0:00

Hey hey hey, time to put your middle

0:03

to the test now My

0:06

my my no, hey hey hey Don't you

0:08

know you're messing with the best now I

0:11

know, I know Right

0:21

gang, got a bit

0:23

of a production meeting before we crack on

0:25

like before we talk to all the children

0:27

listening Um, actually that's the problem

0:29

Oh We need

0:31

to modernize to appeal to

0:34

the ute Because I don't know

0:36

if you've noticed But the

0:38

Jimquisition brand isn't quite as hot as it used

0:40

to be And I

0:42

think what we need is an influx

0:44

of new blood to the fanbase So we need

0:46

to appeal to the younger audiences So

0:49

I'm I'm workshopping ideas, this is a bit of

0:51

a brainstorming sesh My first

0:53

suggestion is we change this show's name

0:55

to Coolquisition So that people

0:57

know it is cool I

1:00

mean people wouldn't have known otherwise That is

1:02

that is a smart idea perhaps Right, I'm

1:04

drinking a cup of coffee Because

1:06

hey I can't start the day without my

1:08

shot of Morning Joe That is relatable Like

1:11

people listening will say Ha ha, I too

1:13

drink coffee and I like the caffeine for

1:15

the effect it has I gotta

1:18

pretend they have effects on me because of the ADHD But

1:20

yeah totally totally like oh god it

1:23

jitters me up I've

1:26

been working on a similar but alternative

1:28

way of growing the audience Which is

1:30

that we start appealing to old people

1:32

We start getting old people listening to the show

1:35

I don't know can we get away with that much racism? Oh

1:38

well look that's up to them what they

1:40

do We've not got any control of them

1:43

But my rebrand idea to maybe get

1:45

them on board is to try and

1:48

trick them into thinking like It's like

1:50

a countdown or one of

1:52

those daytime game shows Because

1:55

we call it Podquizition Oh my

1:57

god they love quizzes You

2:00

just make it sound like it's a data and TV

2:02

show quiz and like maybe that maybe look at it,

2:04

right? Okay, we

2:06

could do that. Hey, I'm gonna

2:09

be Richard Whitely Can't

2:22

do it can't do it Okay, but

2:24

I think I'm old enough now to

2:26

sort of like fill their demographic of

2:28

what they like to see on TV

2:30

because like I'm old Enough that if

2:33

they dated me, they wouldn't look like

2:35

creeps but the tits are a lot

2:37

younger so Decuins

2:39

in come red you you've got any rebrand

2:41

ideas for the show to bring new audiences

2:43

in hits with it chill bean I mean,

2:46

I I accepted defeat a long time

2:48

ago I When

2:51

you said get some new blood into the

2:53

audience, I thought we were recording the billionaire

2:55

class. Oh Yeah,

2:59

because that's what they're doing, you know getting

3:01

that young blood injecting it in themselves Trey

3:04

I think the gambit if we want to get the

3:07

billionaire crowd listening is that we make this a show

3:09

That you can only make it like those vanity

3:11

Phone apps that you have to pay like a

3:14

million pounds to have the app on your phone

3:16

and it's just a status symbol you

3:18

can only download the show if you pay

3:20

like a million pound per episode and Like

3:23

having the new episode is the status symbol

3:25

we can maybe get some billionaires Like

3:28

we'll hit up the star citizen people for

3:30

like like advice on how to overcharge in

3:32

nickel and diamond really exploit the fuck out

3:35

of our family The

3:37

way I see it. We really only need one

3:39

billionaire listening Like we should

3:41

just pick one and focus hard on

3:43

them We once had a millionaire listening

3:47

But then I said trans rights one too many times

3:49

and notch unfollowed me and pulled his support I

3:52

was gonna say there was a brief

3:54

moment where notch the port is beyond

3:56

patreon and then that didn't last Oh,

3:58

he once tweeted that he thinks God

4:00

for me and weirdly he doesn't

4:02

know he's not transphobic remember that

4:04

like remember that no transphobic ever

4:06

is transphobic but he did pull

4:08

that support them like just

4:11

as I was talking about trans rights. I

4:13

can summarize my interactions with Notch as he

4:16

paid me 30 dollars a month to

4:18

um complain that it was quite low

4:20

it was quite sad being a multi-millionaire

4:23

and having all that money it was quite

4:25

rough and then and then he

4:27

stopped giving me 30 quid a month. No one

4:30

suffers like Notch in his house full of sweet

4:32

dispensers. His wall full of the

4:34

the wall that is just M&M. Yeah. It's

4:36

a hard life. I've got a glass pig

4:39

never mind sweet. I've

4:41

got a tiny glass pig that's smaller

4:43

than my thumb. I was reunited

4:45

with it. Sorry this is apropos of nothing

4:47

but I invited my friend John and Mark

4:49

my friend John and Mark around Monday night.

4:51

I hadn't seen them since New Year's Eve

4:53

where I was given a small glass pig

4:55

by an Austrian person where apparently

4:57

at the holidays it is customary

4:59

to give small glass trinkets of

5:02

incredibly twee things. There

5:04

was like a small mushroom and a

5:06

small ladybird and I let everyone pick

5:08

first so the mushroom was long gone

5:10

but I've got a little white glass

5:12

pig with little black spots on it

5:14

like a cow and it's got like

5:16

legs like a balloon like a balloon

5:18

animal. It's brilliant and this year I

5:20

propose we all give glass trinkets to

5:22

people because it's the most mortgage

5:24

thing in the world but

5:27

I love it the little twee bastards.

5:29

So yeah that's my policy and that

5:31

is how I think we're going to

5:33

appeal to the Austrian

5:35

demographic at least with

5:38

glass trinkets so I think we should call

5:40

this show Glass

5:47

trinket circumcision that is that's

5:51

a bad scene. That is more of

5:53

a Jonathan pitch. What

5:55

kind of an emergency are you in

5:57

that you can perform the circumcision? right

6:00

then at what you have to hand. ALICE

6:03

It's a small glass pig. ALICE

6:05

In summary, we would need quite

6:07

a few millionaires or billionaires to buy

6:10

into our expensive podcast thing for it

6:12

to actually be a sustainable model. It

6:15

seems like it would probably be less sustainable

6:17

than the current model where we

6:19

don't have any billionaires involved. ALICE There'd

6:21

be a lot of churn. Because

6:24

yeah, the moment someone wealthy listens, they'll

6:26

pull all support immediately. So yeah, a

6:28

lot of churn. So we've

6:30

got to keep appealing. And there

6:32

we go. I haven't had enough sympathy for nearly breaking

6:34

my neck. I know I mentioned it on the Jimquisition

6:36

and on the bottom's favourite summary recorded, and now I'm

6:39

doing it now. But I, for

6:42

a brief second, I was carrying an

6:44

entire adult human on the back of

6:46

my neck. How brave am

6:48

I? Let's not use words

6:50

like stupid, foolish and reckless. Let's use

6:53

words like brave, mighty and brilliant. I'm

6:55

alright. I hurt more because it's been raining than

6:58

because I nearly broke my neck. We

7:00

were talking about this before the show. We

7:03

both have barometric joints from various things

7:05

going on with us. ALICE Oh sure,

7:07

yeah. And the thing is, once you

7:09

hit like 30, if

7:12

you have any injury from your

7:14

youth, then that's just

7:16

when it kicks off. ALICE Yeah.

7:19

Mine was 16 being hit by

7:21

a car, and it gave

7:23

me the war... it gave me my barometric knee.

7:25

And that one's done the barometric thing since I

7:28

was 16. My other

7:30

joints are finally catching up. It's like, oh,

7:32

you did get hit by a car more

7:34

than just that knee got hit. ALICE Knee

7:36

drop on a DDR machine in 2000. ALICE

7:39

Ooh. I didn't

7:42

even do anything. I

7:44

was just born with shit knees. They

7:47

just collapsed in my

7:49

teens. And then of course there's my back.

7:52

And then wrestling for a year

7:54

with a dislocated shoulder didn't help. ALICE But

7:56

yeah, no, we've had similar weather here where

7:58

it's just been hot. and then cold

8:00

and then hot and then cold and

8:03

I can't deal. I cannot deal. Living

8:05

in Yorkshire especially, like the weather here

8:07

is just... it always

8:09

wants to be cold and raining. But

8:12

because it's British summertime, that stuff

8:14

is forceful. Like that is... British

8:17

summertime is an imposition. So

8:20

it will like force its way

8:22

in and then the rain will fight it

8:24

back and while they're having fucking deal with

8:26

the fights out there, I'm Robin Minnie's going

8:28

to go, hmm, I don't want to get

8:30

up off this chair. Oh,

8:32

welcome to Vlogs with a Ching. Welcome to Vlogs with a Ching. We're

8:35

here, it's a show, we talk about

8:37

video games sometimes. Monologues and demagogues all

8:39

day long. Who's played

8:42

stuff this week? Anyone who played

8:44

any things? I tell you what,

8:47

I tell you what I didn't play much of. After

8:49

desperately like trying to get done with the podcast

8:51

last week, I've only played about 10 minutes of

8:54

Hades 2. Yeah,

8:56

did you enjoy that 10 minutes?

8:58

It was alright, yeah. I think

9:00

it's hard to adjust starting again,

9:02

which is why I didn't immediately like get

9:04

hooked again. Because I'm so used to, you know,

9:07

I played Hades 1 for so long,

9:09

I'm used to it being the back-end

9:12

experience, which is quite different from the

9:14

front end. So having to reset

9:16

that has been a bit tricky, plus

9:18

I've had some other stuff to be getting on

9:20

with. That's what Linda and I have been running

9:23

into a lot of. She keeps commenting on how

9:25

much longer it seems

9:27

to take to get through a

9:29

run, you know, how much time

9:31

it takes to accomplish the task, regardless of

9:33

how far in you're going. Oh yeah, I

9:35

found it unacceptable that I lost to the

9:37

first bus the first time I saw it.

9:39

I was like, no, no, it's the first

9:41

bus. I walk through these forgetting

9:44

what early Hades was like. Well,

9:46

and the bosses feel like they

9:48

drag because you are, you know,

9:51

you don't realize how much benefit

9:53

you're gaining from the gradual

9:56

progression of just

9:58

baseline better. shit and

10:01

so you can utterly stomp

10:03

something in in 25 seconds

10:06

that you've forgotten used to take you

10:09

like three minutes. Mm-hmm.

10:11

So yeah unfortunately I can't speak

10:13

much on it. That's

10:16

fair. You know I can tell very

10:18

good I can tell I mean it's

10:20

more Hades. The character designs because

10:22

of my memory I would need

10:25

to have a proper side-by-side comparison.

10:28

Unfortunately the most readily available side-by-side

10:30

comparisons right now are the Hades

10:32

2 artwork and something some terminal

10:35

wanker has edited to quote unquote

10:37

fix it. Oh

10:39

yeah. But looking at them in isolation

10:41

the character designs are really cool. Yeah.

10:43

I haven't seen what the new Dionysus

10:45

looks like yet so that's gonna hinge

10:47

on it. I don't think Dionysus is

10:50

in here yet. Oh yeah I'm not

10:52

I'm like 45 50 hours in I've

10:54

not seen Dionysus. Okay

10:57

well there's a character there's an actual character

10:59

fix. Put him back in

11:01

there so that I can start wanking over

11:03

Hades again. I have a suspicion he will

11:05

be in and I have a suspicion when

11:08

he'll be added but I I have a

11:10

suspicion what they're holding him for. It is

11:12

curious the specific gods

11:15

that are absent from here

11:17

particularly as it pertains to

11:20

the narrative that they're telling.

11:23

Like where's Ares? Where's Athena? Now

11:25

Athena I'm expecting will crop up

11:27

later simply because of some of

11:29

the other characters that are present

11:32

but Ares seems like a

11:34

huge gap and I don't necessarily miss

11:36

him because Doom

11:38

effects were so-so and

11:41

they seem to have been replaced by

11:43

Blitz effects working more or less the same

11:46

way but with a damage component. So

11:48

I you know I don't miss

11:50

Ares from a gameplay

11:52

perspective but it is

11:55

a curious narrative gap I think to not

11:57

have him running around or even a

11:59

reference to that. reference to it. I think

12:01

Athena's very understandable why she's not there,

12:03

in that mechanically a lot

12:06

of people did a lot of reliance on

12:08

Athena's defensive stuff, and that definitely does change

12:10

up how you have to play. If there's

12:12

one character whose boons you're gonna remove to

12:14

really change up a playstyle, hers is probably

12:16

a really good candidate. But also I think

12:18

narratively they have set up the

12:20

hooks really well for her

12:22

not being present but if she could

12:24

show up later and that would create

12:26

some interesting tension. And

12:29

I'm definitely okay with that one. Yeah.

12:33

I'd also like to amend what I said about

12:35

the character art. I

12:40

would like to fuck Chaos if

12:42

that's what you're saying. Yes!

12:44

Chaos's new art is fucking... The first

12:46

time I saw it I had to

12:48

stop for a minute and process

12:51

what I was looking at. That is perfect for

12:53

Chaos. I don't want to intrude. So

12:56

I need to just... I

12:58

need to emphasise for the listeners

13:00

exactly how fuckable Chaos is. In

13:04

all the years I've known Conrad and it's been

13:06

knocking on 15, he has

13:08

never said out loud

13:10

that he wants to fuck someone. I've

13:13

never heard you just say I wanna fuck

13:15

that. That is how

13:17

fuckable Chaos is. I know that there would

13:20

be consequences for it and I accept that.

13:23

Oh yeah! I'll

13:26

put it this way, for anyone who's

13:28

not seen Chaos's art, Chaos

13:30

is hot and fuckable

13:32

and attractive enough that

13:36

I would look past the fact that Chaos

13:38

is holding a skull with

13:40

an attached spinal cord with a foetus

13:42

on an umbilical cord coming out of

13:45

the mouth. Well yeah

13:47

because I'm looking into Chaos's other head

13:49

and eyes while that one is on

13:51

my eye anyway. in

14:00

the weeds on Hades 2, it is still the big

14:02

thing I'm sinking time into when I have time. I

14:05

have made it to

14:08

as far as the game will currently

14:10

go in any directions

14:12

presented. I've seen currently

14:16

the limits of what combat

14:18

and location content there is in the game.

14:21

There is still a lot of stuff

14:24

for me to be doing. I've gotten

14:26

a good 45-50 hours already out of

14:28

early access and I've barely

14:30

started scratching the bit of the game that

14:32

would be turn the difficulty up and keep

14:35

fucking around. I'm

14:39

really digging it.

14:41

I still don't like

14:43

the weapons. Yeah, none of

14:45

them have grabbed you. No, I mean

14:47

there are ones that I can

14:50

see practical benefit to. Like

14:52

I'm warming to the flames. Those

14:54

are the ones I've been really

14:56

gravitating to. And I've

14:59

warmed to the flames because

15:01

Hera becomes a thing and

15:04

Hit with the flames can

15:06

be so effective. But

15:08

otherwise, yeah, I

15:10

finally unlocked the aspects and I like

15:12

the way that those work. One thing

15:15

I will give this game credit for

15:17

is while there is

15:19

an obscene number of

15:22

collectible resources, I mean

15:24

just so

15:26

many of them, they

15:29

at least have made

15:31

a concerted effort to

15:34

make them all valuable and continue

15:36

to have value as you

15:39

continue to play and get deeper into it.

15:41

And I appreciate as well that a lot

15:43

of them feed into other resources where if

15:45

you end up with an abundance of one,

15:48

there might be an incantation to turn it

15:50

into a rarer one in its place.

15:52

There is a degree of flexibility around

15:54

them. Yeah, and some of that was

15:56

present in a much more minimalist

15:59

way. fashion, you know,

16:01

through the shop in Hades

16:04

1, and I was

16:06

worried about the complexity of that

16:08

when I saw just how many

16:11

more things there are, but

16:14

it's not too bad. I am finding

16:16

myself doing a lot of, all right,

16:18

well I'd rather go this path,

16:20

but I want that resource, so

16:22

I'm gonna go get that resource

16:25

than I would have thought necessary,

16:27

but it's fine. I have

16:29

one thing of note, and I'm not going

16:31

to go into specifics on this because to

16:33

discuss it in specifics would require some spoiler

16:35

discussion. I will say, look

16:37

out on Friday of this week, I will

16:39

have a video up on youtube.com/Laura K Buzz

16:41

talking about the thing I want to talk

16:43

about here in some, like, proper spoiler depth.

16:47

I have hit a point of frustration

16:49

with one mechanic in this game. It

16:52

is a mechanic that,

16:54

without getting into specifics, disables

16:57

some accessibility accommodations and

17:00

access to some accessibility

17:02

settings as a gotcha

17:06

that I don't think is a

17:08

good move on the game's part.

17:10

Yeah, I know, I now know

17:12

what you're talking about, and yeah, not

17:15

being able to access those

17:17

things is unnecessary. Yeah,

17:19

I understand narratively what they're going for,

17:21

I understand the impact they want to

17:24

have and I think for some people

17:26

it will have the intended impact. Sure.

17:29

I don't think it's malicious, but I think that

17:31

they had, oh, this would be

17:33

a neat narrative idea and didn't think

17:35

about the impact it would have on

17:38

the players that are actively

17:40

using the accessibility accommodations the game

17:43

otherwise provides. I

17:45

also think that the

17:48

way that you get the game to back

17:51

off of that whole

17:53

mechanic is not

17:55

a good design decision because it

17:57

forces you to play the game

17:59

with without the accessibility accommodations available

18:02

to you in order, like

18:04

multiple times, in order to get your accessibility

18:07

accommodation back. And I think that, like, had

18:09

they made it so that

18:11

you could get that situation

18:14

resolved some other way without

18:16

having to go through the

18:19

situation that you don't have accessibility accommodations

18:21

in, I'd have been more forgiving of it.

18:24

It's a frustrating design decision, I won't go any

18:26

more specific into it here, but if you want

18:28

to know more and go spoiler-y, keep an eye

18:30

out on YouTube on Friday, because it's the only

18:33

thing about this game that has really rubbed me

18:35

a little the wrong way. And I think that

18:37

there's even a simple solution to that, that would

18:40

retain the effect for

18:43

players of that sort of realisation, and

18:48

then back it off. Like, all

18:50

they really need to do is

18:52

add an option in

18:54

the gameplay menu after it happens the

18:56

first time. Yes. And that would

18:58

solve the whole thing. In the video I've

19:00

got going up this week, I make like four different

19:02

suggestions of ways you could work around it, that is

19:04

one of them, there's a few other ways I think

19:07

you could do it. I think

19:09

there's really easy fixes that don't involve

19:11

having to remove this little gotcha.

19:13

Yeah. Because it is good,

19:16

it is good. Like, it's clever. And

19:18

I appreciated it. It's clever, but

19:20

it is not considerate of

19:23

disabled players, which is

19:26

something you have to be if you're going

19:28

to have an accessibility dedicated menu in your

19:30

game. You are saying to disabled

19:32

players, we are thinking about your needs. You

19:34

kind of have to keep those in mind,

19:36

even in moments like this. But

19:39

generally speaking, I'm really digging Hades 2

19:41

still. There is already more variety of

19:43

content to see in this than there

19:45

was in the finished first Hades. I'm

19:48

more than happy to support a game in early access

19:51

in that kind of situation. I'm like, yeah,

19:53

you've certainly earned getting my money's worth out

19:55

of me already. Yeah, I agree with that.

19:58

I think it's very good. I played

20:00

a couple of other things, I might jump in

20:02

with one. I started playing a really adorable little

20:05

game that I don't have a huge amount to

20:07

say about, but that's not because it's not good.

20:10

I started playing Little Kitty, Big City.

20:12

I've been keen on this coming out,

20:14

in fact, Linda reminded me of its

20:16

release the other day, and I've heard

20:18

it's a little buggy, but pretty good.

20:21

I've heard as much, but I've not

20:23

experienced it myself, and I don't know

20:25

whether it's because I'm playing on console

20:27

or what. I've been playing it on

20:29

Switch and haven't really experienced much buggy

20:31

with it. But yeah, the gist of

20:33

this is you are a little black cat

20:35

that's fallen out of the apartment window, and in

20:38

theory the game is you trying to get

20:40

back to your multiple floors up apartment that

20:42

your human lives in. To

20:45

say that that's the aim of the game

20:47

completely doesn't do it justice, because the

20:49

point of the game is, sure, we're

20:51

meandering our way back to get

20:54

back there, but also we're a cat and there's

20:56

gonna be a lot of taking

20:58

the scenic route involved in that journey.

21:01

The game has really good

21:04

expressive animation, uses a lot

21:06

of exaggerated squash and stretch to really fun

21:08

effect. Having put like maybe an hour and

21:10

a half or so into it so far, it

21:13

feels comparable to something like Untitled

21:15

Goose Game, but with a little

21:17

bit different of a vibe, because

21:19

where Untitled Goose Game was like

21:22

vengeful chaos, like

21:24

vengeful mischief. This is

21:27

mischief under a layer of I'll look at

21:29

you with big soppy eyes and go, oh

21:32

you can't blame me, I'm adorable, it's not

21:34

my fault that I'm wrecking shit. And

21:37

that little change in tone I think works

21:39

in its favour, it does a lot to

21:41

help set it apart. Generally

21:43

speaking it's just a nice little

21:45

crafted sandbox-y environment.

21:49

Go find a bunch of stuff to

21:51

do. Objectives will sort of naturally pop

21:53

up as you explore the

21:55

world and will interconnect with each other a

21:58

little bit. I... had

22:00

a quest where someone wanted to be paid

22:02

in feathers, so I had

22:04

to go and learn that I could trip

22:06

over a human carrying a sandwich and steal

22:09

their bread, and put it down on

22:11

the floor, and then crouch, and then pounce on a

22:13

bird, and I let the bird go but it just

22:15

got a little feather. It's half that,

22:17

and it's half going around shops knocking glass jars

22:19

off the top of countertops while people shout at

22:21

you and you're like, ah, I can't get me,

22:23

I'm up on the top of the shelves, knocking

22:26

stuff around. It's very cute. I streamed maybe

22:28

an hour of it and then decided like,

22:30

I don't want to stream more of this,

22:33

I want this to be my like, chill,

22:35

not particularly for work kind of game, and

22:38

I've been chipping away at it and having a

22:40

lovely time. It's a very wholesome little game. Either

22:43

of you played anything else this week? Uh,

22:45

I played a fair bit this week. I

22:49

guess the one that was the most

22:51

relevant to listeners to

22:53

start off with would be Crow Country. Again,

22:55

another thing that I wanted to play this

22:58

week, and the only thing I've

23:00

had time for is Hades. It's

23:02

on my list, just didn't have time. Yeah,

23:05

this one is on a lot of lists. I

23:08

mean, it's on Friend of the Showcasey Explosions Game

23:10

of the Year list. She's that taken

23:12

with it. I'm not quite as taken with

23:14

it as Casey, but it

23:17

is very good. It is a high-quality

23:19

game. One that deserves praise for being

23:21

one of the very, very, very few

23:24

in the retro survival horrors that didn't ask

23:26

the question, what if we just made a

23:28

shit game on purpose? This

23:30

one doesn't like, put in awkward

23:33

controls because of that fucking ruinous

23:35

misconception that shit controls made old

23:37

horror games scary. This one has

23:39

real controls, which is great, played

23:41

in this isometric perspective, which is

23:43

really nicely done in that you

23:45

get a good view of the

23:47

space, but just enough is

23:49

obscured that if you start sprinting headlong,

23:51

you could bump into something. I

23:54

was a bit unsure of the visual style

23:56

at first, because the main characters, well, the

23:58

human NPCs, all of them, look

24:00

a bit too cheap with their very

24:03

clearly segmented limbs and that they look

24:05

a little bit like they were made

24:07

in dreams or something like that like

24:09

using basic models but the monster designs

24:12

and the environment designs are lovely so

24:16

that really offset it the monsters in

24:18

particular they've nailed that Jacob's ladder thing it's

24:20

my favorite type of horror design where

24:23

the monsters are inherently

24:25

goofy and silly looking and

24:28

that somehow makes them scarier because something

24:30

that silly being that dangerous and that

24:32

just sort of slightly disturbing really speaks

24:34

to me so I love the enemies

24:37

they're all really horrible mutilated body horror

24:39

type things a really good job to

24:41

be done with the limited graphics and

24:43

sound to just communicate that whatever these

24:45

things are or where they do not

24:48

want to be what they are now

24:50

really freaky stuff I really like that

24:53

it's quite witty as well the writing's

24:55

nice it's got a cool

24:57

little story that unfolds like with the

24:59

backstory and everything decent puzzles

25:02

you know it is very much a

25:04

survival horror game and it's core doing

25:06

all of the things you'd expect lots

25:08

of solve the soup cams type of

25:10

puzzles they use the conceit of the

25:12

theme park well with that regard in

25:14

that you interact with some animatronics or

25:16

some rides nothing like

25:18

major but you know a

25:20

battery you might need is in there you

25:22

know a mechanical mermaid or something there are

25:24

some funny little silly moments like there are

25:27

these little mushrooms that are hidden around and they're

25:29

like hello I'm a little mushroom boy I will

25:31

grant any wish you want oh you want

25:33

to upgrade the range of your flamethrower weird

25:35

wish and so there you're up your weapon

25:37

upgrades of these little mushroom boys there's a

25:39

lot of adorable stuff in it but

25:42

also just yeah creepy body

25:45

horror shit I like it a lot

25:47

they do a really cool thing with the

25:49

backtracking where obviously there's a

25:51

lot of that as you get new keys

25:53

to open new things but they've

25:55

got this cool little it's a

25:57

very subtle thing but I really like it where You

26:00

can avoid combat and it's advisable a lot

26:02

of the time, as with many survival horrors,

26:04

but it's a risk-reward thing because as you

26:06

progress in the game, new

26:08

monsters populate older areas.

26:12

So the game warns you like, if

26:14

you don't think the herd now, you've

26:16

got worse problems later. It's

26:19

like population control almost. You're

26:21

fighting enemies not to kill

26:23

them all, but just

26:25

to make areas manageable later if you think

26:27

you're going to need to go through this

26:30

area a lot. The only drawback

26:32

for that is they do the same

26:34

with traps and fuck the traps. There's

26:36

something just especially unexpected about going into

26:38

a room you've cleared and walked through

26:40

like several times and suddenly there's a

26:42

chandelier on the ceiling that drops on

26:44

your head and you're not really looking

26:46

up there because you're looking down where

26:48

all the other traps and enemies are

26:50

and the amount of times I've been

26:52

gotten with it. It just feels snide

26:55

and they deal so much damage that I've

26:57

actually saved scum at points just to be

26:59

like, no it doesn't feel fair and sometimes

27:01

it just feels arrogant and I'm not letting

27:03

it win so I've actually like done myself

27:05

out of progress just because I'll get hit

27:07

with a fucking chandelier I didn't see coming.

27:09

I'm not adding that. I'll do the puzzle

27:11

again to not be hit by that chandelier.

27:14

Same goes for like the poison traps. You get

27:16

poisoned so much in this game you're constantly going

27:18

in your menu to get antidotes. Multiple

27:20

different types of glass uh

27:23

gas traps. I do like the

27:25

traps that appear in the back end

27:27

that are item pickups that are rigged

27:29

to explode. That's a cute

27:31

idea. They're the same shape as other

27:33

pickups but the labeling is different and

27:36

you you eventually learn sort of at

27:38

a glance which are dangerous. But those

27:40

first few moments are really tense like

27:43

until you you work out what to

27:45

look for. So yeah it's really cool.

27:47

I'm very fond of it. It's probably

27:49

the best retro indie survival

27:51

horror like those ones inspired by classic

27:53

Resident Evil and Silent Hill. It's probably

27:56

the best example of those that I've

27:58

seen. Very Recommended. Very.

28:00

Recommended. It's. It's gonna

28:03

say I'm glad to hear and see

28:05

I live since. Decent? Yeah, that's that's.

28:07

just a lot going for a well

28:09

written, well paced, good horror. At

28:12

ease later feels as we go

28:14

matter of just being the Hades

28:16

to is just been the Hades

28:18

ah off a flight. A couple

28:21

of other things I can I

28:23

can quickly chime in on. I'm

28:25

a playing an interesting game.net only

28:27

gonna stick more with cool details

28:29

of can Zara the Hell I'm

28:31

which is a natural read vein

28:33

as it is published by. Ea

28:36

originals which is to my understanding

28:38

that in be publishing label for

28:41

we would we would like to

28:43

have some games that were attached

28:45

to the like might win some

28:47

game of the year awards for

28:50

like a Game for Impacts because

28:52

they you know tackle Ah untold

28:54

stories it's it's the we would

28:57

like some some kudos awards will

28:59

will pay to publish them in

29:01

be stuff and this one is

29:03

a side scrolling Medford Mania Ah.

29:06

Where. The. Gimmick is

29:08

you have access to a couple

29:10

of different mosques that you can

29:13

tap meet combo to change your

29:15

fighting style midway through fighting and.

29:18

He wants really well as a gimmick.

29:20

I'm the starting set up for each

29:22

form of your character is. Just

29:26

a light attack, heavy attack, or-and

29:28

a jump and you add. additional

29:30

maybe like so far as seem

29:33

like one additional thing palm ask

29:35

form opposite of movement that ah

29:37

and the way that they they

29:39

play will be different between them

29:41

as a few things i've really

29:43

like about about this games presentation

29:46

in particular so far i'm i

29:48

really like the i'm the environment

29:50

designs who has has been doing

29:52

the environment design service game has

29:54

a really fantastic ali for making

29:57

sure that like big shots as

29:59

an invite have one feature

30:02

element that will really help that area

30:04

stick in your mind. The

30:07

opening shot of the game, for example, is a sort

30:09

of futuristic cityscape, but the

30:11

one thing that sticks in my head

30:14

is this one building that's a giant pyramid

30:16

with an inverted pyramid on top of it.

30:19

It's almost like an hourglass of

30:21

pyramid in the middle of this

30:23

big futuristic city. And there's

30:25

a lot of use of things like this where it's just,

30:27

that's just one very simple silhouette

30:30

that makes that area not

30:32

just feel cookie cutter in its design.

30:36

There's also a lot of really nice

30:38

design choices, like when wearing one of

30:40

the combat masks, the sun mask, your

30:43

male character you're playing

30:45

as has this movement

30:47

to them that is

30:49

very ballet inspired. This

30:51

combat movement system that

30:53

almost is like pirouettes and sort of like would

30:56

not look out of place in something like Swan

30:58

Lake. The kind of

31:00

movements you very rarely see given

31:03

to male lead

31:05

characters and like that really struck

31:07

me quite well. The

31:12

game is doing some interesting

31:14

stuff narratively with being a

31:16

story about coming to

31:18

terms with grief. On

31:20

the surface it is, I thought

31:23

it was going to be like a lot

31:25

more predictable than the

31:27

premise actually seems to be because like the

31:29

initial setup is that tried and true, someone

31:34

you love has passed away, you're going to

31:36

go on a quest to convince death to

31:38

give you your dead loved one back. And

31:40

like usually that entirely plays out as somewhere

31:42

along the journey you come to terms with

31:45

the fact that like the correct thing to

31:47

do is to walk away and accept the

31:49

the death of the person who's passed on.

31:52

This adds a little wrinkle to that

31:54

up front where the deal made with

31:56

death is cool, we'll go on this

31:58

journey together. But if

32:01

you don't see it through to completion,

32:03

you will be mine. You will

32:06

be taken by death. So there

32:08

is like an acknowledgement of usually

32:10

the trope is you come to terms with it

32:12

and you just walk away from the quest. That

32:16

is from the start not presented

32:18

as an option. And I'm

32:20

very curious where they're going with that. I

32:23

have one main problem with the game and

32:26

it's not a deal breaker of a problem,

32:28

but it's a problem that

32:30

annoys me specifically. I'm

32:34

someone that's very completionist about like if you show

32:36

me an optional challenge, I want to go do

32:38

that optional challenge before I move on. I

32:42

struggle to walk away from

32:44

optional challenges. And the

32:46

problem this game has is with

32:49

how those optional challenges are balanced

32:52

relative to how far into the game you are. The

32:55

very first optional challenge you're presented

32:58

involves a fast moving

33:00

river that changes your movement speed dramatically

33:02

increases it and a corridor where you

33:05

have to slide to slide under things

33:07

and jump over things. With

33:10

like pinpoint precision or

33:12

hit one hit kill spike

33:15

walls with zero checkpointing. It's

33:18

the kind of optional challenge where if in any

33:20

other like metroidvania type game you offered me this

33:23

like 80% of the way into the game. I'd

33:25

go cool this feels like an appropriate

33:28

level of challenge for an optional challenge toward the

33:30

end of the game. The very

33:32

first optional challenge presented. I

33:36

know I could just walk away. I personally

33:39

struggle to do that and therefore I'm finding

33:41

myself frustrated going this feels way too precise

33:43

of a challenge for I've barely gotten my

33:45

bearings with the game. And

33:48

generally the optional challenges feel like they

33:50

have that kind of they're

33:53

not built

33:56

in a way that is that feels

33:59

respectful of. how much experience you have with

34:01

the game. I'm okay with it being real

34:03

challenging. It feels like just a

34:05

little off of the curve. But

34:08

so far I've been enjoying it. I'm curious to

34:10

stick with it and see where it's going. I

34:12

like a lot of the voice acting and presentation.

34:16

It's definitely interesting. It's caught my attention. What

34:20

about you Steph? What else have you been playing this week? So

34:23

I started a game that came out yesterday called

34:26

Athenian Rhapsody. I

34:29

saw a trailer for it. It immediately fell in

34:31

love with the

34:33

look and the sound of it. It

34:36

looked like a very unsubtle copy

34:39

of Undertale. And having played

34:41

it, I can in fact say that it is. It

34:44

is so shamelessly

34:46

aping Undertale. It's

34:49

very shameless. The

34:51

general can see is the trailer

34:53

at least and the marketing promises that no

34:55

one playthrough is ever the same. Everything

35:00

plays a little different. Now we hear claims

35:02

like this all the time. I'm not exactly

35:04

sure how it manifests. I do know I

35:07

started the game very briefly then restarted it when

35:09

I realized I'd spelt my name in all caps.

35:12

And it did pair me off with a

35:14

completely different character at the beginning based

35:17

on a questionnaire that

35:19

I was asked before the

35:21

main game started with

35:24

silly questions and answers. It's

35:27

got that dorky humor that you see in

35:29

games like this. So yeah,

35:31

yeah, at least that's different. Instead

35:34

of getting a little red devil, I've

35:36

been dealing with a little pink coral

35:39

looking guy called Richard. It's good. It's

35:41

just shameless. I'm

35:44

okay with shameless. I've

35:47

heard it before, the joke it's telling,

35:50

but it tells it

35:52

well. And that's what's keeping

35:54

me going is as obvious as it

35:56

is what this game is being. It's

35:59

doing it quite well. This is not a

36:01

cack-handed half-baked attempt to cash in on Undertale. It's

36:03

a very well-done attempt to cash in on Undertale.

36:05

The writing is quite funny. It actually made me

36:07

laugh out loud. I spoke to an NPC who

36:09

was fishing and saying he had to catch the

36:12

fish because if you don't, they come and make

36:14

fun of you. But if you catch it, it

36:16

is he who makes the fun. I just was

36:18

very charmed by the idea that that's the objective

36:20

of fishing, is mockery. It's

36:24

full of little NPCs with silly little

36:26

things. The battle system, yes, has a

36:28

befriend mechanic that is exactly Undertale.

36:31

You can attack or you

36:33

can select various commands to interact

36:35

with the enemies. One

36:38

thing that seems to be different is you

36:40

only have to make friends with an enemy

36:42

type once, and there

36:44

isn't a pacifist genocide thing going on,

36:46

I don't think. It

36:49

does track your friends versus your victims,

36:51

but it seems that... It

36:53

has to be this way because if you had to

36:55

make friends every single time, it'd

36:58

be such a way more boring game because

37:00

of how long it can take to befriend

37:02

things. So you fight

37:04

an enemy the first time, you do

37:06

the Undertale thing of interacting with it,

37:08

avoiding its attacks, which again, exact same

37:11

thing. You're playing a little

37:13

version of yourself on a board with enemy

37:15

attacks represented as various shapes or things flying

37:17

at you. Once

37:20

you've befriended one, that seems to be it. You

37:22

can then kill subsequent versions of them and level

37:24

up and everything, which

37:27

I like because there is a whole battle system very much like

37:29

Undertale has that one doesn't feel like they can use if they

37:31

want to play it properly. Whereas

37:35

here it's a bit different. It seems

37:38

the benefit of befriending enemies first is you

37:40

collect them on each biome, and then you

37:42

report it to a character who will give

37:44

you a badge for befriending every enemy

37:47

type in the area. Then

37:49

it seems you're free to play it as normal. That's

37:53

at least my read so far. Other

37:55

than that, it looks lovely. The visuals

37:57

are fantastic, the character designs are a

37:59

lot. of fun, it's really

38:01

bright and colourful, lovely animations,

38:03

the music is outstanding. That's

38:06

one of the things that got me excited

38:09

to play it. The soundtrack has got one

38:11

of the best soundtracks I've heard in a

38:13

long, long fucking time. It's

38:15

been a while since I've heard

38:17

a soundtrack just this consistently catchy.

38:20

Even in the early goings, every

38:22

area I've been to, every single

38:25

bit of music is great. So

38:28

if nothing else, the soundtrack I'm really

38:30

into. For your interest, Laurie, you can

38:32

change the menu sound effects to be

38:34

various duck quacks. Hell yeah! Yep, I

38:36

thought of you as soon as I saw that. There

38:40

are silly things to play around

38:42

with in the menus. There's

38:45

a help section, one of the helps being

38:47

that you feel sad when you're alone at

38:49

night and it just gives you some life

38:52

advice. It's very cute, very adorable, very dorky

38:54

and very, very unashamed

38:57

of what it's doing. And

38:59

I so far like it. So far

39:01

I really like it. I thought I'd cringe

39:03

at how much it's copying Undertale

39:09

but the fact that they're still managing

39:11

to be funny is

39:13

letting them get away with it. Because

39:15

for all it's copying, like

39:18

I said, I've heard it before but

39:20

it's the way you tell them and they're telling

39:22

it well. So we will say, it

39:25

also calls me out harder than any games

39:27

ever called me out before because it lets

39:29

you name your character. I named my character

39:32

Steph and then when someone asked my name

39:34

they said Steph, I was expecting a caller

39:36

name like James and

39:38

I felt very, very called

39:40

out. But

39:43

yes, that was pure random chance.

39:45

Someone did ask that, does the devs follow you

39:47

and are they trying to fuck with you? No,

39:50

pure coincidence. Pure coincidence can do

39:52

things like that. When

39:54

playing the Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe, I did think

39:56

of you when I got to the room. where

40:00

it's the button that says your name, but no matter

40:02

what your name is you press the button and it

40:04

says Jim. And there's moments in

40:06

games like that where I'm like, sometimes you're

40:08

just gonna put a name in a game

40:10

and it's gonna seem way more targeted to

40:13

like one person than it otherwise would. Although

40:15

funnily enough, the Stanley Parable does have

40:18

a reference to me, and famously the

40:20

developers reached out to use my new

40:22

name. Exactly! Which was lovely. They

40:25

updated the screenshot of a Destructoid review

40:27

and changed the text on it, which

40:29

is really amazing. Yeah! So yeah, I'm not

40:31

currently beaming about Athenian Rhapsody being on the

40:33

line, like oh my god you've got to

40:35

play this, it's so amazing. But it's got

40:38

me on the hook, and

40:40

fingers crossed I will have that opinion.

40:44

Right now I have the opinion of this is

40:47

very promising, not

40:49

original in terms of any of

40:51

the conceits going on, but

40:53

the humour is on point, the

40:55

visuals are fantastic, and the soundtrack

40:57

is fucking incredible. I gave it

40:59

a Google, I'm definitely intrigued, shameless

41:02

as it clearly seems to be.

41:05

I'm fascinated by one mechanic I've

41:07

seen mentioned, which leads into the

41:09

question of exactly how variable these

41:11

playthroughs will be. Apparently

41:14

your specific playthrough will create like

41:16

a trading card save file at

41:18

the end, you can trade with other people,

41:20

and it will some kind

41:22

of playable experience that's based on whatever

41:24

your friend played, and I'm like, I

41:26

don't know what that means, but I

41:29

admire the ambition. So I've not

41:32

beaten a playthrough yet, so I can't speak

41:34

fully on it. I've not even seen the

41:36

trading card, but there is reference to it,

41:38

it's called your Rhapsody, and

41:40

it tells you various things that will be

41:42

added to it, like there is an accessibility

41:44

option, there's just one, but it gives you

41:47

invincibility frames when you get hit in battle,

41:49

so that you don't just like take a chain of damage. And

41:52

they do mention that if you use it,

41:54

it will just like be shown

41:56

on your Rhapsody that you've used it, like that's

41:58

it, there's no other part. I've

42:01

said this before, I'm not keen on

42:04

making permanent markers that you've used in

42:06

accessibility. No, me neither. It is just

42:08

the first example I can think

42:10

of. Oh no, no, I get it, yeah. But

42:13

no, I'm not keen on it either. Another

42:15

thing is there are cameras set up around

42:17

the world, and you can use them to

42:20

take a picture that I guess will be on the

42:22

trading card. So you can only

42:25

have one, but there are various locations, and

42:27

as you make friends or party members and

42:29

they follow you, you can take the picture

42:31

with them. So currently it's just a little

42:33

picture of me and a little sausage dog

42:35

that I found, and

42:38

this battle with, and it became a friend, and so it

42:40

can follow me around as a party member. And

42:42

you can swap to them during battle,

42:45

and they've got their own commands and stuff. And

42:47

that's really cute. It seems you can

42:49

only have one at a time, but you can switch them

42:52

once you get to the first city area, you can

42:54

switch them out like any other ones you've collected. And

42:57

looking at the amount of question marks on the

42:59

list, there's a lot of them to collect. And,

43:02

you know, presumably take your favourite one to

43:04

your favourite location where there's a camera, take

43:06

a photo, and then that's the front of

43:08

your card, which is really cute. How

43:12

extensive all of that is, I do not

43:14

yet know. So how extensive, how

43:16

dramatic the story change is, who

43:19

knows yet? But we will say, hopefully

43:21

it's extensive because it's the original

43:24

thing this game's like doing. I'm

43:27

intrigued enough that I have it downloading

43:29

right now to get around to

43:31

when I have time to check it out. I

43:34

would be curious to see what you think, because it is, I mean,

43:36

I'm curious to see what I think, because I

43:39

don't quite know yet. I know I'm enjoying it.

43:41

Like, I'm having a lot of fun. So

43:43

whether it's original or not, that's

43:46

one of the beautiful things about games is the

43:49

difference between plagiarism and an homage is

43:52

how good the game is. The

43:55

only other thing I've really played this week is

43:57

I've been playing around with the new Vampire Survivors

43:59

DLC. operation guns.

44:02

Which is the Contra

44:05

DLC. Weirdly they didn't let me near

44:07

that one. No, the Konami one didn't

44:09

get you anywhere near that one. Honestly

44:12

the thing I keep thinking about since

44:14

having played through this is

44:17

I weirdly think like the two

44:19

DLCs that have been brand tie-ins

44:22

with other properties have been two

44:24

of the best DLCs for vampire

44:26

survivors and that's not to be

44:29

a negative comment on the Fascari

44:31

or Moonsfell DLCs but

44:33

I have been really impressed at the

44:35

quality, the amount that the tie-ins with

44:37

Among Us and Contra hasn't felt like

44:39

cash grabs. I really like the new

44:41

map in this Contra one. It

44:44

is a pretty big sprawling environment that

44:46

goes between like grassy

44:48

outskirts into still

44:51

somewhat stable but a little

44:53

bit sort of bombed cityscape

44:55

into desert barren

44:58

environment. It feels

45:00

like there's a lot more variety of enemy types

45:02

showing up. Really cool soundtrack stuff

45:04

in there. I feel like

45:06

this is the most characters and weapons

45:08

they've added at one time in a

45:11

DLC for this. The fact that

45:13

they're basically all guns hasn't

45:16

stopped them feeling varied and I think that is

45:18

that is impressive. Given that I'm

45:21

not usually a person playing characters

45:23

and vampire survivors that require me to

45:25

direct my weapon direction, particularly once evolved

45:28

a lot of these weapons reach

45:30

a point where I'm very into them. It's

45:33

a neat DLC. That's good to know. I've

45:35

not got round to it. I have actually

45:38

been working on a bunch of vampire survivors

45:42

stuff. I'm so excited for the shape

45:45

you've been working on to be in

45:47

there. Hopefully,

45:49

hopefully. I'm very proud of it and

45:51

then like Ponce was happy with it.

45:55

Yeah I would have loved to

45:57

have been commissioned to have done a little

45:59

bit of best theory or stage

46:01

descriptions for the Contra stuff. I'm

46:03

already delighted that a project I

46:05

work on has had

46:08

Konami's involvement. That already amuses

46:10

me greatly. There's probably an ability

46:12

to, if you have the DLC,

46:14

look at the credits and see

46:16

your name and also Konami in

46:18

the same credit list. I

46:21

mean, possibly, possibly. I might ask if

46:23

I can have some of the assets.

46:25

I just, just so I feel like

46:27

I've done something. I better not.

46:29

But yeah, like

46:31

between that and the Among Us

46:34

DLC, the

46:36

crossovers are really interesting and

46:38

the game is so thematically loose.

46:42

It doesn't matter. That's what I love

46:44

about the game. It doesn't matter what

46:47

it's doing. And, you know, it's

46:49

what gave me a lot of creative freedom for

46:51

the writing projects I've done, because Luka is a

46:53

fascinating game director who really is like not

46:56

big on established canon, not

46:58

big on making everything make

47:01

sense. So really is like,

47:03

have fun with this world, have fun

47:05

with the characters and what you can

47:07

do with it. And it's very refreshing.

47:09

I think that that loose and floatiness

47:11

has done a good job of making

47:14

it so that weird little ideas that

47:16

feel very unique can be part of

47:18

like to make sure that times with other

47:20

properties don't feel like they have to be

47:23

wedged into the mold of just vampire survivors. Like

47:25

I think a lot about the Among

47:27

Us one, having the alarms gone off, you

47:30

have to go hit the thing to stop

47:32

the emergency mechanic. It's a

47:34

little thing, but it goes a long

47:36

way to carrying that feeling of tone.

47:38

Yeah, definitely. One thing I've been learning

47:40

lately, again, not to give away too

47:42

much, is just how, just

47:45

how much you can do with

47:47

one or two mechanics to completely

47:49

change how something is played or

47:51

approached. And that again is

47:53

something vampire survivors has been really good

47:55

at is taking this

47:58

incredibly simple idea and. then

48:00

he's racing on it to maximize the

48:02

mechanics to do different things which a

48:04

lot of the games copying it have

48:06

not even considered. What happens if you

48:08

add just one mechanic and then play

48:10

around with what that does and layer

48:13

it and layer it and there you go.

48:15

It's one of my favorite things which a

48:17

lot of people confuse with backtracking which is

48:19

why some people have been trying to make

48:22

me sound like a hypocrite because the dragon's

48:24

dog they're saying but I'm a big fan

48:26

of maximizing the potential of something be it

48:28

an environment or a mechanic or something like

48:30

that. Let's take this thing and

48:32

not just retread it. How do

48:34

we remix it? How do we

48:36

make the same interaction do something

48:38

different? Seeing the applications

48:41

of those mechanics based on the

48:43

different properties crossing over with it

48:45

and some of the stuff going

48:47

on in the adventure mode it's

48:49

just really cool to say. And

48:51

obviously I'm somewhat biased but I do think

48:53

it's a big key to the game's longevity

48:56

especially where so many other games copy just

48:58

the basics but do not have the imagination

49:00

to pull off making it compelling

49:02

and worth going back to. The amount

49:04

of thought that Poncel is

49:07

putting into this game, forethought and

49:09

the variety, it's one

49:11

of the reasons why it's enduring. That

49:13

game is constantly updating a lot of

49:16

it for free and it's

49:18

yeah it's an incredible game not just

49:20

because of the general gameplay conceit that

49:22

sort of launched a genre. It's doing a

49:24

lot more that I think it

49:27

could stand to get a little bit more credit

49:29

for. Well put. Have you played anything

49:31

else before we move to the news?

49:33

I'll tell you two things. I'm

49:36

playing Final Fantasy 6 and I've never

49:38

properly gone through that one. That's been

49:40

an albatross around my neck for a

49:42

long time so I'm deeper into that

49:44

than I've ever been. It's fun. Final

49:47

Fantasy 6, you know, those who

49:49

aren't too fond of the more latter-day sort

49:52

of after Final Fantasy 7 took off and

49:54

the series went mainstream. A lot

49:56

of the older school fans will name 6 as

49:58

the best one or their favorite. at one. I wouldn't

50:01

go that far but you know Kefka is a great

50:03

villain and the gameplay is cool and

50:05

you see a lot of sort of the

50:08

turning point in six from the

50:10

older school Final Fantasy to the

50:12

more modern stuff so that's cool and

50:14

not a great deal to say about it because it's

50:16

you know Final Fantasy 6.

50:18

The other one I've played is Slayer's let's

50:20

see if I can remember the name of

50:23

this Slayer X Terminal Aftermath Revenge of the

50:25

Slayer. I think that's the full title there's

50:27

two colons in there this is the

50:29

sequel to Hypnospace Outlaw that I somehow

50:31

didn't know about oh yeah apparently it

50:33

came out on like PC and Xbox

50:36

last year and then came to

50:38

Switch PS5 yesterday. I was given

50:40

an advanced copy to check out

50:42

and so it's the sequel

50:44

to Hypnospace Outlaw but it's a first-person shooter

50:48

an incredibly puerile pathetic

50:51

edgy first-person shooter developed by

50:54

Zane the guy

50:56

whose website you moderate in Hypnospace

50:58

Outlaw the edgy kid with the

51:00

really shittily drawn comics he

51:03

made a game in like 1998

51:05

or something and there have been

51:07

many many retro shooters that like

51:10

the whole boomer shooter thing many

51:13

ones that have been like oh we're reminiscent

51:15

of Doom or you know Quake

51:17

or something I've not seen one

51:19

as authentic as this one this one

51:22

really nails it the visual quality they've

51:24

put on the opening FMV to make

51:26

it look like a an

51:29

artifact-laden PC cut scene complete

51:31

with beautifully flat acting as

51:33

a woman character and whoever

51:36

they got to do her

51:38

voice they managed to like

51:40

nail the kind of bored

51:42

flat tone that those kinds

51:44

of types of characters had back in the day like

51:47

one-to-one perfection this looks like

51:50

it could have been a Duke Nukem

51:52

3D clone I

51:54

was about to say yes the game

51:56

is very derivative on

51:58

purpose universe it was

52:01

made by someone who'd watched The

52:03

Matrix and learned the wrong lessons

52:05

from it. Riddled with spelling mistakes,

52:07

constant references to nards and sleeping

52:09

with people's moms, human feces as

52:11

enemies, like completely immature but

52:13

just done in a way that

52:15

works. And yeah it's

52:18

very clear that Duke Nukem 3D is

52:21

a big sort of thing being parroted. There's

52:23

a dedicated button to flip off like

52:26

just throw the bird and

52:28

what really sells it is Zane who's

52:30

like providing the voice for the main

52:32

character because obviously the main character is

52:34

Zane and he is cool and awesome

52:37

but you can just hear him like just

52:40

very genuinely sniggering as he flips the bird

52:42

just just giggling to

52:44

himself at how clever he is. Loads

52:46

of great sight gags all over it,

52:48

the gameplay is rock-solid nothing too spectacular

52:51

very much like Bolt Gun and some

52:53

of the other retro FPS's it does

52:55

suffer from the thing that the back

52:57

end is not as fun as the front

53:00

end because the novelty wears off and they

53:02

introduce a green werewolf enemy with a rocket

53:04

launcher that can take you down in two

53:06

hits and there's loads of them and they're

53:08

bullet sponges and you just get to some

53:11

of the later levels where you're like yeah

53:13

this this is like a really

53:15

cheap way of escalating the challenge

53:17

but that front end is great and

53:19

the second the back end isn't bad overall

53:24

really fun very funny and

53:26

the fact that it is such a pathetic derivative

53:29

shooter makes it the perfect sequel

53:31

somehow to Hypnospace Outlaw which itself

53:33

is one of the most unique

53:36

things out there and

53:38

I'm very excited at the prospect of this

53:40

being a thing taking

53:42

old not just the

53:45

early internet that Hypnospace para did.

53:47

They now para did sort of

53:50

shitty first-person shooters made by edgy boys

53:52

in the 90s and there's all sorts

53:55

of other things they could do now

53:57

like educational games or adventure games just

53:59

anything that was big on PC back

54:01

then, I would love to see a

54:03

Hypnospace in-universe version of. So

54:06

yeah, we'll see what they do next,

54:08

if they do anything next. I also

54:10

appreciate that they made a Steam

54:13

developer profile for

54:15

Big Z Studios. Big

54:18

Z Studios is the developer of Slayer's

54:20

Ex, and that is... Damn right. That's

54:23

great. Good for them. Yeah. I

54:26

think that speaks volumes as to why it's so successful, why it's good

54:28

at what it does. It's like I always say,

54:30

commit to the bit. It commits 100%,

54:33

and it does it in a way that

54:35

feels more genuine, just because it's the little

54:37

things. It's not just, here's

54:40

a shotgun and some pixel graphics.

54:43

We've nailed the tone of what

54:46

a kid would make in the 90s. We've

54:49

nailed the way FMVs

54:51

are animated, not just the filters they've

54:53

put over them, the way they're animated,

54:56

the way they're acted, the way they're

54:58

dressed even, it's just dripping in. Either

55:01

well researched, or very fondly remembered

55:03

90s stuff. I

55:06

like it a lot. It's obviously

55:08

not as inventive as Hypnospace

55:10

is, conceptually. But the very

55:12

fact they did it, and

55:14

it's worth playing not just for the joke,

55:17

which it could have been. Like

55:19

some of these games where the concept is

55:21

really silly and inventive, but the joke lasts

55:23

as long as the trailer for it and

55:25

you don't need to play it. This

55:27

one I wouldn't say you need to play it, but you'll have

55:29

a really good time if you do, more than like, as

55:32

far as these modern day boomer shooters go. I

55:35

reckon it's up there. It's definitely

55:37

up there. Not top tier, but

55:39

definitely under that. Like just under

55:41

it. Nice. We've got

55:43

a couple of little bits of news before we finish up today.

55:46

And they're both Xbox not

55:49

handling messaging very well around having

55:52

shuttered those studios recently. Xbox

55:55

not handling messaging well? I'm...

55:58

Nice, I'm stunned! surprise.

56:00

So first one we've got

56:02

is Xbox president Sarah Bond

56:05

was interviewed at the Bloomberg

56:07

tech summit and gave

56:10

some answers about why those

56:12

studios that got closed were

56:14

closed and they

56:16

are incredibly non-answers. You know,

56:19

I've heard some non-answers out

56:21

of corporations before but let

56:23

me pick

56:26

some nice little quotes for you. When

56:29

asked specifically about the closure of Tango

56:31

Game Works she said, you know,

56:33

one of the things I

56:35

really love about the games industry is

56:37

that it's a creative art form and

56:39

it means that the situation and what

56:41

success is for each game and for

56:44

each studio is also really unique. There's

56:46

no one-size-fits-all to it for us and

56:48

so we look at each studio and

56:50

each game team and we look at

56:52

a whole variety of factors when we're

56:54

faced with sort of making decisions and

56:56

trade-offs like that but it all

56:59

comes back to our long-term commitment to the

57:01

games we create, the devices we build, the

57:03

services and ensuring we're setting ourselves

57:05

up to be able to deliver on

57:07

those promises. It's fucking nothing. Why

57:10

did you shut down Tango Game Works? Success

57:13

looks different for every game and

57:15

studio. I mean

57:17

that's... that is the game

57:20

industry in a nutshell though. The

57:22

fact that success doesn't look like

57:24

success to them. Let's face it, that's what

57:26

they really said. Success looks

57:28

different. That is an incredibly,

57:31

like you say, it's a nothing statement.

57:33

That is a complete nothing burger

57:35

but it is also weirdly telling,

57:37

not in an intended way but

57:40

it speaks volumes that they look at

57:42

something successful but we're all looking at

57:45

as successful and they're telling us it's

57:47

not because success looks different. This is

57:49

alternative facts all over again. Maybe what

57:52

they're telling us is that sometimes success

57:54

looks like getting your studio shut down.

57:56

You know what makes that particular quote

57:59

all the more? fucking ironic.

58:01

There is a screenshot that

58:03

accompanies the livestream of when

58:05

that quote was being read

58:07

and above her head is

58:09

a graph of Xbox's year-over-year

58:11

growth showing all of the

58:13

big growth and income and

58:15

increased profit for Xbox. Mm-hmm. Like

58:18

she's literally sitting under a Xbox

58:20

is making more money graph going,

58:22

you know, sometimes you make a

58:25

critically acclaimed game and that's not

58:27

enough. Let's reword what

58:29

they said to be more honest. Success

58:32

looks the same. It's

58:35

their reaction to success that's different

58:37

because in this fucked

58:40

up industry and indeed in

58:42

industry success does

58:45

not determine if you live or

58:47

die as a studio. In fact

58:49

success can lead to you being

58:51

shut down because the more successful

58:53

the more money you generate for

58:55

your publisher the more as we've

58:58

always had to say the more

59:00

desperate they get to cut costs

59:02

to keep the profit going next

59:04

financial quarter and that's when we

59:06

have layoffs and shutdowns. The more

59:08

money you make for a company

59:10

the more you increase your fucking

59:13

risk of getting shut down.

59:15

Mm-hmm. It's but

59:17

of course if you don't make money you'll get

59:20

shut down. You are truly

59:22

damned the moment you sell.

59:24

That's the lot of

59:26

an indie studio. Doesn't mean you shouldn't

59:28

sell. Like there are many reasons you'd

59:30

want to sell possibly to just fucking

59:32

get out of the industry and obviously

59:35

depending on how many employees you have

59:37

relying on you that could either be

59:39

a wise business move or a really

59:41

shitty thing to do. But you've

59:44

just got to be aware that the moment

59:46

you sign on the dotted line and hand

59:48

your studio over to a company like Microsoft

59:51

you are damned. Yeah

59:54

well well you see we shouldn't be too

59:56

mean about Sarah Von Kommens here.

59:59

Because the we got one other

1:00:01

story this week and it's about being

1:00:03

mean to Xbox executives. Um, yeah,

1:00:06

so former Blizzard boss Mike Kiyobara

1:00:08

decided this would be a great

1:00:10

time to try and step in

1:00:13

and defend Xbox, and

1:00:15

specifically to defend the

1:00:17

hurt feelings of poor poor Phil

1:00:19

Spencer, oh poor Phil

1:00:21

Spencer, in a tweet thread, and I

1:00:23

will I will just start reading from it. I

1:00:26

see a lot of shots at Phil over

1:00:28

today's Xbox announcements on social media. I

1:00:31

get it, but knowing him as a human,

1:00:33

I know this hurts him as much as

1:00:35

anyone else. Fuck off! Fuck

1:00:38

off! He's rich! Yeah.

1:00:41

It doesn't hurt him as, it

1:00:44

doesn't, that is so vile.

1:00:46

That is a vile thing. You know

1:00:48

what, I did a video about

1:00:51

shit Mike Kiyobara was like spewing out of

1:00:53

his moron mouth a few weeks ago, and

1:00:56

I felt a bit bad, even

1:00:58

though he worked as an executive and

1:01:00

therefore didn't like have feelings the way

1:01:02

a human does. Part of me

1:01:05

never like singling someone out. I only do

1:01:07

it to the executive class because again, they're

1:01:09

not really people, but I

1:01:12

felt a little bit bad. I'm like well he's not,

1:01:14

he's out of Blizzard and all of that and

1:01:16

he wasn't named as any of the

1:01:18

shitty people. Maybe I'm a bit, fuck

1:01:21

off. It's clear that he does not

1:01:23

think like an average normal person, that

1:01:25

his money poisoned like the fucking rest

1:01:27

of them. That you just say something as

1:01:29

offensive, and it is offensive, as

1:01:31

offensive as it hurts him just

1:01:34

as much as anyone else. That

1:01:37

is despicable. Sorry. No,

1:01:39

no, no. That is, that is

1:01:42

the bit that got everyone. It's barely

1:01:44

a fucking sentence into his ramble. I'll

1:01:47

let him keep, keep, get Weasel in a

1:01:49

couple more words out. I can't

1:01:51

speak for all the leadership there, but I do

1:01:53

know him and I do know what he is

1:01:56

likely going through. I'm not trying to defend the

1:01:58

decisions. I think we all get our into

1:02:00

situations that are tough and unexpected, certainly

1:02:03

I have. It's part of the

1:02:05

job, as is the accountability

1:02:07

for the outcomes. I'll stop

1:02:10

here. What accountability for outcomes?

1:02:12

Phil Spencer sure didn't take accountability

1:02:14

for all the people who lost

1:02:16

their jobs. No. But

1:02:19

he's a good human and he cares deeply

1:02:21

for the creative process and developers.

1:02:24

Sorry, I've got to stop you again. Human?

1:02:28

No. The moment you're promoted to

1:02:30

the executive class, you leave

1:02:33

your humanity behind. Fuck

1:02:36

off. Fucking hell,

1:02:38

my Kizbara. Yeah, I'll leave it

1:02:40

there. He really thought, like, hey,

1:02:42

great time to go. You know

1:02:45

who's the real victim in this?

1:02:47

The man whose feelings were hurt after he

1:02:50

took away a bunch of people's jobs. People

1:02:52

said it was bad of

1:02:54

him to take those jobs away. Think of

1:02:56

him and his feelings. It always gets me

1:02:58

when they do this, because you see it

1:03:01

with other, like, billionaires have feelings too. Like,

1:03:03

you see when they try and humanize these

1:03:05

people. And just the

1:03:07

fact that they think it'll work, even

1:03:09

after so many failed attempts, just speaks

1:03:12

volumes as to how out of touch

1:03:14

they are. Like, how dare you even

1:03:16

pretend that your feelings are hurt when

1:03:18

you're criticized, that you keep doing the

1:03:20

thing you know doesn't wash with us

1:03:23

again and again, to an

1:03:25

insulting degree. How dare you

1:03:27

pretend that we've hurt your

1:03:29

feelings when you show

1:03:31

none towards us. How

1:03:34

fucking dare you. Yeah,

1:03:36

yeah, that sums it up. Yeah,

1:03:38

so yeah, I will not

1:03:40

be having any empathy for the feelings

1:03:43

of Xbox executives today. I'm gonna

1:03:46

have some feelings. I'm still gonna have

1:03:48

some feelings. Yeah, very strong ones. Can

1:03:51

you just imagine being someone who is laid

1:03:53

off having to read that? Right.

1:03:56

How fucking dare you.

1:04:00

I was trying to remember what it was Ibarra said

1:04:02

last time that was so fucking stupid, and he's the

1:04:04

one that wanted the tip system. Oh

1:04:06

yes. Oh yeah. He's the one that thinks we

1:04:08

should tip publishers, and they'll definitely go to the

1:04:10

devs wink wink. Mike

1:04:12

Ibarra, what a fucking toll. Maybe the

1:04:15

tips need to go to

1:04:17

the executives because their feelings have been

1:04:19

really hurt, so like we should probably...

1:04:22

We should probably help. Yeah. The money will

1:04:24

soften the blow of being told you were

1:04:27

mean. Tell you what, right? The workers could

1:04:29

like hold off on one week of Pizza

1:04:31

Friday that they got in lieu of a

1:04:33

raise, and they can save that to buy

1:04:36

him a little present. Fucking

1:04:38

cunt. Ohhh. Indeed.

1:04:42

But there we go, we done it. We done did

1:04:44

it. We've done did

1:04:46

it. We've done did it. We have indeed. Well,

1:04:49

I know someone who

1:04:51

doesn't engage in layoffs because they don't lay around

1:04:53

at all because they're really busy and their name

1:04:55

is Laura Kaybuzz. Kay... Day or Kaybuzz. I

1:04:58

couldn't choose which one I wanted to go with. Can you

1:05:00

tell us about the stuff you've done? Ah,

1:05:02

yeah, the stuff I've done. Laura Kaybuzz,

1:05:04

you'll find all that stuff, what I've done on

1:05:07

the internet, wherever you happen to find things. The

1:05:10

same day as this goes up, there will

1:05:12

be a new episode of Control-Alt-Access, so go

1:05:14

check that out on YouTube. There will be

1:05:17

an Access-Ability episode about Hades 2 and going

1:05:19

into spoiler depths on my thoughts on that

1:05:21

one thing that I vaguely talked around today.

1:05:23

You can go check that out, that'll be

1:05:25

up Friday. The

1:05:28

big one to keep an eye open

1:05:30

for is the Access-Ability Summer Showcase is

1:05:34

weeks away. It is happening on

1:05:37

Friday, June 7th at

1:05:39

4pm UK, 11am Eastern, 8am

1:05:42

Pacific. This

1:05:45

year, I'm real proud of some of the

1:05:47

stuff that's going on around that. I

1:05:50

can suggest that maybe there'll be a

1:05:53

place where you can find all the

1:05:55

games from the showcase together in one

1:05:57

convenient place to promote them

1:05:59

this year. I'm quite excited about.

1:06:01

There's going to be a

1:06:04

bunch of cool accessible video games, tune

1:06:06

in for that. What

1:06:08

about you Conrad? Where are you at

1:06:10

on the internet? Oh, you can find

1:06:12

me at Conrad Zimmerman on Instagram and

1:06:14

Blue Sky. You can hang out with

1:06:16

me on Twitch at twitch.tv

1:06:19

slash that Conrad Zimmerman where

1:06:21

I've been playing a lot

1:06:23

of Hades 2 when I'm

1:06:26

there. You can buy anti-capitalist

1:06:28

propaganda and Jimquisition merchandise at

1:06:31

mercenarycreative.com and

1:06:33

everything that I do online gets

1:06:35

supported through Patreon at patreon.com/fist shark

1:06:37

and you know who else has

1:06:40

a Patreon, Stephanie Sterling. I do,

1:06:42

jimquisition.com. No, that's, well, the jimquisition.com

1:06:45

is a website. You can go there if

1:06:47

you want. There's a review of Slayers

1:06:49

X and Crow Country on there or there

1:06:51

will be in a minute. patreon.com/Jimquisition is the

1:06:53

Patreon. You can support this, that, and the

1:06:56

other. I do have wrestling dates lined up.

1:06:58

Can't remember them right now but there's

1:07:00

stuff kicking off in June and July so

1:07:02

look forward to that. I'll have details on

1:07:04

that next week. Thank you all so much.

1:07:07

We will be back next week so

1:07:09

thank you. Bye. Bye. Bye.