Latest / WASD and Beyond / Episode 255: Pragmata, Mouse PI, Valve, and XBOX... man what a week

Transcript

Episode 255: Pragmata, Mouse PI, Valve, and XBOX... man what a week · WASD and Beyond

0:15
Anyways, I'm ready to get this on the road so we can go play
0:18
some more games. How about you?
0:20
Yeah, let's do it. All right, let's do it.
0:24
It's Nick and Brody, everybody. Welcome back to another episode
0:27
of the WASD and Beyond podcast. We're your hosts.
0:30
I just said our names, Nick and Brody there have it again.
0:33
Check out our sponsors down below, Final Ball, stock, Longy,
0:36
check out the other shows it came from Screen Box Roll for
0:38
deception and of course, WASD and Beyond, the show you're
0:40
listening to right now. If you like what you hear here,
0:43
please go check us out on Spotify, Apple, anywhere you
0:46
consume podcasts, we are there. I'm going to stop being a lazy
0:50
piece of shit and get the YouTube back up and running
0:52
because I suck and then it just doesn't happen and I need to fix
0:55
that. But if you like us, check us out
0:57
on Spawn Camp Co on YouTube. Like follow, subscribe, show us
1:00
to your friends. That would be really cool.
1:01
Anyways, Hi Brody. Hi.
1:04
Quick dude, your teeth look nice today.
1:07
Oh, thanks. They're not getting washed out
1:09
by like all of the white coming from my other screen.
1:12
So no, look at that. I was like, wow, I'd show off
1:16
these little horns in my mouth, but I'm not doing that, you
1:20
know, Oh, ah, smoking since I was a kid.
1:24
Well, yeah, that that's not well.
1:26
The camera makes up the camera makes them whiter.
1:28
See. Look at that look.
1:31
Anyways, that's a visual gag. If if I if I get this up to
1:34
YouTube, they'll see it. I figure we'll do a nice little
1:37
quick, easy, fun one today. Blow through some stuff, have
1:41
fun, have a good conversation. I was just actually on a show
1:44
today talking about the Super Mario Brothers movie.
1:49
Yes, and not the new one, this one.
1:54
Oh. Yes, I was on I was on
1:58
Podcasting with Power with Zach and Jordan.
2:01
Awesome hosts, great dudes. Thank you guys for having me on.
2:04
If you guys like Nintendo and anything in that sphere, go
2:07
check out Podcasting with Power. They are awesome at what they
2:09
do. But we I got to talk about that
2:11
movie man, and just like my memories with it.
2:14
Did you? You saw it, right?
2:16
Oh yeah, I've seen it. It's been a.
2:19
While I was going to say I have not watched it in, oh, 18 years
2:27
probably at least. No, I take that back.
2:30
We we turned it on so my oldest could watch it a couple years
2:34
ago, yeah. That's why it's quite the trip.
2:38
It absolutely. It's not as bad as I remember.
2:43
No, it's not. Some of that has to be some like
2:46
rose colored glasses, right? Or not even necessarily that,
2:49
but a certain, I don't know, most things anymore are bad.
2:55
And so when there's something that's like not good from a time
2:58
when a lot of things were good, it just kind of feels like, ah,
3:02
you know what, this isn't so bad.
3:04
It's like that misfortunate person you see in like public,
3:08
like, oh, look at you goat. You pat him on the head and you,
3:12
you know, tell him to get out of your face.
3:15
This is kind of like the room to me.
3:18
And I made that comparison on the show.
3:21
It, it's, it's one of those like almost so bad.
3:24
It's kind of entertaining. And and even then, like it's
3:28
there's, there's I think maybe a couple of redeeming things.
3:32
I don't Bob Hopkins a Super Mario.
3:34
Yeah, I mean, that part's cool. John Leguizamo is Luigi.
3:38
Yeah, that part's cool too. Outside of that though.
3:43
But I mean, it's a it's, it's very much a product of its time.
3:51
It is the most nineties, 90s thing I've ever seen.
3:53
Yeah, I've watched in my life. It's 90s as hell and it's I, I,
4:00
I can't like quite it. It, it came out at a time when
4:04
everything got this, like, weird because they were doing like
4:07
Roger Rabbit around the same time and like Spawn, it's just,
4:11
yeah, Spawn. Like they were just really
4:13
trying to bring everything to a movie.
4:16
And turns out Mario's one of those things that doesn't lend
4:19
itself very well to a live action movie.
4:23
I don't believe that's the same way I feel about Zelda, even
4:26
though we're getting that. It looks for this link looks
4:32
good. I know, but he's a child and I
4:39
don't know. And like I understand, right?
4:42
Like Link, Link is not he's, he's basically kind of kid, like
4:46
and in most of the games, depending on which fucking
4:50
timeline and which game and yada yada yada, right?
4:52
But I don't know, man. I don't have a good feeling
4:57
about it at all. I don't know, maybe Nintendo
5:00
pulls off something fucking crazy here and surprises me,
5:03
but. We're on a 24 Zelda drink that's
5:05
looking nuts. That looks.
5:07
Pretty sweet. Dung Eater I I'm on the same
5:11
boat as everyone else. They're intentionally giving us
5:14
all this stuff. We've seen.
5:16
We've seen Merica, we've seen the Raging wolf, We've seen the
5:20
Dung Eater. Like I'm you sold me.
5:26
Stop. I don't need any stop.
5:28
Oh, there will be more. $100 million budget.
5:32
Well, and it's not like they can spoil it, right?
5:34
Like we know we know what's there.
5:37
So it it doesn't hurt anything to see some of these props and
5:41
kind of add some validity to it, I guess.
5:43
I don't know. It looks good.
5:45
It looks cool. Like there's their whole like
5:51
shooting wherever on location in England, they're shooting like
5:54
this looks legit. Like every the dog cages are
5:59
there hundreds of the bird cage. There's I was like, oh, they're
6:03
getting every detail OK, Like that's good for me.
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I'm down for it man. I am so down for it and I'm even
6:13
more down to talk about some of the games we've been playing
6:15
because man oh man, last week and this week has just been
6:19
filled with games, man, and this week particular feels like it
6:23
was filled with games because all the games that came out last
6:25
week. We are up to our fucking
6:28
eyeballs and games of the show. I just finished replaced.
6:33
I put I put out the review with Evan.
6:36
That was a knockout 10 out of 10.
6:38
Fucking well I gave her a 95 for some performance issues but.
6:45
I'm actually a little shocked to hear that right only because I
6:49
have not played it. I've heard that like the the
6:52
vibes, the setting, the the graphics, everything about it is
6:55
really awesome and it works exceptionally well.
6:58
I had heard that the story has some pacing issues.
7:03
Pretty, pretty rough. But oh dude, it's it.
7:07
It's all it's. It knows when to hit you hard
7:12
and then then knows when to let you have those moments to
7:15
yourself in the game and. It looks like my kind of game, I
7:19
just have not checked it out at all yet.
7:22
You gotta it's phenomenal, man. Like, I mean the, I mean
7:26
essentially, you know, reach is an AI stuck in a human body
7:30
going, oh, I'm fucking stuck in this thing.
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Yeah. It like it's just exploring that
7:36
and exploring who Warren is and reach.
7:38
It's, it's, it's a whole thing and it's, it's, it's truly
7:41
impressive. Like this 2.5 D adventure, how
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it made me feel. I was like, wow, this is and
7:47
it's pixel art. But like, I didn't expect to
7:51
like it as much as I did it. To preface, we were given a copy
7:54
to review, so I will get that out of the way, but that didn't
7:57
sway my vote here. If it would have sucked, it
7:59
would have sucked. But luckily it did not suck.
8:01
So I've been playing. I played replaced.
8:05
I just finally got into Crimson Desert.
8:09
Yeah. Pretty cool.
8:10
I'm not super far into it yet because at the time of my plane
8:15
we were getting ready for you to hop on because I figured he'd be
8:17
on soon. We watched episode one, season 5
8:20
of The Boys, and what I can say so far is I have no idea what's
8:25
going on in the. Game.
8:27
I think it's still kind of that way 100 hours in.
8:31
From my understanding, I have not played that game.
8:34
That is a game I'm going to wait to pick up.
8:37
It is. It's something that interests
8:39
me. There's a handful of things that
8:42
I have heard that concern me. Basically, I'm just going to
8:48
wait, I don't know, six months or so and then probably pick it
8:52
up when I get a little bit of a lull here, maybe in the summer
8:56
because sometimes summer gets a little slow.
8:59
So I don't know, we'll see. I'll probably pick it up
9:01
eventually. I'm going to wait for basically
9:03
for it to go on sale for at least a little bit off because I
9:07
mean, I need, I need a little bit of a break.
9:11
It's it's had some good updates, much like marathon like these.
9:15
I'm seeing a lot. That's a cool trend I'm seeing
9:18
with a lot of these games coming out like marathons doing it.
9:22
Crimson Desert's doing it at the moment.
9:24
There's a few others, but like the the constant stream of
9:27
updating the game to make it just that much better and to
9:31
give it that quality of life that these games need nowadays
9:34
is really good. It's cool to see that these
9:37
developers and these studios are really listening to their player
9:42
base and like, hey, like I know you implemented this feature,
9:45
this how you intended us to play.
9:46
It's not working. Could you consider doing this?
9:49
Like for Marathon it was we want to play duos.
9:52
And they went yeah, oh shit. OK, we'll add duos.
9:54
We'll we'll try it with each map.
9:57
Perfect. You know, this just update
9:59
updated like the inventory system and like how you play the
10:03
game and things like that. That's the main reason I've been
10:06
waiting for Crimson Desert, is those quality of life updates.
10:10
I want them to get a bunch of those under their belt before I
10:14
come over and play, because I'm also the type of person that
10:17
will bounce off of an open world pretty easily.
10:19
So if there's any sort of frustration with anything else,
10:23
I'm out. I'm fucking.
10:24
Boom. I will say incredibly pretty.
10:30
Yeah, it runs phenomenally. I have it maxed out with ray
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tracing, path tracing, fucking fucking deep learning on and all
10:44
that shit, getting 200 frames at times.
10:46
I'm like, wow, this is crazy. And it looks good, so the
10:50
combat's fun so far. I'm not far into it though, so
10:53
this is like my first little discussion with it.
10:57
I'm also wanting to bring up Pragmatta.
11:00
Yeah. Please go on it buddy.
11:04
So I'm trying to think of when the last time I was on was, but
11:08
I had been playing a lot of Final Fantasy 16 leading up to
11:13
essentially the launch of Pragmata.
11:18
Since Pragmata has come out I have not really touched anything
11:21
else. A little bit of odds and ends
11:24
things and Picopia just getting on doing, getting my like daily
11:29
recipes, shit like that. Nothing, nothing crazy, but
11:33
Pragmata I am. I think it said.
11:37
I'm almost 11 hours in right now.
11:41
From what I had heard, it's about 12 hours to be where I'm
11:46
at in the story currently. It seems like I am about ready
11:50
to beat it. I heard it was about 11 hours to
11:52
beat and about 7 or 11 to 12 hours to beat and about 17 hours
11:57
if you do everything I have 100% or I have 100% each zone.
12:04
Other than getting like the little, it's like a little mini
12:08
robot thing that you can shoot and it makes noise when you're
12:11
near it. And there's a couple of those
12:13
that I've missed so far, but those don't count towards the
12:15
zone completion. But holy shit, this game's
12:19
fucking awesome. I guess my it's not even really
12:25
a complaint because I I kind of do appreciate that it is short,
12:30
sweet, to the point, does its thing, and then lets you move
12:33
along. Because not everything has to be
12:36
this 100 hour experience or whatever, right?
12:39
Like Crimson Desert is a hell of a big fucking game and Final
12:44
Fantasy I'm like 20 something hours in I think right now and
12:48
I'm like halfway maybe I don't know.
12:51
So it is kind of nice to have a little bit more of a not even
12:55
bite size because this is I mean, 12 hours is a respectable
12:58
campaign, right? I, I almost kind of wish there
13:04
was a little bit more though, only because I don't want to
13:07
stop playing and that's it's so it's going to be a bittersweet
13:12
moment once I roll credits on this, especially if I've already
13:15
100% at everything. I'm not a new game plus kind of
13:18
person. I'm not going to really go back
13:20
and play this again just for the sake of playing again it again.
13:24
That being said, man, this game is so cool.
13:28
Everything about the, the world that it is built and what's
13:32
going on and your your main character, Hugh and Diana,
13:39
they're just, it's so much fun and everything it the, the story
13:46
is relatively simple in the grand scheme of things.
13:48
Like it's not anything you've never heard before.
13:52
Maybe with a few twists on it, on how everything happens and,
13:57
and how it gets to the state that it's in by the time you get
14:02
to the world. But the the the overall like
14:07
theme of it is it it it's something that has been told
14:12
thousands of times, right, But the presentation is what really
14:16
sticks out here. I think you know the
14:19
presentation and the gameplay. The gameplay is so much fun.
14:24
I think when we so I played the beta, I played it on a
14:27
controller. I think Evan had played it on a
14:29
key mouse and keyboard and he said it was fucking hard on
14:32
mouse and keyboard. But even when you launch it, it
14:35
tells you, hey, this game is best played on a controller.
14:38
It looks like it, yeah, absolutely.
14:41
So typical shooter type style, you're holding left trigger to
14:46
zoom in, right trigger to shoot. While you're doing so you can
14:51
hack these machines essentially. And it uses the face buttons as
14:56
directional buttons to move through this like maze to get to
15:00
a point where you then hack these robots to expose weak
15:04
points on these robots. And then you can destroy them
15:07
that way. If you just shoot them with your
15:09
gun, it does very, very little damage.
15:11
You have to actually expose these.
15:13
So this this hacking portion of it isn't just like a cool little
15:16
mini game. It is an integral part of what's
15:19
going on Now when you're hacking, things are still
15:22
happening around you too. So you still have to be aware of
15:26
the enemies that are coming at you.
15:28
So when you get these large rooms of like 5-6 enemies or so
15:32
and you're dodging around and trying to hack all at the same
15:35
time, it can get pretty challenging.
15:40
But it's very rewarding too. I feel like every time I finish
15:43
off one of these rooms or these like challenge rooms that you
15:46
can do, it feels so good when you finally finish it.
15:51
That being said, I think I've probably died, I don't know,
15:55
maybe two or three times. It's not bad.
15:58
It's not bad at all. There's nothing that's
16:01
exceptionally hard. Even some of the challenging
16:05
rooms, like they give you a lot of room to move around in and
16:08
traversal is a big portion of it.
16:11
As you level up, you can you can level up your boost or your
16:16
thruster system so you can actually move around quicker and
16:19
faster and more rather than being like, oh, I, I dodged once
16:25
and now I'm I'm out. So I could literally boost
16:28
around this entire room, hack something, kill one thing, boost
16:33
around the other way to dodge everything, kind of drag them to
16:36
where I needed them to be. So it's very smart in that
16:39
category. But it also there are a few
16:42
rooms where it is extremely cramped.
16:45
So you kind of get the best of both worlds where it really
16:47
balances the combat, not only in how many enemies it's throwing
16:53
at you, but like the the rooms that you are encountering them
16:56
in and the terrain and everything around that.
17:01
There's also like there's not a ton of different robots that
17:04
you're fighting here, which kind of makes sense based on how this
17:08
world set up. Like these were essentially
17:10
supposed to be like workers in this this space station fucking
17:16
base, right? And now they're not, but they,
17:23
so you get these like different variations of the, the same
17:26
enemy type to some extent. And they're just a little bit
17:28
harder. They have some different moves
17:30
and things. And it, it's never really tiring
17:33
though. And it's kind of nice because as
17:35
you get into these larger rooms where there are so many enemies
17:39
being thrown at you, you really get to take out the weak ones
17:43
first. So it's just one less target
17:44
that's being thrown at you and you can kind of whittle your way
17:48
down and take them, take them out in a systematic sort of way.
17:53
The boss battles are fucking so cool.
17:58
This this whole game it just it, it really has a a very over the
18:06
top by Capcom sort of style to it, which is really awesome.
18:11
The RE engine makes it just fucking gorgeous this game.
18:14
Isn't that much better? So, so pretty and it runs
18:18
Florida State. I had one crash and it was today
18:21
before we recorded actually, I have never had that happen and I
18:25
don't think it was necessarily even pragmata.
18:28
It seemed like it was a Windows thing because I also had a
18:31
little Windows thing there. It after it all fucking crashed
18:35
down but so far it's been running Florida State.
18:38
I have everything turned up to the Max.
18:40
I'm even running ray tracing on a fucking AMD card which I and
18:46
it not. Designed for.
18:47
Not yeah, not designed for it at all.
18:49
And it's running great. This this game, as it stands
18:55
right now, this game is probably going to be pretty high up on my
18:59
fucking game of the year list. And it was.
19:01
A sleeper, too. People were not expecting us to
19:04
do this well. I was actually not very
19:07
interested in this game until I played the demo.
19:11
It was kind of one of those things that I was like, yeah, it
19:14
looks cool, but I don't know, it's not really my kind of
19:16
thing, The. Delays as well.
19:18
The delays and and shit like that.
19:20
And then they released that demo and I played that demo and ever
19:25
since I played that demo, I was like, I have to buy this
19:27
motherfucking game. Like this game is cool as hell.
19:30
Like and that was just, I mean, it was a small slice.
19:33
I think it was less than 45 minutes to beat that little demo
19:38
and completely sold me. And it keeps that sort of
19:43
gameplay all the way through. You get different mods, you get
19:46
different weapons, you get different skills and things like
19:50
that that kind of tie into it and really expand upon what is
19:57
that core idea. But overall, Evan had asked me
20:01
that the other day. He's like, hey, like, does it
20:05
get more or is it like the same or what?
20:08
And I was like, yes, but no. Like it.
20:10
It still has that same feel throughout the entire thing,
20:13
like hacking a robot and taking it down while dodging another
20:18
robot. Feels just as good now 11 hours
20:21
in as it did when I first started playing it.
20:25
Things become slightly less scary, or at least your base
20:29
monsters and then you come up with robots and then you come up
20:33
against some of these other ones and it's just as fucking scary
20:35
as it was the first time you encountered one.
20:37
And they're trying to figure out what the fuck's going on.
20:40
But man, this game is very, very cool.
20:43
I I I already know people are going to complain about the
20:49
length, especially because that's just the way shit is, but
20:54
I don't think this is a problem. Not everything has to be this
20:58
grandiose over the top open world game.
21:01
I think this is fucking perfect. I love it for what it is.
21:06
It was $60.00 instead of $70 which I'm cool with.
21:09
I even got it off Green Man gaming and paid for the digital
21:13
deluxe edition for the same price as it would be normally,
21:16
and it was I, I regret nothing like it.
21:19
It is very, very, very, very cool.
21:22
And man, I, I don't know, it's a, it's a, it's a fucking
21:28
gorgeous, fun game to play and I can't really drive that home
21:33
anymore than what I've already said, I don't think.
21:36
I think you've described it perfectly.
21:38
You said it was a video game. Ass video game.
21:40
Yeah, yeah, I that was the the line when I was playing the
21:44
other day. I was like this is the most
21:45
video ass video game and boy is it ever and I fucking love it
21:50
for it. I'm hearing comparisons like,
21:52
hey man, this feels like like the early 2000s, like all of
21:57
that. And I'm like, that's perfect.
21:58
We need more shit like that. I can't wait to dig my teeth
22:02
into this. We we got a copy of it in our
22:04
Steam now. Thank you, Jules.
22:07
So I got God damn dude. I got one more I want to talk
22:10
about. We'll move on to some news and
22:12
wrap a bow on this. How's that sound?
22:14
Sounds good man. Mouse Pi for hire this IGN Let's
22:22
start with you. You know I need to rewind for
22:25
all you fucking weirdos out there, OK?
22:30
Diana is an AI. Cool cool.
22:35
Diana is also like designed after a child.
22:38
OK, stop being weird. Yeah, that's a good call.
22:42
Good call. What is what It's She's a child.
22:47
I don't care if it's AI, she's designed and modeled that.
22:50
They're a child. What are you?
22:51
Well, Capcom put her with no shoes on.
22:55
She's a child. And a robot.
22:59
A robot child. What are you people doing man?
23:02
Capcom has to ban and report people right now.
23:06
Oh yeah, it's a problem. And there's like communities
23:10
like, well, die. I'm not going to say any of it
23:13
'cause I don't need that isolated.
23:15
It's, it's fucking weird. And if you are are like that,
23:19
stop listening to this goddamn show 'cause you're fucking
23:21
weird. I don't, I don't need you
23:22
weirdies listening to the show. You're fucking weird.
23:25
It's an AI child. Yeah, still a kid.
23:28
It's it's brain is that of a child.
23:32
I should have thrown this in there too, just before I let you
23:35
move on, now that you brought up Diana a little.
23:37
Bit. Look at the vein.
23:38
Look at that. Yeah, it's, it's going wild.
23:41
God. As I typically hate children in
23:45
games, absolutely fucking despise children in games, this
23:49
is. Write that down.
23:49
Brody hates children. That's fine too.
23:53
I like my kids. I like my son, yeah.
23:56
Yeah, yeah, Lan's cool. I like my kids.
23:59
Your kids are awesome. Yep, we're let's move.
24:01
On but no, this is the best version of a child I have seen
24:08
in a game I think ever, and I think some of it is due to that
24:13
AI. She just has curiosity about the
24:16
world in general but also has that childlike childlike
24:19
curiosity and it blends together.
24:23
I know, sorry. It it blends together in a
24:26
really effective way and she's not fucking annoying like a lot
24:31
of companion characters. That's good.
24:33
But anyway, I wanted to address that because that got brought up
24:37
in the discord the other day about a child being in a game
24:40
and how much children typically suck in games.
24:44
Diana's fucking awesome. Atreus and.
24:46
Guy also don't be weird fucking. Yeah, it's not being just a
24:50
fucking kid anyways. Atreus was fucking annoying at
24:55
times. In the first, yeah, in the first
24:57
God of War, he was annoying and then the second is like, OK,
24:59
he's a teenager. So now he's like Uber annoying
25:01
and edgy. Yeah, yeah, Diana.
25:05
Fucking fantastic. Great.
25:08
I cannot wait to play pragmata. I I I know I say pragmatic
25:11
pragma. I don't care.
25:12
Whatever Tomatoes tomato. IGN back to you.
25:16
What are you doing first? First off you they had to you
25:22
dumb pieces of shit had to remove a whole review on
25:26
replaced because of misleading journalism.
25:31
The AI game replaced and sad Cat studios had to go to clarify
25:38
what IGN is trying to say. This is a story about an AI
25:41
character and then IGN went delete it.
25:48
You suck and you gave it a shit score while everyone else you
25:52
suck. Mouse pad for hire, same thing.
25:55
You gave it a terrible score. Is mouse A6?
25:58
They gave it a six. Are you fucking high?
26:02
I love marathon, but it's not a masterpiece as you say.
26:06
Yeah. I love marathon.
26:09
I I'll say IGN has been off their goddamn rocker for like 15
26:15
years now. Absolutely fucking batshit
26:18
insane. They could give, you could give
26:21
the Gollum game to 15 people at IGN and 14 people would say it's
26:25
good and then the last person go, I think it's not that great.
26:29
And then they would fire that guy, OK?
26:32
I have had problems with IGN since long before I started
26:37
doing podcasting and and reporting on games or whatever
26:41
you want to call it. IGN can suck my left nut.
26:46
I fucking. Hate IG the little fish.
26:49
The little fish at WAZ and beyond are taken after the
26:53
shark. We're going to take the sharks.
26:55
We're we're going to kill the sharks.
26:59
OK Fuck IGN. We're not going to kill anybody.
27:03
I spoke, I spoke wrongly. Fair enough.
27:06
I'll bleep that out it. Was it was it was.
27:09
Yeah, it was hyperbole. It.
27:10
Was fine shark, but mouse Pi all that to say it's a good game.
27:18
It's it's it's fun. It is the art style is just
27:22
perfect for a game like this. The noir theme is awesome.
27:26
Troy Baker is great in this. You know he's not just doing
27:29
Troy Baker. He's doing a whole thing and
27:31
it's it's an awesome voice. You can still hear the Troy
27:34
Baker in him, but it's like this is great.
27:37
The gunplay is super fun and the character models and like the
27:42
the surrounding environments look great.
27:46
There's just points in the game where I'm like get on with it so
27:49
far. I'm like, all right, like I
27:52
just, you know, you went into it thinking it's just going to be
27:55
like a noir FPS set and like the the rubber hose animation style
28:02
and it is that the game is surprisingly got some pretty
28:07
deep themes though, which I don't mind.
28:09
I like it a lot. It's like anti fascism at points
28:11
in time and. You mean when they come and take
28:14
the shrews away? Buddy, it goes there.
28:21
It goes there. No, it, it is good.
28:23
It is good. I was way more hyped prior to
28:27
playing it, though. I really was.
28:29
There's something I'm not done with it, so I can't fully say
28:32
that I'm not impressed. I am impressed.
28:34
I just don't think it was the game that everyone was hoping
28:37
for on release. Yeah, but it's still good.
28:41
It is smooth, it looks great, the gameplay is fantastic.
28:47
Some of the dialogue's just boring, some of the story I
28:49
don't give a fuck about, but the levels are fun and exciting.
28:53
It does remind me a lot of like old Doom and like just games in
28:57
that genre but with a new color palette added to it and that
29:00
noir theme is super fun and the over the top violence is a
29:04
blast. It's super fun to like if you
29:08
like Cuphead and you like Doom and things like that, you'll
29:11
love this game. I I would say go give this a
29:13
try. I'm not ready to give it a full
29:15
review yet, but what I will say is mouse pay for hire is worth a
29:19
play if you want it. It's not that, I think it's like
29:22
30 bucks. No, that's not a bad idea.
29:24
Or some shit like that, I think. Yeah, I think it's like 30
29:27
something bucks. It's cool, man.
29:30
It's nothing to rag home about, but it's still cool.
29:33
It's worth a play. I think everyone should at least
29:35
give this shot. I'm having fun with it.
29:38
Again, some of the dialogues on the story, I'm just like, move
29:40
on with it, right. But a lot of the deeper elements
29:43
of the story, I'm like, I like this.
29:45
I like what it's saying. I like the message here, you
29:48
know, it's it's it's really cool.
29:49
And yeah, the shrews don't take the shrews, bro.
29:52
I have found as I get older I care less and less about story
29:57
hit games. Even then when I was younger
29:59
like I as as a teenager I was like reading every word and
30:03
really invested. As an adult, I'm like, I don't
30:06
give a fuck. Let me kill things again.
30:08
Let me stab them with a sword or shoot them with some crazy space
30:12
gun or whatever it may be. I I want the overarching story.
30:17
I don't care about the other shit.
30:19
I fucking throw all that shit away, which is not.
30:23
And that's not fair to the developers and the people that
30:25
have worked very hard on the story.
30:27
But that's just where I'm at as as somebody who's playing games
30:30
and doesn't necessarily get to invest the time I did when I was
30:35
a teenager. Like I have to, I have to be
30:38
selective with my time. And if you have skippable
30:41
dialogue, I'm going to read it as fast as I can and skip that.
30:44
Shit, and it's not important, but yeah, I mean, it's cool.
30:48
Go go, go try my mouse Pi. Expect a full review on the show
30:51
soon. I know Evan's going to be
30:52
playing it. I don't know if Brody will get
30:55
to it, but I know Evan's playing it.
30:57
I think the next newer thing on my list of games to play is
31:01
Vampire Crawlers. That is on my list as well.
31:05
I will. Probably.
31:07
Get absolutely sucked into that. But yeah, I, I don't know I'll,
31:13
I'll probably check out Mouse Pi for hire at some point, but that
31:17
might be another one I might just hold off on now, especially
31:20
now that you've covered it and Evan's going to cover it too.
31:23
I don't. Feel much higher than a six.
31:25
Yeah, yeah, much higher. I figured at least, you know,
31:28
seven and a half eight, right? Like.
31:31
Definitely in the 8 range. Yeah, too much cheese, per IGN.
31:38
Also the violence they were had a problem with I guess too.
31:41
They were like fucked. They just like we'll put out no
31:44
hard yeah you fucking turds fucking pull your pants down and
31:48
hit you with rocks, nerds. Fucking dorks.
31:51
Anyways, nerd, so we got some news that I'm going to blow
31:57
through really quick and then we'll save like that.
31:59
That didn't sound good. We're going to breeze through
32:03
that blow through and then we will cap off with like the big
32:06
little cherry on top. Assassin's Creed Black Flag
32:10
resync drops July 9th. This is like the most beloved
32:15
Assassin's Creed game ever and it was leaked prior to.
32:18
We already knew it was coming, but to see that trailer?
32:21
Not the most Assassin's. Creed two.
32:24
OK, I listen, listen, I agree. You and I are on the same page,
32:29
but everyone else were old. Everyone else, this was their
32:33
Assassin's Creed. Yeah, fair enough.
32:35
And I get it. And Black Flag is good.
32:37
So that comes out shortly. The trailer look great.
32:39
July 9th. I'm sure it can't come soon
32:41
enough for a lot of people. So if you're if you're an
32:44
Assassin's Creed fan is especially a Black Flag fan, Nah
32:47
of the band because the new age black fat flag band.
32:50
Sucks that I almost flubbed that up bad that was.
32:57
That was a God damn tiptoeing on a dangerous edge there, my guy.
33:01
Assassin's Creed BF resync. It's a tongue twister.
33:07
It is. It is.
33:09
Without self-conscious. Maybe we soft did that shit on
33:12
purpose. God, we can cancel WHD this
33:16
We're saying Val Hollis sucked. I'm keeping that in the episode.
33:20
You know I didn't say that I knew.
33:21
Anyways. Anyways, my face is turning red.
33:27
I didn't. Mean to fucking?
33:29
Anyways, drawing too much tension before we get to the big
33:34
one, I'll say this, Valve. His eyes rolled.
33:40
Yes, I I was an unintentional I. I think it's just a knee jerk
33:44
reaction anymore. There there data mine found time
33:48
out this is this is. Legit now you fucking lost me at
33:51
data in the moment. There was there is an
33:54
unpublished video for a Steam Deck Steam controller unboxing
33:59
that Valve has ready to go on. OK.
34:01
Yeah, I'm on board. Yeah.
34:02
Yeah, we're good. We're good.
34:04
Yeah, there's an there's an unpublished video that they
34:06
found for the Steam Controller unboxing.
34:09
There's also been reports on a most multiple subreddits within
34:13
the Valve community, whether that be slash valve, slash
34:18
steam, Half Life, what have you technology that within the next
34:23
two weeks we should be seeing something along the lines of
34:26
hey, here it is. This is when we're this is when
34:30
we're releasing. This is when we're dropping.
34:32
This is how much people are saying that also coincides with
34:35
the big three as well. I'm not sold, I don't think a
34:40
two week. If Valve does something the next
34:42
two weeks, that's insane because prices are kind of just all over
34:46
the place. There's another there was
34:48
another leak suggesting they were trying to hit that six,
34:51
5700 price range for the Steam Machine.
34:56
There's no way. There's no fucking way.
34:59
If it if, if that's what they if they hit it crazy and they are
35:07
saying that HL3, HLX, whatever you want to call it is the
35:11
flagship is what is what this industry insider is saying right
35:15
now. And people are saying, OK, in
35:17
two weeks, if it's not out, we're killing you.
35:22
Like stop lying. But like other big like insiders
35:27
within the valve sphere are saying this sounds right or this
35:31
doesn't sound right and it's just a back and forth of yes,
35:34
no, yes, no, yes, no. So so my 2 quick takeaways from
35:38
that is Valve is about one of the very few companies in the
35:45
world that could shadow drop a fucking game like that and it
35:48
would be perfectly fine and also somewhat expected.
35:51
The only other company I can really think of that does shit
35:54
like that is Nintendo where they're like hey by the way, in
35:57
a month Star Fox is coming out. You're like what the fuck?
36:00
I could see Kojima doing it. Yeah, Kojima maybe.
36:03
I don't know. He loves his trailers though.
36:06
Oh my God. You know what?
36:07
Yeah, no. His trailers.
36:09
I walk that back instantly. Yeah, I know.
36:12
I can see. Yeah.
36:13
Go on. Sorry.
36:14
The only other thing that I I was going to say about that is
36:18
if, if Valve does manage to somehow hit that 600 and 5700
36:23
mark, they just just know they are absolutely taking it up the
36:30
ass. Like they are losing their ass
36:32
on this to a level that I would assume would be completely and
36:38
absolutely unheard of. Like it's normal to lose money
36:42
on consoles, but holy shit the amount of money they would be
36:45
losing on that is pretty crazy. But it's also Valve and they own
36:53
the PC market and everything you purchased on that would go
36:56
through Steam, and Steam is. So are they going?
37:00
To lose. Money like yeah, in in the grand
37:04
scheme of things, is it going to hurt them that bad?
37:06
Probably not. Will Gavin have to sell one of
37:09
his yachts? Probably not.
37:14
But that being said I mean it would still be a pretty big
37:21
deficit from what they would where they should be on price
37:25
point based on the market and how everything is right now and
37:29
how fucked RAM and storage and all of that shit is.
37:34
Question so interesting. In two weeks, would that be
37:38
their, would that be Q1 ending of Q1?
37:44
They said Q1. They, they, they, they, they
37:46
buckled down and said Q1. Q1 would be the end of April, so
37:50
two weeks would technically put you into May.
37:54
That's if they they buckled down and said by Q1 we will know
37:58
everything. Yeah, that's I.
38:02
Don't I listen if it's the same people that have been leaking
38:05
half life free for fucking? 10 years now, Valve said Q1 in
38:11
blog posts. Oh yeah, I I wouldn't doubt we
38:14
see a little bit of something. I don't necessarily think that
38:18
we're going to see a game. I think we may finally just get
38:21
a random drop on the Steam page where it has prices.
38:25
Yeah, that's fine. I mean, that's that's kind of
38:29
what we've seen from them in the past where it's just this random
38:32
out of fucking nowhere. Hey, by the way, the steam
38:35
controller is up on on on the the steam store right now.
38:41
You can pre-order it. It releases this.
38:43
Kind of big deal. That's typically how they've
38:46
been doing it. But I, I don't know, who knows,
38:49
they may make a big. I mean they had a huge blog post
38:52
leading up to this however many months ago and we haven't heard
38:56
shit since. So.
38:58
I mean if that happens, so that would coincide with the vinyl
39:03
that just released for half life Alex, which I got both copies of
39:06
the box set and the vinyl very pretty.
39:10
One of the a valve not insider AI almost said Co worker.
39:16
A Valve employee has been posting about stuff and somebody
39:19
said, hey, Tyler Mcvicker said, or somebody said, like, where's
39:22
the book? And he said, I don't know, let
39:24
me ask. And it's like, are you you guys
39:29
are being funny now? And I don't need you to be
39:31
funny. I need you just to be serious.
39:33
So I need I need you to be serious, Valve.
39:37
Anything could happen, I guess, especially with this year is
39:40
just going really good for games.
39:41
And the industry itself is a bit of a different story.
39:44
But with games, it's like, this is cool stuff.
39:47
Speaking of the industry at large, unless you had something
39:50
else you wanted to add to. That No, Nope, you're gonna.
39:54
Xbox. Yeah.
39:57
OK, Asha. Little a little bit of Sign of
40:00
life from fucking Microsoft. Well, not Microsoft Xbox
40:04
specific. P Three were you the problem
40:06
bro? I I I have my.
40:12
I have reservations. Suspicions about that I I don't
40:15
think he was necessarily the problem, but I think he knew he
40:18
was on his way out and he said fuck it.
40:22
Check this out. I'm going to raise everything
40:24
before I get out of here. Boy, Yeah.
40:26
I think he was trying to salvage a little bit of his goodwill
40:32
with his bosses prior to him leaving.
40:35
Yeah, so I mean, you know, Asha Sharma is coming out, you know,
40:43
Game Pass is just went all right.
40:46
Well, so instead of thirty bucks is twenty two ninety nine PC
40:51
Game Pass will also drop from sixteen to thirteen ninety nine.
40:54
That's price drops. We need that it's suggested that
40:59
you potential pick your own content plan because with the
41:02
price drops, we've also seen that hey, going forward, there
41:05
is no more Call of Duty included in Game Pass.
41:10
That's the big one, right? Like that's the the the major
41:14
hitter from that, which I don't give a fuck, but there are going
41:18
to be people that do care deeply about that.
41:21
Somebody pointed out they're like, so that roughly translates
41:25
with the price drop to a buck, a couple bucks a month that
41:31
reaches the price point of Call of Duty.
41:34
So I saved no money because I have to buy Call of Duty.
41:37
I was like, yeah. I don't know.
41:39
I mean, you figure it's dropping almost seven dollars a month,
41:43
right? Right.
41:44
Around seven dollars a month. So figure seven dollars a month,
41:47
that fucking twelve months, that puts you right at what, eighty
41:50
four? Is that right?
41:52
Yeah. Yeah, something like that.
41:53
I don't know math bro. Eighty four bucks.
41:55
So yeah, I mean, yeah, pretty much.
42:00
They basically like, hey, go buy Call of Duty.
42:02
Also still subscribe to Game Pass please.
42:05
Well, look at all the games you're still getting, man.
42:07
I mean, you're going to be getting E day there's.
42:10
Yeah. There's so much and they're
42:12
bringing. They're talking about like,
42:13
exclusivities. So, so many fans just got so
42:17
pumped for nothing. Yeah, that's rough.
42:22
What if they just pull Halo? Well, you know they.
42:27
Sony don't want to play nice. Yeah, I, I don't blame them If,
42:32
if they were to do that, I wouldn't blame them at all.
42:34
And honestly, at this point, I think they may have to own up to
42:40
Halo. I think they they, I'm sure they
42:43
have some sort of a contract there.
42:46
Microsoft, they could just go. We'll.
42:49
Pay, yeah, we'll pay. But I I don't think it would be
42:53
wise for them to do that. I would imagine maybe if
42:56
anything you get combat involved and that's fucking it.
43:00
But that's so fun. Yeah, right.
43:04
I, this is interesting though, because I cancelled mine when
43:09
they raised the prices right And then I as soon as this came out
43:15
I was like, oh, that's kind of cool I'll check it out.
43:16
Well then before we got started here, I, I'd loaded up the Xbox
43:20
app on my PC and I was looking at the different prices and I
43:23
was like, and do I actually subscribe to this shit again?
43:28
Like there, there's there's a a non zero percent chance that
43:33
before the end of the year I will have this again.
43:35
Granted, I also fully know that this will be going back up
43:39
again. It doesn't stay here.
43:41
There's no way none of these subscription services are
43:44
staying here. But that being said, is it the
43:49
the the best deal in gaming like it used to be?
43:52
No, not really. Is it closer to that?
43:55
Yeah, we're getting, we're getting close, but.
43:58
PS Plus PS Plus kind of sucks. PS Plus is rough.
44:02
Like there's, there's some good shit on here.
44:06
And, and one thing to add to that Call of Duty, it was the
44:11
most recent Call of Duty. So essentially, I think they
44:14
would be releasing the most recent the the the most recent
44:18
Call of Duty a year later, more or less.
44:22
They said holiday season the following year.
44:24
So all of the previous call of duties will still be on game
44:27
Pass and those those will not be coming off and the next one
44:33
won't be added until essentially after the the new one comes out
44:37
the following year. But so the biggest thing that's
44:41
stopping me from doing this right at this fucking moment of
44:46
getting Game Pass again is solely the I wish there was a
44:52
better way to do game sharing on PC specifically.
44:56
So on Xbox, I had Game Pass and my kids could play on their
45:01
account and play the games that I had because it was all tied
45:08
into my home console of Game Pass, right?
45:10
So Forza Horizon Six is coming out next month.
45:15
I plan to purchase it on Steam prior to this news because not
45:20
only am I going to play it, my oldest son is going to play it
45:22
on his PC and if I have it on Game Pass, he will not be able
45:27
to play it. So that is my biggest qualm with
45:29
it at this point of not being able to realistically share the
45:34
benefits between families. I guess across, I guess it's
45:42
different consoles, right? So I I get it to some extent,
45:45
but boy it would be nice, especially when we're used to
45:48
how Steam does family. Share Family share Yeah.
45:52
Their family sharing is fucking phenomenal where it is literally
45:57
yeah, steam, a a common steam W right like the the way it's set
46:03
up, if you one person owns the game on there, that means you
46:08
have one copy that is available to play at any given time.
46:11
If two people buy it, there's two copies available within that
46:14
family at any given time. Do you have to prove that your
46:16
family absolutely fucking not. Do you have to do anything other
46:20
than initially set that up and and select what games you want
46:23
to share, if not all of them? Nope.
46:27
And that's it. You just go on and fucking do
46:30
the thing. If Xbox could get that down for
46:34
PC and I think they may with this new generation, especially
46:38
with the the talk about Helix being it was Helix right.
46:41
Yep. Yeah, with Helix being more PC
46:46
like than it is actually console.
46:47
Almost Steam Machine type saying.
46:51
Somewhere in like the thousand like it's going to be what price
46:54
to yeah, it's going. To be expensive, but it when
46:59
that comes out, I think that would be when they would
47:01
actually try to solve some of these issues of like, OK, yeah,
47:05
well, cool. I have a family and they're all
47:08
tied to my account, but the kid plays in there.
47:10
I play on my PC. And you know how they've always
47:13
said or how they had that big marketing push of everything,
47:17
this is an Xbox. This is an Xbox, which they've
47:19
completely dropped. Oh my God.
47:22
Sack of shit, dude, Yeah. Yeah, I I think that would be
47:26
the next thing I would like to see from some of this Game Pass
47:30
type stuff. Aside from that too, I did want
47:34
to bring up they have now also changed back to Xbox instead of
47:39
Microsoft Gaming and Xbox Gaming.
47:43
They were Microsoft gaming there for a minute and they, they
47:46
still had the Xbox moniker, but they had the, the Microsoft
47:49
gaming thing, but and they changed their logo and it's
47:54
fucking vibrant and it's fucking sweet again, it's green.
47:59
So I, I'm really interested to see what she continues to do
48:05
here because it seems like, and it could have been coincidence.
48:08
I'm sure a lot of this had been in talks for a while and she
48:11
came in and like basically put the stamp of approval.
48:14
But since she's been here, lot of good changes for Xbox, a lot
48:18
of bringing them back into the Limelife where everybody was
48:21
like poking it, making sure it was fucking dead.
48:27
Cool shit man. I'm pumped.
48:29
I'm pumped. I and I, it's not because I'm
48:33
like some from fucking Xbox fanboy or anything.
48:36
I just, if it was just PlayStation and Nintendo and PC,
48:40
so basically steam boy, that's not, that's not good.
48:46
That's not good. You, you need, you need some
48:48
competition in there. Having Xbox makes PlayStation
48:51
better. Having PlayStation makes Xbox
48:53
better. Nintendo will always be the
48:55
weird kid over in the corner doing their own fucking thing
48:57
and I love them for it. And then Steam is just going to
49:01
be over here doing most consumer friendly shit forever,
49:06
hopefully. And.
49:08
Valve, dude, I'm really not concerned with the Steam
49:10
Machine. I really do think there's a part
49:13
of it, and I know somebody's will go stop defending the
49:16
billionaire company. I get it.
49:19
Yeah, they make a fuck load of money, but they also.
49:21
Their track record. Consumer friendly out of out of
49:24
the bunch of them. Their track record speaks for
49:27
itself and they want people to own their shit.
49:30
Valve wants you to have that in your house.
49:33
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, it's just what it
49:39
is. I've, I've said it a million
49:41
times on podcasts at this point, but selling a console means so
49:45
fucking very little to these companies.
49:49
They want you in the ecosystem. They want you to purchase games
49:51
because that is where they make their money.
49:54
They don't. They nine times out of ten,
49:56
they're losing money on the console sale itself.
49:59
Yes. They that means nothing.
50:02
Software means everything. So yes, I, I.
50:07
Subscriptions, games, software. All of all of the the times
50:11
you've been able to refund a game through Steam or or one of
50:15
these other consumer friendly things, they have done that
50:17
intentionally because they want you to purchase games on their
50:20
system. Gabe has come out and said the
50:24
best way to combat piracy is to make your system or your your
50:28
platform consumer. I'm paraphrasing here, but make
50:31
your platform easier to use than it is the pirate.
50:35
Yeah. And he's fucking spot on.
50:37
Right? Like, yeah.
50:38
Well, there, there was a Valve dev at some like talk and
50:42
somebody's like, well, how do you, what do you say to those
50:45
who want to sell in the the Steam storefront?
50:47
He's like, make a good game. Yeah, make, make what you want
50:51
to make, make a good game. Yep, good shit.
50:54
Xbox is in a pretty cool state. Valves and obviously Valve flow.
50:59
That's that's just, they're just on autopilot doing whatever that
51:02
they're doing. Sony is sonying around.
51:09
Hey, do you want a PlayStation Five Pro for nine hundred
51:13
dollars? Oh no, I do not want that Sony
51:15
suck my Dick from the back. OK, Cindy Sweeney is in the
51:18
Gundam movie. Yeah, I saw that as a rumor.
51:21
I. Don't know.
51:22
I didn't believe it. Two months ago and I was like,
51:24
there's no fucking way. Here we are.
51:27
She is. They said it.
51:29
Hey, look at this, nerds. We put Cindy Sweeney in it.
51:33
If there was a live Evangelion movie, I can go shit, I get it.
51:40
Why would you not? It's I get it.
51:45
Gundam's not too horny though. Until now.
51:52
Oh my God. Worse, we're going to hell
51:55
anyways. Or anyways, other than my
51:59
unfortunate flub earlier, Great episode.
52:03
Hell yeah, believe that even with the flub, it wasn't.
52:06
It wasn't intentional. They all know it wasn't I
52:11
Assassin's Creed. Black Flag.
52:14
Black Flag Recent English is my by the way, English is my second
52:20
language. Give me we're not I, I ask not
52:22
dwell on this. I make myself a bit guilty.
52:25
We're not. Anyways, thank you all for doing
52:29
it and listening to two idiots talk about something they love
52:32
dearly and that's video games. We appreciate every single one
52:35
of you checking us out. Please check out Podcasting with
52:38
Power. I was just on that show as a
52:41
blast. I'm not a Nintendo guy, but
52:43
being on that show was really fun and I'm glad they had me on
52:45
there. So if you like Nintendo and all
52:47
things Nintendo, go check out Podcasting with Power hosted by
52:51
Zach and Jordan. Awesome dudes.
52:53
Thank you guys for having me on While you're at it, check out
52:56
final boss Doc Loggy. Check out it came from screen
52:58
box roll for deception follow like, subscribe, follow us, like
53:03
and subscribe to us. We need it Do it.
53:06
It'll be sweet. And until next week, guys, take
53:08
it easy and be safe. See you.