Castle Super Beast - CSB 245: QUEEBS

Starting point is 00:00:00 МУЗЫКАЛЬНАЯ ЗАСТАВКА I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die.

Starting point is 00:00:32 I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die.

Starting point is 00:00:40 I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna. Just do it, pussy. Just fucking bore all over the fucking thing. Get that it's that one smell on it. It's stuck. Oh, it's stuck. Oh, no. I was trying to hit yourself in the stomach as hard as you can. I felt it. I felt it bubbling a little bit before and as that intro is going I was like, okay, whatever and then I was like, hold on, I'll carbonate. That'll solve my burp That's actually what I'm about to do right now. Yeah, he's gonna carbonate

Starting point is 00:01:09 Ladies and gentlemen I'm also gonna carbonate The sparkling water will do it. I just hey You worked in video game stuff, right and you extensively talk about video games. Allegedly allegedly. Hey, what the fuck is an indie game? I've been thinking about this for weeks, man. And I just like, no, I want to have this. Spursually or yeah, okay. An indie game is a game that has eightbit music and looks like an old Nintendo game.

Starting point is 00:01:48 Dude, this is... Like... So I mentioned this because Dave the Diver is up for... For TGA. Best Indie at the TGA's, just like the fact that it's a fucking Nexon game, which is the largest publisher of video games. One of the biggest in the world is definitely the biggest in Korea. And Jeff Keely, who put out a statement today, going, well, it was made by a small team.

Starting point is 00:02:18 So it's in D. And it's just like, and I was thinking about it. I was like, the whole word is so stupid bullshit. Well, it's from the 90s. Excuse me, there it is, got it out. All right. Oh, fucking great, let's go. The entire video game thing sucks at language,

Starting point is 00:02:43 at words, at brackets, at genres, because all of our all of our categorizations are just things that people kind of started saying one day that caught on. And I feel like EGM, Game Pro, and you know, gaming magazines of the the early years started a lot of them with their their categories in the magazines. But like none of those actual like a bunch of them just as we always say like action adventure hack and slash you know what like none of these things actually mean things and so you just kind of like go all right even and and to the point where I've obviously talked about like fighting games with this but like it's just what do

Starting point is 00:03:22 you where does the broad definition start and where does it end, you know, with indie games, if a large publisher spends a small amount of money on a game, does that then make it indie because of the budget? It's, there's so many different vectors of attack here and it's all just like, eh, it's whatever we kind of spiritually feel like is a small thing.

Starting point is 00:03:47 Like a mom and pop shop. Like what stretches the definition of a mom and pop shop? If mom and pop starts expanding, gets multiple chains out. And what will it, so this will hit Wully pretty hard, but it won't do much for most of you. Is Shayra, a mom and pop breakfast place. I mean, it was got started by old grandma Korra in Quebec. Sure. There's like 15 locations. Yeah, I liked it. It might at one point, perhaps, but where does that fuzzy line, you know, transition into like, it's no longer that, because yeah, absolutely.

Starting point is 00:04:26 There's a ton of shit like that where like this local business gets really booming. And then they start opening up. So before more complaining happens, I would like to go through the traditional definition of what an independent game was in games. And it was derived from independent film. An independent film is a film that is being made outside of the major studios. In games, an independent game was a game that was self-published or did not need to go through a larger publisher. Because it used to be back when you had to get carts and CDs out.

Starting point is 00:05:06 You went, that's a huge upfront cost. And okay, we're going to make our game, but we're going to need Activision or EA or Nintendo or somebody to take the hit and then they'll probably own our game and the IP and all the rights to it, right? But now we live in the internet, we live in the internet world. Every like fucking style. If you follow that definition of an independent game, Fortnite and Baldur's gate coming in this year for best indie game.

Starting point is 00:05:39 So here's the problem. So self publishing is a definition, but obviously there's things that break that on each end. Yeah, Baldur's gate is technically self published, right? It also gets further muddied because while PC games would just come out and it's on computer, play it, boot it, whatever. There was the point when we hit the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 eras of there is an actual place you can go for smaller games and whenever you'd submit, like in QA,

Starting point is 00:06:10 when you'd submit your game, you'd have, you could either submit a full-fledged title or a smaller title, whether that's an XBLA title or an eShop title for Nintendo or a PSN title. Like these are all a separate category that you actually have to pick and choose for your game. Now, when Ubisoft put out XBLA titles, it's not, that's not an indie game, but it's still within the smaller category. And then there's actually XBlig, which was legitimately completely...

Starting point is 00:06:39 Oh, just... Yeah, it's still published. You had stuff like castle crashes made by a small development studio that was published through Microsoft by the XBLA program. And that's an indie game in the same way that Alan Wakes American nightmare. Exactly. And fucking streak fighter to our. So you can't, you just, you can't say self publish cannot be the metric that is used, right?

Starting point is 00:07:04 None of these, there's all of these things. Don't work when you, when you handcuff the term indie to it, unfortunately, you know, I think everyone can look at a braid and be like, oh, there's a little short, self-published thing. Oh, man, you got a drink, what was it? You got to get drunk and drink that magic potion and it goes backwards.

Starting point is 00:07:24 And then, whoo, and then soldier boy makes fun of it. But it makes me really happy that Jonathan Blow is like, like, like, damaged by that video. Do you know what I've heard? I've heard something about this. Like he is like, like, like, like, struck with despair over the idea of people playing braid and going, wow, I'm jumping. Just, you gotta, you gotta envision every audience when you design your game. You gotta envision the people that are playing it with their, you know, 100%

Starting point is 00:07:59 focus and then you gotta envision people in a loud party not giving a fuck. Anyway, the definition of indie, yeah. So when you look at Dave the Diver, I saw the trailer for it and I was like, oh, that thing looks cool. Look at this fishing and then cool diving and stuff. I planted it on my show. And I had no idea what the development process was

Starting point is 00:08:22 or what the funding was for it's certainly. I just saw the look of it and the look is aesthetically something that usually would be indie, so I just assumed it was. Yeah, and then like the, I think the director of that game was like, yeah, looks indie,

Starting point is 00:08:37 but I don't think it is, because we're owned by Nexon. Like even there, like I don't think maybe we belong as an indie game. It's, it's so messy. We need to get rid of that whole category. We need to get the whole thing as stupid. And even like, you can't put a budget, like, limiter down either, because games will,

Starting point is 00:08:55 like at some point, if you add extra campaigns, if you build it out, if marketing gets added, that, you know, like a short, mini-pinsapersia title, you know, you a short mini-pinsipersia title, you know, you might, again, like it's still an Ubi game that might be marketed in that way. So it's like, you can't use really that metric either. Team size can be variable, obviously, super giant, has a completely unusual way of developing their games that uses the smallest possible team size

Starting point is 00:09:25 and just puts them a whole tail end to their development. I fucking, I don't know, man. If you get rid of it, it's like, okay. But like, what's the difference here? I'm like, and then I get to, I'm like searching for fringe cases. And I'm like, what about a Kickstarter game? That's independent, right?

Starting point is 00:09:48 Because it's independently funded. But what about a Kickstarter game like Pillars of Eternity II, which was Kickstarter on FIG, which included investment support, which included the fact that that kickstarter was an interest test so that the real publisher, Paradox Interactive, would give them the remainder of the money to me.

Starting point is 00:10:15 So, what are you doing? Or Shen, you three, right? Or this is actually news for this week, poor one out, but well, it's not really poor one out so much, but I think so, them fighting herds is, they're pretty much stopping their development. They saw the rollback announcement coming for DBZ

Starting point is 00:10:34 and they're like, it's time to leave. It's over, yeah, no. So, but I mean, like they, they, I think it's just like the further content that they were planning for that, including story mode, they're basically canceling,

Starting point is 00:10:44 they can't continue to work on it. But that was a case of an indie game that then went to crowdfunding and then got picked up by a publisher. So there's a transition that occurs when a publisher steps into fun things. It just gets so messy. These labels get weird. I was just reminded of another part of it. Fucking everyone check that out, it's good shit.

Starting point is 00:11:11 I was just reminded of another part of this discussion, which you would be extremely personally familiar with, will they, hey, this game, because people said, well, why don't you just change it to team size, right? How many, like sub 50 people worked on this game? That counts, right? Sub 25. And then my brain goes, hey, woolly, how many small games have you not worked on in teams of hundreds.

Starting point is 00:11:45 This game was other QA. This game was made by eight people and then one logo scrolls by on the credits. And that one logo is a folder that contains 80. Like, there's 80 names in a little bracket and it's just not just as beable. Don't worry about it, it's gone. VMC, don't think about it, it's just a little logo. It's like not just as bable don't worry about it it's gone VMC don't think about it it's just a little logo it's like a codec right like like

Starting point is 00:12:08 yeah sure no problem like Ubisoft I'm sure for child of light there's like a team of like 25 people and then it says and with support from the following and it's a bunch of logos for the Ubisoft farms of 600 fucking people you know it just and then like I said a a super giant, like when they were made Hades, they had the tiniest team rotating over the smallest, like in a small group over a long period of time, you know, so they were working on other things and they had the Hades team that would be like, okay, a couple people here, they're doing their thing. And like that was how they

Starting point is 00:12:43 developed it as opposed to full team full force, you know. It's even team size as a metric is not really reliable. I don't, I don't, I don't mind what you could really say, but I think this is a problem with video games. Small games for babies. No. Um, I look, can we go like purchase price? I hear the black best game under $20 the other problem with this is that we as human beings need to categorize were obsessed with it Need to we need to The game awards is gonna be a big celebration because people want to put things in a little boxes We have to put things in their boxes. I, it just, it can't not go in a box. It must be there. Genre, you know, I just fucking...

Starting point is 00:13:33 Pfff. I, yeah, indie games is a vibe, all right? It's a vibe check. But it's, but it's, I can't, man. Man. It's a vibe check. If you think about it and you go, it's an indie game. It's an absolute vibe check, bro.

Starting point is 00:13:56 You know, see food, that is a man. You fight in it. You know, that's fighting it That's it that's it It's just I think getting mad about categories and nominations is way more fun than celebrating the winners at any War show. I think like I think there's so much here What what Nate what is a video game where you do not play a role? Tetris you know like It's stupid it's stupid I just saw in someone in chat mentioned and like yeah no monster hunter has been nominated for RPG of the year every year Monster Hunter game comes out

Starting point is 00:14:42 Those aren't fucking Numbers are RPG damage numbers 100 game comes out. Those aren't fucking numbers. Those are our peach numbers. That's it. Yeah. Look, I just, like, it's always, this is TGA discourse is just. I love it. I love it. So meaningless. It's so utterly meaningless. I love it. Oh, God. Well, look, at least, at least this time around, however people feel about it there will be security To actually stop people from getting up on stage and rushing it apparently because you know two to three

Starting point is 00:15:16 And in a row is not enough All they need is like three Like tall like well-built guys to just be on the periphery. Because that that weeds out everybody who wants to run up there as a goof. But like, but like, okay, but I don't know Pat, I don't know if you had this. Did you, I don't know if you had the same reaction I did upon reading this news, but I read it and I was kind of like, ah, there goes some content. Like it's good for the safety in front soft and all, but they, there goes some content. It's good for the safety, it's from soft and all,

Starting point is 00:15:47 but there goes some good bits. Here's what I thought. I'm like, well, that means we're gonna lose out on random dumb kid running up. But, we've increased the chance, so that's gone from 100% to 0% because people, you know, copycat and every time it happens, it's more likely to happen. But we've now increased the chance above 0% of a fracas of a tumble, a tussle, a little

Starting point is 00:16:18 tussle off camera of a, of a, of a row occurring on the steps to walk up. Okay, there we go, there we go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you can have to get your camera team to be more on point for cutting away from the right angles and just a little bit of a, oh, what's going on over there? Yeah, yeah, that's true.

Starting point is 00:16:38 I just kind of like, you hear that? It's like, it's like, you come, you hear that, there's the back to back fucking stage crashing moments and then they go, okay, we're increasing security and Yeah, it's just it's I don't know if it's a little bit like that The like the the dolphin in the tuna bit, you know, or just like yeah, it's got no dolphin in it Maybe. It's not good. I wanna have dolphin in my tuna. Maybe it's a smarter.

Starting point is 00:17:04 Maybe it's a little bit of a hockey NHL rules. Like, you know, we talked about a little bit of it last year. But it is fairly shocking that they held these huge events with all these known people with literally no precautions of any kind whatsoever. Isn't that, that's kind of weird. And this was the same time that it's also getting up in there in status.

Starting point is 00:17:33 So you're having the likes of, you know, if I can, Nick Cage, showing up backstage and obviously canna Reeves and stuff. It's like they're getting higher and higher profile people with like less and less security. Like there's definitely people out there that would want to fight Todd Howard. Like just the fight. Right? So like the idea that it's impossible that someone would just run up on stage at him and just throw down is ridiculous like it could happen.

Starting point is 00:18:13 So if there are some industry figures that might start a malice in the palace there might be an art test moment Bobbi Connick walking up stage and someone just hurls a giant slurpy at him and then it's going down You know, because that motherfucker's not just gonna take it and run like I feel like he's jumping into the crowd and it's it's going down, you know Yeah, man, I would I was a little kill to see just a massive brawl But maybe but maybe Jeff kind of a little bit deep down wants it because then he can stand jump in front of Hideo and be like, I'll protect you.

Starting point is 00:18:51 Like, you know, I am sitting here over with like the blood sport fantasy of Jeff holding up a fucking trophy and going going game of the year goes to whoever can take this from me It's all possible. It's the potential is yeah The TGA's it really can't go down, you know Well anyways, we'll see we'll'll see what this means for security. And they're not elaborating because obviously it's security, but don't elaborate. I want like dudes, like, you know, bouncer's, just a couple.

Starting point is 00:19:44 Right. That's what I think is appropriate personally. You know, bouncers, just a couple, right? That's what I think is appropriate personally. But now, but then I guess the question is if anyone like, like if someone gets up and starts walking to the stage and they do it, we'll smith our Kanye style. Like, are you like, if you're part of the industry, are you allowed? You know, like if, if it gackie is suddenly walk in the stage For some shit's about to go down you're like hold on him. You get you get you got to get him right you got to get him

Starting point is 00:20:14 Yeah, you got to do like that you got to you got it you got to shut down the oatmeal. He's got a samurai sword He's got to kill him the other hand He's got tequila in the other hand. All right. Okay, we should back up on that because that makes no sense to people that aren't like dialed all the way in. It's like 10.50. Wolley and I are laughing about an interview from 15 years ago where some people want to interview Tomonobu Ida Gaki about Ninja Gaiden and they showed up and he was visibly drunk on tequila and was just way like on you guys like samurai. I believe I believe they opened the door to him holding tequila and

Starting point is 00:20:52 the samurai sword. I was like, do you like katanas? Aren't they the shit? Like it was yeah, just straight up waving it around. You know, you're like, that's Mr. Decker alive right there. Right there. And I know that's Ninja Guide N. The guy who got fired for inappropriately touching the secretaries. Yes. That's Mr. Decker alive. But I want to say that was also moments before legendary events

Starting point is 00:21:19 where his five most hated games were tech in one, tech in two, tech in three, tech in four, and tech in five. So, you know, and if I was allowed a sixth, tech in six, do you remember that? That was the note at the bottom. It's funny to see like the days of when Oh no, when Harada would have their old like wrestling K-Fave rivalry because it's like, nah, that dude had a real onsite fucking rivalry within a gaki like there a bunch of nerd, nerd fucking you know game devs but they wore shades so that means they came with toad anyways.

Starting point is 00:21:59 How do I make myself look cooler? Well, just put the shades on. Now no one can see my eyes. It's perfect. I had a big week. A lot of this. You had a big week. Tell me about your big week, sir.

Starting point is 00:22:15 Big boy had a big week. Lots of things went down. I guess you often refer to yourself as a big boy because I feel like I'm doing it more often. Only what I have a big day. When big boy has a big day, then that's what it is. When you sit down, you're like, big boy needs a big meal for his big day.

Starting point is 00:22:33 Big boy does into big meal for his big day, but sometimes, those days are getting farther and fewer in between. Regretting the big meal might be, you know, but yeah, anyway. Okay, well, just a side note, jumped in to see what was going on with the K.O.F. 13 global match now with rollback. It's got rollback. That's good.

Starting point is 00:22:55 I played against I played a match against someone that I believe was on Brazilian Wi-Fi and that was bad. It was awful, terrible. But then every other match I played was pretty good. Another, I had one sketchy one. Jud, Jud, Jud, Jud. I had one sketchy one as well after that

Starting point is 00:23:15 with somebody that it was just like, we just couldn't get it going. But for the most part, I would say like, yeah, for the, over the course of a night of playing two rough connections. So, you know, not flawless, but I felt like, it felt okay for Mo for the most part. Setting it to, setting it to two frames

Starting point is 00:23:35 was kind of the default case and it was all right. Then there was just a part where you're like, oh fuck, I'm going back to KOF 13. How do I play this thing? It's so fun. Time to get stomped out. Oh, good. Yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:23:48 It's, I think that the most King of Fighters thing I've ever seen in my life is SNK going, King of Fighters 13, global match coming right at you. How are you gonna advertise it, guys? I know what we'll do. We'll put up one minute long combo videos of the most impractical shit you've ever seen. You wanna see fucking ass crimson

Starting point is 00:24:14 doing backflips into little twirl kicks for 45 hits in the corner. That's KF-13 global max. Your Salzkirut combos are necessary. Now listen, now listen, and and I know I know every time It gets brought up. I know that KF 13 players are like stop making the meme that's making the game seem like it's too hard for people But the reality is is that it is probably of the new era It is probably the least forgiving at input like a

Starting point is 00:24:47 it is probably the least forgiving at input, like a leniency when it comes to just landing a jump in into a button, you know? Um, yeah. But it's still a fucking incredible game. And I think- It's fucking game. And I think eventually the place I got to was I'm gonna learn, I've always messed around with it. In KOF, I've always jumped around the cast and just like picked people up, picked people I liked and did their special moves a bunch. It was just very, you know- I have never been very good at K.O.F.

Starting point is 00:25:06 Yeah, like I have it, I, like I, you know, learning to like be a little bit tighter about short hops and things is in the repertoire, but for the most part of all, it's just been like, yeah, let me just do some fucking power dogs and see what happens here. Yeah, I played K.O.F. like I played Street Fighter in 1995. Right, right, right.

Starting point is 00:25:21 I did a fireball! Just were just doing shit, you know? And I think what I eventually landed on was like okay the language of doing a Good thing a good combo a real thing in K.O.F. Is like there is a universal thing you can kind of learn Or it's like with every character you got to learn like What they're like command normal is so there's you do a button and then you press forward plus a button and Then you activate your big max cancel and then you do that again And then just combo into your level two and then do your little big level three and you can call it a day

Starting point is 00:25:57 You also got to find out is hey man Which stupid little dinky looking tiny bitch knee with your toe out on your little tiny top. It's super good. It's the most busted in the world. Super good for good. It's sharp. Yeah. And so I still like that's that I just like, if you can remember, like the forward press

Starting point is 00:26:18 button thing that your character does, you can do everyone's general sort of equivalent of, you know, a sure you can FADC ultra, you know, type of thing. So just do that across the board. Fucking still just like going back to him like, man, love the, I love to look at this thing in action. But it's the only, the other thing there, though, is this rollback update only applies to the console versions. It's not on the PC version. Weird. Weird.

Starting point is 00:26:54 And I think it's because the PC version was handled by a different group, I believe. So it's like a different kind of port. The global match port is, yeah, is PlayStation and there's a Switch version, but then the Steam thing is just a different product, you know. That's stupid. And so there's no crossplay as well, as well, because they don't have the same type of, you know, matchmaking. So that's a bummer.

Starting point is 00:27:17 And the thing is every other KOF rollback update over the years has been straight to Steam, you know, like it's been good for it. So I hope they get around to this. They've been doing it with every other game. And, you know, they seem to be pretty dedicated to getting rollback in all of the old K-O-F's that people want to play. Hey, man, King of Fighters games are good.

Starting point is 00:27:36 There's a lot of good King of Fighters games that you can play. And most of them have been updated like this. So like good for SNK. Yeah, I'm glad that they're keeping at this, you know. And yeah, the rollback train continues. I mean, obviously we'll talk about a little bit more later. It's just herada now. It's just him. Like, we are talking about going back to fucking decade old King of Fighters games to add growl back and we're sitting there going boy I hope to check and the matches of the last CBT were better than the first one.

Starting point is 00:28:14 They were better than the first one. I didn't fuck around with and I didn't look into the settings to see if I could tweak how many delay frames versus what or so, but the first one was wolf. Second one is like, okay, we're playing some matches. Let's see what we really think. I think we're at the tipping point for the general consumer, a broad not from Japan, because we're now at the point where you don't need to know what rollback is because almost everything has it. Now the distinction is, hey, how come I can't play with my friend from England in this game and it'd be good like it is in Street Fighter or K Fighter's or a fucking guilty gear

Starting point is 00:29:01 or incoming DBZ or you know. And it's, yeah, you don't wanna have, it's always nice when you get, so this week I think there was like a sale for S3 Fighter 6 or so, it had like 35% off, which then led to a lot of new people pre-K picking it up, which then led to a lot of people going, how the fuck do I do down, down forward, forward,

Starting point is 00:29:29 plus a button? That's always, you know, that's the way of things. And so that discourse pops up whenever there's a new group of people. And it's like, it's nice when, do you call the brain of farm animals discourse? Because every time this discourse comes up, it goes, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH with the hand out going the discourse. You know? Well, but whatever the case is, the discussion is focused on, how do I do this thing from training mode? Because I think I have to do three separate inputs,

Starting point is 00:30:13 which is fine as opposed to like, I try to play a match with my friend and it sucked. You know, why did I spend my money on this? I saw somebody in the chat, someone up perfectly in that the discussion has gone From why doesn't this have rollback instead of delay into now even a child can go why game bad? Yeah, yeah, like like everyone yeah, those those fucking virtual fighter matches I play with Suzy were carpage man Yeah, those fucking virtual fighter matches I play with Suzy were carpage man when you're and we're super pumped out

Starting point is 00:30:50 When people people know what it looks like when you're connected to any Multiplayer game and someone's lagging the fuck out and then they lag out the entire Match for everyone else as a result and you're just like this if I don't hear Portuguese. It's the game's fault. I'm listening. I'm listening. So yeah, we're approaching a place where it's more good than bad and it might, the problem might be almost completely solved. Let's see what happens. Come T8.

Starting point is 00:31:21 So this is where I get to be totally insufferable because like hey I fucking love tech in a lot Like techin is like when we would complain about this. I'm like boy. I hope street fighter and virtual fighter and techin Get this good net code because I think techin is super Yeah Hey, we don't, it's if like if Mortal Kombat does or doesn't have it, it's like, you know, okay, well, you know, it's, you know, I'd be so stupid.

Starting point is 00:31:53 They don't, they don't, they don't know they can't tell. It's okay. It's okay. Does the child distinguish the taste of each color of crayon? Gearest controls time. That was a Gearest move. He was just teleporting backwards because that's that's him time progress. You know. Yeah, so anyway, I checked out a couple things actually. So so yeah, look at that. I then went and explored some of the newer vampire survivors clones. There's a lot. There's quite a few that have popped up.

Starting point is 00:32:34 And yeah, that's bullet heaven. Bullet heaven games, that's correct. Steam has codified it as bullet heaven. Oh, it's in there now. Officially that. It is now in there. It is codified. Well, you know what? It's funny because we're

Starting point is 00:32:47 shitting on genres. We're genres before. That's a pretty good one. You remember when Doom clone became first person shooter? You remember the one that because there were more FPS games that couldn't be likened to Doom? Right, right. And so it stopped being useful.

Starting point is 00:33:02 There you go. Bullet Heaven, perfect. The, yeah, so shout out so Jimmy bones was playing a couple of these and you recommended to the news going through so I was like Yeah, okay, let me jump in there because I'm still enjoying you know vampire survivors and and lie that's like that again The turn your brain off desire and fun is always good. So I Enjoyed 20 minutes till dawn. I wanted to see what was happening So then one of the newer ones that came out was called Death Must Die.

Starting point is 00:33:28 And guess what? I also played a bunch of it over the weekend. Okay. So it's interesting because of what else I played here. But, which I'll get to in a second. But I played it and I was like, all right, you are very clearly inviting yourself to be compared to Hades. I would like to ask you a question before we continue. in your heart between sincere imitation and over theft.

Starting point is 00:34:11 The dividing line is going to be in the other game that I played. And because there's another, well, I'll have to talk about these simultaneously, I guess, and not to just do this full like apples and oranges bit, but they are very similar. Halls of torment, have you seen this? I also played Halls of torment. Oh, interesting. Okay, because I was in the...

Starting point is 00:34:39 Boy, those games are really similar. And yet, the vibe, halls of torment invites itself to be compared to Diablo. Diablo. And they're both specifically Diablo one. And they're both gameplay wise, vampire survivor style, even with auto aim on or off, you can turn it on.

Starting point is 00:35:04 Both games, you can turn auto aim on. More point to analog stick. So you can, you don't have to make it to in stick, which is good, because I'm like, I want the relaxed version of this. That's what I'm looking for. Level up and walking. So, you know, full points on that. I like the ability to unlock a couple of different classes pretty quickly and see what's

Starting point is 00:35:22 going on. Both games are pretty good at that right after two, three runs. You get to see what else is going on with different classes pretty quickly and see what's going on. Yeah. Both games are pretty good at that right after two, three runs. You get to see what else is going on with different classes. Yeah. Yeah. But as you're playing, um, death must die like characters are introducing themselves and, you know, they're fully voice acted and they're doing the bit and you're like, oh, there's a

Starting point is 00:35:43 god of fire. There's a god. Some I'm the god of there's a god of fire. There's a god. I'm the god of fire. I'm the fates. I'm the crom. The god of conquest. And you're like, okay, I see what you're doing and I see that then after you say your line, it pops up to three windows that are the three windows to pick your house.

Starting point is 00:36:00 And the three windows have the icon for the power and they're a fucking diamond. And they're the same size as the Hades diamond. And and and you do this for a couple of runs and I'm like, okay, I don't mind if you're again paying homage to something that's great because Hades is great. But now I'm like, but this is just a subpar version of that because the lines and the characters are like they're now that you're just trying to kind of do more Hades, I'm like, oh, but these are less kind of charming characters. The lines are not as fully the performance is not so, you know, I completely agree. The art, the music, hair, summer and winter and the fates to Meg, fucking Meg or or or or fucking

Starting point is 00:36:56 aries or any of the got and it's like the comparison like Wolley, I was watching I was like paying really close attention. It's not just that you talk to the God and the God's the same size on the screen and the text box is the same size and it's red. The dialogue is red at the same speed. The Nades is. And then you get the three choices that I'll take up the same amount of size on the screen and the diagonal diamonds are there with the icons. It's not just all of that.

Starting point is 00:37:23 It's that the transition effect from the dialogue to the three power-ups is the thing that it is in Hades. It's the whoosh. And I'm like, this is traced. I like this is it inspired. This is traced over, but it's not as good. And you're at, yep. And then you're gonna, and then it's not as good. And you're it's a yep.

Starting point is 00:37:46 And then you're going to and then it's like, but the gameplay is going to be, um, hordes coming at you instead of going through rooms. So and it's good too. That's the that's the part where it's complicated. Is that as a as a as a as a fucking vampire survivor's clone? Yeah. The sprites look good. The enemies look good. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Only one stage's clone. Yeah. The sprites look good, the enemies look good.

Starting point is 00:38:05 Yes, yeah, yeah. I only have one stage. Yeah. Yeah. But that's the kind of thing. So the characters start showing up. And then they show up and they talk in the dialogue bubbles that pop up above your head.

Starting point is 00:38:16 One of the skeletons is an enemy that's kind of like the talking skeleton we might already know a little bit. And then you go outside the environment that you start in, it down from the bottom left, right, where you kind of the hallway starts. And then you can walk up to Vistas and look over their edge and then talk to yourself about what you're trying to do to get out of there. And you're like, you did like it every single aspect, not just a little bit here or a little bit there,

Starting point is 00:38:46 but the whole thing is just feeling cribbed. And it's, and it's, what do you want to know? It's just not as good. Yeah, I feel like we can call the, I feel like confident in saying this feels traced rather than imitated. But do you want to hear the most nothing complaint that actually totally ruined the whole game for me?

Starting point is 00:39:12 Interesting. And it is so minor, it is the tiniest, tiniest thing. The arts for the gods is pretty good, although they're more anime than Hades for example. The pixel arts pretty good. Some of them are hit a little's example. The pixel art's pretty good. Some of them are hit a little bit of mis, but you know, it's one I unlocked the second character, the Elf Sorcerer lady.

Starting point is 00:39:32 Yeah. She walked up to talk to them the night. Oh, oh. And their dog boxes, they're using emojis. And they're using old fashionedfashioned like so bracket emojis. Okay. Did you get, did you get the third character? Yes I did. Who speaks entirely in lower case. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:39:55 And like, so they're, they're, they're, they're talking in online discussion modes. So one character, the main character that you the first guy is just normal proper sentences with full grammar. The second is emoting and doing eyes with a mochi with like with like a like brackets P. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, and then the third one is just I'm lower casing. I don't want to talk to no you energy speaks like somebody who plays Dota. Right, right, right.

Starting point is 00:40:26 And could like like a character from your Dota match went from typing slurs at you to being a character in this. That didn't that didn't that was like sure. That's fine. I didn't buy that in my. So like so like yes, but at the same time, like it doesn't even fit its own art. And it's it's just like, oh, but at the same time, like it doesn't even fit its own art, and it's just like,

Starting point is 00:40:45 oh, but the thing with fit of course is that like when you'd have those little dialogue moments in, you know, again, the comparison point, they're inviting Hades, you would also have, you know, Hades himself and or some of the other characters say things for those moments. So like if you walk up to one of the un not unvoiced, but like when he goes, it's hate to the chef, the chef just goes, merr, you know, but like you still say your line, before you get out of there.

Starting point is 00:41:16 And here, yeah, it just it all feels just like a hollow or version of that. If any of it was like, you're saying traced, I'm like, if any of it was like, you know, paying reference, but then putting its own flair to it, I would, I really would give it a lot more leeway,

Starting point is 00:41:37 but I'm like, well, I'm looking at it. Summer is a pretty, that's a fun design for a character. Crom, not so much. I'm like, ah, Crom doesn't look like much. Crom is like strangely bad out of the designs. It was, oh, we, we didn't even get to the worst part. So Crom is what, the God of War?

Starting point is 00:42:01 What are the powers you unlocked for Crom? It was like damage buffs and... Oh, you mean rotating spinning blades? Oh, spinning blades were around. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, spinning blades is part of it. That's true. Oh, wait, you do a damage over time called rupture? And then when you hold L2, it shows you what the status effect means.

Starting point is 00:42:22 They're the same gods even. You know, and then Ice Boy shows up and you're like, Ice Boy looks cool, you know, but yeah, overall I was just like, oh boy, you know, and the thing is, the gameplay is doing the Vabras Vibras thing, but even, but I still was like, it wasn't full grab, right? So this is all to say, meanwhile, I popped open halls of torment and I fucking loved it, man. And I thought it was like,

Starting point is 00:42:57 and this is like, okay, so I'm not the right comparison point because I don't have Diablo as my nostalgic, you know. That's fine, but I aesthetically know what it's supposed to kind of look like. And I, like, even like when you meet NPCs and it does the little scrolling dialogue thing and their little box. Oh, yes, clear. It's talking very clear. The voice acting is a lot more deliberate

Starting point is 00:43:20 and like solid for what they're trying to do. Sprite work and overall and everything is just like, it's very, it's well done for what it's trying to emulate, but in general, I'm just enjoying what it's doing with that reference more. And it also feels like some of the mechanics that I saw that I thought were more unique to this. I thought were pretty dope.

Starting point is 00:43:43 Like I like the fact that when you go into the world and you find a rare item, like it's like, oh, bring this back to a well and you'll get it pulled up. And then you can save that item as a purchasable for future runs, you know? Like that sense of discovery was always fun for like, ooh, I'm on a good run.

Starting point is 00:43:59 Do I want to sacrifice one of these for future runs? You know, and if so, like which one? The fact that you had, like there's kind of like a garlic equivalent, which is like the aura around you, but it does more than just kind of hate everything in that circle. It's also a damaged distributor. So like, whatever you hate in that circle, it evenly distributes across the full thing, you know, a couple of different ways to interact with your your build and stuff that I In just a couple hours of playing it. I felt we're like oh this is different and

Starting point is 00:44:30 Unique from some of the stuff I was doing in vent fire survivors and like solid really fun. I enjoyed it quite a bit I don't know how your house of torment experience was but between the two I just was like, I'm coming way back to this than I am to death must die. You know, also in death must die, the main antagonist is death, the god of death. It's the who we have to die, who has to die, not unlike another god of death. Yeah, what? Has to know what?

Starting point is 00:45:01 I don't know. If I had to describe death must die, I would say that it is less than some of its parts. It is somehow less, I guess so. I guess so. Because every single part of it is something cool that has been taken from something cool. The thing it took it from did it better. Like significantly.

Starting point is 00:45:22 The Hades parts are not as good as Hades and the Vampire Survivors parts are not as good as Vampire Survivors. And the gear stuff is not as good as Halls of Torment. So, the, yeah, gear and Halls of Torment, I am like, I didn't think I was like, I don't know how much I want to, you know, handle gear equipment and stuff, but like, I got the hang of it very quickly, and it was like, I, yeah, I know, you know what, I'll trade off these speedboots a little bit more attraction or, you know, or whatever. Like vampire survivors is always gonna be

Starting point is 00:45:51 the peak of this genre because of a very specific emotion. It's an emotion you have felt, but you didn't know where to put it because you didn't have the baby on hand to deflect it, which is I'm playing Vampire Survivors. I'm gonna make sure to turn my infant away from Vampire Survivors so that his dopamine regulation isn't just blasted into shit during his formative years,

Starting point is 00:46:18 because I'm sitting there getting my hair blown back, feeling every neurotransmitter in my fucking brain fire at once, going, ah! Yeah. Ah. I had one of my editors, so let me know that they keep their iPads away from the kid generally, but they had like one time on an airplane

Starting point is 00:46:42 where there was a long flight. Oh no! They went, okay, we'll just get an iPad for the one flight. And that was all it took for the hooks to be buried in. And kids like me and Paige were just talking this morning about low stimulation TV shows. Yes, right, right, right. Um, slowing it down a bit.

Starting point is 00:47:00 What the fuck was it called? That, anyway, there was some, yeah, there was some, some I was hearing I was talking about that this morning too as well Actually, it's interesting because the It takes very little but all this in the context of yeah, that bars fibers is still just like crushing it for what it's doing and everything And there's even little bits where you're like the music you're hearing while you're playing vampire survivors It's super catchy and fun and you're hearing it for half a fucking hour, you better enjoy it. And I'm not hearing it for half hour, not anymore. Okay, well five.

Starting point is 00:47:31 I'm hearing it for fucking 14 minutes. Yeah. You know what you go to go. And then you get to, you actually get to 12 minutes and then the sound effects I've completely drowned out the music. And your TV is just going, and I can't see anything, and I feel like I'm gonna throw up. Meanwhile, like, you know, Death Must Die, I'm like, nothing's particularly memorable or standing out to me

Starting point is 00:47:55 with that soundtrack, whereas like the, duh, duh, duh, duh like more like homage, but we're doing our own thing. Halls of torment feels like, so Diablo is a very strange series in that Diablo one had the best aesthetic by far and had the best tone. And Halls of torment says we understand that that was the best aesthetic and the best tone and we wanna replicate that. But the gear stuff from the later games was awesome.

Starting point is 00:48:46 Halls of Torment seems like a game made by people who go, you know all that time that you spent walking to different enemies in a Diablo game and how much of that time was wasted? What if you just stood in a single fucking spot and every enemy in the world just came at you and you just got rid of all the chaff, talking to people and moving around. He gives a shit.

Starting point is 00:49:07 Yeah. Just get to the, just get that dope and meet shit. And that predates fucking vampires by actual decades. Right. It feels, it feels in the style of or in belovedness to the thing, instead of it is that thing. It's the bare minimum amount we could get away with, with changing before a lawyer called our office. Yes, yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:49:39 Okay. And the expectation as a result too is, I guess you start out in that, like you're like, you're just in some room with some guy and then you start meeting people slowly and then they kind of tell you a little bit about what's going on. But otherwise, you're just here to play this fucking, poor game. And so, but when you think about the, the Hades comparison, Hades is dripping in lore, you know, after you do your first run and get back to base and get a feel for everything.

Starting point is 00:50:07 That's when the game starts! Once you beat the game. Hey, let me ask you, is there a Necromancer class in halls of torment? Um, it's actually vital. In both games, you can Necromancer spells as an ability. Fucking great. The reason I say that is because there is a much smaller bullet heaven game that people can check out called Bone Rays or Minions, in which all you can do is raise skeletons.

Starting point is 00:50:43 Oh, okay. Every single power up in that game is a different type of skeleton. Okay. And it's really good. It's really, really good. What's it called? Bone Razer Minions. Bone Razer Minions, okay.

Starting point is 00:51:00 Yeah. It's really good. In each game, that's the first thing I went to. I'm like, this can be a busted skill How stronger these skeletons? It's the one I'm playing it if I play Hades It's like I it is sorely missed it is like it is like the only type of ability that I'm like oh Hades missed out Oh Ray skeleton rolling with an army.

Starting point is 00:51:25 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't wanna do it. I just want them to do, it's cool. But Hades rooms are like, they're tight, you know? Like, that could easily... I know. I can easily fuck the whole thing up. But maybe Hades too?

Starting point is 00:51:37 Maybe. So I gotta ask, you have played 20 minutes still Dawn. Van Pyrr's Survivors. Death must die, halls of torment, you're kind of, you're kind of going through it, and the genre's good. And a couple of seconds of the holocauer one.

Starting point is 00:51:54 I was about to ask, where do halls of torment and vampire and death must die stack up against the holocauer? I need to spend a bit more time with hollow cure because I really just did like one or two. Like it was very, very minimal, but I didn't stand out too much to me and the aiming thing was just a huge part of what I didn't want. So I think it's got the auto aim now.

Starting point is 00:52:23 Okay, okay. didn't want. So I think it's got the auto aim now. Okay. Okay. Um, but like, if I have to, if I have to, you know, twin stick it, which is a different kind of game than like, that's just not what I'm looking for. Um, so for me, I've got a couple of times. Yeah. I've gone back to holocur our couple of times. I don't like that you use Gacha. It's a free game, so yeah. I don't like how you roll for new characters. Okay. I think that's weird.

Starting point is 00:52:52 But the characters are all very different to play. I am bored to tears by its entire aesthetic. The art, the music, the sound, the menus, I have no emotional attachment to any of these people slash characters, and the actual aesthetic means nothing to me. So I'm not getting a pull. Right, and there was like, not as many,

Starting point is 00:53:23 I remember last time you talked about it, there was not as many levels or characters out by comparison to the other. They've gotten a lot, but there's way more characters now. Since they're way more characters now. Okay. Yeah. I have to go back and see where it is updated now,

Starting point is 00:53:37 but yeah, I just took a quick look. Excuse me, I'll like a while ago. I, yeah, I feel like the, I legitimately want to go back, boot up more halls of tournament and unlock more. I got, I think the fifth class of character in that. And I'm pleasantly surprised with like, yeah, the different ways they play and how everything is, is set up. And I guess the decision there, because you know how like the ViParis Survivors, every character is can be any character can just become any other character you're just choosing where you start with. Yeah, well, there's a couple really fringe cases, but yeah, most characters can become most

Starting point is 00:54:23 characters. They're just coming with a statistical variation and a starter weapon. Yeah, here it doesn't feel like that's the case so much, you know. It feels like what your main warrior is attacking with is just that sword attack is not going to be something that your cardon can do, you know, hold on, hold on, hold on. I just, I have to stop. I just saw somebody say that this is a week of us bashing things they don't understand. I said I don't care about the aesthetic. I didn't even say it was bad. I did. That looks so insecure.

Starting point is 00:55:03 That looks so insecure! That looks so insecure! Oh my god! I have played the hollow cure thing for one or two games. I have not played enough to really get a feel for it in the way I have with the other two. Oh my god! But at the time the aiming thing was something I didn't like. Nothing! Nothing screams! Yes, yeah, it's just oh my god I but I have extra attachments to these things and now you're disliking her so that makes me feel bad

Starting point is 00:55:33 And I don't want to hear about the things that make me feel bad. So please stop doing it Stop having a bad. I really think what you said was rule Pat what you said was rude. Oh, it's cuz you hate short people huh it's cuz I'm short huh It's cuz I'm a tiny little man does that make you like like come on dude like yeah You all you can do is just give the opinions on the things you you know, it is what it is like whatever um I hit oh my god that hit me like a bullet, like just, like somebody just pulling their tiny penis out and saying, why are you making fun of it? Why?

Starting point is 00:56:13 I'm like, I mean, no, I can't even see your penis. I'm not talking about it. You may fun of it now. Now, the, and, and the thing is too, is is too is like I'm coming at halls of torment giving it praise Having not been a Diablo player with no connection to the source material they're going for so I can look at something really good point actually Independently of its source material, you know, that's a really really good point. I'm really enjoying it So yeah, it's but it is an interesting space. And I want to say that these both came out like a couple,

Starting point is 00:56:50 no, the deathmastai is new. Halzotormit was a couple months ago. Deathmastai is new. Like, like now new. But it just, like I think came out last week. Yeah, so but that's, that's the overall feeling on it, unfortunately. I think I'm gonna continue the halls of torment

Starting point is 00:57:09 for my downtime needs. I also appreciate the little option that lets you turn on the aiming line to just be like, hey, what am I looking at right now? Oh, that's nice, I didn't find that. It's great, it's great. So you just seriously, every time you walk up to the group and you're like, what am I targeting?

Starting point is 00:57:26 I can just, you know, you can winarily correct. Real useful. Okay. Couple other things. I played, what else you got? Pizza tower, got around to that. Oh, fucking, okay. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:57:42 Hey, I know. I'm gonna talk about things that I hate on everybody mad at. And that's how we go with pizza tower. And how do you like pizza tower? I love it. It's so good. It's so, so good.

Starting point is 00:57:53 And it's good. It's the podcast is saved because someone here likes pizza tower. Like, if the, you know, the art style being the, the, the, the hurdle there is, is a bummer because when I look at it I'm just like, man, that thing is landing because it's trying to do, for me, it's doing 90s cartoons, John Kay, Ren and Stimpy, Cowan Chicken, you know, I hate everything you just said! And then it's also doing for video games, it's doing a particular kind of animation that's like

Starting point is 00:58:29 Booger Man, remember Booger Man? Yeah, it sucked! Ah, nah, like that shit is, it's nailing it. I'm loving that. The bright, uh, like, again, MS Paint Animation, you know, that comes from it. And then, obviously, that's just the aesthetic choices, which they're killing, by the way. Like, they're choosing to go into an aesthetic style and they're killing it.

Starting point is 00:58:55 I have to say, it's like, even my personal distaste, I remember looking at it and going, they're absolutely perfectly embodying their exact desire. It just happens to be a picture that I don't wanna look at. But it's one thing, so we're talking about things that are reminiscent of other things so far. And you wanna, and so halls of torment is, as I guess I'd say, it's good doing their bit.

Starting point is 00:59:23 Death must die, shallow, the comparison is not landing, it's not on that point. Fucking pizza tower is pointing at that shit and emulating it, but doing an incredible job on its own by like actually like being comparable to the things that it's, you know, the styles it's taking after. In the ways that you appreciate how like Cuphead is not only

Starting point is 00:59:48 homageing old animation, but it's as good as that animation in some cases better. And like, that's the way you feel about it. It's, you know, just on that visual style. So, uh, then gameplay wise, it's, it's Wario Land combined with Metroidvania combined with... Yeah, like the... Just open-level traversal speedrunning of a super-meat-boy-style traversal thing. and the version of Super Meat Boy style, and the character has enough moves in his arsenal

Starting point is 01:00:30 to basically be a Smash Brothers character. So right off the bat, it just feels really good because the art style is incredible and then you have so many things you can do and it's asking you to just be fast. But here's a full move list right away. And I super appreciate that. I love that like in the basic tutorial,

Starting point is 01:00:51 here's your shoulder block, here's your spine spark, here's your grab into your pile driver, if you're playing beat him up style grabs, if you're going for an upper cut to raise, sure you can, you know, like all the different things you can do are are like but slam a full ass move list and then it's like all right here's some levels go you

Starting point is 01:01:14 can walk into anyone at any time and on each floor that you go to so it's it's just a video game ass video game and in the purest sense of platforming and speedrunning, like I appreciate it. I like that you go through it as a platformer, fighting and finding secrets and everything, and then on the way out, it's just Metroid, escape to the ship every time, you know. And while all that's happening,

Starting point is 01:01:43 yeah, the characters that you're running around in the overworld and doing shit are just, you know, full of personality. The music is banging. The boss fights are a lot of fun. There's mega man-like boss fights where you're one-on-one in the room, dodging the bullet patterns and trying to learn the, the intricacies and then they hit phase two and shit gets crazier. You know, um, it's just, it's pure video games, man, undistilled, you know, uncut. I really, it's probably the first time in a long time that I was playing it, and it was like, my emotional reaction to this is wrong.

Starting point is 01:02:19 Heh. Like, am I out of touch or is it the children? And I'm like, I wanna say it's the children, but no I'm probably wrong Dude like I was having this much fun before I even learned there was a parry Like that came as ice cream after the meal I was fully enjoying it and then's like oh by the way the taunt button also acts as a frame perfect parry on it and Shit coming in on you and I was like, oh, by the way, the taunt button also acts as a frame perfect parry on it and shit coming in on you. And I'm like, oh, what? It's so good without it. But you just did what? You know, like, yeah, um, changing the way you approach the boss fight after that or the way you approach enemies. Because now I'm reminded of how, you know,

Starting point is 01:03:07 love me some Sonic Rush, love me, some of the Sonic games where you're just blasting through the stage and, you know, like, holding forward and then jumping, taking a left where you are right, branching occasionally. But here you have some enemies that are like, oh, you gotta stop and deal with that.

Starting point is 01:03:26 And if you parry them, right, as you're about to impact, right, as Sonic is about to hit that wall of spikes, you know, if you could parry it and be like, no, actually, I'm gonna keep going, you know, with a little taunt on top of it. So it's grabbing the things I look at, max speed, you're grabbing a little bit of sonic rush in there for me too. And I fucking adore all of those things, you know? So, yeah, from just that first session, I'm like,

Starting point is 01:03:55 fucking, I get it, I get it, you know. My understanding too is like, it's not very long. So I got up to the third floor. I think there's only a little bit beyond that, but clearly there's secrets and difficulty runs and challenges and perfect grade ways to run back through some of those levels and shit. So, I'm also a sucker for characters that have transformations in modes, so obviously Mega Man and Kirby come to mind, but, you know, back then too, like the ability to have multiple, I remember, like, specifically loving how, like your default character just got more than just a weapon, it was like a whole different change to the way they played, you know, and for him getting the night or getting the mort the chicken mode and stuff is it just yeah scratches that edge of like having different modes in a platformer that I also love as

Starting point is 01:04:50 well. With each low new level gimmick or or so might come a new way to play and and you know I just yeah I just fucking I think that shit there's one power up that was only for the one boss fight, and that was it. You know, you fucking pick the gun up for the cowboy boss fight, and then the fight ends on a samurai Kirby Quick Draw duel. And I'm just like, you know how much I love samurai Kirby.

Starting point is 01:05:21 I know, I'm well aware. Yeah, so... Well aware that you like the Kirby Quick Draw duel for its tap the button. So I have nothing but good things to say about how much fun I had on that game. Yeah, we'll see what else is going on. But I almost wonder if the way his B button specials were set up.

Starting point is 01:05:44 I'm like, are you kind of petitioning yourself for Smash or a platform fighter like are you kind of auditioning your character? That's a ballsy claim. Because that is Up B is an up B down B is a butt stomp left and right E are a tackle and then there's a grab Neutral be attack like It feels like it's baiting Nintendo or some other platform fighter to be like hey guys we got one for you here it feels like it's

Starting point is 01:06:16 baiting them you know anyway though really really good. I really wish I liked pizza tower. Maybe there'll be a mod that can like change all the graphics. No, no, that's so you know what? It's not the graphics is like whatever I could get over that. It's, I mean, you mentioned like it reminds you of like Sonic Rush and like going absolute top speed in a Sonic game. Like one of the things that like I become outed as like a complete freak every time we talk about it, it's like I hate hate, like the fucking max speed pads in Sonic games.

Starting point is 01:06:58 Like every Sonic game that came out, which is like, look, the rush pads just make you go super fast through an automatic stage, every, like, it sucks. Oh, wow. Okay. It's why I like Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles. Oh, like, I like the way Sonic feels,

Starting point is 01:07:21 and I like doing spin dashes to go fast when I need to and the feel of the platforming. I don't like hitting a bounce pad and then watching like an automatic loop to loop that I have no control over. So when I get to pizza tower and people are like, look, it's fast like the Sonic games and I'm like, oh, goodie.

Starting point is 01:07:46 I, no, I don't know. That's the complete opposite for me. You have this conversation and every time you have you look at me like I'm like, no, yeah, yeah, yeah, go to my neck. Because I love going fast and then I love, like there's a point where you're like, okay, the whole thing is just playing itself that's pointless.

Starting point is 01:08:01 But I like like going from fast into controlling the speed afterwards and then picking and then having a sequence or a rumor area and then going again. I like the interplay of like rhythm up into control, rhythm up into control. And when you're doing it perfectly, it's certainly, it looks like you're basically stopping

Starting point is 01:08:22 to do the cool thing and you keep it moving. If anybody a while ago, before I played Sonic Mania, looks like you're basically stopping to do the cool thing and you keep it moving, you know? Like, if anybody a while ago before I played Sonic Mania, I played through Sonic 1, 2, 3 and Knuckles, and like, I played through those games weird and that I played through them slow. And then like, the timer in a sonic stage is a threat to me. Huh.

Starting point is 01:08:46 Cause I will die. Yeah, I just, I love the feeling of going fast and then, you know, coming out of that and doing the obstacle. I also think about how, I mean, having the freedom is always certainly optimal, but think about like, the way I'm playing Rocket Knight Adventures, right? Sparkster. Like, fucking boosting through those levels,

Starting point is 01:09:16 taking out enemies, stopping, and then boosting on again, boosting upwards, you know, like the ability to just, to constantly get that charge going. Okay, I need to stop you. I need to stop you. We're gonna have a polite version of this conversation. What game are you talking about right now? I am talking about the Super Nintendo game Sparxter.

Starting point is 01:09:40 Okay, because every single time we talk about this, you go, rock and night adventure, Sparxter or in like those are two completely different games that feel different I cuz what you're describing isn't what rocket night adventures is like okay rocket night adventures is slow Okay, and you use the boost as a jump okay? So it's way better okay So it's way better. Okay. So I love the ability to have that much momentum at your disposal. So like I'm always a fan of being able to do that.

Starting point is 01:10:14 And of course, it's been a solid decade of me going off about how much I love Shine Sparking in Super Metroid as well. So like I just, yeah, I love that sense of speed, you know? Yeah. It's what I'm looking for. It's certainly a thing that gets me happy with it. So yeah, like what would happen when I play Pizza Tower is, I would play it like a Sonic game

Starting point is 01:10:39 because people told me it's like a Sonic game. Also, it's obviously like Warrior Land, but I don't have any history with that. So I would run through an area, but as soon as I got to any branch, I would like jump around and try and find secrets. And like levels were taking me like tens of minutes because I was trying to find all the secrets in the stages before moving on.

Starting point is 01:11:06 Where Chat was going, no go fast. Like, no, I wanna find the collectibles. Yeah, okay. I just, it's, yeah, again, we have had multiple versions of this, but as a result here, like this is why I'm just, I'm happy the moment you do that shoulder tackle into fucking, you know, and then you grabarararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararararar What I'm worried about was hitting a wall point blank and then sometimes not being able to pick the momentum back up and it was like, actually, you can, you just gotta jump and grab the wall and it's like,

Starting point is 01:11:48 oh shit, solves the problem. You just gotta learn the tech for the input, you know? Yeah. So, that's it. I see people in the chat mentioning it, but I will reiterate that Celeste is an attack on the mentally ill. It is an aggressive strike.

Starting point is 01:12:10 Despite being one of the most comforting games that is approaching accessibility as a priority. Oh yeah. Is it? Is it? That was the impression I got. Is that why they put something in the game that makes a percentage of people just lose their minds?

Starting point is 01:12:30 Is that why they did that? You're the first one I've heard. They said, hey, I'm going to, I'm, you're the first one. This is going to be so good when somebody with OCD just shits their ass and has an anxiety attack. Over this thing, we sprinkled everywhere. You're the only one I've encountered this one. That's not true.

Starting point is 01:12:48 I look at look. Okay, well, I'm the only one who's had the courage to stand up and say it that you've encountered. God. All right. It's great. Ah, God. Alright. It's great. It's great. Okay, I got to use the bathroom and then there's another thing that I checked out.

Starting point is 01:13:14 That actually I want to get into. So, BRP. Hey, okay. I'm so brave. You know what you are? You're a big boy. I'm a big man. Big boy are? You're a big boy. I'm a big man. Big boy. Big boy said a big thing.

Starting point is 01:13:28 Oh, said big words. I also this week checked out Scott Pilgrim takes off. Oh, wow. Are you ready? So wait, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. I was so excited to get back into the discourse. Everyone's like, oh, the Scott Pilgrim discourse is coming, but like, no, it's the worst.

Starting point is 01:13:57 But I was never going to be as excited as the new Scott Pilgrim Discourse, where everyone pretends that Metal Gear Solid 2 was beloved at release. So, here's what I'll say about it without spoilers. I liked it, it's pretty fun. They put out a trailer that shows off what the show actually is. But if you happen to, okay, well,

Starting point is 01:14:24 if you're just checking it out and you're here where I was in the dark, yeah. I liked it. Spoiler discussion on that. Have you seen it? Do you care? I have, I don't care. Okay.

Starting point is 01:14:40 I know. See, here's the best part. So usually when you've seen something and I haven't seen it, we run into like a really horrible conversation in which I'm trying to like figure out what you're talking about based off of this. But this is great, because I don't care to see it. Okay, because of what it is.

Starting point is 01:15:00 Okay. Got you. Well, so yeah, if you don't want any spoilers, then don't listen to this conversation. And I will get the timestamp in the notes for wherever it ends, so you can skip forward. Right, so Scott Pilgrim takes off. The appropriate name.

Starting point is 01:15:26 The start, of course, this is a, you watch it, you're getting it, you're like, this is the animated version after all these years of definitive that we're getting featuring the cast from the movie and the music from the game and animatikuchi's in there and the... And some of the music from the movie too, which is... And the black sheep by go cheese in there and end of the some of the music from the movie too as well as yeah and the

Starting point is 01:15:46 like I know black sheep by metric is in there and then the brinley omali art style and all of that coming together and you're like damn it's been a long time coming but here we are we're finally doing it and then you hit the end of the first episode and it's like oh shit they're doing the thing we're doing the rebuild we're doing the FF7R this is not a remake it's a sequel wow and so I'm like okay that's not what I wanted. That's not what it was on the tin. Hmm. Okay. That's not

Starting point is 01:16:31 with the promotional material. No. Where are we going with this? And then having... So the first episode, everything is pretty much on point until the Matthew Patel fight and Then the fight goes down and then Matthew Patel wins and it's like Hard cut to credits, right? So like what are we doing? I then you then continue along and it won me over I I came Into that like moment, especially being like, is this the thing to do here? And it won me over. It really did.

Starting point is 01:17:17 And the reasons why is I think like, okay, well, for starters, I'll, just seeing it animated, even just the parts we know and remember from back in the day. Like, I always interpreted the energy of reading Scott Pilgrim as like high octane manic wild shit popping off everywhere because of these like little in-panel jokes or narration text and things. And the movie had its own tone to it. And when converted into animation,

Starting point is 01:17:50 they went for a completely different thing. They went for actually a more silent kind of awkward dialogue pacing. And it works. It's not the version I thought we were going to get, but people are kind of like, still to it, and a little quiet at times, and then they sometimes say the same thing overlapping each other, a little bit of imperfection and some pauses, but yeah, a little more of a slice of life take to the pacing of things, and something's when like, it's like, oh, like, where was that character that was there a minute ago?

Starting point is 01:18:18 Boink, boink, boink, like the little flash of them being gone in the manga, it's like a big like, they were here, now they're gone, and like in my brain that was a more like over loud moment. And here it's just a little like, think, think, they're gone. What happened? Hey, you know, but I did, but I think it worked for the for the tone. The the the branching point then kind of goes on to have these complete, alt reality adventures with all the characters. The X's in particular get way more fleshed out,

Starting point is 01:18:53 and they get to do more and have more interactions with each other and a larger presence, which one is great because you get to see the dynamics that I think are fun to explore about these characters. But to it also makes sense when you have this much of a celebrity cast, that's like, you better fucking use them. You're not going to get all these names, these big Hollywood names to come around and then just have them do a two second cameo for 10 minutes of an episode and they're out, you know, so they come. Especially now that some of them are way bigger stars than they were when they start in

Starting point is 01:19:29 the film. Humongous, which is also part of like the wackiness of how this even got to happen. Apparently is because Michael Sarah just bumped a nine year old email thread with everybody in it to go, aha, that meme was funny. And then Chris Evans was like, Michael, what the fuck are you doing? This is a nine year old thread. And it's like, oh, and then that just got everybody talking again. And, you know, then Edgar right, obviously always had these little events where he

Starting point is 01:19:59 would do, he would like throughout the years, he would do little things like screenings and then talk about like, we still got stuff we wanna do here, so there's been updates of Sarah. Michael Sarah's as an actor has managed to weaponize the feeling of uncomfortableness to such a degree that I can't believe that he's allowed to be in movies. If anyone has watched Twin Peaks, the return, Michael Sarah plays a character in Twin Peaks.

Starting point is 01:20:27 And it took me like 25 minutes to watch like a eight minute scene featuring him. It's so, it's like I felt sick, like awkward, uncomfortable. I was, oh my god. I appreciate his energy and he's the king of that energy. My only thing is every time I see it, and it's been again decades now, I do kind of wonder, like, does being typecast in that way just kind of erode you from the inside at all, you know? Cause he knows he's's that's what he does

Starting point is 01:21:05 he knows that's his energy and he's done some some movies where it's kind of a departure for weird moments like that one where he's got the mustache and stuff I forgot. I don't know man but you know I don't know I it has to errate erode you I thought it was okay and kick ass. Yeah, like, yeah, yeah, right. Not just that's, that's the problem, isn't it? Yeah, I think I think he's all he's just he's gonna be in that. And I'm sure he turns down billions and billions of other people trying to do that. McLovin ate nurse acerally right getting the calls. I'll tell you that. I also thought Sarah was pretty decent in the social network.

Starting point is 01:21:54 Oh shit. Yeah. Right right right right right No anyway though um He just bumped a fucking thread and that got everybody talking. I really gotta say I appreciate Jesse Eisenberg swooping in to be the Michael Sarah that doesn't make you want to vomit on the floor I'm I do Sarah doing the Sarah shit. I'm still that's you know the arrest of development thing just never stopped We keep it going and you know, the arrest of development thing just never stopped. We keep it going. And you know what, if you can build an empire on, on cringe, then build it. Then you'll start a podcast, name the castle super beast podcast.

Starting point is 01:22:37 Oh. Hey, ho, hey, to the moon, Alice, all right. So, so, um, so you get, uh, yeah, right. So you get to have these better fleshed out characters and such. And I kind of forgot, but thinking back to the manga, there's so much backstory exposition for the supporting cast. Everyone got a lot of their stuff fleshed out,

Starting point is 01:23:01 but the X is definitely not as much, because you have to go more into scots past past and then all the stuff that was there. This was then another, and because we diverged in the timelines, it was another way to also kind of just have these little fan service adventures where it's like, what of these two were in the same room hanging out? What would that be like? You know, and then Edgar Wright throwing his shit in there, you know, getting his little his cameos and such. There's a couple other cameos too.

Starting point is 01:23:39 But I, sorry, yeah. Anyway, no, sorry, yeah. Anyway, no, so I think one thing that maintains and is consistent is that everything and everyone is a messy bitch and they continue to live in Toronto. The messiest bitches in their 20 year olds who have bands who live in Toronto. Yeah. Absolutely. They are messy bitches that live for drama.

Starting point is 01:24:11 Oh man, it can't be stopped. It's incredible. So that energy continues as well. And I think playing with the story and the timeline and the events that occur ultimately lead up to a pretty good bit, right? The final sort of like where it's going and why it is different is something that I think is pretty fun and played in an interesting way. It's like it ultimately just Scott being the worst is always going to be a problem. And even if you kind of end the book on a note that's like, hey, yes, you suck, but you got to get over your shit. And when you get over your shit, you get these big moments of like, here we go, XP up. Self-respect.

Starting point is 01:25:07 Power of love, all that, right? X strike, you know? But you don't get to see what happens after the hero saves the day, of course. And in this case, with the fucking dumbass like him, with the way he acts especially in like the in the limbo time when Ramona's gone initially till when he has to go get her back from Gideon towards the end of volume six or towards the beginning of volume six he's just like

Starting point is 01:25:37 slump skis in it up and be in Be an awful Scott and you're like, okay, this is always going to be a part of them, right? The mega Scott that he, you know, whatever fought and shit. So all of that is coming back around where you're just like the problem with this new sequel reality thing is future old horrible Scott being the ultimate A evil ex, you know, and and he's in Dr. Dr. Light, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, and so you just kind of like you, you get, you know, to, into more of that, you get knives in the story. And it's like everything about knives being like the high school girlfriend has just played exactly as fucking just as you would expect it to.

Starting point is 01:26:39 Just everyone has big like dude energy about that the entire time. She ultimately as well gets to she gets a lot more for herself as a character as well. And I think yeah what you sort of end up with is just a nice a nice little like series of almost like fanfic adventures that lead up to Ray like, okay, this is where the characters can end up in the future. When I was going through it, obviously the best part was just happy to see the thing I've wanted for a long time, like all the best of the different mediums this story has been told in coming together.

Starting point is 01:27:25 And I always wanted that faithful adaptation of the books, but I kind of realized in the process that it's been 19 years. And if the people making this, and have brinely omalian everybody were like, yeah. I, there's other things, there's other stories I kind of want to tell here that are like, you know, a bit more to it

Starting point is 01:27:50 coming at it so much later. I get it. I get it. So it's what's it Brian Leo Malley do after Scott Pilgrim? He did seconds. He did, which is another another story. He did lost at sea. And then I want to say there was another project called Scott Pilgrim's

Starting point is 01:28:17 something, something that I didn't. People are saying something called snock girl. Okay. Yeah. A couple of those those never hit like mainstream appeal, right? They were known as comics. They were pretty big as comics, but- No, but main, main, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, But yeah. So I did not watch this. And the reason I did not watch it is because

Starting point is 01:28:48 it came out when I wasn't paying attention. Like it was just like, oh, oh, that's out. And then, 25 minutes. And I saw, I was like, oh, how is it? And the answer is that it's not what you thought it was. And I just went, oh, then I'm not interested. So we've had this song and dance now for Evangelion's the big one.

Starting point is 01:29:14 FF7, Medigressol II back in the day, he man. And like my takeaway is like, I don't think Scott Pilgrim itself is good enough to justify this. Okay. Like when you said, Hey, Evangelion is different now.

Starting point is 01:29:40 It's not a direct sequel. It's not a direct remake. I'm like, Oh, cool. Fuck yeah, all fucking Okay, what do you got? And then you know for Metal Gear okay or for FF7. Yeah, sure Okay, but for Scott Pilgrim like Maybe I aged out of it

Starting point is 01:30:00 Yeah, I I disagree. I like it. I've you, been a Scott Pilgrim fan. I know that I also am wondering about like, well, the fact that, for example, Ava got to a point where I'm like, I did not appreciate the divergence thing. Like, the conceptually, it's an interesting way to play it at the start, but ultimately, the things that went down in 3.33, as we've talked about at Nazim, they'd go, I spent years hating that movie. Right. Um, it wasn't until that point that it really got me going like, yeah, but I still do think the fucking forearm unit and the double Shinji Pococpit with cowru is fucking badass as hell. Um, then the FF7R1, I'm like, oh, hmm, okay, but the jury's still out because we're

Starting point is 01:30:49 not done yet. Because we're, right, it's a process. So the two, the two big examples we have of like the, it's not a remake, remake thing are like a mixed bag that ends like, you know, a mixed bag that overall I think wasn't worth it and then one that's currently in the process, but I'm still like, okay, we'll see, you know, but like FSF&R so far, I'm like, providing that like overall I enjoyed the video game a lot, just with these changes in touch, it's like, you know, you have to, again, get to where it's going.

Starting point is 01:31:28 With Scott Pilgrim, I, yeah, it's, again, certainly not what I expected, and I didn't think I really wanted that, but watching it as I continued, like I basically went, huh, play, and then I kind of like I brow up where are you going with this and then I liked where it went that's kind of what it was it was a process of initially feeling like I didn't I didn't expect that or necessarily want

Starting point is 01:31:55 that to happen I was looking forward to you know just a because I spent a long time to imagining like how cool would it be to get a nice, cool animated series of this. Even also, I forgot to mention Robert Paulson animation to have the sprites. He gets a couple of moments in there. A band of street fights. Sorry. Good old pirate baby, Cabana Street.

Starting point is 01:32:16 Yes. Pirate baby, Cabana Street. Exactly, exactly. So the, that sprite work is featured in a couple of different spots throughout the show as well. I didn't initially think it's what I wanted, but going through it, I'm like, yeah, I like what you did, and it sold the premise by the end. It is also... like also, it's a series of characters where I'm just like, man, you know, like they're like, hey, you guys like Wallace Wells. Yeah, you do. Let's fucking, let's get some Wallace

Starting point is 01:32:53 Wells going. I heard that I like Swallow. Yeah, let's get some, you know, let's have it excuse to spend some time, just have Wallace Walla sing it up, you know, and, um, yeah, Kim Pines the best, and I'm like, I could do it know. And Kim Pines the best. And I'm like, I could do it some more. Kim's great. I could do it some more Kim Pines. So it's like, here's a little bit more. The hard cut to Kim with feedback

Starting point is 01:33:13 is the funniest joke in the live action adaptation. That it like, but like by far. Like by by far. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just the fact she's staring at him. You know, yeah. The the f- She's staring at him. You know? Yeah, the, uh, the- Everyone loves to get in pine.

Starting point is 01:33:29 Let's get a little more campi- And going, nice, there it is. Um, and then even little bits were just like Matthew Patel who rolls in and has his like, two second bit. And you're like, what the fuck is this character? Okay, there he goes. And they're like, yeah, let's- Let's, let's push him a little bit more. And you're like, what the fuck is this character? Okay, there he goes. And they're like, yeah, let's push him a little bit more. And you're like, oh, it's okay, it's fun.

Starting point is 01:33:51 And then they do, and then there's stuff to as well. We're like every episode kind of commits to having a fight, you know, but not necessarily scot versus this person. It's whatever the thing the scene calls for at the time. this person. It's whatever the thing the scene calls for at the time. You know? But yeah, I think overall, as just a like a tone shift that makes things go into a little bit more of a slice of life energy and a way to explore some of these characters and stuff. It was overall just a fun little revisit to this

Starting point is 01:34:22 world. And I also think to going back to how those six books were for what the original movie adaptation was, there's so much shit in those books. They're dense. The pace is a lot. They jump from scene to scene, two pages, three pages, they jump all over, everyone's traveling, we're going back to hear about how this person was

Starting point is 01:34:43 in high school and what the real, like it's so, so, so, so dense and I, yeah, like I don't know that eight episodes would have been able to do that, you know, because it took, it took the first half an hour to get to the telephite. Did you see the Prime Leo Malley said that they decided on one season because they couldn't guarantee a second one. So they decided to do one so that sure wouldn't get cut. That's I that good sucks. That mentality sucks.

Starting point is 01:35:13 But if you have Netflix cancel shit for no reason, but it depends on how much story you have to tell. And to be honest, I don't think this needed more than it gave us because there were episodes where we got to some there's some fight scenes that went on that were just like hey look at the cool fight going on and it doesn't need to be this long But it's just like a look a visual Flare it's just a visual thing going on, you know, and like it's fun choreography But in terms of content they could have tightened it up if they wanted to. If they wanted the show to be like two episodes

Starting point is 01:35:48 less probably, they could have even done so. But just having that in there, and as well as that little like again, like slower awkward pace for the dialogue and stuff at times, it helps add to the mood, but I don't think it needed more seasons. I don't think we needed to revisit and create a whole new active ongoing

Starting point is 01:36:06 Scott Pilgrim animated series. Nor do I know that the availability of all of these actors is gonna be around for season four of a Netflix show, you know. But hey, so like I heard what it was and I'm like, I'll pass, I'm not interested. I don'm like, eh, I'll pass. I'm not interested. I don't have any mean things to say about it.

Starting point is 01:36:28 I'm just not particularly interested. How do you personally feel about the bait and switch? The concept of the bait and switch, I don't hate. I just need to make, I want to see if you're doing this for a reason, right? I know though that marketing wise, that's tricky because some people are like, I'm showing up for A and you're giving me B. And that would have been me. And I started watching it.

Starting point is 01:36:59 And I started watching it. It's all about it. It's all about it. It's all about it. It's all about it. It's all about it. It's all about it. It's all about it. It's all about it. watching it sets me had I been watching it from the start like and I had not known prior. That would have been me. I would have gotten to the end of the first episode.

Starting point is 01:37:09 I go, oh, they're doing that thing and I would have turned it off. And then if somebody asked me about it, I would have been like, but again, but I'm also somebody who as you all know, I'm pleasantly surprised by unexpected experiences when I'm watching or reading or playing things. I derive great enjoyment out of like thinking, I'm going somewhere and something swarving in a way that I didn't protect, predict. And now that we've seen so many swarves and things

Starting point is 01:37:36 and it becomes, swarves are more and more predictable forever because everything is doing things that had that. Yeah, I hit those moments and I don't reject them outright, but I'm like, I need to see why you did this, you know? So, I'm torn about this because my main annoyance is like, I would have just never given this a second thought until I saw that the discourse Moved to well MGS 2 did it and that games one of the most beloved games of all time and it's like MGS 2 is about media

Starting point is 01:38:15 fooling you Like like the purpose of the MGS 2 bait and switch is Core to the game's main theme is core to the game's main theme, which is that you can be manipulated in all digital environment and that you can be tricked. And then I thought, well, okay. Everyone fucking hated that. But let's take Ava.

Starting point is 01:38:35 Yeah. Oh, oh, crazy hated. Yeah. Like crazy hated. And then I think back to like Ava and FF7, which are the more modern yes, versions of this. And like I think about why wasn't I that mad? Why wasn't I not upset when I got bait and switched on those, right, where I would have been here. And then I came to the inflammatory decision that the reason why I did not get mad

Starting point is 01:39:11 is because I used my ice when I looked at their trailers. And all the promotional material for Evangelion 1.0 and FF7 Remake were very overt saying this is not a direct remake. It's very obvious that this is actually a sequel. 1.0 wasn't it a reveal by the just watch the trailer while we were talking. The red sea is in the first 15 seconds. Is it? It wasn't Earth's year of reveal. I, okay, my memory is like,

Starting point is 01:39:49 it was while in my memory of that was like, oh, we found out when we saw the Red Sea in the movie theater, yeah. Yeah, no, the Evangelion 1.0 original trailer is like, you see a shot of the first angel and then you get a panning shot of the red ocean and FF7 FF7 had those fucking ghosts all over the fucking place. I don't remember that 7

Starting point is 01:40:17 The marketing in the market so I go okay marketing hinted so Marketing went So marketing went, oh, maybe there's some going fishy going on. But, but, but, but, but, but with like the he-man and Scott Pilgrim things, I remember people seeing like the day it came out going, what the fuck? Mm-hmm. This is what the fucking trailer showed.

Starting point is 01:40:37 Yeah, I watched the, um, the initial thing and the, uh, and the intro when they released them, but then I saw that there was the third trailer that released where they're like, oh, hey, this is a trailer that is like, don't watch. I saw, I saw, don't watch this if you don't want to get spoiled on stuff. And it was like, okay, so I just, I guess I won't, you know. Yeah, I can, I understand the, like, this is not what I was told I'm getting. It's as a point of, as a negative.

Starting point is 01:41:05 But I just like, in the end, if that, like you said, well, with Metal Gear, you're saying that was the point of what the story was about. It was the point. So the fooling you was the whole point of that game. Right. So not, I know that you're not saying that this is the, this is the same case, But that does to me underline

Starting point is 01:41:25 that there are circumstances where it's appropriate to do that, right? Sure. And I think a part of this too in this case as well as like, I mean, from the job I'll, like, I don't know if like Scott Pilgrim, like, like you said, like you don't, like you're like, I don't think it was good enough

Starting point is 01:41:41 to even wore it necessarily doing this. Like, I, well, let me, let me, let me, like, so like you ask, so like the question becomes, why they bait and switch with Scott Pilgrim takes off. And it's like, because I think very few people would have watched the first episode if they were told it was a redo. Because the fact they bait and switched it at all says to me that

Starting point is 01:42:07 they were not confident in what they had actually been. Oh, I don't think that at all. No, no, no. I think Scott Pilgrim is a known enough thing that if they announced they're making a new show that was just a new product entirely or that they were redoing it, they would have been a pretty popular thing regardless. People have been- Then why didn't they feel confident enough to tell people that?

Starting point is 01:42:26 No, because people were, like Edgar Wright has been for years now, like doing, again, little like screenings and like, hey everyone, like Scott Pilgrim is still something we're trying to, we're thinking about and working on, I wanna do more with like behind the scenes. And it's got enough of a following that that has been the case.

Starting point is 01:42:45 I think it was simply a creative decision that they made to be like, we want you to expect the story you know and then get swerved into an unexpected outcome. Like I think it was, like in both cases if they just said it was a different thing right off the bat, it still would have been a big deal

Starting point is 01:43:04 and would have been well known and marketed to shit. Certainly, they always could be able to say like, hey, it's finally happening. We're coming back. We're doing more of this. So I'm seeing some folks describe that Brian Lee O'Malley in the interviews was actually fairly blunt that it was a completely new thing. But Netflix would have been behind the promotion of the Netflix would have been behind the promotion of the trailers and whatnot. Okay. So it seems that Netflix would. So that was the unconfident. That was the pitch and how they did it.

Starting point is 01:43:32 And he was talking about it in the interviews. Okay. Yeah. Then in which case that I was not aware of which place Netflix man, bad trailers, but I find it. I find it. Checking my finger at you. Netflix man, bad trailers. But I find it, I find it.

Starting point is 01:43:43 Checking my finger at you. But yeah, I just, maybe my, you know, worldview is too limited and I, but by being too close to all of this shit from compared to what mainstream Scott Pilgrim acknowledges, but I feel as if either way that name is like one that would have been like, oh it's a new spot, Scott Pilgrim thing. That would have been popular. Like announcing it as a remake or announcing it as a sequel, both would have had a pretty big media effect. And they would, it would

Starting point is 01:44:14 have traveled, especially with the giant cast involved, regardless, you know. I just, I don't see that as a major factor in that aspect of it. But ultimately, even either way, the way it plays out is, yeah, it's one where the decision to do it doesn't immediately turn me off if it works its way out to making sense, to something that I think is ultimately successful and what it's setting out to achieve.

Starting point is 01:44:45 So like, I don't know, I'm trying to like, I didn't, so when Ava, for example, did that, even catching it from the promotional material versus the catching it into theater, the initial thought of like, oh, the ocean is red, is like, to me, I remember being like, oh, oh, that's interesting. Ha, holy fuck. Okay, where are we going with this?

Starting point is 01:45:10 That's fun. And I'm very excited by that idea, you know? And so like, you know, again, now that, and that was when I first saw it. Now that it's been done a little bit before, it's not as novel of a thing to encounter, but it's not inherently just a... a demerit for me, yeah. I reckon if you did like the live action or if you've read the books

Starting point is 01:45:41 or if you like any of the Scott Pilgrim stuff, even the fucking The Little Ubisoft game from way back. Um, I mean, I think this is, is that game good? It's not the best beat about, it's not the best beat about. Like, I don't know, but it is an excuse to appreciate Paul Robertson Sprites and Adam and Gucci music. You know. Like I like those parts. Yeah, but I remember having to grind a lot for coins

Starting point is 01:46:12 because it was really hard. It's all right, it's all right, it's fine. It's not like a bad one by any means, but overall, it wasn't like, I didn't come at it and have the same impression where I'm like, oh shit, yo, reverse city girls, look at all this shit you can do. Look at the tech, look at the ability, look at the freedom, San Goku 3, look at the combo system, the overall options you get.

Starting point is 01:46:39 But it's okay, it's okay. But I also know that there's things like that too. Like Castle Crashers is like a fun, kind of mindless bitch you throw it on. So man, I went back to Castle Crashers like a year ago, I never mentioned it. Yeah. Oh, it's so much more basic than I remember.

Starting point is 01:46:58 But that's my thing, right? Castle Crashers is another example of a super basic beloved old beat-em-up that I'm not turning to it for any of those things I just mentioned about, you know, River City, Cunio, Sen Goku 3. Double Dragon Neon is leaps and bounds ahead with what it's doing in that genre, and I don't turn to these games expecting that.

Starting point is 01:47:22 I wish more beat-em-ups put that type of love into it. Though these games are not it. And Scott Pilgrim was just one of the mid ones, you know? You know, somebody in the chat points out the, uh, uh, the Scott Pilgrim versus the world, the indie game. Cause that's right. Right. The indie game.

Starting point is 01:47:40 It's got the end. The dissecting. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good looks. Yeah. Yeah. So that's kind of where it lies Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah, it's just like it looks.

Starting point is 01:47:45 Yeah, so that's kind of where it lies. Chip too. But it was definitely, like I remember as a huge bummer when you couldn't go back to it, when it was inaccessible completely, right? That fucking sucked. Yeah, that was a pile of shit. But shit, what was I gonna say? Yeah, I think if you if you did you know watch any of the Scott Pilgrim adaptations from fucking a billion years ago,

Starting point is 01:48:13 um yeah, this is a fun little fun little extra thing and it's an easy it's fairly easy to watch in the sense that like eight episodes 25 minutes each so like you can kind of just do it in one shot It's it's it's quick to get through but I Think I think the the pay off is worth it. Yeah Oh, hey joking about Indy. I just scrolled past That a fucking Dave the diver was made by approximately that a fucking Dave the Diver was made by approximately

Starting point is 01:48:49 a hundred and 10 developers for $2 to $3 million. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Because there's 30 core staff, and then there's 80 people in the special thanks at various levels of involvement. You know, Cave Story was published by Nikolas at one point, so Cave Story is not an indie game. That's right. Oh, fucking. God, poor pixel. Anyway. So yeah, that's a big, long budget stuff, but those are some big topics.

Starting point is 01:49:34 That was me though. Okay. Hey, you can tune in this week of Run Holy Versus, and yeah, we're going to be continuing with FF9. We are going to be doing some other stuff. I'll let you know when the podcast is done check my Twitter Wollie versus Wollie on Twitter. Wollie Wollison. YouTube. What is up? So, Wollie, I don't know if you know this, but Alan Wake is a writer. Damn. He is a writer. Damn.

Starting point is 01:50:05 He is a writer. I was talking with Jean over the weekend, and he's going through Alan Wake 1, and we had both forgotten that at one point, Alan and Alan Wake 1 gets drunk off of evil moonshine. That's not exaggeration. It is legitimately evil moonshine. Nice.

Starting point is 01:50:24 And stands up and yells, I'm a writer. Does this take, does the story take place in Maine, by the way? No, it takes place in the Pacific Northwest, but parts of control story take place in Maine. Okay. Okay. Just going out on a limb. Yeah. Okay, just Going out on a limb.

Starting point is 01:50:47 Yeah All awake too is a fucking tour to force prestige AAA fucking video game that is doing Estonishingly cool things with narrative and design and is a fantastic addition to the survival horror lineup It has replaced in many ways the need for new Silent Hill games. It is stellar. And also the TGA's are coming up. And the TGA's have musical numbers as part of their show. And if I don't see Sam Lake and Ikevilly and David Harewood on that fucking stage with poets of the fall performing the smash hit from Alan Wake 2, Harold of Darkness, then that show is BULLSHIT! Please tell me that Harold of Darkness is intentionally edgy. Or is- oh yeah, oh yeah, okay, all right.

Starting point is 01:51:48 Show me the champion of light. I'll show you the Harold of Darkness. Oh, fuck yeah. Okay, so, will you, do you want to know why I think it's so important for the Harold of Darkness to be, like this is a, this is a,

Starting point is 01:52:08 okay, go for it. So I'm going to give everyone a spoiler warning for part of Alan Wake 2. In about five seconds, I'm gonna talk about the section of Alan Wake 2, chapter four of Alan's section. Okay, I'm going to start talking about it now. Feel free to skip forward like two minutes. Wully, in Alan Wake, Alan is attempting to write his way out of Garth Morengi's dark

Starting point is 01:52:37 place. As such, he attempts various different methods, including a five-part musical in miniature that is a large, full-scale sequence in which you run around a fucking supernatural stage as the production of the herald of darkness in five parts goes on around you. You're back. It is.

Starting point is 01:53:08 No, you're on the stage. You are performing the fucking opera. It is an astonishing sequence. It is a incredible follow up to the ass tray maze in control and the concert in in Alameik one. It is a live action full musical and the concert in in Alomake 1. It is a live action full musicality with, with yeah live action. Live action.

Starting point is 01:53:32 Live action. Oh shit. Being performed by David Harewood. So it's the guy, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,, Ikevilly, the gentleman who plays Alan Wake, Matthew Peretta, who is the voice of Alan Wake, and Sam Lake, Mr. Max Payne himself, dancing to a full god damn musical for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on how you go through the stage, with gigantic floating fucking screens that are pacing you and go, it's incredible. Okay, meta beyond that.

Starting point is 01:54:08 I've been listening to it every day for hours. The song is also fantastic. That helps. You can look at the music video online. That helps. The cracking opened the meta. I am curious if, so it sounds by all accounts like the you've been you've been talking about this for the last couple weeks and it's it's again this game that is a

Starting point is 01:54:34 culminating all of the best things of the journey so far right yeah and delivering on you know making fun of itself and overall just solid gameplay mixed in with all those bits and everything. Does it, I guess you won't know until you're done, done. But I won't know it's on there. But I am curious if you know how like, you, we got that energy from DMC five, which was like, here's the, here's all of it, right?

Starting point is 01:55:09 And then by the end of that, you're like, fuck yeah, that was awesome, that game made it feel good to be a fan of the series. Yes, where do we go from here? Right? Oh, they've literally already set out loud where we go from here? Right? Oh, they've literally already set out loud where we go from here. Okay. Okay. Because they put a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a piece of concept art of outside of the oldest house. I.e. control that takes place within New York City.

Starting point is 01:55:48 Right. Because I think something that you're faced with immediately after making the celebration of your franchise, is well, the next one cannot also just be a celebration of the franchise. Like, we just did that. We got to do something bold, new, and fucking, with the best parts.

Starting point is 01:56:07 So we just finished. They're also remaking Max Payne and One into one game, which I think is really cool. Okay. But yeah, no, Al and Lake Two is like this constant, constant thing of like, and like, like, understanding of the total narrative is, is being reached by familiarity with earlier parts of their story, which

Starting point is 01:56:35 is important because the narrative in Alamey 2 is really confusing. Does any of it, or not does any of it, does most of it feel like we are retconning good things into bad ideas, or does it feel like deliberate hooks are now coming home to flesh themselves out? Okay, I'll give you a micro example. So one, it definitely feels like, it feels like in every game, they just throw out a million hooks

Starting point is 01:57:10 and just they'll pick up the ones that they want to pick up. So, in Alan Wicks America Nightmare, there's a song from the Old Gods of Asgard in which they say, will happen again in a town called Ordinary, which happens to be a lead into control in which the events of control are because of an event that happened in a town called ordinary. Quannabrake also points out a town called ordinary.

Starting point is 01:57:33 But also, because of the way Alan Wake, in the context of the story of Alan Wake, In the context of the story of Alan Wake, narrative is reality because I'm a writer, in which there was a character in Alan Wake one called Thomas Zane, who was a poet, who's Tom the poet, and he was a guy who was in a similar situation to Alan with magic powers and writing poetry, right? And he looks like a diver, like a deep sea diver,

Starting point is 01:58:04 because he liked deep sea diving. So he, you know, envisions in that game, Tom Zayn, like floats around, he's got like a big glowing face, right? And then you get to Alan Wake 2 and Tom Zayn doesn't look like that at all anymore and speaks with a finished accent and because he's being now played

Starting point is 01:58:25 by Alan Wake's real life body actor in his voices, like, Ikevilly. And I'm like, and now he's a filmmaker. And I'm like, that's fucking weird that they retcon that. That's super strange. Why did they retcon that?

Starting point is 01:58:43 Until I saw a poster, I just happened to see a poster on the wall that was titled Tom the Poet, a story about Thomas Zane, a film by Thomas Zane based off of the novel by Alan Wake, which doesn't make sense because the version of Tom Zane that exists as a diver predates Alan writing him as a diver. In the first game. But since he wrote about him as a diver, that means that he is a diver and that means inconsequential things

Starting point is 01:59:18 that don't make sense are actually, it's very meta and cause an effect. The version that you saw back in the first game was Allen's own doing a result of your own writing. Maybe and now you are confronting the reality of the situation. Okay. Unless the new book refers to him as a filmmaker at which point an in-universe magic retcon has to occur to cause it fit. So cause it affects in an album,

Starting point is 01:59:51 like two are extremely muddled. And as a result, I'm very confused as to what's happening in that story. Okay. It's great. I was talking to chat and page about this, and it feels like, the whole game feels like a big stand battle, honestly. It feels like two guys are editing one Wikipedia. Okay. That's a pretty good description. Yeah, okay, that's a pretty good description. Yeah, okay, okay. And like I read, filled in the wiki,

Starting point is 02:00:28 I filled in the wiki page, and then this dickhead just edited a bunch of bullshit into it, and now I have to go back and edit it back out. And oh, I missed one. And now the best version of what you're describing is like, well, the version in our heads from these, like, self-acknowledging, like, moments of, again, like, oh, this is a bad story being written,

Starting point is 02:00:54 or this is a shitty business decision that is now being reflected in the actual world, and we're doing things like spending money on getting real actors for a live action sequence to establish this whole bit. The worst version of what you're describing is the television show lost. Yeah. If any of this is like lost, dear God, man. No, the core of remedies writing is that it is always going to a very, very direct point. Awesome. Like the entirety of Alan Wake 1 builds and builds and builds until the final line of text on the page, which is excellent. Okay.

Starting point is 02:01:48 Cause just like, yeah, that like, we're gonna write ourselves into a corner except there, it's not a corner, it's literally, we're, it's bait for everyone. It's not a corner, it's an ocean. It's an ocean for everyone online to start yelling about and then we'll go and see what everyone's yelling about and then we'll decide where to go from there Fuck off all of you. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, it is okay. It is there's there's a straight line

Starting point is 02:02:17 nice And it's it's it's like this but like I'm really glad I'm streaming it because I can't possibly catch everything that is coming up. So you have your chat there that have also been there with you. And you're like, oh, in Alive2, there's a guy from the Federal Bureau of Control

Starting point is 02:02:40 fucking with little creativity magic with dolls. And he writes in his in his fucking reports like because of my history dealing with You know myths and and heroics and the the nature of stories blah blah blah. I feel adequately prepared for this and it's by Jay Campbell And I didn't notice that and then someone in chat goes, is that, is that Joseph Campbell, the writer of the hero with a thousand faces being integrated into this fucking narrative as myth man?

Starting point is 02:03:18 Are you not familiar with Joseph Campbell? No. He wrote the hero of a thousand faces in which he broke down the hero's journey. Oh, okay. Like the writing terminology, the hero's journey. Is that where it's written? Is that the source of the hero of a thousand faces?

Starting point is 02:03:34 Okay, yeah. Cool. And it's like, oh, we're just going all sorts of places. It's all sorts of weird shit. Interesting. Also, I think the funniest thing is that I feel really strongly every second that you spend in that game, you're saying you should just, everyone should just stop. You know, people walk around in a story and go, we're gonna solve it.

Starting point is 02:04:04 And you go, you should just stop doing anything. You should, you should, you should step the fuck away from that typewriter is what you should do. Maybe I can write my way out of it. What if you didn't? What if you just stop? If I'm grabbing a vague recollection from control that's probably wrong, like, is the typewriter an object of power?

Starting point is 02:04:32 Abs, so fucking loot- Yeah, so just don't. Just don't. Okay. Also, you're finding FBC things that are describing oops, but don't say the word object of power in them. I see. So you're like the what?

Starting point is 02:04:51 Oh, it's great. Oh, it's super. Oh, what a great game. What a great game. Oh, he's a writer. And he's a good musical writer too. Like better at musicals than schlock fiction. He is a he is a he is a talented horror writer. He is a terrible

Starting point is 02:05:15 thriller writer and he's a pretty good musical theater writer. Okay, you know, I feel like so stick stick to horror. I feel like most of the things that like I'm thinking back to I've seen things with musicals in them like a couple a bit recently and a couple other times and I feel like all the musicals I've experienced are all now ironic musicals making fun of this is yeah's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical.

Starting point is 02:05:51 It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical.

Starting point is 02:05:59 It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a musical. It's a good game. Cool. All right, so Alomake 2 is great. Everybody should play Alomake 2, that's what I think. That's what I think.

Starting point is 02:06:10 Let's see, what else did I do this week? Oh, I played that goddamn Elden Ring randomizer. Oh my God. Fuck. Oh, you. Oh, okay. I saw someone posted a screenshot that my brain just like latched onto like oh this is what's possible

Starting point is 02:06:27 and it was it was just a screenshot of a wide open fucking red zone and it said star scourge plus seduce axe and I was like yeah yeah yeah oh that's good, I went down to I went down to Castle Morn, you know, where you fight that that red guy and Fucking moge was sitting in that goddamn boss room. Jesus Christ. Okay, which form? The luckily the easy first moge. Okay. Okay. The first one So I had a fun thing that happened and this is really great as a broadcast story where the Elden Ring randomizer asks that if you use it for commercial purposes like a stream or an event that you credit them as using the Elden Ring randomizer. So I'm like, okay, you know what that is, the most reasonable accommodation possible. So I will go down to the the Elden Ring Nexus and I will go down

Starting point is 02:07:29 to the randomizer page and I will go, hello, this randomizer is brought to us by a gentleman named the fifth mat on the Elden Ring Nexus. He's done incredible work doing it. And as I am sitting on the Nexus, I am realizing that it was updated like four versions this afternoon after I had already got it all set up to go. Yeah, yeah, welcome to the world of modded guilty gear. Same problem. Booting it up. Oh fuck. Live guys. Like, oh cool. I'm really glad I came in this morning. Nice. Yeah. To make sure it all worked all nice, only to see that. Okay. Let's, let's, hey guys, I'll be right back as I reinstall this delicate maw is actually

Starting point is 02:08:13 really easy. Hope nothing fucked up. So, worked up. So step one, hey, installing the Elden Ring Miranda Miser is actually really easy. Step two is that the options are incredibly in-depth. So the thing that it updated with was the ability to randomize all the music in the game. Yeah. So all the ambient music is now switched around for all the zones.

Starting point is 02:08:38 Hmm. Okay. So like my Leurneas sounds like Kaelid. Okay. I guess. Sure. If you really wanted to be a wacky party mode. So I loaded that up and it is so feature-complete

Starting point is 02:08:59 and effortless and good. I'm shocked at how like, like the game crashed twice, but other than that, like, it works really well, and it's so fascinating know, yeah, sure I started the run and the very first item I picked up outside the fucking first dungeon was the bolt of Grand Sacks from the end of the game, legendary armament. And then later on I got rivers of blood and now I'm just fucking set. So that's cool. But just the amount of care that went into what randomizes, how it randomizes, who gets put in what? And how? I got to see that, I got to see that double bosses, like, you know, one boss and the other, have had each of those is, they're

Starting point is 02:10:03 not paired. They're just, it just says, says I'm gonna take two bosses out of the double bosses pool. Oh my god. And dump them in here. Oh my god. Okay. So when I when I walked into the tutorial, I got fucked. So, okay, I walk up to a merchant and he's selling gold masks,

Starting point is 02:10:30 rune of the golden order that unlocks the ending of the game for a thousand runes. But nothing so far, random though it is, is still completeable, checked for, you know. And if I turn on the feature in which,

Starting point is 02:10:48 if I get completely stuck and can't get the lift medallions, for example, I can pay a collet some money and he'll just ping it on my mat. Just the here. So this also means every, fuck it, every chalice dungeon is got one of the random bosses. Zany stupid shit.

Starting point is 02:11:06 At the end of it, yeah, okay. So I randomized something that I didn't understand the reality of what it would do. So I clicked one of the options that is on by default, which is randomized, like field crafting items, like you know, roa-fute or ugly flowers, randomized, like field crafting items, like, you know, roa-fute or, or, ugly flowers, you know, the flowers all over the place. Randomize us those.

Starting point is 02:11:33 And it doesn't, it doesn't like have all the same positions and then you pick it up and it's a different thing. No, the model is moved around. Oh, like where this was a roa-froot, this would have been, um, uh, fucking, you know, uh, St. Trina's blossom. But what about the flower itself? Actually, really look at it. It's okay. Yeah. But did you know that smithing stones in the walls are also part of that system? So now when

Starting point is 02:12:02 you go into a mine to get crafting materials, there's just flowers coming out of all the holes. And now, and now when you're running through the field, you'll notice a piece of wall just sitting on the ground that has smithing stones. So it went from, oh, I know exactly where to go to get upgrades from our weapons to, oh my god I am terrified of not getting weapon upgrades. I don't know where to get them at all. Have you? It's threatening, it's threatening, but the most crazy thing about this randomizer is that if I want to change any of those settings or re-roll the seed. I can do so and keep the same file and it

Starting point is 02:12:48 will accommodate. Oh, you don't correct what you've done so far. No. Okay. So it'll take everyone to change settings or change the seed. Just roll it again. It'll take every item you had and those are disappeared from their location and then everything left, it'll change whatever those are. Yeah, wow. So that's like, if you get into a situation where I'm like, I am stuck, like, it has created, there's always the possibility that it creates impossible. Or some situation.

Starting point is 02:13:21 Yeah, that they didn't test for. Like right now, I can't get into Stormvail. like right now I can't get into storm veil and the reason I can't get into storm veil is the night Neil From Castle soul the summons that the guy with the the polar that summons the the the fucking what he called the saw The the two ghosts with him fly guy. That's that's replaced market Right, okay, and what I've discovered is that his the two ghosts with him. The fly guy. That's replaced market, right? Okay. And what I've discovered is that his summons have not been scaled down.

Starting point is 02:13:50 Oh. So he's scaled to the zone, but they're at full power. He's scaled to it, but the summons are not. Okay. Okay. So I'm not, I can't, I cannot get in. It's not gonna happen So do two two things I'm curious about do invasion NPCs also randomize?

Starting point is 02:14:13 Yeah, okay Yeah, okay and So do their rewards You never know who's gonna fucking pull up where okay and second Overworld torrent boss fights. Oh You mean like fighting a fucking what was the name great dragon Landsax in egg hill lake. Yes exactly like that. Yeah like that Like fighting god, what was this

Starting point is 02:14:46 fucking? But did we just grab the ice, but did we just mix up the dragon placements or are there other? Well, because those are categorized as roaming bosses and there's only so many of those. Yeah. So they get they get mixed around within their own pool. Because I think I've got I got all the deathbirds and all the knights cavalry are mixed with each other because those are knight bosses. Okay, okay. Because I'm like, I think the moose as well is a torrent fight, isn't it, right?

Starting point is 02:15:18 Wait, do you fight the moose on torrent? Back? No. No. Okay, so it's the dragons. Yeah, the night bosses I guess that's it But you know they have to be inside the same pool to be right You're not getting any stuff that's boss pulled out into the into the overworld. Okay. No, right?

Starting point is 02:15:39 Okay, like a Catacombs are catacomb bosses main level or high high end bosses are being remixed with main level high end bosses. And so on and so forth. So in hindsight, when I saw Moog at Castle Morn, I had to know that that's technically a dungeon boss, which means that version of Moog has to be the sewer version because the sewer is a dungeon instead of a main, like, rune boss. Oh, he doesn't count as, uh, okay. Because when you're... Right, yeah.

Starting point is 02:16:15 And so, like, when I fought an urgery avatar and it was one of those motherfucking gargoyles. The, um, the black, uh, the black tar, The black car, yeah. It's like, oh, because those are locked in place, stationary bosses, and so they get all fucked and mixed around. Interesting. Okay.

Starting point is 02:16:36 Cool. And you can adjust this, any, you can adjust all these fucking things. One of the things that I'm going to change is I'm going to make it to the only need one smithing stone to upgrade normal weapons because I have found shit all for regular smithing stones because of the way that they've randomized them across locations. You can change that value? Yes, that's an option that you can go in where you can go, please

Starting point is 02:17:03 make it so you only need one regular smithing stone for upgrades on regular weapons. Okay. And are you able to summon in friendly NPCs for the moments expected? You can summon in friendly NPCs. They have their shit all reworked around. They're, they're shits all randomized. So questline NPC for questline boss is now, oh, you're not going to fucking do the questlines for shit. Okay. Those things are all randomized. So questline NPC for questline boss is now you're not gonna fucking do the questlines for shit. Okay. Those things are all fucked. They're all fucked. Cause I went to Irina to get the

Starting point is 02:17:33 letter and she gave me like a fucking rock. Okay. Any NPC questline that requires an item, you're not completing it. It's not gonna happen. Okay. Because I'm like, yeah, so we pull and blithe in for the final battle or what the fuck we do, you know, like I Yeah, uh Probably not. Yeah. Okay, fair enough It's it's so impressive and it's so fun What's fun, even though If I discovered near the end of my stream, if you want to actually

Starting point is 02:18:11 get levels for your character, because it's hard, like it's much harder, right? Remix enemy placement makes some rooms just completely incompletable without running through. You just can't deal with it, right? But what you discover is that gray-hole the dragon is part of the map, not an enemy spawn. Gray-hole is blue laser. The gigantic fucking dragon that gives you 100 K runes if you kill her with the bleed weapon early in the game. Big mama, yes, okay, right.

Starting point is 02:18:44 She's part of the map. That, she can't be, she can't be moved around. The game crashes. No, that makes sense. Zuley the witch has shown us that the game cannot handle her standing up. So, hey, I have a bleed weapon. As soon as I start my next randomizer stream, I am hitting the minimum stats for Rivers of Blood, baby.

Starting point is 02:19:06 Okay. And it's go time from there. I'm guaranteed farm. It also changes the context of the game because in default Elden Ring, it's like, let's explore everywhere. What could it be? And in this is like, I need to get the bare minimum items I can get to exist. And then now I need to be line my way to the biggest bosses

Starting point is 02:19:25 I can get a hold of and try and just get to the end of the game as in a straight line as possible. Yeah, yeah. Interesting. It's so cool. It's so, so cool. Also, in so doing, I don't know if I talked about it last week, it's still crazy to me that there are now two full,

Starting point is 02:19:47 complete overhalls of Elden Ring already on the Nexus. I mean, it's been, did I talk about that last week? Or was that on my screen? You mentioned that people were talking about, talking about completing them. It was like a one line. It's just like, there's convergence and there's reforged and they're

Starting point is 02:20:08 fully complete total overhalls For a game that never even got its DLC yet like calm down people dark souls how many times can you go through Elton ring the game It's like 150 hours. What doesn't DS3 have like 10? Yeah, and the thing is is that because because the people who made these DS3 mods, then moved to Elden Ring, which is the same, like mechanically, they were able to skip a bunch of the pre-work and get right to make in it. Like, like, game devs on a console, like, we're just we're holding our shit, our new shit, wait, ready to drop as soon as you give us the

Starting point is 02:20:46 the the the the the insert like like we talked about last week. The gentleman who made a seamless co-op for Elden ring is working on seamless co-op for our core because it's the same guns almost one to one. Yeah. Yeah. I got to use the bathroom again. I also do. All right. Be ready. Hooray. All right. Click work from our sponsor. Let's see. What else? Oh, wait. Oh, sponsors. I also do. Hooray. Alright. Click word from our sponsor. Oh, let's see. What else? Oh, wait. Oh, sponsors. I love sponsors. Let's do that. I love sponsors. And then jump back in. Yeah.

Starting point is 02:21:12 I love sponsor. We are not supposed to take too long to get to these, but you know, oh no, it's been two hours. No, two and a half. Oh, no. Sometimes you, you meander. I forgot how much I love sponsor. This week the podcast is sponsored by StitchFix. StitchFix is getting the clothes on your body. Base needs everybody. Base needs. Fabric on your body keeps you from succumbing to the elements. I recommend- I recommend clothing nine times out of 10. And the one people have to see you in that clothing. You should look good.

Starting point is 02:22:04 You should look you should look good. You should look cool Okay, looking looking good and cool is is a nice benefit, but just not looking horrendous Is actually the real goal, you know? It's not about it. It's not about being in the it's not about raising that ceiling. It's about raising the floor drop in the floor Baby that's it. Come on man, you know, it's not about raising that ceiling, it's about raising the floor. Drop in the floor, baby. That's it. Come on, man. Zero is acceptable. But we do what we can.

Starting point is 02:22:30 Stitch fix is basically gonna get a bunch of experts to make you look better by having you, you fill out a quiz to explain what your tastes are, what you like, what kind of brands work with you, what you love, and of course, what your budget is as well as your sizes. And then they'll get to work, put together some stylist selected options for you to check out. You'll get to check them out, set to you.

Starting point is 02:23:00 You put them on, you see how it looks, you rock it, and yeah, whatever you like, you keep, whatever you don't, you send back hassle free. And just like that, you look stylish. The experts can configure you out. Sometimes you hit the randomizer button looking at the mirror and you're like, oh god, what game am I playing today? And if it's the randomizer from Street Fighter 6, it's that's you don't want to walk outside in the streets like that. I don't want to. You know, um, other times it's uh, you know, I don't know,

Starting point is 02:23:40 Soul Calibur, where it's like, oh hey, all right, that's not too bad. I don't know, Soul Calibur, where it's like, oh, hey, all right, that's not too bad. The point here is you got over a thousand brands and styles that are gonna be, yeah, that they can choose from for your liking. Head to toe, you got different seasons as well. It's getting near winter, but you've got them around the year for you to check out and make sure wherever you show up, whenever you decide to make yourself seen in person. They're like, oh, shit, looking alright. So don't trust your own sense of style when you can get the experts to dress you up.

Starting point is 02:24:26 Have you looking like a snack? That's what I did. Look at me now. Have you looking like a snack? It's real simple. Stitch Fix. They'll just get you. If you go try Stitch Fix today, you can try it at stitchfix.com slash super beast and you'll get 25% off when you keep

Starting point is 02:24:47 everything in your fix. That's stitchfix.com slash super beast. Once again, stitchfix.com slash super beast. Thank you. I love you, Stitchfix. Chiching is the sound of this week being sponsored by Shopify. Hell yeah! Real simple. When you start your business, in this case, you start podcasting, you start YouTube and

Starting point is 02:25:20 whatever we're doing here. An online store is nowhere even remotely close to what we're thinking about. It's hard. It is not at all something that I ever considered. And, you know, it's very difficult to figure that shit out on the backend, especially. And yes, when you're like, I got a cool t-shirt idea though.

Starting point is 02:25:41 It's like, that's cool, but how do you actually get it to people? Well, with something like that, cool, but how do you actually get it to people? Well, with something like that, this is where Shopify can come in and help you. Do it the easy way. If you are working in, yeah, if you're trying to expand your business to get to different sales options and things like that, global commerce platforms can help you like Shopify in particular, because they're going to help you from the smallest to the largest scale that your business is going to go to. You know, if you have just one basic thing you need to get out to people, or if you need to have a full-sized shop with multiple options and different types of coverage for your shipping and returns and all of that stuff.

Starting point is 02:26:25 Shopify has you covered. They've got an all-in-one e-commerce platform in-person POS system so you can sell whatever to wherever. They've got tons of support as well and need support, I don't know what I'm doing. It's the, that's you really, you're gonna need to, if you're gonna need to talk to support, they've got a award winning support to help you figure out what to do and how to grow your business and such. And yeah, they're powering 10% of

Starting point is 02:27:00 Ollie commerce in the US. So, you know, they're behind a number of sites under also spread out to over 175 countries if you want to get your business up and running. Check out Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial at shopify.com slash super beast all lowercase. That's Shopify.com slash super beast. Now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in Shopify.com slash super beast. Cha Ching. I love you Shopify.

Starting point is 02:27:38 Thank you. This week the podcast is sponsored by uncommon goods and you know why it's that holiday season People are starting to figure out what to look for they're trying to figure out how to buy presents I don't know what I'm doing starting to panic Stress I'm starting to panic the music you hear at the at the mall or the pharmacy is starting to put the pressure on and you're like God damn it Now I got to think about what to get and how to bet the per and everybody knows if you get the same old lame things And you're not you're not too you're not putting you know, they're gonna be like ah Yeah, you know, you did it. It's the thought accounts, right?

Starting point is 02:28:19 Well how about if it was the thought that counted, but also if it was something pretty cool and unique? You know, that's why like legitimately yeah, uncommon goods. I'm... I've been pushing them for a minute here. That's a solid recommend for finding small gifts that are from small artists, so a couple independent places and stuff usually made in the US. Stuff that is almost all that's often also made like small scale in number two. So you know, some of the cool stuff might sell out if you are not on top of it. But yeah, it's usually cool out of the ordinary gifts. You know, stuff that can go jewelry, kitchen, home bar, you know, stuff for the house, stuff for like games, stuff for just whatever the category is. When you go check out the website, there's like a ton

Starting point is 02:29:13 of categories to pick from. And yeah, whatever the people you're shopping for in your life are into, you can find some unusual, different things that stand out. You can get these uncommon goods through the internet, correct? You get them through the internet. That's the good part. Well, that's, so hey, if you out there, a person listening to this,

Starting point is 02:29:36 do you have an anxiety attack when you hear Mariah Carey? You won't have to listen to her now. There you go. She's out there, waiting for you. Mariah Carey is like a, it's a meter that builds up of stress as soon as you're within your range of it, and you can defeat that. Frenzy.

Starting point is 02:29:58 It's absolutely frenzy building up, you know. It's the mind, yeah, the mind flayers. Ooh, ooh, ooh. You don't have to worry about any of that, because the cream of Christmas, Christmas can stay out where she is. You can safely order from inside. And as a nice little benefit, every purchase you make out of common goods, they give a dollar back to a non-profit partner of your choice.

Starting point is 02:30:21 They've donated over $2.5 million to date. So, yeah, shop for something unusual for your friends and family. To get 15% off your next gift, go to UncommonGoods.com slash Superbeast. That's UncommonGoods.com slash Superbeast. For 15% off, don't miss out on this limited time offer. Uncommon goods is all out of the ordinary. Thank you. I love you on common goods. And last but not least, we got never door dash because food needs to get brought to you. And it's kind of amazing, but it's, you know, sometimes you forget.

Starting point is 02:31:05 Sometimes you might actually forget. There are days when every waking moment is spent trying to devour everything I can get my hands on, but there's also days where I'm like in the middle of doing so much shit that I'm like, what even happened today? Oh my God, I'm hungry, I didn't realize it. I forget at least once a week to eat for an

Starting point is 02:31:26 entire day. And then I'm so hungry and upset that acquiring food is a stressful and anxiety inducing process. It's it's it's sometimes you sit down and you don't feel it until you get up and your body's like whoa, where you think you're going buddy, all right? Door dash, you click, you order, you scroll through, you find the places you like to eat from, you find the restaurants, you like to order, mom and pops, regular go-toes, local chains, things that are all in all, are even new in the neighborhood.

Starting point is 02:32:01 And you get yourself your food order order straight to your door, dropped off secretly silently even if you want no contact delivery. No one's going to judge my take-out snake meal. Just you and your doorbell camera, which you can rewatch for your own shame purposes. No, it's just, it's just real. It has a party going on. Oh, we got, oh. Come on, hold on.

Starting point is 02:32:36 You guys, yeah, I got them. I got them. Don't worry. Yeah, I got all that for all you. God. The shame music. I got all that for all you. God, the shame music. Yeah. No, no cars in the driveway. No other lights in the house. Dead, dead black pitch black house except for just the front light porch with your computer. Grabbing them. Oh, deep it up. Keep it up. Yeah, so in particular, Dordash, this holiday season,

Starting point is 02:33:09 you can use code beast holiday to get 50% off up to a $10 value when you spend $15 are more at convenience grocery or select restale stores on Dordash, in terms of supply. terms apply. You are once again able to get in there with code beast holiday. So I like that code. That's a good code. Dashpass is also available as well as a dashpass member. You can enjoy exclusive offers and perks for all season long stocking stuffers, decor, groceries, meals and more. You'll also get a $0 delivery fee and reduced service fees on eligible orders too. So once again, shop Dordash to get everything you need for the holiday season, use code

Starting point is 02:34:00 beast holiday to get 50% off up to a $10 value. You spend $15 or more at convenience grocery or select retail stores on DoorDash terms apply. Thank you, DoorDash. Thanks, DoorDash. All right. You were saying, oh, let's see. What else I do? I played like a dragon guy then a little bit more. And you know, you know, when you're playing something that was going to be DLC and then they turn it into a full thing and you're wondering when you're going to hit the part of the game where you're like, oh, this is where they filled it in.

Starting point is 02:34:46 Silk's on rip. Yeah, I hit that part. That part is, there's five chapters in like a dragon guy to end. And that part is chapters two, three, four. The part where they filled it in. Yeah, so a lot of good dragon guide and was supposed to be DLC for seven.

Starting point is 02:35:11 They're like, hey, what was Kieru up to, right? Oh, you mean the man who raised his name? Yeah, the man who raised his name. Like a dragon guide and. Yes, yes. And in a chapter one in some parts of two, you're like, yeah, wow, it was like a regular story. And then, uh, for the second half of two and three and also four, they're like,

Starting point is 02:35:40 uh, some stuff happened, uh, yes. And, uh, you got a, oh, there's a guy. And he's in your way. And we got time to kill. It's just just killing time. We got time to kill. Damn. It's also getting funnier and funnier and funnier and funnier.

Starting point is 02:36:00 In that we, you still have characters going, wow, here you, you're, you're like, sorry, wow, joy you, you're the greatest ever. Uh, and you never killed anybody. Uh, and then we have a cutscene in which, uh, uh, uh, joy you, Josama is, uh, spider manning around with his wrist. Uh, I was about to ask, I was about to ask you. Um, and, and just, and just shooting a bunch of guys in the fucking chest with a pistol. Um, and I, I, I guess they're fine. I guess they're fine.

Starting point is 02:36:36 And like you see the bullet come out of them, like it's straight through and through. And he's a whole clip into a bunch of goons. Like, I'm full on expecting a goddamn spin the sticks to Kratos the head off of the spine at this point. He's fine, he's fine, don't worry about it. Like you played zero, right? Yeah. Do you remember the part where he just shoots

Starting point is 02:36:57 all those guys in those cars? I mean, there's, there's like some of them get run over like that of Tyre was over their head. Well, the heat actions in general are just Fucking their X-ray attacks and Mortal Kombat, you know Like they're horrendously violent Absolutely I want to point out that in six the game in which like a character actually like looks at him and goes the reason why here

Starting point is 02:37:22 The greatest is that you've never killed anyone. That is like immediately followed by him like blowing up a helicopter with a rocket launcher. I can see their parachutes. They're gonna be okay. Like that is like five minutes apart. It's so crazy. It's still a lot fun though. I mean, it's like a dragon, you know what it is. Yeah. Okay, Doryu Jasma.

Starting point is 02:37:52 And never forget the Batmobile Taser is completely and utterly safe to all of the villains. So the other thing is, so you know when you have two projects that deal with the same game, and you can tell one group of people really cared a lot more, like a lot more. So I talked about it a little bit last time. You go to the arcade and Fighting Vipers 2 is there and Sonic the Fighters is there

Starting point is 02:38:29 and they're really good ports of Fighting Vipers 2 and Sonic Fighters. Like even the scanline filter they use is really classy. Mm-hmm. And then you find in a side room of some random house, a Sega Master System that has dozens and dozens of games. And they're really good ports of the Sega Master System games. So not just the usual outrun and afterburner like arcades and I feel like what's the other

Starting point is 02:39:10 one where you're on foot, but it's just a where you're shooting world runner. I think that's what you're thinking. Maybe, maybe. Yeah, but I feel like it's it those are the we don't mind if everybody plays these and everything. Okay. But yeah, no, it's just like, like they're really, and like you get, you can find like, oh, like as a collectible,

Starting point is 02:39:33 you unlocked a master system ROM. Mm-hmm. And it's just like there's a full master system collection in this game that is excellent, that you could sell as a separate thing that I don't think exists I don't think you can buy a master system collection But if you play like a tricking guy then you can find it whereas Like a dragon eight you cannot

Starting point is 02:40:02 No, no, that'll, it'll be something else. I'll include fucking virtual fighter three Tb. I was, I was waiting. I was sitting on that one. I was waiting until three TV online. Actually, how I'll have you know that the online version of Virtua Fighter three Tb available as of tomorrow the 28th exclusively in Japanese arcades for those of you who could not get enough Virtua Fighter 3 tournament battle mode in your lives. What a strange game.

Starting point is 02:40:37 What a little more game. Okay. I mean, I know who I'm talking to, but if you feel like glass half-fooling it, the only potential, there's many realities where this glass is empty as fuck, but if you are trying to silver line, at all you can think, well they tried, they ported five and they did a horrible job, and maybe they're like, let's take another crack at it, but we'll do it with a different older game And maybe if we do it right this time around If this leads to virtual fighter six with rollback

Starting point is 02:41:15 Anything I'll take I'll take anything. Okay. I should mention I hate virtual fighter three team battle I think it is the worst. Oh, yeah, no we we everyone is terrible. We are no one like it's no one Literally no one I know No one that cares about virtue fighter of amongst the few likes virtue fighter 3 TV like no absolutely It is so bad it put but it has not just bad. It's like the worst idea for a fighting game ever Like you take a fighting game that people have remained, they play for 25 years and never pick anyone else on the character's leg screen.

Starting point is 02:41:51 And you go, what if you did 5v5? What, shut up? I think I don't even know the moves of two characters in that series. I think me and my friends all had the same moment where we booted it up on the the dreamcast port and like the first level that loaded up I think was like the great wall of China stage but it's on a slope so you're fighting on like a fucking staircase in the fighting and it was just like

Starting point is 02:42:20 what the fuck are we doing like you're on the high ground permanently because you're player one. What, like what? It was just, it was madness. It was, yeah, that was some fucking crazy shit they did. It's also bananas like five E5 in a game that has like what, 11 characters. What the fuck? Yeah, well, okay, whatever.

Starting point is 02:42:42 It's Japanese arcades only for a very particular group of people. Like, and they can keep it. They can, they can fucking keep it. Oh, yeah, but that's, that's it for me this week. The randomizer is incredible. And, I mean, one of the best mods I've ever played in my life, genuinely astonishing. And Alan Wake is a fucking triumph. It is a,

Starting point is 02:43:05 Remedy is the best. I love Remedy so much. They're great. Finland is cool. Oh, I should mention. Yeah. They're, Alan Wake too.

Starting point is 02:43:20 So, in that Spain, you would never know. In Alan Wake, you would never know. In All-O-Wake, you would never know. But you get to fucking control, and then there's OTTie, the janitor, who speaks in complete nonsense expressions I've never heard with the thickest Finnish accent I've ever heard my fucking life. And then you get to All-O-Wake too, in which they've given up and they're like, no, we're from Finland. We have a fucking whole town of Finns. You've got Ilmo and Jakob talking about the sauna. Um, there's, they're everywhere. And they're like, yeah, we're not Swedish. It's

Starting point is 02:44:00 different. The Sam Lake have a thick accent. What's that, sir? The Samblake Havathic accent. He's got an accent, but I wouldn't call it thick, because he's been speaking English primarily for a long time. But like, for example, like Thomas Zane is now played by the body actor who plays Alan Wake, who's a guy named Icavillie.

Starting point is 02:44:24 So Thomas Zane went from sounding like Max Payne to sounding like a guy with an incredibly thick finish accent. Cause fuck it, Finland. Okay. Like you get to go down to the sauna for collectibles. You go to go to go to a coffee world because the fins love their coffee. Coffee.

Starting point is 02:44:47 Yeah. Cool. Alright. Do you know what? You know what? I'm going to say it. I don't know why sauna was anglicized as sauna. sauna way more fun.

Starting point is 02:45:02 Way more fun. Go down to the sound. It's great. Yeah, there's just fun. There's the feeling of the feeling of the accent. Also, a little bit in Netherlands as well is one where you're like, I feel like that's an angle. A word I recognize, but it just, it should have an umlaut on it. Yeah, probably. But let's go to this week.

Starting point is 02:45:35 What's, oh, right. The exact same thing is last week. Literally the exact same thing in all the same days. Alan Wake, like a dragon guy, guide and Alan Wake Elden ring randomizer Go down to twitch.tv slash past stairs at for those things. They're good things Okay Right and so yeah, what is going on? So we touched on virtue fighter 3 TB We can you know we can we can we can check that one off we can just check that off

Starting point is 02:46:12 And and it was briefly let's let's let's let's pour one out for poor god damn life. Thero So my Thero a good guy funny guy So my thorough a good guy funny guy Put out a video saying god damn it. Here's a joke that was gonna come out in tomorrow's video About how fake and not real rollback for DBZ is DBZF the DBFZ stream steamroll back beta announced November 30th to December 1st. So it is happening.

Starting point is 02:46:50 They're all getting it in there before the end of the year, right? Everyone's doing it. We're getting our fucking, our grand blue, our KOF, our, under night, everyone is squeezing it in. It feels like it's wild how after like 450 days or something, they just go, it's now! Feels like it's been a very little lead up.

Starting point is 02:47:13 Mm-hmm. Not rollback related, but KOF is also, oh, kid, a KOF. Killer Instinct is also getting its update. That's today. So, it feels like it's- Wait, are you saying killer instincts getting rollback? Killer instinct is not... Well, no, no, no. Killer instinct is just getting up to you.

Starting point is 02:47:31 It's not a rollback. It's just a patch. But it's, I feel like it's been like five straight weeks of like every weekend has been a particular fighting game getting some sort of patch or something or a test. So yeah, there you go. Starting in a couple. So yeah, there you go, starting in a couple days this weekend, the Dragon Ball fighters rollback beta.

Starting point is 02:47:51 I say I got a question for you. Now I know you haven't particularly kept up to date, but I played DBFZ at release and I was like, wow, I love this so much, these matches are terrible. And then I stopped playing it. And now that the rollback is on its way, how wide should I pull my ass apart? Fff.

Starting point is 02:48:15 Fff. Fff. I mean. And should this be measured in centimeters or inches? Okay. If you hear, okay, the good news is if you resume where you left off, you should be fighting against people that are your peers hypothetically, who are also jumping in at a time when a new update has happened.

Starting point is 02:48:39 So there will be people that are also not that good around your level that you'll be matched up with. However, that pool will be very limited and the diameter of your anus will increase exponentially in one or two afternoons tops. Because I have to say, um, incredibly happy the DBFC is getting rollback. The game getting rollback multiple years after its release is like the worst case scenario for people on this side of the equation.

Starting point is 02:49:16 It has firmly landed and been in Marvel territory of like, oh, bitch, get motivated, white boy. Get fucking motivated. Like we've been here. Bim in Marvel territory of like, oh bitch, get motivated white boy. Get fucking motivated. Like we've been here. Yeah, dude, you get touched. You get touched and you're getting fucked. I was actually hoping that we would instead of this game getting rolled back jammed in,

Starting point is 02:49:43 that we would have gotten a sequel that had it so we could all start from scratch. So from scratch. Everybody, you want to go back to the starting line? No. Yeah, it's, no, I would say, I would say like, if you're doing like player matches or like discord matches or whatever,

Starting point is 02:50:03 you're gonna, yeah, you're beasts to the left. Oh, that's totally different. Monsters to the right. But if you're just kidding ranked and getting matched up, with the exception of everyone on their smurf accounts, of which there will be many, because some fuckers just love to see the world burn and smurfs love to just, you know, get in that ass.

Starting point is 02:50:23 Yeah, it's gonna be brutal. Dragon Ball is like, oh God, dude, the high level Dragon Ball is so fucking hopeless. It's so hopeless. Hold the button to tech in the right direction. Try to get your deflect out if you can. But okay, here's how you know. Okay, that's all you, here's a quick tip. If they activate sparking early on their first character, you're fucked. They know what they're doing and you're fucked. Oh no, when you see early sparking activation, it's not the comeback mechanic for the end of the match, but it's the round one touch of death first character setup. Just, yeah. Prepare. Well, I don't know. Prepare. No, to do that. No, to do that. I'm looking forward to just, you know, I love me some 16. I love me some hit and then fill in the blanks with whatever function can support those two. Probably super broly because I like his style. Those are the

Starting point is 02:51:28 characters I think are cool. Synergy probably garbage, but they're cool. Yeah, also, so yeah, basically I find a game stuff. We had the virtue of fire. We had that announcement and then hey Street fighter costume three They wow we heard your complaints the current the direct complaints I made Into the microphone the week before capcom say here we go. We got you Bam there it is and they're great Okay, so here's the thing though, there's great. And then there's a different feeling.

Starting point is 02:52:09 When I see Kimberly, I go, not only is that great, that's what she should be. Oh, Kimberly, I've got one for you. Is what she should have been. I get why it's not because that blue fro Kimberly is also giving off way more Ibuki Ninja energy than Guy Bushinro. But God damn, it's good.

Starting point is 02:52:35 I think- Lillie, I did, I, okay, Lillie's costume is not supposed to be a tax. Okay? Like the way Lily is designed, is do you want to play Lily? Do you want to be happy about your choice? Or your buy costume? Three, it's mandatory.

Starting point is 02:53:01 It's genuinely upsetting because you look at the way the characters head looks with the and it's like that's obviously what you should have done. This should have been the default. This is ridiculous. Like a real person. Like, yes, like a real person. She looks like a real person. Yes, some people have like baby face toddler head, you know, looks and I know people that have that in their 20s and such that are just like still like puffy cheeks and big forehead and stuff But it's you look at her and you say you got babyface toddler head get out of my house like no, man Her alt three actually looks like a human being like it's it's fucking good Um, and they tease them obviously. There's the ones that are just like, yeah,

Starting point is 02:53:46 like winners across the board. You have, you have a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,, would take your pick, but looking fucking fantastic with that and the drills. You know, I even re-u where it's like, okay, we had a couple of play ways to play this. I wish they kept the beard on them. It's a bummer they got rid of the beard, but still like, yeah, re-u is like probably the weakest of the set and it's fine. Definitely, definitely.

Starting point is 02:54:23 You know? They, a lot of them feel like they were inspired by the Street Fighter duel like hip hop art, which yeah made everybody want to see that, you know, so DalSim looks like he's straight out of Portland. He's got the fucking beanie on, he's got the loose fitting jet like like open shirt and the chains and you know, it's just like casual, casual chai sim. I mean, when have gratt, uh, fucking Zangief players eaten better? This is the best Geef costume of all time. I can't think of a single time. They've ever eaten it. It's easily the best game costume that's ever been it is unbelievable for him. It's such a good look. Geef all about his business. Are you

Starting point is 02:55:11 fucking kidding me? So good. You know, and then yes, man, the lady at the altar with the fucking with that with the the Mohawk as well. Marissa coming in, the dress, all of it. I just- Just a mohawk, man, it's got a ponytail. But her hair's done up in a, she's doing the gladiator style mohawk thing. She's got the, kind of like a,

Starting point is 02:55:36 like a Corinthian helmet. Oh, oh, I miss, I miss saw it. It's okay. No, she's- Oh, that's great, she's still a gladiator helmet. But it's just a different helmet. It's a Corinthian. Yes, it's okay. No, she's- Oh, that's great. She's still a gladiator, Helmet. But it's just a different Helmet. It's a Corinthian. Yes, yeah, yeah, it's great.

Starting point is 02:55:50 Um, I look at that Marissa costume and I'm like, man, I think Marissa's really cool, except I actually hate her stupid haircut. I fucking hate it. So I saw that and my whole thank God. Finally a costume that does not have it. Sure. If you ever wanted a waifu that reminds you of tall geese.

Starting point is 02:56:10 Then you're... Yeah! Here you go. God damn, all in white with the red going at the top. Yeah, you know. What if I wanted to marry tall geese though? What if? wanted to marry Toggy, so what if yeah, man, and I'm really glad they give Julia costume that makes it look like she stinks.

Starting point is 02:56:31 You do. You do. Rancid. You can like that grumblin' never been washed. Yeah, never. No, it honestly is like everyone across the board is like getting good shit. Like that's a nice pack of like no real losers, you know? Very, very strong candidate's there.

Starting point is 02:56:53 And again, like even the ones where you're like, okay, it's like, like Chun Lee is like, oh that's nice. You know, it's not like, like, like Chun Lee's had like fucking dozens of costumes over the years, three fighter five, she's, she's had like fucking dozens of costumes over the years. She had her five. She had more than anybody. So, you know, it's almost a meme at this point.

Starting point is 02:57:10 But like, I think I'm like, yeah, that looks fine. And it's not, it's not a weird like red bull, like, turn you into another character outfit thing going on either. And it's not the insane space cop costume concept that we saw either. So she's, but it's not, it's, you know, it's not the insane space cop costume concept that we saw either. So she is, but it's not, it's casual where it's fine. And the, I feel as if some of these costumes to are like, especially when I look at Gile,

Starting point is 02:57:38 it's like, okay, we're doing a little bit of that SNK thing, you know, we're dressing you down a little bit and dressing your, dressing your fighting game character is down is just a fun way to do it. Um, yeah. Costume 3 looking fucking good, finally, and I'm glad. Is Blockas costume gonna be like playable in things? Oh, best answer.

Starting point is 02:58:01 Is this gonna ban it? Old Blankachan is an avatar costume new blanket And is got the overalls and everybody can blanket at the fuck up Okay, absolutely Best decision. I think cammy's is my favorite cammy costume Because I always thought her look with the codon was way better than any of the others. And it, just from the anime, from a little moment in the start of the anime where she tosses it off and does the, the, the neck breaker. It's like, what a cool reference to get in there.

Starting point is 02:58:33 I'm really glad they got it. Yeah, yeah. Um, and you know, DJ's looking cool, like not much to it. It's just, uh, a costume looks a lot better, uh, in game that it does in its art. I was a little like worried about it. It's just a costume looks a lot better in game than it does in its art. I was a little like worried about it. Conversely, Honda looks better in art than it does in game because- Yeah, he's like- That was a crooked hat makes him look like a detective almost. It's all in the little hat, you know. But he's on vacation, he's doing his thing. But I still argue that Hondo would not even be here if he wasn't the world warrior. So it is what it is. Yeah, you know Ken just like it's cool

Starting point is 02:59:15 It's not It does it's not what I would imagine Ken would do But it's what it's all right, you know and everyone's going, it's Max and it's like, yeah, he's got the, it's like the, yeah. It's just because I guess the thing is like, I don't, I feel like, like Ken and super tight, like fancy clothes hasn't been much of a thing. Like even when he dressed fancy in other artwork,

Starting point is 02:59:41 it's been like loose fancy, you know, so. but yeah, he's doing it, he's doing it. And I guess we'll see all the DLC later on. So everyone at Rashid and up is gonna drop with Akuma is what they said. Makes sense. Yeah, looking good. All right, beyond that, what's going on? Well, hey, I have to say, this story is one that it's so simple, but I'm just surprised

Starting point is 03:00:15 we took so long to get to this point. Ubisoft is apparently experimenting with pop-ups for ads in the middle of your gameplay. And this, they say it was a technical error, but there's footage. I say shut the fuck up. This footage is just lying sack of shit. Running through a sass and screed, and then a full screen popup for an ad for a game

Starting point is 03:00:38 just pops up, just, wait, wait. Yeah, I want to, I so what happens is the gentleman goes, hey, I'm playing my video game. Oh, I need to check my map and hit snap and a full screen pop-up pops up that goes, hey, motherfucker Do you want to play Mirage? He's like, what? It has to close out of the ad to get to his map and it's like You know It's it's so straightforward. It's so simple. It's like yeah

Starting point is 03:01:02 We're gonna put an ad in your full price game. Here it is, right? Like it's a simple basic concept for marketing and I'm just like oh we're here. I expected to be here a long time ago, I think of course it's Ubisoft but but yet here we are now They said they say yeah, that was again a technical error We we are aware of the problem. Yeah, Deanna uh, they said they say, yeah, that was, uh, again, a technical error. We, we are aware of the problem. Yeah, deyada. Um, what if, like, that sounds like

Starting point is 03:01:36 almost that, like, if there is any version of that, we're like, oops, you weren't supposed to see that. It almost sounds like when you're doing a network-wide test on the back end, and you're doing it, um, not on the live servers, but you're doing it not on the live servers but you're doing stuff on test servers like that. It almost feels like there's like an accidental like oops this might have went live in a small circumstance for seeing if we The technical error is that it was turned on what it wasn't supposed to be. That's what I'm that's what I'm exactly. The feature is there there's an ability to put an add into the game on your post screen, whatever they want to, and a test or something

Starting point is 03:02:09 went wrong that activated that, but there is a feature there. And, you know, I suppose this is where it's like, okay, so is this because at some point, they're like, oh, well, if we ever made the game free, we'd want to be able to insert the ability to put ads. No, it's not. Fuck off. It's quite clearly just like, yeah, this is a thing the game free, we'd want to be able to insert the ability to put ads. No, it's not. Fuck off.

Starting point is 03:02:29 There it's it's it's quite it's quite clearly just like, yeah, this is a thing that you might see more and more of than every one of these games because it's Ubisoft. And we're here now. We're here at the place where you might pay full price for a game and still fucking see the ads. But I remember when was it FIFA was like, oh, the, um, the stuff on the side boards when you're playing, you know, would be like, hey, they, they had space. They could rent out for sports games on the, the, the quarter on the, the field on the pitch and all that stuff. And

Starting point is 03:02:56 that, that was a story, maybe 20 fucking 15 or so. You know, and now we're just, we're blowing right past that like, oh, it's kind of immersive because sports games do have sponsors Yeah, yeah, yeah to straight into full screen click here for home scapes Click here to breathe the spike man from the cage. Oh no quickly click the button watch it watch the home scapes that so Daniel Dwyer is putting up a So, um, Danny O'Dwyer is putting up a, uh, uh, I forgot what the name of Danny O'Dwyer's, uh, uh, documentary series is, but they're doing a sequence on NHL 94 as the best hockey game of all time. Um, and I remember no clip.

Starting point is 03:03:39 Thank you. No clip. Um, and that's like, I remember playing in HL 94 would like to have a couple words with you. What's that sorry? Wayne's great, Wayne Gretzky's 394. Would like to have a couple words with you. What's that sorry? Wayne Gretzky's 3D hockey would like to have a couple words with you. But like, you know, NHL94 came out before,

Starting point is 03:03:55 a lot of people listening to this were born. And that was the year before roster updates and create a character existed cause that was 95. Mm hmm. And it's of note to be like, man, fucking sports games, like, whoa. Those used to be the shit.

Starting point is 03:04:18 And now they have been like commodified into the worst thing ever, right? And part of that was like the trend of real players and real rosters and you know, the trading and the, oh well, you know, sports get, you know, watching sports has ads. And so, you know, we can just advertise everything in the fucking, you know, sports has commercials. You know, when you watch some, like, like, like, Tivo wasn't invented to skip commercial breaks on football games and hockey games.

Starting point is 03:04:55 It's always been kind of hilarious that the genre that could benefit the most from updates and not buying the game again in 12 months. Sports games because a roster update is what most people care about. Yeah. Or actively the genre that goes as far out of the way as they can to crush that and to make it as annualized as possible. Oh, and like it's also funny because that's what you're seeing

Starting point is 03:05:27 is like you download it and every two or three years, you get like the PC version comes out and like you load it up and people are like you forgot to change the number inside the game. Pfff. Like there are menus that are still of last year that say last year's number on it got like that's how fucking lazy Sports games have become you know like they could have even like with that greed like pitched like a a

Starting point is 03:06:00 Monthly M subscription platform to like a monthly subscription platform is every 12 months you buy these as a new thing. Yes, exactly. No, that's it. You know, but I just like playing God, Madden, was it like 2000 on the PC? I don't there was a year where we were just like, I remember me and my brother were

Starting point is 03:06:26 like interested in like updating the rosters manually and stuff and it was like oh yeah, like there's a bunch of people that that just do that if they're on the version because you can you go in and shit but don't even want a new system. Don't need a new cover. Don't need new music. Don't need new anything, just want to roster update because that's what we cared about. And yeah, it's now the absolute worst case of building you every 12 months. And if you're in there, you're in there, they got you, especially now that they have fantasy fans brought brought in as well, because if you're a fantasy drafting and shit like

Starting point is 03:07:01 that, like there's people that are like, if you're not even playing for the game play mode they're doing career mode stuff and just doing the management side, you know, so That's crazy. Anyway I I I fully expect, you know seeing as this is this is every time you'll be soft tips toes They creep up to it. Yeah, full price game, full size dads. It's there, it's already in there. You know, you know, Wully, I don't know if it's

Starting point is 03:07:32 on the dock at this week, because you may not have caught it. But speaking of, we're here now. You know, I've been rooting for berries and other things for multiple seasons. Oh, that was right next to make jams. I sell them. Are you a fan of jams? Are you a fan of jams?

Starting point is 03:07:51 I am. So right up there, we talked about Silent Hill ascension. Not too long ago. We did. We did. We did. Just the pricing system, the fact that it was just you sit and watch a thing and then you buy your lobby actually to have your votes count for more than the average citizen because... So we talked about all that stuff, right?

Starting point is 03:08:20 But in the interim, this past week week I've actually seen a proportion of this program and I was not aware that it was an uncanny valley poorly made piece of fucking shit. So Voidberger on Twitter posts a clip saying Silent Hill ascension is absolutely written by AI and I cannot be convinced otherwise. The Serandum NPC pops in to Claire's he's berry hunting says he's seen weird shit and doesn't expound on it Provides no information leaves for more berries goodbye forever berry man Um, and the clip is exactly as described just it's nonsense. It's it's it's it's baffling nonsense On a couple of levels one

Starting point is 03:09:03 gaffling nonsense on a couple of levels. One, a human writer would never include this nonsense, like it is a total non-sequeter. It's baffling. Two, his dialogue is so strange and inhuman. And three, people were digging through the developers, LinkedIn's and found out that they love the concept of multi-actor AI-driven narrative structures with user engagement.

Starting point is 03:09:30 So at this point, there was a link to, yeah, Bob's Vids posted here, a LinkedIn article where Stephen Vladmir Bougage of Genvied Holdings talked about massively interactive line events, which human and autonomous AI characters interact to create simulated narratives with the course shaped through user engagement and participation. Genvied Holdings, of course, being the ones who worked on Silent Hill ascension. So it is not only pretty much confirmed at this point, that's what's happening. It's like, even if the writing was normal, human-made, and this was the product they put out, everything about the whole voting system bullshit was already horrendous to begin with.

Starting point is 03:10:26 And now it's like also on the back end, it's not, it's just, it's not even real. So the other thing is that it appears to be how to make any money off of the corpse franchise with spending. I don't know. Well, if you saw, but a while ago, they were talking about how like it's a one time thing we could never run it again. Did that. And it's like, why can't you run it again?

Starting point is 03:10:55 Is it because it's being fucking made up by stupid robots on the fly? Would you say that would you call this a sobering experience? Would you say that that woke you up by any chance? Uh-huh. I think I think the most incredible part is not the it's not the jam's clip. There's a different piece of Silent Hill Ascension going around that is even more busted than I like to make jams, man. Have you seen the bit where the little girl runs into yell at her parents? I have not. So there's a moment in which a small girl walks in

Starting point is 03:11:43 to yell at her parents, like, you don't yell to get what you want, young lady, and she goes, that's what you do. And the whole thing is like really strange and stilted. But where it really just jumps the shark of weight, what is actually going on with the production of this is that the mom leans down to tell her to go to her room and the child full on slap mom in the face and goes, I don't listen to you. But the part that matters is that mom isn't close enough for the child to hit her. So when the child starts to swing, mom haunts solos into place like her neck snaps for

Starting point is 03:12:26 teleport so that she can get slapped and then a jerk's bad. Yeah, and it's like no one would fucking build that scene that way. Oh my god. Bill that's seeing that way. Oh my god. Of course. Man from top to bottom from the bottom the top See if I can find them every won't escape me. Oh my god literally every angle of It like that's crazy Konami. That's crazy.

Starting point is 03:13:10 Like you're not even making it. And then I found it. And no one can play it. But, but pay us though. Here, Wolley, I have a reddit post I'm sending to you just for your own personal knowledge. Go ahead and skip to 37 seconds. You don't need sound. You just need to see that weird head jerk of like,

Starting point is 03:13:32 woohoo the fuck. Hmm. Ha. All right. Yeah. Glad the mom knew she was gonna get slapped so that she could lean in for it. Are you in talking? It's the 30. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, I see it. I see it. Yeah, it's just like All right, like come on this isn't real Like like you didn't think Konami could be cheap enough holy cow here comes a new one

Starting point is 03:14:19 Well, the other I mean the thing is that there's two ways to play it right with Gen vid holdings here is like either Well, the thing is that there's two ways to play it, right, with GenVid holdings here, is like, either you hold this shit to the chest and you explain what you're doing to save money behind the scenes and get companies excited, or you advertise it loudly and proudly on LinkedIn, and you get everybody else who's interested in having this type of shit call you in to do similar for them, you know. I think we're really turning, I think we're turning somewhere here on the AI. First of all, the big studios lost most of their AI provisions in the last SAG after argument

Starting point is 03:14:58 and the writing argument. Second of all, judges in the United States on copyright have ruled that a human has to make something for it to be copyrighted And so and I guess this is where that bit about Like partnered Systems that Microsoft is investing in it starts to come into play because it's like here How do we team you up as a human being with Oversight and an AI next to you, you know or something to that. Yeah, but is it is this is part three, which is my favorite part, which I don't know if you see this, but hey, I'm a I'm a completely

Starting point is 03:15:30 AI singer songwriter. Here's my song or shit like this and the overwhelming response is yo this looks like shit Like AI is not gonna fucking get any traction if everyone's gut reaction is like, yo, this is ass. So I stealthily attempted to work a transition a segue over there, asking you about waking up because there was a clip that also went around this week of from a Naruto game where oh man where there's a clip of Naruto talking a Sasuke and he goes did that wake you up and then it cuts to like a flashback from a previous game that's meant to be a memory moment because when you're playing the ultimate Ninja Storm games you can click the button to do a memory

Starting point is 03:16:21 and so on and then Miley Flanagan, the voice actor for Naruto, she went like, where the fuck did this come from? This isn't, you know, I definitely, the voice director got a record. And then everyone went, oh shit, is this like, did they straight up just generate that young Naruto line for the transition. And then people tried to follow up to which point, I guess Miley kinda went, you know, I don't wanna talk about this any further. Actually the game is fine, leave it alone, please stop. And it feels like she had an initial reaction

Starting point is 03:17:00 and then probably got a couple phone calls about her contract or whatever the case is and like back down from that immediately. But absolutely, at the exact same time, that was happening. The Bamco, the Bamcops were not too happy with that. Yeah, man. I think the way you put it last time as well was like, we are week two of Silent Hill, ascension, which has been committed for 16 weeks. Like this has to play out slowly. And, and, and, hey, I have, I have a part of

Starting point is 03:17:44 it. I went back and looked at some of their statements. And, hey, I have a part of it. I went back and looked at some of their statements and there's a part of it that we, that I missed, which is when they said, you know what could end early, depending on your choices. And it's like, oh, are you not sure that your fucking generative algorithm can make it to 16 parts? Is it possible that it'll hit like 12 and just go,

Starting point is 03:18:06 baaah! I mean, it seems insane to think they don't have somebody that's going, okay, green light that, out that generated outcome, you know. Oh, I'm sure they are, but when there's no one actually steering, like no one's steering the ship, someone's just going, no, don't do that.

Starting point is 03:18:24 Right, right. Don't do it. Similar to a great video of a Tesla with full on a full driving that came out this week in which the guys like, look man, I don't even have to drive. In the middle of time, he has to grab the wheel because it tries to kill people. Three times in the, it was that fucking Jesus Christ, yeah.

Starting point is 03:18:47 Yeah, like he's like, oh yeah, you don't, oh, what was it? It's like you don't need mapping, you just need vision. And as he blows through a, it blows through a stop sign. It blows through a stop sign. And then makes a turn and then swarves towards the opposite lane.

Starting point is 03:18:58 Yeah, that was fucking scary. I, uh, uh, mom made a, a fantastic, uh,, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh save yourself in any given time. QTE real life. Yeah, I guess so. And then someone else in that thread pointed out that because Elon thinks it's so cool to have a rectangular steering wheel that when you do have to take control of the car and you can see it in the video, that he misses the wheel at one point because it doesn't go all the way around.

Starting point is 03:19:45 Hmm. Boy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, shit. Just last night I was doing sweet burnouts in a parking lot trying to get the hang of how this whole thing works. No, I wasn't doing burnouts, but I was actually doing a little bit of driving practice.

Starting point is 03:20:11 Yeah, I just... Like the things that I want are the things where it goes beep, beep, beep, and those two cars in front of you are about to hit each other. And that... Also, cruise control was a nice invention. Just make it easier on your foot. Yeah, there, yeah. That's nice too, you know?

Starting point is 03:20:32 Terrifying, fucking terrifying. Yeah. Okay, I want- Nice, the future. I wanted to, I wanted to update to one of the stories we've talked about last week as well. So as we all know, being a Cortor fan is suffering. However, there's been an update that is basically after the report from Giant Bomb, where the Cotor remake has been completely dead, dead, super double dead, no one's working on it at all, Jason Shryer reached out to speak

Starting point is 03:21:16 to Saber who were working on it after they took over from a from a spire and He says based on two sources at Saber. There are still people on it Can't say anything beyond that what size or scopers or or so but there are he got two sources that are at the company that's saying they're still working on the game So I have two things to say about that. No, three things. One, I don't believe that. Two, the physical quarter runs from October 1st

Starting point is 03:21:55 to December 31st. And three, that sometimes you get to work on a game for months after it's been canceled above you. Could, yeah, they just don't tell you. That I can believe in. Life support? I can believe in life support team, you know? I can definitely, that's possible too.

Starting point is 03:22:19 But, yeah, I only bring this up because, we're getting, we're getting conflicting reports from the inside. I'll believe it when I see anything. That's the rule, isn't it? Because currently all that exists of that is the trailers got pulled because of a music license issue that makes no sense. Um, yeah, is like, we don't live in a world where like the, the, just some fan project gets together and fucking spruces that original thing up to look incredible. But there are a ton of mods that you can use to make the game look pretty good for when

Starting point is 03:23:12 it came out at the very least. It just, I'm like, hey, it took setup and work, but I was able to, we were able to play Kotor, and then I was able to play Kotor plus the expanded content on my computer with a bunch of, you know, fudgery and bullshit going. So it can be experienced. It's not completely awash, but as far as official support and remakes and all that goes, yeah, I could believe a life support situation.

Starting point is 03:23:43 So anyway, let's send six letters. Hey, if you want to send in a letter, send a letter to castle super beast mail at gmail.com. That's castle super beast mail at gmail.com. Keep your answer, your questions short and we're more likely to answer them. Like the following email that Wolley is going to read

Starting point is 03:24:03 that is brief and concise. Hello Leonard Church says. Oh fuck it's Leonard. No. Oh he got an email in. Oh my god. Uh oh. Uh oh.

Starting point is 03:24:17 Can I be worried? What's going on? Uh, that's just, I don't. 14. Oh, that's just that's I don't 14 swing it don't don't know no no no Oh, let's just keep going. Let's see what let's see what Leonard has to say all right Well, hello, Astarians girlfriend's husband and woolly sorry no funny name for you Hey, what in your opinion are some of the best gimmick levels? Like for example, cause and effect from Titanfall 2, obviously the one we can't say here.

Starting point is 03:24:47 You know, like a name of that level is effect and cause. Like, also, what do you think are some of the worst gimmick levels? Yeah, effect and cause number one, right? That's just fantastic. You took it off the list. Um, you know, we sing from Alan Wake too. Okay. It's my number one right now.

Starting point is 03:25:07 Okay. Um, so, uh, I mean, my shits going, uh, going back, but, um, if you ever played Kirby superstar, there's one boss in that, uh, battle windows where you fight an RPG boss in a series of different desktop windows with stats and things that attack you and you're still playing Kirby, but it's an RPG fight. It's one of my favorite fucking ever battle windows from Kirby. If I had to pick a worst, I would just say, listen man, if I wanted to play space hairier, I'll just fucking play space hairier. Uh, yeah, I guess since it comes to mind recently from pizza tower, um, Peter Puppy in

Starting point is 03:25:57 Earthworm Gym was pretty fucking horrendous as far as the missions go hard man horrendous. For Pete's sake for Pete's sake. For the first of those levels. And then it was tough. And then the bungee levels, like, I like the idea of a bungee fight, but then they didn't work properly. You know, but like, Earthworm Jim had a bunch of like, like, gimmick changeups from stage to stage. And they did some work better than others.

Starting point is 03:26:29 Meanwhile, Sparkster and Rocket Knight adventures, both games, if I'm not mistaken, had a ton of like switchups as well. And like a... Absolutely. Yeah. Rocket Knight has side scrolling schmup levels. And it also has a Rocket and Sak soccer robot sequence that is really good.

Starting point is 03:26:46 Writing on the back of the ostrich, speed running down the highway, you know. Yeah, definitely those come to mind. But battle windows is this one of my favorites ever, for sure. Effect and cause. Effect and causes. Ooh. We got one coming in from.

Starting point is 03:27:10 In Cubus says, hey, William Pat, what are some of your favorite in game animations for context? I love when developers go the extra mile to idle or motion-based animations, like Sonic looking at the player if they don't start moving as the timer goes down crash bandicoot pulling out a console if nothing's happening or to get more specific I like the way that Cole and the detectives in LA noir do a little sway dance down the stairs if you tilt the stick instead of running down. Sometimes these little animations make the world a inhabit feel slightly more alive. Absolutely agreed. I have. Carlax little idle dance.

Starting point is 03:27:45 Carlax jig. The Carlax jig. Yeah. There she is. Hell yeah. Absolutely love the Carlax jig. Then, you know, I think so, so appropriately of this week, pizza tower is kind of just nothing but this. It is overflowing with idle animations of random bullshit. I can barely even remember one of them, but there's so many when you're just standing around

Starting point is 03:28:14 or when you're taunting, you know, he does all these references with the taunts as well, Akuma poses, Jojo poses, and all kinds of goofy shit, break dancing, non-stop there. I, Chai's run cycle. Chai's fucking run cycle, absolutely. It's way plus. Yo, I got my fucking, I got my high-fi rush final

Starting point is 03:28:37 in the mail today. Those things are finally mailing out. Super nice cover on that, if you're a collector, get one. cover on that if you're a collector get one. The Alucard 180 animation in Symphony of the Night. Turning around slowly, right? Like the lean into the full whip and then the cape flips out. Like that is one of the greatest fucking little detailed things.

Starting point is 03:29:03 Doesn't need to be that way, but they did it. And in similar effect, actually, K-Dash, in KOF, going from standing facing forward to when you're idle with him, to putting his hand down, to just kind of staring at you, establishing his attitude as like a kind of quiet, sullen-ass, broody dude. And then when he starts walking backwards,

Starting point is 03:29:27 he just completely turns his back to you and walks away. Like that particular combination of idle animations on him look fucking great. So much style, yeah. I can't think of anything I like better than Chai's goddamn running animation. The first thing they got ready for the game, I don't know if you saw the work in progress stuff for, what do you have for, have I rush?

Starting point is 03:29:56 Even when it was gray box, that animation was in place. What it was called project Hibiki? Yeah. Oh, Bikin. Bikin walking towards you. Got here. Perfect. No notes.

Starting point is 03:30:13 Okay. Let's see. We got one coming in from... Here, let's take this dreadbot says dear CSB in light of last weeks full-throated hard-hour drops Save the couple jobs possibly I don't know but I could just like I I spoke to woolly of like you gotta put a fucking thing up I could just like I spoke to Woli of like you got to put a fucking thing up because everyone was like Woli is shit where would you yeah like okay first of all don't play this podcast out loud at work You're stupid, but I do okay, but we say all sorts of stupid shit all the time

Starting point is 03:30:56 But I appreciate the clarification here because they're like when would Woli ever put one of these up front and the answer is I fucking wouldn't Yeah, but I'm just like, because the way that conversation went, I could just imagine it sounded like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, like to pass or buy, and then silence, and then, ugh! And then somebody go, what the fuck? So, what are you listening to to a pet message me going hey you should maybe just put some things so that people don't get fired

Starting point is 03:31:31 I was like okay, yeah sure fine But also the fucking don't you know you're less than by now what are we doing here? Okay two things you need to do not listen to this podcast in public. Don't do it without headphones. And don't eat during the week's portion of the podcast. Don't be eating food. You don't know what we were gonna talk about. It's rolling dice. It's rolling dice.

Starting point is 03:32:01 Yeah, Wolley, every like every month, there's one time when we're talking about like, you know, Wully every every like every month. There's one time when when we're talking about like you know Our fucking Colostomy bag night matter whatever the fuck it is. Yep, and somebody goes oh god. I'm eating That's your mistake. That's Anyway, so in light of all of that I'd like to know what your favorite fake slurs are in fiction. I have a soft spot for the term beater from Sword Art Online because of how much weight they put on a silly word.

Starting point is 03:32:33 A long time listener from First Time Render from Dreadbot. This has a definitive answer and I'm covering it currently with Sacred and Terrible Air, but the world is just go with theseiseum, bar none, bar none. It, it to me, the way you hear like, coicos, kips, fucking loincloths, the absolute, just that's not new. People have said that for sure in the real world. I, I, I haven't heard it. I haven't encountered that. That-crennel was the first time I caught that shit. And the way the venom with which it's delivered, the-the mechanism that it comes out through is just so filled with bile that like you feel it every time, you know? Coiko in particular is used with such just like, it's casual sometimes, it's, it's,

Starting point is 03:33:29 but it's, it's hateful other times. And like, you know, some of the moments in sacred and terrible error, like there's, you know, one in particular that just fucking hit man, where like, you really are going into a world of like, yeah, no, these are storied words that mean something to the people that live in this world and like, we're not just going to use it as like window dressing. It fucking, it cuts, man. Fake words that fucking cut. I don't think I thought that from any other slur. I've sent you an image. I've sent you an image in your Discord. To those of you who are unaware of the image,

Starting point is 03:34:08 I just sent Wully is that of Garrick and DuCott in Star Trek Deep Space Nine, to which one chief O'Brien would describe them as spoon heads. would describe them as spoon heads. And it is said with your fucking whole chest in that fucking show. I mean, that one's just extremely similar to reality though. Like that's, yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 03:34:43 Okay. Like, when you hear a character in Star Trek call somebody a spoon head, they are spitting it out of their mouth. Damn, man. I feel like Star Trek could be full of something heads, you know, based on all the forehead shapes and sizes that Gene Roddenberry is designed. Yeah. forehead shapes and sizes that Gene Roddenberry is designed. Yeah, but yeah, no. That's my takeaway, easy.

Starting point is 03:35:11 Yeah, okay. And you know what, shout out to Sonic, fucking werewolf, where I believe Spagos was coined for the thing. Yeah, I mean, you guys created that. That's different, that's not actually present. No, it's not name. Oh, that means you guys created that. That's different. That's not actually present. No, it's not really.

Starting point is 03:35:27 Oh, you know what? And I want to give a shout out to knife ears from anything that involves elves. Knife ears is good. And also what I really like, and this cracks me up, is in beast wars made by Canadians that included the swear slash like like term slag hmm which is like a kind of mean thing to say in British yeah yeah yeah they were using slag as like a scrap metal term right but it's actually but it actually is a British

Starting point is 03:36:07 fucking curse yeah that's true it's really weird and you know what let's we forget our own copyright trademarked the quibs the quibs from Quebec if you're from Quebec you're fucking you're That's my word you can't say it I remember will he came up with that by the way when you get all the credit because we were sitting around and you said Something something the fucking quebs And then we and then it was silent for a second. I'm like, that's great. That's great. You know exactly what I meant. You know exactly what I meant.

Starting point is 03:36:54 No explanation necessary. That's your best. That's the best kind right there. you

Castle Super Beast - CSB 245: QUEEBS

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.