Infinite Scale - A podcast about Video Games
Listen to William Chandler, Chris Crossley, and Christopher Merced discuss the games they're playing, the news, and even (TOPIC).
Infinite Scale - A podcast about Video Games
Infinite Scale Podcast #75 - Michael Vick Had Crazy Stats
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We're back! This time we ponder about the future of Xbox following the announcement of Halo: Campaign Evolved. We also talk about some games we've been playing including: Arc Raiders, Ninja Gaiden 4, Pokemon Z-A, and more! Also, Will still doesn't like Hades!
We're back. Welcome. My God. Welcome to video games. Um you're listening to the Infinite Scale podcast. It's been a while, mostly because of the various travels and things, but um you know what they say about video games? They never stop happening.
SPEAKER_03You can play them anywhere too.
SPEAKER_05That is true. Yeah, thanks to the majesty of the Nintendo Switch 2, I played a lot of things. No, just like two things, really. Um as always I'm joined by uh Christopher Merced and Chris Crossley. I switched up the order this time mostly because I forgot how this works. Um how you guys been?
SPEAKER_03Oh you know, brother, it's been it's been going fucking well. Yeah. Yeah?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we got it. I got my degree. Did you know that? I did. I was I was sitting next to you and you told me. Do you remember this? That's pretty exciting. Do you do you remember this? Do you remember that I was there? I think so. Maybe. How many?
SPEAKER_03We uh we went to top golf. Oh yeah. That was a good time. Yeah. It's fucking golf balls in random directions most of the time.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03You know, that's just a genius. That that really is like a genius business.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, at some point at some point someone was like, what if we took the sport that is widely considered the most boring thing to be a part of uh generally, and just made it like um uh like an arcade where we just let children loose and uh they just whack balls for you know 90 minutes at the cost of $200 or so. And um it turns out it's it's pretty fun, but I don't know. I do you can golf ever become a cool sport, or is it ever is it forever gonna be like old grandpa sport?
SPEAKER_03I think I think it's already a cool sport, to be honest. At least like whenever I was like whenever I was serving and shit and I was interacting with younger people. Thank you for your service, all all of those dudes, all of those dudes played fucking golf. Really? So, yes, all of them. It was like the literally the age range was anywhere from like 18 to mid-30s.
SPEAKER_00I think that's a product of your environment, if I'm being honest.
SPEAKER_03I don't know what the fuck that's supposed to mean. It's literally just an age range in a random city here in Florida.
SPEAKER_00I'm saying I think that's a byproduct of where you're at.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I mean that that could be true. Like maybe people are more likely to be golf players in Florida versus other places. I don't I don't know if that I'd be interested in seeing that math shaked out. I mean I think it's probably the same in most places, if I had to guess. Well, dude.
SPEAKER_03I think there are golf courses everywhere, right? Like many people I know geographically, you can put a golf course fucking anywhere.
SPEAKER_00I think like you're not wrong. I think unless you change the interest being different in different fucking parts of the country.
SPEAKER_05Unless you're I mean, I guess, yeah, you could argue that like what people are probably more likely to be skiers in the north than in the south.
SPEAKER_00But I I'll say And Florida's pretty fucking flat and warm. Holy shit.
SPEAKER_05Wait, but that doesn't necess that doesn't necessarily make for good golf.
SPEAKER_00Well, okay, but it it kind of okay. I mean, I but but do you want to be like golfing on a mountain?
SPEAKER_05Uh most I mean, not on.
SPEAKER_03Places that have mountains are not like mountainous everywhere.
SPEAKER_05There's not like never mind. Isn't I I mean as far as I'm aware, Scotland is the birth the birthplace of golf, and I don't know much about Scotland other than the fact that I think there's a lot of cliffs and shit.
SPEAKER_00But it's I yeah.
SPEAKER_03I don't think I I don't I don't think it's I don't think it's necessarily seen as like only for old ass fucking men anymore. That's one whole thing. I'm not saying these kids are like all out fucking getting golf clubs like laboo boos or some shit. I'm just saying they they probably more than likely it's it's not as as like uh relegated to being like their retirement sport that it used to be, if I guess.
SPEAKER_00No, no, I absolutely agree with that. For sure not.
SPEAKER_05I mean, I I I think here in New York, the barrier to playing golf is the fact that one, no one has any room in their apartment for golf clubs, and two, it's not like there's a golf course in the middle of the city or something. So like most people are not, you know. I would say they the barrier to entry is slightly higher than in a state like Florida where if you can afford housing at all, chances are it's at least a thousand square feet. Um even if it's like a trailer. You could have a 2,000 square foot trailer in Florida for probably not a lot of money, and then go play golf.
SPEAKER_03I have no clue. I know the rents around here are supposed to be really bad though, but I'm leaving anyway, so yeah.
SPEAKER_05I mean they are they are in relation to what the amount of money that people make. Um video games. So um a lot came out, but more specifically, a lot came out in like the last two and a half weeks that I was gone. Like an obscene number of games. I should have pulled up a release calendar, actually, because I feel like the day like or two days after I left, Pokemon came out, and then it was like the fucking floodgates. It was like Battlefield, maybe Battlefield was like a few days before I left, but it was like Battlefield Pokemon, uh what Ninja Gaiden and Outer Worlds just came out, um, Vampire Bloodlines 2 came out, which seems to be um uh not receiving the best of praise. Um like a performance thing, or I actually completely forgot about that. I think people are just really mad that it's not just Bloodlines 1, but better. It's kind of a reinterpretation. Like they took away stats and a lot of those mechanics that made it more RPG-ish. They kind of just made it like a dialogue. Watching gameplay of it, you're kind of like this is like if if Arkham City was dishonored and you could make dialogue choices. Cause you like fly around the open world of Seattle and beat the fuck out of guys in the streets, and then you have long extended periods of dialogue where you're making like story decisions, and I don't know, people people are not super thrilled with it, so um I'm trying to find like see what this shit looks like. Yeah, it looks strange, but I I'm probably still gonna play it anyway. Anyway, point is video games came out, and um uh we've been playing a lot of them, so we'll be we'll be talking about that. But I wanted to start with uh something that uh was announced I guess it's about been about a week now. Um maybe it was Monday. Uh Halo's coming to PlayStation.
SPEAKER_03Hell yeah, brother. I can't get enough. Is that weird? Do we think that's weird? No. I I just think I it seems like uh the natural progression of things at this point, right? Absolutely. Yeah, the gears came to Gears just came to PlayStation, didn't it?
SPEAKER_00Yes, in August.
SPEAKER_05I think I I you're right, it's the natural progression. It is a little bit funny if you think about it. That was basically the last thing, right? Like that would have been the very last uh barrier of just here's everything now coming to PlayStation. Like Halo to me, at this point, after however many years, is like the Xbox franchise and always has been. So basically it's it's an admission of yeah, we're done with this console shit. Like we're we're now just a games company.
SPEAKER_03Um it is wait, weren't they didn't know? The hardware section of their Yeah, I'm not saying they're not making consoles at all.
SPEAKER_05I just mean like they're they're done with um trying to compete as a console maker. They're just gonna keep making hardware that they feel like people may want. The rumors out there are that it's an x86-based PC. It's basically like the Xbox handheld, but you know, a box that sits under your TV instead of something you carry around with you. And um, it's gonna be actually made by Microsoft instead of you know, instead of like the the Legion Go or whatever. Um but uh yeah, I mean, by all accounts, it's not like they're trying to be they're not trying to take it back to the the way of the 2000s where it was like, okay, if you wanted to play Halo, you had to buy an Xbox. They're done with that. They're they're done, they're done with that in general for all their franchises. They're going, which is how they've been messaging it, but they're they're going like, hey, no matter what platform you have, well, except Switch, maybe you can play this Halo game.
SPEAKER_00Um it's uh the same with Sony and PC, though, right? And I mean, at what point is it not the same with Sony and Xbox as well?
SPEAKER_03Um well that this is only working in one direction so far.
SPEAKER_00It's either gonna well sh kind of. I mean, PC is like, you know, we're talking about Windows, which is Microsoft, and it's all kind of this, it's it's different, but it's the same in that if you want to play it day one, Death Stranding 2, you'll play it on PlayStation 5. If you want to wait to play it on your PC, you'll wait about a year, and that's fine too. And it's gonna be the same probably with like what Fallout 10 or whatever's next for that, and then Elder Scrolls. Like, if you want to play those day one, it'll be on Game Pass for your PC or on your Xbox. And if you don't have a PC or an Xbox and you're willing to wait on your PlayStation, maybe six months to a year later, it'll drop there, and that's fine too. And I think that'll be the like new standard for a bit. If you want to play it day one, it's on their terms. If you want to play it eventually, you'll be able to play it wherever you want, probably. What'll be interesting is if Nintendo ever kind of goes this direction too, and ever has like maybe I don't I couldn't see this on other consoles, but like ever on PC had like their own like storefront and software that they were selling, but it's just you know, I I I can't see that reality, but that would be interesting if we ever got there.
SPEAKER_03You you bring the sorry, go ahead. The on for the Xboxes that we have now, you can't play any Sony games on those, right? Even if they're released on PC.
SPEAKER_00No, but you're gonna play so later destroying two on a Windows PC in like a year.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. I was just thinking, I was thinking more about the new hardware that should not be a thing. I was just thinking more about the new hardware that uh Microsoft is gonna be coming out with, like the next box that they come out with.
SPEAKER_05It I guess it actually depends on if it's just a PC or not. Like because um there is talk that'll just be if it functions like the PC, yeah, then gets it.
SPEAKER_00Well, if it uses if it uses an Xbox OS, then it's it still won't work, right? But if it does function like a PC and you could make it work, just launch Steam and you can just launch God of War on an Xbox.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, if it's what's the difference? If it really is X86 based, there's basically I mean, unless they spend a lot of time trying to lock it down, which would shock me because that's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00Even if it does strictly function like an Xbox and not a PC, at what point does Sony not give a fuck? And it's like, okay, after a year, it'll be available on PC, and then maybe a little bit further down the line, if not the same time, it's also going to be on Xbox because they've made their money on their storefront and now they're trying to make more money where they can, which is the whole reason they're even putting stuff on PC now, because it's just an in-type market.
SPEAKER_03I think it's a good thing that they're like they're expanding, especially into PC, but I'm just I'm I'm really just thinking from like the average consumer perspective how confusing that shit would be. Like whenever they're like, I don't know, the the marketing that they were doing before uh was like this is an Xbox, right? And you had like the the Legion and you had like the phones and you had the actual computers, and they were like, oh, all of this is an Xbox, right? Then you go and you buy their proprietary hardware, and then it's just like the Xbox OS, but the you're unable to play the same games that you would play on like other, like you know what I'm saying? Like that shit's a little fucking confusing.
SPEAKER_05Well, I I mean I do think they're trying to head in a direction where this is my guess. I mean, I I I think probably the Legion is the first toe in this pond, but it's basically like Xbox is actually just a piece of software that you boot up. It's like an app and it turns the computer. Yeah, it turns the computer environment into more of a full screen experience, though, as opposed to just like a window, right? But it it turns the whatever computer or phone or whatever you're on into the Xbox UI, and then it, you know, maybe it does some things where it like changes the the processing priorities and you know, like allocates resources differently to be more functional for games. Supposedly, I mean Windows has technically always done that, where there's like game mode and all that stuff, where it's trying to change the priority of things for your processor and change the way that uh your you know RAM uh functions in game mode or whatever the fuck. Um but I think you know the Windows ability to play games has only gotten more and more complicated over time as computers get more and more complicated. So you have a lot more things that can can go wrong. Uh it feels like. And I I don't know. Like, you know how like I mean, Crossly was part of this as well, like the big joke about Windows 11 being fucked up. Um no one has ever felt good about a Windows release since like XP, basically, maybe seven, um, if you're being generous. And that's a lot of people. People love seven, didn't they? Yeah, maybe not at first, but I mean, I feel like I feel like most of that negative press is tied to the idea that it doesn't uh function as well as it used to, and game playing is a part of that, right? Like they added too many things, and now it's like there's just too much shit going on for it to prioritize games effectively. Who knows if that's really true? I'm not a I'm not a computer scientist, but um uh yeah, I don't know. So it feels like what they want is just unify all their devices with an app. Let's just say you boot up the Xbox app, there's all your games. If it's in the Xbox app, you can play it on any of that hardware locally, ideally. I guess phones would be streaming, but um yeah, I that that's the way I see it. And it feels like the next Xbox is probably something like that, but who knows? The thing that gets me with this, though, is that like the PlayStation argument is interesting because PlayStation really has no reason to do it other than like more sales, which is probably why they're doing the PC stuff right now, right? But they're it's not like they're hurting or they need market share or something like that. The thing that's interesting to me is like you know, is because they announced it at the same time. Is Halo gonna come out day and date on PlayStation and Xbox and PC same day? That to me is the big difference. Like, that's the next step for Sony is let's stop delaying it and just start putting it on PC day one. They're not gonna do it. Nope. I mean, that would be I think pretty cool more beneficial overall to their bottom line than holding it for a year, unless they're just trying to get the double dippers like Rockstar always does.
SPEAKER_00But unless they move to like a platform on PC where they're selling it and they have to filter people through that platform, but people aren't gonna like that, and I think they know that. I think. Maybe I'm just assuming because people fucking shit their pants over like Epic Game Store.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. God damn, yeah. I haven't booted up the Epic Game Store in kind of a while. I should look at that.
SPEAKER_03Um yeah, If it's not Steam, people do actually lose their fucking minds. It's crazy.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's weird. I mean, who cares? But that that's who cares? That's always been the I mean EA basically gave up, right? They spent all that time trying to do the EA app, same with Ubisoft, and they're just like, fuck it, man.
SPEAKER_03We're we're they actually integrated it with the Game Pass now, too. Like there's basically like no reason. Like, of course, you have to have the EA app downloaded, but there's basically no reason to actually like go and boot up the EA app like by itself. Everything just launches it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're right. They basically did just give the fuck up.
SPEAKER_05It it's interesting. Like, I'd be curious to see where the campaign evolves stuff ends up. Um, in terms of like market share, like spit of split of player base. This will be the first time there's really like I mean, by all accounts, there's more PS5s out in the world than there are Xboxes, so theoretically, it would be a game that would outsell on PS5 compared to Xbox, which would be really weird. Um, yeah, I don't I don't know. It's I guess that's just life. It's uh I think with the comments that the CEO of Microsoft is making about like how profitable they want Xbox to be.
SPEAKER_00The road to profitability is a hardware or are Xbox as a brand.
SPEAKER_05As a division of Microsoft. Okay. So what that means is like what the road to profitability is make less hardware because it's expensive and the margins are not really good. No. And spend your money on developing good software because that's where the recurring revenue and the margins are, DLC and cosmetics and battle pass and all that stuff. More games. I mean, they just need to make more games if they want to be if they want to be more profitable.
SPEAKER_01And so put them on PlayStation.
SPEAKER_05Just put them on PlayStation, man. Fuck it.
SPEAKER_01Fucking funny.
SPEAKER_05I mean, that that clearly seems to be. I'm curious, like, what the internal messaging around this is, like, not messaging. I mean, I'm sure it's in line with everything that they've said publicly, but I mean, like, are there people at Xbox who are like, this is fucking weird? You know what I mean? Like, but I don't know. I don't know.
SPEAKER_03I mean, can you imagine like being in the Xbox 360 year and you're like, by the way, Xbox is about to get their shit pushed in for a decade? It's like, what? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then put their games on PlayStation.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. I mean, well, and also back then, I mean, who would have thought that like they would own half of the gaming developers that are left? I mean, fucking Blizzard and all that shit, plus um they bought what in that span of time. Time they bought uh 2K. So 2K? No. Um yeah, 2K.
SPEAKER_03Um I don't remember I don't remember them buying 2K, but they might have.
SPEAKER_05Uh shit.
SPEAKER_00Why am I um what I do wonder about this whole thing that we're talking about with stuff on PS5? I wonder if those versions of the games are being made internally at Microsoft or if they're being ported by another group or Sony people, or yeah. What exactly? That's so weird to think about. Because yeah, you either have people at Microsoft making the PS5 versions, which is funny, or it's just some other team, and then it's like, well, that's fucking weird. Like, you know, just porters, I don't know what they're called, but you know, the the people that do the porting for nobody's. Yeah, right, exactly. Or it's like handled by Sony, which is also funny.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. I mean this game is being developed internally. So I would assume I mean that that could mean a lot of things, and they tend to do partnerships with other studios when they develop stuff, so you know, maybe um, yeah, maybe they're it they are letting like other studios handle the different different versions or whatever, but yeah, I mean this is being developed by like the developer on Steam is listed as Halo Studios. So you know there you go. I will say it doesn't really seem like the Gears of War uh remaster has uh caught on, let's say.
SPEAKER_03Um apparently it was so true to the original that a bunch of people said it played like dog shit. I don't think that like people realize like how far the series has come from being like the first like real cover-based shooter to how it exists now, and like in its form as like Gears 5 and how fluid and good it feels. Apparently they literally just like kept it as like a one-to-one the the mechanics, the feeling, the like movement, and everything. And a bunch of people didn't like that either. On top of you know, other stuff. I did see a bunch of people uh talking about shit that probably didn't stop people from buying the game if they were gonna buy in the first place. Like uh they did um redo textures uh and change stuff like the armor, the coalition armor is not the same as it was in the original game. It looks it looks different, as well as like they did they did stuff like this for like a bunch of different assets in the game. Um that you know people can like freak out and nerd out about, but I don't think that really stopped anyone who was already gonna buy it from buying the game anyway.
SPEAKER_05So uh so I I pulled it up. Um the Microsoft acquisition I was thinking of, I kept calling it 2K, but it's Xenemax, so the people who own Bethesda and all that. Um I feel like that was almost as big as the the Activision and Blizzard stuff. Um until they closed like half the studios that made games under Xenemax. But I mean it is funny to see them consolidate all this shit and then they have very little to show for it so far um in terms of output, let's say but when was the when was the acquisition for Xenemax?
SPEAKER_03I mean ten years ago?
SPEAKER_05Uh I don't know. When was that? Okay. Yeah. Five almost five years ago. So I mean, realistically, a lot of the stuff that those studios would be would have been working on in that amount of time would have come out, you know what I mean? Like I feel like I have to sneeze.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I've always felt like there's a PS5 version of uh Starfield out there that never got released and will now eventually for sure get released.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Like what can I just get a list of the games that have come out since the acquisition? Because I feel like it just hasn't been very many. Um I don't even know how I would find just that kind of specific of a list, but yeah, Starfield. Will they ever do a PS5 version of that?
SPEAKER_00I think it exists and it will come out, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Man, that game was so dog shit.
SPEAKER_00It wasn't bad.
SPEAKER_05Fine. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It wasn't bad.
SPEAKER_05It was uh it was the most 7 out of 10 you could imagine.
SPEAKER_00That's so fucking true. And it's another one of those games that's like really perfect for that meme of the dude pouring the champagne on himself, like, but he's not in first place or whatever.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And uh it it's like, dude, you fucking overselebrated yourself so hard and whatever, but I it was genuinely a good time. I mean, I can't yeah, I can't lie.
SPEAKER_05I mean, I put a lot of hours into it and and enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_00When my roommate moved here, he was playing it on my Xbox in the living room, and I would uh watch. And I was uh honestly getting the itch watching him play. I was like, damn, this this was fucking fun. I could do this again. Yeah, I never did, but now that there's like DLC and all this other new content, I have thought about it. I can't lie, the game is not bad, it really just isn't bad. Better than Fallout 4.
SPEAKER_03I did not like it.
SPEAKER_00That's totally fair, you know?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I mean it I don't even I feel like in a in a very broad sense I liked it more than Fallout 4, but that's probably only because it's not tied to a property that I know and love. You know what I mean? Like right, I I Fallout 4 disappointed me because it had Fallout on the box. I mean, that was you know, otherwise it was a perfectly fine Skyrim. They made a Skyrim, but with guns, finally the prophecy has come true.
SPEAKER_00But and here's what I will say that I'll never forget is when I went back to Cyberpunk immediately after this for that DLC and was immediately reminded what an actually great video game feels like, and it's like, oh yeah, no, Starfield is just like mediocre, but it's like it's okay. Yeah, it's okay that it's just mediocre. And it's also okay that Cyberpunk is an actually great fucking video game.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it is it is funny the the kind of turnaround uh that cyberpunk has done and that Starfield hasn't been able to do, which is I feel like honestly, just stick to it from the Cyberpunk developers from City Project. Like it's literally just like I I don't think Cyberpunk is that much better than when it came out. It's basically the same game. They just smoothed out the bugs, got rid of the performance issues, and changed a few of the way the mechanics, like stats and stuff work. But the gameplay, the core game is the same, and people were so hard on it back then. It's it's really the the gamer mind is like an impenetrable box of bullshit. Like there's literally no way, right?
SPEAKER_00Who it depends who you talk to. If you were in the camp that couldn't run it well, you felt a very specific way, and if you could run it well, or even playable, you know, uh and didn't run into anything major uh bug-wise, then you probably had a really good time. Um, and that's sort of how I feel about cyberpunk on release. There was like two really big camps, the camp that couldn't run it or had a bunch of bugs, and the camp that didn't. Um, and then yeah, as they smoothed things out and did like the rebalancing and retooling of the skill tree and all that. I do think cyberpunk was technically better later, but I agree with 100% of what you're saying that it was like always fucking good from the start. Like always, it was so good. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Anyway, who knows what's going on with Xbox anymore? We'll we'll see. I'm I mean, theoretically, there's still another Elder Scrolls game coming out. I guess that's probably gonna be on PS5 as well. Will that be a launch PS5 or will that be a year later? Who knows? Who knows? Um let's shift gears into what we do know. Uh I want to hear about arc raiders, Merced.
SPEAKER_03Um, what do you want to know about it, buddy? What are you most curious about?
SPEAKER_05I I want to know how you feel about it. I mean, uh I guess set the stage. It's it's an extraction shooter. What's up?
SPEAKER_00Can I see footage of it while he's talking about it? Is that a thing?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I hold on. I'll thank you so much. While he's while he's grabbing that. The um I think the the main draw that they're going for with uh with arc raiders that I think personally that they nailed um is they really want to have it be in in comparison to other extraction shooters, they want it to be a lot more of a social experience, uh, or at least give you more ways to make it a social experience than with other extraction shooters. When you have things like fucking arena breakout infinite and escape from Tarkov, you feel essentially like compelled to kill the first thing that you see. Um, but this isn't like that isn't always the case with those games either, to be fair. I at least in a arena breakout, I don't even think you can talk to people. But in Tarkov, it's not always the case that people will just like shoot on site, but it is the case like 90% of the time. But for when in this game with the heavy like PvE aspect that they have, they made the bots uh like incredibly powerful, like very, very powerful. And the diversity in the bots in terms of power scaling, as you end up leveling up, your character gets stronger, you get more stats, you get better weapons. Uh, there will always be something that can almost fucking one-shot you. Uh so just having having this looming threat constantly around you, uh, I think promotes like more of a like uh social experience. Like uh it promotes people working together a lot more, uh, even if you're not already in a group with each other. But uh at its core, it is like an extraction shooter. Um, so you've got like your looting, and you've got, of course, like your extraction points, you've got your uh areas of interest that are labeled on the map that tell you uh what uh what rarity of materials that you can find within the buildings. You get your stuff, you get out, you go back to your home base, and uh you sort out your inventory, you level up your character if you can, you upgrade your equipment if you can, um, and you also have a personal base style upgrade system. So you can create different workbenches to upgrade, upgrade medical gear, upgrade explosives, upgrade guns, um, and craft things for your next uh foray into one of the I believe there's five zones right now.
SPEAKER_00Um so these bases you're talking about, can they be like discovered and damaged by other people?
SPEAKER_03Or these are like no, that's it's a base type system. So like you get your own, you get really what it is is you get your own room in the in the compound that you live in. Um so like the just the way that the world works is um everything topside on the top of the earth um is uh has basically been taken over by roaming bots. We don't know how the bots got there, it's kind of like Horizon Zero Dawn. Um, we don't really know how the bots have gotten there. And the people, the humans, have had to flee to uh subterranean um compounds that they created. So you live basically under the earth like a mole rat. And uh in in this area, you are basically given a room in the compound, and uh in this room you can create separate workbenches and stuff. So nobody can actually like fuck with your shit. This is just a this is another level up mechanic on top of the other level up mechanics that exist within the game. Um, but they're permanent level ups uh that you can you can unlock. Okay. Um so yeah, and then there's there's five different areas, all with different uh like different levels of bots that you run into. Um they're completely different as far as I've seen, they look completely different. Uh, I've unlocked three different areas so far, but uh, but yeah, I think the main the main thing that's really really struck a chord with me when playing this game is just that people are very willing to talk and very willing to interact with you, and they will not shoot you on site, even if like um it really regardless regardless of the situation, as long as you are willing to actually talk back. Um there have been there have already been I don't even know how many moments where someone has started shooting at me and I have to like get behind cover and then I have to talk to them and I have to basically be like, Hey, I'm just a small little guy, don't hurt me. And then like they'll of course, like the person will either use a weapon wheel or not weapon wheel, but an emote wheel to tell me uh that they're not gonna shoot at me, or they'll just use their mics and they'll they'll be like, Okay, okay, I won't shoot, and then I'll just like bandage up and keep going. Um, even those people who are a little bit more like yippy when it comes to seeing random players out and about, and they'll just like automatically shoot, you can roll for diplomacy and then see if you don't have to fucking fight this guy, basically. Uh, it seems like people are very willing to stop the fight if you are also willing to put put that out there as an option. Um, so if you if you are the type to to want to fight, that still absolutely occurs a lot. And I see it a lot. I see a lot of dead bodies everywhere.
SPEAKER_00Um but uh if it's like your group comes across another group, is there still incentive to maybe not fuck with them? Or once it's like, okay, I have a group, we're established and we'll be fine. Anything else at that point is just a potential threat, and we want to neutralize the other group so they don't neutralize us, or is it like, no, there's potentially things to be gained from yeah?
SPEAKER_03So I think this this loops this loops back onto why I think the PVE portion of the game is done so well, is because the the bots themselves are a threat. They are absolutely you will probably spend more time scared of the bots on a singular run than you'll be scared of other human beings because you'll run it.
SPEAKER_00So seeing a person is like, oh thank god, helped.
SPEAKER_03It can't it absolutely can be. There have been multiple moments where I have like the bots have been attacking me, and then it'll all of a sudden be like it's like Dark Souls esque, where it's like one is fine if you know how to deal with it. When it becomes three, then you're like, okay, this is actually like a fucking problem. Um, and there there have been a lot of moments that I've run into already where I'll run into multiple bots. I'll duck behind cover something. I'm trying to fucking reload, and all of a sudden, like more bullets will like start whizzing by and hitting the bots. And I'm just like, oh, thank fucking god, someone's coming here to fucking save me. And they do, and then I'll say, like, hey, I'm friendly, by the way, you can come, you can loot these like after we're done, and they'll be like, okay. And then they come up, they loot the bots with me, and then we're like, all right, good luck. And then we just fuck it, we piece out and we part ways. Like that has happened multiple times already. Um, so absolutely, like, whenever you run into a human being, it can be like that. Or uh, in in reality, in like in very much like a uh like Cormac McCarthy's the road scenario, when you meet a human, you literally most of the time, if there's no bots around, you just don't know if this motherfucker is a cannibal or not. You're literally like you're you're rolling the dice on that, and you have to try to talk to them, or you could shoot them on site, you could be an asshole too. I mean, really, it's all depending on how you want to play. But when it comes to like being in a squad, um the from what I've heard, there is more PvP in the squad modes because when you roll when you roll in solo, you're put in with other solo players. When you roll in as a squad, you're put in a lobby with other squads as well. So uh I have heard that there's more PvP in the squad uh game modes, but because the robots are still such a threat, regardless. Um uh at the higher levels, maybe the smaller ones aren't, but there are large robots that will absolutely fuck you up, like your entire crew up. Um so there is that as well. So, like when it comes to the very, very huge ones, even three people, it it like three people, it can still be insanely difficult to take down the larger bots, and you have a greater incentive to try and get another squad to help you out to take down the larger bots. Um, so there there is that too.
SPEAKER_00Is there only solos and squads, or is there solos, duos?
SPEAKER_03You can roll in with two people, but you'll be put up against uh other squads of threes. Squads of threes.
SPEAKER_00So is that a full squad?
SPEAKER_03Is I believe three people is the the maximum that you can have. If you go in as two, you'll be put in the squad queue. So you'll be going up against people who are squads of two and squads of three. So okay. Um there, there's there's that. But uh, but yeah, and dude, I just I I think I just really, really like the like uh like I don't even know what you would call it. It's like the 80s futuristic aesthetic is just really fucking sick. Um and I I think that they nail it pretty well here. Uh everything everything looks beautiful. The game is made by Embark, and as far as I've seen, these people are like really fucking know what they're doing. Um, I believe they I believe that they use their own proprietary technology too, whenever they're making these games. So like they've made the finals and now they've made this game. Um and the like, dude, for how beautiful these games are, for the amount of uh visual effects that exist in these games, the amount of environmental changes that exist in these games, uh like the ability to destroy shit. Um, the games run flawlessly. Uh like I I'm I'm running it with absolutely no hitches, no drops at around like 140 to 150 at all times at max settings. Um, and it's it's been an absolute blast. So like it's an absolutely beautiful game on top of everything else.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, if I got this game, we would play it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I play it. I mean, I've been playing it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_05I'm surprised that uh you didn't after um realizing it was made by the the same people who made the finals. I know Crossley is a finals sicko.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I for I I just kind of exist in the camp now where I want to see what people do with the game coming out more than anything. Um and I've I've I've casually followed this game. I haven't closely followed it. I've you know heard the conversations around it when I think they did some like betas or something uh earlier this year and uh was hearing really good things, and I was like, oh okay, I'll see where this goes when it comes out, and now it's here. Mercedes talking it up and he owns it, so I you know that's all I really need is you know a few. Is this game published?
SPEAKER_05This game's published by Nexon.
SPEAKER_03I that's I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, it's this is the developer's like second game, so they probably need all the money that they can get. And this, like the way these games look amazing, so it probably costs a lot of money to make.
SPEAKER_05It it is an Unreal Engine game, by the way.
SPEAKER_03Um, yeah, but I mean, like whenever it comes to like creating all the assets and stuff, like this stuff isn't like yeah.
SPEAKER_05Uh I guess I guess Imbark must have a nexon deal because the finals was also nexon. I guess I forgot that.
SPEAKER_03Um I will I will say though that like I I'm excited to try out squads. Squads will probably be a lot more PvP though than the way I've explained it. Yeah. So just a heads up beforehand. No, no, that's fine. That's cool. I know bitch.
SPEAKER_00All I do is play Fortnite.
SPEAKER_03That is true. Oh, true! It is very Fortnite-esque.
SPEAKER_05All I do is play Counter-Strike. Is it very Counter-Strike-esque? Absolutely not. It's not even really the same.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but goddamn, is it fun? Dude, there's like you can you can when when you're at the base, you can craft deployable shields, you can craft deployable zip lines. Like there was there was one time where like someone was literally shooting at me, so I just went to the top of the building that I was at, like a fucking 10-story building, put down a zip line to another building, and I just fucking left. I was like, I'm not fucking doing this shit right now. And I just zip lined to another building.
SPEAKER_05I will say, just the there is something, yeah, like you said, the aesthetics of this game are extremely appealing, like the design, the way the environment's I think it looks awesome. It's also just it is a really pretty looking game. I mean, I I don't know how they did it. It does seem it's it seems like it's very performant as well. Um so I I do think this is one of those cases where like, you know, people love to shit on Unreal Engine for being, you know, a leading cause of poor optimization. Um, but uh uh it does feel like this is um it runs well and and all the all the impressions I see out there are positive. So I I am I am very tempted by this. As somebody who hasn't quite clicked with a Battle Royale game since PUBG, this is like the closest I've come to seeing something and getting that little getting that it. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00Oh, is this are extraction shooters kind of actually like battle royales? I thought Merced was kind of joking.
SPEAKER_03I mean the they're they have the DNA of a battle royale, but I mean like the the idea of an extraction shooter is you go in, you loot as much as you can, you try to get out. But there's like the time there's a timer system, so like you have 30 minutes, which is a pretty big fucking window, um to loot as much as you can, and then you gotta get to one of the stations that are located on the map and then get out from there. I'd say they that's the there are two genres that borrow from each other.
SPEAKER_05Um for sure.
SPEAKER_00No, I didn't realize that. I don't I don't know. I've I've actually never played an extraction shooter, so I didn't really a hundred percent understand the loop or they'll share DNA, but they're you're not forced to go in any location.
SPEAKER_03Like there's no like bubble that closes in or anything like that. So and it's um there there is uh another thing that might cause some people to uh to get a little bit upset. Um the there's a lot of cosmetics that are pretty heavily monetized. The game itself is I believe I spent $40 on it. Um I would know because I'm fucking rich, but uh the game itself, I believe, is like $40. I think it might be less. Oh, okay. But the I'll pull it up.
SPEAKER_05Um no, you're right. $39.99 deluxe edition is $59.99. So yeah.
SPEAKER_03Once you get into the game, the cosmetics, uh, if you want to get like a full suit, I believe when I checked was like $15, $20. Um so like if you want to change the whole way that your duder looks, it's gonna be around that much. But there is a battle pass-like system that comes free, uh, at the very least for the first season of this game. I don't know what their plans are moving forward. But uh, you do you do a bunch of missions and stuff, you get a bunch of in-game coin, you can spend that coin on aesthetic stuff as well. You can also spend it, it's sort of like um the way Helldivers does it. You can spend that coin that you get on the in-game currency as well to go and purchase the cosmetics. Gotcha. Um, that would cost money, real money. That's cool. So there's that. That's how they're doing the whole monetization scheme for the people that you know get mad about stuff like that. Yeah, but it's not a thing free. Yeah, yeah. Why no, why no thing free?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, it's installed and ready. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_05Um I'm interested. I'm interested as well. Yeah. Um see what see if we can get up to some of that later. Um, okay, that's Arc Raiders. It's on uh, I believe PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. Um Switch One exclusive. $40. Yeah, Switch One, gyro aiming only. Um and uh um there's waggle controls. You you waggle to uh to uh run. So you gotta do Joy-Cons in your shoes. Yeah, you gotta pretend like you're yeah, yeah. It's it's it's it's the only Switch game that actually requires two sets of of uh Joy-Cons. What you gotta put them strap some to your feet and some to your hands, and uh that's how you perform all the actions.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So um yeah, Arc Raiders looks fun, 40 bucks, not bad. I mean, you know, considering that everything's just uh kind of I don't know how much time you're gonna spend on it. Forty dollars, you'll probably more than more than get your money's worth. Um let's move on. Uh before we get into what I think is gonna be the big thing to talk about uh this time for me and Crossley, which is Pokemon, I'd like to quickly talk about Ninja Gaiden 4. Uh hot new release on Xbox Game Pass. Um actually that's some news that we didn't cover, but uh it made me feel quite sad that Iagaki, the uh the founder of of um Team Ninja uh passed away unexpectedly, um, according to an announcement on his Facebook. Uh yeah, pretty crazy. Yeah, it's uh I when I was a kid, I thought Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2 were some of the coolest games ever made. So um I was really yeah, I don't know. It it caught me in a way that I wasn't expecting. Like it just feels like weird that someone young and you know, um maybe not totally current in the industry, like in terms of some like a personality who's out there, but like growing up felt like a fixture of the games industry, you know what I mean? Like you would always see him with the sunglasses and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_03Um his vision absolutely had an impact on a lot of the hack and slashes that ended up coming out past the original Xbox era. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And I mean, say that's that's I'm not a fighting games guy either, but obviously he left his mark with Dead or Alive as well.
SPEAKER_03Also fucking amazing character designs.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. Yeah, tell me more. What do you what do you like about the character designs? Um the men. Yeah. Um yeah, he was 58. So I mean that's that's like insanely young. Um, and the his his finger quotes rival, like he was a K-fabe guy for sure. Like Itagaki basically, if you don't remember, in the during the heyday of Dead or Alive games coming out, like the early 2000s, um, early to mid-2000s, he was out there all the time shitting on Tekken and picking on the the guy who leads Tekken. I can't remember his name. You guys probably know, Merced probably knows, but um, that was like a thing that he would just do uh because he thought it was funny, was he would just shit on uh other other fighting games, and um and you know, by all accounts it sounds like that was just him being like trying to drum up some kind of interest, uh, you know, more than him actually being uh, you know, a mean guy or something. So he had a persona for sure. But um so Ninja Gaiden for uh let's see. I wanna say what did it come out on Thursday?
SPEAKER_00Oh really?
SPEAKER_05Um October 21st, actually, so uh a little over is that right? Yes it is. Um Ninja Gaiden came out on October 21st. Um it's a PS5, Windows, Xbox. It is on Game Pass, um, which is how I'm playing it. Um I I don't know about you, Merced. I know I think you're a little bit further than me. I just got the glider. Um, so I don't know, I probably put like two and a half, three hours into it.
SPEAKER_03Um so you're you're you're about like maybe a couple hours behind me. Okay. You're not you're not too far behind me. I got caught up with the other games too.
SPEAKER_05So yeah, I mean, there's so many fucking games. Um I think this game's really fun. Like just I think it's awesome. Like, just from like minute one, I was like, all right. Like this this is video games, you know what I mean? Literally, what he's showing right here is the very first screen of the game is that you're just on a train.
SPEAKER_03Nobody says anything. Yeah, nobody's literally just this.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you press start and it it drops you here. They're like, alright, kill guys. Um there is story, but it's kind of whatever. I mean, I I actually find the dialogue weirdly charming because it's very like I don't know. You can say bad. Yeah, it's just like weird, isn't it? It it's it's like very conversational in 2025 dialogue. Like it just I everyone just talks like regular ass people, which is funny because clearly this is not like our world or whatever, but I'm playing it in English just because it's fine. I am too, yeah. Um, I actually I really I looked at the voice cast uh and like the main guy um uh hasn't done much really, which is funny because I swear his voice sounds so familiar to me. Um but yeah, I just like that his his his the direction they gave him is just just say as few words as possible and make it sound begrudging that you're saying them at all. Like he's literally just like, all right. Like it like someone will be like I think it has to be self-aware. Like it has to be. Yeah, but someone's just like, how are you? And he's like, hmm. Like the subtitle literally just be Herm. He's like, Yeah, you know, or whatever. And he's just like, okay. Um, yeah, I'm on site. You know, he's he's just very like uh straight to the point. Um his character design sucks, I think.
SPEAKER_03But I can I can agree with that to an extent. I think the obvious thing that they were attempting to do is to capture like the zoomer brain with this design, and then they were like, they'll have the old people will get Ryu at some point in the game.
SPEAKER_05I if I if I was the manga person who made Tokyo Ghoul, I would be seeking like legal action against this. It literally just looks like Kanaki after he does his thing. Um you know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00Grossly. I'm aware of the thing he's referring to. I don't think it's like come on. Here, let me let me just I think Pow World took more from Pokemon than this took from Tokyo Ghoul, and I don't think either one has a leg to stand on, so eat my shorts.
SPEAKER_01Okay. I don't know. It's not that deep, bro.
SPEAKER_00It's not I don't know if that now now if that character went through the exact same things that this character from Tokyo Ghoul went through to get to the how he looked like that, that would be fucking insane. Yeah. That's a different s story. It's the hair too, though. Yeah, wow. So if I dye my hair like that, I need to fucking get sued. Like, what are we saying?
SPEAKER_04I mean, come on. If we know what you're doing, yeah. Anyway.
SPEAKER_05It's just funny.
SPEAKER_00Um it is, I agree.
SPEAKER_05I but otherwise, I mean, I think this game's uh return to form. It's funny that it's it's it's uh it's basically co-developed between Team Ninja and Platinum.
SPEAKER_03It I noticed that. I like had a weird double take when I saw that uh on the splash screen. I was like, oh. I don't know how the fuck this works, but yeah.
SPEAKER_05I mean who who does what and whatever. I mean it the thing I'll say is that it I didn't play much of that Ninja Gaiden 2 remaster that just came out like earlier in the year. Um, but my memory of old Ninja Gaiden games, this feels right at home. Like it doesn't feel like a platinum game to me. It feels like a Ninja Gaiden game through and through, um, which is really interesting. The thing that like I'll I'll say this for example uh platinum games were always like very button string heavy, and this can be depending on the move, but in my mind, Ninja Gaiden has always been more about positioning and um like timing than the actual number of inputs, you know what I mean? Like, like you can be really effective just with basic X and Y individual combos for most situations. Um, it's just about positioning and kind of moving around. Uh you know, there's there's parry and dodge mechanics, but like your initial thing is to be like, I'm gonna play this like bayonetta, and you just start mashing X, and then you're like, oh wait, I'm getting absolutely fucking obliterated because there's like animation priority and I can't cancel and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and then you So what's interesting about what you're saying, sorry to cut you off, no, is that this is exactly how near automata works on the harder difficulty, is that it suddenly becomes way less about whatever the fuck you were doing before, which is kind of whatever you wanted. Uh and it becomes way more about positioning and timing, exactly what you said. Um, and you know, suddenly this animation is a mistake, and you have to be way more self-aware of when you're doing what and where you are when you do it, and where the enemy is going to be when they do their thing, and you have to basically learn the bosses now. Uh it dude, totally different game on the higher difficulty. It's crazy. Uh yeah, that's that and that was made by Pinum, right?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, it was.
SPEAKER_00Um I mean that's the thing about like so it's interesting how that like it it uh and I'm also curious what is developed by who in this, but it it's uh it's cool that it feels like they were able to like kind of take that and apply it here in a ninja guiding y kind of way.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. It's it's it just feels good. Like it, I even even when you're getting your ass beat, you're just like, this is fucking cool as hell. Like the whole time the soundtrack is awesome, the visuals are awesome. There, they're there so many like effects on the screen at once, and like a lot of like blood and sparks, and like the parry effects, and like sound design is really good. Like, I it's just just playing it, you're like, this is fucking satisfying. Um, it runs well in my in my case. Uh I didn't really have to tweak the graphics at all. I think there is DLSS, so I turn that on like I always do, but um yeah, I I don't know. It's really fun. The execution mechanic, as always, is like insanely satisfying. And if you're doing if like this is one of those games where the skill floors is like, you know, not low, but like relatively low. Uh and then the skill ceiling is like massively huge. Like, if you're really good at this game, like Merced and I were talking about the a boss battle yes uh yesterday, and I said, like, it's funny, I died on that that first major boss at the end of like the first chapter a couple times, and then my successful run, I had just gotten good enough at it that it took like a minute to kill him. Like it was like really insanely fast, and that's just how this game works is like the better you are really, the faster you're just getting through these fights, um, including boss fights. Like, cause you you do a shitload of damage to most enemies. Um even bosses, like you chip away at their health bar really fast if you're if you're good. You know what I mean? So it's just it's it's just fucking cool. And it makes me um really interested in like how well this game's gonna do. And uh like reviews-wise, it's I mean, people like it. They're like, oh yeah, it's more Ninja Gaiden, which we always liked, so there you go. Uh it's better than Ninja Gaiden 3, which I think was the low point for the series. Um and like Yeah, I mean, it it keep making them. Fuck it. I mean, keep making them better, and you know, every every few years I could be down for something like this. Like, this is it's just really fun.
SPEAKER_03Um Yeah, this these types of games have always just had a special place in my heart. Like when I think when I literally think of video games, I'm like, this this is the type of shit that I think of. I think of Ninja Kit and I think of God of War, you know? Like I think of like the just that's the shit that I played when I was little. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So like playing playing this stuff again where it's just like, I don't know, it's not like there's like in-depth mechanics. The game is just more technical than it is, you know, of course, like like something compared to like an RPG. But like for some reason it just scratches something that like I just feels so incredibly right to me. Um and I did see like a couple people online, I guess like maybe this is the minority opinion, but I was I I felt like I was seeing it quite a bit at first um whenever the game first came out, was that uh they were like, oh, this doesn't really play like as much like a Ninja Gaiden. And like whenever I picked it up, I I in in my mind this is Ninja Gaiden. Like they they made another Ninja Gaiden game, is what they did, and then they added more shit on top, basically. Um in terms in terms of like uh like unlocking you can you can unlock um uh more intense input uh combo moves and stuff like that, but you're I mean like your stuff like the Azuna drop or the flying swallow, this stuff is still in the game. Yeah. Um it's like the first things that you you end up unlocking, being able to jump over people's heads or use them as vaults, like this is some of the stuff that you first end up unlocking. But like the more um involved mechanics uh that I think are heavily inspired just by like contemporary action games, uh things like allowing the player to like parry almost anything, um, I think is very, very fucking cool. Uh it really, really feels like they did their absolute best to take Ninja Gaiden and then see how well it could swim in in the uh in the environment that we have now for action games. It does incredibly fucking well. Surprise, surprise. Um it's just uh in yeah, it's like you said, it's just like it's a blast play through and through. Um I don't think there hasn't really been a moment where I was like, oh, well, that's bullshit, other than like people shooting me from off-screen, but then I'm just like, okay, well, that's just kind of how this is gonna be.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03This is just the the game. Yeah, is like the rocket launchers coming in from like off-screen, and it's like, okay, well, fuck you.
SPEAKER_05And there's definitely some camera challenges, uh, especially like in what they're showing now, like these tighter corridors and stuff, where you're the camera just kind of is constantly in a place where you're like, this isn't exactly what I want out of this, but you know what, whatever.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you'll also hit people that you don't intend to hit.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, all the fucking time. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you can you can lock on, but if there's more than one enemy, like if it's not a boss fight, don't lock on.
SPEAKER_03I mean, why would you're just gonna yeah, you're harming yourself by doing that. So, like that, yeah, there are the moments where you hit something you're not meant to, and then you're stuck in like a three-hit string because you're mashing X and then you have to fucking like reorient. But yeah, I mean, I don't know if you'll ever be able to figure that out for games like this.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. It's kind of just part of the deal. Yeah. Um, it's great. Yeah, really fun. Looking forward to keep that keeping that going. Maybe we'll have some updated opinions, or at the very least, it'll probably I mean, is if the level of fun stays where it is or only increases, like the second weapon you get is insanely fun. Um, so yeah, the drill. Yeah, if it keeps going like that, then um honestly, I I would I would say there could be, yeah, apparently there's some surfing in this. Um, I would say that if things keep going how they're going, this would be a a topic of discussion for the end of the year for sure. Um yeah. Uh anything else, Merced, or good on that?
SPEAKER_03No, I mean it's a pretty simple game in terms of we we know what it is, right? So yeah. And it does it well.
SPEAKER_05True enough. Pokemon Legends, Z hyphen A Z2A. Pokemon Legends Zaaa. Um Crossley.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Tell me about Pokemon Legends ZA. Um how are you feeling about it? Uh what, it's been Is this the was this the 23rd that this came out, I think?
SPEAKER_00Is that right? Oh, I can't remember. October the 17th, maybe? Something like that. Um but yeah. I uh I rolled credits yesterday, started the postgame. Pretty cool. Um I don't know what Merced knows about this, so I'll just go through like a quick kind of rundown. But basically, this game has completely thrown away the turn based system uh finally. And when you're like in the world, like you see the guy now running around, you throw your Pokemon out whenever, and then the Pokemon sort of moves with you, so wherever you're You're going right here as he is, the Pokemon will sort of follow you closely, depending on what type of Pokemon it is. Some will fly above you and other stuff like that. But uh it'll essentially try to stay in a certain position near you uh once you've thrown it out. And then once you're telling it to battle, it'll essentially assume that position if it's a ranged attack and shoot its ranged attack from that position, or if it's a melee attack, it'll dash towards the enemy and start beating his ass. But um yeah, you now use your four assigned moves uh freely in this sort of like open uh arena type of combat, and they go on cooldown instead of using PP. So none of your moves have any PP anymore. They just go on a cooldown that is determined by how good the move is, basically. So you can't just literally sit there and spam your best move anymore. It's gonna go on a big ass fucking cooldown, and you're gonna have to use the rest of your kit, and your whole kit is gonna have to like supplement what you're trying to do in the battle. And one of the things I really, really like about this game that is only more and more true towards the end, but um is the game is like kind of genuinely challenging in a way, not that you like can't beat the game, it's not like a fucking like Dark Souls game in terms of challenge where it's like people struggle to even do it, but it's a challenge in that you can't just use whatever Pokemon you want and use whatever moves you want and go into any battle spam A and win. That is no longer a thing. You will go into a battle, like like I said, closer to the end and stuff. I mean, really, pretty early on, there was a boss battle I had to redo my whole team, but towards the end, especially, you'll have to like either redo all the moves for your whole team or just straight up change most of your team to be able to like be whatever you're trying to do. And I think that's cool as fuck. And the game heavily incentivizes you to catch basically as much stuff as you can, so you'll have plenty of options unless you've just not been doing anything the whole game. You'll have plenty of Pokemon to swap to. And the way they do the moves now is Pokemon can relearn any move that they've learned throughout their whole level up anytime they want, and TMs are 100% reusable, so you can just sort of trade in and out moves anytime you want, as long as you're not in a battle, and I think that's the right way to do it anyway. Uh and then what else, dude? I don't know. The list fucking goes on. I would say my biggest maybe complaint is that a game this good is limited to one area, as I keep hearing the feedback online. I do like that it's one big city and that that's the vibe, and that just is what it is. But it's a shame that like they didn't do this for a full-blown experience. I don't know what they were afraid people wouldn't like that it wasn't turn-based anymore. So they're like putting their foot in the water, and now hopefully this game is very well received and they'll go all out.
SPEAKER_05Um but yeah, overall, this game to me it feels like I think we've talked about this before as well. It feels to me like a direct answer to Arceus, right? Which the main complaint of Arceus was it was way too open. It was it was it was um breadth as opposed to like density, right? So they went the exact opposite direction. They're like, okay, we're gonna refine the gameplay mechanics from the last Legends game, which was Arceus, we're gonna make it you know, even more action-oriented, um, but we're going to um dial up the density of activities in the area, right? And I I don't think it's a bad decision. I just think that a city is a funny choice. It feels like they wrote themselves into a corner and then we're like, alright, wild zone. You know what I mean? Or all the shit. Like it feels like the story kind of developed around the so I don't know if you know limitations.
SPEAKER_00The city kind of functioned this way before in the X and Y games. This city was like really big on the fact that it was like Pokemon were kind of just out and about, yeah, and then now recently in the in the story and the lore, it's like gotten out of hand, so they've had to put up the hollow, you know. So it's like a recent development that it's getting out of hand, and that's like where the story even takes place, is that this is like becoming a problem. But like I get what you mean that it like a hundred percent, and that's why it's like it's almost a shame. I wish they would have done what they did, but instead of just one big area, maybe like four really dense or any whatever number of like multiple dense little areas instead of just one big dense area. It's like, yeah, I wish there was like a small little handful of options, but can we talk about the discourse, I guess, on this game?
SPEAKER_05It feels like everybody I mean, scrolling through, everybody seems kind of mad, huh?
SPEAKER_00Um about what? I don't know.
SPEAKER_05There's discourse I've seen is around content creators think that the game is bad, I guess. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Oh no, I haven't heard that at all.
SPEAKER_05Well, it could be bad at all.
SPEAKER_04I don't know.
SPEAKER_05I guess because it's not a full Pokemon game, like a regular Pokemon game.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, I haven't heard that much. But um the biggest unanimous complaint that I think is absolutely valid that I am hearing a lot is that there's no voice acting in this game, and that's just it's it's time, dude. They've gotta stop with the fucking hours and hours of text boxes and just fucking it it needs to be voice acted. Like it's yeah, it's I see it in pretty much every video I've watched for this.
SPEAKER_02They'll do that when the AI gets good enough, don't worry.
SPEAKER_00I made that same joke to Jerry, that's so funny.
SPEAKER_03Apparently for Google users, uh 32% have liked this video game.
SPEAKER_05That's very low. I'm gonna say I I actually think the story this time is not bad, also.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I kind of like it. I don't want to say much, but at the end I literally felt something, and that's crazy. Damn.
SPEAKER_05I I just think the dialogue is like funny and endearing, and like all the different characters that you run into. And the whole time I'm like, if only they had a voice. Yeah, I I agree. I mean, there's really no excuse at this point. I mean, uh a studio that makes this much money and has this amount of you know time to develop and developers that they there's no excuse for them to not. Uh I like the the the raids like this, like the big boss battle raids and stuff. I've done quite a few. I I think I put about 10 or 12 hours into this game. And as it's funny, that's why I'm like, oh, maybe real Pokemon fans, I mean, I guess Crossly is the ultimate real Pokemon fan, but that's why I'm like, maybe real Pokemon fans broadly don't like this game because I don't like Pokemon, most notably, and I think this game's pretty fun and pretty enjoyable to play.
SPEAKER_00So I could see where maybe someone that is really into traditional Pokemon is not down for this, but all I can say, and this is anecdotal, of course, but I follow a fuck ton of Pokemon content creators for Pokemon video games, and uh they all fucking are all over this shit. They love it.
SPEAKER_05That's cool. I mean, it could just be the the fact that whatever, as we all know, the the best way to make money on YouTube is to get really mad about innocuous shit that no one should get that mad about.
SPEAKER_02Um That is true. So on Metacritic, it's got a 78%.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I mean it it you know, the one thing I guess you could say about it that I have experienced so far is um by the point that I'm at in the game, barring any kind of major mechanical changes, you kind of get how the framework is gonna be. You know what I mean? So that is the one thing is like it feels like it's probably a a 20-ish hour like experience, maybe less to get to the end to get to the credits. Um so I'd say I'm probably about halfway, and I already feel like I've seen the major mechanics and the way the game's gonna play out, you know.
SPEAKER_02Um Yeah, I mean it's a Pokemon game. Yeah, that's fair. What's up?
SPEAKER_00I have 65 hours.
SPEAKER_05Damn, that's that's fucking awesome, dude. Um I like it. I I'm I'm enjoying it. I intend to keep playing it, and I think more than more than just me liking it, like there's something, you know, I find it really exciting to get out there and see Pokemon that I know from like back in the day.
SPEAKER_00And like I mean my favorite thing about this game is that since it's not a new generation, all we're seeing is like, you know, yeah stuff we know, and that's so fucking sick. And because it's a game where mega evolution is the gimmick again, a lot of the Pokemon that can mega evolve are fucking classic Pokemon. Yeah. So it's like full of just sick like other than the star me that grows legs, like it's just cool shit all over the place.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I you know, there's there's like the starters are shit that you probably know and like, like fucking who would you pick? Dude Toadile is my boy. Okay. That's my dude.
SPEAKER_03Everyone loves Toadodile. That's my dude. I fucking love Toadodile.
SPEAKER_05Toadodile is goaded. Um, I will say, I mean, uh who's the the the grass one? I I'm blanking on his name right now. Chikorita. Chikorita is also pretty sick, though. Like, but I mean Toadodile is the best. And then I love that there's stealth in this game, by the way. Uh, and then like um they I don't know, probably like five or so hours in. You the this lady calls you up and is like, come to my office. And you walk in and she goes, Do you want one of the starters from the very first generation of Pokemon? And you're like, Yeah. What are you talking about? What?
SPEAKER_00Of course, that didn't happen for me. Are you serious? I'm serious. I just I just in the postgame found a new wild area you unlock that has all the starters in it, and I caught them there.
SPEAKER_05No, dude, I walked in. This lady goes, Come to my office. I go to her office.
SPEAKER_00That must have been a side quest I somehow like accepted and didn't follow through or something. That's crazy.
SPEAKER_05No, I just showed up and she goes, Here you go, pick one. And it was it was the original three. It was fucking bulbasaur, chart, Charmander, and um and uh uh so'd you pick Bulbasaur or Charmander? Wait, wait, wait. What's the third one?
SPEAKER_00Squirtle.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, Squirtle. Right, right, right. Um who'd you pick? Fucking Charmander, dude. Charizard is goaded.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05I mean, come on. I mean, it's just it's this the shit.
SPEAKER_00We were just talking about Chikorita, so that maybe he's like, Well, it's no Bulbasaur, so I'll take that.
SPEAKER_05I mean, Bulbasaur is pretty sick, also. I mean, all the original three are are dope. I mean, Blastoise is one of the coolest. Blastoise is fucking amazing. I mean, Charizard, dude. I remember that original Pokemon the movie when Charizard gets stuck in the fucking hole or whatever, and they gotta like kick him in the ass and he blasts fire up.
SPEAKER_01The Pikachu's adventure at the beginning. Yeah. Like little mini movie, dude.
SPEAKER_00One of the most peak moments of my childhood was getting that little mini movie uh before the real movie. Yeah. Yeah. Holy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, dude. And then like the at the end the sun is setting and everything, and everyone's like, chill. That shit's so good.
SPEAKER_05I mean, it's it's just the that's that's I guess that's the thing that this is inspiring in me, is like another feeling that, like, oh yeah, Pokemon is like trying some shit again. It's like interesting and different. They're trying to do that.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Yeah, this is what I've always fucking wanted is for them to do anything else, right? It's like there's no gems. And can we talk about that too? Sorry to cut you off again. I just, you know, I get excited, but um somehow they made a game without the whole fucking gem system, too, and it's just fine. I'm not like, damn, I wish I had my gym leaders.
SPEAKER_04It's like, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00In fact, my big can't I hope I'm not about to spoil this for you, but have you gotten to the part where they make you skip a bunch of letters?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, dude. I was honestly kind of pissed because I was excited to go through the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00So, Merced, the whole thing is that you start at rank Z, and every night, once it goes nightfall, parts of the city become battle areas, and you go uh basically grind up points against these trainers at your rank, yeah, to then battle the boss of that rank and move up to the next rank. So, a couple of fucking things I love about this is just really everything. A couple of things I hate about it is that is that they start off, okay.
SPEAKER_01Rank Z, the trainer, the like boss trainer for rank Z, his name begins with a Z. I'm like, oh shit, are they really about to do this? Rank Y, same thing, rank X, same thing. We get to W, or maybe it's after W, but it's right around there, they stop doing it. And I'm like, y'all got through the hardest letters to match up, and now you're gonna stop, and then not only that, but a couple letters down, they do this stupid ass fucking thing, which I'm enjoying grinding through these letters, by the way. But they do a fucking main quest where it's like, beat this guy, and you'll skip all the way to letter F. I don't want to skip to letter F, bro. I'm fucking enjoying this game.
SPEAKER_02It is an option to skip, or can you just get all the way to F.
SPEAKER_00And then basically, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03It's like how many letters are there in the alphabet, dude? They could have just done all of them.
SPEAKER_00This game screams that they were afraid people wouldn't like it. It's like there's so much that they're like, this is fucking new for us. What if everybody hates it? Let's not go all the way in. And it's like, just make the full fucking game with this. Like, don't give me uh, but it uh what what they made is great. It's just like I can tell it's like they didn't want to fully commit still to like I don't know, making a full region of this instead.
SPEAKER_05Um the one thing the one thing I uh about that that I thought was really funny is also that the the trainers that you were facing, like at the different ranks, had like extremely weird like political opinions almost. Like you like you fight like the one guy who's like who's like uh uh what's that? Um what who's the the guy in like the robe that you spar with early on, and then he's like because he's like yelling to the crowd. He's like uh he's like a fighting type guy, and he's got like a dojo, and he goes, Yeah, what does he say? He's like, he's like, I think everyone should be able to fist fight or something, or some shit. You're just like what? Or like the the taxi guy is like uh I'm gonna require that everybody have like ride taxis from place to place instead of Pokemon or something, or there's just like very weird, like different things that people are like when I get to rank A, I'm gonna do this.
SPEAKER_03There'd be like a guy who's like just the person at the highest rank have like political power or something, like they can just get it. They can just do whatever they want. Yeah, the thing you're like the leader is. That'd be fucking hilarious.
SPEAKER_05And everybody's gonna be like, wow, this guy's fucking wasting his power.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. We're literally a tourist. Oh, that's another thing I actually really like about this game is that the beginning of the game is very, very unique compared to any other as well. You are your own person that is coming off of a train and touring this city, and then you just meet some dude that's like, hey, you look like a tourist. Do you know Pokemon? And you're like, uh I can't speak. And then you get a Pokemon.
SPEAKER_05It is it is kind of weird that they're that they're like, Why are you touring the Pokemon city if you're not already into Pokemon? Like, I don't understand. And by the way, this is the Pokemon universe. There's fucking Pokemon everywhere. How could you come from a place where you're not a Pokemon trainer? Literally, everyone in this city is a Pokemon trainer. You'll be like meeting a guy who's like, Yeah, I I uh I clean windows for a living. This is my this is my Squirtle who helps me clean windows, and you're just like, Okay, I mean it's kind of cool. It's it's like sick, but it's also fucking hilarious that no one can do any job without their Pokemon also being involved doing that job. Like, you'll meet a chef and it'll be like, Yeah, I I I my tour pig over here is the guy who roasts all my steaks. I don't know why the window cleaner and the chef sound exactly the same. This is also supposed to be Paris, France, by the way. So it sounds New York. I'm making it a New York accent, I guess, because I live in New York and it's the center of the universe. But yeah, I don't know. It's just it's uh it is really funny how they absolutely they they like try to ingrain Pokemon in day-to-day life, but the ways that they do it are all just really funny and I guess sort of realistic. Like if you had a a blastoise, would you ever pressure wash your house ever again, or would you just be like Blastoise, pressure wash my house?
SPEAKER_03But I mean, if he was happy to do it, why not?
SPEAKER_05I think yeah, they they make it seem like Pokemon are just happy to be around. That's like dogs like like they're like dogs, but then you make them fight, but then like they try to moralize fighting like it's a good thing. They're like, Yeah, doing Pokemon battles makes your Pokemon happy.
SPEAKER_03But then when you it's because it makes them stronger.
SPEAKER_05Supposedly it improves your bond as well, which do you think that's true for do you think that's true for people who fight dogs? The bond between dog and human is strengthened by you making them fight other things. Yeah, Michael Vick had crazy stats. Yeah, him and his dogs were were tight. Uh yeah, I don't know. Is the title of this podcast gonna be Michael Vick had crazy stats or what? Um yeah, I but this is the fun of this game. Is like everything's dumb and they like it and they they want it to be that way. It's they're not trying to like make it overly serious, everybody talks funny. One of the main guys in your group is obsessed with a streamer. There's streamers in this universe, by the way.
SPEAKER_00Oh Jesus Christ. The the streamer character, and I I don't know if you know this, Chandler. They've done this before in Scarlet and Violet. It's like a gym leader that's I didn't play that. Yeah, so so Scarlet and Violet, they like kind of like dabbled with this streamer concept, and they must have gotten positive feedback because they fucking tripled down on it in this one. Yeah, and holy shit, I love hate it. I won't say that I fully hate it, and I won't say that I fully love it.
SPEAKER_05So that's where that's where I left off is the I have the points and I have to go battle the streamer. That's like where I'm at. So um, yeah, and by the way, she's not like a Pokemon streamer, she's literally a video game streamer. Like they're like, she sits at home and plays video games.
SPEAKER_00Yes, she is a streamer. Uh so and that is the key difference between this streamer and the last streamer. The last one was like a Pokemon battle streamer. She streamed her battles as a gym leader.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. This lady plays fucking Fortnite. She's just like a leech on society. Yeah, exactly. Like all gamers, really. Um, I I just I I'm I'm having such a good time with it. Um, I think it is funny that like let me back up. I think if they were gonna do this, they should have really done it where you can target the trainer.
SPEAKER_04You should you should be your trainer, you should be able to do it.
SPEAKER_00I gotta say it's annoying that I can be targeted. That's probably one of my least favorite things now after I've done more of the bosses, and there's bosses that they literally only will focus on you, they will not hit your Pokemon a single time, and it's like this is so fucking stupid.
SPEAKER_05Like, I would much rather them be like harder and only focus my Pokemon as opposed to yeah, in my opinion, it it does seem like almost all the bosses are designed with targeting you in mind as the difficulty check. Like, like uh all of the rogue Pokemon, like all the rogue uh mega evolution Pokemon have moves that are designed to get close to you, and then they'll do like an AoE, which will hit you and your Pokemon or whatever. And there's not enough granularity in the way that you control your Pokemon to get them out of like AoEs and stuff really easily. Like they'll come to you.
SPEAKER_00There is I didn't realize it until way too late, but you can just call them back at will anytime, put them in their ball, and you'll basically dodge any attack for free.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, that is a good that is a good point.
SPEAKER_00Yep. I didn't realize it until I was at the end of the game and losing against the final boss, basically. And I was like, what the fuck am I supposed to do?
SPEAKER_05You know, yeah, that's that's fair.
SPEAKER_00You know, you know what it's a single tip changed it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you you just reminded me of something too is switching Pokemon at the right time kind of busted. Like because because the game, the Merced, I don't know if this is. Clear from the footage, but the gameplay is literally Final Fantasy VII remake.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it is. It's like a Final Fantasy remake or Final Family. I didn't make that connection.
SPEAKER_03I really didn't make that connection, but yeah, I definitely 100% see what you're saying.
SPEAKER_05So what's funny is when you're in a Pokemon battle, you can switch your Pokemon at will. You just have to do the input. If you do that, you the you can time the switch to where they would be attacking you, and it and it will miss. Yes.
SPEAKER_03It's you get weird. You don't get like any like ultimate sync abilities or anything like that, right?
SPEAKER_00Like in Final Fantasy, it's just mega evolving is basically that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I just mean like where the Pokemon on your team can interact with each other. It's just one Pokemon at a time. No, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05There are team battles. There are team battles. There are there are team battles, but there's never like a battle where you control two Pokemon, for instance, which I think probably I'm curious if they tried that. That would be interesting.
SPEAKER_00I'm shocked that they didn't do some sort of co-op uh similar to the last few main installments. They didn't do this in the last Legends game, but the last two main installment games, there is always some sort of PVE co-op experience. Yeah. And this would have been a really good game for them to do it as well, because against the bosses, you have an NPC helping you with their Pokemon out. Yeah. And it is essentially as if another player is there, but they just didn't want to do that or couldn't figure out the online maybe. I don't know.
SPEAKER_05Is there PvP? I actually didn't.
SPEAKER_00There is PvP, and you have to do it to be able to unlock certain things that are in the main game that you can only get from the PvP. Weird. So big point of contention in a lot of the uh reviews is that it's uh yeah, I don't know. It's it's actually pretty cringe because you have to pay for the online, you can't just play the online for free.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, fair.
SPEAKER_00So even if you wanted to grind the ranked and own to this game, you would also have to pay for the online and then grind grind a ranked mode that isn't fun to be able to get an item that yeah, it's kind of dumb. But Pokemon invasions.
SPEAKER_05Let's have Dark Souls style invasions.
SPEAKER_00Um basically it's like a four-player free-for-all. You're all in like a big square hollow grid and just some random place in the city. Four players uh all trying to kill each other. It's very toxic. It's it's it's almost as if League of Legends was a free-for-all on the rift, and they were just like, all right, have fun. Weird. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05That's the only that's the only PvP mode? Yes. Oh, I'm surprised. The fact there's not one-on-one battles, which is what Pokemon was built on, is kind of stupid.
SPEAKER_00Could not believe it. Yeah. When I when I first launched it, that's what I thought it was gonna be. And then when I got into a big square with like four people, I was like, uh what yeah.
SPEAKER_05Fucking Pokemon Arc Raiders. Um okay. Uh yeah, I think the other things I'll just say, I think the game looks pretty good. Uh better, massively better than just about every other 3D Pokemon game in terms of visual design. The aesthetics are of the city are nice. Uh, it runs really, really well in the Switch 2, which is was like a shock to me. I guess that's because it was originally gonna be a Switch 1 game, but um yeah, I uh I've had no issues playing it. Switch 2 as a device continues to be delightful to me. Um and uh I yeah, and I think the size of games on the Switch 2 is also really satisfying because I bought and downloaded this while I was traveling overseas, like using like Airbnb Wi-Fi in Italy. I downloaded this game, and like I think that's that's actually great because if you had your Steam Deck and you wanted to download Ninja Guide in four, that would have taken 12 years.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, and and I heard a comment from a reviewer that uh really resonated with me and is very true throughout this whole experience of the game, which is why I'm excited for them to do this on a grander uh level of scope uh at some point, hopefully, is that this game is the most a Pokemon game has ever felt like what the anime makes Pokemon world feel like it should be more than any other game. Like the way Pokemon act and interact with the world, like whether it's a wild Pokemon or what, or you know, just whatever, like just it all feels right. It's like they took and this was true. I don't know if I said all this back when Legends Arceus came out, but this was true with Legends Arceus as well, like the way Pokemon interacted in the world. Granted, the world was empty and bland, but the way the Pokemon interacted and acted was fucking perfect, and it's like you can tell they took a lot of time for each one to create their own mannerisms and stuff like that. And it's just like, yeah, that it really shows the world feels like a Pokemon world, like yeah, they they should have doubled down on because like there's little things you can do, like sit at a cafe with your Pokemon, which is cool.
SPEAKER_05Yep, they should have doubled down and and kind of added more stuff like that because um I think that stuff it does kind of make the world feel a little bit more interactive, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it and it and it serves a function too for the game itself. I don't know if you've dabbled with it, but uh this is the easiest in any game, it is to like evolve a Pokemon that needs affection to evolve. Going to the cafe expedites that process every single time you do it. That's cool. So if you needed to evolve a Pokemon that needs a lot of love to evolve, that normally took forever. Now you can just go take it to have tea like three times and it'll evolve fucking sick. That's awesome. Yeah, and take some pics while you're at it.
SPEAKER_05Let that be a lesson to everybody listening. Just if you want to gain affection from somebody, just take them out for tea. True.
SPEAKER_00Um here matcha is the craze now.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Get buy him a matcha and a Dubai chocolate. Um that's Pokemon Legends Z hyphen A. Uh 70 bucks. Hell yeah. 70 Dolores. Um that's pretty steep. Yeah. Um it is. That's that's the way of the world now.
SPEAKER_00Um unless you're R creators.
SPEAKER_05They're gonna ring Pokemon game. They're gonna ring every fucking drop out of you, buddy. They're like, buy this, and at the same time you're at the store, pick up three packs of cards. And um, I I was at uh Best Buy the other day and I saw behind the the counter at Best Buy I had to buy like a cable or some other shit and an SD card for my mom's camera for the wedding. And um I was at Best Buy and I saw they had Magic the Gathering uh Final Fantasy Commander decks behind they keep them behind the fucking register now. And I was like, God, what is the world coming to? They're they're selling them like fucking cigarettes. They need to have like photos on them, the way you know how cigarettes have like smoking kills, and it's like a guy with like a hole in his neck as the photo of the kills, yeah. They need to just have like a photo of Crossly on the front and be like, Do you want to end up like this guy? Yeah, uh yeah. Anyway, um I want to hear about Ball X Pit real quick.
SPEAKER_00Ball Pit. Wait, did you play it crossly? I don't know what you're talking about. What is it? Oh no.
SPEAKER_03Um you're about to find out. Ball Pit's pretty cool. Yeah, bring it up because it's a little bit hard to explain.
SPEAKER_05But apparently, Northern Lions been playing it, which is the least surprising thing ever.
SPEAKER_03It is uh it's basically uh another spin on I don't even know if I'll call it spin on it. It shares DNA, yeah, it is it is basically brickbreakers, but um, but it's a spin off of it shares DNA with, I should say, vampire survivors. And so you basically you'll start off with one dude who just shoots a normal little ball, and then as you pick up these little gems, a la vampire survivors, you get upgrades that will let you pick up other balls, and then you can combine those balls with other balls to make them even crazier, different balls. So, like, for example, one ball shoots out a laser, right? Uh, anytime it hits a brick, it will shoot out a laser vertically. You can combine that with a poison ball, and now that laser shoots vertically and applies poison across all the bricks. This, and there's so many different combinations you can do, it's fucking insane. Um, and uh, and on top of that, as you keep going through the game and you know, just playing more more, you will get more characters that all do different things as well, just like vampire survivors. And then um, there's also a base building component of the game where you have to manage your economy outside of the ball pit, uh, where you'll be making new buildings and stuff, uh, to in order to get more resources like wood and stone and um and uh wheat. Uh and you use that to get more upgrades, a law of vampire survivors that are permanent upgrades that follow you into the ball pit. Um but it's all the you you you get the um you get the game loop. You go into the ball pit, you do your thing, you get a fuck ton of gold, you get XP for your character, you come back out and you have to manage your farm um or your uh colony. Um and then uh you go back into the ball pit and you keep doing this over and over again. But it's incredibly addicting and really, really, really fun.
SPEAKER_00Fuck yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, there's how many hours you put in?
SPEAKER_03Um, I think I got to eight before getting to um to other games. 8.5. Wow.
SPEAKER_05I think I'm gonna get this on the Switch. Uh this does feel to me like the um I'd seen people talking about this, and it wasn't until I was listening to the next lander podcast and Brad was really glazing it that I was like, okay, maybe I should look into it. Because Brad, to me, I mean, while he very much does seem like the type of person who would be into something like this, he's not like some of the people that I know where they'll play basically anything as long as it's addictive enough. Um I'm not saying you're like that, Merced, but like I'm saying, like, oh, if if you know Brandon, for instance, was like you gotta play ball pit, I'd be like, well, how much vampire survivors did you play? Or you know that kind of shit.
SPEAKER_00You know, I feel like I'm probably pretty guilty of that too.
SPEAKER_05That is true. I I I I never not once I'm clean still of the vampire survivors. I still haven't even touched it. And I feel like this is dangerously close to that territory, but I like that there's the city builder aspect, which kind of gives you a little bit more a little bit more to do than just the runaround stuff.
SPEAKER_03I will I will say that the actual gameplay in and of itself is not even remotely close to as brain dead as Vampire Survivors is. Vampire Survivors is like basically the the concept of brain rotten.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah. It's like very close to as brain rotty as you can possibly get. This is like, I mean, it's it's kind of hard to explain the way it all works, but you get different upgrades that will cause you to play the game differently all the time, yeah. Um, in order to succeed. So uh that's cool. Yeah, it's it is, and it's also I would I would say it's more difficult than vampire survivors in terms of I've failed more often in this than I did in vampire survivors in my first eight hours, that's for sure. And I saw um Brandon 100% of the game ball pit in uh 40 hours. So I mean, like if in terms of just getting unlocking most of the stuff, probably take you 20, 30 hours if I had to guess. Sure. Um so there's there's a good amount, there's a good amount of content in there for I think like 15 bucks, and uh especially if you're looking for something that will scratch that itch.
SPEAKER_05I like the visual design, and it also does seem like the people who are making this are kind of in on the joke a little bit, you know what I mean? Like like in that menu when it was like, here's all the shit you got, the button to proceed at the bottom just said cool. Yeah, I like that.
SPEAKER_03Um yeah, there's a lot of that sprinkled throughout the game. Uh there's a lot of jokes with the characters and stuff too. That's cool.
SPEAKER_00It has a switch to version, Chandler.
SPEAKER_05Hell yeah, dude. I mean, the visual design is just nice. It looks like some work was put into this. I I'm I'm interested.
SPEAKER_03It was definitely a full team, that's for sure. Because I was I was very impressed, like visually, with how everything looks like once it's on your screen. Just yeah, the feel of the game is awesome. Um, there's really, really, it's just not that complicated of a game, I feel like, but uh definitely worth the money, I would say.
SPEAKER_05That is Ball X Pit. I think it's pronounced Ball Pit. Um, but they did put the X in there. Um Ball Pit's a funny name for a game as well, kinda like that. Um what is it? 15 bucks?
SPEAKER_00Is that right? Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_05Fifteen Dolores, Nintendo Switch, PC What else? Is that it? Or is it on everything? No either. Um It looks it looks charming. And it is funny how like games are just uh I don't know, like it's not like Vampire Survivors and Bellatro, like there's just a lot of these like indie darling uh random things coming out. Um so Nintendo Switch, PS5, PC, and Xbox. All around. Whole all of them. Every one of them. GForce now as well, in case you're curious. Uh um yeah, that's that's uh that's cute. I think there's there's some other stuff that I've touched as well here and there, but not enough that I really want to talk about. I mean, keeper is a game that I have put some time into, but I want to finish it before I talk too much about it because it's funny. I don't know if you remember this, Merced, but the other day um we were talking and I said, yeah, I put about three hours into Keeper. I don't imagine that there's any more mechanics they can introduce, so I must be near the end. Literally, the next time I booted it up within 30 minutes, the whole game flipped on its head, and I was like, holy shit. So um kind of funny. Uh but yeah, I mean I want to talk about that. Um, Battlefield, I'd like to talk about next time once I've had a little bit more time to play it. Um uh I would like to go over um Outer Worlds 2 next time.
SPEAKER_03And there's also uh Oh yeah, I should probably try to play that shit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um I'm hearing good stuff.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. I I as a person who didn't much care for Outer Worlds 1 but liked Avowed earlier this year, I would say that if it's further in the avowed direction in terms of gameplay and story choices and stuff like that, then I think I'll be into it. So we'll see. Um I played a shitload of Hades 1. This is gonna be I we'll just wrap up with this because this is gonna be a bit of a controversial thing here. Um, I think that game is not good. Oh wow, I and I felt that way the first time I played it when it came out. And um so I was like, I'm wrong. I mean, I know I was like, I know I'm wrong. I'm gonna go back and play Hades 1 and finally get through through to the end. And I think Hades 1 isn't that good. I think as a roguelike, it's not that good. I think there's not enough progression mechanics to keep things interesting. I think the way that they dole out resources is kind of dry and weird, and like like the main thing I want to progress is like getting the the drink to give to people as a gift and talk to them more and hear about them, and then like there can be an entire run where you just don't even get one and you're like okay. Um I don't think that game's very good. And I and it makes me really sad as a super giant glazer, let's say. Um I uh I've liked every other game they make, and I was really disappointed when Hades 2 was the next game that they were making. Now I'm even more disappointed because the chances of me finishing Hades 1 are slimming with each run that I'm like not progressing the things that I want. The first time I played this game when I came when it came out, I was like, okay, getting to the exit is the game. So I really min-maxed, and on like my fifth run, I made it outside and then died to my dad, and I was like, alright, this is a thing. This game I've been more focused on trying to get the little resources that help you like upgrade and hear more dialogue and do all the different things and build the the house upgrades and all that stuff. So less about like min-maxing and more just I'm gonna use whatever weapon seems fun and I'm gonna just hang out and try to. It's not the it doesn't work either. It just isn't a fun experience. Because now I've done like 15 runs or something, and I'm like, I don't really feel like I'm getting the shit that I want out of this game. Like, because the gameplay isn't that good. You never really played fucking super giant games. I mean, the gameplay was always fun, like Bastion, it was fun, transistor was fun, but it was also like the marriage of the gameplay and the story, like is the thing. I don't think the gameplay is good enough to be a roguelike. It's not dead cells, that's for sure, which is like a way more satisfying game to play. I don't know, man. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_02I think you're just getting old, bro. It's not good. You can't beat the game, you got filtered. No, just it's over. It's over.
SPEAKER_03It's not fun. You're like, I just want to get the ambrosion, hear the story. Yeah. It's just it's okay, dude.
SPEAKER_05To me, that's all right, grandpa. I think that's actually the point. It's like getting all the stuff. You know what I mean? Like, like seeing all the all the different dialogue and stuff like that. Because if just get if if just escaping was the end of the game, then why put all this other shit in there? Like it's it's antithetical to itself, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03I kind of understand what you're saying. I mean, I enjoy the gameplay, but I I kind of understand what you're saying because I ran into the same thing. It's kind of why I dropped Hades 2, was that I was really focusing on getting the resources to upgrade stuff, like because you have to get resources to upgrade different things to unlock more story for other people. Yeah. Um, and I was really focusing on doing that. Uh, and then I just kind of dropped it. And I I really do think that that's like part of it, is that like really I'm I know I'm not going into this thinking I'm gonna win. Because so I'm kind of just like going in knowing I'm gonna lose, and I'm just gonna see how much shit I can get.
SPEAKER_00Like uh put it down faster. Sorry, uh I'm gonna keep going.
SPEAKER_03No, I mean that's like basically it. Um, well, I I will say I like the game, but that is why I put it down. Like, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, similar to me, I put it down kind of quicker than I did Hades 1 because I just I don't know. I just didn't want to do it really. It's like I know I could do this kind of thing, but it feels almost like artificially in my way of succeeding. Whereas if I just had the thing that I'm gonna have to know I'm gonna have to lose to get more of the thing to help me not lose, it just feels so counterintuitive. It's like an artificial difficulty in the worst way. Like all difficulty is artificial in a video game, but it's like they dialed the wrong knobs to get us to difficulty in that one.
SPEAKER_05Honestly, you guys could be talking about Hades 1 because I feel the same way.
SPEAKER_00Like it's really it is similar, it is similar in Hades 1, but at least in Hades 1, it's like you just fucking run the gauntlet. In this one, it's like you have to do very specific things and find very, very specific turns to be able to like progress, and it's so fucking cringe, but yeah, it anyway.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I it's funny because like I still don't think the game is like the the first boss I beat on the first run, and the second boss I beat on my second run, and then from there on it's basically a given that I'll get to Elysium. It's just how much time am I gonna spend on this? You know what I mean? Like it's it's like you just keep going back and seeing the same shit and doing the same shit, and it it it just it gets old really fucking fast. And I think I've always had this problem with roguelikes, but I think there's some games that mechanically are more satisfying that make the the the actual act of doing the game more enjoyable than what Hades is doing. I actually think that I, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, you know, whatever. This is jerking myself off here. I think that Hades 2 and Hades 1 have the same problems, it's just people were more okay with it with Hades 1 because it had. hadn't been beaten into the ground yet. And now there's so many roguelikes. We've played so many games like this. It's kind of just like, I don't are we doing this again? And I think the answer is no. Like I think in general people are less into Hades 2 than they are than they were one.
SPEAKER_00I I agree. I I never needed this game to exist. I'm not necessarily mad that they made it or anything like that. It's like whatever, but I did not need this game to exist. I would much rather have a new IP from them, a new idea. But yeah, I don't know that it's I think I think my problem is that it's like you're right but it's it's like if it just would have been Hades 2, I feel like I would like that more than what it is, which is them tacking on more than I need to enjoy this experience and to progress in this experience. Like I wish I could just run it get through the boss get that resource which is how it works in Hades 1. You beat the boss you get the resource but in this one is just so I don't know it's too much. Like it and it's really not even that much and it's still too much and I'm just like I just don't want to do this. Like I want to just fucking slam my face into a boss kill him get my thing keep going like I don't know but yeah maybe I'll pick it up again one day. I don't know.
SPEAKER_05Yeah and I know they're patching it I think people were really mad about the ending and the way things wrapped up so supposedly they're going back in and kind of adjusting some stuff um at least that's what I've heard uh is happening. So um who knows but yeah Hades doesn't do it for me. I don't know I'll I'll probably keep picking at it I'll do like a run here and there but um feel the same as I did maybe even more strongly than the first time I tried. So um I think that'll do it. Sweet Yeah I uh games continue to come out they continue to be good and interesting and fun to talk about and um I'm I'm excited because I think at the end of the year when I have a little bit more time at home and I'm blasting through some single player and you know stuff that I want to get through like Silent Hill F um and uh some other stuff that I missed I'm I'm really interested to uh see what the end of the year looks like. I do think still there's a couple of games that are the games to beat in terms of uh game of the year conversation um I think there's one game in particular that we all feel really strongly about that probably is is uh is high up uh on all of our lists but it has to be expedition yeah yeah okay yeah I mean yeah we can skip this year and just any category just fill that in and I'll be alright even if it doesn't make sense. Yeah I I know you're being somewhat facetious. I I I also I also really love that game.
SPEAKER_00I but it's not as much of a like open and shut case for me as it is for you but I I do no it's it's like I actively have to prevent myself from playing through it again because I would rather give my time to other things as opposed to just doing that again but I think I will play it again before end of the year just so I can go into that discussion freshly loving it again.
SPEAKER_05So it's it's one of those rare games that has a bunch of problems and I I you just don't care that much. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00It doesn't have any problems no it does.
SPEAKER_05It objectively does no it doesn't it's just like one of those things where you're like oh this isn't balanced or this is kind of fucked up or like all these fucking dumbass parkour puzzles or all this you know there's like so many optional well I'm doing it. Uh well no but there there are just uh objective issues with the game but on the flip side of that the game itself and the story is so unbelievably good that it just blows past most of those criticisms, right? And those games are rare by the way like it's rare that that that kind of thing exists in that way. And so I think it's it's definitely probably why a lot of us latched onto it in addition to the fact that it's a turn based RPG where you get to the end of a long ass game it's not that long I guess like 40 hours but you get to the end of 40 hours and you're like I could keep fighting. You know what I mean? Like it it never gets old and that's that is a fucking feat. But yeah um anyway so stay tuned see what else what else we get up to I think I'm probably gonna pick up Arc Raiders here and start that download so nice. Maybe we'll have some more impressions of that as we go. Yep Alright later