The Journey To Bringing Game Informer Back | GI Show

<v Speaker 1>Welcome everybody to the Game Informer Show, a weekly podcast
<v Speaker 1>covering the video game industry. Join us every Thursday for
<v Speaker 1>a discussion about the latest gaming news, reviews, and exclusive reveals,
<v Speaker 1>alongside Game and Farmer's staff and special guests from around
<v Speaker 1>the industry. I'm one of your hosts, very happy to
<v Speaker 1>be back. My name is Alex van Aiken, and today
<v Speaker 1>I'm joined by Kyle Hilliard. How you doing, Kyle, Alex.
<v Speaker 2>Saying those words? Did you have to write them down?
<v Speaker 2>Did you remember them fully?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah?
<v Speaker 1>I just have Game Informers back written across my notebooks.
<v Speaker 1>I don't forget.
<v Speaker 2>I'm yeah, No, we're back, man. It's it's cool. It
<v Speaker 2>feels good to be. It's been too long. It has
<v Speaker 2>like it's almost like we shouldn't have ever stopped. But
<v Speaker 2>you know that wasn't in our control.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that was out of our control. I would say,
<v Speaker 1>it's been what doing math real quick?
<v Speaker 3>About ten months?
<v Speaker 2>Ten months since.
<v Speaker 1>We've last you've last heard our voices. It's been a
<v Speaker 1>wild ride. That other voice you heard there is Marcus Stewart.
<v Speaker 1>How you doing, Marcus? And I proved Senior Associate editor
<v Speaker 1>Marcus Stewart.
<v Speaker 3>Oh, yeah, like leveled up. I guess you know it's
<v Speaker 3>a aged maybe I guah true, But no, I'm back
<v Speaker 3>to talk video games and video game accessories.
<v Speaker 1>Wow. Yeah, what kind of accessories?
<v Speaker 3>Oh? You know the like hoary pads and the mad
<v Speaker 3>cases and yeah, you know the ones that mark and
<v Speaker 3>be bothered with you.
<v Speaker 2>I have a backbone review on the site. You could
<v Speaker 2>read that that's accessory right, the mobile device thing?
<v Speaker 1>Yes, I think by law it is I have a
<v Speaker 1>backbone and that I will stand up for my friends
<v Speaker 1>and what I believe in. But I don't have the accessory.
<v Speaker 1>You know.
<v Speaker 4>I have a game pad in that you can come
<v Speaker 4>to my pad and play some games.
<v Speaker 3>Damn.
<v Speaker 1>That voice you heard is our new full time associate editor,
<v Speaker 1>Charles Heart. How you doing, Charles?
<v Speaker 4>I am doing good. I have my we you insights
<v Speaker 4>and it's it's providing me the emotional support I need
<v Speaker 4>to carry on podcasting.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Charles has had a tumultuous week with tech uh
<v Speaker 1>and that includes today. Just before we started recording, UH,
<v Speaker 1>he rolled a gnat one randomly on his desk. He
<v Speaker 1>likes to throw dice around and see what the vibes are.
<v Speaker 4>Don't want to do, I'll do one right now won't
<v Speaker 4>be on camera, but you'll have to believe me what
<v Speaker 4>it is. It'll pick up on my complay thirty better,
<v Speaker 4>that's a that's an unlucky number.
<v Speaker 3>Though this is an unlucky number.
<v Speaker 1>But you know if I've gotten like a plus, I
<v Speaker 1>thought it was lucky number thirteen. Yeah, lucky.
<v Speaker 4>It's like I think that's like sarcastic.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that's not a thing, Alex. I'm sorry, but I
<v Speaker 3>like that. Charles is basically the Harvey Dent of D
<v Speaker 3>and D Dice. It doesn't make any decision unless he
<v Speaker 3>rolls the dice.
<v Speaker 2>Is that like I did that?
<v Speaker 4>I did bring this D twenty with me to Finland
<v Speaker 4>and would roll it at times to be like, all right,
<v Speaker 4>how are we going to do with this event? How
<v Speaker 4>how's this social situation going to go?
<v Speaker 3>This is your villain origin story, Charles?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, did you also have to be carrying a weapon
<v Speaker 1>on you?
<v Speaker 3>In case?
<v Speaker 4>It was just I was gonna get a weapon and
<v Speaker 4>then I rolled the dice and it said I shouldn't
<v Speaker 4>bring one.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, Now you just need to get in some sort
<v Speaker 3>of like dice related accident that like basically like you
<v Speaker 3>become a dice or it becomes part of your identity.
<v Speaker 4>Now, yeah, there's gonna be a Charles drowns in a
<v Speaker 4>vat of D twenties. Is gonna be like the obituary
<v Speaker 4>on the headline of Game Reformer. And then like later
<v Speaker 4>you're gonna get a really long piece about how Dagger
<v Speaker 4>Heart's not as good as Dungeons and Dragons because it
<v Speaker 4>doesn't have the D twenties that the players use. Well,
<v Speaker 4>it's gonna be like a mysterious by like twenty face
<v Speaker 4>is going to be the byeline.
<v Speaker 1>You know how Big Boss gets the horns and MG five.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah right, yeah, the shrapnel.
<v Speaker 1>You'll have, Yeah, the shrapnel you'll have like a D
<v Speaker 1>twenty sticking out of your temple.
<v Speaker 3>You look like that one Pokemon has, like the jewel eyes,
<v Speaker 3>but it's just dice.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, I should. Someone should make glasses sunglasses where like
<v Speaker 4>the lenses are big D twenties. It kind of makes
<v Speaker 4>me look like a bug.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, you should, especially wear them all driving on the highway.
<v Speaker 3>I bet those exist.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, you can probably just get Kalidoscope glasses and it
<v Speaker 1>would be a similar effect visually.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I wouldn't know the difference. Other people looking might
<v Speaker 4>be like.
<v Speaker 1>That's that's Have you ever looked through a kalidscope?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah?
<v Speaker 1>In your life you have?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah? What do you mean, I don't stopped making kids
<v Speaker 3>uses these days?
<v Speaker 1>Isn't the app. It's not that you use it.
<v Speaker 4>It's just like you know, you're at a carnival and
<v Speaker 4>it's like your tickets for some bubble guys.
<v Speaker 1>Card used to have one in my I used to
<v Speaker 1>have one in my bedroom. Kaleidoscope.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, well that's not I was. Were you into colidis?
<v Speaker 4>Did someone get you a kaleidscope as a gift one year?
<v Speaker 1>Yes, it was wooden. It was really carved, really very nicely.
<v Speaker 1>I would say.
<v Speaker 3>Alex used to wear a little pin wheel hat on
<v Speaker 3>his walking around with a giant.
<v Speaker 1>No, that was that was actually around my like when
<v Speaker 1>I collected Beanie Babies and also game Boy era. It
<v Speaker 1>was an interesting time. Had a lava lamp, game Boys,
<v Speaker 1>Beanie Babies, Simpler kaleidoscopes, Yeah, simpler time back. We're feeling
<v Speaker 1>the energy today. If you've missed us, if hey, if
<v Speaker 1>this is your first time listening, let me tell you
<v Speaker 1>what we're all about. Video games. We've been around for
<v Speaker 1>thirty four years now. Game Informer where there was a
<v Speaker 1>small blip in time, as Kyle puts it, where we
<v Speaker 1>were blipped out of existence, and then we came back
<v Speaker 1>and we're back doing our thing full time. Everybody's back,
<v Speaker 1>so we're going to be back to bringing this podcast
<v Speaker 1>to you every Thursday, talking about the biggest topics in gaming,
<v Speaker 1>new releases, exclusive details from our upcoming cover stories. Another
<v Speaker 1>big piece that we should talk about is the magazine.
<v Speaker 1>By the time you're listening to this should be available
<v Speaker 1>to purchase once again in print and digital. We have print,
<v Speaker 1>unfortunately it is only to the US, but we have
<v Speaker 1>a digital international version where you can read all the
<v Speaker 1>information everything for a discounted price because we don't want
<v Speaker 1>to you know, ripping it off if you're not getting
<v Speaker 1>the physical version.
<v Speaker 2>If you want the physical version, you can subscribe to
<v Speaker 2>the physical version and you'll get the digital version as
<v Speaker 2>part of that. But then we then correct. Alex said,
<v Speaker 2>for international readers, we have the just the standalone digital version,
<v Speaker 2>which saves you a little money. And you know, we
<v Speaker 2>nothing to announce or anying, but like we're always looking
<v Speaker 2>into getting going internationally. That's something we want, but it's
<v Speaker 2>something that is you know, we don't we don't have
<v Speaker 2>an answer for today, which is too bad, but we're
<v Speaker 2>always looking into it.
<v Speaker 1>Rest assure, yes, but if you are interested in supporting
<v Speaker 1>us and getting a magazine or getting our digital exclusives,
<v Speaker 1>you know, please go to gamaformer dot com slash subscribe.
<v Speaker 1>There are two SKUs available, like Kyle said, the print
<v Speaker 1>and digital. The current price from June third through June
<v Speaker 1>twenty third is forty five dollars USD for the print
<v Speaker 1>and digital version a year. That's a year, not a month,
<v Speaker 1>and digital version you get it for thirty dollars a year. Now,
<v Speaker 1>this is a discounted price. After on June twenty fourth,
<v Speaker 1>we're probably going to be running. You know, it's going
<v Speaker 1>to step up a bit. We're gradually going to get
<v Speaker 1>back up to the full msrp our. Standard pricing after
<v Speaker 1>June twenty fifth will be seventy dollars a year for
<v Speaker 1>print and digital, so you're getting ten issues a year
<v Speaker 1>to your mailbox. You're getting a special print edition at
<v Speaker 1>the end of the year to celebrate Game of the Year.
<v Speaker 1>It's gonna have like a fancier cover, all that kind
<v Speaker 1>of stuff, and then the digital version for the standard
<v Speaker 1>pricing will be forty five dollars a year after discounts
<v Speaker 1>are taken away, So you know it would behoove you.
<v Speaker 1>If you're interested, sign up Earli. You're getting almost a
<v Speaker 1>fifty percent maybe not quite fifty percent, you're getting I
<v Speaker 1>can't do math, Okay, that's why I've been podcasting. But
<v Speaker 1>you get a big discount, and it really helps us out.
<v Speaker 1>You know, we've been working very hard behind the scenes
<v Speaker 1>to bring the magazine back to you. I think it's
<v Speaker 1>what makes Game Informer stand out amongst the competition. It's
<v Speaker 1>it's unique to us in the US at least. And yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it's it's it's what makes Game and Former Game and Former.
<v Speaker 1>And there's the magazine itself is also getting a lot
<v Speaker 1>of improvements. Kyle, do you want to talk about that.
<v Speaker 1>You know, I think better paper quality for one, right.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean the big I mean I I yes,
<v Speaker 2>I think maybe the biggest one. The thing that we
<v Speaker 2>had been pushing for forever was better paper quality. So like,
<v Speaker 2>the quality of the paper is gonna be better, there's
<v Speaker 2>gonna be more pages, and then like another like sort
<v Speaker 2>of it almost feels like it's like one of those
<v Speaker 2>things that's like when you sort of think about it,
<v Speaker 2>it's like that's kind of small, but it actually will
<v Speaker 2>make a radical difference. Is we're gonna be shipping the magazine.
<v Speaker 1>In poly bags now, oh yeah, so.
<v Speaker 2>Like which may which means for those when I would
<v Speaker 2>get those emails from people that were like, you know,
<v Speaker 2>my magazine just always gets messed up in my mailbox,
<v Speaker 2>and I'm like, that sucks, man, But like I I
<v Speaker 2>there's like nothing I can do about that. That is
<v Speaker 2>all in the postal services hands. I wish I could
<v Speaker 2>do something, And this is like our best attempt at
<v Speaker 2>like just improving the quality of the magazine. When it
<v Speaker 2>comes to you, it's like, it will be in the
<v Speaker 2>poly bag. It's gonna be a better quality magazine. It's
<v Speaker 2>gonna be in a poly bag. And it's like it's exciting, man,
<v Speaker 2>Like I'm excited. It's one of those things I was like,
<v Speaker 2>I never thought I would be so excited about a
<v Speaker 2>little plastic bag. But it's such a huge difference.
<v Speaker 1>It's also going to have fifteen percent more pages. From
<v Speaker 1>from cover to cover, it's one hundred pages now, Roughly
<v Speaker 1>about ninety six of that is is actual you know
<v Speaker 1>what you'll be reading, but it's overall, if you compare
<v Speaker 1>it to our old magazine, it's fifteen percent more content included,
<v Speaker 1>better paper quality, shipped in a poly bag, better cover stock,
<v Speaker 1>it's it's it's just all around better. Also a huge, huge,
<v Speaker 1>you know, perk of supporting us. You're also going five
<v Speaker 1>percent of every subscription purchase goes directly to Saint Jude
<v Speaker 1>Children's Research Hospital, and it helps support the critical work
<v Speaker 1>they're doing over there to help prevent and find a
<v Speaker 1>cure of you know, hugely problematic pediatric diseases. Yeah, so
<v Speaker 1>not only are you supporting Game Informer, you're getting this
<v Speaker 1>excellent magazine, and you're also five percent of your subscription
<v Speaker 1>purchase goes to Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, poly bags, better paper, more pages, charity directly supporting us.
<v Speaker 2>Like I'm sorry that we're pushing so hard on it. Yes, yeah.
<v Speaker 1>One more thing, well, a couple more things, reduced ads
<v Speaker 1>on the website. So think of your Game in Former
<v Speaker 1>subscription now, like a membership to Game Informer. We're going
<v Speaker 1>to have You're going to get exclusive digital access to
<v Speaker 1>behind the scenes features and vlogs and that sort of
<v Speaker 1>stuff that non pain readers will not have access to.
<v Speaker 1>Don't worry if you can't afford a magazine right now,
<v Speaker 1>that's totally cool. You're still going to get you know,
<v Speaker 1>all of our reviews are going to be free. You know,
<v Speaker 1>you're still to have plenty of stuff to read on
<v Speaker 1>GameInformer dot But if you are willing and able to,
<v Speaker 1>you know, go that extra mile and get a membership,
<v Speaker 1>then we want to make sure that it's worth your money,
<v Speaker 1>so you're gonna be getting you know, web perks as well,
<v Speaker 1>like reduced ads. You know, if you have the digital subscription,
<v Speaker 1>as soon as an issue launches, you'll be able to
<v Speaker 1>read the entire thing and also a huge free perk
<v Speaker 1>that anybody can get without paying for anything. Go to
<v Speaker 1>GameInformer dot com, make a free account, and you can
<v Speaker 1>read the entirety of our magazine archive up until now,
<v Speaker 1>So from nineteen ninety one to twenty twenty four, you
<v Speaker 1>can go and read every single Game in Former issue.
<v Speaker 1>Major shout out to several partners. You know what, Video
<v Speaker 1>Game History Foundation helped us out a lot. Retromag if
<v Speaker 1>I'm not mistaken. RetroMags, there's several members and we do
<v Speaker 1>shout them out. If you go to the website there's
<v Speaker 1>more details on that, but yeah, it's it's a very
<v Speaker 1>exciting time to be back at Game Informer and to
<v Speaker 1>also be a Game Informer fan. Yeah, that's the that's
<v Speaker 1>a lot of the housekeeping out of the way.
<v Speaker 2>Should we just talk about it feels like advertising, but
<v Speaker 2>like we've been working like lots, like we've been very
<v Speaker 2>excited about this.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's kind of weird to talk about publicly.
<v Speaker 1>Finally, Yeah, yeah it is. How do you feeling, Marcus.
<v Speaker 3>Uh, feeling excited? Good? Like like a tinge of like
<v Speaker 3>I don't want to say anxiety, but it is that
<v Speaker 3>like what do you call like nervous sighted? Right, So yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I always say, like the difference between being nervous and
<v Speaker 3>excited is how often you breathe. So it's like just
<v Speaker 3>remembering to breathe. And but like, oh, it's a cool
<v Speaker 3>thing that we're doing, you know, So you're just hoping
<v Speaker 3>that it goes off with out a hitch and that
<v Speaker 3>people like it. But no, it's it's exciting again. Everything's
<v Speaker 3>been exciting these last this last year has been a
<v Speaker 3>whirlwind for all of us. So it's cool to see
<v Speaker 3>the things that we have just talked about and meetings
<v Speaker 3>kind of like start to come to fruition finally. So yeah,
<v Speaker 3>feeling good though, Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, because I mean, you know, we lost our jobs.
<v Speaker 1>I think it was August second or August third, August.
<v Speaker 3>I remember, I remember vividly because I had a flight
<v Speaker 3>to Japan that Monday. It was a Friday that we
<v Speaker 3>were laid off and I was supposed to be going
<v Speaker 3>to Japan to go to Konami for like a Silent
<v Speaker 3>Hill two thing, and then I just read one of
<v Speaker 3>the many things I need to do that Friday was
<v Speaker 3>called Kanami and be like, yeah, I don't have I
<v Speaker 3>could go to that.
<v Speaker 5>Saw the news but uh yeah.
<v Speaker 1>And you know what was It was September or October
<v Speaker 1>that Matt came to us and I was like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>this is a long shot, yeah, but there's this kind
<v Speaker 1>have been coming.
<v Speaker 4>Like Matt never really stopped communicating with us.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, very nice of him.
<v Speaker 4>There was there was one once or twice he was like, hey, guys,
<v Speaker 4>I know I'm not your boss anymore. I just want
<v Speaker 4>to give you an update, and like I don't want
<v Speaker 4>to be like in charge of you because we're not.
<v Speaker 4>That's not how it worked. And I was just kind
<v Speaker 4>of like you can. You can be in chargeless still
<v Speaker 4>that I don't know my life. You can just.
<v Speaker 3>Like your teacher.
<v Speaker 4>Your teacher was like, hey, guys, I'm just gonna start
<v Speaker 4>taking classes here with you and that's all gonna be normal.
<v Speaker 4>I'm like, no, no, no, you're you're up there and that's fine.
<v Speaker 2>It's like editor in chief by the way, in case. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it's just a case.
<v Speaker 4>People don't know what we're talking about, but yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>And then he had continued he was just in lots
<v Speaker 4>of conversations with all sorts of different people that were
<v Speaker 4>like interested in buying Game Informer or reviving it in
<v Speaker 4>some capacity, and.
<v Speaker 2>It was it was very selfless of him because like
<v Speaker 2>he he does not he did not own the Game
<v Speaker 2>Informer name right, like Matt was not in charge of it.
<v Speaker 2>But he was there stewarding people who are interested and
<v Speaker 2>being available and like pushing for certain things and like
<v Speaker 2>like he was always keeping us in the loop. And
<v Speaker 2>it was always very very tempered of like, guys, I
<v Speaker 2>don't know this, don't let this interrupt your life, right,
<v Speaker 2>don't hold out for me for this, But here's what
<v Speaker 2>I'm working on, and here's what could happen. And He
<v Speaker 2>was always very you know, classy and tempered about it
<v Speaker 2>of like you know, just this is this is what
<v Speaker 2>I'm working on. And then yeah, and then it actually
<v Speaker 2>started to look like a real thing, which I don't
<v Speaker 2>know how you guys felt about it, but like I
<v Speaker 2>didn't really. I still was putting very little eggs in
<v Speaker 2>that basket of just like that sounds great, Matt, that
<v Speaker 2>sounds cool. I'm really excited about that, but like, you know,
<v Speaker 2>let me let me know if an offer letter comes through.
<v Speaker 2>It was kind of like my approach, you know. If
<v Speaker 2>you guys were similar.
<v Speaker 3>I was the same. It's like I'll believe it when
<v Speaker 3>I see it, basically, like it's cool to have something
<v Speaker 3>like nested in the back of my mind, but that's
<v Speaker 3>kind of like I will not allow it to leave
<v Speaker 3>that space until, like said, more concrete things, just because
<v Speaker 3>that just that's just not wise, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>It's like I need to look for like other things
<v Speaker 3>and and and you know, just support myself with more
<v Speaker 3>like things that it seemed more like in front of me.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, Marcau he did a lot of freelancing, didn't.
<v Speaker 3>You, not like a lot. I it was it was
<v Speaker 3>weird because we were only gone about eight months roughly,
<v Speaker 3>and so at least for me specifically, that wound up
<v Speaker 3>being like the perfect amount of time in terms of
<v Speaker 3>what I could afford to like sustain myself with without
<v Speaker 3>full time work. But then also realizing about maybe like
<v Speaker 3>a month after because I went to games Com a
<v Speaker 3>few weeks after we got shut down, because I had
<v Speaker 3>had that trip arranged through Game Informer, and it was like, well,
<v Speaker 3>my flight and stuff is still booked, I just let
<v Speaker 3>me go, and also this could be freelance fodder, which
<v Speaker 3>wound up being for Polygon. But I kind of like
<v Speaker 3>after that trip realized I kind of needed a break,
<v Speaker 3>and yeah, like I was like, oh man, I guess
<v Speaker 3>we were running like really hard, and I think it's
<v Speaker 3>something about going that hard and then just slamming on
<v Speaker 3>the brake so abruptly without that kind of like transition
<v Speaker 3>to slowing down kind of like there was a whiplash
<v Speaker 3>that I didn't really feel. So after I got back
<v Speaker 3>from games Comps, I was like, you know, I was like,
<v Speaker 3>I can afford not to just freelance to death, and
<v Speaker 3>I don't really want to either, So I think this
<v Speaker 3>might be this might be a wise opportunity to maybe
<v Speaker 3>just like distance myself away from just games writing and
<v Speaker 3>just give myself that break to just do explore other things,
<v Speaker 3>but still like stay like keep my finger on things
<v Speaker 3>because I still enjoy this. But like I did, like
<v Speaker 3>I contributed to Jill Groats like the Indian Former, and
<v Speaker 3>that was more or less the extent of it in
<v Speaker 3>terms of like regular stuff like that was like that
<v Speaker 3>was kind of like the level of involvement I wanted
<v Speaker 3>of like I don't want to really go beyond this.
<v Speaker 3>I'd rather just try other things, like I did like
<v Speaker 3>a hosting gig for bandy Namco for like a launch
<v Speaker 3>live stream.
<v Speaker 4>Oh yeah, I remember seeing that.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah it was Unknown nine Awakening.
<v Speaker 1>That's awesome. Yeah, it was that you were in the
<v Speaker 1>like the big video studio right with the big video
<v Speaker 1>wall and all that.
<v Speaker 3>It was weird because I had been there earlier.
<v Speaker 2>That year, first sand Land, So.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that are like showing me around, like oh and
<v Speaker 3>I was like, I no, I was here like four
<v Speaker 3>months ago. Maybe if even just like boring as Hell
<v Speaker 3>showed me something, Yeah, oh this hasn't changed, Okay, So
<v Speaker 3>yeah it was sort of like oh yeah, like and
<v Speaker 3>I'm just doing just another interview because I did an
<v Speaker 3>interview there the first time, but at least for the
<v Speaker 3>Leveshom moves in person with the creative director, I believe
<v Speaker 3>it was. And and yeah, and outside of doing like
<v Speaker 3>you know, Mid Max stuff here and there, it was
<v Speaker 3>kind of like I was kind of like keeping it intentionally,
<v Speaker 3>kind of like on the deal in terms of like
<v Speaker 3>what I was doing. And again, thankfully I was able
<v Speaker 3>to sort of like I was able to afford to
<v Speaker 3>do that. But and I and it wound up working
<v Speaker 3>out because by the time we did started rolling for real,
<v Speaker 3>I felt like refreshed in a way that I hadn't
<v Speaker 3>in a while. So I think I made the right
<v Speaker 3>call ultimately doing that.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Charles, what about you?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, just just what I was doing in the break.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, just in the meantime. Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it called a.
<v Speaker 2>Break now in retrospect, yeah, yeah, a vacation.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah. I uh. I was like I was comfortably busy.
<v Speaker 4>I would say for the rest of twenty twenty four,
<v Speaker 4>I was doing a lot of Midmax stuff. I went
<v Speaker 4>to Japan to see Monster Hunter Wilds, which is really cool.
<v Speaker 4>That was my first international trip. What was that, Like,
<v Speaker 4>I mean, weird, so weird. I mean, uh every time. Uh,
<v Speaker 4>traveling for Mimax is nice because it's like it's so
<v Speaker 4>chill in a way because it's not like I'm not
<v Speaker 4>like talking to someone who's getting approval from someone who
<v Speaker 4>answers to like the CEO or whatever. I'm just talking
<v Speaker 4>to Ben and he's like, yeah, here's you. I'll reimburse
<v Speaker 4>you for your food and cabs and stuff, have fun
<v Speaker 4>film stuff. And it's like, I don't know, he's he
<v Speaker 4>tells me what to do. It's not like, uh, he
<v Speaker 4>just kind of lets me loose. But it is not
<v Speaker 4>It's not like I don't know, it's not it's not
<v Speaker 4>corporate at all. So I was just kind of in
<v Speaker 4>there and I don't know, I'm not I was stressful
<v Speaker 4>kind of just because I didn't know the language. That's
<v Speaker 4>always kind of it.
<v Speaker 3>I remember me asking for like I have never been
<v Speaker 3>to Japan helped me, I don't think. Yeah, it wasn't
<v Speaker 3>as dire as that sounded, but it was like, oh, okay,
<v Speaker 3>it's your first international trip, and I think I just
<v Speaker 3>sent you a list of just like yeah, here's some
<v Speaker 3>dues and don'tes maybe.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, and uh so yeah I did that I also
<v Speaker 4>was writing some stuff for The Indian Former. I had
<v Speaker 4>a Balder's gate piece that I was working on for
<v Speaker 4>the last issue that went up on IgM. That was cool.
<v Speaker 4>And then I've turned it into a video that I
<v Speaker 4>didn't know about because they wouldn't. They don't like email you, like,
<v Speaker 4>by the way, we did this with your video, and
<v Speaker 4>it has like half a million views. It's like maybe
<v Speaker 4>the most viewed thing I have contributed to in some way.
<v Speaker 4>And then the start of twenty twenty five was right
<v Speaker 4>when we started hearing about Game Informer coming back in
<v Speaker 4>a in like a real way, like we had a
<v Speaker 4>meeting and I remember Matt like Matt brought us all
<v Speaker 4>in for a meeting, and I had expect it to
<v Speaker 4>be like, hey, this is going from a ten percent
<v Speaker 4>chance to maybe a fifty percent chance, and then it
<v Speaker 4>was like he was like I think I pressed him on,
<v Speaker 4>like I was like, what percent chance you think this is.
<v Speaker 4>It's like it's not definitely gonna happen, but it's like
<v Speaker 4>ninety five percent, and I was like, oh okay, Like
<v Speaker 4>I hadn't realized how serious of a conversation that these
<v Speaker 4>company has been having. I will say that there was
<v Speaker 4>like a period of what like six weeks after the
<v Speaker 4>new year, where we were waiting to see like the
<v Speaker 4>deals agony that was. That was horrible because I was like,
<v Speaker 4>I don't want to commit to something else. I don't
<v Speaker 4>want to take on any long term projects. But like,
<v Speaker 4>that's that's the most unemployed I've ever felt.
<v Speaker 1>Is like yeah, and also like that many months into
<v Speaker 1>at least for me, like my unemployment was running out
<v Speaker 1>at that point, was about to, it felt like. And
<v Speaker 1>also my wife Kayla was unemployed. She got laid off
<v Speaker 1>a week after we got laid off, and so I
<v Speaker 1>was working my butt off too luckily. I mean, huge
<v Speaker 1>shout out to. I did a lot of work. I
<v Speaker 1>did a lot of consulting work that I can't talk about.
<v Speaker 1>Worked on a few really big multiplayer titles last year,
<v Speaker 1>probably the extent of which I can say, but min
<v Speaker 1>Max is one of those places I do want to
<v Speaker 1>shout out for. I think everyone on this call they
<v Speaker 1>gave work to.
<v Speaker 3>I mean they're still.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Kyle and Charles, you obviously are are you know
<v Speaker 1>what cohorts right?
<v Speaker 4>But I'm like, a, I'm cohorted, Jason.
<v Speaker 1>Cohart. I like that, Marcus and I not cohorts, but collaborators.
<v Speaker 5>I would say frequently, Yeah, friends, friends of the show,
<v Speaker 5>friends of the show, and I know they gave you
<v Speaker 5>some work. Marcus allowed us to finish our super replay.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, marathon stream. I think, what do we play? Like
<v Speaker 2>eight hours or something or.
<v Speaker 3>You just I say it that it was longer than
<v Speaker 3>I guess I thought, not knowing how long the game
<v Speaker 3>was because it was my first time. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. And then Hanson, Uh, there's a couple of time
<v Speaker 1>Leo invited me to just stream with him, and I
<v Speaker 1>was going under the presumption that I was just doing
<v Speaker 1>it for fun, and then I would get off the
<v Speaker 1>stream and Hanson had venmoed me like however, like over
<v Speaker 1>like one hundred bucks, like, and I was like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>I was just playing for fun, man, And then of
<v Speaker 1>course I like help, I was just doing this yeah, yeah, thanks.
<v Speaker 1>So now it's at the point where like, if Leo
<v Speaker 1>invites me on, he's like, hey, f this is just
<v Speaker 1>for fun. I'm like, okay, yeah, that's what I thought
<v Speaker 1>you were gonna.
<v Speaker 3>You were gonna be like, where's my money exactly.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I was gonna really really mean mug hum. But
<v Speaker 1>also I got to host the mid Max Deepest Dive
<v Speaker 1>with Leo Jacob and Charles your yours for Mere's Edge.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, because I think Charles, you and I had like
<v Speaker 3>we picked one to pitch, so we were all gonna host. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>we were all in the running to host one game
<v Speaker 3>that we all chose.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I got what I chose.
<v Speaker 4>I pitched. I was between me and Arkham City and Uprising.
<v Speaker 4>I ended up because I was like, it was it
<v Speaker 4>was by far the least I think it got the
<v Speaker 4>least votes, just because it's like, you.
<v Speaker 1>Probably could have beaten Merror's Edge with Batman.
<v Speaker 4>I think so, but I'm.
<v Speaker 1>Grateful that you didn't because I got paid.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah. I mean for me, it was like, if I
<v Speaker 4>have a chance to talk at length about Kidicker's Uprising,
<v Speaker 4>I wanted that to be on the running.
<v Speaker 2>Charles, this is this is a tangent. But there's a
<v Speaker 2>book that came out recently called Good Game, No Rematch
<v Speaker 2>from Mike Trucker. Are you familiar with this writer?
<v Speaker 4>Oh, I think he worked on the game.
<v Speaker 2>He worked on Kidicrious extensively. He did a lot of
<v Speaker 2>the sort. But he talks about it in the book
<v Speaker 2>and it's a very good book. Shout out to That
<v Speaker 2>book is hilarious, but you should. You should read that
<v Speaker 2>book just because it's good, but also because he talks
<v Speaker 2>about KIDDI Ris. It is the most in depth anyone
<v Speaker 2>will ever go in Kickers Uprising, since we didn't do
<v Speaker 2>the deepest dive in the MEGS.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know Mike personally, but hopefully we can somehow
<v Speaker 1>get you in their room with him Charles and you
<v Speaker 1>can talk about Oh.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, no, we should have him on. I I I've
<v Speaker 2>corresponded with him, I was emailing. I mean, I want
<v Speaker 2>to say spoiler alert, but that's not the right term.
<v Speaker 2>But I'm really trying to work with him to have
<v Speaker 2>him write some freelance pieces for a Game Informer. I've
<v Speaker 2>back and forth on some ideas and stuff. So I
<v Speaker 2>would love to have Mike on. He's hilarious and talk
<v Speaker 2>about kid us.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah yeah, but but Kyle, what about you? What were
<v Speaker 1>you up to during the Dark period?
<v Speaker 2>The Dark period? Similarly min Max as well, which I
<v Speaker 2>am still a a co host at min Max. I'm
<v Speaker 2>still there pretty often, so you know you can still
<v Speaker 2>find me over there. But my gig kind of became
<v Speaker 2>I once the layoffs happened. Pretty quickly. I emailed the
<v Speaker 2>developers at Thorium who made the Undermine game. I don't
<v Speaker 2>know if you guys played Undermine, but it's truly like
<v Speaker 2>a favorite of mine. I don't I'm not even like
<v Speaker 2>in the biggest fan of that genre, but I just
<v Speaker 2>love Undermine. That game really clicked with me. And I
<v Speaker 2>messaged them kind of with the sort of email was
<v Speaker 2>sort of like, hey, I think I can help you
<v Speaker 2>guys if you have a job for me, maybe that
<v Speaker 2>would be nice and uh and they got back to
<v Speaker 2>me quickly and we talked and we had some conversations,
<v Speaker 2>and I was kind of like I was just like
<v Speaker 2>a community manager social media guy there like part time.
<v Speaker 2>Like I was working like part time there while sort
<v Speaker 2>of doing like what you did, Alex, doing consulting on
<v Speaker 2>a number of things that I don't think I'll ever
<v Speaker 2>be able to talk about maybe, but and uh, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I worked with them for a while and I was
<v Speaker 2>actually I was really sad to leave, honestly when the
<v Speaker 2>game and form Opportunity came along. I had a conversation
<v Speaker 2>with them and they're like, yeah, we totally understand. You know.
<v Speaker 2>It's like I, you know, this is a full time
<v Speaker 2>opportunity that you got to go after. But yeah, I
<v Speaker 2>think the game is actually under Mine two is coming
<v Speaker 2>out July twenty second or something not to like. You know,
<v Speaker 2>I fully acknowledge my bias of working with them. You know,
<v Speaker 2>you're not going to see me covering Undermine, you know,
<v Speaker 2>in a sort of critical way on game inform, dot
<v Speaker 2>com or anything. But I think there's a demo out
<v Speaker 2>for it now, and like I played a ton of
<v Speaker 2>that game and I really like it.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, that's why you reached out them, right, Because.
<v Speaker 2>That's why I reached out to them. Yeah, because I
<v Speaker 2>really like that game and I thought maybe I could
<v Speaker 2>help them out. And I'm still rooting for that game
<v Speaker 2>for sure, So that that's what I did. Basically. That
<v Speaker 2>was kind of ended up being the majority of my
<v Speaker 2>my sort of focus was like I worked on that
<v Speaker 2>game and then did a bunch of stuff on the
<v Speaker 2>side and continue to do min Max until until the
<v Speaker 2>opportunity to come back came along and I demanded a
<v Speaker 2>new title. I said, I executive editor. I walk and
<v Speaker 2>Matt was like, that seems fine, sure, I heard that?
<v Speaker 3>Is it is it worth bringing up to in terms
<v Speaker 3>of like the there was one thing during a dark
<v Speaker 3>period that we all experienced. And I don't know how
<v Speaker 3>like if this how publicly this was known, but we
<v Speaker 3>had like a wake of sorts for Game Informer, like.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah afterwards talk about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I
<v Speaker 2>got together in Minneapolis. Yeah, everyone who was able to attend. Marcus,
<v Speaker 2>did you come out explicitly for that? Was that?
<v Speaker 3>Well?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, just for that, I see you guys. I wasn't
<v Speaker 2>like that you were missed, Charles.
<v Speaker 4>Marcus said it if we were like all four of
<v Speaker 4>us were there, and I.
<v Speaker 3>Was like, oh yeah, I forgot that.
<v Speaker 2>You like for Andy McNamara was there.
<v Speaker 1>You were invited To.
<v Speaker 3>Be clear, I know, no it was like we said no,
<v Speaker 3>don't come, but yeah, it wasn't. It was. It was
<v Speaker 3>everyone that was there at the end. But also like
<v Speaker 3>it was kind of like a Game in Former reunion
<v Speaker 3>of it was like as many people from like multiple
<v Speaker 3>eras of Game Informer, both in like editorial and in
<v Speaker 3>production and graphic design and whatnot. So it was like
<v Speaker 3>the the Avengers end game of Game Informer walked through
<v Speaker 3>portals and said, hey, we're here to to to l
<v Speaker 3>this corpse. Yeah, or in my case, I had a
<v Speaker 3>nice it's like the.
<v Speaker 2>Year the camera just kept going by people or even
<v Speaker 2>you know, maybe one actor who was a child in
<v Speaker 2>Iron Man three who was an adult by the time
<v Speaker 2>that scene came along, and you're like, who the hell
<v Speaker 2>is that? Like we had a lot of that happening,
<v Speaker 2>you know.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, So that was like that was a fun thing
<v Speaker 3>that like after that, I'd kind of like, again we
<v Speaker 3>we knew in the background that Matt was talking with
<v Speaker 3>like our current owners about like a potential revival. But
<v Speaker 3>it was like, at least for me, after that, I
<v Speaker 3>had kind of like made my piece of like I
<v Speaker 3>guess this chapter of my life is over now, and
<v Speaker 3>I guess I'm okay with that because of how nice
<v Speaker 3>of an event that it was, Like it really felt
<v Speaker 3>like closure, which almost makes kind of like the we
<v Speaker 3>still have to do like a reverse version of that,
<v Speaker 3>like I get together. What is the opposite of a wake?
<v Speaker 3>What would you call that? If someone comes back to life,
<v Speaker 3>Like in any fiction when like like if Rachial Ghoul
<v Speaker 3>comes out of the Lazarus pit, do the.
<v Speaker 1>Rich that's a ritual, I think, actually, so let's.
<v Speaker 2>Call let's see, let's just set.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, let's do let's just theme it like that specifically,
<v Speaker 3>like League of Shadows and Batman Wichy vibes each.
<v Speaker 4>Do we each get Lazarus pitted or do we just
<v Speaker 4>pick like a representative to do the Lazarus.
<v Speaker 3>P Well, it's like a baptism.
<v Speaker 1>I do you have a question. Is the Lazarus pit painful?
<v Speaker 3>I don't think it's ever been depicted as painful. I
<v Speaker 3>think it drives you insane. It drives the more you know,
<v Speaker 3>the more you use it.
<v Speaker 1>But just like one time, I'll have like some anxiety
<v Speaker 1>or something.
<v Speaker 3>I think the first time is fine. I think racial
<v Speaker 3>Goule's problem is that he did it so many times
<v Speaker 3>that it just broke his mind.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, okay, but I think I would.
<v Speaker 2>I think I would try centered again.
<v Speaker 3>You know, he gets punched in the face by Batman.
<v Speaker 3>It says some straight.
<v Speaker 1>To go to like a health and wellness retreat after
<v Speaker 1>getting Lazarus fitted exactly. Yeah, so we're back. Magazine's back.
<v Speaker 1>That's kind of what we've been up to a bit
<v Speaker 1>in the meantime, and like this, this podcast is coming
<v Speaker 1>out of the week I think we said it at
<v Speaker 1>the top, maybe a one of the busiest weeks that
<v Speaker 1>I can remember working here we've got well, I've got
<v Speaker 1>a cover story trip I'm going on tomorrow. Uh then
<v Speaker 1>I I'm meeting Marcus and Charles in LA on Thursday
<v Speaker 1>for Summer Game Fest Shenanigans, which is also the Nintendo
<v Speaker 1>Switch to Launch day. Did you guys secure pre orders
<v Speaker 1>for that, by the way.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, I did through someone else, which yeah me too.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I have I have a Walmart order that every
<v Speaker 2>day I wake up and I like check it like
<v Speaker 2>as I have, and it hasn't been canceled yet, so
<v Speaker 2>fingers crossed. I feel pretty good about it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>I hate to get one of those stupid ones from
<v Speaker 4>best Buy where it's like the line was really long
<v Speaker 4>for the just normal Switch. But it's like, but if
<v Speaker 4>you buy a Switch and Mario Kart and a pre
<v Speaker 4>order of Donkey Kong Bonanza, then that has like it
<v Speaker 4>was easier to get in that way.
<v Speaker 1>So I tried that I couldn't.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, to be clear, I don't have the bundle that
<v Speaker 4>comes with a digital version of Mario Kart. I have
<v Speaker 4>a switch with no game, a physical version of Mariocott World,
<v Speaker 4>and then also eventually I will get a physical version
<v Speaker 4>of Donkey Kong Gaza and you'll finally be I'll finally
<v Speaker 4>be happy. It only cost like six hundred and fifty dollars.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, this was that Donkey Kong.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, this was the most unique preorder experience for me
<v Speaker 3>because I was in Japan at the time. Yeah, Like
<v Speaker 3>I was at Kajima Productions for a desk Stranding two
<v Speaker 3>preview event because in the US, preorders went live at
<v Speaker 3>like midnight for you guys, right, yeah, so for us,
<v Speaker 3>it was like one o'clock in the afternoon and like
<v Speaker 3>smack dab in the middle of like a multi day
<v Speaker 3>like just play session for desk Stranding two. And it
<v Speaker 3>was myself, Dan Reichert of Giant Bomb formerly of gi
<v Speaker 3>and Blessing Junior of kind of Funny, the only US
<v Speaker 3>journalists there because all the smug Eurogamer and Video Game
<v Speaker 3>Chronicles guys because their preorders went up weeks ago, so
<v Speaker 3>they're like, oh, no, we did this already, and it
<v Speaker 3>was actually it was They were like, oh, it was
<v Speaker 3>a very smooth process for us, and I was like, oh,
<v Speaker 3>that must be nice. So then the three of us
<v Speaker 3>are huddled, like we all left our demo stations and
<v Speaker 3>huddled at table on our phones because we weren't allowed
<v Speaker 3>to bring our laptops to Kajima Productions, and we're just
<v Speaker 3>having multiple tabs just like yelling plays at each other
<v Speaker 3>basically like okay, Walmart's down, all right, that's not up yet.
<v Speaker 3>All right, let's try target. And we're just trying to
<v Speaker 3>help each other get Switch to is when we should
<v Speaker 3>be playing Death Training too, But this is the only
<v Speaker 3>window we have to do this.
<v Speaker 2>He's always getting in the way. A switch to that
<v Speaker 2>happened to you? And then I think we can say
<v Speaker 2>I mean I could. This is all I can say
<v Speaker 2>believe is that I got the review code for Debt
<v Speaker 2>Stranding two now in my pocket, and I'm like, I
<v Speaker 2>gotta play switch to A, Like, how.
<v Speaker 1>Do you think he feels balancing those two things?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah? Did we get the dish raining too? Was that
<v Speaker 3>release date for the game announced before the switch To
<v Speaker 3>release date? Like? Is he blindsided by this two?
<v Speaker 2>I think I think so?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah it was, Yeah, so he might be in the
<v Speaker 3>same boat of like I thought June was safe. What
<v Speaker 3>the hell?
<v Speaker 4>No?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's Doug Bowser who must pay I ran it too,
<v Speaker 1>Doug Bowser a Super Nintendo World in Orlando.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah he was. I was with someone he actually
<v Speaker 3>knows personally, so I kind of piggybacked off of like
<v Speaker 3>they are meeting and we weren't expecting it. So I
<v Speaker 3>was filming something and I have a very funny, almost
<v Speaker 3>like Blair Witch esque like found for the style, like
<v Speaker 3>Doug Bowser appearance of like, oh, yeah, I just get
<v Speaker 3>in some shots. And then a very excited Doug Bowser
<v Speaker 3>running out of the darkness to greet my friend and
<v Speaker 3>we have a very animated like whoa, it's you. And
<v Speaker 3>I'm like, shaky CAGs. I'm like, oh, I wasn't expecting this,
<v Speaker 3>and I'm trying to and I'm decided should I introduce
<v Speaker 3>my should I say hi? But he was so like
<v Speaker 3>in passing like out of his he was leaving as
<v Speaker 3>we were coming in, so I didn't get to say anything.
<v Speaker 3>But watching it back, there was a very like oh,
<v Speaker 3>this could be like a Cloverfield sequel, and he's in
<v Speaker 3>Doug Bowser, No, nothing's in Bargo. I could I could
<v Speaker 3>show it to you?
<v Speaker 2>Well that week we should put.
<v Speaker 1>This in the podcast. Mark, Yeah, I'll.
<v Speaker 2>Send line yeah, because I mean to be clear. Marcus
<v Speaker 2>was at the opening in Florida for Superintendent World which
<v Speaker 2>has a Donkey Kong lane and stuff like that. And
<v Speaker 2>it was fun because you were sending us pictures of
<v Speaker 2>like the celebrities that you were seeing, Like was it
<v Speaker 2>Gerard Butler, Like you have a really blurry shot.
<v Speaker 3>Right, yeah, it was to go back to the cryptid
<v Speaker 3>thing like it's a very like like Patterson Gimlin Bigfoot
<v Speaker 3>style photo of Gerard Butler standing in front of the
<v Speaker 3>Stardust roller coaster with like his people, because I was
<v Speaker 3>doing it as I was moving and I want to
<v Speaker 3>be weird and just stand there and try to like
<v Speaker 3>really get him and shot while he's like two feet
<v Speaker 3>away from me.
<v Speaker 2>But you had to show us that you saw him.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, I need a proof or it didn't happen.
<v Speaker 1>This is going in the show to it was a politician.
<v Speaker 3>Right Oh and then I guess if you want to
<v Speaker 3>call him celebrity, are wonderful Governor Ron DeSantis?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, who was in Super Nintendo World, which is he's.
<v Speaker 2>Not allowed in Disney World, right like the pretty sure
<v Speaker 2>he's just not allowed to go there. That cack him out.
<v Speaker 2>He tried to get in, he.
<v Speaker 3>Got his face on the wall. I guarantee he was
<v Speaker 3>there at least out of some degree of spite. I'm
<v Speaker 3>gonna support these guys. They're gonna kick your ass. Hey,
<v Speaker 3>what's the Syoshi Ride? I saw him. I saw him
<v Speaker 3>enter Yoshi's Adventure. I don't know if he'd in my
<v Speaker 3>pett cannon or is he still there? No, he did.
<v Speaker 3>He did leave, like that's where I took the picture
<v Speaker 3>was out outside of Nintendo. But I saw him go
<v Speaker 3>into the ride, so I'm really in my mind he
<v Speaker 3>got into the little Yoshi cart with like his protectors
<v Speaker 3>and a very slowly road around the park.
<v Speaker 4>The final boss version of our jobs would be trying
<v Speaker 4>to explain Yoshi to a DC politician that is no
<v Speaker 4>concept of what Yoshi is, and trying to be like,
<v Speaker 4>I've informed the game so well that this person that
<v Speaker 4>is so far from this concept is understood it.
<v Speaker 3>I like to think that Yoshi will somehow melt his
<v Speaker 3>heart and he'll become like a better person, like something
<v Speaker 3>about something ride affected him on like a very deep level.
<v Speaker 2>He's not coming back.
<v Speaker 1>Was there a Toad's Cafe at that version?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah? There, I got the I got the Mario burger
<v Speaker 3>that has a little mustache, and actually I'm bag you
<v Speaker 3>brought up have a bone to pick. So I was
<v Speaker 3>there with with Brian Altano from my gn He ordered
<v Speaker 3>a kid's meal, which was a few dollars cheaper than
<v Speaker 3>my meal. Like he got a kids burger. I got
<v Speaker 3>an adult burger. However, for less money, he got something
<v Speaker 3>like it was like a little junior burger, like a
<v Speaker 3>small thing. He got like basically regular sized burger with fries,
<v Speaker 3>a corn, and a cob that was surrounded by broccoli,
<v Speaker 3>like the way it was a range was supposed to
<v Speaker 3>be like the flagpole and Mario, like it was like
<v Speaker 3>the cob was sticking out. I had a little like
<v Speaker 3>like toothpick thing that's supposed to be a flag. And
<v Speaker 3>he got a cookie like he got like a gold
<v Speaker 3>coin cookie that was just like a like a fudge
<v Speaker 3>covered cookie or something. And I was like, oh man,
<v Speaker 3>that's pretty neat. And then I get my expensive adult
<v Speaker 3>meal and it's just a slightly larger burger and fries
<v Speaker 3>and that's it. So maybe like like I don't know
<v Speaker 3>even thought it's a hack, but you should if you're
<v Speaker 3>going to eat there, just get the kids meal and
<v Speaker 3>the burger's like barely smaller, but you get technically more
<v Speaker 3>food and you get a little cookie toy or not toy,
<v Speaker 3>but you get a cookie cookie. You did get a toy,
<v Speaker 3>though the toy was like bs because the toy in
<v Speaker 3>quotations was the they had the sandwich like uh, you know,
<v Speaker 3>like when you stick like the toothpick in your sandwich
<v Speaker 3>to try to keep it in keep it together. It
<v Speaker 3>was one of those, but it just had a figure
<v Speaker 3>of Mario on it doing like his Yahoo jump, and
<v Speaker 3>that was what constituted a toy. But when you pull
<v Speaker 3>it out, it's like that toy with basically a dagger
<v Speaker 3>sticking out of it, and it's like, did they want
<v Speaker 3>kids to play with this like this like you can't shot? Yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>like basically weapon, whereas my burger just had the same thing,
<v Speaker 3>but it was Mario's hat because the bun had a
<v Speaker 3>mustache like burn marks, it was supposed like Mario. So yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I looked at Brian. I was like, I think, I
<v Speaker 3>think I got Gypsy.
<v Speaker 2>A mile away.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, well they were getting invaded by Bowser in the
<v Speaker 3>middle of That's right.
<v Speaker 2>That does happen everybody, and it happened twice.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I am trying to remember what Shane and I
<v Speaker 1>got at the Japan location. I know, we got a
<v Speaker 1>sort of meat loaf dish. It was like a meat
<v Speaker 1>loaf sort of mixed with a beef Wellington like. It
<v Speaker 1>had a pie crust like protective barrier puff pastry, but
<v Speaker 1>it was lattice, like a lattice.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's like his signature. Yeah, and we got that.
<v Speaker 1>We got a strawberry or raspberry cake and it was
<v Speaker 1>kind of doing the flagpole thing on that one. They
<v Speaker 1>love the flag pole.
<v Speaker 2>They have that one over here. Because I got that.
<v Speaker 3>In California, I think, Yeah, one thing was good. Did
<v Speaker 3>you guys get the Yoshi shake?
<v Speaker 1>No, they didn't have that.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, I went this summer.
<v Speaker 2>I went during the break that we refer to it now,
<v Speaker 2>the break had I had already, we had already planned
<v Speaker 2>to go.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, the g I staff has been to Super Nintendo
<v Speaker 4>World already, because I I thought it was just like
<v Speaker 4>a few of us. Apparently everyone on this podcast. Well,
<v Speaker 4>Brian's gone, I think of us. Me I went just
<v Speaker 4>as a family vacation. And has West gone. I mean
<v Speaker 4>he lives in Florida.
<v Speaker 3>He probably hadn't gone to the Well.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, there's a whole baby thing going on.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you have to make a pilgrimage there, Charles, that's
<v Speaker 2>like how it works.
<v Speaker 4>It's like I will actually be in I'm going to
<v Speaker 4>My partner has a like work conference in Orlando in
<v Speaker 4>late August, so I am going to go down to
<v Speaker 4>Orlando with her health. It's like at Disney for some reason,
<v Speaker 4>and she has days where she's working. Question it, and
<v Speaker 4>I was like, do I just do a solo trip
<v Speaker 4>to the Mario world? Is that going to be?
<v Speaker 2>And if you if you're solo, you can get on
<v Speaker 2>the rides easier too, because like that's if your solo.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, I'm jealous because Marcus got to ride Donkey Kong,
<v Speaker 2>which sounds like the best Nintendo ride, like multiple times. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>Mario Kart was a little underwhelming in California. I want
<v Speaker 2>to I want to get on the Mine cards man.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I messed up Mark like Mark Carr was fine.
<v Speaker 3>It took me about a third of away through the
<v Speaker 3>ride to figure out how to actually plagues I didn't
<v Speaker 3>know yet to It's like an ar ride for those
<v Speaker 3>that don't know. You have like yeah goggles and you
<v Speaker 3>see like basically ar competitors you're not and you're playing cars.
<v Speaker 2>It's it's there's too much going on, so it's a
<v Speaker 2>very visual.
<v Speaker 1>Brian and I we have a video where we went
<v Speaker 1>to the Japan and did a blog there, yeah, on
<v Speaker 1>the YouTube channel somewhere.
<v Speaker 3>It took me like maybe like the first third of ride,
<v Speaker 3>realized you have to aim by moving, like looking at
<v Speaker 3>the targets and not like the steering wheel.
<v Speaker 2>Yea.
<v Speaker 3>So we were losing it first, but then once I
<v Speaker 3>figured out, we were like destroying, like me and my
<v Speaker 3>my partner shout out to Desion over at a Nintendo
<v Speaker 3>Life him and I we got first place in uh
<v Speaker 3>in Mario Kart, and then we said never again because
<v Speaker 3>we can't top that. You know, we're esh in history.
<v Speaker 1>Now that's awesome. Well yeah, I mean yes, switch to
<v Speaker 1>is here. I'm trying to think how we got to
<v Speaker 1>this subject, but I guess it was.
<v Speaker 3>I think it was.
<v Speaker 2>It was a very busy week.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, and then we got then we went to Disney,
<v Speaker 1>I guess yeah, and it was it.
<v Speaker 3>Was grow Universal. Technically let's not get him twelve.
<v Speaker 1>But yes, Orlando, or Orlando, that has both, right.
<v Speaker 3>What do you mean like like universally.
<v Speaker 1>Disney Universal Disney? Is there a third one?
<v Speaker 3>I mean, we have sea World that's like the oh
<v Speaker 3>the Sea World's great, it's better you're thinking of pre Blackfish,
<v Speaker 3>SeaWorld post Blackfish when they kind of had some I
<v Speaker 3>guess we shouldn't keep these because they don't do that.
<v Speaker 1>It's gone.
<v Speaker 3>They did all for like ten years. Yeah, they still
<v Speaker 3>have not done anything with Shamou stadiums. So when you
<v Speaker 3>walk there, it's like this weird ghost like town part
<v Speaker 3>of the park where you just see Shammou Stadium just empty,
<v Speaker 3>and you're like, how have they not figured out what
<v Speaker 3>to do with this in this time whereas everything else
<v Speaker 3>is like active, but it is a fun sort of
<v Speaker 3>like time capsule, I guess from like simpler, more horrific times.
<v Speaker 3>But yes, actually eat SeaWorld low key, very good park
<v Speaker 3>that nobody goes to because they've I think in the
<v Speaker 3>wake of we can't have Shamou, we have to have
<v Speaker 3>more rides. So they have like really good roller coasters
<v Speaker 3>now and like a lot of them. So I always say, like,
<v Speaker 3>if you just are in the mood for roto coasters
<v Speaker 3>but don't want to pay the price or deal with
<v Speaker 3>the crowds of Disney Universal, like just go to SeaWorld.
<v Speaker 2>Like SeaWorld from a local Floridian.
<v Speaker 3>Exactly like SeaWorld at its busiest is like half as
<v Speaker 3>busy as like Disney. Pretty much.
<v Speaker 1>They need that on the T shirts, right. I was
<v Speaker 1>to post Blackfish SeaWorld less problematic, Sea Rolls.
<v Speaker 2>Changed the name to that just overall, just that's what
<v Speaker 2>the sign problematic.
<v Speaker 1>Hey guys, we've seen the documentary, we know about it.
<v Speaker 3>We heard you. It's like every corporate apology ever. It's
<v Speaker 3>just like the sign is just like a Twitter background.
<v Speaker 1>I thought I thought Shamou was still trapped. There was.
<v Speaker 2>What other word would you use? What other there?
<v Speaker 1>Volunteer? It was hunted.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, you don't know if he signed.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know. I don't know Shamus.
<v Speaker 3>Shout out to Shamo utile shamboos, so I guess all
<v Speaker 3>of them. Oh, whales don't live that long. Sham who
<v Speaker 3>has been a thing for like decades.
<v Speaker 1>I thought whales lived a long time.
<v Speaker 3>I mean not as long as Shamboo has been a brand.
<v Speaker 2>There's been alex he Okay, I feel like you're learning
<v Speaker 2>a lot in this last five minutes.
<v Speaker 1>I haven't seen Blackfish.
<v Speaker 3>I'm learning like being sad for like.
<v Speaker 1>Wait, I thought whales lived like turtles like for a
<v Speaker 1>long time.
<v Speaker 3>No, not many things live like turt like turtle, they
<v Speaker 3>do have like longer, they have long lives for like
<v Speaker 3>most animals. But turtles are like next level?
<v Speaker 1>Is it like like when you haven't? I mean like
<v Speaker 1>it's part works harder.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I mean like a whale lives for like Google
<v Speaker 2>is fifty to ninety years.
<v Speaker 1>That's a long time.
<v Speaker 2>Similar.
<v Speaker 1>Shamoo hasn't been around that long, has it.
<v Speaker 3>Like the brand of shamboo. I mean no, but like
<v Speaker 3>there has been more than one Shamoo.
<v Speaker 1>Basically that's disappointing because.
<v Speaker 3>There's been there's more than one SeaWorld. You know, it's
<v Speaker 3>not just next there's one in California too, I think,
<v Speaker 3>isn't it just because there's always a California version of
<v Speaker 3>our parks that is inferior, because the Orlando parks are
<v Speaker 3>always better.
<v Speaker 1>Just saying as well the vibes the I'm bummed right now.
<v Speaker 3>Man, you haven't even seen the movie. I'm not going
<v Speaker 3>to definitely watch that movie.
<v Speaker 1>I'm good dude.
<v Speaker 4>You guys played the there's a is a sea World
<v Speaker 4>case in Ace Attorney Dual Destinies. That's yeah, Well the
<v Speaker 4>whale commits the murder.
<v Speaker 1>Spoilers, let me let me phrase that the whale is accused.
<v Speaker 4>Of committing the murder. So you're you're defending the whale.
<v Speaker 4>I honestly don't remember how it ends. I didn't really
<v Speaker 4>like it all that much, but it's it's it's just
<v Speaker 4>particularly on the way I was trying. I was trying
<v Speaker 4>to tie it into a video game.
<v Speaker 3>Does he speak English?
<v Speaker 4>So like I think the the it's like they there's
<v Speaker 4>a trick that the whale does. And the conclusion or
<v Speaker 4>the conclusion they jumped to immediately, is that the whale
<v Speaker 4>did its trick to kill this person through some like
<v Speaker 4>it does, like some dropping thing or throwing things like
<v Speaker 4>I don't know. They said he was crushed to death
<v Speaker 4>or something.
<v Speaker 1>All right, all right, well that sounds like a great
<v Speaker 1>time for a break. We're going to take a break,
<v Speaker 1>come back talk about some of the games that we've
<v Speaker 1>been playing. Will be right back right after.
<v Speaker 3>Hello, Welcome back to the Game and Former show. And
<v Speaker 3>this is the section where we talk about the thing
<v Speaker 3>that we do at our jobs, which has played a
<v Speaker 3>lot of video games. It's this is again we've been
<v Speaker 3>away for a while, so this is going to be
<v Speaker 3>a little bit of a scattershot approach, but you know,
<v Speaker 3>and especially because like at least for me right now,
<v Speaker 3>I don't know if you guys are taking the same attitude.
<v Speaker 3>But with SGF, I kind of marked it as like, Okay,
<v Speaker 3>we're entering the second half of a year, so I'm
<v Speaker 3>kind of trying to clear as much of my backlag
<v Speaker 3>from the first half before I have to start turning
<v Speaker 3>my attention to like the latter half as things get
<v Speaker 3>release dates or even like something gets shadow dropped during SGF,
<v Speaker 3>which there's always like something. So I've been like playing
<v Speaker 3>things that I've just had outstanding, and my current obsession
<v Speaker 3>this past weekend has been Blueprints Finally Nice. Yeah, because
<v Speaker 3>I started it at launch, but I was so busy,
<v Speaker 3>but like other reviews and trips that I was very
<v Speaker 3>frustrated that I could not sit down and life like
<v Speaker 3>really dig into it, like I was like, yeah, seven
<v Speaker 3>days in for like weeks and weeks how much time
<v Speaker 3>I had for it. And so I actually started the
<v Speaker 3>game over because I started on Steam and then I
<v Speaker 3>found myself wanting to like not be at my computer,
<v Speaker 3>so I downloaded the game Pass version last week and
<v Speaker 3>I was like, oh, if I you know, if I
<v Speaker 3>want to play on computer again, I will just download
<v Speaker 3>the PC on Xbox version because of the safe transfer.
<v Speaker 3>So I've since started over on Xbox and that wound
<v Speaker 3>up being way better because I still had all my
<v Speaker 3>knowledge from my Steam playthrough and all my notes that
<v Speaker 3>I had taken in screenshots on my phone, and but
<v Speaker 3>so I very quickly got to where I was and
<v Speaker 3>then had I'm now on like day twenty something, don't
<v Speaker 3>remember the day.
<v Speaker 2>Oh nice, okay, but I've gotten to the anti chamber.
<v Speaker 2>Have you got I have not.
<v Speaker 3>I got real close one time. I literally was one
<v Speaker 3>square away before I just I think I ran out
<v Speaker 3>of keys.
<v Speaker 2>And I yeah, yeah, that which I mean. Charles could
<v Speaker 2>confirm this too. You you you finished. I did see
<v Speaker 2>credits with my wife. My wife and I saw credits.
<v Speaker 2>It's it's weird because like, in a way, the anti
<v Speaker 2>chamber isn't really like the primary goal in the long run,
<v Speaker 2>sort of you know, which is like, but it's it's
<v Speaker 2>a nice metric to see how far you are. It's like,
<v Speaker 2>have you gotten into that room yet?
<v Speaker 1>You know?
<v Speaker 2>And then it's like then you kind of know where
<v Speaker 2>people are at sort of you.
<v Speaker 3>Know, I just got again having starting over the second time,
<v Speaker 3>knowing like tips from like like like Jesse Fatlly front
<v Speaker 3>of the show, like talking about blueprints with him and
<v Speaker 3>other people that are like you should focus on this
<v Speaker 3>or these are just sort of like some some things
<v Speaker 3>to keep in mind. I have carried those into my
<v Speaker 3>my second play through and has served me much better
<v Speaker 3>because I've started off on a better a stronger foundational
<v Speaker 3>knowledge of like you know, every time you get a
<v Speaker 3>new floor or a new room, just pick it, no
<v Speaker 3>matter what, just so you can get all the things unlocked.
<v Speaker 3>And okay, like I did not do that the first time.
<v Speaker 3>I was just so fixated, like I got to get
<v Speaker 3>to the ends. I think that's what you have to
<v Speaker 3>do in this game. And because of that attitude, I
<v Speaker 3>have found so many other like ancillary mysteries that are
<v Speaker 3>like in some ways more interesting that it's like I
<v Speaker 3>kind of just want to work on these because it
<v Speaker 3>was like I didn't know this was a thing, or
<v Speaker 3>I want to see what happens when I get all
<v Speaker 3>these flames lit, or like I got it. I found
<v Speaker 3>a tomb recently and there's like a thing in there,
<v Speaker 3>and yeah, yeah, there's all kinds of stuff that I'm like,
<v Speaker 3>all right, you should see my This is the first
<v Speaker 3>game since Lower Line a Laser Eyes where I have
<v Speaker 3>like a Madman's like doodles of notes and just weird
<v Speaker 3>terms that I've written down and currently have a blue
<v Speaker 3>prints photo folder that has like a hundred screenshots, just
<v Speaker 3>like just taking pictures of every piece of like writing
<v Speaker 3>and like anything of interest of like I might not
<v Speaker 3>see this room again, so I better just just capture
<v Speaker 3>every bit of knowledge in here, Like who knows, I
<v Speaker 3>might need the references later, and I don't want to
<v Speaker 3>wait for it to come up in the pool again.
<v Speaker 3>But it is such a fun game. The rang element
<v Speaker 3>is annoying, but it's at least for me. It's there's
<v Speaker 3>so many other things to work on that if I
<v Speaker 3>get shut out of something because of a bad drawl,
<v Speaker 3>there's usually something else I can kind of work on
<v Speaker 3>or pivot toah that it kind of I don't mind
<v Speaker 3>as much. And it's like it's it's supposed to hurt,
<v Speaker 3>I guess, And maybe when I get to the point
<v Speaker 3>when I do decide I'm just gonna make a run
<v Speaker 3>for the end, that'll be when it's like maybe it'll
<v Speaker 3>start to sting a little bit more. But I also
<v Speaker 3>think that spending enough time getting the other stuff has
<v Speaker 3>kind of prepared me for like that eventual, Like I'm
<v Speaker 3>just gonna gun it to the angs. I think I
<v Speaker 3>just have enough things un locked to where that seems
<v Speaker 3>more feasible to do than it would be at the beginning,
<v Speaker 3>at least to me. I don't know, but it's definitely
<v Speaker 3>it's one of my favorite games of the year so far.
<v Speaker 1>I found a lot has been sitting next to me.
<v Speaker 1>I actually haven't removed it from my desk since beating
<v Speaker 1>the game, but I'm looking at my I've got my
<v Speaker 1>moleskin here that I used for my run, and I
<v Speaker 1>probably beat the game probably a month and a half ago,
<v Speaker 1>two months ago, and I think I ended up beating
<v Speaker 1>it around somewhere in the fifties, maybe early sixties. I've
<v Speaker 1>heard of some people Eric Van Allen, another Front of
<v Speaker 1>the show Days not out Sorry Days, yeah sorry Days.
<v Speaker 3>He beat it.
<v Speaker 1>I think on like day twenty eight or something.
<v Speaker 4>I was like day twenty seven, Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I took towards the end, I was just restarting
<v Speaker 1>my day because I was wanting something very specific. I like,
<v Speaker 1>but that's fair. I was for a while. But it's
<v Speaker 1>just fun to go through like just my ramblings of
<v Speaker 1>you know, probably fifty pages of notes of just like
<v Speaker 1>random puzzles and like things that you know, I don't
<v Speaker 1>even know if they even were a thing.
<v Speaker 3>Really yeah, like out of context, like when your notes
<v Speaker 3>look like a serial killer's manifesto, Yes, it is, Like
<v Speaker 3>that's when you know you got a good puzzle game
<v Speaker 3>on your puzzle.
<v Speaker 4>I had a shared notebook with my partner, a list
<v Speaker 4>that was like very organized, like we had every room
<v Speaker 4>had its own listing in the notebook. We would take
<v Speaker 4>notes specific to the room. It was like a whole
<v Speaker 4>thing that we were playing it the two of us.
<v Speaker 2>And uh my wife started a like a one note document,
<v Speaker 2>you know, and would take pictures and soff like she
<v Speaker 2>was she was like actively writing what could be a
<v Speaker 2>published strategy eyed basically yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, what else? What if you guys been tinkering around
<v Speaker 3>with besides some Blueprints?
<v Speaker 1>I've been I've been playing Blueprints was the last game
<v Speaker 1>I really I think beat I I have not started. Well,
<v Speaker 1>I guess I'm about an hour and declare obscure. I've
<v Speaker 1>been waiting for a time where I'm not traveling, so
<v Speaker 1>I can sit down and play it. I'm hoping that's
<v Speaker 1>after SGF. I've been playing three things recently. I don't
<v Speaker 1>have to dive super deep on all of them. Have
<v Speaker 1>you guys played skin Deep at all?
<v Speaker 3>I played a demo during Steam Next that was like
<v Speaker 3>two chapters, but I have not played the full version yet.
<v Speaker 3>I haven't.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so it's essentially it's an immersive sim from Blendo Games.
<v Speaker 1>They I think they made what Quadrilateral Cowboy?
<v Speaker 3>Is that right?
<v Speaker 1>I haven't played that game. I've heard I really like it,
<v Speaker 1>but this is my first Blendo game. I've heard of
<v Speaker 1>them before, haven't played them. It is very very cool
<v Speaker 1>you are, I would I would say it's a really focused,
<v Speaker 1>very funny, immersive sim. More, it feels a little more
<v Speaker 1>Arcadie maybe, or or more like you are in a
<v Speaker 1>man more like you're in a cartoon than a world
<v Speaker 1>that feels like a dishonored or something where you feel
<v Speaker 1>like you're in that world. I don't know. It feels
<v Speaker 1>disjointed from reality, but in a very fun way because
<v Speaker 1>there's just so much ridiculous stuff happening. You are an
<v Speaker 1>insurance adjuster, who is saving cats from spaceships, and there
<v Speaker 1>are pirates who have captured the cats on those spaceships
<v Speaker 1>and they are the primary uh you know object enemies
<v Speaker 1>like patrolling that and your goal and your goal is
<v Speaker 1>kind of progressive to get more complex as you go,
<v Speaker 1>but at the at the end of the day, you're
<v Speaker 1>trying to rescue these cats.
<v Speaker 3>The cats can talk.
<v Speaker 1>They have the cats could talk. Yeah, you have emails
<v Speaker 1>with the cats. The cats like what.
<v Speaker 4>They're down. There's just normal cats to.
<v Speaker 1>Talk, normal cats, normal cats with cat faces.
<v Speaker 2>But a confused about Charles. They're just normal cats to
<v Speaker 2>talk with their paws stuff.
<v Speaker 4>I'm like, are they walking on two legs or like.
<v Speaker 1>There's like mob boss mob boss cats. You get to
<v Speaker 1>one cat's palace, uh, and he's like a mob boss
<v Speaker 1>that used to run with and you're like, you know,
<v Speaker 1>going in for one last, one last run. Like it
<v Speaker 1>kind of has vibes. So when you get to his
<v Speaker 1>big mansion that's guarded, the front door opens and it's
<v Speaker 1>it's just like a tiny little like cat door.
<v Speaker 4>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>So you have to like but you're a human, so
<v Speaker 1>you have to like crouch down and like go into
<v Speaker 1>the door and the entire place is you know, it's
<v Speaker 1>built for a cat. So it's just like it's really
<v Speaker 1>funny stuff. And No, normally cat humor doesn't really do
<v Speaker 1>a lot for me. I would say like, I'm not
<v Speaker 1>I'm not a guy who's like, look, cat has cheeseburger.
<v Speaker 1>That's not me. But this is this is genuinely funny
<v Speaker 1>and I'm having a lot of fun.
<v Speaker 4>Was Cat has Cheeseburger was genuinely funny when it was
<v Speaker 4>a thing because I was too like, we're people actually
<v Speaker 4>looking at that and being like, oh wow, this is
<v Speaker 4>really funny.
<v Speaker 1>There was a thing, so it was not a thing
<v Speaker 1>for me.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I was specifically Alex and your you know, highbro
<v Speaker 4>comedy and more just like the cultural consensus.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not saying I was high brow. I just wasn't
<v Speaker 1>into that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, A zoned in on cats like I don't like
<v Speaker 2>cat humor.
<v Speaker 1>You know, well, I love cat I love watching cats
<v Speaker 1>like funny stuff.
<v Speaker 2>I'll also be like, I can has cat like and
<v Speaker 2>he looks very excited about it.
<v Speaker 1>Oh that makes me cringe. Oh man, don't do that
<v Speaker 1>to me. But skin Deep's cool. I recommend it. I
<v Speaker 1>don't want to dive too deep on it right now.
<v Speaker 1>I'm hoping to actually like maybe make a video or
<v Speaker 1>something on it later in the year, because I think
<v Speaker 1>it's one that people should have on their radars just
<v Speaker 1>for kind of if you're plugged in on Game of
<v Speaker 1>the Year and that kind of thing. I don't it's
<v Speaker 1>certainly I don't think a Game of the Year contender,
<v Speaker 1>but it's like, this might make my top ten. I
<v Speaker 1>really like it. And if you like trying to solve,
<v Speaker 1>if you like games, stealth games predominantly where you are
<v Speaker 1>interacting with environmental hazards to try to you know, oh,
<v Speaker 1>let me break this camera, so the camera starts sparking,
<v Speaker 1>and then I'll throw this camera at a like a
<v Speaker 1>leaking gas object, an explosion happens. Like there there's that
<v Speaker 1>kind of stuff that you're playing with, as well as
<v Speaker 1>increasingly difficult like non I guess non combative hazards that
<v Speaker 1>you have to get by, and later on the level,
<v Speaker 1>I just got to there are traps that for some reason,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm sure there is lore that explains it. I
<v Speaker 1>haven't played the level yet. I saved and quit at
<v Speaker 1>the start of it. But if you have a book
<v Speaker 1>on your person and you go through a door, you'll
<v Speaker 1>get lasered, like the books aren't allowed on this space station,
<v Speaker 1>I guess, And so using those objects to you know,
<v Speaker 1>play with the environment and sabotage the pirates on board.
<v Speaker 1>There's a lot of cool stuff happening, and a lot
<v Speaker 1>of more like I wouldn't say maybe obtuse, but there's
<v Speaker 1>a lot of things like at the end, when you
<v Speaker 1>call the the safe like the what would you call it,
<v Speaker 1>like the drop pod or something, the escape pod, you
<v Speaker 1>have to call it down using Morse code, and if
<v Speaker 1>you don't do the Morse code right, it won't work.
<v Speaker 1>And so you have to like read the instructions, do
<v Speaker 1>the Morse code, and then that'll let you get like
<v Speaker 1>a laser pointer like that a cat would like to
<v Speaker 1>play with, and you laser point on the ship where
<v Speaker 1>the drop pod goes, and yeah, and then you put
<v Speaker 1>the cats in, and just before you escape, there's always
<v Speaker 1>a pirate like invasion, like a group of pirates will
<v Speaker 1>come and kind of reach the spaceship that you were on.
<v Speaker 1>You have to defend it. There's cool stuff happening. The
<v Speaker 1>thing that I've really been playing quite a lot of
<v Speaker 1>within the last couple of days actually is split Gate
<v Speaker 1>two the open beta. So if you remember, this is
<v Speaker 1>the Halo meets Portal multiplayer game. There was the first game.
<v Speaker 1>Obviously they shut that down to move resources and the
<v Speaker 1>ta to It was.
<v Speaker 3>Like the hottest shooter for like a month, like an
<v Speaker 3>a couple of years ago. Yeah, like the servers were
<v Speaker 3>crashing because people were trying to get in that thing.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and it had great map design. It was it
<v Speaker 1>was a unique idea. You know, oh, what if there
<v Speaker 1>are walls within a arena shooter where you can exclusively
<v Speaker 1>uh you know, put a portal like you know portals
<v Speaker 1>up there to see through other locations on the map,
<v Speaker 1>and a lot of really cool ideas there, and that
<v Speaker 1>is in the sequel. I think the sequel is more
<v Speaker 1>polished in a lot of ways. The gunplay feels better,
<v Speaker 1>I would say, or maybe the gun feel. The gunplay
<v Speaker 1>feels more polished, I'll say, maybe not exactly better. And
<v Speaker 1>you know, the lighting it's on like I think it's
<v Speaker 1>in UI five now, so everything's really triple A looking
<v Speaker 1>in terms of art direction and graphical adelity, and everything
<v Speaker 1>just feels more like, oh, you've got money, now, you've
<v Speaker 1>got some funding. I will say, I don't and I've
<v Speaker 1>been talking to a friend of the show, Jesse Vitelli
<v Speaker 1>about this because we've been playing together alongside John Carson,
<v Speaker 1>former game and former Front of the Shower. Yes, friend
<v Speaker 1>of the show, former co worker. And the maps are
<v Speaker 1>they don't feel as good as the first game. Unfortunately.
<v Speaker 1>The first game was a little more rough around the edges,
<v Speaker 1>you know, but there was this charm to the maps
<v Speaker 1>where oh, this this map would not fit in any
<v Speaker 1>other game, and it is whereas in this you know, sequel.
<v Speaker 1>So far, the maps I've seen, they are there are
<v Speaker 1>some maps where I hardly use the portals and it
<v Speaker 1>just kind of feels like a first person shooter with
<v Speaker 1>abilities and I don't like that.
<v Speaker 4>I I.
<v Speaker 1>There are some serious like there were some levels in
<v Speaker 1>Splitgate on one that were I thought world class, Like
<v Speaker 1>I am blown away by this map. What a cool idea.
<v Speaker 1>And it kind of feels like when Halo five came
<v Speaker 1>out and the maps just feel like this really refined. Oh,
<v Speaker 1>this is what this is what everybody like, this is
<v Speaker 1>what an esports shooter map should look like. That's what
<v Speaker 1>every map kind of feels like. Everything is very symmetrical,
<v Speaker 1>you know, it almost feels like you're in a stadium
<v Speaker 1>rather than a place, and I guess I guess that
<v Speaker 1>quality was in the first game too. I guess that's
<v Speaker 1>not fair.
<v Speaker 2>But it's funny that you're sort of like pulling this
<v Speaker 2>thing out the recesses of my brain. Is that Halo
<v Speaker 2>five like Esports mode right where it was like so
<v Speaker 2>focused on like we're trying to make this a watchable gain, right,
<v Speaker 2>And I remember like just really not liking it.
<v Speaker 1>You know, it feels like they maybe are in a
<v Speaker 1>similar they've fallen into a similar track app maybe, And
<v Speaker 1>I mean, luckily, you know, you can make new maps,
<v Speaker 1>right you can. I would honestly love for the old
<v Speaker 1>maps to come to Split Gate two. I think the
<v Speaker 1>game would still work great. And you know, obviously that's
<v Speaker 1>that's not as simple as just bringing in you know,
<v Speaker 1>assets from one to the other. You know, they'll have
<v Speaker 1>to rebuild it in Unreal Engine five and you know, upgrade, upgrade,
<v Speaker 1>all of that stuff. But I think with time, I
<v Speaker 1>would love to play those maps with these more refined,
<v Speaker 1>more refine movement, you know, really tight gunplay. I think
<v Speaker 1>that would be like a great package. And then lastly,
<v Speaker 1>the other thing I've been playing is elden Ring Night Rain.
<v Speaker 1>We had our review go up on the site. Wesley
<v Speaker 1>wrote that for us, I believe he gave it an eight.
<v Speaker 1>Charles here worked on the video review, but a lot
<v Speaker 1>of us got code for that, and I've really been
<v Speaker 1>enjoying and I wasn't sure how I I was going
<v Speaker 1>to if I was gonna bounce off of it or not.
<v Speaker 1>You know, obviously I love multiplayer games and I love
<v Speaker 1>elden Ring, so I don't know, but I still had
<v Speaker 1>some sort of trepidation about it. You know, it's just
<v Speaker 1>like a it's a new a new format for that
<v Speaker 1>studio and that game specifically, and I'm really enjoying it.
<v Speaker 1>I'm having a lot of fun with it. I have
<v Speaker 1>beat six bosses. I want to say out of the
<v Speaker 1>I want to say eight. I think I've got I've
<v Speaker 1>got two bosses left, and I'm really impressed with it.
<v Speaker 1>I know it's getting you know, I've seen all I've
<v Speaker 1>seen opinions all over the spectrum on this game. But
<v Speaker 1>if you are somebody who likes, if you enjoy speed running,
<v Speaker 1>maybe you aren't somebody who actively speed runs yourself, but
<v Speaker 1>you watch things like games done quick, or you're just
<v Speaker 1>plugged into Twitch where people do that sort of thing.
<v Speaker 1>And it's very much a game that holds up efficiency
<v Speaker 1>and execution above everything. And if you are unable to
<v Speaker 1>uphold those two values in your gameplay sessions, then you're
<v Speaker 1>gonna fail, right, and I feel plenty of times. But
<v Speaker 1>the great thing is that you know a run from
<v Speaker 1>start to finish is only about forty five minutes, and
<v Speaker 1>you know it takes place across three nights, three days.
<v Speaker 1>So and the way that kind of works is think
<v Speaker 1>of a Battle Royale game. I think about Fortnite where
<v Speaker 1>the circle closes. Now, imagine at the end of Fortnite's
<v Speaker 1>final circle, you the circle stops moving and a boss summons,
<v Speaker 1>and you beat that boss, and then the circle expands again.
<v Speaker 1>The circle disappears and starts back all the way out,
<v Speaker 1>you know, on the perimeter of the map. And that's
<v Speaker 1>that's one day finished. And then you ring that is
<v Speaker 1>that is the Elden Ring. Yes, spoilers, yes, go watch
<v Speaker 1>the body video on it on the lore behind that
<v Speaker 1>Marcus No, but so that that that ring then expands
<v Speaker 1>again and that's the start of day two, right, and
<v Speaker 1>you do it one more time, and then you get
<v Speaker 1>I won't spoil what happens, but you get taken somewhere
<v Speaker 1>and you kind of have a breather, and then you
<v Speaker 1>initiate the final boss on the third day and throughout it,
<v Speaker 1>at the start of your run, you have to pick
<v Speaker 1>the night Lord, which are the main bosses in the game.
<v Speaker 1>The thing with the game is you're gonna fight many,
<v Speaker 1>many bosses. You know, a lot of fan favorites return
<v Speaker 1>and you'll randomly stumble upon them as world bosses in
<v Speaker 1>the game. Across the map, which is randomized, you'll you'll
<v Speaker 1>see similar pois, but their locations change and I lost
<v Speaker 1>my train of thought.
<v Speaker 3>You know, it's fine because I've just had an epiphany
<v Speaker 3>with you mentioned in the three day cycle, and I don't
<v Speaker 3>know how it took this long for for it to
<v Speaker 3>hit me about this games. I love elden Ring. This
<v Speaker 3>is is this the major's mask of Elden Ring.
<v Speaker 4>Of like it's this weird stuff, yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, Like we've taken that game and remixed it
<v Speaker 3>into this weird three day cycle that is like the
<v Speaker 3>anthesis of how you play the last game and turned
<v Speaker 3>it into this thing that is also very polarizing for
<v Speaker 3>fans of the first thing. Yeah, Yeah, it's just like
<v Speaker 3>because everything I want to I love elden Ring to
<v Speaker 3>death and and I love Shadow of the Archery as well,
<v Speaker 3>and this I I've had it, and I still have
<v Speaker 3>not started it because it's like it's got those things
<v Speaker 3>where like I love roguelikes, Like I have no issue
<v Speaker 3>with roguelikes, but it's like, do I want that from
<v Speaker 3>this because everything you're saying, but like, and I've heard
<v Speaker 3>it from other people who have like the point of
<v Speaker 3>the game is just the move don't don't stop the
<v Speaker 3>smell of rose, like just you need to hit these
<v Speaker 3>points or you're gonna lose. And it's like when I
<v Speaker 3>play elden Ring, that's all I want to do is
<v Speaker 3>just like stop and smell the roses. I want to
<v Speaker 3>live in this world and like look around and just
<v Speaker 3>like you know, like just ride my little magical horse
<v Speaker 3>and just have a good old time, yeah, getting annihilated
<v Speaker 3>by things. So it's like, huh man, it's that's like
<v Speaker 3>all in the paper and it does not sound appealing.
<v Speaker 1>I don't think you should play this game if you
<v Speaker 1>have not played elden Ring.
<v Speaker 3>Oh, if you have not played it.
<v Speaker 4>That's an interesting thing with this game where I was like,
<v Speaker 4>usually when you switch genres like this, it's like we
<v Speaker 4>were going for one audience and now we're going for
<v Speaker 4>another one. But like the base gameplay of elden Ring
<v Speaker 4>or just like a Frumsoft game is so important to
<v Speaker 4>playing this that it really is like taking a really
<v Speaker 4>wide audience and then like picking a chunk out of it.
<v Speaker 4>Is how I see it it.
<v Speaker 1>To me, it feels like an encore of sorts.
<v Speaker 4>Sure, yeah, yeah, you know we.
<v Speaker 1>Like like checking st Yeah, it feels it depends on
<v Speaker 1>what you want out of an encore, right, if you
<v Speaker 1>want if you want the you know.
<v Speaker 3>Like more of the same, usually means like give me
<v Speaker 3>that again, the same thing more or less.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, then maybe maybe shout out more. So sure, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>we'll say that this is like the B side.
<v Speaker 3>Sure yeah, this is the.
<v Speaker 1>This is the acoustic intermission in the middle of the set, right,
<v Speaker 1>But you only appreciate it because you have the knowledge
<v Speaker 1>of the other the other works, and you know, nobody's
<v Speaker 1>going to the show and and you know, expecting the
<v Speaker 1>acoustic intermission. They're there to see the full band and
<v Speaker 1>all of that. But what if you know halfway through,
<v Speaker 1>you know, oh, this is this is a weird experimental part, right,
<v Speaker 1>and that's kind of what Night Rain feels like.
<v Speaker 3>MTV Unplugged is not the way to maybe introduce yourself
<v Speaker 3>to Nirvana for the first.
<v Speaker 1>Time, exactly. Yeah. So I think if if you have
<v Speaker 1>played Down and Ring and you want to go back
<v Speaker 1>to Limb Graves, specifically the starting area, you want to
<v Speaker 1>see aspects of you know, the Scarlet Rot, you want
<v Speaker 1>to see some of the some of the snowy areas
<v Speaker 1>and the fire areas, those kind of make appearances, but
<v Speaker 1>the base canvas is a sort of alternate reality of
<v Speaker 1>Limb Grave. It just I don't know, it's really doing
<v Speaker 1>it for me. I'm really enjoying it, and I kind
<v Speaker 1>of thought maybe it wouldn't you know. Like I said,
<v Speaker 1>I had that skepticism about probably maybe play a couple
<v Speaker 1>of matches and I'll be done. But this is a
<v Speaker 1>game that I'm really enjoying to go and going and
<v Speaker 1>helping friends who are earlier in their runs, just because
<v Speaker 1>I like playing the game. And it's it's in some
<v Speaker 1>ways a puzzle in terms of you're pathing right right,
<v Speaker 1>which this night this night Lord that we're fighting at
<v Speaker 1>the end, they're weak to lightning. Right, Okay, well, we
<v Speaker 1>need to prioritize on the map there are certain camps
<v Speaker 1>that we can see that are lightning attuned and we
<v Speaker 1>are more likely to get you know, lightning gear, lightning items,
<v Speaker 1>and weapons and talismans from those places. Let's prioritize those.
<v Speaker 1>But also we need to make sure that we have
<v Speaker 1>enough estes flasks. I forget what they're called in and
<v Speaker 1>they're not called ess flasks. They're called another kind of flask, right, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I don't remember, but yeah, yeah, whatever, I need more
<v Speaker 1>flasks for the final boss. So we also need to
<v Speaker 1>prioritize their churches that are randomly scattered around the map.
<v Speaker 1>And if I go there and go to the altar,
<v Speaker 1>I get a flask charge. Okay, so we've got that
<v Speaker 1>knocked out. Oh but you know our one of my
<v Speaker 1>friends needs to go to us. Maybe we need to
<v Speaker 1>go to a mine to get a the weapon shards
<v Speaker 1>or whatever to upgrade our weapons later on. Right, there
<v Speaker 1>are a lot of those micro decisions that are happening.
<v Speaker 1>And the cool thing about the multiple days is you
<v Speaker 1>know the circle is closing around you. You might miss
<v Speaker 1>a camp that you really wanted to go and clear
<v Speaker 1>but like, okay, well we can we can go back
<v Speaker 1>there if we really need to tomorrow on the next day,
<v Speaker 1>but then this other part of the map is likely
<v Speaker 1>to open up to us in a cool way. There's
<v Speaker 1>something called shifting earths, where like craters will erupt and
<v Speaker 1>there will be like special they're kind of like special
<v Speaker 1>world events that happen, and there's some really cool secrets
<v Speaker 1>to find within those. There's there's so far up on
<v Speaker 1>like three of those shifting earths. One is like a
<v Speaker 1>mountaintop that like you have to explore and and and
<v Speaker 1>find like these buffs that are in it that are
<v Speaker 1>protected by these ice dragons. There's another that's a magma
<v Speaker 1>crater that's full of little mini bosses, and at the
<v Speaker 1>end is like a big, you know, magma worm that
<v Speaker 1>you can get and if you beat it, there's an
<v Speaker 1>altar that lets you level up one of your weapons
<v Speaker 1>to a legendary And there's a Scarlet Rot Forest version,
<v Speaker 1>which I haven't fully explored yet. And I know there's
<v Speaker 1>more because I haven't gotten the Steam achievement that tells
<v Speaker 1>me I've unlocked all of them. But yeah, it's it's
<v Speaker 1>a cool game. The characters that you're playing as you're
<v Speaker 1>playing as pre built, pre made characters. You know, Uh,
<v Speaker 1>they are their their own classes, they have their own abilities,
<v Speaker 1>but you are along the way on every run. You
<v Speaker 1>are kind of equipping them with new things every time,
<v Speaker 1>but your your base abilities kind of stay the same.
<v Speaker 1>But it's about how you modify your your character to
<v Speaker 1>exploit your strengths and minimize your weaknesses well while while
<v Speaker 1>considering everything else. It's it's a cool game.
<v Speaker 3>I like it a lot awesome. What have you been
<v Speaker 3>uh your current love?
<v Speaker 2>I'm in a weird place right now. Like I loved
<v Speaker 2>Clare Obscure right, which I wrote the review for Game
<v Speaker 2>and Former, and it really does feel like a potential
<v Speaker 2>Game of the Year contender apps. I only started that too,
<v Speaker 2>actually yeah, but then I played Blades of Fire, which
<v Speaker 2>was a game that, like I didn't like, I really
<v Speaker 2>wanted to like it, Like you can find my review
<v Speaker 2>on game from dot com. I gave it a five
<v Speaker 2>point five, which is like the lowest score I've given
<v Speaker 2>in a while. And like I love I love Mercury Steam.
<v Speaker 2>I still love Mercury Steam, but that game, Like I
<v Speaker 2>got so frustrated with that game to the point where
<v Speaker 2>I was almost like hit a point in my free
<v Speaker 2>time where I was like, I just don't want to
<v Speaker 2>play a lot of games right now. Like I just
<v Speaker 2>like it just turned me off of games for a week.
<v Speaker 2>But like, yeah, I know, and it's I feel bad
<v Speaker 2>even saying it, because like it's a very technically proficient
<v Speaker 2>game and it has some cool ideas, but I just
<v Speaker 2>I hit so many sort of frustration points with it.
<v Speaker 2>And then also to be fair, I was I'm kind
<v Speaker 2>of clearing the runway a little bit for death Stranding
<v Speaker 2>and switched to you know, like I knew those were
<v Speaker 2>like coming soon, and like I didn't want to be
<v Speaker 2>in the middle of anything so like, but I did
<v Speaker 2>want to shout out I think you By the time
<v Speaker 2>this podcast airs, there should be like a video online.
<v Speaker 2>But I played through Holston had like a recent build,
<v Speaker 2>which is this really cool horror game that looks a
<v Speaker 2>little like Signalis or crow Country recently. If you've played those,
<v Speaker 2>it looks like like it looks very pixelated in two D,
<v Speaker 2>but it's not like you have full three D control
<v Speaker 2>of the camera, and when you pull the left trigger,
<v Speaker 2>you go into third person shooting mode, and it's like
<v Speaker 2>it's it's a game that, like I really encourage you
<v Speaker 2>to like look up footage of it and see it
<v Speaker 2>in action because it's really interesting and cool and like
<v Speaker 2>I really had a good time with this demo that
<v Speaker 2>I played.
<v Speaker 3>Kyle, how accurate is it, say, like trying to visualize
<v Speaker 3>how to the third person mode looks. I don't know
<v Speaker 3>why I thought of wild Guns because it's like that
<v Speaker 3>flat behind the shoulder kind of if that if that
<v Speaker 3>totally matches up. But like wild Guns popped in my
<v Speaker 3>head first, So like the PS one RPG or no, no,
<v Speaker 3>the the like Super Nintendo, like like gun Shooter, the
<v Speaker 3>Cowboy who again it's dumb, it's for some reason it
<v Speaker 3>popped in my head.
<v Speaker 2>It is like it might work. I mean when when
<v Speaker 2>you go into that third person shooter mode, it feels
<v Speaker 2>like Resident Evil fo.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's like a residue before d make.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, Yeah, that is kind of what it feels like.
<v Speaker 2>And they're and from playing that demo, I feel like
<v Speaker 2>so far they've really nailed it, and I was very
<v Speaker 2>impressed with it. Yeah, it's not it doesn't have like
<v Speaker 2>a release date or platforms yet. I mean PC actually
<v Speaker 2>take that back, PC and consoles, but it's it's so
<v Speaker 2>it's probably still a ways away, but like I was
<v Speaker 2>really impressed with playing it. I don't know, I played
<v Speaker 2>like an hour this like more recent sort of build.
<v Speaker 2>It's it's very cold. It's called Holston.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah. Also, I just looked up just some screenshots of
<v Speaker 3>wild Guns. Yeah, I'm way off. It's been a while.
<v Speaker 3>I thought the camera was seemed a little closer to them,
<v Speaker 3>but it's like no, no, no, it really is.
<v Speaker 2>It is. It does have that sort of sixteen bit
<v Speaker 2>kind of look. It's it's very cool. They really did
<v Speaker 2>a cool job with it. Yeah, I'm very excited to
<v Speaker 2>play the sort of final game whenever that comes to exist.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and you mentioned Claibscire. I do want to mention
<v Speaker 3>I touched on it. I finally started that game in
<v Speaker 3>earnest because I played the press build that they sent out.
<v Speaker 3>This was before but just like right when we had
<v Speaker 3>just started kind of getting the wheels back together with
<v Speaker 3>Game Informer. So I have, like last week started the
<v Speaker 3>full game that I've been sitting on, and that game's
<v Speaker 3>awesome and it's super good, and I'm still like pretty early.
<v Speaker 3>I just got to like the water area, which yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>but it's it's so good so far. I love that
<v Speaker 3>that intro. It's kind of like I've wrote down like
<v Speaker 3>this might be a Moment of the year contender, right.
<v Speaker 2>I think, Yeah, Yeah, Like it starts strong for sure.
<v Speaker 3>It starts very strong, and including like when I say
<v Speaker 3>entro I meet up to like when you actually get
<v Speaker 3>control on the island because the things that happened at
<v Speaker 3>the island is like incredible.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's very good. It's it's one of those like
<v Speaker 2>make sure you play it before the end of the
<v Speaker 2>year kind of games, you know exactly.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And what trole was that I missed that?
<v Speaker 3>Cl three that.
<v Speaker 1>Is that is next on my list.
<v Speaker 3>It's amazing on what a game's done given, Like that's
<v Speaker 3>got to be the trickiest game to not only remember
<v Speaker 3>the full name, but to spell.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, well, especially if you have a daughter named Claire
<v Speaker 2>who spells her name differently.
<v Speaker 4>Claire and the word obscure, like both English versions of
<v Speaker 4>those words end with the letter E. In French, she's got.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's like no e and the title Claire obscure.
<v Speaker 3>If you were English, that's how you would read it. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>does your daughter want to be referred to as obscure.
<v Speaker 3>She does. She think the title of this game is cool.
<v Speaker 2>No, she doesn't care. She's too cool for it. She doesn't,
<v Speaker 2>she's got other Oh she's too cool.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, it's too cool. Yeah, gotcha, Charles. What games are
<v Speaker 3>too cool for you right now?
<v Speaker 4>Well, the games are just cool enough for me. Are
<v Speaker 4>Monster Trained two? Which I reviewed? I really liked it,
<v Speaker 4>and I have continued to play it after reviewing it,
<v Speaker 4>which is not something I do very often. I don't
<v Speaker 4>know if either any of you guys are Monster Trained one?
<v Speaker 5>Now.
<v Speaker 3>I always meant to get to it because I like
<v Speaker 3>good things and I liked Slate Aspire, but yeah, it
<v Speaker 3>just never got to it.
<v Speaker 1>I have it downloaded, I have a sequel code. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to play it.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>Monster Train two feels a little better to me, especially
<v Speaker 4>after I was playing the sequel and I was trying
<v Speaker 4>to tell my partner how much I liked the game.
<v Speaker 4>So she has like, there's Monster Trained one is an
<v Speaker 4>Apple Arcade game, so she was playing the first game
<v Speaker 4>on her phone while I was talking about how much
<v Speaker 4>I like the second game. But like the basic just
<v Speaker 4>is it's kind of like tower defense roguelike deck Builders,
<v Speaker 4>how describe it. So you're on a train and there's
<v Speaker 4>like three tiers of the car, and it will appear
<v Speaker 4>on the first tier, and then they'll go up if
<v Speaker 4>they survive each turn. And you have all your units
<v Speaker 4>that you pull out of your deck and you get
<v Speaker 4>to place them on each floor, and just every you
<v Speaker 4>have clans, which are like sets of units and like
<v Speaker 4>related abilities. So there's like the pyre Born and they're
<v Speaker 4>like dragons. They've got this like fire status, and then
<v Speaker 4>you've got the Banish, which are these angels. They have
<v Speaker 4>a status called Valor, which gives them shield and more damage,
<v Speaker 4>and like the whole thing that's really cool about the
<v Speaker 4>game is there's all these different clans and you can
<v Speaker 4>mix and match them and the way that they interact.
<v Speaker 4>It's like like there's five clans in the base game.
<v Speaker 4>There's more like secret clans you can get, but just
<v Speaker 4>between the five clans, each one has two champions, and
<v Speaker 4>each champion has like a different set of starting cards,
<v Speaker 4>so there's something like eighty ways you can just start
<v Speaker 4>a run before you even get into like the randomizing elements,
<v Speaker 4>and it's just like it all and it basically always
<v Speaker 4>feels good. There's some that it's like it is harder
<v Speaker 4>to make some combos work than others, but I'm almost
<v Speaker 4>always surprised. I'm like, oh, I forgot this was a thing.
<v Speaker 4>These guys did work starly with this other one, so
<v Speaker 4>I've just been having fun going through that. They also
<v Speaker 4>have like a really cool dimensional challenges mode in this one,
<v Speaker 4>where it's like there's challenge modes where it's like, ah,
<v Speaker 4>you have less health or you do less damage or
<v Speaker 4>whatever that are in a lot of games, and this
<v Speaker 4>is like what if everything was doubled. What if every
<v Speaker 4>time you did a status effect it was doubled, and
<v Speaker 4>every time you got money it was doubled. The game's
<v Speaker 4>not harder, it's just doubled. And that's just like fun
<v Speaker 4>to play.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know.
<v Speaker 4>And if you as you unlock them, there's like a
<v Speaker 4>tree where you unlock lots of more modes, but I
<v Speaker 4>like that, it's just as funky. So I highly recommend that.
<v Speaker 4>I had written in my review that it was my
<v Speaker 4>favorite rogue like of the year, and then Brian, who
<v Speaker 4>had its ALLAR reviews first like, hey, Charles, this is
<v Speaker 4>kind of weird to say, considering you did review Blueprints.
<v Speaker 4>I was like, oh, I forgot about Blueprints. I like
<v Speaker 4>fully as I was writing this because it almost doesn't
<v Speaker 4>even feel like a rogue like in my head, because
<v Speaker 4>it's such like a weird kind of game. But those
<v Speaker 4>are one of Yeah, these are my two, two of
<v Speaker 4>my favorites so far the same ration score.
<v Speaker 2>I think right nine five for both.
<v Speaker 4>I believe, Yeah, Monster Train, I think it's nine two five.
<v Speaker 4>Blueprints was like, I don't know if you guys have
<v Speaker 4>ever had the thing where I had a hard time
<v Speaker 4>landing where exactly it was a Blueprints. I thought about ten,
<v Speaker 4>and I was like, I don't know, but I've never
<v Speaker 4>thought about giving a game at ten before. That's like
<v Speaker 4>the first one I've been reviewing where i'd considered it.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's weird. I gave my first ten as one
<v Speaker 3>of our Like when we came back to life, one
<v Speaker 3>of our we reviewed a bunch of twenty twenty four
<v Speaker 3>games that came out during our absence, and one of
<v Speaker 3>the games I reviewed was Astrobat and that was the
<v Speaker 3>first game I'd ever awarded a ten, and I think
<v Speaker 3>served yeah, and it was it helped maybe having had
<v Speaker 3>having had time to let it marinate in my brain
<v Speaker 3>after i'd finished it because it had been a few months,
<v Speaker 3>so that one was like an easier conversation than I
<v Speaker 3>had ever envisioned about, Like, man, there's gonna be there.
<v Speaker 3>It might be a day where we're gonna have to
<v Speaker 3>sit down and think, like this might be a near
<v Speaker 3>perfect video game. And it has never happened to me yet.
<v Speaker 4>So have you ever like talked yourself down from a ten? Not?
<v Speaker 4>Like I know, it was a whole thing of you
<v Speaker 4>gave cheers the Kingdom of nine of a five. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>I mean that was a conversation that we had that
<v Speaker 4>was like understood, why you did that?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, this is good.
<v Speaker 1>You gotta go with your gut, right yeah, yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>Actually I lied.
<v Speaker 3>There was the close up come was a shadow of
<v Speaker 3>the archery because I gave that a seven five yeah,
<v Speaker 3>and we gave I didn't review bass elden Ring. That
<v Speaker 3>was the format editor Dan tact, but he gave that
<v Speaker 3>a ten and I was like, yeah, this says I
<v Speaker 3>did rationalize in my mind of like I don't ultimately
<v Speaker 3>I don't think this is better than the base campaign
<v Speaker 3>and own ring, but it is like right there with it,
<v Speaker 3>Like I don't think it supersedes what they had already done,
<v Speaker 3>and I think that's what would have been made, would
<v Speaker 3>have made it worthy of a ten to me, as
<v Speaker 3>if they topped it somehow. But since it was like that,
<v Speaker 3>combined with the fact that it's maybe not necessarily see
<v Speaker 3>what's well, But now that it's a known quantity, it
<v Speaker 3>doesn't have that X factor of like I don't know
<v Speaker 3>what I didn't I don't know what they did here.
<v Speaker 3>Basically it's like, oh, no, I know what this is.
<v Speaker 3>So now I'm a little bit more critical of what
<v Speaker 3>they could do. So yeah, that was kind of that
<v Speaker 3>was my reason for I went, I guess a point
<v Speaker 3>two five. You know, I know that's very harsh, but
<v Speaker 3>you know, point two five less than a.
<v Speaker 2>Ten, so bother playing it at that point, you know,
<v Speaker 2>I know, right.
<v Speaker 3>And basically saying it trash. So yeah, I think that's
<v Speaker 3>the only time I got close to having that conversation.
<v Speaker 3>I just remember that now. Yeah, But yeah, I guess
<v Speaker 3>some other stuff as we start to wipe out that
<v Speaker 3>I've been touching that we haven't really covered in any
<v Speaker 3>like formal fashion, that I've been playing, Uh have you
<v Speaker 3>guys started uh deliver it all costs at all?
<v Speaker 4>I played a little bit of it. Okay, I think
<v Speaker 4>we have we have slightly conflicting opinions by to hear
<v Speaker 4>you talk about.
<v Speaker 3>First, Okay, I'm still like I feel like I'm still early,
<v Speaker 3>so like my opinions are still forming. I'm like I'm
<v Speaker 3>like on day three or something, I think. But yeah,
<v Speaker 3>it's basically like a top down It feels like if
<v Speaker 3>a modernized GTA one or two, and sort of like
<v Speaker 3>it's like a top down sandbox game where you're driving
<v Speaker 3>around just causing chaos basically, but you're like a delivery
<v Speaker 3>driver in the late nineteen fifties and you're just doing
<v Speaker 3>all these very weird deliveries for these even weirder people
<v Speaker 3>and it's just but like, for me, the main thing
<v Speaker 3>you're coming to this game for is like the destructibility
<v Speaker 3>it's got, Like it's it's like GTA Teardown, like the
<v Speaker 3>video game teardown. Yeah. Yeah, of like every the destructibility
<v Speaker 3>in this game is insane, Like every building can just
<v Speaker 3>be absolutely leveled into like rubble, and your car is
<v Speaker 3>like nigh indestructible, Like you're just plowing through buildings and
<v Speaker 3>then watching them just like collapse and then hitting citizens
<v Speaker 3>who are all like invincible and they all have like
<v Speaker 3>great rap all physics, so like it's just fun to's
<v Speaker 3>just like I'm not even I'm barely gonna use these roads.
<v Speaker 3>I'm just gonna cut a straight line and then whatever
<v Speaker 3>I run into is just you know, it's just it's
<v Speaker 3>not your lucky day today. And that's like the sort
<v Speaker 3>of like sheer dumb fun of that has like carried
<v Speaker 3>me through, like and like the missions themselves are like
<v Speaker 3>to me, kind of hit and miss or some that
<v Speaker 3>are like really funny and like fun to execute, and
<v Speaker 3>there's some that are like funny thematically, but maybe like
<v Speaker 3>doing them is like like the ones that kind of
<v Speaker 3>require me to drive carefully or like that is not
<v Speaker 3>what I want to do in this game at all.
<v Speaker 4>That's my least favorite part of the game is when
<v Speaker 4>it's like you look at the game and it's like
<v Speaker 4>this is a game where you crash cars, you can
<v Speaker 4>hit people and they go flying and it's silly and
<v Speaker 4>they don't die. And then I open it up and
<v Speaker 4>like the first several missions are like how slow and
<v Speaker 4>careful can you drive?
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, why would play this game? Right?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah? Or like the Marlin and again they're funny, like
<v Speaker 3>like I like the premise of this, like this is
<v Speaker 3>a good gag of like I have to carry a
<v Speaker 3>live marlin in the back and dip it in paint
<v Speaker 3>to make it look called bino because this idiot guy
<v Speaker 3>is trying to impress this girl's dad who's a fisherman.
<v Speaker 3>But it is a like of like if I drive
<v Speaker 3>too crazy, this Marlin's gonna like fly out and I
<v Speaker 3>gotta go pick it up. And it looks funny, but
<v Speaker 3>I'm tired of doing it for like the fifth time.
<v Speaker 3>Like that kind of stuff kind of clashes with what
<v Speaker 3>it feels like the real thing you're coming to the
<v Speaker 3>game for, which is like just go crazy, you know,
<v Speaker 3>just get in there and just go mess stuff up.
<v Speaker 3>And you're like yeah, So I almost.
<v Speaker 4>Like for a mission where it's like and I'm sure
<v Speaker 4>it's there, because I also haven't gotten that far. I
<v Speaker 4>keep betting for a mission where it's like, hey, this
<v Speaker 4>guy made me mad, let's go destroy his neighborhood and
<v Speaker 4>you just obliterate the whole.
<v Speaker 3>I think it would be super fun. I just want
<v Speaker 3>to do donuts and just take out a city block.
<v Speaker 3>H yeah, but it is, it is fun, Like I
<v Speaker 3>think people should definitely give it a try, just because
<v Speaker 3>for at least for like the the destructibility alone is
<v Speaker 3>like worth messing around with.
<v Speaker 4>My other take with it is that it has so
<v Speaker 4>many cut scenes.
<v Speaker 3>A surprising amount of storytelling. Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>I was like, this is a game that does not
<v Speaker 4>need to have any story, and it felt like every
<v Speaker 4>time I had to walk to a place and talk
<v Speaker 4>to a guy and then there was another cut scene,
<v Speaker 4>and it was like, I maybe if it was later
<v Speaker 4>in the game, you could use it to like hook
<v Speaker 4>me back in and get me invested enough to finish.
<v Speaker 4>But like the amount of game I played versus the
<v Speaker 4>amount of game I played where I was actually crashing
<v Speaker 4>like I wanted to, was like the ratio is way
<v Speaker 4>off for me.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, this game surprisingly has a story at once in
<v Speaker 3>hell yeah, and then yeah, and I think that's yeah,
<v Speaker 3>that's pretty much it for me. But yeah, Alex, I'll
<v Speaker 3>throw it back to you.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah yeah, yeah, Well, thank you all for listening to
<v Speaker 1>our first episode back. It's been a lot of fun
<v Speaker 1>to record. Honestly, it's gonna be a busy week. The
<v Speaker 1>next time you'll hear from us will actually probably be
<v Speaker 1>me be me. Marcus Charles live in La our hotel
<v Speaker 1>and summer game Fest, we will probably have a guest
<v Speaker 1>or two. We're still figuring it all out. That episode
<v Speaker 1>might come earlier than next Thursday, but it will be
<v Speaker 1>next week's episode, so look for that on this feed.
<v Speaker 1>Of course, go to gaming hoomer dot com slash subscribe.
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<v Speaker 1>to us every week.
<v Speaker 3>Now.
<v Speaker 1>We'll be back. We'll be here, so thank you again,
<v Speaker 1>and get rid of us. You can't get rid of us,
<v Speaker 1>and you can can, you can, Please don't though.
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<v Speaker 3>you know, it's more of a statement.
<v Speaker 1>We're glad to be back. All right, everybody, have a
<v Speaker 1>good week. We'll see you next time. Goodbye.