Arc Raiders, Dispatch, And Game Of The Year Catch-Up

<v Speaker 1>Hey, everybody, Welcome back to the Game Informer Show, a
<v Speaker 1>weekly podcast covering the video game industry. Join us every
<v Speaker 1>Friday for a discussion with the latest gaming news, reviews,
<v Speaker 1>and exclusive reveals, alongside Game and Former staff and special
<v Speaker 1>guests from around the industry. I'm one of your hosts
<v Speaker 1>this week, Alex van Aiken, and today I'm joined by
<v Speaker 1>Marcus Stewart Heyding Marcus.
<v Speaker 2>What's up, Alex? Green Shirt Gang? Rise up?
<v Speaker 1>Yes, sir, Green Shirt Gang, let's go take it over.
<v Speaker 1>Different different shades, but still cut from the same cloth.
<v Speaker 2>Well, you know, sometimes the grass is greener on other sides.
<v Speaker 2>And I guess it's the debate of what show of
<v Speaker 2>our shirts is technically greener.
<v Speaker 1>I think me. I think I'm greener. You've got a
<v Speaker 1>little righter blue in your shirt? Yeah blue, Yeah, trust me.
<v Speaker 1>I do a lot of color grading. I I've learned
<v Speaker 1>to see a lot of different colors inside of other colors.
<v Speaker 1>We're also joined by Charles Hart. How you doing, Charles,
<v Speaker 1>I'm good. I guess I'm like Mauve Shirt Gang. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>what color this is?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, you'd say that, Okay, I think.
<v Speaker 2>We call you the Mauve Avenger. The mauv Avenger. I liked.
<v Speaker 2>Anyone get that.
<v Speaker 1>Red Avenger Red Avenger right?
<v Speaker 2>Uh, you know it's a millennial that are hay Arnald
<v Speaker 2>fans are losing your mind right now, and that's all
<v Speaker 2>you need to know.
<v Speaker 1>I watched, but not as much as anybody else.
<v Speaker 3>I should have just assumed it was a hay Arnold thing.
<v Speaker 3>I think with Marcus from.
<v Speaker 2>Noah, that's all. Yeah, that's all I say.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Well, it's gonna be a good episode. It's us three.
<v Speaker 1>Everyone else is busy either working on game reviews or
<v Speaker 1>on trips for work, so it's us three hold it down.
<v Speaker 1>This week. We're gonna be talking about our Raiders Dispatch,
<v Speaker 1>Mortal Kombat Legacy collection, and maybe our Game of the
<v Speaker 1>Year cram sessions. We're trying to fit in before the
<v Speaker 1>year ends, before we have to lock in our selections
<v Speaker 1>for the best games of the year, because that's we
<v Speaker 1>We are having those talks here a Game Informer. Just
<v Speaker 1>because of our magazine schedule, we have to have them
<v Speaker 1>a little earlier than usual this year. So it's it's
<v Speaker 1>the knis is on, knives out, and the pressure.
<v Speaker 2>Is on the mud has been slug a little bit
<v Speaker 2>a little bit.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, relationships have been tested, you know, tears have
<v Speaker 1>been shed.
<v Speaker 2>I won't say who. I just dried my eyes, but.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, of course, of course. Uh well, guys, I guess
<v Speaker 1>before we get into it, I do want to just
<v Speaker 1>give our listeners a heads up that the best way
<v Speaker 1>they can support us is by going to Gaminformer dot
<v Speaker 1>com slash subscribe to pick up a Game Informer magazine subscription.
<v Speaker 1>You can get it either in print or digital.
<v Speaker 2>Is it weird to sniff it?
<v Speaker 1>Is that help people like sniffing paper?
<v Speaker 4>I I don't mind sniffing it. I think it's something
<v Speaker 4>about doing it on camera feels wrong. You smell the
<v Speaker 4>book in the privacy.
<v Speaker 3>Of your own home.
<v Speaker 1>Wrong or right? Yeah, Marcus, I don't like that eyebrow raise.
<v Speaker 3>I don't even know.
<v Speaker 1>Well, I want to get into our creators. I've been
<v Speaker 1>playing the hell out of it. I'm reviewing the game
<v Speaker 1>for Game Informer, so it's it's been all I've been
<v Speaker 1>playing lately. That's not true, but a lot of what
<v Speaker 1>I've been playing lately, and I really really love it.
<v Speaker 1>For those who don't know, if you haven't been paying
<v Speaker 1>attention to the conversation or on twitch or YouTube. It
<v Speaker 1>is a extraction shooter, and if you don't know what
<v Speaker 1>that is, that is a sub genre of the first
<v Speaker 1>person shoot. Well up first person shooter. This is a
<v Speaker 1>third person shooter, but it's a subgenre of of the
<v Speaker 1>shooter genre. It is PVPVE. You might have heard it
<v Speaker 1>called player verse, player versus environment. So there's a mixture
<v Speaker 1>of real players that you are and in this case,
<v Speaker 1>cooperating with. In a lot of senses, the community for
<v Speaker 1>our Greaters is very welcoming and you and pretty like
<v Speaker 1>helpful for other players. There are there are proments where
<v Speaker 1>you're going to be fighting people.
<v Speaker 2>But I'm really glad you said that, because I did
<v Speaker 2>have questions about how I should be interacting with people
<v Speaker 2>in this game.
<v Speaker 1>You know, it's interesting. It reminds me a little bit
<v Speaker 1>of Sorry, I get distracted of how pale I am
<v Speaker 1>in the camera.
<v Speaker 3>Jesus, you're like that one that newswoman.
<v Speaker 1>There's a newsman.
<v Speaker 4>There's like a clip of a newswoman who's just like
<v Speaker 4>zoning out looking at the monitors. She's like, I'm so pale,
<v Speaker 4>and then he cons like we're live right now, and
<v Speaker 4>she's like that you did that?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, that while I was talking, which is wild,
<v Speaker 1>but yeah, yeah, this game kind of reminds me a
<v Speaker 1>bit of Hell Divers too, in the sense that there
<v Speaker 1>is a sort of people are buying into the the
<v Speaker 1>sort of fantasy of humans versus machine and inherently and
<v Speaker 1>the the robots in this game are ARC, which is
<v Speaker 1>you know, the namesake enemies the ARC, and you are
<v Speaker 1>the raiders who are kind of going up. Everyone lives
<v Speaker 1>underground in this subterranean city called Speranza that is full
<v Speaker 1>of you know, vendors, and you're navigating these vendors and
<v Speaker 1>stuff through a series of menus. You aren't like walking
<v Speaker 1>around or anything while you're down under, but when you
<v Speaker 1>are down under, you are you know, picking up quests,
<v Speaker 1>you're increasing your base, like you have a series of
<v Speaker 1>like I think it's like eight stations like you two
<v Speaker 1>station refiner station where like and all of us ties
<v Speaker 1>into the big crafting system that is at the heart
<v Speaker 1>of the game, where you know, you are going out
<v Speaker 1>on these these top side excursions to get loot that
<v Speaker 1>you need to build new parts of your base or
<v Speaker 1>new weapons or complete quests, and and you are wanting
<v Speaker 1>to bring that valuable loop back and you do that
<v Speaker 1>by by extracting via elevators or raider hatches, but a
<v Speaker 1>lot of those make noise when they go off, and
<v Speaker 1>so it's kind of like that's where the tension of
<v Speaker 1>the PvP comes into play, because people can kind of
<v Speaker 1>be camping those exits and try to take you out,
<v Speaker 1>and that does happen there. You definitely have to be vigilant.
<v Speaker 1>I will say this game, what I was getting at
<v Speaker 1>with the hell Divers two reference is that the player base,
<v Speaker 1>it feels like there are a lot of really helpful
<v Speaker 1>people and a lot of people who you know, are
<v Speaker 1>friendly and just they want to do their quests. They
<v Speaker 1>want to get their stuff and get out, you know.
<v Speaker 1>But there's like always this tension, like are they telling
<v Speaker 1>the truth? Sometimes they aren't, Sometimes they are telling the truth.
<v Speaker 1>But in the case of my team, I was playing
<v Speaker 1>with Jacob Geller and Jesse Vittelli the other night and
<v Speaker 1>Jesse was trying to ping the enemy squad to let
<v Speaker 1>us know that they were down there, and he accidentally
<v Speaker 1>missed fire. He accidentally shot his gun not meaning too
<v Speaker 1>and so it turned into this whole thing where like,
<v Speaker 1>hey man, we are friendly, our buddy accidentally pressed the
<v Speaker 1>trigger button, We're really sorry. And then in a watch chat, yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>proximity chat with other players, so like you're kind of
<v Speaker 1>doing like negotiating, like hey, we need to go past
<v Speaker 1>where you're at, you need to come up here. Let's
<v Speaker 1>be friendly, like I'm I'm pressing the button to stow
<v Speaker 1>my weapon away where it's it's it's a game of
<v Speaker 1>politics sort of, you know, and like and then it's
<v Speaker 1>funny because you'll have those moments, you'll have those negotiations,
<v Speaker 1>and sometimes they aren't don't even feel like negotiations. It's
<v Speaker 1>just like, oh, hey, what's up, guys, how are you?
<v Speaker 1>You know, let's you guys need help with any quests,
<v Speaker 1>you know, and and they're like, yeah, let's let's do
<v Speaker 1>it together. And then I've done that where I did,
<v Speaker 1>I mean it did. It happened to me yesterday where
<v Speaker 1>Jesse and I teamed up with a team in a
<v Speaker 1>pretty one of the maps that is like known for PvP.
<v Speaker 1>But we all needed this certain quest done we had
<v Speaker 1>to get We were looking for this this room in
<v Speaker 1>this spaceport area, and and another squad came in and
<v Speaker 1>started attacking us. But because because like there aren't name
<v Speaker 1>plates above anyone that's not in your party. They accidentally
<v Speaker 1>confused me for the enemy team, and so there's a
<v Speaker 1>bunch of miscommunication. Things went haywire and there's just chaos,
<v Speaker 1>and I died by the team that I had kind
<v Speaker 1>of allied with because they they didn't realize that I
<v Speaker 1>wasn't an enemy. So there's a lot of like really
<v Speaker 1>fun social moments in the game. I've seen tiktoks of
<v Speaker 1>people uh downing, downing enemies in the game, down in
<v Speaker 1>other players. And the thing is, if you bring in
<v Speaker 1>a certain item, you can get people up, so you
<v Speaker 1>can get you can you can always revive your own teammates,
<v Speaker 1>but in order to get up an enemy uh teammate,
<v Speaker 1>you have to use a defibrillator. But people will carry those,
<v Speaker 1>and I've seen people do you're on the Sing or
<v Speaker 1>Die game show, you better sing for your life, And
<v Speaker 1>so they they make they make the person they down
<v Speaker 1>like sing a song and if they're impressed by it
<v Speaker 1>and they let them live, oh and if not, they
<v Speaker 1>kill them.
<v Speaker 2>Have some sociopathic behavior right there.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, there's a lot of that kind of stuff going on,
<v Speaker 1>but all feels like very playful. But outside of like
<v Speaker 1>the the social and like the kind of crafting core loop.
<v Speaker 1>The gunplay is just excellent. You know, you're the enemies
<v Speaker 1>when you when you crack somebody's shield, it's almost like
<v Speaker 1>a firework goes off. It's like when the Gower Rangers
<v Speaker 1>get hit, yes, and the sparks yeah yeah, And it's
<v Speaker 1>there's something so satisfying about like breaking somebody's shield. It
<v Speaker 1>reminds me of like the satisfaction I used to get
<v Speaker 1>in Gears of War when you'd land a headshot and
<v Speaker 1>the game it was satisfying, like crunch and like it
<v Speaker 1>was like, oh man, I got to do more of that.
<v Speaker 1>I get that feeling from Art Raiders, just like not
<v Speaker 1>even killing people but cracking shields. But it has like
<v Speaker 1>this retro futuristic art style that I love. This is
<v Speaker 1>the second release from Embark. There they also made The Finals,
<v Speaker 1>which is a game that I love, and that game
<v Speaker 1>and this game just have like really strong art direction.
<v Speaker 1>The lighting in this game is by This is by
<v Speaker 1>far the the prettiest extraction shooter I've played, for sure,
<v Speaker 1>but like it even pushes past that genre, and I
<v Speaker 1>think it's just one of the prettiest games I've played period.
<v Speaker 1>Certainly certainly the prettiest third person shooter I think I've played,
<v Speaker 1>like just in general in general, Yeah, I think so.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, it is nice. What I like about it is
<v Speaker 2>that if the vibe like or like like the robot
<v Speaker 2>sort of aesthetic kind of reminds me a lot of
<v Speaker 2>Tales from the Loop, if it's familiar with the book
<v Speaker 2>or the I think the Amazon show, but just sort
<v Speaker 2>of like just seeing these giant robots like bipedle or
<v Speaker 2>I guess in some cases like spider like robots just
<v Speaker 2>in these big open fields, like It's it's very Tails
<v Speaker 2>from the Loop Coded's And yeah, it is a fun
<v Speaker 2>game to just kind of stare at and awe at.
<v Speaker 2>I have a very different experience from you, Alex, because one,
<v Speaker 2>I haven't played nearly as much as you, and I've
<v Speaker 2>only played solo so far, which I think it's worth noting.
<v Speaker 2>You can play this game alone.
<v Speaker 1>I play solo a lot.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, okay, okay, well that's good because yeah, I've intentionally
<v Speaker 2>just played alone just to kind of get my feet
<v Speaker 2>wet before I get this anxiety when multiplayer games. If
<v Speaker 2>I'm not playing with friends, where are like I don't
<v Speaker 2>want to learn alongside other people that already know what
<v Speaker 2>they're doing a little bit. I kind of want to
<v Speaker 2>like let me kind of figure some stuff out and
<v Speaker 2>then I'll have like a little bit more confidence to
<v Speaker 2>maybe not drag an entire squad down. So it's actually
<v Speaker 2>it's like a I can't speak to the co op experience,
<v Speaker 2>but it's kind of like a nice loneliness when you're
<v Speaker 2>playing alone, like like it kind of like feeds instead
<v Speaker 2>of sort of like post apocalyptic like Survivor fantasy of
<v Speaker 2>like it's just on my own here. I don't know
<v Speaker 2>what really happened here. I could just tell robots came
<v Speaker 2>and ruined everything. And then every now and then I'll
<v Speaker 2>see another player. And this goes back to what I
<v Speaker 2>was going to ask you, like what the sort of
<v Speaker 2>like player etiquette is, because I've yet to engage another
<v Speaker 2>person so far, and no one has fought me yet,
<v Speaker 2>which I've been surprised by because I I just assumed
<v Speaker 2>that like everyone was out for everyone, and I was like, well,
<v Speaker 2>I'm I'm by myself, so I'm like a prime target.
<v Speaker 2>And every time I've come across someone like I've I've
<v Speaker 2>like locked eyes with them where I know that they've
<v Speaker 2>seen me, and then instead of them like immediately firing,
<v Speaker 2>they just kind of like like I had one in
<v Speaker 2>since where I saw someone. We paused for a second,
<v Speaker 2>looked at each other, and then he just kind of
<v Speaker 2>went the other way, and I was like, oh, I
<v Speaker 2>was like ready to go, and then I kind of hesitant,
<v Speaker 2>like and I was like, should I be trying to
<v Speaker 2>kill him? Like should I be trying to kill people
<v Speaker 2>to get there? Like loot? Is that the PvP or
<v Speaker 2>is it like on a team, Like is there any
<v Speaker 2>like formal like are we working together or is it
<v Speaker 2>just whatever you sort of decide.
<v Speaker 1>It's all social contracts, right, It's right, It's it's up
<v Speaker 1>to you. And that's what I think is fascinating about
<v Speaker 1>the game is that every round can be different based
<v Speaker 1>on the players that are inside and like their behavior
<v Speaker 1>and what they want to do. Right, So you and
<v Speaker 1>that guy were like, it's not really worth getting into
<v Speaker 1>this fight right now. We both have loot we want
<v Speaker 1>to get out with. Maybe you were like one, it
<v Speaker 1>sounds like you had a little bit of blood luss,
<v Speaker 1>you were ready to go, but.
<v Speaker 2>You like less but more like kind of like self defensive,
<v Speaker 2>Like I just expect people to be aggressive. So I'm
<v Speaker 2>just like, yeah, I guess I gotta be ready to send.
<v Speaker 2>I don't want to, but he's probbing them at me.
<v Speaker 1>And then I was like, I think it's fascinating about
<v Speaker 1>about this game because the extraction Every extraction shooter I
<v Speaker 1>have ever played besides this one, it is like shoot
<v Speaker 1>on site, usually very rarely. I mean I played a
<v Speaker 1>fair amount of Escape from Tarkov, which is probably the
<v Speaker 1>most notable extraction.
<v Speaker 2>Shooter to date coming out of one Point.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, yeah, absolutely, and on Steam, and that game
<v Speaker 1>was always very hostile. It's it feels just so oppressive. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>And part of that is also the the setting and
<v Speaker 1>the tone. It's very militaristic, very like you know, it's even,
<v Speaker 1>it's even it's much more punishing than than I think
<v Speaker 1>Arc Raiders is in terms of just the mechanics and
<v Speaker 1>the the obstruction of information to new players. It's it's
<v Speaker 1>just really kind of brutal. And I would never recommend
<v Speaker 1>that for any of you in this call. You would
<v Speaker 1>absolutely hate it. But Arc Raiders there is like this
<v Speaker 1>weird like thing happening where people are being friendly, they're
<v Speaker 1>being passive, they are waiting to shoot granted. You know,
<v Speaker 1>one of the most fascinating things I think about this
<v Speaker 1>game is people punish bullies. And so if you're the
<v Speaker 1>last night actually it was. It was wild. Jesse and
<v Speaker 1>I had probably some of the best we had found
<v Speaker 1>in the game, like pink rarity items, which is the
<v Speaker 1>highest rarity I found, and and we had like specifically
<v Speaker 1>been going out out of where to be nice to people,
<v Speaker 1>and like we had been friendly with people, and we
<v Speaker 1>were running to the extraction elevator and we just get
<v Speaker 1>sniped out of nowhere, like almost like we're wide open
<v Speaker 1>to we're surrounded by arc. We're like kind of sprinting.
<v Speaker 1>We hear the elevator going off. I'm shouting friendly, Friendly, Friendly,
<v Speaker 1>cause we're just like bolting it to try to make
<v Speaker 1>it because otherwise we're gonna die. I get clipped by
<v Speaker 1>this guy. I go down and I'm like, oh my god,
<v Speaker 1>I'm so mad, like I'm gonna lose all of this
<v Speaker 1>great loot. Jesse is like scrambling because like they have
<v Speaker 1>us in this really bad position, and out of nowhere
<v Speaker 1>we hear I've got a d fib and it's this
<v Speaker 1>squad of three that just roll in and they one
<v Speaker 1>of them revives me. Jesse at this one is down
<v Speaker 1>as well, so we're both it's hopeless and it's like
<v Speaker 1>on your left, it's like that moment.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, like this yes, yeah, this.
<v Speaker 1>Totally different squad comes in. We got dee fibbs. So
<v Speaker 1>one guy starts shooting the guy who was killing us,
<v Speaker 1>and then they're like getting us up. I get up,
<v Speaker 1>I get revived, then I get Jesse up, while the
<v Speaker 1>other squad is like firing at the guy who is
<v Speaker 1>downing Jesse and I and then all five of us
<v Speaker 1>storm forward and like take out this this guy. But
<v Speaker 1>from all of the noise, we attracted one of the
<v Speaker 1>biggest arc and that we had attracted a rocketeer who
<v Speaker 1>if you get hit by rocketeer, it takes like two
<v Speaker 1>shots that get killed, Like he just shoots these massive
<v Speaker 1>rockets at you, and he's airborne as well, so he
<v Speaker 1>has this huge line of sight. And the game ended up.
<v Speaker 1>It was this huge conclusion. Also, there's a minute left
<v Speaker 1>on the clock at this point before all of us
<v Speaker 1>die from you have like there's a timer in every match,
<v Speaker 1>and if you don't extract by the time the match ends,
<v Speaker 1>you all die. Because like a big arc comes in
<v Speaker 1>and since there's like a big meteor comes but it's
<v Speaker 1>a big robot and kills whoever's still on the map
<v Speaker 1>and you lose everything. So we're also going against that clock.
<v Speaker 1>And we managed to get the elevator open, there's still
<v Speaker 1>it's I mean, it is the most chaos I've ever
<v Speaker 1>had in this game. There's so much happening, and I'm
<v Speaker 1>screaming to Jesse, we gotta go, we gotta go. And
<v Speaker 1>I'm like also trying to get the helpful people because
<v Speaker 1>they have now been downed by the rocketeer. At least
<v Speaker 1>one of their guys is down, and I'm like, you
<v Speaker 1>guys have to come. There's nineteen seconds left. This is
<v Speaker 1>the last elevator out and you're gonna lose your stuff.
<v Speaker 1>And they're like, I can't leave my buddy, and I'm
<v Speaker 1>like they've already activated the return sequence. You have to
<v Speaker 1>get in. And Jesse and I watched from the elevator
<v Speaker 1>as the doors to the elevator rise and we see
<v Speaker 1>like the people who had just helped us they get
<v Speaker 1>stranded and they get left behind. Oh yeah, sacrifice, and
<v Speaker 1>they lost all their stuff, and I was just Jesse
<v Speaker 1>and I were like speechless for like twer or three minutes.
<v Speaker 1>He was like, I'm just still processing what just happened
<v Speaker 1>and that that that ending, And.
<v Speaker 2>I was like, yeah, I feel humanity moment.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I feel terrible because those guys got us up
<v Speaker 1>and then they died, and I was like trying my
<v Speaker 1>best to get that. I was like, come on, like
<v Speaker 1>we're like waiting as long as possible, but then eventually
<v Speaker 1>the doors automatically close on their own.
<v Speaker 2>It sounds like I've been playing with voice chat off,
<v Speaker 2>just because instinctively when I play multipler games, it's the
<v Speaker 2>first thing I toggle. It sounds should I have it on?
<v Speaker 2>Is that party? Just hearing people? Okay, you have it?
<v Speaker 2>I just didn't think. I didn't think it'd be like
<v Speaker 2>Emerson stories like that. I thought I just hear a
<v Speaker 2>bunch of like nonsense, as you do, and like person.
<v Speaker 1>Not heard any nonsense whatsoever yet. Well, I mean I've
<v Speaker 1>heard like very small stuff like I knock a guy
<v Speaker 1>out and he's like fu, and I'm like I get.
<v Speaker 2>G you know, I mean, that's that's that's fair.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, but nothing like you would hear in like
<v Speaker 1>a call of duty, lobby or anything like that. Also
<v Speaker 1>it's like disadvance. It's like not advantageous to be constantly
<v Speaker 1>yapping over your mic because it's proximity chat and you'll
<v Speaker 1>give away your location, right, I will say like for
<v Speaker 1>people who are like nervous about like engaging in the
<v Speaker 1>voice chat, and this kind of gets into a weird
<v Speaker 1>gray area for me. There's some parts about this game
<v Speaker 1>that I don't love in terms of like how it
<v Speaker 1>was made. And I had a similar critique with the
<v Speaker 1>finals and that, like they use AI text to speech,
<v Speaker 1>so it is not AI generated voices, right. They have
<v Speaker 1>contracted voice actors and paid voice actors to record lines
<v Speaker 1>and then also use their voice in the future via
<v Speaker 1>text to speech, And so there's a lot of debate
<v Speaker 1>online and I think that's totally fair. Like if you
<v Speaker 1>want to skip this game because of that, because it
<v Speaker 1>does use AI in some form, that is totally fair.
<v Speaker 1>It is definitely like a I wish that they had
<v Speaker 1>done it differently. But with that comes some accessibility options
<v Speaker 1>in that you can in the menus, you can mask
<v Speaker 1>your voice and you will use one of the pre
<v Speaker 1>selected like voice actors that they have contracted. You can
<v Speaker 1>speak and it will mask your voice to sound like
<v Speaker 1>an in game character. So if you're a person, like
<v Speaker 1>I mean, if you're let's just be blunt about it,
<v Speaker 1>Like if you're a woman playing this game and you
<v Speaker 1>know you have a lot of you're facing a lot
<v Speaker 1>of toxicity in online games or somebody else, you know,
<v Speaker 1>and anybody can use this. But and you want to
<v Speaker 1>mask your voice to sound not like you, but you
<v Speaker 1>still want to engage with that that that aspect of
<v Speaker 1>the game, you can and you can have you can
<v Speaker 1>have your voice be a dude. You can have your
<v Speaker 1>voice be one of the more feminine sounding voice actors
<v Speaker 1>and it'll it'll it'll mask your voice in real time.
<v Speaker 1>And I've seen a lot of people use that for
<v Speaker 1>like privacy and security, so that's also a feature you
<v Speaker 1>can use. So yeah, interesting tech. I definitely like have
<v Speaker 1>some conflicting feelings about it. Obviously, we don't know what
<v Speaker 1>those contracts look like with those voice actors. Are they
<v Speaker 1>getting paid whenever whenever arc Radar, whenever Embark creates a
<v Speaker 1>new a new voice Bark in the game. Are they
<v Speaker 1>getting royalties for that? We don't know, But it is
<v Speaker 1>like consensual. You know, people have agreed to a contract.
<v Speaker 1>Whether you agree if that's ethical or not. It's a
<v Speaker 1>totally different thing. But I do want to like that
<v Speaker 1>as part of the conversation with this game. So I
<v Speaker 1>do want to I know some people that's like a
<v Speaker 1>complete no go. And I think if I was not
<v Speaker 1>reviewing this game and I didn't get a free code
<v Speaker 1>of definitely playing in my decision on like if I'm
<v Speaker 1>gonna purchase this game or not, you know. But yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it's something that I'm still like thinking through as I
<v Speaker 1>play the game. And there's like definitely some benefits to like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>privacy and safety and online games. That's kind of an
<v Speaker 1>interesting way to use the tech. But then there's also
<v Speaker 1>like this other part that I feel like, I don't
<v Speaker 1>know if I love this. So that is part of
<v Speaker 1>the conversation though, so I wanted to bring that up.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, in terms of like the actual gameplay though,
<v Speaker 1>and like the world, I think I'm really impressed by
<v Speaker 1>the level design and and the the gadget design. There
<v Speaker 1>are so many interesting gadgets in this game that are
<v Speaker 1>so fun to use, whether it's like a you know,
<v Speaker 1>a zip line or grappling hook you can eventually get.
<v Speaker 1>There are lowre grenade lore grenades, I'm sorry my southern accent.
<v Speaker 1>I'm trying to l u r E lure grenades.
<v Speaker 2>Oh. I like the idea of a lore. It just
<v Speaker 2>explodes with exposition.
<v Speaker 1>Lure grenade is maybe I gotta I gotta break through
<v Speaker 1>that and that'll like, you know, distract arcs. And I've
<v Speaker 1>used that to help my team escape several times. We're like,
<v Speaker 1>there is a rocketeer, honest, but I'm gonna and it
<v Speaker 1>is firing on us, but I'm gonna throw a lwre
<v Speaker 1>grenade and he's gonna think that we're over there. Now.
<v Speaker 1>There's a lot of really fun systems that interplay together,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm just having a blast. I've played it every
<v Speaker 1>day for the last week, and you know, I'll probably
<v Speaker 1>play it tonight as well. But yeah, I really am
<v Speaker 1>loving it. Is it is. It has impressed me and
<v Speaker 1>kind of blow me away and some of the things
<v Speaker 1>that some of the things that it's doing.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Yeah, Is it is in Bark your favorite studio now,
<v Speaker 2>because between this and the finals, they're like two and
<v Speaker 2>O for you.
<v Speaker 1>It seems like they are my favorite studio. But I
<v Speaker 1>do like the games they make. I I think I
<v Speaker 1>think some of the things that would hold me back
<v Speaker 1>from it being my favorite. Are the the tech they
<v Speaker 1>choose to use I don't love And I critiqued it
<v Speaker 1>in the finals with like the voice to techt stuff
<v Speaker 1>I don't I don't love that, and it's like kind
<v Speaker 1>of actively like hinders my my max enjoyment of it
<v Speaker 1>because I'm like, uh, this is like a weird gray
<v Speaker 1>area that I don't like to think about as I'm
<v Speaker 1>like trying to enjoy this game, And like, if you
<v Speaker 1>had just like maybe done it the more traditional way,
<v Speaker 1>I would maybe have a fully voiced endorsement of that
<v Speaker 1>studio a.
<v Speaker 2>Texas speech voice.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, exactly. But I think my my my favorite
<v Speaker 1>studio is still it's probably Arcane, Arcane or Blizzard. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>wow's my favorite game. And it'll take a lot to
<v Speaker 1>kind of dethrone that, but.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that's kind of a favorite developer.
<v Speaker 2>Do I have a favorite developer?
<v Speaker 3>You just asked Alex.
<v Speaker 4>Alex his like, I don't know if that's the thing
<v Speaker 4>everyone had, and I was like, oh, I don't think
<v Speaker 4>I've ever thought about it.
<v Speaker 2>I mean I don't. Yeah, I don't know. If I
<v Speaker 2>have a singular favorite, I definitely have. I mean we're
<v Speaker 2>gonna talk about one of them later on within gay
<v Speaker 2>Legxy colection because nether realm was into conversation. Sure, but yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I don't know that's that could that could be a
<v Speaker 2>podcast topic in itself. I don't know I've ever given
<v Speaker 2>a true thought of like a singular favorite.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think Arcane would be in the running for me,
<v Speaker 1>for sure. I love their worlds. But but yeah, so
<v Speaker 1>that's arc Raiders. I'm I'm still pondering on my review.
<v Speaker 1>It's gonna score pretty high for me, probably.
<v Speaker 2>Right now.
<v Speaker 1>If I had to give it a score, it would
<v Speaker 1>be at least a nine. That's kind of where I'm
<v Speaker 1>at there. It would probably be higher. But some of
<v Speaker 1>those other considerations I've mentioned that kind of do what
<v Speaker 1>weigh in on my my score. So I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>I'm still figuring it out and what I want to
<v Speaker 1>give it. But you know, on paper, the game is
<v Speaker 1>is is fantastic. It's it's really something. And yeah, not.
<v Speaker 2>To influence your review, but I think you should include
<v Speaker 2>some sort of like in memoriam for the Brave Squad,
<v Speaker 2>they gave their lives for you and Jess.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I will, I will have them in the video review.
<v Speaker 1>I think, Yeah, I've got a lot of.
<v Speaker 2>Clips moment of silence maybe like a ten second moment
<v Speaker 2>of silence for yeah, yeah, black.
<v Speaker 1>Screen, Yeah, like horn orchestral music playing somber.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it is all thing of like I always like
<v Speaker 4>it when a game has like enough emergent stuff like
<v Speaker 4>that that you have like war stories about it. That's
<v Speaker 4>just like a general thing. But I feel like that
<v Speaker 4>was even more. I feel like this game has been
<v Speaker 4>maybe the most intense war.
<v Speaker 3>Story generated game I've seen before.
<v Speaker 4>It online, I saw a one minute clip of a
<v Speaker 4>game of a lot of other games like, oh that
<v Speaker 4>was funny, Oh that was interesting, And I feel like
<v Speaker 4>all the art greator's clips I see are.
<v Speaker 3>Like the end of a movie, like how do we
<v Speaker 3>get to this point?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah? I think I'm try not to read other people's reviews,
<v Speaker 1>especially when I'm when I'm writing interview. I did see
<v Speaker 1>people share little bits and pieces of Mark Delaney's review
<v Speaker 1>over a game spot. I think he called it like
<v Speaker 1>a story generator or a story machine, and that that
<v Speaker 1>feels like a very accurate descriptor. And I'm jealous. I
<v Speaker 1>didn't come up with that that term, but yeah, it's
<v Speaker 1>it's it's really great, So stay tuned in the coming
<v Speaker 1>days for my review. But I really do love it
<v Speaker 1>and I think it's doing some really special things. So yeah,
<v Speaker 1>but Marcus, you mentioned Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection. Why don't
<v Speaker 1>we go ahead and jump into that and then we'll
<v Speaker 1>get a dispatch after that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. I admittedly I wish I had more time to play,
<v Speaker 2>to play more of it, or than I have, just
<v Speaker 2>because I've been busy with my own review game that
<v Speaker 2>I can't talk about until next week. But yeah, Mortal
<v Speaker 2>kmbatle Likesy Collection is the next. It's like unofficially a
<v Speaker 2>gold Master game by Digital Eclipse, who is probably best
<v Speaker 2>known now for like they're like interactive documentaries like Atari
<v Speaker 2>fifty and the Making of Karatica. I think the I'll
<v Speaker 2>last one before this was the Lamas off the Jeff
<v Speaker 2>Mencher story. Like I really enjoy all of those games,
<v Speaker 2>Like I'm a I love documentaries in general, and I
<v Speaker 2>think they've carved like a cool niche for themselves with
<v Speaker 2>sort of the like interactive timeline stuff and then having
<v Speaker 2>like just accompanying that with the collection of classic games
<v Speaker 2>to sort of fill out the subject's history, whether it's
<v Speaker 2>a developer or an individual creator, and so when they
<v Speaker 2>announced this, I was like through the roof because Mortal
<v Speaker 2>Kombat is my favorite fighting game franchise ever and it's
<v Speaker 2>in It's in my top five favorite franchises. Like I've
<v Speaker 2>been a huge MK fan since the very beginning. And
<v Speaker 2>it's interesting because I've read so much about just the
<v Speaker 2>making of MK through like various books and other smaller
<v Speaker 2>sort of like documentary style features, like they've done like
<v Speaker 2>they used to do those kind of clips in the
<v Speaker 2>in the three D Fighters of the two thousands, like
<v Speaker 2>Deadly Alliance and in Deception, they've done like sit downs
<v Speaker 2>like ed Boone and whatnot. But this might be I
<v Speaker 2>even't finished the documentary yet, but from what I've seen
<v Speaker 2>of it's so far, this might be the definitive version
<v Speaker 2>at least, you know, we'll see. I still have a
<v Speaker 2>ways to go. I probably shouldn't even say that, but
<v Speaker 2>it's been very good so far. It's like what I
<v Speaker 2>love about it. I mean, one, it's cool to see
<v Speaker 2>Ed Boone and John Tobias like side by side again
<v Speaker 2>to the two co creators Mortal Kombat. You know, John
<v Speaker 2>Tobias left nether Realm around the time of like m
<v Speaker 2>K four, So I think a lot of people forget
<v Speaker 2>and I usually take issue whenever Ed Boone is kind
<v Speaker 2>of credited as the sole creator of Mortal Kombat, and
<v Speaker 2>a lot of like news stories like I've had times
<v Speaker 2>where I've edited story like no Go created it, like
<v Speaker 2>there was another guy kind of like saying like stan
<v Speaker 2>Lee is the sole creator of Spider Man. It's like yeah,
<v Speaker 2>you know, but yeah, seeing them side by side and
<v Speaker 2>just chatting again, it's like a really cool treat just
<v Speaker 2>seeing to bounce stories about the not only just like
<v Speaker 2>the the history of the series, but sort of their
<v Speaker 2>pre MK history because the first chapter gets into like,
<v Speaker 2>you know, their their childhoods and how they got into
<v Speaker 2>the the Arctic KDE industry and like early midway and
<v Speaker 2>like Ed Boone, you know, working on pinball machines and
<v Speaker 2>John Tobias as a young comic book artists, you know,
<v Speaker 2>starting with like like working with Eugene Jarvis and illustrating
<v Speaker 2>like some like robotron or like and like smashing and
<v Speaker 2>other stuff and kind of like how they you know,
<v Speaker 2>they were the two of them were working in the
<v Speaker 2>same building and then kind of converged at a point
<v Speaker 2>and said like, hey, we have this idea for like
<v Speaker 2>you know, these these kind of like digitized acts. Like
<v Speaker 2>this technology is kind of starting to take off with
<v Speaker 2>games like Pit Fighter and and like Narc, everyone's favorite
<v Speaker 2>arcade game, Narc. What if we, you know, what if
<v Speaker 2>we use that technology to make like this a fighting
<v Speaker 2>game based on our love of like Kung Fu movies
<v Speaker 2>at the time during like the height of like kung
<v Speaker 2>Fu and like ninja media being everywhere, So you get
<v Speaker 2>a lot of really good sort of like sit downs
<v Speaker 2>with like Saladavida and Dan Forden, who is like he
<v Speaker 2>himself is pretty timely because he just retired from Nether
<v Speaker 2>Realm after being there from pretty much almost the beginning.
<v Speaker 2>So it's kind of it's kind of interesting watching him
<v Speaker 2>now knowing that his his his journey has come to
<v Speaker 2>an end. For those that don't know, Dan Forden was
<v Speaker 2>like the long time sound designer and like the composer
<v Speaker 2>any but he's most famously known as the Toasty guy
<v Speaker 2>in in the m K three and two of like
<v Speaker 2>you know, the Toasty the little guy that Poppa outside
<v Speaker 2>that that yeah, yeah, that's that's him. But what's really
<v Speaker 2>neat about it is all of the footage like just
<v Speaker 2>candid behind the scenes footage of them as like these
<v Speaker 2>kids in these like tiny offices just discussing what would
<v Speaker 2>become Mortal Kombat, and like like seeing these sort of
<v Speaker 2>like rehearsal sessions with the digitized actors of like you
<v Speaker 2>just see the like, oh, here's the guy that's dressed
<v Speaker 2>up as Scorpion and MK one and also some zero
<v Speaker 2>because they just did the palette swap for the colors,
<v Speaker 2>and just watching them go through the motions of what
<v Speaker 2>would become these iconic finishing moves of like like the coolest,
<v Speaker 2>the coolest thing I've seen so far, and it's got
<v Speaker 2>its own chapter in the timeline, is just raw footage
<v Speaker 2>of Ed Boone and John Savah's walking the Scorpion actor
<v Speaker 2>through what would become the rope spear for the first time,
<v Speaker 2>which is like the most definitely the most iconic move
<v Speaker 2>in world combat and arguably the most iconic move in
<v Speaker 2>fighting games, maybe second only to the Hoduken. Yeah, but
<v Speaker 2>it's very like that one in particular really got me
<v Speaker 2>because it's have you guys seen Have you guys seen
<v Speaker 2>Get Back the Beatles documentary that Disney plus out a
<v Speaker 2>few years.
<v Speaker 1>Ago, I've definitely heard about it though.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, great documentary and I'm a big Beatles fan, but
<v Speaker 2>there's a point in that four hour or whatever long
<v Speaker 2>thing where you see Paul McCartney like in real time
<v Speaker 2>kind of come up with the song get Back. Like
<v Speaker 2>he's just like strumming on a guitar to himself, and
<v Speaker 2>you can tell he's like he's feeling in his head
<v Speaker 2>and you just start to hear those like that recognizable
<v Speaker 2>notes kind of like come to be and he's kind
<v Speaker 2>of like like just like humming to himself, finding it,
<v Speaker 2>and it's like and they like make a point of
<v Speaker 2>move to highlight like this is when get Back was made. Guys,
<v Speaker 2>you're watching it and you're like, wow, that's crazy. That's
<v Speaker 2>one of their most iconic songs. It's like that like
<v Speaker 2>I'm not even it sounds like hyperbole, but for like
<v Speaker 2>an MK fan to watch them just like piece together, like, Okay,
<v Speaker 2>what should the rope spear look like? Like if you
<v Speaker 2>throw your arm like this, and you see like he's
<v Speaker 2>doing multiple takes of like maybe swing your arm this way,
<v Speaker 2>and then John Tobias in the back kind of because
<v Speaker 2>he's the one cutting out the frames and animating and
<v Speaker 2>kind of going like, yeah, I might be able to
<v Speaker 2>work with that. I can probably cut out some frames here.
<v Speaker 2>And then there's a point where like he's doing it.
<v Speaker 2>He's done it like five times, and then ed Boone's like, wait, actually,
<v Speaker 2>instead of like just kind of like dropping your arm,
<v Speaker 2>what if you like yanked, like do like a little
<v Speaker 2>yank's like really add some like you know, make it
<v Speaker 2>more dynamics. So you just see him do the yank,
<v Speaker 2>and then you're like, oh, that's it. That's the that's
<v Speaker 2>the rope spear. Now you just need to say you
<v Speaker 2>get over here and there it is. But yeah, it's
<v Speaker 2>it is there get back moment for.
<v Speaker 1>Me, that's so cool.
<v Speaker 4>That's like the kind of thing they like try to
<v Speaker 4>emulate in like prequels to stuff of like what do
<v Speaker 4>we showed the moment that what's like an example, I
<v Speaker 4>don't know, it's just to do it artificially is so cheesy,
<v Speaker 4>but to see it in real life, it's like that's
<v Speaker 4>why people are trying to do it all the time,
<v Speaker 4>because it is so cool to see it in real time.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>This is also to be clear of people that aren't
<v Speaker 4>familiar with this. This also has Mortal Kombat games in it.
<v Speaker 3>You can play. It's not just a documentary, no, no, no,
<v Speaker 3>it's yeah.
<v Speaker 2>It's so it's a collection of Mortal Kombat primarily one
<v Speaker 2>through four, okay, and like, but like multiple versions of each.
<v Speaker 2>So it's like, oh, the various arcade versions, the various
<v Speaker 2>home console versions. They have the like super rare like
<v Speaker 2>wave version of MK three that I think this is
<v Speaker 2>the first time it's ever been playable outside of just
<v Speaker 2>the original cabinet. I think m K four, I believe
<v Speaker 2>is the only one that I think it's just the
<v Speaker 2>arcade version. But it's not like there's only one version
<v Speaker 2>of MK four compared to the multile versions of one
<v Speaker 2>in three. But it's also got the less talked about
<v Speaker 2>handheld entries of Mortal Kombat, Deadly Alliance and which is
<v Speaker 2>kind of how far as far as it goes in
<v Speaker 2>like the time, like like it doesn't include the actual
<v Speaker 2>like console versions of Deadly Alliance or Deception, but it's
<v Speaker 2>got like those game Boy and GBA games in there.
<v Speaker 2>And then for me, it's it's it's funny because these
<v Speaker 2>these games are terrible. But it also includes the the
<v Speaker 2>adventure games like Mortal Kombat Mythology. Sub Zero and Mortal
<v Speaker 2>Kombat Special Forces, two infamously terrible games. Probably it's still
<v Speaker 2>like legitimately two of the worst games ever made. I've
<v Speaker 2>but it's it's cool to have them available on modern
<v Speaker 2>platforms just for preservation sake. Like I have a physical
<v Speaker 2>copy of Special Forces, which is the game that stars
<v Speaker 2>Jackson was on PS one and I beat that game
<v Speaker 2>in college. It is an awful, awful video game. I
<v Speaker 2>playing it, but I I have well, speaking of which
<v Speaker 2>I I do have a I do want to play
<v Speaker 2>sub Zero because I never I never owned sub Zero.
<v Speaker 2>I remember when a friend of mine got it when
<v Speaker 2>it came out, and I went to his house and
<v Speaker 2>we were both super exciting. We were both really into
<v Speaker 2>moral combat and we're like, oh man, it's gonna be great.
<v Speaker 2>Is this a side scroller with sub Zero? And then
<v Speaker 2>it's just the epitome of garbage. But now at least
<v Speaker 2>it's a little easier because it has those games have
<v Speaker 2>safe states and a rewindability in this package, so it's
<v Speaker 2>and I think they also they've modernized the controls as well.
<v Speaker 2>I have not fired up sub Zero yet. I've just
<v Speaker 2>kind of been jumping around to traditional Fighters, But yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I have thought about like, is this a super replay?
<v Speaker 2>Is fine, he's getting through the entirety of Sub Zero.
<v Speaker 2>We have it was one of the earliest regular replays
<v Speaker 2>was Mythologies, So you know, who knows we'll stay too,
<v Speaker 2>no promises there, but you know it's it's cool to
<v Speaker 2>dive in there and just said just throw hands. It's
<v Speaker 2>got my favorite to d entry, which is more Combat Trilogy.
<v Speaker 2>I think that's the best of the old school game.
<v Speaker 2>So being able to have that to fire up at will,
<v Speaker 2>I don't have to keep dusting off the physical copy
<v Speaker 2>I own anymore. I know there's been some issues, particularly
<v Speaker 2>on PlayStation. It sounds like, well like online play that
<v Speaker 2>I know Digital Clips has been kind of working on.
<v Speaker 2>I have not tried to play online. Well scratch that,
<v Speaker 2>I've not tried to play online since release. There was
<v Speaker 2>an issue where so Brian Shaye reviewed this game and
<v Speaker 2>he wanted the testing online kind of pre launched because
<v Speaker 2>we were underneed to understand it that the service will
<v Speaker 2>be open. So we tried to play together and then
<v Speaker 2>realize that there's no option to create private lobbies, like
<v Speaker 2>you can't just play that's another friend online at will.
<v Speaker 2>You have to just kind of hop into a public
<v Speaker 2>lobby and then hope that you meet each other. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>and we couldn't do it, even though you know, this
<v Speaker 2>is pre launch and no one's playing it, and we're
<v Speaker 2>playing like a very specific version of K three, and
<v Speaker 2>it's like, okay, we have to be the only two
<v Speaker 2>in here, and neither of us could match up with
<v Speaker 2>each other or anyone else. But I believe they've said
<v Speaker 2>that that, like expanded online options are coming via a
<v Speaker 2>patch like later on. Uh, so you know, if you're
<v Speaker 2>looking to play online with friends, you might want to
<v Speaker 2>wait for that before diving in.
<v Speaker 1>Does this have rollback?
<v Speaker 2>I believe so. Don't quote me on ned.
<v Speaker 3>I believe so.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, correct, and I believe it's I don't know if
<v Speaker 2>it's for every single game, but I think it's supposed
<v Speaker 2>to be for most of them. But I mean that
<v Speaker 2>in itself is wild, like the idea of playing m
<v Speaker 2>k onet code.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they do talt roll back. I typed in MK
<v Speaker 1>Legacy Collection rollback net code and our review comes up.
<v Speaker 1>It's the first first search result, which you love to see.
<v Speaker 3>You love to see.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, so apparently it does taut rollback net code
<v Speaker 1>despite being able to really play together.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Alex, Also did you when you type that in?
<v Speaker 2>Did you? How did you spell collection with a k? Okay?
<v Speaker 2>Just making sure you know, just love to call it.
<v Speaker 2>Put the phone down and I have to call the
<v Speaker 2>police on you.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Also, please please add to all of your searches
<v Speaker 1>minus AI so that it just shows search results and
<v Speaker 1>not Google's AI.
<v Speaker 2>B Oh Is that the way around that?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, you just type in minus AI at the end.
<v Speaker 1>Also get because like people are like, well, just don't
<v Speaker 1>use Chrome, and I'm like, I wish I could. There's
<v Speaker 1>a lot of things I have to use that for
<v Speaker 1>my job.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's a little too much of a scors to
<v Speaker 2>Earth solution.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Yeah, so do minus AI and the search results
<v Speaker 1>or I have now installed on my laptop at least
<v Speaker 1>a Google Chrome extension that disables all AI search results.
<v Speaker 2>I guess you could say that's the fatality code for AI.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, I love that.
<v Speaker 3>It's good spell fatality without a and I is that?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's true, that's true.
<v Speaker 2>That is true. But what am I.
<v Speaker 1>Saying with that equals fatality?
<v Speaker 2>Also your spine out of your body.
<v Speaker 3>You can also go in and in my Chrome settings,
<v Speaker 3>I have it.
<v Speaker 4>So when I search in the bar, there's a bunch
<v Speaker 4>of different tabs of Google, and there's like the all
<v Speaker 4>tab that it defaults to, and then there's like images
<v Speaker 4>and videos and stuff. One of the tabs just Web
<v Speaker 4>and it doesn't have any like auto populating stuff, and
<v Speaker 4>so that's my mind defaults to the web tab and
<v Speaker 4>I just get websites.
<v Speaker 2>This is awesome good. Also on the subject fatalities, what's
<v Speaker 2>cool about this collection is they have a feature where
<v Speaker 2>you can have unlimited fatality time. At the end of matches.
<v Speaker 2>You can turn off the like just to the second. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>Like it just gives you like unlimited time to practice
<v Speaker 2>them so that when you do play against other people,
<v Speaker 2>you can just bust them out and I'll be like, well,
<v Speaker 2>this guy so good he burned me alive a scorpion.
<v Speaker 2>Who would have thought. But yeah, I'm having a really
<v Speaker 2>good time with it. Like I said, this is like
<v Speaker 2>a dream for me. I even had it in mind
<v Speaker 2>when I did a big feature on Digital Clips a
<v Speaker 2>couple of years ago for the magazine where I was
<v Speaker 2>interviewing Chris Cohler, who was one of the heads of
<v Speaker 2>the gold Mash collection.
<v Speaker 1>Chris Khler for sharing the recommendation of the Beep Store
<v Speaker 1>in Achihabra. Ever since I learned he I think I
<v Speaker 1>think I might have stumbled upon it, like a couple
<v Speaker 1>months before on a trip before he went on Kelsey
<v Speaker 1>Lewin's show. But at one point in time they were
<v Speaker 1>discussing like their favorite retro game shops, and he said
<v Speaker 1>Beep and I was like, oh, that's the one in
<v Speaker 1>the basement I went to, and I kind of solidified
<v Speaker 1>it as Okay, I'm it's good to know that this
<v Speaker 1>is like a known banger of a place. I know
<v Speaker 1>bangers and uh, and so that is like every time
<v Speaker 1>I go, I go to that store because of Chris
<v Speaker 1>Kohler's a shout out.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, Yeah, when I did the feature about Bad Weight,
<v Speaker 2>like in my head I was just talking about because
<v Speaker 2>he was talking about dream projects that he has, like
<v Speaker 2>you know, his dream project is Miyamoto Mario for like
<v Speaker 2>a gold Master thing, which of course, of course it
<v Speaker 2>would be, and in my mind is like combat would
<v Speaker 2>be pretty cool too. So I'm glad that happened. And
<v Speaker 2>I know most people, For most people, the main event
<v Speaker 2>is going to be the collection of games, which you know,
<v Speaker 2>that's great and absolutely but if you're a gold Master fan,
<v Speaker 2>like this is this is what you expect, Like it
<v Speaker 2>doesn't really shake up what they've done before in terms
<v Speaker 2>of the interactive documentary, but it's still as well done
<v Speaker 2>and thankfully nether realm is a good topic in terms
<v Speaker 2>of the sheer amount of footage and like materials that
<v Speaker 2>they have saved over the years. Like there's a lot
<v Speaker 2>of like you know, old arcade like advertisements and like
<v Speaker 2>design dogs like John Tobias has his notebook where you
<v Speaker 2>see the earliest drafts of the Mortal Kombat story, and
<v Speaker 2>like the characters with their old names and he's just
<v Speaker 2>writing them down his archetypes of like Raydon mentor question
<v Speaker 2>Mark and just like like Michael Grimm, which was Johnny
<v Speaker 2>Cage's old name, like seeing him referred to in his
<v Speaker 2>old name for a while. So yeah, there's a lot
<v Speaker 2>of really cool just like physical material that I've spent
<v Speaker 2>like minutes just like zooming in and just reading his
<v Speaker 2>like thankfully well written notes in terms of like he's
<v Speaker 2>got good handwriting, which is nice just being like, man,
<v Speaker 2>it's wild to see such an iconic cash as you know,
<v Speaker 2>just someone scribbles on a notebook just being like, I
<v Speaker 2>don't know what, if what do we call lu Kang.
<v Speaker 2>We had this like overly long Japanese name before we
<v Speaker 2>shortened it down to lu Kang, And Striker was in
<v Speaker 2>the game before Sonya Blade and Jacks were a thing,
<v Speaker 2>and it's like weird little fun nuggets like that. So yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I'm enjoying it. I'm excited to get through the rest
<v Speaker 2>of it.
<v Speaker 1>Well, speaking of getting through the rest of it, the
<v Speaker 1>episodic release of Dispatch continues Charles. I know you had
<v Speaker 1>plans to play episode five and six, right I did?
<v Speaker 2>What happened?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, my safe data got messed up, which was annoying.
<v Speaker 4>I'm still not sure exactly what the issue is. I
<v Speaker 4>haven't like reached out to support or anything yet, so
<v Speaker 4>it could be fine.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, from what I've.
<v Speaker 4>Seen, it's if you are playing on a save, if
<v Speaker 4>you try to make a new save, or you just
<v Speaker 4>open up a new save file, which I must have done,
<v Speaker 4>but I don't really remember doing it. And it's when
<v Speaker 4>you exit the game on that new save that it
<v Speaker 4>apparently is like messing up people's save data. Because I'll
<v Speaker 4>load the game in and it don't think you haven't
<v Speaker 4>done anything. Even if you switch to the older save file,
<v Speaker 4>and it looks like for a lot of people to
<v Speaker 4>fix is you play the first episode up until it
<v Speaker 4>does the first save point, then you can exit that
<v Speaker 4>second save and reload your first save. But for mine,
<v Speaker 4>it has seemingly only remembers my episode one. Progress has
<v Speaker 4>erased episodes two through four, which is frustrating. So eventually,
<v Speaker 4>either I'll get support to help me out, or I'll
<v Speaker 4>just have to replay episodes two through four, which isn't
<v Speaker 4>the end of the world. But have not played the
<v Speaker 4>newest episodes. But I still like the game obviously, and Alex,
<v Speaker 4>you finally got a chance to play.
<v Speaker 1>It where I did.
<v Speaker 2>Where are we all at real quick? By the way,
<v Speaker 2>because I'm I still have only played the first two
<v Speaker 2>episodes just because I've been busy.
<v Speaker 1>I finished the second episode last night, so I've started
<v Speaker 1>this week playing it for the first time, and every
<v Speaker 1>most not every evening, because I've only done too but
<v Speaker 1>two of my nights this week. Since Monday, I have
<v Speaker 1>sat down and played a Dispatch episode right before bed,
<v Speaker 1>and it's kind of like a It's a lot better
<v Speaker 1>of a thing to like slow down and like still
<v Speaker 1>get to enjoy like a story, yeah, without having to
<v Speaker 1>play Arc Creators right before I go to bed, because
<v Speaker 1>like that's the game I've been playing, and I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>I should like do something more chill before, right.
<v Speaker 2>Before you could wind down when you've played something a
<v Speaker 2>little bit.
<v Speaker 1>More yeah, and dispatches like that. The frequency that that's
<v Speaker 1>operating on is is much more chill, and it's been
<v Speaker 1>It's been a nice way to in my evenings before
<v Speaker 1>headed to bed, and I I really love it. I
<v Speaker 1>know there's some some discourse it having bad writing on Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I just missed those claims.
<v Speaker 2>I've enjoyed the writing quite quite a lot, at least
<v Speaker 2>in the episodes I've.
<v Speaker 1>Seen, so I agree. I think the writing is just fine.
<v Speaker 1>I really dig the characters in some of their their motivations,
<v Speaker 1>and like, I really like one of the best parts
<v Speaker 1>about superhero media is, you know, seeing the creative ways
<v Speaker 1>in which heroes use their powers. Right obviously, and last night,
<v Speaker 1>at the end of episode two, this is not a spoiler,
<v Speaker 1>but just like they reveal how there's like a water
<v Speaker 1>guy and he kind of waterman or whatever. Yeah, and
<v Speaker 1>like he he kind of gets featured in episode two
<v Speaker 1>and I don't know what I was I was thinking.
<v Speaker 1>But at the end he used his power to like
<v Speaker 1>clean off. He's like doing janitorial work, and I don't know,
<v Speaker 1>I was just thinking he like spawn water or something,
<v Speaker 1>but he starts coughing up water and I'm like, that's
<v Speaker 1>your power is you have to just spits its? Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>so funny.
<v Speaker 2>Also he's played by Joel Haver, who was a very
<v Speaker 2>funny YouTuber I've always been a fan of. He does
<v Speaker 2>some really good like I've never watched the SNA.
<v Speaker 3>You might have seen it, Alex or I don't. Okay,
<v Speaker 3>he's very very distinctive.
<v Speaker 4>Animation style, but there's a lot of like video game
<v Speaker 4>adjacent stuff.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, he's very funny.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and yeah, I'm I'm I'm just really enjoying the game.
<v Speaker 1>You know, the the kind of tactical many games are.
<v Speaker 2>I don't.
<v Speaker 1>I don't really love the hacking many games, although there
<v Speaker 1>was a moment last night where I beat one of
<v Speaker 1>the hacking mini games, just Under the Wire is one
<v Speaker 1>of the timed ones, and that was cool. That felt like, really,
<v Speaker 1>I do feel like a hacker, but when there's no
<v Speaker 1>timer on them, it just feels like busy work. There's
<v Speaker 1>something like that. The timer to it.
<v Speaker 4>There are not bad, they're just like there there are
<v Speaker 4>later ones that do like raise the stakes a little bit,
<v Speaker 4>and like episodes three and four, because there's like enemy
<v Speaker 4>guys that.
<v Speaker 3>Will be in there.
<v Speaker 1>It's like if I fail, I'm gonna let down my well,
<v Speaker 1>it's like happen.
<v Speaker 3>You're like, there's like the anti virus software.
<v Speaker 1>Is basically like in the minigame.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, and it'll be stuff of like you can activate
<v Speaker 4>this bridge to this next area, but the enemy's over there,
<v Speaker 4>so you'll feel like time it right to like try
<v Speaker 4>to isolate him or to get around them and stuff.
<v Speaker 4>So yeah, I under I don't think it's like the
<v Speaker 4>best mini game in the world, but I think in
<v Speaker 4>the grand spe of things, I'm just like, yeah, it
<v Speaker 4>comes and goes and it's fine.
<v Speaker 2>It's not like but I do like how like the
<v Speaker 2>actual dispatch gameplay, like working as a dispatcher is like
<v Speaker 2>really good and like really fun. Like I was sucked
<v Speaker 2>into it. I was almost like semi dreading it initially
<v Speaker 2>just because I was really enjoying sort of like the
<v Speaker 2>story and like making choices and stuff. And then it's
<v Speaker 2>like almost literally feeling like, oh, I gotta go to
<v Speaker 2>work now. Yeah, and then realizing like after the first
<v Speaker 2>kind of like tutorial and then once you really start
<v Speaker 2>doing it's like, oh, this is actually this is like
<v Speaker 2>really like I'm into this, Like I'm like really like
<v Speaker 2>like involved with like considering like who is the best
<v Speaker 2>superhero to send out, like I'm reading all their like
<v Speaker 2>little bios and like okay, like and then also like
<v Speaker 2>I like synergizing them of like maybe yeah, like whis
<v Speaker 2>two go to go together to most and some of
<v Speaker 2>it is just like like kind of getting to know
<v Speaker 2>the personalities enough to kind of go. I think you
<v Speaker 2>would actually be a bad public speaker for this, like yeah,
<v Speaker 2>this like community event, just because I've had interactions with you.
<v Speaker 2>It's like, uh, like I didn't like talking to you,
<v Speaker 2>so I doubt you're going to be like a good
<v Speaker 2>spokespotion for us, So maybe I'll hang you back. But yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it gets like intense in a way that I maybe
<v Speaker 2>wasn't completely expecting.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I remember when we first started talking about this
<v Speaker 1>game Charles on the podcast a couple of weeks ago,
<v Speaker 1>and you had mentioned in the dispatch minigame stuff. It's
<v Speaker 1>really not a mini game. It's like a it's a
<v Speaker 1>fully fledged part of the game. The hacking is a minigame,
<v Speaker 1>whereas this is like a pretty well fleshed out system
<v Speaker 1>that you're interacting with. But you know, I remember you
<v Speaker 1>had mentioned like, oh, I'm kind of like taking a
<v Speaker 1>guess based on character design and like behavior about like
<v Speaker 1>who I should send, because it's not always clear where
<v Speaker 1>you should send people, Like sometimes it's like you're gonna
<v Speaker 1>need to punch stuff. It's like, okay, we I'm gonna
<v Speaker 1>obviously some of the guy.
<v Speaker 2>Who we need a smart person for this, Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>And to be okay, you can see everyone's stats also,
<v Speaker 4>so I'm going like, yeah, it'll say we need someone
<v Speaker 4>to punch this, and I'm like, well, this guy's got
<v Speaker 4>really high, you know, offense stats, so I'm gonna say that.
<v Speaker 1>However, some of them are more ambiguous, and that's when
<v Speaker 1>you're like, I'm kind of going off of vibesh and
<v Speaker 1>like I feel like this person, I'm I feel like
<v Speaker 1>they would be well suited to this, and then seeing
<v Speaker 1>that either go horribly wrong or seeing it actually pay
<v Speaker 1>up and be like oh I was right is really satisfying.
<v Speaker 2>I had one where the girl's like, oh, there's a
<v Speaker 2>cat and a trading, but you know, we need to
<v Speaker 2>get it down, but also we don't want to scare
<v Speaker 2>this child, and.
<v Speaker 1>Like none of the ugly ones, none of I thought
<v Speaker 1>about Sonar.
<v Speaker 2>Like Sonar is like the Batman, Like he's literally he's
<v Speaker 2>literally just man bat from Batman but in a suit,
<v Speaker 2>and he's like really smart. And I was like, well,
<v Speaker 2>he can fly, so he'd be able to get the
<v Speaker 2>cat down pretty quick. But also he's a bat creature child,
<v Speaker 2>So like which one? What am I? Which one is
<v Speaker 2>the what matters more here?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, there's the like stuff I wasn't mentioning because I
<v Speaker 4>think the game hadn't come out yet. Now there's a
<v Speaker 4>little bit more, so I can talk about the mechanics
<v Speaker 4>a little bit more. As you play the game, you'll
<v Speaker 4>like get to like level up your heroes basically, and
<v Speaker 4>they each have like a passive ability and you get
<v Speaker 4>like a.
<v Speaker 3>Second one for a lot of thumb. You get to
<v Speaker 3>choose what it is.
<v Speaker 4>You can kind of like spec them into certain areas
<v Speaker 4>of like oh I really want this guy to do
<v Speaker 4>this or that guy to do one. I don't know
<v Speaker 4>if it's an unlocked thing or later thing, but there's
<v Speaker 4>like a big rocky guy whose name I can't remember. Yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>voiced by Yeah he's not raised the way Wait really yeah,
<v Speaker 4>rap Gravy.
<v Speaker 1>You don't know who young Gravy is.
<v Speaker 2>Marcus should I you don't need to, you don't need to.
<v Speaker 3>Butfluencer he's a rapper.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, he's like he's but he is known for for
<v Speaker 1>dating older women. That's like part of his persona. That
<v Speaker 1>random U that's like he was he's dating somebody very prominent.
<v Speaker 4>It was like Addison Ray's mom or something like that.
<v Speaker 3>It was like a TikTok.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah he's like thirty maybe, yeah, thirty.
<v Speaker 2>I think that's if you're thirty. I think at that
<v Speaker 2>point you're like.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, anyway, Google who has younger?
<v Speaker 2>I hope that's part of his character that only dates
<v Speaker 2>older superheroes.
<v Speaker 4>He has a thing where if he's the only one
<v Speaker 4>in the party, he fills up all the other slots
<v Speaker 4>and his stats like increase proportionally, which I think is
<v Speaker 4>like a really cool ability that I like using with him.
<v Speaker 2>Because he's like a tanky guy. Because there was like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>we need a guy that can kind of take some day.
<v Speaker 4>It's a thing of like his stats will increase by
<v Speaker 4>I'm making this number up because I don't remember if
<v Speaker 4>it's like twenty five percent per empty slot. So you
<v Speaker 4>can drop them in a lot of stuff sold and
<v Speaker 4>will do really well. But yeah, and then yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>I really like how there's ways that like your roster
<v Speaker 4>can change, and like the your hero powers can change
<v Speaker 4>and stuff that like keeps it interesting from chapter chapter
<v Speaker 4>I think it's easy to play. Not that you guys
<v Speaker 4>are saying this, but I think someone could play the
<v Speaker 4>first half and be like all right, I get it
<v Speaker 4>and not understand like it is going to get more
<v Speaker 4>interesting as you level up and get more items.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Like even in the second episode, they start introducing
<v Speaker 2>more of the like like team synergies of like oh
<v Speaker 2>if you put this person with this person, then they
<v Speaker 2>can do this this really specific ability or their stats
<v Speaker 2>go up in a weird way, or like oh okay cool. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I did try to find out who Young Gravy
<v Speaker 1>is dating. Then I couldn't sit through it. It was a
<v Speaker 1>really long it was like a four minute doc.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it was.
<v Speaker 2>It was it's its own Wikipedia.
<v Speaker 1>The only one I saw Amaranth, who's a streamer. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>and I didn't get through the rest I was, I'm sorry,
<v Speaker 1>I let you guys down.
<v Speaker 3>It's okay.
<v Speaker 2>Sorry.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And I went to singles on his Wikipedia and
<v Speaker 1>it's his songs, not the singles he's dated.
<v Speaker 3>That's really funny we have that. Yeah, No, I was
<v Speaker 3>gonna say.
<v Speaker 4>Also, the thing we mentioned before, I don't know if
<v Speaker 4>it's like super clear if you haven't played Dispatch, not familiar,
<v Speaker 4>very much an adult game. There is like a good
<v Speaker 4>bit fame, not a family game. Lots of swearing, Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>multiple penises, multiple I won't I don't want to spoil.
<v Speaker 4>I don't even spoil what episode it is. But one
<v Speaker 4>of episodes in three or four has like a much
<v Speaker 4>more extended, uh sexual scene that you.
<v Speaker 3>Don't don't play that in the living room with your
<v Speaker 3>family around. Yeah, I've been playing it on the TV
<v Speaker 3>in like my living room.
<v Speaker 2>Uh.
<v Speaker 4>And just the way I've been playing games really is
<v Speaker 4>I'm on the couch my fiancee X and her mom's
<v Speaker 4>just also in the room doing something else.
<v Speaker 3>And this is one where like her mom was out
<v Speaker 3>of the room and I was.
<v Speaker 4>Like, oh, thank goodness she was not in the room
<v Speaker 4>for that, because that would be very awkward.
<v Speaker 1>There's a reason I only played in my room at
<v Speaker 1>night in the dark.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, it would it be more awkward if your
<v Speaker 2>family did walk in on this? And is it more
<v Speaker 2>awkward if they were like horrified the way you would expect,
<v Speaker 2>or they get engaged and they start offering like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>you should make this decision. Actually they started giving their
<v Speaker 2>their two cents and how you should navigate this scene.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know, it's all bad.
<v Speaker 1>Do those scenes have interact like choices?
<v Speaker 4>The one I'm thinking of does not, and there might
<v Speaker 4>be more of them later on. Just the one that
<v Speaker 4>occurred to me, I was like, oh wow, that was
<v Speaker 4>a lot.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, that's good. They're like to, no, you should hit X.
<v Speaker 4>You should know that was like that was like an
<v Speaker 4>old god of war thing, right, there's like quick time
<v Speaker 4>sex events. Yeah, the Greek got wars yet Yeah, qut
<v Speaker 4>sex scenes? Yeah, not like it wasn't like that at least,
<v Speaker 4>or maybe it was.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know. I don't know it. You'll you'll know
<v Speaker 3>it when it happens, that I will say.
<v Speaker 1>When I first started this game, speaking of QTEs, I
<v Speaker 1>put it on cinematic mode. Oh, was like, oh, I
<v Speaker 1>don't really know if I want to do the QTEs
<v Speaker 1>like I kind of just in the mood to like
<v Speaker 1>watch this thing and then play the Dispatch gameplay. But
<v Speaker 1>then I but then in the scenes where you have
<v Speaker 1>to make choice, there's just like really long awkward pauses
<v Speaker 1>or like the action just slows down but there's nothing
<v Speaker 1>on screen. I was like, all right, I'm turning the
<v Speaker 1>QTS on because this is not yeah, not good.
<v Speaker 2>I looked those on just because I wasn't sure what
<v Speaker 2>I thought. I was afraid cinematic mode would be no engagement,
<v Speaker 2>like you just want to watch this as a TV
<v Speaker 2>show spices, Okay, it doesn't make that clear into description,
<v Speaker 2>So I just like, I'm just gonna go QT.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I would just recommend go qt s. It's there's
<v Speaker 1>like a weird like awkwardness to the scenes if you
<v Speaker 1>have it in cinematic mode, in my opinion.
<v Speaker 2>Plus you can speed by item faster in case a
<v Speaker 2>family member walks in on a questionable one exactly.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah, I'm really enjoying Dispatch. It's
<v Speaker 1>it's probably gonna be in my top ten, I think
<v Speaker 1>almost for sure, as long as like I know this
<v Speaker 1>thing's still coming out and like we don't know how
<v Speaker 1>it ends. But as long as things don't take a
<v Speaker 1>wild left turn and and the quality just goes downhill,
<v Speaker 1>Like I'm I'm really enjoying it. It's it's it's breezy,
<v Speaker 1>you know, it's it's not the deepest thing, but there
<v Speaker 1>is there's some you know, I think I got a
<v Speaker 1>little jaded or tired of like the adult superhero thing
<v Speaker 1>with like Invincible and The Boys. I was kind of like, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>I get it, superheroes can be bad, and this is
<v Speaker 1>kind of doing a similar thing, but not to not
<v Speaker 1>nearly to that extent.
<v Speaker 4>The Boys and Invincible both have like an element of
<v Speaker 4>like almost like misery, like reveling in the misery of
<v Speaker 4>the character nihilism. Yeah, yeah, of just being like what
<v Speaker 4>if you were hear but your life was terrible and
<v Speaker 4>it was so violent. Everyone's bad and there's like, oh know,
<v Speaker 4>there's enjoyable things about both those shows, for sure. But
<v Speaker 4>Dispatch is a lot more adult, just in like it's
<v Speaker 4>an adult comedy, and I personally don't feel the superheo
<v Speaker 4>fatigue as much with it because it's so much more
<v Speaker 4>focused on like the characters and their relationships than it
<v Speaker 4>is Agree as heroes.
<v Speaker 1>One hundred percent agree Yeah, it's really working for me.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's cool.
<v Speaker 1>Well cool, Well, before we round out the rest of
<v Speaker 1>the show and get out of here, I do want
<v Speaker 1>to kind of open it up, Charles, you had mentioned like,
<v Speaker 1>and this is very true for all of us. We're
<v Speaker 1>kind of in like goady cram sessions.
<v Speaker 2>You know.
<v Speaker 1>I mentioned at the top of the show that we
<v Speaker 1>are actively having our Game of the Year talks a
<v Speaker 1>Game Informer right now, and you know, we've kind of
<v Speaker 1>got like a list of the nominees as they are
<v Speaker 1>for like our top ten, and we're all kind of
<v Speaker 1>playing catch up, even though we still have a lot
<v Speaker 1>more time for our personal lists. But we are definitely
<v Speaker 1>that point where it's like it's kinda go time. And
<v Speaker 1>so a lot of us are doing like cram sessions
<v Speaker 1>because we want to, like you know, for making big
<v Speaker 1>decisions about like what gets removed, what gets added, You
<v Speaker 1>want to be informed and make sure like you are
<v Speaker 1>being fair, so all the games there, and so yeah,
<v Speaker 1>a lot of us are playing other games and kind
<v Speaker 1>of catching up. Charles, what games are you are you
<v Speaker 1>catching up on any if any?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, the main one I've been playing is finally playing.
<v Speaker 4>Clare obscure, which Alex and I were bonding about before
<v Speaker 4>the podcast of neither of us really got that far
<v Speaker 4>in it because we had like the first big major
<v Speaker 4>twist spoiled for us.
<v Speaker 1>Both of us.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and I definitely think the wins out of my sales.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, that was exactly the phrase I'm gonna use. And
<v Speaker 4>now I'm finally getting around to it, and I'm like, oh, yeah.
<v Speaker 3>This game rocks.
<v Speaker 4>And it's always It's always a nice.
<v Speaker 3>Thing when you go into a game for one.
<v Speaker 4>Thing, Like I think Dispatch is a good example of
<v Speaker 4>Like I went into that for the story and was supposedly surprised, like, oh,
<v Speaker 4>I also think it's fun. I also like the dispatching stuff.
<v Speaker 2>This is one I was.
<v Speaker 4>Going into four the music and the story and the
<v Speaker 4>aesthetics and the like acting performances. And I'm at a
<v Speaker 4>point now where I'm like, oh, I love this combat.
<v Speaker 4>I'm like having a lot more fun with it, like
<v Speaker 4>eight hours in than I was at like two hours in, obviously,
<v Speaker 4>because it's I'm just getting a lot more stuff in. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>but yeah, I don't need to like spend a long
<v Speaker 4>time explaining why this is a.
<v Speaker 3>Good game, but it is a good game this year.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, And then the other thing I've been doing is
<v Speaker 4>we we each have our games that we're like arguing
<v Speaker 4>for Game of the Year.
<v Speaker 3>We have stuff that's up there.
<v Speaker 4>The one I was like, I want to make sure
<v Speaker 4>I'm like fully informed, know what I'm talking about. So
<v Speaker 4>my fiance Listen and I we started a new save
<v Speaker 4>in Blueprints. We got to the credits the first time,
<v Speaker 4>but my understanding of the game is that there's so
<v Speaker 4>much more past that, and I just never had time
<v Speaker 4>to do it. But instead of us just jumping back
<v Speaker 4>in that one save, we kept our notes from that save,
<v Speaker 4>so we know all the things we've used to know.
<v Speaker 1>We just started information change, like numbers and that kind
<v Speaker 1>of stuff.
<v Speaker 3>Uh, I don't think so.
<v Speaker 4>I think it's pretty much a game that like if
<v Speaker 4>you know the stuff, because some of it's pretty specific
<v Speaker 4>when it's like a date or something.
<v Speaker 1>Some of them are like safes and that kind of thing.
<v Speaker 1>And I wasn't scrambled those or not those are.
<v Speaker 4>The same because well, and I can't even explain why
<v Speaker 4>without spoiling it.
<v Speaker 3>But though those are all the story stuff.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, but I we we did a run on day
<v Speaker 4>five yesterday and almost got to credits, but there was
<v Speaker 4>like one part of the game we like we just.
<v Speaker 3>Didn't have it yet. Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it was like a room that we hadn't found
<v Speaker 4>yet that if we had gotten it, we would have
<v Speaker 4>gotten to the end. And so now I was like,
<v Speaker 4>I was like kind of bummed by that. But it's
<v Speaker 4>obviously still like it's still like the game wanted wanting
<v Speaker 4>to get more into like the deeper stuff to kind
<v Speaker 4>of defend it the Game of Year thing, because one
<v Speaker 4>of those games that like you can spend I know,
<v Speaker 4>people are like, oh, I spend one hundred hours and
<v Speaker 4>I just feel like I'm understanding this game where I
<v Speaker 4>just got to the true, true ending or whatever.
<v Speaker 3>I'm like, what does that mean?
<v Speaker 4>Versus there's some people I don't want to name names
<v Speaker 4>or fingers, but some people on but also just some
<v Speaker 4>people in general that like played a few hours of
<v Speaker 4>it and they're like, yeah, it's not for me. And I
<v Speaker 4>understand when a game is not for you, but it's
<v Speaker 4>hard with Blueprints because there's like so many layers of
<v Speaker 4>it that to get a little bit into layer one
<v Speaker 4>and say this isn't a game for me is like
<v Speaker 4>I feel like you don't even understand.
<v Speaker 3>What the game is yet if you're stopping at that point.
<v Speaker 4>So I'm hoping to be able to come into the
<v Speaker 4>talks and be like, if you haven't played it, this
<v Speaker 4>is like trying to do so without spoiling necessarily. But like,
<v Speaker 4>this is why it's such a big deal and why
<v Speaker 4>we can't just kind of write this off as like another.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think it's gonna rank pretty high for us.
<v Speaker 2>I don't think so. Yeah, it's in my it's pretty
<v Speaker 2>high up on my personal.
<v Speaker 1>Ten, Like it's in my top five.
<v Speaker 2>Still. I rode credits on it after putting in like
<v Speaker 2>forty plus hours.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I rode credits. I just looked on Steam. Mine
<v Speaker 1>is thirty three hours.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Like I found a lot of stuff, yeah, like
<v Speaker 2>like non critical stuff.
<v Speaker 1>Same.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I did it after twenty seven hours I think.
<v Speaker 4>But the catch was that I I did it. I
<v Speaker 4>did it essentially co op because I was playing the
<v Speaker 4>game and Alyssa was next to me, like writing notes.
<v Speaker 4>We have like a whole color coordinated journal and stuff,
<v Speaker 4>so some some puzzles were a lot easier when you
<v Speaker 4>have like two.
<v Speaker 3>Heads doing at the same time.
<v Speaker 4>It is great ideal, good, good, relationship building, but yeah,
<v Speaker 4>Blueprints is I'm revisiting it, but I already really like it.
<v Speaker 4>But that's the other one where I'm like, I'm pulling
<v Speaker 4>for it.
<v Speaker 1>That's cool.
<v Speaker 2>I dig that, I know I've got like I'm actually
<v Speaker 2>I'm also still finishing Clay up Skier like I'm I
<v Speaker 2>was told by Wesley who did finish it when I
<v Speaker 2>asked them like just a progress report, like here's where
<v Speaker 2>I'm at. How long? And He's like, you had brought
<v Speaker 2>up probably like a solid eight hours, like you're not
<v Speaker 2>far from the end, like if you just mainlined it.
<v Speaker 2>And then Kyle also mentioned, like I guess one of
<v Speaker 2>his frustrations with the game was like you know you can,
<v Speaker 2>you can just kind of mainline it because a lot
<v Speaker 2>of these sort of like the big in game stuff
<v Speaker 2>doesn't really unlock until like the last act or like
<v Speaker 2>right when you're at the end of the game. I
<v Speaker 2>think it's just three.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, I mean I just started.
<v Speaker 2>At least it feels like it's three because if I'm
<v Speaker 2>if that's the correct estimation from where I'm at, then
<v Speaker 2>there's no room for more than three. Yeah, because yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I'm pretty things are happening where I'm at but yeah,
<v Speaker 2>like you know the kind of like when you're when
<v Speaker 2>you're going around the world, do you find like those
<v Speaker 2>those optional fights that are like they tell you like, hey,
<v Speaker 2>you're gonna die. Yeah. I was just like He's like, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>that doesn't really change until like the very end. So
<v Speaker 2>don't like because I kept checking back every time I
<v Speaker 2>like hit a milestone of like surely I'm ready now,
<v Speaker 2>like I can mess up some things pretty good, and
<v Speaker 2>it still gets me the like you will get stomped
<v Speaker 2>into the dirt and yeah, he's just him telling me,
<v Speaker 2>like stop going back, just literally don't wait until you're
<v Speaker 2>at the last boss fight too. And it's like, okay,
<v Speaker 2>that's great, I'm gonna ignore those. Then you know, there's
<v Speaker 2>other stuff you can do. But in terms of those
<v Speaker 2>big ones, it's like, okay, I can just pretend they
<v Speaker 2>don't exist. So I'm trying to blow past that. I've
<v Speaker 2>start I've like gotten into Ghost of Yota, like in
<v Speaker 2>Earnest now because I only play like the first couple
<v Speaker 2>hours for the stream we did, and then I just
<v Speaker 2>fell back into review games and just so many other stuff. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>but I've picked it back up. I've put like probably
<v Speaker 2>like eightish hours into it, I still have not killed
<v Speaker 2>any of the ota six years.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, my first one takes a while, And.
<v Speaker 2>I guess I don't know if we're going because they
<v Speaker 2>kind of leave it up to you of who to
<v Speaker 2>target when it seems like so at least the one
<v Speaker 2>I'm going towards, I'm like at their doorstep, but there's
<v Speaker 2>like more steps involved.
<v Speaker 3>Is it the.
<v Speaker 2>I've chosen to ony?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, okay, I would be surprised. I don't actually know
<v Speaker 4>what it looks like to do the other ones.
<v Speaker 2>But I'm curious too, because there's it's very like, I
<v Speaker 2>think what you say, like the narrative kind of feels
<v Speaker 2>like that should be the first one.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, you'd have to only to do the other one second,
<v Speaker 4>but maybe it's yeah, yeah, I won't look that up.
<v Speaker 2>Actually, I literally only chose it because it was like
<v Speaker 2>the closest one to where I was standing at the
<v Speaker 2>time that they gave me the option. But I would imagine,
<v Speaker 2>like since I would imagine you can do them in
<v Speaker 2>any order, because otherwise why I even have the other
<v Speaker 2>ones open and available? Because then that kind of speedy
<v Speaker 2>illusion of choice. Yeah, it's like if you're if you're
<v Speaker 2>if you're telling a directed narrative, then just just do that.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, I'm kind of glad a little bit that
<v Speaker 2>I chose that one first, just because of some some
<v Speaker 2>big things that happen where it's like, oh, I wonder
<v Speaker 2>how this would hit if I'd done this even second.
<v Speaker 2>But it does make me wonder what the other stuff,
<v Speaker 2>like what happens there, and maybe I'll change my mind.
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, oh, maybe that would have been better than
<v Speaker 2>come first. But I'm enjoying it. I've a you know,
<v Speaker 2>gorgeous game. Believe it or not. It's very pretty gamned
<v Speaker 2>if you hasn't heard about this, but it's a game
<v Speaker 2>I don't get tired of looking at, and I'm having
<v Speaker 2>fun with it so far. I'm enjoying out too as
<v Speaker 2>a character so far. Yeah, there's like a bunch of
<v Speaker 2>you know in terms of like there's the big stuff
<v Speaker 2>and then there's like little things that I kind of
<v Speaker 2>squeeze in that aren't going to make our top ten.
<v Speaker 2>But there's stuff I would still like to, you know,
<v Speaker 2>just get done. Because there's like shorter like I've been
<v Speaker 2>playing a lot of of is the Seat Taken? Like
<v Speaker 2>I'm at the end of it.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, I love that game. I was like debating.
<v Speaker 4>I was like, I don't think enough people have played it,
<v Speaker 4>and it's not like a it's not like a huge
<v Speaker 4>budget like intense experience, but I'm just like, I just
<v Speaker 4>love everything that game does.
<v Speaker 1>It's such a nice.
<v Speaker 2>And it's a nice game to just play when I'm
<v Speaker 2>like listening to a podcast or I've had wrestling on
<v Speaker 2>in another monitor, and it's just like it's perfect for that,
<v Speaker 2>Like I'm just gonna move these little guys around and
<v Speaker 2>then have something that was happening by me, and it's
<v Speaker 2>like really fun. So I've played it just in chunks
<v Speaker 2>of like when I want to consume other content, I
<v Speaker 2>will put is the Seat Taken on and I'm literally
<v Speaker 2>like two worlds away from the finale. So I finished
<v Speaker 2>that soon A keeper the Double Fine game like that.
<v Speaker 2>That's another short thing, but I'm enamored with the presentation
<v Speaker 2>of that game. Like I think that game, when we
<v Speaker 2>get to it, is like a best art contender. It
<v Speaker 2>was a beautiful game. If you guys have started it yet,
<v Speaker 2>but it is like.
<v Speaker 1>I've watched I was watching Janet Garcia stream it for
<v Speaker 1>nax a little bit. I was lurking.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, looks gorgeous. Yeah, I think it's their best looking
<v Speaker 2>game double fines. I mean, and they put out some
<v Speaker 2>like really cool, like just visually interesting looking game, but
<v Speaker 2>yeah A Keeper is like it's like their art sensibilities.
<v Speaker 2>But like also they've been injected with a ton of
<v Speaker 2>money from Microsoft. Yeah, so it's like the best of
<v Speaker 2>both worlds. Uh yeah, yeah, there's God. It's like I
<v Speaker 2>don't want to go down my full ecause I think
<v Speaker 2>we're all just hopping around touching things. I will say, Alex,
<v Speaker 2>You're gonna be really proud of me. I haven't started dyet,
<v Speaker 2>but for the first time in many, many, many years,
<v Speaker 2>I have a new Pokemon game because I got a
<v Speaker 2>cho and I'm like, I'm going to play a Pokemon
<v Speaker 2>game for the first time in forever. This is gonna
<v Speaker 2>be interesting.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I haven't put enough time into it as I
<v Speaker 1>want to. I'm only like rank why so I'm like
<v Speaker 1>very early. Yeah, I think it's it's yeah, maybe maybe
<v Speaker 1>I'm X. I don't know, I'm very early. I don't
<v Speaker 1>like how slow the intro is to that game. It
<v Speaker 1>takes forever.
<v Speaker 4>Every every Pokemon game is a slow intro, but this
<v Speaker 4>one feels particularly.
<v Speaker 2>Like I'm in tar Yeah, compared to like the intro
<v Speaker 2>to Twilight Princess and Skywards Sword infamously slow star those
<v Speaker 2>Twilet Princess, but at least tilet Princess earlier, it's more
<v Speaker 2>intriguing like Pokemon game, I know exactly what I'm going
<v Speaker 2>to be doing, where I feel like Twilet Princesses, there's
<v Speaker 2>more mystery in the beginning. Sure, this one.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, I know what I'm going to be doing
<v Speaker 1>in this entire game, let.
<v Speaker 2>Me just do it. You know, I got to catch
<v Speaker 2>them all. I get it. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, So granted, it's a game that's meant for young
<v Speaker 1>people that adults can also enjoy, So I get.
<v Speaker 2>Like ourselves, we are young people.
<v Speaker 1>We are young people. At least two of us on
<v Speaker 1>the call are.
<v Speaker 2>But I'll let you guess who I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe the guy who I know who Young Gravy was.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe that's a giveaway. Yeah, yeah, it's just.
<v Speaker 2>Old Gravy, Old Country Gravy.
<v Speaker 1>I have a couple of games that are on my
<v Speaker 1>my kind of quick hit list that have been meaning
<v Speaker 1>to go back to. I wanna I installed Kingdom, Come
<v Speaker 1>Deliverance to full full disclosure. I boycotted the first game
<v Speaker 1>because of some really dumb comments from I think it
<v Speaker 1>was a creative director at the time, and I was like,
<v Speaker 1>I don't need to get this thing my money, and
<v Speaker 1>that's kind of what my energy was to the second one.
<v Speaker 1>But I've kind of had that battle on my head
<v Speaker 1>where I'm like, am I going to write off an
<v Speaker 1>entire game because one guy at the studio said some
<v Speaker 1>dumb stuff, Whereas like a bunch of people worked really
<v Speaker 1>hard on this game, and I hear excellent things about it.
<v Speaker 1>So I'm like, I think they I don't know, but
<v Speaker 1>I think they backtracked on like the first game was like,
<v Speaker 1>you know, no, no people of color in this game.
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, and there are people because of history, and
<v Speaker 1>people were like, no, actually, if you look into history,
<v Speaker 1>there are plenty of people of color in this era.
<v Speaker 1>H And they kind of they kind of admitted I
<v Speaker 1>think they were wrong and changed that in the second
<v Speaker 1>one from what I hear, So like, I kind of
<v Speaker 1>want to get I want to give it a shot.
<v Speaker 1>I've heard great things from Wes on staff about it,
<v Speaker 1>so I want to I want to play that a
<v Speaker 1>bit because I think it's definitely going to be a talker.
<v Speaker 2>I think that's all of our secret shame game is
<v Speaker 2>Kingdom Come.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>I think it's also like, uh not, this is not
<v Speaker 4>shade to Kingcome deliverancey specifically, but it's also a thing.
<v Speaker 2>It's like it's when.
<v Speaker 4>A game is that long, it's and your job is
<v Speaker 4>to play a lot of games, it's always easier to
<v Speaker 4>not play the game than it is to play it.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, So I think it's a.
<v Speaker 4>Thing of like, uh, it's it's just hard to be like, oh,
<v Speaker 4>all of us got to play that game, because that's
<v Speaker 4>like five or six other games worth of game in
<v Speaker 4>this one time frame. Wes is the one that reviewed
<v Speaker 4>it for us, so he like had to play it.
<v Speaker 4>But that is one one thing about like, as like
<v Speaker 4>game critics, like a big weakness we have is like
<v Speaker 4>when we're playing a lot of games, it's really hard
<v Speaker 4>for people to make time to play they're really really
<v Speaker 4>big games. Like I don't know if I don't know
<v Speaker 4>if anyone else on staff finished Balder Skate three other
<v Speaker 4>than me. Still I was far yeah, but like I
<v Speaker 4>at the time finished it because I was only part
<v Speaker 4>time working at Game Informers, so I had a lot
<v Speaker 4>more free time than everyone else to actually finish that game,
<v Speaker 4>and that's the only reason I did.
<v Speaker 2>And you're like, what did He's idiots, they can't make
<v Speaker 2>time to finish.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>I was also like, you know, feverishly obsessed with that game,
<v Speaker 4>but you know, just just the it is one of
<v Speaker 4>the things that like there's not much we can do
<v Speaker 4>unless we have like a much bigger staff where people
<v Speaker 4>could like pick more games. We didn't have to worry
<v Speaker 4>about covering it all out. But that I think that's
<v Speaker 4>the thing that I feel bad about. But also like
<v Speaker 4>if I had played that, then like there's a lot
<v Speaker 4>of other games I wouldn't have had time for earlier
<v Speaker 4>this year that I'm glad I got to check out.
<v Speaker 2>So it's hard.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, the two I've I've besides Kingdom Come the other
<v Speaker 1>two that I've gone back to, and I've I've been
<v Speaker 1>reinstalling and stuff. One as like the multiplayer guy on staff,
<v Speaker 1>I feel like I kind of feel like a responsibility
<v Speaker 1>to like, oh, I should keep up with like the
<v Speaker 1>big ones that came out this year. And I and
<v Speaker 1>I really enjoyed super Vibe in the beta period late
<v Speaker 1>last year, and it hit one point zero this year
<v Speaker 1>in July, so I've been going back to that one,
<v Speaker 1>and that one's like a really interesting, uh really interesting
<v Speaker 1>multiplayer game, a lot of like mobile elements, but also
<v Speaker 1>I remember early on they were talking about like Smash Bros.
<v Speaker 1>Kind of like what those standoffs kind of look like.
<v Speaker 1>But that one, that one, I'm I'm replaying right now,
<v Speaker 1>and then I installed a biotic factor on my Steam
<v Speaker 1>deck so I could. I'm doing a fresh save on
<v Speaker 1>that so I can. I was playing with co op
<v Speaker 1>with people and they all dropped off, and it's hard
<v Speaker 1>to go back to a co op save file when
<v Speaker 1>it's just you. So I'm like, Okay, I'm going to
<v Speaker 1>do a solo run because they've continued to add expansions
<v Speaker 1>to that game, Like one just came out this past
<v Speaker 1>week and it's one of those games like overwhelmingly positive
<v Speaker 1>on Steam and it's like, Okay, I want to make
<v Speaker 1>sure that this is like cover present. Yeah, yeah, whether
<v Speaker 1>it's on just my list or even maybe i'd maybe
<v Speaker 1>I decide not to include it, but like I want
<v Speaker 1>to give it a better a better shake than I did,
<v Speaker 1>because I really enjoyed what I was playing, maybe more
<v Speaker 1>so than the other people I was playing with. But
<v Speaker 1>but yeah, those are those are two that I've been
<v Speaker 1>kind of going back.
<v Speaker 2>To in a hypothetical scenario where let's say you had
<v Speaker 2>unlimited time to play one game in your backlog for
<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty five, which would.
<v Speaker 1>It be, hmm, like with the rest of the year,
<v Speaker 1>I can't only pick one of these games.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Like you're just like, I need, I need unlimited
<v Speaker 2>time for this one game that I really want to.
<v Speaker 2>I know it's important or I think is important that
<v Speaker 2>I just want to. I would not have time to
<v Speaker 2>play otherwise.
<v Speaker 1>Honestly, it might be about abiotic factor, like I could say,
<v Speaker 1>clear up Scire, But I feel like we have plenty
<v Speaker 1>of representation on staff, people who are like vying for
<v Speaker 1>that game that I'm like, I trust y'all. If y'all
<v Speaker 1>you know when it comes down, it's gonna rank pretty
<v Speaker 1>high on our list. It's probably in consideration for like
<v Speaker 1>our number one. You know, we're still having all those talks,
<v Speaker 1>but I'm like, I've played it. I see why everyone
<v Speaker 1>would enjoy it. And granted we said I had it
<v Speaker 1>spoiled for me in several ways, and it kind of
<v Speaker 1>again took the wind out of my sales. So I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>you know, even though I don't want to sink time
<v Speaker 1>into it, I can recognize based on what I've played
<v Speaker 1>that it is such a high caliber game and the
<v Speaker 1>performances from where I even the ones I had seen
<v Speaker 1>were incredible. So it's like, okay, I'll take your word that,
<v Speaker 1>like this is something that's worth you know, celebrating, whereas
<v Speaker 1>I'd rather focus on something that's a little less. You know,
<v Speaker 1>I don't think I might be the only one on
<v Speaker 1>staff who is. I think Eric might have played a
<v Speaker 1>little bit of abiotic factor because he was one of
<v Speaker 1>the original people that was in my co Ops save
<v Speaker 1>and he left. But you know, I would rather like
<v Speaker 1>put my time into a game that to like make
<v Speaker 1>sure our bases are covered, you know.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, yeah, I would probably do Kingdom Come Deliverance too,
<v Speaker 4>just because.
<v Speaker 1>I, oh, actually, yeah, that's the right choice. I don't
<v Speaker 1>know that's the right choice.
<v Speaker 4>Just it's just a game that, like Wes is so
<v Speaker 4>passionate about, and nobody else even has like an educated
<v Speaker 4>experience with, and it's a thing that I would like
<v Speaker 4>to be able to say that it's good or that
<v Speaker 4>it's not good or whatever, just like doing that. I
<v Speaker 4>think the other one maybe is Ghost of Yote because
<v Speaker 4>I have played like fifteen hours of it and I'm
<v Speaker 4>kind of in it, but like I decided to pause
<v Speaker 4>it and go play other stuff just because I was, like,
<v Speaker 4>I know, I like this, Maybe it'll fall off at
<v Speaker 4>the end, but there's other things I need to get to.
<v Speaker 4>But I think I think the most impactful for like
<v Speaker 4>Game Informer's sake would probably be Kingdom Come Deliverance too.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, mine, mine pretty much probably came to Come Overance too.
<v Speaker 2>If I a number two will probably be dest training
<v Speaker 2>to Actually, like, I still have not despite playing thirty
<v Speaker 2>hours of that game for the preview trip that I
<v Speaker 2>took this year to Conjunter Productions, I still have not
<v Speaker 2>gotten back to that point just because I've been so
<v Speaker 2>busy with other games. Like I've gotten maybe a third
<v Speaker 2>of the way to where I left off in Japan,
<v Speaker 2>So I mean I have I still have like thirty
<v Speaker 2>hours worth of like thoughts about it. But I keep
<v Speaker 2>hearing that game ends real strong, Like everyone says it's
<v Speaker 2>got a great finale, uh, and it's like, oh, I
<v Speaker 2>want to see that, and I know I'm gonna I'm
<v Speaker 2>gonna beat it. I just don't know if I'll be
<v Speaker 2>able to get to that point all right. Actually definitely
<v Speaker 2>want people get to that point by the time we
<v Speaker 2>need to like lock in our top ten and stuff.
<v Speaker 2>So that would be the other one. I guess. Put
<v Speaker 2>me back in Kajima's like weird repurposed cafeteria in front
<v Speaker 2>of the computer for thirty hours.
<v Speaker 1>Fair well, guys, I think that brings us to the
<v Speaker 1>end of the show. It's been an amazing, amazing time
<v Speaker 1>with you all. Thank you listeners for carving some time
<v Speaker 1>out of your week. You know it means a lot.
<v Speaker 1>I do want to I want to give a shout
<v Speaker 1>out to a listener that, uh, you know, went very
<v Speaker 1>much out of their way to send a handwritten note
<v Speaker 1>to me. Pisa v Leo Vader a person named Josh
<v Speaker 1>Hannanan who I believe is a Minnesota local and went
<v Speaker 1>very much out of his way and wrote a very
<v Speaker 1>kind note and gave me a a a gift card
<v Speaker 1>for my wife and I to go on a date night.
<v Speaker 3>Randomly, Oh wow.
<v Speaker 1>Which I want to say, Josh, you should not give
<v Speaker 1>me money. But the I I've literally tried to find
<v Speaker 1>you on social media and I can't find you. Uh so,
<v Speaker 1>I do want to just say, and I know Josh
<v Speaker 1>said he was a big listener, So thank you, Josh.
<v Speaker 1>It was very sweet of you. Do not give me
<v Speaker 1>any any any any more money please.
<v Speaker 3>You know, but you know where you can give you money.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, game dot com slash Subscribe exactly.
<v Speaker 1>That's where you can get a print and digital magazine subscription.
<v Speaker 1>It's the best way to support us. It means a lot.
<v Speaker 1>But uh yeah, guys, I think that's gonna that's gonna
<v Speaker 1>be it this week. Follow Charles at Chuck Tuck three, six, five,
<v Speaker 1>follow Marcus at Marcus Stewart seven, and you can follow
<v Speaker 1>me at It's Van Aiken. Don't forget tune into our
<v Speaker 1>live streams every week Wednesdays and Fridays, Twitch dot tv
<v Speaker 1>Slash Game Informer. Watch our videos at YouTube dot com
<v Speaker 1>Slash Game Informer. All right, that'll be it. Enjoy your week.
<v Speaker 1>I hope everybody had a great Halloween and your November
<v Speaker 1>is off to a great start. It's my birthday month.
<v Speaker 2>I just want to say my birthday this weekend.
<v Speaker 3>Oh dude, birthday.
<v Speaker 1>It's how old?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? Thirty eight thirty eight? I think that nice. You're
<v Speaker 2>like a young one on staff.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, young Gravy, you gotta look it up for your birthday.
<v Speaker 1>You're gonna love it.
<v Speaker 3>Are you guys the same star sign?
<v Speaker 1>No, he's a scorpio. He's a SCORPIONO, I'm.
<v Speaker 3>A Santarius later, okay, okay.
<v Speaker 1>Whenever I tell people A'm Sagittarius, they're always like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm like, what does that mean?
<v Speaker 2>That the slowly back away from it?
<v Speaker 3>I don't even know what either of those are. I
<v Speaker 3>just like, I was just curious.
<v Speaker 1>Scorpio is a scorpion, water sign, Sagittarius.
<v Speaker 4>Scorpios talk a lot more about astrology than I feel
<v Speaker 4>like other signs.
<v Speaker 1>I think I'm an air sign.
<v Speaker 3>Well you don't.
<v Speaker 4>I'm just saying that, Like I hear things about scorpios
<v Speaker 4>more than I hear things about Sagittarius. Is.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, I'm a fire sign. Apparently hired. My wife just
<v Speaker 1>poked her head in the room and says that it's fire.
<v Speaker 2>Like what a strology?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah? Yeah, already got guys. Everybody, enjoy your week. We'll
<v Speaker 1>see you next week, next Friday. Bye,