[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so yeaah, I always had bro, I always had like, I always looked cool though, cause I always had like one bandage to the other, so I always looked like I was like a cage fighter or something, but I wasn't. Yeaah, yeaah, true. Uhm, but rush to the hospital, I had, I think when I was like 16.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and sugar, and not drinking water and get dehydrated.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dying, uhm, and then, uh, yeaah, I went to the hospital and everything, I wore a hospital gown and it was like Metal Gear Solid 5 The Phantom Pain cause I put the hospital gown on and I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror in the hospital and then like, I like, uuuh, and I like, lost consciousness for a second.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh shit. Yeah, cool stuff. Uhm, but I'm good now, but basically now anytime I have to like poop or if my back hurts, I'm like what if it's a life-threatening, uh, awfully painful kidney stone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, no, no, no therapy, just kinda like, uh, go home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What do you say? I, I just say it now. It's been like a long character arc for me, where I used to always be like, oh, well, I work in video production, uh, you know, and for years I would always just stumble through something like that. I'm a video editor, uh, I work online, uh. Now people ask me and I just go, I am a YouTuber.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's nice. Um, but every once in a while I get, it's mostly from older people when like, oh, they're like, oh, I know that. That's like, yeah, I've seen that. You're a YouTuber. That's cool. And I'm like, yeah. And then they just go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're stashing all that cash. And I was like, no, I don't, I'm not hiding Lamborghini money. No, I don't have, no.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do you have to explain, uh, so I've had to explain, like, what type of, have you ever had to explain, like, criticism or, like, review? So I've had to be like, okay, uh, I have to, like, Robocop, like, analyze, assess the person I'm talking to, like, age, demographic, and I'm like, uh, kind of like, uh, uh, Roger Ebert? Did you ever watch him?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That encouragement, like, you know, sometimes your family is just happy that you're...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's, you know, I'm, I'm proud of it. I've been doing this for a long time, like a decade, you know, so I'm, I'm proud of it and I'm grateful that I can even say that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And some YouTube videos, yeaah, yeaah. I have, uh, I got one for you guys.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you probably both have multiple. I think a lot of people do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ralph, did you have a phase in high school? Did you go through like a phase that you can point out or a couple of phases? Did you have a period in high school where you were really insufferably into something or you made it your whole personality?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I feel like I only had like one or two people to talk to about video games at a, you know, depending on where I was. Uh, so it was always a part of my life, but it wasn't like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know, like there wasn't like a gamer identity back then unless you were like a Starcraft sweaty. I think that was like the only real actual way you could live that life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And a lot, uh, my worst one, or the one I look back on and I'm like, you fucking, uh, I had a Bob Dylan phase.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did you play Wonderwall? I played acoustic guitar. Uh, I mean, I could play Wonderwall, but yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, yeah, that was the first song you learned, but, uh, it was like Red Hot Chili Peppers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, god, I don't even, I don't even listen to music anymore. I'm only a gamer now. He's more a gamer now than Matt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like everybody, like, but I only had like one or two friends, like actual friends. Uhm, and now...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like looking back after like school, I'm like, wow, I don't have a lot of friends, but I'm grateful for the ones that I do have. Uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I was really into, you know, like some kids like, like they're like a band kid or like a theater kid. Uhm, I just liked like art classes and like humanities classes. Like I really liked art history. I took as many art history classes as I could. Uhm, you'd never know it, but uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, that was, that was me, I guess. Pretty simple. I don't look back at school with fond memories. I don't know why I have such a chip on my shoulder. Like nothing bad happened to me, but I just didn't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it was because I moved, I started high school, uh, in a new school and I didn't know anyone and I was like, I fucking, this sucks, I hate this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I got another one if you guys, if you guys got time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's so funny you mentioned the Mario thing because I had, my first console was an NES, uh, and I, I do remember like playing, you know, the classic Mario games and going across the street to the kid's house who had a Nintendo 64 and had Mario 64. And I was like, that's the same guy. That's the guy in the game I'm playing. That sucks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So it's really cool though to be like, to have that though, where you're like, Oh, I was exposed to a lot. Like I'm always like grateful for the people, like my family members and stuff for just like throwing me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, you know, memory is fuzzy. Like, I remember weird little things as a kid, but...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, I, the first video game I remember ever seeing and being like, what is that? Is X-Men Children of the Atom on arcade. And that's an X-Men fighting game. Uh, it's kind of like, I guess kind of like Street Fighter 2.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I believe it was, yeaah. Oh shit! Which is crazy. I remember seeing it at a pizza place and just seeing like the demo, you know, the attract version and seeing like Wolverine and Juggernaut and me being obsessed with, you know, all those characters. I was like, oh my god.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so that was, that was, that was my, that was my first, or I'm pretty sure, that's the first thing I can remember. It was an arcade machine, in a pizza place, in Holbrook, uh, in the pizza place, in the shitty mall, uh, if anybody remembers that, who lives on Long Island, let me know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I can't find any record of that arcade machine existing there, but I believe it in my heart. And now that pizza place closed down. So, anyways.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's cool. It's super easy. Uh, it's essentially you sign up for it and it's almost like a privacy tool. So essentially you make an account, you set it up, you put in your basic information and then incognito kind of goes out on your behalf and scours the internet for your information.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everybody's information is kind of out there in various ways. Uh, so what incognito does is that a kind of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's really nice because there is a lot of stuff out there. Like, you know, your personal information, your address, your phone number, stuff like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You technically can, like, you're within your right to just contact these companies and say, hey, can you take my, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But there's so much out there, so that's where Incognito comes in. And it essentially makes it easier and it is more of an ongoing thing because I've had it, I've been signed up for it for a few months now and essentially they email you progress reports. Some of them do take a while. Some of the, you know, some of the companies drag their feet so you get a little updates over time, which is nice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, Ralph, believe it or not, here is the deal for both you and our savvy listeners. Head to incognito.com, throw in the code friends per second, one word, and snag an exclusive 60% off. It's time to reclaim your online space with incognito. So again, incognito.com.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Use code friends per second. 60% off. And big thanks to Incogni for sponsoring this podcast. Hey you guys hitting that green stuff?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I really think this is a good time to mention that, uh, not only does AG1 deliver your daily dose of vitamins, minerals,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pre and probiotics and more, but it's a powerful, healthy habit. It's also powerfully simple. It's a scoop. You take a scoop and a cup of water to start your day and that's better than burritos with Doritos.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, gut health, you know, immune, all that stuff. It's been good for me. Uh, in terms of New Year's resolutions, I will not commit to a single thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're doing this. Oh shit. We're doing this. We're definitely doing this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tifa, off the top of my head. Definitely Tifa.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's my answer right now. Okay. Lock it in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was big into Final Fantasy X-2 as a little pervert. Okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have one more, I'm sorry, uh, Connor from Detroit, become human.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know wrong, it feels like he can just do no wrong, like you can always just trust in him to like, be the coolest, the wisest, the smartest, the one who has the right answer, and I find that attractive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hi guys, long time listener here of all your content. Love what you guys do, so thought it might be time to actually ask a Q&A question. Uh, we all know how much Lucy loves a bit of Nine Inch Nails, but if we're on the topic of music, what are your favorite video game soundtracks?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Video game soundtrack. So for me, Jesper Kid was the soundtrack to my video game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Life upbringing. Uh, Hitman 2 Silent Assassin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That whole score, the Splinter Cell stuff is obvious. Freedom Fighters and just like how heroic and bombastic it was. Really good use of synth, like really cool synth sounds in all of his scores.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, to this day I still just put it on, it's like good, like lo-fi, like study music, if you're looking for something like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, I gotta do that. I like downloaded it and played it like for a second. I gotta, I gotta get into that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the shop music from Ocarina of Time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They, a lot of the music felt built around you like wandering those wide open green pastures and it's a lot of like, like swelling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's just very relaxing. It's really good. I obviously can talk very well about musical theory.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll go first, uh, for the first question, uh, chilling out from work or life. I'm still figuring it out. Uhm, a lot of it is just boring.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Home ownership tinkering? Where like, I'm gonna fix the doorbell or I'm gonna hang a picture frame and fuck it up eight times and then stew on it for a day and then hang it up properly the next day. Uhm, I also really like cooking. Uhm, cooking is definitely a good like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For a while I was in a flow like right after work, I would like rap work and start cooking and it would feel so good to just like only focus on chopping up vegetables or something. Like it really helped. I hear that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, uh, also I, I really love reading, like I have a big collection of graphic novels and comic book collections. And I really just kind of like reading them sometimes over and over again, just like old batmans and stuff like that. It's just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's like comfort food. You know, I like reading new things. Sure. But sometimes I just want to read about Batman doing the thing again. It's like my favorite thing to do on the couch. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] M-Mario Wonder is on the top of my list. Uh, haven't touched it. Really want to. Uh, it really appeals to me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just haven't had time. Uh, Dave the Diver, also I've, I've gone on record a lot, uhm, for that. I also just want to replay Max Payne 3.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's just like a problem I have constantly. Uh, my backlog is huge and I'm kind of the opposite now where


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I kinda just like, embrace the chaos. I try not to get too hung up on it. Cause I'm like, life is short. I do spend a lot of time just thinking like, oh, when am I gonna play this? When am I gonna play that? Uh, and it just stresses me out. So I'm like, look.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I in my life will not watch every TV show I want to watch that everybody's telling me is great. I am my life. I'm not going to play every single game that I want to play. So just do your best and do your best.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm excited to be alive and, uh, excuse me. Uhm, yeah, I, uh, I have some, so the game rank stuff is like planned for the end of the year and on my channel, uh, I have some videos going out. Uh, I still haven't put out my Robocop video. That should be out by the time this podcast is out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Good, uhm, as well as like my top 10 of the year stuff I'm looking forward to. I got a lot of that stuff. Uh, but I'm looking forward to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Letting, like putting the videos out and, and chilling for a second. And I'm really looking forward to doing this podcast more. This year was really fun and I'm looking forward to doing it more and seeing where it goes, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, YouTube, Jake Baldino, uh, Threads and Twitter, cause I'm a coward.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the thing that led most directly to working on Pacific Drive was that I'd worked on various Don't Starve things for a few years earlier in my career.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I joined Clay, uh, at just about the tail end of the six months of free content updates for the original release. Uhm, and the first thing that I did was working on the Screecher total conversion horror mod that we did and then


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was one of two designers on the Reign of Giants expansion and then I was the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Project lead for the first year or so of development on Don't Starve Together, kind of seeing it through initial release and bring it to parity with, with the random giant expansion. So uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, that, that experience of having worked on a, uh, popular, successful, uh, I think pretty good video game about surviving, uh, lent itself nicely to, to, uh, Pacific Drive and, and, you know, the way it actually came to pass was that a mutual friend of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alex Raycotton, our creative director and studio head, and I's put us in touch when they need a little bit more design help. Uhm, and we, we got on a call and, you know, Alex started, he gave me like the elevator pitch and he was telling me about some of his inspirations and he mentioned Don't Starve. So that, that's like the sort of relevant bit of experience, but, you know, I've been making games for, for a while, worked on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bioshock Infinite and Mafia III were kind of the other major titles there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, wanna, as for the, the question of like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why, why are they so compelling? Like why is there this kind of like constant undercurrent of quietly huge survival games? Uhm, I mean,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe let's pause here and define that a little bit more, actually. Uh, I think...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There is a meaningful difference between a single-player survival game and a multiplayer survival game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think there is a meaningful difference also, uh, between survival games that are focused on kind of like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Monument building and base building, uhm, and survival games that are about sort of like uncovering and understanding a world.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they all tend to have this crafting element too, which is like a very sort of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and I think, you know, you tend to see


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More of the sort of monument building type experience, uh, in those, in those multiplayer contexts, whereas the single player context tends to be more of, of this, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Understand a mysterious place type experience and both of those, um, are, are offering like things that we as humans really like on the one hand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Being in a group and surviving, like the, there is a, a deep-seated and long history of humans in groups surviving together, right? Like there, there's something probably innate there. Uhm, and then in the, you know, it's, it's kind of the flip side of that coin and the uncovering the, the world thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where you're, you're having to like see something strange, see, oh, I wonder what that is. Let me poke it with a stick and see what happens. And I learned something through that experience. And then I get to apply that and sort of unpack this like puzzle box, uhm, over the course of the journey.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean yea, if you were to pick two titles, uh, to be sort of the poster children or the banners of these things, uhm, yea, I think those are pretty great examples.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and then as, as far as like the AAA thing, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think on the one hand, it's a discomfort with like, sort of undirected experiences. Uhm, like there's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you put that much money on screen, you really want to guarantee that the player is going to see it. Uhm, and, you know, to the point where, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Often on a AAA project, things that are sort of ancillary will just get shunted off and drop, drop to the floor. Uhm, and I, I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, there, there's such also an uncertainty with the survival game as to like, whether it's really going to click and connect with people, and without that confidence, it...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, yeaah. Notoriously so, exactly. Yeaah, yeaah, yeaah. And you know, to your point there, like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's sort of a false dichotomy of like, all the, all these survival games, it's the random ones that do well. Like Valheim came out of nowhere.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there are survival games launching recently that like have done wildly differently. Yes, very much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So Alex has a Buick LaSaber that is like a legally distinct but very, very similar vehicle to the one in our game. You know, the idea predated him getting that car but it has really become sort of like a team mascot in a way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of the foley for the car in the game was actually recorded by taking that car


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I was disappointed to be across the country for that recording session.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so it was, it was Alex's idea initially, uhm, and- Alex is the game director, by the way, because we haven't clarified that. Yes, Alex Straycott is our, is our, uh, creative director. I'm, I'm actually the game director. Show up, so apologies. No, no worries. Uh, and, and he's the studio founder and the studio head.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so, you know, the original idea kinda came from him going out on these solo drives into the wilderness in the Pacific Northwest where he lives and our studio is based and obviously the game takes place as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and, and just like that experience of, you know, driving down a dark road with the radio up and just being like, man, this is a vibe. There's, there's something here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and then he, in I think 2019, um, started, started Ironwood and, um, got together a few folks and they started prototyping and, excuse me, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They, they started by building the car itself and, you know, building the behavior where you can like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But they didn't really know, like, where to bring it, like, what the structure of the game was, like, it was immediately compelling to get out and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, they, they had like a lot of the kind of moment to moment core mechanics, at least in like an initial state, proved out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it was, I think, like summer of 2020 that I got involved in the project. And, you know, like I mentioned before, like initially I was just consulting on it and I, and I kind of thought like, okay, I'm going to like parachute in and write sort of a design analysis and some recommendations about where they might want to take the title and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What kind of shapes it could take, uhm, and then off you go, happy sailing into the sunset, uh, and then a few months later I get a call back from Alex and he's like, so, we got a deal, do you want a job?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was just a deal. The initial deal was Sony. That was our first partnership.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From, from that like really sticky core experience of like this really high fidelity in terms of like the way you're interacting with it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was clear that there was like a compelling thing there and, and that there was like something to be mined in terms of like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Having this really tactile relationship to this vehicle and being reliant on it, uhm, and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The first change that we made, I think, when I got onto the project was at the time, uh, you know, just in the prototype, like all of the, like, swapping of car parts and everything was done in a meta UI, a menu that would pull up, come up and, you know, take, take the whole screen up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and I was like, okay, no, if, if we're gonna like really nail this, then you need to be working on the car. Like you need to feel like you are using your hands to take care of your car and continue fostering that relationship and developing that relationship.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and that was really like the first major step to, to that kind of symbiotic relationship that we've established with the car.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and, and you know, we just kept leaning further and further into that. Like at the time, I think we didn't have like the ball compass on the dash. We had sort of like a more digital like ring sort of like radar thing where it would like ping and show you like, oh, in this direction is, is the anchor and, and you, it was sort of like a, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not just the physicality of it, but also the fact that we were putting all of this key information about the world and your car state and kind of ultimately how your run is going into the car itself, like further kind of increasing that reliance on the car, not just from a like, it's an exoskeleton, it's your arm armor way, but also like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All of the important information that you need lives inside the car, so you genuinely cannot go that far.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's no other honks in this zone. Why are we honking? It's been so gratifying to see that, honestly, because, you know, after working on this game for so many years, like, genuinely lost total sight of, like, just how menacing the mere presence of an anomaly can be, especially early on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I have such intimate knowledge of exactly how they behave and how they fit into like the overall progression of the game and everything like that, that...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't even, I don't think of them as anomalies, like they're, they're gameplay objects, they have like, archetypes and blah blah blah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And my, my design brain just like can't shut that off. So it's been, it's been really cool to see people kind of come into contact with these things and be like, oh, right. When you're, when you don't know anything about how these things work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They actually don't, almost don't need to do anything just because they're like, mere existence is, is threatening and intimidating.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was pretty baked in. I mean, you know, that was something where I was really drawing on my experience of Don't Starve of just like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think something you guys had even talked about in your videos is like sort of how uncaring the world is about your, your existence and your presence. And I think that's, that's like a kind of key thing about these, these sort of like puzzle box survival type experiences that I was explaining earlier of, of like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There is an ecology outside of you, and you factor into it and you can manipulate it into ways, in certain ways, but ultimately, like, it isn't something that...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is like out to get you necessarily, but it will get you if you're not careful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's like a really key difference, I think. Like, you know, obviously Don't Starve is a game that does have like hunger and thirst meters and like you're having to manage those, but the rate that they tick down in general is so low that like they're eminently


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, having too many plates to spin or by not having prepared quite enough or


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Seeing something and poking it with that stick and finding out the hard way what it does. Uhm, and, and those lessons though, they can be frustrating, like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, there is a bitter flavor that comes with those types of like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, you, you poked me? I'm gonna slap you right in the face kind of interactions. Uhm, but, but it like, that is the thing that lends the world that sort of intimidation that we were talking about. Like, an anomaly, like the Taurus or the Abductors, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you don't feel like it can really fuck up your day, it stops being...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But if you're not careful, that can change real fast, is like a really important aspect to these experiences because that is the kind of like friction that is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Creating a need to develop that knowledge and develop that familiarity and develop that expertise that allows you to kind of progress past these things that were once mysterious and difficult and challenging and get to the next area or whatever it might be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your power goes out or your kid wakes up or whatever thing happens that pulls you away from the game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but yeaah, there is a save that gets triggered every time you do that sort of like fast travel jump to the next area. Sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, you know, basically, like, because it's such a heavily procedural game, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And because of the amount of content that can exist in these different zones, uh, it was, it was.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There were, there were plenty of design reasons, but it was ultimately a production decision of just like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We can't come at this. We're a team of 20. We're not gonna realistically be able to make everything in those gameplay levels serializable and, and like load cleanly and also be able to accomplish everything else that we're hoping to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is that what you're saying? That wasn't like the initial decision, but that was like, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A general thing with Pacific Drive is we have a lot of accessibility options. There's a lot of ways to tweak the experience to be, uh, kind of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More generous in ways or more, uh, more punishing as well. Uhm, and basically our heuristic there was like, is this part of the game something that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If we leave it as is, we'll mean there are people that cannot progress through the game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like they, we are inadvertently preventing someone from like exploring and enjoying a thing that they are curious about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, like obviously, you know, we have our default settings and we believe that's the best way to play. But, you know, like I look at Subnautica as an example here of like, they've got all these different gameplay modes and like, you can have really kind of a chill Subnautica experience if that's what you're looking for. Obviously there's still like, scary and intimidating parts of that game, but,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In terms of like the core gameplay difficulty and like resource management and everything like that. Like you can kinda just lop that part of the game off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, we wanted to sort of follow in that model, and if it was something that was like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All 60 anomalies and however many resource providers can robustly save their state and resume their state? Less so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It wasn't necessarily led by that, like I mentioned, like there were strong design reasons that the save system works this way. Like we want you kind of out over that canyon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, schedule considerations as, as like, okay, yeah, like, you know, a bit of feedback we've gotten from, from, or comes on the stuff is like, well, you have all these other things that like sort of ruin the game or like, are counter to these stated design reasons. And that's true.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But those things were like so much easier to actually bite off and implement. Interesting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The save system is pretty settled. What we did last week was shipped a patch that made the saved indicator that you clearly had missed yourself, Ralph. So that it now shows up on the load screen. So previously it showed in the bottom right corner after the load screen had hidden.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We shipped that patch last week and I made this big post detailing all of this stuff and included that detail and they're like, so many people coming out of the woodwork being like, oh my god, really? It's been saving this whole time? I am one of those people! We're talking to one of them right now!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I love it. That's great. I love it. So that, that's one thing we've done. Um, and then, uh, hopefully this week, but, but possibly next week, we're, we're also like adding a new option in the pause menu that will allow you to abandon save quit option, which like, if you need to stand up from the middle of a session,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you really don't want to lose what you've collected, um, but you also don't want to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Use this sort of early out, like return to the garage, keep what you got.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, as far as the items that you collected, it will be considered like a successful run, if you have this setting modified at least, like if you set it so that it doesn't take any of your items in that instance. But what you won't get is the kind of discovery mechanic of a successful run.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, you have that kind of territory control thing of like, you pick your destination, you drive there, you escape from it through the gateway, and that kind of reveals the adjacent, uh, junctions from that point. So, you still have to like, get to your destination and progress naturally. I'm hoping that this will give players that are getting frustrated by that stuff, the tools that they need to like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And their sessions in a way that doesn't leave an overly bitter taste in their mouth. Uhm, and you know, we're also adding like a pop-up when you start the game that says like, hey, just so you know, this is how it works and their settings and blah blah. Uhm, so mostly, mostly like a sort of like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Informational solve here, uhm, and, and providing some ways to more easily kind of tweak the settings that, uh, allow you to change what the penalty is for, for dumping back to the garage early.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's my favorite one. I love that lateral problem solving from you on that one, Ralph. Like that's, that's amazing. Actually, like months and months ago we were playing through the game as like a leads group and I had a flat tire on the front right side of the car, uhm, and I also had a quirk that was making my steering wheel pull to the right and I was just having like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Flat tire and put it on the front left side to counterbalance the pole right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it worked. It was like this beautiful amazing moment of just like sort of emergent problem solving.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But to jump back to your question, Jake, about, uh, like, what's the most difficult one? I don't know how to answer that, because the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The way the Quirk system works is, it's like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Procedural, like randomly, modually assembled conditions and behaviors. So there is a enormous possibility space. Like obviously, you know, we put some safeguards in there to like prevent combinations that just like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Make the game basically unplayable. Uhm, but largely like everything you're seeing in that sort of like sentence building UI where it tells you like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, for the cause, you have this car part doing this thing, and that creates this behavior where this other car part does this other thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And basically everything in columns one and two can be paired with everything in columns three and four.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, you know, under the hood, we have like this sort of rating system where each condition and each behavior, it gets assigned like a, a pain amount, um, and, and like an apparentness amount, and we use those to kind of rate, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Different things for how, how the quirks get rolled. Cause you know, we, we don't want to like overwhelm the player with too many things that are overly punishing and things like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and they're, you know, the quirks can kind of come and go and like those weights, those scores kind of get factored into that as well. Um, so there are, there are quirks that, you know, I've, I've seen people like posting screenshots of their, their corkscreen and it says like, you've got seven quirks and they're like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They might be things that just like, because of how you play the game, or because of, uh, any number of things, like how you have your car equipped, you just might never see. Like, an example here is like, a behavior that only happens when your fuel is empty.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, so, you know, like some of these things are really kind of like, uh, buried deep, um, and, and might only rear their head like in a really inopportune moment when you're already in a, in a tricky situation like not having any fuel enough.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think, uh, yeaah, so it, it, it like, I genuinely don't totally know how to answer that. There are definitely combinations that are like wildly different, difficult to spot because of, of how kind of like ancillary they are to, to some of the core gameplay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But at the same time, that also means it's like, not impacting your experience all that much. Uhm, and, and I personally really like, and I think it's a huge, huge aspect to the system that has this really broad range of like, you can get something that like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Makes it really difficult to play and you will figure it out really quickly because of how, how, uh, how like interfering it is and you can have something that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and you know, these things can also chain together as well. Like I saw this amazing anecdote on Twitter the other day where a player had a series of things where like basically they could honk their horn to like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, to answer more fully, like, when Alex first pitched me on the game, uhm, you know, he's like, survival thing, you got the station wagon, and it's in this anomaly zone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, have we irradiated, blah blah blah. And he's like, oh, uh, you know, if you execute on that, like, that thing's gonna, that's gonna be a cool fucking video game and people are gonna really like it. Uhm, and then we went and executed on it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and you know, like, not, not to say that we had all the answers at the gate, uhm, although quite a lot was really there from the outset. Uhm, I think the, the most significant change that we've


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When the, the two major changes that we went through during development that I think like really kind of locked it into place and like made it all click together. One was all of the tools that you use for like gathering resources and stuff used to be these sort of like transaction like animation based like you hold it down for two seconds and then it does the thing. Uhm, and then at.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, last summer, I guess. I think? No. Yeah, last summer. Uhm, we updated it to use the sort of like immersive sim damage model that was being used already for all the damage to the car. Uhm, and just turning everything into like this sort of more sandbox.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, the runs was kind of like, you get three pre-charted paths and there wasn't like a sort of overworld map. You just got like, here's a node graph and you can pick between like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A route that goes this way, this way, or that way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We eventually added this like overworld map where you're kind of like self-planning your destinations and sort of doing this like chart the zone thing. Uhm, so I think those were the two things that really like unlocked the game as a whole.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, I do feel like, you know, we, we were quite confident that we had something pretty special and pretty compelling, like the, the process.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was, it was really when we, when we turned it into this like manual, like you're working on your car with your hands thing, that it was like, okay, yep, this, there's, this thing has legs and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like the setting is compelling, the lighting is beautiful, the vibes are immaculate. Uhm, like this is going to connect with people in a bunch of ways.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, the thing that I was like most nervous about going into, uh, release was...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just like the balance of it all, like how many items you're finding in the different containers. Uhm, and you know, like it's funny, I, having worked on Don't Starve, like my general stance is that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Materials and items and resources and survival games. It's smoke and mirrors, it's distraction. The only thing that actually matters is time management.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, like, all of the resource collection is just converting time into these things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the tension and stakes and intrigue comes from the fact that, uh, you're- you're-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Spinning all these plates, like, in fact, it is generally very frustrating to be playing a survival game where you just cannot find the thing you need.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's much more interesting if you can find it but you need multiple things simultaneously.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, the contents of all the loot containers and the buildings and everything, pretty much down to the wire and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even though I like have this intellectual, uh, theory of the case and like understanding of how these things tick, I was still just like totally in my head about like, oh, what if I, what if I make it too generous? What if it's too stringent? Like blah, blah, blah. Um, and I think fortunately, you know, it was close enough to, to, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We, we kind of shot ourselves in the foot by giving you putty in the tutorial because it kind of sets this expectation of like putty is the way to sell a damaged panel when you can always just craft a new one. And I think if we, if we'd like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause there is like an attachment, it's like, well I have this panel, why would I just trash it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just repair it. Little bit of chemicals on there. Slap some goo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Still, in fact, like these few days here, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll be talking a whole bunch with the other directors about kind of what's next and where we want to go with it and figuring out what those plans are. Uhm, you know, we'll have to see what the tale is and like how much hunger there seems to be for a sequel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So BAFTA is the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. It is a arts charity, uh, based, uh, obviously in the UK. It champions and celebrates


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The movement pictures. So they've got the film awards, the television awards, and for the last 20 years, 20 years, I didn't realize it had been going that long, they've had the gaming awards, and it's basically...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, just too polite. Just too, just too laid back, dude. And uptight. No, that's actually British.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they were just like, I really appreciate it, you know, I really like the, that person's award. I really like the, um, in memoriam section.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've been posting so many of those pictures because they had professional photographers, professional hair and makeup. I look fantastic. I will keep posting those pictures. Good for you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] War changes everything, like little cut scene, scene where they just dole it out, but...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Mass Effect allegedly got optioned by Amazon a couple years ago. That would be cool. I'm- I would be- I mean, obviously this has 100% probably happened.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, that's the thing, I have a unique perspective, I guess, here, because like, my day job...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is this too. So I have a bunch of meetings with people, you know, Mondays at GameSpot and Giant Bomb, we have the big planning meetings, uhm, between a bunch of us, it's mostly Chris Pereira on the news team, uh, we have like a sauna projects where we know


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's say cyberpunk and I would go in, I'd be like, okay, who's the person I'm talking to? What is their job? Where have they been?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that's my mix by the end of each.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just want to play stuff that I want to play that I want to play bangers right now. You know, I feel like that's where I'm at at the moment. I, uhm...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Playing the full game now, um, way more things added in terms of like levels. It's not just the straight demo that originally played. There are some levels that have been added in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I'm just really enjoying it, so yeaah, you play as- God, I'm losing my voice, I'm sorry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you play as, I guess you escaped from a cult, you have a sniper rifle and you have one bullet, and in between each level there is just kind of these little


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Vignettes of all the messed up things that the cult has done, which I think I love the art style most. I also love the sound work on it because it's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hypnotode-ish? It's like this really distorted, fuzzy, horrible sounding thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you have your bullet, and it's basically, it's a puzzle game. You, uh, you try and hit, and you have to hit every single cult member in the level.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With this one bullet and every time you make contact with someone or whether it's a bird or something else like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, you can then change the trajectory and also in the air, you can kind of slightly curve it around. You can do wanted a little bit if you want to. Um, and sometimes in some levels you definitely need to do that. And the crucial thing with me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's hitting the Hitman thing where I feel, uh, I feel incredible, I feel...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Empowered as a player because I've solved the puzzle, I feel empowered because each level will have a certain sub-objective, and those sub-objectives sometimes are delivered to you because the name of the level is a pun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so when you get those, you get a higher score and then there's the hitman thing, there's leaderboards.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's just this real nice empowering puzzle game that's got this messed up, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Setting and framing that I really love, so it's a very loosey ass game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm also, I'm playing this one on Steam Deck, I'm not sure if you are. I'm also not sure how much you can talk about it because there was a preview embargo and the review embargo is later because it's coming out, I think, uh, on the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. I mean, the thing that excites me, because I had like, you know, before...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Stuff works, like taking pictures and stuff where you're stuck, and so...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I also wasn't really a big metroidvania kind of fan, and so...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm actually really enjoying the kind of level where it's hitting in terms of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How my exploration is panning out, like I don't feel stuck at any stage. I like, I like the combat because it feels, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I tried to play like Symphony and Symphony the Knight and because I didn't have that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The thing that I'm most excited about with it and wow, God, sorry, my voice is just gone. Um, completely. Oh God, I'm doing like the breathing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I am really intrigued because it's a story about grief and as someone who has experienced a lot of grief in their life, especially early on, I'm never a parent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But uhm, in my family, that was, you know, we had like a real Edith Finch going on for a while, where just, like, people would just die.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're gonna be talking to a boo. I'm excited.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Excites, maybe not the right word, but like, I'm intrigued to talk about it with him because, you know, you are taking something that is so...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, in a lot of societies grief is kind of like, well you gotta get over it, you know, you gotta move on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I really like that he's taken this very strong and personal moment and like turned it into a game and then kind of put it out there for everyone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Talk, and me, cause I, I hate an over-talker. You know this, I hate Aloy, because she's just chatting. Chatting away.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, but like actually having one where, like I'm interested to hear what Zao is saying because I want to know more about him and his world and the things that he is saying are not like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So again, it's still kind of early days and I'm excited to see where it goes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then also maybe just because Prince of Persia came out, like, more people are interested in the genre and they're like looking for more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cool, tell me about that one. It's really cool. I really enjoyed it. Uhm, do not apologize to my friend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I messaged him and I said, is everything alright at home? And then I said that he would say this movie kicked ass. Anyway, I mean, it's like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To use a reductive example, but it's, it's a, it's definitely one that is, it's funny because this movie is referenced in Monkey Man, uhm, it's like a John Wick kind of, you know, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In terms of just like this really cool action. I think it has some of my favorite, it has definitely one of my favorite action sequences at full time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, a character from a story that his mother told him when he was a child and so you see that at the beginning and that kind of like mirrors his arc. And then, you know, he has been faced with.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Adversity. I'm, I'm trying to keep things really spoiler free because I didn't watch a trailer and I had no idea what this movie was. I thought it was a horror film. Going in. I thought it was like a poster. Yeah, from the poster, that's what I thought it was.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and it's, it's not, it's like this action. So I'm trying to keep it kind of spoiler free for, for people, cause I thought that was a really great way to experience it. Uhm, he's faced.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A hardship and loss and he wants revenge.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so he, uh, moonlights as this kind of cage fighter, his character is the monkey man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But also because you, he knows that there's, this could end in violence. There's like this scene where at the very beginning of the movie, like he's really not very powerful at all. And then he's just pushing himself, pushing himself to get better because you know, revenge is all he can see. Revenge is all he wants. He knows how difficult it's going to be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the action sequences, yeaah, it's very shaky.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I love, love, love a fight scene where I physically recoil because the sound work is so good, because the effects are so good, because those punches that they are throwing look realistic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I was just like, uuuh, uuuh, uuuh. Yeah, and it was hitting. It's great. And I think Dev Patel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wow, like, yeah, obviously all these stories about the fact that like they were pulling funding and he had to film it on iPhones and GoPros and then Jordan Peele comes in and helps get him, helps get it out there and I think that's a really


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cool story, and I'm glad that like, that helped get this notoriety so that more people can see it, because...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This didn't- this does not deserve to be relegated to new on Netflix. This is something that I saw in the theatre. Shout out to the Everyman Theatre.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In Liverpool street in London, best cinema I have ever been in. Oh my God. You sit on couches, everything's super comfortable, really beautiful, really clean. You take drinks in and some food. Anyway.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wow, uhm, so I loved it, and I think Dev Patel was great in it, and it's so funny, as a British kid, kid, number 30s, as a British kid, seeing Dev Patel in skins,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Directing? Like this as your directorial debut is frankly insane.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a lot more in that movie that I would love to talk about, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone, so just please go, go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just like, it's like slower and it's a lot, but whereas, you know, I feel like, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and I was like, Jesus Christ, so yeaah. I'm gonna dig into that after this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ah, what am I doing? I, uhm, you can go back and watch the Bafta Game Awards stream if you'd like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and then I'm just doing a bunch of stuff at GameSpot that's not gonna come out for a couple weeks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can listen to Jeff Jeff's Bizarre Adventure or JoJo's Bizarre Adventure podcast. Uh, we did a couple of episodes about red hot chili pepper. There's a, there's a stand called Red Hot Chili Pepper.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Otherwise, honestly, I'm just going to be traveling back to the UK and hopefully having, hopefully laying low for at least a week. That'd be nice. That'd be really good. Good for you. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After this, it's all downhill. Uh, but this is, this is the every other week podcast where four of us gather to chat about video games, what we're playing, uh, the recent news and stuff like that. Uh, big thanks to you guys who are watching either on this YouTube video version or the podcast version and shout out to those of you who have also reviewed


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The podcast, like left five stars and wrote something very nice, very, I was just going through them and it's nice that most people are nice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is a stacked week, guys. We have, uh, what do we have? We have Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom. We have Star Wars Jedi Survivor. We have Xbox Things, Dead Island. So, uh, let's just jump right into it. What do you guys say?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ain't nothing to it but to do it! Or should I intro you guys? Does every- people know who you are now, right? People know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 20, you had 19 to catch up, let's go. Delivered with the energy of the school teacher who showed up late and threw down the test. He's like, come on, we have to take a test today, hope you study, let's go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, uh, the first thing, the biggest thing of course is the Xbox Activision Blizzard news. Uh, the most recent thing is that the CMA


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Has seemingly announced that they are blocking the deal. So the UK regular body, the Competition and Markets Authority, CMA, who, side note,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and their disproval of the deal oddly came down to the sway, uh, Microsoft would have in the world of cloud gaming through services like Xbox Game Pass, where AAA and indie titles alike can be played on mobile.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is where I think it's kind of interesting because I didn't think it would come down to cloud gaming. And...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is it like, is cloud gaming more of a big deal than I realize, or is this just kind of like the random thing that they're reaching for that seems bad?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm not like smart, but it just feels not great for like one thing to control everything. That's like my very base level thought.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I don't know. And I really do feel like at this point too, it is gonna end up being this weird


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] News, like gaming news cold war for a while because like you said, the appeals process and knowing anything about courts, appeals processes drag things out forever. Uh, and then the fact that, uh, US regulatory bodies are also not super keen on some of it. They've already made announcements too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, about like intent to file lawsuits and stuff like that against it, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's looking kinda weird. It's definitely, it's definitely something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What about smart glass? We got Xbox smart glass, guys. Oh my god, smart glass! That was gonna be the next big thing!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just like their different approaches and like me having stuff to talk about and interesting ways to think about how I interact with gaming ecosystems. Uhm, so it's like, I like the groundwork that they've laid, but like as just somebody who is a, is a simple gamer person, like at the end of the day, I am here for the games.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and I do want more. I've been waiting for the new Fable game for- I've become the old Titanic lady waiting for that game. You know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The future of Xbox, uh, is Hideo Kojima as Cortana. You heard it here first. Breaking news! World premiere, baby!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, we'll see where our Xbox goes and all that, but now, a word from our sponsor.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ralph, what the hell? You got to play Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. That's- I know, right? That's incomprehensible. That's amazing. How long did you get to play this thing?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like was shown in the original demo that we saw a few weeks back and you needed to get logs and you needed to cut down a tree to get those logs and you needed to make an axe. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What is it, what is the essence of it that makes, so that's, that loop is just survival game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But knowing Nintendo, it's gotta feel different. So like, what is the sauce there?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is it like, Gerard, I feel like I still like, I don't know how you feel about the gameplay elements, but I still tend to just kind of give the benefit of the doubt because even though I hear a lot of weird elements where I'm like, I just want to do a dungeon. I don't want to like make a car like it's nuts and bolts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A Japanese spin with their charm, that studio specifically, can make a lot of that stuff really compelling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's funny, you mentioned challenge, you mentioned hard mode and stuff. Ralph, uh, did you get a sense of the game being tough? Cause I thought Breath of the Wild was pretty, pretty challenging.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What about, uh, tech wise, uh, you know, there's been a lot of, there's been a lot of people being like, this is, this is a very systems heavy game and it's all aging hardware and it's just a bigger, better one. Like how did it feel?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You heard it here first, wait for the switch too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's the thing about Miyamoto, like, I've been thinking about him a lot lately, where it's like, he's this humble, lovable, video game man who cr- He's also probably almost like a billionaire, like, of course he knew it was gonna do good, like, you, you invented Mario!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, uh, I'm looking forward to that. I mean, the game isn't out too far from now. And they seem pretty confident.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean the fact that they let you capture your own footage, they let you touch the game for a long period of time, like- I was so surprised. Cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes. Absolutely you can. Hell yea. You're goddamn right. Absolutely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, as having some, like, tested a lot of these types of machines, uh, I think the whole Steam Linux thing is the killer app part of what Steam Deck has figured out. But, uh, I think...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Asus makes decent hardware. I use their Asus ROG laptops. I like them. Uhm, and I, I just get like this weird feeling. Like I've just seen a couple of things. Like I feel like Microsoft is a little bit more specifically interested in this one. And I've seen rumors floating around that, uh, they would start to roll out some sort of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Different windows mobile support tailored specifically to these experiences. So while it's not like steam, if at the very least they have Microsoft a little bit more in their court than the average.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Agreed. Let's move on to the releases. Uh, the new releases, uh, we got a big ol' list. Ralph, you wanna kick those off?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We did the before you buy, but it was like my first before you buy where like it was someone else's script. It felt weird. We're not going to do it again. But the person who wrote it, uh, did like it. Shout out to Eric.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It definitely, it's really just a victim of a slow start, uh, it takes a while to really roll everything out to you, uh, and it takes some work to get a bunch of units, but once you get a bunch of units, it makes for like a really fun, chaotic


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But also like, you know, you gotta think about it type of third person real time strategy. Uhm, I just like how it feels Minecraft-y.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and I didn't get to do multiplayer stuff, but hearing you talk about it and then just finally spending more time with the game and seeing all the systems and seeing the game at its best, I'm like, oh, holy shit, this is probably really significant for people playing online. Just because, like, they built a really cool thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, because this was, this was cool. It's fun. I'm curious here, cause like I spoke to a lot of people that played Minecraft, uhm, uh, what was it called? Minecraft Dungeons?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, a lot of them played with their children or their younger brothers and sisters. Uh, so I'm curious to hear how people do that with this one because it's, it's a little more complex. It's a little.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're used to making Legos in general. You heard it here first. Friends per second podcast. Minecraft is not for babies.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, it's kind of like Minecraft, uh, where I kind of went in being like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, it's not actually. No, but same thing as Minecraft where I, I went in not really think like, I'm like, okay, cool. Like whatever, like this could be casual, good fun. Don't have like majorly high expectations. It's Dead Island and they're making a new one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uh, that's exactly what it was. They made a new one. And it's fine and good. Ralph, I agree with your point in your video where


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's, it's good. It's fine. It's entertaining. It doesn't outstay its welcome. It's a game that is pretty decent, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In terms of like, how competitive games are for your money now, how expensive games are. I don't always dive into the price per hour discourse, but specifically with Dead Island 2, I definitely, I'm like, ah, this is really good, but like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a lot of other stuff for full price at begging for your time where this is just a mindless zombie.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, like I think if you're just a little bit more choosy, might not be for you, but I think it's a good time. I really like the gore system. It's really cool. Some of the set pieces, some of like the, the boss battles are pretty quirky and fun. Um, yeah, there's not, it's, it's hard to like, there's not much to it really.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then there's hardcore audiences that just like zombie stuff, there's horror fans, like it's, it's a thing. And I think when people say like, oh this or Dying Light 2.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's totally different. Do you want to play a game that's like a little wacky and you kill zombies? Or do you want to play a game where you kill zombies and there's crafting and side quests and like Rosario Dawson for some reason?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, like there's different, there's enough room there for both, I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and I got motion sickness like crazy. And I usually don't. I only get motion sickness after like hours and hours of swapping between VR games or playing Doom Eternal with a mouse on like ultra hard mode. Those are the only times I get like woozy. Uhm, and this, this got me. It hit me good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What I did was just turn off motion blur in the game settings and I was, it fixed it completely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just continue it to not be on islands because this one takes place in California. The next one should also be not an island and just like do an ironic thing. New York or something or New Jersey.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, so that's Dead Island. Now, uh, a word from a couple of our sponsors. Stick around because we're gonna talk about Star Wars Jedi. Uh, I forgot the name of the game. I was gonna say Jedi Fallen Order. Star, oh boy. I always do that. Now a word from our sponsors.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, this podcast is sponsored by Athletic Greens, uh, with their all-in-one AG1 formula. Their mission is to empower you to take ownership of your health by building a simple daily habit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I've been in this habit for a while. Just one scoop of this bad boy right here from this packet, uh, with some water and you're good to go. It gives you a lot of stuff. I, you know, I wanted to improve my gut health. I wanted to just take better care of myself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm not really good in the nutrient department and AG1 has been a really good way to kind of get my morning started. Have you guys been kind of taking this in in the morning?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's good to have all those nutrients for immune support, like I said before, gut health, more energy, uh, better digestive system, which I actually really appreciated, not to get gross, but yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Can I do that? Is that okay? Yeah, yeah, you can definitely do that. Yeah. Uh, so it's a really good thing to just make a part of your daily habit. Have it in the morning, maybe before you work out or something like that. That's what I do, believe it or not. You might not believe I work out, but yes, it comes with all this stuff. You can sign up and you can get it essentially sent to your door every month.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And thankfully it's super easy to use. It's like one click and you're going to go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Star Wars colon Jedi survivor. Where else could it be?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so yeaah, the game is out, uh, if you're listening to this. And, uh. You're probably playing it while listening to us. Let's be real. I hope you are, because it's very good. I really like it. It's a fun time. I don't know if I like it as much as the first one. The first one just had this kind of quaint, exciting,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, thankfully it does still have a lot of that heart. It has some good story. Uh, but there's a lot of just like running around and doing stuff and a little less like being on the run from inquisitors. I do like that Lucasfilm let and Lucasfilm games like let respawn


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really go, and I'm not spoiling anything, but like really do a bit more with the lore and have fun with it and make their own mark and tell their own kind of out there sci-fi adventure. In this, you're not necessarily like right deep in the thick of what's going on in the timeline.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're doing your own thing in the outer reaches and it lets them kind of flex a little bit. It's kind of like if you liked Respawn kind of doing like cool stuff with the Zepho and this like ancient lore, like if you like that, they're able to do a lot more stuff like that here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and then also just have a bunch of crazy fighting styles and let you just like live out your.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your Jedi fantasy, essentially. Uh, how did you guys make your Cal look? Cause you can customize him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, it's them being confident in, or realizing, like, it's cool. I love Star Wars, and I love, uh, Star Wars jackets, and this game is just like jacket representation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It succeeds in, in, in that stuff. Like I, I really think like just going back to like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's besides the point. I just, I love what they understand here. They add stuff and it feels right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They have music, they have moments that feels right. It doesn't feel super pandery. It brings in characters, it brings in moments that you know from regular proper Star Wars, but it doesn't


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Overdue it. It doesn't ruin them. And then it, it, it, it also kind of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As much as like, yea, you have to whack an enemy a couple of times, when you've, it, when you do something skilled, the game really makes you feel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like you are super adept and you get that satisfaction, that endorphin rush at least for me when I walk into a room and it's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I get what you mean. I get why some people just feel like it's like a whiff of all bad. I think it's just always gonna be a thing with Star Wars, unfortunately.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I like the one on one lightsaber stuff though.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it, yeaah, cause that's where I do agree with you. I like the combat because I'm coming to it more for the wish fulfillment, the fun of it. I think the visual effects, the feedback, the vibration of the controller, the when you get the power, like I love that stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everything you said about like the stances, changing between the stances, uh, and my big complaint I said in the before you buy was, uh, move variation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I want more, I don't necessarily need a million stances. Uhm, I want more move variation within just maybe one or two. You know, like you upgrade, the skill tree is decent, you'll get a couple of things, but nothing


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, you, I always kind of defer to you in my reviews. I was like, hey, if you want someone who is more technically minded on that, I'm just like the fun factor guy. Is it good? Is it bad? Uh, checkout. I always say checkout scale up or digital foundry because I still think those perspectives are valid and I think it's like people who are equipped to do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, with that, let's move on over to one of my favorite segments to make me feel old. It's, uh, This Week in the Way Back, hosted by our King Gerard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh boy, so I'm predictable and everybody thought I was gonna do Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, which is 13 years ago, but I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna do Grand Theft Auto IV, which released 15 years ago in 2008.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I think a good one is definitely Grand Theft Auto IV. I really like it. Uhm, it definitely set the stage for how rocks our games would kind of play and feel moving forward. Uh, but I, I really keep going back to it and the busted PC version.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Specifically because it's a really good snapshot of New York. It is not New York, it's Liberty City, but it is heavily


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm heavily inspired by Real New York and I still think that game to this day with its age captures like the feel, the atmosphere, the essence of New York more than most games really have and I think that's absolutely wild. Uh, as New York has changed, New York feels different now, but I like going back to that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For like that old real genuine New York feel. It is so cool. The neighborhoods are perfect. The neighborhoods actually kind of like vaguely feel and look and appear how they are in real life. Like it really like was something else. And then of course, like the fact that they like told like the story of an immigrant


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't even, I don't even want to say DLC. DLC feels like negative. Like they were just genuine expansions. And I, I love that game. It's a, it's a weird one. It's, it's not the best controlling or best playing or best driving, but it's just charming.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what's up. Duck Hunt was genuinely really fun to play, so I got it as, so I had an NAS first, but I was a 90s kid, so like I had seen 3D games, but like the actual games I had first was Duck Hunt


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Super Mario, like the third one, Tetris, like stuff like that, but Duck Hunt was the one where it just felt so, just like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it was like mind-blowing at the time, it's so stupid, but also the zapper itself is just such a good peripheral. It was.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that's it, uh, we made it another week. Uh, thank you very much to you guys for listening, watching, rating. Thank you to our sponsors for having our back. Uh, thank you to people who submitted questions. We'll get to more of them next week. Uh, of course that email is...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Contact at frames per second dot com. Shoot us whatever you want. Uh, we'd love to, we'd love to hear you, but what? Like shoot us questions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, as for me, uh, the game ranks before you buy is out for Jedi Survivor. I'm gonna be putting more videos out on my channel cause I don't talk about Star Wars movies or anything online anymore. I like retired from that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause of the discourse. So I'm excited to just talk Star Wars. So I'm going to do a video and I have plans to do a spoiler video as well. Cause there's some stuff I want to go in depth on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, uh, yeaah, youtube.com slash jakebaldino, game ranks there in a day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's it. So everybody, thank you for being here. We'll see you not next week, but the week after. That's how this goes. Uh, thank you for being here. Tie your shoes and go to bed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I'm down. I think I've been- I'm not sure the scale of it just yet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh yea, the man who erased his name trailer at Keelysings.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, you know, are you getting me back in? I don't know, the one thing


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's all quite back-loaded. The first two weeks were pretty clear, except for Hogwarts, obviously. But, uh, yeaah, the back-end, man, is just packed. Like, just everything's dropping.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Correct. Perfect. Correct. Love it. So where, where would you put under your, uh, your definition drive, where would you put dead space? Is that a remake or a remaster? Oh man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It does, it does. But like not math, like, okay, there's big, like the zero G segments obviously and changes to alt weapon fire.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yea, Dead Space I think is a really great example of just blurring that line and being, yea, a little from column A, a little from column B. It's a, it's a remake remaster. That's not a thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, yeah. And everyone's like, well, that is a remake, but just cause it looks really different and looks way better, but mechanically it's basically the same. Uh, so I don't know. Yeah. I think, I think it's like, it's obviously just a definition debate. I don't think it matters a huge amount, but I do think


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a point that I sort of made in my review of it as well back then, which a lot of people didn't like, but I think it's true. Okay. Like when the mummy, if the mummy gets re-released on some fucking beautiful 4k whatever. Criterion collection. Right. Okay. Is that it? Okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I think when it comes to value of like, I would say though, like in a more strict sense, like removing merch from the conversation, like we're fine to pay for re-releases of our favorite albums and our favorite movies. We're fine to pay for the collector's editions and they don't do a huge amount to touch up that movie.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Totally, everyone's going to have a different value, but for me personally, the way I consume games, what I value, $70, you know, that would have been a very fair price. Obviously I received the game for free, but if I didn't receive a free, I would have bought it. No problem. Uh, for sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, because I don't really care about The Last of Us that much, but if I was, if they, you know, I don't know, I'm trying to give an example of a game, like Death Strand, uh, I don't know, like God of War, if they remade it in five years, God of War 2018, if they remake it in like, or for the PlayStation 6, would I buy it again for $70?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why did he say yes to that? Why? Oh man, it was just no, no. Anyway. No comment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh no, cause revolution is canned. Revolution is like, it's, but this is literally like blow a hole in the supporting structures of this three story building. The building will come down with everything in it. Like it's really wild actually. Super fun. So yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I actually, as I was playing through Ishin this week, I was reminded of how open world RPGs used to be designed with regards to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Go away now and go and bring me a better sword and I will train you more and then you go out and you have to find the shit. It's very tactile and I just really like, uh, open world RPG games that were very hands off and just let you figure shit out. It's probably why Outer Wilds is my favorite video game of all time because it's just that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think most modern game design is about guiding the player and making sure the player feels comfortable. Uh, whereas I think the exact opposite is like way better and way more fun. Um, so yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I agree. I agree. That doesn't, it just feels like let's get a whole bunch of brands we own and then make them fight rather than like a, you're right, like a collaboration across.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This past two weeks, we have had Deliver Us Mars, which is that narrative-led sequel thriller game from the people that did Deliver Us the Moon. Hogwarts Legacy, Metroid Prime Remaster, Returnal on PC drops today.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I am playing slash nearly done with that one and like a dragon Isshin, which drops this weekend, which we can talk about on this podcast because this podcast will release after the review embargo is live. So we can talk about Isshin, which is great news.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So yes, should we talk about Hogwarts? No one on the internet has talked much about Hogwarts this past, this past few weeks slash months. So that's fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I tried to review the game, right? That was my intention. Uhm, because I'm not a fan of JK Rowling at all, but still I chose to review the game because I wanted to review the video game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and a lot of people, and then, but then Warner Brothers didn't end up sending me a code, whatever, and they told me they would, it didn't arrive, and so I kind of like blocked out that time, and then I missed my window, because then I had to work on all this other stuff, because I was working on, like, all many of those games that we listed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sure, sure, yeah right. Do you think, cause like I'm not a Harry Potter guy, uh, at all, like I've read two of the books and watched the movies, just I did not click with the world. Like it's fine, I'm not like, oh I hate Harry Potter, but I just don't really feel anything for it. Do you think that kind of person would enjoy this game?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Harry Potter just has such massive brand cash. Like it is, uh, like it used to be Star Wars. Like that's what a certain generation grew up on. A certain generation grew up on Harry Potter. And there has been so many Star Wars video game experiences that have been


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even though I enjoy them, I just, that's how I feel. But this one, obviously, given the amount of work that went into it, how good it looked, uhm, I was not at all surprised to see it go as massive as it did. Like, for example, my brother's, uh, ex-girlfriend who doesn't play video games at all. At all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, it's a very competent, open-worldy type game, but there's nothing that you really need to experience. And my, my backlog, like, pile of shame is so high, this would not even feature in the top 100 of that list, you know what I mean? Not, not to do with any animosity towards the, the sub, the whatever else.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Co-Carnage is in it. He was my boy during my playthrough. I had him in my deck. For sure. So yea, it's weird. That system, just to explain it briefly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Passive boost, you know, like a stat boost or cast an ability. So it's unfortunate you don't see co-carnage rendered in game kicking ass. That would be very sick though. But uhm, but yeaah, that's how that system works.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Governing of Japan and mark the end of the shogunate, right? So really, really interesting stuff that I had no fucking clue about before I started playing and I literally, literally had no clue. And then I was like, huh, these names, it's all getting, it's all getting quite historical, isn't it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I agree. I do think it starts quite slow, but then there's a moment, which I don't even know if you're up to yet, but you join, um, the what's called the Shinsengumi, which is the military organization.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Essentially the shogunate cops, like the military adjuncts. And that's when it gets sick because you start to meet this like cast of, of captains, whiny bitches.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but in a way, but also some of them are fucking bad ass. And you don't know which ones are going to be your friends or your enemies. And it has this real sort of Kurosawa.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Put about 40 hours into it. So I finished about half of the side quest activity and the full thing. And uhm, I loved it. I absolutely loved it. And it's funny cause I,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've only ever finished one other RGG game, which is Lost Judgment, okay? I did a review for that, not a popular review, because I'm pretty much the only person on the planet that did a negative review of Lost Judgment. And RGG fans really love RGG games, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and not to re-litigate that review, because it'll tank the like ratio of this video, but I did not like the main character. I think he's really boring and I don't like any detective gameplay. And I think the storyline of that game was really weird and it just didn't quite work for me thematically. Anyway, everyone has their own take. That's my personal take.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the point is that Ishin though just totally clicked with me in a way that I'd always hoped an RGG game would. Cause that's the only RGG game I've finished. I've dabbled in other Yakuza games. I've liked what I've played, but I've always had to move on to other things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I've always been like, no, I'm someone that would like RGG games. What's going on? Why, why didn't I like Lost Judgment? And now I've finished Ishin and it's just absolutely worked for me. I just loved so much of it. Uh, the characters, the storyline, the drama, the combat, they actually have a new fighting style that they've added to this one as well, if I'm not mistaken, that wasn't in the original game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For what I've seen, the personal stories, like individuals. And I think in this period of Japan, there is a lot going on, a lot of change.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, later on you do because there's actually quite a few side quests that relate to, um, foreigners arriving and there's some foreigners who are very well intentioned.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they're like, Hey, we love Japan. We're not here to like, you know, rape and pillage your resources. Uh, we actually really liked Japan and we want to, you know, do things together, collaborate, whatever. And then you have a whole bunch of Japanese people that are like, no, we can't trust foreigners, whatever. So it shows that tension. It tries to position some foreigners as being like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and given that there's so much story, there's so much dialogue, I think it could have dealt with those ideas and themes a little bit more than it, than it did, rather than just a lot of personal melodrama. I was into the personal melodrama, by the way, don't get me wrong, but I just also would have liked to be more of that other stuff. So yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yea, cool game though, I love it. Yea, yea, it's, you can, you can beeline the main story in 20 hours, uhm, but then you're really gonna spend more than likely at least 30 to 40 with it, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yep. There's that life, of course. Yeah. It's so funny how the circumstances that you get that farm as well. I won't spoil it for you, but it's funny. Have you got the farm yet?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now that's cool. I've always been interested to play Oxypath as in I've, you know, heard a lot about it. I've heard mixed things as well. Like it's, it's obviously cause it's very traditional classic JRPG that, you know, a lot of people are like, ah, I'm kind of over that now I've been playing it for 30 years or whatever. Um, but yeah, I know that people like purists really enjoyed it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We talked about that last week, but you hadn't played it last week. No. Oh, right. Yeah. What do you guys think?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's like, it's like, what's what we had with Jetset when it came out, right? Like to this day, that's still like a formative game for us, right? I don't know if maybe just me, I'm not sure if you guys ever had that, but like, it just had so much style, so much


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whatever. That you're like, yeah man, this is, this is part of me now forever. Even though it's this short little, you know, rollerblading experience, it just stays with you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Very good. I totally agree. I think one of the, and one of the things that makes it very accessible, no matter what your skill level is, is you are always going to swing your weapon and hit, even if you're off the beat. It's just, you will do more damage if you're on the beat. And I think that's,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Something for like BPM, which is that rhythm shooter where if you weren't firing on the beat, then you weren't doing anything. And a lot of people just can't do it. And that's one of the interesting things you learn about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you have a comment section, right? You learn that there are certain triggers when it comes to video games that certain people can't get past. For example, timers. Some people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, yeah, so I think it was very smart of Hi-Fi Rush to sidestep all of that by me, by making it so that no matter what you're doing, no matter how bad you are, in inverted commas, uh, you are still going to be able to do something. It was very clever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, okay. I think I know the one you're talking about. That's our next podcast discussion. Sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really bummed that I had to miss Next Fest because I was just too busy with other things. So I always try and prioritize it just this month, unfortunately. It was actually the same last Next Fest, sorry, last year's February Next Fest because there's just so many massive releases and unfortunately kind of have to cover that because that's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Unfortunately, the nature of this business. Um, but yeah, man, Nextfest, whenever it rolls around and I have the time, I always prioritize it. It's such a great time. You'd find so many things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We've had 2 Febries in a row now that have been massive, maybe the next one will be the same. Uh, there's, actually there's been quite a few Next Fest that have been really hurt by their timing, which is a real shame.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Look, yeaah, look, I wouldn't say it's a new phenomenon, in the sense that we've had PC ports, you know, everyone will remember, like, Arkham Knight, for example, legendarily bad, uhm, you know, most, most ports of Japanese games are generally terrible, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's obviously exceptions, but it does feel like lately that trend is intensifying. Uh, this is definitely one of the worst that I've seen in a minute, like since Callisto Protocol maybe. Uhm, just the how bad it runs even on my hardware, like a RTX 4090.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it doesn't even look that good either, like the game looks like quite last gen at this point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dynamically building these wooden structures, these wooden contraptions and you build them anywhere you like and they crumple into little pieces when the monsters knock them over. There's a lot that's going on that needs to be rendered.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I really went in with pretty low expectations for this one. I was expecting just like, eh, there's no way it could be as good as monster hunter. Yeah. Or come close to that. Yeah. It absolutely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, it, it's, it's there in that conversation, for sure. This is not, cause there's another, um, hunter game called Dauntless, right, which is a free to play- I was gonna say-