Dragon Age Cover Story And Shadow of the Erdtree Review | GI Show

<v Speaker 1>What is going on? Everybody? Welcome to the Game Informer Show,
<v Speaker 1>a weekly podcast covering the video game industry. Join us
<v Speaker 1>every Thursday for discussion about the latest gaming news, reviews,
<v Speaker 1>and exclusive reveals, alongside Game and Former staff and special
<v Speaker 1>guests from around the industry. I'm one of your hosts
<v Speaker 1>today Alex van Aiken, and today I'm joined by Kyle Hilliard.
<v Speaker 2>Hi doing, Kyle, Hey, I'm doing okay?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>Hey, I'm living a scare free life now that Luigi's
<v Speaker 2>Mansion two is behind.
<v Speaker 1>Oh thank god. Yeah, I've heard there's some really psychological
<v Speaker 1>horror elements in Luigi's Mansion two. Yeah, really twists things. Hello,
<v Speaker 1>Marcus Stewart, how are you all right?
<v Speaker 3>My life, I guess has been filled with scares because
<v Speaker 3>I've been playing a lot of you know, I reviewed
<v Speaker 3>Elden Ring, Yes, and then I've been playing another creepy
<v Speaker 3>game we'll talk about. So I'm I'm the hard opposite
<v Speaker 3>of Kyle.
<v Speaker 1>Oh okay, yeah yeah. Rounding this out, Wesley Labla, How
<v Speaker 1>you doing.
<v Speaker 4>Wes doing pretty good? I'm I'm somewhere in the middle
<v Speaker 4>of them. When the sun is up, things are good.
<v Speaker 4>When the sun goes down, it gets really scary here.
<v Speaker 1>That's that's pretty much like just me in a nutshell.
<v Speaker 3>Oh, I think that's most inner cities.
<v Speaker 1>How's everybody doing. I haven't talked to you on a
<v Speaker 1>couple of weeks. I feel like I just talked to
<v Speaker 1>Marcus because we were We just went on the train.
<v Speaker 1>We were in Montreal together for a secret, super super
<v Speaker 1>secret trip.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, secret, super secret.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>As you can tell, I'm still tired from my travel.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>So it's gonna be a good show. But today we're
<v Speaker 1>gonna be talking about Dragon Age, the Vail Guard, our
<v Speaker 1>cover story on the game, elden Ring Shadow of the
<v Speaker 1>arthe a review by Marcus Wesley went and played Concord,
<v Speaker 1>the PS five exclusive team shooter. I've been playing the
<v Speaker 1>newly announced super Vive by former Riot game devs, also
<v Speaker 1>tapping into the last of my SGF previews. Now that
<v Speaker 1>they Aaron Bargoes are up, played the Plucky Squire. I'm
<v Speaker 1>gonna talk about Magic, the Gatherings, Assassin's Creed set, and
<v Speaker 1>some more. As Marcus hinted to we're gonna be tackling
<v Speaker 1>Still Wakes, the Deep Dust Born, and closing out the
<v Speaker 1>show with the Luigi's Mansion two HD impressions. It's a
<v Speaker 1>big pack show and we're busy, so let's get started. Wes,
<v Speaker 1>You and I flew out to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. What
<v Speaker 1>about a month ago.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, and yeah, just about longer than a month ago. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>distant now, but yeah. We visited by where To for
<v Speaker 4>a dragon Age the Vailguard cover story, which was a
<v Speaker 4>very very cool trip because it is admittedly going in,
<v Speaker 4>I was like, this was the first cover story that
<v Speaker 4>really was more work than excitement, just because I wasn't
<v Speaker 4>the biggest dragon Age fan, but it's like a game, like, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>we should have that on the cover. The dragon Age
<v Speaker 4>is a huge franchise and just you know, with everybody's
<v Speaker 4>schedules and stuff, and ended up landing on my plate
<v Speaker 4>and I was like, Okay, this will be you know,
<v Speaker 4>this will be fine, This will be cool. Buyer was
<v Speaker 4>a cool studio. I liked Inquisition a lot, but we
<v Speaker 4>hadn't seen anything of this game they were putting out
<v Speaker 4>like cinematic teasers. I just had no real reason to
<v Speaker 4>be super stoked for it other than the fact that
<v Speaker 4>it had dragon Age in its name. It's been ten
<v Speaker 4>years since Inquisition. It put out Andromeda, which was kind
<v Speaker 4>of whatever they put out Anthem, which did not work,
<v Speaker 4>even though I kind of really enjoyed Anthem.
<v Speaker 5>For what it was.
<v Speaker 4>So yeah, I was just like, this will be interesting.
<v Speaker 4>I'm going in with like no expectations, and I came
<v Speaker 4>out with I think this game is probably my most
<v Speaker 4>anticipated game for the rest of the year, especially now
<v Speaker 4>country is in my hands. In my cover story, I
<v Speaker 4>played it safe because we hadn't seen what SGF was
<v Speaker 4>doing yet, so I called it like one of my
<v Speaker 4>most anticipated RPGs of the year because I wasn't quite
<v Speaker 4>ready to commit to like the game I'm most excited for.
<v Speaker 4>Now that SGF has rolled through and we've seen all
<v Speaker 4>the showcases, we kind of know what we're looking at
<v Speaker 4>the rest of the year. I do think Vailguard is
<v Speaker 4>the game I'm looking most forward to this year.
<v Speaker 2>It is.
<v Speaker 4>Not just a game that really wowed me while we
<v Speaker 4>were at BioWare, but it's the type of game that
<v Speaker 4>has it stuck with me.
<v Speaker 5>I get.
<v Speaker 4>I was excited watching the reveals during SGF am I'm
<v Speaker 4>enjoying writing my online features that are going up. There's
<v Speaker 4>one going up in like six minutes. Actually, I'm even
<v Speaker 4>like reading fantasy novels because I just want more fantasy
<v Speaker 4>RPG feeling stuff in my life. I'm really engrossed in
<v Speaker 4>the fantasy that dragon Age The Veil Guard seems to
<v Speaker 4>be bringing to us later this year.
<v Speaker 3>Are there dragon Age novels that good?
<v Speaker 4>There are dragon Age novels, but like, I don't know,
<v Speaker 4>I wanted to read.
<v Speaker 3>I use this.
<v Speaker 4>I use this as an opportunity to read, to pick
<v Speaker 4>up Misborn by Brandon Sanderson, which is a very.
<v Speaker 2>Dragon Age novels. Did you guys know that?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, there's a bunch at least here's a box that
<v Speaker 4>graphic novels. There's comics, probably some like online web comics
<v Speaker 4>stuff too.
<v Speaker 5>Oh yeah, wait fan fiction for dragon I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know.
<v Speaker 4>But yeah, so this game, it just really wowed me
<v Speaker 4>because I enjoyed Inquisition and it's just cool to see
<v Speaker 4>what ten years later a dragon Age looks like, which
<v Speaker 4>is to say this is like a new gen dragon Age.
<v Speaker 4>There's a full action combat system, which I know some
<v Speaker 4>of the community is not going to be excited about,
<v Speaker 4>but as an action fan, especially compared to like real
<v Speaker 4>time strategy, I'm really stoked for this direction and the
<v Speaker 4>visuals and the world of it are they finally feel
<v Speaker 4>like what BioWare has maybe always wanted to make if
<v Speaker 4>you're familiar with Origins. And two, they were made on
<v Speaker 4>an engine prior to Frostbite and their older games. They
<v Speaker 4>were just kind of working with what they had. The
<v Speaker 4>focus and the emphasis was on those characters. BioWare described
<v Speaker 4>and lore and did their best to present this extremely
<v Speaker 4>like fantastical, beautiful fantasy RPG world. But it was like
<v Speaker 4>two thousand and nine and then twenty eleven, you're kind
<v Speaker 4>of working with what you got. Inquisition kind of got
<v Speaker 4>us there, but it was the first game that Bioweare
<v Speaker 4>was using Frostbite for, and if you know anything about
<v Speaker 4>that engine, it's notoriously difficult. It's a first person shooter engine.
<v Speaker 4>But now with a lot of time in between Inquisition
<v Speaker 4>and Vailguard, this is like the game where the team said, like, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>we feel fully in command of Frostbite, and that shows
<v Speaker 4>this is a gorgeous fantasy RPG.
<v Speaker 5>The world looks amazing to explore.
<v Speaker 4>It's almost it's more like Fable Whimsy than prior Dragon
<v Speaker 4>Age games, which I think, you know, we'll see how
<v Speaker 4>people take to that. I enjoy that really really high
<v Speaker 4>fantasy feel, especially as fantasy across all forms of entertainment
<v Speaker 4>has kind of skewed towards Game of Thrones lately, Like people, really, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>we've just been getting a lot of dark, grounded fantasy.
<v Speaker 4>There might be one fantasy element like a dragon or
<v Speaker 4>some kind of magic, but this is full bore high
<v Speaker 4>fantasy and I'm just thoroughly looking forward to it.
<v Speaker 5>My cover story is live.
<v Speaker 4>You can read me gushing about it all over there
<v Speaker 4>and breaking down a lot of its systems. We have
<v Speaker 4>a hub up and I'm going to be adding stories
<v Speaker 4>to that every couple of days because I have quite
<v Speaker 4>a lot.
<v Speaker 5>But yeah, the.
<v Speaker 4>Only caveat caveat is that I have not played the game.
<v Speaker 4>This was the type of cover story where they showed
<v Speaker 4>us a lot, and they did show us a good bit.
<v Speaker 4>It was hours of content. We did not get to
<v Speaker 4>play it. Nobody at SGF that also saw the game
<v Speaker 4>got to play it. So I'm there's a there's a
<v Speaker 4>little bit of me holding out, wondering like why because
<v Speaker 4>it looks great, the things that I'm being told sound great.
<v Speaker 4>Everything sounds great on paper, but nobody outside of buyer
<v Speaker 4>where it seems has played it, which is a little
<v Speaker 4>I mean, I don't think that's necessarily like Doom and Gloom.
<v Speaker 4>I'm just curious why. So I'm excited for that moment
<v Speaker 4>to come. I think it's going to be a game
<v Speaker 4>I enjoy playing when I get my hands on the sticks,
<v Speaker 4>because it looks like a fun, fast paced action game.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. And we sat in a room with somebody very
<v Speaker 1>clearly like they loaded up the demo and were actively
<v Speaker 1>like playing the game in front of us. It wasn't
<v Speaker 1>like there could have been like, oh, this is a
<v Speaker 1>loop that they're playing and pretending to play. Yeah. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>we sat there consistently for well like four hours with them.
<v Speaker 2>Had you take the batteries out of the controller and
<v Speaker 2>touch it to your toe.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, we had to do all that.
<v Speaker 1>It tasted like a switch.
<v Speaker 2>Cover story stuff. We all know it.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, yeah, it was.
<v Speaker 4>It was really cool though, because, like Alex said, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>they were playing live, so I mean they were pausing
<v Speaker 4>the game and then turning to talk to us. They
<v Speaker 4>were helped letting us make the decisions for like dialogue. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>we basically created the character. Uh, and the director krim Bush,
<v Speaker 4>you know, picked everything for us. Even though we weren't
<v Speaker 4>on the controller.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, it was. It was a really really great time.
<v Speaker 4>It's uh. I went in with zero expectations, kind of
<v Speaker 4>looking at this cover story as like, all right, this
<v Speaker 4>is you know, this is this is a this is
<v Speaker 4>a work trip. This one feels a lot more like
<v Speaker 4>work than it is, Like, Oh, I'm so dang stoked
<v Speaker 4>to be doing this, Like maybe I was with Final
<v Speaker 4>Fantasy sixteen last year, but I came out and even
<v Speaker 4>like an hour into this uh studio visit, I was like, Okay,
<v Speaker 4>I had it all wrong.
<v Speaker 5>I'm this is awesome.
<v Speaker 4>I'm very, very thrilled about this game, and I think
<v Speaker 4>anybody who likes drag and agehould be excited about it too.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I that is the most compelling, I guess element to
<v Speaker 2>hear from you. With your lack of expectations. That actually
<v Speaker 2>makes me, as someone who didn't even play the other ones,
<v Speaker 2>really kind of like they don't go on action, like
<v Speaker 2>they're going for like they're not really following the Game
<v Speaker 2>of Thrones trying to strongly right is what you're saying,
<v Speaker 2>Like those are not at all. Yeah, Yeah, that's I'm
<v Speaker 2>I might have to It would be a weird one.
<v Speaker 2>To jump into. I suppose as like you know, but
<v Speaker 2>I think this might be the first one I really
<v Speaker 2>give a real shot to make.
<v Speaker 4>They they're very aware that well, obviously they want new
<v Speaker 4>people to play this game, because the more people that
<v Speaker 4>play this game, the better Dragon Age and EA and
<v Speaker 4>Buyer does. But they're like very aware of the fact
<v Speaker 4>that it's been ten years since this last game. You know,
<v Speaker 4>even like the hardcore fans, they have not played a
<v Speaker 4>new dragon Age in ten years, which is to say,
<v Speaker 4>there's a lot of space to like catch people up,
<v Speaker 4>and this game does and from what we've seen, we
<v Speaker 4>saw the prologue and a mission afterward does a good
<v Speaker 4>job with that rook.
<v Speaker 5>The player character has really.
<v Speaker 4>No idea what's going on with Soul and all the
<v Speaker 4>other Lower specific stuff that's happening in the game, so
<v Speaker 4>they kind of act as the stand in for newer
<v Speaker 4>players or people who aren't caught up on the lower
<v Speaker 4>But even having played Inquisition in the Trespasser DLC, this
<v Speaker 4>is also not a game like just for newcomers. Well,
<v Speaker 4>I think it's going to cater to newcomers. Well, but
<v Speaker 4>if you're like a hardcore dragon Age sicco, there is
<v Speaker 4>a lot to chew on in this game, like they
<v Speaker 4>buy where knows this community, they know what they want,
<v Speaker 4>they know what they're looking for out of these characters,
<v Speaker 4>and I think they're going to deliver. If what we've saw,
<v Speaker 4>which again just a couple hours of what is sure
<v Speaker 4>to be forty fifty sixty hour RPG, is any indication
<v Speaker 4>it was really good and the yeah.
<v Speaker 5>I just I don't know.
<v Speaker 4>There was nothing even that really stood out as like
<v Speaker 4>worrisome to me. It was just the fact that we
<v Speaker 4>weren't playing it. That was the only thing that kind
<v Speaker 4>of was throwing me off. Other than that, it really
<v Speaker 4>was a situation where I'm like, everything I'm seeing, I'm enjoying.
<v Speaker 4>I'm really the music, the voice acting, the visual design.
<v Speaker 4>Which is funny because we saw that trailer that a
<v Speaker 4>lot of people did not like at SGF. They showed
<v Speaker 4>Alex and I that to start off our studio visit. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>and I in the moment, I was like, oh, interesting tone,
<v Speaker 4>very interesting, And then we saw gameplay shortly after and
<v Speaker 4>I was like, okay, cool, and I wonder if I
<v Speaker 4>should have like worn them there, Like, hey, this this
<v Speaker 4>first trailer is not necessarily super indicative of what I
<v Speaker 4>think the rest of the game is going to be but.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, it was.
<v Speaker 4>It was a really cool trip. It's a cool team too.
<v Speaker 4>They were very lovely people to speak with. John Eppler,
<v Speaker 4>the creative director, krim Bush, the game director. Lots of
<v Speaker 4>lots of cool people there.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I am with Wes, and that I didn't. I
<v Speaker 1>wasn't really I didn't really care about this. I still
<v Speaker 1>it's not like up there with like, I'm not as
<v Speaker 1>excited as Wes, I think, but I'm definitely intrigued and
<v Speaker 1>I want to play it. I think if they can,
<v Speaker 1>depending on how deep like those those narrative choices go.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I know dragon Age is like one of
<v Speaker 1>the franchise that has kind of set the tone for that,
<v Speaker 1>but I want to see how that stuff plays out,
<v Speaker 1>and I would I really Yeah, like we said, I
<v Speaker 1>want to play it myself, but it all it looks
<v Speaker 1>really pretty. I think this is going to be a game.
<v Speaker 1>The more I talk to people about it, and the
<v Speaker 1>more I've reflected on our trip and playing or not
<v Speaker 1>playing it, seeing it with Wes, I think people who
<v Speaker 1>are not fans are probably going to get more enjoyment
<v Speaker 1>out of this than maybe fans on like a surface level,
<v Speaker 1>just based on what they're doing.
<v Speaker 3>It's interesting. And I one thing that I don't think
<v Speaker 3>I ever really realized until you pointed out in your story, Wes,
<v Speaker 3>was that every Dragon Age has had like a different
<v Speaker 3>combat system, like that series has never had any like
<v Speaker 3>unified gameplay identity. Like the first game was very much
<v Speaker 3>like kind of CRPG, second game was like pretty much
<v Speaker 3>action largely, and then the third game, from what I understand,
<v Speaker 3>was more sort of like regular terms, yeah, like a
<v Speaker 3>mixed between the two, and then now this is just
<v Speaker 3>full on action. So it's like, I don't know, like it.
<v Speaker 3>I don't even know if if like being a fan
<v Speaker 3>of dragon Age, I feel like you're talking about like
<v Speaker 3>a specific game to an extent of like which dragon
<v Speaker 3>Age are you a fan of? And then that we'll
<v Speaker 3>determine whether or not you're excited about the direction, because
<v Speaker 3>like maybe it sounds like I might be the by default,
<v Speaker 3>the biggest dragon Age fan on this call, because I
<v Speaker 3>beat Origins in its day and really liked it, and
<v Speaker 3>then I played a little bit of two and fell off,
<v Speaker 3>and then I never played Inquisition, despite owning a physical
<v Speaker 3>copy for eight years and always telling myself like I'm
<v Speaker 3>gonna play this.
<v Speaker 1>Thing, and yes, I played a bit of Origins. I
<v Speaker 1>played a good amount of Inquisition, Okay, but I didn't
<v Speaker 1>I haven't beaten any of them, and I wouldn't really
<v Speaker 1>consider myself a fan. I think Inquisition is cool. It
<v Speaker 1>was one of my favorite experiences. In the year that
<v Speaker 1>it came out. It was I remember it was like
<v Speaker 1>kind of a dry year for releases, if I remember correctly,
<v Speaker 1>and I was like, I'll try to try.
<v Speaker 4>The bumping Game of the Year awards, possibly because it
<v Speaker 4>was yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Fourteen, that was the that was the famous it's either
<v Speaker 3>this or Shadow of mordor yes, yeah, year, And then
<v Speaker 3>I was in the back screaming Panetta two Hello yeah
<v Speaker 3>but yeah. Like so, I I think the reaction is
<v Speaker 3>interest because the games are so different. It's like, I like,
<v Speaker 3>I love Origins, but I'm also like, you know that game.
<v Speaker 3>It was two thousand and nine, so like, I'm so
<v Speaker 3>far removed from Dragon Age Lore, like I remember very
<v Speaker 3>outside of specific characters and moments, I have little attachment
<v Speaker 3>or memory of like the overall like lore. So I'm
<v Speaker 3>kind of like cool without jumping into this one. It's
<v Speaker 3>sort of like a this is my return to this
<v Speaker 3>world and like, and also I say, this is a
<v Speaker 3>fan of action games, like I was like this with
<v Speaker 3>Final Fantasy six, are like, oh, don't character switching accents,
<v Speaker 3>that's just switching from one genre to another genre that
<v Speaker 3>I like. It's like I don't want to see if
<v Speaker 3>they if you know, if they do it well of course,
<v Speaker 3>but uh yeah, I'm I'm pumped for this. Like and
<v Speaker 3>also on another note, and Kyle, this is this is
<v Speaker 3>for you. This is like an insight conversation for you
<v Speaker 3>and I. But like, Inquisition came out the same year
<v Speaker 3>as Donkey Kong Country Returns, I don't think I would
<v Speaker 3>have ever guessed that we would get another Dragon Age
<v Speaker 3>before we got another Donkey Kong Country.
<v Speaker 2>With ten years here, we would get Donkey Kunk Country
<v Speaker 2>returns again or a tropical Freeze.
<v Speaker 3>I guess, right, I guess we got Yeah, I guess
<v Speaker 3>we got re releases. But I would have if you
<v Speaker 3>told me in twenty fourteen, because I was like, oh,
<v Speaker 3>those Dragon Age games, It's probably take a while, but
<v Speaker 3>we'll get another Donkey Kong within the next three years after.
<v Speaker 2>This, just throw some platforms up there.
<v Speaker 3>You got it? Yeah, selfishly too. I'm maybe most excited
<v Speaker 3>for this game because once it comes out, it means
<v Speaker 3>we're closer to mass Affect foss because I'm a bigger
<v Speaker 3>Mass Effect fan than I am a Dragon Age fan.
<v Speaker 3>So it's like, all right, this will be cool. But
<v Speaker 3>now that that's out the way, let's start talking about
<v Speaker 3>some Shepherd or whatever.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah. Yeah, Mass Effect is like the franchise that I
<v Speaker 4>consider myself a fan of Bywear because of But I'm
<v Speaker 4>you know, obviously really excited for Vailguard. But to your point, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>I do think this is a like a kind of
<v Speaker 4>a critical point for BioWare. They had two misses. Andromeda
<v Speaker 4>wasn't like a massive miss, but it was not the
<v Speaker 4>follow up to Mass Effect that people wanted. Anthem did fail,
<v Speaker 4>like it did not work as a live service game.
<v Speaker 4>They tried to do Anthem next that got canceled. So
<v Speaker 4>that is kind of like a you know, a black
<v Speaker 4>spot on this the studio's history, if you will. And
<v Speaker 4>this is like them returning to form. This is Buyo
<v Speaker 4>where being like, all right, we know what you guys
<v Speaker 4>want from us. It is the single player, very choice driven,
<v Speaker 4>very narrative driven storytelling experience RPG and they're very aware
<v Speaker 4>of that, Like they mentioned that to us multiple times.
<v Speaker 4>There's no multiplayer, although this game did start off as
<v Speaker 4>a multiplayer concept, which has been reported on before, and
<v Speaker 4>then they kind of the studio manager Gary McKay uh
<v Speaker 4>mentioned that to us, which is interesting.
<v Speaker 3>I remember you mentioned. I remember you mentioning in your
<v Speaker 3>story West that when you guys were in the studio
<v Speaker 3>that there was a surprising amount of Anthem like decoration.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, everywhere.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, you would think it's just just the Anthem studio.
<v Speaker 4>I wasn't having because I I really did like the
<v Speaker 4>core game Anthem.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. The gameplay was finn Yeah.
<v Speaker 5>I didn't care about live service.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's just fascinating. I feel like if I worked there,
<v Speaker 3>I'd be like, we gotta gotta paint over this, guys.
<v Speaker 3>I can't be reminded of this constantly.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean they're like the physical They're like physical statues,
<v Speaker 1>like eight feet tall. Yeah, there's they had one. I
<v Speaker 1>think they had one of every javelin and it.
<v Speaker 4>Was like eighty Anthem and then ten percent mass effect,
<v Speaker 4>ten percent dragon age around the office, which is anthem is.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, that's that's I think most of we have
<v Speaker 1>to say about Dragon Age, I think, just like closing thoughts,
<v Speaker 1>I do want to clarify not that like Dragon Age
<v Speaker 1>fans won't like this game. I just think anecdotally talking
<v Speaker 1>to other journalists reading sentiments online, I think I think
<v Speaker 1>there is the fact that Dragon Age hasn't doesn't have
<v Speaker 1>consistency or has been inconsistent in a lot of its elements.
<v Speaker 1>I think is really frustrating a certain part of the audience,
<v Speaker 1>whereas maybe others are just down for another fantasy rpg,
<v Speaker 1>you know, from BioWare. So I'm really interested to see
<v Speaker 1>how the game is received by by everyone, but especially
<v Speaker 1>especially the fans. I'm I'm looking forward to to checking
<v Speaker 1>it out. The the classes that they're showing off, you know,
<v Speaker 1>the subclasses seem neat. I really just want to play it.
<v Speaker 5>But yeah, the.
<v Speaker 4>On the topic of the fan base, I just want
<v Speaker 4>to give a shout out to that community, because Wow,
<v Speaker 4>I did not I knew people would be stoked about
<v Speaker 4>this cover, but people are really stoked about this cover.
<v Speaker 4>And it's really funny. I the day we announced it,
<v Speaker 4>I got like hundreds of new followers. Anytime if I
<v Speaker 4>tweet about urd Tree or Destiny to I get like
<v Speaker 4>my normal amount of likes like a dozen maybe you
<v Speaker 4>know whatever, If I tweet about Dragon Age, it's like
<v Speaker 4>today I tweeted my next feature is coming at three pm,
<v Speaker 4>and it's at one point one thousand likes.
<v Speaker 3>Like what the hell?
<v Speaker 5>It's so funny that, like this.
<v Speaker 4>Community is like rabid for information, which makes sense if
<v Speaker 4>you haven't gotten a game in ten years. It's kind
<v Speaker 4>of how I feel with like the BioShock series. But yeah,
<v Speaker 4>so like shout out to y'all, I'm seeing the love.
<v Speaker 4>I'm loving you guys reading the articles and tell me
<v Speaker 4>what you want to hear about. So if you have
<v Speaker 4>any questions or anything, get at me on Twitter for sure,
<v Speaker 4>and I will see what I can cook up with
<v Speaker 4>some writing for you.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, milking that, milking that become a pointment. He's
<v Speaker 1>like bal Dow, He's power cult of he started he started, uh,
<v Speaker 1>you know, interrupting our boss in the morning stand ups,
<v Speaker 1>just you know, being like, well I haven't got to talk,
<v Speaker 1>let me talk real quick.
<v Speaker 3>I got some things that demanded that I take.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, what jart.
<v Speaker 2>Of the traffic coming to this site right now is because
<v Speaker 2>of so you'll listen to what I'm gonna say right.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, actually that's true. We can we can shut this down. Now,
<v Speaker 4>this is the show.
<v Speaker 3>If you think the Dragon Age fans wait today and
<v Speaker 3>now it's another Donkey Kong country, you'll see something are.
<v Speaker 2>Going to be refreshing.
<v Speaker 3>Those pages like crazy, Yeah, like we got we got
<v Speaker 3>a new barrel that we're gonna talk about.
<v Speaker 1>This one spends an extra time before shoots you. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>well cool, let's shift gears. We'll keep we'll keep talking
<v Speaker 1>about fantasy stuff. But let's go over to Marcus for
<v Speaker 1>your Shadow of the Urgery review. If you been living
<v Speaker 1>under a rock, or maybe you're just not familiar with
<v Speaker 1>the genre, Elden Ring, which was our game of the
<v Speaker 1>Year in twenty twenty two. The DLC just dropped this
<v Speaker 1>past week. We've had access to it, most of us
<v Speaker 1>have had access for a couple of weeks now, and
<v Speaker 1>Marcus has beat the game. He reviewed it for us.
<v Speaker 1>So tell us what you think, Marcus.
<v Speaker 3>So this game is the It's awesome, It's it's fantastic.
<v Speaker 3>If you read my review, I gave it just shy
<v Speaker 3>of a ten, a nine point seventy five, which is
<v Speaker 3>my highest score ever at GI and I think someone
<v Speaker 3>pointed out and I have not verified this that it's
<v Speaker 3>the highest score we've ever awarded an expansion, which I.
<v Speaker 2>Would believe that. Yeah, that would not surprise me.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, I think they said the Witcher one of
<v Speaker 3>the Witcher expansions was like had that crown before it
<v Speaker 3>Witcher three? But yeah, man, it's uh, you know, I
<v Speaker 3>said this in my review, like the really lame and
<v Speaker 3>maybe boring take is like they made more of one
<v Speaker 3>of my favorite games of all time. But that's exactly
<v Speaker 3>what they did. Uh, It's It's fantastic. It like every
<v Speaker 3>great thing that I could say about the base game
<v Speaker 3>applies here, Like they didn't drop the ball or or
<v Speaker 3>like you know, make the like somehow make the taint
<v Speaker 3>the experience in any way where it's like I'd rather
<v Speaker 3>just stay in the in the lands between you and
<v Speaker 3>I want to go to the Shadow Realm, which by
<v Speaker 3>the way is yu Gio fan. It cracks me up
<v Speaker 3>that it's called the shadow Realm and they keep saying
<v Speaker 3>it over and over with like no awareness or irony.
<v Speaker 3>It's just like, no, just I'm in the Shadow Realm.
<v Speaker 1>Now it's time.
<v Speaker 3>There might be a character who said that. For all
<v Speaker 3>I know, I would do that if I was Miyazaki.
<v Speaker 3>But you know what's cool is just like like the
<v Speaker 3>Shadow Realm. The Realm of Shadow is like it's a
<v Speaker 3>cool location. I love the way it's structured because it
<v Speaker 3>does feel different than the lance between because it's a
<v Speaker 3>lot more article the ways design and you know, maybe
<v Speaker 3>you guys have noticed while you're playing, but a lot
<v Speaker 3>of the like topography is either like above or underneath
<v Speaker 3>you in some way, and I think that makes navigating
<v Speaker 3>it harder than in the base game, but not like
<v Speaker 3>in a bad way, just then like in a more
<v Speaker 3>interesting like even like you know, from software, DLCs are
<v Speaker 3>known for being harder, and that is true with this,
<v Speaker 3>but they've made even exploring harder. How where it's you
<v Speaker 3>see something in the map and you're just like how
<v Speaker 3>do I get there? Ah, Like I think I know,
<v Speaker 3>and you're and then you quickly realize like it's either
<v Speaker 3>you got to find a way down or way up.
<v Speaker 3>And I just like that. That kind of like has
<v Speaker 3>my approach.
<v Speaker 2>To I have a couple markers to get to get
<v Speaker 2>the maps, you know, and like every I cannot figure
<v Speaker 2>out how to get them, and I look at them
<v Speaker 2>and it's like that marker looks like it's just in
<v Speaker 2>the middle of like fog, Like how do I get
<v Speaker 2>over there?
<v Speaker 4>You know?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and you're like peering off the edge of a waterfall,
<v Speaker 3>like all I see is like death at the bottoms
<v Speaker 3>and clearly it's like in front of me, like cardinally speaking,
<v Speaker 3>but like how do I get down there? And that's
<v Speaker 3>like part of the fund like it just you know,
<v Speaker 3>it retains that sense of mystery, like I just want
<v Speaker 3>to every time I see something like I got to
<v Speaker 3>figure out how to get over there. There's such there's
<v Speaker 3>and I think the some of the locations you go
<v Speaker 3>to are like really cool looking and also feel distinct
<v Speaker 3>from the base game, because you know, the base game
<v Speaker 3>had a lot of places you could go to that
<v Speaker 3>were all different from each other. So you're just like,
<v Speaker 3>I wonder what they could add that like stands out
<v Speaker 3>from the land between and you know, without spoiling, there's
<v Speaker 3>some spots in this game where you're just like, oh, oh, okay, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>this is this. I've not seen anything like this yet.
<v Speaker 3>This is a cool spot. And then it makes sort
<v Speaker 3>of the the effort of reaching it feel you know,
<v Speaker 3>like it feels rewarding and you know, like the Uh,
<v Speaker 3>the big thing that I love about this expansion is
<v Speaker 3>just like the progression, you know, like I think the
<v Speaker 3>scout scouted tree, scat scatter tree. Have we decided how
<v Speaker 3>you pronounced that damn thing? But the fragments, Yeah, the
<v Speaker 3>scaddatory fragments and the reverend ash fragments I think are
<v Speaker 3>such a good idea for like streamlining and expediting like
<v Speaker 3>character progression, because you know, you can't access this expansion
<v Speaker 3>until you beat a relatively late game boss and then
<v Speaker 3>also over don who you can get to them pretty sooner.
<v Speaker 3>But mog is the one I'm referring to, and so
<v Speaker 3>it's like and because it's a standalone thing, it's like,
<v Speaker 3>you're you're not going to be playing this unless your
<v Speaker 3>character is either like late game or like maybe just
<v Speaker 3>like a new game plus character. So it's probably gonna
<v Speaker 3>take you forever to love up at this point because
<v Speaker 3>you're you're probably rolling like a level hundred minimum character.
<v Speaker 3>So these fragments, like when you collect them, they're all
<v Speaker 3>over the map and you just take them to the
<v Speaker 3>side of Grace and then it pretty much just on
<v Speaker 3>its own, makes you hit harder and less like fragile,
<v Speaker 3>like you pretty much have more physical resistance, like all
<v Speaker 3>in one face.
<v Speaker 2>Like I was wondering if you could if I don't
<v Speaker 2>know if it's an easy explanation, because I know they're
<v Speaker 2>leveling me up somehow, and it is. It is the
<v Speaker 2>thing that I get most excited to find, but I
<v Speaker 2>wasn't sure exactly what they were.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's you deal more physical damage and you take
<v Speaker 3>less physical damage. Yeah, and the Scleter tree does that
<v Speaker 3>for you, and the Reverend Ash does that for your
<v Speaker 3>spirit ashes, which are your little spirit buddies. Which that's
<v Speaker 3>cool too because you know you can max you know,
<v Speaker 3>you max out how much, like they're upgrades after a while,
<v Speaker 3>and so it lets you continue to improve max out spirits.
<v Speaker 3>So if you have like a favorite even rolling, but
<v Speaker 3>you're like, oh, I can still use this one and
<v Speaker 3>it's still getting better, which is nice. You know, I'm
<v Speaker 3>all using the clone guy's Like, why would I want
<v Speaker 3>anyone that's not just me? It's like, though there are
<v Speaker 3>some pretty there are some good spirit ashes in there,
<v Speaker 3>but it's hard to talk. None of that is true.
<v Speaker 3>It's the most egotistical thing. Like I only roll with myself,
<v Speaker 3>so I think that's such a good idea that I
<v Speaker 3>I would love to see something similar in other expansions
<v Speaker 3>like this of like it keeps you, you know, it
<v Speaker 3>keeps you improving, but it also is another incentive to explore,
<v Speaker 3>Like like Kyle mentioned, like when you find one, it
<v Speaker 3>feels like, oh, this is a big deal because like
<v Speaker 3>every little bit counts in this game when it comes
<v Speaker 3>to making yourself better. Like when you come in and
<v Speaker 3>I started the expansion of like level one hundred and
<v Speaker 3>sixty five, you know, like endgame. I know ever did
<v Speaker 3>New Game Plus. So I'm like my bass playthrough character
<v Speaker 3>and got by pretty well for the most part within
<v Speaker 3>the like the early hours, but like once you get
<v Speaker 3>past sort of like the first two major bosses like
<v Speaker 3>the Gatekeepy bosses, and the game actually starts, that's when
<v Speaker 3>it's like, oh, okay, I'm running into some like some
<v Speaker 3>either boss fights that are just like maybe pushing it
<v Speaker 3>a little bit in terms of what I can handle,
<v Speaker 3>or even just like the regular enemies like those big
<v Speaker 3>armored guys that roam around. Those guys would probably be
<v Speaker 3>many bosses in the base game, and there's like normal dudes,
<v Speaker 3>like I remember I killed one and it's like three
<v Speaker 3>attempts and you think, like, oh, he's gonna be gone
<v Speaker 3>for Averil. He's one of those like perma bosses. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>and like nope, responds when.
<v Speaker 1>You oh my god, wait yeah.
<v Speaker 2>So you're like, I'm hitting a point now where I'm
<v Speaker 2>running into like two of those guys hanging out in
<v Speaker 2>the same like you know, they're like ten feet from
<v Speaker 2>each other, and so you know, we're just we're just piecing.
<v Speaker 3>Out of there. We're not spending time with those guys.
<v Speaker 3>I'm gonna let you do your patrol, buddy. I'm thankfully
<v Speaker 3>at a point now where I can handle those guys
<v Speaker 3>pretty handily now. And a lot of that is that
<v Speaker 3>using the new weapons like this game has I believe,
<v Speaker 3>a one hundred new pieces of gear that you can't
<v Speaker 3>take into the base game. I probably should have mentioned
<v Speaker 3>that the scouted tree fragments and stuff that only applies
<v Speaker 3>to the expansion Once you leave that zone and go
<v Speaker 3>back to the base game, though that effect doesn't carry
<v Speaker 3>with you. You can bring the new weapons with you.
<v Speaker 3>And I mentioned in my review that in the beginning,
<v Speaker 3>like I Stubborling clung to like my in game loadouts. Again,
<v Speaker 3>this is like my in game load out, like I
<v Speaker 3>got like dual Katanas, I got a blood build. One
<v Speaker 3>of them is Millennious Sword as my trophy for killing her,
<v Speaker 3>and it does like great bleed damage and it's everything's
<v Speaker 3>upgrade as high as you can get it. So I'm like, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>this is still doing fine. But then after a while,
<v Speaker 3>I started running into some stuff where it's like, okay,
<v Speaker 3>I this isn't working the way it used to. You know,
<v Speaker 3>like it is still to get this job done, and
<v Speaker 3>it depends on the enemy types. You know, there's a
<v Speaker 3>bunch of new enemy types in the expansion, but it's
<v Speaker 3>like I got to change it up, and once I
<v Speaker 3>kind of like allowed myself to use some of the
<v Speaker 3>new stuff I was finding. And you know what I
<v Speaker 3>also did, and I recommend people do this depending on
<v Speaker 3>how you guess how often you do switch load out,
<v Speaker 3>is that as soon as the expansion started, I dumped
<v Speaker 3>everything I was carrying in my storage bind because I
<v Speaker 3>only wanted to find the new stuff and it would
<v Speaker 3>just make it easier to know, like this is new,
<v Speaker 3>this is not something that I had before, because you
<v Speaker 3>know it had been a while. So I emptied everything
<v Speaker 3>out as like whatever I grab, it's going to be
<v Speaker 3>the new stuff.
<v Speaker 2>For the details. Hindsight's twenty twenty ain't in Marcus. I've
<v Speaker 2>been carrying around a million swords, and every time I
<v Speaker 2>pick up something new, I'm like, I don't know what
<v Speaker 2>that was. It was on the screen for two seconds,
<v Speaker 2>it's gone. It's in the black hole of my inventory.
<v Speaker 3>Now, that's what's all.
<v Speaker 4>My inventory options for. Which is the best quality of
<v Speaker 4>life update that should have been at launch?
<v Speaker 2>Ever, maybe it lets you sort it by like most
<v Speaker 2>recently acquired, right.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, And it puts the exclamation mark on something that
<v Speaker 4>you haven't ripped out yet, which is so nice. I'm
<v Speaker 4>doing what you're doing, Marcus. I didn't think to put
<v Speaker 4>them in storage. That's an amazing idea. But I have
<v Speaker 4>been purposefully forcing myself to like whatever I find. I
<v Speaker 4>just try to give it a go, because I have
<v Speaker 4>enough of the smithing stones just in general to upgrade
<v Speaker 4>whatever weapon pretty.
<v Speaker 5>Much, Max.
<v Speaker 4>And I've found that every weapon and especially the armor
<v Speaker 4>that you find, you find at that spot for a reason,
<v Speaker 4>like I have yet to run into new armor where
<v Speaker 4>I'm not like equipping this is very helpful for my
<v Speaker 4>current situation. It'll be like a drop in physical negation,
<v Speaker 4>physical damage negation or something for example, but the magic
<v Speaker 4>defense is way up. And then the next thirty minutes,
<v Speaker 4>I'm in a place where there's a bunch of dudes
<v Speaker 4>throwing magic at me, and I'm like, ah, thank you
<v Speaker 4>from software. So yeah, I echo what you're saying, like,
<v Speaker 4>definitely try to use and engage with the new stuff.
<v Speaker 4>It is worth your time, even if it's very uncomfortable
<v Speaker 4>to say to say goodbye to those trusty weapons from
<v Speaker 4>the Bass Game.
<v Speaker 3>But they make it easy because this game goes out
<v Speaker 3>of its way to give you smithing stones, like I
<v Speaker 3>think it may be even more so than the Bass Game,
<v Speaker 3>like good outside of just like all the like enemies
<v Speaker 3>dropping them, it feels like more often. But there's like
<v Speaker 3>designated locations like these, like a new side, a new
<v Speaker 3>type of repeatable dungeon that is literally just like the
<v Speaker 3>smithing stone.
<v Speaker 1>Good because I was starting to run out of them
<v Speaker 1>in the Bass Game.
<v Speaker 2>It's not even just.
<v Speaker 4>The regular smithing stones too, like the Somber ones for
<v Speaker 4>the special weapons, I forget what they're called. Yeah, and
<v Speaker 4>even like the top tier smithing stone like the Ancient
<v Speaker 4>Dragon Somber, I'm still finding those, yeah, It's nice because
<v Speaker 4>I get a new weapon, like a boss weapon, and
<v Speaker 4>I can just pretty much go and immediately put it
<v Speaker 4>to max, which is nice because now it's a good
<v Speaker 4>comparison to my previous weapon that was also max.
<v Speaker 5>Because yeah, if you have a plus.
<v Speaker 4>I started a DALC with a plus twenty three rape
<v Speaker 4>year from my first playthrough. Yeah, and I was trying
<v Speaker 4>the new weapons and I'm like, this is doing nothing
<v Speaker 4>compared to my trusty. And I was like, oh, I
<v Speaker 4>need to go and upgrade it. Of course it's not
<v Speaker 4>doing anything, and yeah, upgraded. The new weapons are killer.
<v Speaker 5>I love them.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, they make it. They fast track you basically, because
<v Speaker 3>that is the biggest like hurd of like, well this
<v Speaker 3>is new. But then I got to catch it up
<v Speaker 3>to the maxed out thing I've been using, and it's like, no,
<v Speaker 3>here's a pile of stones, Like you can just go
<v Speaker 3>max it out right now, like we want you to
<v Speaker 3>use these things. And then once you max it out,
<v Speaker 3>oftentimes you're like, oh, this is better than my maxed
<v Speaker 3>out weapon I was using, because it's like, you know,
<v Speaker 3>it's just a better weapon. In general, it can get
<v Speaker 3>more like I there was one area that I was
<v Speaker 3>going through that I struggled with because there's like this
<v Speaker 3>new enemy type where my blood my bleeding belt was
<v Speaker 3>just not it was not working against these particular types
<v Speaker 3>of enemies, and that was the thing. I was like,
<v Speaker 3>I have to try something new. And then found like
<v Speaker 3>a really cool like magic broadsword that I killed off
<v Speaker 3>a pretty hard enemy, like it was one of the
<v Speaker 3>sort of like invader type enemies, and then that was
<v Speaker 3>like the answer to them, like it was like a
<v Speaker 3>rock paper says were like once I hit these annoying
<v Speaker 3>enemies with that thing, they had no response to it,
<v Speaker 3>like it just staggered them. And I was like, Okay,
<v Speaker 3>I'm sticking with this for the rest of his dungeon
<v Speaker 3>because this is this is your crypt then apparently like
<v Speaker 3>so I've got a few different lotus that I've I've
<v Speaker 3>been rolling with in this game. But yeah, like it's
<v Speaker 3>you know, like the boss fights are still like really
<v Speaker 3>challenging and still really fun to figure out and uncover.
<v Speaker 3>I think the you know, I'm not the biggest lore
<v Speaker 3>guy with Eldon Ring. I actually watched some war videos
<v Speaker 3>really for the first time getting prepped for this expansion,
<v Speaker 3>Like I'm not I don't play from software games for story.
<v Speaker 3>I'm sorry for fans that care about that, but like,
<v Speaker 3>that's literally the last thing I care about. I love
<v Speaker 3>from software games, but I play it more for like
<v Speaker 3>the vibe and the gameplay and the world more so
<v Speaker 3>than like what's actually happening here. But I appreciate it,
<v Speaker 3>like I you know, you'll see things are like that's weird,
<v Speaker 3>that's I don't know what's going on there. But I
<v Speaker 3>think that even the story here is like it's a
<v Speaker 3>bit easier to follow. It's a little bit more like,
<v Speaker 3>I don't know, straightforward is the word I want to
<v Speaker 3>work with, But like, you know, the idea of like
<v Speaker 3>Michela having these followers that are all like devoted to him,
<v Speaker 3>and like, you know, there's like crosses that you're finding,
<v Speaker 3>and it's like people on this pilgrimage because they all like, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>you know, we're all here for the same thing. You're
<v Speaker 3>you're here for him too, right, you know. And then
<v Speaker 3>there's like some interesting directions that apparently, and I only
<v Speaker 3>noticed because I had the reviewer's guide, but apparently your
<v Speaker 3>interactions with them can change based on basically what you
<v Speaker 3>do with them and how you interact with them. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>because they're all pretty much cool with you, but there's
<v Speaker 3>moments where it's like, hey, you could do something that
<v Speaker 3>maybe changes that in some way.
<v Speaker 4>Dialogue options to choose last night and I froze. I
<v Speaker 4>got really scared because it seemed very like I don't
<v Speaker 4>want to say line in the sand. But I was like, oh,
<v Speaker 4>I'm I'm going to change something here. And it's really
<v Speaker 4>scary because I don't know, are they about to become
<v Speaker 4>a boss? Are they about to be not? Like what's
<v Speaker 4>going on.
<v Speaker 3>That's the thing with these games, like you assume like
<v Speaker 3>all your because you know you can technically fight and
<v Speaker 3>kill anyone in this game, right like allies see, you
<v Speaker 3>just assume like this guy's probably secretly really hard do
<v Speaker 3>I want to don't want to get on this guy's batside?
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, I think there's some like cool narrative stuff,
<v Speaker 3>but yeah, it's just I mean this this expansion has
<v Speaker 3>like reignited my my love of elden Ring and like
<v Speaker 3>reminded me of like, oh yeah, this is why this
<v Speaker 3>is like in the running for my favorite game of
<v Speaker 3>all time. Like it's hitting all the same notes. It's
<v Speaker 3>got some cool new ideas in there, some cool bosses,
<v Speaker 3>some like awesome locations. It's still a blast two years later,
<v Speaker 3>like it's it rules, it's it's so good.
<v Speaker 1>Hell yeah, I cannot wait to play it.
<v Speaker 4>One quick thing on it because I was afraid to
<v Speaker 4>and I've been doing it a lot. Respect your character,
<v Speaker 4>Just have play around with your character. Don't be married
<v Speaker 4>to your build.
<v Speaker 2>You can.
<v Speaker 3>Start, I mean, try to mess around with what you got.
<v Speaker 1>And yeah, yeah, because I'm I'm little that positioned. There
<v Speaker 1>was an issue with my code a little inside Baseball.
<v Speaker 1>I got a code for the DLC and it didn't work.
<v Speaker 1>So I'm waiting for PR to send me send me
<v Speaker 1>new code tonight. But I have like my characters outside
<v Speaker 1>of the embryo, like at that side of Grace, and
<v Speaker 1>so I'm like, okay, now's my chance. I'm like, right,
<v Speaker 1>I'm about to hit start. Do I go and respect first?
<v Speaker 1>Should just get going and see how see what I find?
<v Speaker 4>You can you can travel freely between the DLC and
<v Speaker 4>the base game.
<v Speaker 1>Well, I'd be able to just fast travel to those
<v Speaker 1>like normal.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, cool, Oh yeah, it's super simple. There's good farming
<v Speaker 4>locations for the larval tears. I wouldn't like necessarily respect
<v Speaker 4>off the rip like see how your build is doing.
<v Speaker 4>But like, if you see a cool weapon and you're
<v Speaker 4>interested in it, like go respect into it and see
<v Speaker 4>how it works for you. A lot of them aren't
<v Speaker 4>super high end, Like if you have twenty five to
<v Speaker 4>thirty on a stat there's a good chance you can
<v Speaker 4>use most things you pick up. Okay, so on your
<v Speaker 4>level you might be able to speck out your entire
<v Speaker 4>build that way.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, I.
<v Speaker 1>Currently inspect I have like a maxed out Godricks Axe
<v Speaker 1>I think that I used throughout the Yeah, the base game,
<v Speaker 1>I went from the giant sword of Blades that you
<v Speaker 1>get at like Castle morn Yea for most of the game,
<v Speaker 1>and then I swapped to Godricks acts while in and
<v Speaker 1>now we'll see what happens. I want to do something
<v Speaker 1>fun though.
<v Speaker 3>Hey there's an act in this game that you can
<v Speaker 3>throw at people. Response, Oh, I haven't found that in
<v Speaker 3>the game, but I played in my in the preview
<v Speaker 3>build and you can just throw it at people and
<v Speaker 3>you it's almost like the Levife and acts from Out
<v Speaker 3>of War and it did really good damage when you
<v Speaker 3>threw it at people. Good.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>To West's point, the game also does supply quite a
<v Speaker 3>few larval Tiers, like again, they want you like, hey,
<v Speaker 3>if you need to respect, We're not gonna like if
<v Speaker 3>you see like those glowing patches out in like the
<v Speaker 3>basically the main field, like what if the graveyard plays,
<v Speaker 3>it's a it's a larval tier. Like I I found
<v Speaker 3>quite a few of them, relatively easy lace. Again they
<v Speaker 3>kind of have your back on that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, okay cool And to counter everything that these guys
<v Speaker 2>are saying, I am completely married to my build. I
<v Speaker 2>haven't changed my weapon at all, and I'm still having
<v Speaker 2>a great time. So you know, there you go, there
<v Speaker 2>you go.
<v Speaker 1>Get the best of both worlds.
<v Speaker 3>Is that Jennifer coolish to?
<v Speaker 1>That's Montana?
<v Speaker 4>Dude?
<v Speaker 3>Oh that's after my time. I'm sorry.
<v Speaker 1>Anyways, I was gonna say something decided to.
<v Speaker 2>Today.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, people love.
<v Speaker 3>You have to ask that what every celebri now she
<v Speaker 3>hasn't done anything, Yeah, she.
<v Speaker 1>Just she just did that flowers song last year. I
<v Speaker 1>believe you by I'll buy my own flowers.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, she was married to oh you mean yea.
<v Speaker 1>Yeahs him there is.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know this one.
<v Speaker 2>He's in West World.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, bones, I think or something on those.
<v Speaker 1>Big big you know, the blood line of Mark the
<v Speaker 1>Works say it he's the least handsome, so you don't
<v Speaker 1>have to worry about.
<v Speaker 3>But I mean the least handsome hymns work.
<v Speaker 2>I'm still still the person in the world the least handsome.
<v Speaker 1>It's better than all of us, probably, Yeah, definitely some
<v Speaker 1>nepotism going on with that family and their jobs.
<v Speaker 3>Australian dynasty, Baby Wessa.
<v Speaker 2>You can watch it digitally now.
<v Speaker 3>Oh is it out?
<v Speaker 1>I've heard I've heard it's not great.
<v Speaker 3>They are lying.
<v Speaker 2>I love it.
<v Speaker 1>Where did you hear this from a lot of people lately?
<v Speaker 2>Did you hear it from?
<v Speaker 3>Do you hear from Eric? I went to see it
<v Speaker 3>with Eric van Allen and we both heard of each
<v Speaker 3>other and we're like, this is this is great.
<v Speaker 2>What is the villain's name, Marcus? What name?
<v Speaker 4>Oh?
<v Speaker 2>Did you hear from? Dementus? Is that where you heard
<v Speaker 2>him from?
<v Speaker 1>Dementor come on, dement Dementia.
<v Speaker 4>Has seen this movie like six times and I think
<v Speaker 4>it's made him cry at least three of those, and
<v Speaker 4>he's made the longest tweets ever. He loves this movie,
<v Speaker 4>which means it's.
<v Speaker 2>Probably ready to cry in the first twenty thirty minutes.
<v Speaker 2>All Right, Seriously, like when the mom has gone so good, so.
<v Speaker 3>Good, pretty there's moms villain.
<v Speaker 2>I got a lot the best role.
<v Speaker 6>I think, Oh wow, I mean it's yeah, I love
<v Speaker 6>but yeah, he he goes for it in this he's
<v Speaker 6>having a blast in this movie.
<v Speaker 1>Wes, you went out and played Concord? What did you
<v Speaker 1>go to San Francisco? Is it l A, You went
<v Speaker 1>out to Concord, Like.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it's like right right outside of San Francisco. I
<v Speaker 4>think it was that PlayStation's headquarters, which is cool. I
<v Speaker 4>took a picture in front of their very cool looking
<v Speaker 4>sign that I've seen before online. Yeah, it's pretty cool headquarters.
<v Speaker 4>Lots of fun posters and consoles all over the place.
<v Speaker 1>I really wanted to go on this trip, but it
<v Speaker 1>happened during Marcus and I's secret, super secret trip.
<v Speaker 3>Super secret trip.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah secret, Yeah, it was.
<v Speaker 5>It was cool.
<v Speaker 4>It was quite an intimate preview because it's a five
<v Speaker 4>y five game, so it was being nine other journalists.
<v Speaker 4>I so I saw the reveal like everybody else during
<v Speaker 4>the State of Play, and there was that cinematic story
<v Speaker 4>driven trailer and I was like, Okay, it's like Guardians
<v Speaker 4>of the Galaxy heist sci fi thing. Going on, and
<v Speaker 4>then you get the gameplay reveal and it's a five
<v Speaker 4>y five competitive hero shooter, and I was like, oh, wait,
<v Speaker 4>well hold on now. I kind of liked what we
<v Speaker 4>were doing with that cinematic reveal. What's going on here on?
<v Speaker 4>I like hero shooters, and I like first person shooters
<v Speaker 4>and competitive games like that. I just I think that
<v Speaker 4>Trader really set up a totally different experience than what
<v Speaker 4>the game is. Sure, so I kind of went in
<v Speaker 4>curious about the narrative stuff they're trying to do, and
<v Speaker 4>of course even more curious about the actual gameplay, because
<v Speaker 4>a five y five hero shooter lives and dies by
<v Speaker 4>how good it feels to kill enemies. Interestingly, they gave
<v Speaker 4>us a long presentation about these characters, about the lore.
<v Speaker 4>They showed us the Galactic Guide, which is this giant
<v Speaker 4>map that looks more fitting in a single player RPG.
<v Speaker 4>They showed us the opening vignette. There was a huge
<v Speaker 4>emphasis on lore and storytelling and character. And this guy
<v Speaker 4>likes trying different hot sauces, which speaks to how of
<v Speaker 4>he's a zany person. He's kind of wild, and that's
<v Speaker 4>why he likes trying different hot sauces.
<v Speaker 1>Hot sauces that sounds crazy.
<v Speaker 4>It was a lot of emphasis on this narrative in
<v Speaker 4>this storytelling, and it reminded me of Overwatch, but in
<v Speaker 4>a different way because Overwatch the lore and the stuff
<v Speaker 4>they're doing with the story in these characters. The Blizzard
<v Speaker 4>community loves that, but I feel like Blizzard almost earned
<v Speaker 4>that in a way, like people liked the game and
<v Speaker 4>they wanted more, and Blizzard was able.
<v Speaker 5>To deliver more.
<v Speaker 4>This seems like the opposite approach, which I think is
<v Speaker 4>kind of new for the genre, where they're starting off
<v Speaker 4>injecting this game with a lot of lore and a
<v Speaker 4>lot of character and a lot of personality, which is like, wow,
<v Speaker 4>I hope people really like this game because you've put
<v Speaker 4>a lot of work into this ip and fleshing it
<v Speaker 4>out as this universe. So that was kind of interesting
<v Speaker 4>to me because I don't think I've seen that in
<v Speaker 4>a series like this before and a competitive multiplayer shooter.
<v Speaker 4>My thing coming out of it is it's cool. I
<v Speaker 4>like Laura like storytelling and all that, but I don't know,
<v Speaker 4>like you, I think ninety percent of players are probably.
<v Speaker 5>Going to ignore this kind of stuff.
<v Speaker 4>The Galactic Guide map I spoke to it's this giant,
<v Speaker 4>cool looking map. It's bright and colorful, and there's Neon
<v Speaker 4>and there's all different pois and locations and planets on it,
<v Speaker 4>and I was like, Oh, this is cool. We're going
<v Speaker 4>to like travel to different things and interact with it.
<v Speaker 4>And it's just you just click on the planet. It
<v Speaker 4>has a little paragraph or two about the lore, or
<v Speaker 4>you go to this poi and there's some lore about that,
<v Speaker 4>which a little disappointed me. It's kind of like a
<v Speaker 4>glorified lore library.
<v Speaker 5>All of that is to set up.
<v Speaker 4>Despite the emphasis on laur and storytelling, this game will
<v Speaker 4>live and die by how good it feels to play,
<v Speaker 4>and I am pretty stoked that it actually feels great.
<v Speaker 4>It is really okay, reminiscent similar akin to Destiny To
<v Speaker 4>and Overwatch, kind of like mixing together and having a baby,
<v Speaker 4>which isn't surprising. I learned after the fact that like
<v Speaker 4>four of the leads on the game are former Destiny
<v Speaker 4>to developers, which I think is why I was getting
<v Speaker 4>Destiny vibe.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>I'm also currently playing a lot of Destiny trying to
<v Speaker 4>catch up for the final Shape expansion that came out recently,
<v Speaker 4>so that might be it as well. And then it's
<v Speaker 4>a hero shooter, so obviously my mind can't help but
<v Speaker 4>go to Overwatch because it's the best to have done that.
<v Speaker 4>But it feels really really good. We played three different
<v Speaker 4>game modes. There's a Trophy Hunt, which is like when
<v Speaker 4>you kill somebody, they drop a trophy and you collected
<v Speaker 4>to get a point. Very kill confirmed from Call of Duty.
<v Speaker 1>That's fun.
<v Speaker 4>There was a cargo point. I don't have the names
<v Speaker 4>in front of me, actually, yes.
<v Speaker 1>I do well, or any of these like the mode
<v Speaker 1>like this is the mode we're banking on.
<v Speaker 4>No, they're not even doing that. It's going to be
<v Speaker 4>a bunch of different types of modes popping into what
<v Speaker 4>you want. Okay, So more like a Call of Duty multiplayers,
<v Speaker 4>so yes, yeah, kind of like there's a there's it
<v Speaker 4>looks like there's playlists. We didn't get to see too
<v Speaker 4>much going on there, but I believe there's like a
<v Speaker 4>playlist for a team death match kind of vibe, and
<v Speaker 4>then playlists for more objective based okay, because trophy hunt
<v Speaker 4>very much team death match. Make sure you pick up
<v Speaker 4>the trophy or you kill somebody. They played Cargo Run,
<v Speaker 4>which you go and you find a robot on the
<v Speaker 4>map and you bring it back to a point and
<v Speaker 4>extract it.
<v Speaker 5>That is no respond though.
<v Speaker 4>So it feels a lot like search and destroy and
<v Speaker 4>call of duty. And then there's Clash Point where you
<v Speaker 4>fight over a single capture zone, also no responding in
<v Speaker 4>that mode. Something I didn't I didn't bother me. But
<v Speaker 4>both Cargo Run and Clash Point two objective based modes.
<v Speaker 4>We kind of just ignored the objective, and the developers
<v Speaker 4>are watching us, and we're all like in the party chat, like,
<v Speaker 4>don't worry about the objective. We don't need to get
<v Speaker 4>the objective. It's whoever kills the other team first wins.
<v Speaker 4>There's only four people left, let's just go after them. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>And like, I think they are kind of going to
<v Speaker 4>run into that issue because if it's a five y five,
<v Speaker 4>there's no respawn, why would I focus on the objective
<v Speaker 4>which takes minutes. I can just go and we can
<v Speaker 4>just go humpt the other five players and take them down.
<v Speaker 4>And that's what we did, basically, yeah, exactly, which maybe
<v Speaker 4>that's what they want, but I don't know. It's it's
<v Speaker 4>not a typical to have that issue in these types
<v Speaker 4>of modes. I do the same thing when I play
<v Speaker 4>search and destroying Call of Duty, like I'm just trying
<v Speaker 4>to kill the other team. But yeah, it didn't matter
<v Speaker 4>too much because I really enjoyed killing other players.
<v Speaker 5>It feels good.
<v Speaker 4>It's a lengthier time to kill compared to most first
<v Speaker 4>person shooters out there.
<v Speaker 5>It's not quite Overwatch. It's a little lower.
<v Speaker 4>Than Destiny to in terms of time to kill, which
<v Speaker 4>makes sense because you've got everyone has different types of guns.
<v Speaker 4>There are abilities at play here. I fell in love
<v Speaker 4>with this guy who uses a machine gun and he
<v Speaker 4>can heal his teammates by shooting an orb at him
<v Speaker 4>or hurt enemies by shooting in orbit them. Sounds very Overwatch,
<v Speaker 4>of course.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>There's other characters like this girl who's like a fire
<v Speaker 4>made and she can float in the air and throw
<v Speaker 4>down firewalls and flash bang grenade projectiles. There's a dude
<v Speaker 4>who's basically just a Call of Duty soldier with like
<v Speaker 4>grenades and a smoke bomb that he can see through
<v Speaker 4>that no one else can see through.
<v Speaker 5>The hero are cool.
<v Speaker 4>They said that there's not like archetypes. There's not like
<v Speaker 4>a tank, DPS or support build. Okay, but like they're
<v Speaker 4>kind of is like you can definitely play anybody you want,
<v Speaker 4>and they're not forcing team builds. But during our party chat,
<v Speaker 4>I was like, all right, I'm gonna switch to this guy.
<v Speaker 4>We need a tank, your dude on the line, and
<v Speaker 4>there's a guy who's a bigger character, lots more health,
<v Speaker 4>has bigger, slower hitting attacks. Yeah, but I think what
<v Speaker 4>they're trying to say is like you kind of morph
<v Speaker 4>in and out of the different archetypes because of the
<v Speaker 4>abilities you have, which is unlike other hero shooters, where
<v Speaker 4>you know, a support is typically they just need to
<v Speaker 4>be healing the whole time and maybe they can damage
<v Speaker 4>some So I like that. I think that's cool. But yeah,
<v Speaker 4>I kind of I came out of this excited to
<v Speaker 4>play more. There's a beta coming up. I'm excited to
<v Speaker 4>get my friends to try this out because I'd love
<v Speaker 4>for this to be a new shooter in our lives
<v Speaker 4>and our parties. But I am very curious to see
<v Speaker 4>how what Firewalk Studios is doing Land is because I
<v Speaker 4>don't know. There's just a huge emphasis on lore and
<v Speaker 4>narrative and I don't know, I don't know if you
<v Speaker 4>can force that in a game like this. I don't
<v Speaker 4>know if you can force that in the Hero Shooter.
<v Speaker 4>I think you have to let your community fall in
<v Speaker 4>love with its characters and then build from there.
<v Speaker 3>But I ask me, it reminds me of games that
<v Speaker 3>have tried to do that, where it's like they from
<v Speaker 3>the Jump are like, this is gonna be a big
<v Speaker 3>media franchise, Like there's gonna be books, there's gonna be this.
<v Speaker 3>People are gonna love these characters, like I think a
<v Speaker 3>Advent Rising is one of the examples that comes to
<v Speaker 3>mind where that was gonna be a much bigger thing
<v Speaker 3>than around up being. So, yeah, that is weird, especially
<v Speaker 3>like I don't know, I guess maybe it should put
<v Speaker 3>like that active lore thing from Final Fantasy sixteen in
<v Speaker 3>the game.
<v Speaker 5>And then every game should just have that every game.
<v Speaker 3>In the middle of a tense match, you can stop
<v Speaker 3>to pull up a tap that tells you the history
<v Speaker 3>of the level that you're playing. Shot in the base.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, I guess that is I don't know. I
<v Speaker 3>have not followed like the internet like reaction. Is it true?
<v Speaker 3>Are people like already like in love with these characters?
<v Speaker 3>Is that why they're vacant on? Are people knowing fan
<v Speaker 3>art of the weird dragon man looking.
<v Speaker 4>Dude or I don't get that sense. And to their credit,
<v Speaker 4>like if this game does land well, they've done a
<v Speaker 4>lot of the work that players would want, which is
<v Speaker 4>the stuff that Blizzard had to catch up on with Overwatches,
<v Speaker 4>like delivering shorts, delivering more information about these characters. So like,
<v Speaker 4>maybe it's a smart move, but it's like kind of
<v Speaker 4>a big bet because there's going to be weekly cut
<v Speaker 4>scene vignettes, which the one I saw was cool, and
<v Speaker 4>I tried to ask them, like, is this building towards
<v Speaker 4>this big story that wraps up with the year one
<v Speaker 4>and then we jump into year two, and they were
<v Speaker 4>kind of cagey. They just said, like, no, Sometimes it's
<v Speaker 4>character vignettes. Sometimes it's little serialized content. It's kind of
<v Speaker 4>just to give you some flavor to these characters, which
<v Speaker 4>people do want in their hero shooters. It's just a
<v Speaker 4>lot of work has been put in ahead of time.
<v Speaker 3>It's weird if they're so in tune with here the
<v Speaker 3>Hero Shooter audience, or let's just say the Overwatch audience, really.
<v Speaker 2>Say the Team Fortress to audience, Yeah, maybe too, but.
<v Speaker 3>Like if they're so like like in tune with them
<v Speaker 3>and wanting to please them, and here's everything that we
<v Speaker 3>know you guys want. And also we're spending all this
<v Speaker 3>time up front establishing the lore and like these characters.
<v Speaker 3>Like it's kind of surprising them that they didn't just
<v Speaker 3>out Overwatch Overwatch and have a single player mode from
<v Speaker 3>the jump, like give me a campaign where I can actually,
<v Speaker 3>since you're telling me, you're you're you're throwing all this
<v Speaker 3>fiction at me, do what Overwatch didn't do, which was
<v Speaker 3>also annoying at launch because it's like, oh, this is
<v Speaker 3>a cool world. I wish there was something I could,
<v Speaker 3>you know, like I like playing the game, but like
<v Speaker 3>it'd be cool to have like a single player mode
<v Speaker 3>to really get into these these characters. I'm surprised almost
<v Speaker 3>that that's not something they would do, because that would
<v Speaker 3>that would get me in the door immediately. As much
<v Speaker 3>as I love Overwatch and I'll play this, you know,
<v Speaker 3>I'll try it out, But like I was really excited
<v Speaker 3>for that Overwatch two stories stuff. That was the only
<v Speaker 3>thing I wanted from Overwatch two. I had not played
<v Speaker 3>it because I was like, the one thing you guys
<v Speaker 3>said you're going to do that I was interested in.
<v Speaker 3>You stop doing it. I don't care anymore.
<v Speaker 4>So somebody asked them during it because we had like
<v Speaker 4>a roundtable interview just the ten journalists, like.
<v Speaker 5>This kind of feels like a single.
<v Speaker 4>Player game in all but gameplay, Like was there any
<v Speaker 4>consideration for a story mode? Was there any is there
<v Speaker 4>any PvE elements planned?
<v Speaker 5>And they were very.
<v Speaker 4>Not blunt, but like it was very clear that, like
<v Speaker 4>they said no, like we've been designing Concord from the
<v Speaker 4>ground up with all this lore, with all this emphasis
<v Speaker 4>on storytelling for the five y five Hero Shooter experience
<v Speaker 4>that we want this game to be. That's not to
<v Speaker 4>say PvE or story stuff might not come later, but yeah,
<v Speaker 4>so like you kind of are touching on what we
<v Speaker 4>were thinking.
<v Speaker 5>They're like, oh, wow.
<v Speaker 4>This would be fun maybe as a single player or
<v Speaker 4>a different type of game, and they're like, no, this
<v Speaker 4>was meant for our five to five experience.
<v Speaker 3>Sony said, we have to have a certain number of
<v Speaker 3>life service games.
<v Speaker 1>They so, yeah.
<v Speaker 4>And I asked them about that too. I was like,
<v Speaker 4>was because this is launching on PC simultaneously. Sony's new
<v Speaker 4>initiative is if it's live service, it's going to launch
<v Speaker 4>on PC as well as PSS five. If it's one
<v Speaker 4>of our single player Temple releases, that's going to be
<v Speaker 4>a PS five exclusive for a while. And I was
<v Speaker 4>curious because I'm like, Hell Divers Too kind of was
<v Speaker 4>in the same camp I think Concorde in Concord is
<v Speaker 4>in right now where people weren't really excited for it,
<v Speaker 4>like it's coming out cool if you like the first
<v Speaker 4>Hell Divers and now Hell Divers two is the best
<v Speaker 4>selling game of the year. It's it's a landmark success
<v Speaker 4>by like all accounts on PS five and PC. And
<v Speaker 4>I'm like, this is.
<v Speaker 5>This daunting for you as a studio.
<v Speaker 4>Is this exciting that this PCPs five initiatives working?
<v Speaker 5>And they didn't really have anything.
<v Speaker 4>To say other than they liked Hell Divers too, which
<v Speaker 4>I was like, okay, come on, like.
<v Speaker 2>That's by the way, that's basically the same response I
<v Speaker 2>got from the Starship Troops multiplayer game that's coming out.
<v Speaker 2>When I talk to them, they are just kind of
<v Speaker 2>I mean, what can you say really other than like, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>Hell Divers two is really good.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>I was hoping they'd be able to like speak to
<v Speaker 4>this PlayStation initiative, I guess. But that's all to say
<v Speaker 4>that I think, even as people aren't super excited for this.
<v Speaker 4>You know, maybe these previews will help. I I came
<v Speaker 4>out of it feeling positive. This could very well be
<v Speaker 4>the next Hell Divers too, Like we didn't know Hell
<v Speaker 4>Divers two was going to be what it is now
<v Speaker 4>until it happened. And I think PlayStation is smart to
<v Speaker 4>release it on PC as well, because that's an immediate,
<v Speaker 4>huge bollstring to the audience. On PS five, I have
<v Speaker 4>lots of questions like how are they going to balance
<v Speaker 4>PC versus PS five? How long are those weekly vignette's
<v Speaker 4>gonna last? Like what's the progression? Like what does the
<v Speaker 4>seasonal content look like? Even though most of it is
<v Speaker 4>free except for cosmetics.
<v Speaker 2>It is free to play or is it?
<v Speaker 5>No, it's or fifty at launch? Yeah, I know it's not.
<v Speaker 4>Like a typical set seventy or sixty dollars game. It
<v Speaker 4>is cheaper. I just forget the price.
<v Speaker 3>I mean that's that's good. I mean Overwatch one was
<v Speaker 3>yes Watch and it was wound up being better for it, honestly.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I would rather have that a free to play game, honestly.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, I agree.
<v Speaker 4>I think it's it just speaks more to like a
<v Speaker 4>commitment from the studio generally not always, but.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, I guess to like.
<v Speaker 4>Cap this off lots of lower, lots of storytelling. I'm
<v Speaker 4>curious to see how that lands, if it will pay off.
<v Speaker 4>But more importantly, the gameplay feels great. I had a
<v Speaker 4>really great time playing this. It was fun chatting with
<v Speaker 4>journalists and party chat and some of them I didn't
<v Speaker 4>even know, and it was cool to see us like
<v Speaker 4>opening up more and like we're speaking on the comms
<v Speaker 4>and stuff.
<v Speaker 5>It's a game I want.
<v Speaker 4>To play with, like my usual shooter buddies, which I
<v Speaker 4>think is probably good for Concord coming out in August.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I hope it's cool, you know. I like again,
<v Speaker 3>I'm more interested in the world than the five five stuff,
<v Speaker 3>so you know, we'll see. But yeah, also, Matt Miller
<v Speaker 3>has permanently ruined this game for me, and mildly because
<v Speaker 3>I remember when we were covering it when it first
<v Speaker 3>popped up in the PlayStation stream. Yeah, in our in
<v Speaker 3>our work slack, he called it Guardians of that Other Galaxy,
<v Speaker 3>and that that description has looked red free in my
<v Speaker 3>head since then. Whenever I think about this game.
<v Speaker 4>There's a character, the guy that kind of looks like
<v Speaker 4>a monkey, maybe like the Drags equivalent. He's like red
<v Speaker 4>and yeah blue, very large. His name is Starchild, which
<v Speaker 4>was confusing all of us on the chat because we
<v Speaker 4>all everyone it's very clear this is inspired by Guardians
<v Speaker 4>of the Galaxy. I think they've even said that.
<v Speaker 3>Anyone asked, just straight up, like you guys like those movies.
<v Speaker 4>I think so, yeah, and yeah, we were all like
<v Speaker 4>a Starchild is so close to Stargard that was confusing
<v Speaker 4>all of us.
<v Speaker 3>I think it was also a different thing. So it's
<v Speaker 3>weird that they meet. This is like a two thousand
<v Speaker 3>and one thing. That's that's a weird choice for a
<v Speaker 3>big early gorilla monkey man and.
<v Speaker 4>I guess especially because there is a character who is
<v Speaker 4>the Star Order equivalent. His name is Linux, so not.
<v Speaker 1>Very nor of a Windows guy myself. Well cool, I
<v Speaker 1>I I really want to get hands on with that thing.
<v Speaker 1>There's that brag long summer as well, okay, beta the summer.
<v Speaker 1>There's a lot lot of multiplayer games coming out.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, if you get one code, I think you get
<v Speaker 4>like if you pre order, you get a code. I
<v Speaker 4>think they give you four other codes that you can
<v Speaker 4>fill out your team of five, which is cool.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, yeah, that's all right. Awesome. Well, speaking of you know,
<v Speaker 1>upcoming multiplayer games that are just announced, I about a
<v Speaker 1>month ago played a game at the time called Project.
<v Speaker 3>Loki, another marveled game.
<v Speaker 1>It has now been revealed officially as super Vive s
<v Speaker 1>U p E r v I ve E super Like
<v Speaker 1>I said, I don't know if I said. Former Riot
<v Speaker 1>developers came together to put together a hybrid game. It
<v Speaker 1>mixes mobile elements, Battle Reale elements, super Smash Bros. Elements.
<v Speaker 1>It's like a lot of their inspiration. It's top down
<v Speaker 1>and it is based on my my I will say,
<v Speaker 1>my demo was amazing. I walked away like this is
<v Speaker 1>going to be a huge game, I think, And maybe
<v Speaker 1>maybe that's just me, you know, maybe that's short sighted,
<v Speaker 1>but I was really impressed. And this is a month
<v Speaker 1>ago and I've still just been kind of buzzing from
<v Speaker 1>my time playing it for about four to five hours.
<v Speaker 1>So essentially the way it works is there are like
<v Speaker 1>pre made characters. This is like a you're choosing you know,
<v Speaker 1>more like attack oriented people, more support characters, beefy or tanks,
<v Speaker 1>and then you are diving in uh to fight. And
<v Speaker 1>I played a multitude of modes from like duos to
<v Speaker 1>to squads, like four y four squads. I think the
<v Speaker 1>max player capacity is forty players and that's like ten
<v Speaker 1>squads of four. But yeah, you dive in and they
<v Speaker 1>you're essentially like doing that battle Royale loop. It looks
<v Speaker 1>like a mobile like, oh, I should be going to
<v Speaker 1>a lane, right, but there's no lanes or anything like that.
<v Speaker 1>It's there. There are like creeps and you know, lower
<v Speaker 1>level enemies that you can go and fight to gain experience,
<v Speaker 1>and as you go you are leveling up your abilities.
<v Speaker 1>That's kind of where the MOBA piece fits in, is
<v Speaker 1>like you are leveling every character throughout a match and
<v Speaker 1>you're getting that you're getting xp for that by taking
<v Speaker 1>out mobs and creeps and other players and so there
<v Speaker 1>are One of the things that really struck me was
<v Speaker 1>that this well it's a single map. It is quite vast,
<v Speaker 1>and it feels much more alive than other multiplayer maps
<v Speaker 1>in that there are towns that you can go and
<v Speaker 1>visit at mid match, and there's a daycent day night
<v Speaker 1>cycle in the game, and it's been in a.
<v Speaker 4>Single for the entire there's just it's just one.
<v Speaker 1>One map for now. Yeah, I mean they might they're
<v Speaker 1>at style. Yeah, yeah, like League of Legends style, DODA style. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>but it's like really big, it's really big. But it's
<v Speaker 1>this is a competitive, you know, multiplayer game. It's they
<v Speaker 1>really want you to get down. They want you to
<v Speaker 1>know the games you can excel and that's where a
<v Speaker 1>lot of the fun comes from. But there's a day
<v Speaker 1>night cycle on this map that affects the world. So
<v Speaker 1>at night time there are certain creatures that come out
<v Speaker 1>if you're in if you're in this town area during
<v Speaker 1>the daytime, it's patrolled by guards and it's like this
<v Speaker 1>neutral location where you and enemies can be there, like
<v Speaker 1>talking to merchants and stuff like buying equipment to that
<v Speaker 1>kind of thing. But if you try to attack somebody
<v Speaker 1>during the daytime, the guards will altern on you and
<v Speaker 1>kill you, whereas at nighttime everyone's gone and it's a
<v Speaker 1>free for all and like you can fight in the town.
<v Speaker 1>And I found myself in several situations throughout my plate
<v Speaker 1>time where we'd be fighting in this town and you'd
<v Speaker 1>see the sun start to rise and you're like, oh no,
<v Speaker 1>we have to get to like we have to play
<v Speaker 1>this right, and we ended up tricking them into hitting
<v Speaker 1>us while as the guards were like coming under their
<v Speaker 1>shift and there's just like a lot of and then
<v Speaker 1>the guards turned on them and we won the fight.
<v Speaker 1>There's a lot of really neat little moments like that
<v Speaker 1>that are feel more like systemic rather than just like
<v Speaker 1>bashing you know, your your action figures together. But I
<v Speaker 1>I have really enjoyed it, so like there's a lot
<v Speaker 1>of like loot that you pick up in terms of like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>this magic helmet boosts my magic stat and I'm playing
<v Speaker 1>this billd I'm playing really needs that. So League of
<v Speaker 1>Legends fans I think will like really enjoy the the
<v Speaker 1>min maxine of like oh I need this item, I
<v Speaker 1>need this item to go after this. But I think
<v Speaker 1>there's also a lot of exploration and pathing that fans
<v Speaker 1>of like you know, Fortnite or Apex like, And there's
<v Speaker 1>a lot of counterplay too, like there is an Apex
<v Speaker 1>like oh, they've got this guy, I need to use
<v Speaker 1>this guy to cancel out this, and that. It's just
<v Speaker 1>a lot of rock paper scissors and it's surprisingly like
<v Speaker 1>very readable. There's a lack of going on and sometimes
<v Speaker 1>top down I think top down perspective helps make things
<v Speaker 1>more readable with that bird's eye view, and uh yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it's it's awesome. I cannot wait for I think there's
<v Speaker 1>like a test, a public test that starts on June
<v Speaker 1>twenty seventh and runs for like seven or nine days.
<v Speaker 1>I can't remember exactly how much, but currently it's only
<v Speaker 1>on PC. I think that this game could come to consoles,
<v Speaker 1>like with the the I think the control scheme could
<v Speaker 1>lend itself to that.
<v Speaker 2>All right, it looks okay. I was just kind of
<v Speaker 2>because I hadn't heard of It looked very twin sticky.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, I think I think, I imagine that'll happen.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, it's a really really cool experience. I have
<v Speaker 1>been very upset that I haven't been able to play
<v Speaker 1>since then, which is kind of rare for some of
<v Speaker 1>a lot of these previews will go to it's like
<v Speaker 1>all right, time to go check this thing out, and
<v Speaker 1>that's kind of the that was my I was just tired.
<v Speaker 1>I was like, I committed to doing this, I am interested,
<v Speaker 1>but like this is going to be a pain, and
<v Speaker 1>it was just like blown away. It's it's really cool.
<v Speaker 1>There's there's also a strategic element of the map is
<v Speaker 1>a series of island sky islands, and you have a glider.
<v Speaker 1>So if you press jump and then hold you you
<v Speaker 1>keep holding it, you'll pull out your glider. And that's
<v Speaker 1>how you like navigate the gaps. But if you get
<v Speaker 1>hit while you're gliding, you crash down. And so if
<v Speaker 1>you're flying over a chasm and you get hit, you'll
<v Speaker 1>fall to your death. And like there's ways to like
<v Speaker 1>try to scramble back, but it's not good. And so
<v Speaker 1>when you when you introduce that mechanic with other things,
<v Speaker 1>like there are items that you can pick up where
<v Speaker 1>you lay down, you can like build a fortress, like
<v Speaker 1>a build like several spiked walls with one of the items,
<v Speaker 1>and so you can kind of like block people off
<v Speaker 1>from like flying over you and like really make it
<v Speaker 1>difficult for them to navigate the sky islands. And there's
<v Speaker 1>also like a storm that that is shrinking slowly and
<v Speaker 1>uh you know there there's a there's a train that
<v Speaker 1>goes to the level that you can you can fight
<v Speaker 1>for and and the way that you like get your
<v Speaker 1>health back and stuff you have healing items, but also
<v Speaker 1>when you kill creeps and mobs will drop like meat
<v Speaker 1>and you go to a cooking station and cook a
<v Speaker 1>meal to uh you know, have in your inventory to
<v Speaker 1>use on. It looks pretty good.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, it is it like Monster Hunter levels.
<v Speaker 2>Or no, no, no, but it is fun.
<v Speaker 1>It was a fun effect to see the cooking do
<v Speaker 1>its thing. But yeah, there's like these outposts that you
<v Speaker 1>vue for and when you get the outpost and like
<v Speaker 1>somebody can come and take it from you, like they're
<v Speaker 1>they're all over the place, but that's where you'll be
<v Speaker 1>able to certain there's certain areas where there are special
<v Speaker 1>merchants you can buy like better armor from or like
<v Speaker 1>I said, the cooking station, or there's a lot of
<v Speaker 1>stuff that goes into it. There's an armor repair spot
<v Speaker 1>if you can, if you can kind of contest that
<v Speaker 1>area and claim it for yourself before moving on. But
<v Speaker 1>it's a really cool there's a lot going on. I
<v Speaker 1>think it's definitely one of those games that some people
<v Speaker 1>will bounce off of. It might just be too complicated.
<v Speaker 1>But if you enjoy multiplayer games, and specifically I would
<v Speaker 1>say even if you don't like League of Legends and
<v Speaker 1>you just like those other references I mentioned, I think
<v Speaker 1>give it a shot. I know some people get scared
<v Speaker 1>away by like the the eagle eye perspective in multiplayer
<v Speaker 1>games like that. But it's really cool and I can't
<v Speaker 1>wait to play more. The characters I played, I played
<v Speaker 1>predominantly I think is what is his name? I'm gonna
<v Speaker 1>look at.
<v Speaker 3>I want to ask you about ones. I'm looking at
<v Speaker 3>art from the game. One I like the most is
<v Speaker 3>the It's like a big armored guy with like a
<v Speaker 3>sun head played.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I was like, I don't know what that thing is,
<v Speaker 3>but I I like the cut of It's like a
<v Speaker 3>weird armored, scary guy. But then the head is like
<v Speaker 3>a very cute floating sun.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I'm looking right now, and I mean son like the
<v Speaker 3>like the star the sun.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, what is his name? It's like starts to be
<v Speaker 1>it might be barred or let's see exter baxters that
<v Speaker 1>you said?
<v Speaker 3>Uh shoot really?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah?
<v Speaker 3>What's the.
<v Speaker 1>Do you have like a game website I can go to?
<v Speaker 1>I want to I want to tell you this. I
<v Speaker 1>want to get it right play super vibe dot com. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>cookie anymore? Yeah, I keep guessing, keep guessing by Bertha.
<v Speaker 1>Bertha birth is pretty good. Bobby, Bobby, No, download the dude.
<v Speaker 1>I'm downloading the press kit block press kit uh general
<v Speaker 1>fact sheet. Here we go. This is what I need?
<v Speaker 2>What is has a heart out and like a minute
<v Speaker 2>is just watching this like okay, I can't remember.
<v Speaker 1>It's like bar he has a big old shield like
<v Speaker 1>Ryan Hart and you can throw a hammer and pull
<v Speaker 1>it back to him.
<v Speaker 3>He's basically.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and if you could throw his hammer and bring
<v Speaker 1>it back to himself. And then I played a fox
<v Speaker 1>that it's like a pyromaniac and like to set stuff
<v Speaker 1>on fire. Yeah, yeah, cool game. Very excited to see
<v Speaker 1>more of it.
<v Speaker 2>What was the name? One more time? Supervive super vivek.
<v Speaker 3>Was the name of the sun guy?
<v Speaker 1>I couldn't find it. I'm sorry, but go go. You
<v Speaker 1>can go follo him on Twitter. I'm sure they'll be
<v Speaker 1>tweeting about it. Theory Craft is the developer. But yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that's super vibe. I I really really enjoyed it and
<v Speaker 1>recommend checking it out. Wes you need to go, don't you? Yes?
<v Speaker 4>Okay, all right, this is fun. Thanks for having me
<v Speaker 4>read some dragon Age articles, read some tree reviews the
<v Speaker 4>Game Informer.
<v Speaker 1>Because make sure you follow me on Twitter. Every time
<v Speaker 1>I tweet, I get a hundred followers.
<v Speaker 4>Dragon only only if it's about dragon Age, though, it's
<v Speaker 4>about that. I'm interested in life.
<v Speaker 1>Your grifter, Wes, you're grifting for the dragon Age.
<v Speaker 5>For the dragon Age, bro, I'll do it.
<v Speaker 4>I don't care whatever you gives you that subscription to
<v Speaker 4>our magazine, Like.
<v Speaker 3>Start doing subscription to my magazine.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, all right, Wes, we'll talk. We'll talk to you.
<v Speaker 1>We'll talk to you later.
<v Speaker 2>Bye bye, and.
<v Speaker 1>We are back. I'm gonna keep talking. Sorry, guys. I
<v Speaker 1>know I scared West away. I just wouldn't shut up.
<v Speaker 3>He wanted to go find the name of that character.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, he's on it. He's he's deep in the
<v Speaker 1>press kits deep in the back end looking for it. Yeah, journalism.
<v Speaker 1>I I have also been playing The Plucky Squire. Well,
<v Speaker 1>I haven't been playing it. I played it at Summer
<v Speaker 1>game Fest hands on. Yeah it was. It was really good,
<v Speaker 1>Marcus it uh up until I played Black Myth Wukong.
<v Speaker 1>It was my game of the show.
<v Speaker 3>That's good because I was hoping that game would live
<v Speaker 3>up to its premise.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. The Plucky Squire, in case you don't know, it
<v Speaker 1>is a starts as like a two D top down
<v Speaker 1>Zelda like game where you are, you know, playing a
<v Speaker 1>top down adventure game. You're you know, you've got a sword,
<v Speaker 1>you can hit things, You're you're watching out for a tax,
<v Speaker 1>that kind of stuff.
<v Speaker 3>But the big twist kind of a story book sort of.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, storybook you you are. The the way that
<v Speaker 1>they do it, I talked to the developer about it. Essentially,
<v Speaker 1>they have a three D modeled book right on the
<v Speaker 1>on a table and they are projecting a two D
<v Speaker 1>scene onto the texture of the page and that's all that.
<v Speaker 1>So so the way that they're doing it is like
<v Speaker 1>the game is running on a normal like two D
<v Speaker 1>you know, flat scene and unreal for is what they're using,
<v Speaker 1>and you're just playing a game right like as if
<v Speaker 1>it was on a screen on a computer, and then
<v Speaker 1>like I said, rendering that with a camera that outputs
<v Speaker 1>onto like the texture of like this this actual like
<v Speaker 1>uh you know, three D object the page. And so
<v Speaker 1>it's really it's pretty cool. And so when they when
<v Speaker 1>they jump out, which that that's the big twist of
<v Speaker 1>the game. You can jump out of the book and
<v Speaker 1>turn into three And I asked them, I was like,
<v Speaker 1>the how are you guys, like are there just two
<v Speaker 1>character objects in unreal where you are despawning the two
<v Speaker 1>D version of the character and spawning in the three
<v Speaker 1>D version of the character and hiding it with animation.
<v Speaker 1>And they're like, yeah, that's exactly what we're doing. So
<v Speaker 1>at all times, there's like two versions of your character
<v Speaker 1>in the game. One is invisible to you until you
<v Speaker 1>essentially enable that one by jumping out of the page
<v Speaker 1>or jumping into the page. It's cool how they're doing it.
<v Speaker 1>I was fascinated by it.
<v Speaker 2>Is that is that you can do on command, Like
<v Speaker 2>you can leave the page whenever you want.
<v Speaker 1>No there there are there are certain there's like stars
<v Speaker 1>on the page that are that glow green, and there's
<v Speaker 1>also a hand symbol on there's like stamps on the page.
<v Speaker 1>That's how they kind of do it. And certain ones
<v Speaker 1>do certain things. Some of them will just like catapult
<v Speaker 1>you to another area of the two D map or
<v Speaker 1>if you aim to like if you aim where you're
<v Speaker 1>not supposed to go, that's when it'll like kind of
<v Speaker 1>flip you out of the page and you can go
<v Speaker 1>and get objects to then you know. And the demo
<v Speaker 1>I played, I was like getting a certain object that
<v Speaker 1>allowed me to get past this giant gate, this giant
<v Speaker 1>like it was like essentially like a how do you
<v Speaker 1>describe it, like a bunch of like a spike gate
<v Speaker 1>that kept like preventing me from going forward. Essentially, my
<v Speaker 1>mission for the demo was to jump out of the
<v Speaker 1>page and go get this object I needed. I'm not
<v Speaker 1>sure if the object is embargoed for story reasons. I
<v Speaker 1>don't quite remember the mcguffin. I got the mcguffin, came
<v Speaker 1>back and essentially used it to interact with the physical
<v Speaker 1>page to change the layout of the map, and then
<v Speaker 1>I jumped back into the two D map and was
<v Speaker 1>able to progress. It's kind of like how they're doing
<v Speaker 1>a lot of that stuff, But a very substantial portion
<v Speaker 1>of my demo was dedicated to the navigating the three
<v Speaker 1>D version of the game, which which kind of oscillated
<v Speaker 1>between kind of not not quite collectithon three D platforming.
<v Speaker 1>But you know, I was sent on a couple of
<v Speaker 1>missions where I had to in this giant like overworld.
<v Speaker 1>It was similar to reminded me of like Tiny can
<v Speaker 1>for people who played that, Yeah, great game, and and
<v Speaker 1>similar to like tiny Kin, where like it would kind
<v Speaker 1>of open up to this larger open area and you
<v Speaker 1>would go and solve puzzles in that area to move on.
<v Speaker 1>Very similar setup in in The Plucky Squire, So there
<v Speaker 1>was one of the side quests I had to do
<v Speaker 1>very very early on. You get access to this jet
<v Speaker 1>pack character and you are kind of using him and
<v Speaker 1>he's guiding you through to unlock and kind of jump
<v Speaker 1>into various other objects. So similar to I'm trying to
<v Speaker 1>think like Super Mario Odyssey when you would switch when
<v Speaker 1>you jump into the wall in that game and do
<v Speaker 1>little two D bits. There's a lot of segments like
<v Speaker 1>that in The Plucky Squire where it's like, oh, I
<v Speaker 1>can't really progress, but I can jump into this this
<v Speaker 1>wall and I can progress that way, and then I'll
<v Speaker 1>pop out on the other side of the wall as
<v Speaker 1>a three D as my three D self. There's one
<v Speaker 1>area where they call it, they said internally they refer
<v Speaker 1>to it as Reso Tub, but this is round tub
<v Speaker 1>and you jump into the picture on the tub and
<v Speaker 1>you play a Reso gun style mini game to unlock
<v Speaker 1>like one of the things you need, and there's there's
<v Speaker 1>a lot of fun there. I think it doesn't oversay
<v Speaker 1>it's welcome. I asked him. I was like, hey, like,
<v Speaker 1>is this this like Reso gun any game? Is this
<v Speaker 1>the only one like it in the game, or is
<v Speaker 1>this like going to be an activity that I do frequently?
<v Speaker 1>It's like no, one and done, like that's that's the
<v Speaker 1>only time you're going to see that mini game. And
<v Speaker 1>that commitment he said has has really uh been like
<v Speaker 1>what has taken this game longer to come out? Because
<v Speaker 1>kind of like that scope creep has the like, oh
<v Speaker 1>we should do this and that and well that's a
<v Speaker 1>lot of work and so that's kind of approach, right yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>and uh so very much like is focused on like
<v Speaker 1>those novel experiences. Uh And it was really I was
<v Speaker 1>I was not expecting him to say, no, that's it
<v Speaker 1>one and done for that kind of mini game is
<v Speaker 1>an idea?
<v Speaker 3>Or did you ask him like just how big the
<v Speaker 3>game is in general? Like scope wise?
<v Speaker 1>Oh, let me pull up my notes. It's several words.
<v Speaker 1>There's it's I'm gonna say no, I'm gonna say no.
<v Speaker 1>I think he told me it was like five or
<v Speaker 1>six like big areas. I don't I don't wanna. I
<v Speaker 1>saw a lot of games that weekend. I don't want
<v Speaker 1>to confuse. I don't have my notes right in front
<v Speaker 1>of me. I'm sorry, but it's very cool. It really
<v Speaker 1>so far is living up to my expectations for I think.
<v Speaker 1>I told the art director I was talking to, I
<v Speaker 1>told him that it had kind of exceeded my expectations,
<v Speaker 1>and I definitely I still feel that way. There's certain
<v Speaker 1>it really balances like it always feels like you're doing
<v Speaker 1>something novel or like something different, which I think like
<v Speaker 1>some of these games can kind of fall into that trap,
<v Speaker 1>and this one could. You know, I've only seen about
<v Speaker 1>an hour to an hour and a half of the game,
<v Speaker 1>but yeah, it was. It was really felt fresh. I
<v Speaker 1>really enjoyed the platform, and especially once I unlocked the
<v Speaker 1>jet Pack character to help me along. There's certain areas
<v Speaker 1>where I had to look for these hidden objects that
<v Speaker 1>were like I'd like these candles, and the way you
<v Speaker 1>lit the candles was he would use the jet pack
<v Speaker 1>above them and the flames and the jet pack would
<v Speaker 1>like the candles. But the candles were all hidden in
<v Speaker 1>weird spots, and so you had to really kind of
<v Speaker 1>go out of your way and like make a couple
<v Speaker 1>leaps of faith to get to like these where these
<v Speaker 1>candles are hidden in the map, and that then unlocked,
<v Speaker 1>you know in another area. So a lot of cool
<v Speaker 1>stuff like that going on. But I really enjoyed it.
<v Speaker 2>I always like calling out for Plucky Squire because it
<v Speaker 2>looks cool, right, Like you see a trailer for it
<v Speaker 2>and you're kind of enticed by it. Yeah. But like
<v Speaker 2>James Turner, who co founded All Possible Futures developer, Like
<v Speaker 2>the other reason that like even before we saw it,
<v Speaker 2>we were kind of like, oh, what is this going
<v Speaker 2>to be? Is like he worked with the Pokemon Company
<v Speaker 2>like forever. Yeah, he was, like he has a long
<v Speaker 2>history there. He directed Harmonite, which is a game that
<v Speaker 2>I liked those on three DS, and he did like art,
<v Speaker 2>like I believe he designed a number of Pokemon. I
<v Speaker 2>could be wrong about that. I know he was like
<v Speaker 2>an artist there, so I don't I don't know if
<v Speaker 2>he designed specific Pokemon or anything like that. That your
<v Speaker 2>question to ask ask him next time I have. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>but uh but that's just like that's just he's got
<v Speaker 2>a cool history.
<v Speaker 3>Mm hmm.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's uh, it's it was very cool.
<v Speaker 2>I uh yeah, I want to play it.
<v Speaker 3>It looks yeah, I've been guys. It was announced a
<v Speaker 3>couple of years ago now, Yeah, so it's one that's
<v Speaker 3>been constantly on my radar of like just not even
<v Speaker 3>just indie games, just games in general. Like again, like
<v Speaker 3>you said, one of the games, like you immediately see
<v Speaker 3>what what it actually is doing and you're like, Okay, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>that's cool.
<v Speaker 2>I want to play that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You can
<v Speaker 2>see the twist in any footage of the game and
<v Speaker 2>you're kind of like enticed. You know, I don't have twist.
<v Speaker 2>It's maybe not word, it's the right word. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>that's the shift mechanically what the game is.
<v Speaker 3>It's it's cool because Alex, I don't know, because you know,
<v Speaker 3>you were on the ground for SGFS, I don't know
<v Speaker 3>what your awareness was just like the showcases and stuff
<v Speaker 3>like that. But like there's that other game, screen Bound.
<v Speaker 3>Did you see that?
<v Speaker 1>I did not.
<v Speaker 3>It popped up at like the Wholesome Direct, and I
<v Speaker 3>think at Day to Day is where it's going for
<v Speaker 3>like a not like the same thing, but it's like
<v Speaker 3>like a game within a game, like combining two D
<v Speaker 3>and three D gameplay where you're playing a game and
<v Speaker 3>it's first person and you have like a game boy,
<v Speaker 3>like basically like a fake game boy.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yes, I have seen Yeah, Okay, yeah, it's like a.
<v Speaker 3>Two D game, but like you're platforming in the two
<v Speaker 3>D platformer, but then outside of that you're doing three
<v Speaker 3>D platforming, but you're looking at the game boys screen
<v Speaker 3>to figure out where you're going. And that those two
<v Speaker 3>games of like now cross pollinate in a way of
<v Speaker 3>like oh, like you know, two D and gameplay or
<v Speaker 3>three D like like mixing it up kind of a thing,
<v Speaker 3>you know.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I was because I was curious. I googled James
<v Speaker 2>Turner a little more and on on the fandom Nintendo wiki,
<v Speaker 2>which you know, grain of salt. I don't have the
<v Speaker 2>full you know, I don't know if there's one hundred percent,
<v Speaker 2>but there is a list of like thirty Pokemon that
<v Speaker 2>James Turner designed, you know, which is like cool. It's like, okay,
<v Speaker 2>you know he made he made guzz Lord.
<v Speaker 3>You know. Oh, okay, I know that one that's one
<v Speaker 3>of the new ones.
<v Speaker 2>I know, that's a good vanilla ish all the vanilla Vanilla.
<v Speaker 2>I uh, And it's various. I don't know that one
<v Speaker 2>evolutions and stuff, but it's nice. It's it's interesting that
<v Speaker 2>there is this this list that exists that.
<v Speaker 1>Should Yeah, he's the person who I did the He
<v Speaker 1>did my demo with me, so yeah, we chat about
<v Speaker 1>spoken to him or not.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, he's hard, and it just says I made guzz
<v Speaker 3>Lord No, but I am yeah, wow.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah this is him. Yeah, James Turner's who I sat
<v Speaker 1>down with. Because I couldn't remember if I had sat
<v Speaker 1>down with Jonathan Biddle or James Turner. It was definitely
<v Speaker 1>James Turner. Yeah, so that's cool man.
<v Speaker 2>He was very nice when you probably got to like
<v Speaker 2>get hands on it, but that you are impressed with
<v Speaker 2>it even then too, you know, because it's always the
<v Speaker 2>fear is like you see something that looks really cool,
<v Speaker 2>especially indie games, and you're like you actually play it, like, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I've had that experience.
<v Speaker 3>It's worse one of the developers right next to you,
<v Speaker 3>I know, you just turn to say this is gonna get.
<v Speaker 2>Better, right, Yeah, absolutely, you guys haven't done yet, right,
<v Speaker 2>But yeah it was.
<v Speaker 1>It was a lot of fun. I can't wait to
<v Speaker 1>play more. And then the last thing from my my
<v Speaker 1>summer game fest stuff, well, number one, I do want
<v Speaker 1>to say I played back Blackmith wool Kong, really enjoyed it.
<v Speaker 1>I've got to feature a preview online. You can go
<v Speaker 1>read about it, so I recommend that if you are
<v Speaker 1>wanting to wanting to read what I thought. But overall,
<v Speaker 1>that was probably my game of the show. I think
<v Speaker 1>it's it's definitely unfortunate that, you know, there's that that
<v Speaker 1>pretty dark cloud hanging over it in light of allegations
<v Speaker 1>regarding you know, like uh, sexism in the workplace and
<v Speaker 1>and all of that.
<v Speaker 3>Story.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah yeah, Red Valentine. Yeah, but you know, the game
<v Speaker 1>itself was was really cool. But the thing I want
<v Speaker 1>to talk about today is Magic, the Gathering Assassin's Creed.
<v Speaker 1>I played the new set at Summer Game Fest and
<v Speaker 1>it's all it's physical cards, yeah yeah, physical cards, yeah yeah.
<v Speaker 1>And so there it's all focused on history and the returning.
<v Speaker 1>The historic is like a returning mechanic in Magic, as
<v Speaker 1>well as like disguise and cloaks. But there's a new
<v Speaker 1>mechanic called free running that they're introducing with this set,
<v Speaker 1>and I do want to I do have the the
<v Speaker 1>fact sheet up here because I want to get it right.
<v Speaker 1>So well, the new mechanic free running, it says, quote,
<v Speaker 1>no assassination is truly complete until you've escaped in a
<v Speaker 1>spectacular fashion, bounding effortlessly up and over buildings and whatever
<v Speaker 1>other obstacles stand in your way. Free Running is a
<v Speaker 1>new alternative cost that allows you to cast spells for
<v Speaker 1>a bit of savings if earlier in the turn an
<v Speaker 1>assassin you controlled or a commander you controlled dealt combat
<v Speaker 1>damage to a player. Free running still applies if you're
<v Speaker 1>not playing Commander, you'll just need an assassin to connect.
<v Speaker 1>If you are playing Commander, the commander you strike with
<v Speaker 1>doesn't even have to be your commander. You can gain
<v Speaker 1>control of particularly trees in this one and have an
<v Speaker 1>act in your behalf. The assassin and or commander doesn't
<v Speaker 1>even have to be alive or under your control, as
<v Speaker 1>long as it dealt combat damage to a player earlier
<v Speaker 1>in the turn. The free running cost is now available
<v Speaker 1>to you, and casting a spell for its free running
<v Speaker 1>cost doesn't change its man of value. For example, Eagle
<v Speaker 1>Visions man of value is always five. Uh. Yeah, we're
<v Speaker 1>getting into the weeds, but uh, it's a cool way
<v Speaker 1>to tie in a new mechanic.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we're already here.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, we're we're we're here. We're in the weeds.
<v Speaker 2>You're right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I don't play magic, so I.
<v Speaker 1>Don't I I play enough magic. Like I the mechanics
<v Speaker 1>weren't necessarily like, oh this is I see how this
<v Speaker 1>is gonna Like you know, of alve the game. I'm
<v Speaker 1>not that deep and I was very upfront with them,
<v Speaker 1>but uh, you know, I was kind of there. I
<v Speaker 1>was like, let me see the cool Assassin's Creed cards.
<v Speaker 2>I have a very dumb questions. It's just like like this,
<v Speaker 2>you get Assassin's Creed magic cards and it just goes
<v Speaker 2>into your magic deck or it's just like if you're
<v Speaker 2>gonna you have to play Assassin's Creed magic.
<v Speaker 1>No, no, it can go into your deck. I mean
<v Speaker 1>for like.
<v Speaker 3>Full it's like an archetype.
<v Speaker 1>It's it's it's uh similar to hell like they did
<v Speaker 1>the Lord of the Rings sets. Like those cards you
<v Speaker 1>can just play magic with.
<v Speaker 2>And you know if they were treated as like a
<v Speaker 2>separate No.
<v Speaker 1>No, I mean there's a lot of rules with like
<v Speaker 1>tournament Official and all of that stuff. It's always changing.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not gonna I'm not qualified to speak on that,
<v Speaker 1>but yeah, like you can whether you're playing like physical
<v Speaker 1>or Magic Arena. The online version of the game, you
<v Speaker 1>can like Orchest Orchish bow Masters, for instance, is a
<v Speaker 1>very popular card from the Lord of the Ring set
<v Speaker 1>for Black decks, and that's what I play. And so
<v Speaker 1>I have a couple of decks that have Orchish bow
<v Speaker 1>Masters in there, and I don't really have many other
<v Speaker 1>Lord of the Rings cards in there, but yeah, it works.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>There are certain mechanics though, and certain cards where it's like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>I should probably be playing a pretty you know, Hobbit
<v Speaker 1>forward set and I need like my food tokens and
<v Speaker 1>my cards that are gonna make sense, but I don't.
<v Speaker 1>You don't have to, and I'm not sure about like
<v Speaker 1>tournaments and stuff. Those those things are always I know
<v Speaker 1>there's like standard is like the last two years of
<v Speaker 1>cards released or something like that. I don't quite remember.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, so the the preview embargo has dropped on this.
<v Speaker 1>The card image gallery is online and the release for
<v Speaker 1>this set is July fifth, I know, the booster like there,
<v Speaker 1>so the card set info. There's like the official name
<v Speaker 1>for this is Magic the Gathering Assassin's Creed And there's
<v Speaker 1>a couple of different Commander decks I played. The one
<v Speaker 1>I played was very focused on assassins and like I
<v Speaker 1>was using et CEO and other assassins and it was
<v Speaker 1>like very much like playing off of I had et
<v Speaker 1>Ceo as my commander and I had played him, and
<v Speaker 1>so I was dealing damage with other assassins and procking
<v Speaker 1>one of his effects, which is really fun. It really
<v Speaker 1>felt like I like decks where like you can I
<v Speaker 1>like to play goblin decks where it's like, oh, I'm
<v Speaker 1>just like amassing like an army of goblins or orcs,
<v Speaker 1>and it felt kind of like hit that level of
<v Speaker 1>fun for me. It's like, oh, I've got literally like
<v Speaker 1>six or seven cards on the table right now, and
<v Speaker 1>they're all assassins, and I'm just like that's how I'm
<v Speaker 1>gonna win, right. Whereas the person I was playing, I
<v Speaker 1>don't remember the official name of the deck he was playing,
<v Speaker 1>but he was playing an equipment deck, which is is
<v Speaker 1>can be in the hands of an expert. And this
<v Speaker 1>guy was very clearly going easy on me and like
<v Speaker 1>he wants me to win, right for he wants me
<v Speaker 1>to have fun. But I could very clearly see how
<v Speaker 1>in the hands of John Carson this deck would be
<v Speaker 1>a nightmare to play against, where like, you know, he's
<v Speaker 1>very quickly leveling up a one to one or two
<v Speaker 1>two character to like suddenly, Oh there's a seven to
<v Speaker 1>seven character now and I've got these effects on it
<v Speaker 1>and you can't get rid of me. My light just died.
<v Speaker 1>Sorry for video viewers and.
<v Speaker 2>The changing of the day.
<v Speaker 1>Right, Oh, yes, yes that's what's happening. Yes, but I
<v Speaker 1>had a lot of fun. And these theme decks are
<v Speaker 1>like a great way or these theme sets are like
<v Speaker 1>really kind of got me back into magic. I was
<v Speaker 1>largely lapsed up until the Lord of the Rings set
<v Speaker 1>and the baalders Gate sets from previous years, and it
<v Speaker 1>was kind of got me back in, like specifically, like
<v Speaker 1>the Balder's Gate they had like a bunch of ballers
<v Speaker 1>Gate three cards. So I have like a car Locks
<v Speaker 1>sitting around here somewhere Lord of the Ring sets, and
<v Speaker 1>I've kind of slowly it's been they know what they're doing,
<v Speaker 1>because it's like, oh, I really want that new Fallout
<v Speaker 1>dog Meat card. Let me go get that Fallout cards. Yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that was the that came out earlier this year, the
<v Speaker 1>Fallout set. So you can get a dog Meat Commander
<v Speaker 1>deck and dog Meat is your your main character that
<v Speaker 1>you're like card. They don't have that yet.
<v Speaker 3>I don't.
<v Speaker 1>I don't think mostly following like the game stuff.
<v Speaker 3>But imagine if you played Walton Goggins.
<v Speaker 1>I summoned Walton Goggins. But the new Assassin's Crete set
<v Speaker 1>it I think I'm looking here at the stats. So
<v Speaker 1>for for magic people who are interested in getting some
<v Speaker 1>of these cards. The whole set. It has fifty four
<v Speaker 1>uncommon cards, thirty seven rares, including five rare, dual Lands,
<v Speaker 1>and fourteen mythic rares in addition to ten full art
<v Speaker 1>basic lands Magic the Gathering as sets created is Legal
<v Speaker 1>and Modern, Commander, Legacy and Vintage. The set also includes
<v Speaker 1>an additional two mythic rares, six rares, eight uncommons, and
<v Speaker 1>nine commons exclusively found in the starter kit. And yeah,
<v Speaker 1>there's are I'm looking through all. There's a lot of
<v Speaker 1>features here. They got the borderless cards, the textured foil,
<v Speaker 1>a lot of stuff going on. But it was really
<v Speaker 1>cool to see like different versions of et CEO portrayed,
<v Speaker 1>and uh, yeah, I have really enjoyed playing it. So
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna be picking up some sets for for uh.
<v Speaker 1>For disclaimer, I think they're probably going to be uh
<v Speaker 1>sending sending me you know, a sample of this to
<v Speaker 1>check out. But in general, like I've been back on
<v Speaker 1>Magic for a while and kind of and purchasing decks
<v Speaker 1>in my free time of my own money, and I've
<v Speaker 1>been really enjoying the game lately and I'm excited to
<v Speaker 1>check this out. So I'm just download downloaded the press kit.
<v Speaker 1>I just want to see. Oh, okay, so I've I've
<v Speaker 1>found uh, I found a bunch of p and g's
<v Speaker 1>of the cards. So I'm just gonna go through and
<v Speaker 1>tell you about some of them. Uh. So, the the
<v Speaker 1>guy I mentioned who was playing that, who was playing
<v Speaker 1>the equipment deck. His commander was Bieck, So I was
<v Speaker 1>trying to remember who who that was?
<v Speaker 2>Missed it?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, exactly, or an at a uh who was it
<v Speaker 1>at a wall?
<v Speaker 3>Right at the one from the Breaker of.
<v Speaker 1>Chains from U he's a pirate.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, it was like an expansion.
<v Speaker 1>Right, so he was like the commander he was using.
<v Speaker 1>But they've got cards that are like become Anonymous, where
<v Speaker 1>you know, it's an instant card and you can exile
<v Speaker 1>a target non token creature you own. And uh, it's
<v Speaker 1>a lot of like getting cards onto the field. Looking
<v Speaker 1>at the top two cards of your library, there's a
<v Speaker 1>lot of these. It's kind of a big theme, but
<v Speaker 1>the key art of the art of it is like,
<v Speaker 1>you know, an assassin blending into the crowd, and like
<v Speaker 1>the the crowd around him is like a bunch of
<v Speaker 1>paint strokes that just get like more and more vague,
<v Speaker 1>a lot of like if you're a fan of Assassin's Creed,
<v Speaker 1>you know, it's definitely playing that up. But yeah, it's
<v Speaker 1>it's it's pretty cool. They've they have an Absturgo Entertainment
<v Speaker 1>uh Land card and it's like the the foyer of
<v Speaker 1>Absturgo and it's heyday. And even though like the main
<v Speaker 1>games have like left that story line mostly behind, they're
<v Speaker 1>definitely like playing with that in this set. So you
<v Speaker 1>see a lot of templars, see a lot of assassins
<v Speaker 1>from from all games as well as more modern I
<v Speaker 1>think the person I was, the designer I was playing
<v Speaker 1>with said, there's like like a little Absturgo storyline if
<v Speaker 1>you like pay attention, pay attention to the cards. Avar
<v Speaker 1>is also one of the commanders you can get Edward Kinway.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, it's cool. I like the set. I'm excited
<v Speaker 1>for it to release on July fifth, and uh yeah.
<v Speaker 1>That that's my very long winded segment of what I
<v Speaker 1>been checking out, y'all, Marcus, I want to hear about
<v Speaker 1>Still Wakes the Deep, which is a horror game set
<v Speaker 1>on an oil rig.
<v Speaker 2>Is that.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah? Okay, there's a lot of games that are using
<v Speaker 1>the word wake or deep or I was trying to
<v Speaker 1>think of the the one from god Quantic Dream. Didn't
<v Speaker 1>they just no, not allan wake. Quantic Dream published something.
<v Speaker 3>They published one.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, they published this one too. Okay, no, no, they
<v Speaker 1>published another one where you are playing underwater. You're underwater? Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>And I was confusing that game under the Waves, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I was. You can see why I Still Wakes the
<v Speaker 1>Deep under the Waves. I was trying to both published
<v Speaker 1>by I guess.
<v Speaker 3>Dream cares about there, Like, is your game underwater?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah?
<v Speaker 3>Vaguely or okay, okay to tell the ocean?
<v Speaker 2>All right, close enough.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not losing mind.
<v Speaker 3>Then, So this game, yeah, it came out a week
<v Speaker 3>ago something last week, started playing on a game pass.
<v Speaker 3>Just because this is made by the Chinese Room also,
<v Speaker 3>which is the developer of Dear Esther and Everybody's Gone
<v Speaker 3>to the Rapture as well as uh, I guess more
<v Speaker 3>relevant to this genre, Amnesia a machine for pigs, so
<v Speaker 3>they've got some chops. They're also making Vampire to Masquara
<v Speaker 3>two forget it. Yeah, yeah, they took a game over
<v Speaker 3>after it had been in development forever and now they're
<v Speaker 3>they're doing that. So yeah, this is the game I've
<v Speaker 3>been looking forward to as a horror fan. Uh set
<v Speaker 3>in an oil rig in nineteen seventy five in the North
<v Speaker 3>Sea off the coast of Scotland. And that's important because
<v Speaker 3>this game is extremely Scottish, okay, which is very It's
<v Speaker 3>very cool. It is like, if I've never been to Scotland,
<v Speaker 3>I would like to go, but I've met some Scottish
<v Speaker 3>people in my day and everyone like, yes, it really
<v Speaker 3>validates me. But I say that just because this game
<v Speaker 3>they really went out of their way to sort of
<v Speaker 3>like authentically portray the like region. Because all the actors
<v Speaker 3>are a Scottish. The dialogue is incredibly Scottish, using like
<v Speaker 3>very Scottish slang words to the point where like the
<v Speaker 3>game the falsest subtitles and it will automatically translate like
<v Speaker 3>Scottish slang. What it'll say something like, oh, I can't
<v Speaker 3>believe the police is here, and then they'll say police
<v Speaker 3>and like oh, okay, I guess that's how they say police,
<v Speaker 3>or just like other words where like I if the
<v Speaker 3>subtitles weren't here, I would have no idea what he
<v Speaker 3>just said, what this was. But I'm learning some like
<v Speaker 3>Scottish slang words, which I'm wondering if they're even in fashion,
<v Speaker 3>because like what schemes set in the seventies and they
<v Speaker 3>still even say this now is technically a period piece,
<v Speaker 3>but it's it's pretty much if you want to be
<v Speaker 3>like reductive about it, it's John Carpenter's The Thing, but
<v Speaker 3>on an oil rig, like good pitch, but yeah, I
<v Speaker 3>love the Thing. It's one of my favorite horror movies ever.
<v Speaker 3>And you know, he plays this guy Kaz, who works
<v Speaker 3>on your own rig and he's running away from something
<v Speaker 3>because he got into some legal trouble back home, so
<v Speaker 3>he's pretty much just avoiding that by working offshore in
<v Speaker 3>this rig. But it's also driven a wedge between him
<v Speaker 3>and his family, like his wife and is like threatening
<v Speaker 3>to divorce him if he doesn't come back and just
<v Speaker 3>sort of face his legal problems head on. And then
<v Speaker 3>unfortunately your your rig, they drill into something that they
<v Speaker 3>shouldn't have and unleash this weird, vague horror. I have
<v Speaker 3>not finished the game. I've heard that it's quite short.
<v Speaker 3>I've heard people say they've gotten through it in like
<v Speaker 3>a sitting in like four to five hours or something
<v Speaker 3>like that. Kah, and I'm probably like two hours in roughly,
<v Speaker 3>And it's like the most action I've ever seen in
<v Speaker 3>like a Chinese room game so far. Like I finished
<v Speaker 3>Dear Esta and everybody's gone to the Rapture. And if
<v Speaker 3>you play those, they're very much like walking simulator games,
<v Speaker 3>like they're very like it's about moving slowly through a
<v Speaker 3>space and contemplating complex themes, and this game is much
<v Speaker 3>more of just a like nah, this is like a
<v Speaker 3>adrenaline rush like horror thing, like you still can't do
<v Speaker 3>much but like walk like there's no combat or anything
<v Speaker 3>like that. This is one of those like runaway and
<v Speaker 3>hide from things kind of game. But it's also like
<v Speaker 3>very at least from when I played so far, like
<v Speaker 3>pretty linear, like you're just kind of being like rowroaded
<v Speaker 3>from like different sectors of the oer rig, which I
<v Speaker 3>should also mention is like gradually falling apart because one
<v Speaker 3>this giant thing is attacking it and then Also there's
<v Speaker 3>like just that you're just in the middle of this
<v Speaker 3>giant storm. So as you're like doing things like shimmying
<v Speaker 3>across bridges or like climbing like bars, like monkey bars,
<v Speaker 3>things will be like breaking and then you'll get like
<v Speaker 3>quick little prompt and like, oh, you've better grab on
<v Speaker 3>and hold his button so you don't fall into the
<v Speaker 3>ocean and stuff like that. So it's like the most
<v Speaker 3>action they've ever had in any of their games, but
<v Speaker 3>it's still like, you know, it's still limited, but it's
<v Speaker 3>like fine. Like you can also like throw like pip
<v Speaker 3>objects and throw them to like distract enemies that you
<v Speaker 3>can pass by the enemies themselves. Like the way the
<v Speaker 3>reason I make the thing comparison is that it's got
<v Speaker 3>the same sort of like body horror or like whatever.
<v Speaker 3>This weird thing that they've unleashed. It's like transforming the
<v Speaker 3>oil rig workers into these weird just like flesh monsters
<v Speaker 3>where you're you're you're like walking down hallways and you'll
<v Speaker 3>see like this mass of like weird pink goo that
<v Speaker 3>has somebody's like face trapped in it, you know, like
<v Speaker 3>that kind of stuff, and you're like, oh, it sucks
<v Speaker 3>to be you like they look gross and they look
<v Speaker 3>kind of scary, you know, they're they're like cool looking,
<v Speaker 3>but it's very much like you know, yeah, like it's
<v Speaker 3>like the thing I think the like it hasn't like
<v Speaker 3>scared me so far, And I say this is a
<v Speaker 3>horror fan, like it's it's I want to say, on
<v Speaker 3>one hand, it's it's harder to scare me because I
<v Speaker 3>like playing horror games and I like horror movies. But
<v Speaker 3>at the same time, it's easy because it's like I'm
<v Speaker 3>willing to be scared, Like I'm not like some like
<v Speaker 3>hardened by horror. It's just like I know what I'm
<v Speaker 3>getting into that, if that makes sense. Yeah, And this
<v Speaker 3>so far has been more kind of like mood and
<v Speaker 3>like tension building than like anything that I've seen where
<v Speaker 3>I'm like, oh my god. Like there's been like one
<v Speaker 3>chase sequence so far, and I think there are a
<v Speaker 3>couple more, but it wasn't anything like super terrifying. And
<v Speaker 3>I think that so far, like and I don't think
<v Speaker 3>I'm like I hate that, like because I think that
<v Speaker 3>the vibe is like cool enough, right, like just that like, Okay,
<v Speaker 3>we're trapped on this rig. There's no help who's still alive,
<v Speaker 3>or you're meeting these characters that, at least the ones
<v Speaker 3>I've seen so far are like pretty cool. Again, I
<v Speaker 3>think the performances, being as good as they are, help
<v Speaker 3>make you know, bring these characters of life and make
<v Speaker 3>you care about them. But in terms of the moment,
<v Speaker 3>the moment like oh my god, look at that monster.
<v Speaker 3>I better run away, It's like it's it's kind of
<v Speaker 3>like run of the mill stuff so far. You know,
<v Speaker 3>I did one sequel try to sneak through a kitchen
<v Speaker 3>and there's like one enemy in there and just like
<v Speaker 3>oh yeah, I'm just gonna hide in these little cabinets
<v Speaker 3>and just throw a cup and distract it and then
<v Speaker 3>pretty easily sneak by it. You know, nothing, nothing too
<v Speaker 3>crazy there, I do, I think so far, like I'm
<v Speaker 3>gonna finish because I'm intrigued about like just where the
<v Speaker 3>story's gonna go and like, Okay, what's the what's the
<v Speaker 3>source of this thing? What is this thing? What's gonna
<v Speaker 3>happen to Kaz? Like I think he seems all right
<v Speaker 3>so far as the character, and I'm digging him. And
<v Speaker 3>also just like the setting and the is unique one
<v Speaker 3>like just again being set in Scotland is like Okay,
<v Speaker 3>that's something you'll see in a lot of games. And
<v Speaker 3>also got an oil rig is like a cool location,
<v Speaker 3>and there's some like cool level designs stuff just like
<v Speaker 3>aesthetically like, oh this is like this is a cool space,
<v Speaker 3>like a creepy looking self contained arena. It's got like
<v Speaker 3>some like labyrinthine designed like multiple layers to it because
<v Speaker 3>of just the way oil rigs are built. Like that's
<v Speaker 3>a cool space to to have, like a game like this.
<v Speaker 3>So it's I'm kind of enjoying it as like like
<v Speaker 3>it's not like I said, it's not blowing me in
<v Speaker 3>a way of something like I don't know, We'll say visage,
<v Speaker 3>you know, like Visage to me is like actually terrifying, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>and has.
<v Speaker 1>Some pro well it sounds like I might be able
<v Speaker 1>to handle this, which sounds nice.
<v Speaker 3>I haven't finished with Alex. We'll see, but don't start
<v Speaker 3>the download yet. Yeah, But like like I always say
<v Speaker 3>visage because like I think the game is genuinely terrifying,
<v Speaker 3>and also I think the scares in that game are
<v Speaker 3>a lot more creative where they do some really inventive stuff,
<v Speaker 3>and this game so far as like I said, it's
<v Speaker 3>pretty like paypy numbers, kind of like okay, you know,
<v Speaker 3>tension building, something scary happens, it's a false you know,
<v Speaker 3>false thing or here's the real run away chimmy through
<v Speaker 3>a thing and then you're fine. But it doesn't necessarily
<v Speaker 3>mean it's bad. Like it's enjoyably because it's kind of
<v Speaker 3>like familiar and I think I'm more in love with
<v Speaker 3>like the tone in the setting so far. So yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I'm gonna see it through. It seems seems all right
<v Speaker 3>so far.
<v Speaker 2>I want to try it. The setting is sounds really cool.
<v Speaker 2>I mean yeah, like I know, the middle of your
<v Speaker 2>solid two fan in me might be maybe that's where
<v Speaker 2>that's coming from. I don't know, but like, yeah, just
<v Speaker 2>the the setting, it sounds cool.
<v Speaker 3>Big shell baby.
<v Speaker 1>A little nervous because I have philosophobias like fear of
<v Speaker 1>deep water or like it's really the darkness under the ocean.
<v Speaker 3>Sure there are like like when you fail like a
<v Speaker 3>platforming thing, because you can't fail, like it's not like
<v Speaker 3>all rails in the sense of like there's no failure,
<v Speaker 3>Like you are doing platforming and you can miss jumps
<v Speaker 3>and you will fall your seat, yourself falling into the
<v Speaker 3>very like the deep water below from very high up
<v Speaker 3>in first person. So you know that if that bothers you,
<v Speaker 3>that that might be.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, it doesn't keep me from playing things, but
<v Speaker 1>it definitely heightens the Yeah, yeah, okay, that's good to know.
<v Speaker 1>And then, uh, do you mind if we transition? Marcus?
<v Speaker 3>Oh?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, like it. So you are still, like, to be clear,
<v Speaker 1>you haven't finished the game. You're still kind of getting
<v Speaker 1>your final thoughts together. Are you going to be the
<v Speaker 1>one who reviews it.
<v Speaker 3>For we actually we published our review today, so when
<v Speaker 3>you're listening to this, I did not review it. We
<v Speaker 3>had a freelancer, Jason Rodriguez Awesome reviewed it. He scored
<v Speaker 3>US seven out of ten. Okay, so you know, like good,
<v Speaker 3>like just solid. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I've seen higher elsewhere, so it's interesting to I
<v Speaker 1>really want to play for myself and check it out.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, definitely check out Jason's review on the site.
<v Speaker 1>Now, cool, Well, tell me about Dustborne, Marcus. I know
<v Speaker 1>we're starting to starting to wrap up the show. We
<v Speaker 1>got a couple of things to talk about, this being
<v Speaker 1>one of them.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, so this is oh god, did we actually this
<v Speaker 3>is remind me? Did we say that this that still
<v Speaker 3>Wakes the Deep was public by Quantic Dream. Yeah we did, okay,
<v Speaker 3>so that's not true. I think I got to mix
<v Speaker 3>up with Dustborn.
<v Speaker 1>Oh okay, why.
<v Speaker 3>I think as you started talking about underd the Waves,
<v Speaker 3>but yeah, uh still Wakes the Deep to be clear,
<v Speaker 3>published by Secret Mode Oh Dream dust Born okay, which
<v Speaker 3>is funny because that's the hard opposite of being underwater.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, you're like in a post apocalyptic desert.
<v Speaker 1>So to be clear, still Wakes the Deep developed by
<v Speaker 1>the Chinese Room Right, published by Secret Mode. Yes, and
<v Speaker 1>then Dustborn, the other game published by Dream.
<v Speaker 3>Exactly developed by I think it's Red Thread Games for Dustborn,
<v Speaker 3>which is not out yet. The game comes out August twentieth.
<v Speaker 3>I got a press build a bit which is separate
<v Speaker 3>from the Steam Next Fest demo that it's still available
<v Speaker 3>to play. They kept it up after Steam Next Vest,
<v Speaker 3>which is nice. But this game was announced a few
<v Speaker 3>years ago and if you got to remember it, but
<v Speaker 3>I've had it a like like in the back of
<v Speaker 3>my minds. It went quiet for a while and has
<v Speaker 3>re emerged over the last few months, and you know
<v Speaker 3>when new trailers. But it's like a narrative driven action
<v Speaker 3>road trip game is, I guess the best way to
<v Speaker 3>describe it where it's set in the United States after
<v Speaker 3>like a giant nationwide disaster, and you play as this
<v Speaker 3>character named Pax who has this crew of friends, like
<v Speaker 3>one of them is your sister. There's like another girl
<v Speaker 3>and then some dude. Eventually you recruit a robot along
<v Speaker 3>the way, and you were tasked by someone to deliver
<v Speaker 3>a package from California, which is where you're from, all
<v Speaker 3>the way to Nova Scotia, and you don't know what
<v Speaker 3>it is, but you're just doing it because you're getting paid.
<v Speaker 3>But people are also chasing you because of this.
<v Speaker 2>So and also it's not an action game, right, it's
<v Speaker 2>like is at all points?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah? Yeah, And also your your crew to try to
<v Speaker 3>stealthily transport this package. You're like posing as a traveling
<v Speaker 3>punk band, so like there were points where you'll have
<v Speaker 3>to play gigs to try to keep up the facade.
<v Speaker 3>But as far as I can tell, Packs is maybe
<v Speaker 3>the only like musician in the group, So I I
<v Speaker 3>assume maybe those performances are maybe not great.
<v Speaker 2>That sounds like a pretty typical like young high school
<v Speaker 2>punk band, you know, I know I knew a lot
<v Speaker 2>of those bands. Yeah, that was only one guy who
<v Speaker 2>actually knew what they were doing.
<v Speaker 3>Oh and also, I the other thing I didn't mention
<v Speaker 3>is that everyone in the group has a superpower. They're like, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>they also have like they're all X men too, apparently.
<v Speaker 3>So like PAX's ability is that she can fight with
<v Speaker 3>her words like shouts, so like she can like and
<v Speaker 3>I'm still like not totally sure how it works, but
<v Speaker 3>basically because they're like combat where it's like may kind
<v Speaker 3>of like melee focus because she has a baseball bat
<v Speaker 3>that she can beat up enemies with. And then when
<v Speaker 3>you're like very basic combos, it's like the combat has
<v Speaker 3>not like blown me away. It's just been like fine.
<v Speaker 3>But like she can do these things where she can
<v Speaker 3>bring up words kind of like like on a Monopia style,
<v Speaker 3>and like depending on the word, she can do like
<v Speaker 3>a some like big action like whether it's like a
<v Speaker 3>big like cinematic finishing move or or she can do
<v Speaker 3>I'm forgetting the words that she can yell, but she
<v Speaker 3>can do one it like kind of pushes everyone back,
<v Speaker 3>like like a big sort of like blast that sends
<v Speaker 3>everyone around you flying and stuff like that. Your sister
<v Speaker 3>is like a from what I could tell, either like
<v Speaker 3>a speedster or like a teleporter or maybe both. Like
<v Speaker 3>she can just kind of like very quickly just like
<v Speaker 3>move through places, and she kind of like warps in
<v Speaker 3>and out of like environments. The other girl has like
<v Speaker 3>super strength as far as I can tell, uh, And
<v Speaker 3>I don't remember the guy's pal actually, but yeah, they
<v Speaker 3>all have. And it's got a cool look. It's kind
<v Speaker 3>of got like a or it's going for like a
<v Speaker 3>very comic bookie look. Like some of the cut scenes
<v Speaker 3>are told through like comic panels, and it's like a
<v Speaker 3>narrative game at its heart, where you're making decisions, you're
<v Speaker 3>interacting with each of the crew mates. Like the demo
<v Speaker 3>I started with seemed to be a few chapters into
<v Speaker 3>the game, so it didn't have a tutorial, which made
<v Speaker 3>it kind of rough to figure out like how things work,
<v Speaker 3>because it just really just throws you into the thick
<v Speaker 3>of things. If I had to guess, maybe the regular
<v Speaker 3>Steam demo maybe takes place closer to the beginning of
<v Speaker 3>the game, and maybe the demo I played happens after it,
<v Speaker 3>but I don't know that for sure. But you're talking
<v Speaker 3>to your your crewmates, you're getting to know them. There's
<v Speaker 3>a bunch of dialogue choices, but what strikes me is
<v Speaker 3>that this game has very reactive dialogue in a way
<v Speaker 3>that reminds me of night schools stuff like Ausen Free
<v Speaker 3>and After Party, where it's like characters will keep talking
<v Speaker 3>regardless of whether or not you've responded in a timely manner,
<v Speaker 3>and you can cut them off in a way that
<v Speaker 3>feels natural, where they'll be going on about something and
<v Speaker 3>then you'll pick something and then you'll be like, actually,
<v Speaker 3>can you shut the hell up for a second. I
<v Speaker 3>guess I understanding they're like, oh, okay, like and then
<v Speaker 3>it feels like it's it's going for that very sort
<v Speaker 3>of like realistic and reactive dialogue that I think of
<v Speaker 3>with like Oxen Free. There are moments where maybe it
<v Speaker 3>gets a little too reactive, where there were points where
<v Speaker 3>the characters kept repeating dialogue because I kept pro like
<v Speaker 3>hitting different prompts to trigger other things, so they would
<v Speaker 3>start repeating themselves and then it's like, oh, I didn't
<v Speaker 3>know that you know this would happen basically, But overall,
<v Speaker 3>the game I think has a pretty good sense of
<v Speaker 3>tone and humor behind it, Like there was a point
<v Speaker 3>where you go to a you go to a like
<v Speaker 3>I the bus that we got in got accidentally stolen,
<v Speaker 3>so we're stranded at this gas station in the middle
<v Speaker 3>of nowhere, and the only person that runs it is
<v Speaker 3>like a robot, and so you're trying to figure out,
<v Speaker 3>like how do you how do we get to the bus,
<v Speaker 3>And there's some like puzzle solving involved where it's like, Okay,
<v Speaker 3>you're you're talking to the the the robot store owner,
<v Speaker 3>and he's telling you about these gang, these biker gangs
<v Speaker 3>that show up here, and then you try to devise
<v Speaker 3>a plan like oh, maybe we can hijack their bikes, Well,
<v Speaker 3>how do we get them to come here? And then
<v Speaker 3>you find out like the way what they do to
<v Speaker 3>celebrate here, so like oh, if we like simulate that
<v Speaker 3>we can get them here. But like there seems to
<v Speaker 3>be different ways that maybe the story can unfold or
<v Speaker 3>you can solve problems based on like when you do
<v Speaker 3>things and who you use, because you can select each
<v Speaker 3>like crew member to do different things and like utilize
<v Speaker 3>your superpower. So like when I was like talking to
<v Speaker 3>the guy, the robot store clerk, we needed to steal
<v Speaker 3>alcohol because we wanted to start a fire, so it's like, okay,
<v Speaker 3>we'll talk to him, like look around, like you know,
<v Speaker 3>you're locked into a conversation, but you can rotate the
<v Speaker 3>camera and look around a room and find things to
<v Speaker 3>like point out and be like, oh, let's talk about
<v Speaker 3>that poster behind you, and then it'll trigger another dialogue
<v Speaker 3>and then maybe something distracts him, and then you can
<v Speaker 3>prompt your sister, who's the speed, sort of be like,
<v Speaker 3>while he's distracting you, just like very quickly, super speed
<v Speaker 3>and steal the alcohol that's behind him and then get
<v Speaker 3>out of there and then you know he won't notice,
<v Speaker 3>so like stuff like that. And then there's other little
<v Speaker 3>things like I had to drag a giant tire to
<v Speaker 3>set on fire, and I initially gave it to the
<v Speaker 3>guy because he was just the closest one to it
<v Speaker 3>and he could do it. But he is not shown
<v Speaker 3>because it's like a tractor wheel basically, so he's like
<v Speaker 3>very slowly dragging this thing where it needs to be
<v Speaker 3>and he's clearly having a hard time, and it looks
<v Speaker 3>like I could have just left him to do that.
<v Speaker 3>But then I remember that the other girl was like
<v Speaker 3>the strength person. I was like, yeah, she should probably
<v Speaker 3>be doing this. So then I saw and then I
<v Speaker 3>highlighted the guy and then you could see the because
<v Speaker 3>you can see word bubbles, but they're written kind of
<v Speaker 3>like comic book style, kind of like panels, which I like.
<v Speaker 3>And like Pats is just like, oh, yeah he is.
<v Speaker 3>He's not having a good time trying to track this tire,
<v Speaker 3>but he's doing it anyway because he's like, oh, yes,
<v Speaker 3>you know, he asked me, and I'm just trying to
<v Speaker 3>be helpful, but this sucks. And then and then once
<v Speaker 3>he talked to him, he's like, yeah, no, I can't
<v Speaker 3>do this. I guess I was just too polite to
<v Speaker 3>just say I couldn't do it. And then the girl
<v Speaker 3>just picks it up over his shoulder and then walks
<v Speaker 3>away with it. So it seems like there's some fun
<v Speaker 3>like like flexibility and different sorts of interactions depending on
<v Speaker 3>who you tell to do stuff and when that seems cool.
<v Speaker 3>And like said, the combat just seems fine so far,
<v Speaker 3>but I think the words stuff is the most interesting
<v Speaker 3>thing about it, just like all the weird almost like
<v Speaker 3>Skyrim shouts that you have at your disposal. Yeah uh,
<v Speaker 3>And and like I said, the story in the world
<v Speaker 3>seems cool, Like just this idea of like going across
<v Speaker 3>country and meeting a bunch of weirdo's and trying to
<v Speaker 3>transport this weird package that you don't know what it is,
<v Speaker 3>but you're doing it anyway, and then find out.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, just finding out just the personal histories of everyone
<v Speaker 3>in your and your crew and why you're all are
<v Speaker 3>together while also playing gigs. It's going for a lot,
<v Speaker 3>but it seems like it's coming together relatively nicely so far.
<v Speaker 1>Awesome. I've had that they've been showing that for I
<v Speaker 1>think they've showed it at either it was other day
<v Speaker 1>of the devs or last year's SGF.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, they've ramped up the marketing really because, like I said,
<v Speaker 3>it went quiet for like a couple of years. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>and then in the last like six months they were like,
<v Speaker 3>we're back. Here's all of the coverage.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Well cool, Well let's get to our last game
<v Speaker 1>of the day and then we'll get out of here. Kyle,
<v Speaker 1>it's finally your t under talk Luigi's Luigi's Mansion two
<v Speaker 1>HD even find that sucker.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I finished it. The review is on the website
<v Speaker 2>gameforma dot com. I gave it a seven seven five. Oh,
<v Speaker 2>so it's not like this, like, you know, it's not
<v Speaker 2>it's not a run. It's not a run. Don't walk,
<v Speaker 2>you know.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, this isn't the second coming of the Year of Luigi. No.
<v Speaker 2>And I've never really played Luigi's Mansion, like I've dabbled
<v Speaker 2>in all of them, like I've played each of them
<v Speaker 2>for a little bit, but this is the first time
<v Speaker 2>I played to credits, and like my reaction is kind
<v Speaker 2>of like, this was cool, this was really cute, this
<v Speaker 2>is charming. I don't think I'm like a convert. I
<v Speaker 2>don't think like Luigi's Mansion is now one of my
<v Speaker 2>like favorite Nintendo franchise, you know, which I.
<v Speaker 3>Think fans would argue that too, probably in the entry
<v Speaker 3>that would do that for you either.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I've heard that. Yeah, because it's it's a port
<v Speaker 2>if you're unfamiliar, it's a port of the three DS game,
<v Speaker 2>which was called Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon, so they changed
<v Speaker 2>the title fully to Luigi's Mansion two HD, which is funny.
<v Speaker 2>HD feels so antiquated now. But I mean, yeah, when.
<v Speaker 3>Don't we start slapping four K on the end of everything.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, Yeah, I guess we haven't really, I
<v Speaker 2>don't know. It'll be FPS soon like Tiers of the Kingdom,
<v Speaker 2>sixty fps will be like what it's called on Switch
<v Speaker 2>to or whatever. But but I mean, it's cool. It's
<v Speaker 2>a solid game. It's a good port. It's not to
<v Speaker 2>the same tier of like like where Paper Mario and
<v Speaker 2>like Metroid Prime almost borderline felt like remakes because they
<v Speaker 2>really overhauled the visuals. That's not the case here. This
<v Speaker 2>is like, this is a great looking game that runs well,
<v Speaker 2>but it's not gonna blow your socks off, you know. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it's just it's just solid throughout. It's just a solid
<v Speaker 2>Luigi's Mansion. It's probably one that you missed. Maybe you
<v Speaker 2>played three on Switch for the first time and had
<v Speaker 2>a great time with it. Absolutely go back and grab
<v Speaker 2>two if you want more Luigi's Mansion. It is. It's
<v Speaker 2>a great entry in sort of the trilogy. But yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it's not it's not gonna blow your socks off, you know.
<v Speaker 1>Sure, yeah, well, thank you for that quick rundown of
<v Speaker 1>Luigi's Mansion.
<v Speaker 3>Now, what I thought of recently Luigi's Mansion, it was like,
<v Speaker 3>as someone has only really played the first one for
<v Speaker 3>a little bit, it's not Luigi doesn't have a mansion.
<v Speaker 3>He's exploring on someone else's man it's not his.
<v Speaker 2>He's exploring five mansions in this way.
<v Speaker 3>He does not own these houses. He is not like
<v Speaker 3>a real estate lord that owns a bunch of mansions
<v Speaker 3>that also all happened to be haunted.
<v Speaker 2>You know, this is not a real estate simulator. Luigi
<v Speaker 2>is not buying mansions. And then like him up and
<v Speaker 2>he kind of that's Luigi's Mansion. Four is like, that's
<v Speaker 2>the secondary part of it. You know, you got to
<v Speaker 2>go in and fix up these Yeah, I got to.
<v Speaker 3>Get these ghosts out of here so I can rent
<v Speaker 3>it out.
<v Speaker 2>House a house flipper. Luigi's Mansion Edition kind of deal.
<v Speaker 2>Hell yeah, I don't know. The titled Actually, you're right
<v Speaker 2>doesn't make any sense at all because the mansions do
<v Speaker 2>not belong to Luigi.
<v Speaker 3>But why is he assumed a responsibility for exercising them
<v Speaker 3>of ghosts?
<v Speaker 1>He seems kind of messed up. Actually, no equity at all,
<v Speaker 1>you know, Can I get like a buy in? Can
<v Speaker 1>I get like a steak or something of this?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, he's just walking by and he's like, there's a
<v Speaker 3>there's a house I'll spend some time in there.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, don't don't like that for him? Well cool, that's
<v Speaker 1>going to be the end of the show for episode
<v Speaker 1>seven thirteen of The Game Former Show. A long one.
<v Speaker 1>We did it though, Games Baby Games. Thanks everybody for
<v Speaker 1>for tuning in. Be sure to go and follow the
<v Speaker 1>crew here. Callow Kyle at Kyle M. Hilliard, Follow Marcus
<v Speaker 1>at Marcus Stewart's seven, Follow Wesley LeBlanc at le Blanc Wes,
<v Speaker 1>and you can follow me Alex van Aikin at its
<v Speaker 1>van Aiken don't forget go and support us by getting
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<v Speaker 1>our worth to our parent company. Frankly speaking, but yeah, good.
<v Speaker 1>It is a very good product. It is we bust
<v Speaker 1>our butts to make that thing. So go go check
<v Speaker 1>out all that stuff. Thanks for listening this week. We'll
<v Speaker 1>see you next Thursday. Goodbye.