Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Preview And SGF Predictions | GI Show

<v Speaker 1>What is going on?
<v Speaker 2>Everybody? Welcome to the Game Informer Show, a weekly podcast
<v Speaker 2>covering the video game industry. Join us every Thursday for
<v Speaker 2>discussion with the latest gaming news, reviews, and exclusive reveals,
<v Speaker 2>alongside Game and Former staff and special guests from around
<v Speaker 2>the industry. I'm your host today Alex van Aiken, and
<v Speaker 2>today I'm joined by Marcus Stewart. How you doing, Marcus,
<v Speaker 2>I'm doing good. Welcome back, Thank you. I have been gone.
<v Speaker 2>This is like the second day I'm home in two
<v Speaker 2>weeks pretty much. It's nice to be back.
<v Speaker 3>You're like a rock star now. It's just all over
<v Speaker 3>the place.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, it was not for anything cool. Was for
<v Speaker 2>a family reunion, which is a wedding. Yeah, I guess,
<v Speaker 2>I guess I am a rock star. We're also joined
<v Speaker 2>by Kyle Hilliard. How you doing, Kyle, I'm good.
<v Speaker 4>Thank you for having me as always.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you sound tired.
<v Speaker 4>You sound exasperated, always tired, constantly ready to fall asleep
<v Speaker 4>at the drop of a hat. It's my dad's superpower.
<v Speaker 4>Just put me in a somewhat comfortable seat and I'm gone.
<v Speaker 3>I think that's called narcolepsy.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, uh and running this out. Returning guests for into
<v Speaker 2>the show. Eric Van Allen, how you doing?
<v Speaker 1>Why did you pause there first?
<v Speaker 2>Did you forget what I was gonna I was deciding
<v Speaker 2>whether I was gonna put where you work ahead of
<v Speaker 2>where I introduce you. I was gonna say destructoids, Eric
<v Speaker 2>Van or acts of the Blood Gods. Eric. That's why
<v Speaker 2>I hesitated. I was like, well, he's his own person.
<v Speaker 2>Let me say his name first.
<v Speaker 1>I am. I'm a well rounded person who would also
<v Speaker 1>like the power to go to sleep whenever he could,
<v Speaker 1>Like I have trouble sleeping. I don't know if y'all
<v Speaker 1>got that or not, but I've never been somebody who
<v Speaker 1>can just like go to sleep. You know, I have
<v Speaker 1>a kid.
<v Speaker 2>You go, Eric, how are you.
<v Speaker 1>Kidless and still alive? So I was.
<v Speaker 2>I was wondering about that.
<v Speaker 1>Kidless and still alive and a gamer with like a
<v Speaker 1>game pad underneath.
<v Speaker 3>I can see that at a Walmart.
<v Speaker 2>If people haven't heard previous episodes you were on, don't
<v Speaker 2>follow you give him the rundown real quick on what
<v Speaker 2>you do?
<v Speaker 1>Oh geez, what do I do? This is like a
<v Speaker 1>family reunion. So I am a video game journalist and podcaster.
<v Speaker 1>You can find me by day over at destructoid dot
<v Speaker 1>com where most of my writing. I really edit more
<v Speaker 1>often these days, but the last few weeks I've done
<v Speaker 1>a lot of writing. I'll have an interview with the
<v Speaker 1>Kaiju Number eight English dovecast that's going up sometime today.
<v Speaker 1>I'll probably you might have read my preview of Elden Ring,
<v Speaker 1>which we're going to talk about here in a moment,
<v Speaker 1>but mostly otherwise editing and stuff. And then by night
<v Speaker 1>I'm over at Axe of the blaygud and Independent RPG
<v Speaker 1>podcast with Kat Bailey and Nadia Oxford, where we talk
<v Speaker 1>all things RPGs all the time. There's a lot of
<v Speaker 1>RPGs to talk about nowadays, so it's great. And then
<v Speaker 1>Normandy FM with Kenna Shepherd, where we do kind of
<v Speaker 1>a book club retrospective on different games. So we started
<v Speaker 1>out with mass Effect. You know, given the name the
<v Speaker 1>Mass Effect, choice came before the name. We chose Normandy FM. Afterwards.
<v Speaker 1>It wasn't like we were just like Normandy FM, Oh
<v Speaker 1>we should do mass Effect. Yeah, but we also did
<v Speaker 1>Dragon Age, Last of Us, Cyberpunk, a bunch of other
<v Speaker 1>like kind of story driven, choice driven games. And right
<v Speaker 1>now we are in the middle of near Replicant, which
<v Speaker 1>is has been a very interesting experience all things told,
<v Speaker 1>because it's the one that Ken hasn't played. It's the
<v Speaker 1>first time we're playing a game that he has not played.
<v Speaker 1>And getting Kenneth Shepherd through New Repplicant has been a
<v Speaker 1>journey in and of itself.
<v Speaker 2>That's awesome. Well, yeah, find all those shows on wherever
<v Speaker 2>you're listening to this podcast. Go type it up, tape
<v Speaker 2>them in, subscribe to them, follow them, and follow Eric's work. Okay, Well,
<v Speaker 2>like you all pointed out, we're gonna be talking about
<v Speaker 2>eld and Rings Shadow of the Urd Tree today. Marcus
<v Speaker 2>and Eric both played it themselves at a recent preview
<v Speaker 2>event in California.
<v Speaker 5>And then we're also going to be talking about our
<v Speaker 5>impressions of Haunty Wild Bastards Nine Souls, and to close
<v Speaker 5>out the show, our Summer Game Fest predictions of course,
<v Speaker 5>on that topic.
<v Speaker 2>If you want to stay up to date on all
<v Speaker 2>things Summer Gamefest, stay tuned to Gaminformer dot com. This
<v Speaker 2>whole next week, we're gonna be burning the Midnight Oil.
<v Speaker 2>A few of us are gonna be on the ground
<v Speaker 2>in Los Angeles playing games, writing up our impressions, who knows,
<v Speaker 2>maybe a couple of videos here or there, but yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it's gonna be a busy time. Go to gaminformer dot
<v Speaker 2>com if you're curry us on hearing about all that.
<v Speaker 2>And lastly, before we jump into the show proper, if
<v Speaker 2>you want to support the show and you're enjoying it,
<v Speaker 2>do us a favor. Go grab a magazine subscription print
<v Speaker 2>magazine subscription that is, it's nineteen dollars and ninety one
<v Speaker 2>cents for ten issues a year, or you can get
<v Speaker 2>thirty four nine nine for twenty issues over two years.
<v Speaker 2>And Eric, Eric's a subscriber. He got one right there,
<v Speaker 2>that Star Wars Outlaws issue if you sign up right now.
<v Speaker 2>Oh wow, we got Hades right there.
<v Speaker 1>Also have the notebook within reach.
<v Speaker 2>That's so funny.
<v Speaker 4>In the Laser Eyes notebook, a notebook that I am
<v Speaker 4>really kicking myself for not actually using while I played
<v Speaker 4>the game. It's like literally filled with templates that would
<v Speaker 4>help would have helped me tremendously.
<v Speaker 3>But you know, Hindsight's twenty twenty, right.
<v Speaker 2>That's funny. Well, let's jump into Elden ring Marcus Eric.
<v Speaker 2>I'd love for you two to kick us off. Eric,
<v Speaker 2>since you're the guest. I'm gonna give you the honors.
<v Speaker 2>Tell us about Shadow of the Air Tree.
<v Speaker 1>Elden Ring got DLC. Elden Ring got an expansion. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>for those of you who played one of the goaties
<v Speaker 1>of that year, there was really only one thread left
<v Speaker 1>that elden Ring had to tug on, and that was
<v Speaker 1>a giant withered arm sticking out of an embryo an
<v Speaker 1>egg of some kind. So that is what we did.
<v Speaker 1>Marcus and I traveled to la to tell on the
<v Speaker 1>arm of set embryo and find out what was inside, which.
<v Speaker 4>Was literally there.
<v Speaker 3>Right.
<v Speaker 4>They built like an arm tug machine.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if it was an arm tug machine.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if we were supposed to a little bit.
<v Speaker 1>I gave it like a little yank, but I have yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>you gotta like you put it against your face and
<v Speaker 1>all that, you know. I wanted to know what it
<v Speaker 1>felt like.
<v Speaker 3>You know, you had a big sign that said please
<v Speaker 3>touch this arm, which is I'm not making it up.
<v Speaker 4>Really that's fun.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, because that's how you start the DLC. It
<v Speaker 3>turns out.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, so you for those of you at home
<v Speaker 1>who might have played elden Ring if you beat a
<v Speaker 1>certain lord of blood who likes to say a word
<v Speaker 1>three times and then kill you once you have beaten
<v Speaker 1>that boss. There is kind of a thing there that
<v Speaker 1>was a lingering thread of a major story beat in
<v Speaker 1>Elder Ring, and that is kind of where the DLC
<v Speaker 1>kicks off, and we got to start from the beginning,
<v Speaker 1>essentially like entering the DLC for the first time. A
<v Speaker 1>lot of it is centered around Mikola, who is the
<v Speaker 1>imperian that we have kind of heard things about, especially
<v Speaker 1>if you do a lot of the endgame optional challenge content.
<v Speaker 1>A lot of it centers around Mikola and Millennia, who
<v Speaker 1>are like the twins of Ratigan in America, right They're they're
<v Speaker 1>kind of the offspring of Ratigan America, and we get
<v Speaker 1>a little bit of information about them. Now we're kind
<v Speaker 1>of learning a lot more about them and potentially a
<v Speaker 1>lot more about just the lands between how things came
<v Speaker 1>to be the time way before any of the stuff
<v Speaker 1>that we've done in Elder Ring prior. I feel like
<v Speaker 1>a lot of the hints are that there is an
<v Speaker 1>unsung history, a lot of stuff that went into the
<v Speaker 1>eventual creation of the Golden Order under America that we're
<v Speaker 1>going to learn about because it's been like covered up,
<v Speaker 1>swept away by history, and now Mikola is trying to
<v Speaker 1>expose some of it by going into the realm of shadow.
<v Speaker 1>I love that it's the realm of shadow, is the
<v Speaker 1>shadow realm. I did not find you he's Grandpa, but
<v Speaker 1>hopefully as part of the DLC, we will rescue him.
<v Speaker 1>Oki you gee my boy. So yeah, it's I don't know, Marcus,
<v Speaker 1>maybe you could speak more to this, but it felt
<v Speaker 1>weird trying to write about this because I really did,
<v Speaker 1>like I came away from it with like that was
<v Speaker 1>three hours of more elden Ring, and that's great. It
<v Speaker 1>is definitely just more elden Ring. There are new mechanics
<v Speaker 1>that they kind of trying to introduce, but I don't
<v Speaker 1>know that any of it felt so groundbreaking that it
<v Speaker 1>was like I was playing a new game. It was
<v Speaker 1>like I'm getting a really good expansion to something that
<v Speaker 1>I already loved, and so like a Gody expansion is good,
<v Speaker 1>but it is also like it's more elden Ring. I
<v Speaker 1>don't know how much more I can really say about
<v Speaker 1>it at that point.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, that's what I said in my written preview
<v Speaker 3>that you can read online now. It was like it's
<v Speaker 3>the most boring take imaginable, Like, hey, they made more
<v Speaker 3>of this and it's still really fun. But yeah, outside
<v Speaker 3>of the like, there's a new progression sort of like
<v Speaker 3>item called the scalder tree. I don't know how you
<v Speaker 3>say it.
<v Speaker 1>Out loud, the scaate you tree or something like that.
<v Speaker 1>You're supposed to scat while you use it. I believe
<v Speaker 1>you go to the side of grace and then scat
<v Speaker 1>into the fire.
<v Speaker 3>Meet the scatman.
<v Speaker 1>The scatman. Yeah, yeah, so the site of Grace.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's like an item you find they're all over
<v Speaker 3>the place. I think it's called scouted tree fragments, and
<v Speaker 3>you bring them back to the site of Grace and
<v Speaker 3>there's a new upgrade option and you feed this into
<v Speaker 3>that and basically it basically just makes you sturdier and
<v Speaker 3>harder to kill, like the more you plug into them.
<v Speaker 3>So like, and then every time you upgrade, you have
<v Speaker 3>to spend more of them to get to the next tier.
<v Speaker 3>So like, you know, if it tooks one to get
<v Speaker 3>one upgrade, then you need to next time. And band
<v Speaker 3>I Namco, who were the pr reps that were there.
<v Speaker 3>Nobody from from software was there from the for the event,
<v Speaker 3>but they kept encouraging, like, hey, if you get stuck
<v Speaker 3>on something, maybe go roam around and try to find
<v Speaker 3>more of the Scatman fragments. Those might help.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, So like a similar kind of philosophy to elden Ring.
<v Speaker 2>If you are underpowered, go somewhere else and find a
<v Speaker 2>way to level up, whether by killing enemies or exploring.
<v Speaker 4>Here's my question, so like, are you going somewhere else?
<v Speaker 4>Are you being transported to it a new place?
<v Speaker 1>You are in the shadow realm?
<v Speaker 2>And is it a memory or are you physically there?
<v Speaker 1>Great question. H don't really know. It's kind of I
<v Speaker 1>would refer to it as like another plane of existence
<v Speaker 1>because it is. I think even from what we played,
<v Speaker 1>it felt non contiguous with like the actual elden Ring world.
<v Speaker 1>You know how the elder Ring world is kind of one,
<v Speaker 1>you know, big land mass with a few exceptions. There's
<v Speaker 1>like the sky place you go to and stuff like that,
<v Speaker 1>but it's largely one land mass. This was like we're
<v Speaker 1>going somewhere else, We're going somewhere substantially different. And I
<v Speaker 1>think that's important to note because the fragments that we're
<v Speaker 1>picking up. There's one four or your character that, like
<v Speaker 1>Marcus said, makes you do more damage and take less damage. Essentially,
<v Speaker 1>it's like the easiest way to explain it. You can
<v Speaker 1>also pick some up for your spirit ashes that will
<v Speaker 1>kind of have the same effect on your spirit ashes.
<v Speaker 1>Those only work in the DLC area there specifically for
<v Speaker 1>the DLC, so it's not like you can go and
<v Speaker 1>farm these fragments and then turn back around and now
<v Speaker 1>you can be like Radon super easily or whatever. Like
<v Speaker 1>this is a specific thing for the DLC, and I
<v Speaker 1>think it's interesting because I was trying to probe some
<v Speaker 1>of the band I namcofolks were there because, like Marcus said,
<v Speaker 1>we didn't have any frum Soft people there to ask
<v Speaker 1>questions directly. But my personal takeaway, my personal speculation is
<v Speaker 1>that this is a way for them to kind of
<v Speaker 1>add a power curve that gives you a little bit
<v Speaker 1>of an effect no matter where you are when you
<v Speaker 1>enter the DLC, because considering how deep into the game
<v Speaker 1>the DLC is, you would have to probably be a
<v Speaker 1>certain level to like manage to get there, unless you're
<v Speaker 1>like a super hardcore power and you can like just
<v Speaker 1>frame perfect everything. I don't know, but I imagine you
<v Speaker 1>have to be at a certain point in this game
<v Speaker 1>power scale wise to get in, but they still want
<v Speaker 1>to have a ramp of some kind, and this is
<v Speaker 1>what gives them the ramp. No matter whether you're at
<v Speaker 1>like level one hundred or level five hundred or whatever, like,
<v Speaker 1>there is still some level of ramping that has happened.
<v Speaker 1>But I couldn't gauge whether because we had a very
<v Speaker 1>fixed build. It was a very like.
<v Speaker 4>What I would say, like your characters.
<v Speaker 1>Enough nor yeah no, but we had something that was
<v Speaker 1>probably like maybe ten to fifteen levels under where I
<v Speaker 1>was when I beat elden Ring is what it felt like.
<v Speaker 1>It had kind of like a pretty good level stock.
<v Speaker 1>It had like plus twenty five weapons on a bunch
<v Speaker 1>of stuff, so like you had equipment to go in there.
<v Speaker 1>So it definitely felt like an endgame style build. But
<v Speaker 1>there was still a noticeable difference when I started using
<v Speaker 1>those fragments versus when I did not have them. I did,
<v Speaker 1>like notice I fought one boss to kind of like
<v Speaker 1>get engauge where that was at, and then used the
<v Speaker 1>fragment and fought the boss again, and I could notice
<v Speaker 1>that there was like not a huge difference, but like
<v Speaker 1>a tangible difference between having them and not having them.
<v Speaker 2>Interesting.
<v Speaker 3>The other thing is that the game now also adds
<v Speaker 3>I believe they said one hundred weapons. Yeah, brand new
<v Speaker 3>weapons of the game, and those you can take into
<v Speaker 3>the base game, yes, which is cool. I played as
<v Speaker 3>the Warrior class and he was wearing this like weird
<v Speaker 3>bear claw like glove as a weapon. I forget what
<v Speaker 3>it was called. It was like red bear something, but
<v Speaker 3>it basically his attack was just like the super Agro,
<v Speaker 3>just like flurry of just slashes where he basically comes
<v Speaker 3>at you like a berserker like wolverine, and it's just
<v Speaker 3>meant to be like, yeah, just like tear into them,
<v Speaker 3>like don't even let them retaliate, just like stagger them
<v Speaker 3>and then just like rip them apart. And then he
<v Speaker 3>also had a like a two handed axe and he
<v Speaker 3>could throw at people, which I used the locks. It
<v Speaker 3>would do a lot of damage, especially to there's these
<v Speaker 3>really huge and disgusting like scorpion bugs in one of
<v Speaker 3>the kind of like legacy dungeons that a substantial amount
<v Speaker 3>of its health, which is great because those things are disgusting.
<v Speaker 3>But the weapons that I found in the game were
<v Speaker 3>all really fun to use and sort of tinker around with.
<v Speaker 3>At one point, I killed like this this invader like
<v Speaker 3>fire night guy, and took his like big old broadsword
<v Speaker 3>that could just light people on fire whenever it touched him,
<v Speaker 3>and then I was like, well, I'm rolling with this
<v Speaker 3>for the rest of my times. Is fantastic.
<v Speaker 2>On the subject, you mentioned legacy dungeons, the weapon count
<v Speaker 2>I'm trying, is there one legacy so there's one new
<v Speaker 2>zone that's the size of limb Gray or the size
<v Speaker 2>of Leernia is what I've heard, or so the.
<v Speaker 1>Area that we played, and this is my speculation completely,
<v Speaker 1>I feel like we did not see the bounds of
<v Speaker 1>that area. I feel like there's got to be at
<v Speaker 1>least there is at least one more thing that we
<v Speaker 1>could have gone through a door to get through, when
<v Speaker 1>then pr was like, don't go through that door. So
<v Speaker 1>I have a feeling that there is like some more
<v Speaker 1>to explore than what we even saw in the session
<v Speaker 1>that we played. But we basically had what you would
<v Speaker 1>call two legacy dungeons of some kind that were pretty
<v Speaker 1>large experiences that were your classic like walk up to
<v Speaker 1>an area you're going to kind of fight your way
<v Speaker 1>through it. There's a fog gate at the end with
<v Speaker 1>a big boss. We can talk about one of those bosses.
<v Speaker 1>I personally don't want to talk about the other one
<v Speaker 1>because when I saw it, I was like, huh, and
<v Speaker 1>I want everyone else to have the huh moment too.
<v Speaker 1>So the second one, the second one, Okay, the harder one, yes, Well,
<v Speaker 1>it was interesting. I heard mixed opinions on which of
<v Speaker 1>the two bosses was the harder one, because there were
<v Speaker 1>actually some people that thought that the other boss, the
<v Speaker 1>dancing Lion that we do see in the trailer and
<v Speaker 1>stuff like that, was a little bit more difficult. But
<v Speaker 1>I personally thought the second boss was harder, had a
<v Speaker 1>harder time with that boss particularly. But we won't talk
<v Speaker 1>about who they are for spoiler reasons. But those are
<v Speaker 1>kind of your classic legacy dungeon, like like you're gonna
<v Speaker 1>run through an area, You're gonna unlock some shortcuts to
<v Speaker 1>kind of advance farther, eventually get to a point where
<v Speaker 1>you have your side of grace right before the fog
<v Speaker 1>gate door. You're gonna summon gold name people to help
<v Speaker 1>you out, and then go in and fight the boss
<v Speaker 1>and keep hanging your head against it until you win.
<v Speaker 1>There's also I found an ever jail above ground, which
<v Speaker 1>was kind of interesting, just kind of like one of
<v Speaker 1>a fog Gate door that you go through and you
<v Speaker 1>fight like a very classic ever jail style enemy. I
<v Speaker 1>found two different other dungeons that were on the overworld
<v Speaker 1>that had their own bespoke names and their own kind
<v Speaker 1>of experiences. I did not see if there was a
<v Speaker 1>proper fog Gate boss and either one of them, but
<v Speaker 1>they did have kind of enemies from the Elbing Ring
<v Speaker 1>that you would consider at least like sub bosses or
<v Speaker 1>mini bosses of some kind of like ones that would
<v Speaker 1>show up and be like a substantial thing that you'd
<v Speaker 1>have to fight. Maybe once you kill it, it's off
<v Speaker 1>the world forever and that sort of thing. Uh, Basically,
<v Speaker 1>there was a lot to do in this one area
<v Speaker 1>because the main area that you have is kind of
<v Speaker 1>this big sweeping plane that has all these like spirits
<v Speaker 1>and ghosts on it and kind of feels like a
<v Speaker 1>place where a battle was fought before. And then eventually
<v Speaker 1>we get to a crossroads that leads us to two
<v Speaker 1>different kind of castle areas, and those are like the
<v Speaker 1>dungeons but then scattered out and through like winding paths
<v Speaker 1>and stuff, find some more off the side locations and
<v Speaker 1>any things that offer a little thing to Jase, and
<v Speaker 1>there's there's still a lot of that, and I felt
<v Speaker 1>like any swamps in there, I mean.
<v Speaker 3>The rivers well humid, little humid by you asque but
<v Speaker 3>like like one of the cool things about this, uh,
<v Speaker 3>Because there were times like I was sitting next to
<v Speaker 3>Eric as we were playing, and I would glance sometimes
<v Speaker 3>at either his monitor or some of the people around me,
<v Speaker 3>and I would usually always see something that I had
<v Speaker 3>not seen yet, and even talking to people after the event,
<v Speaker 3>but like, oh, what'd you run into her? What'd you fight?
<v Speaker 3>And every person at least I talked to has something
<v Speaker 3>different that the other one did not mention because I
<v Speaker 3>was like, oh, yeah, I didn't find any of the
<v Speaker 3>other regular I guess smaller dungeons that that Eric found
<v Speaker 3>it or some other people found And then I was
<v Speaker 3>just hearing, you know, I won't spoil anything anyone told me,
<v Speaker 3>but she's like, oh, I found this like weird character
<v Speaker 3>that I didn't know what their deal was.
<v Speaker 1>Or naked dude running around. At one point, there.
<v Speaker 3>Was legend about a naked man, yes, that I did
<v Speaker 3>not find.
<v Speaker 4>But was it let me solo her? Has he been
<v Speaker 4>like put into the game?
<v Speaker 1>Kind of we we asked. I did specifically ask. I
<v Speaker 1>was like, are there any references to let me solo her?
<v Speaker 1>Was not able to confirm, so I was as, that's why, yeah.
<v Speaker 4>And he's not available to help you.
<v Speaker 3>He's like, now you gotta solo me. That's the that's
<v Speaker 3>the full circle.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, did you guys were a I am, I'm intimidated
<v Speaker 4>by this expansion, very excited for it, but like, I'm
<v Speaker 4>not the best from player. I've gotten through a number
<v Speaker 4>of from games, but like you know, the reputation of
<v Speaker 4>expansions in DALC is like this is for the real
<v Speaker 4>gamers out there. Like did you feel like it was
<v Speaker 4>like too intense or too hard or was it like
<v Speaker 4>about on par with the rest of the game.
<v Speaker 3>I think that And granted we were using late game
<v Speaker 3>builds too, so we were pretty like I didn't find
<v Speaker 3>too many of the like rank and file enemies too tough,
<v Speaker 3>Like it was more just like, oh they're new, I
<v Speaker 3>just have to learn, like what did this new thing do?
<v Speaker 3>But then once you did, like, oh okay, I'm taking them
<v Speaker 3>down pretty reliably. But there were some definitely some sturdier
<v Speaker 3>enemies that were like I think I'm just gonna run
<v Speaker 3>away from this guy because I don't want to fight,
<v Speaker 3>Like like some giant night guys that were roaming around.
<v Speaker 3>You're like, Okay, I'm gonna steer clear of them. Or
<v Speaker 3>like the weird fire basket thing that yeah definitely rode
<v Speaker 3>up to with just full of piss and vinegar, like
<v Speaker 3>I'm gonna take this guy down. Did like zero point
<v Speaker 3>one percent damage when I hit it, and then it
<v Speaker 3>was like, wow, I guess I'll see myself out here.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, there's there's definitely a Tree Sentinel type character where
<v Speaker 1>it's just this giant walking wicker basket of death and despair,
<v Speaker 1>and yeah, you could go fight it if you want to.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, I know Elder Ring has the stuff too,
<v Speaker 1>but I always think of Xena Blade Chronicles because they
<v Speaker 1>always have that like one enemy in the first area
<v Speaker 1>that's like level eighty. It's supposed to teach you like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>don't go over here. You can't always beat the secret
<v Speaker 1>boss that's over here. You might have to come back.
<v Speaker 1>This is that guy, but like souped up to twenty,
<v Speaker 1>like he just murders people for fun because he can
<v Speaker 1>by existing. There are other enemies too that really did
<v Speaker 1>I think through some wrenches at me, the Blade Dancer
<v Speaker 1>ones that have like the circular blades and kind of
<v Speaker 1>like can spin around and move really fast.
<v Speaker 2>Always those kind of enemies.
<v Speaker 1>They they messed me up pretty bad. In the span
<v Speaker 1>of about three hours, I was able to beat both
<v Speaker 1>of the major bosses that they put in our path
<v Speaker 1>and some other bosses on the side too, so like
<v Speaker 1>and that was with a bill that are you like
<v Speaker 1>a FRUM guy?
<v Speaker 4>Are you like a FROM expert?
<v Speaker 1>Or like Eldan Ring is one of the few friends
<v Speaker 1>that I've rolled credits on, but I've played most all
<v Speaker 1>of them to some degree.
<v Speaker 4>You're probably about on par there because like there's the
<v Speaker 4>experts there, like I'm I'm a weirdo who like doesn't
<v Speaker 4>I would take a FROM game without bosses like I
<v Speaker 4>just like explore it.
<v Speaker 3>I wasn't. I wasn't able to beat either of the
<v Speaker 3>two bosses, and a lot of that was time crunch
<v Speaker 3>of like I have to move on bes, I need
<v Speaker 3>to see other stuff, so I can't spend as much
<v Speaker 3>time as I normally would trying to get them down.
<v Speaker 3>But like I think I spent a fair amount of
<v Speaker 3>time with like the Lion and just like got close
<v Speaker 3>on a few occasions but just wasn't able to seal
<v Speaker 3>the deal. And okay, yeah so I but like I
<v Speaker 3>it's hard to get a true sense of like how
<v Speaker 3>much more challenging is this when you're using a character
<v Speaker 3>that isn't yours and that you know you're and we're
<v Speaker 3>just sort of thrown into it with a lim amount
<v Speaker 3>of time. But like I did it, I wasn't like
<v Speaker 3>overwhelmed by it, Like I was like, oh, this seems
<v Speaker 3>harder more so because it's like this is a new
<v Speaker 3>thing that I haven't faced before. But once you get
<v Speaker 3>them down, like okay, I got you, I can deal
<v Speaker 3>with this now. But there was definitely stuff that was
<v Speaker 3>like Okay, this is gonna this is gonna take a minute.
<v Speaker 3>I might have to come back.
<v Speaker 2>Later with It's also just like widely, I mean these
<v Speaker 2>games wildly depending on your play style. Like I remember
<v Speaker 2>there was certain Godric took me forever and then I
<v Speaker 2>would see people just like cruise through him and elden Ring,
<v Speaker 2>whereas I beat Malaketh the Black Blade on the first try,
<v Speaker 2>and I know, like other people took them forever. It really,
<v Speaker 2>I think just depends on your play style and if
<v Speaker 2>you're in it in the moment.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I'm definitely excited to bring my my endgame like
<v Speaker 3>blood build dude into the to the expansion because I
<v Speaker 3>fired up Elden Ring just to get ready for the
<v Speaker 3>event and I was like, oh, yeah, for how much
<v Speaker 3>I like this guy. He's really strong, And then playing
<v Speaker 3>me the expansion, I'm like, oh, man, I bet he
<v Speaker 3>can mess up somebod these things in here.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe maybe I had that moment where I was definitely
<v Speaker 1>feeling because I did the Sorcerer Monk build that was
<v Speaker 1>basically you have like martial arts hand to hand combat style,
<v Speaker 1>which is like new for this expansion. So I was
<v Speaker 1>trying to figure out how to do a lot of
<v Speaker 1>that because it's very like poison stagger base, where you're
<v Speaker 1>trying to basically just dodge hits and then bowl your
<v Speaker 1>enemy over with so many hits that they eventually get
<v Speaker 1>staggered and fall down. You even have like a sick
<v Speaker 1>kind of spinning kick that you can do into the
<v Speaker 1>air that's a weapons skill that was really brutal I
<v Speaker 1>saw you.
<v Speaker 3>Doing that kick quite a lot.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it looked cool. It's a good move. It's a
<v Speaker 1>good move. But I was doing that and then also
<v Speaker 1>trying to use some spirit ashes that I will I
<v Speaker 1>will just say are not the best spirit ashes compared
<v Speaker 1>to what I have in the Bass game. There are
<v Speaker 1>no black knife t sh No, they're not yeah, not
<v Speaker 1>showing up to really play. They're just kind of showing
<v Speaker 1>up to participate, you know. And so there was the
<v Speaker 1>second boss. We had. You get two gold summons for that,
<v Speaker 1>so you can summon in two additional NPC helpers and
<v Speaker 1>then walk in and then some in your spirit ash.
<v Speaker 1>You got four people like fighting this one boss, but
<v Speaker 1>the boss usually made pretty quick work of at least
<v Speaker 1>one or two of them. And I was having that
<v Speaker 1>moment where I was like, I feel like this would
<v Speaker 1>probably be a bit easier if I had a better
<v Speaker 1>NPC helper, like one that either felt better suited to
<v Speaker 1>the task or was able to do something else besides
<v Speaker 1>just be you know, a goofy guy attacking an enemy
<v Speaker 1>right now. So I do feel like some of the
<v Speaker 1>tools made it a little bit more difficult, almost to
<v Speaker 1>the point where I was like a little bit tened
<v Speaker 1>to like we were technically allowed to leave the DLC
<v Speaker 1>area if we wanted to go reset our stats through
<v Speaker 1>a thing that you can do in the base game
<v Speaker 1>to kind of do it a stat reset, And part
<v Speaker 1>of me really wanted to just like dip out real
<v Speaker 1>quick and go get like one or two spirit ash
<v Speaker 1>that I knew how to get to, like just right
<v Speaker 1>off hand, and then bring them back into the DLC
<v Speaker 1>and be like, look, y'all, I need I need the
<v Speaker 1>backup here. I need I need the real backup. But
<v Speaker 1>I fought with what I had. But yeah, it's I
<v Speaker 1>think it's going to be just oddly enough everything that
<v Speaker 1>people probably want from this DLC. And I know that's
<v Speaker 1>not the most like surprising, breath taking, earth shattering, you
<v Speaker 1>know opinion you could have, but like, I just want
<v Speaker 1>more elden Ring. I was playing this and I was like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I really loved the experience of playing elden Ring for
<v Speaker 1>the first time. And I think the stuff they're getting into,
<v Speaker 1>like the mythos, the lore around the world is going
<v Speaker 1>to be really really good to dig into, really fun
<v Speaker 1>and enjoyable. I love this this whole. Like the theme
<v Speaker 1>is that you're kind of following in Mikola's footsteps, and
<v Speaker 1>you have all these different like followers essentially like the
<v Speaker 1>Band of the Hawk from Berserk, who are all like
<v Speaker 1>following in the footsteps of Mikola, and they're like, nothing
<v Speaker 1>bad could ever happen to us. We're all following in
<v Speaker 1>kindly Mikola's footsteps. And I'm like, I've played from soft
<v Speaker 1>games before. You're all dead, like this is you're dead
<v Speaker 1>if you're lucky, like it's gonna get much worse for
<v Speaker 1>some of you. And uh, it's I can't wait to
<v Speaker 1>see the directions that the DLC takes. Yeah, they it
<v Speaker 1>doesn't seem like they blew it, you know, like oh
<v Speaker 1>they've ruined eld and Ring with this.
<v Speaker 3>It's like nah, it's just like the three hours flew by.
<v Speaker 3>And it's one of the few sort of like especially
<v Speaker 3>like in person demos, where EST feel like sometimes I
<v Speaker 3>played games at like these kind of events where I
<v Speaker 3>don't feel totally comfortable, one because I'm not like in
<v Speaker 3>my own space, but then also maybe the game is
<v Speaker 3>like it's okay, like it's fine and points, but at
<v Speaker 3>a time, like there's sons where I'm like, okay, I'm
<v Speaker 3>ready for this to be over. You know, this is
<v Speaker 3>one of those few demos where I was like fully
<v Speaker 3>just in the zone, comfortable, just like I could do
<v Speaker 3>this all day. I just want to go around explore.
<v Speaker 3>Like when they when they called like the okay you
<v Speaker 3>got thirty minute one, I was like, oh crap, man,
<v Speaker 3>really okay, I just like I just want to go see,
<v Speaker 3>like I see a cool thing over there. I want
<v Speaker 3>to see what's over there, Okay. And yeah, I just
<v Speaker 3>reignited my my love for this game and I cannot
<v Speaker 3>wait to play it. And thankfully it is not far away.
<v Speaker 2>So awesome. I can't wait to play either. June twenty
<v Speaker 2>first is when it releases, so not too long at all. Marcus.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, well, I'm just gonna say I wonder I probably
<v Speaker 4>should boot up elden Ring.
<v Speaker 3>For like an hour, I was thinking that is what
<v Speaker 3>I did, and it made a difference, Like you don't
<v Speaker 3>even have to go like do a bunch of stuff.
<v Speaker 4>Just didn't.
<v Speaker 3>I never know how to do all my stuff again.
<v Speaker 2>I've still got some lingering side stuff I could do,
<v Speaker 2>so maybe I'll go knock that out. Yeah, I can't wait.
<v Speaker 3>Get familiar with your character again.
<v Speaker 1>The first thing I did when I booted elden Ring
<v Speaker 1>up to get ready for this preview event, was like
<v Speaker 1>I loaded it up and I was like, I beat
<v Speaker 1>elder Ring, I took down Millennia. Like, I'm so good
<v Speaker 1>at this game. I don't even need a refresher. I
<v Speaker 1>start the game up and the first thing I do
<v Speaker 1>is I hit X to attack. And if you played,
<v Speaker 1>oh no, if you played these games, you know that
<v Speaker 1>RB is attack, X is your flask of some kind.
<v Speaker 1>So I was just sitting there chugging my mountain dew
<v Speaker 1>while a dude was wailing on me, and I was like, oh, yeah, okay, yeah, no,
<v Speaker 1>I do need to play this game again and remind
<v Speaker 1>myself how this works. Yea, so absolutely take the time
<v Speaker 1>learn from my mistakes.
<v Speaker 2>Awesome, Well, Marcus, let's go over to you. You've been
<v Speaker 2>playing Haunty, which is I've seen this on like screenshot
<v Speaker 2>Saturdays and stuff throughout the years. I think that the
<v Speaker 2>game's pretty popular and TikTok the developer, and like they've
<v Speaker 2>kind of showcased their their progression. I believe, but yeah,
<v Speaker 2>tell us about it. What's Haunty?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah? So I finished this a few days ago. I
<v Speaker 3>have a review up on the site hopefully this week.
<v Speaker 3>But it is a god it's interesting game. It's not
<v Speaker 3>like an it's an action game really, even though it
<v Speaker 3>doesn't really look like it is just based on like
<v Speaker 3>the the vibes of it.
<v Speaker 2>So also, if you're trying to look this up at home,
<v Speaker 2>it's Haunt and then two eyes after Haunt, Yes, hanty
<v Speaker 2>one word though, yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's like the WE naming Convention.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, you know, but.
<v Speaker 3>This is a one player game. But yeah. So you
<v Speaker 3>play as a ghost who has recently arrived to the
<v Speaker 3>afterlife or eternity as it's called. You don't know anything
<v Speaker 3>about your life prior to death. You just have your
<v Speaker 3>memory basically white. And in the beginning of the game,
<v Speaker 3>you meet a little ostensibly an angel and the games
<v Speaker 3>are called Eternians, but she's pretty much an angel, and
<v Speaker 3>she's like beckoning you to ascend to presumably Heaven or
<v Speaker 3>like a have an adjacent realm. But then as you're
<v Speaker 3>kind of floating up with her and a really beautiful
<v Speaker 3>and like moment, like the music swells and it's just
<v Speaker 3>like like this is My biggest takeaway with this game
<v Speaker 3>is that I think the art direction and presentation is
<v Speaker 3>absolutely incredible. But as you're ascending, you found out that
<v Speaker 3>you're still bound to the underworld and you're dragged back down,
<v Speaker 3>and so you spend the whole game just trying to
<v Speaker 3>figure out how to move on to whatever is on
<v Speaker 3>the other side. You're exploring these different realms of Eternity
<v Speaker 3>where it's occupied by other ghosts like yourself, and the
<v Speaker 3>gameplay is it's a twin stick shooter where you're just
<v Speaker 3>running around and you're using the right stick to just
<v Speaker 3>fire these sort of like I don't know what they're called,
<v Speaker 3>like spectral ghosts, lasers maybe, but their main mechanic outside
<v Speaker 3>of just blowing things up, is that you can use
<v Speaker 3>it to possess objects. So you can shoot certain things
<v Speaker 3>and then you're you'll jump inside of them and then
<v Speaker 3>you can interact with them. It's very Mario Odyssey in
<v Speaker 3>that way, and that's the biggest thing reminding me of like, Oh,
<v Speaker 3>I'm gonna jump inside of the either a stationary object
<v Speaker 3>like a tree, and then I can shape the tree
<v Speaker 3>and then it might drop health they're collectibles or like
<v Speaker 3>like everything you jump into has some like weird, little
<v Speaker 3>bespoke like mechanic that's either useful or just like I
<v Speaker 3>don't know what this is meant to do, but it's
<v Speaker 3>just kind of cute and funny. Yeah, and if it
<v Speaker 3>doesn't have any real practical use, like you can inhabit
<v Speaker 3>other characters, like certain enemies you can jump into and
<v Speaker 3>then you can use their weapons to fight out their enemies.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, it's a lot of it. It's got some
<v Speaker 3>like some bullet hell tendencies or somebody enemies are firing
<v Speaker 3>like spread shots at you and like not like super
<v Speaker 3>elaborate patterns, but you do have like a dash that
<v Speaker 3>you can do to kind of dodge through it.
<v Speaker 4>Uh, you're surprised to hear you say it's kind of
<v Speaker 4>like action y, Like I thought it was really sort
<v Speaker 4>of like a passive kind of movement through beautiful art.
<v Speaker 4>But yeah, there's like this is like it's an action game.
<v Speaker 3>Huh. Oh. Yeah, there's some like there's like some challenging
<v Speaker 3>boss fights in there where they'll throw like a ton
<v Speaker 3>of enemies at you and then they're all shooting like
<v Speaker 3>fifty different projectiles and you're just like I have to
<v Speaker 3>I am struggling to stay alive because you have like
<v Speaker 3>when you start, you have like maybe three hearts and
<v Speaker 3>you can you're collecting, like the big thing is like
<v Speaker 3>not only that is a bullet help, but it's also
<v Speaker 3>like a very big sort of collectithon game, where again,
<v Speaker 3>the more I think about it, the more it very
<v Speaker 3>much is Mario Odyssey, where it's or maybe like Mario
<v Speaker 3>sixty four style, where like every like world you're in
<v Speaker 3>is kind of like a big open sort of like sandbox,
<v Speaker 3>and instead of finding stars like in Mario sixty four,
<v Speaker 3>you're just finding these like actually, no, they are stars.
<v Speaker 3>They're straight up stars, but they're they don't look like
<v Speaker 3>traditional stars, but they are called stars, and they're hidden
<v Speaker 3>all over the place, and every level has like their
<v Speaker 3>set number of them, and you just do like weird
<v Speaker 3>little either mini games or you just have to hunt
<v Speaker 3>around and you'll find one like around the corner in
<v Speaker 3>some obscure little spot of the map, and then you
<v Speaker 3>know it's like, hey, you found the one for this.
<v Speaker 3>So like some of them might be like hey, there's
<v Speaker 3>like a recurring one where a character's like half, I
<v Speaker 3>lost my dog, can you go find my dog? And
<v Speaker 3>the dog is always off in some edge of the map,
<v Speaker 3>and all you got to do is find a dog
<v Speaker 3>possess it and then walk it back and she's like, oh, thanks,
<v Speaker 3>here's a star. And it's Uh. What I like is
<v Speaker 3>that it does get like you know, there's some repeatable ones,
<v Speaker 3>but then there's some creative ones depending on which world
<v Speaker 3>you go to. Like there's one world that is my
<v Speaker 3>favorite in the game where it's like a big carnival.
<v Speaker 3>It's like this big amusement park but all these rides
<v Speaker 3>and it looks amazing and you can haunt the roller
<v Speaker 3>coaster and then just ride it around all over the place.
<v Speaker 3>That's like racing challenges. We're like, oh, if you can
<v Speaker 3>get through this roller coaster with an X amount of time,
<v Speaker 3>we'll give you a star. So it's very Mario inspired
<v Speaker 3>in that way where you're just like, I think I'm
<v Speaker 3>going to try one hundred percent and get all these
<v Speaker 3>stars here.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, but just to be clear, not not a three
<v Speaker 2>D game at all.
<v Speaker 3>Not a platformer, yeah no, and not a three game.
<v Speaker 3>It's like a top down two the top down isymmetric gesh.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they're like they're using three D objects, but like
<v Speaker 2>two D sprites. It looks like like there's something.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I think it's it's the game. I get famously
<v Speaker 4>maybe a too strong a word, but like they made
<v Speaker 4>all the art in pro Create.
<v Speaker 2>Which is like oh cool, yeah yeah.
<v Speaker 4>I think right, that's like a really impressive iPad art.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, which is kind because as
<v Speaker 2>the character turns, it's like changing, uh, like it looks
<v Speaker 2>like a two D like illustrated game where like, you know.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it's pretty yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, but I can understand what you were saying that
<v Speaker 3>this game does give that impression of it being a
<v Speaker 3>lot more of a passive like narrative driven adventure, especially
<v Speaker 3>the way it starts with the you know, the oh,
<v Speaker 3>you're falling back to the world. That's like a kind
<v Speaker 3>of a tragic moment. And there are more moments like
<v Speaker 3>that for sure. Like there's a lot of like cinematic
<v Speaker 3>sort of a sequences, and the game is that it's
<v Speaker 3>like prettiest when it's like you're just moving through in
<v Speaker 3>a world and then the camera just like pans out
<v Speaker 3>to show like look at this beautiful city that you're in.
<v Speaker 3>You're seeing all the lights, and just that's where the
<v Speaker 3>art direction like really shines. And then the music. I forget,
<v Speaker 3>there's like they said that it's like a I guess
<v Speaker 3>a famous artist or something. They named the artist in
<v Speaker 3>a way of like, look, we got this person. It
<v Speaker 3>wasn't anyone that I was familiar with, but whoever it
<v Speaker 3>is did a great jobs. It's one of my favorite
<v Speaker 3>soundtracks of the year, So shout out to you, mystery
<v Speaker 3>person that composed the Haunty. Yeah, it's it's got a
<v Speaker 3>very jazzy sort of like mellow almost like a noir
<v Speaker 3>kind of vibe to it, and like between like and
<v Speaker 3>as you're collecting the stars, you're unlocking these vignettes that
<v Speaker 3>kind of give you glimpses as to the ghosts like
<v Speaker 3>life when they were alive, that are like really touching.
<v Speaker 3>And there's no like voice act in the game, like
<v Speaker 3>all the dialogue is kind of basically like voice bubbles,
<v Speaker 3>but you're getting these very cute little like like short
<v Speaker 3>little scenes of like, oh, this is them as a
<v Speaker 3>kid and they like broke their leg climbing a tree
<v Speaker 3>and that was like a moment that you know they
<v Speaker 3>that stuck with them or like they were sick in
<v Speaker 3>the hospital, but then their friends came to visit, or
<v Speaker 3>they went with their mom to the beach and did this,
<v Speaker 3>and you're sort of like trying to like the whole
<v Speaker 3>game's mess sort of like you're getting these memories, but
<v Speaker 3>then you're also having to learn how to let go
<v Speaker 3>of them so that you can move on to, you know,
<v Speaker 3>the afterlife proper because he turned to these. Whole thing
<v Speaker 3>is like all the ghosts there haven't been able to
<v Speaker 3>ascend because they're afraid of letting go of their memories,
<v Speaker 3>because they're stuck on like, well, this is the only
<v Speaker 3>thing I have left that makes me me, So why
<v Speaker 3>would I every want to give that up? And you know,
<v Speaker 3>and a lot of them even either are afraid or
<v Speaker 3>hate the Angel people, like they're all warning you, like
<v Speaker 3>I don't know, why are you chasing that angel? Like
<v Speaker 3>they're nothing but trouble man. They just want you to
<v Speaker 3>give up your stuff. Man, I don't know if they
<v Speaker 3>could be trusted. There's like the closest thing this game
<v Speaker 3>has to a main antagonist is this really funny like
<v Speaker 3>scientist who is like more or less like grew from
<v Speaker 3>Despicable Me, where she's to the point where she literally
<v Speaker 3>has minions that look a lot like the minions, Like
<v Speaker 3>they got big old goggles and suspenders, like, but imagine
<v Speaker 3>the minions were just like painted black. It's basically what
<v Speaker 3>they are, but they just keep I haven't seen them,
<v Speaker 3>so I believe you.
<v Speaker 4>I haven't seen them.
<v Speaker 2>Movies.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, actually it's weird. I've never seen any of those movies.
<v Speaker 4>You're good, Yeah you're totally fine, but uh yeah, no
<v Speaker 4>effort please.
<v Speaker 3>But she pretty much comes up with like team Rocket
<v Speaker 3>caliber schemes to try to catch your angel friend of like, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I can you know you don't understand I'm doing a
<v Speaker 3>good thing for you because you know this thing is
<v Speaker 3>trying to ruin your life and stuff like that, so
<v Speaker 3>you're like fighting her weird mechanical machines every now and then.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, outside of like like there like criticisms, like
<v Speaker 3>like some of the activities are like some are better
<v Speaker 3>than others. There's a few where just like, Okay, it's
<v Speaker 3>starting to feel like busy work. And honestly, the biggest
<v Speaker 3>thing to stick out to me was I feel like
<v Speaker 3>the movement speed is just like a notch below where
<v Speaker 3>I wanted to be to the point where I was
<v Speaker 3>like dashing constantly, and you can upgrade the number of dashes,
<v Speaker 3>Like the three things you can upgrade are like your hearts,
<v Speaker 3>your dashes, and how how long you can fire before
<v Speaker 3>you have to pause and let it reload. And I
<v Speaker 3>was like spending so much into the dash things like Okay,
<v Speaker 3>I want to be able to dash like four times
<v Speaker 3>in successions. I just want to The environments are big
<v Speaker 3>enough to where you're like, Okay, if I just walk
<v Speaker 3>through this, we're going to be here for a while.
<v Speaker 3>So I wish the character moved just a little bit faster.
<v Speaker 3>I feel it would make a big difference for just
<v Speaker 3>how much a game kind of demands you to explore
<v Speaker 3>and poke around and you're going to be doing like
<v Speaker 3>trips back through places because you know you need to
<v Speaker 3>go back to another world to turn in your stars.
<v Speaker 3>He's can only turn in your stars at certain like
<v Speaker 3>little terminals that aren't in every world, So I wish
<v Speaker 3>there was a bit less of that. But other than that,
<v Speaker 3>like I think it's like just it's a cool game,
<v Speaker 3>Like it's fun. I'm still like hovering on a score
<v Speaker 3>right now. I still have to very much write the review,
<v Speaker 3>so you know, we'll see where I land. But I
<v Speaker 3>enjoyed it, and like I said, I think it's it's
<v Speaker 3>on my list for like the best looking games of
<v Speaker 3>the year. And also the ending isn't the ending is
<v Speaker 3>It hit me in a way I wasn't expecting. And
<v Speaker 3>it's on my list of like best moments. It's a
<v Speaker 3>it's a very it's a cool game.
<v Speaker 4>I'm excited to play it. I played the demo during
<v Speaker 4>Steam Nextfest and really liked it, but I haven't I
<v Speaker 4>haven't sat down proper and like played it. I think
<v Speaker 4>we all have this big queue of indie games, right
<v Speaker 4>Like I got through crow Country and Laurel Eyed, so
<v Speaker 4>now I got Haunty and you know a bunch of
<v Speaker 4>other there's other handful things I want to play as well.
<v Speaker 2>Awesome. Yeah, I'm excited. I wish reliciously that way you're talking.
<v Speaker 2>I have been playing very briefly. I got a code
<v Speaker 2>today before we started recording and did my best to
<v Speaker 2>try to get a few levels in. I've been playing
<v Speaker 2>Wild Bastards, which is a sequel follow up to Void
<v Speaker 2>Bastards by Blue Manchew Games. Void Bastards I think it
<v Speaker 2>came out twenty nineteen, leave off the top of my head. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>and I loved it. Yeah, I believe it was in
<v Speaker 2>my top four games that year.
<v Speaker 4>It was like a first person rogue kind of game. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it was a yeah, first person rogue light with
<v Speaker 2>you know, some immersive sim elements to it, and it
<v Speaker 2>was kind of a lot of the enemies that the
<v Speaker 2>the space that the characters exist in is three D,
<v Speaker 2>but a lot of the characters and items are billboarding you,
<v Speaker 2>billboarding to you, so they're always facing you, like in
<v Speaker 2>h not always, but you know, kind of like in
<v Speaker 2>Dune or Doom rather. But it was a really interesting game,
<v Speaker 2>very comic book comic style. Yeah, some humor to it,
<v Speaker 2>but I love the systems in that game. You could
<v Speaker 2>play at stealth, you could play it full on action.
<v Speaker 2>Uh and it was just like, you know, incredible. I
<v Speaker 2>honestly I loved that game. So Wild Bastards is how
<v Speaker 2>wild are the bad They're They're they're wild so far.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, not really, They're They're I've played for about
<v Speaker 2>thirty minutes. No, I've played for about thirty minutes, so
<v Speaker 2>I'm very early. They're still introducing systems, but essentially it
<v Speaker 2>is it's a spaghetti western sort of style but in space.
<v Speaker 2>Uh so space cowboys, and I believe you have your
<v Speaker 2>Wild Bastards. There's up to thirteen characters you recruit through
<v Speaker 2>this FPS campaign, and I think it's a similar structure
<v Speaker 2>to to Void Bastards, where if all of your people die,
<v Speaker 2>you reset. I haven't died yet though, so I cannot
<v Speaker 2>confirm if somebody wants to look at the Steam page
<v Speaker 2>or something to let me know if it's a rogue light.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, so you kind of start off, you're on
<v Speaker 2>the run, trying to there's like this this family gang
<v Speaker 2>tell me you've heard this before, who are causing trouble?
<v Speaker 2>And uh, they're after you? And so you Spider Rosa
<v Speaker 2>and Doc Casino are the two characters you start the
<v Speaker 2>game with. Spider Rosa. Uh is this this lady who has.
<v Speaker 4>Think is there's a character named Rosa in Brooklyn ninety nine?
<v Speaker 4>It's like, oh, so a spider version of Rosa.
<v Speaker 2>From Yeah, so Spider Rosa has like two revolvers that
<v Speaker 2>she dual wields, and Doc Casino had you you eventually,
<v Speaker 2>I should say here's how here's that works. So imagine
<v Speaker 2>something like if you played Void Bastards the star map
<v Speaker 2>where you're kind of going from place to place, or
<v Speaker 2>if you are playing something like Conquest Mode and Star
<v Speaker 2>Wars Galaxies or sorry, Star Wars Battlefront where it's.
<v Speaker 4>Like, if you're okay, you're gonna have to explain better
<v Speaker 4>than a mode in an MMOD no no sorry.
<v Speaker 2>Star Wars Battlefront Conquest mode where you're moving along the
<v Speaker 2>board and an enemy is moving along a board. You know,
<v Speaker 2>Citizens Sleeper has done similar things where like there are
<v Speaker 2>external timers going on in the world. Oh clocks, clocks, yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>there are various clocks going on. Enemies are on. You know,
<v Speaker 2>you're kind of you have up to a certain amount
<v Speaker 2>of movement speed per turn on this overworld map, and
<v Speaker 2>you're kind of going place to place on this planet
<v Speaker 2>that you are on, and you hop from planet to
<v Speaker 2>planet planet throughout the game. I'm already on like the
<v Speaker 2>second planet or something, and they are you know, there
<v Speaker 2>might be a shop there that you stop at. There
<v Speaker 2>might be if you go out of your way to
<v Speaker 2>use your movement, you know, you might be able to
<v Speaker 2>pick us some extra gold or find some armor or health.
<v Speaker 2>But you know you're using up your turn, and the
<v Speaker 2>more you wait, the big bats are coming after you, right,
<v Speaker 2>and so you're kind of like deciding, Okay, I'm low
<v Speaker 2>on health. Should I go for this health or should
<v Speaker 2>I kind of go after this enemy so I can
<v Speaker 2>get to the end of this roadmap essentially, so I
<v Speaker 2>can escape the planet keep going without dying. Right, and
<v Speaker 2>as you're stopping on these planets, you are recruiting new
<v Speaker 2>people to your party. So you actually start the game.
<v Speaker 2>I said you start started with Dot Casino in Spider Rosa,
<v Speaker 2>you actually only started with Rosa, who is the revolver lady,
<v Speaker 2>and you have to go and rescue Doc Casino, which
<v Speaker 2>involves going in and loading into these vignettes which are
<v Speaker 2>like these FPS arenas, and they're they're Wild West, So
<v Speaker 2>there's you spawn in, there's a certain number of characters
<v Speaker 2>enemies that you have to take out before they take
<v Speaker 2>you out a small little sandboxes and in the style
<v Speaker 2>that Bluemanchew does, there are certain systemic things going on,
<v Speaker 2>and it's very basic right now where I'm at. I
<v Speaker 2>imagine it gets more complicated and more complicated with as
<v Speaker 2>more enemies are introduced. But you know, you go through,
<v Speaker 2>you play this FPS arena, you're gonna get rewards. I recruited,
<v Speaker 2>I rescued and recruited Doc Casino. So now that introduced
<v Speaker 2>a new feature where mid fight in the FPS arena
<v Speaker 2>areas you can switch characters on the fly, and they
<v Speaker 2>you can only have one. Even though you have a party,
<v Speaker 2>you can only have one person in play at a time.
<v Speaker 2>So they're kind of doing this thing where they like
<v Speaker 2>almost like tapping tapping out for your tag team partner
<v Speaker 2>and wrestling, but they like teleport wrestling. They teleport and
<v Speaker 2>switch places. Right, And so you press Q, I'm playing
<v Speaker 2>on keyboard, you spress press Q, and the characters will
<v Speaker 2>kind of teleport, and now you'll have you're playing as
<v Speaker 2>a character with the shatga and then if I switched back,
<v Speaker 2>now I've got the revolvers again. And so you're managing
<v Speaker 2>your party's health that way. If I've got a lower
<v Speaker 2>health character, I kind of want to keep them safe,
<v Speaker 2>where other other times it's more of a strategic like
<v Speaker 2>I need this kind of weapon, or I'm going up
<v Speaker 2>but against these guys will use the shotgun and at
<v Speaker 2>As you go throughout these these planets and apps, you're
<v Speaker 2>picking up new equipment. I equipped rocket boots to dot Casino,
<v Speaker 2>so I have a shotgun, and now I can I
<v Speaker 2>have this big jump I have now. Whereas for Rosa,
<v Speaker 2>I gave her uh, I installed a speedloader onto her revolvers,
<v Speaker 2>so her reload speed's cut in half. And that's kind
<v Speaker 2>of where where I've gotten to in thirty minutes. But
<v Speaker 2>it's a very promising. I will certainly be playing more,
<v Speaker 2>Like as soon as we're done with this podcast, I'm
<v Speaker 2>gonna be playing more. And it's it's it's promising. I
<v Speaker 2>I love Bluemanshew games. The Card Hunter that they put
<v Speaker 2>out Void Bastards was Void Bastards, I think is I
<v Speaker 2>keep up with my top fifty games of all time,
<v Speaker 2>and Void Bastards is like right there in the honorable mentions, Like,
<v Speaker 2>depending on the day, it's probably in there somewhere. I
<v Speaker 2>love that game, and so I'm really eager to keep
<v Speaker 2>playing this one. I think it's got a lot of
<v Speaker 2>cool systems going on. I know I've just scratched the surface,
<v Speaker 2>I'm sure, but yeah, I've got two characters. It seems
<v Speaker 2>like they're really leaning into Western archetypes and really playing
<v Speaker 2>up the goofiness of it. One of the main antagonists
<v Speaker 2>introduced in the first series of Planets is kind of
<v Speaker 2>like this snot nosed brat cowboy of like the main
<v Speaker 2>bad cowboy, like a nephew or something, and he's just
<v Speaker 2>like really dumb caricature of like a cowboy, and it's
<v Speaker 2>a lot of fun. I think they get pretty creative
<v Speaker 2>with with the characters. I've I've seen it. I've seen
<v Speaker 2>the next one I'm going after is this guy who
<v Speaker 2>has he shoots finger guns, but he shoots fire out
<v Speaker 2>of his fingers. So yeah, that's Wild Bastard's gonna keep
<v Speaker 2>playing it. We'll try to try to give people an update.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, and I believe I don't know when it
<v Speaker 2>is out. I just have a.
<v Speaker 3>I forget if it's going into if it's having an
<v Speaker 3>early access launch or not. I can't remember from the announcement.
<v Speaker 3>I think it's my beat CBA.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, just as twenty twenty four. But I'm gonna keep
<v Speaker 2>playing the demo and and see how far I can get.
<v Speaker 2>And yeah, I'm really enjoying it. So it's Wild Bastards
<v Speaker 2>by Blue Manshoe. Marcus gonna go back to you before
<v Speaker 2>we get into SGF predictions. Even playing nine.
<v Speaker 3>Souls, Yes, nine Souls which soul's spelled s O L
<v Speaker 3>no you because what there's a reason for it. But
<v Speaker 3>this is a new action metro veny game by Red
<v Speaker 3>Candle Games, who is best known as a Horror Studio.
<v Speaker 3>They're a Taiwanese developer that made Detention and most recently Devotion,
<v Speaker 3>which is a game that I reviewed and loved to death.
<v Speaker 3>For those that I remember, Devotion was the game that
<v Speaker 3>came out originally like in twenty nineteen and then got
<v Speaker 3>pulled from stores for two years because it had that
<v Speaker 3>meme making fun of China's president and now, and then
<v Speaker 3>they brought it back in or Toda's day. I think
<v Speaker 3>you can only buy Devotion through Red Candle's website directly,
<v Speaker 3>like it's still not like on Steam or anything or
<v Speaker 3>anything like that, but I highly recommend it if you,
<v Speaker 3>you know, if you're a horror fan. Great game. So
<v Speaker 3>this is them doing something completely different because this is
<v Speaker 3>just a straight up just action game that is I
<v Speaker 3>believe inspired by Chinese myth and Marcus.
<v Speaker 4>I'm looking at the trailer and I think probably another
<v Speaker 4>thing that they decided to do with this is to
<v Speaker 4>make it look slick as hell. Holy crap, looks amazing.
<v Speaker 4>Is fantastic.
<v Speaker 3>I mean it's kind of like the haunty thing of
<v Speaker 3>like speaking of like cool hand drawn looking stuff. This
<v Speaker 3>game has a cool look, like not even just like
<v Speaker 3>the artistry and the illustration, but just like the styles
<v Speaker 3>are going for where I think they Cause I did
<v Speaker 3>a profile on Red Candle Games for the magazine like
<v Speaker 3>two years ago, and we talked about this game, and
<v Speaker 3>I believe the term to use for it was towel
<v Speaker 3>towel punk, of like combining cyberpunk with Taoism. It's got like.
<v Speaker 4>Oh right, okay, yes, yeah, towel like the thing you
<v Speaker 4>draw yourself off after a shower, which is what I
<v Speaker 4>admit I thought you said.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, when I get out of the shower, you know,
<v Speaker 1>I like dry myself off, and then I'm like, damn,
<v Speaker 1>this world's ruined and towel.
<v Speaker 4>Punk spikes, hitchhikers, Samurai, we've got a world to clean.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's got. It's a blend of like like I said,
<v Speaker 3>East like Eastern Asian Taoism with just like futuristic elements
<v Speaker 3>where it's set in this cool world where you play
<v Speaker 3>as I'm still like, I'm still only early. I'm I
<v Speaker 3>put about like three hours into it so far, and
<v Speaker 3>he plays this weird little cat creature who might be
<v Speaker 3>a deity. I'm not entirely sure, but it opens up
<v Speaker 3>and also right off the bat. This game is very
<v Speaker 3>gory in a way that I wasn't totally expecting. Like
<v Speaker 3>there's like a scene in the very beginning of a
<v Speaker 3>game where your character just gets like messed up, like
<v Speaker 3>like his entrails exposed, like messed up, and you're like, oh, okay,
<v Speaker 3>we're doing this. Okay, but you know, you're you're living
<v Speaker 3>in this village with these humans. They don't seem to
<v Speaker 3>really know what you are. And his only companion is
<v Speaker 3>this little kid who you know, they've been hanging together
<v Speaker 3>for about a year, and your character's name is Yee,
<v Speaker 3>and he seems very like pragmatic about things because this
<v Speaker 3>this society worship is the souls. They're like these nine
<v Speaker 3>sort of like what they consider to be gods, and
<v Speaker 3>they adhere to this ritual but are like, oh yeah,
<v Speaker 3>every couple of years, we like a chosen number of
<v Speaker 3>us get to us send and go live with the souls.
<v Speaker 3>And it's like the best thing that can ever happen
<v Speaker 3>to you, right, Yeah, And you know Yee.
<v Speaker 1>It's like Ascension's always good. When is it ever not good?
<v Speaker 2>I'm never Whenever anybody talks about ascension, it's always with
<v Speaker 2>good intention.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I mean haughty. It looks pretty beautiful this game
<v Speaker 3>without getting into spoilers, maybe a little a little less
<v Speaker 3>so you know, ye kind of is like like you
<v Speaker 3>get the sense of like he knows more about what
<v Speaker 3>this actually is than they do, and you know he
<v Speaker 3>he kind of is like out to put an end
<v Speaker 3>to these to these nine sort of deities that man
<v Speaker 3>may or not be, like not actually be gods. You know,
<v Speaker 3>they might actually just be uh like aliens.
<v Speaker 1>Why would someone ever put themselves up to be a
<v Speaker 1>god if they weren't really a god. I think we
<v Speaker 1>should just descend and not ask questions.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I think the idea is that these these things
<v Speaker 3>have like such advanced technology that the people on the
<v Speaker 3>ground are like, oh, these guys, you know, they're magic
<v Speaker 3>basically right, Like they're they're very much yeah, like like
<v Speaker 3>they don't even know what electricity is. That's kind of
<v Speaker 3>where they're what they're working at right now.
<v Speaker 1>That was that was me. The first time I saw
<v Speaker 1>Dippin' dots was I was like, I have to be gods.
<v Speaker 4>The future? Baby still is they thirty years thinking? I
<v Speaker 4>keep like I finished Lost Crown and I was like
<v Speaker 4>that was fantastic. But I don't have any room in
<v Speaker 4>my heart for another Metroid game. And then Animal Well
<v Speaker 4>came out and I was like, well, this is fantastic,
<v Speaker 4>but I don't know if I have any room in
<v Speaker 4>my heart for another Metro inspired game.
<v Speaker 3>And now I'm looking at this and I'm like, damn,
<v Speaker 3>I want to play this.
<v Speaker 4>Maybe I do have rom in my heart for another
<v Speaker 4>Metro inspired game.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I will say so far, at least in the
<v Speaker 3>first couple of hours. I I the gameplay wasn't that
<v Speaker 3>impressive to me, Okay, Like I was more in love
<v Speaker 3>with the vibe and the story they were telling than
<v Speaker 3>the moment to moment action. Because one of the biggest
<v Speaker 3>inspiration that this game has that Red Candle kept saying,
<v Speaker 3>is like, we really love Secaro Shadows Die Twice, and
<v Speaker 3>we basically wanted to make a two D of that,
<v Speaker 3>specifically in the parry system that that game is famous for.
<v Speaker 3>So when you hear that, you go likehof, that's shooting
<v Speaker 3>pretty high, Okay, because in my opinion, Soekara has the
<v Speaker 3>best parry system of any game ever made. Uh So
<v Speaker 3>it was like, all right, you're really you're going for it,
<v Speaker 3>but like, hey, you know, more power to you. And yeah,
<v Speaker 3>this game is like you're fighting enemies. It's going for
<v Speaker 3>like a a pary pocus thing where like you can
<v Speaker 3>dodge attacks, but they're very much encouraging, like, hey, you
<v Speaker 3>should try to block this because if you do, if
<v Speaker 3>you hit the shoulder button, you can do this thing
<v Speaker 3>where ye can slap them with like a magic talisman,
<v Speaker 3>and then if you hold the button, it just like
<v Speaker 3>charges it up and explodes. It's basically like if he
<v Speaker 3>was Gambit or He's like, I'm just gonna sticky with
<v Speaker 3>this thing and then charge it up. Then you just
<v Speaker 3>blow up into like a bunch of guts and it's
<v Speaker 3>like an instant kill in most cases. So like even
<v Speaker 3>though nailing a Perry is tough, they kind of reward you,
<v Speaker 3>but like, yeah, but you'll kill them instantly, so you
<v Speaker 3>should do it. I don't think the Perry timing is
<v Speaker 3>anywhere near as height as Sacroos or other games. I'm
<v Speaker 3>still kind of getting used to it, but I don't
<v Speaker 3>like quite where it is. And outside of that, and
<v Speaker 3>there are abilities that you can unlock in a big
<v Speaker 3>tree that you know I have to go through, but
<v Speaker 3>like sort of like you start with like a basic
<v Speaker 3>three hit combo that feels like okay, and like the
<v Speaker 3>the general platforming stuff feels just like fine, but it
<v Speaker 3>doesn't feel like exceptional. And I think that following something
<v Speaker 3>like Prince of Persa the Lost Crown, which have like
<v Speaker 3>surprisingly great combat, yeah, I think this kind of like
<v Speaker 3>it's more glaring that this feels like a step or
<v Speaker 3>two below that so far, but at least where I'm
<v Speaker 3>at in the point of game, I've started to unlock
<v Speaker 3>a couple of moves like I can. A big one
<v Speaker 3>that I almost think should have should just be in
<v Speaker 3>your arsenal and shouldn't be an unlocked is that I
<v Speaker 3>have the ability to run down, which makes things a
<v Speaker 3>lot of each because I can just run just you know,
<v Speaker 3>jump into attack or do stuff, and it's like, oh man,
<v Speaker 3>this makes getting around so much more fun. You should
<v Speaker 3>probably just give this to people. And then I unlocked
<v Speaker 3>the drone or like it basically a drone like your
<v Speaker 3>he has like an AI assistant where it takes the
<v Speaker 3>form of this weird like blowing butterfly thing and you
<v Speaker 3>can use it to scout ahead, which is like a
<v Speaker 3>cool idea for a Metrovna where like you can reach
<v Speaker 3>an area where like Okay, I don't have the odd
<v Speaker 3>and get through this, but I can send this thing
<v Speaker 3>out ahead to see like what's over there though, let
<v Speaker 3>me see how far I can go and at least
<v Speaker 3>get a sense of what I should prepare for. And
<v Speaker 3>then it can also hack into doors and unlock certain
<v Speaker 3>areas for you, and it looks like you could do
<v Speaker 3>other stuff that I haven't, uh like unlocked the as.
<v Speaker 3>So I was like, okay, that's cool idea, but so
<v Speaker 3>far I think the combat is just it's just on
<v Speaker 3>the bubble of fine.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, okay, yeah, talking me out of it a little bit, Yeah, yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I mean I wish it was better. And I've
<v Speaker 3>looked ahead at some of the other like unlockables in
<v Speaker 3>the skill tree, and I look at and go like, okay,
<v Speaker 3>that seems like something I would want or something that
<v Speaker 3>might remedy my issue with this. So you know, maybe
<v Speaker 3>we'll see where it is. Maybe it's like a slow
<v Speaker 3>burn kind of a game. But right now, the vibes
<v Speaker 3>and the story is carrying me for like, they've introduced
<v Speaker 3>some really cool ideas with its world and sort of
<v Speaker 3>like the story they're going they're trying to tell with it,
<v Speaker 3>where I was like, Okay, I want to I want
<v Speaker 3>to at least get to like the first Soul or
<v Speaker 3>God and see how that goes down. And with nine
<v Speaker 3>of them, that's like a lot. So I wonder how
<v Speaker 3>big this game actually is and how long it takes
<v Speaker 3>to get to each one. But like for Red Candle
<v Speaker 3>Games is first ever like side scrolling action game, it
<v Speaker 3>seems like it's probably better than it should be given
<v Speaker 3>that they have no experience making that, but also the
<v Speaker 3>inexperienced sort of shows in that area too. Yeah see,
<v Speaker 3>I'm going to stick with it for a bit.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I'm curious to hear more. It's always interesting when
<v Speaker 2>those games are really hitting on one one angle really
<v Speaker 2>well and then kind of falling down when it comes
<v Speaker 2>to you know, how it feels to play. But I
<v Speaker 2>don't know, Like, like you said, the the the narrative
<v Speaker 2>framing of it all sounds interesting. Their art style certainly
<v Speaker 2>looks really compelling. So yeah, keep us updated. I'm curious
<v Speaker 2>to hear more. But let's get into our Summer Gamefest predictions.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, that did it? Did it?
<v Speaker 2>Center Games Fast sounds like we do now? Is there
<v Speaker 2>not a.
<v Speaker 3>Summer Games Fast like song that plays every year. It
<v Speaker 3>might be you.
<v Speaker 1>It's just like dragons.
<v Speaker 2>The theme song is It's and now welcoming to the stage,
<v Speaker 2>Jeff Keeley.
<v Speaker 4>World Premiere.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's the theme.
<v Speaker 3>Really like too emotional about a bigot the guys. I
<v Speaker 3>am so excited. I cannot believe they've read to let
<v Speaker 3>me show to see you guys. But here it is.
<v Speaker 4>They tried uppets showing up for no one in particular
<v Speaker 4>except for k was very excited about the Muppets. But
<v Speaker 4>the rest of using Okay, that's fine.
<v Speaker 3>Who haven't they done yet?
<v Speaker 1>They had Big Bird on stage John last year? Right,
<v Speaker 1>they got to put up there. I thought the Big
<v Speaker 1>Bird counts as a Muppet because Muppets, right, Yeah, I don't.
<v Speaker 4>Know, it's not. It was not an accusatory question.
<v Speaker 3>I don't reason this is good Sesame Street puppets aren't
<v Speaker 3>good enough to be Is there like a weird class
<v Speaker 3>thing going.
<v Speaker 4>On in their own thing? As I wonder? Are they
<v Speaker 4>like a separate you know? Is are Burton Ernie? Are
<v Speaker 4>they muppets or are they Sesame Street puppets? Are they
<v Speaker 4>Sesame Street?
<v Speaker 2>Let me let me reveal something, do you? Kyle might
<v Speaker 2>shock you. They're all Puppets.
<v Speaker 3>Company will literally your house. It's separate.
<v Speaker 2>Big Bird, Big Bird.
<v Speaker 1>It's Kermit like holding a pistol up to the door,
<v Speaker 1>like open it up. I just want to talk.
<v Speaker 4>Hey, I'm here to kill you.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I've got a clock.
<v Speaker 1>Okay much what.
<v Speaker 4>Are you doing now?
<v Speaker 2>I thought it was clear that was Elmo.
<v Speaker 3>He said he's not a muppet.
<v Speaker 2>He's a muppet. He's a puppet.
<v Speaker 1>Almo's holding a gun. Almo could be whatever he wants
<v Speaker 1>to be.
<v Speaker 3>It reminds me of the uh And if you guys
<v Speaker 3>are old Conan fans, the Ginger no bit the dog.
<v Speaker 2>One, No, I don't know that one, and he has
<v Speaker 2>like that.
<v Speaker 3>He does the dog training class and he's like he's
<v Speaker 3>got the guy and the dogs. He's, oh, yeah, I
<v Speaker 3>just can survive like fifty pounds bite pressure, and then
<v Speaker 3>the dog just pulls out a gun and shoots the gun.
<v Speaker 4>I showed that to my daughter recently, and it was
<v Speaker 4>it was funny all over again. It's such a good bit.
<v Speaker 4>I didn't really Ginger yeah, because it's like.
<v Speaker 3>And then he they do a bit with Kermit or
<v Speaker 3>Kurmits with Conan and then randomly has nothing to do
<v Speaker 3>with the bit, but then Kermit just goes ginger no,
<v Speaker 3>and then adult just shoots Kermit. It's those random dumb
<v Speaker 3>things that's awesome.
<v Speaker 2>Well, speaking of random dumb things, let's get into our
<v Speaker 2>Summer Game Fest predictions. I don't think we really have
<v Speaker 2>a format for this other than we're just gonna We're
<v Speaker 2>just gonna throw them out there. Marcus, I'm gonna go
<v Speaker 2>to you first. All right, guys, I always looked at
<v Speaker 2>you for for the bold predictions.
<v Speaker 3>Well I got one right here. You called it a
<v Speaker 3>random dumb thing, But this is gonna turn out to
<v Speaker 3>be the smartest thing that he was ever said about
<v Speaker 3>Summer Games Fest this year because I think and also
<v Speaker 3>I think we're gonna I don't think it's necessarily our
<v Speaker 3>predictions have to happen at Summer Games Fest. Proper of the.
<v Speaker 2>Summer gaming conferences that are happening mostly in June.
<v Speaker 3>Summer of Games, and a lot of them is weekend.
<v Speaker 3>I'm gonna say that the Sony will properly reveal the
<v Speaker 3>PlayStation five pro.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, probably at SGF.
<v Speaker 3>And I know you're gonna say, well, they just did
<v Speaker 3>a thing, but back then that was a state of place,
<v Speaker 3>state of plays are smaller than the other ones. They
<v Speaker 3>do PlayStation showcases like those are like the big ones.
<v Speaker 3>I like, yeah, we got some stuff.
<v Speaker 1>I saw people saying this online where they're like, well,
<v Speaker 1>state of plays they're not the same thing as a showcase.
<v Speaker 1>And I'm like, we used to just have Nintendo directs,
<v Speaker 1>and then before that we just had hey a streams
<v Speaker 1>going live, Like I they need to have better taxonomy
<v Speaker 1>of what their things mean. That's that's my side tangent
<v Speaker 1>to all that.
<v Speaker 3>I mean even Nintendo does that. We're like, hey, this
<v Speaker 3>is a partner showcase. It's not the main event.
<v Speaker 2>This is an end the.
<v Speaker 1>World direct that's easy to understand, and they're being very
<v Speaker 1>upfront about like, hey, this is third party partner stuff,
<v Speaker 1>whereas Sony's like, it's a state of play, you.
<v Speaker 3>Better tune in. It's not a showcase.
<v Speaker 1>You better tune in, like right.
<v Speaker 3>Like State of Play US showcase, Like what is that?
<v Speaker 3>What actually is better than the other one? I thought
<v Speaker 3>immediately evident.
<v Speaker 1>I think it's because one company is more comfortable admitting that,
<v Speaker 1>like this is not going to be their big name
<v Speaker 1>stuff in a show and they're cool with it being
<v Speaker 1>one thing, and then the other company like maybe doesn't
<v Speaker 1>want to say that out loud.
<v Speaker 3>Well, you know what, they're gonna say their big thing
<v Speaker 3>out loud at on Jeff Keely stage, Like they're gonna
<v Speaker 3>be like, hey, that PS five pro And that's been
<v Speaker 3>rumored for a while and has also been rumored to
<v Speaker 3>be shown off at this this year at some point here.
<v Speaker 3>It is whether or not any of us actually want
<v Speaker 3>it doesn't matter.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, is it redesigned?
<v Speaker 3>You think?
<v Speaker 4>Because I still hate the aesthetic of the PlayStation five.
<v Speaker 3>I think the rumors were that more or less it
<v Speaker 3>would look the same kind of I mean, they released
<v Speaker 3>that slim version, remember that barely looks different?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I just I don't. I really. There was a
<v Speaker 4>quote from some executive when they revealed the PS five
<v Speaker 4>and they're like, give it some time. You know you're
<v Speaker 4>gonna come around on this thing. And I still hate it.
<v Speaker 4>I moved my consoles around my house a lot, like
<v Speaker 4>that's just the kind of gamer I am. I I
<v Speaker 4>pick up my console from the living room and I
<v Speaker 4>put in the bedroom and back and forth, and I
<v Speaker 4>I hate moving the PlayStation five.
<v Speaker 2>It all sucks. You can't. It always feels like it's
<v Speaker 2>going to fall apart.
<v Speaker 4>You can't pack it.
<v Speaker 3>You can't lay it flat without the stupid little cheek
<v Speaker 3>thing on it.
<v Speaker 4>You can't flat.
<v Speaker 3>Like what were they thinking? They said, wouldn't be cool
<v Speaker 3>if this looked like a weird modern art piece that
<v Speaker 3>also looks like setto Kaiba's coach.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, it looks like it's ugly. To a higher
<v Speaker 1>popped collar, it's always been to go yea further.
<v Speaker 3>If anything, the pro probably has a higher collar because
<v Speaker 3>it's the better version. So it's like, we got it
<v Speaker 3>has to be higher because it's.
<v Speaker 2>The had a top hat as well.
<v Speaker 4>It's it's so boring. But like I do, if they
<v Speaker 4>were like, this is a fun throwback, we're going to
<v Speaker 4>make it look like a PlayStation two, I'd be like,
<v Speaker 4>thank you. That is a block with like horizontal lines.
<v Speaker 4>That makes it easier to put in places, you know. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>so that's I guess you can. That can be a
<v Speaker 4>side prediction is that it still is not the design
<v Speaker 4>that you want. Yeah, I hope they make it should
<v Speaker 4>be redesigned, but it won't be redesigned.
<v Speaker 2>I hope they make it a circle or like a triangle,
<v Speaker 2>like a pyramid, pyramid.
<v Speaker 3>Hang it around your neck, like a Millennium puzzle.
<v Speaker 2>That's how you that's the new PSP. Baby, all right,
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna throw I'm gonna throw one out there, Marcus.
<v Speaker 2>I think we're gonna see a new gaming handheld announced
<v Speaker 2>from one of the major publishers.
<v Speaker 3>Oh, you got to commit to one of them, do
<v Speaker 3>I I thought I knew where you're going with this, because.
<v Speaker 2>All right, I'll say it. I'll say it. I'll say
<v Speaker 2>it PSP.
<v Speaker 1>That's not that's not where I was going either.
<v Speaker 2>They released the Xbox there, well, there are there are
<v Speaker 2>rumors of a PSP, but yeah, that would.
<v Speaker 3>Be weird after they put out that portal not that
<v Speaker 3>long ago.
<v Speaker 2>That's no, it's it's most certainly PS five pro.
<v Speaker 1>Uh.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, I think we're gonna see the Xbox handheld,
<v Speaker 2>and I think it's out this year this fall.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, what do you think they'll call it?
<v Speaker 2>Something stupid?
<v Speaker 1>The handbox.
<v Speaker 3>It'll still be.
<v Speaker 4>The hand job, the ex hand, It's Xbox something, right,
<v Speaker 4>It's never gonna be it's Xbox Xbox three sixty.
<v Speaker 2>It's gonna be the Xbox Go.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, something like that, right, the x deck and then
<v Speaker 4>in parentheses, not to be confused with the PSP go what.
<v Speaker 2>They call uh it was x cloud, right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, so I think it'll be Xbox Cloud, the x go,
<v Speaker 3>X pocket pocket.
<v Speaker 2>X pocket. Oh that could wear X pocket to.
<v Speaker 4>Be clear, I would love pock. That would be I
<v Speaker 4>would be more excited about that announcement than like a
<v Speaker 4>new like a PS five pro or a new iteration.
<v Speaker 4>You know, there's that in the document they had that
<v Speaker 4>like spherical that cylindrical Xbox right like right, like, I
<v Speaker 4>would much rather have a new handheld weird funky thing
<v Speaker 4>than like a new iteration of a console, because we're
<v Speaker 4>not ready for PS six right, We're not there yet,
<v Speaker 4>So yeah, I would love some some kind of dedicated
<v Speaker 4>handheld again, would be really cool. I would love the
<v Speaker 4>switch equivalent, the Steam Deck equivalent of an Xbox.
<v Speaker 3>That would be really exciting. Well, I wonder if it
<v Speaker 3>would have a dock so that you could play it.
<v Speaker 3>Would they go that far?
<v Speaker 2>I'm sure probably a dock that you buy separately, same
<v Speaker 2>as you do with like the Steam Deck and other stuff,
<v Speaker 2>where it's like here's you can get the deck by
<v Speaker 2>itself whatever they end up calling it, and then like
<v Speaker 2>here's a doc you can also buy if you want
<v Speaker 2>to you can wirelessly cast from your Xbox to your
<v Speaker 2>some of that kind of stuff.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's it's like the portal play.
<v Speaker 2>I think it'll be stand alone, but with the option.
<v Speaker 1>The dirty secret is that if you have a Steam Deck,
<v Speaker 1>you can do PlayStation remote play on it. So like
<v Speaker 1>you kind of already have a PlayStation portal. If you
<v Speaker 1>have a Steam Deck, it just it runs a little bit,
<v Speaker 1>you can do it. Yeah. Yeah, I do think a
<v Speaker 1>lot of the future of console hardware is moving in
<v Speaker 1>this direction. Uh, it makes a lot of sense for
<v Speaker 1>it to do so, And I think the switch was
<v Speaker 1>a like sea change in all of this. So yeah,
<v Speaker 1>heck yeah.
<v Speaker 4>Anything they can do to have you play your games
<v Speaker 4>but not actually have them locally or own them, that's
<v Speaker 4>that's the long term.
<v Speaker 3>Somebody will walk on stage like you could play the
<v Speaker 3>new Call of Duty on this thing. It's coming to as.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, being in Call of Duty and someone says like,
<v Speaker 1>I'm using tilt controls.
<v Speaker 2>This God, yeah, I think we're getting an Xbox portable device.
<v Speaker 4>I'd love that. That be exciting, that'd be cool.
<v Speaker 3>I would like to see that.
<v Speaker 2>Who's next, Who's going next?
<v Speaker 4>We did some predictions over on mid Max recently, and
<v Speaker 4>my three which we can sort of we can talk
<v Speaker 4>about here is here they were is Gary Oldman on stage.
<v Speaker 4>That was my celebrity cameo specifically Gary Oldman, some in
<v Speaker 4>Castlevania like a new Castle Vania. And then I'm going
<v Speaker 4>quickly through these because I already tked about these another podcasts.
<v Speaker 4>And then I did the one My Big Pie in
<v Speaker 4>the Sky. I don't think this is gonna happen. One
<v Speaker 4>was a Kingdom Hearts one remake. But now now Keighley
<v Speaker 4>has basically heard that and was like, no, what were
<v Speaker 4>you thinking? Oh, he's Kingdom Hearts for specifically while we
<v Speaker 4>were While we were I looked it up and he did.
<v Speaker 4>He did Umbrella Kingdom Hearts. Okay, he did specifically site
<v Speaker 4>for Like the direct quote is people keep asking about
<v Speaker 4>Kingdom Hearts. I don't know why.
<v Speaker 3>Leave me alone?
<v Speaker 1>Like the Garry Oldman thing? Is this a Leon? The
<v Speaker 1>professional tie in that we're getting? Are we finally getting
<v Speaker 1>a Leon? The professional video game.
<v Speaker 3>Man context for that? I haven't listened to that episode
<v Speaker 3>of the mid Max Show yet, so I don't know
<v Speaker 3>what your I didn't see show your work for that.
<v Speaker 4>Sure, yeah, I'll do it quickly because I'm sorry if
<v Speaker 4>you listen to both pogcast I don't want to read
<v Speaker 4>right too much. But I was like, celebrity, right, definitely
<v Speaker 4>some celebrity. We had Nicholas Cage recently, so I googled
<v Speaker 4>Nicholas Cage contemporaries and Gary Oldman was on the list,
<v Speaker 4>and I was like, that's a good one. He has grant.
<v Speaker 4>They had al Pacino video games.
<v Speaker 1>They had al Pacino, So who needs a paycheck right now?
<v Speaker 4>Who in There's no world for Robert de Niro. The
<v Speaker 4>guys kids can play Fortnite every day for the rest
<v Speaker 4>of his life. Robert de Niro won't get on a
<v Speaker 4>plane to come to SG.
<v Speaker 3>I think you know what you get. You get Chris Hemsworth,
<v Speaker 3>he's on he's on that furiosa high. You get who
<v Speaker 3>seems like he'd be.
<v Speaker 2>Upposed to guy that talks like this?
<v Speaker 1>So I re searched who in Hollywood needs a paycheck
<v Speaker 1>right now? And Bruce Willis is not a.
<v Speaker 4>Bad Bruce Willis is not appearing in public anymore. That's
<v Speaker 4>why because he's he has a yeah, yeah, I'm sorry,
<v Speaker 4>this is how you learned.
<v Speaker 3>Learned this that yeah, A couple of years ago.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, he's not acting anymore or anything. He's out of
<v Speaker 4>the game. Yeah, it's it's sad, it's a bummer.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, this is this is this is like the second
<v Speaker 1>worst way I've learned about a bad celebrity.
<v Speaker 3>Piece of it's.
<v Speaker 2>Gonna it's gonna say kind of kind of going off
<v Speaker 2>tangent here. You're gonna hear like World Premiere, and it's
<v Speaker 2>gonna be a black screen, and you're gonna hear some
<v Speaker 2>men and women aren't looking for money. They can't be bought, bullied,
<v Speaker 2>reason to negotiated with. They simply want to watch the
<v Speaker 2>world bun mister Wayne. And then it's and then he
<v Speaker 2>walks on on stage and it's Mike Michael Caine.
<v Speaker 4>Not to bring this down again, but another actor who
<v Speaker 4>has fully retired and will not be getting Oh god,
<v Speaker 4>doesn't have it acting, Yeah, popping up a video game.
<v Speaker 4>As far as we know, he's he has committed. I mean,
<v Speaker 4>nothing's wrong with Michael Kaine, as far as we know,
<v Speaker 4>he's just.
<v Speaker 1>He's just like a check and like is still working.
<v Speaker 1>All right, let's like narrow this down.
<v Speaker 4>I think you're saying specifically a Nolan verse.
<v Speaker 2>I'm just no So what's actually gonna when when Xbox
<v Speaker 2>when you boot up Xbox, canna introduce a new Quartana assistant.
<v Speaker 2>But it's going to be celebrity guests, and so you're
<v Speaker 2>gonna get you there like and check out this, and
<v Speaker 2>they're gonna press the Xbox button and you're just here,
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god, and it's what's her name? I'm just
<v Speaker 2>doing impressions at this.
<v Speaker 1>Point, I know, to do the Jim Carrey. Somebody stop me.
<v Speaker 2>No, no, the Oh my god, he's been it's what's
<v Speaker 2>her name?
<v Speaker 3>I don't know.
<v Speaker 4>I don't know that it's no, I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>It's what's her name?
<v Speaker 1>Oh my god, Jennifer cool j Coolidge.
<v Speaker 4>That is a good Jennifer Coolidge. Okay, good, thank you all,
<v Speaker 4>Like a little sprinkling of a Kristen Wig character, like
<v Speaker 4>on top.
<v Speaker 2>Of good times, good times.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, but other celebrities, because it's like they've gotten truly
<v Speaker 4>like massive.
<v Speaker 2>Timmy the game, Yeah right, yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Have we had Jamie yet? I feel like Jamie Lee
<v Speaker 1>Curtis comparance.
<v Speaker 4>My prediction for that was like that's a shoein like
<v Speaker 4>her and Kate Blanchett are there to promote the Borderlands movie. Specifically,
<v Speaker 4>like that's almost like that's like like that's a guarantee.
<v Speaker 4>Almost Jack Black shows up.
<v Speaker 1>To Kevin Hart was just on that KAI stream, right,
<v Speaker 1>so like you know, he's playing around in the realm
<v Speaker 1>of video games.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, I mean Jack Black feels like if he's
<v Speaker 3>not there for Borderlands, then he might be like, hey,
<v Speaker 3>I'm in at Minecraft being well I.
<v Speaker 4>Think off stage and walks right back out. I'm here.
<v Speaker 2>We're gonna we're gonna do some journalism Tenacious D tour dates, right, Okay,
<v Speaker 2>tour doesn't start until July.
<v Speaker 4>They're going to be.
<v Speaker 3>Would that be an exciting thing? Or we'll just be like, oh,
<v Speaker 3>it's Jack but yeah, that makes sense.
<v Speaker 1>What if he goes out on stage and announces Brutal
<v Speaker 1>Legend two with okay, we're talking, yeah, and like that's
<v Speaker 1>part of the Xbox Show, is like Double Fine announces
<v Speaker 1>Brutal Legend two.
<v Speaker 2>I was literally my prediction was gonna be a Double
<v Speaker 2>Fine announcement, damn it.
<v Speaker 4>Then Brutal Legend to colon This one's not an RTS,
<v Speaker 4>that's what it was called, and.
<v Speaker 3>Then we all go, oh, crap, we hope it sells
<v Speaker 3>a million copies that it will close the studio.
<v Speaker 1>They're standing there like sweating nervously. Is like they're holding
<v Speaker 1>like an Elmer Fudd gun on the side of the
<v Speaker 1>stage like this better go Well.
<v Speaker 3>We got jack block out here. I have a actually
<v Speaker 3>have an Xbox prediction. I think Clockwork Revolution pops up
<v Speaker 3>again and we get a release window for that game.
<v Speaker 1>Oh right, that's a good one.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah. The the Nxile Themepunk kind of BioShock infinite looking
<v Speaker 3>thing that was shown last year.
<v Speaker 4>I have not seen gameplay right all pre rendered cut scene.
<v Speaker 3>That trailer had. That trailer did have some gameplay, but
<v Speaker 3>it was like bits of it I couldn't remember. But
<v Speaker 3>it has not popped up at all since then. Uh.
<v Speaker 3>I think I feel like this is the time where
<v Speaker 3>we get something about that game again.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, that's a good one. I like that one. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>it feels it feels like the times.
<v Speaker 2>Right, you go ahead, you go ahead.
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna throw one from from down the court on Xbox.
<v Speaker 1>I think they're going to announce more Activision Blizzard games
<v Speaker 1>coming to game Pass, and I think they're gonna tease
<v Speaker 1>something about star Craft now now Pie in the Sky
<v Speaker 1>dream here is that they dig out the files and
<v Speaker 1>have like done a remastered. We have like brought back
<v Speaker 1>what what was StarCraft Ghost, like put it all together
<v Speaker 1>into a playable version, and we're putting it on game Pass.
<v Speaker 1>That's my like from the other side of the court,
<v Speaker 1>hucking that ball for the thing that pays off your
<v Speaker 1>tuition thing. I want, I want them to do something
<v Speaker 1>with StarCraft because like Blizzard has not done anything with
<v Speaker 1>StarCraft since like hots, and it feels like a franchise
<v Speaker 1>that could still have that weight and you know, make
<v Speaker 1>use of the buffalo if you're going to buy the
<v Speaker 1>whole buffalo, right, So, I don't know, Like I think
<v Speaker 1>StarCraft could be a pretty good one.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, they're gonna put a master chief in StarCraft.
<v Speaker 4>Finally, Like if they did, if they did Ghost, like
<v Speaker 4>they would just start over, right, Like that could be
<v Speaker 4>a surprise announcement. I mean a lot of stuff of
<v Speaker 4>ghost out there for a while though, I know, like
<v Speaker 4>I think at one point it was playable to something
<v Speaker 4>to it, right, Yeah, So it does make me wonder
<v Speaker 4>if they went back in there and just tried to
<v Speaker 4>treat it like some sort of archival thing, like for posterity.
<v Speaker 4>We brought it back and we like remastered and like
<v Speaker 4>tried to stitch it all together and make it work
<v Speaker 4>and function as sort of like a novelty.
<v Speaker 3>Like Star Fox two a little bit.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, exactly like Star Fox ta.
<v Speaker 3>Honestly, that would be cool, like instead of just like, hey,
<v Speaker 3>we put the games you like on game Pass, here's
<v Speaker 3>like this this thing that never came out that we
<v Speaker 3>somehow got functional and we put it because uh, Sega
<v Speaker 3>did that recently too, where they had that uh remember
<v Speaker 3>on Steam they released that unreleased Golden Axe game that
<v Speaker 3>was like, hey, we did not finish this, but we're
<v Speaker 3>just gonna put it out there, like we were working
<v Speaker 3>on a new Golden Axe and it just fell apart
<v Speaker 3>at some point, but here's what we had. Like they
<v Speaker 3>just do that basically.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I think we're going to get a new game
<v Speaker 2>reveal from Rare.
<v Speaker 3>Oh so not. We're just gonna ignore. We're never gonna
<v Speaker 3>speak of ever Wild ever again.
<v Speaker 2>Correct, We're gonna pretend.
<v Speaker 1>That rebrand ever Wild.
<v Speaker 2>They're gonna bring back Viva Pinata and I'm gonna I'm
<v Speaker 2>gonna scream, I'm gonna cheer.
<v Speaker 1>No.
<v Speaker 4>I think I think Rare the market is there for
<v Speaker 4>a new Viva Pinada like for real, like a cozy
<v Speaker 4>game like yeah, absolutely yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Or like a remake of the first one. I mean
<v Speaker 2>I would want a new one.
<v Speaker 4>But yeah, well, I mean you look at rares like catalog,
<v Speaker 4>like there's never gonna be another cameo. You know, there's
<v Speaker 4>never gonna be another grabbed by the ghoulies. If you
<v Speaker 4>have a Pinata feels like a sugar bet to me
<v Speaker 4>than even Banjo Kazui in a weird way. Uh, just
<v Speaker 4>because that's what I don't know. I feel like, especially
<v Speaker 4>game Pass people would love like a cozy triple a
<v Speaker 4>rare Vivada in twenty twenty four five, and I.
<v Speaker 2>Think, yeah, I think they they get the hype out
<v Speaker 2>with that, and then quietly in interviews they like firm
<v Speaker 2>elder ever Wild was shelved.
<v Speaker 3>Somebody asked them, like, so y'all still making.
<v Speaker 2>That, yeah, and they answer that question. So it's out there.
<v Speaker 4>But Thieves is a fantastic but they don't.
<v Speaker 2>They definitely do not announce that they are shutting they
<v Speaker 2>stop development on on ever Wild because they don't want
<v Speaker 2>that publicity, but they'll quietly confirm it. So the news
<v Speaker 2>is out there.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's easier to just rip that band Aid all,
<v Speaker 3>it's not like the game was making noise over the
<v Speaker 3>last few years.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I think with Arcane and Tango, I think they
<v Speaker 2>are going to avoid any sort of news of canceling
<v Speaker 2>projects for the foreseeable future.
<v Speaker 3>Speaking of a not or recording controversy with Xbox. This
<v Speaker 3>is a weird prediction, but I would say Phil Spencer
<v Speaker 3>takes the stage at the showcase, and maybe he's created
<v Speaker 3>by even the smallest smattering of booze, Like I don't.
<v Speaker 4>I don't think he.
<v Speaker 3>Gets his normal warm reception this year.
<v Speaker 1>I'm surprised if that happens, though.
<v Speaker 4>I don't think we see him at all. I don't
<v Speaker 4>think we see any Xbox executives.
<v Speaker 2>I think we do.
<v Speaker 3>I think we do too. I think I think fills
<v Speaker 3>the kind of guy that's he feels like I gotta
<v Speaker 3>show my face to say face basically a little bit
<v Speaker 3>on Twitter. True. I mean, but that his showcase. That's
<v Speaker 3>after his interview with Ryan McCaffrey, right, yeah, he's I
<v Speaker 3>was gonna say he's doing an interview conferrent, I know.
<v Speaker 4>Couple.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>How many interviews he's doing and where and when is
<v Speaker 1>like a different question. But he is doing at least
<v Speaker 1>like one like public facing interview live streams.
<v Speaker 3>So the I G N one is the big one. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>So like he'll be a He'll have been out there.
<v Speaker 2>So I think there's others unannounced probably too.
<v Speaker 1>I think someone someone at an outlet somewhere probably has
<v Speaker 1>interviews lined up and stuff like that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I feel like he'll come out. You know, there'll be
<v Speaker 3>an initial like like hey, Xbox Yeah, and then somewhere
<v Speaker 3>in that corner of whatever the Microsoft theater here, but
<v Speaker 3>like a oh or just like.
<v Speaker 2>I think I think some random guy's gonna scream out
<v Speaker 2>and it's gonna be like an awkward moment.
<v Speaker 1>I was saying, Boo Earns. I really really that the
<v Speaker 1>f F Tactics thing is real, the one that we've
<v Speaker 1>been like speculating about for years because of the video leak.
<v Speaker 1>I feel like every year, I'm just like, it's the
<v Speaker 1>year f F Tactics. Give me the remake, the remaster, whatever,
<v Speaker 1>just put it on modern systems. The fact that I
<v Speaker 1>can't play that on my switch right now is like
<v Speaker 1>a crime against humanity. And like the Tactics ogre one
<v Speaker 1>worked really well.
<v Speaker 2>So speaking of tactics, we need metal slug Tactics.
<v Speaker 3>What they just that just popped up this week?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that just popped up story yesterday.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I've been traveling. I've been traveling.
<v Speaker 4>What this is how you learn?
<v Speaker 1>It's that a fall Fall release window I believe was
<v Speaker 1>the new tip.
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god, yeah trailer.
<v Speaker 4>Okay cool. I'm not even a tactics guy, but I
<v Speaker 4>just I love the way that.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I love metal, slug and tactics.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, like that was when I was in my head.
<v Speaker 3>I was expecting, like, oh, be cool if you see
<v Speaker 3>that this weekend, and they were like they just got
<v Speaker 3>ahead of it, like, no, it's here.
<v Speaker 2>It's oh cool, Okay, sorry to interrupt.
<v Speaker 1>No, it's all good. I mean, it's going to be,
<v Speaker 1>as far as I can tell, a good year for
<v Speaker 1>the tactics that goes. So that's why I'm hoping that
<v Speaker 1>like f F Tactics gets out there and like leads
<v Speaker 1>the charge a little bit. But I feel like ever
<v Speaker 1>since the Nvidia leak that you know, led a bunch
<v Speaker 1>of stuff out early, but also has like a few
<v Speaker 1>things lingering that have not come to fruition yet. Uh,
<v Speaker 1>Tactics has been the big one for me. I'm just
<v Speaker 1>like that's that's such a big piece of Square history
<v Speaker 1>that I feel like is not as easily accessible as
<v Speaker 1>other games, even other like It's you can play f
<v Speaker 1>F seven, like Classic f F seven on pretty much
<v Speaker 1>anything these days, but you cannot find some other like
<v Speaker 1>Final Fancy games quite so easily. And the Pixel remasters
<v Speaker 1>have helped with that and all that. But now it's
<v Speaker 1>Tactics needs its time. We got to understand where we
<v Speaker 1>came from. We just had Unicorn Overlord that was like
<v Speaker 1>Argua that was way more influenced by Tactics Ogre and
<v Speaker 1>Ogre Battle and all that. But like we need to
<v Speaker 1>honor the history, the legacy a little bit. So yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I think that game back up again recently. Unicorn.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I started it but then got pulled away from
<v Speaker 3>this other stuff. But I've gotten back into it's a
<v Speaker 3>good time. It's a good time. It's a good time.
<v Speaker 1>Vanilla Ware does not miss.
<v Speaker 3>I feel like a lot of these are Xbox I
<v Speaker 3>feel like for those of no know Jeffkeeley got ahead
<v Speaker 3>of the show and basically said, hey, don't get it'll
<v Speaker 3>be okay. Yeah yeah, yeah, He's like, you know, slow
<v Speaker 3>year for the industry whatever. That actually means to him.
<v Speaker 3>But so it's almost it's weird to try to predict
<v Speaker 3>things that aren't super exciting, to try to match the
<v Speaker 3>expectation that he said of like, well, what's like a
<v Speaker 3>what's like a Batier announcement that he can make. But like, uh,
<v Speaker 3>for Xbox, I was I think that they will announce
<v Speaker 3>the next wave of first party games going to PlayStation.
<v Speaker 1>M M.
<v Speaker 3>But but here's the next like two or three d's
<v Speaker 3>that we maybe in the next year, you'll.
<v Speaker 1>See like major Xbox titles going over to PlayStation, and.
<v Speaker 3>I think I will say one of them will be
<v Speaker 3>either a Gears or Halo game, Like it's gonna be
<v Speaker 3>one like damn busting, like whoa, Like never thought we'd
<v Speaker 3>see this here, Like it's gonna be an old Gears
<v Speaker 3>or an old Halo.
<v Speaker 1>I was going to say, Halo. The Master Chief Collection
<v Speaker 1>makes so much sense for that because that's something it's
<v Speaker 1>like it's not infinite, you know, it's not the thing,
<v Speaker 1>but it's too excited. But it's the Master Chief Collection,
<v Speaker 1>you know. Really, we think that the Sony people should
<v Speaker 1>should become accustomed with our history now that we're starting
<v Speaker 1>to play some of our games and all that. You know,
<v Speaker 1>they can frame that very well, like we're bringing some
<v Speaker 1>historic Xbox games over to PlayStation so that the Sony
<v Speaker 1>players can can check those out.
<v Speaker 3>We're doing you a favor.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, we're going to get the Halo master Chief Collection,
<v Speaker 1>and then gear's the dom collection, you know, like what
<v Speaker 1>would you call the master gif Collection of years.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, so that's the three Games without Judgment. Is that
<v Speaker 4>kind of what it is?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, the Emergen trilogy.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so maybe just the Marcus Phoenix collection or something.
<v Speaker 2>Here's the more Emergence collection, Emergence, yeah, yeah, and then
<v Speaker 2>maybe if you're good, we'll give you Judgment Torque collection.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, that's the road Run.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, that's that's what we get. We get more
<v Speaker 3>PlayStation Xbox, the PlayStation announcement. I don't know what else
<v Speaker 3>they get, throwing it a round it up. Maybe what's
<v Speaker 3>an old Xbox thing that they don't care about?
<v Speaker 1>Killer Instinct?
<v Speaker 3>Sure, yeah, that that Xbox one launched Killer Instinct.
<v Speaker 1>Sure right, yeah, yeah, just slide it over there scooch
<v Speaker 1>it on over.
<v Speaker 4>Maybe time for a new Hayes slide announcement. It takes
<v Speaker 4>two is twenty twenty four, you know, they Joseph Faris
<v Speaker 4>likes as you know, kee Lee.
<v Speaker 2>I feel like that's yeah, twenty twenty five.
<v Speaker 3>I like the more boring version of that is that
<v Speaker 3>he just comes out to talk about that movie they
<v Speaker 3>announced a while ago.
<v Speaker 2>Oh right, if he's there, Well, no, it's not. It's
<v Speaker 2>not the Game Awards.
<v Speaker 3>I was gonna say it could be an SGF. Hasn't
<v Speaker 3>he been a an S yet before?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? Yeah, I just think it's too soon. I was
<v Speaker 2>gonna say, if he was out there hanging out an award,
<v Speaker 2>he could confirm that they're working on a new game
<v Speaker 2>before doing that.
<v Speaker 3>He could always give lips so, hey, we're our next
<v Speaker 3>project is underway, and then that's like, that's all he says.
<v Speaker 1>Those are my favorite announcement.
<v Speaker 2>But he'll be he'll be in his seat like Jedi
<v Speaker 2>Servi jedis Fallen Order.
<v Speaker 1>Where oh yeah, where they're in the crowd.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and they don't even have a name for the game,
<v Speaker 3>like Jeff's next one with a microphone, like, hey, what
<v Speaker 3>are you? What are you doing here? I didn't know
<v Speaker 3>you were coming.
<v Speaker 2>They had the name right for Jedi Fallen Order, but
<v Speaker 2>that was it.
<v Speaker 1>I remember which announcement you're talking about they were sitting
<v Speaker 1>in the in the crowd and.
<v Speaker 2>Was hosting the Vincent Pala thing.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah him, yeah, yeah, I love those announcements because they're
<v Speaker 1>always just like I'm going to tell you a game
<v Speaker 1>is happening. We have nothing to talk about our show
<v Speaker 1>right now. Please join our studio. Because this is a
<v Speaker 1>recruit we're hiring.
<v Speaker 3>I'm like, unlike the general vibe, we are hiring. Actually,
<v Speaker 3>you know what's the weird thing about doing that is
<v Speaker 3>like either they know in advance, like, hey, we're gonna
<v Speaker 3>come up to your chair at this point and you're
<v Speaker 3>gonna announce your new thing, at which point it's like
<v Speaker 3>when I just have them on the stage to do it.
<v Speaker 3>Why try to make it seem like this is like
<v Speaker 3>an old Yeah, but it's like a bigger deal to
<v Speaker 3>go on stage and say like, hey, the studio is
<v Speaker 3>super respected and loved, we have a new thing coming.
<v Speaker 2>Well that means more production costs, motion graphics, pain.
<v Speaker 1>That's a bit instead and bits are better.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah. Well, I was say. The alternative to dat is
<v Speaker 3>that it's not planned and they put this poor man
<v Speaker 3>on the spot and he has to be like what,
<v Speaker 3>oh I mean, yeah, we're working on something new. I
<v Speaker 3>don't even know if I'm supposed to say this yet,
<v Speaker 3>but I'm on I have a camera. Believe it or not.
<v Speaker 2>We're just not sitting here doing nothing.
<v Speaker 1>Oh my god, if they put a camera on you
<v Speaker 1>at SGF, you have to legally tell them what game
<v Speaker 1>you're working on them, that that you sign that when
<v Speaker 1>you walk in the door, even if you're not a
<v Speaker 1>game developer exactly.
<v Speaker 3>That'd be funny if someone didn't play balder're like, I
<v Speaker 3>can't I can't tell you. Jeff, like we didn't talk
<v Speaker 3>about this, and it just gets like this really awkward
<v Speaker 3>moment where he's like, come.
<v Speaker 2>On, tell me what you got about it?
<v Speaker 3>Jeff, you know this. I can't talk about this. What
<v Speaker 3>are you doing?
<v Speaker 2>Anyways? I'm trying to think of anything out We folks
<v Speaker 2>all on Xbox today.
<v Speaker 1>I had one other that's non Xbox. I know that
<v Speaker 1>two K has been out there saying they're going to
<v Speaker 1>reveal a sequel to one of their biggest and most
<v Speaker 1>beloved franchises or something like that. I think a lot
<v Speaker 1>of people have taken that to mean Borderlands. I'm gonna
<v Speaker 1>throw this out there. When was the last time we
<v Speaker 1>heard about a new Sieve. Has there been a new
<v Speaker 1>Sieve recently? I feel since the last there was.
<v Speaker 4>The expansion, what would it be like there was like
<v Speaker 4>the sci Fi one, but that was like the last.
<v Speaker 1>One that was like it's probably not x Com. I
<v Speaker 1>feel like they maybe don't do x Com for a
<v Speaker 1>while now that you know they don't have Jake Solomon
<v Speaker 1>and that whole crew there Anymoreization.
<v Speaker 3>Six was a few it's it's been long enough.
<v Speaker 4>That was twenty nineteen. That yes, twenty sixteen, twenty.
<v Speaker 1>Sixteen, Yeah, when it came out, and then it's largely
<v Speaker 1>just gotten like ports and updates since it did have
<v Speaker 1>like leader passes and stuff like that. They tried to
<v Speaker 1>do passes, but I don't know, maybe it's time for
<v Speaker 1>a new version of SIV. I could see that happening
<v Speaker 1>because also like what they've also, they.
<v Speaker 2>Were they were staffing up for it, I know specifically
<v Speaker 2>for the CIV although I think that was that was like.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, so it wasted to platform. It was ported to
<v Speaker 4>like PS four and Xbox one in twenty nineteen, like
<v Speaker 4>that was the last big SIB six update.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so it seems like a good time. It's that
<v Speaker 1>or like Mafia maybe like Mafia makes a sudden reappearance.
<v Speaker 3>You know they're working on X. They announced that they
<v Speaker 3>were working on Mafia for like two years ago or
<v Speaker 3>last year for the anniversary something for the series, or like, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>we've already started work on the next Mafia, but don't
<v Speaker 3>expect it for a while.
<v Speaker 4>This was a big embarrassing question. But that remake of
<v Speaker 4>the first one came out right, Okay, Yeah, I played two.
<v Speaker 4>I remember liking two back in the day, but I
<v Speaker 4>never played one or three.
<v Speaker 2>Blake, He's talking a lot.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I started and I started three. Yeah, but yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I think everyone it's funny, he said Borderlands. I I
<v Speaker 3>feel like everyone's maybe maybe it's more hoping that it's BioShock.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I think that would just be strange because
<v Speaker 1>there's Judas coming out as well, and I think it
<v Speaker 1>would be hilarious for like a new BioShock and Judas
<v Speaker 1>to come out in the stame like window, because everything
<v Speaker 1>I saw of Judas was like, yeah, that that looks
<v Speaker 1>like BioShock.
<v Speaker 3>No, they are working on a new Bioshot, but yeah,
<v Speaker 3>clout Chamber like that is happening for sure, and.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, but will they wait until Judas is out? The door,
<v Speaker 4>you know, going to.
<v Speaker 3>Be just that that BioShock things already been floating around
<v Speaker 3>for years now, so it's like, yeah, honestly, it was
<v Speaker 3>a race to see who would reveal their game first,
<v Speaker 3>whether it was that or Ken Levin. Yeah, and honestly,
<v Speaker 3>I think I put my money on the bioshot popping
<v Speaker 3>up before Ken Levine's game. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>I can't think of many other like beloved unless we
<v Speaker 1>go into sports, but even then, I'd be surprised to
<v Speaker 1>see like an NFL two K make a return or
<v Speaker 1>anything like that.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, top spin already, right, Yeah, I could have been
<v Speaker 4>one that.
<v Speaker 1>Actually, I feel like the big sports resurgence this year
<v Speaker 1>is just NCAA football coming back or now it's called
<v Speaker 1>college football because I guess they don't have the license
<v Speaker 1>or they didn't want to get the license. But uh,
<v Speaker 1>that one is going to be the one that eats
<v Speaker 1>of all the oxygen this summer, and I'm excited. I
<v Speaker 1>love college football. I'm so happy for that. But uh yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I'm not really caring about most other sports games now
<v Speaker 1>at this point.
<v Speaker 3>I'm like actively trying to fay, like, what else this
<v Speaker 3>two K do that isn't the big stuff that isn't
<v Speaker 3>sports that Yeah, I would qualify as like, hey, you
<v Speaker 3>guys love this, you're excited for it, and there's too many.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, well I think that's going to do it for
<v Speaker 2>the show this week.
<v Speaker 3>That was a funny the obligatory Holli Night Silk song
<v Speaker 3>of course.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, yes? Or release date?
<v Speaker 3>What do you think? Yes? Yeah, it's under your show. Honestly,
<v Speaker 3>it just shows.
<v Speaker 2>Extra perfect perfect. Well, everybody, thank you for listening to
<v Speaker 2>this episode of the Game and Former show. Be sure
<v Speaker 2>to go and follow Eric Van Allen here on social
<v Speaker 2>media at c mousy that's s E A m o
<v Speaker 2>O s. I check out his workover on Destructoid actually
<v Speaker 2>blood God in Normandy f M. Follow Marcus here at
<v Speaker 2>Marcus Stewart seven, follow Kyle at Kyle M. Hilliard, and
<v Speaker 2>you can follow me at It's van Aiken on on
<v Speaker 2>on socials wherever you wherever you want to talk to me,
<v Speaker 2>I'm there. Wherever you social yeah, where wherever the town square,
<v Speaker 2>local restaurant.
<v Speaker 3>I'll be leaning against the coffee shop. You can find me.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, exactly, but uh yeah, don't forget uh. Support
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<v Speaker 2>all that stuff. Thanks everybody for for tuning in this week.
<v Speaker 2>It's gonna be a fun week again. Stay tuned to
<v Speaker 2>Gameformer dot com uh for all things Summer game Fest.
<v Speaker 2>It's gonna be a good time and we'll see you
<v Speaker 2>on the other side. Goodbye.