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2:00

enough but I was at Slam Dunk on Sunday

2:02

and it was the kind of day where it

2:04

had no pressure on it and I didn't think

2:06

it was going to be bad but I wasn't

2:09

looking forward to it in a way that I

2:11

sometimes look forward to music festivals. I was just

2:13

going because my pals were going and it was

2:15

something to do and the forecast said it was

2:17

going to thunderstorm all day. I didn't have the

2:20

clothes. I certainly didn't have the wellies for it.

2:22

But it was one of those days where on

2:24

paper you'd look at it and think that's going

2:26

to be bad and it was maybe my

2:28

favorite Slam Dunk ever. We had a whale of a

2:30

time. I didn't even want to see that many bands

2:33

but the bands I did see were all pleasant surprises

2:35

because I didn't really know much from them and they

2:37

managed to wow me. Everyone was in a good mood.

2:39

They changed it from last year and it was excellent.

2:41

But the reason I bring it up Yes,

2:44

I was going to say there needs to be

2:46

a word, a term, whatever for that feeling of

2:48

– and in festivals it's like I'm on the

2:50

grass, I'm in between stages. That's a lovely feeling.

2:52

It reminds me of when I was a bit

2:54

younger but when you were out and about and

2:56

you're just outside the club or you're outside the

2:58

venue and you know life's happening in there but you're

3:00

kind of just hanging around, you're waiting to go back in again,

3:02

there should be a term for that little waiting period because it's

3:04

a lovely feeling. I think

3:07

we talked about this a few weeks ago but

3:09

I love the in-betweens. I love being on a

3:11

train, I love being in a car, I love

3:13

being in someone's kitchen at a house party. That

3:17

kind of little vibe where like you said stuff

3:19

is happening around you but it's kind of just

3:21

a bonus. The music this weekend was just a

3:23

bonus. I just liked hanging around with pals and

3:25

my partner, we were having a good time. Yeah,

3:29

shout out to Ash Milman by the way. Oh

3:31

yeah, it was with Ash and we met a lot of really

3:33

nice people actually and we always do at Slam Dunk but it

3:35

was Lush talking to people who were

3:37

coming up to us and taking photos and

3:39

having a laugh and there's been a new

3:42

development in this regard Scott because sometimes I

3:44

go to Slam Dunk and like I said

3:46

it's always lovely to meet people but previously

3:48

it's been like to engage with

3:50

that. It's been like someone will tap me on

3:52

the shoulder and someone will be like oh hey

3:55

but this time it was just people shouting, Josh

3:57

Bryce from across the

3:59

field. Scared me every time but also please

4:01

everybody do that from now on please do it so

4:03

I would do this in the co-op I don't know

4:08

I always turn around with like a startle. Am

4:10

I dead is this it is am I done

4:12

for have I been shot? Who is calling me

4:14

is it is it the pulley sooner? Yeah, but

4:16

it was always someone really lovely and I just

4:19

that's sort of Familiar

4:21

I really liked it Dude

4:23

really did this rediscovering the life Cuz

4:26

like now I'm almost two months in with the infant so

4:28

like it is that thing and I'm not gonna lie like

4:31

the first few Weeks were unbelievably hard like especially the sort

4:33

of third week There's all this stuff to do with growth

4:35

spits and brain activity and things like that stuff We're they're

4:37

just gonna scream over and over again. It was very very

4:39

hard and you know sleep deprivation There's a reason it's a

4:41

torture method like it's a whole thing But once you get

4:44

through that and you know even even during those weeks I'm

4:46

still getting daily walks and fresh air and stuff like that

4:48

and you do it does meet out and then it's like

4:50

when You're back outside and you're back just just the simple

4:52

pleasures of life So I think when you live a media

4:55

life Well, you recover a lot we talk about it

4:57

a lot and a lot of us listening to people listening

4:59

to this and us included watch a lot

5:01

of movies and Absorb a lot of

5:03

media and maybe go on social media and

5:05

get the things suggested to them algorithmically whatever

5:07

I do think and it's very easy Like

5:09

a lot of those algorithms are gonna default suggest negative

5:12

stuff to you I'm gonna paint a negative version of

5:14

the world to you and I don't it's not like

5:16

it's a brand new realization I have always thought this

5:18

way, but it's nice to be reminded that you don't

5:20

need it you can get away from it for a

5:22

bit and everything in mediation everything in moderation and It

5:26

is just nice to disconnect from that stuff.

5:28

Absolutely. I think for me as well You

5:30

know like just going out with people now

5:32

when you get to a certain age I

5:34

feel like you have to schedule five weeks

5:36

in advance. You're still missing younger than me

5:38

I know man. I'm a nightmare for it

5:40

because the thing with me is one. I'm busy

5:42

anyway You know just just

5:44

with life trying to do stuff and

5:46

in two I always hate my past

5:49

self for organizing stuff like I never

5:51

know Like Me now recording

5:53

this on a Tuesday is not going to know what

5:56

Josh on Saturday wants to do Yeah, so I might

5:58

be up for a night out. Now we the guess

6:00

the side I'm going to be. Ruins.

6:03

This. Guy who speak and right now but I

6:05

why did you agree that he said only do

6:07

this on the day so the planet's really have

6:09

to align. He gets to be like in the

6:11

mood for a plan that find of them and

6:13

sometimes it's not happened at all. The slam dunk

6:15

last year was I wasn't really in the mood

6:17

for it to be fast but this yeah it's

6:19

kind of like the planet's aligned and I'm like

6:21

maybe life is good maybe this is s maybe

6:24

the medication is worse I read the real is

6:26

it will get some video games and eventual but

6:28

I'm in the realizing that feeling of when I

6:30

went to see i think it was was no

6:32

brothers I'm spur am. To having the com a ticket

6:34

for a comedy gates and on the day or my does

6:36

not be in the mood for it to last for two

6:38

hours or whatever it is am I just want to go

6:41

home after work. And it's like that old thing where I

6:43

realize that improvise plans are often some of the best plans

6:45

you're planning to have fun or whatever. Like some of these

6:47

know you said, you know the mood, some he gets in

6:49

the way, whatever it is. But if in in the moment

6:51

you like to just buy a portable molecules have a barbecue

6:54

apps that can be awesome I think that's why. yeah that's

6:56

why Slam Dunk was so good because like I said it

6:58

was a free hate. I was only going to see me

7:00

pals. the weather was bad but except and all that befall

7:02

the thought maybe. Is because expectations were so low

7:05

they blurry with think that's the case. It

7:07

was just this kind of embracing the moment

7:09

of yes, were here, let's make the most

7:11

of and then you managed to win. It's

7:13

like maybe all these should be like this

7:15

guy's a edge but did you get up

7:17

to us apart from which is chilling out

7:19

this weekend and my son of the weather

7:22

wasn't amazing Snare the a lotta walks and

7:24

how the family to solar water Family Miyamoto

7:26

for the first time this this magical little

7:28

small moments cel faceless persons are gay or

7:30

Thomas just how much every little facial twitch,

7:32

every noise. they do every single thing is is

7:34

absolutely last like it's the stuff that i see

7:36

like when you get sold the idea of having

7:39

a child it's based on this stuff and no

7:41

one goes into the negatives enough am because i

7:43

don't think i mean even have kids to be

7:45

focused on the first few weeks of it's yeah

7:47

i'm because that is the hardest this am but

7:49

it's not that the good stuff isn't genuinely magical

7:51

in life affirming and beautiful am and is it

7:53

and that's a complete honesty of a i think

7:55

they get so as i realized authority of this

7:57

in retrospect but like i have a small in

8:00

my head list of the best feelings

8:02

of my life. It's seeing my wife

8:04

walk down the aisle, it's proposing, and

8:07

now it's seeing my child smile and

8:09

laugh for the first time in response to me. They

8:12

have little nervous twitches where they'll do a little smile, but they

8:14

don't really know they're doing it for the first few weeks, but

8:16

when you smile and hold them and laugh and they go, back

8:18

at you, it's like, oh, that's just

8:20

the absolute best. So it's like, that's the good stuff,

8:23

that's the life stuff. And so

8:25

it's all that, but I said hilariously because I work for

8:27

a list-based website, and of course I've made a list of

8:29

my own top five. But

8:31

it's not that those moments aren't incredible, so I forget what

8:33

you asked me, I had a nice weekend, I

8:35

had a nice weekend. I had a nice weekend,

8:37

too. A lot of wrestling on, lovely time. Oi,

8:39

can I spoil with a double or nothing? Sorry

8:42

if you guys haven't watched it. Have you seen the Mount of

8:44

the Flame? I've seen the Mount of the

8:47

Flame for it, but what popped me as an old

8:49

WWE, WWF fan was

8:51

seeing gangrelts set up. That was absolutely

8:54

magic, I thought, why am I not

8:56

watching this product? Gangrel,

8:58

yeah. Yeah man, watch AW, that's not why you should

9:00

watch AW, that sort of tantamount to electrocuting a fossil

9:02

and watching it move for a bit. But I did

9:05

pop from climbing out the ring. He is a vampire

9:07

though, so that's kind of what he is doing anyway.

9:09

Yeah, I mean, from a distance, he still looked like

9:11

old gangrel, then they showed the face and I thought,

9:13

oh, he's an old man. He looks a bit

9:15

like a Martin Joe from Bad Back's Fury

9:18

Road, I think. But I dig that, I

9:20

was like, okay, get the blood out, get

9:22

the vampires out. Vampires in wrestling, maybe just

9:24

make them all vampires. I love big, dumb,

9:26

stupid wrestling stuff. There was a man with

9:28

a flamethrower who set another man alight and

9:30

it was very fun. There was

9:32

another man, like I said, there was the guy who crawled out the

9:34

ring. There was just a lot of really good stuff. I really enjoyed

9:36

Dublin, I think I didn't love it. I know the wrestling boys didn't,

9:38

but if people listen to both podcasts and you listen to this one

9:40

first, I'm pretty sure they're about to go into hate on it for

9:42

two hours. But I had a lovely time. I

9:44

get the negatives. There's one pit where Adam Copeland

9:47

slash Edge, as our along goes

9:49

off, tried to do a spot off the cage

9:51

and seemed to regret wanting to do it at

9:53

the last minute and just fell off the cage.

9:55

I didn't, I only watched it, you know, really

9:57

pressed on. Twitter

10:00

I think it was, some kind of social media. And I

10:02

thought I missed the spot, I thought I'm climbing, I thought

10:04

this looked really cool. And then he jumped

10:06

and I didn't understand what he did. I didn't know if

10:08

it was a leg drop, I didn't know if it was

10:10

an arm drop, I didn't know what was going on really.

10:12

I think it was meant to be like a missile dropkick,

10:15

like two feet down, like a big stomp. It's funny, I

10:17

even called it a missile dropkick, but some sort of big

10:19

stomp thing to stomp on the man that was like 30

10:21

feet below him. I don't know measurements, but he was a

10:23

big talkage to jump off it. And then at the end,

10:25

I think when he was up there, he was like, I

10:27

am actually pretty high to be honest. And I'm all like

10:29

53 or whatever it is, I'll just jump down. But

10:31

it's like, you can't just jump down Mr. Kirkland, you're

10:33

gonna land wrong. So he sort of just did a

10:35

weird flop, it wasn't really anything. And he kind of

10:37

missed the table anyway. But then enough for it to

10:39

still damage it. I was confused, really confused. Everyone just

10:42

thought, I thought he broke his leg, because it was

10:44

just a weird look. But overall, I had a lot

10:46

of fun with it. AW don't miss the PPVs, it's

10:48

the best stuff they do. Still want to patch on

10:50

Dynasty from this year. If you're bothered about wrestling at

10:52

all, go watch Dynasty. AW Dynasty, absolute wrestling heaven, genuinely

10:54

phenomenal. Even if you're on the fence, it's lush. I'm

10:57

excited, I'm gonna ask the boys if they are not

10:59

recording when we go downstairs after this. See what Michael

11:01

Hanflip thinks of this. I don't think they liked it at

11:03

all. That's interesting, okay. But they don't like the big dumb

11:05

stuff, which is fair enough. I think he'd be sick of

11:07

it. Whereas I'm just like, I'll do the flamethrower. And

11:10

Adam Copeland slash Edge came out as like a weird evil

11:12

goth vampire, totally fine with that. And his old mate was in

11:15

the ring and he came out like, I'm fine with all

11:17

the dumb stuff. Of course. Like there's a dude called Luchasaurus, or

11:19

used to be called Luchasaurus. He was just like, he's meant

11:21

to be like a 5,000 year old dinosaur, totally fine with that.

11:23

Yeah. Totally fine with him doing back flips, yeah, I love

11:25

it. Honestly,

11:27

I quite like the dumb stuff. I'm with you. Speaking of

11:29

dumb stuff, Scott, if we could segue kind of

11:31

into games for a second. The other thing that

11:34

I did was I took Friday off to give

11:36

myself an even extra longer weekend. One, because my

11:38

partner was back from holiday and I was excited

11:40

to see him, but more importantly, Furios was out.

11:42

And I went to see that in IMAX with

11:44

Adam Nichol and then what a good time. I

11:48

think, I can understand why. You know, it's

11:51

a prequel spin off to a movie that

11:53

did really well and has, you know, so

11:55

much love surrounding it. But I think Fury

11:57

Road only made Probably less than.

12:00

Though hundred million dollars which is a lot

12:02

but when you have a budget of just

12:04

shy of two hundred, it's not like gang.

12:06

But now you know, especially back for and

12:09

twenty eight Any that the when. the box

12:11

office was a bit healthier and I don't

12:13

know why it's bombing cause when I was

12:15

watching houses think and for my money it's

12:18

it's close enough to a perfect don't blame.

12:20

I've always been a huge Mad Max. Heads

12:22

likes getting into a moment of the a

12:24

Bad Max and getting it a post apocalyptic

12:27

section around the time Fallout Three came out

12:29

and Mad Max. In the Movie Space

12:31

just inspired me. So much so did

12:33

The Road by Cormac Mccarthy saw everyone

12:35

Fury Road was coming out and I

12:37

was looking forward to it so much

12:39

and actually initially didn't like as much

12:41

as everyone else is. It was so

12:43

different from what I wanted out of

12:45

of Mad Max thing. But then I

12:47

started to Lovitz with everyone else and

12:49

Fury also to meet his deepens that

12:51

movie makes it even better at the

12:54

reaction. Spectacle and display is also my

12:56

the the character work is so so

12:58

good. Visually spectacular us but perhaps most.

13:00

Importantly for this podcast he got me and

13:02

six I'm Mad Max mood that I immediately

13:04

went home that night and watch you. We

13:07

rode, fight and bought stocks a Mad Max

13:09

game so you were young and also from

13:11

Twenty fifteen for you do with your copy

13:13

well I still own it's got okay but

13:16

he is. Where the sideboard against. So.

13:18

I own it for the Playstation Four,

13:20

so I complain on Playstation Five. but

13:22

I'd heard from you and many others

13:24

that the up scaling it out or

13:26

Hdr and frame rate one twenty frames

13:28

Bally's on X box he was X

13:30

was absolutely magnificent. So I hunted down

13:32

a second hand copy of that from

13:34

See X It quits. So now I

13:36

technically own this game twice. Goods that

13:38

bombs could go to. I don't regret

13:41

it because it looks fantastic on the

13:43

series X, the auto hits the ah

13:45

with the already great lighting. just makes

13:47

you look incredible. And like you said

13:49

that on kept frame rates and to be honest I

13:51

haven't but no is too much of a change from

13:53

sixty to one twenty. but it still I have you

13:55

been arrested ones on it and not have a in

13:58

thirty. It plays that little bit smoother. And

14:00

I've been really really enjoying that game and

14:02

I know that your big fun of it

14:04

as well. I know that humans can it

14:07

and having not finished it way back when

14:09

am and it's just great to go back

14:11

to something like that. when you're interested in

14:13

a world, are you in a certain mood

14:16

and that it gives you the hit. Once

14:18

a while you're watching the movie Zola, you're

14:20

reading a book about something. It's just it's

14:22

it's cool to existence that self you. We

14:25

rode us wealth and able to play a

14:27

game like that's that runs incredibly on the

14:29

zebra. Did you see of the weekend

14:31

and the fury around the theory roads around all the

14:34

stuff and seems as and there's an interview with

14:36

George Miller on the red carpet and you talked about

14:38

the them en masse game and he would. Did

14:40

you see this the I did at he was allowed

14:42

him to are very well, that's not what you

14:44

wanted, whatever And then you see the Avalon's C O

14:46

guy was like yeah, he was the whole most

14:48

awesome mess to work with Warner Brothers and Hand and

14:51

whatever else and they couldn't decide what they wanted.

14:53

Not cetera, I want that.dude Isis has names but I

14:55

love how honest he was being about it because

14:57

it's like if you're on the creative side dealing with

14:59

back and for. Communication. Whatever the reality of that

15:01

was am I was very obvious Eat or

15:03

my starting towards Miller have play the Monmouth

15:05

game but that hims phenomenal it was. Was

15:07

we champion there for nine years now? I'm

15:10

putting rules and it's as I hope people

15:12

are picking it up. I guess because furious

15:14

as bombing a problem? That probably not. but

15:16

are you listening to this if he wants

15:18

to be so formula done right? If you

15:20

want really good mediacurves.com but with the best

15:22

vehicular combat this side of Twisted Metal, the

15:24

rules as to such a meeting Greece Bowl

15:26

of a game on opposite you love the

15:28

tone of it isn't it's. An interesting conversation

15:30

because I really want to take sides

15:33

one way or another. Like is definitely

15:35

see both. Like I definitely see it

15:37

from the depths perspective. Who did produce

15:39

a really good and own the played

15:41

games Bracken. Also, I also can see

15:43

from George Miller's perspective because I don't

15:45

think the game is like trash by

15:47

any means by. Army does think

15:49

there is a better version of they Die

15:51

They could have Made and I do know

15:53

that the original intent at least on paper anyway

15:56

I was to make it. More. Closely

15:58

tied to the the movie at the time

16:00

and George Miller had already written few. We

16:02

also had like the World Mapped Out I

16:04

think it was supposed to be a more

16:07

integral part. Still does reference a lot from

16:09

Am the movie and features a law. Locations

16:11

In fact if features characters and locations that

16:13

aren't in few. We rode by Aaron few

16:15

real sex asked to fascinate one of the

16:17

know all of the other they could. deserves

16:20

a reminder people who play go pick it

16:22

up like ten pounds. a lot of know

16:24

what other they could out. I mean I'm

16:26

I do I might and wrangle and pitch

16:28

in editorial for you Episode. It was fascinating

16:30

when I was watching few Elsa captain into Adam

16:33

Nicholas and now was saying likes to the saw

16:35

this in the last movie or have I got

16:37

this from the game specimen It comes to a

16:39

certain character and I just thought that is really

16:41

neat and it is so it's V Rios gonna

16:44

works to retroactively know me make few we rode

16:46

story a little bit biggest but it links back

16:48

to the bad but not able to really on

16:50

vessels were that I didn't really know about until

16:52

I went back to the game with i holy

16:55

hell is so much more in this and I

16:57

expected Always has to say it's that's why I

16:59

can see. George Miller's side of it because

17:01

it could have been. it is intricately linked

17:03

book could have been an even bigger. And.

17:06

More integral part of the overall experience.

17:08

I do see both sides of that,

17:10

but fundamentally the game is great and

17:13

like you said, snails that sort of

17:15

open world itself format in a really

17:17

impressive where you know what I was

17:19

thinking. well gone back to it's I

17:21

think it's soul and bear with me

17:23

here. It's so like days gone. Days.

17:26

Gone Similar vibe. You may not only

17:28

that similar mechanically in the way that

17:30

in Bad Max. So much of the

17:33

gameplay is focused around you building up

17:35

your car and looking after a similar

17:37

having a rate getting fuel filling that

17:39

bad by up having it be like

17:42

this fortress style felt to me rhythmically

17:44

so similar to and deacon St John's

17:46

motorcycle A net it as discounted mean

17:49

it's like this the rhythms of the

17:51

game. I think that both excellent. Seventy

17:53

eight out of ten titles, both open

17:55

world. games both with a lot of kind

17:58

of villa and secularists thing to do but

18:00

both with a real sense of weight and Attention

18:04

to detail to the world where you're like no

18:06

I don't mind doing this for 30 hours

18:08

or so I can see that both versions would have

18:10

benefited heavily from a sequel that Refined the ideas that

18:13

they both brought to the table But honestly if you

18:15

are a fan of Days Gone and I know

18:17

you're out there every time I do Days Gone video

18:19

You comment on it and check out

18:21

Mad Max. Yeah, it's very similar in what

18:24

you're doing I think no man totally and

18:26

we've got a few games different games talk

18:28

about things that we played new stuff And

18:30

let's talk a little about Hellblade 2 and I'll go

18:32

on to animal well, but I'm hell good to you

18:35

wanted to touch on Yeah, you know we did a

18:37

big video on this for the YouTube channel But we

18:39

haven't touched on it on the podcast I kind of

18:41

just want to see because you finished it and then

18:43

we immediately did the video Yeah, I kind of want

18:45

to know how it's settling with you as the day

18:48

is going about it thought about it at all Because

18:51

I'm I still enjoy it, but I've not

18:53

had as you can tell because I played

18:55

somebody Mad Max Extrifying which

18:57

we'll talk about soon, but I haven't had the

18:59

urge yet to go back and finish it I

19:02

absolutely will especially so we can do a spoiler

19:04

cast on it But yeah, I'm like that was

19:06

really fun But I don't think I'm gonna be

19:09

I don't think it's a game of the year even

19:11

top 10 contender at this point But I think

19:13

it's easy for me to be incredibly

19:15

negative about it because I don't care about anything

19:17

in that game I think it presents itself very

19:19

horribly. I don't think it has anything to really say

19:21

I didn't enjoy my time with it

19:23

I found its pacing to be turgid and the general

19:25

controllability of it to be very off-putting and awful It

19:28

was a slog and so once I

19:30

was done. I was thought it was done I'm also glad

19:32

that it exists, but now I've not thought about it. I

19:34

think occasionally over the weekend I was like oh, yeah,

19:36

I'll be too Yeah I'll see one of those

19:39

Xbox come into game Pass graphics and I I mentioned

19:41

this in the video. With that we did But it's

19:43

right at the end and I was like you guys

19:45

aren't pushing this at all Like yeah, everyone kind of

19:47

knows what this is that the game is gonna have

19:49

its fans and honestly if it clicks with you. awesome

19:51

Like obviously when people enjoy stuff, whatever but I didn't

19:53

at all and I think it's I think it very

19:55

much is a tech demo I think it's an experience

19:58

or whatever and I love that stuff. But

20:00

I gotta I sheath I more fondly

20:02

remember the Matrix Awakens than I do

20:04

this like this is the order eight

20:06

in a sex and it's worse than

20:08

that because that game pods combat and

20:11

gameplay and like the way more to

20:13

it am and even then. Yoder

20:15

elder and eighty six was cinematic focus to a

20:17

fall and was like the gavel and inhibit anything

20:20

with it by. I enjoyed my time of the

20:22

in a second terms of cut assuring and up

20:24

the electric gun the Eagle yeah like some of

20:26

the close quarters and melee combat of in the

20:29

world one of the hear the some to law

20:31

isn't as a video I'll I honestly this thing

20:33

it's it's so forgettable like a are wishing him

20:35

or years ago I wish that they did of

20:37

way better job of mold and what it is

20:40

because I think they did it or not they

20:42

they being Microsoft Last X box the marketing departments

20:44

et cetera. I'm a champion. Ninja Theory doing any

20:46

free of doing what they want to do with

20:49

big corporate money by Mm, thicker than a much

20:51

better job or just framing what the hell this

20:53

thing is to the says it's just so to

20:55

me it's just so thoroughly off playing right to

20:57

to actually engage with I would I would have

21:00

a bad time with the if it was a

21:02

you Tube video or if it was desertec showcase

21:04

web or something where I'm not is holding up

21:06

on the stack and that's an extremely slow horrible

21:09

on about Harvey horrible feeling. Animations play out so

21:11

I can easily and those the sodomy that was

21:13

like I say my time with that the yeah

21:15

so. Much know it's interesting to have.

21:17

Oh yeah, was really wonder if you

21:20

had mellowed on a only feud with

21:22

think of the same thing because I

21:24

was. I really enjoyed reading reading through

21:26

the comments on our while y'all review

21:28

video. in. My first impressions when we

21:30

did that together because you're law people

21:32

as especially were concerned with the price

21:34

point there. I definitely see and I

21:36

think my opinion of the game is

21:38

almost. It's not clouded because we didn't

21:40

get a review copy are nothing like

21:42

that like I'm playing it through my

21:44

own personal subscription. to the impasse sense

21:46

that think that is the perfect way

21:49

to experience it but you know what

21:51

people were asking and are applied to

21:53

some people like is it worth fifty

21:55

dollars and i'm like see or actually

21:57

a kind of these but i think

22:00

even a $40 price point, I think that would

22:02

have been a sweet spot for me for what

22:04

it is. I was looking at what the RRP

22:06

was for Hellblades and you were sacrificed back in

22:08

the day and that was $30. So I

22:11

kind of thought, you know, the $10 increase with

22:13

the increased budget, I

22:15

know you're not getting that sort of

22:17

gameplay hours of value in that sense,

22:20

but I think, yeah, if you're going out

22:22

to buy it for $50, it is a

22:24

hard sell. But for me to experience it

22:27

via Game Pass, I think I

22:29

like experiences that I just sprayed. Games

22:31

are focused on gameplay anyway, but to

22:33

me, the Order 1886 comparison is very

22:35

apt. I've seen

22:38

that made a lot over the weekend and I

22:40

totally get it. To me, this is better and is

22:42

a more complete package because I don't

22:45

find Hellblade 2 so far to be as

22:47

inconsistent as the Order. Like I loved part of

22:49

the Order and then hated part of it.

22:51

I imagine this may be where you are. I'm

22:53

sure there's people who've seen the full story. Yeah,

22:55

me too. I'm really interested to see where

22:57

it goes, but with the Order, every single time

23:00

I got kind of thrown into one of

23:02

those werewolf fights and it was the same thing

23:04

over and over again. It plummeted for me

23:06

and whereas, at least when I get to

23:09

Hellblade's combat, it's not the most sophisticated in

23:11

the world. It's very simple. It's very rote

23:13

in many ways, and

23:15

they nailed the flashiness of it and

23:18

in unobtrusiveness of it in a way that I

23:20

thought the Order didn't wear. Every time I got to

23:22

a gameplay section of that, I was like, okay.

23:27

We're going to do another podcast on this once

23:29

you've finished it. We'll

23:31

get back around to it because I think there's

23:33

so much of Hellblade 2 you haven't seen yet,

23:36

so we'll hang off a little bit. I did

23:38

finish Animal Well, which I

23:41

get Why?

23:43

This game's got a bunch of 10 out

23:45

of 10,000. But It's so fundamentally hinged on

23:47

the secrets and the scanning. Do You have

23:50

any fans? Yes. That Game was like a

23:52

masterpiece to the people who stuck around long

23:54

enough to find the secret language and do

23:56

everything else and whatever. I Appreciate that. I

23:59

Massively do. But it's very easy as

24:01

I kind of did his play through animal well

24:03

hit credits and be like okay like that's that's

24:05

of read that A really good metroid vein yes

24:08

I am. The puzzles I'm a subsidy phenomenal does

24:10

to me this knowledge since none of all that

24:12

like is this really great. So a swiss watch,

24:14

clockwork mechanism style puzzle designed to work like this

24:17

clicks into this comes this becomes this. That's really

24:19

cool. A Cpu screen, different things, you'll figure it

24:21

out and not to be really satisfying. But.to me

24:23

isn't the bulk of what you're doing. I am

24:26

the ball. His two sons like one of the

24:28

ball but you'd there's a lot just. Saw

24:30

the metro of a new stuff back and

24:32

forth out how to locked Olympic all the

24:34

way around the Bc. Fun get back in

24:36

this way it's am to explore the world

24:38

itself. I'd I'd a fine time with it

24:40

but I am very dislike. okay like forgettable

24:42

I saw went online and was like. What

24:45

else is there to this game and then

24:47

you find out about like m people who

24:49

visit Our opposite is a whole community dedicated

24:51

on earth in the secrets of the game

24:53

things based on am rather not have keep

24:56

it vague the like things in the back

24:58

on things that you might have not realize

25:00

you were looking i etc which is really

25:02

cool. I personally get more our of just

25:04

unless the game does a badge of of

25:06

on boarding me to that stuff I'd rather

25:08

just what a youtube video about really really

25:11

In like I'm not going to comb through

25:13

a games world looking for fragments of something.

25:15

To hope that maybe it forms a word

25:17

or a picture of what about being very

25:19

vague as know but this is necessarily am

25:21

but armed owner who's doing I'd be like

25:23

I've ferret of of yeah the time but

25:25

like I've never going to do that I'm

25:27

bored. I would just watch If you're gonna

25:29

all this is the hidden saying and unwell

25:31

we I've I've watched on my all. That's

25:33

so cool For the people who have the

25:35

dust two percent of players are actually gonna

25:38

see that we thought this was had. every

25:40

conversation will fall but I love every time

25:42

we circled back to this idea of and

25:44

sued games like that. and of on you

25:46

to see courts and what you call for

25:48

should be looking forward to better because i

25:50

think i've decided scott with i do a

25:52

day that mr is the best thing and

25:54

gave us as only can be here i

25:57

think my favorite mechanic in games is exploration

25:59

fight over combat, I don't think it's

26:01

fighting, I don't think it's puzzle solving, I

26:03

think it is just exploring a world. I

26:05

was thinking about my favorite games and of

26:08

course I love the combat in something like

26:10

Dark Souls or Bloodborne, but that honestly is

26:12

secondary to exploring the world that FromSoft create

26:14

and I think it's why no

26:17

other FromSoft or Souls like has really come

26:19

close to knocking them off the throne for

26:21

me because I've really enjoyed the combat and

26:23

really loved a lot of those games, but

26:26

none of them have that world building or

26:28

sense of exploration and discovery. So

26:31

it's hilarious that everything you've described

26:33

with Animal Well there is of

26:35

course obtuse and

26:38

purposefully secretive and mysterious. Only in

26:40

the end game. There's

26:42

a point there, it tells you where to go.

26:44

But after that, when you hit credits, you're like,

26:46

okay. This is it. I mean for that sort

26:48

of deeper meaning and maybe why people love

26:51

it and don't just like it. All

26:53

the things that you mentioned there, my

26:55

eyes were glistening with excitement because I

26:57

thought that's the stuff that I'm

26:59

really into. But like you said, it's very easy

27:02

to miss all that stuff and some people definitely

27:04

would just prefer to be like, well, either show

27:06

me it or I'll just check out a YouTube

27:08

video or whatever after the fact. Yeah, I want

27:10

to clarify, I apologize if I came across as

27:12

judgmental before. I'm definitely not judging the people who

27:14

have the time to do this. I used to

27:16

when I didn't have an infant that I wasn't

27:18

34 or whatever it is. But my

27:21

point is, and sorry, my point isn't that they should

27:23

telegraph stuff. My point is that I didn't even know

27:25

that stuff was in there at all. And that's why

27:27

I mentioned Fez because I think it's very easy to

27:29

finish Fez and not realize the deeper layer to that game. Something

27:32

else I was thinking of is games like the Outer Wilds that

27:35

have that deeper layer to them. But I think Outer Wilds

27:37

does a better job of instilling a mentality where you're going

27:39

to go scratching at the surface and finding something else. Whereas

27:41

in Animal Well, it's like, okay, there are checkpoints on the

27:44

map. I'm going to finish them and then I'm going to

27:46

do a final boss type thing and then I'm going to

27:48

hit the credits. Game's done. And then unless someone comes along

27:50

and goes, hey, did you know there was a whole other

27:52

thing? It's like, oh, no, I didn't at all because game

27:55

doesn't necessarily foster that mentality of

27:57

not going checkpoint to checkpoint. I think my point was...

28:00

I don't need it to be binary. I

28:02

don't need to be one or the other. I don't

28:04

need the flashing neon sign Because that obviously because that's

28:06

always the argument. It's like well you want to call

28:08

a jury style No, obviously not but like there are

28:10

ways to do it I think animal

28:12

well was a very enjoyable time And I

28:14

do think though that like a genuine negative is

28:16

checkpoints It's what I mentioned last time like if

28:19

you're making me do two or three screens worth

28:21

of already Pixel precise jumps timing things evading enemies

28:23

Whatever it is just to get to the bit

28:25

that I'm then trying to figure out and you're

28:28

instant killing me because I need to Get this

28:30

path right that just sucks. Yeah, like just check point

28:32

me in that and nothing is gained going back through

28:34

those screens to get back There other than the ability

28:36

to disconnect from whatever you're doing in the in the

28:38

moment and go try something else And but

28:41

yeah, I just I find animal well to be a very

28:43

beautiful game. I love the art style I love that. It's

28:45

a one-person dev team. Yeah, shout out to Billy Basso, but

28:47

at the same time It's just it's

28:49

just a weird vibe like once you look at the

28:51

and some of the secret videos I'm like, okay, I

28:53

would never in a million. I would be dead before

28:56

I figured that out I would never in a million

28:58

years have done that and even in

29:00

the videos that I watched it was it was saying

29:02

like Oh any one person stumbled upon the solution to

29:04

this huge thing even when they were working as a

29:07

community and that's lovely and very very special And but

29:09

at the same time there's something interesting about hinging a

29:11

10 out of 10 score or a thoroughly recommendable score

29:14

in terms of the wider critical discourse on assumedly

29:17

the extra layer of specialness and

29:19

then that actually not really being available unless you

29:22

Massively put the time in and get

29:24

lucky to be honest in regards to figuring out what certain

29:26

things are But yeah special game glad it exists kind of

29:28

like I'll be too. I'm glad it exists Um,

29:31

but I it was quite easy to finish animal well

29:33

and be like, okay cool. Hmm.

29:35

Well, I'm interested to see where I'll fall

29:38

I had a similar thing with Fez

29:40

You know Fez was me trying to

29:42

get into a style of game that

29:44

I wouldn't usually gravitate towards and I

29:46

enjoyed Fez But everyone was buzzing about

29:48

it way back when I loved the gimmick

29:50

of making a 2d space into a 3d space

29:52

and you know Tilting the

29:54

screen you're looking at cool

29:56

man. And that's what everyone

29:59

told me That's what everyone told me.

30:01

That effect of 2D, 3D, that thing was so

30:03

sick. It was cool. I just, that was when

30:05

I kind of realised like, you know

30:07

what, some games I'm not gonna love and that's

30:09

fine. You know, I really wanted to do it.

30:11

That was one of the first biggies where I

30:13

thought everyone is loving this, why aren't I getting

30:15

that extra layer? It's so frustrating. Like no one

30:17

wants to hate games. Like even if you do

30:19

this for a job, no one wants to slide

30:21

off a game or come on a podcast or

30:23

do a negative review. One, because

30:26

it's just, it's not very, sometimes, sometimes.

30:28

I can unleash that beast but it

30:30

depends what it is. That's it. Like sometimes

30:32

it feels cathartic, something is really bad. But when you

30:34

just kind of are a little bit disappointed or if

30:36

it's not for you, I just find like, I

30:38

don't have a lot of fun doing that on the podcast.

30:41

Sometimes maybe if it's something you really love and

30:43

we're having a laugh or something I really like

30:46

and we're having a laugh. You hate Nintendo. I

30:48

hate Nintendo, I hate Kirby. I'm not sure I've

30:50

mentioned that before. But yeah,

30:52

with Fez, it was the first time I thought like,

30:54

I know why everyone's loving this. I

30:56

can see why it's great but it's just, it ain't doing it

30:59

for me in the way I wanted to do for me. And

31:01

I always want to be in that crowd of people loving

31:03

stuff and I hate it when I'm just kind of like

31:05

barred from it. I'm like, no, just let me in. Just

31:07

let me in. The elements of it.

31:09

And what we talked about last week with that difference

31:12

between for me a four star and

31:14

a five star, where I kind of, I always

31:16

want those four stars that everyone tells me at

31:18

like fives to break through for me. And I'm

31:20

like, just let me do it. I'm punching at

31:22

the walls. I'm punching at the glass, man. I

31:24

can't think of what the last game was that

31:26

me and you both played where I think I

31:28

missed a few things and you'd unlocked them, but

31:30

they were fundamentally optional. And I was

31:32

like, oh, I wish they'd at least pointed me towards

31:34

that in some fashion. I forget what game that was.

31:37

Yeah. Animal Well has a lot of that

31:39

stuff. I was going to spoil something there, but it would

31:41

be close as a spoiler. Either way, there are some fundamental

31:43

parts of how you traverse the world that are fundamentally

31:45

optional and you can go the entire game not realizing

31:47

they're even in there. And I think that's

31:49

interesting. Things like Hollow Knight did that. And

31:51

it's like that's like it's an extremely

31:54

well-made Metroidvania. It's just that it is

31:56

one of its biggest values is in

31:58

restraint. It's playing such

32:01

a specific set of cards and assuming that

32:03

you'll be able to figure out what's

32:05

going on and obviously latch on to the different

32:07

things and find satisfaction in the mystery, which I

32:09

do. But like I said, it's also very

32:11

easy to just kind of mainline it or at least – I mean,

32:13

I feel like I saw everything in terms of exploring

32:15

the map, and I still put a good sort of 10, 12 hours in. But

32:19

it is that thing of just once you realize that

32:21

extra layer, it's like, oh, man, that's really cool, and

32:23

I kind of wish something had pointed that out. But

32:27

me, it's almost definitely on me. There's probably

32:29

something more obvious that I didn't see or something. But

32:32

still, Animal Well massively recommended regardless. I

32:34

think if you love Metroidvania and you

32:36

like that mysterious game design style, where

32:39

you don't want your hand held at all, that's

32:41

cool. And you might stumble into something that you're

32:43

just like, oh, that's so well-designed, and that's really,

32:45

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34:45

I just cut you off when you were doing

34:47

the segue. I'm about to steal from you. You

34:49

have been teasing on this podcast that you will

34:51

talk about the final 2016 DLC when you

34:54

finally finished it. I've heard so much

34:56

about the village of Jodys, which sounds

34:59

absolutely fantastic. But I know you finally

35:01

finished this final piece of FF16 DLC.

35:04

Apparently. Now that's a complete package, right? No, no,

35:06

they've, they're all done. There was two pieces of

35:08

DLC. There was Echoes of the Fallen, which is

35:11

more like a big old combat tower, with

35:13

a big fight at the end. And they fleshed out

35:15

some stuff that happened with the Fallen. There was some

35:17

whatever. What was the Fallen? I can't even, I played

35:19

this game 50 hours. The thing is, getting really specific

35:21

about the 16th story is where I start to fall

35:23

down, because that was a year ago. But

35:26

the Fallen were the civilization that

35:28

rose to the sky using the Mother Crystals,

35:30

and then they all went to hell. They

35:32

were former humans. Right. And then all

35:34

the pieces of Fallen stuff was all scattered around the world.

35:37

But like, yes. Did I play this game? Did

35:39

I finish this game? Because they had the whole

35:41

thing in 16. I mean, this is all 16

35:44

spoilers at this point. You've either played 16 or you haven't. But

35:47

16's whole thematic was that

35:49

idea of abusing the planet, abusing

35:52

resources, getting fat

35:54

off the land, things like that. And then

35:56

the little twist towards the end was that you found that actually there

35:58

was a former race of humans who... did that and they

36:00

ascended to the heavens and then they themselves got

36:03

two and like two full themselves and everything fell

36:05

apart and That's why the literal fallen was that

36:07

the bits of tech that were scattered

36:09

around the world It's where the hideaway is you

36:11

make you make your base inside a big hole

36:13

of ruin horse Yeah, cuz you see like those

36:15

ships don't yet and they allude to the fact

36:17

that they were like flying machines Yeah, yeah, okay

36:19

that which is like a whole thing about the

36:21

fallibility of human cyclical nature, etc, etc But um,

36:24

yeah So the first piece of DLC was like an old

36:26

Fallen ruin that like opened up and you went into the combat

36:28

thing in there There were Jordy's in that as well and

36:31

they would have said you see miss Tom. I It's

36:33

great He's looking

36:35

at guys and know the rest of the gun and

36:38

so you do that and then the second DLC

36:40

And because that was mainly just the combat dungeon like

36:42

they had a little bits of stuff about the fallen

36:44

But it wasn't that in-depth and then rising tide

36:46

is way more story based and is all about going

36:48

to like this northern sector You find this village

36:50

full of Jordy's and then you find Leviathan And

36:53

which is like the one icon that was in in the

36:55

story They show like a big sort of stone tapestry

36:57

looking thing Yeah with all the icons all the big

37:00

summons in there and it didn't

37:02

have Leviathan So you're like finding out what what happened

37:04

with Leviathan. It's not massively Satisfying

37:07

in a wider context. It's cool. And

37:09

then the weapon that you get they let

37:11

you make a Leviathan shotgun, which is great

37:13

I'm not saying like this is the thing

37:15

that happens all the time But this is

37:17

twice now when a big RPG has released

37:19

a DLC centered around something called the Leviathan

37:23

Mass Effect 3 or 2 did it with

37:25

the Leviathan DLC and it's like that's not

37:27

weird But it's weird that it's happened twice

37:29

and I'm like will it happen a third

37:31

time anyway That was just a no idea

37:34

I do think overall like cuz yeah you get a new

37:36

power so you get a whole new power set as a bunch of

37:38

different abilities to Unlock but the standard thing is you hit circle and

37:40

then you can just do like like a stand switch So all of

37:43

a sudden you're in this like shotgun pose and

37:45

then you can do lights heavy as you can do

37:47

launchers It's really satisfying to use it changes Clive's dodge

37:49

as well So you can do these like acrobatics really

37:51

wide of reaching dodges then you get active reload Gears

37:54

of War style So if you like time that then

37:56

you get a bit of infinite ammo and you can

37:58

like do more machine gun stuff Really

38:00

really cool mechanically. I think it's like the one of the best

38:02

powers in the whole game And then the

38:04

story is like satisfying enough. It's fine And I

38:06

cared about the way that it went because I

38:08

now have an infant but at the same time

38:10

Okay, like that was I could tell that was

38:13

me projecting something onto it and

38:15

worth playing through the coolest thing is

38:17

the option You know that stone you

38:19

can interact with in the hideaway called

38:21

the our reach stone It's the ARET

38:23

E and it's like it could be our day. I

38:25

have no idea. What did it do? Let

38:27

you change clives appear while the DLC that they give

38:29

you appearances and stuff to change but also is where

38:31

the tutorial was and there Was like there was some

38:33

challenge maps You

38:35

can't now they put free costumes in

38:38

I said, there's only there's one with only one for

38:40

each character But they're cool Jill's new ones awesome. Um

38:44

I'll mention that actually some of the stuff for the

38:46

DLC in the run up to rising tide said it

38:48

would have more Jill stuff This is what you've sold

38:50

me it on it. I can not say it has

38:52

nothing. Oh Wanted much

38:54

you know, there is very very little considering that they mentioned

38:56

that there's a bit where I'm not gonna do the spoilers

38:58

But there's a bit where it seems like they're gonna do

39:00

something with Jill and they very much do

39:02

not I love Cliven Jill anyway, so I'm not too bothered

39:04

I thought I was very much satisfied by their relationship anyway,

39:06

but I would have taken more of that character Um,

39:09

but still yeah, whatever rising tide the coolest thing

39:11

in there is the inside the ARET stone is

39:13

this big? I

39:16

got another challenge dungeon. It's like a 20 wave like

39:18

hold mode type thing But all

39:20

the menus and sound effects are styled after

39:22

the original five final fantasies Which is absolute

39:24

heaven and they've got like little pixel Clive

39:26

who's in the main game anyway But um

39:28

all those menus it's like it becomes a

39:30

roguelike. So you're like In

39:32

the main game as well in the pause menu.

39:34

Yeah, did I play this game? I repeat I

39:36

repeat did I play it again in the main

39:38

menu and whenever you save your party is always

39:41

represented as that little pixel sprites. Yeah, I remember

39:43

the But yeah, so

39:45

like this optional challenge thing is like 20 waves of trying

39:47

to get through all 20 waves of this thing And

39:49

every time you defeat different waves you get different. It's

39:52

like it's a roguelike So you get different upgrades for

39:54

Clive and that's just a nice way of reframing

39:56

that combat It's very much like what God of

39:58

War Ragnarok just did. Yeah with the

40:00

Valhalla DLC. And so I had a

40:02

lovely time just rinsing that stuff out and just

40:04

being like, I effing love 16 so much. I

40:06

get why it's not a lot of people's favorite

40:08

one, but for the people that I clicked with,

40:10

I absolutely loved it. Love those characters, love seeing

40:12

them again, love the feel of that world, love

40:14

the music. The new stuff from

40:16

Masiya Shuken is incredible and just, what a

40:19

package. What a lovely, lovely game. What a

40:21

game. I feel like we mentioned this the

40:23

last time we talked about Final Fantasy, which

40:25

has been every podcast this year. It feels

40:27

like it's dominated the conversation, but I like

40:29

that. People, hey. Hey. Very

40:32

nice. I like that people are

40:34

nostalgic about Final Fantasy 16, myself

40:37

included, because man, when a game

40:39

really captures in a certain essence

40:41

or a certain vibe or a

40:44

certain aesthetic musically or whatever, sonically,

40:47

it's always great to go back to it and

40:49

be like, oh, I remember when things were good.

40:51

You'd be brain safe even though they weren't. They're

40:53

always good. They are always good. The point is,

40:55

is it worth playing? Yes. How

40:58

long is it? I assume judging

41:00

off the story of F that 16 is like

41:02

an interstitial. And DLC comes midway through the story?

41:04

Or does it end? You can do whatever you

41:06

want. You just do it before the final fight.

41:09

It references the final fight, and then you get more unlocks

41:11

and stuff that you could then take into the final fight.

41:14

You can also use the Leviathan powers on the

41:16

new game plus, which is awesome, for

41:18

the main story. One of the only

41:20

trophies I don't have is replaying the game on Final

41:22

Fantasy difficulty, which I'm now going

41:25

to do. But doing stuff like that with the

41:27

additional powers is sweet. Yeah, it's

41:29

definitely worth playing. I think the Rising Tide is

41:31

better than Echoes of the Fallen. I thought Echoes of

41:33

the Fallen was fine, but it was just here's a

41:35

bit more combat. And I love that game's combat, but

41:37

whatever. Whereas this is like, here's a new power. The

41:39

power set's awesome. And

41:41

yeah, the various ways you can combo it together are

41:43

awesome. I think the story is nice

41:46

enough. It's not massively meaningful overall,

41:48

but it does answer what the hell that giant wave

41:50

is off the top of the map, which a lot

41:52

of people noticed anyway, which at

41:54

the time last year felt like an unfinished

41:56

part of development. It was like, how was

41:58

there this giant landmark? looks like another

42:00

mother crystal when the story is about mother crystal

42:02

stuff and you're not addressing that and

42:05

they do sort of they do a nice

42:07

enough way of dancing around it and answering

42:09

everything even though it is very convoluted but

42:11

it is it is then just looking at

42:13

like a sort of spilt like sewing box

42:15

and be like how do we wrap all

42:17

this together and sew it all back together

42:19

and the last thing is that I

42:21

kind of wish it had more of like a like

42:24

an all-encompassing ending but I also understand why they

42:26

would leave it because obviously the proper games ending

42:28

is the games ending and so it's

42:30

not like you're gonna get another big old credits roll

42:32

kind of thing but at the same time considering this

42:35

is the end of Final Fantasy 16's run and 15

42:37

had tons of stuff like

42:39

anime, you know character episodes things like

42:41

that and I kind

42:43

of would have liked some sort of stamps to be like

42:46

thanks for playing guys or whatever some sort of send-off thing

42:48

and even though I love the end of the main

42:50

story anyway I do like that it is a complete

42:53

thing and you can do definitely do more stories in

42:55

that world so many great side characters like you mentioned

42:57

that you know you could show us a print bit

43:00

on more print beyond excellent

43:02

the icon idea is amazing but there

43:04

was something about getting to the end

43:06

of 16's story and just thinking I

43:09

feel satisfied from that you've told a

43:11

story all these characters have arcs that

43:13

feel finished enough and you could plug

43:15

more stuff in there FF7 style or

43:17

FF13 style but if that's all we

43:19

get I think it will go down

43:21

as a really a really memorable installment

43:23

and sometimes I like a bit

43:25

of restraint Scott in my video games yeah the

43:27

wider conversation is interesting at the minute with all

43:29

the Square Enix stuff like we're gonna try and

43:31

do a video on all the information that came

43:33

out over the weekend from Jacob Nowak who's like

43:35

the I think it's Nowak on Nowak

43:37

some dude who was like used to report to the

43:40

CEO of Square Enix and he just did a couple

43:42

of Twitter threads on the reality of AAA game development

43:44

and how the industry works etc and Final Fantasy stuff

43:46

is really interesting because he does mention that like the

43:48

last couple of Final Fantasies haven't sold and that's

43:51

like an internal expectation but there is also

43:53

that wider thing about when

43:56

there's this big of a gap between main installments like

43:58

we're talking nine years sorry eight years 16

44:00

and 15, if you were like a teenager,

44:02

you've gone from high school to your first job,

44:04

or you've gone from middle school to high school,

44:07

maybe you've graduated in that time. And

44:10

for installments in a franchise, it's just not

44:12

going to matter as much versus

44:14

you had the first 13 installments

44:17

across that 20-year period from the 90s to

44:19

the 2010s. And

44:22

that's a way faster cadence to remind people

44:24

of a vibe, of a world of characters

44:26

and sound and everything else. So it

44:28

is interesting thinking about Final Fantasy. It's like, oh, that's

44:30

this big totemic thing. Maybe not anymore.

44:33

Like, you know, it's where 16 installments in. And some people

44:35

still think they need to play all 15 to play 16,

44:38

which I get because if not like, if they don't iron

44:40

that out in the marketing, they would rather you think that

44:42

and go pick up 15 installments. But

44:44

yeah, I think it's fascinating where Final Fantasy is at

44:46

and the moves that Square Enix are making to try

44:49

and revitalize it, make it multi-platform, stuff like that. But

44:52

I, for one, effing love it. So I

44:54

look forward to that video we do, Scott.

44:57

Figuring out that thread because I looked at it on my

44:59

day off and I thought, that is too heavy for me

45:01

right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a... Do

45:04

you have a love for that? I started reading it and I

45:06

was like, I need to start making notes when I'm reading this.

45:08

I'm not doing this with one screaming child in one arm. Let's

45:11

talk about X Defiant, though. We should talk about just the

45:14

weird amalgam of project goals this thing had,

45:16

the fact that it was at least more

45:19

than three years in development, but it was announced three years

45:21

ago, middle of the pandemic, 2021, and the

45:23

reality of this free to play cod killer that

45:26

the way that it was marketed, the way that it was

45:28

received, I see you had the beta last year, but the

45:30

general conversation around X Defiant is like, is this going

45:32

to kill Call of Duty? Is this

45:35

the thing that's finally going to make a dent, et cetera? Thought

45:37

says we'll get around to various things, but

45:39

we've both played it. Yeah, what if, I

45:41

mean, that's where I start with kind of

45:43

what you alluded to there. What a fascinating experience

45:46

this has been from announcement to release. Like

45:48

you said, it was announced way back when.

45:50

And I remember when I think we even

45:52

covered it because I thought it initially just,

45:54

I was like, what are you doing? You'd be

45:56

like, why are you trying to make this cod

45:58

killer with all of these? different Ubisoft

46:00

factions that you're plugging in it

46:02

looks like a IP masquerade

46:05

ball and you're gonna release the free to

46:07

play thing and try to sell you these

46:09

other games but then the tide really shifted

46:11

I think and then when the beta people

46:13

got the hands on the beta and the

46:15

closed tests and people saw more of it

46:17

I think people were really looking forward to

46:19

it and I feel like the hype at

46:21

the end of last year was at an

46:23

all time high like this really well at

46:25

least in the circles in my algorithm without

46:27

follow which you know often

46:29

times very first person shooter of music were

46:31

heavy like a lot of the streamers I watched

46:33

all the YouTube content creators were and talking about

46:36

it a lot of people online were talking about

46:38

how much fun they were having and how they

46:40

wanted this thing to actually launch and then it

46:42

kind of went really quiet and I think people

46:44

got a bit worried and now it's finally out

46:46

and we all have a chance to play it

46:49

and I think it's alright I think

46:52

it's pretty good I need to clarify that

46:54

I am very biased when

46:56

it comes to this stuff because when

46:59

it comes to extra fine I don't

47:01

know if you would agree I think

47:04

this if this is one of your

47:06

first forays into multiplayer games like it

47:08

if you haven't played many of the

47:10

things that it's inspired by if you

47:12

are younger than I am

47:14

or Scott is I think you'll get more

47:16

mileage out of it I just I personally

47:19

so this is why I throw this asterisk

47:21

up there I can't escape the fact that

47:23

for more than half of my

47:26

life for 17

47:28

years nearly I have been

47:30

playing games where the primary motivation is to

47:32

upgrade m4 carbines with red dot sight and

47:35

there's nothing wrong with that structure just for

47:37

me personally in black ops cold war even

47:39

in black ops cold war even if black

47:41

ops cold war I have just I have

47:44

seen versions of this game throughout my entire

47:46

life and I've been on this roller coaster

47:48

ride and I like it enough but a

47:50

game like this is never going to get

47:52

me in by the scruff of my neck

47:55

and make me want to play it non

47:57

stop so that is an important caveat however

47:59

everything that is in the game I

48:01

think is probably as good as

48:04

it could have been I do think it's

48:06

really solid I do think it's visually quite

48:08

and spectacular I was surprised

48:10

with how good aesthetically it was just

48:12

in terms of the visuals and the

48:14

colors I think like that I think

48:16

the factions are cool and we'll dig

48:18

into this more deeper and soon and

48:20

the gunplay I think is is as

48:22

solid as a non-cod game can be

48:25

it is satisfying it is snappy it

48:27

is responsive so much more to talk

48:29

about but I think it's I think

48:31

for a free-to-play Ubisoft game it's way

48:33

better than I thought it was going

48:35

to be it's just yeah I personally

48:37

have that disconnect because I'm like I

48:39

know man I know the suppressor for an M4 how

48:41

many suppresses for M4s have I

48:44

unlocked in my life? Yeah they do like to think

48:46

they're leaning on the hey you know Call of Duty

48:48

here's our kind of version of that but then a

48:50

various different tweaks there's a few things I want to

48:52

touch on one being that a lot of the discourse

48:54

around this is that it's everything Call of Duty isn't

48:56

ie it doesn't have skill based matchmaking which has become

48:58

this big lightning-roid conversation has been for years in Call

49:01

of Duty circles but I don't know if you can

49:03

explain that a little bit and how like this doesn't

49:05

have it. Yeah so Call of Duty to a certain

49:07

degree has always had this thing called skill based matchmaking

49:09

or star based matchmaking whatever you want

49:11

to call it which essentially is like

49:14

a playlist algorithm that tries to

49:16

constantly match you with players of

49:19

the same skill level or maybe

49:21

a bit more and while on

49:23

paper that sounds like fair

49:25

like yeah you know it sounds like something

49:28

you would want in a game like Call

49:30

of Duty where you wanted to remain competitive

49:32

you don't want to have lobbies that are

49:34

entirely one-sided and they're just not fun to

49:36

play it's become so aggressive in recent years

49:39

that it has kind of made it not

49:41

fun because you can see the

49:43

algorithm almost when you're playing a game if you

49:45

do well in a few matches you

49:47

kind of at least I do and

49:49

I know a lot of people like the subreddit do you

49:52

have this sort of worry in the back

49:54

of your mind because you know you're gonna get punished for it you

49:56

know what I mean like You'd get top of

49:58

the leaderboard for a few games in a row. In

50:00

you know the next while you're going

50:02

to get pudding with people who are

50:04

highest level and you stingy gonna have

50:06

a bad time getting be getting shot

50:08

from all over the place you to

50:10

play with sweats you have handled us

50:12

hands configurations I don't even I even

50:14

though is humanly possible and you gotta

50:16

get annihilated nests Been in the multiplayer

50:18

it's been and was on itself and

50:20

she's made for strange experience especially because

50:22

in this is the big book Bass

50:24

is that until very very recently Call

50:26

of Duty has not had a ranked

50:28

playlist that is distinguishable from. A casual playlist

50:30

Vice So I think a lot of people

50:32

are accepting of school based matchmaking. Nice be

50:34

an and in ranked playlist because it it

50:36

makes sense new he will costs are going

50:38

to be mess with people's your skill level

50:41

to hopefully get better and get those ranks

50:43

books A lot people just want to jump

50:45

in casually on college and the have to

50:47

worry about that. Still may not have to

50:49

sweat it out like that in jump in

50:51

a casual playlist but those have been amalgamated

50:53

with. An. Ex to find the promises

50:55

Finally separating those two things. As far

50:57

as I'm aware there is no Spm

50:59

and in the casual playlist you do

51:01

have a ranked mode. I've just been

51:03

the casual play with so far. yeah

51:05

and in Wilder of course is some

51:07

an algorithm all set up with the

51:09

playlist that keeps teams balance to doesn't

51:11

feel as aggressive as a call of

51:13

duty you can in my experience of

51:15

companion like.or deaths since they killed him

51:17

right game and and jumped in one

51:19

that was tight and maybe sixteen, sixteen

51:21

and and I I think the me

51:24

personally. It's worked out well for the

51:26

game and is on paper one. A

51:28

lot of the hard call and multiply

51:30

community has been one thing I work

51:32

at. Don't worry about it, but I'm

51:34

interested in. It's long jeopardy because school

51:36

right now when every wants is playing.

51:38

But what happens in a few months

51:40

when you do only have that kind

51:42

of more hard call pool anyway? it's

51:44

Am And I also wonder about team

51:46

balancing because a lot of the game

51:48

modes in this ah. We. know

51:50

relatively hard call objective based fall the

51:53

kind of game this is like that

51:55

starts you off on escort which have

51:57

you played overwatch a team fortress of

52:00

I think it's Team Fortress, I'm getting very old. It's

52:02

just when you have to, one team has to

52:05

get close to a vehicle and then it will

52:07

move a little bit and the goal is to

52:09

get it to the enemy's base. I didn't pop

52:11

it off when it was one of those. Yeah,

52:13

and if you're on the other side you have

52:15

to defend it and kind of push them back.

52:17

Which has kind of become, I think the standard

52:19

game mode for multiplayer games now. Like it used

52:21

to be Team Deathmatch or Deathmatch and now it's

52:24

that escort mission, which I like, but it's, you

52:26

play it and you're like, okay, here are the

52:28

sort of basics that you would expect. They're just

52:31

done pretty well. But I

52:33

don't know if SBMM means anything to you

52:35

because with Xdefiant, sorry, I've been rambling so

52:37

much. That would do it. But what's fascinated

52:39

me into the run-up to it is, like

52:41

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, it

52:44

seems hyper focused on

52:46

answering the issues and

52:48

critiques raised by, in

52:51

the grand scheme of things, minority of hardcore

52:53

players. Like, I don't know if the casual

52:56

cod fan would know what SBMM is. They're

52:58

probably aware of it in some form, but

53:00

like, you're not selling a game

53:03

based on the fact that that isn't

53:05

in there. Whereas Modern Warfare 3 was really

53:07

focused on those hardcore features that only

53:09

people in the community would really care about,

53:11

like slide cancelling and stuff like that, you

53:13

know, kind of answering the vocal

53:16

and people online. And Xdefiant seems

53:18

to be really going all in

53:20

on that gambit as a marketing

53:22

technique. And I'm just interested in

53:24

how that works out on a

53:26

financial or critical wavelength, because I

53:28

wonder what that

53:31

community translates to numbers-wise, and

53:33

whether hyper focusing on that

53:35

kind of online community

53:38

or streaming culture will work

53:40

for a game like this that's trying to get everyone in.

53:42

I don't know. I think it's an interesting question. Yeah, the

53:44

thing is, like in the run-up, when Xdefiant got announced, it

53:46

was a laughing stock, because it was just like, this just

53:48

feels like a Ubisoft chicken. And the thing is, like, the

53:52

word I'm ambitious, like, it is, it

53:54

feels like a hell of a team

53:56

meeting inside Ubisoft, whereas, okay, what IP's

53:58

have we got? The Division Ghost

54:00

Recon, Splinter Cell, which hasn't had an installment in 11

54:03

years, and Watch Dogs,

54:05

and Watch Dogs 2. Let's mesh

54:07

that all together and smash Brothers there and

54:09

try and have this character roster where we're

54:12

taking different characters from these different IPs and

54:14

not only will we have this incredible roster

54:16

of characters, but we'll be announcing each franchise

54:18

inside X Defiant in itself. And you can

54:20

see all the business minds cheering and whooping

54:23

in the business meeting going, that's genius, that's

54:25

brilliant. But at the time when

54:27

it got announced, it was like, well, no one cares about the cleaners

54:29

from The Division, no one cares about some

54:31

random faction from Far Cry 6. And

54:35

I still don't think people do. And

54:37

I think that veneer of Ubisoft-ness is

54:39

an interesting gamble. And like

54:42

I said, the words like ambitious or the

54:44

things like the aspect of it that can

54:46

be celebrated are strictly through the lens of

54:48

this works entirely for Ubisoft. This is like

54:50

Ubisoft being in Nintendo. And

54:52

it's interesting, like Sony tried it years ago when they

54:54

did the All-Star Battle Royale and it was like, it's

54:56

the Killzone guy. And it's like, this doesn't really work.

55:00

But X Defiant's demo presentation and all

55:02

the stuff that they've got in regards

55:04

to targeting the hardcore is paired up

55:06

against this super attempt at appealing

55:09

to the mainstream and being super casual and just

55:11

trying to hook in all these different people. And

55:15

when you said that you think it looks really

55:17

gorgeous, it looks really good, color-wise, whatever, I almost

55:19

had the opposite where I was like, this looks

55:22

AI-generated. This looks like it's a

55:24

gumbo of everything. You're just sort of melting pot

55:26

at everything together. And every

55:28

single feature feels audience-tested to death where

55:30

it's the safest AAA game you could possibly

55:32

make. And some people

55:35

might like that. I do think it's interesting that

55:37

it's number one trending right now on PlayStation and

55:39

Xbox, which is cool. And

55:41

we'll get back to some of the facets as to why. But

55:43

to me, it's like, it's a corporate training

55:45

video as a video game. Like it's very

55:48

just, we have these five points, let's mesh

55:50

them together, that's our video game. It

55:52

doesn't feel like there's an original thought in there at

55:54

all, really. And the gameplay can

55:57

still come through, it can still work, but it does

55:59

feel like there's target demographic thing

56:01

brought to life. I'm absolutely with human life.

56:03

That is why I think, partly why I

56:05

can't love it in the way that I

56:07

maybe would if it was an original idea

56:09

because like you said, everything in

56:12

this game, even though it

56:14

plays well, has been, you can tell it's

56:16

been through like ten layers of executive

56:19

acceptance and they pointed towards other models that

56:21

have done well or other features that have

56:23

done well in other games and they've gone,

56:26

like, give us our version of it. Just

56:28

going back to what you said about like

56:30

the Ubisoft-ification of the presentation, I think

56:33

that is a fascinating conversation to have because

56:35

they've tried to do this a few times

56:37

now. I can't remember the exact game that

56:39

was the first to do it, but it

56:42

was another multiplayer title where you had all

56:44

of these different factions in and you had

56:46

the third... is it what they called in

56:48

there? What's the factor called? There's

56:51

a few, like third echelon, fourth echelon, the new one.

56:53

Yeah, the echelon boys. You had those in there. You had

56:55

like the Far Cry people. You had the Division people.

56:59

And like you, I don't think that

57:01

well of IPs, as much as I really like

57:03

them, is as strong as Ubisoft

57:05

wants it to be. I don't think

57:07

anyone's going there and being buzzing that you can play

57:09

it as someone from Far Cry 6 or

57:11

a dead SEC member from Watch Dogs. Well, see some

57:13

of them, I'm like, yeah, I can go for that.

57:16

I think the character I'm playing as, or the operator

57:18

that I'm maining, is

57:21

someone from the Split and Salt section. Same. It's

57:24

one of the female characters. It's a cool design. She

57:26

looks mint. I mean, I love

57:28

the Split and Salt aesthetic. Her

57:32

special is to essentially give her like a

57:34

little mini radar that highlights people across through

57:36

walls and stuff, which has been very handy

57:38

for the objective game. What about where you

57:40

get Sam Fisher's pistol? Yeah, I laughed

57:43

at that, but I was like, just put Fisher in the game? Yeah.

57:46

But still. See, it's stuff like that where I'm

57:48

like, some of this is really strong. I guess

57:50

if you love the Ubisoft entire back catalogue, you'll

57:52

have a whale of a time. But Again,

57:55

anecdotally and, you know, maybe

57:57

a little bit jokingly, I've

58:00

never met and you be soft, head down

58:02

to that degree. I don't trust the like

58:04

yourself and I. he will maybe gravitate towards

58:06

certain see these are a faction in this

58:08

case but as a whole berettas those you

58:10

know, customized they soon and and character selections.

58:12

I just I'm like I'd have so many

58:14

of you and I can ignore what's in

58:16

makes me I think because it's a free

58:18

to play game and they're relying on people,

58:20

gain the ball past. It makes me know

58:22

when you get the ball past because I

58:24

don't. I don't care about the Saxons, I

58:26

don't know how about those characters. I care

58:28

about some of them. but. Not in a

58:31

way that makes you wanna go all in

58:33

on this kind of presentation. It does feel

58:35

like you said said she's been amalgamation of

58:37

everything Ubisoft has it of Toy Box and

58:39

also the all these features from other successful

58:41

online games are going to bring in. It. right?

58:43

Down to the progression of the weapons right down

58:46

to that the skills that each operetta has to

58:48

the map design in some cases into the game

58:50

modes especially. Will I will come back around to

58:52

the roster in the car to nibble isn't set

58:54

out of other free to play side of it

58:56

because I yeah I think to be go wider

58:58

and hims wetherell jesus to me as someone who

59:00

like has played every single close to your pov

59:03

him but more for three both times. hilariously is

59:05

because when but more for three dropped last year

59:07

I just another file size for I still don't

59:09

have to. The team is stupidly big am but

59:11

the free to play side of a I feel

59:13

like. Is interesting angle for a game this well

59:15

made and because I i wonder I walk them

59:18

wayne on were called to his reputation as are

59:20

like it's don't thing it's that this de facto

59:22

big seller model for three been the top ten

59:24

since it launched am both there is a conversation

59:26

around okay but if there was something else and

59:29

that there's always a place a media for the

59:31

Challenger brand am and it's interesting and I was

59:33

looking of dems as split case because that was

59:35

another game. yeah I'm of was the last year

59:38

that was oh my god it's so tight it's

59:40

really unique. Others I was a cold killer Am

59:42

or even anything close but. split gay had the

59:44

buzz and then it dies and x defiant

59:46

right now has the bus am and the

59:48

free to play thing is clearly what's going

59:50

people ends am they've also alongside the files

59:52

are the ones mentioned that m x to

59:55

find file sizes they get yeah i that's

59:57

way more manageable down the couple hundred gauge

59:59

union to install Call of Duty before you

1:00:01

even get lost in all the compatibility

1:00:03

packs and like splitting single player, multiplayer,

1:00:06

whatever. To me, it's

1:00:08

a living hell to install Call of Duty. All I

1:00:10

wanted to do the other week was just install Call

1:00:12

of Duty and just play some multiplayer matches and could

1:00:14

I hell get that to work without cleaning my entire

1:00:16

PS5 out. Even then

1:00:19

when I got the games installed, it had to do

1:00:21

updates which meant all the file sizes needed to have

1:00:23

space for duplicates which was then ludicrous. It was like

1:00:25

320 GB and I was like, no. At

1:00:29

some point, I'll just give up and I

1:00:31

did. I think the free to

1:00:33

play stuff is interesting because it just doesn't have that

1:00:35

premium price point which is a whole thing in the

1:00:37

wider context because Xbox are about to do Call of

1:00:39

Duty on Game Pass and try and get you across

1:00:41

that way. Then the file size is

1:00:44

a thing but just overall you have a free

1:00:46

to play Call of Duty that plays close enough.

1:00:49

It's just that it fundamentally hinges on how

1:00:51

much you care about Ubisoft aesthetic to

1:00:53

keep you around. When it comes to

1:00:55

battle passes, because there's monetization

1:00:57

in this but it's cosmetic. There's

1:00:59

not pay to win stuff, at least so far. You're

1:01:02

hinging a lot of that big return on investment

1:01:04

on do you want a new mask for your

1:01:06

Watch Dogs man, etc. Yeah,

1:01:08

I'm really going to be interested in its

1:01:10

longevity because like you said, you have to be

1:01:13

invested I think in those Ubisoft characters or

1:01:15

the presentation to want to buy another battle

1:01:17

pass but also I've only dabbled a little bit.

1:01:19

I can't say I've played tens and tens of

1:01:21

hours of this game. I absolutely have not

1:01:23

but from the taste of the progression that

1:01:25

I've had so far in leveling

1:01:30

up my weapons and stuff. That's

1:01:33

not going to cut it for me personally

1:01:35

and I don't know whether that's because it

1:01:37

is basic in and of itself or whether

1:01:39

I've just experienced it too many times but

1:01:41

I don't find the rate of progression that

1:01:44

satisfying and what you're unlocking and the weapon

1:01:46

builds. It's

1:01:48

just standard stuff and that might be fine for

1:01:50

something like this, especially something that's free to play

1:01:52

it but it doesn't make me want to play

1:01:55

it over something like Todd or whatever. It

1:01:57

really reminds me of and I think shooting

1:02:00

is really good and like I said at the start I think

1:02:02

it's as close to cottage

1:02:04

you're gonna get from a non-COD

1:02:06

developer unless you're what they

1:02:09

call respawn entertainment who had COD developers

1:02:11

on that team and to me

1:02:15

it plays like and this is

1:02:17

not a knock it plays like

1:02:19

in a way Crisis 2's multiplayer

1:02:22

and also the Medal

1:02:25

of Honor games that DICE did

1:02:27

the multiplayer one yeah

1:02:29

yeah the reboot ones which

1:02:33

kind of were like it

1:02:35

was like a battlefield style combat but

1:02:37

in a smaller space and with like

1:02:39

focus on team deathmatch which is to

1:02:41

say that it feels good it feels

1:02:43

it feels solid but it's

1:02:45

not the elements that this game has unless you're

1:02:47

really sick of COD unless you really can't stand

1:02:50

it or like I said if this is like

1:02:52

your entry point into this style of game like

1:02:55

I don't know if it has

1:02:57

what it takes to survive in the long term I kind

1:02:59

of hope it does I hope it does give us reasons

1:03:01

to come back and it's as good

1:03:03

of a free-to-play experience that I think

1:03:05

has come out in a while yes

1:03:07

you know I've not seen something with

1:03:09

this but promise mostly because the other

1:03:11

multiplayer games I've been jumping on have

1:03:13

been form stars which had no promise

1:03:15

right at launch. You've come from Sound

1:03:17

Rush. I know sorry I was the

1:03:19

S-com again I had to do them.

1:03:22

All this to say and I hope

1:03:24

it does well Scott I do genuinely

1:03:26

believe that because I think Call of Duty

1:03:29

and other multiplayer games need some competition and

1:03:31

I do think it has fallen in

1:03:33

a pretty good window where we know from moved

1:03:35

from Modern Warfare 3 that people have really started

1:03:38

to sour on that game and get and then

1:03:40

start to get bored with it yet we're far

1:03:42

enough out from the actual release of Black Ops

1:03:44

6 that you're not going toward at all with

1:03:46

it you are going toward at all with the

1:03:49

announcement but I think being free-to-play definitely helps and

1:03:51

not being tied to another paid experience will get

1:03:53

more people in I think it's gonna be huge

1:03:55

right now I Just wonder about

1:03:58

if we'll be talking about in six months. The

1:04:00

time. The big question for me is

1:04:02

I. I always think executives don't

1:04:04

underestimate audiences and don't think the average

1:04:06

gamer, the average player. The average consumer

1:04:08

can tell the disparate parts that pulling

1:04:10

from to stitch together to make the

1:04:12

game. This is so nakedly overwatch meets

1:04:14

corddry like you have the hero powers

1:04:16

you have that the dembele whether they

1:04:18

activate like some people's palace like a

1:04:20

splinter cell person I dotted vision move

1:04:22

with a with a one hit kill

1:04:25

or a couple hit kill pistol which

1:04:27

is very like Mccree Special in overwatch

1:04:29

for Amazon to seventy six especially know

1:04:31

what which was and twenty sixteen and.

1:04:33

A lot. you'll pay a lot of uneven

1:04:35

overwatch to couldn't keep going with over watches

1:04:37

Momentum Am and then you've got the cold

1:04:39

use of words that? well we should have

1:04:41

these bills because people like builds college you

1:04:43

need to sell you different stuff different skins

1:04:45

for the bills we should have. Thus Am

1:04:47

admits it's almost the first of it's kind.

1:04:49

the is perfectly messing those two identities. however

1:04:51

they would. did they would different for a

1:04:53

reason Guess Am at. It's interesting bringing that

1:04:55

says that. Yeah, that's why I mentioned that

1:04:57

feeling I'd Generator feels like this arbitrary thing

1:04:59

where you can see the business. mine's dad

1:05:01

cause you yoga was what if we. Ha.

1:05:03

And then this becomes that game Am and it

1:05:05

plays well enough. It's focus tested, they've got enough

1:05:07

money to throw it. It's and god knows

1:05:10

the really want a lifesaver success as all third

1:05:12

party developers do right now. Guests are all developers

1:05:14

eleven studios while the publishers do Am and Cst

1:05:16

just to me. You see the stitches. You

1:05:18

see it being held together. You see how it's

1:05:21

being held together. Am I think it would have

1:05:23

been stronger if it was just it's own ip?

1:05:25

Like it's it's it's it. Is it. On a

1:05:27

peaceful. that's the fibers made up of Ubisoft

1:05:29

stuff to the point where they are advertising the

1:05:32

games inside them. They say. This this is forgiven

1:05:34

for Christ Sake Logo Ghost Recon Phantoms generally thought

1:05:36

of as a just Reminding is a ghost recon

1:05:38

center sell to them. They're nice. Bonus. Also, just

1:05:40

as when the Celts and things I watch Dogs

1:05:42

Two when you're hovering over different characters like it's

1:05:44

it's a brand is Brom game. Yes I am

1:05:47

and you can argue something like Smash Brothers is

1:05:49

as well. Fair enough am, but I say that's

1:05:51

done it a lot more elegantly or it's done

1:05:53

it for so long it was the first of

1:05:55

it's kind of it arrayed so well over time.

1:05:57

I feel like this would have been better. If

1:06:00

he hides m if it was it's own

1:06:02

thing and then you had characters, guests from

1:06:04

different I use their newborn i'm fisher and

1:06:06

am old dude with be it from ghost

1:06:09

recon, breakpoint or whatever you wanted yeah say

1:06:11

I think that's it. You're right, I think

1:06:13

you know have they've almost didn't the and

1:06:15

bear with me against the Si Cu mistake

1:06:17

of spill I read scared want to get

1:06:19

getting will just take it off from there.

1:06:22

Whereas the beauty in my opinion of getting

1:06:24

people like some say shirts in like and

1:06:26

Rebels and Reagan game or all rainbow six

1:06:28

is that you've already established. Your. Game

1:06:30

First an old that both long running

1:06:32

franchises that seeds was it's own thing

1:06:35

with it's own operate as before to

1:06:37

start having guests Ghost Recon had it's

1:06:39

main characters before added to the Ubisoft

1:06:41

crossovers in deal for himself you know

1:06:43

Nps from Watch Dogs making appearances and

1:06:45

stuff like that or is this is

1:06:47

like as I will skip. Will.

1:06:49

Skip establishing what X defy it is

1:06:51

because all X defy is is Ubisoft

1:06:53

as a whole. Guess in that might

1:06:56

work for them it, but I think

1:06:58

it needs something else because like you

1:07:00

said is, this game came out in

1:07:02

Twenty twenty for instance. I. Think even

1:07:04

then people will be would be saying we can

1:07:06

see the Stitches movie where you're pulling from. To.

1:07:09

Me: I don't know whether to me thinks I don't

1:07:11

know whether. Everyone listening to these are

1:07:13

watching. This is over saturated as well. But

1:07:16

yeah in Twenty Twenty Four you can see

1:07:18

what that pulling from and it's almost like

1:07:20

I've had this version of Caught before. He

1:07:22

has no Black Black Ops Fall for instance

1:07:24

already tried to and the be comiskey it

1:07:27

least in part. a hero has put it

1:07:29

all that even existed. That's exactly what this

1:07:31

a become influenced by all the what we've

1:07:33

seen code dabble in that. so it's not

1:07:35

even like this is providing something. Youth is

1:07:37

providing something that could try to separate. Yeah,

1:07:40

because we were like. I'm not sure if

1:07:42

this. works so about endless well a bit

1:07:44

and a late til a pie you and massively

1:07:46

to that end as well as the whole

1:07:48

idea of inequality losing it's identity at the

1:07:50

minute like that i do they the gundam skins

1:07:52

king com godzilla skins can do what else sometimes

1:07:55

that's a sneaky even though she could be

1:07:57

a mess and comparable use in there i

1:07:59

have no evidence There's that whole

1:08:01

idea of where is the gritty boots on the

1:08:03

ground or military style shooter and something like Hell

1:08:05

Let Loose has been able to get a bit

1:08:07

of purchase in that regard. And then you've got

1:08:09

X-Define comes along and doesn't have an identity. Is

1:08:11

this amalgam of everything that you've seen before and

1:08:14

is then unable to say, hey, it's okay over

1:08:16

here because we're doing the same thing. We're reminding

1:08:18

you of all these other brands. We have no

1:08:21

core identity. We just have the amalgam stitched

1:08:23

together, holding things together. It's

1:08:25

a weird beat. And like I said, you can see

1:08:27

the marketing departments. You can see the PR win. You

1:08:29

can see the business directives guiding this thing.

1:08:32

But I think the average person is repelled by that stuff.

1:08:34

So I think they'll give it a shot because it's free

1:08:36

to play. But I'll be amazed

1:08:39

if it actually sticks around long term. Yeah, 100%. I'm

1:08:41

interested to see whether for

1:08:44

the hardcore fans who have been screaming for

1:08:46

this type of gameplay, I wonder if that's

1:08:49

enough to make them have a good time.

1:08:51

And if so, I'm absolutely all for that.

1:08:54

But on a wider scope, is

1:08:56

this going to get in? Johnny

1:08:59

casual, who buys Call of Duty every year and

1:09:01

likes it. Is this going to turn his

1:09:04

head? Is this going to make him realize

1:09:06

this is what he's been missing from Call

1:09:08

of Duty or the first person shooting games

1:09:10

in the market? I'm with you. I'm not

1:09:13

sure if I'll have that element of penetration,

1:09:15

but perhaps. I'll be amazed if

1:09:17

this thing still going in a few months. I forgot

1:09:19

Splitgate shut down. I remember that Splitgate

1:09:21

existed. And I thought,

1:09:24

oh yeah, there was all that buzzer on Splitgate. And then my mind

1:09:26

was like, but then there was all those headlines about it closing down.

1:09:28

And I was like, oh, that just kind of came and went. Can

1:09:30

you remember there was a first person multiplayer

1:09:33

game that was free to play on, I think, the

1:09:35

PlayStation 4 called, I want

1:09:37

to say it was Blacklight something.

1:09:41

But this reminds me of that is

1:09:43

what I mean. And I also played

1:09:45

that 10 years ago and thought, well,

1:09:48

this is good, but I'll just play

1:09:50

Cardin's Blacklight retribution. That was it. Yeah,

1:09:52

yeah, yeah. That was it. I

1:09:54

am. There's always like that. Like I Said, there's

1:09:56

always that attempt to try and knock Cardin off the top. It's

1:09:58

funny seeing the the attempts of it. I didn't feel

1:10:01

like this and I'd the one that I

1:10:03

thought was one too far was that is

1:10:05

our victory Am I've mentioned it before it

1:10:07

was in like out outset the yeah that

1:10:09

it came out because it was right in

1:10:11

that verse two thousand seven it was just

1:10:13

after but more for blown up and everyone

1:10:15

was saying almost they will Uncle Juri and

1:10:17

then we have this big boom of military

1:10:19

she was a predates modern warfare it's you've

1:10:21

got kills own and the the Brown Break

1:10:23

era and then our victory came out and

1:10:25

our victories whole thing was the bodies would

1:10:27

robbed all when you blow them up nice

1:10:29

and I just remember thinking we'd hit the

1:10:31

with the edges yeah just a hero my

1:10:33

bump up against them as nothing else. You

1:10:35

can advertise this on Am and that was

1:10:37

the one of the other times that everything

1:10:39

maxed out and like it's interesting what we

1:10:41

can talk about it's am just before but

1:10:43

X Defiant is a bad name it like

1:10:46

at Ces eyes I could call of duty

1:10:48

medal of Honor overwatch like you know to

1:10:50

me it's such a to me it sounds

1:10:52

like they wanted to call it. Just.

1:10:54

That defiance More sense to see all purposes.

1:10:56

literally. Google thirty I really well and I'll

1:10:58

bring up so much stuff let's walk and

1:11:00

Exxon than we will be top of the

1:11:03

pages. It's that kind of cynicism you were

1:11:05

talking about. L E away it's like we

1:11:07

can't just call it this because it's not

1:11:09

optimized in this way. It yet reached x

1:11:11

amount of consumers. Are

1:11:13

to get this install base in that permits.

1:11:15

Puts me off it because of him that

1:11:17

I think it's if we could play as

1:11:19

well. but it's it's It's a call. Prep

1:11:21

peace in that ass. That's not what you

1:11:23

want. Scott. Health now and things have died from

1:11:26

much less than sensitivity to I a celebrity now

1:11:28

and message on my to a few more months

1:11:30

is a silver in Seoul? Guess so I'll do

1:11:32

that. will check back in. Is it a secret?

1:11:34

Lives and dies? Yeah I mean I will. It's

1:11:37

really sketchy the it's when I think else to

1:11:39

do when I just want to play wanted to

1:11:41

do think it's an indictment of the experience that.

1:11:45

Matches. Nino

1:11:47

Part of that is is because the progression is

1:11:49

so similar to things that I've done before. I

1:11:51

mean, when I was playing through Modern Warfare three,

1:11:53

I was joking. With and my friends were

1:11:55

play at college duty. With that, you

1:11:58

know I've spent most of my. Leveling

1:12:00

up at him for we're at

1:12:02

it's attachments and I'm just I'm

1:12:04

doing that again and I'm grinding

1:12:06

levels to unlock an Ak to

1:12:08

unlock an empty full amplifies that

1:12:10

I've used so many times and

1:12:12

seen from every angle and a

1:12:14

comparable eat sketchy at from memory

1:12:16

the attachments on and it's like.

1:12:19

Again, like I said of the very start that's

1:12:21

cool if this is your entry point into that

1:12:23

stuff but when he's do math a seventeen year

1:12:25

olds you give me into the meal has also

1:12:28

like this is a game We've got Parker below

1:12:30

he saw like the game has talked her abilities.

1:12:32

Why are you bothered about gang standard firearms when

1:12:34

you can just go into a mode as an

1:12:37

instant kill thing but even then allow the tighter

1:12:39

abilities it is? It's a so no polls yet

1:12:41

or it's a one hit kill thing on my

1:12:43

all. As a minor it's it's are allowed. John

1:12:46

Cena Why I mentioned Crisis because obviously it pulls

1:12:48

way mall for all. Over watching of the

1:12:50

hero she was. but when I was playing again

1:12:52

playing as the yeah split cel faction you have

1:12:54

the So on our radar but you also have

1:12:56

an ability to go invisible which is doesn't really

1:12:59

make your a visible you know me know what

1:13:01

if the have to be going up against someone

1:13:03

who is moving the stick really sucks I'm not

1:13:05

to realize that you are you have is invisible

1:13:07

outlined in it was like. Of

1:13:12

years of those abilities, events, my reference

1:13:14

point that I'm pulling from ah, Medal

1:13:17

of Honor or Night and prices. theory.

1:13:19

Like that before all the was yeah

1:13:21

I've literally been playing these games different

1:13:23

versions of this experience, this whole slew

1:13:25

of of Ursula things being so so

1:13:27

long as has been the one and

1:13:29

up one hour, eleven minutes and flat

1:13:31

I'm I've got over the spindle from

1:13:33

always Atlases cocktails that always a pleasure

1:13:35

to be heard by all of you.

1:13:37

Have a lovely Republicans you pursued by

1:13:39

far. My.

1:13:51

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