Latest / Respec: Video Game Ramblings / Sony's disappointing State of Play, more Gamescom games, Onimusha, Dawnwalker, and Orbitals | Respec Ramblings

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Sony's disappointing State of Play, more Gamescom games, Onimusha, Dawnwalker, and Orbitals | Respec Ramblings · Respec: Video Game Ramblings

• 0:01
  Hello, everyone. It's time for another edition
• 0:03
  of the Respec Ramblings podcast. Alex is once
• 0:06
  again absent this time. He's recovering from
• 0:08
  Gamescom, having spent a week at Gamescom. I
• 0:11
  think he saw some games, but mostly did other
• 0:13
  stuff, I think. So, sorry, it's me hosting again.
• 0:17
  If you lasted through last week's podcast, you
• 0:20
  know what to expect. I'm joined by Kirk, James
• 0:23
  and Rebecca. Hello, everyone. All right. You
• 0:26
  doing all right? No. Yeah. No, yes, James is
• 0:32
  okay. Good. That sounds positive for enthusiastic
• 0:36
  chat this week. Right. So let's jump straight
• 0:39
  into the first topic this week, which is state
• 0:42
  of play. Sony had its, I don't know how often
• 0:46
  this is, but state of play for September yesterday.
• 0:49
  Kind of forgot it was happening, to be honest,
• 0:51
  and then was reminded 15 minutes before and jumped
• 0:54
  on, ate my cheese sandwich quite quickly to watch
• 0:57
  it. I thought it was... It existed. It was a
• 1:05
  thing. What did everyone else think? Who actually
• 1:08
  watched it and has anything to say? Man, that
• 1:15
  State of Play would have hit a bit differently
• 1:17
  if it felt like half of those announcements weren't
• 1:21
  just Konami's stuff that they had a separate
• 1:23
  show for right after the State of Play. Yeah.
• 1:27
  And even then, it wasn't like the Konami stuff.
• 1:29
  Like, I think there was, like, one new Konami
• 1:31
  game, which was, what, Scarlet Rhapsody or whatever
• 1:34
  it's called? Yeah, is that the one I think I
• 1:37
  may have described as budget Bayonetta in my
• 1:41
  roundup? It looked a little bit not great. The
• 1:44
  character models were a bit weird. The character
• 1:47
  models were a bit weird, I'd say, yeah. Yeah.
• 1:50
  So, yeah, it was, like, it wasn't a big, big
• 1:53
  show for, like, exciting announcements. at all
• 1:57
  i think was manny to two that was like a new
• 2:00
  game announced right i don't think that had been
• 2:02
  announced um which as a new game at the show
• 2:06
  actually looked quite cool because you're a shark
• 2:08
  that attacks things and there's other big things
• 2:11
  in the water that you also attack it's like a
• 2:13
  simulator yeah yeah that's a good you should
• 2:18
  have said that on the social you should have
• 2:20
  posted on the socials I'll tell you what, my
• 2:23
  kid would be excited about that. He really liked
• 2:26
  the first Maneater. You let your kid play that
• 2:28
  violent game? Unbelievable. I want to say Maneater's
• 2:32
  PS5 version was a very early generation PS Plus
• 2:36
  game. And I remember I played it that way because
• 2:39
  I had a PS5 early and looking for stuff to play
• 2:43
  on it, you know? And it was quite good. I'm a
• 2:48
  big Final Fantasy nerd like Alex, so I was quite
• 2:52
  excited about Final Fantasy. I fell asleep at
• 2:56
  that bit, I think. Yeah, I mean, it was quite
• 2:57
  funny that they left all the loading screens
• 2:59
  in the trailer. Like, why did they do that? Authentic.
• 3:03
  They're giving you the proper experience. But,
• 3:06
  I mean, I don't know. I've been over Final Fantasy
• 3:08
  for the last few weeks. It felt like it was...
• 3:10
  Because they ended... Well, they didn't end it,
• 3:13
  but it was part of Geoff's showcase, right? And
• 3:16
  now it's here as well. And they'd probably be
• 3:19
  at the Game Awards as well. It didn't help that
• 3:23
  they led the trailer with a location that we've
• 3:26
  already visited in the other games. Like, at
• 3:29
  least show something new. Yeah, I saw a clip
• 3:32
  where you're parachuting over top of a big purple
• 3:35
  monster. Is that representative of the game,
• 3:39
  do you think? No. I know before, like, not on
• 3:44
  socials or whatever, but before, like... yeah
• 3:49
  no no no um i saw that clip in the trailer and
• 3:52
  it's like man i don't know if this is a positive
• 3:55
  to me just like seeing all of these little mcguffins
• 3:57
  on the map as i'm parachuting down it's like
• 4:00
  oh god like the open world stuff like the design
• 4:03
  of it i liked in rebirth well enough but the
• 4:06
  the overall execution outside of bespoke side
• 4:09
  quests i was like i don't i don't know if i like
• 4:12
  this i don't know if i like the shrine stuff
• 4:14
  i don't know how I feel about this and seeing
• 4:18
  them double down on that. It's like, I don't
• 4:20
  know. It's very Ubisoft, isn't it? And also,
• 4:22
  I mean, there's not much story left in Final
• 4:24
  Fantasy VII, so they've got to stretch it out
• 4:27
  somehow. It's enough for a DLC pack as well,
• 4:29
  right? There's a DLC expansion coming. There's
• 4:30
  DLC? Okay. What's that all about? Story pack
• 4:34
  are coming for a couple of characters who are
• 4:37
  forgotten. James, you'll know. Vincent? One for
• 4:39
  Sephiroth, and I think one for, I don't remember
• 4:43
  the second one. I don't know what the second
• 4:45
  one is. Is it the guy from, maybe it is Vincent,
• 4:48
  the guy from the standalone PS2 third -person?
• 4:52
  Yeah, Vincent. I think it's Vincent. I think
• 4:54
  it's that one. Rebecca, are you into Final Fantasy
• 4:56
  at all? Very little. I'd like to be more into
• 5:00
  it than I am, but it's one of those that's such
• 5:02
  a big time investment, I've never managed to
• 5:04
  like, it's... sort of on a pile of physical games.
• 5:07
  That's all some of my copies are. I'm going to
• 5:10
  get round to you just as soon as I have a few
• 5:12
  hundred hours free that I know I can dedicate
• 5:14
  to the task. What about Kingdom Hearts, Rebecca?
• 5:16
  Same. Absolutely same. I was just going to judge
• 5:19
  you if you said you had time for that. You can
• 5:22
  get caught up in Kingdom Hearts in about a hundred
• 5:25
  hours if you don't do all this content. They're
• 5:28
  not as long of games as you might think. You
• 5:31
  can also spend 100 hours playing Kingdom Hearts
• 5:33
  and not know what the fuck's going on. Yeah.
• 5:35
  They're both the sort of franchises where I watch
• 5:38
  videos on the lore and I'm interested in the
• 5:40
  kind of stuff around it, but I've not played
• 5:42
  them yet just because I put it on the pile with
• 5:44
  Yakuza and Persona and those are kind of like
• 5:47
  my white miles of the games industry. So I've
• 5:50
  played Yakuza 0 and then I played Judgment and
• 5:53
  Lost Judgment and I haven't played anything else.
• 5:56
  0 is a bad one anyway. Yeah, I think I need to
• 5:59
  start midway through Yakuza because I'm just
• 6:00
  like... The thing with me is, is I know a bunch
• 6:03
  of people that really swear by Like a Dragon,
• 6:06
  like the seventh one. They say it's like really,
• 6:08
  really, really good. I know enough people that
• 6:11
  like Infinite Wealth and I want to get to those.
• 6:13
  And I know you can start with seven, but Infinite
• 6:16
  Wealth is more of, you need to play all of. kiryu's
• 6:21
  stuff because they they kind of shift him back
• 6:24
  into focus and it's like an epilogue to all that
• 6:26
  and it's like oh man you're telling me you have
• 6:28
  to play one through six some of those games are
• 6:30
  good but some of them i've heard how people talk
• 6:33
  about them to be honest i just i look at yakuza
• 6:35
  and like a dragon and then i just play promised
• 6:37
  mascot agency which is essentially the same but
• 6:40
  a 20 -hour indie game and i'm like i think i'm
• 6:43
  good Then again, I don't know why I'm complaining
• 6:46
  about the length of six Yakuza games when I'm
• 6:48
  a Trails fan. So it's like a... Yeah, we all
• 6:51
  have that. That's the thing. We all have the
• 6:54
  things that we just sink hundreds of hours into
• 6:56
  and then like, I don't have time. I don't play
• 6:58
  games for more than 10 minutes. Sure, Tom, you've
• 7:01
  played Project Gotham Racing for longer than
• 7:03
  that. All I need is 10 minutes. All my reviews
• 7:05
  are based on 10 minutes. Don't say that. You'll
• 7:07
  get crucified. Everything I need to know is based
• 7:09
  on 10 minutes. How was the tutorial for Splatoon
• 7:13
  Raiders? It's good. It's a good tutorial. Yeah,
• 7:17
  I mean, everything you need is right there. So
• 7:19
  if you like that, you like the game pretty much.
• 7:22
  Other games at State of Play. Another game that
• 7:25
  actually is in every showcase ever, Crimson Desert
• 7:27
  was back again. uh it wasn't just the enhancer
• 7:31
  if it was this time it was i think a dlc i'm
• 7:34
  not sure it was paid for dlc but some kind of
• 7:36
  expansion where you're like underwater or something
• 7:39
  who has anyone played crimson desert enough to
• 7:41
  know what that was about i i think that even
• 7:44
  if we had played crimson desert that's a totally
• 7:46
  new video game every two months so like whatever
• 7:49
  we talk about now if we played it like before
• 7:52
  it came out different video games we played it
• 7:54
  when it came out different video games we played
• 7:56
  it two weeks ago different video game can i drop
• 7:59
  a crimson desert fight please um originally the
• 8:02
  protagonist was called cliff mc cliff mcduff
• 8:06
  that was it cliff mcduff what's it called now
• 8:10
  just cliff no mcduff that's well he could still
• 8:15
  is that factual they have got rid of mcduff or
• 8:18
  is this doesn't is it no they got they got rid
• 8:19
  of mcduff i mean he's a scottish man and they
• 8:22
  thought what's this maybe there's an expansion
• 8:23
  where they go to scotland and it'll be revealed
• 8:26
  that he is a mcduff he's a great man so it can't
• 8:29
  be a mcduff fine we're good now haven't you um
• 8:33
  the other thing i thought actually was quite
• 8:37
  decent at state of play was the they had like
• 8:39
  a handful of indie games so like and now some
• 8:42
  indie games um And they had one from, I'm going
• 8:46
  to get the name wrong, but it was like a perspective
• 8:49
  based indie game. I think it's called, I want
• 8:51
  to say Macaque, but it may not have been Macaque.
• 8:54
  Macaque, that's a bird, isn't it? It was like,
• 8:58
  do you know what I'm talking about here? I don't.
• 9:01
  So I look, I remember looking up the developer
• 9:04
  after it was shown off and I saw the name of
• 9:07
  the game you're talking about and I don't quite
• 9:08
  know how. and they're like it's like oh here's
• 9:13
  a massive uh structure and then eventually you
• 9:18
  can make it big or small whatever and go inside
• 9:20
  it and move around and it was all like one of
• 9:22
  those perspective shifting games that messed
• 9:26
  with your head a bit um but it was quite good
• 9:28
  and this is the new game from them which if you're
• 9:31
  listening to this you've got no information whatsoever
• 9:33
  because we can't remember essentially you walk
• 9:35
  through this world and it was changing as you
• 9:37
  went it looked quite cool Yeah, I think I'm only
• 9:39
  going to play it for 10 minutes. 10 minutes,
• 9:42
  yeah, 10 minutes. I mean, the trailer's given
• 9:43
  me a couple of minutes, so eight probably is
• 9:46
  all I need. There was also a horror game, which
• 9:49
  looked quite cool from a kind of vibes point
• 9:51
  of view, which is a bit, maybe it had a bit too
• 9:54
  much stealth. My concern is that it was maybe
• 9:56
  a stealth game looking like a horror game. Not
• 9:59
  really, though. What was that horror game? I
• 10:00
  don't even remember a horror game in its state
• 10:02
  of play. But yeah, there's a couple of indie
• 10:05
  games. Wolverine was there again, which I still
• 10:08
  think it looks good. I know people were down
• 10:10
  on it for some reason, but it's an action game
• 10:13
  that looks quite cool. Your kid's going to be
• 10:16
  playing that, I assume, Kirk? My oldest will
• 10:19
  be murdering people in Wolverine. He's well into
• 10:22
  that stuff, isn't he? He's 16 in October. He
• 10:24
  loves the Spider -Man games. Your kid's 16? That's
• 10:28
  gone fast, hasn't it? It has. Unbelievable. Right.
• 10:33
  Stay to play then. overall any any thoughts on
• 10:36
  the until dawn 2 trailer tom it looked better
• 10:38
  i thought it looked better i have to confess
• 10:40
  i haven't seen any of it yet because it was my
• 10:42
  birthday yesterday and i was quite drunk by the
• 10:44
  time the state of play came on and i missed it
• 10:45
  so it looked better but it was very much like
• 10:48
  if you don't know what this game is oh look here's
• 10:51
  a person that has to make a choice is he gonna
• 10:53
  do this or that and they did that about five
• 10:55
  times and it was like we get it now you make
• 10:58
  choices am i right in thinking it's not super
• 11:00
  massive It's not. Sony still has the IP, so they've
• 11:04
  given it to, they shifted Ballistic Moon, who
• 11:06
  did the remake, I think, which was at least some
• 11:08
  of the old Supermassive team. I will say from
• 11:11
  that trailer, the one part that stood out was
• 11:13
  the sacrifice rooster. It's like, sacrifice cock.
• 11:20
  Yeah. Yeah. Right. So yeah, so they had that
• 11:25
  extra bit, didn't they, where it was like, watch
• 11:27
  this, and then we'll have the... japanese staff
• 11:30
  after she was like it had some other stuff in
• 11:32
  it but also they just looked at some other stuff
• 11:34
  we'd already seen and by the time it finished
• 11:35
  it'd be going on for like 100 minutes i was just
• 11:38
  like i literally left to get my kids from school
• 11:41
  came back it was still going on that's like 10
• 11:43
  times what you'd two different shows it was like
• 11:46
  there's as long as the gamescom thing almost
• 11:48
  without anywhere near the level of interest in
• 11:52
  it even though the gamescom thing was also you
• 11:54
  would think at this point in the console's life
• 11:56
  cycle would be getting more exciting shows Yeah.
• 12:00
  I guess there's too many shows. Like if they
• 12:02
  were like all packed into one, we'd get quite
• 12:05
  a lot of cool stuff, but they're spreading out
• 12:07
  and we're getting repeats and stuff. But yeah,
• 12:10
  like there's games coming out. Some of them look
• 12:12
  good. Some of them, that's good. There we go.
• 12:16
  How long has it been since you've seen Intergalactic
• 12:19
  now? A while. Wasn't it the Game Awards 2024
• 12:23
  or something or 2023? Yeah, it's 2024, I think,
• 12:27
  right? Yeah, they just wrapped filming on it
• 12:30
  as well, didn't they? I think it was like a year
• 12:33
  after they wrapped filming on The Last of Us
• 12:35
  2 that we got the game, so it can't be that far
• 12:38
  off. Christmas next year. Yeah, probably. Well,
• 12:42
  that's the Wolverine game next year, isn't it?
• 12:44
  That kind of slot, I guess. Maybe. We'll see.
• 12:48
  Get it out. Well, they can still put a disc.
• 12:50
  That's what they do, right? Get a disc version.
• 12:54
  Right, moving on. We'll come back to Kirk's special
• 12:58
  trip in a minute where we talk to someone about
• 13:00
  feet. I'm going to say feet or is it hands? Something
• 13:04
  a bit odd. Well, I talked to him about hands
• 13:06
  and then he replied about feet. We'll come back
• 13:07
  to that. Keep people guessing what that's about.
• 13:10
  Rebecca, you actually went to Gamescom. I did.
• 13:13
  I went to Gamescom. Gamescom, I think. It was
• 13:15
  my first Gamescom, yeah. What did you make of
• 13:18
  it all? I really enjoyed it. I know it's probably
• 13:23
  very, very silly to say, but... I understand
• 13:26
  why people get very hyped for it now. It was
• 13:28
  a lot of fun to go and kind of experience that.
• 13:32
  And the feeling of power when you flash a press
• 13:34
  pass and skip a queue of a thousand people to
• 13:36
  just get behind the scenes. That is good. It's
• 13:40
  unparalleled. You can level up from that by being
• 13:42
  an exhibitor and then you get to go in even earlier.
• 13:46
  You get to go in even earlier, yeah. Just find
• 13:47
  this place now and just wander around and do
• 13:49
  what you want. Yeah. I was looking at my friends
• 13:52
  with some people who were on the exhibitor side.
• 13:53
  So I kind of snuck in with them for a little
• 13:55
  bit, which is very satisfying. It is definitely
• 13:58
  good when you see the queues. Because the first
• 14:02
  day you don't really realize what it's going
• 14:04
  to be like. You're like, this is fine. There's
• 14:06
  not many people here wandering around. It's like
• 14:08
  a Wednesday. And then it's like, oh, the people
• 14:12
  are here now and you can't move at all. And you
• 14:15
  just don't want to be in any of those halls.
• 14:17
  yeah where anyone else is because they're a nightmare
• 14:19
  the problem is if you're an exhibitor though
• 14:21
  you get your laptop stolen yeah that was the
• 14:24
  thing that seems to be happening yeah just for
• 14:26
  the record that happened after i left so i'm
• 14:28
  in the clear right okay we weren't accusing you
• 14:29
  i think you just want to get ahead of it yeah
• 14:33
  because yeah i was i was like reading about it
• 14:35
  in the airport as i was leaving i was like oh
• 14:37
  my god and i was like why do i feel a certain
• 14:38
  wave of guilt like i'm literally leaving cologne
• 14:40
  just in case yeah I got stopped going into, the
• 14:47
  last time I went, I got stopped for bagging.
• 14:50
  I had to go into a special room and be talked
• 14:53
  to because I was the one. Never do this, carrying
• 14:55
  all the cables. I had a bag full of cables, which
• 14:59
  isn't a great look when you're traveling by any
• 15:03
  form of transport, particularly a plane. Yeah.
• 15:06
  But it's fine. Just never be the one that carries
• 15:08
  the cables. Like everyone carry their own cables.
• 15:10
  We had a lot of camera equipment and I was just,
• 15:12
  I'll carry this. Yeah. That's a stupid move.
• 15:15
  Right. Hoyoverse. Yes. Were there and they had
• 15:20
  their new game, which I think is called Noticeful.
• 15:25
  Noticeful. Yes. Explain it because in the trailer,
• 15:27
  I said it looked like Monster Hunter cross with
• 15:30
  Elden Ring. Is that accurate or not? uh it's
• 15:33
  super curious to the aesthetic and the overall
• 15:35
  kind of like top level what they're trying to
• 15:37
  sell it as um having got hands on with the game
• 15:40
  i would say that it is way less um souls likey
• 15:44
  than that would imply it's kind of more to the
• 15:46
  monster hunter end of like difficulty on things
• 15:48
  i would say it's still harder than most of your
• 15:50
  games but have you played grumble fantasy relink
• 15:54
  how is it compared to that in terms i haven't
• 15:56
  played grumble fantasy relink i'm afraid so i
• 15:58
  can't i can't really uh I can't really speak
• 16:00
  to that. I have played Elden Ring, which I didn't
• 16:02
  like very much. I don't like sort of... Just
• 16:06
  personally, I'm not enough into the button mashing,
• 16:09
  like getting good at the combo sort of games.
• 16:11
  And I was like, I don't know if I'm going to
• 16:13
  enjoy this. But it was really fun. Actually,
• 16:15
  the fact that it's a four -person multiplayer
• 16:16
  and you do need... Like that's enforced. You
• 16:18
  can't have smaller teams or go solo. It has to
• 16:21
  be four people in a match. Made it really fun,
• 16:25
  which I wasn't expecting as well. Because if
• 16:26
  there's two things that I'm like, ugh, it's...
• 16:28
  souls like boss battles and multiplayer so i
• 16:32
  was like this isn't going to be for me um i really
• 16:35
  enjoyed it though i was playing a support character
• 16:37
  which i do tend to enjoy more than more than
• 16:40
  like trying to dps on those things and it has
• 16:43
  it has some sort of source and it's probably
• 16:45
  due to the fact at least in part that it's not
• 16:48
  too punishing like when you die you just get
• 16:50
  sent back to the edge of the arena rather than
• 16:53
  having to do a full run back which is one of
• 16:54
  the reasons i think souls like people are going
• 16:56
  to say it's not a souls like which i'm inclined
• 16:58
  to agree with it kind of sells itself on the
• 17:01
  aesthetic and the vibe of like elden ring but
• 17:03
  without without putting too much of the difficulty
• 17:05
  in which as i said in uh the preview that is
• 17:07
  live on respect now i did mention that like of
• 17:10
  course that makes sense because their monetization
• 17:12
  model is free to play optional microtransactions
• 17:15
  you're going to put so many people off if you're
• 17:16
  actually punishingly difficult with it so Just
• 17:20
  going a bit harder. Have you seen what they're
• 17:24
  going to be charging you for? Because it's not
• 17:25
  a gacha game, is it? It's not gacha. So interestingly,
• 17:27
  at least two of the four games that they currently
• 17:32
  have in development but unreleased aren't going
• 17:34
  to be gacha, which is really interesting because
• 17:37
  that's been their motivation model. So yeah,
• 17:40
  there's Noticeful and Petty Planet, which is
• 17:43
  their Animal Crossing light that's coming out
• 17:45
  this winter. They announced over the course of
• 17:47
  Gamescom that it's coming out late this year.
• 17:50
  um those are both going to be monetized through
• 17:52
  i think optional cosmetics and season passes
• 17:54
  sound like the likeliest uh ways forward because
• 17:58
  they're so they are moving away from everything
• 18:00
  being gacha which i do think is generally a good
• 18:03
  thing so you know that that is good to see and
• 18:06
  like with petty planet i think it makes sense
• 18:08
  because that's more aimed at kids than anything
• 18:10
  else they've done and i do think putting a gacha
• 18:13
  in a kids game is probably something that even
• 18:15
  how you know they can't really get away with
• 18:17
  but the noticeable thing was really interesting
• 18:19
  because they showed us in this preview this set
• 18:21
  of four characters and so we all just assumed
• 18:23
  that you know different character classes unlock
• 18:26
  through the gacha because that's how they've
• 18:27
  been doing things since they set up business
• 18:28
  but no so you unlock characters by playing and
• 18:31
  then they have it 100 nailed on how they're going
• 18:33
  to monetize they they mentioned cosmetics as
• 18:35
  their best kind of leading idea so far but i
• 18:39
  think they've not really set in stone yet how
• 18:40
  they're going to monetize it but they have said
• 18:42
  pretty definitively no gacha which is which is
• 18:45
  super interesting. Hopefully they make an original
• 18:47
  game next. No, I don't think you can see that.
• 18:51
  They have very much got their thing, and it is,
• 18:54
  we like this game, we're going to make our version
• 18:56
  of this game. I'm interested in Noticeball. I
• 18:59
  don't have too much of an experience with Holyoverse
• 19:03
  stuff. I played a little bit of Hawkeye Star
• 19:07
  Real when it dropped before I realized, wait
• 19:09
  a minute, I don't like gacha games. But I do
• 19:12
  like Monster Hunter. And I am fine with free
• 19:14
  -to -play with cosmetics. So I am pretty interested
• 19:18
  to at least give Noticefall a shot and see how
• 19:20
  I feel about it. Yeah, I was surprised by the
• 19:23
  fact that I actually came away going, I would
• 19:25
  play that again. I would try and get friends
• 19:26
  to play it and not feel like a monster trying
• 19:28
  to get them into gacha games if they don't want
• 19:30
  to play gacha games as well. My gauge about it,
• 19:34
  it's probably going to do well because my normie
• 19:35
  friend messaged me about it saying, look at this.
• 19:41
  Does he play? He plays a lot of Souls -likes
• 19:46
  and stuff, but other than that, Call of Duty.
• 19:49
  It broke through the barrier to the normies.
• 19:51
  It did. It broke through to the normies. Yeah.
• 19:55
  Do we think the preview, I've got the sense,
• 19:57
  is not out for a while. Do they say any suggestion
• 19:59
  of when it might be releasing? I don't know.
• 20:03
  They usually have quite a long development cycle
• 20:05
  on these things. As I say, they have got three
• 20:06
  games still in development that were announced
• 20:08
  earlier. So now I know that Petsiplanet's out
• 20:12
  late this year. Honko Nexus Anima, I think, is
• 20:14
  sometime next year. Varsapur is an interesting
• 20:17
  one because that notably wasn't at Gamescom.
• 20:20
  But I did use my sources to confirm that it is
• 20:23
  still in development. And that was the one that
• 20:25
  was announced first of all for. So I think it's
• 20:28
  hit a bit of a slowdown in production. This is
• 20:33
  pure speculation, but I feel like it was the
• 20:35
  one they were doing most of their generative
• 20:37
  AI. experimentation on and i don't think that's
• 20:40
  gone particularly well for them reading between
• 20:42
  the lines so i wonder if that's been retooled
• 20:44
  a little bit and it's going to reappear uh notice
• 20:46
  what i wouldn't be surprised if we're looking
• 20:47
  at sort of 2028 at least but they've not really
• 20:49
  said anything but yet that's just my my experience
• 20:54
  of how long it takes them to ship a game after
• 20:56
  announcement so yeah yeah but it looks it looks
• 20:59
  i'm more interested in that than i am in all
• 21:01
  their other games even though i probably won't
• 21:02
  play either but it looks interesting it looks
• 21:04
  more like a game i might pretend i'm going to
• 21:07
  play at some point in the future 10 minutes i
• 21:11
  know but that's the problem i started playing
• 21:13
  this complete massive segue from nothing i started
• 21:17
  playing resident evil wet chrome oh yeah last
• 21:19
  night cool 10 minutes i played it for i'm not
• 21:22
  even i've just got in the hotel thing that you're
• 21:25
  gross in the hotel looking around i haven't seen
• 21:28
  a single thing that is gonna hurt me at all It
• 21:32
  looked nice, that first bit, you wander around.
• 21:34
  Yeah, it's just urbexing in an abandoned hotel.
• 21:36
  Yeah, but 9 out of 10. I've reviewed that one
• 21:38
  now, so that's good. You can finish it for 10
• 21:40
  minutes anyway. Can you? Don't tell me. You have
• 21:46
  to be probably a bit better at games than I am.
• 21:50
  Gamescom then, Rebecca, anything else before
• 21:52
  you move on? Anything else that stood out to
• 21:53
  you as something you think should be given a
• 21:55
  shout out? Yeah, so I went to see Ontos, the
• 21:59
  new game by the Soma devs. Again, I'm going to
• 22:01
  have a preview of that up on the site. Is that
• 22:04
  the one with the rats? Yes, that's the rat wall,
• 22:06
  which is horrifying. I love Soma. It's a game
• 22:09
  that I have a lot of love for. What I appreciate
• 22:12
  with Ontos is they're kind of doing it as a spiritual
• 22:15
  sequel, but not a direct sequel, if that makes
• 22:18
  sense. But the gameplay changes. It's more puzzle
• 22:21
  -oriented and less stealth -oriented, which for
• 22:22
  me is great news because stealth. makes me anxious
• 22:26
  and i love puzzles so that's the good news but
• 22:29
  it's um i don't want to spoiler too much my own
• 22:32
  my own article on this but i do think that it
• 22:34
  does make sense as a kind of sequel to soma the
• 22:39
  more you dig into it um so people who've been
• 22:42
  waiting for that that game to get its follow
• 22:43
  -up for what 10 years or what whatever i was
• 22:46
  gonna say like i loved it but i can't remember
• 22:48
  a single thing about it other than the fact that
• 22:50
  you just walk around a lot Yeah, it's that, but
• 22:54
  with more puzzles. The rats are very involved
• 22:56
  in the puzzles from the section I've seen. You
• 22:58
  do a lot of messing with probes inserted into
• 23:02
  the heads of people and of rats. I didn't get
• 23:06
  to see the guy with half his face cut off from
• 23:08
  the promo image in the demo. Is it just like
• 23:12
  the Pixar film where they go into like beavers
• 23:17
  or whatever it is, but with rats? I think that's
• 23:20
  called. Hoppers, that's the one. I don't know,
• 23:22
  but I don't think so. I think they've just ripped
• 23:25
  it. I think they just ripped it off completely.
• 23:27
  And the film Avatar, if you've seen that, has
• 23:29
  some big similarities there. I think they should
• 23:31
  be careful. But yeah, that does look good. I
• 23:33
  saw a, it was like a 10 minute extended gameplay
• 23:37
  bit online yesterday. I think that looks really
• 23:39
  cool. I want to watch much more of that because
• 23:41
  I want to keep it fresh. But yeah, that does
• 23:43
  look good. That is definitely one to keep an
• 23:45
  eye on if you enjoy that sort of, especially
• 23:48
  if you like SOMA, if you enjoy. Grizzly puzzle
• 23:51
  games, which is a particular interest of mine.
• 23:52
  Samoa's great. Yeah. It's a lot of games. Very
• 23:55
  good game. But yeah, no more running from the
• 23:57
  bosses. That's good. Yeah. Moving on from showcases,
• 24:02
  we first let her play Gamescom. Kirk, you went
• 24:07
  on a special trip, didn't you? Not for us. I
• 24:10
  say it was for The Guardian, right? And you've
• 24:12
  got an article up there now. What did you go
• 24:13
  and see and who did you talk to? I went to see
• 24:16
  the desk boards at From Software. From Software,
• 24:20
  the Japanese companies, they're very private.
• 24:23
  So you get shuttled in up this elevator into
• 24:27
  a room with a single telephone in it. And then
• 24:30
  you wait in there. And then they unlock a door
• 24:32
  and send you into the demo room. And you're locked
• 24:34
  in. And if you want to go to the toilet, you've
• 24:36
  got to be shepherded into the toilet. And I was
• 24:40
  locked in a room for two days. And at one point,
• 24:42
  they wheeled me and Zaki out. And I spoke to
• 24:43
  him for an hour. On wheels? Actually on wheels?
• 24:46
  I don't know. He just appeared. I think he like
• 24:49
  teleported in. I'm not sure. He was in there
• 24:51
  the whole time in disguise, right? He was just
• 24:53
  watching you all disguised and then revealed
• 24:55
  himself. But it's a cool story. We had like a
• 24:58
  big statue of Melania in the conference room
• 25:01
  and all their awards on the walls and stuff.
• 25:03
  There's so many awards. But yeah, he was interesting
• 25:06
  to talk to. And he told me he doesn't have a
• 25:10
  foot fetish. people think he did is this just
• 25:13
  you that thought this i didn't even mention feet
• 25:16
  that's the thing i i was i was asking him about
• 25:18
  the motif of like hands and fingers in his games
• 25:20
  because he he likes to my shirt that says i don't
• 25:24
  have a foot fetish answer yeah it's bring up
• 25:26
  a lot of questions answered by my shirt exactly
• 25:28
  he just he started answering my question about
• 25:30
  hands and fingers and then everyone in the room
• 25:32
  started laughing because obviously he was talking
• 25:33
  in japanese and for an interpreter and then the
• 25:36
  interpreter was like trying not to piss himself
• 25:38
  while telling me what he said but yeah it's quite
• 25:41
  funny which do you actually think of the game
• 25:44
  then because yeah i saw i saw that i saw the
• 25:47
  footage of it i read your thing for you ran for
• 25:50
  the guardian i don't know like i'm i'm very much
• 25:53
  not the person for this but like who is this
• 25:56
  for because i've seen people playing the was
• 25:58
  it a the the testing the online network yeah
• 26:01
  there was a network test a few weeks ago mixed
• 26:05
  reception i would say some people are like i'm
• 26:08
  now off getting this it's not for me what what
• 26:12
  are your thoughts i'm still not 100 sure on it
• 26:15
  honestly um i'd rather have a single player rpg
• 26:19
  from them any day or even i'd love it if they
• 26:21
  did like a co -op game like a traditional souls
• 26:25
  like where you can just play it with a friend
• 26:27
  without pissing around with signs on the floor
• 26:29
  and stuff like that um but this is it's like
• 26:32
  kind of battle royale kind of moba um you go
• 26:36
  around battering mobs and fighting bosses and
• 26:40
  then at the end three you're left standing you
• 26:42
  have a free -for -all and see who comes out on
• 26:45
  top um and it's just it's weird the way they've
• 26:48
  done it like there's no stamina on attacking
• 26:50
  so you can just attack indefinitely and people
• 26:53
  can like triple jump so it's very chaotic but
• 26:56
  like the way all the abilities mix and interact
• 26:59
  is is quite cool and the fights at the end are
• 27:01
  really good but i feel like There's a bit too
• 27:05
  much RNG in the build -up to the fight. It's
• 27:07
  like making it to the final three. Just because
• 27:10
  the way the map's laid out and the things that
• 27:13
  you have to get to get virtue, which is the thing
• 27:15
  you need to acquire to get into the final fight,
• 27:17
  it's just a bit weird. It's like playing a Souls
• 27:22
  game at four times speed, almost. so what do
• 27:26
  you think of the input lag i don't know if the
• 27:28
  build you played had the same issue but uh the
• 27:30
  network tests had a considerable amount of input
• 27:33
  lag and that's i like the idea of the game it's
• 27:36
  very the comparison i've seen a lot and i actually
• 27:38
  agree with it quite a bit it's it's like kirby
• 27:41
  air ride city trial but as a souls game i've
• 27:46
  never played that so i can't speak to it but
• 27:48
  um yeah the the lag there was there was a bit
• 27:51
  of noticeable lag more like it wasn't really
• 27:53
  input lag it was more like hit detection lag
• 27:55
  that i i noticed so you'd hit someone then they'd
• 27:58
  stagger like a second after a second there was
• 28:01
  that but like actually playing it during the
• 28:04
  network tests and i have like a good setup for
• 28:06
  like minimal like an input lag and multiple people
• 28:11
  i know ran into it where it's like man i like
• 28:14
  the idea of it but it's like they're the lag
• 28:16
  like on the inputs it's like noticeably there's
• 28:18
  like a quite a decent bit of delay so the way
• 28:22
  we were playing it it was like 20 people in a
• 28:25
  room and there was no one else in the world playing
• 28:27
  it so it's one of the different conditions i
• 28:32
  think it'll do switch to exclusive presumably
• 28:36
  a bit and a half hour long if it's a permanent
• 28:38
  thing, do we think it's going to do well on Switch
• 28:41
  2? I think From Software has the type of funds
• 28:44
  that will buy a Switch 2 for their games. Not
• 28:48
  if they've played the network test, it sounds
• 28:50
  like. Well, they've had their own Switch 2 if
• 28:53
  they've done that. Yeah, not for me, this one,
• 28:57
  but then no From Software game appears to be
• 28:59
  for me. But it's interesting. At least it's something
• 29:03
  that's not. same as every other game coming out
• 29:06
  and see if it lands well or not is out they haven't
• 29:09
  dated it yet have they no this year but they
• 29:12
  don't start in a day so when i when uh when we
• 29:15
  when i put my preview up the editor they have
• 29:18
  like a section at the top which says like platform
• 29:20
  developer release date and They copied from another
• 29:24
  article and put it in, but forgot to change all
• 29:26
  the information. So they put like a September
• 29:28
  release date down for it. You announced it. You
• 29:31
  announced the release date. I didn't fucking
• 29:32
  announce it. Everyone was like, you bastard.
• 29:36
  You bastard. You lied. I can't believe you're
• 29:40
  backing away from it. So it's out, according
• 29:43
  to you, it's out like next week or something,
• 29:45
  isn't it? I can't remember what the release date
• 29:46
  is. Don't do this to me. Pretty soon. But there's
• 29:49
  no date attached to it yet, right? I don't think.
• 29:51
  The same thing happened to me with that Miyazaki
• 29:53
  interview. Because obviously at a big outlet
• 29:55
  like The Guardian, a lot of people touch a piece
• 29:57
  before it goes live. And I put, since 2009 is
• 30:02
  Demon's Souls. And then the fact checkers changed
• 30:04
  it to 2022 because they saw the remake. And I
• 30:07
  was like, oh. That sucks. You've got to own your
• 30:13
  mistakes. I will win the mine. All right. So
• 30:17
  that sounds like a game that I won't play. Other
• 30:22
  games. So there's this week, actually, there's
• 30:25
  quite a few things out. We're in that kind of
• 30:27
  free GTA, get all the games out period now. We've
• 30:32
  had a few big games, or big, I guess, big -ish,
• 30:36
  depending on how well it does. But I guess first
• 30:39
  off, Dawnwalker. It's called, what's the full
• 30:41
  title? The Blood of the Dawnwalker. Yeah, you
• 30:45
  put an extra the there. Blood of Dawnwalker.
• 30:48
  The Blood of Dawnwalker. So actually, I have
• 30:49
  an explanation. I have an explanation for that.
• 30:52
  Because I, too, thought the name was pretty weird.
• 30:54
  And so I thought about it. And it's like, it's
• 30:57
  called The Blood of Dawnwalker because the game
• 30:59
  is about Coen, the Dawnwalker's family. And so
• 31:04
  it's about his blood. So it's The Blood of Dawnwalker
• 31:07
  is both a play on it being a vampire story and
• 31:10
  also the story itself being about Coen's family
• 31:12
  and saving them and all that. How he became a
• 31:16
  Dawn Walker is to do with his blood as well.
• 31:18
  So it's like a triple threat thing. Is this anything
• 31:22
  like the film Blade? Because he is a day walker,
• 31:27
  isn't he? I think the sequel will be a bit like
• 31:30
  Blade because they've already said they want
• 31:32
  to take this across the ages and it basically
• 31:34
  ends with a trailer for the next game, which
• 31:37
  is in the modern day. So maybe the next one will
• 31:39
  be. But if that's gone wrong before, that's how...
• 31:43
  the uh mercury steam uh uh castlevania ended
• 31:48
  didn't it has like oh no it's look it's a modern
• 31:51
  day city and then that sequel went bad didn't
• 31:54
  it so we'll see so this looked to me from like
• 31:58
  a let's say idiot's point of view uh like the
• 32:03
  witcher is it like the witcher or is that just
• 32:06
  because of all the build -ups been like oh these
• 32:08
  people made the witcher before It's like The
• 32:10
  Witcher. The combat's more like, I'd say it's
• 32:14
  closest to like Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 or
• 32:17
  like Chivalry, one of those types of games where
• 32:20
  it's like you attack from cardinal directions,
• 32:23
  you want to block or deflect from those different
• 32:25
  directions. If you don't want to time your block
• 32:30
  or try and aim it, you have an omni block which
• 32:34
  uses stamina, but if you perfectly time and parry
• 32:36
  it, then you get an opening to attack. Simple
• 32:40
  enough combat. I liked it. I get the feeling
• 32:43
  that a lot of people just kind of tolerated it.
• 32:46
  I think it's better than most RPG, action RPGs
• 32:50
  combat, right? And they did a couple of cool
• 32:52
  things with it. Like if someone attacks you from
• 32:54
  off screen, it's always the direction that they
• 32:56
  attack you from that you block. So there's a
• 32:58
  couple of like little tweaks that they made to
• 33:01
  it to make it feel nice and intuitive. But you
• 33:05
  are fighting dogs a lot. yeah i will say the
• 33:12
  number one issue with the game's combat not really
• 33:15
  the game's combat but rather the combat gameplay
• 33:18
  and sandbox whatever is it there's effectively
• 33:21
  like three maybe four skeletons of things that
• 33:25
  you fight it's like things will look different
• 33:28
  but it's like you have dogs and you have different
• 33:30
  versions of dogs but they do the same thing You
• 33:33
  have dudes with swords and different versions
• 33:35
  of dudes with swords, but they do the same thing.
• 33:39
  You have, besides like boss fights, there's not
• 33:43
  too much variation in terms of what you're fighting,
• 33:46
  which might be an issue, but it didn't really
• 33:50
  matter for me because frankly, the reason you
• 33:52
  play this game is for the story and the quest
• 33:55
  thing. And the writing is quite exceptional,
• 33:58
  at least in my opinion. I really liked the writing
• 34:00
  in this one. Yeah, I think you can tell as well.
• 34:02
  It's a lean team. It's their first game. They've
• 34:05
  used their resources to the max and they stretched
• 34:09
  it out in the areas. About a four -year development
• 34:11
  cycle too, right? Because the team started in
• 34:13
  2022. I think even the time mechanic leans into
• 34:19
  that a bit. They've been really lean with it
• 34:21
  because every side quest in the game is preparation
• 34:26
  for the main quest, which is one quest, which
• 34:29
  is save your family. And it's all leading up
• 34:32
  to that. There's no fat on it. There's no go
• 34:35
  solve this person's problem for no reason, really.
• 34:37
  It's all working towards one goal. And even when
• 34:41
  you do, I feel like the side quests that aren't
• 34:43
  directly tied to saving your family, they're
• 34:46
  still good meat on those bones, if that makes
• 34:51
  sense. One of my favorite side questions has
• 34:54
  nothing to do with saving your family, but you
• 34:57
  find your dad's old war buddy, Volk, You just
• 35:01
  like every so often go back to him, talk with
• 35:03
  him. He gives you some stories about the misadventures
• 35:05
  that you went off with your father. And it really
• 35:08
  gives you a sense of, oh, you get, you really
• 35:11
  get to know who Cohen's father is. You get to
• 35:14
  know why he is the way he is in the prologue.
• 35:18
  And I do like how a lot of the quest thing. And
• 35:20
  a lot of the major minor quests in general do
• 35:25
  kind of fuel back layers of there's that tension
• 35:28
  with the family that you can kind of feel at
• 35:31
  the beginning, but you can't quite get at what
• 35:33
  it is. And then as you're going through the game,
• 35:36
  it's not just about your family, but others'
• 35:38
  families. It's like, man, I just love the writing
• 35:43
  in this game. It comes at the theme from every
• 35:46
  angle you can think of, basically, and just keeps
• 35:48
  hammering away at it. It's really good. Is there,
• 35:51
  like I've seen people talking about how they're
• 35:54
  not interested because of the time mechanic.
• 35:58
  I'm not entirely sure how it works. Are you,
• 36:00
  is there like, to be blunt, is there a timer?
• 36:03
  Are you told to do something at a certain time?
• 36:05
  No, it's not like Majora's Mask. The way it works
• 36:08
  is, so you have 30 days and 30 nights and most
• 36:16
  actions you take, like just exploring the world,
• 36:19
  won't. take up time but if you're like do if
• 36:21
  you're engaging with quests if you're leveling
• 36:23
  up certain skills if you're um basically stuff
• 36:28
  like that it will take time slots out of like
• 36:31
  in the upper right corner you'll have like eight
• 36:33
  sections for day and night and as you're choosing
• 36:38
  options and quests as you're leveling up as you're
• 36:41
  doing stuff like that it will cost time to do
• 36:44
  so and there's certain quests that you can do
• 36:48
  either in the day or night. There's some that
• 36:50
  you can only engage with in the day. There's
• 36:53
  some you can only engage with in the night. And
• 36:55
  the timer is there to keep you focused, but I
• 36:59
  feel like it really isn't a big deal. I remember
• 37:03
  when I cleared it. Yeah, that's the thing. The
• 37:07
  prologue gives you the wrong idea because if
• 37:10
  you try and engage with all the different side
• 37:13
  quests in the prologue, you will not have a good
• 37:15
  time when it comes time for mass. I'll say that
• 37:17
  much. But outside the prologue, I would say that
• 37:21
  if you're not trying to do every single activity
• 37:25
  related to the three vampires that are underneath
• 37:30
  Brensis, if you're just trying to do the bare
• 37:32
  minimum to get them angry and activate their
• 37:34
  cyclists, you have more than enough time to basically
• 37:37
  do every major activity in the game. I had three
• 37:41
  days left in the end. I did. Everything except
• 37:44
  all the open world stuff. Yep. Same thing for
• 37:47
  me. It's like a lot of people are downloading
• 37:50
  these mods to adjust the timer. It's like, you
• 37:54
  don't need it. You don't need it. If anything,
• 37:57
  I would not be shocked if they made some last
• 38:00
  -minute adjustments to how expensive certain
• 38:03
  actions were to try and counter some of the reaction
• 38:08
  they saw the people talking about the timer.
• 38:11
  Stick with your guns. If anything, I would love
• 38:14
  a difficulty mode. that makes the timer more
• 38:16
  strength but yeah because i when i got to the
• 38:21
  end i could basically from that save go and see
• 38:23
  every ending possible yep whereas i i thought
• 38:27
  it would be more like you choose a lane and you
• 38:29
  go for that lane then you got to start a new
• 38:30
  playthrough to do it again because of the timer
• 38:32
  but it's not the case really but overall positive
• 38:37
  about it it's doing quite well i think i saw
• 38:38
  the steam sales look pretty good i assume it
• 38:41
  would do well on console as well it's not The
• 38:43
  Witcher audience will probably be looking for
• 38:45
  something like this. The sequel will be incredible.
• 38:49
  It will be incredible. Yeah. Good stuff. That's
• 38:53
  out now, right? I think, pretty much. Rebecca,
• 38:58
  are you a Witcher fan? Not yet. Not yet. I've
• 39:04
  been told I should be. It's on your list of games
• 39:06
  that you need 100 hours to with all the DLC anyway.
• 39:09
  No, I play too many Hollywood -verse games, is
• 39:11
  the truth. I've got hundreds of hours on each
• 39:13
  of those. Well, this one, it's got a very strict
• 39:17
  time, it sounds like. You just go through and
• 39:19
  it ferries you through. Hollywood -verse will
• 39:21
  probably make a Witcher game anyway. Actually,
• 39:24
  probably, to be fair. That'll be the next one.
• 39:27
  Witcher copies seem that everything is going
• 39:29
  to do well if it looks like The Witcher. That
• 39:31
  is fair. Next game up this week is Onimusha,
• 39:37
  which I was going to review and then I was talking
• 39:40
  to our friend Dave, who was on last week's podcast,
• 39:43
  and he said it took him 30 hours. I was like,
• 39:45
  actually, I'm not going to review that anymore.
• 39:48
  You can just review it and I'll pay you to do
• 39:49
  it. So he reviewed it for the website. James,
• 39:53
  are you playing Onimusha? Yeah, so I did a bunch
• 39:57
  of the preview events. I did get, well, I'll
• 40:00
  just be. want uh i went to the launch event yesterday
• 40:03
  and i just reached up here saying hey i know
• 40:06
  like both the rpg site and respect reviews were
• 40:09
  positive i'm going to be at the launch event
• 40:11
  do you have a spare launch day code so i can
• 40:13
  like unbelievable shameless that is just shameless
• 40:18
  behavior but um fair enough i've been playing
• 40:21
  it play all the games you can that's what i say
• 40:23
  it helps um so i all my experience of this is
• 40:28
  i watched the digital foundry video on it because
• 40:30
  i'm sad and i've watched those things i've played
• 40:33
  about 20 hours you have so is it i mean dave
• 40:38
  loved it i've seen other people say it's like
• 40:40
  one of the best games of the year where are you
• 40:42
  sitting with it yeah it is one of the best games
• 40:45
  yeah it's one of the best feeling combat systems
• 40:47
  ever i think honestly just the amount of variety
• 40:50
  and like ways you can defend attacks and how
• 40:53
  at first i thought this game is way too easy
• 40:56
  because it like it unramps you quite slowly but
• 40:59
  once you get all the abilities and then it starts
• 41:02
  foreign enemies that like interact with those
• 41:04
  abilities it gets really good and the boss fights
• 41:06
  are just incredible one of my uh so i played
• 41:10
  about i'd say like sevenish hours so far and
• 41:13
  the boss i'm currently on is like this one dude
• 41:16
  who has like his lungs on the outside of him
• 41:19
  on his back and the way that like a good like
• 41:22
  third or quarter of his attacks or like i'm going
• 41:25
  to shoot out a wave of like wind at you and my
• 41:28
  first thought was oh just like period it's like
• 41:30
  wait a minute reflect and then i started doing
• 41:33
  that it's like oh crap i can actually do that
• 41:35
  and deal damage on that even if he's all the
• 41:38
  way on the other end of the room you can even
• 41:40
  deflect arrows and if or if you parry them you
• 41:43
  split them down the middle if it's a perfect
• 41:44
  parade which looks really cool um i will say
• 41:47
  as well the main character is fucking excellent
• 41:49
  like he's just he's like a dog but like a lovable
• 41:53
  dog and it it's really funny in places as well
• 41:56
  like the animations it's a really cool game is
• 42:01
  it um like a classic like i want to say more
• 42:05
  like a ninja gaiden or is it more souls like
• 42:10
  is it comparable to anything like or is it just
• 42:13
  its own Closest to Ninja Gaiden than Souls, I
• 42:17
  think, but not really like Ninja Gaiden. Yeah,
• 42:19
  I'd say the combat system's not Ninja Gaiden.
• 42:21
  It's still like, at the end of the day, a very
• 42:23
  basic combat system. But it's not Souls -like.
• 42:27
  It's not going for that level of difficulty.
• 42:29
  Not even close. It's not even like the older
• 42:33
  Onimushas in any way, shape, or form. Probably
• 42:37
  the closest analog I could think of would be...
• 42:40
  God, what can I think of? Yeah, I don't know.
• 42:45
  I don't know. It's kind of, it's on piece. What
• 42:47
  about Sekiro? That looks sort of vaguely similar.
• 42:51
  I mean, no, there is a bit of that when you're,
• 42:55
  when you're parrying and deflecting, there's
• 42:57
  a bit of that like rhythm action game cadence
• 42:59
  to it. But I mean, that's the closest point of
• 43:02
  comparison with Sekiro. It sounds good to me
• 43:05
  because I disliked all those other games at Puff
• 43:07
  and Ninja Gaiden. Yeah, it's on my list. of uh
• 43:11
  games like rebecca's got a list i've got a list
• 43:14
  as well of just things i'll get to yeah at some
• 43:16
  point the thing is the first 10 minutes you don't
• 43:19
  you don't really get to see the combat system
• 43:21
  properly so all right so i've got to play for
• 43:24
  more than 10 yeah i could play over two days
• 43:26
  give it 20 minutes yeah um so that's another
• 43:30
  good game i don't know we're going to afford
• 43:32
  to buy all these games can't all go to prs and
• 43:34
  get free code um i've been playing a game called
• 43:38
  orbitals which is it is good it's the co -op
• 43:44
  only sci -fi adventure anime looking game um
• 43:50
  from i think they're called shape farm i think
• 43:53
  it's called shape farm um and this i think it
• 43:58
  was announced at the game awards last year and
• 44:01
  it looked great and people got quite excited
• 44:03
  about it and it's only coming to switch to at
• 44:04
  least at the moment um and it's got that kind
• 44:08
  of kind of fairly popular co -op uh feeling that
• 44:14
  we get from that we've had from the hazelight
• 44:16
  game so you could on the face of it it's comparable
• 44:19
  to like it takes two and um split fiction what
• 44:23
  you're telling me is that we uh kill a beloved
• 44:25
  child like elephant toy no no the mechanics change
• 44:30
  constantly as you go through yes there's a lot
• 44:32
  of like stuff that is like doesn't happen very
• 44:37
  often but they've kind of added it for this little
• 44:39
  bit it doesn't to be like cut to the to the point
• 44:43
  i didn't love it as much as it takes to in the
• 44:46
  split fiction which i think both have i don't
• 44:49
  know the vibe the tone of those i preferred this
• 44:52
  is a it's not a serious game but it compared
• 44:54
  to those it has it's not as fun i would say but
• 44:58
  it the actual co -op stuff is still really good
• 45:00
  i played it through my son who's 12 And he's
• 45:04
  like, he plays games. It's not like playing with
• 45:06
  a novice or anything, but we have a good time
• 45:08
  playing it. Like there's a lot of like, it's
• 45:11
  definitely a game that needs to be colored, but
• 45:13
  it's not just, oh, why didn't they just let me
• 45:15
  play with a bot? It wouldn't have worked with
• 45:16
  a bot character. Did you play five minutes or
• 45:19
  did you technically go for 20 minutes? We played
• 45:21
  10 minutes each together. So I guess 20 overall.
• 45:26
  but yeah like i enjoyed it a lot i've seen some
• 45:28
  criticism of the story saying like it doesn't
• 45:30
  have much so i think it had a fine story like
• 45:32
  maybe it was a bit like the game isn't that long
• 45:35
  and maybe it was like the story of maybe two
• 45:38
  episodes of a cartoon spread out over the whole
• 45:41
  thing i thought it was fine like it's just it's
• 45:43
  fairly simple but it is enough to keep you going
• 45:46
  and seeing through it and there's like twists
• 45:48
  and stuff and um it i was entertained enough
• 45:53
  by the story but it is all like the main thing
• 45:55
  this has going for is it just looks amazing like
• 45:57
  if you've seen it shown off in any of the videos
• 46:01
  you'll get and you kind of know what you're going
• 46:03
  to get but it does really looks like incredible
• 46:07
  at points like the style they've gone for even
• 46:09
  on like i know the switch 2 is a perfectly good
• 46:12
  machine but it's not like it's a ps5 pro or a
• 46:15
  pc or anything and it doesn't matter like the
• 46:17
  style is incredible the way that the animation
• 46:20
  is really cool The backgrounds are so good that
• 46:23
  it makes up for a lot of like maybe simplicity
• 46:26
  in the foreground and some of the stuff. The
• 46:28
  world, the environments look cool. There's a
• 46:30
  nice variety to it. And it's just like a nice
• 46:34
  cart game. There's enough stuff where you're
• 46:35
  like, you have to work together. It's not just
• 46:38
  like playing alongside someone. There's actual
• 46:40
  doing stuff together and being sort of on the
• 46:44
  same page about what you're doing and then shouting
• 46:46
  at each other when it goes wrong and stuff. But
• 46:49
  I liked it a lot. It's certainly good enough
• 46:53
  to recommend. I don't know if it's, like I said
• 46:57
  in my review, like I remember when I finished
• 46:59
  Split Fiction, I used to walk my son to school
• 47:02
  before he got too big and went to secondary school.
• 47:05
  And we talked about that a lot. All the stuff
• 47:07
  we did in Split Fiction would be a thing we talked
• 47:09
  about in high school. There's a lot of moments
• 47:11
  that are like cool bits that you think, wow,
• 47:13
  they're just, how much money and time did they
• 47:15
  spend making this bit for like a minute or whatever.
• 47:19
  This doesn't have that many, bits like that has
• 47:22
  a couple that you're like this is really cool
• 47:24
  and like when we figured out what to do we're
• 47:26
  like we're really clever we figured this out
• 47:28
  um but there aren't that many of those most of
• 47:31
  it is perfectly good co -op stuff but not particularly
• 47:34
  kind of like memorable bits that makes sense
• 47:37
  i'm looking at the scores because i i haven't
• 47:40
  played split fiction yet i want to i want to
• 47:42
  get around to it but um i did play it takes two
• 47:45
  and that was one of those things where it felt
• 47:47
  like the way that they marketed it it's like
• 47:49
  oh you're not going to be playing the same thing
• 47:51
  every it's going to be something different every
• 47:53
  15 minutes and for that it was true and i assume
• 47:55
  for split fiction same deal uh it sounds like
• 47:58
  it's not quite the same scope there with uh orbitals
• 48:02
  in terms of like how things there's quite a lot
• 48:04
  of yeah it's not quite as like a new thing, new
• 48:09
  thing, new thing all the time. There is, there
• 48:12
  is, they introduce enough stuff regularly so
• 48:14
  that it feels like you've got this thing you
• 48:16
  use last level, you don't use this level and
• 48:18
  kind of stuff. You get a new mechanic. You're
• 48:20
  not having a section where someone, one of the
• 48:22
  two players is doing a fighting game against
• 48:25
  a squirrel on the top of an airplane that the
• 48:27
  other person is flying. No. But there are, there
• 48:32
  are some bits. There's, the puzzles are the best
• 48:35
  bit I'd say. There's not. and how you figure
• 48:37
  those out with another person and how you get
• 48:40
  the timing right and everything it's quite cool
• 48:42
  um it's just not quite the same level of wow
• 48:45
  like i remember the end of split fiction was
• 48:48
  like properly like this is i've never seen anything
• 48:52
  like this done in the game before kind of stuff
• 48:53
  it was really cool um it's not quite the same
• 48:56
  here but this does have i think the presentation
• 48:59
  of it isn't is amazing like it just looks really
• 49:02
  good if you've if you're familiar with any like
• 49:05
  I guess 90s anime type show. To me, it reminds
• 49:10
  me of Ulysses. Do you want to watch Ulysses when
• 49:12
  you're a kid? No, you're too old, Tom. No, Ulysses.
• 49:16
  It's got a good theme. Look it up. It's got a
• 49:17
  really good theme tune. Stop saying Ulysses.
• 49:19
  Ulysses. And like Mysterious Cities of Gold.
• 49:23
  Do you want to watch that? Mate, stop. You probably
• 49:26
  watch all the stuff that everyone watches. Sharky
• 49:30
  and George. It doesn't look like Sharky and George,
• 49:32
  but I do remember that. Another good theme tune.
• 49:35
  The best theme tune, perhaps. I would sing it,
• 49:38
  but I don't want to. But yeah, it's a top game,
• 49:43
  just maybe not as good as some of the other,
• 49:46
  particularly those last two from Hazelight. Have
• 49:49
  you played Big Walk Tom? I haven't because I
• 49:53
  don't have any friends that will play it with
• 49:56
  me. And also, I know it wouldn't work split screen
• 49:59
  as such because it kind of needs the kind of
• 50:03
  being on your own kind of thing. But if it had,
• 50:05
  I could have played it with my son or whatever.
• 50:07
  But yeah, at some point. Are you talking about
• 50:09
  Big Walk? Yeah, I honestly think it's the best
• 50:12
  game of the year so far. Yeah, it's really funny
• 50:15
  how my two favorite games this year so far, Big
• 50:19
  Walk and Marathon, are basically synonyms in
• 50:22
  terms of title. Yeah. It's a game that... looks
• 50:27
  it looks exactly like the kind of game i would
• 50:29
  like but i i just don't know how i'd get i'd
• 50:32
  play games for 10 minutes right at the end where
• 50:35
  it like don't spoil it don't spoil it no no no
• 50:39
  there's hard versions of the puzzles though and
• 50:41
  our solution to it was like we had to do interpretive
• 50:45
  dance to explain a sound yeah my it was the same
• 50:50
  thing i did the same thing with my group and
• 50:55
  it was like oh man just like the back and forth
• 50:57
  where it's like you're you're behind glass where
• 51:00
  you can't hear each other so you have to either
• 51:02
  tap it to the to like to the rhythm of what you're
• 51:05
  hearing or doing an interpretive dance and trying
• 51:08
  to like like match the like tempo and the the
• 51:11
  the tone of it all and it's like yeah we laid
• 51:14
  out all the all these audio speakers and then
• 51:17
  it was like this one means this and this one
• 51:19
  means this is great yeah well it's nice must
• 51:24
  be nice to have friends yeah it's all right yeah
• 51:26
  yeah yeah are you uh playing anything this week
• 51:32
  we've talked about a lot of games that maybe
• 51:34
  aren't your thing mostly recovering from gamescom
• 51:37
  this week so it's been between that did you get
• 51:40
  corn flu did you get i didn't get corn flu but
• 51:42
  i also just occasionally my body decides to just
• 51:46
  make me ill anyway so i was like oh great the
• 51:48
  calls coming from inside the house but same difference
• 51:51
  so i've mostly been on a sofa um also i've been
• 51:54
  playing because it was my birthday yesterday
• 51:55
  i've been playing all the sort of life service
• 51:56
  games that make a fuss of you when it's your
• 51:58
  birthday so i've been going back to some old
• 51:59
  favorites really um i'm gonna get on it a bit
• 52:02
  more i've been playing a lot of uh servant of
• 52:05
  the lake which i reviewed recently i've been
• 52:07
  replaying a lot to get all the secrets um there's
• 52:10
  one news story that i really did want to address
• 52:12
  actually speaking of the uh the run -up to gta6
• 52:14
  is that uh devolver digital One of the big indie
• 52:19
  publishers a while ago announced that they would
• 52:22
  totally release a game the same day as GTA 6.
• 52:25
  They have now announced what that game is going
• 52:27
  to be. They have completely stepped to the bit.
• 52:29
  So they are going to be releasing Volvi's Adventure
• 52:32
  Reslined on the 19th of November, which is a
• 52:37
  spectacular remaster of the original remake of
• 52:39
  the unreleased action platformer starring the
• 52:41
  most famous video game mascot of all time. I
• 52:43
  love the commitment to the bit. I'm really excited.
• 52:46
  Do you know what? I would actually find that
• 52:48
  a bit of a piss take if it was something they
• 52:52
  were publishing, but it sounds like they're doing
• 52:54
  it internally. No, it's an in -house joke about
• 52:56
  them. Because I thought the same thing, right?
• 52:58
  I was like, have they kind of screwed over one
• 52:59
  of their dev teams? But no, they have. No, I
• 53:02
  can tell when it's filthy, right? in -house minigame
• 53:05
  kind of thing based on it. It's very sonic. Would
• 53:07
  it really be spring over their dev team, like
• 53:09
  one of their dev teams though, if they agreed
• 53:11
  to it? And it's like Devolver digital stuff.
• 53:13
  It's like, it's, it's like two separate circles.
• 53:15
  Like the people that are excited for Devolver
• 53:17
  games and the people that are excited for GTA,
• 53:19
  there might be like a little bit of overlap,
• 53:20
  but not that much. No, but in terms of like getting
• 53:23
  eyes on it in the media and influences and stuff,
• 53:27
  it would be difficult. I think it is a really
• 53:31
  funny bit. It is funny. And I just, I don't think
• 53:35
  there's any other game that I know of so far
• 53:37
  that's actually coming out on November 19th,
• 53:38
  directly up against GTA 6. A Barbie game, right?
• 53:40
  Is that a Barbie game out? Oh, gosh, is that
• 53:43
  on the day? It's like the collection. It's the
• 53:44
  old retro collection. What's it also called?
• 53:45
  That Godzilla game? I don't know. That remaster
• 53:49
  of like the GameCube one or something? Or was
• 53:51
  that just the same? Everyone says it's amazing,
• 53:53
  but I remember playing that and thinking it was
• 53:55
  not great. Barbie's missing it by three days.
• 53:57
  Sorry, by week. It's been out the week before.
• 54:00
  It's not quite the same. Cowards. Yeah, right?
• 54:02
  Cowards. Yeah. I still think there's probably,
• 54:05
  there's more overlap there than you think because
• 54:07
  absolutely everyone's excited for GTA 6. Like,
• 54:09
  my aunt, who has played one video game ever,
• 54:12
  keeps asking me for GTA 6 news. And, you know,
• 54:15
  it's just, it's got a cultural saturation that
• 54:17
  is so much more than you'd expect. My son was
• 54:21
  like, when's GTA 6 out? And I was like, doesn't
• 54:25
  affect you at all, mate. Doesn't affect you at
• 54:27
  all. When you're 18. You're 12. Yeah. So, yeah,
• 54:31
  I think there is a lot of interest in GTA. I
• 54:34
  don't know about Volvi. Yeah. I just think it's
• 54:37
  such a good bit. I was really impressed by their
• 54:40
  commitment. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're that
• 54:43
  kind of publisher that does that kind of stuff.
• 54:45
  It'd be a good bit as a games website if you
• 54:47
  don't get access to GTA 6 to review that instead
• 54:51
  and make a big deal out of it. Yeah. I noticed
• 54:55
  a couple of places for the announcement already
• 54:57
  did. sort of like 100 articles on vol v detailed
• 55:00
  guides everything um you know so that's kind
• 55:06
  of right my obsession right now yes i mean i'll
• 55:10
  probably have a look at it i assume that is it
• 55:12
  going to be free uh free to play it is little
• 55:14
  game uh gonna be four pound fifty but if you
• 55:17
  pre -order up until release it's it's got 25
• 55:20
  off if you pre -order it before you get access
• 55:22
  to gta four three something i can't do the math
• 55:25
  in my head are they releasing it physically That
• 55:30
  would be such a good way to cap off the whole
• 55:33
  joke. So far, it's only listed on Steam. But
• 55:36
  you know what? If a limited room version gets
• 55:38
  announced, that would be pretty awesome. Yeah,
• 55:43
  right. We're on to retrospectives, retrospectives
• 55:47
  now, which is where we look at all the anniversaries
• 55:50
  of games that have been released about 5, 10,
• 55:55
  15, 20, 30 years ago. First up, we've missed
• 55:59
  this one, but Phantasy Star Universe came out
• 56:02
  on the 31st of August. Phantasy Star Universe,
• 56:05
  20 years ago. James, I assume you know what this
• 56:08
  is. Yes, I do, but I didn't play it because I
• 56:11
  had a PS3 and I had a 360, so. So is this the
• 56:16
  one that was Phantasy Star Online, but sort of
• 56:20
  redone? I can't remember. It was like a new,
• 56:24
  from what I understand. cut from the same cloth
• 56:26
  as like fantasy star online but i don't know
• 56:29
  the exact specifics of what it was because you
• 56:31
  don't really see people talk about it as much
• 56:33
  as like the original pso and then obviously pso
• 56:36
  yeah yeah well that was 20 years ago jetpack
• 56:40
  joyride 15 years old i remember playing that
• 56:43
  if you had a mobile phone jetpack joyride was
• 56:47
  one of the games to play 15 years ago yeah They
• 56:52
  ported it to loads of stuff, didn't they, I think.
• 56:53
  I was too busy conceiving my child 15 years ago.
• 56:56
  15 years ago. Yeah. All right. This guy's got
• 57:02
  sex. Didn't say you had to play it or anything.
• 57:06
  Nights into Dreams, 30 years, which all these
• 57:10
  ones that are like 30 plus years, I always make
• 57:12
  me feel incredibly odd. I remember that coming
• 57:15
  out with this special weird controller with the
• 57:19
  analog stick on it. Never liked it at all. But
• 57:24
  I know some people are fans. Was that like a
• 57:26
  3DO game? No, of course it wasn't. Saturn, that's
• 57:31
  it. I couldn't afford that machine. I didn't
• 57:36
  get one either, but my cousin had one. I played
• 57:38
  the Xbox Live Arcade version of it when that
• 57:43
  hit. I just said I didn't have a 360. I eventually
• 57:48
  got an Xbox One. That's how I played it. You
• 57:52
  know, I remember the Knights Christmas demo disc.
• 57:57
  Again, that's my cousin had that. So, you know,
• 57:59
  the little Christmas level, I played that on
• 58:01
  his Saturn. Did that when it was actually Christmas,
• 58:06
  right? The level changed. Did the clock on the
• 58:09
  console. I'm sure it did. It was the first time
• 58:12
  I remember a game doing that. Used to be in the
• 58:15
  Animal Crossing. Everyone loves it. They do the
• 58:17
  little themed. events around GTA online as well
• 58:22
  to do a bit of snow yeah yeah nice Cave Story
• 58:26
  on like a holiday you'll have various different
• 58:30
  outfits and themes for the areas which makes
• 58:33
  it very funny when you're doing the ultra difficult
• 58:38
  secret ending for Cave Story and then like the
• 58:40
  final boss is dressed up like a goddamn reindeer
• 58:43
  never played Cave Story it's one of those games
• 58:46
  that I see mentioned all the time I'm like One
• 58:49
  day. One day. What happened to 40 ,000 Space
• 58:52
  Marines 10? Less of a big deal probably than
• 58:57
  the sequel, but still fairly liked at the time.
• 59:01
  7 out of 10 action game. 360 PS3 era, I think.
• 59:05
  That's the one, right? Yep. Pretty sure. I remember
• 59:07
  playing a demo for it on my PS3. Yeah. It's one
• 59:12
  of those that you look back and there were lots
• 59:14
  of those 7 out of 10 games that actually were
• 59:16
  great. Tons of them. Test Drive Unlimited, 20
• 59:19
  years old. I love that game. Terrible as a game
• 59:23
  to play where you move with cars handled like
• 59:25
  shit, but the world and just hanging around in
• 59:28
  it and just driving around is really cool. Like
• 59:31
  just kind of a false, but a bit more for like
• 59:37
  boring people, I suppose. Some more like for
• 59:41
  me. Like Project Gotham. Not Project Gotham.
• 59:45
  No. What are you on about? Patrick Gotham's not
• 59:48
  for boring people, is it? It's a thrilling arcade
• 59:50
  slash sim racer in cool cities and stuff. That's
• 59:55
  not for boring people. Yakuza, North American
• 59:59
  release 20 years ago. I've never got into the
• 1:00:01
  Yakuza games. I find them bizarre, tonally, combat.
• 1:00:06
  I just don't like them. I assume everyone else
• 1:00:08
  here loves Yakuza. I find you bizarre tonally,
• 1:00:11
  Tom. Well, other people have said the same thing.
• 1:00:17
  who likes yakuza rebecca yeah as much as much
• 1:00:21
  as i've seen again something that i wish i knew
• 1:00:22
  i wish that i was like the yakuza person but
• 1:00:25
  i am the enjoyer of the law he wishes they knew
• 1:00:28
  more about it but i've seen it kind of described
• 1:00:31
  and like compared to like animal crossing for
• 1:00:33
  grown -ups just like weird little things that
• 1:00:35
  you do off to the side and yeah it's definitely
• 1:00:39
  my jam um i like i really appreciate that this
• 1:00:42
  series exists so i'm i'm happy i wish it a happy
• 1:00:45
  birthday 20 years old. Super Pitfall, which I
• 1:00:51
  assume was... What is that? A SNES version of
• 1:00:56
  Pitfall? I mean, I don't know. I know nothing
• 1:00:58
  about this. Was the SNES out 40 years ago? It
• 1:01:02
  can't have been, surely. Commodore, surely, right?
• 1:01:04
  Super Pitfall. Commodore, I don't know. It's
• 1:01:10
  40 years old, if anyone played it, enjoyed that
• 1:01:12
  anniversary for 40 years. Dead Island. He's 10.
• 1:01:16
  To me, that feels way older than 10. Yeah. It's
• 1:01:19
  got to be older than 10. Is that not the definitive
• 1:01:22
  edition? Definitive edition. I'm going to blame...
• 1:01:25
  Yeah, no, no, no. Because that one was on the
• 1:01:27
  PS3 360. They weren't still releasing games on
• 1:01:31
  PS3 360 in like 2016, I don't think. I mean,
• 1:01:34
  Wolfhammer Space Marine must have been more than
• 1:01:36
  10 as well, surely. Because that was a 360 game.
• 1:01:40
  Alex is screwed. What's Alex done here? What
• 1:01:42
  has he done? I think, yeah. He's messed this
• 1:01:44
  up big time. That's why it's crossed. Because
• 1:01:45
  I was like, Dead Island's only 10. And I was
• 1:01:47
  like, no, Dead Island is. Dead Island. Terrible,
• 1:01:51
  terrible game. Wait a minute. Is it 15? I think
• 1:01:54
  it might be 15. Yeah, I think both of those might
• 1:01:56
  be 15. Yeah. If that makes more sense, that fits
• 1:01:59
  more. Why was that game so popular? Dead Island.
• 1:02:03
  Zombies. Dead Island was like I can't remember
• 1:02:15
  there was a lot of interest around it both of
• 1:02:17
  those are not 10 yeah 15 years old sounds more
• 1:02:21
  like it yeah but there was a lot of like the
• 1:02:23
  first trailer they had that impressive cgi it
• 1:02:25
  wasn't even that good that trailer but it was
• 1:02:27
  like it made enough of a splash enough of a splash
• 1:02:30
  to get attention it's so crazy to me that dead
• 1:02:33
  island 2 came out and it was actually a good
• 1:02:35
  video game and success did island 2 surprisingly
• 1:02:37
  good although i got bored yeah i got bored of
• 1:02:40
  it i thought i could go to another man's house
• 1:02:42
  and see what's in there i mean it wasn't incredible
• 1:02:46
  but for what it was it's like It was a sequel
• 1:02:49
  to Dead Island. I hadn't got enough time off
• 1:02:51
  it in co -op, so I mean. You could tell it was
• 1:02:53
  salvaged from like 10 scrapped ideas. Okay, yeah.
• 1:02:57
  That is just a typo in the script. It is 15 this
• 1:03:00
  week. God, Alex is a dickhead, isn't he? He's
• 1:03:04
  just sold us out completely to the morons. But
• 1:03:09
  yeah, Dead Island, I played it actually. Well,
• 1:03:11
  they re -released it with expansion included,
• 1:03:14
  I think. I don't know what that was called. Why
• 1:03:15
  did you do that? because i think i had to review
• 1:03:18
  it or something riptide and it was that version
• 1:03:21
  was decent enough in like it had that like looter
• 1:03:25
  type feel to it you just go around grabbing all
• 1:03:27
  the stuff and it engaged me enough but still
• 1:03:30
  not a great game by any means well funny story
• 1:03:33
  i've never played it much but i have read the
• 1:03:35
  novelization by mark morris bizarre but i never
• 1:03:39
  would have guessed it was in a charity shop I
• 1:03:42
  like Mark Morris, so I was like, sure, I'll give
• 1:03:44
  it a go. And it's fine. Yeah, it's good. You
• 1:03:47
  know what's really funny? Dead Island 2 is still
• 1:03:49
  called Dead Island, but it doesn't take place
• 1:03:51
  on an island. It takes place in LA. LA, yeah.
• 1:03:54
  Oh, yeah. I remember that. It's like I recognize
• 1:03:57
  some of those streets. It's like Jurassic Park
• 1:04:00
  isn't always set in a park. And Jurassic World
• 1:04:03
  is set on the world. You can make a park anywhere,
• 1:04:07
  though. It's really hard to make an island in
• 1:04:09
  LA. Assassin's Creed doesn't always have assassins
• 1:04:11
  in it. We've blown this wide open pretty much.
• 1:04:19
  Can I do one more anniversary as well out of
• 1:04:21
  interest? It's not a round number but it has
• 1:04:25
  been generating some discussion as your EA buyout
• 1:04:28
  correspondent for the podcast Sims 4 turned 12
• 1:04:32
  on Tuesday which has obviously had a lot of chatter
• 1:04:34
  around it because it's the first major anniversary
• 1:04:36
  to come up. since the acquisition and also like
• 1:04:39
  it is now easily the longest running sims game
• 1:04:42
  most of them lasted four or five years this one's
• 1:04:44
  had 12 years of the same base game so that was
• 1:04:46
  quite interesting and it got the collaboration
• 1:04:48
  kits with the movies clueless and mean girls
• 1:04:52
  they release so much dog shit for that game don't
• 1:04:55
  it's just it's kind of so interesting because
• 1:04:57
  it's taken a real time allegedly they're done
• 1:04:59
  making major expansions but now they're really
• 1:05:01
  leaning into movie and tv collaborations which
• 1:05:03
  has never been a thing until the end of last
• 1:05:06
  year it was always like fashion collaborations
• 1:05:08
  occasionally like a musician but now they're
• 1:05:10
  like oh we do TV and movie tie and stuff and
• 1:05:12
  I'm like what is happening I feel like slightly
• 1:05:14
  odd different audiences Mean Girls and it seems
• 1:05:18
  like an age bracket right Mean Girls is much
• 1:05:20
  more Clueless is like 1995 Mean Girls is about
• 1:05:23
  2004 I think so yeah it's like a decade between
• 1:05:25
  them I guess with streaming and stuff it doesn't
• 1:05:28
  really matter anymore you just watch something's
• 1:05:30
  popular it's it's new for most people it's just
• 1:05:33
  so wild um so there's a lot of retrospectives
• 1:05:35
  doing the rounds at the moment as like 12 years
• 1:05:37
  of sims 4 which just it feels so weird to me
• 1:05:39
  because every previous sims generation that lasted
• 1:05:42
  five years maps perfectly onto a period in my
• 1:05:45
  life that was almost perfectly five years like
• 1:05:46
  it was like high school or uni and then literally
• 1:05:49
  the month i left uni and started looking for
• 1:05:52
  a job sims 4 came out so that 12 years feels
• 1:05:54
  like just the same span of time and it really
• 1:05:56
  messes me up that there are kids playing this
• 1:05:57
  game who legitimately can't remember the last
• 1:06:00
  three generations of the game we've got to have
• 1:06:02
  another one in development i think so they keep
• 1:06:04
  flip -flopping on whether they have sims 5 in
• 1:06:07
  development or not the narrative on that changes
• 1:06:09
  month to month basically at the moment obviously
• 1:06:12
  not helped by the buyout and they definitely
• 1:06:14
  got a new mobile spin -off uh also in development
• 1:06:18
  that's allegedly going to tie into either sims
• 1:06:20
  4 or sims 5 in some kind of mechanical way They're
• 1:06:23
  being quite tight -lipped at the moment as well.
• 1:06:25
  Have you played these spiritual successors that
• 1:06:28
  have come out recently? Yeah, I've played Unzoy,
• 1:06:29
  I've played Paralives. They're both all right.
• 1:06:33
  I would say that they're both kind of like...
• 1:06:34
  It's really hard to say where they should land
• 1:06:39
  because obviously The Sims has got 25 years of
• 1:06:42
  continuous development, 26 years now, of continuous
• 1:06:45
  development experience from the team. It's got
• 1:06:47
  a lot of paid expansions. These are both early
• 1:06:50
  access kind of like... no um no paid expansions
• 1:06:54
  also you can run sims 4 on a toaster that's like
• 1:06:58
  what an unreal engine 5 i had to buy a new pc
• 1:07:01
  to run inzo so power lives is is you know i think
• 1:07:06
  they're all kind of like you know maybe it was
• 1:07:08
  a blessing in disguise because like when inzo
• 1:07:10
  came out if you upgraded right then and there
• 1:07:13
  you miss all the ram bullshit i was quite lucky
• 1:07:16
  in that regard for sure the sims creator guy
• 1:07:19
  was making a sims successful wasn't it oh there
• 1:07:23
  was um one of the major developers uh grant radiac
• 1:07:28
  i think was working on one yeah and there was
• 1:07:30
  um the other guy oh my god his name's i interviewed
• 1:07:33
  him but i forgot his name as well um i feel i'm
• 1:07:37
  really excited it looks really cool it looks
• 1:07:39
  really good life by you was the name that was
• 1:07:41
  it yeah yeah he showed me a demo of it yeah a
• 1:07:44
  couple of them have been completely bent and
• 1:07:46
  like life by you was so close to release it was
• 1:07:49
  literally like weeks from its early access launch
• 1:07:52
  and they just they just binned it so it's a very
• 1:07:55
  strange genre to be following at the moment because
• 1:07:59
  it's kind of got this one big linchpin that kind
• 1:08:02
  of consumes everything else half of the high
• 1:08:05
  profile attempts to put an alternative onto the
• 1:08:08
  market seem to fall down before they even get
• 1:08:10
  out I would say Inzoe and Paralives both comparable
• 1:08:13
  to the Sims 4 base game if you just play Sims
• 1:08:16
  4 for free they kind of have a comparable sort
• 1:08:18
  of feel and they are still building on stuff
• 1:08:20
  but I I really think a lot of it comes down to
• 1:08:23
  your taste in aesthetics. And whether you're
• 1:08:24
  into the simulation side or the character design
• 1:08:28
  building side makes a huge difference as to what
• 1:08:30
  is the best game. Like, Paralyzed looks fantastic.
• 1:08:32
  The art style is gorgeous. And Inzo is... Inzo
• 1:08:36
  looks really good, but it's so uncanny. It looks
• 1:08:39
  a little bit... It looks a bit AI. It's definitely
• 1:08:42
  got AI. I mean, they use certain, like, SLM AI.
• 1:08:49
  tools within the game to try and make the characters
• 1:08:52
  feel more real and human and reactive but it's
• 1:08:55
  not really i've played with it a bit and it hasn't
• 1:08:58
  really worked so far um they are quite like determined
• 1:09:02
  that everyone goes it's like an slm it's stored
• 1:09:04
  on your device it's not llm it's all our it's
• 1:09:06
  only that our proprietary stuff all the stuff
• 1:09:08
  that fans have put in it's not like scraping
• 1:09:11
  the whole internet for for data which is of the
• 1:09:14
  ways to use ai probably the least harmful um
• 1:09:17
  I can see why they think it might be a cool tool
• 1:09:20
  in a life sim, but so far it's been like, you
• 1:09:23
  try and set them up to do stuff and they just
• 1:09:25
  kind of follow the same patterns anyway. It's
• 1:09:27
  not an especially powerful tool, to be honest.
• 1:09:30
  But yeah, the whole genre is in a really odd
• 1:09:32
  place because this year there have been so many
• 1:09:33
  life sims, especially if you expand that to social
• 1:09:35
  and farming sims, huge, huge amount of stuff.
• 1:09:37
  And now it feels like Mysteria. Somehow there's
• 1:09:40
  three separate... Apparently, there's like three
• 1:09:43
  separate farming sims that are going for a farming
• 1:09:45
  sim, but spooky. We have like... Yeah, Moonlight
• 1:09:48
  Peaks is another one that I played recently.
• 1:09:50
  Moonlight Peaks. I've been playing Village in
• 1:09:52
  the Shade. Oh, God, I never heard of that one.
• 1:09:55
  Oh, my God, I've had some. It's from NIS, Nippon
• 1:09:58
  Ichi Software. It's from the Yomawari devs, and
• 1:10:03
  it's quite good. It's quite good. That's cool.
• 1:10:05
  I'll have to check it out because there's, as
• 1:10:06
  you say, a lot of spooky life and farming sims
• 1:10:08
  out. I'm a weeaboo. I'm playing in Japanese.
• 1:10:11
  But it comes out in English next month. Cool.
• 1:10:14
  I keep getting emails like Stardew Valley meets
• 1:10:16
  The Last of Us and stuff like that as well. Yeah,
• 1:10:19
  Stardew Valley is huge at the moment. And that's
• 1:10:22
  another element to this. But yeah, it's been
• 1:10:24
  a really packed year. This is why I don't know
• 1:10:26
  any games at the moment because I specialize
• 1:10:28
  in life sims and suddenly we've gone from 25
• 1:10:30
  years with one life sim to everyone's having
• 1:10:32
  a go. i don't mostly play the problem they have
• 1:10:36
  yeah yeah absolutely well they like tom i'm mostly
• 1:10:38
  playing for 10 minutes and then i'm like this
• 1:10:39
  is just the same thing again and i run away from
• 1:10:42
  it but i've got enough life sim in my actual
• 1:10:46
  life yeah for a long life soon no i don't i sit
• 1:10:49
  here and i tend my crops and meanwhile my garden's
• 1:10:51
  going crazy and i'm not doing it i love that
• 1:10:54
  you've got a prime mark back behind you by the
• 1:10:55
  way tom i was just like the way that the logo
• 1:10:57
  emerges from the blur is actually quite artistic.
• 1:11:00
  It looks like it says Rimmar. Freaking hate Primark.
• 1:11:04
  Last time I was in, let's save my Primark thoughts
• 1:11:07
  for the extra podcast, which we're going to,
• 1:11:10
  just to tease people to become patrons. That
• 1:11:13
  is it for this week on our Ramblings podcast.
• 1:11:17
  But we have got more. If you are a patron, you
• 1:11:20
  can listen to the lock -in, which is our special
• 1:11:22
  extra podcast every week, which this week we'll
• 1:11:25
  be talking about my thoughts about Primark. and
• 1:11:28
  other things which to be determined. If you want
• 1:11:31
  to hang out with us as a Discord, you can find
• 1:11:34
  links to that on the website, respec .net. There's
• 1:11:36
  a link at the top or the bottom. I'm not entirely
• 1:11:38
  sure. And as mentioned, the patron for Respec
• 1:11:44
  exists. You can become a member of three different
• 1:11:46
  tiers. We've got different things to give you
• 1:11:48
  on each one. One of them is the lock -in. You've
• 1:11:51
  got other tiers give you extra videos and stuff.
• 1:11:53
  I did a video about my last holiday, which is
• 1:11:55
  wonderful if you've not seen that. Go to patreon
• 1:11:58
  .com forward slash respecnet to get all the patron
• 1:12:02
  details. And we do appreciate all your support.
• 1:12:05
  Independent media needs supporting, et cetera.
• 1:12:09
  That's it for this week. Anyone want to give
• 1:12:11
  a shout out about anything before we go? Keep
• 1:12:15
  an eye on the site for more Gamescom updates.
• 1:12:17
  My main thing. More Gamescom stuff from a few
• 1:12:21
  people coming this end of this week, next week.
• 1:12:25
  Check out my blog, lowpolymess .com. No, James,
• 1:12:29
  I'm talking about my blog now. Do not interrupt
• 1:12:33
  the blog. Plug lowpolymess .com, my blog. You
• 1:12:39
  can pay me directly on there if you want, if
• 1:12:41
  you like what I do. This week I did a little
• 1:12:44
  parenting guide for people with kids or a kind
• 1:12:48
  of warning if you don't have kids. It kind of
• 1:12:51
  works both ways. um not to have kids yeah kind
• 1:12:56
  of it'll work that way if you're like kids sound
• 1:13:00
  right you read that you're like nah actually
• 1:13:02
  give it a miss um james what are you saying sorry
• 1:13:06
  i put up a preview for final fantasy resonance
• 1:13:09
  on rpg site and doesn't matter as much now because
• 1:13:13
  there's that like seven hour demo that they dropped
• 1:13:16
  that has like save transfer so it's like Don't
• 1:13:20
  bother reading that anymore then. Just go play
• 1:13:22
  it. That's what you're saying, right? Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:13:26
  It sounded so defeated, James. Yeah. It's like,
• 1:13:29
  what's the point? What is the point? That's it
• 1:13:33
  for this week. Thanks, everyone. We will see
• 1:13:35
  you again next week. Bye.