Latest / Respec: Video Game Ramblings / Dragon’s Dogma 2 Dark Arisen, Hellraiser: Revival, a Cyberpunk movie, & is PlayStation VR finished?

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Dragon’s Dogma 2 Dark Arisen, Hellraiser: Revival, a Cyberpunk movie, & is PlayStation VR finished? · Respec: Video Game Ramblings

0:03
Hello one, hello all, and welcome to another
0:06
episode of the Respec Ramblings video game podcast.
0:10
It's me back again, Alex Donaldson. This week,
0:13
I'm joined once again, actually, same guys by
0:16
Mr. Tom Ori, Mikhail Madnani, and James Galizio
0:20
here to talk about all the video game nonsense
0:24
that's happened over the last week. And there's
0:25
been a little bit. It's been a relatively busy
0:29
week. Tom, how's your week been? Yeah, pretty
0:31
good. Just playing some games like you do. Writing
0:37
about games. That's kind of it, isn't it? Playing
0:41
about games, writing about games. That is the
0:44
life. That is the life. James, how about you?
0:47
Same thing. I've also seen a few movies, but
0:50
mostly playing and writing about games. Maybe
0:55
save the movie chats for the off topic. Mikhail,
0:58
represented today by Danganronpa. I can't quite
1:02
see it. It's a coin from one of the Vita limited
1:08
editions, which I got out from storage because
1:11
I'm working on this article and I was like, I
1:13
need to show some obscure random shit in it.
1:15
But yeah, I need them to stop releasing Switch
1:19
2 ports, man. That's eating into my movie time.
1:21
Like, what are they doing? Yeah, you're pretty
1:25
swamped at the minute. But we'll come on to some
1:29
of that as we go. I think let's just jump right
1:32
on in. Waste no time getting to the video game
1:35
chatter because there is a fair amount of stuff
1:39
to discuss this week. Not as crazy as last week,
1:41
thank God. But we did have the review embargo
1:44
lifted for Dragon's Dogma 2 Dark Arisen. And
1:50
I believe two of the four of us have played it
1:53
extensively. Three of the four of us have played
1:55
it. That is also a game that as well as being
1:58
a new expansion, obviously that's one of the
2:02
games that Mikhail sort of was getting out with
2:05
Switch 2 ports. There's a new Switch 2 version
2:07
of that game. And yeah, I mean, James, you obviously
2:11
did the, I did the review here on Respec, on
2:13
Respec .net. You did the review over on our sibling
2:16
site on RPG site. The scores were different,
2:21
but it feels like we had pretty similar takeaways
2:24
in the actual text. I loved the original game
2:29
a lot. And the expansion is really good. I think
2:35
the expansion stands up to the original game
2:38
pretty well and is a lovely counterpoint to the
2:41
original game. I don't think it's quite as interesting
2:43
as Dragon's Dogma 1 Darkerism, but that is one
2:47
of the best expansions of all time. That's a
2:50
pretty high bar to clear. But yeah, I really
2:54
enjoyed it. I think we also took slightly different
2:56
tacks. I guess your review was more strictly
2:58
a review of the expansion, whereas mine was more
3:03
of a re -review, I guess, of Dragon's Dogma 2,
3:06
including the expansion content, sort of framing
3:10
it as this isn't just an expansion, but envision
3:13
this as a super Dragon's Dogma or whatever you
3:18
would. whatever you would like to say did you
3:20
did you replay the game for like the purposes
3:24
of i did yeah i i pressed i pressed new game
3:28
and it wasn't new game plus i started from zero
3:31
literally all i imported was the the physical
3:34
look of my character my main point one question
3:37
because like i made an assumption of when the
3:40
dlc stuff unlocked and i was pretty sure i had
3:43
it right it just unlocks when you get the god's
3:45
main blade right No, dude. Like, well, no. So,
3:49
like, when you get to that point in the story
3:52
when Captain Brandt is in the pub and you can
3:55
talk to him about all the different options and
3:56
that kicks off all the different strands of the
3:58
main quest, in there, there is two new dialogue
4:02
options, one of which pushes you towards the
4:05
new dungeons and one of which pushes you towards
4:07
the new zone. However, it does pop up a window,
4:11
like saying, I think it suggests, I think it's
4:14
like... You should be level 30 before you consider
4:16
going to any of the new dungeons, which is quite
4:18
low considering how difficult they are. And you
4:20
should be level 50 before going to Norgam, the
4:23
new DLC land. But it does mean it's unlocked
4:25
quite early. I mean, that makes sense because
4:27
if you're on New Game Plus, because the whole
4:29
thing is obviously if you are in, without getting
4:31
into spoilers, if you're in the unmoored world,
4:35
the end game, you can't trigger the DLC from
4:38
there. So you have to do New Game Plus at that
4:40
point. so it makes sense that they don't want
4:43
to make people do too much that means you've
4:44
only got like what half an hour 45 minutes to
4:46
slog through before you can get onto the dlc
4:49
if you're doing new game plus um but it's interesting
4:52
because it's sort of yeah it like you can dip
4:54
into those dungeons as you're exploring vermond
4:57
and back patel um and that stuff ties into the
5:04
flow of the main game quite well in the sense
5:06
that especially the first ones they give you
5:08
um you can go a little way into those dungeons
5:11
and fight a handful of new or powered up enemies
5:13
but then obviously you hit the door and you can't
5:17
do anything with the door and you know um and
5:19
that's true in there's one or two of the dungeons
5:21
that actually you can get all the way to the
5:23
end because there isn't a door and stuff like
5:26
that so it sort of gives you a little taste as
5:28
part of the main campaign but anyway yeah like
5:30
i say my review i sort of reviewed it more from
5:33
the perspective of taking a step back and looking
5:37
at Dragon's Dogma 2 on the whole. And I ended
5:40
up giving it a 9 out of 10, which is one point
5:42
less than I gave it back in the day when I reviewed
5:44
it. I mean, that would have been a VG247 review,
5:47
I guess. So that would have been a five -star
5:49
review. But nevertheless, I would have given
5:50
it a 10. And the reason why I've scored it a
5:55
point less, even though it's got this extra content
5:56
and this extra content is good, is simply that...
6:03
What they've done is they've softened the game
6:05
in interesting ways in order to make it more
6:10
accessible. And I think that's great because
6:13
more people should play Dragon's Dogma 2. However,
6:16
if you are someone who already liked and was
6:18
into sort of the prickly, quite intense style
6:22
of game design that they had put together, you
6:25
will miss it a little bit. So I guess that's
6:29
the sort of, that's the sort of... sort of paradigm
6:33
there um and i had an interesting conversation
6:37
with someone on social media where i was talking
6:40
about the eternal fairy stone so if you're if
6:42
for the uninitiated in dragon's dogma um and
6:44
they did this with the first game as well um
6:46
fast travel is extremely limited so the idea
6:50
is if you get a quest that's like you need to
6:53
travel from one big city to the other big city
6:56
um in the base game You either had to spend a
7:01
very limited resource to just fast travel there,
7:05
or you had to actually undertake the journey.
7:08
And the nature of rudimentary journeys in Dragon's
7:11
Dogma is quite perilous. If you choose to walk
7:14
all the way there, it's for attrition of the
7:17
number of small skirmishes you're getting on
7:19
the way, you're at risk even at a higher level.
7:22
is gonna like just yeah yeah and if you choose
7:24
to use the ox car which is like it's it's fast
7:27
travel but not fast travel it's like getting
7:29
a cab in gta um where you're physically getting
7:32
onto everything that's traveling through the
7:33
world and you can sort of put the controller
7:35
down or even press a button to skip it but those
7:39
can also be raided and interrupted by enemies
7:41
um and there's skills you can equip and stuff
7:44
like that which lower the chances of you getting
7:46
raided when you're on an ox car and so there
7:48
was all this delicate balance and what they they
7:51
did in a patch this actually isn't part of the
7:52
expansion but it's a patch that we see is out
7:55
that is now part of the game is they added um
7:58
a never -ending version of the fast travel item
8:00
which means you can fast travel as much as you
8:02
like which means you can totally disengage with
8:05
some of those systems which means some of those
8:08
quests that are making you go from a to b and
8:10
back and forth you can just rattle through them
8:12
because you can just fast travel back and forth
8:14
um and on one hand An experienced Dragon's Dogma
8:22
player said to me, well, the raids aren't that
8:24
bad and all that sort of stuff. So it's just
8:26
saving wasted time. And I get that. But there
8:32
is that beautiful first eight to 10 hours of
8:36
Dragon's Dogma 2 before you lock into those systems
8:39
where every journey is a little bit scary and
8:41
that's gone. Unless you sort of display self
8:45
-control and put that item away and don't use
8:47
it, which is what they sort of say. You know,
8:49
I had an interview with the director and stuff
8:50
and he was like, You know, we're giving people
8:53
the choice. And he was even like, I know people
8:56
are going to use it more than I would like them
8:57
to use it, but I would rather they had the choice.
9:00
Which is a brave game design thing, but it's
9:02
the same with the save system as well. It's like
9:04
a really good example of that is before you just
9:06
had one save and that was it, basically. Was
9:09
there even an autosave before? I don't remember.
9:12
You would save whenever you rested at an end.
9:16
Yeah. But was there a normal autosave? It had
9:19
this weird thing where it even gives you an alert
9:21
saying, do not rely on the auto save. Make sure
9:24
you manually save. It had that thing. I remember
9:27
that in the original game. I think the thing
9:29
about like, you know, let players have the choice.
9:32
I'm okay with that. But I kind of wonder how
9:34
much work would have gone into having like a
9:36
classic mode for people who just want to play.
9:39
Like, I think now the only way you can get that
9:41
experience is if you literally put in your PS1,
9:43
PS5 disc and don't patch it and play it. That's
9:46
the only way you can experience it. You can have
9:48
that experience. By not using it, but yeah. You
9:52
can have that experience. That's their argument.
9:53
Because a really good example is there's also,
9:55
there's an item called the Unmaking Arrow, which
9:57
is a one hit kill item. And generally speaking,
10:00
you'll get one of these for a natural play through
10:02
the game. And then if you want to, there is a
10:05
place you can buy them, but they cost a really
10:06
limited, really difficult to get resource that
10:09
is better spent elsewhere. But the whole thing
10:11
with the Unmaking Arrow is that, and it's true
10:14
in the current version too. But when you shoot
10:18
it, the second you shoot it, the game auto -saves.
10:21
So the idea is if you aim it and you miss, tough
10:25
shit. If you aim it and you're aiming it at a
10:29
big boss and a lesser enemy jumps in the way
10:31
and it just kills someone that you could have
10:32
killed with two hits anyway, tough shit. And
10:35
that was the nature of the save system, whereas
10:38
now they've got save slots and three different...
10:42
three different saves that like auto save and
10:45
interim save and the main save so the point is
10:47
if something like that happens it's far easier
10:50
to revert and i think the challenge is when i
10:52
redid the sphinx quest which is usually the best
10:55
place to um use it yeah to use it um when i did
11:00
the sphinx quest you find yourself even me an
11:02
experienced player i was like i'm just gonna
11:04
pop a new interim save here before i initiate
11:06
this fight in case i miss um so yeah it's uh
11:12
So I knocked it down a bit for that, but the
11:15
advantage is if this leads to more people playing
11:19
this game, which I think is truly excellent.
11:22
Yeah. Then that's great. And the new content's
11:24
good. Yeah, the new content's good. I think I
11:28
didn't really gel with the relic system as much
11:30
as I thought I could. And I think that it kind
11:34
of, I mentioned in my review, it kind of has
11:37
a knock -on effect of I'm not as interested in
11:39
exploring Norgund as I would be otherwise. You're
11:43
just going to get relics, which are randomly
11:45
generated, so there's no excitement, really.
11:48
You get maybe a Norgentort Crystal, or you get
11:53
a climbing hook. And it's fine, and I do actually
11:59
like the layout of Norgent quite a bit. It's
12:01
better than anything in the base game, I'd say.
12:04
But I wasn't too big of a fan of that. The Eternal
12:07
Fairy Stone, honestly, my only major issue with
12:10
it is how early they give it to you. Because
12:13
I feel like there is a balance where, like, anyone
12:15
that's played Dragon's Dogma 2, I feel like would
12:17
agree with this assertion that eventually, fairy
12:21
stones don't become a problem. You're able to
12:23
get as many as you want. I feel like if they'd
12:26
given it to you, like, right around the time
12:27
before you would do the normal endgame, that
12:32
would be a good balance. Because, frankly, nobody's
12:35
going to be doing the DLC stuff without using
12:39
the Eternal Fairy Stone. No, the DLC is built
12:41
for it. The DLC is built for it. The loop that
12:44
the DLC has, like you say, almost a Monster Hunter
12:47
-esque loop, is built for you going back and
12:51
forth quite quickly. Not to mention, the only
12:54
way you can get to and from Norgon and the rest
12:58
of the game is using a fairy sound. Yeah, that's
13:02
a good point. The game even points out, it's
13:04
like, hey, these NPCs, you got Hieronic Griffin,
13:07
and how the hell did they get you? Yeah, I mean,
13:12
I like the new zone, though. You know, there's
13:14
a bit of anachronism, yes, in terms of how you
13:15
get there and stuff. But I think it's cool. I
13:18
think it's good looking. I think it's got the
13:20
right... I mean, it is very cool. It's a tundra.
13:23
Yes. But you know what I mean. I think it's got
13:25
the right attitude to expanding the world. And
13:30
I like the new enemies. And actually, I like...
13:33
So when I went there, I played through... vast
13:35
majority of the main game and made sure i did
13:38
indeed follow their advice and get to level 50
13:41
when i turned up and when i turned up i could
13:43
not believe how tough even basic enemies were
13:47
i thought oh yeah okay they're not they're not
13:50
playing around when they said level 50 god damn
13:52
the exponential growth in your like strength
13:56
not just in terms of like the gear because the
13:59
relics immediately like completely outclass and
14:03
delegitimize the progression from the base game
14:06
like there's no point going to any blacksmith
14:08
once you have access to dlc because anything
14:11
you get there is going to be leagues stronger
14:13
than the best weapons in the base game and what
14:16
i'm curious about actually is how easily you're
14:20
going to shred through the main game content
14:22
when you go back because i'm sort of my storyline
14:26
is at that point where i'm in but i haven't initiated
14:29
sort of the bit that sends you to volcanic island
14:32
And I imagine by the time I go back, I'm just
14:34
going to like Swiss cheese everything, which
14:37
I suppose that's a classic expansion problem,
14:38
right? Yeah. I do wonder, because I didn't actually
14:41
check because I didn't want to like go to the
14:44
point of no return. Did they change anything
14:48
about that to account for it? Or is it just as
14:51
it was? To account for what? The like gulf in
14:56
the power level you'd have now versus this. As
14:59
far as I have seen, no. But I guess the real
15:02
question will be the Unmoored World, which I
15:07
haven't got to because obviously you want to
15:09
finish the expansion before you. I wonder what
15:12
happens. I wonder when you do the Unmoored World,
15:14
can you still go? Because I know you need to
15:16
be in the main game, so to speak, to trigger
15:20
the DLC. But I wonder once you've unlocked Norgun
15:23
and got the fast travel point, if you can still
15:25
go there during the Unmoored World phase. I don't
15:29
think you would, because... I imagine you wouldn't.
15:31
Yeah, considering the nature of how the game
15:35
itself changes. Well, and the world changes,
15:38
so I doubt they wanted to build two versions
15:40
of Lorcan. But yeah. Media DLC, though. Media
15:48
expansion. I don't know how long it took you
15:50
to finish it, but I think doing side quests,
15:52
it took me around 25 hours? Something like that?
15:56
I think that's probably about right. But yeah,
16:02
I think it's one of the finest games of the last
16:07
10 years, really. And although I, you know, although
16:14
on one hand, I'm slightly bummed out about the
16:17
changes they've made, on the other, if this means
16:23
another 5 million people play Dragon Saga 2,
16:25
I'm well up for it because there's so much interesting
16:28
going on in that game still, even having, you
16:32
know. having taken the edge off some of it yeah
16:38
um and also obviously there's a switch to version
16:40
which is remarkable i don't know if mikhail you
16:42
want to talk about that at all yeah sure so uh
16:45
i think the embargo is lifted because capcom
16:48
does this thing where you can't talk about comparisons
16:51
and stuff until yeah the game is out like it
16:53
was literally in my store today yeah so i can
16:55
talk about that so uh I remember like, I think
16:59
James did a preview of it where he tried it and
17:01
then you also did a preview where you, or it
17:04
was in your interview where you were talking
17:05
about it. It was in my interview, yeah, yeah.
17:06
Yeah, and then, but I think James previewed it
17:08
and it was only in the, I think he only had access
17:11
to like one area of the game on Switch too. Yeah,
17:14
so I was like, I mean, did you say it was just,
17:16
okay. But yeah, just for context, It was a very
17:19
Monster Hunter demo style thing where it was
17:22
just, it loaded you into a section of the world
17:24
with a boss fight. Okay. No, no, no, no, no,
17:29
no, no. Well, I don't know. There were three
17:32
different scenarios you could choose from. So
17:34
I did the boss fight in the Norgund zone. And
17:38
then I went into the other one and I just literally
17:43
went into Vermund and I just went to town because
17:46
I was like, the town is where the slowdown will
17:48
be. And it wasn't. I was quite surprised. Okay,
17:52
so yeah. basically what's happened is I've had
17:57
access to the game now on every platform with
17:59
the expansion, but couldn't do the comparison
18:02
because like embargo restrictions. So I decided
18:05
to focus on the Switch 2 version because that's
18:07
new for everyone. Everyone else can already play
18:09
Dragon's Dogma 2. So when I first booted up the
18:12
game and you know, you start in the prison after
18:15
that cutscene and then I got control of the character.
18:17
I was like, this feels like absolute dog shit
18:20
because they had forced frame generation on and
18:23
there was motion blur. And I was like, I can't
18:26
deal with this. But then thankfully, you can
18:27
disable that stuff in the options. And after
18:30
I did that, and when you did like the tutorial
18:31
fight where you hunt the... What do you hunt?
18:35
Medusa, right? In the prison or whatever. I've
18:37
done that like 10 times now or whatever. So when
18:40
I did that, I was like, okay, I think this is
18:42
going to be a good time. And then when I got
18:45
to the actual open zone where you jump off the
18:47
cliff and it says Dragon's Dogma and then it
18:49
gets to the cutscene, I was like, holy shit.
18:51
They've put in the work on this. It's actually
18:52
a really good port. And yeah, I decided to focus
18:57
on that because when Dragon's Dogma 1 came to
19:00
Switch, that's how I actually played the game
19:02
all the way. I had never played it beyond like
19:04
a few hours here and there before that. So that's
19:07
what my angle was. Dragon's Dogma 2 on Switch
19:09
2 feels like Capcom coming full circle because
19:12
that's exactly what it was. I'm probably not
19:14
going to finish everything over here because
19:16
this company is against cross -save for whatever
19:18
reason. But I... like i've spent i think 22 hours
19:22
with it or something just mucking around trying
19:24
to like brute force things trying to like make
19:26
the frame rate tank and stuff very impressed
19:29
with it uh they've they've done like such a huge
19:31
performance upgrade for the pc version that this
19:34
part in the opening like before melway when you
19:37
reach like you know before the aux card also
19:39
one of those open areas it's like 10 fps on steam
19:42
deck where it was pre -release now that shit
19:44
is 35 fps so they've actually optimized it to
19:47
hell and back on pc as well So I think like,
19:51
like just to small tangent, I got super annoyed
19:55
with all the discussion around Dragon's Dogma
19:57
2 at launch where everyone was like, oh, they're
19:59
just selling you pay to win mechanics and all
20:00
literal. Like this is one of the few times I
20:02
was like, shut up tourists, like don't pay attention
20:05
to this stuff before you understand it. Because
20:08
it was genuinely like just like it reminded me
20:10
of when Tales of Arise came out and people were
20:12
angry at it for selling you level ups and shit.
20:15
That stuff has been going on for like. multiple
20:17
tales games before that it's just people who
20:19
don't know better but anyway so back to the switch
20:22
to version i think everything about it is impressive
20:25
it's it's not perfect obviously but then this
20:27
is like one of the most demanding games of the
20:29
last 10 years i'd say so it it's i have no hesitation
20:33
in telling people who only have a switch to or
20:35
people who want to just play it portably you
20:37
can get it because this is also like the base
20:40
game and the expansion at a budget price so it's
20:42
insane value on that front as well it's just
20:45
that i would I would recommend like either waiting
20:48
for a patch because Capcom likely has to add
20:50
gyro support. I don't know why it's on PS5 and
20:53
PC, but not on Switch 2. That's a weird thing.
20:55
And they might optimize it a bit. But yeah, it
20:58
has a 30 FPS cap. Thankfully, it's like Onimusha
21:02
where I'm like happy to recommend it to people.
21:04
And yeah, I wrote a bit more about it on RPG
21:07
site. I'll probably be doing my comparison when
21:10
the day one patch or whatever arise because it's
21:12
kind of a little rough on other consoles. in
21:14
one of the modes right now. So I want to see
21:16
if Capcom fixes that. But I'm very happy with
21:18
how it is on Switch 2. It's not perfect, but
21:21
it's very good. Like just genuinely a good job.
21:25
If Monster Hunter Wilds is like similar to this,
21:27
then again, like it'll be easy to recommend to
21:31
people. It's not like Pragmata or Resident Evil
21:33
9 where I'm like, it's literally if you have
21:36
no other option, you can get it. But like now
21:38
for Onimusha, I can be like, yeah, you want to
21:40
play it portably? Have fun, play it on Switch
21:42
2. It's a good time. So I think they've done
21:45
a good job over there. I'm curious about this
21:47
because when I was at TGS, this is probably a
21:53
discussion for another week, but just based off
21:55
TGS, right? I was super, super impressed by Dragon's
21:58
Dogma and a lot less by Resident Evil. So I'm
22:03
curious. Yeah, I'd like that also. That's going
22:08
to be an interesting thing because those are
22:10
last -gen games also. It's not just current gen
22:13
stuff, while Dragon's Dogma 2 is literally a
22:15
built for PS5 game ported over. So that's going
22:18
to be interesting. But then, you know, like Street
22:21
Fighter 6, it's obviously like a good version
22:23
you can play online, but it's kind of blurry
22:25
and shit. Like they should have done better,
22:27
I'd say. Like it was good for a launch game,
22:29
but like, come on now. Like you have an actual
22:32
good fighting game, which we'll talk about, like
22:33
a good fighting game port, which is... really
22:36
good so capcom is a bit conservative on that
22:38
front but yeah like we'll see how resident evil
22:40
turns out because those are cross -gen yeah i
22:44
guess one last thing i'll say about dragon's
22:46
diamond 2 is that like yeah the optimization
22:48
work they did on pc was great because uh i was
22:52
uh wasn't sure if i was going to do like new
22:54
game or like what like prior to dark horizon
22:58
dropping so i had like it installed on my claw
23:02
my msi claw my previous pc handheld before the
23:06
performance patch they dropped and it was just
23:09
like a nine day improvement and then like i actually
23:12
played like the majority of it on this damn thing
23:14
for review and uh yeah runs like head and shoulders
23:20
better than it did it's like actually a good
23:22
good a decent experience on pc handheld if that's
23:25
like an avenue you want to take these uh these
23:27
days which is good because i feel like a game
23:31
like dragon's dogma is a good fit for a handout
23:33
it's yeah yeah i'll give you that it's um well
23:42
i think it's a good fit anyway it's just really
23:43
good yeah well you know one thing which they
23:46
haven't done which maybe they have done like
23:48
i don't know i was thinking about this they need
23:50
to get the original dragons dogma song back as
23:52
paid dlc man like come on like i it's the only
23:55
thing about this game is i do think the soundtrack
23:58
is considerably worse than the original game
24:01
um and in particular there's the there's that
24:05
main fight theme right and they obviously bring
24:10
that back in dragon's dogma 2 and it kicks in
24:13
when you've got you know a large enemy staggered
24:16
or whatever but it's not as good a version the
24:20
dragon's dogma 1 version's got electric guitar
24:22
going crazy and stuff like that it's always been
24:25
the one thing for me about dd2 and i have to
24:28
say i don't think the expansion reminisces it
24:30
yeah but yeah capcom keeps killing it what can
24:37
i say um those guys are are excellent um so yeah
24:43
review on respect from myself um review with
24:47
a slightly different angle but a similar conclusion
24:49
from james on rpg site and also on rpg site there's
24:53
an interview i did with the director and the
24:55
producer of dragon's dogma 2 um darker reason
24:59
where that's all interesting in itself because
25:01
obviously dragon's dogma is a game primarily
25:04
associated with hideaki itsuno Obviously also
25:07
the Devil May Cry guy and all the rest. But what
25:10
happened between DD2 Vanilla and DD2 Dark Arisen
25:13
is that Itsuno left Capcom. But what's interesting
25:16
is this isn't all that different to what happened
25:22
with the first game because the director, Kento
25:31
Kinoshita, he also was like, he was like, lead.
25:38
gameplay designer on dragons dogma 1 and then
25:40
he directed dragons dogma 1 dark arisen and he
25:43
was the lead designer on dragons dogma 2 and
25:47
then has directed dragons dogma 2 dark arisen
25:49
so he's followed the same path through as well
25:51
um which is interesting and if he's the new steward
25:55
for this series it does feel like capcom's committed
25:57
to the series i was a bit worried when dd2 came
25:59
out that maybe it hadn't done well enough to
26:01
get an expansion and maybe they just wouldn't
26:03
do another one but i think I don't know. My impression
26:07
is, as long as this sells all right, that it
26:08
seems that Dragon's Dogma will probably continue.
26:13
And if that's the case, I guess he's the guy.
26:16
So it'd be curious to see what he does if he
26:18
directs a game from the ground up because both
26:20
Dark Arisen games made both those games more
26:23
accessible at a cost. Yeah, it's interesting.
26:27
So reviews up on the site, interview up on RPG
26:29
side, definitely worth checking out. There's
26:32
also Mikhail's poor impressions about the Switch
26:34
2 version. on ypg's site briefly where's the
26:39
switch 2 version of dead rising deluxe remaster
26:41
come on cabcom seriously maybe i i hope that
26:45
just means they're waiting until they announce
26:46
dead rising 2 deluxe remaster um and then they
26:49
will release both on switch perhaps anyhow another
26:53
review that's been out this week tom you checked
26:56
out this hellraiser game what's it called revival
27:00
hellraiser revival Yeah. So you were talking
27:04
about one of the games of the generation, probably.
27:06
This is a game. A game of a generation. That
27:10
has released. So, I mean, it's a bit lazy to
27:16
talk about games in comparison to other games,
27:18
but I'm going to do it because everyone listening
27:20
to this knows what we're talking about. So this
27:23
is essentially a modern Resident Evil game, but
27:27
like two or three. rungs below in terms of quality
27:32
it feel like it has everything that resident
27:35
evil games have in terms of like like the weapon
27:39
upgrades the like inventory upgrade it's got
27:41
the same inventory box type stuff although you
27:44
don't really manage it as such it's got like
27:46
the lock boxes you store stuff in it's got uh
27:49
sort of very separate sections that lead up to
27:53
a specific boss fight which is a very resident
27:55
evilly thing um So it feels like, I was surprised
28:00
that it was, it's a decent game, but it's just
28:05
so far away from being that good that it feels
28:09
like it's fine, but why bother really? Unless
28:15
you're well into, I guess, Hellraiser. I mean,
28:18
some people probably are, but I mean, I don't
28:21
know the last time that was relevant as a thing.
28:23
I remember watching films in like, I don't know,
28:27
when I was like 10 or something, my auntie used
28:29
to watch, horror films i used to see a few bits
28:31
and scarred me for life various films um but
28:36
yeah it's just a okay game that i think has been
28:39
elevated slightly because they put out these
28:42
trailers that like oh they're so how how daring
28:45
they are with these trailers that are like only
28:47
watch the uncut version on their website and
28:50
all that kind of stuff it's too dangerous for
28:52
youtube and all this kind of business and yeah
28:55
like it's a grim game for sure like The opening
28:59
is like the main guy, Aiden, and his girlfriend.
29:04
And they messed about with this box, I can't
29:08
remember what it's called. It's the main little
29:11
cube thing that you've seen if you know anything
29:13
about Hellraiser. And then they activate it somehow
29:18
and then essentially the girlfriend, Sunny, gets
29:22
kind of ripped apart by these Cenobite people
29:25
who are like these hellish demons. one of those
29:30
pinhead guy that is obviously the face of Hellraiser
29:34
he's got all the lines on his face with the pins
29:36
stuck in it and stuff and then Aiden's like can
29:39
I get her back and they go yeah sure do all these
29:43
things and feed her all these like she comes
29:45
back you have to feed her like hearts all these
29:48
different bosses and stuff and that's basically
29:51
set up for the game and it's grim in terms of
29:54
how violent it is for sure but i think a lot
29:56
of people are always looking all the sex like
29:59
there's there's a breast in this opening cut
30:01
scene and stuff and yeah there is sex in it but
30:04
most of it is just mutated bodies lying around
30:09
all over the place there's so many bodies everywhere
30:12
that are just with limbs cut off just like someone
30:14
just went back in the game just threw them all
30:16
over the environments i think um so it's a grim
30:19
game and it's like decent enough um but it feels
30:25
very much like if you've got resident evil at
30:28
the top end this is like they probably made it
30:31
in like i don't know what the budget is but it
30:34
must be significantly less like it's a it's i'm
30:37
surprised that it wasn't terrible but it also
30:39
wasn't that great basically i wouldn't say go
30:42
and buy this game but there's plenty of other
30:43
horror games worth looking at before this um
30:46
and yeah it's like if you are the kind of person
30:50
that maybe goes oh there's a bit where you go
30:52
into this kind of uh BDSM dungeon or whatever.
30:58
And there's like techno play. And then one of
31:00
the, one of the, you get this little sort of
31:02
objective to go and find all these like sex toys.
31:05
And it's like, one of them is like a paddle.
31:07
One of them's a big dildo. It's like, wow, this
31:10
is daring video gaming right here. Um, but yeah,
31:15
like it's, it's fine, but it's not like a great
31:19
game. It has quite, it's got, there's two endings.
31:22
I'm not going to say what happens at the end.
31:24
Um, And one of them is quite amusing in terms
31:27
of what happened. I actually laughed. I'm not
31:30
sure it was intentional to be funny, but there
31:32
was this bit that happened and then the main
31:34
character does something. He sat in his chair.
31:37
It's just quite funny. Like, I don't know if
31:39
it was meant to be. I'm sure it is. Like horror
31:42
stuff is like meant to be like dark humor. Yeah.
31:45
It can be pretty funny sometimes, right? Yeah.
31:48
But it's just like, it's just the reaction to
31:50
it all. It was just quite amusing. Like, he's
31:53
been through all this stuff and then, like, he's
31:55
right at the end and then this happens and, like,
31:57
yeah, it was quite amusing. But, yeah, like,
32:02
it's one of those, like, I've seen some, as always,
32:07
some ridiculously high scores for this game and
32:08
I'm thinking, like, have you ever played any
32:11
other video game in your life? Like, I know that's
32:14
harsh, but it's, like, I don't want to call out
32:18
anyone who, like, reviewed it highly, like, they're
32:21
allowed their opinion, but I also, like... it's
32:24
i think there is a there's an obvious like bar
32:28
that this is below like if you've played anything
32:31
else ever like even like people are down on some
32:33
resident evil games like they are so like so
32:37
much better than this and structurally very similar
32:40
like but just way more advanced way more competent
32:42
than this is do you play that alone in the dark
32:45
the reboot or whatever which was also like a
32:48
racy game i don't know if you play the one with
32:50
david harbour or the other reboot like came out
32:54
a few years ago yeah i haven't played that yeah
32:57
yeah i haven't played that one yeah that was
33:00
like a solid seven on ten in a good way racy
33:03
style game that looks more competent than this
33:07
does from just what i saw of it um but some people
33:12
like it like i don't i don't dislike it i just
33:14
don't love it i don't think it's great it's just
33:16
fine it exists and like if you really if you're
33:19
like some i don't know who you are but if you
33:21
really love hellraiser This has all the things
33:23
in it that you might know. Like it's got the
33:25
pinhead man. It's got the kind of squashed fat
33:28
looking man. I don't know what he's called. But
33:31
they're people from the films, I guess. But yeah,
33:36
like it's fine. Like it's budget price as well.
33:41
I think it's like 35 quid maybe. That's good,
33:44
I think, in itself. Like if you're going to have
33:46
a lower, this is a very difficult thing because
33:48
I think games, broadly speaking, don't necessarily
33:52
cost enough. By which I mean, don't get me wrong,
33:55
games are expensive and when people are, you
33:58
know, when everyone was breathlessly talking
34:00
about if GTA was going to be $100, quite exhausting.
34:05
However, it's a big important however, you know,
34:10
you've got to take the pinch of game costs have
34:17
spiraled massively. like development costs and
34:22
the amount of people that are buying them in
34:24
most cases hasn't risen in line with how much
34:28
the costs have gone up and so somewhere in there
34:30
there's got to be you know there's got to be
34:33
some movement um whether that's executives getting
34:35
paid less that would be the ideal um or whether
34:38
that's you know with hellraiser i forgot to mention
34:40
it there are some good bits that aren't like
34:43
this most of it is set in like dingy sort of
34:48
buildings and stuff But sometimes you get taken
34:51
to this like, I can't remember what it's called,
34:53
this other world. And that area's got a much
34:57
more striking design. Like it looks good, I'd
34:59
say, in there. It's like it's a kind of otherworldly.
35:02
So it's like on that Resident Evil. It's like,
35:04
yeah, it's like an otherworldly place where everything's
35:06
like big structures and like very angular and
35:11
things all move around and over the place. It
35:12
looks quite cool. And in those places, mostly
35:15
you're doing sort of quite simple puzzles and
35:17
lots of like running. Like there'd be like a
35:20
Cenobite monster thing chasing you, run through
35:23
and try and figure out where to go. And those
35:25
bits are surprisingly decent. Like they're quite
35:27
tense. They're designed quite well. Like it's
35:30
a bit like a sort of basic obstacle course, but
35:33
with some puzzling. And those actually are pretty
35:35
good. Like they couldn't have made a whole game
35:37
about that because it got tired quite quickly.
35:39
But in between the rest of it, that's pretty
35:41
decent. So like it's not just like it could have
35:47
been. complete trash it could have been just
35:49
like a six hour go through blast away some enemies
35:52
type game but they've made a like it's about
35:54
12 hours long it has sort of like upgrades it
35:59
has like a like a shop the woman sells stuff
36:01
at this shop that you cannot buy upgrades and
36:03
stuff it feels it feels like resident evil light
36:05
which is better than i thought it was going to
36:07
be basically but at the same time it's just still
36:11
a six out of ten game There's nothing wrong with
36:15
a six out of 10. Sometimes, you know, that's
36:17
the, that's the, that's always the big, you know,
36:20
I'm a big 50 cent blood. I'm a sand defender.
36:22
That's probably more of a seven, but nevertheless.
36:25
So are you saying that instead of buying Hellraiser,
36:27
someone should spend their money on Ozzy Osbourne's
36:30
No More Tears and just listen to Hellraiser on
36:32
it? Well, that's always a better choice. That's
36:35
a great album. That is a great album. Ah, Ozzy,
36:40
may he rest in peace. So that's it for reviews.
36:44
You can read Tom's Hellraiser review on the site
36:46
as well. There's also some, there's been other
36:52
reviews on RPG site this week, right? No, no,
36:55
I'm just dreaming it. Onto some news bits, an
37:00
interesting one this week. There is a Cyberpunk
37:02
2077 live action movie in the works at Paramount.
37:07
Very funny for this move to come out, for this
37:10
news to come out. like right as all the paramount
37:12
merger stuff has happened creating a dystopian
37:15
-esque empire of a company um there's not much
37:21
to say other than obviously it's that weird thing
37:23
a bit like with the witcher where the the deal
37:25
that cd project signed with mike bondsmith is
37:29
very much um similar to the deal that they signed
37:32
with the author of the witcher of like um they
37:36
can license out and do things with their version
37:39
of the cyberpunk universe and i'm sure mike's
37:40
getting his cut on the back end i'm sure he is
37:42
um but what i'm what i'm getting at is that this
37:47
is a deal signed between paramount and cd project
37:50
so it will be cdp's version of the cyberpunk
37:53
universe which be fair isn't that different from
37:56
pondsmith's version um it just takes a few liberties
37:58
with canon here and there um in order to make
38:01
it work for a video game um The only person attached
38:04
right now is a producer, which is someone called
38:07
Lorenzo de Bonaventura. This person produced
38:13
some of the Transformers movies and the Meg,
38:17
that movie about the shark, and like the G .I.
38:21
Joe movies. So he's not what I would call a...
38:27
He also produced Madam Web. However, you know,
38:36
it's not all, he did Constantine, good cult movie,
38:40
obviously, which also had a certain person in
38:43
it, which might be relevant potentially. And
38:47
actually really interestingly, I think most interestingly,
38:50
he did produce Doom in 2005, which I do think
38:58
in the pantheon of video game movies is one of
39:02
the, it's one of the better ones of the. of the
39:05
old era, of the pre, you know, we've entered
39:09
a new era of video game movies now between Sonic
39:12
and Mario with this new Resident Evil movie where
39:14
they're of a higher quality. I guess people learned
39:17
lessons from the MCU, right? But he did produce,
39:23
yeah, he did produce that Doom movie. But yeah,
39:27
the Meg, the Meg 2, there is some absolute dreck
39:31
on this, guys. God, goodness me. He did the Jack
39:35
Ryan movie. Pretty much all of the Transformers
39:38
films, actually, right up to the most recent
39:40
one. He also, while we're doing this, was executive
39:46
producer of the two Dead Rising movies, which
39:51
are absolute dog shit. They are absolutely horrendously
39:58
bad. Horrendously, horrendously, horrendously
40:03
bad. I think I've forgotten they exist. Are they
40:05
like Uwe Boll type stuff? They're not quite that
40:10
level. But they're pretty rough. The thing that
40:19
was always fascinating about those Dead Rising
40:21
movies is, and I don't know if Capcom insisted
40:23
on this or if this was just what the producers
40:25
wanted to do, but they're canon to the games.
40:29
It's really surreal. They're original stories
40:31
in the Dead Rising universe that cover other
40:35
breakouts. I think they both take place between
40:38
the second and third game. And it's like Frank
40:40
West appears in them, but it's like the washed
40:43
up version of Frank West that is like a Fox News
40:45
talking head. They always have him on whenever
40:48
there's a zombie outbreak to talk about his expertise.
40:50
And they had actually good casting, I felt. They
40:52
had Rob Riggle play Frank West in those scenes.
40:57
But they are absolutely diabolically bad. If
41:05
we're talking about collections of video game
41:06
movies, he also did that Maze Runner movie. He
41:09
also did one of the Maze Runner movies, which
41:11
was directed by the, which was like one of the
41:14
better, you know, we had a slew after the success
41:19
of Harry Potter of young adult novels being adapted
41:22
to film. And this was one of the better ones
41:26
of that era. And the director of that was the
41:29
guy Nintendo tapped for Zelda. So there's a little
41:33
video game connection there because Zelda is
41:34
definitely going to be that sort of Harry Potter
41:36
-esque young adult movie. So we'll see how it
41:41
goes. He has a box office record of above $7
41:45
billion. So that's pretty good. The quality of
41:49
his film set is less. But obviously a producer
41:54
is not the be -all, end -all. Really the question
41:56
is who they attach to direct. I think the bigger
41:59
question is what are they going to do? Well,
42:02
who's writing and what are they going to do?
42:04
Are they going to do just a random story in the
42:06
cyberpunk world or are they going to try to adapt
42:09
the V story? And then that just leads to other
42:13
questions. If they're adapting the V story, are
42:16
they going to get Keanu or are they going to
42:18
get someone else for that role? Because Keanu's
42:20
right now just about still young enough to do
42:24
it. But in five or six years, he probably won't
42:27
be. So it depends on how quick they can stand
42:29
it all up. Considering what they've been doing
42:31
with Edgerunners and how Edgerunners and Edgerunners
42:34
are two entirely different stories in the same
42:38
universe, I could see them doing something akin
42:41
to that. Because the very nature of what Cyberpunk
42:45
is and Night City is, it's very easy to tell
42:48
different stories. True, but all I would say
42:51
is this. And obviously it's just a... It's just
42:54
a deadline Hollywood Reporter sort of style production
42:57
notice. So we can't read too much into the title.
43:00
But I will just note, they do call the project
43:03
a Cyberpunk 2077 movie. And Edgerunners is not
43:06
called Cyberpunk 2077 Edgerunners. It's called
43:09
Cyberpunk Edgerunners. My understanding is the
43:13
way CDP think of it is Cyberpunk 2077 is that
43:16
story of V and Keanu. So we'll see. And if they
43:24
do it, will they do male V or female V? Reminds
43:27
me of when I once saw a spec script for the Mass
43:31
Effect movie, which never went ahead. But the
43:34
spec script was just used they pronouns because
43:37
they hadn't decided, which was quite cute. But
43:41
yeah, so we will see. So that's an interesting
43:43
one to watch. I'm very, very much looking forward
43:46
to going and seeing Street Fighter next week.
43:51
Maybe, I was thinking about this, maybe I'll
43:52
record a game with a bunch of pals. So maybe
43:55
I will, and then we're going to go to the pub
43:57
after. So I was like, maybe I'll take a couple
44:00
of microphones with me and we can record a quick
44:04
reaction podcast for the Patreon or something
44:07
after we come out of Street Fighter. It's a good
44:08
time for video game movies. Other news, GTA 6
44:12
radio stations, they've revealed some of them,
44:15
not all of them. I'm not going to talk about
44:17
stuff that's been revealed in leaks because it's
44:18
just... pain and there's been more leaks this
44:20
week which is less than ideal but uh they've
44:23
revealed a handful which i think is interesting
44:25
so there's uh cockatiel fm that's latin music
44:29
um black country radio um that's renegade country
44:34
music pretty standard gta stuff interesting um
44:38
afro bank fm which is like proper you know i'm
44:42
a piano three -step all these proper traditional
44:44
african black music sounds um a station called
44:49
the chamber 106 .6 if the two sixes don't tell
44:53
you enough you could add a third it's the metal
44:55
uh station which appears to be you know deeply
45:00
rooted in 80s yeah flash fm is back which of
45:03
course is the is the iconic station from vice
45:08
city um but they've sort of kept with the um
45:11
it's the contemporary station in vice city it
45:14
was the contemporary station it was the it was
45:16
the current pop music station and so it is the
45:19
same here it's it's the it's the pop station
45:21
um and then one called dirty south classics which
45:24
is um i think this is interesting i think you
45:27
see this across all the stations regional rap
45:30
and hip -hop so it's very much floridian east
45:34
coast stuff um which is interesting in itself,
45:38
because I assume that means they'll probably
45:39
have another rap station. They also confirmed
45:43
that there will be on -demand podcasts and shows,
45:47
and also that the characters do have earbuds,
45:52
so you will be able to listen to all this stuff.
45:53
Is Gary Lineker going to be in it then? Is his
45:54
podcast going to be in this? Well, this is, you
45:57
know, it would be very curious to see, because
45:59
obviously you think about the grand history of
46:01
GTA and Chatterbox and all that sort of stuff,
46:04
satirizing things like... rush limbaugh and stuff
46:08
like that what's the the gta version of that
46:13
in terms of the pods like there is inevitably
46:16
going to be a joe rogan um analogy right probably
46:19
an alex jones i would guess uh but it'll be quite
46:22
curious to see um to see who gets i don't know
46:27
what else would you do because you are right
46:28
actually like the rest is football the rest is
46:30
politics history history well history was the
46:36
big one right And I should note actually also,
46:40
so as part of this, I mentioned the names of
46:42
the stations and the types of music, but a big
46:45
element of it is there's some quite famous names
46:49
involved. Just like, you know, Cara Delevingne,
46:53
the pop station in GTA 5. So like that Latin
46:57
station is Bad Bunny and Rhino. Rhino, is that
47:02
how you pronounce it? Lana Del Rey. And Morgan
47:05
Wallen are doing the Black Country Radio, which
47:09
is the country music one, which is interesting.
47:15
So, you know, you've got big names basically
47:18
hosting some of these radio stations. Although,
47:20
interestingly, they are not hosting them as themselves.
47:24
They've been given character names, these radio
47:28
DJs in GTA 6, whereas I'm sure in GTA 5. Yeah,
47:36
like Cara Delevingne is just Cara Delevingne.
47:39
They don't actually say her surname, but she's
47:41
DJ Cara. So they've chosen to give these guys
47:46
characters this time around. Who knows why? But
47:49
I'm excited. You know, radio is a big part of
47:52
GTA to me. And I saw a friend, a colleague of
47:59
the Backpage pod. um sam tweet like i don't recognize
48:05
any of these artists on the on the list they
48:07
did on the gta website and i was like well that's
48:10
because we're old but also i'm that's one of
48:12
the reasons why i'm quite excited because they
48:14
do they did a study didn't they where they were
48:16
like the average person's music taste like stops
48:18
growing at like 25 or something like that um
48:22
and they might find the odd new band but they
48:24
don't tend to change lanes in terms of different
48:28
styles of music but the one thing i really like
48:30
about a good gta or a good open world game with
48:32
a good soundtrack is there is a chance that i
48:34
might discover something so i'm excited yeah
48:36
it's the same that's how i like with thoughts
48:39
so it's like yeah yeah of course horizon i remember
48:42
like horizon 3 especially had some really really
48:45
good uh like songs that like i and they were
48:50
like tied to like some of the uh the event stuff
48:53
you could do too that were like Both series are
48:56
really good at like showcasing a wide like variety
48:59
of music across genres and whatnot. And Death
49:03
Stranding as well. I think both of them have
49:05
like some really good licensed and original music.
49:07
Man, like last year, like just when I was in
49:12
my car, I would be listening to like the Death
49:15
Stranding 2 soundtrack just like on like through
49:18
the playlist on Apple Music, like way too much
49:21
for like a couple of months there. I think out
49:24
of the GTA stuff I skimmed through, I recognize
49:28
and like two of the songs, but they have Pantera's
49:30
I Am Broken, and I was like, that's like the
49:32
perfect Texas, Florida music. So I was like,
49:35
yep, that's going to be interesting. I also really
49:38
like that they've commissioned, it seems like
49:41
for this game, they've commissioned more original
49:44
music than they have for past GTA games. Like,
49:47
I'm not talking about, obviously the GTA V soundtrack
49:49
is immense, but that's obviously... But that's
49:52
obviously the ambient music that plays when you're
49:54
on heists and stuff like that. But what I mean
49:57
is that they've got artists, you know, people
50:00
as famous as Travis Scott, right, who have done
50:02
singles that are GTA, that are written for GTA
50:07
and written for that world. Very similar, I suppose,
50:10
to what CD Projekt did with Cyberpunk where they
50:12
had Run the Jewels come in and do new songs as
50:15
the Cyberpunk Universe versions of themselves.
50:17
And I think that's really exciting because I
50:19
like the original stuff as well. you know um
50:22
i've still got a soft spot for like the gta3
50:27
soundtrack so the gta3 soundtrack is mostly that
50:29
well it's a lot of the stuff wasn't written for
50:31
gta but it's like back then they couldn't get
50:32
famous artists so you know they just they just
50:36
got what they could um you know what one thing
50:40
about the gta soundtracks is i think when they
50:42
released them at least no one expected them to
50:45
blow up as much as they did so Like for Vice
50:47
City, they did this radio CD box set because
50:50
I think at that time vinyl wasn't back in. And
50:52
that box set is like super expensive. So what
50:55
happened when GTA 5, yeah, when GTA 5, they did
50:58
the vinyl soundtrack for that. I ordered one
51:01
for myself and a few friends got me one like
51:04
as a birthday present. And I have both of them.
51:06
Like I have one which I opened and listened to,
51:08
but that shit is like $600 now. And it was like
51:11
80 on Amazon back when. like gta 5 was just releasing
51:14
and stuff so i want to see what happens with
51:16
gta 6 because i did put in one pre -order but
51:19
i'm not going to be stupid and get like two or
51:21
three of them like so yeah i have ordered the
51:24
limited edition of the vinyl just because i was
51:25
like yeah okay i like vinyl yeah same but uh
51:29
yeah i'm very very excited i'm starting to get
51:32
really really excited about um about gta man
51:36
i was just i was just i'm i'm at my i'm at i
51:38
had a family dinner yesterday and my cousin's
51:40
like can i borrow your ps5 to play gta 6 and
51:43
i'm like no i need it for work and he's like
51:45
don't you have to i was like yeah what if i have
51:47
to compare them it's still working so but yeah
51:50
like i'm thinking cyberpunk edge runners 2 and
51:52
gta 6 will be like the first things i'm gonna
51:55
take time off for for a while so yeah yeah yeah
51:58
well we're not gonna have much to do on rpg so
52:00
it's when gta comes out it's just gonna be all
52:03
gta everywhere I'm planning, since I'm not going
52:07
to be playing GTA, November is going to be when
52:09
I finally crack open my copy of Fire Emblem and
52:12
play all 150 hours of that behemoth of a fucking
52:15
video game. I'm going to be playing GTA, but
52:17
I've got to try and find some stuff for that
52:20
website to do. And it's going to be busy over
52:21
here because of GTA. Last little news story quickly
52:25
before we get to the very end. And James, you
52:27
just wanted to, you were going to debunk some
52:28
of this, right? But there was a story on our
52:30
buddies over on VGC and they published about...
52:34
basically psvr sony and this is what you wanted
52:38
to point out is sony which is the parent company
52:40
not playstation but sony had sold um 43 vr patents
52:46
to meta and actually when you add it all up including
52:49
all the international patents and stuff like
52:51
that it's actually in the hundreds i think it's
52:53
something like 300 350 patents that will be transferring
52:56
over to meta which is basically them selling
52:59
vr bits that they don't see a business case in
53:02
anymore. So Metro and Metro will be able to use
53:03
them in the future development of Quest headsets.
53:05
That part is true. The thing is, though, is that
53:08
Sony, outside of PlayStation, though obviously
53:12
there was some overlap, actually did have their
53:16
own mixed reality projects they were working
53:20
on, hence where the patents came from. They had
53:22
their own multiple thousand dollar mixed reality
53:25
headset. Looks similar to a PSVR 2, but that
53:28
just makes sense because they're... probably
53:30
similar design teams but for the gaming and playstation
53:35
vr specific um patents and you can actually go
53:43
to the legal um playstation legal on like the
53:48
website where it showcases all their patents
53:50
and you can see under playstation vr there's
53:54
a bunch of patents that they still have now to
53:57
be clear i don't know if that's necessarily just
54:00
psvr1 or if it's also psvr2 but you can check
54:03
these patents and not none of these patents listed
54:06
here were the ones sold to meta none of them
54:10
and they're still listed on the website i mean
54:13
um that being said psvr2 as like a platform Well,
54:20
we discussed it right before we started in briefly,
54:24
didn't we? It's like they charge people 550 quid,
54:28
like $560, I think, for this thing. And they've
54:33
only released two first -party games. Yeah. And
54:36
neither of them were particularly good. Whereas
54:42
like PSVR 1, you had so much other stuff. You
54:45
had Farpoint, you had Astro Bot Rescue Mission,
54:47
which is the best Astro Bot game. Fight me. They
54:50
had a bunch of other stuff. They had ports like
54:53
Wipeout Omega Collection in VR, which is crazy
54:56
that that didn't get a PSVR 2 version. Because
55:00
I can understand stuff like Astro Bot, where
55:02
it was very much tied to the DualShock 4 and
55:07
all the way the tracking worked on that. But
55:10
Wipeout, you couldn't get working on PSVR 2 when
55:12
it's literally just the head tracking? I don't
55:15
know. Yeah, it's... I like VR, but it's one of
55:22
those things where it's like, I write stuff for
55:26
Apple VR, like freelance. I like being able to
55:29
do so. I like the platform. I like VR as a concept,
55:32
but I'm not kidding myself. It's like maybe in
55:35
a world where RAM and storage hadn't gotten fucked
55:39
over, maybe the Steam frame could have been like
55:41
a shot in the arm in some way, shape, or form,
55:45
but not now. Yeah, I'm in the wait list for a
55:49
one terabyte Steam frame. And I think if I get
55:52
the email, I don't know if I would have the have
55:54
the wherewithal to actually pull the trigger.
55:56
Well, yeah. So we will we will see on that front.
56:04
Yeah, it seems like it does seem like regardless
56:07
of the truth of this patent thing that Sony is
56:09
just. it's just done we've done so with that
56:11
but but but there's no graceful exit when you've
56:14
charged people that much money so they're just
56:15
trying to quietly it's a pretty good pcvr headset
56:20
like if you're fine with the wire like it's probably
56:23
like okay well one thing i will say is that i
56:25
found the tracking for the psvr2 like sense controllers
56:28
isn't very good like metas controllers have the
56:32
better like the better tracking i assume that
56:34
valves uh controllers on the steam frame are
56:37
very much the same thing i'm sure meta has better
56:40
tracking yeah it's uh it's uh it's an interesting
56:48
one um just lastly just on the site just to make
56:51
some notes um mikhail has done some switchport
56:55
report stuff so there's grand blue fantasy versus
56:58
rising the zdf um and there's also um if you
57:02
missed any of it last week towards the end of
57:04
last week right around the time the podcast came
57:06
out there was a lot of um Resident Evil Trilogy
57:09
and lots of Dynasty Warriors stuff and my Nintendo
57:12
Museum things. There's some good stuff on the
57:14
site. And there's been some news this week highlighting
57:16
some cool indie games, stuff like that. That's
57:18
well worth having a look into. Also, on RPGsite,
57:22
not Respec, I wrote about, I had a demo pre -TGS
57:27
at Marvelous Japanese Headquarters to check out
57:31
a couple of games. embargo is lifted and that
57:36
is for muramasa revenant blades on they they
57:39
booted it up on a pc right in front of me and
57:42
then handed me a controller but no we're on pc
57:44
it's real hey japan's woke up to pc at last right
57:49
like in a big way um and that just leaves us
57:53
with the retrospective for this week um so not
57:58
a huge amount this week but um mafia 3 turned
58:01
10 years old um i really deeply love that game
58:06
um and actually this ties into a news beat which
58:10
is they've actually released a free a remastered
58:14
retooled version so if you own it on xbox series
58:17
x s like now if you own it on xbox one i guess
58:22
and ps4 you if you own it digitally you now get
58:26
a free bump up to this next gen version It's
58:29
a small upgrade probably, but it's still like,
58:31
I think it runs at 60 FPS now and stuff, doesn't
58:33
it? Yeah, and it was a good looking game to begin
58:35
with. Just seeing my 53 in the news again reminds
58:40
me of that one E3 where they had the band roaming
58:45
the halls. Like the New Orleans, yeah. God, I
58:48
forgot about that. I remember that was one of
58:52
the most E3 demos where you walked out and went,
58:58
whoa. Because I just remember they played, that
59:01
game's got, it comes back to the GTA discussion,
59:03
that game's got a hell of a soundtrack because
59:05
they, you know, they knew they had this incredible
59:09
setting of like late 60s, you know, New Orleans
59:16
and all that, you know, late 60s, early 70s rock
59:22
music, civil rights, Vietnam War, like post -war.
59:27
and they had all that music. And I remember in
59:30
the E3 demo, it must have been like Paint It
59:34
Black or Fortunate Son or a song in that sort
59:37
of realm and some sort of car chase or something
59:40
while that was absolutely blasting and they turned
59:42
it up so loud that the chairs were shaking and
59:44
you walked out of that demo going like, fuck
59:46
it all. Really cool demo. I think the funny thing
59:49
is the game doesn't necessarily live quite up
59:52
to that. My primary memory of that game is like
59:54
hacking electrical substation boxes. all i remember
59:59
from it is the collector's edition had the vinyl
1:00:01
soundtrack and that's why i bought it and i've
1:00:03
still not played it yeah that's all it was sort
1:00:06
of it's of a certain era of open world game right
1:00:08
but the story is one of the bravest and most
1:00:11
interesting stories and the protagonist and it's
1:00:15
quite rare in video games you get narratives
1:00:16
that have stuff to say and that is a story that
1:00:19
has stuff to say about ptsd from vietnam and
1:00:24
about the civil rights movement and about The
1:00:26
nature of racism where I think whenever you get
1:00:29
games that explore the concept of racism, quite
1:00:31
often it's explored through the lens of, you
1:00:35
know, the racists are caricatured baddies, they're
1:00:39
clansmen. And it's a lot more nuanced in this
1:00:43
game. And actually, I just think with the nature
1:00:45
of the Mafia series, it still remains so brave
1:00:47
and so interesting to me that they were like,
1:00:49
what we're going to do is make this game that's
1:00:51
about the Italian Mafia crossing over. with with
1:00:59
other criminal groups um it's just it's such
1:01:02
a good i think it's such a i would i would recommend
1:01:08
anyone play it but i would potentially largely
1:01:11
ignore the open world stuff and just beeline
1:01:17
the main story which has some really impactful
1:01:18
like really and they've and they learned from
1:01:21
that because like I haven't played it yet, but
1:01:24
everyone I know that's played Mafia The Old Country,
1:01:26
that's an entirely linear game, well, for the
1:01:28
most part. And it seems like people really dug
1:01:32
it when it came out. That was like, was that
1:01:34
2024 or was that last year? I think that was
1:01:37
2024. Yeah, well, they announced, obviously,
1:01:39
at Summer Games Fest, didn't they? They announced
1:01:40
they're doing a little expansion. either right
1:01:44
towards the end of this year or next year it's
1:01:45
i review that game it's really good and it's
1:01:47
the perfect like it doesn't outstage welcome
1:01:49
at all i will forever be fascinated by how that
1:01:53
game was built because what's really weird is
1:01:55
they did build what was essentially an open world
1:01:58
and so you do have those open world -esque get
1:02:01
in the car we're going to drive to this place
1:02:03
sorts of missions and you can either follow the
1:02:05
waypoint or drive the long way around but in
1:02:09
between missions there's no like You know, you
1:02:11
never really get just set loose to explore. The
1:02:14
cut scenes ferry you from thing to thing to thing.
1:02:16
And it all takes place within this world that
1:02:19
they've built that could function on its own
1:02:21
but doesn't. And I don't know if that was like,
1:02:24
I wonder, did that game start as an open world
1:02:28
game and then they dialed it back? Or did they
1:02:30
build it that way even though they knew it was
1:02:32
going to be linear in order to maintain the feel
1:02:34
of the previous Mafia games? I don't know, but
1:02:37
it's fascinating to me either way. Yeah. All
1:02:42
really good games. I like, I think the entire
1:02:43
Mafia series is pretty good, but I do especially
1:02:47
love the third one, special game. Also, Far Cry
1:02:52
6 is five years old this week. I don't, that's,
1:02:56
that's the Giancarlo one, right? Yes. I never
1:03:01
played that one. I, I played it, I think I, pre
1:03:05
-release it was a little iffy and I just remember
1:03:07
getting stuck in the first 15 minutes and never
1:03:09
going back to it. That's all. I'll just wait
1:03:14
for 15 minutes at the very, very beginning so
1:03:17
credits roll and you can just put it on your
1:03:19
backlog or something. Yeah, that was the game
1:03:23
that had that. Yeah, yeah. They've had that since
1:03:26
Far Cry 4. Every one of them since has had that
1:03:29
bit where it's like if you just let the dude
1:03:31
monologue, it's like, oh yeah, no. Yep. All good
1:03:36
to go. Mortal Kombat Armageddon, 20 years old.
1:03:41
Not a good one, but you know, nevertheless. That
1:03:44
was the one which had everyone from every prior
1:03:45
game, right? Or was that the Deception? I don't
1:03:50
remember. Deception was the one which you played
1:03:53
as shooting pool. Armageddon definitely had a
1:03:54
very, very, very big roster. I remember that.
1:03:57
Yeah, that was the one. It was kind of like Smash
1:04:00
Ultimate. Yeah, yeah. That was the... I remember
1:04:02
borrowing a... It was on PS2, right? I borrowed
1:04:05
a PS2 to play it because I never owned a PS2
1:04:08
or PS3 or anything. So, yeah. Jesus, 62 fighters.
1:04:12
Yeah, that was the one which had all versions
1:04:15
of the Samurais and stuff. It had a lot of shit
1:04:18
in it. I just remember I had it on Wii. That's
1:04:21
what I remember, I had it on Wii. And a favourite
1:04:25
of mine, Scarface, The World is Yours. A favourite
1:04:31
of yours? Is that the Wii game? Well, it was
1:04:35
on everything. It was on PS2. Did it come out
1:04:37
on Wii first? No, it came out on PC, PS2 and
1:04:41
Xbox. And then they did a Wii version with some
1:04:43
pretty half -baked motion controls. Like, you
1:04:48
can swing the chainsaw in. Yeah. I reviewed this
1:04:51
game and I remember getting a call from the PR
1:04:54
because I think I gave it a six or something.
1:04:57
They were, like, not happy with the... But it
1:05:01
wasn't a great game. It was just fine. I think
1:05:03
there was an era of, like, these GTA clones.
1:05:06
And I think of stuff like this and, like, EA's
1:05:09
Godfather games as well. In a similar vein of
1:05:14
like, they're not brilliant, but it's got some
1:05:17
interesting ideas of how to interpret the nature
1:05:24
of Scarface into a game of that kind. I also
1:05:28
really respect that Al Pacino said he didn't
1:05:32
want to do the voice. He let him have his face,
1:05:35
obviously. And EA, who was it who developed it?
1:05:40
Not EA. Oh God, Vivendi. Went back and said,
1:05:46
they went back and said to him. It was Radical,
1:05:48
wasn't it? Radical made this. Yes, Radical Entertainment.
1:05:50
Yeah, yeah. But they went back and said to Al
1:05:52
Pacino, okay, you don't want to be in it. That's
1:05:54
fine. Would you mind being involved in the casting
1:05:58
process? And Al Pacino handpicked the guy who
1:06:01
did his voice, which is just a lovely, lovely
1:06:05
thing to have done. And it's a good, it's a good
1:06:08
impression to be fair. I was going to do my Al
1:06:11
Pacino impression then, but I won't put people
1:06:15
through that. But yeah, I don't know. 20 years
1:06:17
old. This was a game that recently, I'm sure
1:06:20
Mikhail saw this at the time, if no one else,
1:06:22
where a port of this popped up on Steam. And
1:06:27
it was just like someone who'd gone like, well,
1:06:29
this game is abandoned where no one's paying
1:06:31
any attention. And some guy made a port and just
1:06:34
tried to release it. Yeah. Yeah, this happened
1:06:39
with something else recently, which was also
1:06:41
taken on. I forgot what it was. But yeah, like
1:06:43
when I pay attention to SteamDB a lot for like
1:06:46
new stuff and also like when you see stuff like
1:06:49
this and I text a few friends who also do the
1:06:51
same and we're like, what is going on here? Yeah,
1:06:54
it's kind of like the, I mean, we didn't talk
1:06:55
about it, but it's kind of like how you spot
1:06:57
Monster Hunter Eyes coming to mobile through
1:06:59
Netflix, right? Like it's something you only
1:07:02
see if you're literally like checking and tracking
1:07:04
this stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Godhand, 20 years
1:07:10
in North America. Just a good game. Don't really
1:07:12
have anything else to say about it. Very famous
1:07:15
review, I think. And Gears 4, 10, which gives
1:07:24
us an idea of the cadence because it's so close
1:07:26
to the, I guess, is Gears 6 technically. That's
1:07:31
actually pretty quick for AAA these days. I thought
1:07:36
that when I saw it. Forza Motorsport 4, 15 years.
1:07:39
I remember that probably being the last Forza
1:07:43
I really, truly loved. Non -Horizon, obviously
1:07:47
Horizon separate. And Dead Rising 2, off the
1:07:50
record, 15 years old. I mentioned it earlier,
1:07:53
which was not intentional to bring this full
1:07:55
circle. When we were talking about Danganronpa,
1:07:57
I mentioned Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster and how
1:07:59
I hope they're doing a 2 Deluxe Remaster. I hope
1:08:02
if they do Dead Rising 2 Deluxe Remaster, It
1:08:05
does include both campaigns. Because Off the
1:08:08
Record is so brilliantly designed as like a mirror
1:08:12
image of Dead Rising 2. I'm sure Capcom will.
1:08:15
They love doing their remasters. You know what?
1:08:19
I wouldn't even begrudge them if they wanted
1:08:20
to release Dead Rising 2 Deluxe Remaster and
1:08:23
then they release Off the Record as like a $10
1:08:25
DLC or something. I wouldn't even begrudge if
1:08:27
that was how they wanted to do it. Although it'd
1:08:29
be better if it was just both in one package,
1:08:31
really. Plus Case Western. case zero and all
1:08:35
that stuff oh they love their collection still
1:08:37
it all needs to be in there but uh yeah i i really
1:08:40
really really like that game and even just seeing
1:08:42
it on this list really makes me want to install
1:08:44
it it's such a clever good go we did dawn of
1:08:47
the dead we did shopping mall and it's like how
1:08:49
can we one up shopping mall and they go let's
1:08:52
do vegas sorry just a random tangent but we're
1:08:56
talking talking about like capcom and their ports
1:08:58
and their weird little things they do and it's
1:09:00
like I don't know if it was this week or technically
1:09:03
last week, but they announced like a VR version
1:09:06
of Ace Attorney 5 of all things. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
1:09:09
We didn't even talk about that. Yeah. Yeah. They
1:09:15
will do anything but give us Ace Attorney 6.
1:09:18
6? 7? 7. 7. Yeah. They will do anything but give
1:09:23
us what we actually want. But yeah, I think I
1:09:25
might check. Well, I would check that out, but
1:09:27
it's Quest exclusive, isn't it? Or is it Quest
1:09:30
or is it some other platform? It's Quest. It's
1:09:32
Quest. Yeah. It's because I've still got a Quest.
1:09:36
I've still got a Quest. Just one thing which
1:09:40
people need to expect is Capcom ports a lot of
1:09:43
these old collections to mobile. So the next
1:09:46
Ace Attorney announcement might actually be the
1:09:48
great Ace Attorney mobile or Ace Attorney 4,
1:09:50
5, or 6 on mobile. Oh, great. Ace Attorney was
1:09:53
already on mobile. Not in the West and not the
1:09:56
new version. It was this old port. So I just
1:10:00
think Ace Attorney fans, including myself, need
1:10:02
to just prepare for the next time they hype up
1:10:05
Ace Attorney, it might just be mobile ports or
1:10:07
whatever. We know what the next announcement
1:10:09
will be because it got caught up in that Steam
1:10:12
leak. We know that either Level 5 or Capcom is
1:10:15
doing a remaster of... To be honest, a lot of
1:10:19
stuff which is on SteamDB might even be for projects
1:10:21
which don't move forward. At this point, I would
1:10:24
just urge caution on that front as well. They
1:10:28
will be doing a seven -face attorney game, I'm
1:10:30
sure, but the time has to be right. But I feel
1:10:34
like that time has got to inevitably come in
1:10:36
the next 18 months now. And, you know, I will
1:10:40
be there screaming and crying and throwing up
1:10:42
when they do, as will Rebecca, I'm sure. Right.
1:10:46
I think that's going to about do it for this
1:10:49
week, right? Unless there's anything you guys
1:10:53
feel like we've missed. no that's good to know
1:10:56
no i'm just yeah i think we're good we're definitive
1:10:59
and we've got some stuff to discuss of course
1:11:01
in the after hours podcast which is available
1:11:03
exclusively to our patreon backers you can become
1:11:07
one of those people it's been a pretty tough
1:11:10
week again in video games media where we've had
1:11:12
outlets laying people off and stuff left right
1:11:14
and center just sort of underlining how challenging
1:11:17
it is in the media space right now respect as
1:11:20
a brand new website um doesn't have tremendously
1:11:24
massive revenue streams to pay for all of us
1:11:27
and all of this so if you are able to support
1:11:29
not only are you supporting independent media
1:11:32
which should give you a very warm and fuzzy feeling
1:11:34
inside you know we all come from tom and i in
1:11:37
particular have come at this from having been
1:11:40
inside the big corporate machine um but you know
1:11:44
it's uh It's also just helping out and supporting
1:11:48
the sort of media you want to see. And also you
1:11:51
get bonus stuff. You get bonus podcasts, bonus
1:11:53
articles. You get behind the scenes access to
1:11:55
chat to us and chill out and stuff like that.
1:11:57
So it's pretty cool. So if you are one of those
1:12:00
people or you plan to become one of those people,
1:12:01
we will see you in the after hours. But if you're
1:12:04
not, totally understand. It's pretty. Tough times
1:12:08
in general right now. I can understand not wanting
1:12:10
to pay money. And we will see you again next
1:12:13
week. There will always be a free podcast, as
1:12:15
well as the Patreon -backed one. So that is it
1:12:19
from us for this week. So... So... I nearly swallowed
1:12:27
my own tongue there. So, say goodbye, James.
1:12:31
It's a wave, not a goodbye. That's really good
1:12:33
for the audio people. Say goodbye, Tom. So, say
1:12:41
goodbye, Mikhail. Goodbye, Tom. Goodbye, Tom.
1:12:45
We will see you all next week.