agree with you. Yes. Once they're sell love the switch, but you know, I've not played the switching along. And that's kind of why we're talking about this. Like when the before this switch came out. I was hoping the next tendo console was power, just share power and compete with like the xboxes and the PlayStations. Because it's like we both have said those gimmicks are going to run out someday. There's only so many things that you're able to do like his whole mobile aspect. You did it. Yeah, it might progress into the future, but you're not going to be able to bring that as a new gimmick ever again. And this new gimmicks that the other one video game consoles have not done, they're going to cease to exist one day because everything has been done that we've yet can think of. And so yes, if they want to keep on competing, I think they got come with the power they got come with the 4k or you know, it was down the road, you know, I guess it'd be 8k? Yeah, what they're going with right now. But, you know, I think here's the thing, I think Nintendo can compete. I think they can do it one to one, I think they do have the technology, they got the brains to do it. So I mean, I want to see Nintendo get on the same level as Xbox, and PlayStation, and I want to see them release at the same time, because the release cycle now is completely off with the Xbox and the PlayStation. Now, a lot of people might say, hey, it's smart not to release alongside those systems. But Nintendo can do it, they can absolutely do it. And here's the thing. I don't play a lot of third party games on the switch because of the graphical cable. Yeah, the system. So if you have the power behind it, I might play more third parties on your system. And that's really what Nintendo needs to focus on. Now that you have one advantage right now. And that's being able to play third party games, like you know, on the go, Oh, that's not how I play my switch. And I know I'm not like every gamer. We have a lot of people on our discord that love to be able to play third party games on the go. So it definitely appeals to some people. But yeah, in the future, I think they guess not necessarily switched up. But one of these days, I think that God bring that power, I think. I hope they do because I think the gimmicks, like you said they're going to run out. And yeah, imagine they're okay, we're talking about third party games. Imagine their first party games in 4k because Nintendo had their beautiful Jedi. Here's the magic I'm talking about. I'm gonna take all the points right. today. You go ahead and talk about I wanted to talk about our style biology habit.

Red: 41:54

No, but it's like like we always say Nintendo gets the most out of their system because their art styles for their first party games are always so so so good. I mean Breath of the Wild is as beautiful as your horizon zero Dawn's in your in your Witcher three is in a different way. But it's still gorgeous Super Mario

Hick: 42:12

900 p vs will not 4k but they're like, you know, 1440 or something. Yeah.

Red: 42:18

So for me, it's like imagine a game like Breath of the Wild Super Mario Odyssey, anything like that. But in 4k, with all the graphical bells and whistles, they can keep the same art style, they don't need to go for photo realism. And they can still look absolutely gorgeous. And if they want to keep the mobile aspect, which I know it's hard to get the same kind of horsepower. Yeah, out of a mobile system and keep a good battery life and not have the thing melt in your hands from getting too hot. But like maybe you have the dock the docking station be a little juiced up, do a little bit more than it currently does just that way. It's like you know, when you when you go mobile, sure it can it can be at 900 P or whatever. But then when you plug it in, man that dock has like its own processing or something in it. I don't know all the bells and whistles, but just something in it to really upscale things to make it look beautiful when you're playing dogs. So I'm with you at some point, I think they need to compete. But unfortunately, we've kind of run out of time for today's podcast. As usual, it flew by way too quick. I know there were a couple topics at the beginning, we said we're going to talk about we didn't get to them, we do definitely want to talk about some of this, the sexual harassment claims and things that have really popped up here recently in the gaming industry. We'll definitely talk about that next week. Because I do think it's a very important Yeah, and very sensitive topic that needs some visibility. And we definitely don't want to be ones who just try to ignore it and brush it under the carpet. So we'll talk about that a little bit in our next episode. But go ahead and get us wrapped up here.

Hick: 43:41

At the triple A game budgets, we also bring interesting conversation. So we'll put that one on the next podcast too. But I know what rent was going. So let's go ahead and let's wrap up. All these links will be in the description here. But um, you can support us on Patreon or PayPal, as we say patrons a monthly thing, PayPal just a one off if you want to do that. If you can't support financially, a review or a rating helps us greatly five stars. I don't know if it's on all the podcast platforms. But if it is on the platform, it's very easy. If you don't like us, we always say it's very easy to lie and very easy to kill. Click that five star So help us out baby help us out. And yeah, we have merchandise on our websites. We may earn a commission if you go through our links and we also have some good blogs are a website so be sure to check them out. And then ready you want kind of go ahead and wrap up with some of the other stuff we got going on.

Red: 44:36

Yep. Well first of all, we're all over social media starting with like Facebook. We've got two Facebook groups. We have gaming room. We're talking about all gaming in general of course and we have Zelda around which we did start out as two guys playing Zelda. So our Zelda realm is specifically for our Zelda talk. You can find us on YouTube, you know two guys playing Zelda and tg PC gaming out on YouTube. We have a Discord server where we have channels for you PlayStation, Xbox Nintendo PC general discussion sports even if that's what you want to talk about alcohol and alcohol can't forget alcohol but God we forgot it today. That's

Hick: 45:11

no better come podcast just angry just angry.

Red: 45:14

Yeah. And then you can also find this out on Twitter. And on Instagram. We're a little less active on Instagram than we used to be, but we're pretty active on Twitter. And like we said, we're out there on Facebook. So thank you all for listening. I know a lot of states and stuff are going through some spikes in this whole COVID pandemic. I hope everyone's staying safe. All I can say is stay indoors, stay isolated, and play a lot of fucking video games and let's beat this damn pandemic with the power of video games. Thank you for listening, everybody.