[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, you know, sometimes if you're just watching too many negative reviews on something, yeah, you do feel even more burned out than if you just played a bad game and moved on, you know? Uhm, so, yeah, but, but I guess the other thing as well is that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I personally have never actually felt that feeling of like, oh, that game really sucked, now I'm kind of burned out on video games. I've never felt that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For me, there's just so many all the time. And I'm like, if one sucks, I'm like, that's a bummer. And I'm disappointed that that one game sucked, but it never dampens my enthusiasm for everything else. And I just go and play something else and I move on to the next thing, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Don't, don't, don't dwell on the stuff that sucks, go and find the stuff that doesn't. And I think as well, there's like really good subreddits that you can find, like Patient Gamers, for example, is a really good one, slash our Patient Gamers, because they


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they're really interesting, good, insightful commentary and conversation about what a video game is. And, you know, a lot of people will say, Hey, I finally played Bioshock for the first time. Here's my impressions. I loved it. And you're like, wow, it's cool to see someone play Bioshock for the first time and just put up an honest review without trying to make some


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Think piece video on YouTube that's designed to get a million views. It's just a genuine reaction to a great game. And I, then you might want to go and boot up Bioshock for yourself, either for the first time or play it again. And I think that's pretty good for the soul. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, that's right, there's a two minute record, baby, with Lae'zel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's the one. Two minutes, huh? Two minutes. Two minutes. That's a fart. From the time you boot up the game to the moment you bed Lezel, two minutes. Impressive. Whole new category. Impressive. For some men. For some men, very impressive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thank you so much for being here today. Uhm, we are certain that you are just like ridiculously busy right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tell me, what do you think it is about, like, survival games, your game has blown up, but you're certainly not the first survival game to have blown up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's almost like this point, if you can put a good survival game into the market, it's got a very good chance of blowing up, right? So what do you think it is about? What is it about the survival genre you think that holds so much appeal? Because it just, it just seems to be a kind of gravity defying genre very often.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. And I mean, I think it's interesting because as I've watched the survival genre evolve over time, I've seen it shave away more and more of the laboriousness associated with the genre. Like survival games can be super grindy and super painful and very harsh in terms of their like overall frameworks. I think it shrouded is much more forgiving.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, interesting. Yeah, right. And so, I mean, obviously in our conversations, you know, in our conversation, sorry, you have listed a whole bunch of games that you've been, you've looked at at different points, but what were the, and I think as well, like everyone's like, it's Elden Ring plus Zelda plus Valheim. It's like that's the talking point, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are there any other games that we've maybe missed in this conversation that you looked at as a really central point of inspiration for this?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So in terms of how large this went, uh, this hit a max concurrent player count of 160,000 people on Steam. And I think you guys announced that you've already sold over a million units.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, just I think two weeks before your game launched, another survival game came out, rather surprisingly. That game was Power World.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you were watching that game go as large as it was, were you like, hey, that's great for the survival genre, more interest in the genre, or were you like, oh shit, they're totally stealing all our thunder, everyone's going to be sick of survival games by the time we roll around, or were you neither of those things?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That, you know, we're all ultimately indie titles. Why do you think it is that the AAA space has not been able to do this? Cause obviously we had Blizzard and they, but they just canceled their thing after six years of work. I mean, you've got this massive genre that blows up all the time that people love.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it's exclusively India at this point. Why do you think it is AAA developers haven't been willing to tackle this yet?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hmm. Yeah. Well, uh, that's all I got, Jake. I'm not sure if there's anything else you want to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, uhm, Anthony, we want to really thank you for being here today. Uhm, as I said, we know you're extremely busy, got a lot going on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But also just say again, congratulations. Uhm, you know, you guys have achieved something really amazing. Uh, not just in terms of the sales results, but just, you know, having played the game myself, just the amalgamation of genres.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's very ambitious, you know, and it's, it's crazy what you guys were able to pull off as a first pass. And, um, I'm certainly really excited to see where you guys take it. I know a lot of other people are as well. Um, so yeah, big congrats to that and a huge thank you for joining us today. We really do appreciate it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, for me personally, I can't think of anything that made, like, really specific where usually when I stop playing something it's because a whole bunch of stuff is just not working for me, or more likely it's just because it doesn't grab my attention.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, I think the bigger, I think the bigger one is just, I think I struggle with like JRPGs for example.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, because I find, JRPGs I wanna love. I really do, but I find a lot of the time the way the dialogue is written, I just can't get past it because it's written in this kind of like very teenage voice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, yeah, for me personally, it's just, I just, look, I'm not saying this of all JRPGs, of course, because some of them are brilliantly written, of course, but like, I just find a lot of them that I boot up, the tone of the writing doesn't click with me, and I...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they can, because they're quite drawn out as well, like if you were to have this style of writing and it's over and done in like 15 to 20 hours, I'd be like, okay. But then if it's like, if you want to give me like an 80 plus hour experience with this very,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sort of, a lot of the writing can sound quite vacant or facile and I'm just like, nah man, you gotta...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This has to, you have to make this sound more interesting. So I think that's probably one thing that I-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Struggle with it quite a bit actually, I would say one, it's not a small thing, but it's like, it's kind of a big thing. Writing tone in JRPGs and they definitely pushed me off them in the past.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, you did play those. Okay, sure. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. No, I hear you. That makes sense. Makes sense.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, no, it's literally just like, imagine you're, you're the person with the gun and you're kind of positioning yourself at the start. Like, cause you can see the targets in front of you and then you, you're like, okay, I'm going to shoot from here. And that gives you certain lines of sight. So the first shot goes and you can't control the bullet while it's in flight. So it goes and it's going to hit a target.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, yeah, basically, and then so when the target, when it hits a target, then it basically becomes a pause and you can kind of just


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It does look great. I mean, I'm a bit disappointed to hear that it's not like great across the board, but the visual style looks really fantastic. So it's getting a lot of attention as well. Like that's one that I've heard a lot of people chatting about just because it looks so striking. So yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm, I'm about to do that like right after we finish this actually. Cause I've been, I did Suicide Squad. So in terms of what I've been playing this week, all I played was Suicide Squad. Uh, what did I play before that actually? Cause it's been a Fortnite, right? And then I remember now, I played in Shrouded where we spoke about that already and we did the interview with Anthony. But yeah, after that it was Suicide Squad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Took that to death as well and I'm kind of just had a bit of a break getting ready for next vest, waiting for it to start.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hard to cover on your own. There's too much good shit. So being able to cover it up like that's been awesome and they've already found some fantastic things. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Crossed with nuns, crossed with survival horror, and it's fucking weird. I've only seen the trailer, but I'm like, this looks super cool. Um, so yeah, that's definitely on my list. Absolutely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wish I had time for that. I would love to. Oh, cause as I was playing Suicide Squad, I'm like, damn man, I wish I had like a free 20ish hours and I'd go and play a bit of Arkham and then I'd switch over. Cause my hot take as well is that night is not as bad as everyone else says. Like that's my take. I'm like, I think in terms of, okay, it's got some problems, sure. But from a presentation factor, holy fucking shit. And like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just that city is just remarkable, like it's incredible and I just, I still think that that game got unfairly beaten up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so yeah, I mean, I just wish I had a bit of time to not to play through the whole trilogy again, but I'd love to just dabble in, in each little entry for five or six hours, but February is not really permitting that. So maybe I'll go back and do it later this year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not really, but I have been watching a lot of the Apple Vision Pro coverage.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, it is an extremely cool looking thing. Uhm, I really, if you're interested in coverage on it, I really recommend The Verge's review, which is fantastic, just like a really top shelf, like it's very rare to find a product reviewed that good, but they really crush it. Uhm, Marques Brownlee, of course, as always, uh, and he's done-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So he basically, yeah, did a bunch of videos on it, really breaking it down, but also the Casey Neistat video, because first of all, because it'd been a long time since I watched a Casey video and you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But he still got it, man. There was that time we were all watching Casey all the time and he blew up and it was like, damn man, there's this little like 10 minutes of joy he drops in your lap. Like, not everyone loves him obviously, but I like him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's been a while since I've seen his stuff. And when he pops back up in the algorithm or whatever, I'm like, oh yeah, he's still making stuff. And every time it's so good. And he just brings a very unique perspective, a very.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wondrous perspective to this product, because like, for example, I've got a MetaQuest 3 headset right there? Can't see it now actually, but it's on my couch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and so a lot of what the Apple Vision Pro can do, the MetaQuest 3 headset already does, not as well admittedly, but it does, right? And I was kind of experiencing that wonder myself. And you guys remember when I was talking on the podcast and I was like, this is crazy. Like what the fuck, man? And I think now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're seeing a lot of other people have that kind of like spatial computing mixed reality awakening as they experience what this thing is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And for me it's just been very interesting to watch that unfold and just to see.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Exactly. Uhm, she's watching YouTube videos right now while we're on this podcast. Uhm, so it's gonna happen and it's very, it's just really interesting to see one of the first major salvos in that, uhm, in that, you know, that new front.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so yeaah, recommend checking it out. Like, even if you're not that into tech, go watch the Casey Neistat video, cause it's just a great watch. Uh, the way he walks around New York City wearing this thing, and he's on the subway, stands on a subway step, like, fucking, you know, replying to a text message in thin air, it's funny. Like, he's standing in a donut shop, like, eating it, and everyone else is kinda looking at him, and they think, cause he's wearing a visor,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was so nice. So yea, that's what I've been uh, that's what I've been checking out this week.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm so excited. Please tell me. You don't understand how much I love Mean Girls. I'm not even being ironic right here. I love Mean Girls. Tell me, is it good?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is this movie actually, does it hold, does it, does it sort of honor the legacy?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. And we're back with, uh, another, no, another podcast. Hey everybody, it's 2024. This is the Friends Per Second Podcast. It's episode number 37.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Believe it or not, I'm Jake Baldino. That's Ralph, AKA ScaleUp. That's Lucy James. And we're here to talk about stuff. It's what we've been doing. It's what we're looking forward to doing in 2024. Uh, how are you guys doing?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I played one video game. I played, I played two. Uhm, yeaah. That's it. I didn't do anything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, well, one of them was just like a recent one. It was the God of War Valhalla DLC that I talk, I'll talk about. Uh, and then it was Tony Hawk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. And you know, whatever got to do what you got to do. Uh, no, I, I kind of was still working on finishing the house and all the, you know, renovation stuff we've had going on. So it's kind of like putting my life back together and putting things in shelves and cabinets and stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, I think like I like that. So Lucy went from shrimp to you said slug to slug. I feel like this is, I'm coming on my clam era. I'm just going to like turn into, I'm going to shell up and just get inside there. That's going to be me. Yeah. You heard it here first folks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, uh, let's just talk about stuff. We got a lot this podcast episode. Uh, it's definitely going to be the gang. It's us, no special guests, no nothing, just us, the games we're looking forward to, uh, the games that we've played, we have to catch up on, and a bunch of user questions. We got some cool stuff. So, uh, let's just kick it off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, from you guys a little bit more. We have a lot of games that we all kind of have going back and forth. So maybe I'll start.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Last year be, it's hard to like follow up a historic year, like there are years in old gaming history where, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a massive year with like back to back incredible games. And then a year after that, it feels like a lull. I think now with the way the cadence of releases are, you know, even a little bit before pandemic is that like, we're still going to have a lot of good consists consistent games to check out and talk about, but not as many like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Staggering smash hit, awesome, incredible things back to back, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, that's the beauty of even, like I've been saying to people with, with the, such an impact that last year made, it like has ripple effects into this year because like, you know, we can only play so many games that were in 2023. So 2024 is when they'll trickle in. That's when I'll find maybe a minute for.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mario Odyssey, or, uh, insert a million other games that I can't think of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, so, uh, with games we're looking forward to for 2024, uh, we're gonna kinda bounce back and forth. There's a, we all have big long lists. Uh, so, Lucy, would you like to go first?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They've had success in the past, uh, just like a few years ago, two years ago or so, uh, a portal, another portal fan made thing came out and I played that for game ranks and it was fantastic, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, one of my big ones is Frostpunk 2. Uh, I love me a city builder kind of Civ type plan-y game. And I love the first Frostpunk so much. And this new one, I don't know too much about it, I've only been following it kind of like from the outside because I don't want to like, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, they just released a trailer for it recently that like shows actual gameplay visuals, but the trailer is edited so well. I said this on the Friday show, the new show, but like this trailer just shows, it perfectly articulates the feeling of playing the original Frostpunk. Like how stressful and anxiety inducing it is and how just awful and depressing it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so it may be really exciting for the second one. Uhm, it's, for those of you that don't know, it's essentially...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like a, you know, like you're like the government overseer, like looking down on a city that you build out, but it's a snowpiercer basically, where it's like the world is trapped in an Arctic like hell future.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you need to worry about like keeping the heat on, keeping everybody fed and keeping everybody not from freezing to death.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, the, the, you know, the challenges and tribulations of leadership, obviously in a big scale, but it's just so smart the way it does it. And the new trailer for the new one got me really excited. It seems like they get it and they're doing more of what's good. So yeah, I'd say just check out that trailer. Like look up Frostpunk 2 gameplay trailer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I just like games about like, I just like fucked up cars in general. I like it for that. And I played it at a preview thing like a year ago and I like placing things on the car. It felt very intuitive and it felt very


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Good to like, oh, I need, I'm going to do this, so I need to put this on the car and I need to do, you know, very interesting stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, for me, another one I have is a big question mark next to it. Wolf Among Us 2?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, because I like those games. I like that genre where you're like a little guy running in a big graphics world. Usually from left to right. I don't know what you call it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, Little Nightmares 3 is going to be interesting because it's a different studio this time around. Oh, is it? It is not Tarsier. It's actually the people who did Until Dawn and stuff like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, I, I was like, oh man, I like the original team. But again, if they were replaced by anybody, I think this is a good move. So. Sure. Yeah. Not really too much to say about it. We just know it's coming in 2024.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that was it. I remember when they fought in the factory and I don't remember anything else. So was the game gonna be good?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, next big thing, I'm into this one because it looks like they're doing more storytelling. Uh, in a lot of the trailers and stuff, they showed way more like cutscene and story. Um, and also I just love the setting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What is that, uh, 19th century Japan, 18th century Japan, um, with Western influence and like, you know, conflict. It just, it just seems really cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If it has anything, any elements of the previous games, like they're distinctly very PC games. Like there's something, I can't quite put my finger on, but they're, they're a little smarter. They're a little more deliberate. So I'm excited to see like the next generation of that, so to speak.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, next up, uh, you also have, I wanna pick your braid on plucky squire. Sure. I forgot about this one. Is this the, like, kind of animated perspective shifting type of thing?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Interrupt me by all means. I put this on my most anticipated 2024 list. And, uh, you know, I said some things. Alone in the dark?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, it could be, it could be a bust, but I am just excited for Alone in the Dark to try to come back as a thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, I think there's some potential there and just like a regular old third person survival horror-y mystery, you know, spooky mansion type game is something that I'm always in the mood for. So yeah, I'm willing to see where it goes. It was supposed to release last year. Last year's release schedule got so crowded.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They, they were pretty wise to be like, we're moving that. We're, we're going to come out later. So I'm excited.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I could be totally like, it could be, you know, it doesn't look like the most incredible game in the world, I'll say that, but like, I don't know, I just, I'm like, let's see, let's see what we got. Yeah, I agree.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I still think it'll be interesting to see because, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would assume that there's pressure on, right, for it to kind of be a bit of a grand finale?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like it ends with like a big battle and the universe is ripped open and you have...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, I'm excited for that one. I've talked about that one a lot. I think I've talked about it here on the podcast. Uhm, I just like the style of the original Hellblade and now this one. There's not really that type of style in a game. We've seen that gritty style in some movies before, but


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm excited to see where it goes. And there was that new Xbox developer direct presentation. And it's nice to just hear things about the game from the people making them and, uh, just them talking about how it's set in like 10th cent, 9th century Iceland and like you're fighting giants and shit. That's like everything I want to hear. Like, that's so cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, the combat I thought was pretty cool and I like swapping the styles on the fly. That seems pretty interesting. Uh, where it's like, you know, you can have, you can have a magic wand and a shield and then hit a button and then you switch to two swords and then you hit another button and then you're just casting magic with an axe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I like that, that seems pretty cool, but then everything else they showed, the RPG stuff, the Obsidian stuff I'm excited about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It must be hard to show in a video, uh, because it was a lot of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tell don't show. They show a very quick dialogue tree and then they go...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What you choose will shape the world and like there's no way to show that in a quick video, but like I was still like, really guys? But the thing that didn't hit me is that I, you know, like when we first saw the outer,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have to say it slowly, The Outer Worlds. The Obsidian game. When you first saw that, you were like, oh wow, that's definitely an obsidian ass obsidian game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This I didn't quite see that in, in, in some of the conversation and character stuff. I was just like, oh, okay. I don't know if Baldur's Gate 3 ruined a lot for me, but I, I still need to, I just need to see more from it. I like Obsidian. It's probably going to be cool, but I need to see more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is my shit. They said a lot of things that I wanted to hear. It sounds like they're rethinking some concepts and like how a Civ game or other games of that genre will play out. So I definitely want to try it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I didn't expect to see Indiana Jones this year. I expected a reveal, but I didn't expect to see it releasing in 2024. I had assumed that they had kind of only just started working on that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I, I would, haha. Oh, like I know machine games is, they make first person games and they're very good at making them. But I still was like expecting a traditional old third person Indiana Jones game. So this can at least


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It can try something different and I've heard some people talk about how, you know, machine games has people from like Starbreeze and stuff, so it almost has like this reverse


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, kind of the darkness slash chronicles of Riddick thing too, because it's like fisticuffs. And then it's also instead of tentacles coming out from the screen grabbing dudes, it's your whip and then you're punching. So there's like, it can be different. It can be unique.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What I came back around to it, even after the video I recorded, like thinking about it more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is that like, I know that at this point, new modern Tomb Raider Uncharted has kind of done the Indiana Jones thing. Maybe even better than they could even hope to do it, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think Indiana Jones and I think, uh, last crusade and him hanging off the tank, you know, fighting the guys and I'm thinking of seeing that visual action, that physical stuff. And now I'm Indiana Jones and I'm just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm walking in first person and I see his little, his little hands running and it just doesn't feel quite right. But I actually like Troy Baker's performance. It's hard to get a, you can't replicate Harrison Ford, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It sounds like he really understands how Harrison Ford speaks, just like the inflection, a lot of the like weird behaviors in his voice. So, okay. I mean, I have a lot of opinions specifically about Harrison Ford and how old he is and how often he is in things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, he's like that for Star Wars and then Indiana Jones, he's like in tears at the premiere. It's like, you clearly like one of these guys way more than the other. And Han Solo is cooler than Indiana Jones. Are we all agree- is that like a hot, a hot take?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm excited. That might be the one to finally make me, uh, make me a Warhammer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, next up we are taking a user question. Remember, you can send your questions to contact at friendspersecond.com. Anything you want to ask us or anything you want us to talk about, feel free. Throw it in there, into our inbox void. We appreciate you. This comes from Tim S.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who says, Dear FPS, Happy user here, wishing all you a Happy New Year, a Happy New Year to you as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Have you ever had a game that you played growing up that just clicked with you immediately? For me, it was definitely Devil May Cry 3. I don't know how I got my hands on that in middle school but here we are I guess.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I hope you all have a good year and I wish Ralph the best of luck with his final shape review. Sincerely, Tim. Also, P.S. Lucy, please tell me you saved a VOD of the Outer Wilds run. I need my next blind run serotonin hit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You outer wilds people are different. We are, we're fucked up. So a game that you played growing up that just clicked with you immediately, uh, I'm gonna, so I always talk about Metal Gear Solid, I always talk about Resident Evil. I'm actually gonna go on...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Number two, a cool guy with guns. Number three, a cool guy with a sword. Also at the same time. Number four, he's, uh, like a demon. Number five, it's made by a Japanese development studio. Number six, it's from the Resident Evil guys. Like it just, for me, it was everything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I was obsessed with it to the point where I was frustrated at school that none of my friends were talking about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, I had kind of compelled myself to make...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, I am. I think for the Valentine's Day season, not to be gross, you want to be clean upstairs and downstairs for your loved one. Make a good impression. So thankfully,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, it is precise, it is water resistant, it charges nice and quick, uh, all their stuff is really, really useful. They also offer Cologne now, uh, there's the Manscaped Refined Cologne.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All that stuff is good because like you can be all, if you are the type where you can be shaped up, you can be clean, you can be nice for your date. That's important. That's right. You gotta, you gotta get that out. For sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's really valuable just for privacy, security, you know, it really helps with that stuff that is very important in this day and age. It also just kind of cleans up your, you know, internet presence, so to speak. But the best part for me was just the set it and forget it type of thing. You sign up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You fill in your information and then you sit back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And just watch it go and it's not overnight, but that because it's a real process. It is going through the motions and sending these basically take down requests to all these companies.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Next up, another user question. This is from Kuan. Uh, if, if I'm pronouncing that, if that's the Irish pronunciation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Kouan asks, Hey guys, is there any trope or mechanic you'd like the game industry to forget? I really dislike rarity systems like green gun, blue, you know, et cetera, and compulsory parrying. I gave up on lies of P because of it. All the best this year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, like just that, you know, the whole brutalize you thing to teach you to get good, you know, and also being


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's hard to explain. Uh, I-I-I dug myself this hole. Can I say I also just agree with, uh, rarity systems forced into games that don't need them? Uh, I'm sick of endlessly picking up a gun and switching it for a new gun five seconds later because it's-it's glowing orange instead of blue.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's been killing me in Power World. I've been playing Power World and I've been like, fucking God. It's like, you need 20 stone to build this. And it's like, I can't walk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can send questions to contact at friendspersecond.com.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I really like this one though. I didn't expect-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, I was like, yeah, this seems pretty cool, but like, I didn't expect it to be this good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's something to the movement that makes getting around and like clearing, you know, like a metroidvania where like, you're like, I'm going to go back and clear out this section of the map, find hidden stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The fluidity of movement and everything you're doing, it kind of reminds me of different genres, but it feels to me like dead cells, like when you're really


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tune into dead cells and you're dashing down, you're dashing forward, you're jumping up, you're attacking up, you're dashing left, like you're just bam bam bam bam bam going through. That feels so good here.


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[Assistant] I love that and then like if you combine that with like you doing that around enemies in combat and then also getting those like really stylized parries that make you feel really cool. It just, it just scratches a lot of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The story, I could barely tell you what was going on, but it had a couple of cool ideas in terms of like time stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, that like, I, I just, so just generally like, but the style of gameplay, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think that if, and they've tried for a while now, right, with Prince of Persia to try and get their shit together. It's been rebooted. It's been soft rebooted. They've done this. They've done that. Uh, they haven't really found anything totally consistent after.


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[Assistant] What was it? Sands of time, warrior within two thrones. After that, it kind of just like fluttered around with different things. This I think can be the future of the franchise. This makes sense. This is origins in its roots. The original 2D game.


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[Assistant] And it's so good that I think they could really take this and run with it. I know some people don't want to hear that. I love Sands of Time.


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[Assistant] But like, I just don't see Ubisoft making like, a new Sands of Time. I know they're doing the remake, but besides that. They're remaking it, but like.


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[Assistant] Lucy, do you want to take the next one? What else have you been playing?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What was the reason, is there, can you pinpoint a reason why it was so wish listed on Steam? Was there some thing about it that like really?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I played through the Last of Us Part 2 PS5 update. Uh, it was a thing. If you own it already, it was like a $10 upgrade for PS5 features and a new mode, which is actually very cool. Uh, it's like a little roguelike mode.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's you run around and just like kill people as Joel or whoever you want to be and very cool. Very cool little addition. I like that it isn't like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I like that they're not making you go out and buy the whole game for full price again. This update, I know a lot of people probably want it for free.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you know, other, other game studios have done similar things for free. There's that. Uhm, the upgrade doesn't really feel like too much other than dual sense support. Uhm, the game had already been updated to have 60 FPS at a point. Now it's rock solid, so that's, that's fine.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and playing through it again has been nice because I've just been taking my time with it instead of rushing for a review and knowing that the whole world is burning down. Both.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, pandemic and discourse this time around. It's like, I'm just playing it casually. So it's nice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's always burning down. As you get older, you realize it's always burning down. Uhm, but yeaah, I think the only thing I've realized in my second playthrough, uh, nothing profound other than that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, I think about, you know, two hours into the game getting...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, that's mine. It's been nice to play through it again, just like a story adventure, you know, say what you will about that one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Diving John wicking and shooting somebody else. When I play through the games, I play very carefully and I'm like in the mood and I'm like, oh, I'm sneaking around.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I gotta be careful, I can't die. I can't die in the video game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But this mode lets me just fuck around and throw molotovs at people while running and being like, fuck you, see ya. And, uh, I liked it for that. No, not like a long-term hold my interest for hours and hours and hours thing, but a cool little addition where as Valhalla,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I really liked from a story standpoint, it did a couple little things, acknowledged some things that I would have liked to have seen even talk about being, things I would have liked to have even seen tackled in the main game, from God of War 2018


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Val, uh, Ragnarok, uh, Valhalla acknowledges a lot of like Kratos stuff that I've wanted acknowledged and talked about and it does it in a really cool, fun,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It, uh, it reckons with, you know, some of the goofier stuff from the old games, while also kind of, you know, making a point that like the older games weren't just like edgy


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also this one, like more than, more than the main game even, there's like a little bit here, they let Christopher Judge like act. They really let him like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'm like, wow, the Kratos in this DLC has a lot more to say about himself than he does his own damn son in the base game. It's cool. It's cool stuff. It's good to see. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh boy, uh, you have Suicide Squad kill the Justice League ground down, so I assume you played the Alpha period?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's it. Alright, uhm, alright. Let's move on to this new segment we have. Uh, it's called Show and Tell.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, this is some, we're gonna try and like always just, you know, there's a little palette cleanser, bring a little something to the table that we've enjoyed that isn't a video game. So I would like Lucy to start. What have you been enjoying this week?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I came, I came unprepared. I, uh, I don't have anything other than I watched American Nightmare on Netflix.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is a three episode crime documentary bullshit thing, like there's a million of these and I'm not usually a fan of them. Uh, but this one I was interested in because I actually kind of knew the story.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was the gone girl that, it's like the gone girl type thing that happened in real life, uhm, from a couple years back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I liked it a lot because, so I scroll through the streaming services and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so I was able to blast through it and it was interesting. And I liked it. It's called American Nightmare. And, uh, it's not something I'd usually normally ever recommend, but, uh, it was, it's an interesting story.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Awesome. Alright, sweet. That was, that was our first, first annual show in Telly and that's a good way to start it. Uh, and that's it. We made it to the end of our first episode. Uh, I am very excited for the remainder of this year. We got some cool stuff planned. We're very excited to,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's just say, please be excited. Please look forward to it. Please look forward to it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so you can follow us on social media. That'll all be linked. Uh, rating us on the podcast platforms really helps and we very much appreciate that. Thank you for all the kind reviews. They go a long way, both in our hearts and also for the almighty algorithm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cheers to you guys. Uh, yeaah. We'll see you guys not this week, but next week, because we're a fortnightly podcast.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's skill up. That's Lucy James. I'm Jake Baldino. Tie your shoes and go to bed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, the entire show. Guaranteed. Here I am. Thank you so much for having me. I really love the podcast.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A real highlight of my life is the weird experience of seeing a preview for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth recently.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's an honor. Thanks for mentioning Trivia Tower. Yeah, we do that every month. We just, uh, wrapped up our Tournament of Champions where we brought back every winner from a previous Trivia Tower and had them face off in a pit of death. So it was, it was intense, but it was super fun. Ashe Parish from The Verge was the co-host, and it was a blast.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh yeaah. Dude, this guy on the latest episode, we have basically a round that's like Wheel of Fortune, and nobody had guessed a single letter yet. There were no prompts anywhere, and this guy goes, uh, The Quarry? What? And he was correct. Who guesses The Quarry just looking at like a Wheel of Fortune board? It blew my mind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, uh, well the MinMax show, and by the way, MinMax, it's a Minnesota thing, so it's M-I-N-N-M-A-X, it's where we're all formed because we're kind of spawned out of Game Informer four years ago.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, but the MinMax show is our main podcast on YouTube and your favorite podcast app. But then, uh, the big thing that we're gearing up for is we do a whole series called The Deepest Dive, which are like multi-part game club discussions. So we take a big game, past, present, future, well, mostly present or past, I guess, and we break it up into multiple chunks and then


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it really, oh, some I think have been longer than the games we've covered. Uhm, but the fun thing is we tap into the hive mind of the MinMax community and so everybody submits their own thoughts and we read them during the discussion. So we're really like, you know, it's the cream rising at the top for the most interesting discussions to help fuel this entire thing. So the point is we're doing Alan Wake 2.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I just, I went back and streamed the first couple hours of the original Alan Wake, which somehow I had never gotten to. I don't know what's wrong with me, but after hearing so much, you know, glowing praise for Alan Wake 2 and the previous, I'm like, I should go back and check this out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know if y'all know this, the original Alan Wake rules, uh, there's a reason people have been screaming about it for a decade now. So sadly, I probably won't play through it, I'll just watch like a YouTube recap going into Alan Wake 2 and I'm sure there's gonna be a nice recap in the game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but other, other folks that are gonna be on that Deepest Dive conversation like Haley McLean, who's our community manager at a video game, IP lawyer in her own right, she's a genius, and so she is like red hot on Alan Wake and she just finished the first one, so it's gonna be a fun, informed discussion on our YouTube channel there with MinMax. Cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm totally with you. Like the sense of momentum that this game has, like it is a tough one to put down. Like I, I've had a code for a while and I was playing a bunch of other stuff and the second I started this up, I'm like, why wasn't I playing this like a week ago? This is all I want in my life. It just, it's the magic of just right game, right time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This, man, did I love this game. It, I enjoyed the last two a fair bit, but, you know, I went back and checked and neither of them in my top 10 list that year, which seems strange now in retrospect, cause this game is like, yeah, absolutely was blown away by it. Loved it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Good question. I was wondering to myself, like, did I just undervalue the last games? But the big thing is, I mean, wildly impressive PS5 game. There's a lot to unpack there. But I think it was a sense of momentum and also,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The story, which we can unpack without spoilers here, but the sense of variety.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I feel like the missions were constantly changing things up. There's always a good carrot dangling in front of you to keep you playing. And the variety of like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Having more creative missions, weird missions in the main storyline even, combined with then splitting into two Spider-Men and swapping back and forth between them that also just adds so much variety and flavor to the play space that yea, there's just some magical blend happening here that didn't hit me with the last couple. Hmm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like they present it in such a smooth way though where you're not looking at the map going around like, okay, where's this other backpack? I'll go collect that. They do a really good job of like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just focus on the world. We'll have some visual signifier for you. Like there's gonna be a spider bot over here. It's gonna be radiating kind of a rainbow orb. You can go this way or the photo spots will be glowing green like that. And yeah, I found


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was genuinely surprised by where they go with some of those. There's some pretty big stuff in there. Um, and yeaah, I've really been impressed by the range of side content here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's like the first big scene with Harry where it's like, hey, let's establish that we're friends. Like, it's largely a game about friendships, uh, you know, a bunch of other themes in there as well, but like they set that hook so hard. Like the second they-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it just, it does such a good job in the beginning of establishing the classic Spider-Man thing of just the push and pull of my real life. I'm going through some challenges. I need to focus on this. I can't cause there's a Spider-Man duties, which yeah, dear. I mean, to be fair, Lucy, maybe you're sick of Spider-Man cause we have certainly absorbed a lot of Spider-Man content in our lives, but still like the first


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Them and those two working together, like, just especially in combat, having Miles swing by and knock a guy out and keep on going, like, just the bond of those two and how positive they are and how hard they just both agree, like, we have to fight, we have to be just a phenomenon of positivity in this city at all times, like, it, god, it really got me, it was just perfect.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, but to be a point, Ralph, I mean, I do agree that without spoiling anything, like, the second half of the story I was much less into than the first half. Uhm, but still, I enjoyed how it all wrapped up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, there's no doubt Ralph though, it is, it is goofy. Like it is a weird gamey thing to turn this game into Superman 64 at times. We were just flying through a city and flying through the rings, you know, like, but then again, especially, you know, uh, you gotta be able to cross the river. And so they had to do something. So having these wind tunnels.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not to just say, yeah, but it was really hard from the developer's point of view, because yeaah, that's totally fair that, you know, there's, when you're in small rooms sometimes doing stealth stuff, it's like, I just want to swing, but I can't quite figure it out. But just, I think the ability for this game to have you go as fast as you can, and have, I mean, the animation work in this game,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it's the best indie game I've ever played. Like unbelievable stuff happening here. But to be able to go that fast and then also to be able to zoom in that tight and have you navigate somebody's apartment. Like that is unbelievable that's happening in the same game. And like without spoiling anything, like there's an awesome fight in the beginning of this game here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there's a moment where you get like thrown across the city and like you're going so fast through all the buildings and it's like, it's just bizarre the speed that you're moving.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In an instant, yeah. Yeah. I mean, what do y'all think? I mean, in my mind, this is the best PS5 exclusive game. I know it's not the deepest bench here, but it seems like a slam dunk for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, it is uhm, I enjoyed the scope of it so far, but like I finished the main campaign and I was doing some side stuff, but not too much. I finished in probably around 16 hours. Like don't expect this as a 100 hour open world game, you know, it's like I'm now at 19 hours and I'm at 69% completion to give some sense of where we're at.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Danica's podcast came on in the game. It was this reminder of like, oh, that's right. Like they're just, they're ramming the two games together. It's like, if you like the Miles Morales experience, you're going to have a lot of that. And there's a lot of, you know, callbacks to his journey and stuff. And it's like, oh, and then 2018 Spider-Man is just all fused into one beautiful package here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the character front too, um, Kraven the Hunter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, just, I'm kinda like you, Gerard, where it's mainly the movies, I've read some comics, but I know everyone's always like, oh, Craven's such a great film, never really been used in a big way, uhm, outside of the comics, and I love just encountering his storyline and him as a character throughout so much of this game, like, I'm glad he got so much time in this spotlight, cause I thought it was a really compelling story, just having him


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hunting down the villains. Well, the Spider-Man are out there trying to redeem the villains at the same time. It's like, it's just a cool web. No pun intended, black.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Great teeth. There's so many sequences in this game where it's like, I just need to capture this in my PS5 so I can go back and look at it. Like, there's a whole escape sequence in particular that is just incredibly well done. Just the amount of work that's going into every sequence here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's a weird thing where they're kind of penalized from nailing it so much out of the gate, right? Where it's like, you want the ultimate Spider-Man fantasy, you got it in 2018, you got another one in 2020, here's one that I think is better, you know, we'll see what everybody else thinks. Uh, but it's like, what do you want Spider-Man to dig underground? Like what else can he do? It's an awesome New York and an awesome Houston.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I always just feel like, you know, maybe I focus too much on Criticisms for the Last of Us Part 2 and it's not a perfect game by any means, but like, that is one of the boldest AAA releases.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, ever? Like, that is a risky, weird game that they released. And so this idea of like, oh, Sony playing it safe, it's like, just a couple years ago, they released a very big swing, uhm, and it paid off. Uhm, and so there's still other Sony projects out there that are exciting, and so,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I'm just so thankful that Spider-Man 2, it's not a living game. It's not even a co-op game. As someone who just loves single-player games, I feel like we should be writing to Jim Ryan on his way out the door to thank him for not forcing them to make this a co-op game or a Gotham Knights equivalent, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, especially when you think of, I mean, they released Dreams just a couple years ago, everybody. You want to talk about weird stuff coming from Sony. You can't get much weirder than Dreams, and I love it. You know, Tren, that weird game within Dreams that Media Molecule made just released this year, and it's a cool, funky experience. You know, Team Asobi, they're


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hopefully a new platform will be coming out soon that'll feel a little bit different. Third person still, but I don't think the robot's son is going to be kidnapped or anything, you know? Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It all sounds amazing. This is, I'm blown away by how enthusiastic you are. I'm excited to dive into this thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is there anything to be said, and this is the most negative light you can put this in, so feel free to kick me out of this podcast forever, but is there something to be said about just like the constant variety doesn't really, is there like a cohesive tone or vibe to the game? Is it penalized at all?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Vibe wise, by just having like, ba ba ba, over here, over here, just constant shakeups.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The greatest game release day ever. I mean, uh, Xcom and Dishonored and 2012 are the same day. I'm trying to think like, but if both of these are 90 plus, you know, experiences, that's unbelievable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gerard, uh, hypothetically. Yea. I'm a big...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sonic Nostalgia Guy. Love Sonic Mania. Yea. I mean, there's a lot of people probably listening to this that are on that fence. Like, will I have a good time if I spend my hard earned dollars on this game? Should I buy it? Here's the problem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, here's a weird one, uh, but, Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then boy do I have a solution for you. So if you're not familiar with Ever Crisis, this is the free to play Final Fantasy 7 remake, but it's not just 7 that they're remaking, but they're also remaking Crisis Core and everything in the Final Fantasy 7 universe. In theory, they're gonna get to all of it, we're gonna have a


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Weird mobile version of yep, the dirty dirge dirge of servers, of course, advent children, all that good stuff. Uh, before crisis, which is the game focusing on the Turks that never came to the state. So I'm excited for that. It was on cell phone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, yeah. So, interesting idea, but I'm totally with you, Gerard, where I started the game up and it's like, oh, it's just, it's another remake of Final Fantasy VII, and I like the art style. It kind of feels like a throwback, kind of PS2, chibi-looking RPG type thing, you know? It's like, it's different than the original VII.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so you boot it up and you do the whole bombing mission. It's like, oh, this is, this is cool. There's a, there's a cut scene even before that where it's Sephiroth and Cloud fighting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and then Zack jumps in and starts fighting Sephiroth as well. And so the cutscene looks beautiful and also not to go too dorky with this stuff, but


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Final Fantasy VII and the expanded Final Fantasy VII universe is in such- it's in a weird spot, right? After the ending of Remake.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's, people are trying to reach for clues to the puzzle of what is going on here. What is Sephiroth really doing? And so it feels like, oh, it's a throwaway opening cutscene where Cloud is fighting alongside Zack with Sephiroth, but it's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This could be a hint, or could just be a scene from the future of the Final Fantasy VII Remake series.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, yada yada yada, you go through all this, you go through the, the bombing mission, and then the free to play iPhone-ness just, it's a brick wall right in your face, where it's just, it's just a whole screen of hit, taking you through the guided tour of, here's a currency over here, and this currency unlocks this, and then this is a babababababa.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] However, uh, there is cool stuff in here that's buried for fans and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know this makes me a fake ass gamer boy, uh, but eventually I was like, you know, this is all on YouTube. Why am I not just watching, like, all the stuff that you can unlock if I were to grind my way through this free to play game? And so there's cool stuff in here if you're a Final Fantasy 7 fan and just watching it on YouTube and not dealing with any of that free to play nonsense on your phone, it's just a


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cool series of Final Fantasy VII short films that I think fans would enjoy. Gerard, is there any universe you'd ever watch some of this stuff?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, you wouldn't want to know where so horrific I'm at. Uh, but there's cool stuff, like they have kind of origin stories, quote unquote origin. Origin to entering Midgar, I guess, for some characters in like these unlockable stories where you can see


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tifa going to Midgar for the first time and you know, she learns how to navigate the mean streets of Midgar from Jesse and like that relationship isn't even played up that much in remakes. That's fun to see. You get to see Aerith.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so the, the big meat and potatoes of this though is, it's confusing, so Square Enix released that Battle Royale Final Fantasy VII game, which was called First Soldier, which was-


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[Assistant] They, they pulled the plug on that within a year of it being around.


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[Assistant] Which scares me because there's a lot of work going into Evercrisis here and if they're yanking that other game, like, are they gonna remake all of these Final Fantasy VII games and then just pull it off store shelves, uh, if it's not doing as well? But what's confusing is they pulled the PUBG clone set in the Final Fantasy VII universe called First Soldier


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Off the store, but within Ever Crisis, there is a whole story, uh, and little RPG experience that's called First Soldier, which apparently has some characters that tied into the Battle Royale, but the core of this is that it's Sephiroth's origin story.


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[Assistant] Which is really cool. So there's five chapters of it so far. And it focuses on other soldier, uh, members of soldier PO class. And so it's like Glenn, Matt, and Lucia.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so Sephiroth comes in in like chapter 4 and it's just fun cause he's got like cute short hair and he's just like-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and he's just a weird kid is kind of his tone. He's basically been raised in Hojo's lab, so it's fun to see him


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[Assistant] Uh, hey, Sephiroth, you're just a punk-ass kid. Like, if you whistle again, I'm gonna beat the crap out of you. You can't do that to us. And then Sephiroth is like, oh, shucks. He goes, I apologize for whistling, team. I didn't mean to offend anybody. He's just awkward teen boy. And it's really cool to see him in almost like an Anakin Skywalker type way. Like, even by chapter five, he's already starting to break bad.


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[Assistant] Uh, so it's, again, cool stuff. Just watch it on YouTube, everybody. Don't deal with the mobile game if you're scared of that, because there's cool stuff in there.


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[Assistant] Uhm, uh, apparently I've been playing a lot of phone stuff. I guess having a kid kinda does that to you. You can have a lot of time for phone games. Uhm, and- Marvel Snap, baby. Have you tried Marvel Snap?


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[Assistant] There's this game that came out, I think last month, and it's called Finity.


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[Assistant] Just finity. I think it's technically finity dot. Uhm, but it's such a well designed little game. It's, to boil it down, it's kind of threes meets bejeweled.


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[Assistant] Uhm, like I've been hunting for a kind of bejeweled replacement on my phone because EA has just let that deteriorate into nonsense at this point. Have they? Really? Oh yeaah.


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[Assistant] I've had a blast with it, and you know, eventually you can unlock like a music mode that kind of turns it into like a little Tetris effect. It's just clean, great game design that is not getting the love it deserves, but uh, Finity is the name of it, and it's from Cba, is the name of the developer. That's cool.


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[Assistant] You want Apple, uh, on stage during a Jeff Keighley presentation? Like that level?


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[Assistant] Yeah, shout out to, uh, there's another game that no one's talking about online, but, uh, Sping, it's called. And it technically came out, I think, last year, the year before.


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[Assistant] But it's, uh, I, I loved Pixel Junk Eden back in the day, but imagine that type of game if it-


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[Assistant] We're, uh, you know, we're getting ready to kick off our game of the year debates at MinMax. You know, we air all those publicly and stuff. This is one of those games that I don't think anyone's gotten to. I mean, are we blowing it by not getting the chance of Senar before the end of the year? Okay, good to know.


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[Assistant] That is wild that, you know, Facebook, uh, Meta, blah, uh, that they are just kind of stealing a little bit of that thunder for having the great Mixed Reality headset. And also, I mean, Apple Vision Pro is $3,500 and this one is $500? Correct.


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[Assistant] I'm, I'm so impressed. I'm fleeting on this podcast. I want you all to like set a reminder six months from now, ask Relf again, are you still watching YouTube on this thing while washing your dishes? Is this just like-


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[Assistant] That piano thing, projecting it onto a real piano, that is the most tempting thing I've heard since the launch of VR, to be honest.


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[Assistant] Yeah, this won't make it feel too bad, but, uh, buckle up for how bad you'll feel in a little bit. Sure. Six years ago, South Park the Fractured But Whole released. Cool. Good choice. Yeah, from Ubisoft.


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[Assistant] San Francisco, they went from developing Rocksmith to the South Park game, and now they're making X-Defiant. It's just a weird studio trajectory. Unpredictable.


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[Assistant] That's right, yeah. Uh, I really enjoyed this game. I feel like it was one of those, I really love Stick of Truth when it came out in 2014. Uhm, I'm just sucker for...


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[Assistant] Paper Mario specifically, and so the fact that like, oh, we're having a South Park game that is just so clearly modeled after Paper Mario, I am completely on board. And I really enjoyed Fracture but whole, I felt like,


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[Assistant] As a cohesive story, it was so much more successful than stick of truth was it's the longest form story Matt and trade ever told. And like it holds together pretty well, you know? Um, and I, I don't know what was going on at the time, other big releases, but it feels like no one really talked about it in a big way. I'll tell you what came out.


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[Assistant] Yeah, but that Mr. Freeze boss fight in Arkham City was so good. Perfection. One of the greatest boss fights ever. I was thinking about that game when I was playing Spiderman 2, cause


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[Assistant] Oh gosh, thank you so much for having me. If you enjoy this stupid voice, uh, you can check out the MinMax show. Two N's in there. Uh, yeaah, we have a big rotating crew to try and pick the best people to be on every week, but we have, you know, Jacob Geller, YouTube Essay Extraordinaire, Kelsey Lewin, who was the co-director of the Video Game History Foundation, Leo Vader, who is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] YouTube channel that's blowin' up, uh, Sarah Podorski who comes from the localization scene, she was at 8-4 on the 8-4 Play Podcast, so a ton of other folks to rotate through, so check out the MinMax show everybody, we'd appreciate it.


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[Assistant] Man, does it feel awesome to be in this metropolis, to be in a metropolis built by rocksteady, to have this beauty. Like, when you get to walking the daily planet, and like, I'm playing as Deadshot, and he makes a reference to Steve Lombardi and Ron Troop's desks there, and you go into Clark's office and he's got Ma and Pac, it's like,


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[Assistant] Yes, this is it. Rocksteady, do this. This is amazing. But then...


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[Assistant] That makes up the 2-3% that isn't just fighting purple guys on rooftops. And it's like that, then you're out there and you're just like, ah man, this so isn't it. Not only is this not what I want, this just isn't enjoyable.


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[Assistant] That's a great question, Luce. Uh, I mean, I'll start, for me, right, it was the fact that none of the loot mattered.


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[Assistant] You, like, you know, division, I think, rains loot on you. Avengers definitely rained loot on you. And so there was the, oh, well, maybe I want to make a build to fight this type of enemy. Okay, I'm doing this, I need to go that.


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[Assistant] Oh, I've been investing in this and maybe I'd use the, you know, special currency to make it better, but I know that I just got this other thing and it's a, you know, a leap drop or whatever, blah, blah, blah.


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[Assistant] Suicide Squad, I just did not feel that in any way, shape, or form. Missions end, you get two things, you say, okay, this is better stats, you slap it on, and I wasn't attached to anything, because I kept getting assault rifles. I'm usually an assault rifle guy, so I'm getting an assault rifle, and the fact that none of them were special, even at the end of the game, like one of the final missions I did drops a bizarre assault rifle.


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[Assistant] I was like, oh wow, is this, is this where we're really gonna get into making these guns feel special? No, the, you know, active reload on this just goes backwards instead of forwards. Like, oh.


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[Assistant] That's, that's stupid. I didn't even notice that. I critiqued in my review about it. Somebody in the chat pointed that out. I was like, oh, that's what they did with it. That's how they made this special and not just feel like an AR.


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[Assistant] They not figure this out and stop this from happening. And I think, you know, another big part of it for me,


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[Assistant] None of these are a blast. None of these are a lot of fun. And even, they're dropping you where you can only fast travel to the Hall of Justice, but it's down in the, you know, the bottom right corner, so it's not even helpful. It's not central. So you can travel there, but you still gotta go all the way over there.


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[Assistant] This feels so sterile, and even though there's things in it, it feels empty. You know, I kept comparing it to The Division 2, which I adore, and it was the fact that, you know,


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[Assistant] Division two, you leave the base of operations and you're right in the thick of it. And so do you want to engage? Do you want to stealth around you? Are you going to go for that cash over there? This hot drop over there? Something else is happening that's organic in that minute. Like, oh man, and your boots on the ground. So you have to, you know, route yourself through where you want to go and pick and choose. Whereas this was like, okay.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it's, it's almost the opposite of Avengers, right? Where like, you know, you get to the end game here for Suicide Squad and it's like, are we spoiling stuff or not? Does anybody care? What are we doing?


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[Assistant] You blew this, you know what I mean? But here they're promising that stuff, but I don't like your combat. I don't want to come back and again to your point, Ralph, like,


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[Assistant] Everyone in Suicide Squad feels the same. It doesn't, like, why is it that


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[Assistant] Boomerang, Captain Boomerang should be using his boomerangs, right? Like this isn't, is this an outrageous thought that he shouldn't just use that for traversal? King Shark should be a melee shark that's really screwing stuff up. Of course Deadshot should feel like the assassin, and Harley should be these crazy close quarters I'm using melee combat, like, to stop and go.


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[Assistant] We're gonna make all of them gunners. And yea, well, you know, King Shark will have the Gatling gun and, you know, he'll have the assault. And like, of course you can swap those out and give them all whatever you want. It's like, again, back to the Avengers comparison, it's the idea that like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A strategy, back to what we're talking about, to compliment Avengers, when you would run into bosses in the end game stuff they did had, which was few and far between, there was like, oh well,


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[Assistant] How do you engage this? What are you doing? How are we doing that? You think of a destiny raid, right? What is it here? Well, use the counter shot to knock their health bar exposed to these enemies and then just dump bullets into them.


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[Assistant] You know, and even coming on today, I was driving like, alright, I had to get back in that headspace of like, let's get mad again. Let's talk about like everything this game did wrong and what admit, you know what I mean? And like, again.


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[Assistant] What a bummer it is. Like I, it's just such a bummer as an Arkham fan, as a Rocksteady fan, as a live service fan. I, I've enjoyed so much since my videos have gone live about it, my podcasts and stuff. People coming by, quote tweeting by like,


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[Assistant] Seven new mission types that don't feel like it is right now where it's like, open up the toolbox, which one are you going to get A, B or C for your mission objective? Like if there is a through M version of that, maybe it isn't so glaring, but by then, I mean, come on, whatever goodwill you have will be


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[Assistant] You can look at the steam concurrence and see that. I'm not trying to drag it into the street and beat it. I think what you're usually, this is the same thing we all see when we do this, right? Lucy, I know you know it from GameSpot so well. I know it from IGN.


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[Assistant] Where you have that early access, you're able to get in there, da da da. So the people who want to believe are there saying, no, no, no, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, ba ba ba ba ba. And even though we all got our hands on this one at the same time, I still think there's a lot of that. Where it was, you know, the comments I see where people are mad at me not liking it.


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[Assistant] There, it's always, yeah, okay, fine. It's middle of the road, but I'm having fun with it. And it's like, yeah, you're allowed to have fun with whatever you want to. I have fun with bad games all the time, but it's like, we still just sit here and put a score on it and talk about what it is and how it stacks up. And like, there's that disconnect, I think, between


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[Assistant] And Avengers fan and Avengers, I was on the subreddit every day checking in and seeing what people were saying. Like I knew the game wasn't a 10 out of 10, but like I'm there enjoying it. And so, yeah, I was still buying skins or doing this thing or enjoying this thing to a certain degree.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I think that's the thing, you know, live service continues to be a mirage in the desert that so many people stomp to their deaths chasing, and by the time you realize, oh my god,


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[Assistant] This isn't water, it's sand, you're too far gone. You know, you talk about the nine years that between this and Arkham Knight, right? You're talking about a different industry. You're talking about all these different things. And I think, you know, what I brought up on one of the shows talking about Suicide Squad was the idea that, you know, we look at Fortnite and the battle pass and the success and every IP and yada yada yada.


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[Assistant] And it's that thing where it's like, we all remember when Fortnite launched as a completely different game and was failing. And they're like, hey, we love PUBG, so we're trying this battle royale thing. And then it took off, but.


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[Assistant] It was week after week, month after month, season after season to get where it is now.


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[Assistant] And now you have so many people jumping in, wanting to be Fortnite now without wanting to do the work, lay the foundation, actually find what their audience wants and own in on it. So instead they're coming out with half-baked promises saying this is clearly what you want, right? And no, it's not, let alone the fact that the industry's moved so far from that when you set off to make that kind of game. It's a heartbreaker. Cause again, you know, even if you wanted to leave it Suicide Squad, kill the Justice League,


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[Assistant] That's fine and that would have been better I think as a single player, but I look here and I'm like, the fact that they just, you know, went, looked at Arkham Knight's ending and were like, well how can we do this? Alright, here's like the one scene at the end, or not, not even seen at the end. Here's the one scene in the Batman experience of him shaking Superman's hand to explain what happened here, right? It's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would have much rather have you undone all the work you did there and the beautiful ending you had to have it be Batman kill the Justice League and it was that, you know, we pick up and the Justice League's been brainwashed and Batman's the only man standing and how is he going to stop this and what's he going to do and what is the turmoil between it, right? Like that would have been a smarter move than what they did here.


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[Assistant] And that's what's heartbreaking, right? Like when you are in the Batman experience and I walked up on the first thing, I'm like, what is on the floor? And it was the bat jail and it exploded and blew me back. I was like, that's awesome. But now I'm going to see the other side of what it's like to use these gadgets on criminals. And then of course that's wasted.


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[Assistant] Sophisticated, we don't have hundreds of bosses and everything else. We want to enhance that, we want to work on this, but I think as the combination even.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but we also understand that it's not as tight or we're still working on, on aspects. Also because the product is multiplayer, so there's more quickness involved in terms of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And yeaah, so it also worked well for borderlines.


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[Assistant] Hi, uh, so this is difficult, but we definitely want to address this at the top of the episode. These are some words that we all worked on together, but I'll be reading it out and I want to read it out because it's serious and I don't want to get the wording wrong or miss something important.


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[Assistant] So by now, you may have heard about a situation involving our co-host, Gerard, and his charity fundraising efforts. The situation was brought to light by two videos, one from Carl Jobst and the other from Mudahar, aka some ordinary gamers.


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[Assistant] There's a lot of information presented in those videos to the point where many people might reach some conclusions one way or the other about what occurred.


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[Assistant] How serious it is for us, uh, we don't want to rush to any judgments about this. Gerard is a member of this podcast and he's a friend, so we want to give him the space to respond to this situation so that we can get his side of the story and


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[Assistant] Also, so that he takes the appropriate next steps. But certainly we saw enough in those videos that it became clear to us that we really need to learn a lot more about this situation and we really want to see that charity money go to where it needs to go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That reason we've asked Gerard to take a step back from the podcast at least temporarily so that he can provide his side of the story, present some more information and most importantly,


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[Assistant] Donate the money to an appropriate charity because that needs to happen as soon as possible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gerard agreed that taking a step back from the podcast would be the best course of action. And so that's what's going to happen now. We really want to stress that we're not prejudging anything one way or the other, but we do feel as though there are questions that need to be answered. There are actions that need to be taken.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] While that happens, we think it's best that Gerard focuses exclusively on that stuff rather than being on a podcast. Uh, we're not going to talk about it anymore either here on the podcast or anywhere else because it really wouldn't be appropriate. So we're going to let that broader process play out and


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[Assistant] For now, we're gonna get on with the rest of the show. We're obviously affected by this situation, but we know you guys tune in for a good time and to hear some lighthearted bants about video games, so that's what we're gonna try and give ya. On with the show.


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[Assistant] I can admit that I, there was, when I was a kid, there was a Ken doll that came out that was called Shaving Fun Ken.


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[Assistant] His face would like color change and you could shave him in like a five o'clock shadow and the color change. And I thought that was the coolest thing because I wanted that toy because I wanted to give him a gun.


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[Assistant] Alright. I would be, I would be mid Ken. That would be my.


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[Assistant] Lucy, are you, are you, I have a question, because I know you're in, uh, England.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm getting like a lot of, uh, so do you, sorry, I apologize. Do you both say bloke or bloke Australian?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I just think of the stench of piss in it, like, you know, on the, on the stove, like on a, on a cooktop, just boiling and with no ventilation. So it's just humidity, but it's like piss humidity.


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[Assistant] I don't know. Just bringing it up briefly will kind of help people realize that like a lot of people work on games the same. But the thing is is like other award shows don't really do that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Does that, does that move a needle? Like I worry about things just being informative, you know, and just saying it just because like some people want it to be said, you know?


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[Assistant] It's not a bright side, but you know, it's not just the game industry. There's been so many layoffs this year, like you're just following it in the United States that like maybe someone kicking back watching the game awards would be like, oh shit, other people get fired too.


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[Assistant] It was a huge year, like that's the thing, it's like there were so many like, just knock out of the park games, like it's just, I feel like it was bound to happen where one game that people were really excited about that turns out to be, you know, good, can be overshadowed by just ten other games that just happen to be even better.


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[Assistant] I don't think a game should be like rewarded for being fixed. I mean like, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not to be brutal, but like, you know, it was released. Some people, for some people it wasn't up to snuff and a lot of that ongoing was the game improving.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Granted, I mean, I guess if you're counting the expansion, I mean, plenty of games get full expansions, but like, The Witcher 3 got expansions, I wouldn't call The Witcher 3 an ongoing game.


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[Assistant] Watch one clip. I couldn't get through it. I kept watching. I got to the second episode and I kept having to start it over because I could fall asleep or something. I couldn't get through it. Sure, sure, sure.


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[Assistant] Don't you sound pretty biased.


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[Assistant] Yeah, this is, this is a fun one. Uh, so we had a conversation with, uh, uh, Ben Kroshaw, also known as Yahtzee, and Nick Calandra. They are both, uh, from, or formerly from The Escapist, a website, uh, and a YouTube channel that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, it was laid off and the entire team pretty much followed suit and a lot of them formed essentially a new independent media group called Second Wind. Uh, this is becoming more of a common thing. This whole independent game media not beholden to a publisher or some out of touch company owning it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Independently funded by the people that read or watch or engage with it, so they have a Patreon, they have all that stuff, and it's an interesting story with how it all went down. Uhm, you know, you might think it's inside baseball, but again, I think people are hungry for where they're getting


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're reviews, they're content, they're columns, they're things they read, they're things they watch, and uh, Second Wind has a really good story behind it, so we're gonna kick that off now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, so after the incident of November 6th, uh, we're kind of at the time of recording this, one week after the escapist exodus.


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[Assistant] How are you guys feeling? I mean, the YouTube channel, like at the time of this recording, it's cooking on almost 200,000 subscribers. Is it really? I didn't even know that. Last time I checked it was like 30,000.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh my god. So Nick, how's the first impression?


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[Assistant] Well, uh, I think the first thing I kind of want to get into is, uh, the formation of Second Wind. What was the guiding principle during the early conversations? Was it just like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sticking it to the man, was there something like you really wanted to do differently or was it just kind of like a mad scramble?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So how does it go now? Are you guys all technically...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Classifying yourselves as co-owners or have you slipped into roles again? Like Nick, would you call yourself editor in chief now? I feel like you're.


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[Assistant] So with fully ramblimatic, uh, you know, you being in charge with the community, you know, being the source of funding.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With Darren specifically, uhm, I know it's complicated within the frame with Escapist, but like, do you guys have plans to flex him with video?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You need the war chest, somebody's computer's gonna break. Or something. That is true.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Documentaries have been a really cool thing that, Nick, you and a team have really spearheaded the making of stuff. I really like those. Uh, so...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and the team is, do you have most of the, I know you said you have Omar, but like, do you have a lot of the team behind that still?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, and to be clear, Second Wind YouTube channel, which is probably the main hub, uh, you also are streaming.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're on Patreon, and is there anything else we're missing?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, gentlemen, thank you for taking the time to talk to us. I'm sure you both have a lot of work to go get on. So good luck and we'd love to, you know, catch up with you guys again a year from now, see how things are going. But, uh, for now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that whole space. American football, where it used to be like all these offshoots of games and you'd have college football games, you'd have regular league games. They, nope, on that. So now it's just basically Madden or get the fuck out.


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[Assistant] You know what I mean? Like, we're so far removed. Like, EA is like the legendary, like, evil bad video game company, but there was a phrase that was very exciting before a game. EA Sports Big. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's where they had like, you know, NBA Street, NFL Street. NBA Street was probably one of the best basketball games. So good. Fantastic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With that, not to let go on even more of a tangent, but there was, I feel like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That creativity and that weird stuff enabled other things completely to be birthed from it, cause it went to like, wrestling games, fighting games, and then you had stuff like, uh, uh, Def Jam, and like those types of games where it was like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Drop off, sales drop off, they start throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. First, it'll be crazier modes to try and get people interested. And then maybe they'll license smaller games. They've done it before. Uh, like NBA did like a basketball game recently, like more of a cutesy style thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But they don't really go all in on it, so I think the only way they would go all in on it is if...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lucy, now you need to look up, uh, I believe it's called the Internet Remakes Robocop, where a bunch of-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a god damn Rubicub video, come on man. Yeah, I haven't watched yours yet either for that reason. I'll just start off like it's just the perfect, I love these, classic example of like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's a good time. It understands Robocop way more than I expected. I was familiar with their previous work, Terminator Resistance. Oh, it's in the same people?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Get it. Um, presentation wise, you know, here and there and not so much. Um, but I like the feel. I like how much I chuckled throughout it. Um, some of the writing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Very impressed. Very impressed. Uhm, and again, just at being a pretty straight forward game that doesn't outstay its welcome. And, you know, the shootouts are great. I actually just kept feeling like I want more shootouts because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're, they're great, they're explosive, they're dumb, there are explosive barrels everywhere. And, you know, it's pretty easy. And, yeaah, I, I think, uhm, if you pitched it to me as like a younger gamer,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would be so over the moon. And like it doesn't, it doesn't make good on everything, but like the pitch is kind of like, okay, Robocop is a first person shooter, but it's kind of like Deus Ex where you walk around hub worlds and you like talk to people and make decisions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's like, what? Robocop? But okay, cool. You're like in the neighborhood doing Robocop stuff. And I think that's where it actually really makes good on some of that. Like, being Robocop.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Talking to people, choosing how to, you know, handle situations and it's not really


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I didn't, so as much as I liked like making decisions just because I wanted to see the dialogue and hear the dialogue, where it got murky with me was where it just kind of like threw out, like it just wanted you to choose, like are you...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] OCP001, or are you Alex Murphy? Like, I was like, okay, like, what are we doing here?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, cause I'm not, I don't think you can replicate the first one or two movie. So if it feels more of like a fun celebr- I, so I think it's like lightning out of a bottle. I think the first movie is so unique and weird, and like you said, dark.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And satirical and like chuckle worthy and like so iconic that I just feel like that is so difficult to completely replicate that I like that this is kind of just like, it's a Robocop video game. We cherry picked from one and two.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, because like even just like world stuff, like nuke existing in the world and stuff like that just makes sense. But then I really like, did you find the homeless man on the roof?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so, so you can, when you explore the environments. Yeaah. Uh, there's some ladders here and there, and usually go up a ladder and it like, you know, just overlooks the environment and maybe you'll find like a collectible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I remember. There's one you climb up and, Lucy, there's no, there's no collectibles or anything. There's one homeless man just standing at the edge looking over the city and a dialogue line just plays. Hey, you see that guy over there down there? He's an asshole.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My tip for people listening, uh, gameplay-wise, uh, unlock the, uh, ricochet in, in environments because it just makes you feel 10 times more crazy and awesome. It's all just like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Power, power fantasy, like, is stupid fulfillment. Like, a lot of people are like, aw man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Robo, kinda like a cyberpunk too, like, aw, first person, but like, I wanna see my character, I wanna like, live that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know, I had no issue with it in this game because I think it was just because it just, the shooting, the visual, all of it, really good. I wish there was more music overall though. I wanted the theme to play every time I was in a shootout.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's got a little bit of a shade of blue to him in one of the old games, like the NES game or something like that. But that's besides the point. Anyway, I am still cooking on that video and I still want to talk more about it, like more of the, I guess, spoilery stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I haven't had as much hands on time with it, so I haven't noticed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, I haven't been able to notice more nuanced stuff with like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I really just, yeaah, I really just like the, like, little, little, the d-pad is so much better, it's raised, it's thicker, the steam and menu buttons on the left and right are clickier now, but the screen is the biggest thing for me by far. It makes all the difference.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, it is a big difference. I don't know. I just like that Valve


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Reviews and even comments to heart and address some of the bigger elephants in the room because I remember when we put out our videos for the original Steam Deck


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The people that weren't into it cited specifically, I don't like that screen or that battery light doesn't sound so great. That was always the two things. And that would, those were the two things that they really address head on. Those were like the main, as much as this does have a lot of fun little surprises and tweaks to it, the two things they addressed head on, very good that they did that. Like I, I love it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, I want to talk about El Paso elsewhere.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So real short, El Paso Elsewhere was kind of like the thing I was kind of playing through while testing the new Steam Deck.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's really good. It was one of my most anticipated games this year.