Latest / Respec: Video Game Ramblings / GTA 6 gets its Netflix reveal, Gamescom has games, and how is Elden Ring on Switch 2? | Respec Ramblings

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GTA 6 gets its Netflix reveal, Gamescom has games, and how is Elden Ring on Switch 2? | Respec Ramblings · Respec: Video Game Ramblings

0:00
Hello, everyone. It's time for this week's edition
0:01
of Respec Ramblings podcast. Alex, he's left
0:05
to be at Gamescom, so he's left me, unfortunately,
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to host this. I'm Tom Worry. You might recognize
0:10
me as the person that never hosts the podcast.
0:13
I'm joined by Mikhail, James, and Dave. How are
0:17
you all doing? Yeah, doing pretty good. Certainly
0:21
better now that a few embargoes have lifted and
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I don't have all this. Like, the 26th was...
0:28
The day from hell in terms of everything that
0:31
was lifting. It's a busy week with Gamescom as
0:35
well and then GTA following straight after that.
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Dave, how much potential is posting you've been
0:40
doing this week? A fair amount. A fair amount.
0:43
I feel like I can. Because we've got more games
0:47
coming out. And when GTA drops, no. Yeah. What
0:51
makes something pretentious? What do you have
0:54
to say? What are the ingredients? But apparently
0:57
it's having people that read it feels somewhat
1:01
seen. That'll get you. That'll get you. Get most
1:04
of the way there. Okay. Mikhail, you all right?
1:07
You're a GTI gold bar today. Yeah. Gotta wrap
1:12
GTA today. But yeah, like James said, the 26th
1:16
was, I think it might have been the busiest day
1:19
in the last five years for me. like absolutely
1:23
insane like i slept for like 11 hours after that
1:26
like straight like i think i texted you on a
1:28
dm saying i'm gonna sleep talk to you tomorrow
1:31
and that was like 11 hours so yeah that was like
1:34
a look looking forward to chilling out today
1:35
and yeah just not being pretentious because i
1:39
watched rrr instead of one piece this week what's
1:43
rrr is that the action film yeah yeah yeah the
1:47
which which apparently was was like a huge deal
1:50
over here but i completely missed it because
1:52
i i think what is the last star wars movie like
1:56
number nine what is it called i forgot the shit
1:59
one rise of rise of skywalker i think yeah yeah
2:01
so that was the last movie i saw in like the
2:03
cinema over here and it was so bad i just stopped
2:05
going to movies so i for some reason i just got
2:10
on this kick recently because someone i follow
2:12
on blue sky posted this thing about watching
2:14
movies and people have been pestering me to watch
2:17
uncut gems as i said so i was like let me try
2:19
and do like one or two a week so but yeah rrr
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was long like over three hours long so i had
2:25
to do it over two days so yeah i watched that
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and sorry dave no one piece yet is rrr bollywood
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because i genuinely don't know It's what they
2:35
call Tollywood because it's, yeah. So, but the
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problem with that is like to watch it with the
2:40
original language. It's not available on Netflix,
2:43
I believe. So you can only watch it in Hindi
2:46
or English. And the problem with English is that
2:49
it kind of gets into the Yakuza style issue where
2:52
one person's talking in English, but the other
2:54
person's not supposed to understand them. But
2:56
if you watch it in English, they're both talking
2:58
in English and pretending to not understand each
3:00
other. Some scenes like that kind of bad. I don't
3:04
know if there's a way to legally watch that with
3:06
the original thing in the UK or in the US or
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whatever. But the funniest shit is you can get
3:12
the Blu -ray of that in Japan, but not in India,
3:14
which I find hilarious. Probably because of Kojima,
3:17
but we'll get to Kojima in a bit. Right. So it's
3:23
been 14 hours since Netflix had its GTA 6 reveal.
3:31
Did we all watch it? How did we all watch the
3:34
Netflix reveal? I watched it three hours after
3:38
on my phone. Not the best way of watching it,
3:41
I imagine. Did we all have like viewing parties
3:44
or did we not care? I didn't care. I watched
3:47
it. I finished watching it 15 minutes ago when
3:51
you said in the Discord, like, I hope everyone
3:54
watched it. So I loaded it up on the Rockstar
3:58
website because it's like. Surely that's going
4:00
to have the best fit rate and just put it up
4:03
on my LG, which is basically my primary monitor.
4:06
And I was like, yeah, that sure looks like a
4:09
video game that has the same budget as a small
4:12
country's GDP. Yeah. GTA 6, it's kind of like,
4:20
I'm not, I couldn't say I'm hyped for it, but
4:25
I watched the video. I was like, this looks.
4:28
really good it looks really good right i mean
4:30
i can't if i if someone was to say right why
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do you think it looks good i mean the shallow
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part of me is like well just look at it right
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it looks incredible there's it's the kind of
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thing that we've seen this before right like
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i think red dead 2 probably is the last good
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example where just the amount of detail that
4:50
goes into it is beyond what you get from most
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other or all other video games right it's just
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at the time they put into it the money obviously
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they pump into it means that you're getting things
5:00
that most games simply can't offer um and i think
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that just is visible in like the world detail
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the the way the characters are like so unique
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and defined from each other and stuff it's like
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i like the from a gameplay point of view i mean
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it looks a lot like gta with possibly slightly
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better like combat and stuff but like even things
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like the way there was that bit in the video
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where they're doing the cops chasing them and
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then they shoot out the tires and stuff and they
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do like the spins and crash and stuff i don't
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know how i mean assuming that none of that was
5:35
actually scripted maybe some of it was we don't
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know like how that's going to play out when we
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actually get it ourselves but it just looked
5:42
really cool like i don't know if anyone noticed
5:45
anything that suggests there's going to be a
5:47
game here beyond another version of gta but more
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detailed and prettier what what do you think
5:53
so i didn't actually watch it last night because
5:56
it was like 12 30 a .m my time but what i did
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do is i put it on like on on the ipad and i was
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skimming through just to get a glimpse of what
6:06
songs they had because i i like whatever you
6:09
say about rockstar i don't like their game don't
6:11
want to press x to run whatever the music choices
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they have are always good so i got like the cliff
6:16
richards song and stuff and I texted it to my
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dad, who's a big Cliff Richard fan. And because
6:22
it's funny that GTA 5 had Queens. What is the
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song? Radio Gaga. I forgot the actual song name,
6:28
the one which they use in GTA 5. But whatever.
6:30
That's like one of my mom's favorite songs. I
6:32
was like, this is funny. Like GTA 5 got my mom's
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favorite or my GTA 6 got my dad's favorite. But
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yeah, so I did that for like five minutes last
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night before bed, slept, woke up in the morning,
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watched the thing. And then, yeah, posted it
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on respect .net. You should. check the site or
6:48
check the news are you on the soundtrack brains
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or not are you did they sign you up unfortunately
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not it's it's kind of it's kind of a joke really
6:56
i keep trying to get onto the ea guys as well
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but no ridiculous if they're listening there's
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probably still time yeah get you on there's probably
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like what how do you classify your music i don't
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want to disrespect it what is the pretentious
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rap what is it I would say it's just UK hip hop.
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Just British. So it's probably a radio station
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that specializes in hip hop, right? In GTA? Yeah,
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I guess so. Probably not British. It's good music.
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There's time. If you're listening to this, reach
7:26
out. I can put you in touch with Dave. So yeah,
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highlights for me, I guess. I mean, nothing particularly
7:34
incredible in terms of gameplay, but when was
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it? Lucia jumped off the building and had the
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parachute on, whatever it was. That looked incredible
7:43
from like a visual point of view. And then it
7:46
had the bit where you snap into the other character,
7:48
I think, like you had in 5. But yeah, like it
7:50
just looks super like, I guess, I mean, well,
7:56
I guess we've said already expensive, right?
7:58
Like everything about it looks like they spent
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time and money on making every single bit feel
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better than any other game can. offer like things
8:08
like when they go to the fridge and there's all
8:10
the little stuff in there and bits and pieces
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and it looks like a real fridge um the way they
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interact on the uh bureau bar or like you could
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actually see yeah yeah yeah um stuff like that
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i mean other games have little features that
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are cool right but i think this is like you can
8:29
just imagine them spending like six months on
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like one little aspect of this just to make sure
8:35
that people notice it it's like the horse the
8:38
horse balls again right in red dead 2 which they
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probably didn't have to do much with that but
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they they but yeah like is it gonna be like groundbreaking
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beyond it's an action game with some cool characters
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and stuff i don't know dave you're doing a face
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to suggest you've got pretentious thoughts oh
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yeah i definitely do i definitely do on this
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one i'm i'm like this is so weird for me I don't
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love Rockstar games. I finished Red Dead Redemption
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2 like a couple of years ago over the Christmas
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period. And before that, the last Rockstar game
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I'd finished was Vice City. So, you know, a decent
9:17
gap. And I didn't love GTA 5. I don't think it
9:21
was for me. But after playing Red Dead 2, I had
9:25
like a new appreciation for what Rockstar was
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trying to do there. uh personally i think maybe
9:31
the the trio of protagonists in five didn't none
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of them individually drew me in and because we
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were hopping between them i didn't have that
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hook you know what i mean uh whereas in red dead
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2 you've got arthur morgan and that like main
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cast of characters and i think that actually
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did draw me and i think i did i don't know if
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i want to say immersed but i definitely felt
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like i was taking on the shoes of arthur morgan
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and i was happy to take things like a slower
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pace as as the game does force you to and gta
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6 there is the little details which i think i'm
10:04
most interested in but first of all it's got
10:06
the in gta sorry in red dead 2 you held uh right
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trigger and you'd get like a couple of button
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options like interact with npcs and stuff i noticed
10:14
that that is present in gta 6 now and i think
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what's going to be most interesting in this game
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is going to be the the relationship aspect of
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it i think having a relationship with the duo
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protagonist is going to make both protagonists
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more interesting it's not going to be right two
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mild psychopaths in interacting it's going to
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have an actual build out and and i'm assuming
10:37
i'm assuming possibly a depressing bonnie and
10:40
clyde style conclusion to the story but you know
10:42
we know nothing yeah i i agree with that and
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you mentioning like the not being able to really
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connect with i any of the three main characters
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in gta 5 maybe being a reason why you didn't
10:55
connect with it i didn't really clocked that
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that was probably the case with me too until
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you mentioned it because it's like oh no i it's
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like i was thinking do i just not like rockstar
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games and i thought back it's like no because
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i liked i liked red dead redemption one i haven't
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played two i haven't played two but i liked red
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dead redemption one that's like the one rockstar
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game that i've actually finished but watching
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the trailer for six i do think the relationship
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aspect and how like if there's one thing that
11:26
extended look does sell is it does sell the chemistry
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between the two main characters and i think that
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was very important to do so and i i do think
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if there's any one thing that would get me to
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play that game i think the the play uh the two
11:43
main characters playing off each other and that
11:45
like relationship being core to the story might
11:48
actually be what does it for me do you think
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that's going to be an element of like the story
11:54
is what it is the characters their relationship
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is what it is or do you think that how things
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play out with your particular game will influence
12:02
how things sort of happen later on i think that
12:06
while rock because i did play a bunch of gta4
12:10
back in the day i know that while rockstar has
12:13
played with stories somewhat changing depending
12:18
on what you do usually if there's going to be
12:21
a major influence on the story as a whole it
12:25
comes at the very end so i don't necessarily
12:28
think it they're going to have like branching
12:31
narratives based off what you do i think it's
12:35
if anything just going to be maybe a number of
12:39
choices near the conclusion yeah i also i i assume
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just based on previous rockstar games i assume
12:47
that there'll be one primary canon path for for
12:51
jason lucia's relationship to follow you know
12:53
however from again from the extended look there
12:57
is there is one mission where they they infiltrate
12:59
what looks like a party and then later some gang
13:02
or something piles in and ruins the place there's
13:06
a moment in there where um jason i guess takes
13:10
down a guy in an elevator and stands the elevator
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back down then distracts the the gang with the
13:14
walkie -talkie and it's like is that gonna be
13:17
like you are jason now you must help lucia if
13:20
you don't do it the relationship will get worse
13:22
it will there actually be those sort of uh objectives
13:24
or is it just going to be rockstar linear you
13:29
do this and then this happens you know because
13:32
again even in each mission going back to like
13:35
the the drug pickup mission at the very beginning
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of the extended look uh lucia is side by side
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with jason in the shootout she's the one that
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kicks out the window he helps her down I do wonder
13:46
if there's going to be some aspect of that where
13:49
it's going to be, are we going to let her do
13:50
this by herself? Are we going to join in? Vice
13:52
versa of Lucia. Is she going to help Jason in
13:55
some way? I don't know. I don't know. But I'm
13:59
really interested. And I mentioned that holding
14:01
the right trigger and the options come up. There's
14:03
a moment in the extended look where Lucia asks
14:05
Jason which dress he likes. And he's like, eh,
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because he's a man. And then he's like, what
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you're wearing now is fine. All of those are
14:13
wrong answers. All of those are wrong answers.
14:15
And then she goes into a room to change. And
14:17
you can actually see the UI in the bottom right.
14:19
You hold the right trigger, it comes up. And
14:21
the one option he has to interact with her is
14:23
just to say, hurry. You don't say that. And luckily,
14:26
the person playing the demo did not say that
14:28
shit. Because that's... And then shortly after
14:33
that, they arrive at this rooftop bar. As they
14:36
exit the elevator to arrive at the bar, there
14:38
is the, once again, in the bottom right, you
14:40
can see the right trigger hold hands prompt.
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I do wonder if small aspects like that are going
14:45
to factor into how strong the relationship is.
14:47
Maybe that will change the ending. But regardless,
14:51
I'm most interested in just seeing how that relationship
14:54
develops. Because again, in RDR2, my favorite
14:57
aspect was that bond. arthur does share with
15:00
the other characters in the game and i hope i
15:02
hope to see more of that here because i think
15:04
that's what that's what will keep me in if anything
15:07
yeah i think yeah i think it was a good it was
15:11
a good little 20 part 30 minute showing i would
15:14
say yeah as i mean there's a stuff like it's
15:19
a game this big i mean i think some of i remember
15:22
where it came from but i saw someone saying it's
15:24
80 hours with a few side missions i don't know
15:27
where that came from maybe someone that works
15:28
there possibly you can't get a sense of what
15:32
the whole game is going to be like this little
15:33
clip like if they have they literally picked
15:36
all the missions with the most detailed interactions
15:39
between the characters and then the rest of it's
15:40
going to be a load of just sort of uh get to
15:43
a to b deliver that thing kind of kind of stuff
15:46
we will see but i expect there's going to be
15:49
detail throughout the whole thing we saw clips
15:52
of all the little bits and pieces you can do
15:54
outside of the what i assume is the main story
15:56
there's the looks like you become a race driver
15:59
at one point from the commit there's the jet
16:00
ski stuff there's the diving other bits did they
16:03
show flying i can't remember did they show any
16:05
flying in this this video they showed that the
16:08
the uh sort of base jumping type bit but i'm
16:11
not sure we saw any planes did we i'm not sure
16:15
I assume they will be flying in it because that's
16:17
a GTA staple. But yeah, I'm impressed. I think
16:20
it's hard not to be impressed by what they showed
16:22
off. There is obviously the background of, well,
16:26
they just got rid of a load of people who were
16:27
potentially trying to form a union, all that
16:29
kind of business. And I think they have said
16:31
those people, they don't want you to boycott
16:33
this game. They want you to buy it. I'm pretty
16:36
sure that's the latest that they've said from
16:37
it. But yeah, it's a shame those people aren't
16:42
still working there to see. fruits of their labor
16:45
um but yeah like i think it's probably wise that
16:49
people have avoided gta 6 release because i think
16:52
it's all people are going to be talking about
16:54
for a while in november onwards um anyone else
16:57
got anything else to say on that before we move
16:59
on i want it to be good yeah it's good that is
17:05
it's quite pretentious for you to say that i
17:07
mean listen i'd like it when i like it when games
17:11
are good i do yeah Yep. Yep. Fingers crossed.
17:15
I mean, it probably will be good, right? I mean,
17:17
if it's not, there's some trouble. One thing
17:20
I am curious about is they plastered all over
17:24
this extended look captured on PS5. But usually
17:28
when footage is from PS5 Pro, they say that.
17:32
So was this extended look from just base PS5?
17:36
I assume so. I assume it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
17:37
Because if that is, like, it's... Yeah. Because
17:39
especially, like, watch... Yeah, because like
17:42
watching it on my like 4K TV, like the image
17:45
quality was really, really good. If that's representative
17:47
of what the game looks like on a regular PlayStation
17:51
5, like one of the reasons why I was hesitating
17:54
because I want to play this on PC. I don't want
17:56
to have to wait, but if it looks this good, even
17:59
if it's only 30 FPS, if it looks this good in
18:01
terms of like image quality on a base PlayStation
18:03
5, maybe I'll just play it there. You know, that
18:07
got me to thinking about, I've seen a lot of
18:10
people discussing this 30 -60 thing. And I've
18:12
even seen some dumb posts saying that I played
18:15
GTA 5 at 60, so I can't go back to 30. I think
18:18
people forgot how bad GTA 5 and GTA 4 were when
18:21
they launched. I have an anecdote about that.
18:24
I have an anecdote about that. Does anyone remember?
18:29
Mikhail, I'm sure you remember, but does anyone
18:31
else remember? the state of GTA 5 on PS3 and
18:35
360 if you bought the digital copy of it? No,
18:39
I bought like three physical copies at launch
18:41
because I'm an indie fan. Okay, okay. So back
18:45
in the day, GTA 5 on PS3 and 360 was designed
18:49
where it basically installed the entire game
18:51
to your hard drive, regardless if you had a physical
18:53
copy or not. But in order to be able to load
18:57
the entire map quick enough, it would load from
19:00
both the hard drive and the disc at the same
19:03
time, which would work if you had a physical
19:06
copy. But if you bought it digitally, there was
19:10
massive popping issues. You would literally run
19:13
into something and would be like completely invisible
19:15
until a second later. It's like, oh, that's what
19:17
I ran into. It had worse performance. That's
19:20
actually the reason why I never finished GTA
19:22
V is because I bought it digitally because I
19:25
was in high school and I was like game sharing
19:27
with a friend. So we split the cost like 30 -30.
19:30
Neither of us finished it because it was such
19:33
a dreadful experience playing the digital copy
19:36
on an original PS3. It was terrible. Terrible.
19:43
Yeah, I don't remember that, but I think maybe
19:46
it's a vague memory of people talking about it.
19:48
My biggest GTA memory is how I was blacklisted
19:52
from Rockstar. I won't talk about that. Why does
19:54
that keep happening to people? It was a long
19:56
time ago. It was a long time ago. Different era,
19:59
different people. Was it because of Jim? No,
20:04
it's pre -Jim. This was pre -Jim. Jim was probably
20:07
just a baby back then. But yeah, okay. So GTA
20:11
6, I think we all think is looking pretty good.
20:13
That's our official verdict on Respec. Looks
20:16
pretty good. Gamescom is, well, still happening
20:19
as we're recording this. Everyone has gone to
20:21
Germany to see loads of stuff. Like Gamescom
20:25
is pretty much the biggest, and I think it is
20:26
possibly the biggest at least convention. europe
20:29
not sure of the world but it's massive you've
20:30
never been huge huge building with many halls
20:34
and lots and lots of people there and lots of
20:37
heat and overpriced snacks and other stuff it's
20:41
not the biggest event for like new stuff being
20:44
announced like compared to what was used to have
20:47
e3 all the stuff was announced we had summer
20:49
game fest now is anything from gamescom this
20:52
week standing out to anyone anyone been impressed
20:54
by anything in particular that was shown off
20:56
this week Not really anything massive from like
21:01
the Gamescom announcements. I do think that one
21:03
D &D Warlock game actually looked pretty neat.
21:07
I was surprised that it looked okay. Yeah. Like
21:12
I was like, this looks decent. It's that kind
21:16
of demo that you're like, I was surprised how
21:17
much of a demo there was at the showcase. Like
21:21
it went on. I was like, this is going to be like
21:23
a quick little thing. And actually it was like.
21:25
I don't know, it felt like quite a lot, like
21:26
10 minutes of gameplay, I'm not sure. But yeah,
21:29
it looked decent, surprisingly good. Whether
21:32
or not it's good enough to be like enough for
21:35
that game to make its money back, I don't know.
21:39
It felt like a lot of money's been pumped into
21:41
it because it looked better than I expected.
21:43
But yeah, that looked okay. The actual opening
21:45
live stuff was mostly like, nah, I didn't really
21:50
feel much of it. They obviously saved a few bits
21:52
to the end, but... We kind of knew those things
21:55
were going to be there, right, pretty much. Excited
21:57
for Rainbow Six Siege XCOM right after we just
22:01
got Star Wars XCOM. I cannot be bothered to play
22:06
that. Whenever I see, I think I've been completely
22:09
mentally broken by one of the Tom Clancy something
22:12
presentations a few years ago. Anytime I see
22:15
that name, I just go resident sleeper. I can't
22:18
deal with that. I just want them to bring back.
22:21
Vegas or whatever it was those games they were
22:23
really good like co -op like Rainbow Six 3 on
22:28
the original Xbox was really good and then is
22:32
it not New Vegas just Vegas a different game
22:34
that was good like that kind of co -op game I
22:37
kind of enjoyed I would never play it now because
22:39
I don't have time but in my head I'd be like
22:41
that'd be cool to play again yeah but yeah like
22:45
The Witcher what were you feeling about The Witcher
22:47
stuff oh I mean I'm i was gonna say i have it
22:54
on two consoles and therefore i i will get access
22:57
to it for free so that's nice yeah i i'll give
23:03
it a go i'll give it a go i assume you've you've
23:06
played the witch right the witch is freeing yeah
23:08
i've so i finished it on on on ps4 but i i had
23:13
like i played like 30 hours and then took like
23:14
a several month break and then finished it and
23:17
I've gone back on Switch and on the PS5 version,
23:20
and in both of those, I played 30 hours and was
23:23
like, here's the break, and then never came back.
23:26
For reasons that will become clear in the next
23:30
week, I've found myself in a bit of a Witcher
23:33
mood. I never actually finished Witcher 3. I
23:37
finished Witcher 1 and 2, never 3, despite having
23:42
a physical copy that I pre -ordered at launch
23:44
for PC back in the day. might give it another
23:49
shot especially since i have a new pc handheld
23:53
coming in and i'm feel like this update would
23:56
be a good way to kind of break that in but i
23:59
don't know it looks neat we'll have to see yeah
24:04
i'm gonna i'm definitely gonna play that like
24:06
i uh i i feel kind of bad for dragon quest 11
24:10
because that low effort thing from square enix
24:12
with like you just buy it again no save nothing
24:15
transferring and now you have like this big chad
24:18
cd project red with save transfer mouse control
24:21
like the works like hdr like everything they
24:24
just showed they just showed the switch to version
24:26
on stream and it looks pretty fantastic and yeah
24:29
and yeah it's free upgrade for everything so
24:31
even though i have like every version of the
24:33
game including this random polish steelbook edition
24:36
which was like a pre -order thing from there
24:39
and stuff which So yeah, like I'm excited to
24:41
revisit it just to see what combat stuff they've
24:44
done. Because I remember when it came out, the
24:46
combat and movement felt kind of dog shit, which
24:49
they added that alternate movement mode or something
24:52
like that later on when it came to Switch. Like
24:54
I finished it on Switch despite owning it everywhere
24:56
before. It was just like 12 hours on each platform,
24:59
didn't go further. But Switch was good enough,
25:01
like handheld. Switch Lite had like YOLO 120
25:04
hours. So that was good. Want to see... what
25:08
they do on pc as well and yeah i'll probably
25:11
like just try it on everything towards the end
25:13
of september i'm a bit i don't know what to feel
25:18
about the dlc though like i saw that and i'm
25:20
like i feel like i don't know i guess they want
25:23
people to get back to the game now and then like
25:25
put the dlc out a few months after they finished
25:28
it but for people who've already finished it
25:30
like i'll just download it test it for work play
25:33
it a bit and delete it until the dlc so i don't
25:36
know Maybe this is for newcomers mostly. I don't
25:39
know. I think, yeah, I mean, a lot of people
25:41
will be like, I just want to see how different
25:43
it looks and how different it feels and stuff.
25:45
It's the kind of game you can be like, I'm just
25:47
going to give it a go and then you end up playing
25:49
it for another 20 hours or whatever. I've not
25:52
played any of the DLC. I finished the game after,
25:54
it felt like months of playing it because I get
25:57
through games quite slowly and I'd already tried
26:00
twice previously to get into it and couldn't.
26:02
I finally got into it and it took ages and I
26:04
was like, i'll probably just play something else
26:06
quickly and then i'll come back in the dlc and
26:08
that was like two years ago and i've not done
26:11
it yet and everyone says the dlc is amazing particularly
26:13
the second one i think that blood and wine so
26:16
i need to go back and this is a good sort of
26:18
excuse to uh to get back to it now they're going
26:21
to do all the upgrades as well so i think i probably
26:23
will try and play it the dlc the new dlc it's
26:26
it's because it's next year it's just not even
26:28
on my radar yet it's just a thing happening at
26:31
some point later on And I'm sure there'll be
26:33
excitement around it when it happens. But yeah,
26:35
it's a, I think doing this upgrade and getting
26:37
people back is a good way for people to be like,
26:39
yes, I will spend whatever, 25 quid, I don't
26:42
know how much the deal is going to be, but I
26:44
imagine it's not going to be dirt cheap when
26:46
that happens next year. But yeah, that I guess
26:48
probably was the biggest. I know they showed
26:50
off Final Fantasy VII Revelations. Is that what
26:54
it's called? Revelations. But I guess. that wasn't
26:57
particularly new i mean for me i maybe you you
27:01
lot are more like they showed off the this little
27:03
character who's been in it once and he looks
27:05
really cool but for me that wasn't meant to be
27:07
dismissive i know it sounded it but i don't like
27:11
final fantasy so it's not nothing for me but
27:13
was there anything from that that uh trailer
27:15
that nothing particularly interested nothing
27:17
it was a weird showing because it felt like a
27:20
trailer that was laser focused at the super hardcore
27:23
fans and not something you'd show at one of these
27:26
events like I feel like at these events, you
27:28
want your trailer to like appeal to as many people
27:30
as possible. But if someone's not played Final
27:32
Fantasy 7, I don't know what you're going to
27:35
get out of this trailer. It just was a weird
27:37
trailer in that sense. And again, like even I
27:41
don't want to be dismissive about it because
27:42
like this is a game I'm 100 % going to buy. So
27:44
it doesn't matter even if they just keep like
27:46
showing someone shitting on the screen. I'm still
27:48
going to get it. But I don't know. It just felt
27:50
like the trailer looked a bit off to me when
27:52
I finally saw it. It looks good, but... The trailer
27:56
itself looked a bit off. The game looks good.
27:58
That's what I think so far. One other game that
28:01
stood out to me, not new, but Pony Island 2.
28:04
Have you played Pony Island? Everyone played
28:06
Pony Island? I own it, but I've not played it.
28:10
It's from, I've got a blank. It's from the guy
28:13
that did Inscription and the other one. It's
28:17
like, it's one of these games that is, I'm not
28:20
sure he started it, but it's a game that is way
28:23
more than what it appears to be. Kind of thing,
28:25
right? So it's hard to talk about without giving
28:28
it too much weight, but I think everyone should
28:29
go and play Pony Island and then be excited for
28:32
Pony Island 2, which is out next year. But yeah,
28:35
I think that I'm interested to see what that
28:37
is because it has to be more than just the same
28:41
again, because that kind of wouldn't work with
28:43
this kind of game. It can't just be an iterative
28:45
type sequel. Did you play this at Video Gamer?
28:49
Pony Island? Yeah, I did. Yeah. I think that
28:52
might be where I know it from. yeah yeah it's
28:56
a i can't have you googled who makes it it's
28:59
the guy what's his name daniel mullins that's
29:03
the one that's the one uh but yeah so that was
29:06
that that they showed off the trailer for that
29:07
um opening up live i think yeah i'm i'm up for
29:11
more of that because it's a really cool different
29:14
game if you're not played it in the sense of
29:16
this i think the first one's probably really
29:17
cheap on steam go and give it a go without reading
29:19
too much about it just stick with it beyond what
29:23
you think you're gonna like it isn't what it
29:26
is basically that doesn't make sense but it will
29:28
do but yeah gamescom i sure will have some bits
29:31
and pieces up on respect and rpg site over the
29:35
next few weeks but yeah it's kind of a it's always
29:38
been an odd event from a press point of view
29:40
because you kind of get more or less the same
29:43
stuff you had at what was previously e3 maybe
29:46
with like the odd little european focus revealed
29:50
or something so you might get oh they've shown
29:52
off a new rts or a base building game for the
29:56
european market whatever um yeah i think they
29:59
showed off i've seen a few bits of fable that
30:01
looks pretty good they showed off some gameplay
30:03
of that but yeah it's it's not a big announcement
30:06
event usually although i did see pgr4 for the
30:10
first time at a gamescom many years back so that
30:12
was quite exciting has a place in your heart
30:14
then does it yeah yeah it's it's always the event
30:17
that i saw a pgr4 is also the only big gaming
30:21
press event where people seem okay with taking
30:23
their partners to for no reason okay it's like
30:27
so it's like this is a behind closed doors press
30:30
event oh don't worry my girlfriend's just sitting
30:32
in with me to see this it's fine or boyfriend
30:35
husband wife whatever but uh yeah it's it's a
30:39
different event i just remember it mostly from
30:41
sitting on the floor writing incredible amounts
30:44
of words on a laptop because there's never any
30:46
room to write anywhere else unless you have a
30:48
little private booth which only got much later
30:51
on yeah right other stuff so on the site this
30:56
week we've had zero company review which is star
31:00
wars x -com alike i guess alex is away he reviewed
31:04
it but james you've played zero company a bit
31:07
and it's pretty good right yeah i reviewed it
31:11
for game informer i was About middle of the road
31:14
in terms of reception, maybe a little bit below
31:16
the average. I gave it an eight. I think the
31:18
Metacritic is sitting at like an 85, 86, something
31:21
like that. Last I checked, it is a very good
31:24
tactics game. I did not really feel anything
31:27
too much for the story or characters. Serviceable,
31:30
but it's like, it's whatever. Are you a Star
31:33
Wars person or not? So. One of the things I did
31:36
mention in the review is I do think the more
31:39
Star Wars stuff that you have engaged with, the
31:41
more you're going to get out of this because
31:42
there is references to characters from like the
31:46
animated shows. There's references to characters
31:48
from EA's other Star Wars games. There's cameos
31:52
like that. And while I did appreciate those references
31:57
and those connections, and I do think that they
31:59
were... I don't feel like they were shoehorned
32:02
in. I think they were treated organically enough
32:05
that it is a net positive to the experience.
32:07
But it's like overall, unless you do have that
32:10
connection to the franchise beyond like the original
32:12
trilogy and the prequel trilogy, I don't really
32:17
think there's anything here that you'll latch
32:20
on to is all I'm saying. You really do need to
32:24
have even a bit more of a cursory knowledge of
32:28
the extended. canon in order to really get much
32:32
from this story my opinion yeah i'm not a big
32:35
star wars person i guess yeah i might give it
32:39
a miss but i mean probably it'll be it's ea right
32:42
so it'll probably come to ea play slash game
32:45
pass at some point which i still yeah have membership
32:48
too so i'll probably give it a go at some point
32:50
but it's not on my list of must plays just because
32:54
I'd give it a few months anyways. Yeah, I was
32:57
just going to say that it's a bit rough technically.
32:59
And there's like bugs and animation stuff and
33:02
all. Especially on like James played it on like
33:04
a Rockstar budget tier PC. So that's like he
33:09
could comment on that. But yeah, it's a little
33:10
ropey on even on console. Like I tried it on
33:13
PS5 Pro. It had some hitching here and there.
33:16
Well, Mikhail, I'll say this. I think the frame
33:20
pacing was actually more consistent on my claw.
33:24
than it was on my desktop. Granted, I'm just
33:27
going to put a frame of frame pacing off my bingo
33:29
sheet. It's done. Frame pacing. Good. There we
33:32
go. Yeah. So it's got issues and maybe a bit
33:38
good and maybe give it a month or two to get
33:40
fixed a bit more. Yeah. So yeah. Zero companies
33:43
out now. Yeah. Today, yesterday, something very,
33:48
very recently. So if you are into Star Wars and
33:51
strategy games, it sounds like it's probably
33:54
worth taking a look. Elden Ring is also out now,
33:58
I think, on Switch 2. I assume maybe a few of
34:04
you have even played this on Switch 2. I don't
34:06
know. I know Mikhail's definitely played it.
34:08
You've got an article up on the site which looks
34:09
at how it runs on Switch 2 compared to some other
34:12
platforms. How are you feeling about it broadly?
34:17
If you've been waiting, if you have only got
34:19
a Switch 2, I guess you haven't been able to
34:20
play this on anything else. Is it worth picking
34:22
up on Switch 2? Yeah, I'd say it's better than
34:26
Dark Souls Remastered was on Switch 1 because
34:28
that was like awful. I thought like they had
34:32
like, what is it like some Napster quality audio
34:34
for the music? Yeah, I remember Dark Souls Remastered.
34:40
They explicitly went for. the cheapest cartridge
34:43
size or some shit as well yeah cheapest or second
34:46
cheapest and they didn't let you even download
34:49
the higher quality audio if you wanted to and
34:51
it was just like it it was bad it was bad performance
34:55
wise it was fine but I mean, it was more like
34:59
Dark Souls original than remaster. Like they
35:02
did this hybrid thing where they had bits from
35:03
the original. But anyway, just before moving
35:06
back to Elden Ring, the funny thing about that
35:08
Dark Souls physical is it was actually distributed
35:10
by Nintendo. So they had marketing, they had
35:13
the amiibo, they had the direct reveal and they
35:15
got the worst version of the game. That was embarrassing.
35:17
But yeah, so Elden Ring, back to what Tom said,
35:21
I think it's solid handheld. Like it's not perfect.
35:23
The frame rate's a bit ropey. But like, I mean...
35:26
It's a FromSoft game. You have ropey framerate
35:29
on everything. Like it's not fixed on PC. On
35:32
Windows, I should say right now at all. So it's
35:35
fine. Handheld looks good enough to me. Handheld
35:38
specifically. The dock... When you play it on
35:41
TV, you can tell like the compromises they've
35:43
made to like get it to what it is right now.
35:46
And it's closer to the old version, like the
35:49
PS4 version than the PS5 version. So I'd say
35:52
like if you want to, like if you have no other
35:54
way to play it, treat the TV experience as like
35:56
a bonus for playing it handheld. The game itself
36:00
is like the port itself, I'd say is still good
36:02
for handheld play. But there's just too many
36:06
compromises for like playing it on TV. Like if
36:08
you have any other platform. and you want to
36:10
play on your TV, I'd say give it a go there.
36:13
But especially because it's like full price,
36:15
right? On Switch 2, it's like $80. And so I'm
36:20
not sure if I'd recommend it for like people
36:22
who own other platforms, but I feel like the
36:24
core, I'd say the main people, the main audience
36:27
for this is people who've never played Elden
36:29
Ring before and those who have it and want to
36:31
play it as a portable experience. And on both
36:34
of those fronts, I can say, yeah, like it's still
36:36
Elden Ring. massively cut back like obviously
36:39
the grass and textures and like resolution is
36:43
not as good as it should be because we've seen
36:45
actual amazing switch to ports like star wars
36:48
outlaws dynasty warriors origins and stuff but
36:51
This feels like a, it feels like it should have
36:53
been better. It's still a fantastic game, but
36:55
it should have been better. So yeah, for Respec,
36:58
I did the, like a handheld focus, just general
37:00
impressions thing. And on RPG side, I did a whole
37:03
comparison for like all the consoles and PC handles
37:06
and stuff. And I've seen a lot of people like
37:08
say that, why did you mention it's 1080p and
37:11
stuff? And I'm like, I have the capture on the
37:13
website uncompressed. You can see it for yourself.
37:15
I'm not making shit up. Like I put up all my,
37:18
all my images and stuff. So yeah, it's, i'm just
37:22
a bit disappointed in it doc like it might sound
37:24
like i'm telling people not to buy it but like
37:26
give it a go handheld it's good but from soft
37:29
or whoever did the port should have done better
37:31
like just like yeah it shouldn't run worse than
37:34
it have you found playing it because on the handheld
37:37
because i've been playing a switch to game for
37:40
review for next week okay and it's nothing like
37:44
as technical as Elden Ring is to play. And I
37:47
just can't hold the thing for more than half
37:49
an hour without feeling really uncomfortable.
37:51
Like, is there a trick to holding a Switch 2?
37:54
Have you got like special grips installed or?
37:56
No, I don't have grips yet. I did see this. There's
37:59
this company called CRKD, which is making some
38:02
Neo something. I forgot the name. I'll give you
38:04
a link if you want to put it in the show notes.
38:06
But there's this grip which they have, which
38:08
looks good. But I just, the Switch 2 itself is,
38:11
I... when i was playing it handheld i think i
38:14
can do an hour but like the battery life is dog
38:16
shit so like you can't play more than like two
38:18
hours anyway on switch to but yeah i i was splitting
38:21
my time between handheld and using like tabletop
38:24
with the joy -con split that's super comfortable
38:26
i feel yeah yeah but yeah like you said right
38:30
any game which has like fast analog movement
38:33
with both sticks it gets a little annoying to
38:35
play without like the ergonomics are not good
38:37
on the switch too so like when How were you playing
38:40
Splatoon Raiders? Like I kind of, I started having
38:42
like some cramps when I was playing that for
38:44
two hours and stuff. Yeah. I think that benefits
38:47
from having the motion stuff. So you get less,
38:50
it's less reliant on the sticks. Right, right.
38:53
But yeah, like I can't, I just can't imagine
38:55
playing it. I mean, I've only played Elden Ring
38:58
a little bit, but I can't imagine playing it.
39:00
all the way through on on the actual handheld
39:02
without having like i could on the pro controller
39:04
sure great but um on a handheld i don't know
39:07
i think i'd struggle but i guess it's what you've
39:09
got and what you're used to right yeah i feel
39:12
like the switch 2 fits quite neatly in in in
39:16
my hands here i'm trying to get the angle This
39:19
is comfortable for me. This is podcasting. This
39:22
is perfect podcasting. I want everyone, okay,
39:24
I'm going to give the audio description. I am
39:27
facing my back to the camera and turning my head
39:29
back while holding the Nintendo Switch 2 in two
39:32
hands, okay? Yeah. So you really just have to
39:34
put pressure with your palms, like right in the
39:37
corners. You have to put the pressure there because
39:40
otherwise it doesn't feel good on your fingers.
39:43
I see what you're saying. But also, I will say
39:46
that I've been playing Final Fantasy XIV lately,
39:50
and then every now and then it wants me to use
39:52
the D -pad, and I feel like I've got to shift
39:53
my whole hand down the left side of the console
39:57
to comfortably reach that. So the thing that
40:00
I think it was Mikhail that told me the other
40:02
day is that, honestly, if you have big enough
40:06
hands, you can rest your pinky on, there's a
40:08
little notch right near... the bottom here on
40:12
both sides you can kind of like rest your pinkies
40:14
on those notches i i often take the take the
40:17
stand out and have a i yes yes i remember like
40:21
the week that the switch 2 came out like jeff
40:24
grubb made a whole like video about how oh you
40:28
can use the kickstand as like a makeshift grip
40:30
and you can just kind of like rest your pinky
40:33
fingers on it and and it's like man All of these
40:38
different ways to say the ergonomics for the
40:40
Switch 2 are kind of dreadful. I feel like the
40:44
Switch 2 is not designed to be made for longer
40:48
than the battery life lasts. You know? Yeah.
40:52
Square Enix was doing us a favor with the FF7
40:54
remake on it. Like, play one hour and then just
40:56
go away. But yeah, like, I think I know what
41:00
game Tom is talking about. And yeah, like...
41:03
with splatoon i don't use motion controls handheld
41:05
it gives me a bit of motion sickness i can do
41:07
it dock but i can't do it handheld for some reason
41:09
so i i was not having a good time after that
41:12
but yeah i i'm like 60 hours into splatoon raiders
41:16
that post game is like beyond insane but yeah
41:19
like like you said elden ring one thing about
41:21
the controls which i've not seen a lot of people
41:23
bring up in their coverage is when they did dark
41:26
souls remastered you know how on Nintendo, A,
41:29
B, X, Y is reversed compared to Xbox, right?
41:31
Always, every single time. So what happened with
41:34
Dark Souls Remastered is the buttons, they half
41:37
-assed it. So for Confirm, in the menus, it was
41:40
one thing, but for game, it was in the other
41:42
thing. So you kept getting thrown off and you
41:45
couldn't even use the system memory to remap,
41:47
system setting to remap. What they did with Elden
41:50
Ring is they just left it at the same face button
41:52
position as other platforms. So you'd still be
41:55
using the top face button to interact. which
41:57
is good because everyone who's used to Elden
41:59
Ring is like that. But when the Duskbloods beta
42:02
was going on, I was getting thrown off between
42:04
both of them because the Duskbloods thing follows
42:06
Nintendo's positions, but Elden Ring follows
42:09
everyone else's position. So yeah, that's something
42:11
which if you play on multiple platforms and get
42:14
annoyed by this, you will get annoyed by that.
42:16
So I am happy they kept it the same way because
42:18
after like hundreds of hours of Elden Ring, I
42:20
do not want to adjust for like this. You know,
42:24
you see, that didn't exactly annoy me with the
42:27
Duskbloods, but what did annoy me about the Duskbloods
42:30
was the terrible input lag. Oh yeah, that's pretty
42:35
good in Elden Ring, I'd say. Before I was about
42:38
to publish my comparison on RPG site, a friend
42:41
of mine just texted me and said, do you think
42:43
Elden Ring has good or bad input lag when you
42:45
get the game? He didn't know I had it, obviously.
42:47
And I was like, shit, I completely forgot to
42:49
do that. So I did like 240 hertz slow -mo camera
42:53
capture to make sure like I'm doing it the best
42:55
way I can. And it was good. It wasn't like, it
42:58
was like less than some Nintendo games I felt
43:01
and they usually have good input lag. So I think
43:03
they did good stuff over there, but they... They're
43:06
not going to do it like asking FromSoft to fix
43:08
performance is just never going to happen. So
43:10
I'm not even going to say wait for a patch. You're
43:13
never going to get that. The patch for this is
43:15
going to be playing it on Switch 3 at 60 FPS
43:18
or whatever. So, yeah. Cool. It sounds... decent
43:24
right i think yeah yeah it's good it's good it's
43:26
good people are not going to be massively disappointed
43:28
by those particularly if they haven't got previous
43:30
spirits if they played from soft games on ps4
43:33
and ps3 and all they'll be fine if they've played
43:36
it on like you know like ps5 and series x you're
43:39
going to have like a double quote -unquote downgrade
43:42
because the frame rate is going to be worse and
43:43
the visuals are quite a bit cut back like resolution
43:46
and all like even if you look at like some of
43:48
the archways in the distance in the opening like
43:51
you can tell it's like a soup on switch 2 but
43:53
you can actually see what they're showing on
43:56
the other thing but these are like minor whatever
43:59
for people who've never played it before so handheld
44:01
though yeah good good handheld cool right quickly
44:05
touch on metal gear is it called collection volume
44:09
2 master collection volume master collection
44:12
it's just two games right this time is that right
44:14
three three it has three are we counting ghost
44:17
babble with that so yeah the the You can buy
44:20
Peace Walker or MGS4 separately, but if you buy
44:23
the bundle, you get Ghost Babble as a bonus.
44:27
But that's only in the bundle. You can't get
44:28
it if you don't buy the bundle. I haven't played
44:31
that yet. What is Ghost Babble? Game Boy Color
44:33
game. Yeah. That's all I know about it. I see.
44:36
I remember that being a thing, but I'm not a
44:40
big Metal Gear. My experience of the Metal Gear
44:42
games is the first, obviously the PlayStation
44:45
one. Which, if you were around when the PlayStation
44:49
was a thing, was kind of a big moment that everyone
44:51
just played Metal Gear Solid. And then I kind
44:55
of went off it completely until I had to review
44:58
4 in Konami's office. Yeah. Which is awkward
45:01
because I was like, I really, I had to bluff
45:04
a bit that I actually knew anything about these
45:05
games. Yeah. And I kind of liked it, but also
45:11
it's just such an odd game, Metal Gear Solid
45:13
4. Particularly if you're not. kind of versed
45:16
in the other games comes across as a bizarre
45:20
experience all around like maybe it is bizarre
45:23
even if you have played two and three but it's
45:25
just a very odd odd game and one of those games
45:28
that is i guess it's one of the games that is
45:30
like in list of all the lists of games trapped
45:33
on other platforms it was the one right like
45:36
it was just on uh on ps3 and like how is this
45:41
how is it fair you've played everything because
45:43
i think pretty much now yeah how is it how is
45:45
the port uh it's good it's it's surprisingly
45:49
good even on switch to it's it's been good on
45:51
everything to be honest i'd say even the switch
45:53
one version is not bad like that that's the one
45:56
i was most interested in because how do you get
45:59
like a ps3 game running well on switch one for
46:01
like something which was quote unquote designed
46:03
for the ps3 architecture and stuff so it controls
46:07
well looks pretty nice And yeah, I haven't finished
46:11
it on Switch 2 or anything yet, the remaster.
46:14
I've just played a few hours on everything because
46:16
I feel like no one has really spoken about the
46:19
game on platforms other than PC and PS5. And
46:22
we already knew it was going to be good on those,
46:24
right? So I was like, I wanted to just check
46:27
that. So yeah, what happened is the reason why
46:30
I ended up doing this staggered article thing
46:32
is because I bought the game on the Australia
46:34
eShop because that unlocks super early. And I
46:38
bought the Switch 1 version. So I could play
46:40
that. I could play that on Switch 2. And what
46:42
Konami did is if you play the Switch 1 version
46:44
on Switch 2, you get it patched and you get the
46:47
upgrade for free. So it's a Switch 2 game in
46:49
everything but name. And what I did not remember
46:52
until that point is on Xbox, if you change your
46:55
region to New Zealand, you can play stuff early.
46:58
So I did that for the Xbox version. And then
47:00
that was my first article. I was happy with it
47:03
on Switch 2. The HD rumble is nice. Load times
47:05
are fast and stuff. And then I went to sleep
47:08
and I woke up the PS5 version, which I bought
47:10
also unlocked, added that. The Steam version
47:13
unlocked last for some reason. Like it's annoying
47:16
that they do that. And obviously I didn't get
47:18
codes for anything. So I added that and like
47:21
I probably DMed Tom like 20 times saying like,
47:24
is it okay now? Are we good now? Here's another
47:26
MGS update. And Tom's thinking no one gives a
47:29
shit about this old game anymore. So yeah, like
47:31
I'm happy with MGS for quite a bit. I did not
47:34
bother with Peace Walker at all yet. because
47:37
i feel like you just assume that's going to be
47:39
fine it's a port of the hd collection thing but
47:42
yeah mgs4 is very good so far happy it's not
47:45
trapped on ps4 and i don't know i'll see how
47:48
things go next week if i can add peace walker
47:50
to this or do something else it's it's for i
47:53
forget about what i've actually played and what
47:56
i've just seen it's for them the smoking monkey
47:57
is it a smoking monkey i made this up you know
48:02
looking like i've just Does it have a smoking
48:07
monkey in it? Probably. I'm going to... It does.
48:11
It's that meme, right? Which everyone has. There
48:13
we go. You kept quiet and I was like, smoking
48:16
monkey. And you were like... No, what happened
48:19
is I forgot to unmute myself. I'm not using push
48:25
to talk. I have this other mic. So yeah, I was
48:27
saying something and no one... Anyway. It's a
48:31
different game. It's from a different era. Like
48:35
I haven't played this game since I tried it on
48:37
PS3 like how many ever years ago. I never finished
48:40
it there. I watched a friend play through it.
48:42
But yeah, like I'm actually going to finish it
48:44
now. Legit on Switch 2 because it's good handheld.
48:47
It's good docked. And then replay it on PS3.
48:50
The one thing I'm not going to do is the platinum
48:52
trophy. You need to play it eight times or some
48:54
shit. Like fuck off. I'm not doing that. I just
48:58
want to say that I looked up the Smoky Monkey.
49:00
His name was Little Grey in Metal Gear Solid
49:02
4. On the Metal Gear fandom wiki, the physical
49:06
description is just eye color black and hair
49:09
color bold. Cool. Sounds a bit pretentious. Oh,
49:17
did he lose his hair from smoking? It happens
49:19
to the best of us. Right. So, yeah. So that is
49:24
also out this week. I think it's out this week
49:27
on pretty much everything and sounds decent.
49:31
I think if you're going to... play for just uh
49:34
just expect a different kind of game to what
49:41
you may be thinking it's going to be also before
49:43
we move on can i quickly just say please not
49:46
you specifically mikhail but please in general
49:49
people do not skip out on peace walker i feel
49:52
like this is easily the most underappreciated
49:54
metal gear game because originally kojima was
49:58
making this as metal gear side 5 And it's very
50:01
strange when you play it because there's a lot
50:04
of imagery and even scenes that are recreated
50:07
in the actual Metal Gear Side 5 that started
50:10
here. Including a man with a severed arm, which
50:13
is red and robotic, and he holds up the V. That's
50:17
just the cover of Metal Gear Side 5, but it started
50:20
in Peace Walker. Canon game, by the way. Play
50:23
that shit. Really cool. Come on in. Did they
50:26
pay you enough to say that? No, I just, it's
50:28
just like everyone, I like the games that are
50:31
weird. It's a good game. I like the games that
50:32
are weird. It also feels like, it feels like
50:35
Metal Gear Side 3, but like segmented missions
50:38
instead of one long mission. Yeah, it was like
50:41
a handheld thing, right? Like you had to do short
50:43
bursts and stuff. And it has Heaven's Divide,
50:46
man, one of the best vocal teams in like, probably
50:48
in gaming, I'd say not just the series, like
50:50
incredible. but yeah like i'll get to that like
50:53
it's that was like a blue point hd thing like
50:55
i don't have to worry about that i was actually
50:57
thinking the other day i was like is this going
50:58
to be the last ever released blue point game
51:00
again so they just put the same version out yeah
51:05
because it was on the it was a 360 port yeah
51:09
and i think it was also ps3 as well yeah it was
51:11
on both of those yeah it was on 360 and ps3 they
51:15
didn't do a separate port for the Vita version
51:18
of the HD collection because they said just buy
51:20
the PSP version, you animals. Yeah. I've got
51:25
that on the Series X and Konami has said that
51:28
it's exactly the same version. So I'm like, do
51:30
I really want to buy the Master Collection just
51:32
for Metal Gear Solid 4? I guess, Ghost Babble.
51:35
I guess. I'm not going to play that. You know?
51:38
I mean, I think I bought enough MGS4 for all
51:41
of us over here for a while. On PC, can you buy
51:44
them separately? You can buy them separately
51:46
anywhere. It works out too expensive. I think
51:50
it works out more expensive if you buy them separately
51:52
than the bundle. We're members of the press.
51:55
You don't buy games. Can you ghost babble separately?
51:57
No, you've got to buy the bundle. Then what are
51:59
we doing here? You've got to spend the big money.
52:03
Moving on. Retrospective time. Retro -retrospective.
52:09
Donaldson's put a lot of dates in here. I don't
52:10
know why he's picked some of these, to be honest.
52:13
I've got anniversaries this week. Test drive
52:15
off -road wide open. He must be a fan. Which
52:19
25 years old? Test drive off -road wide open.
52:23
I don't know. 25 years ago it would have been
52:25
PS2, would it? Maybe. Yeah. Probably. All right.
52:31
There's some other stuff here. Like Psychonauts
52:33
2 is five. Okay. I see you skipping over it.
52:36
Rune Factory is actually a big... I'm coming
52:38
back to it because I was like, I don't know about
52:40
this, but I know someone on this call will be
52:42
like, don't skip this. So I was going to come
52:44
back. All right. Coming back to the games that
52:48
I know nothing about. Here is three I know nothing
52:50
about. Chartered, we'll come back to that. Saints
52:53
Row is 20. Saints Row, I kind of have a soft
52:57
spot for because it was kind of like a... it
53:01
was it was like pre -gta 4 yeah uh and it was
53:05
xbox exclusive by because nothing else could
53:07
run it at the time really x360 i might play in
53:10
it like it was a fun open world shooter that
53:14
kind of delivered the kind of gta experience
53:17
with a smaller budget and i kind of liked it
53:19
at the time can i can i do a potential take is
53:22
that all right yeah yeah yeah while i was watching
53:24
the gta thing last night i was like man it was
53:27
really cool when when studios just copied gta
53:30
instead of making live services i just anything
53:34
except live services i think i'm nostalgic for
53:37
at this point but yeah but i was just like man
53:39
they just used to just make saints row games
53:41
they used to do it we used to just get a true
53:45
crime and shit your true crime yeah i'm gonna
53:48
come back to this list in a minute but as as
53:51
thinking back about you said about everyone just
53:53
trying to make live service games I'm not sure
53:55
this is a live service game, but it is the kind
53:57
of game that is going to have trouble. In opening
54:02
night live, there was that game called Gravhounds.
54:06
It's like dogs. Multiplayer dog shooting game.
54:09
I was just watching it and I was like, this game,
54:14
I'm sure they've put a lot of work into it and
54:16
they've like, oh, the cute dogs and all this
54:18
stuff. But that was the game that's going to
54:21
close. That game is going to struggle. So badly.
54:25
I think the silver lining for that game is a
54:29
co -op PvE game. So people, when it comes to
54:34
the live service games that normally completely
54:37
crash and burn, speaking from experience here,
54:40
I have a lot of friends that after the first
54:44
week that Marathon was out, they saw the Steam
54:47
numbers and were like, I don't want to pick it
54:48
up because it's a PvP game and the game is dying.
54:51
And now it's like... Totally justified at this
54:55
point. But when it's a PvE game and it's co -op
54:58
and you don't have to worry about other players
55:00
besides your friends, that's not an argument
55:03
because it's like, well, I mean, you have three
55:06
other people to play it with. You all want to
55:08
play it? Who gives a shit? The game's only friend
55:11
is me, though. So we're going to play two -player.
55:15
But you get what I mean, right? Yeah. I just
55:18
suddenly got an image of a dog. shooting game
55:23
in my head anyway there's on this list there's
55:25
this other game i'm not sure anyone's heard of
55:27
it it's called rune factory a fantasy harvest
55:30
moon so that 20 years old i'd say that rune factory's
55:34
20th anniversary is major not just for the fact
55:37
that rune factory is a major a massive series
55:39
it's had many sequels like We're on the fifth
55:43
-numbered title. We're coming up on the sixth,
55:46
probably in the next couple of years. Obviously,
55:48
there's been a bunch of spinoffs. There were
55:50
a couple of Wii and PS3 spinoffs. There was Guardians
55:54
of Azuma, which came out last year. Massive series.
55:58
But I think it's more important when you look
56:00
at the games that it has inspired. Because if
56:03
you look at Stardew Valley, sure. It's based
56:07
off of Harvest Moon Story of Seasons, but a lot
56:09
of the specific mechanics that Stardew Valley
56:12
uses actually came from Room Factory. So I think
56:18
it is probably the most significant anniversary
56:23
of this week. What about Prap of the Rapid 2?
56:27
Wow. Nobody talks about Prap of the Rapid 2.
56:30
Prap of the Rapid 2. No one mentions that one.
56:33
I don't talk about the series itself. I did not
56:35
enjoy it. Not my thing. Dave, are you a fan of
56:38
Prapper the Rapper? I wasn't a PlayStation boy.
56:41
People talk about Prapper the Rapper. People
56:43
talk about Um Jammer Lammy. Nobody talks about
56:46
Prapper the Rapper 2. Nobody. I keep forgetting
56:48
this. I don't even know it's a thing. But it's
56:51
on this. This is 25 years old. Enchanted Arms.
56:54
He's put this on here. It's just the North American
56:57
one. He's 20 years old. Enchanted Arms. Is that
56:58
the FromSoft game that was on? Hold on. I can't
57:02
remember much about it. I'm Googling. I'm pretty
57:04
sure it's got like, it's one of these games I'm
57:06
pretty sure that everyone thought was kind of
57:07
like fairly meh. And now it's like, oh, actually,
57:10
this game's not that bad. It was a different
57:13
era back then. This is developed by From Software,
57:16
published by Ubisoft. What was that different
57:20
from Activision publishing Sekiro? Yeah, it is.
57:25
It's closer to Activision publishing Lost Kingdoms.
57:28
Yeah. Activision paid for Sekiro. They didn't
57:31
pay for Lost Kingdom. I need to actually... This
57:35
is not on PC. Maybe I should pick up a copy of
57:38
this and actually try and play it because I'm
57:40
looking at these... I'm looking at the reception,
57:43
but you just can't know. You just can't know.
57:46
There's a lot of games that I remember back in
57:48
the day people were very mild on, but you go
57:52
back and revisit them and it's like, oh, no,
57:53
you just have to be in the right mind space for
57:55
it. So I'm curious. I am curious. Yeah. Well,
58:00
that is the retrospective for this week. Before
58:04
we wrap up, does anyone get any other things
58:06
they want to say? Any shout -outs to cool people,
58:10
things, projects? Cool people? I don't know.
58:15
I was just saying stuff. I mean, maybe you know
58:16
cool people. I put up a few previews from a number
58:21
of different Gamescom Halo events at... over
58:26
at RPG Site, one for Dragon Stagma 2 Dark Arisen
58:30
and another for Persona 4 Revival. There is actually,
58:34
I'm going to be putting up a couple of previews
58:36
for the Sega stuff at Respec here in the next
58:40
couple of days, just trying to make sure I don't
58:43
step on any toes for folks that are actually
58:46
at Gamescom and doing interviews for certain
58:49
games and whatnot. But yeah, Gamescom coverage
58:52
has started dropping on. both here and rpg site
58:57
oh no one knows any cool people it's just silent
59:01
uh you can visit video games chronicle to see
59:05
my take on gta 6 and and just just some just
59:09
some crap for me the pretentious one it's like
59:11
the pretentious type yeah yeah yeah i summed
59:13
it up earlier but you can get like a long form
59:15
version how many words is it i haven't got that
59:17
much time like 800 maybe it's not that my star
59:22
wars zero company review is only 600 words because
59:25
it's has to be in print and it's like man writing
59:29
a review in 600 words is a talent in and of itself
59:32
because you don't know what to sum up what to
59:34
actually leave in yeah exactly exactly i've done
59:37
so i did some freelance work recently i had to
59:39
cut down some reviews for a print thing and it
59:43
was like 800 to 300 words That's cutting 800,
59:48
300. That's quite a challenge to do that. But
59:51
yeah, I'm a pro, so it's fine. Other things.
59:54
If you're listening to this, you're like, Tom's
59:56
great. I love him. How can I get more of Tom?
1:00:00
Obviously, I write stuff for Respec. Also, I've
1:00:03
got a blog called Low Poly Mess. So I sometimes
1:00:07
forget to pick this up on here, but go and have
1:00:09
a look. And you can subscribe to that. You get
1:00:11
it every week and you can pay me directly through
1:00:14
there if you want. I think it's worth it. People
1:00:17
have described me as very funny. And why aren't
1:00:22
you this funny in real life? Like Bill Bryson,
1:00:24
the next Bill Bryson. I've not read any Bill
1:00:28
Bryson, but I assume he's well regarded. Mostly
1:00:31
a travel writer, I think. You should get people
1:00:35
to send you places. You should be a travel writer.
1:00:38
I don't want to go anywhere. I really like, I'm
1:00:42
like, I'm fine being around. I'm fine. Yeah.
1:00:47
Um, I find it's been around the local area and
1:00:50
saying like, my kids are like, or one of them
1:00:52
in particular, it's like, I want to go to Spain.
1:00:54
I'm like, no, we will go to Wales and you'll
1:00:57
be happy with it. Snowdonia is nice though, isn't
1:01:01
it? It's just like, there's so many other places
1:01:04
to see that we don't have to get on a plane to
1:01:07
go and see it. We just get on a car. Real. Yeah.
1:01:11
All right. Other bits and pieces. So we've got
1:01:13
a discord. Don't have a look at that. There's
1:01:15
a. There's a button on the website to click to
1:01:17
get to the Discord. We're all on there, bits
1:01:19
and pieces, now and again, saying stuff. If you
1:01:22
want to be like, I really like that article from
1:01:25
Mikhail about Metal Gear Solid 4 and how it runs
1:01:29
on the Switch and the Switch 2 and everything
1:01:30
else, go and tell him on there. We've got a Patreon
1:01:33
too. We're not begging you to go and support
1:01:37
us on there, but if you want to support independent
1:01:39
games media, which is a big thing to do these
1:01:42
days. We are independent. It's patreon .com forward
1:01:46
slash respecnet. And there's a few tiers on there
1:01:49
and one of them will give you, they'll get you
1:01:51
bits and pieces. I think the middle one is the
1:01:53
one that gets my exclusive holiday vlog from
1:01:57
my previous holiday. It's on there. If you want
1:01:59
to see what happened to me on my week off, I
1:02:02
went to a zoo. That makes it more appealing too.
1:02:04
There's some zoo footage on there. There's also
1:02:08
a podcast behind like a after hours podcast for
1:02:11
patrons, which we're hopefully going to record
1:02:13
a minute. If it doesn't happen, I'll cut this
1:02:15
bit out probably, but you can get that on the
1:02:18
patron as well. Other than that, we'll be back
1:02:19
next week. Alex should be back. So you don't
1:02:22
have to listen to me hosting. A few of us will
1:02:23
be on probably. I don't know who the, who the
1:02:25
cast is to be yet, but we'll be, we'll be there
1:02:26
next week. So it's bye from me. Bye for everyone
1:02:29
else. See ya. Bye bye. See you next week. Bye
1:02:33
bye.