Borderlands 4 Cover Story Details And Death Stranding 2 Review

<v Speaker 1>Hey, everyone, Welcome to the Game Informer Show, a weekly
<v Speaker 1>podcast covering the video game industry. Join us each and
<v Speaker 1>every Thursday for a discussion of the latest gaming news, reviews,
<v Speaker 1>and exclusive reviews with Game and Former staff and special
<v Speaker 1>guests from around the industry. I am one of your hosts,
<v Speaker 1>Marcus Stewart. I am joined by Kyle Hilliard. How are you, Hey,
<v Speaker 1>I'm doing pretty good.
<v Speaker 2>I am not rushing to finish my death Stranding to
<v Speaker 2>review right now, so I feel a little bit of
<v Speaker 2>a weight off my shoulders. That's not to say the
<v Speaker 2>game is like, was it bad or anything, but it's
<v Speaker 2>always like you know, when you're when you're reviewing a
<v Speaker 2>large game, it's always a little bit like I gotta
<v Speaker 2>get do this thing.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, much like Sam delivering a review. You unloaded
<v Speaker 1>all of your work and turned it in and then
<v Speaker 1>we judged it for its quality and said, hey, that's
<v Speaker 1>pretty good. Huh, here's a great I took a shower.
<v Speaker 1>I've watched I've watched Sam shower so many times. I
<v Speaker 1>can't skip that cut scene fast enough. But you know,
<v Speaker 1>he's a good looking man, so it's all good. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>And joining us for the first time, since we've relaunched
<v Speaker 1>a Game Informer show one. Brian Shay, how are you.
<v Speaker 3>I'm doing pretty good. It has been extremely hot, and
<v Speaker 3>I know I'm talking to somebody who lives in Florida,
<v Speaker 3>so I'm not gonna like, like, you know, complain too much.
<v Speaker 1>I want to hear your whining. Brian.
<v Speaker 3>However, it was like ninety eight degrees on Saturday, and
<v Speaker 3>I hosted a party at my house and my responsibility
<v Speaker 3>was to stand in front of the grill which reached
<v Speaker 3>upwards of five hundred degrees. So I was there for
<v Speaker 3>about six hours while it was upper nineties outside. So yeah,
<v Speaker 3>it was. It was not a I was very dehydrated
<v Speaker 3>by the end of that day. But yeah, overall very good.
<v Speaker 3>You know, we have a lot of exciting stuff that
<v Speaker 3>is happening at Game Informer and Game Informer dot Com
<v Speaker 3>right now.
<v Speaker 1>Uh.
<v Speaker 3>And you know it's similar to Kyle. I am excited
<v Speaker 3>because a large project is off of my plate, and
<v Speaker 3>that project was our cover story.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, you you are the man of the hour right now.
<v Speaker 1>I run it in because that's going to be the
<v Speaker 1>first thing we talk about, our newly announced cover story
<v Speaker 1>of border Lands for you and Alex Van Aiken took
<v Speaker 1>a trip down to Gearbox in Uh, where are they in? Texas?
<v Speaker 1>Is Austin or.
<v Speaker 3>Frisco, Texas, which is just outside of Dallas. I think
<v Speaker 3>it's technically still a part of like the Dallas metropolitan area,
<v Speaker 3>but yeah, it's where the Dallas Cowboys have their practice facility.
<v Speaker 3>I actually got a workout in at their their gym.
<v Speaker 3>Wait what Yeah, So there's a place right it's like
<v Speaker 3>attached to their like like practice stadium called Cowboy Fit
<v Speaker 3>and you have have a membership, but you can go
<v Speaker 3>in and like buy a day pass and I got
<v Speaker 3>a fifty percent off discount and it was like really
<v Speaker 3>really nice, Like it was like a super nice gym.
<v Speaker 3>I went and did the cryotherapy afterwards and realized that's
<v Speaker 3>not something I want to do again.
<v Speaker 2>It felt like that's is that where you just go
<v Speaker 2>stand in like a really cold room for like a
<v Speaker 2>short period.
<v Speaker 3>Of Yes, I did for about thirty seconds, and I
<v Speaker 3>was like, Nope, not for me. I did the beginner
<v Speaker 3>thing and it was like I think it said, like
<v Speaker 3>it feels like negative one hundred and forty five with
<v Speaker 3>a light breeze. Us and this is fresh after my workout,
<v Speaker 3>so I was like, Nope, listen to this guy.
<v Speaker 2>It's either too hot or too cold. He just can't
<v Speaker 2>It's like you can't get it.
<v Speaker 1>It's like I thought, like, I'm living in Minnesota getting
<v Speaker 1>used to those winters, would have prepped to you for but.
<v Speaker 3>I thought that too. Honestly, I was like, Oh, these
<v Speaker 3>Texans don't know cold. And then I got in there
<v Speaker 3>and I'm like, nope. And as somebody, as somebody who
<v Speaker 3>has lived in both Texas and Minnesota, I've experienced the
<v Speaker 3>highs and lows of both places, and yeah, the weather
<v Speaker 3>is definitely going to give you a problem no matter
<v Speaker 3>where you are, depending on the time of the year.
<v Speaker 3>How long how long were you in that room? How
<v Speaker 3>long are you supposed to be in that room? And
<v Speaker 3>is it a room? It's like a it's almost like
<v Speaker 3>a walk in freezer with a window, and you're They
<v Speaker 3>recommended three to three and a half minutes, and I
<v Speaker 3>went for about thirty seconds, and I was like, not
<v Speaker 3>for me. My cryo therapy was I went and got
<v Speaker 3>a smoothie. That's good. That's good.
<v Speaker 2>Can we do that here in Minnesota? Like I drive
<v Speaker 2>by the Vikings Training facility pretty often. Can you just
<v Speaker 2>go in there and be like, can I train in
<v Speaker 2>your gym? I don't, I'll buy a day pass.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, I think that the Cowboys are just like
<v Speaker 3>they they're just a monetization machine because, like you know,
<v Speaker 3>they have everything, Like you go to like a Cowboys game,
<v Speaker 3>they have like just like the most over the top amenities.
<v Speaker 3>From what I understand, I've never been to Cowboys Stadium,
<v Speaker 3>but like I from what I hear, it's like one
<v Speaker 3>of like the more over the top fan experiences. And
<v Speaker 3>I I'm pretty sure you have to pay for each
<v Speaker 3>and every little perk that you want, So it would
<v Speaker 3>not surprise if this is something that is like specific
<v Speaker 3>to the Cowboys like training facility, or maybe it's just
<v Speaker 3>like an offshoot of that, but it is attached to
<v Speaker 3>their training facility. So yeah, it's been a fun morning
<v Speaker 3>there before going to Gearbox, which is why we're here right. Yes, Yes,
<v Speaker 3>it's important the entire podcast.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah you need the train.
<v Speaker 2>I was fascinated by this cold room. Well, Brian, I'm excited.
<v Speaker 2>I liked Marcus's comment better in case we talked to
<v Speaker 2>over each other.
<v Speaker 3>Marcus that you had to train to go visit your US.
<v Speaker 3>It's very good. It's a good joke. Mark, thank you.
<v Speaker 1>Well, yes, I'm excited to hear all about your time
<v Speaker 1>at Borderlands for Studio Gearbox. Before that, of course, if
<v Speaker 1>you want to read this upcoming cover story, you can
<v Speaker 1>do so by subscribing to Game and Former magazine. How
<v Speaker 1>do you do that, you ask, Well, you go to
<v Speaker 1>Gaminformer dot com slash subscribe and you can sign up
<v Speaker 1>right now for a print issue of the magazine, not
<v Speaker 1>just one, but ten, sent straight to your home every
<v Speaker 1>month or close to every month. The magazine's bigger and
<v Speaker 1>better than it was before. Better paper. We've got Kyle,
<v Speaker 1>you know what we wrap them in now, they're like
<v Speaker 1>special polybags. Have you heard about this?
<v Speaker 2>I have, and it's one of the things I was, like,
<v Speaker 2>weirdly the most excited about when we were talking.
<v Speaker 3>Through all this stuff.
<v Speaker 2>And it's because so often we would get emails about
<v Speaker 2>for the previous issues or people be like my issue
<v Speaker 2>got messed up, and our response is always like that
<v Speaker 2>sucks man, But like I we just got to talk
<v Speaker 2>to your mailman or something.
<v Speaker 3>We don't.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know what we could do, but we have
<v Speaker 2>the poly bags now, which I think is going to
<v Speaker 2>make a huge difference.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yes, And of course the membership or the subscription,
<v Speaker 1>I should say, acts as a membership to the website,
<v Speaker 1>because not only do you get the print and digital
<v Speaker 1>versions of the magazine, but you also get access to
<v Speaker 1>exclusive web features on the website. You get fewer ads
<v Speaker 1>on the website as well. You get access to our
<v Speaker 1>entire digital archive of every magazine and game informers history
<v Speaker 1>just there available for you. And of course the best
<v Speaker 1>part of the package. Five percent of every subscription goes
<v Speaker 1>toward Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital, helping pediatric care, all
<v Speaker 1>that good stuff. So your subscription not only gets you
<v Speaker 1>access to the hottest gaming news, reviews, previews, but it's
<v Speaker 1>also actively helping out some very wonderful children. It's it's
<v Speaker 1>the best. And yes, so you can go subscribe now.
<v Speaker 1>I believe our early early bird has concluded this week
<v Speaker 1>by the time that this will go go out, so
<v Speaker 1>the and please correct me if I get this in correct, guys,
<v Speaker 1>but I believe our pricing should be back to standard
<v Speaker 1>now yes, I think so, yeah, okay, which would be
<v Speaker 1>you know, for the print and magazine or excuseity, the
<v Speaker 1>print and digital version of the magazine. It'll be seventy
<v Speaker 1>dollars a year. But however, you can also get a
<v Speaker 1>digital only subscription for forty five dollars a year, which
<v Speaker 1>is also great for our international readers. And yeah, it's
<v Speaker 1>a great way to support us directly, keep us, keep
<v Speaker 1>the lights on, keep us from get blipped out of
<v Speaker 1>existence once again, and we greatly appreciated. And of course,
<v Speaker 1>the very first issue that will be hitting your doorstep
<v Speaker 1>will be emblazoned with some cover art for Borderlands four. So, Brian,
<v Speaker 1>tell us all about it. You went to Gearbox, you
<v Speaker 1>played a bunch of Borderlands four. How is it shaping
<v Speaker 1>up so far?
<v Speaker 3>Well, first, let me tell you about this really cool
<v Speaker 3>freezer that I stood in for like thirty seconds. Not well,
<v Speaker 3>so Borderlands four. You know the way that the series
<v Speaker 3>has like kind of grown with me. It's interesting because
<v Speaker 3>like I got into games media kind of just before
<v Speaker 3>Borderlands one came out, Like I started writing about video
<v Speaker 3>games in two thousand and eight. And yeah, so like
<v Speaker 3>I've kind of come of age with this franchise in
<v Speaker 3>a weird way. But like I have covered every single
<v Speaker 3>Borderlands game aside from I think pre No. I did
<v Speaker 3>a preview for pre sqel for OXM, I think, but
<v Speaker 3>like I didn't cover three very much. And it's interesting
<v Speaker 3>because that is the one that like I did not
<v Speaker 3>really care for much, like I loved one and two,
<v Speaker 3>like obsessed over both of those games. Presequel wasn't really
<v Speaker 3>for me. Tales from the Borderlands got me right back
<v Speaker 3>into that universe. I thought that was phenomenal, maybe Telltale's
<v Speaker 3>best game, But since then it's kind of been tough
<v Speaker 3>sledding for me with the Borderlands franchise. I think three
<v Speaker 3>was a little bit too referential to like outside like
<v Speaker 3>like cold pop culture stuff, Like it's like, okay, this
<v Speaker 3>it's really hard to accept that this is a self
<v Speaker 3>contained universe when they're referencing like memes and stuff from
<v Speaker 3>our world.
<v Speaker 2>A kind of probably, Yeah, it was kind of charming
<v Speaker 2>in two because it was unique at the time, like
<v Speaker 2>you didn't really see that often. But yeah, by the
<v Speaker 2>time three came around, I don't know, I just it
<v Speaker 2>was a little exhausting at that point.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, so it and also like I don't know, it
<v Speaker 3>almost felt like this is gonna sound very disrespectful. It
<v Speaker 3>almost felt like the we you to Borderlands for's switch
<v Speaker 3>where it's like a half step towards what we want,
<v Speaker 3>and then Borderlands four feels like the switch where it
<v Speaker 3>was like, oh my god, this is like what they
<v Speaker 3>were striving for, like in some ways with their previous thing,
<v Speaker 3>but now they're actually giving us what we want, and
<v Speaker 3>what that is is a giant, seamless open world, so
<v Speaker 3>like very minimal loading screens. You just it's not like
<v Speaker 3>kind of like the hub and spoke design where it's like, oh,
<v Speaker 3>just a big open area in the middle and then
<v Speaker 3>you go off into these tiny little corridors off on
<v Speaker 3>the sides, which is how a lot of Borderlands areas
<v Speaker 3>have been designed. To this point. It really does feel
<v Speaker 3>like just this massive open world that has like activities
<v Speaker 3>scattered throughout it. The writing is a lot more, I mean,
<v Speaker 3>it's kind of it's a little bit darker in some regards,
<v Speaker 3>kind of going back a little bit closer to like
<v Speaker 3>what Borderlands one was, but there's still a play like
<v Speaker 3>there's so many like hilarious moments and like, I don't know,
<v Speaker 3>like there there were a couple moments especially there was
<v Speaker 3>one with clap Trap during a side quest that I
<v Speaker 3>was doing where I've never really found clap Trap super
<v Speaker 3>funny I've always thought it was entertaining, but not like
<v Speaker 3>laugh out loud, but like there was a moment where
<v Speaker 3>I laughed very hard at something that happened. And then yeah, So,
<v Speaker 3>like the traversal is also a huge upgrade. So you
<v Speaker 3>can still like mantle and everything, like you up on
<v Speaker 3>ledges like you could in borderlandes three, but now there's
<v Speaker 3>like you can double jump, you can glide, you can
<v Speaker 3>there's a grappling hook, so it's like like a kind
<v Speaker 3>of a rope that they throw out that they can
<v Speaker 3>like attach to like grapple points and swing over or
<v Speaker 3>like kind of repel up. And then you can also
<v Speaker 3>use that to grab items in the environment, like explosive
<v Speaker 3>barrels and pull them to you and then toss them,
<v Speaker 3>which is really cool. And all of the Vault Hunters
<v Speaker 3>have three distinct action skills they're called which are basically
<v Speaker 3>like subclasses that like operate on a cool down. Like,
<v Speaker 3>so every every vault Hunter kind of has similar movement,
<v Speaker 3>it's like, and they can all use like guns, the
<v Speaker 3>guns that you pick up, which you know would be
<v Speaker 3>weird if you couldn't in a border Lands game.
<v Speaker 1>Well, just one of the Vault Hunters, like didn't Batman
<v Speaker 1>Real Quick, Brian, which Fault Hunters did you get to play?
<v Speaker 3>I got to play all four of them. So Vex
<v Speaker 3>is the Dark Siren, Rafa is the Exo Soldier, Aman
<v Speaker 3>is the Forge Night, and Harlow is the Gravitar. So
<v Speaker 3>uh Rafa is kind of like more of a straightforward
<v Speaker 3>like like soldier type class where he has his three
<v Speaker 3>action skills. One he like kind of grows like a
<v Speaker 3>like an arm cannon kind of like Samus and can
<v Speaker 3>shoot like piercing shots, which is cool. And then he
<v Speaker 3>has another one that like if you activate it, it
<v Speaker 3>like activates like auto turrets kind of where it just
<v Speaker 3>automatically fires at anybody like in on his screen and
<v Speaker 3>then as I slam my elbow into my desk and
<v Speaker 3>then yeah, I'm very excited. And then he has another
<v Speaker 3>one where it's like he just grows two blades out
<v Speaker 3>of his arms and goes and can do like melee attacks.
<v Speaker 3>So it's yeah kind of so they're all very distinct.
<v Speaker 3>I don't I'm not going to run through all of
<v Speaker 3>the abilities because they all have three, but like Aman
<v Speaker 3>has a Mon's actually he's like a seven foot four tall,
<v Speaker 3>like Viking looking dude, and he has these axes that
<v Speaker 3>they make him like the most elemental character in the game,
<v Speaker 3>which is weird because like the Siren isn't the elemental
<v Speaker 3>character in this game. She has some elemental areas, but
<v Speaker 3>like normally the Siren is kind of like the elemental
<v Speaker 3>damage dealer, in this case, the Siren is actually kind
<v Speaker 3>of like a summoner, Like she kind of summons like
<v Speaker 3>these phantoms for one of her action skills, and like
<v Speaker 3>you can choose to have it be either a melee
<v Speaker 3>character that will run around and like like use a
<v Speaker 3>lot of agro so like the character, the enemies will
<v Speaker 3>focus on them, or you can do like a turret
<v Speaker 3>style phantom that will provide like cover fire for you. Otherwise,
<v Speaker 3>she also has like this like cat Minion that she
<v Speaker 3>can summon that will attack enemies and like teleport around
<v Speaker 3>the battlefield. So but the elemental side of her is
<v Speaker 3>that when you switch your gun to like say I'm
<v Speaker 3>using incendiary AMMO, that means that all the phantoms are
<v Speaker 3>going to have fire based attacks, but if I switch
<v Speaker 3>it over to cryo, they will all have ice based attacks.
<v Speaker 3>So based on what weapon you are using, your phantoms
<v Speaker 3>or summons will have that same element with their attacks,
<v Speaker 3>which is kind of cool. Yeah, so you can play
<v Speaker 3>with the elements a little bit that way. But Aman
<v Speaker 3>is way more elemental, Like he has these axes that
<v Speaker 3>he throws, so like that he has like a projectile
<v Speaker 3>where it's like he'll throw the axe and when you
<v Speaker 3>bring it up, like as your action skill, he holds
<v Speaker 3>up two actses, one as a fire one is an
<v Speaker 3>ice axe, so you can choose which one you want
<v Speaker 3>to throw, and then there's kind of like an like
<v Speaker 3>he had one of his his like passive trait is
<v Speaker 3>that each one of his action skills has an extra
<v Speaker 3>action skill looped on top of that. So his other
<v Speaker 3>action skill for the dual wielding axes where he can
<v Speaker 3>throw one ice in one fire is that it turns
<v Speaker 3>that he forges those two axes together and throws it
<v Speaker 3>and on the way out, I think it's fire and
<v Speaker 3>the way back it is ice. So it's kind of
<v Speaker 3>like a dual element at the end. And then there's
<v Speaker 3>another one where he he has like this like flaming punch,
<v Speaker 3>and I think the secondary trait for that is he
<v Speaker 3>like can line up a wall of fire that you
<v Speaker 3>can run through and everything but enemies can't run through
<v Speaker 3>or shoot through it, so it's like a really good
<v Speaker 3>like way to place down like a little bit of
<v Speaker 3>cover for either you or if you're playing co op,
<v Speaker 3>your teammates. And then maybe my favorite I don't know
<v Speaker 3>this is so I told this like because every time
<v Speaker 3>I finished, they were like, oh, so, what'd you think?
<v Speaker 3>Almost every time I stepped away from the game, I
<v Speaker 3>was like, I think that's gonna be my main I
<v Speaker 3>think that was my favorite Vault Hunter. And I wrote
<v Speaker 3>this in the cover story where I was like I
<v Speaker 3>felt like a child where it's like whenever they ask
<v Speaker 3>you like, oh, what's your favorite, like candy, and it's
<v Speaker 3>always just like the candy that they ate last, Like,
<v Speaker 3>oh yeah, I just had eminems, So Eminem's are my favorite.
<v Speaker 3>That's how I felt with like the Vault Hunters. Like
<v Speaker 3>in the past, I feel like I've always like gravitated
<v Speaker 3>towards like one or two of them immediately and be like,
<v Speaker 3>oh yeah, that's totally my guy. This like I could
<v Speaker 3>see myself playing any of the four and being perfectly happy.
<v Speaker 3>And the last one that I played was Harlow and
<v Speaker 3>she's kind of like this tech like kind of like
<v Speaker 3>tech Wizard. It's almost like a Jedi, but like more technical.
<v Speaker 2>So is that was the wasn't your class in one
<v Speaker 2>of the other ones, like tech Nomancer.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, it's a little bit different from that.
<v Speaker 1>Okay.
<v Speaker 3>So she has this passive trait called entanglement, and what
<v Speaker 3>that does is when she uses her action skills on enemies,
<v Speaker 3>they become entangled. They start glowing like this rainbow like
<v Speaker 3>holographic look almost like a you know, like a Pokemon card,
<v Speaker 3>and when they are in that, they kind of split damage.
<v Speaker 3>So like if like there's five enemies and I entangle
<v Speaker 3>four of them, and you entangle them through like just
<v Speaker 3>by touching them with your action skills. So one of
<v Speaker 3>hers is she can lift one enemy up almost like
<v Speaker 3>a Jedi and then like slam them into other enemies
<v Speaker 3>or like walls or ground or whatever to do damage.
<v Speaker 3>But if you keep touching other enemies with that enemy,
<v Speaker 3>it entangles all of them, and then if you shoot them,
<v Speaker 3>it kind of hurts all the other entangled ones as well,
<v Speaker 3>So it's really good for crowd control. And then the
<v Speaker 3>other ways you can entangle her. Other action skills are
<v Speaker 3>like she shoots like this kind of like disco ball
<v Speaker 3>looking bomb forward, and it has this massive area of
<v Speaker 3>effect explosion and anything that it touches. In addition to
<v Speaker 3>dealing damage, it also entangles. And then there's another one
<v Speaker 3>that's just kind of like a pulse mind that she
<v Speaker 3>throws on the ground and like reverberates out, and as
<v Speaker 3>that happens, it entangles all the enemies. So it's really
<v Speaker 3>really good if like there's just like hordes of like
<v Speaker 3>monsters or enemies running at you, And that's good because
<v Speaker 3>like they've also upped the crowd sizes pretty sicknificantly in
<v Speaker 3>this game. They're they're really making good use of Unreal
<v Speaker 3>Engine five with both the I mean, the graphics look better.
<v Speaker 3>The world loads so much faster, and I'm sure that's
<v Speaker 3>thanks to like the tech of like the PS five
<v Speaker 3>an Xbox Series X as well. I was playing on
<v Speaker 3>a PC, so I can't really comment on like the
<v Speaker 3>performance on the other platforms or even the switch to
<v Speaker 3>but yeah, do you know, off the top of your head,
<v Speaker 3>is it day and date switch too? They're saying a
<v Speaker 3>later date in twenty but they're still saying twenty twenty five,
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, I do.
<v Speaker 2>I do think one of the highest compliments you paid
<v Speaker 2>to the game, Brian, like we've already said, was was
<v Speaker 2>that you you at the end the cover story you said,
<v Speaker 2>I don't know who I'm going to be playing as,
<v Speaker 2>which I think I think is like that says a
<v Speaker 2>lot about the game. That like there wasn't one that
<v Speaker 2>you were like, well, I didn't really like this one.
<v Speaker 2>They were a little too technical or something like that.
<v Speaker 3>You know, Yeah, And I mean the other thing is
<v Speaker 3>like on the other side of the spectrum, like this
<v Speaker 3>is an all new world, right, It's not Pandora anymore.
<v Speaker 3>It's not Elpis, which you know it is the moon
<v Speaker 3>above Pandora, or it was above Pandora, or the whole
<v Speaker 3>story is like in at the end of Borderlands three.
<v Speaker 3>Sorry for spoilers for Borderlands three, Lilith, who was the
<v Speaker 3>siren in the first Borderlands Yes, Kate Blanchet, Yes, Kate
<v Speaker 3>Blanchett has to teleport Elpis away from Pandora because it
<v Speaker 3>was about to like reak havoc on Pandora, and she
<v Speaker 3>teleports it to what I seemed like an empty part
<v Speaker 3>of space, but it turned out there was a veiled
<v Speaker 3>planet there and it smashed into the planet when she
<v Speaker 3>did that, and it shattered the veil, so now like
<v Speaker 3>there are like people know it's there now, so that
<v Speaker 3>that happens, and then like it causes all kinds of
<v Speaker 3>problems in this planet. And it turns out this planet
<v Speaker 3>was kind of ruled by this like dictator called the Timekeeper,
<v Speaker 3>who I guess has been alive for a very long time.
<v Speaker 3>But he values order above all else, so like he's
<v Speaker 3>really like controlling of the people. He's installed like these
<v Speaker 3>like bolts on their their bodies to prevent them from
<v Speaker 3>disobeying orders and everything. So he's basically enslaved an entire planet.
<v Speaker 3>And once the moon crashes into it, it actually rains
<v Speaker 3>down some of like the psycho masks from Borderlands from
<v Speaker 3>the Borderlands franchise, and one of his like underlings, the
<v Speaker 3>Timekeeper's underlings, picks it up and it's like, oh, what's this,
<v Speaker 3>And then they realize like, oh, there's more out there
<v Speaker 3>than just this planet, and they start questioning it. So
<v Speaker 3>like another faction forms called the Rippers, and what they
<v Speaker 3>do is they realize that they're like kind of under
<v Speaker 3>control of the Timekeeper by these things that are like
<v Speaker 3>surgically implanted in their heads. So they start ripping them out.
<v Speaker 3>But what that does is it often mutilates their body,
<v Speaker 3>but it also mutilates their mind, so they also are
<v Speaker 3>very they can be hostile as well, So you have
<v Speaker 3>like those factions. There's another faction in there that I
<v Speaker 3>didn't really get to interact with very much. But the
<v Speaker 3>Timekeeper is kind of like the main villain, and the
<v Speaker 3>bar has always been I think this isn't really like
<v Speaker 3>controversial to say, but the bar for the Borderlands franchise
<v Speaker 3>in terms of villains has always been Handsome Jack. And yeah,
<v Speaker 3>so like.
<v Speaker 2>I don't even I don't even remember the the Borderlands
<v Speaker 2>one was the one I played primarily the most.
<v Speaker 3>I don't even remember, so uh, I don't know if
<v Speaker 3>the Timekeeper is going to reach the heights of Handsome Jack.
<v Speaker 3>Like that's a very high barred set. But he does
<v Speaker 3>feel very menacing, very powerful, and he almost he definitely
<v Speaker 3>believes in his cause, like he thinks he is doing
<v Speaker 3>this planet right by maintaining order. Kind of similar, I
<v Speaker 3>mean similar, like like all good villains are that way. Like,
<v Speaker 3>I mean, you know, Thanos was a great villain in
<v Speaker 3>Infinity War and Endgame because he believed in his cause
<v Speaker 3>and like he said, he talks about it in such
<v Speaker 3>a way that you're like, Okay, yeah, I understand why
<v Speaker 3>you think that, even though it's clearly.
<v Speaker 1>Wrong, Like you could snap your fingers and create more resources.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, that's the other way you.
<v Speaker 3>Can go exactly. But oh yeah, so eagles could fly
<v Speaker 3>you to the mountain and Lord of the Rings. But yeah, so, like,
<v Speaker 3>I think that the possibility is there for the Timekeeper
<v Speaker 3>to be an incredible villain. So I want to learn
<v Speaker 3>more about him, and I will have an article on
<v Speaker 3>game Informer dot com that dives a little bit deeper
<v Speaker 3>into who the Timekeeper is through the words of the
<v Speaker 3>folks who you know, created him. But yeah, like I
<v Speaker 3>I didn't really encounter him like all that much. I
<v Speaker 3>fought one of his underlings and like a big boss
<v Speaker 3>battle that took like twenty five minutes to finish. It
<v Speaker 3>was a very long battle. It was very cool too.
<v Speaker 3>I faced off against like one of his Like I
<v Speaker 3>think he's like a scientist or something, so like I
<v Speaker 3>thought some of his like I don't know, for lack
<v Speaker 3>of a better word, direct reports, But I did not
<v Speaker 3>really encounter him. There's only been a few times where
<v Speaker 3>like he would just like talk to me over like
<v Speaker 3>I guess like headset or whatever Jack style.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, taunting over in or cooms and stuff.
<v Speaker 3>Like why do you resist? Like you know, like that
<v Speaker 3>type of stuff. It's like nothing like substantial, just him
<v Speaker 3>kind of like pontificating, and yeah, he seems like he's
<v Speaker 3>going to be a very good boss or very good
<v Speaker 3>like main antagonist. So I'm excited to learn more about him. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>So start off in the Fade Fields, which is very
<v Speaker 3>different from like a normal Borderlands like starting area because
<v Speaker 3>it's almost always like a wasteland when you start a
<v Speaker 3>Borderlands game, whether it's like sandy or icy or whatever.
<v Speaker 3>This is like a lush green field and like there's
<v Speaker 3>all kinds of vegetation and like it's bright and sunny.
<v Speaker 3>And that was intentional because they want you to get
<v Speaker 3>there and be like, oh, this is actually a pretty
<v Speaker 3>nice place. And then the more you delve into this world,
<v Speaker 3>the more you realize that like there's kind of like
<v Speaker 3>some other stuff going on, and like it really juxtaposes
<v Speaker 3>against like the starting area of that that almost feels
<v Speaker 3>ripped from like kind of like a lot of RPGs
<v Speaker 3>like where it's like, yeah, we're starting in like the
<v Speaker 3>beach environ or like the forest environment, and now we're
<v Speaker 3>going to the apocalypse environment. Okay, that's kind of how
<v Speaker 3>it feels. Because the exclusive area that I got to
<v Speaker 3>play around in was Carcadia Burn, which is one of
<v Speaker 3>the other After you complete a few missions, the world
<v Speaker 3>opens up and you can go to Carcadia Burn or
<v Speaker 3>if you get what the other name of the other
<v Speaker 3>zone was. I didn't get to see that one, but
<v Speaker 3>it's it's much more of like a desert y wasteland environment,
<v Speaker 3>and it's it's the Rippers that I talked about earlier that,
<v Speaker 3>like you know, are the other faction outside of the Order,
<v Speaker 3>which is the Timekeeper's faction. That's where they kind of
<v Speaker 3>have set up shop is in Carcadia Burn. And the
<v Speaker 3>reason it's a wasteland is because when the moon smashed
<v Speaker 3>into the planet, it's that part of the world that
<v Speaker 3>it hit, so it it took like the brunt of
<v Speaker 3>the force. So yeah, that was really fun. There's so
<v Speaker 3>many side things going around, like there are Rift Champions
<v Speaker 3>they're called where it's like you'll just be going through
<v Speaker 3>the open world like they do such a good job
<v Speaker 3>of like, hey, here's like the mission marker, like you
<v Speaker 3>can go there. Like we'll even have like they even
<v Speaker 3>have a little robot called Echo four that will like
<v Speaker 3>navigate you, like it'll put like almost like Forts of
<v Speaker 3>Horizon style like draw a line on the road and
<v Speaker 3>you can follow that line. But there are so many
<v Speaker 3>diversions all throughout the world, so it's like, Okay, well,
<v Speaker 3>there's this giant like kind of like foggy bubble in
<v Speaker 3>the middle of the world. You're like, what's that And
<v Speaker 3>you go in there and there's a there's like a
<v Speaker 3>world boss that you can fight in there.
<v Speaker 2>Come like like kind of like a like a Destiny
<v Speaker 2>style like this thing just shows up and yeah, it
<v Speaker 2>seems like the encounter, I guess, or.
<v Speaker 3>It's like a it seems like it is at random.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know like how they programmed it, but it
<v Speaker 3>seems like it's like, oh, one of those events is
<v Speaker 3>happening right there. Let me jump in. But you have
<v Speaker 3>to stay within the bubble, like they won't come out
<v Speaker 3>of the bubble to attack you. You go into it, and
<v Speaker 3>like in order to stay in the encounter, you need
<v Speaker 3>to stay in like this little area this radius.
<v Speaker 1>Which is like a very life service y kind of thing. Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, So and then there's also like what was it
<v Speaker 3>called I can grab my notes here? But there's one
<v Speaker 3>where you are basically you're charged with getting a battery
<v Speaker 3>to the top of this area. I think it's is
<v Speaker 3>this the silos, but basically like, yeah, there's a battery
<v Speaker 3>down at the bottom of this this area. You have
<v Speaker 3>to get it up to the top somehow, and like
<v Speaker 3>you can take it and throw it, but you can't
<v Speaker 3>like use like your grapple or anything or mantle while
<v Speaker 3>you're holding the battery. So it's kind of like a
<v Speaker 3>puzzle type element of like, all right, I've got to
<v Speaker 3>get this up there? How do I do that without
<v Speaker 3>most of my traversal skills? Yeah, and that for that one,
<v Speaker 3>I think the one that I completed, it gave me
<v Speaker 3>like a new skin for my my vehicle.
<v Speaker 1>Little speeder bikes in this now.
<v Speaker 3>Right, yeah, digi runners, and they do control very similar
<v Speaker 3>to like how the kind of the bikes in Destiny
<v Speaker 3>control the sparrows.
<v Speaker 2>Individual because wasn't it like the other vehicles and borderlands
<v Speaker 2>are always like a bunch of people can load up
<v Speaker 2>onto them, right, yeah, usually.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, these are individuals at least what I saw their
<v Speaker 3>individual But yes, that that is how it worked as
<v Speaker 3>far as I remember. It's cool. So uh yeah, I
<v Speaker 3>completed a base that I assaulted. There's and that was
<v Speaker 3>where there was this guy in Horace. He was like,
<v Speaker 3>uh just he was like one of the first battles
<v Speaker 3>I did. I also did the uh primordial vault. So
<v Speaker 3>when you there's this other side activity where you have
<v Speaker 3>to find a terminal, So like you open up the
<v Speaker 3>terminal and it opens up like this thing that brings
<v Speaker 3>you a balloon and it pops up and you can
<v Speaker 3>use that balloon almost like the launchers in like Tiers
<v Speaker 3>of the Kingdom, because you have a glide ability and
<v Speaker 3>you can glide just as far as you want basically,
<v Speaker 3>And so what you can do is you can like
<v Speaker 3>grab that balloon and it'll throw you up in the air,
<v Speaker 3>so you can glide around a little bit easier. But
<v Speaker 3>also from what I recall, and this is kind of
<v Speaker 3>off the top of the dome, so apologies that this
<v Speaker 3>is inaccurate, but I think they also give you like
<v Speaker 3>hints or or like to where vault keys are. So
<v Speaker 3>it gives you intel to like fragments of your vault keys.
<v Speaker 3>And then the vaults are kind of like these multi
<v Speaker 3>stage like almost like Horde mode style, but like not
<v Speaker 3>with you don't set up anything. You just get there
<v Speaker 3>and you're fighting waves of enemies and you just have
<v Speaker 3>to survive for as as many enemies as come, and
<v Speaker 3>then you move on to the next platform, and then
<v Speaker 3>move on to the next platform, and at the end
<v Speaker 3>there's this big like set piece boss waiting for you.
<v Speaker 3>I thought a boss called Inceptis, and basically he's like
<v Speaker 3>this kind of like giant like almost like lizard like creature,
<v Speaker 3>and he has like these giant claws that'll slash at you.
<v Speaker 3>He has a big tail that he whips you with
<v Speaker 3>and then like I got him down. Basically it uses
<v Speaker 3>all of the traversal stuff that they put in the game.
<v Speaker 3>It was a really good showcase for that because like
<v Speaker 3>not only did you have to like double jump over
<v Speaker 3>the tail when he whipped and like dodged to one
<v Speaker 3>side or the other for when he slashed at you,
<v Speaker 3>but also you had to use your grapple rope to
<v Speaker 3>like grab him like almost like Spider Man style, Like
<v Speaker 3>he had like these like like almost like pustules, if
<v Speaker 3>that's the right word for it, and you have to
<v Speaker 3>grab those and open them up to make a point
<v Speaker 3>of vulnerability, and then you can shoot like the sore basically.
<v Speaker 3>And then when I got him down to half health,
<v Speaker 3>he jumped up into the ceiling and like formed a
<v Speaker 3>little bit of a cocoon and then he flooded the
<v Speaker 3>arena with acid and I had these like mushrooms were
<v Speaker 3>up on the ceiling. You basically have to grapple from
<v Speaker 3>like mushroom to mushroom while shooting at the thing. It
<v Speaker 3>was very Spider Man esque if Spider Man used guns
<v Speaker 3>that like ricocheted when you got a headshot.
<v Speaker 1>Then when you shot the postules, were any equips that
<v Speaker 1>you remember from your characters.
<v Speaker 3>Oh man, that's gonna leave the mark. I don't know, no,
<v Speaker 3>something like that.
<v Speaker 1>That was a sore spot. That's a free one for
<v Speaker 1>but yeah.
<v Speaker 3>And then another thing they've done is they've added the
<v Speaker 3>ability to to like replay encounters without having to like
<v Speaker 3>do like these weird workarounds that you used to have
<v Speaker 3>to do. And so like you go to this like
<v Speaker 3>vending machine that pops up after you beat a boss
<v Speaker 3>and you can just basically instantly replay it. So it
<v Speaker 3>used to be also very life service, Yeah, because like
<v Speaker 3>you can also do that to grind loot. Like the
<v Speaker 3>bosses obviously dropped like a lot of loot. Same thing
<v Speaker 3>for those Rift champions I mentioned earlier, they drop a
<v Speaker 3>lot of loot, and so like it's maybe worth it
<v Speaker 3>to replay that boss battle.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah see, And you can just replay a boss battle
<v Speaker 1>like as many times as you want.
<v Speaker 3>I think there is like a currency attached to it,
<v Speaker 3>but I don't I think like it. They didn't seem
<v Speaker 3>to indicate that it's like a rare currency or anything
<v Speaker 3>like that. And then they've also made changes like rather
<v Speaker 3>than having like finding health packs in or health kits
<v Speaker 3>in like lockers and stuff like that, now it's just
<v Speaker 3>a cool down that you have, So you have rep
<v Speaker 3>kits and it operates on a cool down and it
<v Speaker 3>not only heals you, but it also buffs you in
<v Speaker 3>certain ways, and there's different rep kits that you can equip.
<v Speaker 2>So and then do you like that, like I've oh, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>as opposed to like the lockers, Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Definitely, I definitely prefer it. And then they also made
<v Speaker 3>some improvements to co op, like you no longer have
<v Speaker 3>to like just spawn at like a nearby checkpoint or
<v Speaker 3>a SPA. Now you can spawn directly on your co
<v Speaker 3>op partner and you can split because it's like I said,
<v Speaker 3>it's a giant, seamless open world and you can explore
<v Speaker 3>as far away from each other as possible, and it'll
<v Speaker 3>only like start like auto teleporting you once somebody enters
<v Speaker 3>another biome, Like if you're in Fade Fields and then
<v Speaker 3>go to Carcadia Burn, it'll be like teleporting you. And
<v Speaker 3>you know, I don't know what the countdown is, but
<v Speaker 3>it's like five four, and you can push a button
<v Speaker 3>and cancel that, so it's not like automatically going to
<v Speaker 3>teleport you. It just like initiates the sequence, but you
<v Speaker 3>can stop it from doing that. So that's nice.
<v Speaker 1>Can explore separate biomes.
<v Speaker 3>Then it sounds it sure seems like it, like I
<v Speaker 3>did not do it, but they said, oh yeah, it'll
<v Speaker 3>auto teleport you want. Because like I was talking to
<v Speaker 3>one developer and playing co op with another and he
<v Speaker 3>was like, oh yeah, hold on right here. For a second,
<v Speaker 3>he was like telling me about something, and then he's like,
<v Speaker 3>all right, your co op partner is over there, and
<v Speaker 3>it said like eleven hundred meters away, and he's like
<v Speaker 3>you could try to catch up with him, or you
<v Speaker 3>can auto teleport to his location at any time, which
<v Speaker 3>is also very cool, so you don't have to wait
<v Speaker 3>for like any kind of auto teleport. But they were like, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>you can cancel that if you want to. So it
<v Speaker 3>does seem like I could explore one part of the
<v Speaker 3>world and you know, Marcus, you could explore another part
<v Speaker 3>of the world, so that is also very cool. They
<v Speaker 3>are also one of the big things that they've done
<v Speaker 3>is they if you've played Borderlands three, like the manufacturers
<v Speaker 3>of the guns became even more important in those games
<v Speaker 3>in that game, and basically those manufacturers have different traits
<v Speaker 3>so that that gives them like a more identifiable characteristic.
<v Speaker 3>So it's like, oh, I had this gun that means
<v Speaker 3>it's gonna you know, ricochet if I shoot somebody in
<v Speaker 3>the head, it's gonna get to a crit hit it's
<v Speaker 3>to ricochet to another enemy automatically. Or this one shoots
<v Speaker 3>sticky bombs or something like that. Now there is a
<v Speaker 3>component of mixing and matching those traits, so like if
<v Speaker 3>you have the ricochet off the crit shots and you
<v Speaker 3>pick a gun up that happens to have a licensed
<v Speaker 3>part from the manufacturer that does the sticky bombs. You
<v Speaker 3>will get both of those. It'll get the best of
<v Speaker 3>both worlds in that or this one on like you know,
<v Speaker 3>you'll be like, oh, it has it's this gun, but
<v Speaker 3>it has a license part from this, so you get
<v Speaker 3>the both of those characteristics in that gun. So A
<v Speaker 3>really up the number of combinations there are, like they
<v Speaker 3>I mean, they have always had I think, like over
<v Speaker 3>a billion guns in every Borderlands game, just through like
<v Speaker 3>procedural generation. But like I think they were talking and
<v Speaker 3>this I believe at one point, Again don't quote me
<v Speaker 3>on this, but I think they said upwards of five
<v Speaker 3>billion combinations.
<v Speaker 1>M that's several more billions.
<v Speaker 3>That is that is many guns at least. Yes, So
<v Speaker 3>and yeah, like I like they've nailed the tone of
<v Speaker 3>the writing. Again, I didn't play too many story moments,
<v Speaker 3>but like they they definitely feel more rained in with
<v Speaker 3>the humor and they kind of described it the way
<v Speaker 3>I when I interviewed Negoshi, the guy behind the Yakuza series, originally,
<v Speaker 3>he explained it as like, Okay, well, you know, if
<v Speaker 3>you play the main like the main critical path of
<v Speaker 3>the story, you will get this very serious drama type story.
<v Speaker 3>Action focus drama basically, but if you go off the
<v Speaker 3>beaten path, that's where you get the comedic stuff, like
<v Speaker 3>the side quests and everything. That's kind of how the
<v Speaker 3>Borderlands writing team explained, like how they're like balancing the
<v Speaker 3>comedy with the kind of serious action stuff.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, awesome, but it's.
<v Speaker 3>Still seasoned with that humor though, Like even when you're
<v Speaker 3>playing the main stuff, there's still gonna be the little quips.
<v Speaker 3>There's still gonna be funny moments. But yeah, the funniest
<v Speaker 3>moments that I expect were definitely when I was doing
<v Speaker 3>side stuff.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, what's the uh, what's a funny line that you
<v Speaker 1>can remember?
<v Speaker 3>The clap trap one that made me laugh because you know,
<v Speaker 3>clap traps always like kind of very like happy go
<v Speaker 3>lucky in a lot of ways and sometimes a little menacing.
<v Speaker 3>But he was like telling me to go do something,
<v Speaker 3>and like I was like, I don't want to spoil
<v Speaker 3>too much, but I was like going to from like
<v Speaker 3>area to area, grabbing these mementos that like I guess
<v Speaker 3>crashed down on Cairos, the new planet when the moon
<v Speaker 3>crashed into it, and clap traps like, oh, I guess
<v Speaker 3>it's not there and then like you killed one more
<v Speaker 3>guy and I guess he drops it and you find
<v Speaker 3>it and he's just like, oh it was there, never
<v Speaker 3>questioned me again, like a real deep voice on my woe.
<v Speaker 3>So that was it was pretty funny. I don't know,
<v Speaker 3>like it was just out of the blue car. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>it's completely co It's not going to do it justice
<v Speaker 3>when I explain it like that.
<v Speaker 1>You had to be there.
<v Speaker 3>Basically, Yeah, the game of tell there a game of
<v Speaker 3>telephone with something I experienced almost a month ago now,
<v Speaker 3>but yeah, because I did play one day, I traveled
<v Speaker 3>to Nevado, California before this trip to Frisco, Texas, and
<v Speaker 3>went to two K's offices out in Nevado, California and
<v Speaker 3>played a day of Borderlands four there. And then two
<v Speaker 3>weeks later I went to Texas and spent two whole
<v Speaker 3>days at Gearbox doing interviews, playing hours upon hours of
<v Speaker 3>Borderlands four. And I mean, I've got to say like it,
<v Speaker 3>I went in with caution. I was like very hesitant
<v Speaker 3>to like allowing myself to be excited for this game,
<v Speaker 3>and I stepped away being like, Okay, I think they
<v Speaker 3>understand what they needed to do to course correct in
<v Speaker 3>talking with Randy Pitchford, like I talked to him a
<v Speaker 3>little bit about, like, you know, what lessons did you
<v Speaker 3>learn from Borderlands three, Like where did you want to
<v Speaker 3>carry into Borderlands four? And he was like, you know,
<v Speaker 3>like he gave me this whole story about the reason
<v Speaker 3>it's called Borderlands is because it exists in between multiple things.
<v Speaker 3>Like you know, it's a it's a shooter, but it's
<v Speaker 3>also an RPG. It's a comedy, but it's also a drama.
<v Speaker 3>So it's like all these different things that exist like
<v Speaker 3>in the borders between these different things. And he was like,
<v Speaker 3>I think that with like some of our recent games,
<v Speaker 3>we've gone off too far one way or the other,
<v Speaker 3>and we wanted to get back to that Borderlands region
<v Speaker 3>where it's like we are kind of like in like
<v Speaker 3>that gray area between those spaces. And I was like, Okay,
<v Speaker 3>that that does make sense, and that does seem to
<v Speaker 3>be in line with what I have experienced so far.
<v Speaker 3>And I've got to say, like it has made me
<v Speaker 3>feel the excitement that I felt when like Borderlands two
<v Speaker 3>was coming out, where I was just like Okay, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>a sequel to a game that I absolutely adore is
<v Speaker 3>coming out and everything I've seen has told me it's
<v Speaker 3>going to be amazing, And I think Borderlands four is, uh,
<v Speaker 3>you know, up there with my most anticipated games for
<v Speaker 3>the rest of this year.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, I'm excited. That's that's impressive.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, because I mean, I, like you said, it's not
<v Speaker 2>like you went in there expecting to be blown away
<v Speaker 2>or walk out with like this is I'm really looking
<v Speaker 2>forward to this now. You were just like, yeah, let
<v Speaker 2>me see what this is. Let me see what Borderlands
<v Speaker 2>is today, and like that's that that gives me that
<v Speaker 2>That's that makes me optimistic too, because I'm not really
<v Speaker 2>a big Borderland but like I did play one, and
<v Speaker 2>I liked one quite a bit, but then I kind
<v Speaker 2>of fell off on two, and I don't think I
<v Speaker 2>even booted up three. But like, you know, those games
<v Speaker 2>are cool. I'm always open for an excuse to revisit them,
<v Speaker 2>you know.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'm kind of in the same boat as you.
<v Speaker 1>Like I love one and two. The other ones just
<v Speaker 1>didn't hit the same way. It's it's it's been very
<v Speaker 1>hard for me to get excited for a new Borderlands
<v Speaker 1>like since two pretty much. But yeah, hearing your enthusiasm
<v Speaker 1>for it's definitely like I was just kind of like
<v Speaker 1>indifferent to four up until this point pretty much, but yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I am more likely to give it a shot now,
<v Speaker 1>and it does it does sound like they're doing some
<v Speaker 1>cool stuff.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I'm very much looking forward to it. And it
<v Speaker 3>was fun because, like I also got to know a
<v Speaker 3>lot of these developers and like they most of them
<v Speaker 3>have been there for like at least a decade, if
<v Speaker 3>not more. Like the creative director was like a level
<v Speaker 3>designer on Borderlands one, and like the art director has
<v Speaker 3>been there, like working at Gearbox since before border Lane,
<v Speaker 3>Like he was involved with like the the art direction
<v Speaker 3>change and everything like that. So like it's really really
<v Speaker 3>like they had that institutional knowledge that I think that
<v Speaker 3>like a lot of studios unfortunately don't have too much
<v Speaker 3>of these days, with like the state of the industry
<v Speaker 3>and everything, where it's like people being you know, laid off,
<v Speaker 3>studios being closed. You know, Gearbox has been around for
<v Speaker 3>a while now, and a lot of their more senior
<v Speaker 3>people have been there for almost as long as the
<v Speaker 3>studio has been open, at least as long as they've
<v Speaker 3>been working on Borderlands. But there's also a fair injection
<v Speaker 3>of newer talent as well that I was able to
<v Speaker 3>talk to. So it's cool to get both sides of
<v Speaker 3>that of like some of the people being like, oh yeah,
<v Speaker 3>Like I got into the industry because I love playing
<v Speaker 3>Borderlands one and two when I was like in high
<v Speaker 3>school and now here I am working at the studio,
<v Speaker 3>and then like you know, other people, it's like, oh yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I was the reason that we changed the art style, right.
<v Speaker 3>I worked closely with Randy when we were changing the
<v Speaker 3>art style for Borderlands one. And you know, if you
<v Speaker 3>don't know the story behind that, I will have a
<v Speaker 3>story on why they did that. If you recall, Game
<v Speaker 3>Informer actually had Borderlands one on the cover back when
<v Speaker 3>it had a completely different art style, it almost looked
<v Speaker 3>more like, I would say, like closer to what Rage
<v Speaker 3>was like if you looked at like in Software Rate. Actually, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>so it was like a kind of more a straight
<v Speaker 3>laced style, which I don't think would have gelled well
<v Speaker 3>with the writing and like tone of the game overall.
<v Speaker 3>It was called Pandora originally, and they changed it to
<v Speaker 3>Borderlands before they launched, and when they changed the art style,
<v Speaker 3>and I talked to Randy, I talked to Graham, who
<v Speaker 3>was the creative director of Borderlands four.
<v Speaker 2>He was.
<v Speaker 3>I asked him the little teaser. I was like, hey,
<v Speaker 3>what was your thought when like, you know, Randy came
<v Speaker 3>in the room, was like, hey, guys, I know we're
<v Speaker 3>like getting closer to finishing this game, but we have
<v Speaker 3>to change the entire art style. And his first answer
<v Speaker 3>was and I'll censor myself here, effing insane was was
<v Speaker 3>what he thought of that decision initially, but now like, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>it's absolutely the right choice because like look at where
<v Speaker 3>the series is now. So yeah, I'll have a story
<v Speaker 3>on that in the coming weeks as well. Over on
<v Speaker 3>Gaminformer dot com got some other more in depth stuff
<v Speaker 3>stuff on like the Timekeeper, stuff on the seamless open world,
<v Speaker 3>in depth hands on impressions of all the Vault hunters.
<v Speaker 3>So lots of exclusive coverage coming this month to game
<v Speaker 3>Informer dot com.
<v Speaker 1>Awesome. Yes, keep an eye out for that cover story
<v Speaker 1>when it gets those mailboxes. Thank you so much, Brian,
<v Speaker 1>And moving on, Kyle Hilliard. For a long time, I
<v Speaker 1>was the coolest person in this office because I had
<v Speaker 1>gone to Kajuma Productions and played thirty hours of Debt
<v Speaker 1>Stranding two for a big preview event, and I knew
<v Speaker 1>so much about this game that you guys didn't know,
<v Speaker 1>and I could flaunt that on you, but you have,
<v Speaker 1>much like Sam Porter Bridges, you have ascended the mountaintop
<v Speaker 1>and have kicked me off of it because you have
<v Speaker 1>finished Death Stranding too. You know way more about it
<v Speaker 1>than I do now at this point, and you have
<v Speaker 1>boasted your review. I know it all. Yes, you know
<v Speaker 1>the secrets of the beach and the dooms and the
<v Speaker 1>Kyriellium and all the other weird words that written that game.
<v Speaker 2>A pass and APAC and the UAC. Yeah, all that stuff,
<v Speaker 2>lots of acroning that game.
<v Speaker 1>Hung out with a talking doll and a mannequin for
<v Speaker 1>hours an hour.
<v Speaker 2>I know why that guy that Hydeo Kojima insists is
<v Speaker 2>important and keeps showing us.
<v Speaker 3>I know why he's important.
<v Speaker 1>All right, Well tell us all about a desk randing too,
<v Speaker 1>your review now live on the side. What did you
<v Speaker 1>think of a game? Where are you at with it?
<v Speaker 3>Which, by the way, Marcus, you're still cooler than me,
<v Speaker 3>just like in general.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah I was.
<v Speaker 3>I was actually gonna point that out that Marcus fact
<v Speaker 3>cooler than Kyle.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, and you've also you know hung out with
<v Speaker 2>Hideo Kojima in his purgatory room.
<v Speaker 1>I think I hung out. I think it's stood.
<v Speaker 3>Next to him for a photograph. Is that is that
<v Speaker 3>room truly as bright as it looks the picture?
<v Speaker 1>It is blindingly bright, especially because the rest of the
<v Speaker 1>office is pitch black, like black walls, black carpet, black doors.
<v Speaker 1>So when they do the double door reveal, it is
<v Speaker 1>literally like you have stepped into through the gates of
<v Speaker 1>heaven and your soul is being cleansed as you step
<v Speaker 1>into the room.
<v Speaker 3>So it's like whenever it can when when like the
<v Speaker 3>video game has it, so like the door opens and
<v Speaker 3>like it's outside and there's like that white effect for
<v Speaker 3>a second while your eyes adjust.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I was literally like for the first few like minute,
<v Speaker 1>I was squinting my eyes standing in a room like
<v Speaker 1>we were outside. It was very much like, oh, the
<v Speaker 1>this is brighter. This is even brighter than it looks
<v Speaker 1>in all those pictures and videos.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I know, we're spending a lot of time talking
<v Speaker 2>about rooms that we entered before actually talking about the
<v Speaker 2>thing people want to hear about. Like that's kind of
<v Speaker 2>the theme of this episode. Brian going into the cold
<v Speaker 2>room Marcus going into the white room that like you
<v Speaker 2>have to go into that room to enter Kojima Productions, right,
<v Speaker 2>Like that is that like the entrance, you know.
<v Speaker 1>It's like it's own, it's like down a hallway, but
<v Speaker 1>you do have to go to it. There are secret
<v Speaker 1>doors to get to, like two secret conference rooms that
<v Speaker 1>are like basically the same but different colors and maybe
<v Speaker 1>slightly different furniture. And according to the tour guide, it
<v Speaker 1>was just saying like it's just kind of mood base
<v Speaker 1>whenever one Kajima wants to use for like a meeting
<v Speaker 1>or if he has to take a call with some
<v Speaker 1>celebrity he's trying to scan into the game. He's like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>this is the this is the white lounge room. This
<v Speaker 1>is when he's just feeling contemplative today or something. We'll
<v Speaker 1>come in here and we'll do our thing. But on
<v Speaker 1>the other side there's a black one, and that's when
<v Speaker 1>he's in a different mood. It's like that's the.
<v Speaker 2>Room he goes to when he tries to figure out
<v Speaker 2>how many things the word kyrillium can be applied to,
<v Speaker 2>and it just sort of like.
<v Speaker 3>Wave off just.
<v Speaker 1>Writing down every variation of kyrill Kyrol Network, Chirole Animals, Kyrol.
<v Speaker 3>You know, I am so happy that he is enigmatic,
<v Speaker 3>or as enigmatic as he is to us, to his employees,
<v Speaker 3>like it sounds like they're like, yeah, Kojima's doing Kojima,
<v Speaker 3>Like let him be Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>But yes, death Stranding too. Is this a good game
<v Speaker 1>with all of the weirdness they get into it? Is
<v Speaker 1>this a good game? Kyle?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>I like Death Stranding two on the beach. I gave
<v Speaker 2>it an eight point seventy five, which the way I
<v Speaker 2>described it when Matt Miller most recently asked me is like, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>how would you land on that?
<v Speaker 3>It didn't quite crest.
<v Speaker 2>You know, once you hit that like nine sort of zone,
<v Speaker 2>Like this is like they're getting knocking this out of
<v Speaker 2>the park. There's like I have very little complaints. I
<v Speaker 2>was enraptured the whole experience. Like I was just south
<v Speaker 2>of that string it.
<v Speaker 1>Was almost a nine. But then you lost your balance
<v Speaker 1>and sort of tilted to the right and sort of
<v Speaker 1>like stumbled.
<v Speaker 2>And fell a little bit and just tumbled and lost
<v Speaker 2>all my packages. Yeah. Yeah, death Stranding overall is kind
<v Speaker 2>of It's an odd one for me. Like I love
<v Speaker 2>Hideo Kojima. I'm part of the problem, I like to say.
<v Speaker 2>You know, like I know that people have their qualms
<v Speaker 2>with him, and it's like it's all so there's also
<v Speaker 2>that issue of like him being like a self proclaimed
<v Speaker 2>kind of a tour and you know, arguably not giving
<v Speaker 2>like the larger team enough credit, you know, because he
<v Speaker 2>does work with writers and stuff like that, and obviously
<v Speaker 2>these games wouldn't exist about a larger team. Like I
<v Speaker 2>totally agree with all that, but like there is there
<v Speaker 2>is there's like a tone, there's an emotion that comes
<v Speaker 2>from a Judeo Kojima game, you know, and I and
<v Speaker 2>I love it, Like I love the Metal Gear Solid series.
<v Speaker 2>I said as much in my review, Like Metal Gear
<v Speaker 2>Solid two is like even not even just like one
<v Speaker 2>of my favorite games, but like one of my favorite
<v Speaker 2>pieces of fiction, like truly, like I just adore that
<v Speaker 2>game so much, and like I it kind of perhaps
<v Speaker 2>unfairly made me go into Death Straining two with all
<v Speaker 2>really high expectations because it's like they are good as sequels,
<v Speaker 2>you know, they are good at iterating on like a
<v Speaker 2>core idea and then like twisting it on its head
<v Speaker 2>and like really surprising you in in in unexpected ways,
<v Speaker 2>which was kind of like, I mean, that's what Malgar
<v Speaker 2>Solid two is. It is a game. It is a
<v Speaker 2>game about being sequel and also about just playing with
<v Speaker 2>your expectations to no end. Like every hour in that
<v Speaker 2>game is like making you like suddenly be like, oh
<v Speaker 2>my gosh, I didn't what is happening here?
<v Speaker 1>You know?
<v Speaker 2>And you know I didn't really get that from Death
<v Speaker 2>Stranding too, right, It's it's it is iterative on the
<v Speaker 2>first game in surprising ways, like there are you know,
<v Speaker 2>the sequences where you are gosh, I'm trying to be
<v Speaker 2>careful with spoilers for both games, but there's those sequences
<v Speaker 2>where you kind of get you leave the world in
<v Speaker 2>the first game and you're fighting Marcus helped me. The
<v Speaker 2>actor's name? Who oh, Troy Baker's No, not Troy Baker.
<v Speaker 2>The oh he's talking about not Solid Snake. Yes, yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>band gay guys. Yeah, why can't I talk? Why can't
<v Speaker 2>I think of the actor's name? You guys know how.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I'm talking about it in the first.
<v Speaker 1>Game, Okay, I just the second game? Uh oh wait,
<v Speaker 1>hold on, Matts Michaelson losing.
<v Speaker 3>My mind when man game Now, Mad's mechs. So I
<v Speaker 3>actually have not played Death Straining one and I haven't
<v Speaker 3>played Death Straining two. I knew Mads Michelson was in
<v Speaker 3>the first game, and I almost shouted that out, and
<v Speaker 3>then I was like, no, I'm gonna let the people
<v Speaker 3>who know what they're talking about talk. So I could
<v Speaker 3>have saved.
<v Speaker 1>But Matt Michelson is always the right answer. Brian just
<v Speaker 1>shouted out, whenever you're in doubt, when you know something,
<v Speaker 1>just say his name.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, obviously, but he like those sequences in des
<v Speaker 2>Strating one, I think I think most people consider to
<v Speaker 2>be kind of a weaker part of the game gameplay wise,
<v Speaker 2>when you go and you have to sort of face
<v Speaker 2>Mad's Michelson's character, and there's a lot of interesting story,
<v Speaker 2>you know, implications that come from all those sequences. And
<v Speaker 2>I was surprised when Destraating two actually has like a
<v Speaker 2>new version of that, right, Like it's like an iterative
<v Speaker 2>version of that where it's like, oh, I'm kind of
<v Speaker 2>doing this again with different characters, Okay, Like I was
<v Speaker 2>sort of surprised by that, and like the sort of
<v Speaker 2>structure of doing deliveries and stuff feels very similar but
<v Speaker 2>is improved in many ways.
<v Speaker 1>Can I also just real quick the first again without spoiling,
<v Speaker 1>the first instance of doing the thing you just described
<v Speaker 1>where you go to a different place to deal with
<v Speaker 1>a person is incredible. Like it's the only one that
<v Speaker 1>I saw during my thirty hours preview. But it's like, yeah, visually,
<v Speaker 1>in presentation wise, it is like unbelievable.
<v Speaker 3>It's it's very let me ask you, yes, so when
<v Speaker 3>you're talking about that, and you may be able to
<v Speaker 3>get into this a little bit more once we talked more.
<v Speaker 3>But is this the game that's going to make people
<v Speaker 3>want to upgrade to a PS five pro. I played
<v Speaker 3>on a standard and I thought it looked amazing.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it looks a yeah preview, the preview was on
<v Speaker 1>a standard PS five two when I went to the office. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it looks, it looks and runs. Well, it's the it's
<v Speaker 1>the Death of Engine too, which powers the Horizon games,
<v Speaker 1>and those look fantastic on DACE PS five. Okay.
<v Speaker 2>The game opens in a way that's very like and
<v Speaker 2>there's there's in the beginning. Uh, it actually has real
<v Speaker 2>life footage right of like environments that look like they
<v Speaker 2>could belong in Death Stranding, and the transition into gameplay
<v Speaker 2>is like barely noticeable, Like it took me a minute
<v Speaker 2>to be like.
<v Speaker 3>Wait is that real footage? Wait? Is this gameplay?
<v Speaker 2>And it like it like it took it takes a
<v Speaker 2>second to realize in a complimentary way that it's like
<v Speaker 2>when you shift over to gameplay, like the game looks amazing.
<v Speaker 2>I mean to answer your question, Brian, I guess the
<v Speaker 2>answer is no, because like it looks great on PS
<v Speaker 2>five that's how That's how I played it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, even on performance mode, which is what I personally
<v Speaker 1>recommend playing is you get the smooth sixty, but like,
<v Speaker 1>at least for me, the like graphical quality like takes
<v Speaker 1>a minor hit, Like I think it's worth worth switching
<v Speaker 1>to that just to get the extra frames.
<v Speaker 3>You're among friends here with that, Marcus, because Kyle and
<v Speaker 3>I think are very aligned on that as well, Like
<v Speaker 3>it's almost always worth doing performance mode over like the textures,
<v Speaker 3>I'll always go performance.
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely, Yes, scrudles textures. What we say, who needs textures? Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, I mean you've got me out of like
<v Speaker 2>another sidetrack. You're like thinking about how visually interesting that
<v Speaker 2>whole sequences, Marcus, that you'll see when you play the
<v Speaker 2>game when everyone will see But like that's a big
<v Speaker 2>thing about this game. It's like it's so imaginative and
<v Speaker 2>dream like and it's like visuals, like it doesn't really
<v Speaker 2>and they do define things right, It's it's not like
<v Speaker 2>I'm not like waving my hand and be like this
<v Speaker 2>doesn't make any sense. The weird thing about Death Stranding
<v Speaker 2>is like characters just monologue at you endlessly and explain
<v Speaker 2>everything about its world, to the point where it's like
<v Speaker 2>I would argue that Death Stranding is actually like it's
<v Speaker 2>not that it's easy to understand. It's just that it's
<v Speaker 2>like they just tell you everything, and especially now that
<v Speaker 2>you have the resource where you can like read everything
<v Speaker 2>that you've like maybe potentially like the interactive encyclopedia that
<v Speaker 2>they basically took from Final Fantasy sixteen's like taking, which is.
<v Speaker 3>A good idea.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Yeah, Like I every time someone would say a
<v Speaker 2>word that maybe you like, like I kind of vaguely
<v Speaker 2>remember that, it would be like, do you want to
<v Speaker 2>like read about that word? You can hold down pause now,
<v Speaker 2>And I took advantage of that almost every time, Like
<v Speaker 2>it was nice to just get a.
<v Speaker 3>Little little thing.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, so it didn't feel as as different from
<v Speaker 2>Death Stranding one as I expected, which was maybe an
<v Speaker 2>unfair expectation on my part. It does feel iterative in
<v Speaker 2>a way, but like everything is like better, right, Like
<v Speaker 2>I think the package delivery feels better. I like Australia
<v Speaker 2>more than the than the United States. I think it's
<v Speaker 2>like easier to travel through. You get a vehicle very
<v Speaker 2>quickly in Death Stranding too, and like I rarely traveled
<v Speaker 2>on foot again after that point, yeah, which is like
<v Speaker 2>I think it's just kind of a choice that you
<v Speaker 2>can make because I mean the game is very much
<v Speaker 2>designed around like you can walk everywhere, and that's part
<v Speaker 2>of the fun of like building ladders and like pulleys
<v Speaker 2>and stuff, but as like you can also just get
<v Speaker 2>on a motorcycle and just drive there quickly.
<v Speaker 1>Again, it's like that stingy about vehicles either, like they're
<v Speaker 1>like no, no, no, we're not going to be like you
<v Speaker 1>should be walking. Really, it's like no, no, you want
<v Speaker 1>a big old truck. Here have all the trucks you want.
<v Speaker 3>So so, Kyle, I mean, there's a lot of mission.
<v Speaker 3>Let me ask you this. I know you and I
<v Speaker 3>have a shared love for Breath of the Wild when
<v Speaker 3>you play Breath the Wild, because I've heard some people
<v Speaker 3>compare Death Stranding one to Breath the Wild in terms
<v Speaker 3>of like the exploration and everything. How do you get
<v Speaker 3>through the world and breath the world? Do you walk
<v Speaker 3>or do you ride a horse? I teleport, but like
<v Speaker 3>you if you're just if you're exploring, do you like
<v Speaker 3>walk and run around or do you do you get
<v Speaker 3>on a home?
<v Speaker 1>I rarely used a horse, and a lot of it
<v Speaker 1>is just because the horse controls aren't super great compared
<v Speaker 1>to other games. Otherwise I probably.
<v Speaker 2>No, Marcus, they don't hit trees. I don't know if
<v Speaker 2>you know that they're very smart. Okay, they're geniuses. This
<v Speaker 2>is a very that's a very old reference to like
<v Speaker 2>a version of Breath of the Wild that doesn't even exist.
<v Speaker 3>Three people understand that reference. One of them is the
<v Speaker 3>other one is me. You know.
<v Speaker 2>It's it's interesting that people compared to Breath the Wall
<v Speaker 2>because I really wouldn't because it's like it's so it's
<v Speaker 2>so point A to point b right like, and it's
<v Speaker 2>like it's to go off and explore. You don't really
<v Speaker 2>get a lot from doing that, Like if you stray
<v Speaker 2>from your there's not a ton of reason to do
<v Speaker 2>it other than to maybe find packages that you could
<v Speaker 2>deliver somewhere else, so that it Yeah, I don't know
<v Speaker 2>if that that comparison holds up to me, other than
<v Speaker 2>it's like an open world and you have a lot
<v Speaker 2>of weird tools that you can use to get through
<v Speaker 2>it in different ways however you want. But like a
<v Speaker 2>lot of the time, it's like you're barely making it
<v Speaker 2>to your destination right, like you're the battery's almost out
<v Speaker 2>on your car, or you're like your robot legs, or
<v Speaker 2>you're like your shoes are running out. And like I
<v Speaker 2>did like much less so indestering two than one. I
<v Speaker 2>would still hit points where I was like one of
<v Speaker 2>the ones that really frustrated me was I was driving
<v Speaker 2>a car through a river which wasn't very deep, but
<v Speaker 2>and you know this is on me, but my battery
<v Speaker 2>died in the middle of the river, and so like
<v Speaker 2>what I had to do was like, okay, let me
<v Speaker 2>get I got out of the vehicle and it was
<v Speaker 2>like you know, you know, walking through the water, and
<v Speaker 2>I got to the coast and I set up a
<v Speaker 2>battery so I could charge my car. But because my
<v Speaker 2>car in like the middle of the river. I just
<v Speaker 2>had to lay down on the ground and rest, and
<v Speaker 2>I literally walked away from the system for a while
<v Speaker 2>so that the solar panels on the car could recharge
<v Speaker 2>it enough just for me to back up and like
<v Speaker 2>recharge my car. And those moments were kind of like
<v Speaker 2>those are that's just kind of annoying, Like it's not
<v Speaker 2>really fun or makes it more like intense.
<v Speaker 3>It was just kind of obnoxious.
<v Speaker 2>Interesting, then you do you do also have those moments
<v Speaker 2>where it's like where you do like your battery barely
<v Speaker 2>makes it to the destination and it's like and like
<v Speaker 2>I had a couple of just amazingly close calls and
<v Speaker 2>I was just like, man, this this does feel good.
<v Speaker 2>And you're like covered in dirt and blood and you
<v Speaker 2>drop off that package and you go take a shower
<v Speaker 2>and you rest, you know, and then you're back at
<v Speaker 2>it again. It's like those moments feel really.
<v Speaker 3>Good and cool.
<v Speaker 1>I was gonna say, I almost disagree, but it's a
<v Speaker 1>personal taste. Where like the times where I had, like
<v Speaker 1>I when I was playing the preview build, I had
<v Speaker 1>a similar instance where I crashed my truck and it
<v Speaker 1>got stuck on some rocks, and I couldn't dislodge it,
<v Speaker 1>and it had a bunch of stuff in there, so
<v Speaker 1>I was like, oh, I need to go get a
<v Speaker 1>tool to get these out, and I kind of liked
<v Speaker 1>and also it ran out of battery, so I needed
<v Speaker 1>to rest first. And I kind of like find that
<v Speaker 1>charming because there's something about like the Delivery Boy fantasy
<v Speaker 1>of like, oh, things like this are going to go
<v Speaker 1>wrong and you just kind of have to either deal
<v Speaker 1>with it, but like, yeah, I kind of like improvise,
<v Speaker 1>and there's it's like a vibe whereas like I kind
<v Speaker 1>of like just sitting around here and just wait for
<v Speaker 1>the sun to go up and waiting for my thing
<v Speaker 1>to recharge and then I'll keep resuming. Like but I
<v Speaker 1>think you also have to be like if you're not
<v Speaker 1>in a big rush, like this is a game that
<v Speaker 1>is like and I don't know, you had to play
<v Speaker 1>it for a review embargo, so you kind of have
<v Speaker 1>to keep things moving. But I think if you don't
<v Speaker 1>have that over you, I think is one of those
<v Speaker 1>games are like I think you do yourself at the
<v Speaker 1>service if you try to just blow through it. Because
<v Speaker 1>I think a lot of the best feeling of the
<v Speaker 1>game in between the crazy story moments and the cool
<v Speaker 1>like firefights are just like vibe in the world, Like
<v Speaker 1>I'm just gonna put some woodkid on and my sound
<v Speaker 1>little playlist. I'm just gonna just take my time just
<v Speaker 1>getting through this world. I'll get to my destination when
<v Speaker 1>I get there, and whatever weirdness happens along the way happens,
<v Speaker 1>you know.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And I kind of like not really, I'm just
<v Speaker 2>not really that kind of player though, sure, No, Like
<v Speaker 2>I just and you're right, like it is just kind
<v Speaker 2>of player preference and personal like like I I kind
<v Speaker 2>of approach every delivery like I gotta get this pizza
<v Speaker 2>to this like this this cartoon scientist lady, Like if
<v Speaker 2>she doesn't get this pizza, like, the world is like literally,
<v Speaker 2>we're gonna go extinct. Like that's kind of the stakes
<v Speaker 2>of death stranding.
<v Speaker 1>It's a really important pizza.
<v Speaker 2>You don't like genuinely extinction events are like right around
<v Speaker 2>the corners. Like but but I mean there is like
<v Speaker 2>undeniably those moments where like the music swells and you're
<v Speaker 2>like just walking up to these like really beautiful sort
<v Speaker 2>of settings and it's like that game. The mood of
<v Speaker 2>that game is crazy the like like the vibes of it,
<v Speaker 2>that's the design of everything. It's just like it feels
<v Speaker 2>like almost like a music video or something where it's
<v Speaker 2>like it's just really interesting visuals for the sake of
<v Speaker 2>interesting visuals, and like I think it really is cool.
<v Speaker 2>And you know, that's to say, like it's there's a
<v Speaker 2>big improvement over sort of the mechanics of Deus Straining
<v Speaker 2>one in my opinion, right, Like, I think the game
<v Speaker 2>is a little like easier. I think it's like more
<v Speaker 2>fun to play. It's like there's less hurdles in your
<v Speaker 2>way to get those things done, which I like. But
<v Speaker 2>in a weird way, I think some people might see
<v Speaker 2>it as like the the you know, the heart edge
<v Speaker 2>is being shaved off of death Stranding. But I quite
<v Speaker 2>appreciated it. Yeah. And then and then the sort of
<v Speaker 2>like I don't know, I my my negativity starts kind
<v Speaker 2>of with the story, but not not to the point
<v Speaker 2>where I'm saying, like I wouldn't say it's like bad
<v Speaker 2>or not engaging, right, Like the sort of the narrative
<v Speaker 2>of the game is still much more interesting than I mean,
<v Speaker 2>bluntly like most video game stories, Like there's just a
<v Speaker 2>weird universe that's been established here, but it's weird in
<v Speaker 2>a way that it's like it makes sense until there
<v Speaker 2>are occasions where it doesn't, and it really does like
<v Speaker 2>it's just being weird for the sake of being weird, sure,
<v Speaker 2>which is like metal Gear has a lot of weird
<v Speaker 2>stuff in it. But the thing I've always loved about
<v Speaker 2>metal Gear is that like there's almost always some kind
<v Speaker 2>of explanation for why these there's a reason there's a
<v Speaker 2>vampire in metal Gear solids. But I'm not saying it's good.
<v Speaker 2>I'm saying it exists, right, But there were at least
<v Speaker 2>and like I'm I'm excited to have like spoiled discussions
<v Speaker 2>with people in the future. I'm not going to spoil
<v Speaker 2>any story stuff or deaths running too here, but there
<v Speaker 2>are at least like two or three moments where I'm like, talk,
<v Speaker 2>let's talk about this and you and I try to
<v Speaker 2>figure out what why this happened this way? Yeah, you
<v Speaker 2>know what I mean, Like, I'm looking forward to having
<v Speaker 2>those discussions. And there are like a lot of there's
<v Speaker 2>a lot of like big twists and revelations that just
<v Speaker 2>like just didn't do it for me. Really, you know,
<v Speaker 2>and I was like, there's there's some cool ones, and like,
<v Speaker 2>I really like the last couple hours of the game,
<v Speaker 2>the last couple chapters are really engaging and like just
<v Speaker 2>visually really impressive, and like, I really it does. I
<v Speaker 2>was joking with Brian as I was working on the review.
<v Speaker 2>I was like, yeah, here's here's where I feel about
<v Speaker 2>it right now. But I haven't gotten the ending, and
<v Speaker 2>Hideo kojim is really good at endings, so like we're
<v Speaker 2>gonna we'll see how this goes. And like Death Stranding
<v Speaker 2>two as a great ending, like which isn't very surprising,
<v Speaker 2>but I just like I just never felt quite as
<v Speaker 2>like like surprised or emotionally invested as I did in
<v Speaker 2>previous co Gama games or even Death Stranding one. Sure
<v Speaker 2>if I'm being honest, but there is there is some
<v Speaker 2>really great stuff.
<v Speaker 3>And like also, like performances are kind of inconsistent from.
<v Speaker 2>The actors because there's a there's this weird thing where
<v Speaker 2>there's like they have actors like Ellie Fanning and of
<v Speaker 2>course you know, the the leash was that LEAs say
<v Speaker 2>do they are They're they're sort of captured for the game,
<v Speaker 2>and they're doing the performances and those characters are good,
<v Speaker 2>but then they have someone like George Miller, who they scanned,
<v Speaker 2>you know, the director of Mad Max. He plays like
<v Speaker 2>a primary character in the game, but his performer or
<v Speaker 2>just feels not I mean, I don't mean to be rude,
<v Speaker 2>but they just like doesn't live up to the other
<v Speaker 2>actors in the scenes usually sure, right, it's I don't
<v Speaker 2>know if it's because of that separation where they're having
<v Speaker 2>an actor portray you know, someone else visually and it
<v Speaker 2>just doesn't fit or well. I feel kind of the
<v Speaker 2>same about Dead Man as well. Even in the first game.
<v Speaker 2>I kind of felt that way. Who was like Germo
<v Speaker 2>del Toro's body with someone else's voice. Yeah, Like that's what, Like,
<v Speaker 2>does it sound like George Miller if you listen to
<v Speaker 2>like interviews with George Miller and cause, oh yeah, no,
<v Speaker 2>I'm yeah, they got like an Australian Because George Miller
<v Speaker 2>is a really fascinating guy that I adore and I
<v Speaker 2>was really excited to see him in the first row.
<v Speaker 3>It's like, oh my gosh, that's George Miller.
<v Speaker 2>Because he's like this, like he's like a former doctor
<v Speaker 2>turned film director. He's like everyone who has ever talked
<v Speaker 2>about it and says he's a real sweetheart, and like he's
<v Speaker 2>just this kind of like grandfatherly figure. Like here you
<v Speaker 2>always seem interviews he's wearing like glasses and he always
<v Speaker 2>has like the chain oh like around like he's always
<v Speaker 2>had that like his whole life. Well, it's like and
<v Speaker 2>like they have an Australian actor playing him, or there's
<v Speaker 2>someone who's doing a pretty good Australian accent maybe, but
<v Speaker 2>it just there's there's a disconnect there that I just
<v Speaker 2>kind of pulled me out.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I mean because like I've interviewed Sam Lake multiple times.
<v Speaker 3>I've had lunch with him, and when I was in
<v Speaker 3>Remedy for the Control cover story, I've had a drink
<v Speaker 3>with him after the Game Awards. So like I've had
<v Speaker 3>multiple conversations with Sam Lake in person. So when I
<v Speaker 3>play Alan Wake two and I see Sam Lake in
<v Speaker 3>that game, but you know, or I play Max Payne
<v Speaker 3>one or two and I see Sam Lake in that
<v Speaker 3>game and a different voice is coming out of his
<v Speaker 3>mouth and it's not even like a finish accent. It
<v Speaker 3>is just like a flat out American accent. It's like, Wow,
<v Speaker 3>that's jarring. So I didn't know if they just tried
<v Speaker 3>like a completely different voice, or if they went for
<v Speaker 3>something that was approximating what George Miller sounds like.
<v Speaker 2>They tried, they tried to find someone, and they did
<v Speaker 2>the same for Gammel del Toro. And you know, honestly,
<v Speaker 2>I mean, this is a whole separate conversation, but I
<v Speaker 2>don't really love an Alan Wake how they have voice
<v Speaker 2>actors and performers and then they meshed the perform I
<v Speaker 2>don't really like that either. I don't think that really works.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, then there's stuff.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, I I.
<v Speaker 2>Don't like Higgs in depth stranding one. I think Troy
<v Speaker 2>Miller is an amazing Troy Baker. Yeah, Troy, this is
<v Speaker 2>Troy Baker's character. I think he's a fantastic actor, and
<v Speaker 2>I even think his performance as Higgs is good. He
<v Speaker 2>makes some really strange choices for Higgs, and I'm sure
<v Speaker 2>Kojimo was like, yeah, let's do it, you know, but
<v Speaker 2>he doesn't.
<v Speaker 3>I don't like him.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, at least he's like, I mean, I don't know,
<v Speaker 1>you've seen more of him. It was like I could
<v Speaker 1>not stand him in the first game. I just thought
<v Speaker 1>he was just insufferable and also just not interesting, whereas
<v Speaker 1>in this game, at least from what I saw of
<v Speaker 1>him during my preview, but I was like, well, at
<v Speaker 1>least they just went crazy and we're just like, what
<v Speaker 1>if he's just a weird cyborg like ninja clown guy
<v Speaker 1>with a guitar, And it's like, maybe just the sheer
<v Speaker 1>silliness of it will just carry it FORGA Is like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that's that is I guess more interesting of a at
<v Speaker 1>least surface level wise like villain to deal with.
<v Speaker 2>But it's a note that I've always loved that you
<v Speaker 2>gave me once, Brian, that I have totally I think
<v Speaker 2>maybe might have given it to you. But sometimes the
<v Speaker 2>word interesting just means like you just don't want to
<v Speaker 2>say the word bad, you know, sure, I mean I
<v Speaker 2>like it's just a way to kind of be like
<v Speaker 2>it's like I don't have anything good or bad to say,
<v Speaker 2>but I don't, you know, so I'll just say interesting.
<v Speaker 2>And that's kind of how I feel about Higgs Man,
<v Speaker 2>like I kind of I just don't I feel similarly
<v Speaker 2>about him as I do in the first game. But
<v Speaker 2>he there's more more to the game than Higgs, right,
<v Speaker 2>There's more there's a lot more going on than him.
<v Speaker 1>That's good. Do you like the before you wrap up?
<v Speaker 1>The other big thing with this game is just the
<v Speaker 1>combat improvement. So how do you feel about uh fighting
<v Speaker 1>and destrating two compared to the first game?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it felt a lot better.
<v Speaker 2>Like those those mad Michelson sequences that we're kind of
<v Speaker 2>talking about, you know, which which have there's a version
<v Speaker 2>of those in the new game. Those are a lot
<v Speaker 2>more fun and interesting getting stopped by you know, the
<v Speaker 2>evil Porters or whatever you want to call them, or
<v Speaker 2>like coming across their their their locations is a lot
<v Speaker 2>more like it's it's less of a burden because in
<v Speaker 2>Death Straining one, you're just like, I gotta deal with
<v Speaker 2>this again. Yeah, in two, it's like it's a lot better,
<v Speaker 2>like all the none of the guns kill people, like
<v Speaker 2>which is just text, right, that's just like coloring that
<v Speaker 2>They just right in there, but it just makes it's
<v Speaker 2>just a little thing that's like okay, well all right,
<v Speaker 2>then now I feel like I can just unload and
<v Speaker 2>have more fun and there's just a lot more options.
<v Speaker 2>It feels close. I'm not it's not as a high.
<v Speaker 2>It's not as high bars Mell you're solid five, right,
<v Speaker 2>But there's it's at least closer to that in the
<v Speaker 2>sense that, like you have a lot more tools and
<v Speaker 2>combat options and things like that. But I I still
<v Speaker 2>just enjoyed kind of going in guns blazing all the time.
<v Speaker 2>And I had a good time doing that, Like it
<v Speaker 2>was fun and like and fighting the sort of the
<v Speaker 2>bosses and stuff that like will pounce on you in
<v Speaker 2>the in the middle of a delivery and stuff like that.
<v Speaker 2>Stuff's a lot more fun too, because the guns just
<v Speaker 2>feel a lot better. Yeah, So yeah, I mean that's
<v Speaker 2>like mechanically, I think it's like it would be really
<v Speaker 2>hard for me to go to ever go back to
<v Speaker 2>death stranding one. But and and so like there's definitely
<v Speaker 2>improvements there. The sort of the shortcoming for me is
<v Speaker 2>like though I like the narrative and I look forward,
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna be thinking about it for a long time
<v Speaker 2>and I look forward to sort of the larger discussions
<v Speaker 2>about you know, what it's trying to say and what
<v Speaker 2>are the potential meanings and like the weirdness of it all.
<v Speaker 2>It just it did underwhelm me a little bit, sort
<v Speaker 2>of sort of the narrative and the big the big
<v Speaker 2>moments and twists. Just did not like hit super hard
<v Speaker 2>for me. But yeah, I gave an a point sim five.
<v Speaker 2>You can read the review on the website right now.
<v Speaker 3>It's I like it. I do like it more than
<v Speaker 3>the than the first one for sure. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Awesome.
<v Speaker 3>Not the story though. Wait, I'm trying to think back.
<v Speaker 3>What did I say?
<v Speaker 2>I do prefer death Stranding one's story, but mechanically I
<v Speaker 2>prefer Death Strainding two and the stories there's a lot
<v Speaker 2>of there's a lot of fun stuff in Death Straining too,
<v Speaker 2>for sure.
<v Speaker 1>Awesome. Well, yeah, go check out Kyle's review on Gameeformer
<v Speaker 1>dot com right now, real quick, because we promised this
<v Speaker 1>last week. I've been playing I guess for the last
<v Speaker 1>few months really Lost in Random The Eternal Die, which
<v Speaker 1>released last week. This is the sequel to Lost in Random,
<v Speaker 1>which was a third person like kind of supernatural almost
<v Speaker 1>like Tim burtany adventure game.
<v Speaker 2>It looks it looks cool. Yeah, yeah, do you guys
<v Speaker 2>ever play it? I've never finished it. I ice scare me.
<v Speaker 3>I don't want to. I don't want to throw dice.
<v Speaker 1>That's a good bit of war and want to find
<v Speaker 1>out about you. Yeah. So this is a well, I
<v Speaker 1>don't know if maybe you'll like this one better because
<v Speaker 1>it is a completely different game in almost every way.
<v Speaker 1>It's it's a completely different developer this time around, and
<v Speaker 1>instead of being like the first game was a lot
<v Speaker 1>more of a just a traditional third person sort of
<v Speaker 1>like action adventure game that kind of blended card based
<v Speaker 1>combat with dice rolls because you had a sentient dice
<v Speaker 1>buddy that you could throw and like basically do different
<v Speaker 1>effects depending on what you roll.
<v Speaker 3>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>Now it's basically at Hades, it's the game. Hees, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>which I it's it. I I hate to sound reductive
<v Speaker 1>like that, but it really is, like you know, like
<v Speaker 1>I think the preview I wrote like a month or
<v Speaker 1>so ago, I called it like the Hades effect of
<v Speaker 1>like that game has been around long enough now where
<v Speaker 1>we're seeing a lot of its best ideas sort of
<v Speaker 1>like appear in other roguelikes, whether it's like how they
<v Speaker 1>tell their story or just the sort of like the
<v Speaker 1>boons that Haiti does like using that it's sort of
<v Speaker 1>like a template for how they dish out powers. I
<v Speaker 1>think Lost in Random the Eternal Die is one of
<v Speaker 1>the more sort of like I guess, like blatant sort
<v Speaker 1>of like examples of like yeah, we really like Hades,
<v Speaker 1>and not necessarily in a bad way like it is.
<v Speaker 1>So the premise of the game is that it's technically
<v Speaker 1>built as a standalone sequel, but you're playing as the
<v Speaker 1>antagonist from the first game, a queen Alexandra who gets
<v Speaker 1>betrayed by the Black Dice and is turned into a
<v Speaker 1>child and so, but she also has her own dice
<v Speaker 1>buddy named Fortune, and you're pretty much just trying to like.
<v Speaker 3>Regain Fortune for Metal Gear Solid too.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, she's back as a dice. It just is just yeah, yes,
<v Speaker 1>and you're just trying to kind of reclaim like everything
<v Speaker 1>that you've lost. So you're going on it's like this
<v Speaker 1>isometric you know, top down view. You're going around these
<v Speaker 1>like like the villain you're fighting has kind of dropped
<v Speaker 1>you in this ever shifting sort of like world that
<v Speaker 1>challenges you that kind of like contextualizes why you're It's
<v Speaker 1>a roguelike thing that like, oh ever room changes you
<v Speaker 1>go every time you do a new run, and you
<v Speaker 1>know the enemies will respawn. You're fighting the bosses over
<v Speaker 1>and over like it, and it's doing the haities thing
<v Speaker 1>of like in between runs you're going back to a
<v Speaker 1>central hub called a sanctuary, where you're filling it out
<v Speaker 1>with these characters that you're meeting during run. Some of
<v Speaker 1>them are from the first game, most of them are
<v Speaker 1>brand new, and you're getting like bits of new story
<v Speaker 1>every now and then when you talk to them, and
<v Speaker 1>then every time you reach a boss that you beat before,
<v Speaker 1>there might be some new dialogue exchanges where you're like, oh, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I'm back. I remember when we fought last time, and
<v Speaker 1>I would say, like for to its credit, the combat
<v Speaker 1>and the movement feel pretty good, Like it's very quick.
<v Speaker 1>You're like zipping around just like doing hacking slash combos
<v Speaker 1>with your sword, kind of like the first game, you're
<v Speaker 1>throwing the fortune the dice buddy at enemies, and the
<v Speaker 1>big difference is like instead of having all of your
<v Speaker 1>combat options dictated by cards, instead, the cards are now
<v Speaker 1>basically serve as the sort of like perks or boons,
<v Speaker 1>where you can only have one card at a time
<v Speaker 1>and each just have a specific effect of like oh,
<v Speaker 1>you know, now you can activate a separate attack unless
<v Speaker 1>you shoot fireballs or you have lightning powers. Now it's
<v Speaker 1>just sort of just like you have one powerful attack
<v Speaker 1>that can be upgraded over time, and you can switch
<v Speaker 1>out cards as you find them, but you can only
<v Speaker 1>have one. I'd say like the like the it feels
<v Speaker 1>good to play overall, but it does feel like I'm
<v Speaker 1>a huge Hades and like I the first game was
<v Speaker 1>my game of a year when it came out, and
<v Speaker 1>I've loved what I've played of Hades two, which is
<v Speaker 1>still an early access right now. It I've not ben
<v Speaker 1>or even gotten like totally halfway through Lost and Random
<v Speaker 1>the Eternal Die, but it does feel, I guess, like
<v Speaker 1>lacking compared to how much just how much sheer content
<v Speaker 1>there is in the Hades games of just like all
<v Speaker 1>these this the insane amount of power ups and weapons,
<v Speaker 1>and and also like story stuff like the just these
<v Speaker 1>sheer amount of just dialogue and conversations and just like
<v Speaker 1>sort of like story moments that you can find. There's
<v Speaker 1>a bit of that in this game, but it just
<v Speaker 1>feels like maybe like a degree or two less just
<v Speaker 1>because of like the game just has a smaller scope,
<v Speaker 1>which is fine, but I think if it, like if
<v Speaker 1>you're coming from Hades to this, you might feel like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>this doesn't feel like nearly as robust as what I'm
<v Speaker 1>used to playing that game. The thing that I think
<v Speaker 1>is the most unique about it is sort of the
<v Speaker 1>there's a uh, I don't remember what they call it,
<v Speaker 1>but there's a progression system where you're finding these sort
<v Speaker 1>of like relics and they basically like boost up your abilities.
<v Speaker 1>And the way you do it is that you get
<v Speaker 1>these relics and they're all color coded, and you're placing
<v Speaker 1>them on a board like a grid, and you're basically
<v Speaker 1>when you get one you don't like immediately get the ability,
<v Speaker 1>you have to do like a match three where you
<v Speaker 1>have to find two more relics of the same color
<v Speaker 1>and do like either three across or three horizontal, and
<v Speaker 1>when you mash them all up, you get all of
<v Speaker 1>the sort of perks tied to those relics. And so
<v Speaker 1>since they're being doled out randomly, you're kind of having
<v Speaker 1>to try to decide whether what you want to hold
<v Speaker 1>on to of like, Okay, I've got two red, I
<v Speaker 1>should probably get the next red if it comes up.
<v Speaker 1>But if it doesn't and I get like a maybe
<v Speaker 1>the next best one I have as a yellow, maybe
<v Speaker 1>I should put the yellow further down to grid so
<v Speaker 1>it doesn't get it a way of the match three.
<v Speaker 1>I'm trying to build my reds, and some of them
<v Speaker 1>are dual colored, so you can like work on two
<v Speaker 1>different types of power ups at the same time if
<v Speaker 1>you match them correctly. Like that's like a more like
<v Speaker 1>that's a pretty cool thing. Like I'm still like wrapping
<v Speaker 1>my head around it, but like just sort of the
<v Speaker 1>strategy of trying to plan ahead and sort of create
<v Speaker 1>like somewhat of a specialized build of your character just
<v Speaker 1>based on sort of like the luck of the draw
<v Speaker 1>of whatever you get with which colors, which hasn't been
<v Speaker 1>too i guess disruptive maybe because there's not like there's
<v Speaker 1>only like four, four or five different colors, so it's
<v Speaker 1>like you don't really go too too long before you
<v Speaker 1>find the one that you need, but just long enough
<v Speaker 1>to worry you do have to make adjustments if you're
<v Speaker 1>just getting every other color but the one you're trying
<v Speaker 1>to get, and then maybe you'll match up and wind
<v Speaker 1>up creating a different build than the one that you
<v Speaker 1>were gunning for revisionally, which might still be fine, But
<v Speaker 1>other than that, it's been for me, like it has
<v Speaker 1>been a like totally fine incompetent like action rogue light
<v Speaker 1>that maybe this might be an indictment or a goblin.
<v Speaker 1>I guess it depends on how you want to take it.
<v Speaker 1>Like it's it feels like an appetizer because I'm not
<v Speaker 1>playing Hades two right now, Like I've played enough and
<v Speaker 1>I'm just sort of waiting for it to go one
<v Speaker 1>point zero before I really dive back into it.
<v Speaker 3>But in the meantime, it's like a good appetizer though, right, Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, oh this is like here's like just a
<v Speaker 1>finished one of these that is totally like it's fun
<v Speaker 1>on its own merits. It's you know, it doesn't it
<v Speaker 1>does not hit so far the the heights that Hades does,
<v Speaker 1>but it's doing like enough of what that game does
<v Speaker 1>well to sort of you know, still be like an
<v Speaker 1>enjoyable time. And yeah, that's kind.
<v Speaker 2>Of where I'm at with it, Like, oh, this is
<v Speaker 2>this is totally solid, totally solid, like little weird shake
<v Speaker 2>up for this for this series.
<v Speaker 3>Well, the good news is that I don't know if
<v Speaker 3>you saw the news last week, Marcus, but Hades two
<v Speaker 3>is like kind of in the final phase of development
<v Speaker 3>before one point zero.
<v Speaker 1>I believe that I did not see that. That's good
<v Speaker 1>to know. I mean they said that that was coming out,
<v Speaker 1>I mean, or at least imply that it would be
<v Speaker 1>out before the end of the year, right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and it seems like they are like, yeah, we're
<v Speaker 3>getting ready to like basically launch this thing, is what
<v Speaker 3>they were saying.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, well, it's good to know soon and hopefully yeah,
<v Speaker 2>Lost and Random fans, I guess, but yes, that's that's awesome.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah and Lost in Random. The Eternal Die is out
<v Speaker 1>now and launched last week on pretty much everything PlayStation, Xbox,
<v Speaker 1>in PC. Yeah. I think it's we're checking out if
<v Speaker 1>you're maybe need something like need something in between, uh,
<v Speaker 1>waiting for Hades, or if you just want like a
<v Speaker 1>totally solid action roguelike.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, cool, real.
<v Speaker 1>Quick before we wind down the show, Uh, Brian, I
<v Speaker 1>want to talk to you about the Switch too, because
<v Speaker 1>I heard that you're you like Nintendo.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, I mean there's yeah, and you know, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>there are some evidence to suggest that I keep up
<v Speaker 3>with the comings and goings of Nintendo as a company.
<v Speaker 3>So I have been playing a lot of Switch to
<v Speaker 3>not as much as I would like to, because I've
<v Speaker 3>been busy with life and also a review game. I've
<v Speaker 3>been playing The Alters for review and have been getting
<v Speaker 3>stuck on multiple game breaking bugs, so.
<v Speaker 1>That Yeah, I know, we want to talk about it
<v Speaker 1>this week, but we're so it's a save time. We'll
<v Speaker 1>have to have you back on when you finish your
<v Speaker 1>review and get your complete thoughts on it.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I'm waiting for one of my second progress stopping
<v Speaker 3>bug to be resolved. So saw that TBD on the
<v Speaker 3>Alters review. But in the like the interim, I am
<v Speaker 3>playing a lot of Switch to Mario Kart World Fantastic.
<v Speaker 3>I think that that game, I don't know if it's
<v Speaker 3>quite enough to surp Mario Kart eight Deluxe is the
<v Speaker 3>best Mario Kart game. I think the uh the free
<v Speaker 3>Rome stuff is a little bit lacking, but like the
<v Speaker 3>courses themselves are top tier. The I mean, Rainbow Road
<v Speaker 3>is I think the best Rainbow Road ever.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I still haven't played. Actually I still have not
<v Speaker 1>gotten to it. I've been working my way through the
<v Speaker 1>Grand Prix, but I guess I haven't gotten to the
<v Speaker 1>cup with you.
<v Speaker 3>You do have to unlock it, yeah, it's I just
<v Speaker 3>kind of was doing it anyway.
<v Speaker 1>Oh it's not like in the existing.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, you unlock it. That you you unlock the Special
<v Speaker 3>Cup after you beat the other Grand Prix.
<v Speaker 1>Oh okay, good to know.
<v Speaker 3>I think I have two left, Okay, So yeah, that
<v Speaker 3>Rainbow Road is phenomenal. And the music itself though, might
<v Speaker 3>be my favorite part of this game, which sounds sounds
<v Speaker 3>like maybe I'm like, you know, kind of docking the
<v Speaker 3>rest of the package, but like, no, the music is
<v Speaker 3>that good that, Like, I don't know if there's going
<v Speaker 3>to be another game that comes out this year that
<v Speaker 3>I'm going to like the music as much. And there's
<v Speaker 3>been some good music so far. This just because you
<v Speaker 3>haven't played dest Training too.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, can you can you a wood Kid when you're
<v Speaker 1>doing Knockout Tour?
<v Speaker 3>I mean I'm sure you could, but like you just
<v Speaker 3>have to have your phone set up instead of But yeah,
<v Speaker 3>like I'm really liking that. I thought that coming into
<v Speaker 3>the Switch to, I was going to be like, oh,
<v Speaker 3>I'm because I've been itching for the past few weeks
<v Speaker 3>to play Breath the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom,
<v Speaker 3>like replay them, and I thought for sure, like that
<v Speaker 3>would be the thing that I would do with my
<v Speaker 3>Switch Too. But what I'm finding myself doing instead outside
<v Speaker 3>of Mario Karte World is starting a replay of Pokemon
<v Speaker 3>Scarlet and Violet, and that is because it, like Breatha
<v Speaker 3>Wild and Teers of the Kingdom ran fine on the
<v Speaker 3>Switch one, they run better on Switch too by a
<v Speaker 3>long shot, Like it runs fantastic on the Switch too.
<v Speaker 3>But Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is almost a completely different
<v Speaker 3>game because of how much better it runs. And it's
<v Speaker 3>almost to the point where I feel like I want
<v Speaker 3>to like re review the game, because I reviewed the
<v Speaker 3>Switch one version gave it a good score even though
<v Speaker 3>like the tech problems were were really bad. But I
<v Speaker 3>maintain that, and I have maintained that since the Scarlet
<v Speaker 3>and Violet came out that underneath all of those awful,
<v Speaker 3>awful tech problems that you know they are, they border
<v Speaker 3>on inexcusable, that's how bad they are. Oh yeah, there's
<v Speaker 3>one of the best Pokemon games ever underneath all those problems.
<v Speaker 3>And it's like, I want to go through that again
<v Speaker 3>and see if it really does hold up to that
<v Speaker 3>level of scrutiny, or if maybe I'm like kind of
<v Speaker 3>you know, blowing it up in my mind of like, oh,
<v Speaker 3>it would be so good if not for these tech problems.
<v Speaker 3>I want to almost like you know, take the Pepsi
<v Speaker 3>challenge and go in and see, like, all right, is
<v Speaker 3>it actually that good? Or am I like kind of
<v Speaker 3>like misremembering or like, you know, was I too like
<v Speaker 3>caught up in wishful thinking? Back when I reviewed it initially,
<v Speaker 3>I suspect that I that it was quite a good game.
<v Speaker 3>It's just you know, on the switch one not so much.
<v Speaker 3>But so that's actually what I've been spending the majority
<v Speaker 3>of my time when I'm not playing Mario Kart World
<v Speaker 3>on my switch to. But I've also been looking at
<v Speaker 3>other stuff. Played a little bit of Street Fighter six.
<v Speaker 3>I'm excited to have a version of that on the
<v Speaker 3>go that isn't my steam Deck because the steam deck
<v Speaker 3>takes up so much space in my backpack that you know,
<v Speaker 3>it's gonna be nice to if I just am going
<v Speaker 3>to be traveling light, like I'm going on a trip
<v Speaker 3>this week, and I am excited to just bring my
<v Speaker 3>switch to because it's a much lighter. It's a much
<v Speaker 3>easier proposition to just bring your switch to than it
<v Speaker 3>is like your steam deck, your switch, your laptop, all
<v Speaker 3>that stuff. I'm excited for that, but also I've been
<v Speaker 3>playing fast Fusion I've been, which you know is more traditional,
<v Speaker 3>straightforward kind of racing game than Mario Kart World. But
<v Speaker 3>I'm having a good time with that. There's there's plenty
<v Speaker 3>of awesome third party games, but the problem is, I
<v Speaker 3>don't know if you saw those headlines of like third
<v Speaker 3>party games are not selling particularly well outside of Cyberpunk
<v Speaker 3>twenty seventy seven on the Switch to well.
<v Speaker 2>And I don't even know if it is selling well
<v Speaker 2>as much as it was the best selling you know
<v Speaker 2>what I mean?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, because like the early sales, Matt Piscatella over at
<v Speaker 3>Sarkana previously NPD said that the sales were like Mario
<v Speaker 3>Kart World number one. Unsurprisingly, these are these are physical sales,
<v Speaker 3>by the way, Mario Kart World, Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven
<v Speaker 3>and then Tiers of the Kingdom switched to edition, and
<v Speaker 3>I could see why that is, Like there's multiple reasons.
<v Speaker 3>Like the first reason I would say is like a
<v Speaker 3>lot of these games are older ports. They like you know,
<v Speaker 3>I think a lot of like people who bought the
<v Speaker 3>Switch to Rite at launch, like lined up at Midnight
<v Speaker 3>are probably the more dedicated gamers and they have probably
<v Speaker 3>played games like Cyberpunk or Yakuza Zero if they wanted
<v Speaker 3>to on like PlayStation or Xbox, and so I think
<v Speaker 3>that that's hurting it. Also, there were no early reviews,
<v Speaker 3>so like, I don't know about you, but when a
<v Speaker 3>game came out on multiplatforms and it was a switch
<v Speaker 3>one game, I was like, should probably wait for a
<v Speaker 3>review for that specific platform, otherwise who knows how it's
<v Speaker 3>going to run. I think there's more confidence instilled in
<v Speaker 3>the Switch to by everybody at this point in terms
<v Speaker 3>of like performance, but it's still a wild card, right,
<v Speaker 3>Like you don't know, Like I from what I've heard,
<v Speaker 3>all these games run well, but like does Sonic X
<v Speaker 3>Shadow Generations? Is that going to perform well on switch Too?
<v Speaker 3>And it does if you switch it over to performance mode,
<v Speaker 3>I found, But there was that uncertainty for a lot
<v Speaker 3>of people. So I think a lot of people were
<v Speaker 3>just like, oh, I'll just get Mario Kart World and
<v Speaker 3>then wait to hear after some reviews come out, or
<v Speaker 3>you know, watch some YouTube videos of the performance or whatever.
<v Speaker 3>So I think there's multiple reasons for why they're not
<v Speaker 3>selling so well. But there are a lot of great
<v Speaker 3>third party games, and you know, CIV seven is a
<v Speaker 3>great example of that using the mouse controls and everything.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, I'm really enjoying my time with the switch too.
<v Speaker 3>I'm just waiting for, you know, the next big games
<v Speaker 3>like Donkey Kong or like Pokemon Legend Za or Metroid
<v Speaker 3>Prime four. Those are gonna be the ones that I'm like,
<v Speaker 3>really get me full on into, Like the Switch to
<v Speaker 3>era right now, it just feels like, all right, I
<v Speaker 3>have this device that can play a bunch of other
<v Speaker 3>games that I've already played, but also Mario Kart World,
<v Speaker 3>Like it's just basically a Mario kart World device if
<v Speaker 3>I and I guess Pokemon Scarlet and Violet at this.
<v Speaker 2>Point, but I think that I think they renamed them
<v Speaker 2>to Pokemon Functional and Working.
<v Speaker 3>That would be the perfect.
<v Speaker 1>Name for the next got a picture of that stupid
<v Speaker 1>motorcycle looking Pokemon, but he's got like a thumbs up
<v Speaker 1>and a bandage on his head, like it fixed me.
<v Speaker 3>I'm okay now, Yeah, So I'm very much enjoying the
<v Speaker 3>Switch to so far. But it's like, all right, just
<v Speaker 3>in that waiting period for more games to come out,
<v Speaker 3>and you know, in three weeks, four weeks or whatever
<v Speaker 3>it is, we'll have Donkey Kong Bonanza, so that is
<v Speaker 3>looking very after after that direct, I am full steam
<v Speaker 3>ahead for that game, absolutely, and of course I'm playing
<v Speaker 3>what I know you guys are also playing.
<v Speaker 2>We're all playing this. It was like one of the
<v Speaker 2>first things we all downloaded, which was of course say
<v Speaker 2>with me anime it Evil six. Yeah, the Resident Evil
<v Speaker 2>six on the Switch.
<v Speaker 1>Six.
<v Speaker 3>This is this a cloud version or is this like
<v Speaker 3>a name?
<v Speaker 1>No?
<v Speaker 3>No, no, no no.
<v Speaker 1>I think I knew it was on Switch to begin with.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I bought it a while ago because I've never It's
<v Speaker 2>the one that I the one like modern resid Evil
<v Speaker 2>that I didn't finished when like half it the one
<v Speaker 2>that got away, and I was like, if I have
<v Speaker 2>it on Switch, I'll beat it. And I played through
<v Speaker 2>Chris's campaign a couple of years ago on Switch one, and.
<v Speaker 3>I was like, and I was like, you know what,
<v Speaker 3>I wonder if this feels.
<v Speaker 2>Better on Switch too, And it does actually, like it
<v Speaker 2>does look and run a little better, And I was like,
<v Speaker 2>do I just want to play this game just for
<v Speaker 2>the completionists? And in me, you know, it's like it's
<v Speaker 2>not it's the weakest Resident Evil arguably, but it's like
<v Speaker 2>it's the one that I haven't checked off.
<v Speaker 3>So I played a little bit of Reseal six and
<v Speaker 3>it's pretty good.
<v Speaker 1>Are you gonna stick with it?
<v Speaker 3>I mean it's not a good game, but it runs
<v Speaker 3>pretty good, is what I'm saying.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, do you think you're gonna stick with it?
<v Speaker 1>Are you gonna finish? Are you going? Because you need
<v Speaker 1>to know the story?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah? Right right?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, no, I I it's I'm jumping back and forth beween,
<v Speaker 2>Yakuza zero and that, but much primarily more Yakuza Zero
<v Speaker 2>cause I never played. Yeah, I was like, this will
<v Speaker 2>be a great excuse to play it on my new system,
<v Speaker 2>Like this will be the so I've been I think that's.
<v Speaker 3>Pretty securely my favorite Yakuza game. Yeah, it was actually
<v Speaker 3>you telling me that.
<v Speaker 2>That kind of made me go like maybe this is
<v Speaker 2>a good a good time to because I'm not gonna
<v Speaker 2>if I'm being I'm not going to go back and
<v Speaker 2>play the PlayStation version or whatever like it's but if
<v Speaker 2>I have a new system, you know, it's like I
<v Speaker 2>kind of have that fire under you to maybe do.
<v Speaker 3>You reviewed Yakaza Pirates in Hawaii or whatever it's called
<v Speaker 3>Pirate yak Dragon Pirate yak so you're well familiar with Majima,
<v Speaker 3>and he is the star that version of him, at least,
<v Speaker 3>he is the star of yakas Zero by far.
<v Speaker 1>He's pretty great in that game.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean he's he's an amnesiac in Pirate Yakuza.
<v Speaker 2>So like, I kind of don't know him, you know,
<v Speaker 2>like I know a new version of him sort of.
<v Speaker 3>So I'm excited to meet him, assuming his personality traits
<v Speaker 3>are very similar to how he is in every game
<v Speaker 3>but Zero, I'm sure, yeah, probably, Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Can I say as we wind down? I had a
<v Speaker 1>a commercial moment this weekend where I was on a
<v Speaker 1>date and I took my We went to Barnes and
<v Speaker 1>Nobles to do some book shopping, and I brought my
<v Speaker 1>switch to because my date had not seen it.
<v Speaker 2>I was like, oh, we can play Mario Kart. So
<v Speaker 2>we went barn at Barns and Noble. Yeah hell yeah,
<v Speaker 2>and like and.
<v Speaker 1>We went to the you know, the little Starbucks it's
<v Speaker 1>like in every Barns and Noble. We sat down in
<v Speaker 1>one of the tables, popped up little switch too. Got
<v Speaker 1>to use the little kickstand. First time I've gotten to
<v Speaker 1>use the kickstand. H and played some like Knockout Tour
<v Speaker 1>split screen. Uh. And as we're playing, having a good time,
<v Speaker 1>and I guess business was slow because all of a sudden,
<v Speaker 1>I feel a presence behind me and I turn around
<v Speaker 1>and the like elderly barista is standing behind us, just watching.
<v Speaker 1>And I don't know how.
<v Speaker 2>Long he was there, but the moment that I acknowledged
<v Speaker 2>his existence, he looks down and goes, is that the
<v Speaker 2>switch too?
<v Speaker 1>And I'm like I knew it, yeah, and he's like,
<v Speaker 1>is that Mario Kart? And I'm like yep, and then
<v Speaker 1>he just goes He just folds his arms and just
<v Speaker 1>looks very quizzical and he goes, huh, I've heard about this,
<v Speaker 1>And I didn't know if he meant like, have you
<v Speaker 1>heard about Mario Kart specifically or the switch specifically or
<v Speaker 1>both as a package. And then he proceeded to stand
<v Speaker 1>there for like the next file like I thought we
<v Speaker 1>were done, like oh yeah, it's such a h and
<v Speaker 1>then and then he did not leave for like the
<v Speaker 1>remainder of our race, and I had the moment of like,
<v Speaker 1>this is a switch to commercial. This is every dumb
<v Speaker 1>switch to commercial of like the people using a switch
<v Speaker 1>to in a place that would seem probably improbable or
<v Speaker 1>like not likely, and then like a stranger just being
<v Speaker 1>way too interested in what the people playing the switch
<v Speaker 1>are doing, and you go like, ah, nobody does that.
<v Speaker 3>And you're like, yeah, is this a switch to Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>the all in one entertainment console from Nintendo.
<v Speaker 1>Pretty much like just just shive of masking, Like and
<v Speaker 1>how much should you pay for that?
<v Speaker 3>Oh, a very low price of FO ninety nine.
<v Speaker 1>And then he takes off running in the other direction.
<v Speaker 1>But yes, I thought i'd share that. Unfortunately I didn't
<v Speaker 1>capture it, so I cannot send it to Nintendo's marketing department.
<v Speaker 3>Now, question though, is there a follow up date?
<v Speaker 2>Yes, yeah, it'll be all Yes, that was the coredition
<v Speaker 2>you guys again.
<v Speaker 1>Relationship? Should I go back there and invite him? Do
<v Speaker 1>you think he's the reason that there's a follow up?
<v Speaker 3>This guy has some impressive technology. The barista's blown away.
<v Speaker 1>Man, I gotta hang with this guy. He get random
<v Speaker 1>strangers and talk to me about that.
<v Speaker 3>That really is though, the Switch one commercial where they
<v Speaker 3>had the infamous rooftop party where they person brought ga
<v Speaker 3>was it Mario Odyssey or whatever? Yeah, I thought their
<v Speaker 3>single player game. Hey, everybody can watch me play video games.
<v Speaker 1>That reminds me. I wrote a feature a couple of
<v Speaker 1>years ago where I went through every Nintendo Switched commercial
<v Speaker 1>and I wanted to see every intens of a switch
<v Speaker 1>being used outside of the house and did a checklist
<v Speaker 1>of have I actually done this with my switch? And
<v Speaker 1>like did a tally of like have I played it
<v Speaker 1>at Elena rooftop? Have I played it at the gym?
<v Speaker 1>Have I played it at like at a weird music recital?
<v Speaker 3>This is just green eggs and ham.
<v Speaker 1>You can say that. I recommend everybody go look that
<v Speaker 1>up because I might have to do an updated version
<v Speaker 1>for the switch to in like a year or two
<v Speaker 1>when they make new commercials.
<v Speaker 3>I have not played game Chat with Paul Rudd.
<v Speaker 1>Well there's still time.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, yeah, pretty hold up. But yeah, that will do it.
<v Speaker 1>This week for the Game Informer show, thank you all
<v Speaker 1>so much for watching and listening. One more time, I'll
<v Speaker 1>reiterate you know. We've got our first issue of the
<v Speaker 1>magazines as we came back, coming out. You can go
<v Speaker 1>to GameInformer dot com slash subscribe to get your magazine.
<v Speaker 1>Subscription is a wonderful way to support us. As well
<v Speaker 1>to support Saint Jude Boardlands for blazing on the cover
<v Speaker 1>and who knows what we're gonna have on our next
<v Speaker 1>cover coming up? We know, Oh but you got it? Yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>you can put your hand secret. Yeah, it's a big
<v Speaker 1>secret at least for the next several weeks or so.
<v Speaker 1>But promise is a good one and the only way
<v Speaker 1>you're gonna find out is if you get a magazine subscription.
<v Speaker 1>Darn it, but yes, we will be back next Thursday
<v Speaker 1>with another episode. We will. Also you can follow us
<v Speaker 1>on various social media channels such as Twitch. We're streaming again,
<v Speaker 1>switch dot tv, Slash Game Informer, I was streaming FBC
<v Speaker 1>Fire or Break last week. We're probably streaming something this week.
<v Speaker 1>I'm probably doing desk trending. Maybe. Actually, now I think
<v Speaker 1>about it, it might be a good one. Should yeah, yeah, so,
<v Speaker 1>And of course we'll be relaunching Replay in the near future,
<v Speaker 1>so keep an eye out for that. So excited, yes,
<v Speaker 1>very excited. And of course you can find us individually
<v Speaker 1>on social media as well. You can find me on
<v Speaker 1>Blue Sky at Marcus Stewart seven, which is the number seven.
<v Speaker 1>You can follow Kyle at Kyle H. Hilliard, I believe
<v Speaker 1>still just just.
<v Speaker 2>Kyle Hilliard them for Blue Sky. Yeah, I'm able to
<v Speaker 2>grab Kyle without them.
<v Speaker 3>It's very excited that M out of there.
<v Speaker 1>And you can also follow Brian Shay at Brian P. Shay.
<v Speaker 1>The P is still there for you.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I focus more on synergy across platforms. I did
<v Speaker 3>have the opportunity to get Brian Shay and then it
<v Speaker 3>was like, Nope, it's already been well established that is
<v Speaker 3>my handle, so I'm gonna keep it. Keeping spell Brian
<v Speaker 3>Shay without a P's true. I always say yes.
<v Speaker 1>And until next time. Thank you so much for watching
<v Speaker 1>and listening to try to suscribe to us on YouTube
<v Speaker 1>as well. You can watch the video version of this
<v Speaker 1>podcast every week YouTube dot com slash game Informer and
<v Speaker 1>we'll see you next Thursday with another edition of the
<v Speaker 1>Game Informer show. Bye bye you