[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just because it's like an homage throwback to a Max Payne style game. It is a third person shooter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With like PS1 era graphics, PS1, PS2 era graphics, uh, with bullet time. And you are a noir detective with some really good dialogue and music and atmosphere, but it's a very simple lo-fi game and, uh, you're, you're really just shooting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like vampires and uh, sorry, werewolves and zombies. So it's not necessarily like a shootout, but you're still diving around, diving through windows, you know, dual wielding.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shooting werewolves and shit and, uh, it's, it's good. Uh, it's, it's very straightforward. It's level based. You get to the end of the level. That's it. Uhm, it's, I definitely wish there was a little bit, like I actually do wish that it was just gun wielding enemy types as it does get further along.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It does get more interesting, but like, you know, this type of game, I still feel like is designed best around, you know, shooting other mans.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think that the creativity really is in it embracing the noir.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so you being like a hardboiled noir guy is like, fuck, I gotta solve this problem. And you know, like ditches a cigarette and it's, it's cool. It's a simple game. It's not super long, but I recommend it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's third person. You're like, you're clip-clopping as a man in a trench coat diving and shooting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's cool, but it's got that like dusk, new blood kind of like retro shooter pixel feel to it that I like. Yeah, definitely look it up if you're interested, if you haven't heard of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I like the brawling combat better. I love a turn-based game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yakuza games have fit this weird void for me where uhm, and I haven't been, I haven't played through all of them, but I love them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It kind of fills this void for me where like when I was a kid I loved brawlers, like arcade brawlers, like the Simpsons game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, streets of rage, like all stuff like that. So I love just like kicking ass. Uh, but then as I got older and I played Metal Gear Solid, I love stories and all that. So yeah, cause it feels like it fits this really perfect little thing for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, alright, so Modern Warfare 3. Listen, Gameranx made me play this. Uhm, that being said, I love a Call of Duty campaign. I'm not a Call of Duty person, but I jump into like every campaign because it's always like a fun, quick Michael Bay movie. It's like, you know what you're gonna get.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, yeaah, I only covered the campaign for game ranks, and uhm, really short, it's like 3 or 4 hours, and it feels like they really deprioritized it or something happened.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're like mini war zones where they drop you in an open ended map and it's like weapons free mode and you can walk around and find a crate that gives you a special glowing weapon and there aren't like these


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pretty interesting engaging classic style levels with some creativity. Uh, they do tackle


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No Russian, again. They do like a different spin on it. Uhm, and I thought it was...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's a good point. I don't know. There might be some cynicism behind it, but I think how, what they did actually, I found it to be like terrifying and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you know, it was, it was pretty quick scene, but uh, it had like some shock factor that I think was fairly effective, but not really because I don't care about the rest of the overall story. So in that scene, I was like, wow, this is, I've never seen this in a video game, but then like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I didn't really care, cause like, the characters that they built in the new Modern Warfare, pretty cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They have a captain price that is like the actor, the voice actor, his likeness in the game. And he is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Any other character, uhm, and it's a bummer because it felt like they were onto something with the new modern warfares. Like it could have been an interesting little.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This should just be some like little pack in mode, like an AI bot, like, like terrorist hunt or something from rainbow six. Uh, so to have that just kind of cynically thrown in with a cut scene before it and after it, it's a damn shame.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I, I'm just confused as a, as a consumer who doesn't play the multiplayer a lot. Uhm, it just feels like I'm like, well what, what do you got, wait, what's the focus? Is it Warzone? Like I thought Warzone was just like the end all be all now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then I downloaded it and I was like, all right, time to do what I have to do and play the campaign. So like I fired up and I got, um, I think I wrote it down somewhere.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I got an unskippable trailer for Warzone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that map is the battle pass and there's all these chunks and stuff and it's like, congratulations, you unlocked this. You need to do this. And I'm like, where's the campaign tab? And it was there and I got to it, but I was like, holy shit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I hate to sound like that old man that yells at Cloud, but like, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Next episode is a regular episode and then the episode after that is like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jake Baldino on social media and uh, on YouTube. I'm a little behind on videos because uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] See, this is what I was gonna say, were we gonna be funny first, and then you guys should have been funny, and we could have done right there. See, Gerard, like, you get this. Test monkey! Get on your unit!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was a good one. So people listening, uh, there was a Tekken 8 event and there was, uh, Jin and, uhm, Kazuya, thank you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They were like incredible cosplayer, actor, men with like perfect muscles and the crazy hair. And everybody was walking up and taking pictures with them and they were really cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're actually a little later. This is a really big episode. We're gonna be talking about stuff you may have heard about a while back, but we've also played a lot of things behind the scenes at all these events, so we're talking about a ton. Uh, we're also talking to Ben Starr.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The lead actor of Final Fantasy XVI, he plays Clive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a good chat, it's a good chat. So, uh, with everything we have, I think we'll do a kind of a little breakdown, rundown of some of our highlights of each of the things. That's kind of what we did last year, which was our first episode. So, uh, we might as well start off with the Jeff Keighley Summer Game Fest stream. Um, it was alright.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because he seemed genuine. I've seen anecdotes out there that like he does really genuinely like some games. Uhm, and I think there's more opportunity for him to actually be in something. And that like would get, like, I'd be a consumer. Fortnite. Fortnite.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The bees! Perfect. Yeah, uh, but for me, I think the big thing was Alan Wake too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Seeing that was very nice. Uh, getting a snippet of gameplay. Very much backing up what they've been saying about the game where it's, uh, legit survival horror.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My only problem is I like the, I like big Sonic, not little Sonic. I like my Sonic with like legs and arms and like, you know, six pack. I mean, he doesn't have a six pack, like tall Sonic, but like- What the hell Sonic Sonic have you been looking at?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, it's, it's nice that it, so to me, I keep comparing it to like, I like that it's almost like a comic book now, where it's like, oh, new interpretations of these characters that we've known the archetype of all of them forever, and now things are shaking up a little bit, and it's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then they went like triple down on the gore too, so it's just got this weird tone to it that's like so different than the other games. Where playing it, it's like if you've played the last couple of modern ones, like you've


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You get the gist most, but the cameo stuff is pretty intense. It's actually a little more layered than just each one. You hit a button and they jump in and do a cool thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You press a direction on the button and they'll do different attacks. You have to time them properly and like the characters can actually...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so like I had Jax with me and I couldn't figure out how to like use Jax properly. And I'm like, come on Jax, come out. And then like Scorpion, uh, SubZero just punched him. And he was like, oh no. And he like ran away. And I was like, no way. You're just, you're supposed to just come in and do your thing. So there's a lot to it. And even like the animations and stuff. I love it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, toxic commando is another potentially cool one, where- Oh, the junkie!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, so specifically because, uh, well John Carpenter, like that's cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] John Carpenter's also like, every interview he does, he's always just like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just want money. Like, he's super honest and like, I like that. So I always think of that. But uhm, the trailer, the trailer started off just kinda like, whatever. And then once they showed what it is, I was like, oh, okay, cool. Because it reminds me of like a cancelled game called Dead Rush.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pulling the car out of the mud but stressing that you're being swarmed by zombies. Like it just seems like a fun spin on that like four player zombie thing. You know? It needs a little revitalization.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, I don't, I don't know how to say this, but essentially like, you're a hardcore gamer, like you know it's just flashy marketing. You know the game is going to be like normal Prince of Persia music. It's just a commercial. Like it's going to have the new type of music that is popular. Sure. You know? Yeah, that makes sense. Also I just like hip hop, so I'm always like, yeah, cool, sick.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it was, it was, it was, like, I'm not a mobile gamer guy, so like I went in just kinda like, okay, uh, so it's very mobile game where it's very passive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The battles are auto attack where Cloud just keeps slashing and slashing and then you wait for the, you know, limit break to pop up and you just hit it like, and little variations like that. You can shoot, you can switch between like attack, uh, like offensive, defensive, stuff like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it was the rest of it, it was like walking around, so I got to play through the whole like opening Mako reactor showdown.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uhm, you know, you're hitting those boss beats, uh, you're climbing up those la- or climbing down those ladders, but you're also, uh, getting into random battles. So you're walking through and then, ching, and then a battle starts and I'm like, oh, okay, cool. That's cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They've done this for a while too, like with 15 there was a big strategy, like a whole initiative of having like the game completely represented on mobile one way or another. I never really got into them but there was like a lot of stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's like you go in with your expectations, like I expect like from these a couple of good things, but like actually interesting updates on stuff we already know about and we got that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and little things I liked that like I wanted to tell my person to be like, do that more. Uh, when like Ed Boon was walking Jeff through the game with the game on the screen behind them. It was cool. It was cool. Cause it was like, it was like a developer demo where he's like, Oh yeah, if you see this bar here, like that, like have him explain the game. I liked that. That was cool. I want more of that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After that, we have, uh, PlayDays. Yeah, the actual physical event where, uh, both like media and press and then dirty YouTubers and TikTokers go to check out all the games.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So let's jump in from that, uh, with Playdays. Uh, we were just talking about Alan Wake, so we all got to go see Alan Wake. We got to see the game actually like running and it's kind of an extended sequence of what we saw revealed. Yeah, it was a lot. It's like the lead up before that and after that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wait, you said guy health is one man? I think so? Oh, I didn't know that. Like, nine-inch nails is like... Two guys. Uh, yeah, okay, yeah, but...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, yeah, I left with a lot more questions, but they were like those excited, like, ooh, mystery questions. Uh, from a gameplay perspective, I really like, like, I was surprised how much it's actually leaning in on not only the survival horror stuff, which people got to see, like, you know, it's, it's very like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's so impressive technically even because what they, it's like you hit a button and it just goes zoom and you're in there. And that's like literally in her brain thinking about clues, but it's like a log cabin. There's like coffee on the table. She's in her sweater and you can just walk up to the board and like kind of figure out and click things together.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, the sequence of like you walking with him and just talking about the case and everything and like the breeze is blowing and the trees are spooky. I was like, this does feel like a sequel to Alan Wake definitely, but like, this is like a totally different thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I... Saga was harder to get a read on because we didn't spend enough time with her, and I'm not spoiling anything, but towards the end of what we saw, they set up her like, human angle, and I was like, oh, okay. I was like, alright, cool. I'm in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It felt- oh, which I guess is intentional. Yeah, because- because she's-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, if you think about it, and I apologize to everybody that works at Remedy. Actually, if you're asking me, I think this is a compliment. Uhm, Alan Wake is kinda like the page master starring Macaulay Culkin when he like went into books and stuff and like books came alive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, no, that was when Whoopi Goldberg was a fairy book. Oh!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How about that? It's easy. No, let's build her a PC. I agree. And we'll walk her through it. Let's build Whoopi a PC, dude! Yeah! Sister act. Three. Sister act three, dude.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So when it was first announced, I was like, oh no, that just seems like very video game-y, like it's just like this like new...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, I dunno, I couldn't get a read on it, but once I sat down...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And played it and kind of had it pitched to me, uh, it's kind of like some, some call of duty developers and some other like AAA developers like stepped away and they were like, what if we made a call of duty campaign, like big bombastic action style first person shooter, but like you're all like elite tactical squad wizards.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uhm, it seems kinda, it had a like, it had some like old school charm to it for me, and I mean old school like PS3, Xbox 360 adventure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm just curious to see how far the magic goes, cause as of right now from what we played, it's very, uhm, yes, everything is a gun. Like, blue magic is pistol, uh, green magic is like you blast a machine gun, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was like, oh, I thought I'd be like stacking fire damage or like debuffing enemies and like, I haven't seen too much of that. There's some cool ultimate abilities, but I'm curious to see how it goes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's level 3, not too far, just after the training mission.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Foam Stars by Square Enix, that's their Splatoon, but with foam. It's actually much more than that though.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, it's pretty much the same. I was just like, alright, I'll play this. Let's see, let's see what's up. You know, cause I, I like Splatoon. I'm more of an arms guy, but I'm the only one, but yea. There are dozens of us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think at least to like take that idea and try and do something different with it is fun. I feel like I still am concerned about like how much of an audience it may find, but...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it was, it was, it was fairly fun. It's simple. Uhm, it took me a long time to get a grip on the characters and the abilities, but once I found the one I liked,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then I had time to kind of like figure out the playing field and like have fun with it. It's really simple, but it's, it's more about knocking players out. It's way more about the murder compared to Splatoon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, if the, if the opposing player knocks the player out, there's a little bit of a window of time where the ball goes rolling. You can actually hit it back if you're on the team, like you can be like, no, I got you and like, and surf into them. So combine that with the fact that like a lot of the foam is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and it was like, and because the maps are so small and it is all about the, the, the locomotion in the foam, like it's so easy to just be like, oh yeah, I got to stick by my guy. Like it's so easy to grasp like, okay, time to go group up and protect the, the core star player.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then my other concern is, like, I think of other, like, niche, quirky games. Knockout City. Knockout City, but also the car one that was, like, a little bit twisted metal, but you could jump out of your car and wall run. Destruction All-Stars. Destruction All-Stars. It was, like, kinda cool, but it didn't, it didn't... Yeaah, no, no, no. Yeaah, it didn't catch. It died pretty quick.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Since we are talking about games that we've gotten our hands on and played, I would-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I had a lot of fun playing it. I got real sweaty. I got real gamery. It's challenging. Uhm, I really like that it has a lot of core classic Prince of Persia feel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Specifically when I went through a sequence where it was like butt hole clenching, like, oh, like your time, your jumps have to be perfect and there's spike traps and you have to like jump and wall slide and jump and like dodge traps. Like once that I was like, oh yeah, this is cool. I love this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, and then it's like a pursuit, like a 2D, kind of like a Metroid Dread.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, how'd you do with that? Because I, like, I was able to, like, use it, but it's, like, early in the game, so I wasn't able to get to, like, high level play, but, like, we saw in the trailer, like, you know, him, like, rewinding time to go behind an enemy and stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So basically, just to catch people up to, the way it plays, it's very like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Talk about, uh, one of the most like beautifully feeling and animating little backflips. Yeah. In a game, like when you hit that backflip, it's like, something about it. We need to slide. Are you kidding me? I'm just sliding the whole time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, nothing to really say there. Nope. Uhm, I can talk about Forza and 33 Immortals. Sure. But maybe- You played 33 Immortals?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll tell you more about that in a little bit, Gerard, but we've got a special segment next. We're talking to Ben Starr from Final Fantasy 16. Who's that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wow. Yeah. I think speaking of being Googled, Ben, what's up? Hi, how you doing? Welcome. Thank you for being here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The second in-person guest, our first in-person guest was Tam, who's off camera. Oh, I wasn't there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's significant too because this is the first Final Fantasy where it's like very much focused on Clive. Like you're not rolling deep with a massive party of colorful characters. Like a lot of it is on you. So that has to have been pretty intensive. Was it like four years of constant work or was it like waiting games in between? Like how does that process go?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In terms of, uh, portraying the same character at multiple spans of their life, like, let's get into process a little bit. How does that work? Because do you just, do you just talk like younger? That's exactly what I do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What do you think is gonna surprise players or like what's gonna be a takeaway for people like us who've like played


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We are looking forward to the game. We're very excited for you. Proud of you. This is crazy. So good luck with everything and maybe like we can come back and talk spoilers or something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fantastic, but yeaah. So my thing with Fable is I still don't know what it is. For me, this trailer just gave me like, humor confirmation. Which is good, as a like, die hard Fable weirdo, I am so happy that there is like a good tone and it's funny, but I don't know a single thing about this game. Yes, I agree.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The new Forza Motorsport, uhm, it has graphics. Yep. And a Corvette.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I did get to see a lot more of it, uh, behind the scenes and talk to the developers. And, uh, the coolest thing about it is that they're very self aware of how the last couple of games have been where it's like so much freedom, where it's like, get that awesome car and go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now they're like, okay, like after a while, that kind of loses its luster. So they're rethinking like the progression loop. So like you're doing stuff, like you're leveling up your cars and earning upgrades and doing that whole type of thing. And I'm happy to have that again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, uhm, in terms of the Forza thing, it's, it's just cool that they're, they're rethinking how the actual play goes, because they got the simulation, the graphics, like they have all of that, so it's more about getting new interesting ways to play, and I asked if the DeLorean is in the game, and they wouldn't confirm, but they have a good relationship with Forza Horizon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, uhm, that was, that was interesting. Uh, the other one I got to play was a game they revealed pretty early on, uh, in the presentation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pretty cool. I only got to experience so much of it, but uhm, it's like you all emerge and then like this, you're like a whole crowd of players and you all play together in a top down almost like Hades light type thing and you're given a random weapon. You're either ranged or melee.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you just go. And it just gets more and more chaotic, more characters pop on the screen, and there's like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, team moves essentially, where like if you hit a button, it's like, okay guys, I'm gonna hit this button, and you put like a...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Three circles on the ground. And so three other players have to scurry over and get in those circles and then you all hit the button and then you get like a health boost or like a big arrow attack. And it's pretty challenging, it's pretty fun, there's loot, there's like you're going into little dungeons, beating quick little mini bosses, getting loot, keeping going.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The game does a really good job of pacing through these runs where it's like they get you in a groove where you're all starting to communicate and like everybody's good, everybody's playing together, everybody has their roles, and then the game drops something to make you all go,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a good, it's a good little hook. I'm curious to see, like, it seems like it, like I'm hoping it's just easy to hop in, like, and find people, like kind of like almost like a journey thing, like you can just kind of emerge into worlds with.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's interesting. Yeah. Next up, we got like a good look at Avowed, which, uh, just seems obviously so much more fleshed out now from that original little teaser trailer. Like we get to see what it is now. Uh, I also need to make sure I remember this takes place in the Pillars of Eternity universe. Yes. I keep forgetting that. Yes. Um, but yeah, what did you guys think of that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm dumb, uh, the whole like beginning of the trailer, I thought it was like a new Pirates Assassin's Creed, like it just looked like it was like a pirate guy walking on deck, his hood was up and I was like, what, what? Wait, this isn't the Ubisoft thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It doesn't have the stuff that some people want.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It seems like Phil Spencer has always been about that, so like it's cool that that's definitely a thing now. Uh, there's also, uh, just briefly, the new Cities game looks incredible. It does actually. I love Cities Skylines. Did you really? I would not have picked that. Oh my god. No way. Oh my god. Cities Skylines and like Civilization and Frostpunk, like I like those types of things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I really like sitting in like a stadium full of gamers watching.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, someone drag and drop, like, zoning districts, and like, plumbing and electrical lines and stuff. It's just, I love those games. And this, this one's coming out, I believe, this year. October. Yeah. Wow. Smack, smack dab in October when every other game is coming out. Yeah. It's all September and all October. But yeah, that was, that was cool. But I think, uh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I was also in the Xbox presentation. I was sitting next to the speaker and it was just like all crazy sound. It was like a mental like ASMR. Yeah, and I was just like right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm curious to see, uh, dual protagonists, like if they're gonna be in different places.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All, like I wanna build a ship, I wanna like roleplay and try and make like a Star Wars guy and like have fun and like do space stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's the story stuff that like, it hits me like a brick. None of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll see though. It's a lot. It's, it's, it seems like it is definitely a big game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, for sure. My other lingering questions are just like, the combat seemed a little bit more appealing this time we saw it, but still can't judge that yet. And then, uh, the 30 frames per second on console. Yeah, what do you guys think about that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll see. No, I agree, I agree. I just, I've grown custody, I went from being like, I don't like having to choose between like, prioritizing this or that. I'll just play on PC.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But now that I'm playing a console game where it's like, the choice is made for me, I'm like, wait, no, I like those choices. I don't care about 4K. Because they're like, it's 30 FPS, 4K. And I'm like, I don't, I don't care about 4K as much, you know?


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[Assistant] I like that. I really want to see how much like it can actually, can it cash this check it wrote in the trailer where it's like, oh, it's going to change the world's going to change. And you know, like your, your decisions, like.


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[Assistant] It has that going for it, and then it has not really a lot of like big AAA, steampunky, industrial revolution-y type games. True.


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[Assistant] But, with that, uh, last event was, or at least at the time of recording this, really was Ubisoft. Yeah, we're not talking about Capcom. No, uh, Progmata, sorry. RIP.


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[Assistant] Yes, lots of ghost trick. Yeah, sure. Um, Gerard, would you like to start for Ubisoft? Something that, we already talked about Prince of Persia, but uh,


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[Assistant] It also is like totally different than the actual blood dragon. Like yeaah. I like that they just kinda like made some weird quirky thing. I think I would have liked to have seen like Michael Bean reprise his role as like the guy.


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[Assistant] Yeah, uh, it seems technically ambitious. It's like you hop in a spaceship, fly away, go up into space, do dogfighting, go land on another planet. Pretty cool. Sorry, go ahead. No, I don't really know yet. Like, I guess I haven't seen enough.


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[Assistant] Yeah, the BX Commando Droid wearing a trench coat is so sick. Oh, that hot droid that everyone's listening over? Yes, hot droid.


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[Assistant] I, I, uh, yeaah, it's, it's, they're making an avatar game. I like it's like, it's a new area, the western frontier. I like that. It seems like you can just freely jump on your, um,


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[Assistant] As a Navi, right? You're very big. Are you saying yourself? And you're very capable, capable.


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[Assistant] They, they highlighted a little bit of like you using jump pads to like jump around and sprint, but like when it was gameplay, it was really just like you're running and sliding and Titan fall toing people. That's really it. And I was like, Oh, I wanted to like really.


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[Assistant] When I saw the big blue hand open up a circuit breaker and I laughed out loud. But uhm, I think the, like, one of the cooler things was that they said that it's


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[Assistant] Not a fan of those, like, pre-rendered, like, this is what it feels like in VR. Like, that doesn't work for me. And then the presentation behind closed doors, we got, like, screenshots. Yeaah.


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[Assistant] They are excited about having a new, like, telling new little stories of those characters and how there's gonna be a story that ties that all together. I don't know, I just appreciate that Ubisoft does dump money into VR sometimes and they try stuff. I agree. So, yeaah. But the big thing was Assassin's Creed Mirage.


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[Assistant] Which, uh, I'm pretty, like, I'm an easy mark because, like, I-


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[Assistant] Just as, and for me, it's not that like teleporting attack thing. That mark and execute thing. I was like, how does this make sense in the lore? I was very like jammed up about that.


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[Assistant] Which, cool. And I like that they said it's a, uh, coming of age story, like we're gonna see Basim younger and then kind of work his way up, which I love just because I really like that about Ezio's story. I like seeing him as like a young, like, you know, uh, bonjour and then he like becomes, yeah.


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[Assistant] Yeah, exactly. I think that's a good note to end on. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been Friends Per Second, episode 23. Thank you for being here. Like I said, uh, next week we're gonna be talking about Final Fantasy and stuff and we're gonna go back to the normal format. So be sure to hit us with questions at the email.


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[Assistant] So yeah, uhm, thank you guys for listening. We're going to try and be in person sometimes because it's fun. This is really good. Yeah. I stared at you the whole time, Gerard, just because you're in my eyeline. So I'm like getting really tense. I feel, I feel


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[Assistant] Ghostbusters 2, that's what I'm gonna do. But ladies and gentlemen, thank you for listening, watching, uh, check out our social media, cause we got clips now. Clips channel now. Yeah, we got a clips channel as well. Just search friends per second. That's gonna be a thing you're gonna start to see slowly kind of boiling up.


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[Assistant] But, uh, for now, just thanks for being with us. Tie your shoes and go to bed.


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[Assistant] My friend gave me this for my, uh, Chris Redfield Halloween costume. Really? You know, Chris Redfield, like in the intro, but it's terrifying. I barely know how to use it and it like can explode in your face. Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it. It doesn't like light though. I think it doesn't have...


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[Assistant] I don't think it has stuff in it. Like the fluid or whatever. Clearly I'm a smoker.


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[Assistant] It's cool. What can I say? Yeaah. I just need like a toothpick in my mouth and I'll be like a cool guy.


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[Assistant] Our neighborhood was alright, it was like, if you, if you walk down our street, it was just like, Mary Poppins and movie accurate, like strikingly movie accurate, Batman just drinking beer and handing out full size candy bars.


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[Assistant] First year in the new neighborhood, so it was like when you go to jail and you fight the biggest person there on the first day, it's like you gotta like, you gotta like show off, you gotta like flex.


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[Assistant] And I acknowledged him, I was like, whoa, Link, and he held up a sword and I was like, that's a cool sword, that's the master sword, and by acknowledging that, he thought that meant that he could hit me.


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[Assistant] Welcome to, uh, the Friends per Second podcast. This is a podcast where four and sometimes more friends gather to talk about video games and stuff. This is episode 33, believe it or not. I'm Jake Baldino. I'm joined as, uh, as always, of course, by, uh, Ralph aka Skill Up, Gerard the Completionist, and Lucy James. How you guys doing?


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[Assistant] Review, I want to game review Jorts. Yup. Uh, this is a, this is a busy episode. It's a catch up cause I was gone last week. I was sick. We missed you.


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[Assistant] A lot of games to talk about, we have a fantastic interview with Kyle Rowley and


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[Assistant] I'd say stick around specifically because it's about the state of the industry. We've talked a lot in the past about, uh, layoffs. It's been a big trend this year, despite so many great games and successes.


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[Assistant] Not happy about this. A lot of people are questioning like, well, what am I, what's destiny now? There's so much to dive into with this, but Ralph, I know you've been like following along with it, like to the letter as soon as it started coming out. Uh, what's your, what's your like top level takeaway?


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[Assistant] So it's just like that too, like I don't, I don't even know how a lot of the process works, but like what's, what's the game plan for stuff like that? Are they going to have the interns make music? Are they going to go to audiojungle.com and download the music? Like how to even not just in terms of him, but just.


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[Assistant] The fact that like Ralph, to your point, how it's a very front facing company, a communicative company and communications and social media and community management people have been laid off. So it's like, what's the plan here?


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[Assistant] So I've been kind of living in, uh, like renovation and construction and stuff like that. So I haven't really been able to eat.


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[Assistant] Daily multivitamin type thing with AG1 because it's just like a fun little green drink.


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[Assistant] Uh, vitamin B and that makes a difference, especially when you're like me and you don't have a stove or a microwave and you're barely eating.


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[Assistant] Jumping back, the biggest release from the last week or so was Alan Wake 2. Definitely took a lot of people by storm. Uh, I really loved it.


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[Assistant] Uh, Lucy, I know it is absolutely your jam. It's my shit. Like, just up your alley. So what's your, like, non-spoiler take?


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[Assistant] Love to say it. Yeah, visually it's pretty nuts. Graphically, but also art direction.


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[Assistant] Control really had it figured out with like incredible lighting and like bold titles and all this great like light and dark imagery but


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[Assistant] I think here the best thing is the jumping between the two worlds. So there's Saga's woodsy world and then there's, uh, Alan's noir, grimy, dirty, like turbo New York. Uhm, and the contrast is so


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[Assistant] Awesome and flipping back and forth and the kind of like different field, different style, different visual, like even a little bit of like gameplay differences.


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[Assistant] Was really good pacing wise. The way I played, I jumped around as much as I could. Oh you did? Okay. Yeah, I did the opposite. I just played through.


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[Assistant] I, so I jumped around a lot because like I like the feel, but I also any opportunity I could, I wanted to move back and forth because I was like, let me see if I can break this. Like, is this going to hold up? Am I still going to understand?


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[Assistant] The core, you know, the base story. And I did, thankfully, which I think is a testament to.


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[Assistant] Like that's, that's pretty tricky. Like, so the fact that I was able to tell what was going on and keep track of things was...


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[Assistant] Well paced. I also was just very happy that like, from a gameplay perspective,


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[Assistant] I really liked it. The combat and the survival horror elements are simple. It's not the most complex third person shooter or anything.


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[Assistant] But, uh, it was just challenging enough. I liked the enemy types, specifically in Alan's world. Uh, it's not often I play a game where, like,


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[Assistant] I find the enemies that unpredictable and they make me skittish.


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[Assistant] Perfect for that. Uh, can I freak out a little bit about just like how


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[Assistant] Finding little tiny Max Payne things here and there, finding


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[Assistant] Like, all kind, like, I don't want to spoil anything, but like, that stuff just like, I haven't like gushed about this yet, excuse me, like in a video, so like, fuck, I don't know.


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[Assistant] Exciting too, like it's just exciting, the word, specifically because, and it's the same reason why, like Gerard, like with Control, like why I liked Control, is that you can look at Control and you can look at Alan Wake too and think like, oh, they really love that, they're, they're, they definitely are referencing that. That's their thing that they do. By this. Yeah.


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[Assistant] Even with all those influences, it, the product itself, the end result thing is so unique. Like I can't really point to another video game and be like, oh, that's like Al, you know, that's like Alan Wake or that's like Control. Like they are so much their own unique things despite all the influences. That's like a really impressive and hard to like pin down thing. Absolutely.


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[Assistant] Problem is that, like, without a shirt on, I look like ET. So. I want judges.


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[Assistant] Well, I like that we did manage to talk to Kyle and Sam specifically about, uh, some of that Finnish influence and like, you know, the game having an identity about that. So, uh,


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[Assistant] I think without further ado, we should roll that interview because it was a lot of fun. A lot of good insight. So, uh, Sam Lake, you know, you know him.


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[Assistant] Kyle Rowley, if you don't know him, now you do. Uh, co-directors of Alan Wake 2. Here we go.


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[Assistant] Thank you guys so much for being here. Uh, I want to dive right into specifically the fact that you guys are co-directors. Uh, for the layman, Kyle, I'd like to start with you. How does co-director- Oh, isn't that great?


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[Assistant] Very wholesome. So, so how, Kyle, how does co-directing work? Do you split duties? Is it like one person handles Saga, one person handles Alan? We have no idea.


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[Assistant] That's interesting because you guys have gone on record saying you've wanted to make Alan Wake 2 for, what, 13 years? So.


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[Assistant] What was it that was keeping you from doing that? Was it just money? Was it an idea? What was it?


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[Assistant] What about the, uh, coffee themed theme park? Is there, is there a Finnish equivalent or something like that? Because it felt as someone from a small town who had a little weird theme park in the woods, you nailed it.


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[Assistant] Well, let's move over to live action.


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[Assistant] What, you guys have done live action before, but what is the main driving force behind that?


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[Assistant] Well, speaking of the future, I mean, you guys have done live action, projection, radio, TV shows. Is there another medium you're passionate about that you guys would want to tackle? Like, are we going to see like lords and ladies in 3D or something?


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[Assistant] Well, Kyle, Sam, thank you guys so much for talking with us. Uh, we'd love to talk to you again soon with other stuff you got cooking up, but for now, we'll see ya.


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[Assistant] They're an easy gift. I got a pair from my dad. Basically anybody in your family, it strikes that category, but.


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[Assistant] Raycon has expanded, uh, with Raycon Home and Raycon PowerTech. When you hear PowerTech, you're like, what is that? Well, the biggest thing from PowerTech is their five star reviewed Magic 180 cable, lets you charge iOS, micro USB,


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[Assistant] But of course, their biggest product are the wireless earbuds. They have been tried and true.


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[Assistant] For a while now, 32 hour battery life, a handy dandy little carrying case that's smaller.


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[Assistant] It would have been bad. What is nice though, uh, in the interview and just in general, like Sam Lake remedy, like they, they don't shy away from the fact that like Max Payne was a formative part of


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[Assistant] Their careers and like influence them moving forward and they're, they're proud of that. They're not like, Oh yeah, we made that weird little game. Like, no, it's a big part of their thing. And I like that. It's cool.


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[Assistant] Also, I don't, I don't, thank you for the opportunity first of all, uh, but also Abby, I don't know if it made it in the edit, but Abby met Max Payne, like Abby jumped, Abby jumped in front of the camera as we were talking.


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[Assistant] Oh, cats, man. Oh, boy. Well, uh, before we jump into the games we're playing, I did want to hear a little bit more about Indie-land.


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[Assistant] Gerard, specifically, I know you talked about it on the podcast a little bit last year, but like, what's the elevator pitch for what exactly it is?


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[Assistant] Yeaah. Well, congrats on another successful indie land. Thank you. Sounds awesome. Thank you.


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[Assistant] People, go check it out, uh, definitely check out that Steam stuff, because a lot of games. Always good to find, you know, in case you...


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[Assistant] When it was time to talk about Spider-Man, my thing, my life. Shout out to Ben Hansen for replacing me. He'd be great.


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[Assistant] Uh, it doesn't quite emotionally hit.


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[Assistant] As hard, but where it does hit hard here is like.


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[Assistant] Having so much crazy stuff going on on screen, a really good visual representation of Venom, a threatening Venom, Spider-Man squaring off against him, but then also integrating Miles Morales into this story.


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[Assistant] Where Miles Morales is caught up in his story with Craven and...


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[Assistant] Not necessarily flew by, but I felt like some beats didn't have time to like totally breathe.


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[Assistant] Without spoiling anything, there's a couple of sections of the game where it's like, well, that happened anyway. And then it just keeps going where like, I feel like in the Spider-Man 2018, they were very good at like, all right, well like let's stop and like, like cry for five minutes and like do a whole thing where this was like, no, let's go next, next crazy set piece. Good, but also, you know,


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[Assistant] Uhm, otherwise, yeaah, it was just kind of like,


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[Assistant] Gameplay wise, you know, it felt similar to the last game. Combat wise, uhm, I felt the bosses, I found the bosses more difficult this time around.


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[Assistant] So, Brian Intihar in, I don't know if it was in our interview or maybe it was another one I read, I watched a couple of them, uh, talking about stuff like that, like the sand and like having things that happened in the world and then they like stick around.


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[Assistant] Happened and then like once you start playing again, you turn around and there's not like a, you know.


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[Assistant] Yeah, a lot of fans have found some weird stuff behind some walls around there. If it's the hand, that'd be really cool. Also, if it was the hand, what if they went into the weird new modern


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[Assistant] Uh, Punisher, where he's like the leader of the hand. That's like a weird tangent. But, uh, yeah, yeah, a lot of cool shit. Uh, there's potential for them to essentially pick up where the MCU is kind of waning in some ways for many people. Uh, I think the Marvel game studios have a way


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[Assistant] There are, uh, if you go... It was made by Silicon Knights, it was. Hell yea. If you go north of, uh, like, what is there, Forest Hills, or you go north of Queens, like the north end in the game, there are two


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[Assistant] Is this like, you know, geographically, it should be like, you know, 20 miles further north, but whatever. Um, but yeah, like, so like that having that excitement, like I don't have that excitement about like the MCU movies now as much where like you see something and you're like, is that.


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[Assistant] Is that gonna be, is that Iron Man's shoe? Like what the fuck? Like you don't have that anymore. So to have that a little bit in a game is cool. So I hope they continue with that.


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[Assistant] Yeah, there was, there was, is this, cause we've seen footage of this in the past. Uhm, yeah man. Oh boy. Anyway, uh, that's enough of the superhero nonsense and enough of this. Uh, I do wanna hear about Mario Wonder. Uhm, Ralph, did you guys talk about this last week?


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[Assistant] Yeah, see what I'm doing. It's all good, what's the deal? I played it when I was like 10, and I was like, this looks cool, but why is it boring? So I'm excited to play it again as an adult.


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[Assistant] That would be so cool, they could add like more RPG mechanics to it, like you can romance Bowser or something, like Bowser's at the camp at night and he's like, so Mario, and you can like be like, oh.


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[Assistant] Speaking of RPGs, uh, in terms of the games we wrote down that we're playing, Lucy, you put Final Fantasy 12?


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[Assistant] Cool. Alright, well with that, with Game Talk, let's jump over to our...


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[Assistant] Fabled segment. Gerard, kick it off.


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[Assistant] Jake, what's your game for this week? Uh, I was, I was gonna do the Matrix Path of Neo, but to not, to not do another movie game. Uh, 17 years ago, in 2006, cause I'm predictable as hell, we had Tony Hawk's Project 8. This one is often forgotten.


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[Assistant] The one that really kind of felt built for PS3 and 360 generation. Uhm, it had semi, it had a little bit more bigger levels, the graphics were pretty awesome at the time, and there was a gameplay mechanic that, uh,


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[Assistant] I can't believe I could speak so clearly to this 17 year old game. There was a gameplay mechanic that seemed like a gimmick at first, but once you got into it actually was pretty awesome. So.


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[Assistant] Your, your, your feet were the sticks and like you could.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it was, it was cool for that. And uh, yeah, people forget about that one.


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[Assistant] Ahhhh, it had, uh, ba-na-na-na-na-na.


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[Assistant] Wow, a lot of stuff. Thank you guys for being here. Thank you to everybody that joined us for all the other segments. Uh, we gotta get back to playing a bunch of other games to talk about for the rest of the season. So let's go do that. Uh, anybody have anything special they'd like to share before, before we go?


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[Assistant] Apologize to him. To Alex Murphy. I'm sorry Alex. Yeah man.


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[Assistant] Oh man. Oh well, with that, uh, thank you folks for listening. Thank you to the sponsors. Thanks for the guests. Uh, rating us on the podcast platforms does help. Clicking the like button on the video version does actually help. So if you like us, thanks for doing that. But that's really it. Thank you guys for watching. Tie your shoes and go to bed.


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[Assistant] Uh, yeah, I mean, when I first like got up and like was checking my phone and everything, I saw that a couple of people were being laid off and I was like, Oh, sucks. Sounds like a couple of people from bungee getting laid off. I didn't really think too much of it, but then as you know, the, that first 15 minutes turned into the first.


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[Assistant] We've ever seen something like this really happen with, with Bungie or the people working on Destiny. So it was a bit of a surprise, even though like I knew that like, yeah, you know, population's down a little bit. Okay. But like, you know, we've had that happen before and it's never been a huge deal. So.


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[Assistant] I mean, now that we kind of know some more details, like, you know, maybe who is responsible, I talked about this in a video that I talked about this nebulous upper management Illuminati, whatever's going on at Bungie, like I


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[Assistant] You know, without someone to like focus, like, why did you do, why didn't you do this, or why didn't you allow people to do that, blah blah blah. Like without more of that information, it's just kind of like, I've just been more sympathetic to


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[Assistant] The employees of Bungie as opposed to like, there's like the people who work at Bungie and then there's Bungie Core, you know?


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[Assistant] You know, I've just kind of felt more sympathy for the employees because they're still just trying to make the best game that they possibly can and I know that they're trying to do that.


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[Assistant] So it's just tough to evaluate all those things with still so many missing bits of information.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I think episodes still will definitely be like episode one is definitely going to be a thing. Like, you know.


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[Assistant] They have to have something immediately after, and I do think episodes 2 and 3 are going to also eventually be a thing, but I think Bungie's still trying to figure out like,


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[Assistant] What are, what are we doing next? Like are we gonna have expansions? Like are we gonna tap into a new 10 year story? Is it gonna be a 5 year story? Is it gonna be a 3 year story? Are we gonna tell smaller stories? Like they're still probably


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[Assistant] Figuring out the next big cosmic threat in the game. And that's, I think that's where some of that uncertainty is also coming from. It's like, they don't probably even know yet.


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[Assistant] It's, it's probably a lot of things all stacking on top of each other. Like I don't think there's one specific catalyst. You know, some of me, some people might point to Lightfall as being, you know, like this was the point where things fell apart. And like, I just.


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[Assistant] Like, I still think Lightfall gameplay wise, I know people have issues with the story, but gameplay wise I still think it was pretty solid, like the Legend campaign was good.


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[Assistant] My hot take for season 21 was that it's going to be one of the better reviewed seasons when we like go look back on it. Season 22 also is kind of following that path. I kind of expect this see like this year of seasons to actually be some of the best seasons that we're going to get if we just look at them as like a individual season by season basis.


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[Assistant] But I think a lot of it is just fatigue. I think it's just things haven't changed enough that people are just kinda tired. And it's also the fact that this year has like, it's like one of the best years for gaming since like the year 2000 basically.


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[Assistant] So, you have so many more options and you have a fanbase that's incredibly, incredibly fatigued on the game, uh, even if the game itself is like not in the worst state in the world, it's just people being tired, people wanting something a little fresher in the game.


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[Assistant] And, uh, yeah, I mean, that's kind of, that's kind of where I've been. It's like, I don't get anything out of seasonal activity. They're never going to make enough stuff for someone like me where like I'm just crushing Grandmaster Nightfalls like they're nothing, right? They're never going to have enough for someone like me. So a seasonal activity I'm going to tune out.


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[Assistant] Uhm, everybody else is, you know, a little bit different and I think it just depends on, uh, how you enjoy the game and what you enjoy about the game that is causing some problems.


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[Assistant] I totally agree. I think something that people definitely overlook about the whole over delivery thing as well. It's been a minute since I've watched it. Uh, I need to go back and watch it, but I do think a small part of it as well is just making sure that the amount of stuff you're able to make doesn't cause your company to have to go into crunch mode. I agree. And that was.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I think that is definitely lost on a lot of people. It's like we see so much about like company X had to crunch 80 hours a week to get this game out the door and they had to do it for six months. Uhm, but then like you're also like, but also make more stuff like, you know, it's, it's a tough balance.


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[Assistant] I think, I don't know, they've been so reluc- to me, like, the number one thing you can do is reduce barrier to entry and like, reduce a lot of the stigma of like, the game's so expensive to get into, like, if you wait for a sale,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's not that bad, but if you're just like wanting to be like, I want to get into Destiny and you go look at like all the things that you need to buy compared to like how like relevant they are or well received they are, like, I'm not going to tell someone to spend $25 on the Shadowkeep campaign. Why is Shadowkeep still $25, right? Is that built, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And yes, I know millions of dollars of research has gone into maximizing how much you should charge for a thing to get the money back. But like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You need to start building some goodwill with everyone, let's make some stuff cheaper, and then otherwise like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Short term, I don't know, you need to give people more access to the game, more, like, people like stuff, you know, people like getting stuff for free, they like getting stuff for cheap.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, so I think that would be like an interesting start, but it's also just so far into the franchise and like it's literally the equivalent of watching, you know, the final Avengers movie and you haven't watched any other movie. It's like, how do you onboard those people?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like the number one thing all Destiny creators here, whenever there's like a meet and greet or a convention is like, hey man, used to watch your videos all the time. Number one thing. Brutal. Used to watch you all the time, dude. And we appreciate it. But also, oh man, that is telling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, I believe that they're gonna try. I don't believe just yet that it's gonna be, you know, super, super insane as much as I want it to be, but yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but I think they were just trying to whip up anything in the short term to try to, you know, reassure people that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're gonna be trying their butts off to, to make it something really special. Um, I wasn't really expecting a whole lot from them, like in, in their Thursday update at all. Like that was the most I was expecting of just like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey, we know everything's on fire. We're also on fire. So let us put a list. We're going to extinguish each other first and then we will come talk to you. So that's, that's all I was expecting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, I don't know, it doesn't really surprise me too much, but we've also heard this kind of talk before, like so many times over.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From the gameplay side of things, I don't know, I thought Season 21's activity where they start to get into rogue-lite type things


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I've always been wanting like a competitive PvE thing, like where is my competitive PvE trials equivalent thing, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I, like, that's what I think they need to be experimenting with is just more options. You look at some of these other games from the past, you look at something like Starcraft.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You look at something like Fortnite, you look at something like Overwatch, where people are able to come up with their own custom game modes and essentially put them into the game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm not asking for Bungie to all of a sudden, you know, open up the equivalent of Forge because I imagine that is not what the game was designed for, but providing a wider breadth of like activities to go try to pursue and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yeaah, final, I mean, my expectations for Final Shape was just like, I just want like a Witch Queen level campaign, just like dialed up another 50%. That's all I was really expecting, like, we're at the end of the story, let's just conclude the story, let's have it be a banger.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then episodes is like, all right, where, where are we going to iterate now? Like I just want a solid, solid ending to this game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then, like, exactly, it's like how are you gonna convince people to stick around?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm, I'm fully expecting a pretty significant drop off of players after Final Shape, and I don't think there's pretty much anything Bungie can do about those people. Like, Final Shape could be the greatest thing that we've ever seen in the franchise, some people just no matter what are gonna be done. They're just, I don't care, I've been playing this game for 10 years, I'm moving on


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Doesn't matter. And it could be 20%. I feel like it's conservative. 15 to 20% is conservative. It could go up to 30, 40% of people dropping off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so, I mean, I still think we get episodes and I think they have a lot to prove with episodes and how those end up turning out. Uhm, for me, the big struggle I think Bungie has ahead of them is just how do you onboard new people?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How do you onboard people to a 10 year franchise that basically for the past 5 years only gets negative press?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, as much as people hate the DCV but also hopefully understand the need for it, I think if Bungie were able to figure out some way to allow people to play the whole game through, that would be a decent start.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But they need to just wow the hell out of people in Final Shape and then also the seasons. Maybe this expansion after Final Shape would be the new launching off point for a lot of people. I could see that because episodes are gonna be, I'm feeling like more of an epilogue type thing. Like here's the things to like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then we transition into, here's the next new thing that's gonna happen to the world. And that's where I feel like your new launching off point for a lot of people is gonna be, it's gonna be a fresh story, it's gonna be a fresh...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you know, maybe new batch of characters, we don't know. Uhm, I'm not gonna say fresh start completely because we're still gonna have all of our stuff, I imagine.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What I'm envisioning is just a very big drop off and bungee trying to figure out how to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Either bring people to the game or keep those people for a little while longer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] for, for completely selfish, just like number go up reasons and maybe just for marketing purposes, but like, I've had enough talks to, to be like, what is, what


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is Destiny 3, like, what would Destiny 3 need to accomplish that they couldn't do in Destiny 2 right now?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like that, that's the thing to me, is what, what does it accomplish versus just continuing


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] to iterate on the game. I get maybe for like technological, engineering, networking reasons if they would want to be like, all right, we're pulling a CS2, we got to get off a source, a source engine and over to source to let's rip the bandaid off and do something like that. That is 100% understandable. But outside of those reasons.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you know, it'd be neat to see what they could do, but I'm just not expecting to see anything along those lines.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I just don't know. Like, Tarkov to me is not interesting. I've watched my friends play and I'm just like crawling around the grass for 10 minutes at a time for someone to sneak up on you or snipe you from 500 meters out. Like, that's not fun for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, it would completely depend on what the game actually is. I haven't heard anything about Marathon, I haven't seen anything about Marathon, no one's tried to give me inside information about Marathon. The only relationship that I've had with Marathon is a friend telling me, uh, uh, a long time ago, maybe like, like, I've seen it!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's it. Like, no info- I have no information, literally no context for anything at all. Haven't- I haven't been invited to an event, uhm, I don't know if I will be invited to an event.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and also my channel is not really meant to be like the Bungie channel. It was just the Destiny channel. Um, so would I like to be entertained by it? Sure. If, if it grabs me enough, would I like to make content on it? Sure. But without even like seeing any real gameplay, I just kind of like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Talk to me when it comes out. Or talk to me when there's an alpha or a beta or I get invited to an event. If I get invited to an event, something. But until then, it's impossible for me to make a call. Okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are you joking? Greg Miller. Greg Miller likes Ghostbusters too? Greg Miller likes Ghostbusters? Y'all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, you know what, I've just stopped. Like Marvel, I've just stopped being too invested in it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's nice just talking to people who work on the other side, like in games, because we're all a bunch of freaks and the people who make games are just normal, real, rational people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's nice to hear them just like legitimately talk about their work. And I think that kind of resonated with people. I mean Reddit, some people on Reddit were like mad that we didn't like yell at him, but the game wasn't even out at that point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everything's weird and like, you can just keep kind of stumbling upon things. It's got that, it's a perfect example of like, dense, not.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Massive open world, but a good sized world that is dense with actual interesting things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I die a lot in combat and I have to like reload that, but other than that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm rolling with my fuckups and it's really fun. That's been the most satisfying thing to me so far is just seeing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How many weird things the game can throw at me after trying something weird or saying the wrong thing or screwing up a dice roll. And that's, it's really, it's really nice for that. That's where it kind of feels like there's that video game magic to me where I'm like, wow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Holy shit, another surprise. Like whole, like it just keeps. Not to sound like too hype manny, but you know, yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would hit the wall the most when it would start. I don't know, I would do something wrong and then I was trying to avoid combat and then I got thrown into combat where I was super unprepared and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, I love D&D and now I can kind of try and have my little character in the game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've talked to some people who are like, oh, like I play D&D with my friends or I play D&D with my dad. And now we're going to like jump into this new game together. I think the co-op.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Aspect of this is like the most underrated or least talked about thing because the fact that you can engage in this whole game with someone else is nuts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it's like, the voice acting, the writing, the faces, the way the bodies move as they speak.


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[Assistant] Like for a lot of moments, it's really surprising and it just works. Like I'm about it.


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[Assistant] Because like, I think it is still as good as it is, I still think it is a very specific type of game for specific types of players. I think this one can onboard people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Better than their previous games though, because I, I've been someone who has been like acutely aware of the divinity original sin games.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Checked out the first one a little bit, checked out the second one a little bit, but they were games where I felt like I just had to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And for some reason with this one, it just came way quicker, way easier. And I can't like explain why.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe it's what I said about like how enthralling the characters are immediately, but yeaah.


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[Assistant] And speak to some of the Dungeons and Dragons people I know who've been asking me to play forever. And now I could be like, I know about those people in the stars.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know if it's burnout or something, but like I've played and seen and experienced a lot of like good games this year, but now that I'm sitting here thinking, there's not one that like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Instantly to me is like, ooh, yeah, that's the best shit ever. I don't really have that yet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I know we're like a little bit more than halfway through the year and I'm not saying that any of the games out, uh, that re- that released in the last couple months are bad or anything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] None of them really quite to me has like that holy shit. Maybe Baldur's Gate 3? Maybe? But.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, some of the, some of the best games that like I enjoyed this year are like remakes or remasters, which is weird. Like Resident Evil 4 remake absolutely loved it because it's well done.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because it was fun seeing that journey again, but in a different lens.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then, I mean, Metroid Prime Remastered I also just really, really, really liked, but that's just cause I was in the mood to replay it, and now it's nicer looking. Yeah, and it's just really good, so it's easy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've been, I've been struggling with like my, my, my wrap up brain. My, the, the, the couple of things, and I had added these to the list, the couple of things that really stick out to me are like, yeah, like I blasted through Jedi survivor really like that. So many other things, but then it was the littler things like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dredge, you guys recommending Dredge to me, and me playing that and like, every night wrapped up in bed, absorbed in that little boat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's so different from my day to day normal gaming thing where I'm like, all right, another one, let's go to work. This is fun. This is cool. I can tell this is good. Dredge was different. And then Hi-Fi rush is another one where it just came out of nowhere.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it was a total surprise. And to me, like, I love cartoons, I love animation, I love all the influences that game had on its sleeve, and it was just so cool to just get hit in the face with that. So it's like, I'm going more on like, like vibes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I also agree. I needed that. Like as I get grinchy, but I especially like with discourse and online gaming and how things can be picked apart and how we kind of lose sight of like what the fun is. Then there are moments like this where we are all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What are, uh, what are people going to be doing together other than dungeon running when they're out?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, in, in the hubs, uh, together, what do you think players are gonna be doing?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, grape is actually, it's called green grape and there is also, uh, new white peach and lemon lime. White peach is my favorite. I'm just like a sucker for anything peach and it's super easy. You just have the packet slamming in some water and you're good to go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And my favorite thing, and I know it sounds like I'm like a corny commercial guy right now, but like legitimately zero sugar and no artificial sweeteners, that kind of thing can drive me nuts. So they actually nail it here. It still tastes really good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the Excite games? Like Excitebike? You can do a whole cool franchise. Like wasn't there an Excite truck?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Game or something like that. So like we could do like excite bike, excite truck, excite boats, excite sports. I think that would be fun to just like make.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Subgenre, like, spin on it. I'd like to see that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Would Duck Hunt just lie today? I mean, probably, right? There's hunting games today. Guys, they're really popular.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, they should make Duck Hunt Dog like the clippy of nintendo interfaces. So like he's just on all the menus and like you click on a game and he jumps out from behind it and he's like woohoo, like how he was in the old game. I agree, I agree.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It actually checks a lot of my weird boxes. I love...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Third person action adventure type games, especially when the characters like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Give off like Darksiders vibes or like very like Todd McFarlane-y cool stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fun combat, I like the combat, I like the character building.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, essentially you traverse around kind of a semi open world and you have these sand powers so you can glide around on the sand like a cool magic guy jump around.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you harness the power of the Sans in combat. So it's like hack and slashy, but it's the character forming.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so that's cool because it's based around this whole momentum meter. So the more momentum that you build in this meter, the bigger and crazier weapons in your moveset gets, uh, but as your momentum


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gross, it's like your weapons are crazier and bigger and you cause more damage, but you're also more vulnerable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you can also choose when to spend that momentum on special ultimate attacks too. So like you can balance out like your risk reward.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How much damage, how vulnerable you are in real time, in third person action battles, cruising around.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fun little variations to kind of change up the hack and slash formula.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I really like that. The problem is it's just like everything else. Uh, the world, the questing, the story, I just, it's not hitting with me. It feels incredibly generic right from the title of the game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Atlas Fallen. And the problem with me is that I really like deck 13.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I really love the original, they made the surge and the surge too. I really, really love the original surge. And also the beverage. Maybe it was just like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With the style of games sometimes, so that's, that's fine for me. I have a tolerance for that. It's really just like I don't care about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's going on? And they do invest in that. They do spend time in NPCs and dialogue and this world with this lore, but it's just not hitting for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's a shame because I like killing stuff with cool magic sand swords, sand swords. So it's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it is co-op. So you and one other dude can cruise around in the sand and chop up big bad guys. Uh, and I like that, but it's hard right now. I'd say like, don't write it off, especially if you're like me and you do like these types of games. You know, maybe at some point, but yeah, that's kind of where I'm at with it. Has anyone else touched it at all or no?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it feels like there's a lot too because it's like you're also constantly given opportunities to like find treasure chests or target enemies, like large enemies with different body parts, like target their body parts first to then get even more loot. And all of it is like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Elements to craft new perks to put in your perks slots and there's so many different little ultimates and perks and special abilities like there's a lot with a bunch of stats and for such like a short game and like a simpler game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's kinda weird, like it almost feels like, again, like it's like, they got some things figured out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think there's going to be some people that kind of dig it though. I think if some people get into the fighting and do it with a friend, I don't think you're going to like get hooked up. There's not going to be people out there who were like hooked on the lore for this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The original Dead Rising release. Hell yeaah. What a weird, wild game that at the time just felt so different. It felt so different from the way


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Frank moved the way the combat worked to the way the game was structured. It was anxiety inducing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it was cool. It had a really good unique blend of celebrating old zombie flicks, really feeling very Romero, but then also having some Japanese game dev influence with some cool quirks. And it just balanced a line between like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cool gory zombie thing with some tension and just wacky zaniness. You could dress up like Mega Man. You could steal stuff in all the different stores. I still to this day think that IO Interactive needs to make a Hitman level just in a mall.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because of all the opportunities. And I say that because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dead Rising was like the best game in a mall ever and like it took advantage of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All the opportunities, you go to a sporting goods store, you remember getting like a hockey stick and hitting dudes or a bowling ball.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some of the combat, some of the guns, the way the guns work during the boss fights, kind of weird, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was just so unique and I love it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, at Jake Baldino. YouTube channel, Jake Baldino. GameRanks, sometimes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I almost feel like the puppet should say it, but I'll say it. Tie your shoes and go to bed. You dang puppet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Welcome to the Friends of a Second podcast, uh, where every couple of weeks, every fortnight, some good pals get together and chat about video games. I'm hosting this week. My name is Lucy James and joining me as usual, we've got Ralph aka Skill-Up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know why I point while I do this because, you know, I don't actually know where you guys are gonna be. Uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll wait till Jake comes back. But, uh, yeah, sadly Jake is not with us this week. However, in his place, we've got the one, the only, Blessing Adioyou Jr. from Kinda Funny. Hi, Bless. Yo, what's up?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Freedom of mind when it's done and my little suitcase is just sat next to the door and I can just go, oh, I can waltz from here to the door, to the car, to the airport. No worries about it, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the thing about, the thing that stresses me out for you is like you're going for a month. Yes. Like I've never gone anywhere.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If I go back to the UK, I have stuff there, so it's like fine, but yeah. You know, fine stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My dad would always say, if you're traveling anywhere, the only three things you need, money, tickets, passport, everything else, replaceable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, should we talk about, speaking of video games, should we, should we talk about them? It's been, it's not the thing, it's quiet for releases, it's also kind of quiet for news, but there is obviously some stuff to talk about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah. Yeaah. Okay, so, uh, the studio behind Lord of the Rings Gollum, uh, German studio, Daedalic Entertainment or Interactive, uhm, they are kinda closing out on the stop in game development. I think they are, I believe Daedalic is still gonna be publishing some things, but that second Lord of the Rings game...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Has been cancelled, uh, off the, off the back of the, uh, negative reception to, uh, Gollum.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which kind of, yeaah, feels very weird, kind of feels like a very immediate, uhm, decision, but yeaah, when that game...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, launched the, it impacted the stock price. It tanked pretty hard when that came out. Uhm, and it's kind of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and I guess like, there's the broader question of like, Lord of the Rings.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And working with Middle Earth Enterprises on video games and like what their role in everything is, you know, clearly they don't have a quality bar.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They just care about the fact that their IP is interpreted correctly. I always remember that polygon piece. I think it was Alexa. Alexa Ray Korea wrote it, uhm, about the making of that old Vivendi.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I remember that in that piece, there was a whole section about the fact that they had to argue over what colour the tomatoes were in Hobbit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are sticklers for stuff like that, but A, they don't give a shit when Shelob gets turned into a sexy, sexy lady. And they also seem to not care when a game is so bad, it is going to negatively impact their.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, has entered into an agreement to acquire Middle-Earth Enterprises.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then it's like, yeah, that quote was, ah, where was it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Other opportunities include exploring additional movies based on iconic characters such as Gandalf, Aragorn, Gollum, Galadriel, Eowyn and other characters from the literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien. I mean, there is that Lord of the Rings, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, like, it's like an anime, like Helmhammer and, um, what do you call it? There is? I didn't even know that. Yeah, there's a Riders of Rohan thing coming. Oh yeah, One of the Rings Warth. Oh no, War of the Rohirrim is the animated movie. There's other stuff coming out as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Star power is an Aragorn game, except, I mean, there already is an Aragorn game from Traveller's Tales all those years ago, like Aragorn's Quest, but like, you know, you're not gonna have the star power of those kind of, you know, fellowship stuff, uhm, or at least the members of the fellowship compared to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, look at the thing, it's like, that's the weird thing about it, is that I think we are now in this place.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Disney is certainly bearing the brunt of it. If you watch, uhm, like any of the financials and any of the critical reaction to anything Disney has done where they are just over, they've over invested in an IP to the point where they've saturated the market with it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you think that because everyone knows who Indiana Jones is that they're like, oh, I'm immediately going to turn up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No one did turn up. Look at the, how much it cost versus that first week, that second week drop off. I mean, I'm not pretending like I'm going to be some kind of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Primed to an audience because Insidious and all that has been going for a long time, but it's like, look at the budget on that and look how many people turned up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's the Curl of the Monkeys 4 that we've waited, you know. Yes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 20 years since the launch of the trilogy, and honestly, I'm genuinely amazed it hasn't, it didn't start sooner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Selfishly, I just want another Wolfenstein, but if, you know, I don't know how Wolfenstein performed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All those signs point to them doing something really cool that I trust them as a studio, but at the same time, it's like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's kind of the Avatar thing, right? It's weird that it's not out around the same time as the movie. Like Avatar is delayed by a whole year. I mean, look.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe that's a deliberate thing, you know, space it out, make it its own thing, make it to be Marvel's Spider-Man on PlayStation, um, instead of, uh, what people might think is a tie-in game, who knows.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, I mean, they have already said that they're gonna be, like, shuttering some studios, like, cancelling projects, that's, the belt tightening has already begun, so.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and yeaah, Gollum wasn't Embracer at the time, Gollum was, I think, uh, was it Nexon? Nacon? Uhm, yeah. But it's interesting to see kind of like the repercussions. But obviously, don't dwell on, you know, hopefully the people affected land on their feet, don't dwell on, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh my link doesn't work because we're talking about console stuff. Damn. I was like, we don't want to dwell on the negativity and then this is going to be like-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're talking about the Xbox Series S. So.


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[Assistant] What a clean transition, but whatever. So, uh, Baldur's Gate 3, uhm, first of all, got moved up a few weeks. It's now coming out on my birthday. So thank you so much, Larian, August the 3rd.


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[Assistant] And then the uhm, they have said they've hit a significant roadblock with porting the game to next gen Xbox systems because of this series S.


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[Assistant] Yeah, so series S is obviously the, uh, the lesser powered Xbox of this generation launched around the same time as the series, or it did launch the same time as the series X.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's wild because you buy a Series S and then you basically spend the exact same amount of money on the external storage. See, mine as well, I just bought a Series X. But I mean, in terms of portability, it's great. I got to do the unboxing for it and it's basically like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A book, it's wild. The technology that's in there is incredible for what it is. Uhm, but it's also kind of interesting when you are discussing


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[Assistant] Xbox as an ecosystem, which is what, how they like to refer to it. And it's like, well, they want to have something that comes out in Xbox one.


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[Assistant] Series S and Series X. Uhm, but what happens when...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, it has to be current gen only, and maybe series S doesn't make the cut, which seems to be what is happening here. So, boys who, do any of you have a series S?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, apparently Xbox are now helping out, uh, the Larian team and hopefully they're working on it. So to get it out before, to get it out this year. Um, so, sorry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, you brought up, uh, Tears of the Kingdom there, Bless. And, uh, Gerard, you weren't, uh, around for last, uh, episode, but wanted to check in with you about your Tears of the Kingdom journey. How's it going, bud?


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[Assistant] You finished Final Fantasy 16. I mean, hang on, wait, do you want to check in? Uh, Ralph, you definitely finished. Bless if you finished Tales of the Kingdom.


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[Assistant] Oh, I'm way, way past, I'm at like the Titan stuff.


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[Assistant] Hell yeaah. I know I just took a week off but I was, you know, genuinely...


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[Assistant] Yeah, but I live and work in America. You don't get vacation like that.


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[Assistant] Well, uh, we've got, uh, a couple of listener questions or user questions. The users. The users of FPS. Uh, if you have a user question, uh, email it to contact at franspescond.com. Uh, this one is from Lukita. Thank you. Thanks for writing in. I always wanted to be like a, like an agony ant.


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[Assistant] As a casual gamer, I especially have trouble finishing games. I hear that.


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[Assistant] Uh, maybe I don't like the feeling of ending a video game that I enjoyed, or the game downright got boring for me toward the end. I often have to step away from playing for some time and come back after a while to finish it.


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[Assistant] Being in the video game industry, have you guys ever felt burned out from video games in general, or having trouble playing a specific game, even one that you enjoyed, till the end? This feels like a question for Garage specifically.


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[Assistant] Not to be a downer, but it's very mental health dependent too, cause when I'm particularly depressed, uhm, my attention span gets even worse and I genuinely just feel like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have cotton wool in my head and I can't focus on things. And so sometimes even, sometimes games can be very, very helpful. Sometimes a lot of like,


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[Assistant] You know when we joke about like, loosey ass games, like stuff like Stardew or Dave the Diver, it's because those gameplay loops are so short and so, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, they're hitting that dopamine, they are rewarding you, like you see the numbers go up and it's very quickly, uhm, you're kind of getting through things and succeeding and growing and whatever.


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[Assistant] So sometimes those kind of games can really help, but then there are games like Zelda where you can make your own success in it.


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[Assistant] But overall, the grandest success comes from beating.


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[Assistant] A fire temple or whatever or beating Ganon and so.


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[Assistant] If the distance from me succeeding to this successful act is too long, then I can definitely fall off, and that's why I'll drop off things and kind of go in favor of...


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[Assistant] I'm gonna keep mentioning Dave the Diver or like dredge or something like that, you know, uhm, so it kind of depends. But also I totally get wanting to just talk about things with a lot of people. I'm very lucky to that the vast majority of my friends are in gaming. And so


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[Assistant] Isn't that like, I mean it kinda reminds me, isn't that the thing for gambling? It's like, when the fun stops, stop. Goes the same for video games.


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[Assistant] Gerard, you and I, we're gamers. We don't hydrate properly. If anything, we're a little crusty. Sorry to say it.


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[Assistant] But, hydration is so important. It's good for obviously your body, keeping things moving, and of course your skin and hair and making you look and feel good. But...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Especially in our line of work, if it's not like a long gaming session, a long day at work, or working at conventions.