Our Favorite Games Of Summer Game Fest 2024 | GI Show

<v Speaker 1>What is going on?
<v Speaker 2>Everybody? Welcome to the Game and Former Show, a weekly
<v Speaker 2>podcast covering the video game industry. Join us every Thursday
<v Speaker 2>for discussion about the latest gaming news, reviews, and exclusive reveals,
<v Speaker 2>alongside Game Informer staff and special guests from around the industry.
<v Speaker 2>I'm your host today, Alex van Aiken, and I am
<v Speaker 2>joined by Brian Shay.
<v Speaker 1>How you doing, I'm doing so good. I you appear
<v Speaker 1>to be sleepy.
<v Speaker 2>I am.
<v Speaker 1>I think I am finally back to my normal self
<v Speaker 1>because there was a there was a stretch there at
<v Speaker 1>the end of Summer Game Fest into like yesterday, that
<v Speaker 1>I was just a shell of my my my beating.
<v Speaker 1>Now I think I'm back.
<v Speaker 2>I'm still a shell, but but you know, we rally,
<v Speaker 2>We rise above, rise against, We give it all. Yeah. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Rounding out the show today, we're joined by Charles Hart.
<v Speaker 3>Charles, I'm doing good.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>I got home late Tuesday night and then I slept
<v Speaker 4>for ten hours and so I'm I'm back.
<v Speaker 3>I'm back in business.
<v Speaker 2>I'm awesome.
<v Speaker 3>Boss Baby back in business?
<v Speaker 2>Well, I think that's a show boss Baby too, back
<v Speaker 2>in business?
<v Speaker 3>May I think so? I think so.
<v Speaker 4>There's also a like Boss Baby Netflix show but I
<v Speaker 4>don't think that's what it's called, right.
<v Speaker 1>That's in the boss Baby multiverse, the Boss Baby.
<v Speaker 3>Multiverse, BABYCU, the bb C, BBCU.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Yeah, uh well, welcome listeners. We're gonna be talking
<v Speaker 2>about all of all of our time a suburb gay best.
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god, I got something the audiest. Let me
<v Speaker 2>take a sip of water. Hold, okay, that's gonna keep
<v Speaker 2>me awake. We went to Summer Game Fest in Los
<v Speaker 2>Angeles this past weekend and we played a lot of games.
<v Speaker 2>We watched a lot of games, and we met a
<v Speaker 2>lot of the people behind those games, and we're gonna
<v Speaker 2>talk about it today. We're gonna go through our hands
<v Speaker 2>on impressions of several games. Some of them are still embargoed,
<v Speaker 2>but the ones that aren't we'll be discussing on the show.
<v Speaker 2>My wife is calling me mid show. I'm just texting her, Hey,
<v Speaker 2>I'm on a podcast.
<v Speaker 1>Love you off to a great start here, by the way.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and we're also gonna be talking about some highlights.
<v Speaker 2>If we want to go through, you know, highlights from
<v Speaker 2>Xbox Game Showcase, you'd be soft all that. It'll be
<v Speaker 2>a fun show. But what do you guys want to
<v Speaker 2>start with what do you think should we go through
<v Speaker 2>highlights of the showcases? Do we want to just dive
<v Speaker 2>into how about we just talk about what it's like
<v Speaker 2>going to Summer game Fest play Days, because I think
<v Speaker 2>a lot of people don't necessarily know. They see, like
<v Speaker 2>on social media, like you know, the personalities and journalists
<v Speaker 2>and creators they follow randomly tweet about being at Summer
<v Speaker 2>Game Fest, but there's no tickets to purchase for the public.
<v Speaker 2>So maybe we should talk about what Playdays is in
<v Speaker 2>case you didn't know, which it's a so after the
<v Speaker 2>Summer game Fest live stream that everybody can watch, there
<v Speaker 2>is a three day event that is invite only for
<v Speaker 2>select media and creators to go hands on with several
<v Speaker 2>games that were shown off during the live stream, to
<v Speaker 2>interview developers, network all of that, and that is what
<v Speaker 2>when we kind of talk about being at Summer game Fest,
<v Speaker 2>a lot of a lot of what we were talking
<v Speaker 2>about is being at Summer game Fest play Days, which
<v Speaker 2>is that that invite only event.
<v Speaker 1>And yeah, basically, like contrast to E three which ran
<v Speaker 1>up in person up until twenty nineteen, that was like
<v Speaker 1>a giant thing that took up both sides of the
<v Speaker 1>LA Convention Center in LA Live, and it was like,
<v Speaker 1>I think I looked at the attendance numbers for a
<v Speaker 1>feature that I wrote in the upcoming issue of Game Informer,
<v Speaker 1>and it was like sixty six thousand people attended E
<v Speaker 1>three twenty nineteen.
<v Speaker 3>Wow.
<v Speaker 1>And that is not the case for summer Game Fest
<v Speaker 1>play days. It is far away from like the La
<v Speaker 1>Live area, which is like kind of like a little
<v Speaker 1>bit of the heart of like downtown LA. It's like
<v Speaker 1>the most tourist y area. It has you know, the
<v Speaker 1>I don't want to call it the Crypto dot Com,
<v Speaker 1>the Staples Center where the Los Angeles Lakers play, and
<v Speaker 1>you know, it has the LA Convention Center there. It
<v Speaker 1>has a bunch of restaurants and everything that you can
<v Speaker 1>eat in a few hotels. So that's where the that's
<v Speaker 1>where E three used to be held, and like you know,
<v Speaker 1>EA play would happen in that area as well. Microsoft
<v Speaker 1>would sometimes do their Xbox hands on stuff at what
<v Speaker 1>used to be called the Microsoft Theater in that area
<v Speaker 1>as well. None of that stuff happens in that spot now.
<v Speaker 1>And in fact, like you know, it used to be
<v Speaker 1>a big tradition that like the Hotel Figaroa which is
<v Speaker 1>right on the corner there would get a giant like
<v Speaker 1>reskin of one of the games that was like being
<v Speaker 1>highlighted at Summer Gamefest. This time it was like JSX
<v Speaker 1>Airlines or something. And then you know the big like
<v Speaker 1>billboards in that corner. It used to be like Batman
<v Speaker 1>Arkham's I guess it was Arkham Knight was like a
<v Speaker 1>big takeover they did in twenty fifteen because it was
<v Speaker 1>launching around that time, and there's always like a big
<v Speaker 1>game billboard that like just like oversees that entire area.
<v Speaker 1>This time it was only murders in the building, the
<v Speaker 1>Hulu show. Yeah, it was also Don Julio Tequila so
<v Speaker 1>and then on the other side, the opposite side of
<v Speaker 1>the Hotel Figueroa, it was actually an ad for Call
<v Speaker 1>of Duty Modern Warfare three saying coming November tenth, which
<v Speaker 1>is a year or oh this point, so nobody has
<v Speaker 1>purchased that advertising space, is basically what I'm saying. But
<v Speaker 1>play Days takes place kind of not on the other
<v Speaker 1>side of LA but like it's in the Fashion district,
<v Speaker 1>which is about I walked it most days. It was
<v Speaker 1>about a thirty five minute walk from that LA Live area,
<v Speaker 1>and it's a much smaller campus. It's an area where
<v Speaker 1>it's you know, it's a fraction of the size of
<v Speaker 1>the of even one of the LA Convention Center halls.
<v Speaker 1>And it's not so much about spectacle like it was
<v Speaker 1>at E three, where like Nintendo would show up and
<v Speaker 1>they'd have like, hey, we recreated a Breath of the
<v Speaker 1>Wild's High Rule, or we have like new Donk City
<v Speaker 1>for Mario Odyssey. It's just like, hey, here are some pods.
<v Speaker 1>Here's like a few private meeting areas. Some of them
<v Speaker 1>would go a little bit like extra with like bringing
<v Speaker 1>like you know, a more intricate booth setup, but it's
<v Speaker 1>primarily just like meeting rooms and like areas that can
<v Speaker 1>give presentations, and maybe some of them would have like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>here's also you can grab like a bag of pretzels
<v Speaker 1>before you go into your interview if you want, because
<v Speaker 1>we're all running on fumes. And then there's like a
<v Speaker 1>food truck area because like they would give us meal tickets.
<v Speaker 1>SGF would to like, you know, so we're not starving
<v Speaker 1>because it's not really near anything. So there's like a
<v Speaker 1>food truck area. There's like some private meeting areas. There's
<v Speaker 1>some pods that you could just kind of walk up
<v Speaker 1>and try some games, but primarily it's all about like
<v Speaker 1>the appointments and like meeting people. And it used to
<v Speaker 1>be like I also in the feature I talked about
<v Speaker 1>how at E three you would be late to appointments
<v Speaker 1>because it was just like it would normally take like
<v Speaker 1>fifteen minutes to walk from one hall to the other,
<v Speaker 1>but once it got so full of like people in
<v Speaker 1>the public attending, you were late because it was like
<v Speaker 1>a forty five minute walk because you were just like
<v Speaker 1>scrunched up shoulder shoulder trying to get from one side
<v Speaker 1>of the convention center to the other, and it was
<v Speaker 1>just like standstill foot traffic. This time you were late
<v Speaker 1>to appointments because you couldn't go more than five feet
<v Speaker 1>without seeing somebody you knew, and you're trying to be like, hey, hey,
<v Speaker 1>I got an appointment. I got to run, but like
<v Speaker 1>let's catch up later, trying to pull those moves. But
<v Speaker 1>like it was, it's a very well run event, I
<v Speaker 1>would say, and much more well run than what especially
<v Speaker 1>the later E threes were, But that said, it is
<v Speaker 1>missing something in terms of spectacle, Like there's no like
<v Speaker 1>giant statues, and there's no like huge intricate like booth
<v Speaker 1>setups and like you know, the number of quote unquote
<v Speaker 1>press conferences. They were just live streamed like showcases at
<v Speaker 1>that point, but like they have been cut down substantially,
<v Speaker 1>Like you know, we really we got like a bunch
<v Speaker 1>of like smaller showcases that were very indie focused, which
<v Speaker 1>showed a lot of really cool games, but it doesn't have
<v Speaker 1>that spectacle of like, all right, here comes Nintendo and
<v Speaker 1>they're in a show like Shigaro Miomoto is going to
<v Speaker 1>come out on stage with a like a highly field
<v Speaker 1>than the Master Sword and then play a broken demo
<v Speaker 1>of Skyward Sword.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, there's no puppets.
<v Speaker 1>There's no puppets. However, we did get like the SGF Showcase,
<v Speaker 1>which had a lot of really cool announcements. We got
<v Speaker 1>the Xbox Showcase, which is one of their better ones
<v Speaker 1>they've done in recent years.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, definitely, so we.
<v Speaker 1>Can talk about all those, but like, yeah, like the
<v Speaker 1>the act of actually attending Summer Game Fest play days
<v Speaker 1>as somebody who went to multiple e threes prior to it,
<v Speaker 1>you know, going away, it's it almost feels like, okay,
<v Speaker 1>from like a person in the media. This is what
<v Speaker 1>E three should have always been. But I can understand
<v Speaker 1>why people who are not in the media, or are
<v Speaker 1>maybe even just content creators who are attending this, I
<v Speaker 1>could see why this would be less exciting just because
<v Speaker 1>it doesn't have like, oh, this is really playing to
<v Speaker 1>like the enthusiast side of me, right Like for me
<v Speaker 1>is like, you know, I'm a a diehard, like lifelong gamer.
<v Speaker 1>So I always loved seeing like the giant statues and
<v Speaker 1>like the the Mafia three like recreation of like a
<v Speaker 1>Bayou like house or whatever it was.
<v Speaker 2>I feel that you were kind of taking that place now.
<v Speaker 1>A little bit. And that's smart because that that's a
<v Speaker 1>slot that they could slide into, given that they are
<v Speaker 1>primarily consumer focused.
<v Speaker 4>Ye yeah, the one this is my You guys had
<v Speaker 4>been before, right.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we've been to every Summer game Fest, gotcha?
<v Speaker 3>Oh cool?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>The thing I find interesting about Summer Game Fest as
<v Speaker 4>a concept is talking about like the how elaborate stuff
<v Speaker 4>got We went to the Ubisoft area, which is like
<v Speaker 4>not a part of Summer Game Fest but nearby, and
<v Speaker 4>they just kind of had their own I think, was
<v Speaker 4>that a hotel or just like a convention or it
<v Speaker 4>was a theater.
<v Speaker 3>It was a theater.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, they had like their own little theater space and
<v Speaker 4>they like really decorated like the Assousan's Creed Shadows place.
<v Speaker 3>It was all like these red lighting.
<v Speaker 4>And they really made it like like Japanese decorations and
<v Speaker 4>stuff like that was a really cool vibe to walk into.
<v Speaker 1>Like Samurai armor and like, yeah, it was cool.
<v Speaker 4>Alex was like, yeah, I could wear that armor if
<v Speaker 4>I if I really wanted to. But it's interesting how
<v Speaker 4>like like the industry really likes like we're so used
<v Speaker 4>to having the E three where it's like one event
<v Speaker 4>that everything happens at, and how Summer Game Fest is
<v Speaker 4>like kind of a replacement for that, but like you know,
<v Speaker 4>Xbox isn't there, PlayStation was.
<v Speaker 3>There this year, which is cool.
<v Speaker 4>Nintend was always doing their own thing, and Ubisoft was
<v Speaker 4>like kind of participating, but like they're like, we'll do
<v Speaker 4>our own thing close enough nearby that people can walk.
<v Speaker 4>So it is like an interesting thing of I think
<v Speaker 4>I think I felt that during the the SGF showcase.
<v Speaker 4>I was like, yeah, this was like all right. I
<v Speaker 4>was like I wasn't super impressed by the stuff, but
<v Speaker 4>it was you know, it was fine, and then the
<v Speaker 4>Xbox Showcase was going on. I was like, Wow, it
<v Speaker 4>would be wild if you know they were properly collaborating. Again, Also,
<v Speaker 4>I think Xbox just owns so many studios and developers
<v Speaker 4>at this point that it kind of is a thing of.
<v Speaker 3>Like, yeah, there's show Case, better be good.
<v Speaker 4>They've been buying every developer for the past like two
<v Speaker 4>or three years.
<v Speaker 1>That is one thing that I will call out that's
<v Speaker 1>like worse for a summer game fest is then everything
<v Speaker 1>is so spread out geographically, like yeah, uh, and La
<v Speaker 1>is not a good city to get around. So like
<v Speaker 1>the Summer game Fest, like everybody's staying downtown do oing
<v Speaker 1>to the play days, right, and the Summer game Fest
<v Speaker 1>like live stream, like if you wanted to attend it
<v Speaker 1>live in in studio or live in the audience, like
<v Speaker 1>I know you did, Charles. I was going to until
<v Speaker 1>I realized it's all the way out by the airport. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>And I was like I'm not doing that. I've got
<v Speaker 1>like an appointment I've got to be back for. I can't.
<v Speaker 1>I can't do that. And then like the Xbox thing,
<v Speaker 1>exact same situation where it was like it's all the
<v Speaker 1>way out in Hollywood and it's it was a very
<v Speaker 1>cool venue, Don't get me wrong, I very much. I
<v Speaker 1>went to the mixer that Xbox held the night before
<v Speaker 1>their showcase, and it was a very very neat venue.
<v Speaker 1>It was the Academy of Motion Pictures Museum, so it
<v Speaker 1>was a very very cool venue, but like it was
<v Speaker 1>way out of the way of like where most people
<v Speaker 1>were staying. So like I ended up not going to
<v Speaker 1>that showcase live either, because it was like, Okay, well,
<v Speaker 1>I have to get back for like a Summer Game
<v Speaker 1>Fest appointment. And then like you pointed out like the
<v Speaker 1>Belasco which is where you be Soft held their event.
<v Speaker 1>It was walkable, but it was also like, if if
<v Speaker 1>I left in the like the afternoon, I was not
<v Speaker 1>going to go back to Summer game Fest because it
<v Speaker 1>was just like, okay, well, I had to schedule it
<v Speaker 1>in such a way that's like, oh, when I leave,
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to u be Soft and then I'm done.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, which in it like betrays the point.
<v Speaker 4>Like the whole point is that everything's right there together
<v Speaker 4>and you can like bounce back and forth, and then
<v Speaker 4>when you're having to like schedule in the like travel
<v Speaker 4>times and stuff, Yeah, it does get weird.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, but overall, I will say I was very, very positi.
<v Speaker 1>This was the best summer game fest yet in terms
<v Speaker 1>of like attending it. I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they they expanded it out from two days to
<v Speaker 2>three days.
<v Speaker 3>There would difference.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so I felt like I got to see more
<v Speaker 2>and wasn't I mean, we were still all slammed. You
<v Speaker 2>end up filling up your schedule no matter what. But
<v Speaker 2>I did see more than I did last year, which
<v Speaker 2>is cool, and.
<v Speaker 1>So much I didn't see though, Yeah I know, I
<v Speaker 1>know me too.
<v Speaker 4>I regret not seeing a monster Hunter. I like didn't
<v Speaker 4>make time for it, and I'm not a Monster Hunter guy.
<v Speaker 4>But the stuff I've heard of people that went there,
<v Speaker 4>they were like that, like blew my mind.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it was very cool, but yeah, it's it's it
<v Speaker 2>was fun. I could see them. I've been every time
<v Speaker 2>I go. I think, Okay, how can they expand it
<v Speaker 2>next year? And this year they had like Sega had
<v Speaker 2>had a tent out back, which was smart to use
<v Speaker 2>because previously that space was just like very A few
<v Speaker 2>people actually went out there to sit, and so they
<v Speaker 2>turned into a big tent with like fans and it
<v Speaker 2>was it kind of felt like it didn't feel like
<v Speaker 2>you were like outside a tent, like it felt like
<v Speaker 2>another room. And I think like where they had the
<v Speaker 2>food trucks and they had like a big publisher show
<v Speaker 2>up next year for like an on campus presence, they
<v Speaker 2>can put up a big tent where those were and
<v Speaker 2>then move the food trucks across the street to where
<v Speaker 2>the badge pick up was. Like I find the event
<v Speaker 2>organization fascinating, but yeah, it was.
<v Speaker 1>More organized this time around.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I really I really enjoyed it. I think the
<v Speaker 2>Wi Fi desperately needs to be proved because it is
<v Speaker 2>non existent. But but yeah, they continue to to improve
<v Speaker 2>that show that that that event, I should say, And yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I guess we can get into like what we actually
<v Speaker 2>played there. I mean, actually, let's let's let's start with
<v Speaker 2>with a couple of the Uh we can just kind
<v Speaker 2>of go day by day, like what our Friday was,
<v Speaker 2>like our Saturday or Sunday. I think that'll be the
<v Speaker 2>best way because we can.
<v Speaker 1>You know, I need to bring up my calendar then yeah, yeah.
<v Speaker 2>We can chat through also the showcases that were that day.
<v Speaker 2>I think that'll be a great way to do it.
<v Speaker 2>But I I arrived Saturday morning, the day the event started.
<v Speaker 2>You two were there at least the night before the
<v Speaker 2>day of the actual I was.
<v Speaker 1>There the week before.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Oh yeah, Frian was all in the LA scene. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah. The Summer Game Fest stream happened on Friday
<v Speaker 1>the seventh. I arrived Sunday the second. Well, yeah, so
<v Speaker 1>I visited Riot Games on Monday.
<v Speaker 2>You got to do it hands on with Valerie and
<v Speaker 2>two K XO.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, I did two x koh K. I always want
<v Speaker 1>to say two k XO as well because of two
<v Speaker 1>K NBA two k x U x KO. But yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I got to play that and I got to play
<v Speaker 1>Valorant on consoles before it was announced, and yeah, I
<v Speaker 1>had a great time doing both.
<v Speaker 2>What's that? Can you tell me real quick on the
<v Speaker 2>valor because I play Valerie. What's the focus mode that
<v Speaker 2>I keep hearing about? I saw it's like kind of
<v Speaker 2>brings in like a vignette almost on your screen a
<v Speaker 2>little bit.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Is that like you hold left trigger and it does
<v Speaker 2>that or something.
<v Speaker 1>Like, Yeah, it's when you aim down the sites. It's
<v Speaker 1>kind of like a vignette mode that like lets you like,
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, focus interesting it's not much like, it's
<v Speaker 1>not anything that's like so innovative.
<v Speaker 2>Is it like a magnification on that slightly as well.
<v Speaker 1>A little bit? Yeah, yeah, just like just like an
<v Speaker 1>ADS where it's like you you pull the left trigger
<v Speaker 1>and you know, you just look right down the sites
<v Speaker 1>of the gun.
<v Speaker 2>Because not every gun and Valerant has that, I should say,
<v Speaker 2>sounds curious.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, it's it's you know, it feels good. This
<v Speaker 1>is you know, Riot's first time coming to consoles as
<v Speaker 1>a developer. Obviously they've published like those Riot Forge games. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>but this is like the first time they are developing
<v Speaker 1>a game specifically for console. I mean, obviously it's been
<v Speaker 1>on PC for four years now, but you know, it
<v Speaker 1>played really well. They're they're they're doing cross play and
<v Speaker 1>cross progression. However, cross progression goes across all platforms. Cross
<v Speaker 1>play is only console to console, and then PC is
<v Speaker 1>still on its own island, which makes a lot of sense.
<v Speaker 1>I hate it when or cross play for a shooter
<v Speaker 1>includes PC players because I'm a game pad player. I'm
<v Speaker 1>not going to stand a chance. And somebody even asked,
<v Speaker 1>like what about those like peripherals that allow you to
<v Speaker 1>use mouse and keyboard on console and they're like, no,
<v Speaker 1>we're not allowing that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. It's funny too though, because there are some games
<v Speaker 2>now where that have cross play between PC and consoles
<v Speaker 2>and team like an Apex Team's almost every pro team
<v Speaker 2>has a controller player because far away PC is always
<v Speaker 2>going to be better, but up close the tracking with
<v Speaker 2>like am assist makes for like up close fights. It
<v Speaker 2>kind of favors the the controller player. But Valorant as
<v Speaker 2>a game, a lot of things are done far away.
<v Speaker 2>It's a lot of you know, on PC clicking little heads. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>and so I think it makes total sense for them
<v Speaker 2>to keep those separate.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, it plays really well. They're not They're
<v Speaker 1>developing almost like a separate skew, but in conjunction with
<v Speaker 1>it because, like you know, they have to make sure
<v Speaker 1>all the content comes over in the right way. But
<v Speaker 1>they are saying that there's not a flagship you going forward.
<v Speaker 1>They're going to develop it all in parallel. They're going
<v Speaker 1>to bring all the content as much as they can
<v Speaker 1>day and date with the PC stuff. All of the
<v Speaker 1>content that is in the game currently is going to
<v Speaker 1>be in the game when it comes to consoles. There's
<v Speaker 1>I think there's a beta test happening later this month,
<v Speaker 1>if I'm not mistaken, maybe early July. But they're they're
<v Speaker 1>aiming for twenty twenty four for it to come two consoles. Interesting, okay,
<v Speaker 1>and it's free to play.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, and in two XKO, what can you tell
<v Speaker 2>me about that? How that feel? I'm I am very
<v Speaker 2>excited for that game.
<v Speaker 1>So that's also a one that's coming to consoles. So
<v Speaker 1>it started off as a game called Rising Thunder, and
<v Speaker 1>that was a game developed by Radiant Entertainment, and that
<v Speaker 1>was Seth Killian, who very prominent figure in the fighting
<v Speaker 1>game community. He worked at Capcom, then he left to
<v Speaker 1>found his own studio. Riot bought them out in twenty sixteen,
<v Speaker 1>I think, and Seth actually left shortly thereafter or in
<v Speaker 1>twenty nineteen. I think he left, and he is now,
<v Speaker 1>I believe, at Netflix Games. But so two XKO kind
<v Speaker 1>of took some of the ideas that Rising Thunder was doing,
<v Speaker 1>but they definitely rebuilt from scratch. It is a fighting
<v Speaker 1>game starring the champions from League of Legends. So if
<v Speaker 1>you're a League Legends fan, you'll see a lot of
<v Speaker 1>characters that you know. If you're not, then it's just like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>these are new fighting game characters. It's a two v
<v Speaker 1>two fighting game, and you can actually play four players,
<v Speaker 1>so like you can have like two players on one
<v Speaker 1>team two players on the other, and it's built around
<v Speaker 1>like approachability, so you there's button for special one, and
<v Speaker 1>there's a button for Special two, and there's those specials
<v Speaker 1>are almost used like Smash Brothers specials, where it's like
<v Speaker 1>if you hold down and press special, it'll do one attack.
<v Speaker 1>If you press like forward and do special, it'll do
<v Speaker 1>another attack. So there are like different commands you can
<v Speaker 1>put in, but it's not like you have to do
<v Speaker 1>like you know, charging and quarter circles and everything like
<v Speaker 1>you would and like Street Fighter. So it's really kind
<v Speaker 1>of playing off of that that trend that we're seeing
<v Speaker 1>with games like Street Fighter six and Tech and eight
<v Speaker 1>where there's a more simplified version of controls. But that's
<v Speaker 1>just the way this game is. And there's some ways
<v Speaker 1>you can utilize like your team attacks in certain ways
<v Speaker 1>that are really like cool, Like you can call them
<v Speaker 1>in and have them like perform an attack like and
<v Speaker 1>also like juggle them off of them, So like there's
<v Speaker 1>they're playing off some of like the ideas present like
<v Speaker 1>the Marvel versus Capcom games, but also the simplified controls
<v Speaker 1>in other games. And you know, there's some really interesting
<v Speaker 1>ways that like you can call in your teammate to
<v Speaker 1>do an attack, and then if you press like I
<v Speaker 1>forget what button it is, but they will just stay
<v Speaker 1>and trade into be like the new character on the screen.
<v Speaker 1>And then I was doing some really intricate combos. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>I'm with the coaching of the director, by the way,
<v Speaker 1>I will say that, but I was pulling off really
<v Speaker 1>intricate combos within like a very short time because of
<v Speaker 1>like the way specials are implemented. And then there's also
<v Speaker 1>an ultimate system that I think you push both of
<v Speaker 1>the special buttons at the same time, you can like
<v Speaker 1>bring in throws into the equation. It's a you're able
<v Speaker 1>to do cool stuff like basically, like the way the
<v Speaker 1>director was pointing, I think it's named Sean Rivera. He
<v Speaker 1>was saying like, yeah, we basically wanted to make it
<v Speaker 1>so like people could find the fun as quickly as possible. Yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>And that's a very smart approach, especially in like a
<v Speaker 1>crowded fighting game market. And also that the art style
<v Speaker 1>is absolutely beautiful.
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely yeah. And and those character designs, I mean, like
<v Speaker 2>character designs are like Riot's bread and butter. And so
<v Speaker 2>I'm excited to see League characters and a different perspective.
<v Speaker 2>I know there's there's characters in there that I hate
<v Speaker 2>fighting against in League, like a Lowie, where I feel
<v Speaker 2>like she's just gonna be super annoying and to fight
<v Speaker 2>against in the fighting game as well. So I'm pretty sure.
<v Speaker 1>She's one of the more recently announced characters yea as well.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, her tentacles, I hate them, but that's that's cool.
<v Speaker 2>So did fill me in? Did you do anything else
<v Speaker 2>before STI Propper that you can?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah? So I visited two other studios. One of them
<v Speaker 1>I can't talk about. The other one was Trey Arc,
<v Speaker 1>which I visited to see a presentation of Call of
<v Speaker 1>Duty Black Ops six doing a lot of stuff with
<v Speaker 1>that game, and I can't say any details, but I
<v Speaker 1>did get hands on with the multiplayer as well.
<v Speaker 2>Cool.
<v Speaker 1>But they were, like they said, you can say you
<v Speaker 1>played it, you can say like you enjoyed it, which
<v Speaker 1>I did enjoy it, but we can't really talk about
<v Speaker 1>like any details of what we played. But you know
<v Speaker 1>they're doing a lot of stuff. Like the campaign is
<v Speaker 1>set in nineteen ninety one. They are kind of doing
<v Speaker 1>like a successor to Black Ops Cold War if you
<v Speaker 1>enjoyed that campaign. This seems like they're really playing into
<v Speaker 1>like that espionage thriller Angle. The whole premise is like
<v Speaker 1>the US government has been infiltrated by this evil cabal basically,
<v Speaker 1>and they are like, you know, the CIA has been compromised,
<v Speaker 1>and like the Department of Defense has been compromised, I think,
<v Speaker 1>And it's like the Black Ops team actually goes rogue,
<v Speaker 1>so like they actually are fighting like members of the
<v Speaker 1>government because they are so like you know, there's a
<v Speaker 1>scene and there's a.
<v Speaker 2>Lot of conspiracy theorists wet dream it is.
<v Speaker 1>It really is, and like you know, the story mission
<v Speaker 1>that I saw, I saw a couple of story missions,
<v Speaker 1>but the one I saw most prominently took place during
<v Speaker 1>a Bill Clinton campaign fundraiser.
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god.
<v Speaker 1>So there's gonna be some like nods to like the
<v Speaker 1>Times and everything, and like you know, they're coming out
<v Speaker 1>of like this like bunker that was like underneath it,
<v Speaker 1>and you know you see like a little Caesar's pizza
<v Speaker 1>right there. So they're leading into like the businesses that
<v Speaker 1>were really booming back then, and there's like you know,
<v Speaker 1>there's there's sequences that are that that take place in
<v Speaker 1>the US like that, and there's also sequences that take
<v Speaker 1>place like during the Gulf War. So you're over in
<v Speaker 1>Iraq and you're you're completing missions there. So there are
<v Speaker 1>a lot of like a lot of moving pieces, and
<v Speaker 1>it's it's meant to be like, all right, you who
<v Speaker 1>can you trust? You can't trust anybody. There's like paranoia,
<v Speaker 1>there's a conspiracy. There's all kinds of stuff of like
<v Speaker 1>what is going on here and taking place in the
<v Speaker 1>early nineties. So that's kind of exciting for me as
<v Speaker 1>somebody who actually, like you know, was alive and remembers
<v Speaker 1>pieces of the early nineties. Yeah, Charles, what do you
<v Speaker 1>remember about the early nineties?
<v Speaker 2>Uh?
<v Speaker 4>Well, nineteen ninety one, I believe was the year my
<v Speaker 4>parents graduated high school.
<v Speaker 1>Jesus Christ.
<v Speaker 4>So you know I was born Okay, cool? And yeah,
<v Speaker 4>I was So I was born. I barely missed the nineties.
<v Speaker 4>I was born in March of two thousand, narrowly.
<v Speaker 2>Wow, you missed out on a lot.
<v Speaker 3>Apparently, I'm trying to catch up a lot of.
<v Speaker 2>Conspiracies, a lot of call levels. You missed the.
<v Speaker 1>Entire thing where this evil cabal infiltrated the CIA.
<v Speaker 4>Oh, I'm really glad I can play this historically accurate
<v Speaker 4>video game.
<v Speaker 2>It's you know, and then the cab left the government.
<v Speaker 1>A lot to find out. Everybody got their memory wiped.
<v Speaker 1>It was like a real like Men in Black that
<v Speaker 1>was also historically accurate where everybody's been in black.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, okay, good to know that was actually our first
<v Speaker 2>contact with aliens.
<v Speaker 1>Wow. First, Yeah, you forgot Independence Day? That happened to
<v Speaker 1>will Smith is just everywhere.
<v Speaker 2>That's where we got our That's where we got the
<v Speaker 2>national anthem from.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, ok, it's not Francis Scott keep no. But also
<v Speaker 1>on Alex this will be of interest to you. On
<v Speaker 1>the multiplayer side. Classic Prestige is back, baby nice. My brother,
<v Speaker 1>My brother had one question for me this whole weekend.
<v Speaker 1>He was like, find out if Prestige is coming back
<v Speaker 1>to Call of Duty. So, all right, you ready for this.
<v Speaker 1>I'm bringing up my notes here. Classic Prestige is back.
<v Speaker 1>So military levels fifty five levels like Modern Warfare three.
<v Speaker 1>Then you have a choice to enter Prestige. There's going
<v Speaker 1>to be ten levels of Prestige and then you can
<v Speaker 1>enter Prestige Master after you finish those ten levels of Prestige,
<v Speaker 1>and then that is one thousand levels. Wow. And if
<v Speaker 1>you finish that, they say there is a classified reward
<v Speaker 1>waiting for you at the end of those one thousand
<v Speaker 1>Prestige Master levels.
<v Speaker 2>What the heck?
<v Speaker 1>So how many people I want to see the race
<v Speaker 1>to that? But so there's also sixteen level or sixteen
<v Speaker 1>maps at launch in multiplayer, brand new ones. Twelve of
<v Speaker 1>them are the classic three lane sixty six maps, four
<v Speaker 1>of them are strike maps which are for like the
<v Speaker 1>smaller like HVT and gunfight atches, and then round based
<v Speaker 1>Zombies is also back. That's continuing the story where it
<v Speaker 1>left off on the Dark Ether storyline. So two all
<v Speaker 1>new maps for Zombies at launch, and of course they
<v Speaker 1>have a pretty aggressive post launch plans as you would imagine.
<v Speaker 1>They say tons of post launch content planned. So that's
<v Speaker 1>Call of Duty, Call of Duty, Call of Duty. It
<v Speaker 1>did look very impressive.
<v Speaker 2>Move for Call of Duty. Again, I'll say.
<v Speaker 1>I the last time I was like truly excited for
<v Speaker 1>a Call of Duty game was when I was at
<v Speaker 1>E three twenty nineteen and Activision was like Hey, you
<v Speaker 1>got to check out the new Modern Warfare game. And
<v Speaker 1>I've been like so busy. This's the final day of
<v Speaker 1>E three twenty nineteen, and I was like, all right,
<v Speaker 1>I have like one hour. Can I get in like
<v Speaker 1>a theater showing now? And they showed it to me
<v Speaker 1>and I was just like, this is incredible. Like I
<v Speaker 1>was blown away by that theater presentation. It was like
<v Speaker 1>the one where like you're like going into the people's hat,
<v Speaker 1>like the person's house, and like you have to get
<v Speaker 1>up to like the attic, and like you're doing it stealthily,
<v Speaker 1>and that was such a cool mission to showcase. They
<v Speaker 1>did such an amazing job with that mission. And then
<v Speaker 1>I was like I need to play this game. And
<v Speaker 1>that was the last time I was like really excited
<v Speaker 1>for a Call of Duty game, and this this kind
<v Speaker 1>of gave me those vibes where I was like, oh, wow,
<v Speaker 1>they're doing some cool stuff with this the campaign especially,
<v Speaker 1>but also the multiplayer and zombies. I kind of fell
<v Speaker 1>off zombies after a couple but I do feel like
<v Speaker 1>there are people who love the zombie stuff, so I'm
<v Speaker 1>happy for them if if they're excited about round based
<v Speaker 1>zombies coming back and like, you know, the continuation of
<v Speaker 1>that storyline. But yeah, multiplayer and the single player campaign
<v Speaker 1>looked really neat. So yeah, I'm excited for a Call
<v Speaker 1>of Duty game for the first time in a while.
<v Speaker 2>Well good, I do want to I feel like we're
<v Speaker 2>going to take a while to get through like our
<v Speaker 2>our hands on impressions, so I do kind of want
<v Speaker 2>to just run through highlights real quick. From a couple
<v Speaker 2>of the showcases, I think Xbox are the best showcase of.
<v Speaker 3>The disputably honestly.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, they in terms of like first party, they
<v Speaker 2>showed off Doom the Dark Ages, which gives the Doom
<v Speaker 2>Marine a Doom guy a shield that has spikes on
<v Speaker 2>it and kind of goes medieval.
<v Speaker 1>I'm all in on that game. By the way. It
<v Speaker 1>looks sick.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that looks awesome. Stated K three had a like
<v Speaker 2>cinematic trailer. I love State of the K two. It's
<v Speaker 2>the last game I really dived into co op with
<v Speaker 2>my dad, so I'll have to tell him that there's
<v Speaker 2>another one, But that that got me excited for whatever
<v Speaker 2>is coming next with that game. I think those systems
<v Speaker 2>in State of d K are a lot of fun.
<v Speaker 2>We got like a horror DLC for Starfield Shattered Space.
<v Speaker 2>I think it's called I still have really not I
<v Speaker 2>kind of bounced off of Starfield very quickly. I do
<v Speaker 2>kind of retain some sort of eagerness to go and
<v Speaker 2>play that again now that there's been updates made and
<v Speaker 2>new content and all that.
<v Speaker 4>That game that game for me. I did beat it,
<v Speaker 4>but I didn't like it. And then I like really
<v Speaker 4>dove into like the side faction stuff and I was like,
<v Speaker 4>this stuff is great, Like this is what I wanted
<v Speaker 4>the whole time, and it kind of like lets you lose.
<v Speaker 4>So I'm excited for like the concept of a more
<v Speaker 4>focused DLC because that was my favorite parts of Starfield
<v Speaker 4>were when it was like more directed like that.
<v Speaker 2>Oh good, good good.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>We got another look at Fable from Playground Games Get
<v Speaker 2>in a twenty twenty five release window. That's exciting. It's
<v Speaker 2>been years now, but I'm excited we're finally getting close.
<v Speaker 2>The thing that blew me Away was perfect, dark good.
<v Speaker 2>It looks incredible. We got a first look at that
<v Speaker 2>gameplay and finally, by the way, like I feel like, yeah, yeah.
<v Speaker 1>They announced that game like years ago. I mean the initiative,
<v Speaker 1>I forget when the initiative was founded, but it was
<v Speaker 1>not a short while. I mean it was.
<v Speaker 5>Seventeen maybe, yeah, And you know, we got looks at
<v Speaker 5>Wall Running and Parker Mirror's Edge type stuff mixed with
<v Speaker 5>stealth and gadgets.
<v Speaker 2>It's giving dais X and I'm I'm here for it.
<v Speaker 2>It looks awesome. I cannot wait to play that game.
<v Speaker 1>Probably initiative initiative was founded in twenty eighteen.
<v Speaker 2>Twenty eighteen, okay, probably my most the thing that just
<v Speaker 2>kind of excited me the most from the whole weekend,
<v Speaker 2>Perfect Dark looks awesome. So we had that Life Is
<v Speaker 2>Strange Double Exposure is a follow up to the first
<v Speaker 2>game I started. It's funny. I started getting Life Is
<v Speaker 2>Strange tiktoks on my for you page. Now weird and yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it's just people replaying a certain scene from that game.
<v Speaker 2>It's really funny. What else, Uh, Indiana Jones looks good.
<v Speaker 2>We had to look at some extended cutscenes they showed
<v Speaker 2>the like the they tease the Boulder run, which I
<v Speaker 2>think is bad. I think boulder runs in games people
<v Speaker 2>who are like not sure what I'm saying, Like when
<v Speaker 2>you when the camera pans around and faces the player
<v Speaker 2>and you have to run towards the camera as a
<v Speaker 2>chase scene happens behind you. You can't see anything in
<v Speaker 2>front of you. I hate that stuff. I think it's
<v Speaker 2>probably like the reason I don't like crash BANDICOOTNA Uncharted
<v Speaker 2>Barely Barely got I barely got through that, Like my
<v Speaker 2>my boredom and my frustration. I just hate those things.
<v Speaker 2>I think it's bad game design. Well maybe in movies,
<v Speaker 2>but god.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe they're just that's the opening of the cut scene,
<v Speaker 1>and then you have to kind of parcore your way
<v Speaker 1>through because it's a it's a first person.
<v Speaker 2>Maybe maybe yeah, maybe paints track around.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if they're crash bandicooting it. I think
<v Speaker 1>they might just be like, that might just be the
<v Speaker 1>opening cut scene and then you have to take over
<v Speaker 1>from there. I think that what they're But the camera's
<v Speaker 1>fixed on a certain point, so it's just constantly, oh gosh,
<v Speaker 1>people vomiting everywhere. But I think that what they're honestly
<v Speaker 1>going to do is I think they're going to allow
<v Speaker 1>people to replay classic scenes from the movies, because why
<v Speaker 1>would they just be like, hey, he's in another place
<v Speaker 1>that traps him with a giant rolling boulder. I think
<v Speaker 1>that is them making it like teasing that there's going
<v Speaker 1>to be classic Indiana Jones scenes that you will be
<v Speaker 1>able to relive through the game like a mode. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>like I don't know, Indiana Jones legends or something.
<v Speaker 2>Hm hmm.
<v Speaker 1>I like.
<v Speaker 2>I like the idea they're just being other boulders across
<v Speaker 2>the world.
<v Speaker 4>That not again, why does it always have to be boulders, Yeah, exactly,
<v Speaker 4>But he doesn't fear.
<v Speaker 1>Anything except snakes.
<v Speaker 2>So and not boulders.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, not boulders he runs from, but he's not afraid
<v Speaker 1>of him.
<v Speaker 4>That.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we got to look at a Vowed again in
<v Speaker 2>a new trailer that continues to look promising.
<v Speaker 1>I know.
<v Speaker 2>One of my big critiques was looking at like the
<v Speaker 2>early trailers, like the combat is not feeling like having
<v Speaker 2>that feedback that Screenshake. I wanted that impact, and they
<v Speaker 2>they've continued to say they're working on that stuff. But
<v Speaker 2>I'm eager to play that game. Stalker two I actually
<v Speaker 2>went hands on with the summer game Fest. We can
<v Speaker 2>talk about that later. Probably the biggest the biggest announcement
<v Speaker 2>for for Xbox Sikos is Gears of War E Day
<v Speaker 2>was announced. The prequel, set fourteen years before the first game,
<v Speaker 2>looks like it's stars Marcus, Phoenix and Dom.
<v Speaker 1>And I could not be more excited for having that
<v Speaker 1>duo back.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, I can't wait.
<v Speaker 1>It's really like the what Quiet Place is doing right
<v Speaker 1>where it's like, oh, ok we did one and two,
<v Speaker 1>so like we've gone forward in the story the way
<v Speaker 1>Gears has, and now we're going back in the story
<v Speaker 1>and showing like when these aliens first arrived.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that basically a Quiet Place is doing, and now
<v Speaker 1>also Gears of War, which I'm for it. I mean
<v Speaker 1>that I like the world building in that sense.
<v Speaker 2>Me too. We're getting three new Xbox Series X and
<v Speaker 2>S models this holiday, a all digital one terabyte Series
<v Speaker 2>X it's white. We're getting a one terabyte Series S,
<v Speaker 2>and then a special edition Xbox Series X it's Galaxy
<v Speaker 2>Black and it's two terabytes SSD.
<v Speaker 1>Of course, yes, I just bought an Xbox Series X.
<v Speaker 1>I didn't S for the longest time.
<v Speaker 2>That's all right.
<v Speaker 1>I mean I got it with Amazon Points because I
<v Speaker 1>remember when my Discover rewards points for free.
<v Speaker 2>Basically damn okay, and uh yeah, we got some updates
<v Speaker 2>for Fallout and that kind of thing. I think one
<v Speaker 2>of the Another highlight for me was South of Midnight.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, that looks really cool, which.
<v Speaker 2>It got a first gameplay trailer in a twenty twenty
<v Speaker 2>five launch window that is Compulsion Games. It's setting in
<v Speaker 2>a by you and Compulsion Games made we happy few,
<v Speaker 2>which I don't know how many people played that, not
<v Speaker 2>as many.
<v Speaker 1>I reviewed it.
<v Speaker 2>You did, what do you give it?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah?
<v Speaker 1>I think I gave it like seven, like it was fine.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, but this this looks like a action game.
<v Speaker 2>The animations cool, it's uh the frame rate of the
<v Speaker 2>character animations is on a separate like like cycle than
<v Speaker 2>like the the real time gameplay, and so it gives
<v Speaker 2>it lends this uh not stop motion look, but it
<v Speaker 2>lends almost like into the Spider Verse look during the Yes,
<v Speaker 2>in terms of like the frame rate that everything's playing
<v Speaker 2>back at. It's cool. And uh, the gameplay itself. I
<v Speaker 2>mean I was getting some Infamous vibes, like when they
<v Speaker 2>when the character like sling shot it across the map
<v Speaker 2>and like it was flinging into the air. I was like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>that looks like Infamous. It looks cool. I can't wait
<v Speaker 2>to play it. There's a big catfish that that the
<v Speaker 2>character rides along. They're all they all sound like the
<v Speaker 2>people I grew up around in Virginia. Not not well.
<v Speaker 2>I guess Virginia is not quite as as southern as
<v Speaker 2>as like Louisiana. But it gave me. It gave me
<v Speaker 2>happy feelings just hearing Southern accents in general. And it
<v Speaker 2>looks like it's got like some Bayou folkalore going on.
<v Speaker 2>It looks cool. It's called South of Midnight if you
<v Speaker 2>missed it, And I do want to jump ahead to Fragpunk,
<v Speaker 2>which is a game that people kept coming up to
<v Speaker 2>me at the show and telling me, have you played Fragpunk?
<v Speaker 2>You gotta play it. It was like there was a
<v Speaker 2>behind closed doors event for it. And it's a five
<v Speaker 2>y vive shooter. Listen, if this game looks cool to you,
<v Speaker 2>you don't want to wait to play it, go play
<v Speaker 2>friends versus friends. It's the same thing. It's not the
<v Speaker 2>same thing. But Fragpunk looks to be like a what
<v Speaker 2>if he puts like some big publisher money behind the
<v Speaker 2>concept of like a card based first person arena shooter.
<v Speaker 2>Looks cool. It's coming out sometime next year.
<v Speaker 1>So Alex, I think the perfect segue there would be
<v Speaker 1>a game. I think we both also checked out, and
<v Speaker 1>I think Charles even checked it out too. Marvel Rivals.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, I want to hear your thoughts. I have thoughts.
<v Speaker 4>I so my thoughts as someone who I like. My
<v Speaker 4>basic vibe was I liked it, but it wasn't as
<v Speaker 4>I remember the first time I played Overwatch. It's I
<v Speaker 4>guess for people listening, Marvel Rivals is essentially Overwatch with
<v Speaker 4>Marvel characters, and.
<v Speaker 1>It's also in third person.
<v Speaker 3>Also in third person, yes, good point.
<v Speaker 4>I remember the first time I played Overwatch and just
<v Speaker 4>really being like, it's amazing how much I click with
<v Speaker 4>like every character, Like I feel.
<v Speaker 3>Like it hit across the board.
<v Speaker 4>My main thing Marvel Rivals on my first play is like,
<v Speaker 4>oh not every character is like immediately super intuitive, which
<v Speaker 4>I didn't think was a bad thing. But I think
<v Speaker 4>I was expecting because it has like the Marvel license,
<v Speaker 4>that they were going to go for a more like
<v Speaker 4>everyone can jump in and play as their favorite character
<v Speaker 4>type thing, and I think I think, you know, people
<v Speaker 4>would still enjoy it.
<v Speaker 3>But I right off the.
<v Speaker 4>Bat, I was like, I love spider Man. I'm gonna
<v Speaker 4>pick Spider Man. But in like a shooter setting. It's
<v Speaker 4>like not it didn't like translate immediately and I might
<v Speaker 4>have been able to like figure him out. I just
<v Speaker 4>wanted to try a bunch of characters.
<v Speaker 2>I picked him first, too, and I hated it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they enjoyed Spider Man. I also like more mobile characters.
<v Speaker 1>I thought that.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>I also absolutely suck with mouse and keyboard, and they
<v Speaker 1>didn't have any game ads, so I was playing mouse
<v Speaker 1>and keyboard and like doing my best to like just
<v Speaker 1>like walk in a straight line basically. But like you know,
<v Speaker 1>I enjoyed it, and I think that like going into
<v Speaker 1>it a game that is so heavily influenced by a
<v Speaker 1>title like Overwatch, and I put a thousand hours into
<v Speaker 1>Overwatch one, and I love Marvel games, so like, you know,
<v Speaker 1>I'm predisposed to like this this game. But like a
<v Speaker 1>game that's so heavily inspired by game, I've spent so
<v Speaker 1>much time into it. Soone poured so much time into
<v Speaker 1>there's either there's one of two things. One it either
<v Speaker 1>feels really good it's like, oh okay, yeah they really
<v Speaker 1>nailed what made Overwatch special, or it's going to feel
<v Speaker 1>like a cheap imitation and it didn't feel like a
<v Speaker 1>cheap imitation to me. It felt like they had their
<v Speaker 1>onto something with this gameplay, and they're onto something with
<v Speaker 1>the way that some of these characters control, like and
<v Speaker 1>I tried other ones and not all of them clicked
<v Speaker 1>with me either, But like, my biggest fear for this
<v Speaker 1>game is it's monetization cannot be And I told them this.
<v Speaker 1>I told that that was the director, producer and the
<v Speaker 1>guy that's like kind of overseeing it at Marvel Games.
<v Speaker 1>I was like, look, there's nobody who is predisposed to
<v Speaker 1>like this game more than me, being like, you know,
<v Speaker 1>over a thousand hours in Overwatch, diehard Marvel fan. I
<v Speaker 1>love like all the MCU stuff of all the TV shows,
<v Speaker 1>Like I used to read comics a lot more than
<v Speaker 1>I do now. If the monetization is like predatory or
<v Speaker 1>exploitative or just like feels bad, that's going to do
<v Speaker 1>to me what Overwatches New monetization Methods did where it's
<v Speaker 1>just like, oh I don't want to do this anymore.
<v Speaker 1>That'll pass Like that screws you over unless like you
<v Speaker 1>really grind it out like that discourages play. And I
<v Speaker 1>told them, like, that's the way that you would get
<v Speaker 1>rid of any goodwill that I got out of this
<v Speaker 1>gameplay session of like feeling like, oh, okay, yeah, I
<v Speaker 1>could see myself like spending some time with this game
<v Speaker 1>when it comes out. And so hopefully that's not the case,
<v Speaker 1>because like I do feel like they're onto something. I
<v Speaker 1>don't think like I'm like ready to be like I
<v Speaker 1>declare that this is the new Overwatch and like everybody
<v Speaker 1>who left Overwatch to check out Marvel Rivals. But like,
<v Speaker 1>you know, if it's a free to play a game,
<v Speaker 1>if I'm not mistaken, so like, yeah, if when it
<v Speaker 1>comes out, like why not check it out? If like
<v Speaker 1>you were an Overwatch fan, you're kind of missing what
<v Speaker 1>Overwatch one brought to the table in the wake of
<v Speaker 1>Overwatch two, Like why not give it a shot. That's
<v Speaker 1>what I'm going to do whenever like the game pad
<v Speaker 1>like beta or whatever is available, just to see how
<v Speaker 1>it feels. In comparison, I did play.
<v Speaker 3>I did get a controller. For what it's worth, jeez,
<v Speaker 3>I was in the market for you.
<v Speaker 4>I did it later, so I wonder if they like
<v Speaker 4>went and they were like, oh, everyone wants controllers.
<v Speaker 3>So we got to go get some controllers hooked up but.
<v Speaker 1>I did mention that to nothing. They're like, oh, well,
<v Speaker 1>this this bill does have controller like like support, and
<v Speaker 1>I was like, oh what, I did not bring a
<v Speaker 1>controller and yeah, okay, so maybe that was the feedback
<v Speaker 1>that I gave.
<v Speaker 2>Them, and they had they had control when I went.
<v Speaker 1>Mm hmm, yeah, well I wish I would have later.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe maybe me going earlier like changed the Uh yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I think.
<v Speaker 2>I'm a bit more cynical in the game than you, Brian.
<v Speaker 2>I think a cheap imitation is a bit harsh. I
<v Speaker 2>do feel like it's it's it feels a little rush,
<v Speaker 2>not ru it, just it didn't come together for me.
<v Speaker 2>Uh as not that I won't play it, but uh
<v Speaker 2>it feels more like, oh, play this for a weekend
<v Speaker 2>rather than like this is going to go into my rotation.
<v Speaker 2>And I still currently play Overwatch two pretty regularly. And yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I think it just felt. I think Charles mentioned like
<v Speaker 2>some of the characters don't play how you think they would,
<v Speaker 2>and granted like I would get used to it over time.
<v Speaker 2>That did through throw me for a loop, Like I
<v Speaker 2>was expecting Spider Man to be more of like arranged
<v Speaker 2>character or something with like his webs and he he
<v Speaker 2>has a couple of those, but then he's mostly like
<v Speaker 2>a fist character, and I didn't enjoy the up close
<v Speaker 2>combat as much as I did playing range characters. I
<v Speaker 2>thought star Lord was a lot of fun. I played him,
<v Speaker 2>and then I played nay More.
<v Speaker 1>Oh how does he play? He is?
<v Speaker 2>Nay More is like almost like a zone controller, so
<v Speaker 2>he can place down. I also wasn't quite sure exactly
<v Speaker 2>what some of the things we're doing because I'm like
<v Speaker 2>trying to I think I tried like twelve different characters
<v Speaker 2>and like the span of like five games. But nay
<v Speaker 2>More has his spears, so left click is like just
<v Speaker 2>a normal thrown to spear. Right click seems to like
<v Speaker 2>have a little more stickiness when you throw it at somebody,
<v Speaker 2>like it seems like it kind of if you throw
<v Speaker 2>it in their vicinity, it seems like it almost like
<v Speaker 2>will hit them anyways, even if you missed. I don't
<v Speaker 2>know if that was intentional or what. But and that
<v Speaker 2>right click also you're you're ultimate as anymore. You're selling
<v Speaker 2>this big fish out and there's something to do. There's
<v Speaker 2>some sort of synergy there, I believe, But his ultimately
<v Speaker 2>cool because right what's like.
<v Speaker 1>Team up attacks are also a thing that's in this
<v Speaker 1>That was cool.
<v Speaker 2>That was cool. Rocket Raccoon, I played is rock at
<v Speaker 2>him and I jumped on top of groups shoulders, which
<v Speaker 2>was and I was playing with bots at that moment,
<v Speaker 2>so like it wasn't like I could tell my teammate like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>go over here, go over here. It was kind of
<v Speaker 2>the whim of the bots. But that was that that
<v Speaker 2>is cool and feels unique.
<v Speaker 1>And yeah, like Scarlet Witch and Magneto can like do synergies,
<v Speaker 1>which is cool. I didn't get a chance to try
<v Speaker 1>theirs out, but I was looking at like the list
<v Speaker 1>of team up attacks because in the menu they had
<v Speaker 1>like a list.
<v Speaker 2>I played predominantly with bots, which I did play one
<v Speaker 2>game at the end with real people and that was
<v Speaker 2>like the best it felt. I was like, okay, well.
<v Speaker 1>For sure, that's when it all clicked, like yeah, and.
<v Speaker 4>We got smoked by bots my first game and I
<v Speaker 4>was like, oh no.
<v Speaker 3>And then the second game we did end.
<v Speaker 4>Up winning, even though one of our human players he
<v Speaker 4>was playing his group and group can make like playing walls,
<v Speaker 4>and they were finding out that you can make them
<v Speaker 4>like horizontally.
<v Speaker 3>On a wall as like a ramp and so this
<v Speaker 3>the whole game just built a ramp up a random
<v Speaker 3>wall and.
<v Speaker 4>Was just kind of hanging out on top there and
<v Speaker 4>was like not participating, just kind of like messing around
<v Speaker 4>with the system. So we did kind of have like
<v Speaker 4>one team member less, but we somehow managed to win
<v Speaker 4>that game.
<v Speaker 1>What a strange thing to do if you're like they're
<v Speaker 1>previewing a game.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I wanted to say, you were just like, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>if they were there for like a really long time,
<v Speaker 4>they got bored, or if they were just like a
<v Speaker 4>YouTuber that was like really trying to test the limits
<v Speaker 4>of stuff.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, it was really weird.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I don't know. I got sat between two YouTubers
<v Speaker 2>and it was it was an experience. I'll say, I
<v Speaker 2>think they knew each other and just kept like dabbing
<v Speaker 2>each other and like cheating in front of me to
<v Speaker 2>dab each other and that kind of stuff, like please
<v Speaker 2>please stop.
<v Speaker 1>Next to each other if you want.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah yeah, yeah, but but yeah, it was. It was.
<v Speaker 2>I'm not as sold as you, but I'm as I'm
<v Speaker 2>talking about it. I'm coming more around. I think I
<v Speaker 2>was really underwhelmed, uh at first, and that last that
<v Speaker 2>last game I did enjoy, but I think it still
<v Speaker 2>has a lot to prove for me. I do want
<v Speaker 2>to do wanna. I want to get a code for
<v Speaker 2>like that that beta or whatever that's going on. I
<v Speaker 2>know people have had access to it. I'm not going
<v Speaker 2>to sid sign that stupid agreement though that I can
<v Speaker 2>only talk positively about the game. I was going around, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>that's weird, but that's Marvel Rivals. I guess we can
<v Speaker 2>get into our other things that we we played at
<v Speaker 2>Summer Game Fest. We're already an hour into the podcast.
<v Speaker 1>One thing that I think a lot of people were
<v Speaker 1>hoping would be at Summer game Fest the live stream,
<v Speaker 1>but was not. We got to pour one out for
<v Speaker 1>the Hollow Night Homies. Yeah, yep, the Xbox Showcase or
<v Speaker 1>the Summer Game Fest Showcase. That leaves the only real
<v Speaker 1>option if it's coming out second half of this year,
<v Speaker 1>if the Nintendo Direct that's coming this month.
<v Speaker 3>Dude, that's true.
<v Speaker 2>I saw that tweet going around of it was Xbox
<v Speaker 2>is saying, like somebody asking Xbox, so this means every
<v Speaker 2>game in your showcase this year's coming out within twelve
<v Speaker 2>months from a couple of years ago, and Xbox says,
<v Speaker 2>that's exactly what we said, and it was like a
<v Speaker 2>year later somebody said somebody was tweeting it, and then
<v Speaker 2>another year later somebody was tweeting that tweet. It was
<v Speaker 2>just like, man, you didn't do Team Cherry any favors
<v Speaker 2>of that one.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean if Team Cherry told them it was
<v Speaker 1>coming out during that time, yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Who knows. There were other games though in that list
<v Speaker 2>that definitely didn't come out in twelve months. But that's
<v Speaker 2>that's funny.
<v Speaker 1>We got to push redfall out to make sure.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I can talk about my PlayStation games I.
<v Speaker 3>Played, Yeah, it's a good time for that.
<v Speaker 4>So first game I played Astrobot. That game goes so hard,
<v Speaker 4>so the so I remember when I played the PS
<v Speaker 4>five like tech demo for the first time, and I
<v Speaker 4>was like, this game's so fun, it's amazing, but it's
<v Speaker 4>really short, and in my head I was like, Okay,
<v Speaker 4>the size of this game allows the levels to feel
<v Speaker 4>so good, like they've condensed everything down so that any
<v Speaker 4>one level is really like this is all the stuff
<v Speaker 4>we've got and it's going to be really cool. And
<v Speaker 4>then playing like a few levels of the full game,
<v Speaker 4>I was like blown away by like, oh no, the
<v Speaker 4>whole thing is going to feel like this, Like every
<v Speaker 4>game is going to have that like handcrafted quality.
<v Speaker 3>And I had like my notebook and.
<v Speaker 4>I wasn't expecting to take that many notes, and I
<v Speaker 4>had like pages and pages because it felt like every
<v Speaker 4>second I had to like pause the game and write.
<v Speaker 3>Something down because it was so cool.
<v Speaker 4>But yeah, and I played two levels, I fought a boss.
<v Speaker 4>It still feels good. I mean it plays the same
<v Speaker 4>as the tech demo. Yeah, so it's all the same
<v Speaker 4>controls as a punch. You can do like a little
<v Speaker 4>hover jump where you shoot lasers down to hit people
<v Speaker 4>underneath you. And then I also got some power up.
<v Speaker 4>So the first power up I got, it was like
<v Speaker 4>an octopus backpack and when I used the right trigger,
<v Speaker 4>it like inflated and like send me like soaring up
<v Speaker 4>into the air.
<v Speaker 3>And when there's a part you.
<v Speaker 4>Can go underwater and when you inflate it, you like
<v Speaker 4>immediately shoot up to like the surface, which was fun.
<v Speaker 4>I got a I think it was a dog, Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>a dog backpack, and he was like a jet pack basically,
<v Speaker 4>so when I pressed the right trigger there, I would
<v Speaker 4>like shoot forward as like a rocket, and they used
<v Speaker 4>that to like break through certain objects.
<v Speaker 3>And there's also like some platforming there.
<v Speaker 4>And then in the boss level, I got these frog
<v Speaker 4>gloves and that one you get, each trigger punches out
<v Speaker 4>the other fist kind of like arms, I guess, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>but they can punch. So that was like really fun,
<v Speaker 4>and that's like, I mean, this is what the game
<v Speaker 4>is for, but the triggers feel really good. Then when
<v Speaker 4>it has like just enough resistance, then when it pops out,
<v Speaker 4>it feels like you really like pulled it back, and
<v Speaker 4>those can punch stuff, and you can always use those
<v Speaker 4>to like swing on these certain like red poles to
<v Speaker 4>like go through a level to platform, and that was
<v Speaker 4>like the whole boss fight revolved around. I thought this
<v Speaker 4>giant octopus revolved around having those frog gloves.
<v Speaker 3>And then after you beat this boss, you go and
<v Speaker 3>you rescue two.
<v Speaker 4>Throughout the game, you're rescuing little other astrobots and sometimes
<v Speaker 4>they're just like in sticky situations. Some of the like
<v Speaker 4>cooler ones to find are like dressed up as PlayStation characters.
<v Speaker 4>The first when I saved a ratchet and rivet astrobots.
<v Speaker 4>After you beat the octopus, there's like a capsized rowboat
<v Speaker 4>and then when you go over there you can use
<v Speaker 4>your gloves to flip it over and Crato sineitreus are inside,
<v Speaker 4>and then the three of you fly off together and
<v Speaker 4>then it unlocks a like God of War Ragnarok like
<v Speaker 4>themed level, but it was locked for the demo, but
<v Speaker 4>I could see I had like Thor's Hammer on like
<v Speaker 4>a big frozen chunk of ice, and I was like, dude,
<v Speaker 4>I want to play that so bad. And it also
<v Speaker 4>makes me like really excited for like, there's six worlds,
<v Speaker 4>so I would assume, and this is me just talking
<v Speaker 4>out of my ass but I assume at least they'd
<v Speaker 4>be at least one of these in each of those worlds,
<v Speaker 4>and I'm just really excited to see like what games
<v Speaker 4>they want to do, like these like spinoff.
<v Speaker 3>Levels for but yeah, so that's really exciting. And then
<v Speaker 3>there's also these smaller levels. There was like a.
<v Speaker 4>Circle and across one just like the PlayStation buttons, and
<v Speaker 4>those are like really like intense platforming levels, so like challenges,
<v Speaker 4>so you have to get through it in one life,
<v Speaker 4>and I beat the first one.
<v Speaker 3>I didn't have time to beat the second one, but.
<v Speaker 2>Do like a Mario challenge room where it's like, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>thirty seconds or less.
<v Speaker 3>Well, it's not timed, but it's like around it just.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, that's what I mean.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, like, yeah, it's like a fast level.
<v Speaker 3>Yes. Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>The first one it was like a bunch of floating
<v Speaker 4>like ice circles, so you like skate along there and
<v Speaker 4>these guys had like they're swinging spike balls on change
<v Speaker 4>you had to jump over.
<v Speaker 3>And then the second one revolved around.
<v Speaker 4>This like capsule you can pick up and when you
<v Speaker 4>throw it at an item, it slows time. When you
<v Speaker 4>throw it at an enemy, it slows time. So you
<v Speaker 4>had to like grab them and throw them.
<v Speaker 3>At the right time to like platform and avoid obstacles
<v Speaker 3>and stuff.
<v Speaker 4>But yeah, the main levels were like not hard. It
<v Speaker 4>was you know, Mario is a good comparison where you're
<v Speaker 4>going through like a early level and you know Mario
<v Speaker 4>Otyssey or Mari Galaxy, and it's more about like, wow,
<v Speaker 4>what a charming, beautiful place to go hang out in.
<v Speaker 4>And it's still like fun to do even though it's
<v Speaker 4>not like challenging. These are the levels are like heart
<v Speaker 4>and I'm excited to see like people start speed running.
<v Speaker 3>Them and stuff like that. Yeah. Astrobod good, astrobod good.
<v Speaker 1>That's one of the most anticipated games for me, even
<v Speaker 1>though I didn't get a chance to see it or
<v Speaker 1>play it, Like I saw the you know, the announcement
<v Speaker 1>obviously when it happened on the PlayStation Showcase. But uh,
<v Speaker 1>the Astrobot game that came out with the PS five
<v Speaker 1>was probably the best launch title. I mean, it was
<v Speaker 1>up there, right, or the other launch titles like Miles Morales,
<v Speaker 1>which is unbelievable and Demons.
<v Speaker 3>The other one there's a little bit exclusive launch title.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean, but like that as far as like
<v Speaker 1>demonstrating what the dual sense can do, Like it was
<v Speaker 1>so novel and so cool, and it was like the
<v Speaker 1>levels were so well designed. But yeah, Miles Morales was
<v Speaker 1>really good. I really.
<v Speaker 4>The other game I played was Lego Horizon Adventures, which
<v Speaker 4>such an odd little game. So the first thing starts
<v Speaker 4>to me, it's a Lego game. It's not developed by
<v Speaker 4>TT Games. It's developed by I think it's Studio Gobo.
<v Speaker 4>It's called and Gorilla, So the people that made the
<v Speaker 4>Horizon games are working on this. They have the entire
<v Speaker 4>voice cast back. The guy I was playing the demo
<v Speaker 4>with said like a lot of the writers from the
<v Speaker 4>first game were writing on this and it just retells
<v Speaker 4>the events of Horizon zero Dawn. So that first game,
<v Speaker 4>and like I said, it wasn't made by TV games.
<v Speaker 4>So there's some parts of like a Lego game when
<v Speaker 4>you think of it, that do translate, but a lot
<v Speaker 4>of it was like very different. It's like in a
<v Speaker 4>base Lego game, anything made of legos, you that's like
<v Speaker 4>your gameplay Q to like punch that and you can
<v Speaker 4>usually destroy it or it'll be like some significant item.
<v Speaker 4>In this game, there wasn't nearly as much like environment destruction,
<v Speaker 4>but the whole world is made of Lego, like they
<v Speaker 4>really committed to it, so like the water is made
<v Speaker 4>of like little Lego studs floating around, and like the
<v Speaker 4>environments looked really nice. And then gameplay wise, it wasn't
<v Speaker 4>like a complicated game, but like based on what you'd
<v Speaker 4>expect compared to what you expect from a Lego game.
<v Speaker 4>There's like you can hide in the tall grass from
<v Speaker 4>the enemies, and they have weak points that you can
<v Speaker 4>target with your weapons. There's a like consumable items, so
<v Speaker 4>you can get I picked up like a fire spear
<v Speaker 4>when I was playing is viral and I had twelve uses.
<v Speaker 4>If you shoot an arrow through an open flame, it'll
<v Speaker 4>light tall grass on fire, so you can't hiden that anymore.
<v Speaker 4>Like there's just like a lot more intricacy to like
<v Speaker 4>the gameplay systems than I expected. And then obviously the
<v Speaker 4>it's goofy because it's a Lego game. It's all the
<v Speaker 4>same voice actors, but they're not doing the lines at
<v Speaker 4>all the same And I think the story is like
<v Speaker 4>slightly altered from what I remember just to make it
<v Speaker 4>more digestible. I'd have to wait and see until, like
<v Speaker 4>I actually played the full game, but like I remember
<v Speaker 4>Aloy getting her focus in like a cave like in
<v Speaker 4>one of those like old ruins, and in this one,
<v Speaker 4>I think Ross just gives it to her. She like
<v Speaker 4>finds it like out in the open during the tutorial area.
<v Speaker 3>But still good, still cool, Still probably the same rough story.
<v Speaker 4>Oh and then the other Lego goofiness thing is like
<v Speaker 4>you can dress up like Aloy can have.
<v Speaker 3>They have like Lego City stuff.
<v Speaker 4>They have a Lego Friends, which is there like girls
<v Speaker 4>line Lego Ninjago. There's all these outfits you can customize
<v Speaker 4>the hub area of buildings. You can make like one
<v Speaker 4>room like a hot dog cart and one room have
<v Speaker 4>like a Lego Ninjago roof and all that stuff. And
<v Speaker 4>then even in the games, I summoned a hot dog cart.
<v Speaker 4>I keep talking about the hot dogs because for some reason,
<v Speaker 4>that's the main thing I remember from this. But I
<v Speaker 4>summoned a hot sales guy and he threw explosive hot
<v Speaker 4>dogs at all the machines I was fighting as like
<v Speaker 4>a power up ability. Also, characters level up. There's like
<v Speaker 4>a level up path where your damage and health goes
<v Speaker 4>up and such.
<v Speaker 3>So it's just like a really interesting thing.
<v Speaker 4>As someone who's like obviously I mentioned all the time
<v Speaker 4>my first ever video game I played was Lego Star Wars,
<v Speaker 4>so I have a very like strong attachment to the
<v Speaker 4>Lego series. It's very interesting to see another studio's like
<v Speaker 4>take on what it means to be a Lego game.
<v Speaker 2>That's awesome. How about you, Brian, what are what are
<v Speaker 2>some of the any highlights that you played that you
<v Speaker 2>can talk about And as some of the stuff we
<v Speaker 2>played is still under embargo.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so I'll just run through these quickly. But metaphor
<v Speaker 1>Refentasio or Refantasio, the new game from the Persona developers
<v Speaker 1>that played really cool. It's it basically like the Elevator
<v Speaker 1>Pitch could be boiled down to its persona, but in
<v Speaker 1>a fantasy world instead of like taking place in like
<v Speaker 1>real world Japan. However, like you know, a lot of
<v Speaker 1>the art style is the same, Like the characters kind
<v Speaker 1>of dress like they're in like the modern ages. And
<v Speaker 1>then there's also instead of personas, you get archetypes that
<v Speaker 1>you can summon that's basically like a distillation of like
<v Speaker 1>what they think a hero is. And then there's a
<v Speaker 1>learned line based combat system, so it's still turn based
<v Speaker 1>like like Persona. It has a lot of the same
<v Speaker 1>similar ui as well, but like you can set like
<v Speaker 1>certain characters in the back and they'll take less damage,
<v Speaker 1>but also their melee attacks will be less impactful, so
<v Speaker 1>you can are there their physical attacks. Sorry, so you
<v Speaker 1>have to like balance, like, okay, am I going to
<v Speaker 1>want this character to do like physical attacks or they're
<v Speaker 1>only going to be casting magic If so, I'll put
<v Speaker 1>them in the back and then like you know, put
<v Speaker 1>my more like physical characters up front. But yeah, like
<v Speaker 1>a lot of it is kind of of like Persona esque.
<v Speaker 1>And they say there is like some sort of like
<v Speaker 1>relationship management. I don't know, if it's going to be
<v Speaker 1>on the level of Persona. But yeah, I had a
<v Speaker 1>really good time with it. I played like the dungeon,
<v Speaker 1>I did the tutorial, I did the dungeon, and then
<v Speaker 1>I did a boss fight, and they were all really fun.
<v Speaker 1>I played for about forty five minutes.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, Yeah, I was gonna ask how long that took.
<v Speaker 4>Was it was it like a full dungeon in that
<v Speaker 4>time or.
<v Speaker 1>Was it like no, no, no, So it was like fifteen
<v Speaker 1>minute chunks of like, Okay, here's fifteen minutes you can
<v Speaker 1>play through like an early part of the game. Here's
<v Speaker 1>another fifteen minute gameplay segment of you just dungeon crawling,
<v Speaker 1>and then here's another fifteen minute segment of you fighting
<v Speaker 1>a boss. So yeah, I had had a good time
<v Speaker 1>with that. I got to play Dragon Ball Sparking Zero, which,
<v Speaker 1>as somebody who grew up enjoying the Boudekai games, I
<v Speaker 1>never really played the Buduakai ten Kaichi trilogy or the
<v Speaker 1>games in that one that series, but I love the
<v Speaker 1>Boudokai trilogy and that was kind of like my main
<v Speaker 1>interaction point with the Dragon Ball Z franchise when I
<v Speaker 1>was a kid. Yeah, so I really enjoyed like those titles,
<v Speaker 1>so I like they're doing like some really fun like
<v Speaker 1>what if scenario stuff with this one. Like you there
<v Speaker 1>are I think it's either eight or ten characters that
<v Speaker 1>you can play through, like the events from dragon Ball
<v Speaker 1>Z all Whip dragon Ball Super is like the characters
<v Speaker 1>that you can control all the way up. Obviously Goku
<v Speaker 1>is going to have the longest story out of all
<v Speaker 1>like the individual characters, but like you play through like
<v Speaker 1>impactful and iconic scenes from the uh the show or
<v Speaker 1>the shows I guess, yeah. And then there's also several
<v Speaker 1>what if scenarios. The one that I got to see
<v Speaker 1>is at the very beginning of dragon Ball Z fight
<v Speaker 1>Ratts when he comes to Earth, and then you've got
<v Speaker 1>to be like, okay, well what if Piccolo and Goku
<v Speaker 1>didn't team up to fight Ratits at the end of that.
<v Speaker 1>So there's like several what if things, and like you
<v Speaker 1>can actually defy like the what if logic because it's like, oh, well,
<v Speaker 1>you're supposed to lose this battle, but if you win,
<v Speaker 1>you get like a special cut scene. And then there's
<v Speaker 1>like custom battles that you can like build out with
<v Speaker 1>like okay, well, like you can have these three characters
<v Speaker 1>fighting these three characters, and there's like wind conditions and
<v Speaker 1>like what environment it takes place, and you could share
<v Speaker 1>those with friends. There's gonna be like a strap battles.
<v Speaker 1>I can call it all the where. It's like the
<v Speaker 1>developers just like pre create like kind of like cool scenarios
<v Speaker 1>three days on and then there's just a one battle
<v Speaker 1>three on three three one once and you can each side.
<v Speaker 1>I can have at three three AirCare stop blotline like you
<v Speaker 1>can see wap water characters battle and you can transant
<v Speaker 1>form that transformament, car charger, cage, so power moves. You
<v Speaker 1>have three dree fighting fighting, deal deals good, and you're
<v Speaker 1>floating off all around vironvironments a drusturable like like fighting
<v Speaker 1>fighting city and be smashing the jug and building just
<v Speaker 1>a strong role and stay the same bound mountains. And yeah,
<v Speaker 1>there's one stadium like a ornament and like I gotta
<v Speaker 1>get carried away the lasting and caught me on into
<v Speaker 1>like like the stadium like damage the stadium trigger that
<v Speaker 1>season in battle of like like the like get out
<v Speaker 1>of here and you're seeing to be proud. I was
<v Speaker 1>suddenly plunning out of the stadium and it was kind
<v Speaker 1>of cool. But yeah, yeah, that was a really fun demo.
<v Speaker 1>I'm really looking forward to that. It made me want
<v Speaker 1>to go play the Budhikai or PreMaster trilogy that they've
<v Speaker 1>heard the remaster series they put out. But then I
<v Speaker 1>realized it's only on Xbox three sixty and p S three.
<v Speaker 1>It's not actually on G S four and Xbox one.
<v Speaker 1>So with the Xbox three sixty, uh, marketplace closed down,
<v Speaker 1>you actually have to go get a physical copy if
<v Speaker 1>you want that, I believe, which is a bummer because
<v Speaker 1>I would love to, you know, reacclimate myself with those games.
<v Speaker 1>But I mean this one comes out with October eleventh
<v Speaker 1>on the modern consoles, So yeah, I'm very much looking
<v Speaker 1>forward to that. Let's see, he's going quick one here.
<v Speaker 1>Rusty Rabbit. It is a two point five D side
<v Speaker 1>scrolling action game. You play a rabbit who kind of
<v Speaker 1>has like almost like it's not as cute as it sounds,
<v Speaker 1>but like basically humanity has left Earth and rabbits have
<v Speaker 1>evolved to be the dominant species, and they're like, you know,
<v Speaker 1>he's he's piloting a mech and like basically the rabbits
<v Speaker 1>have like misinterpreted what humanity left behind, so like they
<v Speaker 1>found the fairy Tale of Peter Rabbit and they've interpreted
<v Speaker 1>that to be like their holy scripture. But like it's
<v Speaker 1>it's very like yeah, basically, it's like very irreverent. Like
<v Speaker 1>the opening cut scene is like, all right, well, his
<v Speaker 1>wife and his daughter have left him, and like he's
<v Speaker 1>sitting there in his on his couch and he's smoking,
<v Speaker 1>but it's a carrot that he's smoking, which was kind
<v Speaker 1>of cute. And they all have like these The demo
<v Speaker 1>I was playing was in Japanese and it's like, I'm
<v Speaker 1>absolutely playing it this way because they all have like
<v Speaker 1>gruff voices that you would expect in like a yakuza game,
<v Speaker 1>and like I just loved watching this, like gruff sounding,
<v Speaker 1>very cute rabbit speaking in Japanese and smoking a carrot.
<v Speaker 1>I was like, this is the way I'm going to
<v Speaker 1>play one.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, who's the developer on that.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know the developer's name, but it's it's written
<v Speaker 1>by Jen Yurubuci, who was the writer of Fate zero okay,
<v Speaker 1>and it like, you know, he had like a very
<v Speaker 1>trademark sense of humor that he's integrating into this. But
<v Speaker 1>it played well. There's a lot of upgrades and everything.
<v Speaker 1>One that caught me off guard. We'll move on to
<v Speaker 1>this yours Rising m that's it's almost like a two
<v Speaker 1>D Metroid Vanya. It's being published by Atari, but it
<v Speaker 1>is being developed by way Forward, which instantly tells me
<v Speaker 1>that's going to play well, and it does. I honestly
<v Speaker 1>was not a fan of the art style when I
<v Speaker 1>saw the reveal, but it pays homage to a lot
<v Speaker 1>of Atari franchises, which is cool. So like there's mini
<v Speaker 1>games like where you have to hack and it actually
<v Speaker 1>does like a little like homage minigame to Yards Revenge,
<v Speaker 1>the old like nineteen eighty two Atari game. But then
<v Speaker 1>like I got to a boss battle and it was
<v Speaker 1>the Missile Commander, which you know, pays homage to Missile
<v Speaker 1>Command the nineteen eighty Atari game, and the mechanics are
<v Speaker 1>kind of related to that as well, So like he
<v Speaker 1>shoots up these missiles in the air and you can
<v Speaker 1>use this attack that almost is like Ness's PK Thunder
<v Speaker 1>in Okay Smash Brothers. Yeah, so you have to like
<v Speaker 1>intercept the missiles and like detonate at the right time,
<v Speaker 1>kind of like a Missile Command and then you know
<v Speaker 1>unload on the actual boss himself. And then there's like
<v Speaker 1>all kinds of different like easter eggs for like Atari,
<v Speaker 1>Like the the save terminals all look like old Atari computers,
<v Speaker 1>and I think that there was I saw somebody like
<v Speaker 1>post that like there was a just a giant billboard
<v Speaker 1>in the background said Nolan, which is a you know,
<v Speaker 1>paying tribute to Nolan bush Noll, the founder of Atari.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, I'm really excited to see what other like
<v Speaker 1>easter eggs they have for Atari games. But like you know,
<v Speaker 1>it's stealth, it's like two D, but it's also stealth.
<v Speaker 1>It's also Metroidvania. It's also like Mega Man inspired in
<v Speaker 1>terms of like the gameplay, so like a lot of
<v Speaker 1>promise in that one. Yeah, I'm trying to touch on
<v Speaker 1>these as quickly as possible. Steam World Heist too, I
<v Speaker 1>really had a good time with played that for about
<v Speaker 1>forty five minutes. It seems like it's really carrying on
<v Speaker 1>the legacy of the first one, the strategic tactical, turn
<v Speaker 1>based two D combat, which is really fun. Like so
<v Speaker 1>it's like a two D style game, but like you know,
<v Speaker 1>it's almost like Xcom inspired, like you have to get
<v Speaker 1>behind cover and you have to like you can bank
<v Speaker 1>your shots off walls and ceilings to try to hit
<v Speaker 1>your enemies, and some weapons are better at that than others.
<v Speaker 1>Some have more range. So if you're a sniper, you
<v Speaker 1>have a really long sight line that you can bounce
<v Speaker 1>off trick shots, you know, to like complete different objectives
<v Speaker 1>on that. You can a deep class customization system on
<v Speaker 1>that Monster Hunter Wilds. That demo was really impressive, Like
<v Speaker 1>the way I was watching. I'm not a monster hunter
<v Speaker 1>like die Hard either, but I was really impressed by this.
<v Speaker 1>It was just like, Wow, this is like almost thrilling
<v Speaker 1>to the point of exhaustion, which is like kind of
<v Speaker 1>how I felt like watching like John Wick four, where
<v Speaker 1>I was just like watching it in theaters. I was like,
<v Speaker 1>this is incredible, This is incredible, and then like by
<v Speaker 1>the end of it, I was like out of breath
<v Speaker 1>almost by Like, man, that was just like an adrenaline
<v Speaker 1>rush from start to finish. But like they played out
<v Speaker 1>an entire hunt in the demo that I saw, and
<v Speaker 1>like there were so many cool things of like all right,
<v Speaker 1>we're going to lead him through this area and hopefully
<v Speaker 1>this other monster will attack him and then We're gonna
<v Speaker 1>lead him into this storm and this region's Apex is
<v Speaker 1>Apex creature is going to attack. And there were a
<v Speaker 1>lot of really really impressive systems that like all meld
<v Speaker 1>together and work, and it made me really want to
<v Speaker 1>redownload Monster Hunter World to like get a taste of
<v Speaker 1>like the excitement that demo brought. So that was when
<v Speaker 1>I was, what was that.
<v Speaker 2>That poor dinosaur slash monster?
<v Speaker 1>Oh? Did you watch it too? Do you see the No?
<v Speaker 2>But I saw somebody. I think John More on Twitter
<v Speaker 2>was like he was like, my most annoying take about
<v Speaker 2>Monster Hunter is that I feel bad because.
<v Speaker 1>I felt bad too, because like he got injured. The
<v Speaker 1>monster got injured, he started limping away and they're like, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>we're just gonna let him go for now. And then
<v Speaker 1>they like found him later in the dem like the
<v Speaker 1>next day they went back to their camp slept and
<v Speaker 1>he was asleep, and they're like, all right, we're gonna
<v Speaker 1>wake him up in like a really mean way. So
<v Speaker 1>like they put a bunch of explosive barrels all around
<v Speaker 1>the monster and shot the barrels and exploded like right
<v Speaker 1>by the monster. The I was like, the Monster's probably
<v Speaker 1>like really guys. Like, I'm just trying to like recover
<v Speaker 1>from like all the danger of yesterday and like all
<v Speaker 1>the wounds that I I. Yeah, I felt bad for
<v Speaker 1>the monster too, but like then I'm like, oh wait,
<v Speaker 1>it's it's a video game. I don't have to feel
<v Speaker 1>bad for the monster. The last one I want to
<v Speaker 1>touch on an indie title that people told me I
<v Speaker 1>should check out Parcel Core.
<v Speaker 2>This looks awesome.
<v Speaker 1>This was so cool. I want to say it was
<v Speaker 1>Victor Lucas, a longtime YouTuber that told me to check
<v Speaker 1>this out, and I went. And it's basically like jet
<v Speaker 1>Set Radio meets Crazy Taxi but on a bike. So
<v Speaker 1>like from the way that the premise was that like
<v Speaker 1>the city has outlawed biking and like because like there
<v Speaker 1>are three corporations that were like vying for control over
<v Speaker 1>like the bike delivery market or something. Yeah, so it's
<v Speaker 1>like a really out there premise, but it's like you
<v Speaker 1>have to like accept deliveries and then get them delivered
<v Speaker 1>in a certain amount of time. So there's like the
<v Speaker 1>Crazy Taxi DNA, but the controls are very jet Set Radio.
<v Speaker 1>You're grinding on rails, you're like pulling off tricks, as
<v Speaker 1>you get there, and it's all like one big tongue
<v Speaker 1>in cheek like commentary on the gig economy, which was
<v Speaker 1>really fun as well, and like there's a lot of
<v Speaker 1>like cultural references, like or pop culture references, like there
<v Speaker 1>was a breaking bad reference that I spotted, and there's
<v Speaker 1>like other stuff like there's a and certain deliveries have
<v Speaker 1>different conditions, like there was like a guy who was
<v Speaker 1>running like a wine business, and you wanted me to
<v Speaker 1>deliver his bottles of wine. But because there are wine bottles,
<v Speaker 1>you can't be too reckless, so like you could only
<v Speaker 1>sustain a certain amount of damage before the mission failed.
<v Speaker 1>Other ones are like just get the package there as
<v Speaker 1>fast as possible, I don't care what it takes. And
<v Speaker 1>then there's a mode where it basically is like a
<v Speaker 1>crazy taxi mode where you're going around, like you go
<v Speaker 1>to one delivery person and you have to like make
<v Speaker 1>it over to another one before time expires and then
<v Speaker 1>deliver that package. So there's a lot of really cool
<v Speaker 1>stuff at play with this. They said the hardest thing
<v Speaker 1>for demoing to Americans is that because there I believe
<v Speaker 1>an Irish developer, all the cars go on the left
<v Speaker 1>side of the road, so like you're going through your
<v Speaker 1>you're riding your bike through traffic, and I'm riding on
<v Speaker 1>the right side just by you know, instinct, and he's like,
<v Speaker 1>oh no, no, you're gonnaet hit by a car if you
<v Speaker 1>drive on that side.
<v Speaker 2>That's funny.
<v Speaker 3>Wow.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, that was a really fun one, and that
<v Speaker 1>one's coming out relatively soon. I think that's coming out
<v Speaker 1>in September.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it looks awesome, do you know.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, those are the ones that I saw that I
<v Speaker 1>was most excited about. I really really enjoyed my demo
<v Speaker 1>that I got of Assassin's Creech Shadows. But I know
<v Speaker 1>we're not going to talk about that quite yet.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I was. I need to check the the uh
<v Speaker 2>I think, Charles, you're going to talk about that probably.
<v Speaker 3>Right right now.
<v Speaker 2>Oh no, no, no, no, I need to check the embargo.
<v Speaker 1>On the embargo's up for Assassin Street Shadows. But I
<v Speaker 1>mean the demo was very impressive.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, why not?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I mean I can talk about it or any
<v Speaker 3>of us can, Oh, Charles.
<v Speaker 2>Go, yeah, I was an embargo none of us you
<v Speaker 2>get hands on or no, no, no hands on.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, we had our presentation.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I mean so I think people but that saw
<v Speaker 4>you forward saw a chunk of what.
<v Speaker 3>We got to see. So obviously there's.
<v Speaker 4>New games that in Japan, you got Yoske the Samurai.
<v Speaker 3>And now A the Shanobi. And in the.
<v Speaker 4>Gameplay demonstration you see Goske doing some combat.
<v Speaker 3>Uh, and then now I sneaking into this facility, the.
<v Speaker 2>Castle it's there in essentially right yeah, yeah, yeah, or
<v Speaker 2>not quite a castle town. This is a normal castle.
<v Speaker 3>Sorry, I think I think you use the word castle town.
<v Speaker 2>There are castle towns in the game, I know.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, okay.
<v Speaker 4>We also got to see what it looked like if
<v Speaker 4>yos were to go in that castle to assassinate, assassinate
<v Speaker 4>the daimyo, I think is a position. And then we
<v Speaker 4>also saw a now Way if she went during the
<v Speaker 4>day and was taking like a slightly less stealthy approach
<v Speaker 4>and was like actually engaging in combat sometimes three paths.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>In addition, yeah, addition to now Way at night and
<v Speaker 4>Jake looks nuts like I really really appreciated from these
<v Speaker 4>demos seeing how different these characters were, because you know,
<v Speaker 4>there's been a lot of different assassins, so the idea
<v Speaker 4>of like two assassins was always like cool, But for
<v Speaker 4>the most part, like game to game, the assassins play
<v Speaker 4>the same and there's more changes like dramatically over time,
<v Speaker 4>but they have generally the same toolkit.
<v Speaker 3>Usk is just so different.
<v Speaker 2>He's not even really an assassin.
<v Speaker 4>I mean, yeah, yeah, he's not stealthy. He doesn't do
<v Speaker 4>parkore like, he doesn't climb walls. He's got the huge armor.
<v Speaker 4>Ons doesn't make any sense, we're just showing. He basically
<v Speaker 4>just walks right in and just fights dudes.
<v Speaker 3>He can like.
<v Speaker 4>Truck like it was charged through walls with his shoulders.
<v Speaker 4>He has just had all these Oh and he also
<v Speaker 4>has like a gun. He's like a rifle ye for
<v Speaker 4>like range combat.
<v Speaker 1>I love that they're just like they even acknowledged in
<v Speaker 1>the demo. They're like, yeah, Stel, it's not an option
<v Speaker 1>when you're yessca. He's not really like hiding from anybody.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, and like when you walk in town, like everyone
<v Speaker 4>turns and looks at you because you're i mean, first
<v Speaker 4>of all, an African person in Japan. But also he's
<v Speaker 4>huge and wearing this like really ornate samurai arm, so
<v Speaker 4>he like draws all this attention from all these people. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>and I just think I think he's like such an
<v Speaker 4>interesting direction to take, and I think because of that,
<v Speaker 4>now it can really be like traditional assassin, Like she's
<v Speaker 4>got some other cool things. But for me, whenever I'm
<v Speaker 4>playing an Assassin's Creed game, I really like the fantasy
<v Speaker 4>of being the sneaky hooded assassin and like you know,
<v Speaker 4>having my hidden blade and stabbing people in the dark
<v Speaker 4>and all that. And they always want to make each
<v Speaker 4>game a little bit different from the last and like
<v Speaker 4>add something in to kind of spice it up. And
<v Speaker 4>I think Yasuke's existence of being so far from what
<v Speaker 4>you expect allows NAWE to be a lot more traditional
<v Speaker 4>And if people just want like a quote unquote normal
<v Speaker 4>Assassin's Creed game, now he's doing like all the things
<v Speaker 4>you're looking for, whereas like Yasuk is going to be
<v Speaker 4>like a real wild cart and I'm really excited to
<v Speaker 4>see like more of that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, he was just brutal in the way that his
<v Speaker 2>executions and like he would literally just like walk up
<v Speaker 2>to people and there's like weapon floorish as he can do,
<v Speaker 2>of course, but like even just like base attacks, like
<v Speaker 2>he's just doing so much more damage than now I did. Uh,
<v Speaker 2>Like where now they fight like a little not a ball.
<v Speaker 2>He's just like a big, bigger kind of guard. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>What takes Yaske like three strikes takes now a like ten.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And but now it seems really like capable and
<v Speaker 1>like the hand to hand stuff as well. Like I
<v Speaker 1>was thinking like, okay, well you've got to be stealth
<v Speaker 1>or nothing with her, and then I saw this this
<v Speaker 1>demo and I was like, oh wow, she's like pretty.
<v Speaker 1>She looks really fun as well with like like just
<v Speaker 1>going in like if you want to do action style gameplay.
<v Speaker 2>She also has this cool move where she runs up
<v Speaker 2>a against a wall like briefly wall runs, kicks herself
<v Speaker 2>off of a wall, and throws a grappling hook right
<v Speaker 2>above her. And that's how like she can scale walls
<v Speaker 2>that have.
<v Speaker 3>Like trim around like the roofs.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah yeah, or like walls that don't have like handholds,
<v Speaker 2>which is super cool. But yeah, just like Yaske is
<v Speaker 2>brutality where like he's there was one part where he's
<v Speaker 2>literally like holding up an enemy by the throat with
<v Speaker 2>his blade and then just like flings them off of
<v Speaker 2>it and they just like go flying. Also in our demo,
<v Speaker 2>I don't know if it happened to you, Brian. I'm
<v Speaker 2>really curious and like the first encounter as Yaske, when
<v Speaker 2>you're in just the town, not the castle yet he
<v Speaker 2>goes into attack an enemy and just like a round,
<v Speaker 2>random townsperson gets caught in the middle and like on
<v Speaker 2>the upswing, Yaske just like beams this townsperson and then
<v Speaker 2>go flying. It was just like it. It was like,
<v Speaker 2>you know, like a bowl on a china shop situation,
<v Speaker 2>like just yeah, the did the.
<v Speaker 1>Fruit physics get put on display?
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
<v Speaker 1>He kicked some guy into like a crate of oranges
<v Speaker 1>and like the oranges scattered in a relatively realistic way.
<v Speaker 1>I was actually surprised by the details put into the
<v Speaker 1>oranges falling onto the ground.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it was a nice also in the demo compared
<v Speaker 4>to the showcase which I watched, I watched my partner
<v Speaker 4>last night because I was like showing her what it was.
<v Speaker 4>I don't know if they like tuned it down for
<v Speaker 4>a showcase or if it was a setting a turn off.
<v Speaker 4>I do remember Yoske decapitating like oh yeah, several people.
<v Speaker 4>There was so much blood and he didn't There was
<v Speaker 4>blood and he was definitely like hurting people and he
<v Speaker 4>decapitated like a Samurai boss. He fought, but there was
<v Speaker 4>I felt like it was a little bit more brutal
<v Speaker 4>in our behind closed Doors demo and I'm curious to.
<v Speaker 2>See he probably like, yeah broadcast, Yeah, yeah.
<v Speaker 3>They just don't want to.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, you you only have so many you only want
<v Speaker 4>so many hapitations if you're not Mortal Kombat in your trailer.
<v Speaker 1>How are you guys feeling about this game? Because for me,
<v Speaker 1>it kind of jumped up after seeing this of like
<v Speaker 1>some of one of my most intestated games of the year,
<v Speaker 1>because it's extremely my jam Like it's the same way
<v Speaker 1>that I felt about Star Wars Outlaws when we went
<v Speaker 1>to Sweden to play that Alex where I was like, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>let's see what this is and I was like, okay,
<v Speaker 1>this this world structure and everything looks right up my alley.
<v Speaker 1>I think that the way you can choose how you
<v Speaker 1>want to engage with the missions in in Assassin's.
<v Speaker 2>Creed shadows the protagonist and a player.
<v Speaker 1>Like the protagonists like, because I sometimes I just want
<v Speaker 1>to be action and other times I really want to
<v Speaker 1>be stealthy, and it's nice to have like a character
<v Speaker 1>that I can choose that's actually like prespect for that,
<v Speaker 1>you know, yea, and you can swap them on the fly.
<v Speaker 1>So it's like, oh, well, like you know, I love
<v Speaker 1>Assassin's Cree Odyssey, but like if I spect my Cassandra
<v Speaker 1>for action instead of stealth, it's like, okay, well, I'm
<v Speaker 1>not really equipped to attack this this thing stealthily. I'm
<v Speaker 1>assuming there's going to be like separate upgrade trees for
<v Speaker 1>these characters and every thing. I don't know, like it
<v Speaker 1>looks really good man, like it looks really good. And
<v Speaker 1>Star Wars Outlaws. I didn't see the demo at the
<v Speaker 1>show this time around. Did you get to see that? Charles?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I played it. I played three twenty minute segments.
<v Speaker 1>But I did not. I'm sorry to move on. I
<v Speaker 1>didn't get your opinion on like overall thoughts on Outlaws. Yeah, no, Assassins,
<v Speaker 1>I keep saying the Creed.
<v Speaker 3>Sorry, Yeah, I'm excited. I did last year.
<v Speaker 4>I played through most of the Assassin's Cree games to
<v Speaker 4>do like a big retrospective. So I'm like very freshly
<v Speaker 4>well versed in the series, and I think the like
<v Speaker 4>the two Assassins, like does a lot for me in
<v Speaker 4>terms of like getting to play the way I want,
<v Speaker 4>but also like getting to try the new stuff, and
<v Speaker 4>like there's a reason people have wanted them to go
<v Speaker 4>to Japan for so long, Like it's just it just
<v Speaker 4>makes perfect sense with all the lore of Assassin's Creed
<v Speaker 4>and all that stuff.
<v Speaker 3>So I'm very excited for that.
<v Speaker 1>Did you play Ghost of Sushima?
<v Speaker 3>I did.
<v Speaker 4>I played like the first act, and then I think
<v Speaker 4>I played the first active that I got hired at
<v Speaker 4>fan Bite, so then I was like doing work stuff.
<v Speaker 3>But yes, yeah, I played a little bit of it.
<v Speaker 1>That was maybe my favorite PS four game. Like it's
<v Speaker 1>like up there with like the first Spider Man game
<v Speaker 1>for like just my game of the generation, Like it
<v Speaker 1>is maybe in my top twenty five games of all time.
<v Speaker 1>Like that's how much I loved Ghosts of Sushima. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>and I came in. I mean it was almost like
<v Speaker 1>going from Overwatch to Marvel Rivals, where I'm just like,
<v Speaker 1>all right, this is either gonna be awesome or it's
<v Speaker 1>gonna feel like a cheap imitation. And I was really
<v Speaker 1>impressed with Assassin's Creed Shadows.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, absolutely, I do think.
<v Speaker 4>I trust I'm also curious to see, like we know
<v Speaker 4>it's going to be like a bigger RPG, like closer
<v Speaker 4>to a Valhalla or an Honesty, but I'm curious to
<v Speaker 4>see like how expansive that is, because I also don't
<v Speaker 4>want to like play this game and get like burned
<v Speaker 4>out on it, like Ghost of Sushima is, like it's
<v Speaker 4>a big game, but it's not like one hundred hours.
<v Speaker 3>I'm sure how.
<v Speaker 1>Many hours I put into it, but well I think
<v Speaker 1>I probably put like sixty or seventy hours into Ghost.
<v Speaker 4>Sure, sure, sure, Well maybe I'm wrong, but yeah, I'm
<v Speaker 4>curious to see what like scope does for this game
<v Speaker 4>and if it like can hold me the whole way through.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I also think I mean, I think the gameplay
<v Speaker 2>looks awesome, the scenarios and I'm not really an Assassin's
<v Speaker 2>Creed guy kind of fell off a long time ago,
<v Speaker 2>but like the addition of Yaske is really intrigued to me.
<v Speaker 2>I think the writing is I don't know if they're
<v Speaker 2>going for it intentionally. The writing is kind of bad
<v Speaker 2>in some places, like you select the kid, like now
<v Speaker 2>we to go up to this castle, and she's like
<v Speaker 2>and he's like, be careful, you'll be alone up there
<v Speaker 2>and she's like, I won't be alone. I have the shadows,
<v Speaker 2>and I was just like, that's the stupidest line. And
<v Speaker 2>I love no.
<v Speaker 1>I love that.
<v Speaker 4>I was thinking it'd be like like in the opening
<v Speaker 4>scene in Star Wars Outlaws, it's like, you can't do.
<v Speaker 3>That, that's against the galactic code. She's like, I'm a
<v Speaker 3>Star Wars that out law.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's exactly what it was.
<v Speaker 1>We really are the last of us, Yeah, exactly.
<v Speaker 2>So I'm like, but gameplay wise, it looks cool. I
<v Speaker 2>want to play it. Yeah, we'll see.
<v Speaker 1>That.
<v Speaker 2>They they did you get to play? You got to
<v Speaker 2>play the Rogue Prince of Persia, right, Charles. I know
<v Speaker 2>we've covered that on the show.
<v Speaker 3>I did well, I got I did get to play.
<v Speaker 3>I got to play.
<v Speaker 4>A new update for it where they were talking about
<v Speaker 4>game came out, and I think for a lot of people,
<v Speaker 4>if they had a chance to check it out, they
<v Speaker 4>didn't play that much of it, or they didn't really
<v Speaker 4>feel the need to. I do feel kind of bad
<v Speaker 4>because it like Prince of Persia, the Rogue, to me
<v Speaker 4>is like, that's a what's it called that? That's an
<v Speaker 4>early access game, you know, But like Haiti's two is
<v Speaker 4>also technically an early access game, but the amount of
<v Speaker 4>content that delivers to someone is like so vastly different
<v Speaker 4>from like your average early access experience. And Prince of
<v Speaker 4>Persia the Roague came out like the early access launched
<v Speaker 4>like a week or two after that. I think they
<v Speaker 4>like delayed it because of eighty two. So my first run,
<v Speaker 4>I played it like on my own. I was like, okay,
<v Speaker 4>like maybe this will be good, but I didn't.
<v Speaker 3>Really click with it.
<v Speaker 4>And I played three runs here with the developer sitting
<v Speaker 4>right next to me, and I really felt like I
<v Speaker 4>got the whole like proper experience. And the update they
<v Speaker 4>added was like a new skill tree, or not a
<v Speaker 4>new skill tree, a skill tree period. There was no
<v Speaker 4>skill tree before. Yeah, so I enjoyed playing the update
<v Speaker 4>and I really was like, Okay, I can see how
<v Speaker 4>when I played this game, which I think, I think
<v Speaker 4>it's already out, I think it count this past monday
<v Speaker 4>having played it, being like okay, I can see myself
<v Speaker 4>like sinking more time into this now that there's like
<v Speaker 4>a proper progression system.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it feels good.
<v Speaker 4>It's like it's like dead cells but a little more agile,
<v Speaker 4>which is fun.
<v Speaker 2>Nice.
<v Speaker 1>What about Star Wars Outlas since I've now boomeranged back
<v Speaker 1>to that, Like, what were your overall thoughts on that.
<v Speaker 3>I liked it.
<v Speaker 4>I'm not like one hundred percent sold on the gameplay yet,
<v Speaker 4>Like as I was playing it, I was like, Okay,
<v Speaker 4>this is another one of those like this is another
<v Speaker 4>action adventure stealth, there's vehicle combat, and it's like it's cool.
<v Speaker 3>It seems like I'm sure it'll be a good game.
<v Speaker 3>And I didn't think it was bad.
<v Speaker 4>There's just nothing about it to me that like stood
<v Speaker 4>out as particularly particularly unique, except it is a Star
<v Speaker 4>Wars game like Star Wars, so I'll probably play it
<v Speaker 4>because of that.
<v Speaker 3>But I wasn't like it wasn't like a revolutionary thing
<v Speaker 3>for me.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, yeah, nice, Yeah, I mean I think that
<v Speaker 1>was kind of like our takeaway as well, Alex, Like
<v Speaker 1>we really enjoyed our time with the game when we
<v Speaker 1>were out in Sweden, but it wasn't like, oh, this
<v Speaker 1>is going to change the industry. It was just like, oh, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>this seems like a fun like open world Star Wars
<v Speaker 1>game with some interesting mechanics at play with like the
<v Speaker 1>reputation system and I don't know, like the open world
<v Speaker 1>seems like it's going to be at least from what
<v Speaker 1>again what we played back in what was that February March.
<v Speaker 1>It's it seems like it's going to be the kind
<v Speaker 1>of like gameplay loop that would hook me.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I was all.
<v Speaker 4>I was all also in like on the rails like
<v Speaker 4>contained sections, so I'm I am interested to see like
<v Speaker 4>the whole were.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>I got like a ship combat section, I got like
<v Speaker 4>a proper like infiltration mission, and then I got kind of.
<v Speaker 3>A like uncharted style like just exploring these old ruins.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, yeah, yeah, well I played a lot. I'm
<v Speaker 2>going through my notes seriously. What I can talk about
<v Speaker 2>real quick? We talked about Marvel Rivals. I played a
<v Speaker 2>game called Lush Foil Photography sim Did you like that? I?
<v Speaker 3>I also tried it and it gave me a headache?
<v Speaker 2>I did. I did like it. I think the the
<v Speaker 2>graphic settings were whatever they were running on was not
<v Speaker 2>optimized for the game. And yeah, it looked it had
<v Speaker 2>like a weird like DLSS filter on it that didn't
<v Speaker 2>look good to be honest. But like the mechanics and
<v Speaker 2>like of like just I mean it's like operating. I
<v Speaker 2>think like if my friends are interested and getting into
<v Speaker 2>photography and learning more about it. I could see recommending
<v Speaker 2>this game because all but one setting is like pretty
<v Speaker 2>one to one the ISO behave. The way the ISO
<v Speaker 2>setting behaves in the game is different than a real camera.
<v Speaker 2>And it could be that I was using the wrong
<v Speaker 2>priority mode because like a real camera, it had like
<v Speaker 2>shutter priority mode, manual aperture priority. You can adjust the
<v Speaker 2>shutter speed the the ISO, like I said, the white balance.
<v Speaker 2>You can add different lenses on, you know, you can
<v Speaker 2>all sorts of steps, exposure steps, and so I was doing.
<v Speaker 2>I was just like messing around a lot with like
<v Speaker 2>the manual stuff and like putting it through its paces.
<v Speaker 2>I think it's it's pretty, uh like it's it's pretty.
<v Speaker 2>It's pretty cool that it's like it gets very close
<v Speaker 2>to operating a real camera. I think, like, if you
<v Speaker 2>aren't interested in that kind of thing, it's not there's
<v Speaker 2>really no game here.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's such as sick with Pokemon snap is what
<v Speaker 1>you're telling me.
<v Speaker 2>If you want a game like a game loop. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>but like if you if you're actually interested in like
<v Speaker 2>learning photography and like messing around rather than going out
<v Speaker 2>and buying like an expensive camera, like having a digital
<v Speaker 2>environment to do that in and it is relaxing and fun,
<v Speaker 2>but it certainly can be aimless and based on the
<v Speaker 2>demo that I had, but I think if they can,
<v Speaker 2>they can assuming like the graphics look better because they
<v Speaker 2>look like have this like smearing effect which is usually
<v Speaker 2>for in my experience, like something to do with like
<v Speaker 2>DLSS settings. If they can fix that. And perhaps it
<v Speaker 2>was just like a hardware issue. And you know, I know,
<v Speaker 2>running into play Days booth sometimes you kind of just
<v Speaker 2>get thrown wrenches into the works.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, I.
<v Speaker 2>Want to see more from that game. But it seems cool.
<v Speaker 2>It is literally a photography sim you go explore some
<v Speaker 2>real life locations, like I had Mountainnari from from Kyoto, Japan.
<v Speaker 2>They had a place in Australia, I think a place
<v Speaker 2>in Italy. It was, it was, it was cool. I
<v Speaker 2>checked out Stalker two, which is probably my most anticipated
<v Speaker 2>game going into Summer game Fest, and I was pretty disappointed.
<v Speaker 2>I think it might be a case of like a
<v Speaker 2>bad demo setup. I was playing mouse and keyboard on
<v Speaker 2>like essentially a TV tray fold out dinner table, uh,
<v Speaker 2>and the so that they there's no room to move
<v Speaker 2>the mouse, so the DPI was cranked up like crazy,
<v Speaker 2>and it was a very dark demo, like it was
<v Speaker 2>taking place at night, and with the glare that was
<v Speaker 2>on screen, I could barely see stuff happening. And I
<v Speaker 2>just think it was a bad demo. So I'm not
<v Speaker 2>gonna like write the game off, but I was like,
<v Speaker 2>kind I was underwhelmed by, like the mechanics, the shooting mechanics,
<v Speaker 2>how they felt it was a little floaty, not quite
<v Speaker 2>as precise as I wanted. Again, I think I was battling.
<v Speaker 2>I kept like going from I kept switching from a
<v Speaker 2>mousing keyboard to controller because I just couldn't get it
<v Speaker 2>to feel right, and I was battling like Major Glare.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, it was just like not a good demo.
<v Speaker 1>Major Clare is the boss exactly.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, but it's it's like an open world horror survival
<v Speaker 2>game FPS, you know, it's it's I think I feel
<v Speaker 2>like everybody has heard of Stalker two at this point,
<v Speaker 2>if you're interested in that sort of genre. But yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I want to I want to see more. I don't
<v Speaker 2>want to talk too much about it, just because I
<v Speaker 2>was disappointed and I feel like I it was so disorienting,
<v Speaker 2>like my demo appointment that like I feel like I
<v Speaker 2>don't even have a great grasp on the game because
<v Speaker 2>the appointment went down. But I did play Replaced though,
<v Speaker 2>which was awesome. That was another that was there under
<v Speaker 2>the Xbox label and Replaced. So people remember the Last Night,
<v Speaker 2>which is that was that cinematic pixel art game that
<v Speaker 2>got showed off at an Xbox showcase years and years ago.
<v Speaker 2>The creator of it said some wild things publicly kind
<v Speaker 2>of got I think canceled or something, and then this
<v Speaker 2>game kind of popped up, different totally different team, but
<v Speaker 2>like similar vibe, and people kind of latched onto It's like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>we can still get that cinematic pixel art platformer action game,
<v Speaker 2>and this game looks amazing, feels awesome. The combat is
<v Speaker 2>similar to like an Arkham situation, where like your WHY
<v Speaker 2>is your counter button, your B is your heavy attack
<v Speaker 2>X as a light attack, and you're kind of managing
<v Speaker 2>incoming attacks from enemies, using your attacks to bypass their defenses,
<v Speaker 2>like using your heavy attack against shielded enemies will Like
<v Speaker 2>you're playing as like a it's all set in like
<v Speaker 2>a cyberpunk area, cyberpunk setting, and so like you're heavy
<v Speaker 2>is technically like this, like it like melts through the
<v Speaker 2>enemy shield and you a gun as well that you
<v Speaker 2>can use. But in order to build up AMMO, you
<v Speaker 2>have to attack people with your fists.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I forgot that. I did see somebody playing like
<v Speaker 1>I was waiting to go into another demo and I
<v Speaker 1>got to look over somebody's shoulder while they're playing it.
<v Speaker 1>It is visually impressive.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah it is. They're they're doing a mixture of
<v Speaker 2>three D assets and two D pixel art. The the
<v Speaker 2>it all looks really stunning. And I will say the
<v Speaker 2>the story promise seems like a cool setup. Typically I
<v Speaker 2>feel like with like Cyberpuk things like people are all
<v Speaker 2>about like making their augmentations and it's like, uh, you know,
<v Speaker 2>really embracing that. This game centers around an AI that
<v Speaker 2>has become locked in a human's body and can feel
<v Speaker 2>all the emotions of a human and does not want
<v Speaker 2>to feel it. They hate it and they want to
<v Speaker 2>go back to just being a normal AI, and so
<v Speaker 2>the game is about like them trying to get out
<v Speaker 2>of this human body, which I think is a cool setup.
<v Speaker 1>I get it, I really do, man, Yeah, I understand.
<v Speaker 2>So I got to play a section like a definitely
<v Speaker 2>oscillates between combat. Everything was set up in three separate
<v Speaker 2>pillars from the main menu, so there was a prologue.
<v Speaker 2>There was a place called the It was like a
<v Speaker 2>train station that acted as like a trading hub, and
<v Speaker 2>there's no combat. There was like more adventure game style stuff,
<v Speaker 2>and then there was a combat section. It was just
<v Speaker 2>like a wave based combat challenge. You could see kind
<v Speaker 2>of all of the various aspects of the game in
<v Speaker 2>these disparate demos, But I walked away really impressed by Replaced.
<v Speaker 2>What else did I play? Two of my favorite things
<v Speaker 2>I can't talk about yet, my two favorite games of
<v Speaker 2>summer game fests I can't talk about. Wow, I can't
<v Speaker 2>talk about hyper Light Breaker. I played that. I enjoyed it.
<v Speaker 2>I think it the targeting system. I felt like I
<v Speaker 2>was battling that a bit, but like I really like
<v Speaker 2>the concept of like doing these open world runs as
<v Speaker 2>a hyper Light Breaker. The character designs were awesome. I
<v Speaker 2>enjoyed like going to the shops before each run and
<v Speaker 2>buying you know, loading, Okay, do I want to go
<v Speaker 2>with like a pistol? Do I want to get a
<v Speaker 2>like more of something like an assault rifle. What kind
<v Speaker 2>of melee weapon do I want? Do I want like
<v Speaker 2>a a pinwheel ax like Bloodborne style like acts that
<v Speaker 2>like spins, or do I want like just like more
<v Speaker 2>of a sword or or and and there's like a
<v Speaker 2>hoverboard and you can use There's a lot of stuff
<v Speaker 2>going on. But I really like Heart Machines games, and
<v Speaker 2>I think I'm really gonna like this one once I
<v Speaker 2>get the handle on the targeting system and the controls.
<v Speaker 2>But everything's procedural, so like you're going in and fighting
<v Speaker 2>you're essentially wiping out smaller like elite mobs to then
<v Speaker 2>unlock bosses that are in like flood gated arenas like
<v Speaker 2>Dark Soul style, And it's all procedural in terms of
<v Speaker 2>like the environment and where things are placed. And in
<v Speaker 2>order to escape the world, you have to like I
<v Speaker 2>had to like activate this pillar that this shrine that
<v Speaker 2>shot up like almost like this waypoint in the sky
<v Speaker 2>that I had to run to. And as I was
<v Speaker 2>like trying to close out this level, I was being
<v Speaker 2>chased by this like really hard assassin who was like
<v Speaker 2>dead set on like trying to kill me before I
<v Speaker 2>could escape the level. So that there's a lot of
<v Speaker 2>cool things going on with hyper Light Breaker. I want
<v Speaker 2>to see more. I love Light Drifter exactly. Yeah, me too,
<v Speaker 2>So I think it's it's gonna be interesting. I played Uh,
<v Speaker 2>Never Never from Devolver Digital, from specifically Nomada Studio, the
<v Speaker 2>team behind Greece, and Uh, that game's really cool. It's
<v Speaker 2>a lot more action oriented than I thought. You play
<v Speaker 2>as a white haired swordswoman who has like a you know,
<v Speaker 2>a fairly robust set of attacks that just feel really
<v Speaker 2>intuitive and I didn't really need to pay attention to
<v Speaker 2>tool tips or anything like that. It just feels like
<v Speaker 2>if you've played like a two D action sword fighting game,
<v Speaker 2>you could just kind of pick it up and go.
<v Speaker 2>And it was pretty challenge. The game centers around this
<v Speaker 2>wolf family who after some tragedy, this woman ends up
<v Speaker 2>with this wolf cub. The cub is named Never and
<v Speaker 2>that's who the game center is around. But you play
<v Speaker 2>as Alba, who is the wolf's companion and kind of caretaker.
<v Speaker 2>And throughout the game, the wolf grows older and older
<v Speaker 2>and learns new abilities.
<v Speaker 1>And so you can't teach an old dog Nutrick.
<v Speaker 2>More like a young dog, but yes you can. That's
<v Speaker 2>funny joke. And so the game is told their season.
<v Speaker 2>So I played I think I started in summer and
<v Speaker 2>my demo it was missing some some core cut scenes
<v Speaker 2>in areas. But like after I got done with the demo,
<v Speaker 2>I asked. I was like, okay, so well the next
<v Speaker 2>one then we'll proceed to the next season after this
<v Speaker 2>demo and they're like, yeah, and the dog will you know,
<v Speaker 2>grow a little older, look a little different. And so
<v Speaker 2>it's really a story about, you know, kind of parenthood.
<v Speaker 2>There's a lot of the one. I think the creative
<v Speaker 2>director had a child during the making of Greece and
<v Speaker 2>wanted to focus on that theme with this game. So yeah,
<v Speaker 2>themes of companionship, parenthood. It's it's really gorgeous, looking very
<v Speaker 2>much inspired by Princess Amononoke from Studio Ghibli. There was
<v Speaker 2>some Spirited Away in there. Some the enemies kind of
<v Speaker 2>looked like no face from Spirited Away.
<v Speaker 1>Particular because Studio Ghibli.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, so it looks really cool. I'm excited to
<v Speaker 2>play more and I think it comes out. It comes
<v Speaker 2>up this year, so that'll be neat. Yeah, I'm trying
<v Speaker 2>to see what else I played.
<v Speaker 3>That was a trailer.
<v Speaker 4>Like at SGF when I saw one of the ones
<v Speaker 4>where I was like, oh, video.
<v Speaker 3>Games, baby, Yeah, Yeah, I was.
<v Speaker 4>Really excited to see that, like not expecting it at all,
<v Speaker 4>kind of the exact kind of thing I want from
<v Speaker 4>one of these showcases of like, oh, I remember that exists,
<v Speaker 4>but I wasn't excited for it because I hadn't thought
<v Speaker 4>about in so long.
<v Speaker 3>Just being reminded of it and I was like, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I'm so into that.
<v Speaker 2>Two more games. I have two more games I can
<v Speaker 2>talk about real quick. I played Skate Story, which I
<v Speaker 2>know there's a lot of games with the skate in
<v Speaker 2>the name that have come out lately. There was Hell Skate,
<v Speaker 2>There's Skate Story, There's Skate Sim, There's Skate Skate, There's
<v Speaker 2>a Skate's, There's Session of Skateboarding Sim. There's there's there's
<v Speaker 2>a lot. Yeah, yep for for people who have forgotten
<v Speaker 2>what it is or maybe you haven't even seen it.
<v Speaker 2>While I always confuse this one with Hell Skate Skate Story,
<v Speaker 2>the one I played at Summer Game Fest. You play
<v Speaker 2>as a skateboarding demon who wants to devour the moon,
<v Speaker 2>and you are fighting against celestial body and dealing with
<v Speaker 2>like philosophical questions, like literally there is like you are
<v Speaker 2>like collecting philosophy pages and one section of this game
<v Speaker 2>while performing kick flips and ali's. It's it's a very
<v Speaker 2>strange game. The soundtrack rips. They have a band. I
<v Speaker 2>talked to Sam, who's the developer mostly pretty much solo
<v Speaker 2>developer of Blood Cultures is the band that is doing
<v Speaker 2>this the music in the game, So it's gonna be
<v Speaker 2>a combination of licensed music from Blood Cultures as well
<v Speaker 2>as some original tracks. And it whips. It is killer.
<v Speaker 2>But you're essentially going through like these very ethereal linear hallways,
<v Speaker 2>doing ali's to avoid spikes, doing tricks to fight bosses,
<v Speaker 2>Like your skateboard has supernatural power, so when you do
<v Speaker 2>this skate story, this skate story, yeah okay, yeah uh,
<v Speaker 2>And so you're just like fighting. I fought like this
<v Speaker 2>giant like orbing flying like sculpture of I don't know
<v Speaker 2>if it was Plato, but he like locked me in
<v Speaker 2>like essentially his mind palace and prevented me from devouring
<v Speaker 2>the sun. And I had to pass his tests to
<v Speaker 2>escape and devour the sun or devour like a gay or.
<v Speaker 1>Were they like were they like you have to do
<v Speaker 1>a kick flip over.
<v Speaker 2>This gap would say that say the first part again.
<v Speaker 1>So was it like you must solve my riddles three
<v Speaker 1>or was it like you must do a kick flip
<v Speaker 1>over this gap?
<v Speaker 2>Kind of a combination of both, Okay, mostly the latter.
<v Speaker 2>What that means you like get off your skateboard and
<v Speaker 2>run around and interact with things too. There's like more
<v Speaker 2>that you kind of get like spit out into more
<v Speaker 2>open quote like uh, I guess, like skate parks, and
<v Speaker 2>there's like secrets and stuff you can unlack by doing tricks,
<v Speaker 2>and then you kind of get threaded back into these
<v Speaker 2>like more linear chunks. It's a weird game. I think
<v Speaker 2>it's gonna I think Blake Hester would love this game
<v Speaker 2>if he was still with us a game informer.
<v Speaker 3>And he'll probably still love.
<v Speaker 1>It enjoy it.
<v Speaker 2>He is still alive, so if he was still with us. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>this is like one of those games I think, like
<v Speaker 2>the Jacob Gellers of the world are really gonna Like.
<v Speaker 2>I enjoyed it, and the developer was super nice and
<v Speaker 2>I was just caun tell. He's like very proud of
<v Speaker 2>the game and it's really cool. So I recommend checking
<v Speaker 2>it out if that sounds interesting to you. Last game
<v Speaker 2>I played was Battle Aces, which is a ten minute automated,
<v Speaker 2>mostly automated real time strategy game by Uncapped Games former
<v Speaker 2>developers who have worked on StarCraft and Warcraft. And it
<v Speaker 2>is a mostly multiplayer game. There's no campaign. You can
<v Speaker 2>play against ais if you want, but it's set up
<v Speaker 2>to be like, uh, you know, matchups with with other
<v Speaker 2>people and either one v one or TV two's and
<v Speaker 2>it gets rid of a lot of the intricacies of
<v Speaker 2>real time strategy games. Uh and really focuses on just
<v Speaker 2>the army building in combat. And I like the concept
<v Speaker 2>of it more than the execution I think. I think
<v Speaker 2>it will have an audience, But for like a real
<v Speaker 2>time strategy fan, As a real time strategy fan, I
<v Speaker 2>really do like the minutia of like building the walls
<v Speaker 2>around my base, selecting, you know, building farms so that
<v Speaker 2>I have enough money or that I have enough resources
<v Speaker 2>to build my armies up. A lot of those things
<v Speaker 2>are automated in this game. So if you are interested
<v Speaker 2>in real time strategy games and you that kind of
<v Speaker 2>stuff has put you off in the past, and you
<v Speaker 2>just kind of want to like mash your armies together
<v Speaker 2>to fight, you could do that and and and uh
<v Speaker 2>so that that that is a cool aspect of it.
<v Speaker 2>I think I'm worried that the game is going to
<v Speaker 2>be too complicated for their target audience and not complicated
<v Speaker 2>enough for RTS fans.
<v Speaker 3>That's that's what I've heard. The vibe I heard from
<v Speaker 3>some other people was like.
<v Speaker 4>As an RTS fan, this I like, I like rts's
<v Speaker 4>and this is a little less than that. But as
<v Speaker 4>someone who doesn't play RTS is personally, I haven't really.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, maybe I can try it and I'll see
<v Speaker 3>if my opinion changes, but.
<v Speaker 4>It has yet to like speak to me in a
<v Speaker 4>way that like some more established RTS hasn't.
<v Speaker 2>You know, Yeah, I I'm uh yeah. I think the
<v Speaker 2>the enemy designs in the units are cool and the
<v Speaker 2>way that you like compile your you pretty much have
<v Speaker 2>like a deck of you make your army before you
<v Speaker 2>load into the match, and there there is some complexity
<v Speaker 2>there and some interesting stuff there. I just worry it's
<v Speaker 2>like a little one note art style is cool. I
<v Speaker 2>really like the the anime trailer they posted as like
<v Speaker 2>their cinematic trailer was really cool. I'm like, y'all should
<v Speaker 2>make a Battle Aces anime because that looks sick so yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I'm interested to see more from that game. I I'm
<v Speaker 2>not completely sold on it. We'll see what happens. But
<v Speaker 2>those are those are the games I played at Summer
<v Speaker 2>Game Fest. Anything else y'all want to talk on before
<v Speaker 2>we get out of here.
<v Speaker 3>I think I think I covered my bases.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think we covered quite a bit of ground
<v Speaker 1>in this this episode.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's funny because we still aren't done. We just
<v Speaker 2>can't talk about everything yet. And like I said, two
<v Speaker 2>of my two favorite games from the showcase from the
<v Speaker 2>play days that I played, I can't talk about yet.
<v Speaker 2>And one of them is like, ah, it's so good?
<v Speaker 3>Was that the one I saw too?
<v Speaker 2>That one's really good. There's another that I like better
<v Speaker 2>a little more.
<v Speaker 1>But those in the industry call it tease. The tease.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, well that's gonna do it for for today's episode.
<v Speaker 2>Thank you all for for sticking with us. It's kind
<v Speaker 2>of like a just throwing everything at the wall that
<v Speaker 2>we played. Hope you enjoyed hearing our thoughts. Stay tuned.
<v Speaker 2>Next week will be we'll be diving into even more
<v Speaker 2>because I think embargoes will be up. But yeah, there's
<v Speaker 2>a lot of fun I'm exhausted. I'm excited to go
<v Speaker 2>eat lunch and take a quick nap. But thank you
<v Speaker 2>all for listening and watching. If you enjoyed the show,
<v Speaker 2>be sure to share it with the friend, leave us
<v Speaker 2>a review, and if you really want to support us,
<v Speaker 2>you can get a print magazine subscription delivered to your
<v Speaker 2>US address Gameingformer dot com Slash Magazine, or you can
<v Speaker 2>go to subscribe dot Gameminformer dot com and pick one up.
<v Speaker 2>It really helps us keep the lights on and helps
<v Speaker 2>us keep doing this show. So thank you everybody. Brian Charles,
<v Speaker 2>thank you for joining me. Uh, thank you listeners. We
<v Speaker 2>will see you all next Thursday. Goodbye,