Latest / WASD and Beyond / Episode 254: Replaced review and Crimson Desert Review in Progress... also NEW METRO?!

Transcript

Episode 254: Replaced review and Crimson Desert Review in Progress... also NEW METRO?! · WASD and Beyond

0:14
Life could be a dream. It's not though, because like
0:19
nuclear fire is any day right? My tire is also flat, so that's
0:25
equatable the. Tire being flat is the more
0:29
pressing issue I would say, because you also can't do
0:32
anything about the first thing if anything were to happen.
0:35
So, you know, get that, spend that money, get that tire
0:39
changed and you know, it may have been worth it or not.
0:42
The day before payday is so cool, right?
0:46
I have insurance on that tire. It just the tire knew.
0:50
It's like, dude, I'm going at the right time.
0:53
The tire said I'm tired, boss. Get it?
0:55
I'm tired boss. I'm.
0:58
Going to leave that one in there.
1:00
I ChatGPT to us the other day. I talked about it on Yeah, yeah,
1:04
yeah. I ChatGPT to us the other day.
1:07
What does that mean? I GPT dust bro.
1:10
I don't like that let. Me see.
1:13
You wasted a bottle of water. On you, yes, please describe.
1:17
Oh no, don't. Just go back to your go back to
1:21
your previous entry. Don't waste another buff.
1:25
What? Just what?
1:29
It's funny, it's a little silly thing.
1:32
It's it's certainly something. All right, let's you know, Oh,
1:37
OK, OK, all right, should should I go through our personalities
1:42
that GPT says? No, I don't want to hear what
1:46
the computer thinks of me. You should, It's good.
1:49
Fine, whatever. I don't.
1:51
Care Nick equals chaos energy. Strong takes Brody equals
1:57
restraint. Timing, subtle humor, Evan
2:00
equals balance, flow, adaptability.
2:04
Man, I hate all of it. I hate all of it.
2:07
It doesn't know anything. Evan sits somewhere in between
2:09
the two. He's a he's got a relaxed,
2:11
easygoing present, but isn't afraid to jump into the
2:14
absurdity when things get weird. He often acts as the meteors or
2:18
amplifier, either helping Nick escalate a bit or backing Brodie
2:22
up with a more grounded take. Oh my God I hate it.
2:28
I'm the engine of the show, it says.
2:30
OK, well, that's obvious. So pretty cool.
2:33
Good on it for. Good on it for figuring that one
2:35
out. It said I'm very loud.
2:38
That's true. And I'm sarcastic.
2:40
I'm not that sarcastic. No, you're not.
2:42
All right, everybody, sorry we used Chad GBT.
2:44
Welcome back to the WASD and Beyond podcast.
2:48
We're your host Nick and Evan Brody can't be with us this
2:51
week. So just Evan and myself, we're
2:53
going to go through this episode pretty fast.
2:54
Let's get right to it. We are sponsored by Final boss
2:57
and Doc Longy. Go check them out down below
3:00
links, click them, follow, buy their shit.
3:03
Check out WAC and Beyond. It came from screen box and Roll
3:06
for Deception just released a brand new episode as well as
3:08
it's came from screen box. So go check those new episodes
3:11
out now if you like us, follow, subscribe, you know, like
3:17
hearts, whatever, just get us out there, help us out.
3:19
Anyways, back to the show. So we've had good news in the
3:23
gaming industry and I want to start right off with Metro.
3:27
OK, let's jump right into it. Yeah, brand new, brand new Metro
3:31
game from 4A just got announced today, 1:00 PM Eastern Time.
3:36
It was part of an Xbox Showcase or not showcase, but it was an
3:38
Xbox first look. So Xbox like sponsored them.
3:42
I guess put this to put this a little like thing on.
3:45
We got a 6 minute long cinematic trailer.
3:48
Yeah, very. Good, very impressive.
3:53
We also got another like 8 minutes after that with the
3:57
devs, various developers talking about the reasons about behind
4:04
this game, what has changed over the course of its life.
4:08
Apparently they had been working on it since the previous entry.
4:11
Metro Exodus, which I'm looking up right now, came out in the
4:15
one time I spell Exodus from Good Lord Evan 2019.
4:19
So right when they were working on the next one, February 14th,
4:22
the beginning of 2019. So they had a whole year
4:24
basically before COVID and they had brought that up and said how
4:28
COVID did affect 2020 affected then.
4:31
They didn't specifically say COVID, but they said 2020 how
4:35
that affected the development of this game.
4:37
And then specifically because they're Ukrainian 2022, most of
4:43
most of their developers are Ukrainian, I believe they said,
4:47
as well as based in Ukraine. They do have developers from
4:50
over 25 countries as well, but the majority of them, I believe,
4:54
live there. And there's another special
4:57
thing about this because if you know the Metro games and you're
5:00
a fan of them, then you know that they are based off of
5:03
Dmitry Glukowski's novels, also called Metro 20332034, so on.
5:10
I haven't actually read them myself.
5:11
My brother has. He is a Russian author who has
5:17
been exiled from his home country of Russia because he's
5:19
been outspoken against the war that Russia has waged against
5:23
Ukraine. So there's a lot of things going
5:26
here and they actually, Nick has not seen that portion with the
5:30
developers. I have, he just watched the
5:32
trailer before we started. They do not shy back from that
5:37
and I appreciated that. They're very upfront about how
5:40
the war has changed, the reasons for developing.
5:43
And I specifically like one line from one of the developers who
5:46
said that the previous Metro games and Metro as a whole has
5:49
always been at its core and anti war story.
5:53
Yeah, it's obviously takes place after a nuclear winter or in the
5:57
process of 1. And also shows how humanity,
6:02
even in its darkest moments, will still fight each other to
6:06
be the the last one standing basically, even when a a better
6:10
world of, you know, cooperation is possible, which is true in
6:13
most of those games, specifically in Metro last light
6:17
and Exodus, I believe, I don't remember 2033, but I know that
6:20
those two in last light, you can specifically have a good ending
6:23
where it is a peaceful resolution.
6:25
And you can also do the same in Exodus, where if you make good
6:28
decisions and good karma based decisions, you will have a
6:31
better outcome. And they said I think that they
6:34
get this game is also going to focus very heavily and things
6:36
like that. And it is they specifically said
6:40
for this that this one developer that I was speaking about
6:43
previously had mentioned that this game or this story is meant
6:47
to show the consequences of when you wage war and when you have
6:53
tyranny and totalitarianism, which I am very interested to
6:58
see. The trailer shows that basically
7:00
all of the metro has been united under one group called the Nova
7:04
Reich. It is run their leader, as they
7:08
refer to in the developer section.
7:10
He is, he goes by Fuhrer and I believe they are AI believe Nova
7:17
Reich was that wasn't the name of the one station in the
7:20
previous metro games. But there was for those who
7:21
don't know a station a faction basically that was called the
7:25
4th Reich. So there was already a Nazi
7:28
presence throughout the books and the games.
7:30
So this is basically saying that they won and have united
7:34
everyone. The trailer shows indoctrination
7:36
of children as well into that sort of mindset.
7:42
I just, I'm going to stop talking and let Nick go.
7:44
I will just say I am so, so excited.
7:47
I did not realize how Metro pilled I was until this trailer
7:51
came out and I got home from work and was able to watch it.
7:54
I immediately was like, oh this is going to be so sick.
7:58
The Metro trailer is a we are back moment.
8:01
This looked beautiful. Wish we could have got some more
8:04
gameplay for sure. I think we'll see more
8:06
eventually down the pipeline, obviously, because we're aiming
8:09
for a winter. They are aiming for a winter
8:12
release, 2026 winter release. This is everything and more you
8:17
could have wanted for an advancement in the Metro series,
8:20
right? It's Metro's always been mature
8:23
and gritty, but there's something about this trailer
8:25
that I went this feels more home.
8:29
Like this feels more in line with what we got going on right
8:32
now, especially with the totalitarianism, fascist regimes
8:40
and like all this shit mixed with the like.
8:43
I mean I guess like the the inner world monsters and all
8:46
that which ultimately we are the bigger monsters than the actual
8:50
monsters in the Metro series which is the like almost duality
8:54
of the series. This looks awesome.
8:56
The cinematics itself are breathtaking to watch.
9:00
Even what they showed of the in game gameplay in engine.
9:04
Everything's running. It looks awesome.
9:07
It looks breathtaking. I cannot wait to be scared
9:10
shitless and I can't wait to get back from the world of Metro.
9:12
It's been years since Exodus and I feel like my time in Metro was
9:18
really short lived. When Metro was coming out, I was
9:21
playing STALKER. Yeah, yeah.
9:24
So that's that's the difference because that was this was my
9:27
stalker. Those this like it was this and
9:29
I like I heard like it it it can be kind of seen as that way.
9:33
It's more of a linear version of that sort of story or not sort
9:37
of story, but it's they're very different games overall, I
9:39
think. But like, they're both Ukrainian
9:42
developers, both post apocalyptic stories in some
9:45
fashion. Like same feel, same vibe almost
9:49
with the zone and the metro and all that.
9:52
The monsters, things like that. Yeah.
9:54
And it's exciting. It's very exciting that they
9:56
also went because you and I spoke earlier and you made a
9:59
great point. You was like, you were like, you
10:01
know what's great is this wasn't showing off and went.
10:04
See you in 2028. Yes, yeah, that's the first
10:07
thing I thought when I saw that it was Winter 2026, which like
10:11
Steve and our discord pointed out, which you should join.
10:13
If you're listening, you should join that discord.
10:15
It's free. Steve pointed out too, that like
10:18
obviously, as I said as well, winter could mean January,
10:21
February next year of 2027. However, I don't think that's
10:25
the case. I think it will be like
10:27
November, December, which would be pretty sick.
10:30
And also like, yes, that is what I, that is the first thing I
10:33
said, which was I like that this came out.
10:35
It is April, you know. So I mean, we have another
10:41
little bit of time left in the year and it's like, I just, I
10:44
appreciate that. I appreciate that, you know,
10:47
it's eight months out basically from the end of the year and we
10:51
could have a new metro game instead of them showing it to me
10:54
now and then it's like, yeah, it's going to be like 3 years.
10:58
And it's like, then why even show me like I don't care.
11:01
Like, because at that point it also begs, it begs more
11:03
questions. It's like, this looks great
11:05
already. What more could you possibly
11:06
need to do? And also they've essentially
11:10
what we've understood is that they've been working on this
11:12
since 2019 or just a little bit after they released Metro
11:15
Exodus. So they've already been working
11:18
on it for essentially 7 years. So obvious obviously things have
11:22
changed. But another big point they made,
11:23
this is not in Unreal Engine 5. This is all in the 4A custom
11:27
engine that they have used for the previous Metro games.
11:30
It allows them to focus specifically they called out
11:34
because Metro Exodus was a pioneer of early ray tracing
11:36
because it came out just when the the 20s and 30s series were
11:40
starting to come out and like ray tracing was the thing.
11:44
This now will include this version of the engine includes
11:47
an upgraded performance focused implementation of ray tracing to
11:50
deliver stunning visual still on the PS-5.
11:54
So they're targeting great performance.
11:56
It looks great. Like we saw the the little
11:59
gameplay they showed just like maybe 30 to 40 seconds.
12:02
It was all it was either in it was either in game or a part of
12:06
like real time cinematics, which I could see where it kind of cut
12:10
into the cinematic right towards the end there.
12:12
But the gameplay portion that we saw was was beautiful AS4K60FPS
12:16
It looked incredible. I could pause and pick out
12:18
little details and things like that.
12:20
I there's some other things that I'll just go over real quick.
12:24
This is the first Metro game where we will not be playing our
12:27
team and also the first Metro game where there will be a fully
12:31
voiced protagonist, His name, his name is The Stranger.
12:36
He is a recluse suffering from violent nightmares and is forced
12:39
to return to the Metro to face his past.
12:42
So there's going to be, I'm sure, a lot of psychological
12:45
horror and and dark themes there.
12:48
It was Co written by the exiled author Dmitry Glukowski and
12:51
developed in Ukraine, focusing the game story focuses heavily
12:55
on the consequences of war, tyranny and the price of
12:57
freedom. There will be obviously, as I
13:00
just said, psychological horror, a tense atmosphere, very closed
13:04
in closed space environments. Again, being back in the metro,
13:08
there is environmental storytelling that they called
13:11
frozen stories. Basically, players can piece
13:15
together what happened in a certain room just by looking at
13:18
what happened. So like they showed an example
13:21
of two people lying dead in a bedroom and through that you can
13:26
see details like the unfinished card game, the tea or vodka.
13:30
On the table. You can see in next to their
13:32
dead bodies, like one of them was like his hand is like inches
13:35
away from a shotgun with a shell on the ground next to it, like
13:39
he was loading, trying to load another shell in.
13:42
So I like that. I've kind of already felt that
13:45
way when I played the previous Metro games.
13:46
You can kind of learn a lot if you just really look and pay
13:48
attention. So I like that that's kind of
13:51
more what they're going for this since you're mostly going to be
13:54
by yourself, I'm assuming because even in the old Metro
13:57
games, you were alone, but you still had friends, so to speak.
14:00
You still have. Like.
14:01
A faction. This is like, you're alone as
14:05
far as I can tell. And there's no, I mean, I like
14:08
that RTM, as far as we can tell, it's not featured whatsoever
14:11
because that means that hopefully he and Anna and
14:14
everyone from the the train are just living happily on the lake
14:18
or. Whatever, there are somewhere
14:19
else that they need to finally be.
14:21
Yeah, like I I like that that's just kind of the end to their
14:24
story and we can continue to live in the world, but it's not.
14:27
We don't have to worry about. Those characters anymore, right?
14:30
Yeah. Like they're good.
14:32
There will be heavy realism. There is a minimal UI for full
14:36
immersion so I like that. The solaces as you saw in that
14:41
little game play snippet her back and I love the little
14:43
spikes they have on their back now.
14:44
I don't remember if that was in their previously, but.
14:46
That was annoying fuckers. Yes, they are.
14:51
I think that is pretty much everything.
14:54
Obviously they talked about like classic survival FPS gameplay.
14:57
It's not going to be like the open areas like Exodus had.
15:01
So I'm hoping for a lot of stealth.
15:03
I think that'll be that'll be really cool.
15:07
But yeah, I mean, I am I'm excited.
15:09
This is like instantly this, this honestly, in some ways rose
15:13
above GTA 6 for me in terms of my hype like factor, because
15:17
I've really wanted a metro game again for a long time.
15:20
And to I just am really digging the vibe that they're going with
15:23
this one and that they're trying to make this like one of the
15:26
darkest stories they've ever told.
15:27
And again, I find that pretty poignant that they're saying
15:31
things like that. And then they're also like, hey,
15:33
most of the focus has to do with humans and not monsters.
15:35
It's like that's, you know, that's telling, that's telling.
15:39
So yeah, I, I'm very excited for it.
15:41
I can't, can't wait at all. Super pumped for Metro.
15:46
We need games like this to keep releasing.
15:47
We need franchises like this to keep being just given energy and
15:51
life into because these are the games that made some of us.
15:54
These are the games that like spawn an entire generation.
15:58
And it's awesome to see this still pumping.
16:00
It's great. And not only that, this week has
16:03
just been great in general for games.
16:05
Yeah, what the fuck? What the fuck?
16:06
We had Pragmata. Pragmata comes out tomorrow or
16:10
Mouse just came out today. What else other than the one I'm
16:16
going to talk about and segue into?
16:17
But I'm breaking my concentration.
16:20
There's one more. There was one other game that
16:23
just came out, I think like recently slashed today, but I
16:27
can't find it. It may be the one you're
16:29
thinking of or the one that you're going to be talking
16:32
about. I can't say anything.
16:34
No, I don't know what else there's.
16:38
There's a lot of good stuff that came out this week and that
16:42
includes the review I'm up to right now for this game.
16:45
Yes. We were given a review copy of
16:49
Replaced by Sad Cat Studios shouts out You guys.
16:52
Thank you so much for trusting us to review your game before
16:54
its release. This game is very awesome.
16:58
This is a 2.5 D platformer adventure post apocalypse
17:06
cyberpunk dystopian future. OK, that's a That's a lot of
17:12
words. Yeah, it really is, but it
17:14
sounds I've played it. It's cool.
17:16
Not the review copy, but I played the demo during Nextfest.
17:19
Yeah, it's it's a lot of words, but essentially you are Reach.
17:26
Reach is an AI that is trapped in your host body, Warren.
17:29
And I'm not going to spoil anything, so I'm going to avoid
17:33
a lot of the story here. But those two like the the way
17:38
that reach interacts with the body and talks and this like
17:41
pixel art, like adventure is just so fucking awesome.
17:47
Along your journeys, you'll meet tons of cool characters just
17:50
like such as yo-yo Tempest, the Matriarch, Ironwood.
17:56
There's a lot of awesome characters here.
17:58
And there's even cooler enemies with the PCPD, the Phoenix City
18:02
Police Department, cops, termites are an awesome group of
18:05
enemies. You got like tons of awesome
18:09
things going on here. The combat is very, very slick
18:13
and smooth in this game. It is very combo heavy.
18:18
You know, you're, you're constantly hitting and then
18:20
you're waiting for those indicators to either parry or,
18:24
you know, break that combo. Then you get your combos in to
18:27
charge your weapon and shoot. The gun is charged with with
18:31
attacks and combos so then you get one shot.
18:35
Boom. It's sweet, but you upgrade that
18:37
weapon the more and more you play.
18:40
What makes this even better is the movement and platforming.
18:44
It's all very slick. That is to say until you get to
18:48
some vent puzzles, which I was having issues with because what
18:52
that was happening there was as I was platforming the ladders
18:57
and jumping across, I would watch the steam because it's
19:00
like a Steam platform thing, Right.
19:01
So it's like the typical, like steam comes out, you can't touch
19:03
or you die. Yeah, I'd watch the steam go
19:06
away. I'd jump.
19:08
There'd be like a fragment of the steam still on the screen.
19:10
Boom, dead. Oh, OK, so it wasn't registering
19:14
that the steam was gone, but that was the most of my
19:17
irritations. The rest of this game was just
19:19
smooth, slick, seamless, awesome adventure.
19:25
There's not, there's a ton of story here.
19:29
There's not, not anything. There's a ton of story that you
19:31
find by adventuring and find in picking up items that you'll
19:34
have on this like Walkman almost thing that you can go through
19:40
and like you could track what you're doing.
19:42
You could track all the lore you've picked up.
19:44
You could pick up tons of stuff to like boost your health and
19:47
your energy. There's a hub world of sorts,
19:51
which I won't spoil for anyone, but there is like side quests
19:54
you do in this game in that hub world.
19:56
You don't just have to go there, do one thing and leave.
19:58
You can go there, listen in a conversation or read in on
20:01
conversations, meet interesting other characters and do cool
20:05
little side adventures through that little city.
20:08
My favorite was meeting a little girl in an arcade and I fixed an
20:13
arcade machine for her. In doing that you play like
20:17
pseudo arcade games that are based off like real world arcade
20:21
games and your goal is to get the high score above 1st and
20:24
each time you do that you you you gain something.
20:27
It's an awesome way to progress, like progress just a bit further
20:32
with your character or reach rather, and just to learn more a
20:37
bit about people around you. This game is awesome.
20:41
The tone entirely is just like. I liked the tone of the game
20:45
during the demo. I really liked the vibe.
20:48
It's it's, it's so it's so perfect because the musical in
20:51
the the music in the just the sound design itself complement
20:55
this game so perfectly. It's like a perfect handshake,
20:59
like you know that perfect DAP like you, you finally see your
21:02
buddy after like a long couple of weeks or a month and do that
21:04
DAP you're like, that was perfect.
21:06
That's what this is for this game.
21:08
This game is just seamless like that.
21:11
And there's there's also hacking mini games and just tons of
21:16
awesome things that you learn how to like new ways to maneuver
21:20
through puzzle areas and replaced is something truly
21:25
special. And the story is also not cheap.
21:30
That is what makes this even better for me here is that the
21:34
story isn't there's some cheap little thing.
21:37
It is told through the eyes of an AI trapped in a human body
21:40
realizing it's trapped. Right.
21:44
Yeah, there's a. Lot of things to that.
21:45
There's there's there's a lot going on here.
21:48
Yeah, it's it's for AS2 dimensional as the game is
21:51
itself the. Story is not That's the quote of
21:53
the back. It's not, yeah, this game is not
21:56
2 dimensional in its story and everything that you do within
21:59
this game. I think Sad Cat Studios with
22:03
Replaced has something truly special that I would love to see
22:05
continued. I would love to see them make
22:08
more things like this. You know even more in the
22:10
Replaced world if possible. This game it's a 9.5.
22:16
It is. It is damn near a masterpiece.
22:19
This studio poured their heart and souls in this game.
22:23
You can tell this had everybody on deck doing their they were
22:28
all on point making this game and that they should they should
22:32
be proud of this. This is a true fucking awesome
22:35
game that's come out in in a time where we don't get many
22:39
cool things like this. And when we do, it's
22:41
overshadowed by the call of duties and the battlefields and
22:44
everything. And this came out the perfect
22:46
time, I think. And IGN stop.
22:51
If you're going to be journalist, the wording of your
22:55
your publication is important, right?
22:58
Let's let's do accountability here.
22:59
IGN saying the AI game or however you wrote that was very
23:04
stupid. I see what their review said
23:08
specifically, but. Sad Cat basically was like to
23:12
clarify, the game was not made with AI at all.
23:17
This game was made 100% handcrafted because they they
23:21
they weren't insinuating it was, but the way in which they.
23:23
The way they wrote it sounded as if it was AI generated or helped
23:28
with AI or whatever. Exactly.
23:30
And like it. It's ridiculous, because
23:32
Replaced is far from that. You could tell this is a
23:34
handcrafted adventure, sure. You could tell there's so much
23:38
fucking love. I'm trying to find what Sad Cat
23:41
said to them. Hold tight, hold tight, we're
23:46
almost there. IGN posts 1000 things on their
23:48
page. Also they're just wrong in their
23:50
reviews lately. Are you going to give fucking
23:52
mouse PIA 6? Yeah, I saw that and I like just
23:57
for comparison, I mean, I know that obviously Steam reviews are
23:59
not journalistic publication, but if I go to Mouse Pi for
24:03
hire, out of 832 reviews right now, 95% are positive.
24:08
Yeah, so shut the fuck up so. Like, I think it's, I think it's
24:13
going to be fine. Let's see IGN deleted the post.
24:19
Dude, Jesus, there's no accountability anymore.
24:22
Just God, yeah, we screwed up. Sorry, move on.
24:27
No, like, they're not going to do that.
24:29
They're just going to like, oh, we didn't say that.
24:34
AI based adventure that could do with a system update.
24:37
An AI based adventure? What?
24:40
That's a terrible. Way to describe it so it's
24:42
replaced. It's it's the charm combines.
24:45
It's malicious. It says in the Steam description
24:48
it says join private investigator Jack Pepper on a
24:51
guns blazing jazz fueled adventure and.
24:53
Mouse. No, no, you're reading mouse BI.
24:55
It's replaced buddy. Oh, oh, what?
24:57
I thought, didn't you switch me up just now?
25:00
Oh wait, what? Replaced is what IGN said.
25:04
Is a my bad? You screwed me up.
25:06
I'm sorry, I was thinking of something else.
25:07
But. I completely fucked that up.
25:09
Replace itself said as we have seen, some people misunderstood
25:13
what IGN means by AI based. Oh my God, that's.
25:18
What it was, that's what it was you said mouse Pi for hire.
25:21
That's about giving it a six. So that's.
25:24
What I fucking want to do was 100% handcrafted.
25:27
No generative AI was used to make this.
25:30
What IGN is referring to is the story that is about AI in an
25:34
alternative 1980s America. Right?
25:38
That's also the setting. So.
25:40
That's what it says. But it feels just so
25:42
disingenuous. AI based adventure I could do
25:45
with a system. Update Oh yeah, that's that's
25:46
terrible. Yeah, it's it's disingenuous.
25:49
That's terrible way to describe replaced.
25:51
I mean, like, like I said, I played the demo like I, I've you
25:54
told me that the the full game is very different from the demo
25:57
is what you told me. And I believe that and.
26:00
It's not very different, but not.
26:02
Very different, but it I mean different.
26:04
Section, Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's there's more to
26:06
it. So like I, I, I liked it, I just
26:09
haven't picked it up myself yet, but I think that I, I thought
26:14
that when I played it, I thought it was a pretty good time.
26:16
I, I can't believe that like again, it's, it's more just the
26:19
fact of you work at IGN, you work as a journalist, you, you
26:22
get paid to do this. You're.
26:24
A word rather. Like don't don't say this AI
26:26
based adventure because like that gives the wrong connotation
26:29
and also it's just not correct. It's not true.
26:33
AI based like what is that? What is that?
26:36
You're an AI in a you had a human host body.
26:38
So you're like, like, what would that is like a Cyborg
26:42
technically a sense. No, it's it's just the
26:44
consciousness I'm not giving away.
26:46
Are you in a human body? Can you not give that away?
26:50
You're in a human body, yeah. Yeah, and I'm just in like a
26:52
chip. I'm it's like cyberpunk, like
26:53
I'm just in their head basically.
26:54
I can't get kind of sort of yes no.
26:56
OK, I don't care. I.
26:59
Can't, I can't. I'm on this point.
27:00
It's such a good story. It is such a good story.
27:02
I know, I know, I know. But yeah, I mean, still, it's,
27:04
it's just an incorrect, it's just not the correct way to to
27:07
define the the game at all. So again, WASD and beyond
27:11
standpoint on this is to preface that we were given the game that
27:17
did not sway me here. This is a 9.5 out of time for
27:21
us. This is a beautiful fucking game
27:24
and it borders on masterpiece if it had not been for a couple
27:27
irritations I felt during some key puzzle moments.
27:33
And that's just about it, right? It just knocked it a little bit
27:36
for me. I was like, God damn, it pissed
27:37
me off. Like I was almost at the finish
27:39
line and it knocked me out of that finish line.
27:41
But other than that, get replaced.
27:42
This game is like 30 bucks. Yeah, not even.
27:45
It's like 30 bucks. I will let you know right now
27:48
it. Is so go buy replaced and go
27:53
play an Xbox game pass. I think it's on that go get
27:57
replaced. You have no excuse.
27:59
He got so excited. He's like, go get it.
28:01
Go get this game. This is a must play.
28:04
Even if you don't think you'll get into it, this is a must
28:07
play. The story alone and the combat
28:09
will suck you in. Replaced is near perfect that's
28:14
why every Congrats sad cat that's I'm so pumped for you
28:18
guys and thank you for trusting us with your baby.
28:21
I really appreciate it. Dude that sounds like it was
28:25
really good. I'm glad.
28:26
Yes, yes. All right, bud, What's our last
28:29
piece here? So there's a couple things I
28:32
want to do. Oh, voice crack, that was.
28:34
Bad. I did that.
28:34
I did that last night on it came to screen box.
28:37
I got. So bummed.
28:39
Passed off to me. There's a couple things I want
28:42
to talk about. I want to talk about my time in
28:44
Crimson Desert so far. I also want to give a quick
28:48
shout out to another game I've been playing a lot this week.
28:50
And oh, I wanted to go over one of the piece of news that came
28:54
out this week that we didn't mention at the the beginning of
28:56
the show, but I'll get to that. So my time in Crimson Desert has
29:00
been admittedly, it's taken me a while to get a start.
29:05
The opening hours are very much something where you have to sit
29:09
down and and just kind of force yourself to play it through it
29:11
like deliberately for an hour or two each night and just learn
29:15
piece by piece until you sort of set off.
29:18
It's not something where you can just kind of, it's not like a
29:21
like a different Ubisoft adventure, right where you can
29:23
just kind of understand what you're doing and just go right.
29:26
Like if you played Far Cry 345, if I gave you Avatar Nick, you
29:30
could jump into it immediately, understand exactly how like you
29:33
understand things are different, but you get the basic premise.
29:35
You liberate places, you do missions, you're done.
29:38
Like Crimson Desert is a little bit different than that.
29:42
It heavily rewards exploring. There's a lot of things to find.
29:47
That has been kind of the joy for me.
29:51
I I'll get to that. Like it's take it took me a
29:53
while to get started, but now I've got about 40 hours in the
29:56
game. I'm in the beginning slash early
30:00
middle of chapter 5 out of the 14 chapters in the game.
30:04
So still early section not even halfway through.
30:08
I have loved just picking a different direction and walking
30:11
that way. Like it is genuinely been a
30:15
blast and it's been very fun to be playing it around some of the
30:19
guys as well when they can point out like Noah yesterday,
30:21
apparently I stumbled right into the place where you fight a
30:25
giant spider that gives you the silver, the silver tooth mount,
30:29
which is like a giant wolf. So for those who don't know, I
30:35
have arachnophobia. So immediately not the place I
30:38
wanted to be, but also I was safe because apparently you have
30:41
to do a quest to even allow it to spawn.
30:44
But the way I found out was not nice.
30:45
I was walking around in the forest.
30:47
I saw this factory thing up like just on a hill in front of me
30:51
and I looked to my right and there was a giant spider web on
30:53
the tree, like in between 2 trees.
30:55
And I just immediately was like, Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
30:58
And I was like, I'm I'm leaving, whatever this is, I'm out, But
31:03
that's been like the joy. It's been beautiful to see an
31:07
area that I want to go to and just know that I can I can go
31:09
there. I can go check that out.
31:12
I could sound. I know that's kind of like the
31:14
the joke sometimes, right? If you see it, you can go there
31:16
was kind. Of.
31:18
Right. Well, and I think that was also
31:19
a bit of Sean Murphy too, or Sean Murray from Hello Games, No
31:25
Man's Sky, like back in the day. I think he said the same thing.
31:29
So but that has been true for this game in in a lot of ways it
31:34
is pretty fun to but just see like snow capped mountains off
31:37
in the distance and just be like, yeah, I'm going to go
31:39
there and you can you can do that.
31:41
I haven't made it to the Crimson Desert itself yet, but I've been
31:45
all over to other parts of the continent and it's just been so
31:48
fun to just walk around and I get into fights.
31:51
But that's also part of the joy I think is that once you learn
31:55
the combat is when you really will sink into the just enjoying
31:58
it. I don't care about the story.
31:59
It has not grabbed me one bit. So it to me in some ways it
32:04
feels like a little bit of like a knock off Jon Snow from Game
32:07
of Thrones situation. There's some story things there
32:11
that remind me of it. Also.
32:12
He's just utterly like Jon Snow is is an interesting character.
32:15
Cliff, who's the main character that you play the guy on the
32:18
cover basically can't. He's so boring.
32:22
Like I, I just like I can't do it.
32:25
But the combat is again where it I think this game shines.
32:31
Other than the exploration and the obvious beauty of the game
32:34
itself. It's very pretty.
32:36
It's very performance. Like I was going to say
32:39
performance intensive is not the right word, but like it's it has
32:42
great performance. You can run this game.
32:44
I can, I have run this game on several different setting types
32:48
with no upscaling and it performs great in every single
32:51
one of them. So it's that's really nice to
32:53
see. But yeah, when you get some
32:57
levels, you get some are not levels, but when you get some
33:00
skill points and you can put them into your combat moves,
33:03
it's very fun to use some of the different weapon types of which
33:08
you have several that you can combine as well as just a full
33:10
melee build. And also you can do wrestling
33:12
moves, so it's very fun to like be cutting down people with a
33:15
shield and an axe and then all of a sudden you just like
33:18
people's elbow, some guy behind you or whatever.
33:21
Or like on top of that, you do get some sort of like grappling
33:24
hook style thing. I can't really describe it.
33:26
It's not like that. It's more of like magic as well
33:30
as other things. You have a bow.
33:31
The I think the two other characters that you can play
33:34
have different strengths for certain weapons, ranged and
33:38
melee, like Damian, who's the the the woman that you can play
33:43
as. She has like she's more of like
33:45
I think that Ranger slash rogue type.
33:47
She has like more blade like short blades, as well as I think
33:50
she can use firearms, whereas as far as I have seen so far, Cliff
33:55
cannot. He's your long sword, shield and
34:00
sword shield and axe and other types of things like that.
34:03
And then the, the orc, I believe can do heavier, obviously
34:07
weapons, great hammers, great axes, things like that.
34:12
But yeah, it's just been a blast.
34:13
I think the combat has really been, that's also part of it,
34:16
right? You can just kind of go and
34:18
explore. When you find a Fort, you can
34:20
just fight, you know, You can just go in.
34:22
And it's not like it's like Assassin's Creed areas or Far
34:25
Cry areas, but it's turned up a lot because they're way bigger
34:28
and there's tons more enemies. That's.
34:31
Like, you know, and there's a couple things you can do to help
34:34
take those forts. You can take down certain
34:36
important areas like an Infirmary or something like
34:38
that, but you can also literally just slaughter everyone until it
34:44
gets to zero and then you fight the boss and then you liberate
34:47
the place. So it and that is fun because
34:50
like I've you've watched me several times like in the quarry
34:53
I was in the other day. It's like it's just a blast
34:55
because you just can hone your your style and how you want to
34:59
fight the weapon or the weapons you want to use, the melee
35:02
attacks you want to use and just being more fluid.
35:06
And I think that that combined with the exploration aspect, the
35:10
puzzle solving aspect is really fun as well.
35:13
So there's a incentive when you get to those certain secret
35:16
areas or places you just stumble across.
35:18
Like the puzzles themselves can be pretty satisfying.
35:21
So I, I give it tentatively. I'm giving it like a like an 8/8
35:27
and 1/2 right now. I haven't, I haven't gotten to
35:29
halfway through or most most the way through.
35:31
Noah just helped me get 2 really good weapons the other day and
35:35
I've really been enjoying those. So that's kind of not changing
35:39
my complete and total opinion. But like when when you do have
35:41
better upgraded gear, the game does get like.
35:44
Open up a bit. It gets opened up a bit, it also
35:47
gets a little bit easier, but I also don't want it to become so
35:50
easy that it feels like late game Assassin's Creed 3 where
35:54
you can just counter and kill every single person the moment.
35:57
Like I still want to be able to have a bit of a fight on my
36:00
hands, but that might be better with turning up the difficulty.
36:02
I think I just have it on normal, but either way, yeah, I
36:06
give it like an 88 and a half. I've really enjoyed it.
36:08
It's been a good time so far, but I'll have more to say once
36:10
I've actually finished it. I'll be getting it as soon as
36:15
life stops punching me in the nose.
36:17
Right. The tire really got you.
36:19
I understand. I'm sorry about that.
36:21
It was. The last nail in the coffin for
36:23
the week and I'm tomorrow's Friday we're there what is the
36:27
last bit of news and we're going to wrap this up I.
36:29
Want to give 2 shouts out real quick or one shout out and then
36:32
I'll go to the news Kerbal Space Program.
36:34
Thank you again for being here in our hour of no longer
36:39
watching Artemis 2 fly around the moon and come back home.
36:43
Shout out to the Artemis 2 astronauts in that whole
36:46
mission. That was incredible.
36:47
It was fun to watch it with you and everyone else in the
36:49
Discord, both them splash and kind of.
36:53
Yeah. Yeah.
36:53
He wasn't interested in the rocket launch, but that's fine.
36:57
We'll just have to. You'll have to do a trip and
36:58
take him down there to watch one next year in 20282028 is the one
37:03
when they're supposed to go to the moon and land.
37:06
But yeah, so Kerbal Space Program, really fun to get back
37:10
into when that all happened. So yeah, I just wanted to give a
37:14
shout out to that too. I think they actually broke an
37:15
all time record. I think they actually got like a
37:18
couple 100 more players than their all time peak from like 10
37:21
years ago during the time of. Make people realize that this
37:24
game needs to exist. I think that that's a pretty
37:27
good like sign that there is some sort of community there.
37:30
I mean, 19,010 1/2 years ago or something like that to now
37:35
beating that, you know, is pretty impressive.
37:39
And it's not cheap either, mind you, if people were buying it,
37:43
it is $40.00. So I don't know why it's still
37:48
that much. It was released in 2015.
37:51
But yeah, so like, that's pretty cool.
37:56
There is a like spiritual successor game in the works
38:00
called KSA Kitten Space Agency made by Rocket Works Dean Hall.
38:05
So that should be exciting. But yeah, I just want to give a
38:07
quick shout out to that. The only other piece of news I
38:08
had was that was just announced today, which was the Battlefield
38:11
6/20/26 road map. Looking good.
38:14
So yeah, some big things are coming in that mostly like the
38:19
biggest thing that stood out to me was a server browser.
38:24
Yeah. In the year of our Lord 2026, so
38:28
we're getting a server browser. We're going to be apparently
38:30
getting platoons, so that's cool.
38:34
Yeah clans basically, but there will be a spawn camp platoon.
38:39
We'll see how it works and see how people can be invited to it.
38:44
There will be other things as well as season 3 comes out next
38:48
month. In May there will be two new
38:50
maps, Railway to Galmud, which is just called Mid Railway from
38:55
Battlefield 4. It is completely redone.
38:58
It is also now the largest map in Battlefield 6.
39:00
It's four times larger than the previous largest map in the
39:03
game, not including the battle Royale map.
39:06
It has been, like I said, completely reworked, both
39:08
visually and with new things just are happening around it.
39:12
It has it's in a completely different area this time around.
39:16
There's like a little Cliff face behind it.
39:18
But I saw what they were showing and it looks like a very large
39:21
map, which is pretty cool. And also Cairo Bazaar, which for
39:25
those who don't know is a remake of Grand Bazaar from Battlefield
39:30
3, which is a really great map that had great infantry combat.
39:34
A very in very, very fun infantry combat section, as well
39:38
as a couple roads for tanks and other heavy vehicles to have
39:44
their fun. And there will also be battle
39:46
Royale solos. There will be battle Royale
39:49
ranked play and leaderboards, as well as new weapons, new game
39:52
modes and more. The priority features that will
39:55
be coming this year will be proximity chat.
39:58
So you'll be able to talk, I'm assuming not only in Yeah, I
40:01
know. We'll see how that goes, right?
40:04
I don't think it'll actually be too bad in terms of a team to
40:07
team or like you know, teammates thing like if you're working,
40:10
but if you leave it open to where you can just prox chat
40:13
with the enemy, I think that could get pretty.
40:14
Especially on killcam. Yeah, we'll, we'll see.
40:18
Well, and that's the thing I think if it's going to be kill
40:20
cams like how Modern Warfare 2019 and on was right where you
40:23
just hear. Him for a couple seconds.
40:25
It can be pretty bad, but we'll we'll see.
40:27
I mean, at the same time, I don't think you'll ever stop
40:29
that. But I mean, why not have the the
40:31
feature anyway? Because it can also make pretty
40:33
funny moments depending. But there will be, like I said,
40:37
platoons, the server browser, and there will also be
40:39
multiplayer leaderboards. Battlefield Labs is also
40:42
continuing, so there will be ongoing testing of new maps,
40:45
modes, and future content. I believe they're currently
40:47
testing Goldman Railway in that right now, ongoing quality of
40:50
life improvements will be soldier visibility, matchmaking,
40:54
challenges in progression, and combat tuning.
40:57
In July will be Season 4 that comes with Subaru Reef and Wake
41:03
Island. Very heavy focus on naval
41:06
warfare. I believe Sewer Reef is going to
41:08
be the largest map in the game. After that update comes out it
41:13
is going to be quite massive. There will also be custom
41:17
lobbies so you'll be able to create your own custom private
41:20
lobbies. There will be a spectator mode
41:21
so you can just watch games if you want as well as new weapons
41:25
modes and more. And then in fall, there will be
41:27
another season, which will be Season 5, Three new maps, none
41:31
that have been revealed so far, but the screenshot shows what
41:35
looks like to be some sort of city with an oil spill on it and
41:40
a torch and a sledgehammer. So I think that should be pretty
41:45
cool. I would like to see maybe
41:46
something I don't know, they've already done to New York City
41:49
maps would be kind of cool to see, like a night Times Square
41:52
section. That would be kind of cool.
41:55
Maybe something that's been like fortified, like NATO has been
41:58
protecting or like they've been fighting for New York for
42:00
several like days or weeks now and like Times Square is a
42:04
fortified base that they have. That would be kind of cool.
42:08
But yeah, that was it. Just some some other quick news
42:11
of of that. Also there will be apparently
42:14
reworks of two maps. They are going to be reworking.
42:20
What's the Cairo? It's, it's the other Cairo map.
42:23
It's not the it's the one with the the helicopters.
42:26
I forget it. Oh, sobec City.
42:28
I think sobec City. So that one will be reworked as
42:30
well as the other one. That's bad.
42:35
I can't. Remember the name of it.
42:38
Oh Blackwell fields the the season 1 map.
42:41
That was the oil field. Yeah, OK.
42:43
Yeah. So those are also going to be
42:46
reworked and I don't believe I mentioned this before, but the
42:50
server browser will also come with persistent servers, so.
42:53
You can just. You can just find like
42:56
Battlefield 4, right? You just find the BZ one server
42:59
that you want to play and you can just just go there and play.
43:02
I think that is going to, I think I hope that it is going to
43:06
massively bring back some some players, especially those older
43:09
Battlefield players that will just be able to, they can find
43:11
their server, they can wait to get in or whatever and.
43:14
They hop in every night. Yep, exactly.
43:16
And they can just play with those people and and that's that
43:19
and you know, go on from there. And if they keep tuning the
43:21
combat, making it more like the the older battlefields and
43:24
keeping that spirit still I'm I'm all about it.
43:27
Yeah, I'm thinking the all these changes are good for
43:29
Battlefield. It's much needed, and I'm glad
43:31
they're getting to it. Yeah, fucking awesome.
43:35
No, 2026 is shaping out to be good.
43:37
You know, the industry is kind of doing what it's still doing.
43:39
You know, I'd love, I'd love to tell you on the show that just
43:43
'cause we're getting good games means the industry's in a good
43:45
place. It's not what that means at all,
43:46
but right. Like there are lights at the end
43:48
of the tunnel and hopefully we will get further and closer and
43:52
closer to that light. So yeah buddy, it is time to
43:56
wrap this bitch up. Yes, let's, let's go.
43:59
We have to play. I have to play Pragmata in less
44:02
than an hour. And I'm going to go play Mouse
44:04
Pi there. You go, we got to play games.
44:06
All right, all right guys, we're going to play some games until
44:08
next week. Take it easy and be safe.
44:10
Go check out the sponsors, final boss, stock Longy, check out WAC
44:13
and beyond. It came from screen box and roll
44:15
for deception like follow, subscribe and all that cool
44:18
shit. Until next week, take it easy to
44:19
be safe. I said it twice.
44:20
Don't care, Goodbye. Bye, have a good time.
45:05
The.