Castle Super Beast - CSB 246: !FLORIDA EVENT IMMINENT!

Episode Date: December 7, 2023

Download for Mobile | Podcast Preview | Full Timestamps Castle Super Beast Shirts: http://tinyurl.com/CSBshirts Go to http://greenchef.com/60superbeast and use code 60superbeast to get 60% off, plus 20% off your next two months. -- Go to http://expressvpn.com/superbeast to get 3 extra months free on a 12-month plan. -- Go to http://buyraycon.com/superbeast to get 15% off your entire Raycon order. Bungie Doesn't Know How To Make Money They Just Added Citadel DLC To Baldur's Gate 3 Peak AC6 & The Biggest LP Fears Twitch Left South Korea Because We Need Net Neutrality Where Are My White On White Crimes?! The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist Watch live: twitch.tv/castlesuperbeast Bungie Devs Say Atmosphere Is ‘Soul-Crushing’ Amid Layoffs, Cuts, and Fear of Total Sony Takeover, The Destiny 2 and Marathon developer may not be able to cling to the last of its independence forever. Twitch to shut down in Korea over ‘prohibitively expensive’ network fees South Korea’s ‘Sender Pays’ Policy Is a Threat to the Internet Once you accept, the RAID AI will keep monitoring your stream for the presence of MTN DEW, if you remove your DEW, you’ll be prompted to bring it back on camera Vampire Survivors: Emergency Meeting DLC feat. Among Us - Coming 18th December Thedas Calls - Dragon Age Day (2023) Dreadwolf @ComposerCasey: So, what if I were to write more official @DevilMayCry music? GTA VI Reveal Trailer Next GGST Character to be announced at The Game Awards David Zaslav CEO of Warner Bros says scrapping films for tax write-offs took courage.

МУЗЫКАЛЬНАЯ ЗАСТАВКА Hello. Good afternoon Wednesday, woolly. How are you? Not too bad. Yeah, it is Wednesday. It is weird. It's Wednesday. It's Wednesday. It's the day before the game awards, which I have discovered in the past few days has maybe

the worst acronym I've ever seen in my life because it's the TGA's. But what you're actually saying is the the game awards when you say the TGA's., terrible. Chai tea terrible. I Mean it's so your choices are that or VGA's which then that's a different thing means you can't look up You're fucking screen or video card issues Like They both suck they both suck, but also spike TV owns that shit. Spike owns the VGA. So this has to be the TGA's yes. Well, I have a super good idea. Do you want to hear my really super good idea? Go for it. All right. Well, I want you

to hire me and you're gonna pay me $10 million to teach you and other people to be tall. Okay, now you're not allowed to look at me or measure me. Okay, but you're gonna give me all the money and if I can't make other people tall, you could just put me on any project you want

Does that seem like a good deal to you? Are there any deadlines on the on the tallness? Yeah, it's by the end of the quarter. Okay All right, I have to make all of the people that you know who are short taller Okay Because that sounds like a good deal to Sony of the people that you know who are short, taller. Okay. Cause that sounds like a good deal to Sony. I'm trying to make a joke about Bungie here. Bungie's never made any money on Destiny. Getting tall. Okay, I was like, I'm like, I'm trying to find the tall, the tall part

and where the okay is is that I'm not tall. I'm very short in fact. I tried, I tried. Okay, the thing that you don't know to much about that you can't possibly do. I mean, so bungee, a company that doesn't make any money by itself, you buy them to tell you how that your other projects

can make money, but they don't actually make any money, so they don't know how to tell you to make any money. Yeah, okay. So right in then, you know, this is like, it's a, bungee's basically that there's an article that came out describing the soul crushing environment that exists there now. And a pair and a lot of the source of this is because half of the board of developers there is currently Sony execs and the other half is Bungie execs fighting to keep Sony from taking over the

whole company. So there is a straight up war in the board room, like every time decisions are made because one group is interested in the buyout and the other is interested in not. And the fight for not being bought out rolls out into all the things we saw, like the layoffs and the story that goes into the 100 employees that were laid off last month 100 employees that were laid off last month of the 12, 100 that were there is now they're talking about what else they did to like it's cut costs. And it's fucking nuts.

Did you read this? Did you skim it? Cause I skimmed and I have some highlights that were particularly interesting. So this is IGN.com's article called Bungie Dev, say, Atmosphere is soul crushing amid layoffs. Yeah, so particularly, okay, so it's this like little like shot and chaser here, right?

One month after a major round of layoffs, roughly 100 Bungie employees of 1200 of those remaining at destiny, remaining at the destiny developer says the cuts, as well as other cost cutting measures came alongside the apparent scramble of leadership to avoid a total Sony takeover. And you're like, but why? Hold on, I'm gonna hold it on for a second. Go for it.

The first question is like, why were they so desperate to cut? And it's because the deal they made with Sony is that bungee, this board of directors got to keep running the company as long as the company made money. And if the company didn't make enough money, then the whole of bungee would just become a full subsidiary of Sony. And Sony could tell them to do anything they wanted and it would be 100% their company. So they become incentivized per quarter to hit very specific numbers or the board loses their jobs. The slow takeover, like the fucking Imagine symbol on Vegeta, you know, like yeah, tap into the power, but you know who your soul belongs to now.

Yeah. Um, so of course, when, uh, you know, the layoffs are what are we're seeing publicly. And so what this story kind of goes into is the stuff happening behind the scenes as well. The cost-cutting measures that were implemented, including a studio wide hiring freeze, reducing travel budgets, elimination of holiday bonuses, keeping it huge. Keeping its annual Bungie Day virtual delaying its week long company, Pentathlon event to next December, reducing the number of morale events, such as cooking, knitting classes, etc. for monthly to quarterly, pausing or fully ending benefits for employee compensation

adjustments. And the new launch program, the employee donation matching peer recognition program, gift cards for your birthday, performance bonuses, down from 100% to 80%. After being above 100% for good performance, several previous years of running. Okay. Other said they were rebuffed repeatedly and discouraged even from even discussing the layoffs when they tried to ask questions, employees in one department recalled a session where the department head was asked if leadership is taking salary cuts to prevent the layoffs if that had been considered and the response was

Bungie's not that kind of company. Like, run down that list again of like 8,000 things we'll try. We're so desperate. We'll try everything. Guys, so this is a bonus fun. But I won't do that. Deeper in the article, where there's people that got light, there's more people that got laid off

that were more important than were previously reported. So, Bunchy's general counsel, the lawyer, a guy named Don McGowan, who won that suit against a player who harassed Bunchy, he's gone. They also specifically laid off the heads of internal company clubs for Pride at Bunchy, Women at Bunchy, and Accessibility

at Bunchy. And two of those little clubs on their website, the web pages are broken now. So those things are dead. Just, I will do anything for cash, but I won't do that. Oh no. Like, it's, of course, that's the fucking, you know, end of the line there is we're not, we're not that kind of company. And then yeah, of course, so, you know, you're like, all right, take that as your, that's, that's the mentality, right, of, of that board of directors handling all of this. Everything's on fire, everything is in crisis. We can't let this talk to take over happen. We've got to do everything we can do. Hey, Wully, I have a cost-cutting measure.

I have a cost-cutting measure. What if? So we all know that people in QA are quote, non-developers and quote, oh, oh, oh, you're right. So I'm reading that right. That isn't quotes. So what if we fired a shit ton of our internal QA and outsourced QA? Good, good, good, good. That would surely save us money. Yes.

That's that. We can get our 10,000 hours for cheap. Just over here. Absolutely. Yep. And just if you're gonna get the same, so the Q and QA will be upheld and underlined, assuredly, if we take it and throw it over there

and see what's going on. Outsourcing, having worked both, whatever, I've talked indefinitely about it, but having worked both in outsourcing QA and internally, like, the, you've seen and heard the reports of like shit where they literally are like, people are checking into their kits and outsourcing, sitting there not doing anything sometimes and like billing the man hours regardless. You need a team of people in the studio

that are working with your developers that are there and you need them treated like human beings usually to get shit accomplished. It's kind of like this is gonna sound very strange, but I could tell that you were doing a more effective job at Ida's than you were at the outsource places that you worked based on the look on your face when you would show up to record something in the evening.

Because you would show up from Ida's and you look like a normal person who would show up to record something in the evening. Because you would show up from Idaus and you look like a normal person who someone listened to at your job. But when you showed up from like, Bable, you were just like dead in your eyes and your soul. Because the bugs that you had submitted, you knew weren't gonna get fixed.

Well, the difference is caring about what you're doing, having an effect on the out of what happens versus it not having an effect whatsoever. And like, obviously, and then caring and then pointing out the problem or caring too much is like, well, now you're an issue because you're being an ass about this. And at the end of the day, anyone above you act here doesn't actually give a fuck about what's being worked on. But the thing is of course is that for these people to be internal and like working close to the devs and such, that's the effective way to go in most cases. But you have to have this bullshit where it's like they're treated as again, non-devs, right? Like that quotation marks as everything you need to know that is the most heavy, heavy, weighted, two words right there because you're like, okay, that means they're over there.

You fucking, you blunch break separately. You know what I mean? Like you're not, you're not kind of, you're, why do these QA guys keep putting bugs in our games? And, and you just know, you know the story of your... Why do these QA guys keep putting bugs in our games? And you just know the story of how they're treated as a result of that. Yeah, it's kind of like, it all, I'm reading this, I'm scanning, I'm grabbing the bits and pieces, and booming in the back of my head is a voice

from the heavens from years ago, and it's just screaming the word wetnaps. I don't know if you remember wetnaps, but that never goes away. It never goes away. So we skimmed over it, but there's, I've intentionally leaving the best quote for last. Straight from the article, several people we spoke to told us the leaders had reiterated across multiple meetings. They couldn't guarantee there wouldn't be more layoffs.

With two specifically confirming previous reports, the chief people officer, Holly Barbercovy, outright stating that the layoffs were a quote lever and quote the company would pull again Cool like like it's a trap door that disappears people out of the company Well, you know what guys keep keep keep saying to yourselves. We're not that kind of company Right look look yourself in the mirror stare will wash your face and Look deep into your soul and say we're not that kind of company as it all fucking crumbles around you You know, yeah, just

Everything we can do every every Possible penny we can save. So God forbid the fucking execs take a cut anywhere. So it's pretty on the wall here because the deal with Sony is they have to make their numbers, right? They have to make their numbers or Sony takes control because they wouldn't be happy with the cut. And the solution to not make their numbers or Sony takes control because they wouldn't be happy with the cut and the solution to not hitting their numbers

Was cutting 10% of their staff all bonuses Cost of living adjustments and every single perk that existed for working there But you can't you can't cut those things again You can't like you can't You can't take away holiday bonuses again. More. Yeah. Right? Double-finish.

And yeah, negative XIA. And now they have to do a hundred, and they also have to delay final shape, which means they have a quarter that's empty. That's empty. So they have to do like twice as good with like 85% of the staff and the staff are all like thinking about quitting.

And this is all, you're what? And this is all like on the heels of the last, a bungee story, which was, hey, Marathons coming back, except it's not, and everyone who's a marathon fan is pretty bummed out about what they saw. That's right. Like, you know, like the thing that could be, like the excitement that might generate some money

down somewhere or something is like actually, not really, people are kind of like a test about what's going on. Listen, okay, the other thing. We're gonna need final shape to be the best ever. We cut your bonus right before Christmas, and we can't authorize you any over time. And your boss is gone.

And QA is now at half strength. So you're just gonna have to fix some of those yourself. But final shape, final shape, final shape. It's gonna be the fact that it's so funny. And by the way, as we double triple and quadruple, the workload on the individual QA teams, we also punish you for everything that your, like the inability to keep up with this increased workload,

the weight on your shoulders, every time you stumble on that, we're gonna fucking penalize you heavier and heavier because yeah, you have to do more than your fair share of the job, but that's the gig. Too fucking bad. So, we're now in the post acquisition death spiral. The next step is for final shape to come out and for everything to be inexplicably more expensive. Right. Like every single cosmetic, every single, like maybe the game itself, just more expensive

because what we need, we need to make more money on the same thing. And then this, this will lead to lower player retention, which will lead to panic firings, which will then lead to Sony taking over a company that is a shell of its former self. And again, and don't forget, and it, wait, they did that this week? What? Did I miss like a huge destiny price increase that happened this week? What? Did I miss like a huge destiny price increase

that happened this week? Oh, did that already go down? Oh, well. Did that just happen? Well, we are living in the times, aren't we? The news is all around us. Saying people say $50 for dungeon, what does that mean? They already did that.

Someone sent me a link or something. But yeah, and with each layoff there comes the increased workload, with the increased workload. And all of that, there's a whole part of this article as well that's talking about increased hostility from leadership to the teams and such as well, because everyone is just uh, uh, the Whipcrack is is coming from on high and

it just everyone hates being there. It just sucks $15 for starter pack of shitty weapons and skins you would get within two hours of playtime starter bundle. Okay, yeah, no, they're adding, they're adding the the bullshit. two hours of playtime starter bundle. Okay, yeah, no, they're adding, they're adding the bullshit. Cool. All right, so yeah, anyways, you know, it's like, like, the thing is though,

it's you have to start. You kind of have to imagine like, again, it's on fire and like half the board room is like running in circles and fucking going and freaking out. And the other half is just like licking their chops, just sitting there watching, you know, like the Sony execs are just there like trying not to drool. Every time something explodes.

Yeah, the Sony execs aren't even getting what they wanted, because Sony bought it for two reasons. One, they wanted Destiny money, which every, like, well, it got damn it. Okay, we've been talking about this for like five years, right? Everybody wants to be destiny. Everybody looks at destiny is like the success for the live service model. And it's like, you mean the destiny that Activision willingly let go

and then the destiny that had to allow itself to get bought by a different company to make ends meet like destiny doesn't make any fucking money. It does it. It's not successful. It looks successful, but it's not actually. But Sony gives them $2.5 billion so that they can have some of the money they don't have. And then they gave an extra money, specifically,

don't fire anybody. We want everyone to stay there. We want you guys working at peak efficiency. And the instant that deal was gonna fall through with the quarterly fucking rewards, they went and fired 10% of people and they're saying we could fire another 10% whatever it takes to hit the numbers. So by the end of this fucking thing, you're gonna have like 25% of the people gone. The game is gonna be overpriced and unloved because the everything's all rushed and shit and Sony's gonna go

cool we own destiny but the version of destiny that we have now sucks compared to the one we bought and that one wasn't even that good right right right right right it's it's it's kind of nuts to just a mad to still like that you're looking at a a ship that is being 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 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 the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the't know what the layoffs look like at that point, considering the way the rest of this year has gone in terms of layoffs in general. That number could severely increase. But yeah, I don't know. I feel like, again, we know about there's final shape

and there's marathon. Is there anything unannounced that is being worked on that hasn't been? I think it's those two. It's just those two, huh? Yeah. And it's like, the bungee is supposed to be overseeing the production

of Sony's live service division. Would you take advice from these guys right now? Well, yeah, so there you go. That's a, oh my God, that is the state of affairs. Like every single acquisition has led to everything just disintegrating like right away. Have you noticed that? I mean, like the, well, it's, we're still,

there's so many like, embracer group knockoff stories that like, a not knockoff of a domino effect, things that are happening from week to week that's just like yeah it's almost like there's no I don't even throw them on anymore but it's just like you know that fell apart and everything as a result of them not getting the the Saudi deal that they were supposed to get or whatever means it's all it's all on fire and

that's it acquisition Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition.

Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition.

Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquis. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquis. Acquis. Acquis. Acquisition. Acquis. Acquis. Acquisition. Acquisition. Acquis. Acquisition. Acquis. Acquis. Acquis. Acquis. Acquis. Acquis. Acquis. Acquis. got into a very weird state in the Outs because nobody could figure out who actually owned it. It had been passed around via buyouts and via mergers to the point where no one could figure out who actually owned system shock

until like the tens, I think it was in the late Outs where it was like a fucking insurance company out of England had somehow ended up with the rights to system shock, right? And then, night dive and whoever they went and bought it from them, and now we have system shock games again, right? Embracer group, is that?

They're like fucking Deus Ex and fucking legacy of Kane and fucking time splitters and all that shit It's just gonna language in a fucking copyright safe at embrace a group to be dead forever Until we forget that embrace a group even has them or they sell them as part of a fucking portfolio of IP rights to some fucking Liquidation What was it yeah, okay, yeah Unity 300 Microsoft 10,000, digital extremes, Epic Games, Telltale,

Bungie, CD Projekt, Ascendant, EA, Embracer, Volition, Amazon, like just, yeah, right. If you are part of the tracker, when you're got bought by Embracer Group, you're going to get fired. I think, okay, so I'm looking here at like, they're tracking it at about 7,000 layoffs this year,

total for a number of video game companies. I guess not counting. You know, Wully, I just got a link from an article from May, which I had not noticed. Back in May, the season pass prices for Destiny got kicked up. They increased the price on it.

Uh-huh. They went from two silver bottles, five hundred and two. Okay, yeah. So it was already starting, like back in May, which was the price increase. So hopefully they hit their numbers numbers this time. They will not. They will not hit their numbers. Well, yeah. There you go, there you go. Yeah, you want to have some fun. Go down to Glassdoor. Are you familiar with Glassdoor, woolly?

Isn't that the, is that the, is it a review site? It is a review site for your employer. Yeah, right, right, yeah. You go down to Glassdoor and for whatever reason, a Bungie devs love posting on Glassdoor on the way out. And so you get to, you get a little taste of like what's, how's it feel behind the scenes? And it always seems to be the same thing.

Like they don't complain about the money, they don't complain about the perks, which is good for video game dev, right? They all complain that the middle management and the senior devs don't listen to anyone and are like egocentric assholes. And they go, I can't take it anymore, I'm out. Mm-hmm.

That's like, there's only so many years I can work here without being listened to even a little, I'm out of here. The, like the, in pretty much, almost every case I can think of where... It's always somebody who gives a fuck and knows what they're doing is roadblock, bottle net, et cetera, whatever by somebody who doesn't and doesn't give a fuck and is also getting annoyed that you're now... You keep poking them about this thing

because they care about that. I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it. And yeah, and you're just like, it doesn't matter what these extra little things that get taken away or get thrown at.

At the end of the day, most of the time, it's like, I want the thing that I made, I want the game I'm working on to come out good, and I want that to be something I'm proud of. And yeah, it's always just bullshit like that. Shady management. You know what else is another company that acts that way? Bethesda has had people leave over specifically Todd

where they're like Todd, can I please have a new animation system? Like, like, the shit's 14 years old. Can we please spend some technical time on it? And the answer that comes back is like maybe in five years. People just leave over that. You know, and the constant is also the, um, hey, do you think if we like, there's a producer role open, do you think if we hired from somebody that is

literally in the team that knows this project inside out and is aware of like the, the exact needs on a day to day basis, that person could do a good job. It's like, yeah, sure, we could, but fuck that. We bring in an outsider who doesn't know anything about this, who's just really good at talking. And they're gonna jump in diagonally with a fake resume essentially, and spend, let's say six months or so,

just kind of walking around and... Talking to people, just talking to people. Just talking to people. Yeah, you know, and then taking whatever they can put, they can gather from those conversations and writing up a report and sending it upstairs and making it seem like they're involved in any way, shape or form.

And in the meantime, absolutely nothing is fucking happening. You know? Yeah, it's a constant thing. Just like, no, we don't, we get someone from the outside. And in a lot of cases too, it's like, well, they're gonna come in at a rate that is, you would never get internally. Of course not, right?

And it's like, that, you had to find them yet to scout them. And you are, that demoralizer right there is in many cases enough for someone to be like, yeah, okay, fuck this, I'm out. You know, I can literally, like, put, I can put, I can put this same work into something else somewhere else

and actually have a shot at it, battering. You know, so, yeah, cool. As usual, this is a story that is just a mid Fucking oh, we have a correction from somebody in the chat who worked at Bethesda that says it was the board that was actually blocking animation improvements Not Todd But yeah, this is a this is a this is a report from the the The middle of the smoldering burning house The fire is not yet out nor has the building been saved it is it is an ongoing story the middle of the smoldering burning house, the fire is not yet out, nor has the building been saved.

It is an ongoing story. So we'll see what the fuck happens. Yeah, we're in the part of the story where it's like, you're just gonna have to do more with less. Yeah, no, no, this is, this is, reporter is running into the house and asking the people trapped inside like hey, how's it going? They're like, uh not great cool

More at six Anyway, what fucking oh my god Anyway, that's fine. I'll just I'll just wash that all the way with a cool or freshing sip here of My beverage. Oh, yeah, you're delicious delicious seven up. What type of seven up is that? This is a Zero sugar Seven up, you know, it's a shame. It's a shame, willy, but I that that's not I just need some kind of Mountain Dew if you just If I can just find a way to

Right just yeah, oh there you go. Oh In the shot We good. Can I am I gonna block it little small? You can read that Well, it doesn't matter if you can read it the AI can read it it, right? The AI can read it. That's all that matters. All right, in there. Bring on the Mountain Dew Raids. Let's go, baby. Oh, man. So yeah, you ever read a story and it's like, okay, I know we all make the Black mirror jokes, but actually that's just black mirror season one episode two.

I'm gonna put my arms up and yell McDonald's. McDonald's. It's just black mirror season one episode two. Or if you'd like, you can also go grab the, the old green text. The verification can. Verification can, exactly. Yeah. grab the old green text. Verification can. Verification can, exactly. Yeah.

Yeah, so Mountain Dew's got a promotion where they're basically like you can join the do raids or whatever. And Mountain Dew's gonna raid your Twitch channel. And give you a bunch of benefits and it includes you in a group. And all you have to do is have, it's gonna scan everyone in gaming to see if they have a can of benefits and include you in a group and all you have to do is have it's gonna scan

Everyone in gaming to see if they have a can amount and do visible on camera and if you have one you're automatically Eligible to do program and then they're gonna and you can get into all those benefits to whatever however if that can is ever not visible You will be prompted not visible. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh thing this robot can reasonably ascertain is whether or not there's a can in focus. Not what I'm saying about the can or doing to the can. Absolutely. What part of the body I'm putting the can in. Of course. Of course. I'm sure lots of entrepreneurs are out there thinking, throwing a figure out great ways

to use cans on Twitch. Perhaps. What I'm comparing to the can, perhaps even those who are, there's a couple daredebels out there that are just like, yeah, I'm about ready to shut this Twitch account down. Yeah. So let's just get this can up there and see if we can find the greatest audience. Now you're gonna want to use a full can, okay?

You don't like listen, listen. I don't know if any of you guys watch Justin Wang's YouTube channel, it's pretty good. But you want to use a full can. You don't want to empty the can out. That's a recipe for disaster. You need the pressure on the inside. It is truly just, like, just when you're kind of reminded of the duhalo case, right? The special like, like Mountain Dew finds ways to just, as they embrace the gamer branch it, you cringe into oblivion with like the limited edition Mountain Dew and Doritos

openings unboxings, whatever. And they've been a little too silent for a little too long and now we know it's because they've been a little too silent for a little too long and now we know it's because they've been charging their power. You know, I wonder how much because Mountain Dew has always been the weirdest like intensely advertised of all the sodas, right? Coconut Pepsi understand that they're fucking coconut Pepsi, right? Yeah, well like Mountain Dew attacks you. Right. Yeah, well like Mountain Dew attacks you. Yeah, well because yeah, because coke is trying to solve race relations and

Mountain Dew and Pepsi whichever one say when he ain't fucking well, no, it's important. Okay. It's like coke mine of okay But but Mountain Dew recognizes that its place is amongst the gremlins, right? Yeah. It lives in the underdark. But so it's always been like the most aggressively advertised soda and I always wondered how much of that is to try and undo the brand damage that came from the rumor that I don't know where it came from but I heard it for most of my life

was that Mountain Dew fucking killed the bull. It kills your sperm. It kills your sperm. Do you remember that? That was, that's it. That's all it was, yes. Absolutely. Absolutely.

No thing. Mm-hmm. That like Mountain Dew makes you sterile. That was the, for decades. Yes, yellow five in Mountain Dew is gonna fucking kill your boys. Is all we heard of for that. I want to say the entire like 90s. It was crazy.

And like, I don't remember where it came from. And it was ever present. It was everywhere. Every time you talk about Mountain Dew. It came from... It came from the same place as as hamsters and Richard Gears asshole and yeah, and Tommy Hill figure on Oprah It came from the same place for like 20 years. Yeah, yeah, yeah everywhere the route like the shit that like you like no one knows where

but that thing is just, it is now canon, right? It is now a canon event. And then yeah, there was, there was a similar, a similar reverse thing with like, with Lauren Hill, and it's like Lauren Hill doesn't want white people listening to her music or something like that. I forgot what it was about. I want to know. Yeah, but but it's like these these these it just comes from it's like the the unstoppable rumor that is just like de facto reality being rewritten, you know.

So yeah, I think I I think what everyone needs to do is get themselves a can of Mountain Dew and keep it at the ready. And if you ever feel like, you know, it's time to bring your, let's say you use the side, I am think I'm done with Twitch. I think I'm gonna be, you know,

maybe jumping over to another platform or if you're just like, ah, you know, I don't think I want to be on the platform anymore You want to go out with a bang? Well, you could put up the bat signal first You know hold up that can and gather around everybody Before Before God knows what happens. I don't know. I would never buy it Oh, I'm saying all I'm saying is that I have only drunk a single half-can amount

and doing my life. And when I went to the doctor to get my boys checked, everything was A plus. Okay. So there's my personal anecdote. Mountain Dew never had a chance to affect my shit. I was also just reading a vice article Mountain Dew never had a chance to affect my shit. I was also just reading a vice article in which rats that were given a bunch of chemicals from Mountain Dew did in fact receive low-resperm production, but they never tested it on humans. No kidding.

That's wild. Damn. Okay. That test was in 2009. Okay, gamers, we're going to need you to not only hold up the can But also hold up the ultrasound to confirm that you totally Your boys work and that you totally knocked up your lady You got your wife Preggers and here's the can to prove it and if we we're gonna need both of those on camera at all times

To confirm your virility and your drinking mountain dew. Listen, think about it. If you hold up a thiz monster, but if you hold up a can of mountain dew, you can say the following thing. You can say, hey, listen guys, if you drink a lot of mountain dew,

you'll never have to wear a rubber. Never. If you drink a lot of Mountain Dew, you'll never have to wear a rubber. Never! I don't- You're free and clear as long as you drink the Dew right before! I don't know if that's gonna fix the problem. I think the marketing team is trying to work the other angle on that one. Um, yeah. Good times. I like that. I like that. Um, yeah. Good times. I like that.

I like that. That's good. Oh, yeah, this feels like it's going to be discontinued when somebody shoves the fucking can up their ass. I mean, if we're lucky, that's where that stops. Yeah, if we're lucky. Yeah, but I'm just'm just like oh you just Yeah, again creative minds out there, you know people are people are are much more fucking creative than me

Hey, so Of course everyone will get to see these These these glorious finales, but you know who won't get to see it. Who's that? South Korea. Oh, no! Why?

Because Twitch is pulling out of South Korea. Oh, no! Why? Speaking of pulling out. Hey! This one actually is like... It's complicated. So it's interesting because it's complicated, but it's simultaneously not.

So Twitch basically, South Korea's Twitch division is shutting down. The CEO said that they took a significant effort to reduce operating costs in Korea, but ultimately, the fees there were 10 times more expensive than most other countries, and they can't afford to run there anymore, so Twitch is shutting down in Korea. And then it's like, what the fuck is happening with that that it's 10 times higher? That's crazy. And it's like, you take a look at it, and it's like, oh shit, it's just net neutrality. Right.

Or the fact that they don't have it. They don't have exactly. It's just net neutrality and the good old days of a jet pie coming back around again. So basically the short version for anybody who is unaware is that in Korea, you don't have... So net neutrality is basically... This was the thing that was fought for some, I guess, 10 years ago, at this point, probably. It kept coming back up, but either way, it's just... You want to make sure that ISPs

and provide the same level of data and speed and access and traffic across the board universally and that you can't have anyone particular blocking or degrading any other or like getting corporate interests involved at that level so that it can avoid situations like what South Korea has. South Korea has laws that require ISPs to charge for the traffic they receive from each other, which is not something anywhere else does. The result of that is that a sender pays system exists, and so ISPs have to charge each other for all the traffic they're sharing.

And then this is of course, the cost is being passed down to the user. And this also results in, if ISPs don't pay the fees that the other ISPs charge them for their connection, they can actively block them from connecting to each other. So you can have certain groups that are literally like certain sites or blocks, certain groups are blocked from each other It's simply because they're not paying the right fees and again all of this just results in shittier slower betworse quality

More expensive way more money internet for exactly for way more money for users and it's a perfect end case example of why net neutrality is important because when it's not when it doesn't exist You have shit like this in place, it makes the internet fucking batch it for everyone. Users for operating companies, everyone involved, it just, it the whole thing sucks. And this is also sitting on a mountain of like, apparently there's just like an endless history

of corruption on top of this, right? Or like even with these laws in place, there's a bunch of like again, people taking their scam, getting their hand in the pot and such because there's, you know, there's extra money to be made everywhere whenever you have these types of systems in place and there's lobbies to want to ensure that things never change and da da da da da da da. So it's a it's a fuck situation. So yeah, when Twitch is like, we're pulling out of that. You go look at the, the situation with, uh, uh, uh, South Korean internet.

And it's like, oh fuck, that actually, I, yeah, I get it. That makes sense. It actually makes total sense. I get it. Yeah. Um, and you know, it sucks though. It's fucking, it does. It's right there. Yeah. And you know, the stocks though, it's a fucking

it does. We're out there, right? For the for the the the origin, the the homeland of the mukbang, you know, for the for the the fucking starcraft global.

You know, I really wish that the secret couple that runs the entire Korean government would allow for better internet prices that would be nice uh... yeah so much of of there's so much like internet culture that is like

related to or originated from korean it's like the fact that they have this type of shit going on is Porsche and the fact as well that like This could easily be echoed Elsewhere if enough really rich companies get their way, you know, yeah, that's right Boo big boo anyways companies get their way. Yeah, that's right. Boo. Big boo. Anyways, everyone shut up. There's new vampire survivors DLC coming in a couple of weeks.

Well, I was gonna say that like, you know, we can definitely talk about the biggest announcement of the biggest new game announcement. But hold on hold on hold on all right we're getting ahead of ourselves. I don't want to hold on I'm excited. Okay fine. Vampire Survivors, the only announcement for a game that matters this week. Emergency meeting. DLC, Among Us joins the roster. And more important than that is this was announced via what I can only describe as a trigger-esque insane trailer where the Among Us astronauts are doing moves

from diebuster. Yeah. So it's so safe. It's so safe. Among us little dudes are going into space to fight freezes army. Full on trigger explosions and and GuyNax shit going on in space. It's so cool. It looks great.

And anytime I see that I have to like, I'm always like scrambling to him like, is this trigger? No, okay, is it Volta? No, okay, who did this? And I haven't found the have to like I'm always like scrambling to him like is this trigger? No, okay? Is it Volta? No, okay? Who did this? And I haven't found the answer to who made it, but It goes fucking hard. It's so sick Yeah, looks like vampire survivors just full sci-fi chapter. Here is is is On its way very cool. Pray on its way. Very cool. Pray.

Um, What's so stupid? All right, and, and that's all that mattered. Now, did you have a week? I did. I did. Uh, that week mainly consisted of Alan Wake, um, which I'm becoming less and less willing to talk about in any way. However, I will say, Jean won Jean Park from Washington Post,

who is going on strike on Thursday in solidarity with his fellow Washington Post journalists. Summed it up really well, that Alan Wake is incredible. In particular, it's incredible in that it shows that video games as a medium can also include all mediums. Alan Wake is, Alan Wake is a game. It is a video game cutscene story.

It is a live action television program. It is a musical. It is a independent art film. I see. So it is, it is, it is actually all things. So Ebert and have Ebert play, Alan Wake, to and then ask him the five questions. And then he's out. Yeah. Okay. It's like, it's just so, I played through a sequence the other night in which my mouth was just open and I was

unmoving and staring for 16 and a half minutes. Yeah, okay, okay, I know what you mean. Um, I feel very strongly when I say this, this is as much metal gear solid six as death stranding was. Wow. Not about sneaking, not about, no, no, just about like presentation. You guys wanna do some weird video game shit?

And is any of this like, like does the fact that you're streaming all of this live versus just playing it on your road, like affecting not really, I would say. Okay, because I'm, it's helpful because the streaming audience can point out things that I'm clearly missing because the events are very confusing.

Ooh. It's a game in which cause and effect and real and not real are malleable and unclear. So having an audience to grab onto details that you can't possibly appreciate on your first run is nice. But after a couple of weeks of discussing it, you're hitting the point where getting

into further detail is now impossible because of like premise spoilers. Oh yeah, I will say that excellent use of SAM Lake by Sam Lake featuring Sam Lake. Okay. Also, I would sound crazy trying to describe it, like I would sound like nonsensical and weird. Good game.

It's a very good game. Excited to see the old gods of Asgard perform tomorrow night like I fucking said they should. Oh, they yeah, the live music. Yeah, cool, cool. Very good game. I'm finishing that game tonight. I only have like an hour and a half left to go. So go down to twitch.tv slash past stairs at you'll see the finale of Alan Wake 2.

Okay. I will. So the movie fuck. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The game has a really it has a really stellar method of telling its story that I'm really impressed up by where you find manuscript pages that just like tell you of direct upcoming events, like as if it were the script and those events are not ruined or even spoiled, they're like, regarded, they're intended to be anticipated.

Interesting. And then you get to the end of chapter, right? And you get to the end of chapter, much like Twin Peaks the Return. There's like a full radio single made for that games chapter by poets of the fall, which is either like a lounge thing or like a pop hit or like a metal track.

And it's just telling you the whole plot of the game to your face. Like unambiguously not not not like hiding it in metaphor. It's just like, this is what's going to happen. But you doesn't and you know that they're telling you what the plot is, but you're not able to just, you're not able to clinch it. It also seems like what is happening is less important than how it's going to present itself to you, which is also very important. Okay, or rather, you're not going to be like,

you've described the fact that it does these wild things or just becomes other things and switches up on you. Like it's like, okay, the events unfolding and what is happening versus how it does those things. If you can't anticipate what those methods are going to be or what those values are going to be. Yeah, no, you know what's going to happen more or less, but you don't know how it's going to happen. you can't anticipate what those methods are gonna be or what those videos are gonna be. Yeah, no, you know what's gonna happen more or less, but you don't know how it's gonna happen.

How it's gonna be presented to you, and that's already like, yeah, that's good. And it's like, yeah, it just tells you ever, like, the first song in the game is just tells you what the whole plot of the game is gonna be. And I was like, oh, good song. I feel like I'm learning the whole plot, but I don't understand.

And then like three or four hours later, I'm like, well, I feel stupid. like I'm learning the whole plot, but I don't understand and then like three or four hours later I'm like, well, I feel stupid. That was right in my face, wasn't it? The whole time Yeah, incredible incredible incredible incredible Amazing, not as good as Baldur's Gate though not as good as Baldur's Gate though. That like, I'm replaying my file for myself for Baldur's Gate, and I'm just sitting around playing with my dolls and seeing like, oh, what if, what if, Laisel was a monk? What if I didn't let the kid get bit by the snake?

I don't know. And it's just like overwhelming with super quality in every aspect. It did like, did the original game approach any of this in Alan Wake? Yeah. Okay, so this was fun because I played Alan Wake, remastered right beforehand, right? And it's, when you compare both of them side by side, it's like, compare both of them side by side, it's like,

like, come on. Like the one is one is a baby's first attempt. And the other is like magnum opus, right? But the difference is is that the hell and weight came out and fucking 2010, right? Like this was coming out alongside shit like fucking bio shock and and that era of the time. For the time, Alan Wake having a live action a TV series called Bright Falls that the dovetailed in the night spring segments, finding the pages and the general narration style, it wasn't quite as crazy, but yeah, I know. But that was novel.

It was going for it as much as it could at the time. Within that era. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I see what you mean. Right, right, right. They were like, it also had like hilarious advertisement from Energizer and Nokia. Pushing the limits of the genre and the way you can incorporate mixed medium stuff

based on what's possible now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So like you go back to Max Payne and Max Payne comes out and it's like it's comic book style but like full narration in the Norr style. And like that was weird when that came out. That was like 2000. One or 2002?

Like it was, it was like a new way to do that. Okay, yeah. But and we're not skirting too close to needing to see the Yor-Ha stage play to get the full context. Oh 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, I didn't play Quantum Break. Yeah, I don't know. And Quantum Break features two characters very prominently that are in Alan Wake 2. And I was able to pick up, yo, those are the guys from Quantum Break. Right.

That being said, there is one thing that I will talk about the game's story that just is hilarious if you did not play control because, how do I put this? Well, you've heard me talk about the federal bureau of control, right? Like, ah, we gotta take care of, yeah.

That government agency has a role to play in Alan Wake 2. And if you didn't play control, it feels like the most absurd ass poll conceivable for the story. Like, oh yeah, the government's ghost busters are here now. Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay, right, right, right. But you're familiar, you're like, oh shit, there they are. Yeah. Yeah yeah it's it would be it

would probably feel absolutely insane and and unearned cool good game I beat like a dragon guide end, and despite being kind of middling in the middle, ha-ha, it has the best ending of any like a dragon game. Whoa. It has the best ending of any like a dragon game where I had to like stop myself from like ugly crying. Huh. Okay. Well, okay, no wait.

To be fair, I haven't heard you really talk about about the endings of the other games as I like it. Sevens great. Yeah, okay. I Don't I've in all the time of times I've heard about like this the yak as a series I don't think I've heard anyone really talk about like oh, yeah that fucking like finale, you know It's always like the wacky shit along the way. And it also is really, really funny. It's really, really funny because the ending doesn't work. It doesn't work. That game does not work unless you played one, two, and three.

Hmm. Okay. All of the emotional, like baggage from that, are from like one and three. The games you are least likely to have laid, because they're old as fuck. Or even, well, there's the remakes though, right? So... Yeah, but still. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, and six. Yeah, so... Hey, guess, hey, if you, but still yeah, okay, huh? Yeah, and six yeah, so Hey, guess hey, well, if you ask me right now. What's the three worst yokas of games? I would tell you one three and six oh Okay, and those are the games that this game is trading off of Fuck No outs. Okay. Got it.

Incredible. Fantastic. Amazing. And then it just leads right into, hey man, do you want to play the, the, like a dragon infinite wealth demo? Yeah, yeah, kind of do. Okay, so finishing off I'll end the week tonight. And the game, the game awards tomorrow, the game awards tomorrow. And then I got a rogue trader, war hammer 40 K later in the week. Hey, well, is that Baldur's gate patch on the news?

No. Okay, so it's actually vitally important. So Baldur's Gate 3 got a patch this past week called Patch 5. Do you know what Patch 5 added? A new playable character? Nope. It added the Citadel DLC to Baldur's Gate 3. Huh.

It added a playable epilogue where all the surviving characters show up six months after the end of the game and have a big party. And you ask how everyone's been and you figure out the long-term ramifications of every single character in the game's quest line. And you get letters from every surviving character you ever spoke to. Whoa. There are permutations if you are dead. There are permutations for if other characters are dead. How did they finish their storylines?

Did they die off screen? Because you weren't good enough to them when they tried to do the storyline, you told them not to do. Wow. And can this be, will this update? Can it work if you're already in the middle of your playthrough? Oh, yeah Okay, oh yeah They included fucking memes from the actors They have Jennifer English reciting gift poetry and saying okay, I'm God's favorite princess Sorry, I'm a hater and a gatekeeper, but I'm God's favorite princess

and the most interesting girl in the world. They've got a sequel hook in it. They have the canonization of the death of the imp named Bing Bong from the fucking Twitch D&D campaign, the actors did two months ago. Oh, it's so really just citadel and memes included. Yeah. Character wrap ups.

So it's not as long. It's like half an hour and hour depending. But it does account for every permutation. Holy shit. Okay. for every permutation. Holy shit, okay. My dirge has won in which there are ghosts. If you kill yourself at the end of the game,

it's like, like even that level of permutation. That's the other thing too, as I guess I'm like, I also don't know how much of an open road the main story is in this game either, because I kind of assume that major plot points have to occur therefore everyone still has a story that kind of resembles each other, you know what I mean? Like, no!

It's that open- ended, your whole party. Yeah. Okay, wow. Yeah! Like a couple, a couple of companions get like long, long endings associated with them. Because like there are the original endings for these companions weren't like, you know, in depth enough.

So let's actually follow, like have the camera follow outside of the party to whatever the fuck they happen to be at. Damn. So what my, my mass effect wanted to do then? Yeah. Yeah. Is what this is. I'm also, they have, they have made it so that are you familiar with menthara?

No. Okay, so Mnthara is a drow lady who's appalled in a vengeance, who's hanging out with the govlin's, right? She's part of that whole thing. And it's been a annoyance for players because the only way to get her as a party member is to kill all the tieflings in the Druid Grove. Like she is your designated evil party member, right? Mm-hmm.

Uh, and they finally made it so that you don't have to do that. You can actually just not kill her. And get her as a party member. Okay, because yeah, I heard something about new character, but I guess it's not so much new character. It's more like... No, it's most people are able to now get more character that was there. Right.

More reasonable or... You can fix her. Okay. You just got to knock her out a little bit. I mean, that being... I don't know, but like... I'm not against the idea of like... This game has so many different things you can do

that here's a path you can go down that leads to an exclusive party member. So that's kind of cool, admittedly. It's nice to be able to have access to it in a less insane way, but I don't hate the idea of like, no, no, no, you can do this, but you gotta do this, you know? Do you know what one of the big reasons for Mynthara becoming playable is, Oh, you can do this, but you gotta do this, you know? Do you know what one of the big reasons

for Mynthara becoming playable is is that people figured out how to do it. So this character only joins up with you if you kill all the T-flings and kill all the druids and help the goblins, right? Well, people figured out, well, if you knock this bitch out, but then turn her into a sheep and then speedrun to the area in which she is an act two and then break the sheep out of the

chain. Oh, God. Right. And then do all this convoluted shit. Oh, my God. It's called the sheep heist in order to get her. And if you do all this sequence breaking nonsense, then the character joins your party normally and nothing else breaks. Nothing else. Yeah. The game continues as normal.

Okay. So people were already doing that nonsense. Okay. So they just go to the point. Well now we have to solve the problem. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes more sense then. Got you. Okay. So they just go to well now we have to solve the problem. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That makes more sense than got you. Okay. And I don't know if you have any more BG3 streams left in you, Willie, but the biggest change of happiness to everyone is one of the smallest. They have made it so that when you go to camp and you go to your party's inventory,

a camp and you go to your party's inventory. The whole party is right on that screen, including the people not. Yay. Yeah. Yeah. So we didn't run into any of that shit on camera, but off camera, I did some foldering and very quickly learned well two things. One, playing with the controller versus the mouse and keyboard, the game fucking wants you to use a mouse and keyboard. It's made for that. That's just what it is. It's clear, but two, yeah, the inventory split across the party shit is just bullshitting. You can now also, when you highlight an item,

you can send it to any party member, including one's Beckett Camp. Fantastic. Fantastic. Okay. They also changed how the radio wheel works on controller. Yeah. Now, when you hit R1,

it goes all the way to the left, so you can hit R1 to cycle from left to right. Mm-hmm. And when you hit L1, it goes all the way to the right, so you can hit L1 to circle from right to left. Which means now you can put things on the far left one and the far right one. You can go straight to it.

Do each other's things. Nice, okay. You can now hold left on the D-pad to switch from range to melee. Okay. Good call, leave it. And, oh right, Honor Mode has been added to the game. Honor Mode is Iron Man Mode on tactician,

but it has two things about it, they're sorry, three things about it that are different. One, so I don't know if you got far enough or into it, there's some weird stuff in BG3, like Paladin and Warlocks extra attacks, like counting. So like normally a Paladin and Warlock's extra attacks, like counting. So normally a Paladin and Warlock multi-class in D&D should not be able to get three attacks per round. But because of the way the system works, Baldur's Gate 3 allows it, right?

Okay. And there's also a bug that people are using called damage riders, where say you throw a magic missile and it's like five hits, and then you have a ring that is like any enemy that gets hit while illuminated, gets two extra points of damage. So now every magic missile hits it's time to, but the extra two points of damage is counting as a source.

So if you throw something that goes, it does more damage per hit, the extra two also counts as a separate hit. So they all just multiply on each other. You break it, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. All that shit is now fixed, but only in honor mode. All those busted things in your favor.

All fixed in honor mode. If you want it hard. Which is tactician, which is the tactician difficulty, but Iron Man, and they have given every boss in the game legendary actions from tabletop, which means bosses will be, so the Albaire summons a second Albaire

in the middle of the fight. Okay, okay. It means, it means the, if people know who I'm talking about, the inquisitor at the monastery summons to some in swords as like, you know, the, the priests spell where they have the magic weapon floating weapon. They summon two of those swords per turn infinitely. We're doing the entire fight. Okay. so that's, well, so the idea of course is breaking the game is fun. Let people break the game unless you want to play on the serious, okay, no nonsense, fuck you mode in which he's taking that.

And then I was a bonus. If you know how to bust the game wide open, they're throwing you up against bosses and the bosses go, hey, guess what? Legendary action. You don't know how to deal with this. Full party wipe. Save is over. So you can continue playing on our mode with regular saves in non-iron man mode. But wait, if you do beat on our mode, save is over as in. So when you go to play on our mode, you have one save file. And it is an auto save file or a quick save, but you have one. Okay.

Okay. And the instant you full party wipe, it's gone. On our mode is over. Okay. Okay. Yeah, okay. Now you can continue to keep,

so you can continue to keep playing, but it will disable the, it will disable all the save conditions. Oh, interesting. You switch back to normal mode. Yeah, the harder version of the difficulty. Fuck me. Wow, that's cool.

Okay. But, okay. If you beat on our mode legitimately, you will earn a golden D20 skin for use in the game. Wow. A D20 made out of solid gold. That's cool. So a permadeff, but not really, but like pride permadeff.

But you want your team. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Pride permadeff. You're doing it for the gold D20, man. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You can still continue that save if you want to, but you're not going to get the thing you wanted. Um, that's... So now that now the game has explorer, balanced, tactician, on our mode, but I died and kept going. On our mode for realsies. And custom mode.

Custom mode is do you want, do you want player health to be like explorer but enemy aggression to be like tactician? Do you want short rests to fully heal you? Do you want legendary actions on in balanced mode? Nice, nice, nice. Yeah, difficulty toggles. Hell yeah. On every version the the toggles they can go

Wow So yeah, bitch What an update this would be an expansion man, that's insane holy shit Not and not even but the like not new content just Not, but like not new content, just, well, 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, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, You want to hear it? Fail perception roles do not appear. Like you don't even know when you fail. You don't even see the thing go over your head. Do you want to go up? Yeah.

Okay. Because yeah, those moments are always like, God damn it. Fuck, what did we miss? They also bizarrely, not in the patch notes, the game has dick physics now. Specifically dick physics. Naturally, okay.

Also, what was the last one? There was one more that I wanted. There's so much in this fucking thing. Pen and paper mode. Oh, what's that? What's that? Pen and paper mode? I don't know what that is. Okay. But yeah, no, this is like the definitive edition. Just, oh, okay. So I don't know if you know this, but when the game came out,

there was a there's a kerfuffle because if you were playing a tiny character and tried to kiss Carlack, she would kiss the fucking air above your head. Uh, because they didn't make the rigging, right? So then they changed it so that, you know, Carlack backs down to give you the kiss, right? Yeah. But then in patch three or four, I can't remember which one they broke a starryan's kiss animation. It went from the love one to the, the kiss on like the little, little, right. So they are now going back and redoing all the kissing animations for every character including a starry and having specific animations for nooms just nooms because he hates them and he's racist to noose. because he hates them and he's racist and no

Hell yeah, there you go So you get your you get a little bit of revulsion perhaps in the Well, no, he bends that he like gets on a knee and he's like oh come here tiny person. I Love it. That's great. It is this like, oh, comparison to Mass Effect 3 is so obvious. These would have been DLCs. In fact, they were. Some of these things would never have gotten fixed. Other things they would have been $15. No, this is patch five

Just patch that's fucking incredible. I'm reminded of when Alex Lans has charged flash chop on roll in touch anoko and he like bends down and just a little yeah little child chop Little little child chess chops Just just a roll in the chest too. Everyone gets chess slapped. Yeah, very good, very good. It's what's it called? What's the what's the uptake called? patch five. Oh, you said patch five. Yeah, it's just that it's literally like patch five's the biggest one so far. Okay. Okay

Mike Yeah, like would you remember the insane nonsense around the build of the mass-effect ending and the fallout three ending Where everyone's like oh it's the worst ending ever it sucks, and then they're like fine We'll change it and you give you $10 give me $10, I'll give you a better one, right? For Baldur's Gate 3 people were like, oh, it kinda ends a little suddenly. I wish there was more of an epilogue and they're like, okay, get the actors back in the studio. Let's record a couple thousand more lines of dialogue.

And to just call it the latest patch, right? Meanwhile, we're in the same in the same world somewhere else. There's a game called Overwatch 2. You know, for this to just be called a patch and then yeah, that's incredible. That's fucking incredible. Wow. And it doesn't and again, all of this updates and you don't have to worry about,

I don't have to worry about save files. Yeah, so there is a there is a known freak in the chat right now who I make fun of constantly named New Willenium. I don't know if you've seen them in your chat. Don't think so. Beat in the game 17 times. Or buy now. Some shit like that.

Just like every time I'd stream the game, I'd be like, how many, how many, you done? And will, and he's like, did another darts play through? I'm like, holy shit. So when this patch happened, and I did a stream later that day, I'm like, is New Willenium in here? Can you tell me if your old save files work? And they're like, yeah, I kept all my pre-final boss saves

from every run and they all worked. Man. Like that early access curse, you know, being defeated in some ways, with this type of thing, that's incredible, that's fucking great, man. Okay. So those are the big deals, but there are, the things are one of those patch notes

that you click on sometimes, and they're like, we have to host them on our company website. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're just, it breaks the steam page when we try and post the whole update. You're scrolling. Yeah, it's just pages and pages and pages and pages of changes and updates and improvements. That's it's like,

like I would have said, Baldur's Gate 3 was the game of the year two weeks ago. And then they do this shit on top of it. I mean, I was also like, I feel like, yeah, no, I was just talking to Reggie about how we're like, oh yeah, the Phantom Liberty sounds like a really good patch, you know, really good update, new content stuff, and like they did a good job, like, you know,

pulling that game up and apparently, and it's, yeah, like a state now that everyone's enjoying, plus the new shit's really good. Yeah, that's in mince-playing through, he was telling me about it. That's it. And yeah, like, Paul Skate is now just entering the foray and doing their own version of it. And that that sounds fucking incredible, man.

That's that's kind of it's unfair because now once again, everything has to get compared. You know, everything now has to get compared. Yeah. Boy. All right. I to get compared. Yeah. Boy. All right. I got used to bathroom. So enjoy your bathroom. I'll also use the bathroom.

Burb. All right, since we're all over the place, let's just take a work from our sponsors now. I love sponsor. Especially this sponsor. Especially this sponsor. Ah, this week, the podcast is sponsored by Green Chef. It's, it's a chef and he's green. Oh, he's literally green. Yeah, he's green. Oh, he's literally green. Yeah! He's green. You can trust green chefs because you know when the they can green means like

healthy, right? If it's like That's what it means now If someone's gonna tell you about how to get healthy and one of those people is literally green, I'm like damn, you must be the healthiest of everybody. I don't want to. All right, look. I don't know how to eat food.

Food is important. Can I have someone tell me how to eat food? Yes. Greenchef can help you with that. There are certified, certified C-O-F meal kit company. They have basically all the options you need if you're looking to eat vegan vegetarian or keto, paleo, gluten-free, general, more balanced meals.

Whatever your diet is, then green chef can get you something to your tastes. You can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money. You can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money and you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money and you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money,

but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money, but you can get a lot of money as someone who has had a long health journey, in which I have discovered some of the lifelong habits I need to keep up, it's difficult to maintain, like the quick and easy usually means unhealthy is, is, is, is basically the deal. So, uh, in this case, the fact that, uh, you can do this and, uh, maintain,

you know, good smart choices as well. I'm, I'm definitely still paying attention to like my intake, my calories and all that. And being able to order stuff that is going to, uh, yeah, help you with that and get delivered straight to you with a couple steps is pretty solid. I'm regularly, I'm eating way more fish now in general and and fish are good to eat. Fish are very good to eat and they're calorically really like solid as well. They're really low on that. So I'm like, oh my god, I'm going to do this regularly. And they've got Sock Eye Salmon in Baramundi in Tiappia, Talapia and all kinds of seafood options available. In addition to turkey and whole fruits, vegetables,

eggs, all kinds of whole grain options as well. So yeah, healthy habits, especially during the holidays, as they're coming up, are gonna, you know, you're gonna wanna think about it a little bit more, prepare for the damage that's incoming. You know, I know that the big family dinner is just gonna do some damage, so I need to put enough of a health buff on my life bar to tank those hits. And that's where something like Green Chef can come in handy.

So, everything you need to eat clean this December, nourish your body with chef-crafted nutritionist-approved recipes with clean ingredients, supporting your healthy lifestyle, that also taste great. Dinners that are already in 30 minutes or less and 35 of the recipes can be made in 25 minutes or less. So 10 minute lunches are on the table as well, a whole bunch of options that are perfect for you. So what you want to do is go to greenchef.com slash 60 super beast and use code 60 super beast to get 60% off plus 20% off your next two months. That's a lot. That's greenchef.com slash 60 super beast and you use the code 60 super beast and you'll

get 60% off plus 20% off your next two months. That's the number one meal kit for eating well. Thank you, Green Chef. Thanks, Green Chef. This episode is sponsored by ExpressVPN. Dude, mandatory, I love ExpressVPN mandatory. I'm, I'm like regularly these days, I've been just jumping in popping on for a minute.

You know, bruh. I've hit a bunch of videos. I've hit a bunch of things where it's like, ah, nope. Fuck you, Canada. And I'm like, yeah, Expressy, yeah, this boop boop. I get what I want and I'm out. It's been it's been legitimately super duper handy. this, boop, boop, boop, I get what I want, and I'm out. It's been legitimately super duper handy. And yeah, for those of you, if you don't know, it's real simple, ExpressVPN is how you can keep your data private as well as, you know, mask your location, keep your ISPs from snooping around Okay, the holiday the holiday flavor here is I'm I love these just press VP have you been not here nice this year

I'm I'm a school you might fool Santa, but you can't fool your internet provider They've seen all your late night naughty searches this year, but you know what your business is yours. That's why this holiday season gift yourself the gift of privacy with ExpressVPN. You know, there you go. Man, there are many, there are many of benefit here. In particular, I like the one that lets me pretend that I'm not where I am and teleport to other locations, but it's also nice to not have data being collected by your ISPs are person up, but potentially

even anyone else on the Wi-Fi that you're using. If you're at school, Don't collect my data. If you're at work, if you're at your parents' house, who knows? It might not be secure. So ExpressVPN can reroute all your traffic through an encrypted server. So all your browsing activity stays between you and... I'll help out. Okay. between you and... Oh, hold on. Okay, all my traffic gets rerouted

through an encrypted server, so all of my browser activity stays between me and my God. I swear. I swear. That's it. There you go, right? Verbato, no one else needs to know. So, I'm going to go to the next one.

I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. That's it, that's it, there you go, right? Verbato, no one else needs to know. So yeah, it works on all your devices. So lab, top, tablet, whatever, you can always be protected. I'm gonna super easy to use. As I've mentioned, I just tap the button and it's on immediately. So take yourself

off the naughty list with the number one rated VPN, visit expressvpn.com slash super beast and get three extra months for free. That's expr essvpn.com slash super beast, expressvpn.com slash and And this week the podcast is sponsored by Raycon. It is the holiday season. People are trying to figure out what kind of gifts to give each other. How about you give your family the gift of getting wires out of their life? You get all of that, get the dangers out of their life, get them to the future, get them wireless earbuds, and get them the kind that are, you know, going to last a pretty long time. In particular, you've got the everyday earbuds, we've talked about them before, or the everyday indeed, because yeah,

punchbombs, we'll be using them right now. Regular, you got your multiple, excuse me, sorry, I got a little lost in the plot right there. You've got multiple different things. I got a little baby, I got a little baby man. Sometimes, sometimes you want to put some some on your ears and listen to music. It's good. It's good to be able to put something in your ears. Exactly. And you want that to last hours too. Do you sure too? And beyond the the everyday air buds as well, they've also got a couple of different things they've introduced

Raycon power tech and Raycon home. So there's magic 180 charging cables for Hyper-speed charging To iOS micro usb and type c devices Rotating 180 degrees built for durability. They've got a faucet filter, removing 99.9% of contaminants, bacteria, and chemicals in your sink water. They're getting into that too. Okay. Well, either way, Raycon's known for delivering high quality and thoughtful features at half the price of other premium auto-audio brands. And that's why they've racked up tens of thousands of five star reviews. So yeah, they got an easy return and easy and free return guarantee plus free shipping. And buy now pay later options as well.

So you know, the buy now pay later sounds great. Get get the wires out. Get to the future. Hurrying out of buy raycon.com, slash super beast. To get 15% off your entire Raycon order, perfect for last minute gifts or to ring in the new year, that's buyraycon.com slash super beast. To get 15% off Raycon products, bury-y-c-o-n.com slash super beast. Thanks Raycon. Thanks, Raycon.

Love you, Raycon. Okay. So yeah, I had a bit of a week. Yeah, what's up with you, man? Couple of things. So what went down? So yeah, I had a little birthday stream. Did some Nintendo cheers. Thank you. Yeah, did some super Nintendo games. Just some shit that you know, enjoy That's 64 stuff and Found an excuse to pop on some curvy shit as as as you do

continued in Armored Core 6 and I had an Armored Corps 6 session in which I opened up the backseat. The backseat was an invitational place where everyone could come in and talk to me about builds. everyone could come in and talk to me about builds. Wally, I'm not so, hey, I'm before you start this. I'm not gonna name names. I'm not gonna name names. But there was a moment this past week when somebody took the task to reach out to me

being like, Wally won't look at this. Make him look at this comment about the legs. Make, make him look at the legs. And I'm sitting there and I'm arguing, it's like, I am not going to do that. I'm not going to be your mother fucking backseat messenger. Oh my God, it's incredible. It's incredible.

It's incredible. But you know, but it like the more the further it goes, the more I kind of am like, but of course it is. It's a from soft thing, right? Like, this is- But it's also a mecha doll thing. It is, it is. But yes, I bet you the message was about how the chicken legs

are really good for kicking, and I should kick more. And yeah, the actual thing was that the legs are the most important part, is that you start with the legs and then everything follows from the legs. Well, I'm sure a lot of people, I mean, there might be some consensus, there might not be, everyone will fight and argue and then we'll arrive at a conclusion. But in the

end, I did have a nice, yeah, I had a session of just like, workshopping backwards where I said, okay, my end goals are this. I think Gatling guns are cool. I want a build that lets me go full heavy arms with two Gatling guns. And then let's figure out how to make that viable with that as my goal, right? And then I said, all right, and we did that and I got together a build that makes that work. And then I went, all right, now I also think the pile bunker's cool. Let's work on a build that's melee focused and then start from there and figure it out. So yeah, I was, in fact, able to get two things, two different variants out that I've saved and by crowd sourcing information and having people fight each other amongst

the comments and chat for a bit, we did get to a conclusion and I did kind of set up some bash-o-armor parts and we got there, you know. And I learned a lot about some of these stats that I was not clear on. There's some of the stuff, even with the context. There's a lot of really important statistics hidden behind that triangle button. Oh yeah. And even when you pull up the context, sometimes it's still not super clear and or sometimes it's like there's other

benefits that are not even stated, you know. So also before we go further though that pile bunker is So incredible that they nerfed the fuck out of it and it's still Easy the best weapon in the get like incredible. That's super cool I think it was like a 20% nerf and it's like it's not enough. It's still obviously the best melee weapon. Yeah And you know, I was learning that like my struggles with struggles with it were, a lot of that was based on just, like, I was trying to set up a combo that was not meant to be intended, right?

So, you know, if I was trying to create, like, a link where there was not enough time for it. But, you know, and I've kind of, like, figured out as well some of the challenges of, like, getting a stagger off of a sword and then switching to the bunk, too inefficient takes too much time. Building a stagger.

And the last patch actually specifically disabled that. Ah, okay, interesting. I didn't know that. So, like, instead, what you want to do is build up stagger, and if you're going to use your sword, use it in advance, pop stagger with a gun in the other hand, while the bunk is already out. And then if you're assault dashing assault boosting in, you can use that momentum to further carry you and pop that shit, right? So overall, it was a fruitful session.

I think the, um, like, this is clearly like, it's like, it does definitely feel like it's like, okay, this is a game where you can be, this is kind of like being in the garage, trying to learn how to tweak the car and dad's pointing out what the fucking carburetor does and how to change the oil, you know, and how to work under the hood a little bit. Except instead of dad, it is a insane in same, a morphous blob of screaming voices that are all attacking each other and you, at the same time, but every once in a while,

amongst the noise, the same word will, they'll eventually sync up and yell the word yes, sometimes together, and then go back to you. It feels like you're taking fucking tech support from like a man-sized rat king. Correct, right? Correct. Yeah. It's just, yeah, you know, it's a no-zilla kind of creature and then every once in a while,

it can get out. No! Collectively, all the voice-box, all the voice bubbles say no and then go back to just yelling gibberish you know but we got there and I was then able to take that forward into two sequences in particular one against the worm. Yeah, did you like that part and that I think Ellie and movie? Did you I won't miss I think I think the the genuine like flex on that on that sequence isn't that they have all the music drop out for the crazy moment and like you're fighting you're fighting Romeo on the ground. The thing is that that sequence does it

three times in a row and all of them are good. And then he gets no-celled completely by fucking snail. Stupid fucking shit dude. It has this like what he did the bare minimum like oh Dude, stay on why are you such a fucking that is all perfect perfect characterization. He just he doesn't give a fuck um It is it is I don't know. Okay, so there's something that happens and I'm I'm all to aware of it now to a degree that makes me panic when I'm playing Games like this and have these moments when Reggie was playing Mass Effect 1 and Sovereign takes off for the first time, there's a press X or Y to stare at it.

Prompt, yeah. And he just completely missed it and it just took off and that moment was lost, right? Yeah. And, you know, the viewer, as you do in all these games, or as watching any of this play a Souls game, is like, no, the thing is, it's right there. And it's like, right, and these moments are designed to make most people railroad towards it,

but it is true that if the camera does not lock it in, you can miss it, right? Yeah, and that has happened to me enough in these In in LPs that I've become hyperparadoid about these moments So I feel your exact because when someone if I look in corner my eye and I see all caps from more than one person go, look, I start spinning around like where is it? Where is it? What am I gonna get scared?

Right, exactly. It's terrifying because you're like, fuck, I didn't know, I didn't know. I'm trying to, you know, and it's like, but everyone else looks here, why didn't you? And I'm like, I don't know, I'm just making decisions and playing. I don't know, you know, it sucks.

It's a sucks shitty situation and it feels bad when you're in it And there's nothing you can do and nobody understands or what our cares to you so I Felt in that fight knowing and hearing how the briefing went that I'm like That that fucking glowing horizon Yeah, that matters, right? Keep your eye on that. And the game's gonna do it, right?

And when the worm goes down and it disappeared, I, and it's like, oh, they're discisit, they're counting it down. I internally, I'm not saying it to the mic, but I'm panicking because I'm like, oh no, oh no, I don't know where to look. I'm gonna look at the, but I'm panicking because I'm like, oh, no, oh, no, I don't know where to look. I'm going to look at the glow and I'm going to hope that I don't miss the thing, but I know it's going to happen now.

And I didn't know where the warm was going to be. And I got really lucky that when it popped back up, I turned towards it and got the perfect frame of the warm getting sniped. But I was so afraid of missing that in frame in that moment. And I can't describe that to anyone else that would understand except you. So there's there there's a couple things going on in that scene, not for stream people, but for the player. There's a reason why it happens three times. It's not just because it's good for gameplay. It's so that the chances of you actually getting the really good look at it

good for gameplay, so that the chances of you actually getting the really good look at it is increased. But also, it is a completely barren environment. There is nothing there other than a glow on the horizon and the worm. And there's nothing making noise either. Like the other guys are there and they're kind of peopu, but the worm is responsible for like 95% of the noise and that thing. So the idea is that even if you're not looking at it, when it pops out, it has to hit the full arc.

Yes. So you have two seconds to turn and look at the worm, possibly from the horizon, because it's the only thing to look at in the whole stage. And the hope is that if the laser fires there, you follow the line and then you hit it on camera, and it happened to work out. So people are pointing out, redon, right?

The asteroid. Redon, the same way, yeah. Right? Where do you go? Where is he? And it's such a high thing, but if you don't know, you might just miss it. And it just, you know, so yeah,

there's, I'm just so paranoid about those moments now, and I'm really glad that worked out, but I like, just to put it out there, I'm like, oh, this is now a permanent little fear in the back of my head when I miss the single cool moment Right when there's when when the camera is locked on to a boss at the very least you know as long as I stare at the boss This should be fine, right? There was um, there's a moment when I was playing Al Wix

where I walked into like a back alley and Like I switched the scene because that's a mechanic there. You change the context of the scene and you know flashes out and then you hear a guy run and jump off a roof and hit the ground and die and I go oh my god I missed it. I missed it and then I'm like that was an audio cue. Oh, that did there was no. Oh, he's just crying to that. Okay, okay.

It's just the fucking audio. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's no actual physical to that. It's just the fucking audio. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm spinning my head around to see something that isn't there. Yeah, so like video games, man, they give you the freedom to look where you want to do your thing and not everything's gonna lock you in.

Not everything is gonna say press X to turn and look over here or whatever the case is. And you know, if they do, I get it. If they don't, that's okay too. But, like, just in this unique situation where you need to know in advance that, like, don't fucking miss it or else this moment is ruined

for the LP at the very least. Like, I don't know. I just, it sucks. It sucks to have that every, and at least it happens three times in this fight exactly. So you do have the chance to like get it again. I always think back to an interview I read back in like 2003 or 2004, whatever it was. No, it'd been six or seven, but was a, uh, develop, it was an artist on Gears of War 2 And they were being interviewed over a section in Gears of War 2 in which you go into the underground and this artist had spent tons of time making this gorgeous like bioluminescent

mushroom Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, and they kept play testing it and players just wouldn't look at it. And they were like, the team was getting super mad because they spent all this, because it's supposed to be like the underground where the, the locus live is not all evil and monsters. There's beauty here, you know, right? And so the solution was to just make it a walk-in talk that you couldn't even, like

the path had the fucking thing in front of you as you, like you couldn't, you literally couldn't not see it anymore. And that was the only way they could figure out how to do it is like, fuck it, put it directly in your line of sight through a doorway, you can't not see it. Like, at moments like this, like, make me understand, again, why the tunnel vision set up is the way it is, you know? And, you know, or fucking, the soul's games, well, literally the fucking background in like, Irifil, like, you get up from the bonfire, you can't,

you can't miss it. Yeah. And then you're on a bridge that sees the vista of the city for like a minute. That happened to me in Alonwinkle the other night where the game really, really, really wants you to watch a short video, but they don't want to hide it on a TV. You can walk past. So they have you in a movie theater in the projector box and in order to leave the theater, you have to walk all the way down the aisle and turn to leave, which gives you the time to realize something is playing on the movie screen. Maybe you should stay and watch it. Yeah. God rays as a

as a you know, quick answer to don't miss my art assets. Please is you know, again, become a just if it's if it's really obtuse and if it's not as rather if it's really obvious and kind of like uh, uh, cynically placed it'll rip you out of a scene, but I also see people talking about like, yeah, the outer wilds as a pretty, a pretty good example of like, oh, you were not looking, you missed the moment, right? Well, luckily you'll see that moment again. Fair, which is why they get to have the confidence for that. Like the part I'm talking about in Alan Wake

is so confident because there's nothing actually stopping you from leaving and not watching the thing they want you to watch. They just keep you in that room long enough to be like something is happening. But if you don't wanna watch it, we understand that asking you to sit down and watch a full episode of television in the

middle of the level is kind of a big ask to force you. So in conclusion, audience, I will let you down again and again. I will continue to miss the moments, you know, as will Reggie, as will all of us. It's just it's a part of being able to fully control the camera and and turn wherever your instincts guide you. Sometimes they guide you the wrong way. But I'm I'm I'm just like that fucking fear in that moment. I'm you know, it was was real. Um, that fight was so fucking sick, man.

God, the same, the same player control that allowed me to happen upon a Single page from American nightmare being stuck to a subway wall So I could go see dumbass. I told you American nightmare was cannon is the same control that allows me to miss the coolest thing You've ever seen right not on show, cause I didn't see it. Right. And immediately following this, of course, is like a sequence in which that pop off is wild. And then I'm like, oh my God, go in.

And then speaking of just looking at things, my scale for how big the worm is is so off that I thought I was next to it and I started doing my charge burst and then like getting close to like doing actually like completely with because it's so much bigger than you think it is, you know, like just a complete fucking Yeah, spatial awareness moment insane, you know So like yeah, but that that was a fucking highlight Only to then immediately be followed by the real Raven

You start the mission get ready for this war. Oh shit, everyone's dead. What's going on? Hey, who the fuck is that? Cool guy with his back turned. Okay. Um, and I'm like, what's the deal with this? And then he's like, I'm going to show you what the actual pile bunker bill is supposed to like. I really didn't like that mission. Oh, yeah, I had a great time with it because I was, I was trying to bug him and then he bugged me. That noise could, I ran into a problem on that mission where they built it up and let's see how far you can fly on borrowed wings. Like, oh, good line.

Good line. And then the remainder of the mission was 40 seconds long because I stunned him with the shotgun and then got the full bunker on him and the fight was over in like a single strike and I'm like okay okay come at me I guess. So I had a build that like I was trying to get in and I was you know we were fighting within basically two infighters within range of each other. So wait, there's a monologue in that fight. I mean, there's a while the fights going on his his CEO is like talking mad shit to you. Talking mad shit to you. And like one of the one of the sickest points is like where she like she says something to the effect of like

Yeah, you can keep the name We just want to see if you're like worthy of carrying it or something to that effect You know like it there's there's there's a couple really good lines in the middle of it It was great. It was great And I was trying to yeah, I was trying to go in hard and got rocked and sucked. And I switched to my second build. And then I was able to just fucking gatlin gun it from a distance from mid range, you know, which, which, yeah, it was significantly easier with that build. And then I saw people kind of going like, good that you went in that order because it's less hype if you delete the fight

by fighting out from far range, whereas being in, you get to feel it. So, very cool. I'm glad that they tweaked the weapon damage to the point where like the shotguns didn't get so much nerfed as all the rifles that needed to get upgraded got upgraded like it was very even. So there's a couple things to I think that are like if you're a veteran of the franchise you kind of know at this point how to handle these fights and stuff but I'm still trying to get the hang of I guess is, is like, I'm doing a lot of dodging,

a lot of boosting around, because I'm trying to constantly not get shot, right? And then when I hear the double beeps, I know something big is coming, so then I have to kind of wait and then time that one especially to really get out of the way. But for the most part, I'm spending most of the fight treating my boost as if it were like footsies, you know, in a way, like you're trying to, you know, not get peppered by

by too many of the, what too many of what's theirs and are shooting at you. I did see some folks kind of saying that like I'm boosting way too much as a result and I'm kind of not paying attention to the enemy as a result of that. And I'm kind of wondering, I'm like, are there times where you're supposed to just take the weaker damage from the shots coming at you and then wait to dodge the bigger things. Yeah. Because I'm trying to not get hit at all. Which is why I'm... That's not feasible. Right. But I'm trying to like get hit as little as possible, which means dodging as much as I can

to and hopefully not being out of boost by the time something big is coming. to the to and hopefully not being out of boost by the time I think big is coming. I want to say iron pine was that iron pineapple did I think he tried to do like a attempt on parts of the game without getting hit. And while it's technically possible. It was Vati. It was Vati? It was Vati, yeah. Vati tried to do like Balteas without getting hit. And while it's technically possible, you're gonna get fucking hit, right?

Right, so this is a similar to like, again, it's a from soft moment, I suppose, right? Where I play, you play random video game action game and then you go and swinging at things, you just face fuck whatever and then you take a hit, it doesn't matter, you go and then you play souls and then it goes, no, you have to stop and pay attention, right? In this case, I'm looking at trying to avoid all incoming damage as much as possible, but is the right approach to actually be like you're getting peppered by something that's light so it doesn't matter you can still take this, just wait for something bigger, and or I guess pay

attention to ricochet range, you know. Um, because, um, I think too as well, it's important to note that like everything I've, every boss, everything I've been like challenged with so far in the game, I've managed to beat like, you know, after a couple tries to try out like, exactly. Uh, I think I stopped right after that, the, the, the Raven mission. Um, okay. So the, the next, so I'm the next stream of the next one after, you're gonna run into some fucking walls. Yeah, but that is to say,

I think it's important to state as well. I have not hit any wall at all. I've been able to go past everything that is happening. Yeah, I was exactly in the same position as you. There's a wall coming. Okay, that's fine. But it's also like, when I'm not hitting that, but like, there's still like,

dude, you're not doing it right. It's like, okay, then I'm trying to correct for something, but I'm still making it through. I'm still progressing. I have yet to hit a point I think where I've had to like, I've had to switch back builds and stuff and take another approach like I do with the Raven there, but I haven't hit anything that I just cannot surpass right now at all, you know. So in other words, like, I'm trying to, I'm asking about this, but it's also like trying to tighten up something that is not currently impeding my progress.

You know, anyway, anyway. It's more just like, it's feedback that I didn't fully understand what the thing is supposed to look like and I didn't, I guess I also could just go look at like replays or such to see what other people are kind of doing or playing. But you know, I ultimately though, it's like we're still moving, it's fine. I just don't, when there's a wall that presents itself for sure, I know that'll happen. Apparently the wall I'm discussing got nerfed just like redawn did okay They got to stop nerf in these bosses Right really doesn't realize circle stripping will dodge most normal attacks boost his own late for the beeps Yeah, I can I I'm assuming that bullets and lasers are gonna hit me standing there. So, I kinda thought of the general movement as like,

like playing fucking doom against the Spider-Mastermind. Like, just as long as I'm just doing that circle. Keep doing it. Like, a lot, like, so I'm gonna just, you know, just keep doing it. Cause, you know, just keep doing it. Cause, you know, in some ways it's like, okay, you sort of, like you beat this, this soul's boss, you were out of estus by the time you were, you did, you know,

that means you obviously could have learned the pattern better and you could have been tighter about it. And you could have, you know, whatever played, played more perfectly and memorized more and such. In this case, I'm like definitely using all my healing, you know, in each of these fights and such, but I'm like, is there a version of this where it's like, oh, you just, you can completely ace it.

And if so, is that like only with a specific, perfect build and like a god tier setup that you are coming in with that's exceptional. Or can you in the realm of just knowing how to play with your parts properly like stomp pretty convincingly through new game. I don't know. I guess we'll find out. All right.

Anyway. Um, I'm so you are you familiar with the replaying the game to get more endings? Mm-hmm. The game doesn't get hard enough. Cause like, you know how you struggle through the first time through and you, oh, you, oh, you, this took a shot

and maybe this boss took me a couple tries and you get to the end and you have more parts and then you're rolling into like your second game that you know, with the knowledge of the first time, there's a couple things that are a little harder but like if you fly through runs two and three. Okay. All right, well, in any case, you know,

I'm whatever, I'm gonna, you know, do things like use the kick more, try to work a bit more and play a bit. I think playing offline too, and doing some of the arena, I get a more comfortable feel for things, but there's a couple of moments of, I've hit of like, what do you want from me exactly that I'm trying to learn here? Either way, those are a bunch of incredible moments

and coming off of Baltas into the Raven fight. It's like this thing is this is a fucking... Yeah, it's super hype. Very cool. I also played hollow cure. The, oh my goodness. The, the, the fucking look to the hollow cure. I went, I went back now that it's been updated with more stuff to check it out in my whole bullet heaven. It's like, you know, phase here. And it's one of the really good ones, man, for sure. Yeah, it definitely is.

A lot of the weapons you get have some really unique applications. I love the fusion mechanic that they have as well, similar to the Vampires of Embers. They have a pretty good system here. It's interesting having a super per character. It is. It's interesting, but it leads to the main thing, which is like all the stuff you can do and all the characters you can unlock and not even need to put the super in kind of thing. Because like, I wouldn't, prior to Empire Survivors,

I wouldn't have been looking to play that kind of game, but it just, you'd be like, okay, whatever. It's twin stick, it's fine. I've played twin stick shooters, you know. Yeah, we've got to enter the gungeon, et cetera. But I just, I like, I didn't know that that's the type of like brain turn-off moment

of relaxation that I wanted. And as you brought it up last time, I'm like, oh yeah, I feel it here. Like, it's solid. I just, like, I just wish there was the little toggle you could turn on for that. Like you can in halls of torment, where you can make it full of twin-stickin aim,

or you can make it just like, you know, auto and go type of thing. Which, you know, it's a pretty easy feature to throw in there as well. So maybe we'll see it in the future. But that particular thing aside, it's great. It's really, really good. And I was playing, I play, you do that first level and

you're like, oh, this one's really generous with letting you, like the first level, like getting the updated version, playing the first level, the first time I beat it on the first shot. And I was like, oh, yeah, right away, huh? Damn, I like got super powered up and was like just crushing that stage easy. And then the second stage was like, fuck you. And I was like, oh, okay, okay. There's a jump here.

You gotta go actually spend your money And there's like because there's so few stages, I guess there's a solid wall to climb in terms of unlocking between each one But yeah Solid thumbs up otherwise beyond that Just by the way before we move on from bullet heaven. I should mention They banned bar survivor stealth dropped a content update while we were talking besides the among us one. Yeah, the among us ones and a

disseminating a couple weeks. Yeah, adventure mode dropped today. Okay, the fuck is that? Okay, the fuck is that? Oh, okay, adventure mode is where they give you a specific character and specific weapons and you have to play it through like a level, like a real level. A progression level. And they have storylines. Oh my god.

The fuck is happening with this game? That just shadow dropped. Like I got a 50 megabyte update. I'm like, what the fuck is happening with this game? That's just shadow dropped. Like I got a 50 megabyte update. I was like, what the fuck is that? Incredible. And sure enough, there's a new unlock that says, unlock this to unlock base game adventure mode. And I guess that would have to be compatible

with co-op as well, right? Of course it would. That's fucking sick. Damn, crushing it. What a fucking... I can't believe I'm like legit. I'm like legitimately excited to see what these little among us fucking characters can do. I'm like, yeah.

More vampires and vivers characters and powers and go. I bet they can do a lot of stupid shit. Hell yeah. Super down. Um, good shit. Well anyways, though, I'm gonna definitely be playing, I'm gonna keep unlocking some stuff at Hollow Cure just to see how far that can go. But I'm gonna, yeah, I hope they put in a simple lock-on feature.

The Killer Instinct Anniversary Edition patch is fantastic. Go check it out. Uh, yo, what? So I don't know nothing about current killer instinct. But wow, Jago's fucking sure you is not now. Yeah. That's like an honest to God real sure you can in that game. Holy shit. That's like an honest to God real sure you can in that game holy shit Bro, I mean just learning like cuz Keats came by the stream and was just like like cuz we're you know going over little updates And then like Reggie was played Jaygo and Keats was like oh hey by the way you could do this you could do that and then I was like Fuck me so yeah Jump over the fireball or get fake fireball dash- sure you'd, you know, whatever the cake, like,

it's really good. A lot of balance patches across the board, but in general, if you're not, if you are not paying attention to the nitty gritty on it, the point is you can fucking continue to play this. It's online, it's net, net code is good. And it's just, it's nice that it's still around and they have the ability to actually keep it alive.

I feel as if this type of intent shows like, hey, we're not going to commit to a sequel. We're not going to commit to money that it would cost to make a game that could currently challenge, you know, Tekken 8 or Shoot Fighter 6, but maybe we will port this over to the next X-Bone that we drop or something like, you know, we'll just keep it to the new place. That's it. Just so that you can play it. But, yeah, it was fun to go back to that and play online a bit and experience the open mics that are still there.

Even though the Xbox Live Connect mics are gone, the game still by default has opened mics on. So if you want to hear everybody talking shit, click and button, see still can. I might. I might. And Dragon Ball Fighters has rollback. And it works. So there you go. I loaded up the Dragon Ball Fighters and couldn't get

no single fucking match. I played it for like half an hour. What happened? Every single time it said, hey, a fighter has been found, I would click on it and it'd say, the your preferences, sorry, the fighter's preferences don't match you and then cancel the match. And I did that for a half an hour and I was like, well, there goes my curiosity.

On public data? Yep. Weird. Did you have a setting that was like, I was like, I'm like limited or whatever. I just, I just, the only thing I had on was like We huh I don't know was on Wi-Fi. Yeah, I guess I was does that game have a Wi-Fi thing? Oh, were people denying your matches because of Wi-Fi? Mm-hmm, I don't know it could be

but I don't think I don't remember seeing any setting that even let me distinguish, but if that's what it was, then it's possible. You could try like, if you just, you know, do a quick test. No, I don't care anymore. It's done. It had it's shot to work and it didn't. So if you were you cause I was gonna say like if you try to just wiring in and then seeing if it if that happened again, you know, but okay. Well understandable filter. If that's in fact, what happened gate keep me ironically, okay, we can't stand can't stand on this side of history

He can't stand I can't yell at yourself in the past on the other side of the street Hey, man, I'm a I'm a constantly evolving maturing human being. Oh my god street fighter doesn't tell me no Shit to yell back through the portal. I don't know, we don't know if that's actually what happened, but I had a bunch of great matches, and it seems like it was working out pretty good. And most of the time, it feels like the Arxis rollback tests are much smoother, SNK struggles, but you know they this is one of the

Arxis ones that yeah it's it's it worked so. Anyway that's pretty much it we're gonna be back with some more FF9 I think we're gonna be wrapping that up soon we're approaching that. Oh yeah yeah that final disc I suppose. And I went to distant worlds, which came to town, um, this weekend and it was funny because, you know, distant worlds is great. They're playing FF music. It's, it's a good time. And then they hit that FF nine section and then like, you know, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, Regis partner and mid and there are everyone there's like, okay, guys, heads down. You can't, you can't look at the song. You can hear it.

So song spoilers, but don't look, you know, so we did, we did bury our heads for a part of that, that night. And, um, but it was interesting too, because they then also, um, they played, uh, they played a shadowbringer song, and then they played the last day from Endwalker. Oh, that's a good song. That was very cool, that was quite cool. Yeah, and seeing stuff happen, I'm like,

I don't know who's what or what's going on, so my brain has nothing to attach to, but characters and visuals. But that was some... That's shit. That's a... That shit was on repeat in my house for weeks. Yeah, the... Was it also... No, I'm not gonna bother. Because the last day is actually like multiple songs in a row Okay, and the question is this doesn't include with hearts aligned, but never mind

I don't know, but it did feel like a lot of songs it's I feel like it jumped around it had different sections to it. Yeah, because it has three songs that it jumps between and then it has a fourth song at the end Where the guitar riff starts. Yeah, I can, I can, I can report that the audience pop off for sokin was louder than the one for Uematsu. Well, he's been, he's been the face of the most popular fall fancy for like 10 years now. It's rather the ear, ha ha ha. But that was quite a sight to behold, you know,

like in terms of volume, like the screaming got louder for the soaking moment than it did for the, you know, I was like, wow, at a fucking distant world, that's crazy. So yeah, no, very cool. FF9 continues, and yeah, we're gonna be watching the game of Words Tomorrow as well.

So tune in for the- Bloodborne! They're gonna have bloodborne there this time! Right? Well, there. That's so song! Here, look, look, yeah look like yeah I'll be there oh willy versus on on Twitch and on on YouTube um the rumor mill has it that a couple things are gonna get announced right uh what an earth earth earth bound for Oh, my favorite in particular is blurry fucking

Nokia camera L-Felt Confirmed for guilty gear strive. That's a good one. I just like guys Like that that L-Felt thing popped up and just click twice like this is both like this is immediately bullshit Are we still like really like what really you're gonna feel really silly when they announce I felt I feel really Dropwood and River yeah, yeah, if we do see L felt I And if L felt does get confirmed like it will not be the thing that we saw in

That artwork there and because it's like one the pose of that character is just fucking Bridget Pose traced over essentially you know the um um weird things going on there and then like you're like we have not had off camera Nokia camera leaks with the shitty fucking rotate like a nothing gets leaked that way anymore that's gone that that holdover of like bad blurry angle camera in the in the place I'm standing where nobody saw me take this suspicious photo nothing gets leaked that way anymore it hasn't been that way for like 20 years now and the fact that people still can't tell that. You don't know that. It could be fighting game shit. Like was always it would be like that would be blurry location test footage, a crowd of people. And you'd

see like someone standing next to the machine to get a little bit. But at that point, you know, it was already a public location test. so they weren't really hiding much. But like that style of like, uh-oh, the new character has released. Now is that so it's a full-on render that's leaked because they uploaded it to the website from Marvel and there's, there's all 12 characters coming to ultimate and you can grab their JPEGs and just see the full thing right there. You like, you know, no, that it could be. It could be. Okay. You know what?

People have shit, people who take leaks have shaky hands because they're so excited that they're leaking it. All right. Well, I'm fully prepared for my ass to be blown the fuck out if this does in fact, turn out that this leak was real and such. But it looked very, very fake to me when I first clicked on it and looked at them. There's one, the third screenshot of her doing the, I think it's her 2D attacker, so,

it is one of the ones that looks more a convincing of the three. And they did say they're gonna announce a new strive character, so we'll see who it is. But there's also a whole thing going on too with like a, like, whatever, a leaker, like troll artists and stuff, making, there's stuff going on on Twitter

that I'm like, I don't know the full, just of this, but just, smells, doesn't smell, doesn't smell too convincing. I don't know the full, just of this, but just, it doesn't smell too convincing. I don't know, Wilson. How do you feel about Ed? I feel like Ed's possible. They can drop that to the render that got out of that. Yeah. That, his fingers look really skinny and weird on that render.

That could be real. It looks like that could be ripped from a product page, you know, more so. The fact that it seems like that's like, that looks like it was uploaded to Steam or to PSN and it was like here's a DLC like, just page, preview picture that somebody grabbed, which is a convincing thing. Or I'm like, yeah, that would make sense.

That gets updated. In the same way that like, when, if someone, like nobody, I've never seen anyone fake this, but when you see leaks via trophy icons that got leaked, right? Yeah, that's a good one. I like that. That's a very consistent, like, yeah, no one's tried really faking that, but every time that's been pretty consistent, it's like, oh yeah, they updated and trophy icons are now out there showing you, or telling you describing stuff that's not confirmed yet, you know. So this feels more in lines with that, as opposed to just

like we're doing the, the, the Marvel 3 screenshot with, with zero and every, it's like Marvel 3 with the big fucking red three and shit. And it's like, oh my god, man, like blurry camera to the side. Oh, yeah. How do you feel about a virtual fighter to Japanese cabinet? You know, I feel I feel like I feel like people I Feel like the internet is getting worse and worse and worse at recognizing sarcasm So ultimately put up a tweet that was like

The new project is virtual fighter to and it's gonna be located in a single Japanese arcade. And if it's reception is good, then they'll put it inside of the deck. And I retweeted it with like, I can't live like this, right? Or every day is a new agony. And then a bunch of their plies were like hot and pat. It's not real. It's a joke. Like, yeah, dumbass! The joke hurts my feelings.

Because Virgil Fighter is dead! And Virgil Fighter 3 TB arcade to Japan only does exist. So... Yeah, but the... it is a French... But the thing is, it's not dead. That's why it hurts. So fucking dead. But it's a live, held the thing is it's not dead. That's why it hurts so fucking dead. But it's a live held hostage inside another game's body. No, that's not alive.

It's it's a playable. It's playable inside of another game. It's being held hostage. Just shut up. Um, and if it wasn't... You know what the worst thing is, the worst part is, is if Virtua Fighter 6 does show up either to the TGA's or the near future, I'm like, it's a new Virtua Fighter and it'll be everything that I've always wanted and it will full be there and it'll look really cool.

And I'm like, whoa, Virtua Fighter and then the general response is gonna be like, I don't get it, looks really boring. I'm like, right. Yeah. It does, it does look really boring, you're not wrong, but you love punch, you don't understand. Like, don't know how to, you know.

And this is like, we're well, there was a saga of Will Virtuofiter continued to live on as DLC for DOA, right? There was a whole chapter there, and then it became a, yeah, it's inside of Yacca's, and then it got it shot, but then they went with Blitz racist net code. So sure. You know, anyway, something's gonna get announced.

We'll see. Low punch. Unstoppable, best game of the game. It's really reliable. No, no, no, break this throw that has eight Possibilities I could they they you'll do that anymore is it's just it's back forward a neutral Okay, but but isn't go still gonna fuck you up Isn't his whole yeah, but it's still back forward neutral. Okay, well, if I have to do back forward neutral multiple times in a row,

and guess it is King though, right? If you go look at the King flow chart, and there's just, you're like, okay, 33% 50% and then yeah. Nah, man, all you have to do wrong four times in a row, guess I'll die. Guys, all you have to do is pay attention to whether the left hand is above the right,

or the right hand is above the Shut up stop it stop it. It's cool God all right, uh, Jackie does that back flip, but it's really good It's a really good back flip. It's very good. It's it's does so much fucking damage Instant it's crazy so much fucking damage. It's like instant, it's crazy. And then Kenny can yell bitch I'm wild and do the body splash.

And Leo doesn't make allowances for old men. He doesn't do it. See, but I preferred when he didn't make it a habit to fight the elderly. Like, I feel like they corrected the translation on that. And I'm so funny. He translation on that and I'm so funny He'd say that and he'd be fighting like somebody who'd be like 20 years Shut but like he'll but like he also would fight shun, you know and yeah

Just way back in the days. I don't make it a habit to fight the elder we my Fe I you know, I've tried to find it. Well, I've tried to find it Because I've described it. I've described it on stream and I've described it to page and everyone looks at me like I'm insane but I I want I want to find the video of the win pose that you can get in final showdown for Leon where he dives To grab a shina enu that's going to get run over by a car in the middle of the ring and he rolls around with it going I'm the winner!

It's what the fuck is that? It's so nuts! PKM2, Pikesaga. Oh boy. If you can find that, just fucking. That's great. Fucking send that to me. Anyway, yeah, there's all that to the rumor to pop up as well. You know, I just need to stop for a second.

I need to talk, you're the only person who'll ever talk to me about this. Virtua Fighter is, because you know, when people are like, why, why, why street fighter, why this? And it's like, oh, because I like the characters in street fighter, they look cool. Right? Virtua Fighter is the proof that, yeah, you should probably spend like a couple minutes on the visual design of your game, more than not at all. Here's what I'm actually curious about. Let's say,

VirtuF fighter looks like a fucking VR game made as a training regimen for the fucking US Army. Like, all bits aside, like if VirtuF fighter were to come back today, and they were to announce a VF6 to like, you know, come out and compete, right? What would you like to see done with gameplay for the modern age, right? Two new characters. Just ignore, ignore everything. Keep it the way it always has been and drop to it and I want two new characters and that's it

No system changes. No nothing nothing to explain. I was incredible Zero appeal for the new generation. No fuck oh Niners Every we just make the characters look really sweaty. I don't I don't care. All right. All right. Okay. How about this? How about this? Two new characters. Everything else stays the exact same as it always was. And yeah, only 1,000 people may download the game. And that's the cap. After which point it is removed from the store. No. No. It'll only, the first thousand people to get the game will be the only ones that will ever have it and that will be peak forever.

I don't, I don't know. There you go. You can't just have performance expectations. Speed be, I, it's a cost. I like it the way it is. I don't know how to, but I don't want it to have fireballs and shit. I want it to be the fighting simulator. Yeah, it wouldn't be that it's not a fireball and shit. It's more along the lines of like something like a focus attack or a you know

a just a neutral skip universal mechanic, but that's not the spirit of virtue fighter. That's the game. That's not the spirit of virtue fighter. It's the game. That's not the spirit of virtue fighter. It's not. I get it. I get it. But would they ever, would they, would they green light it, you know, because what people are saying.

You know what, you know what? Okay, okay. Okay. All right. I can, I will, if they make virtual fighter six and they make a new virtual fighter and they have it be a different game and big system change, they should have the low punch go from being eight frames to being 12 frames. Okay, okay, okay, okay. And that and like, like people who don't know, don't know,

but that would actually change the way the game looks dramatically. And when you get hit by like enough, you, there's a bar that you build up, and when that bar fills up, you've gotten hit and by like, let's say like five low punches, your next low punch is now back to being six frames, right? Or so like you have a slight meter that adjusts the speed of your crouching jab. They already made the like in final showdown they redid all the throws so that

they worked on talk and the small characters so that the throws all look good on everybody. That's that's cool graphics but it's not flashy. It's not a fireball or like a fatality. Thisality. You're in the boardroom talking to Sega right now with the flop sweat. How do you convince them? How do you convince them? I was like, I want it to look boring. That's part of the appeal. You have everything you ever wanted right here in front of you.

The briefcase is on the table. The ink is wet. I just sell it. Just sell it. I don't want it to change. I just want more people to like it. All right. All right. Alright, alright.

How about a whole bunch of Yakuza characters are now on the roster, and it's basically I Mark it it something Something no there are two new characters and they have a Spirifying styles that no one cares about and Create a characters and their names are like Joe and Sam and You're like what the this care who cares and I'm like someone will care like when I lean happens people really like Dileene let the record show that he thought about it for about five seconds there was a pause all right all right There we are.

We'll see what history has to say. I'm right, I'm the right- Who's Eileen? She's the Korean girl who uses the monkey style. She wears like a red outfit. She's the Goku of the game or the Sansan. She is the Goku, yeah. Mm-hmm. She's cool, I like her. Well, do you remember when Go showed up in VF4 and he was like a guy who had a piercing and like his skin was a little ashy and people went,

whoa, who is this zombie in virtual fire? It's the anti Akira. Yeah, it's the fucking the dark Akira has arrived. Like he's just a guy with some little eyebrow piercing. Goff-goo, goff-goff-dude, oh man. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Dark Acura, yeah. But it's also a game with derral, so, you know. Anyways, all right.

Plates derral, and nobody plays a single player, so no one's fucking, no one knows derral. All right. I know it's slightly off topic. Will, are you familiar with Panera Lemonade? No. Okay, so Panera has a, so Panera's a bread company. Yeah.

And their Lemonade has over the past couple of months killed two people. What? Yeah. So it's called, what the fuck is the name of the fucking, it's called charge lemonade? Oh, I heard about that. Charge lemonade, yeah.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. A single 30 ounce thing of charge lemonade, which is like safe and plant-based good lemonade for a little Pepp has 390 milligrams of caffeine in it. Yeah, it does Okay, two people I heard about the one I heard there was a girl yeah guy and Florida just died drinking it Okay, because the one I heard about was like a girl drank it, but she had some prior conditions that were heart-related. Yes, I think with this guy.

But the reason why they decided to drink this charge lemonade is that they didn't know that it had, how much caffeine does this monster can have? I think this has 100, this can of monster has 140 milligrams of caffeine. This group has 142. That lemonade is as if I drank three cans of monster in a row. And it was like, hmm, delicious lemonade.

Hey, man, never forget that for loco had to get patched. I do. I do remember that. So you have to put a draw on from these lemonade's because they're being told that it's just lemonade. And then they're drinking it. And they're basically doing cocaine. And they have existing heart problems.

And then their heart just explodes. Thank you, Penero Bread. I heard Penero is pretty good. I want to try the lemonade. There you go. Pat. Were you aware? Did you know? Whatever, whatever this is gonna be, I fucking hate it. Did I turn on the bit voice too strong?

You really did, okay? Because you actually, this is, I don't know if you notice this, you actually incredibly rarely say my own name to me. So what, like, so when you say Pat and then pause, I know a bunch of bullshit is coming down. Oh God, David, all right, all right. Well, I just, I wanted to bring to your attention

something that you might not be aware of. Did you know? Oh, fuck you. Did you know? Oh, you. Did you know whatever it is that black people live in Florida? I, you know what? Uh, I was also aware that there may, may be one or two Hispanic people. It turns out Miami, perhaps more than that. Actually, there might be a lot more than that. It's kind of wild Crazy shit

so you know if If a trailer were to show that and all It might that and all, it might shock and upset some people. They might begin to mold at seeing the existence of black people in the video game. It's kind of wild, I don't know. Are you talking about that Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer? Boy oh boy, am I ever.

My, I was watching that that that kerfuffle happen I think there's a famous famous or controversial tweet like it's all just so tiresome The woke mob got to GTA blah blah blah blah blah blah Right and there's screenshots of like a beach and like most of the people on the beach are like black or tan, right? Yeah, just sitting here going like If you live in Miami like a beach and like most of the people on the beach are like black or tan, right? Yeah. And I'm just sitting here going like, if you live in Miami and you're white and you don't have my complexion, you're gonna be at least 10.

Like no one in Miami looks like me. Dude, like even white people So I fully I saw that and I and I like I expected to see some screenshots of like okay her comes like Here's the thugs and here's the strip club and the twerk you get a duh whatever the fuck they go off about and then some of them are just black people just standing around existing And then some of them are just black people just standing around existing And it's like oh the you're the most crime just really Just just standing there just being a person in the world and dudes are like It's can't stand it

Can't do it kind of it's kind of incredible. You know, I didn't, so I only saw that after I watched the trailer. I did, you know, we watched the trailer. I was like, oh, this looks like a pretty game. That's cool. You know, and hey, look at all this Florida authenticity because it's like one to one. There's that alligator moment. There's that other alligator moment. There's that crazy lady. There's that other alligator moment. There's that crazy lady.

There's that other crazy lady. There's that other crazy guy. You know, there's wild. Exactly. All of those Florida man moments coming together and throwing, and then all the Floridians being like, yep, checks out, represented. That's us.

Yeah, only to that fucking like open up the fucking just, Yeah, only to that fucking like open up the fucking just the the the the nightmare that is like mother fuckers just raging over like oh my god Controversial here to somebody who is upset at seeing The the people of color and the Grand Theft Auto 6. But I just say,

but I'm just saying like, a black man can steal your car too. It's equal opportunity. That's crazy. I, anyone can steal your car. I bought this game specifically so that I could see crimes committed for white people.

By white people like by white people Where's my white on white crime sir? God damn it. I bought this for one thing and one thing God damn it! I bought this for one thing and one thing on... Ha ha ha ha! You know... And now they have the audacity to say, women can commit crimes too!

Ah... You know? It's not... And it's not... And this is completely consistent with all my other opinions about white crime and media, for sure. I have nothing else to say on the matter at all whatsoever, but god damn it Where's my white on white? Oh My god, yeah, wow it's anyway, so um hey I

think that was a That was a pretty trailer. I would love to see some gameplay um and um trailer, I would love to see some gameplay. And, um, yeah, I, I, I imagine that the social media they showed off there is actually a functioning real social media app that you're going to use to like post shit that other people, other players can see. Like it's not Spider-Man fake, you know, like, oh, check out fake Twitter over like,

I bet you a big part of this, especially with the whole role playing culture, is that they invested in having a real functioning social media app. I have to say though, there is something that I've seen people point out, which is gonna be really obvious, particularly in our hyperspeed social media landscape. Every joke in this game

is gonna be five years old at least. Six, right? Yeah, I'm accommodating some updates, right? But yeah, no, it's all gonna be like wildly out of date. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. It's hilariously out of date. out of date. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

It's like hilariously out of date. Um, yeah. And I guess like, but is it ever really out of date when it's Florida? You know? And that's kind of the genius here because Florida is just... It's forever. What's up? That alligator is always going gonna need to get pulled out

of that pool. Like, it's gonna happen again next week, same time. What's up with Florida? It's like, it's the mini Australia zone for America, right? It's the agro territory. It's where you go to love the mix. Yeah, that's a lot of sense. You know, the old, the old the olds go

down there and those who are trying to grind extra XP can go and you know, you know, take on enemies We'll see. And the Danco of his ecosystem. I think, I think Florida, I think Florida man is more just like the, it's a spirit, you know, it's in the air. It's kind of like insight. You can gain it, it can increase, or it can decrease, you know, and when it does eventually pop when you gain eyes on the inside, you then, you bath salts, hulk out or you, you joke

or tattoo yourself for you. Some, you know what I mean? You, you, you tell the nearest gator to go fuck off, you call the gator a bitch and then jump towards it. Something's gonna happen. That's dead, right? Absolutely, super dead. Oh yeah, good. Instantaneously.

I mean, sad, but also, but like, there's a bar that builds up and then when it, when it maxes out, a Florida event has to happen. You can't stop it. You want to talk about darker urns, right? A Florida event will go down. You need to mitigate with small Florida events to keep that bar from maxing out

and then you can't control the outcomes. So like, maybe I'm horrible. You know what? This is good, because you're also horribly out of touch. So like everyone like GTA 6 is the what? Some say out of time. Oh, you're out of touch and I'm out of time. Okay. Anyway, go on.

GTA 6 is the biggest fucking trailer announcement ever. Anyway, go on GTA 6 the biggest fucking trailer announcement ever. Oh my god billions of views everyone's so excited And I'm sitting here going like I can't wait to just play a mission With the shittiest fucking controls I've ever used in a game ever in my life that bad It's an interesting generic like third-person shooter. No, no, it's no, it's not no, it's not and this is what I mean when I say you are also horribly out of touch because like Bro those games control like shit Hmm, okay, well, I guess I should clarify too because I said when I was watching it before I went like oh, yeah I haven't really played any of these and like I People went like you've never played a single GTA game and I'm like no, that's not what I meant

I meant of the new ones. I did play. Yeah, could you probably play it by city at somebody's house? I played I played original GTA 3 and well GTA 1 way back in the day and then yeah That's also doesn't count. That's a whole different thing too. And then, yeah, yeah, three. So it was of the newer ones I haven't, yeah. So anyway, but... Yeah, it's where they... What cited that animation priority was much more important than anything feeling good.

So, you know, I mean, my recollection even going to Paul, going back to three was that, like, yeah, shit was like janky at the time, but I just assumed that I'm like, well, they must just feel like normal third person shooters at this point once you pull a gun out, but what's happening? No.

So to their credit, they definitely feel like a completely unique game into themselves. Nothing feels like GTA 4 or 5 or Red Dead 2. Is it old or different? It is the adoration of the, you're familiar with this, the Euphoria Physics engine, which was once used in Star Force,

Star Unleashed, Stark Killer Man. Stark Killer Man. In which the character's running and movement is controlled by the physics animations, and it feels really slow and bad all the time. I would blow 40 minutes complaining about this on the podcast, but instead I will just comment to go watch Nikki Jake's video, the man on the Yuga Ball about star,

about a rock stars game design being updated. But just everything. I'd ever complained I ever had into a much smarter, more well-produced video. And those games just feel like shit. Ragnalling an IK. Yeah, yeah, okay. The control, it feels like shit.

Mm. Even in the latest ones. The only thing that feels natural in those games is driving a car, ironically enough. But like playing on foot, you feel like a much less responsive car. At the same time, it's grand theft fucking auto. It is video games.

It can't be. I disagree with that statement a lot. Really? Yeah. GTA 3 and Vive City and San Andreas were incredible, but 4 wasn't 4 was not the San Andreas. What was 5 was a was a fucking I mean, I don't have time to do this. I'm very much, I very much do not like the modern GTAs. No, I'm just saying like as these, a quintuple A projects, I'm surprised that like, like what you're describing,

well what you're describing is a deliberate decision. There's nothing, it's extremely deliberate. Right, there's nothing here that is like, oh they just didn't, like no, no, no, no, it's all very much designed and clearly reviewed to be this way by a million informed that it will make it make sense to you if I tell you that you have to mash the A button to sprint despite having limited stamina. Okay, which is true and

feels like shit. Okay. Like, so here's the thing. Saints row came out. Mm-hmm. And the difference between Saints row and GTA is the GTA had money, but Saints row controlled like a fucking game that you wanted to play. Okay, um, I remember so like that sleeping dogs I felt was also fine Sleeping dogs is way better. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so like Huh, I'm not I think I'm I don't remember. I don't think I've heard this Like I don't remember. I don't recall. Hey, if you have somebody you can bring over a copy of fucking Red Dead or GTA V and just spin the fucking dude in a circle, you'll know what I mean.

So does it make it just like unpleasant the entire time going through it? Yeah, to me. Yeah, to you, yeah, okay. And Red Dead doesn't have this. Oh, Red Dead's even worse. Each game they put out is more sluggish to control because it's more obsessed with realism. Interesting.

Okay. Yeah. I'd have to touch it. I might disagree, but I'd have to see exactly what you're describing. So the other thing that I don't like of the new ones, and I've been, I've tested this out on numerous streams to try and explain. The Grand Theft Auto, like three in Phi City in San Andreas

and like most of the Saints row, it's like you would do a mission and you would just do the mission. Whereas when I was playing GTA V or Red Dead II, I was given the impression that my job was not to play the game. It was to be the actor, that the director of the game was directing to play the role that they wanted me to play, and that if I stood in the wrong spot or tried to do something interesting, that a hand would come out from the heavens and slap me and go, no, no,

that's not how the scene's supposed to go. You're doing it wrong, you're doing it wrong. Start over. Okay, okay, okay, okay. I get the vibe you're describing. Yeah. So then it really is just about the flavor of the moment. And everything I see about it is definitely like,

it's all flavor, you know, being presented there. But I just assumed that it was like, oh, yeah, they've got cash. They're going to make it so that there's a whole in depth shooting system. I'm sure that's fine or driving is going to be fine. It does have an in depth shooting system. I just don't think it feels any good. Interesting. Okay. Bro, I got a piss so bad. All right. Can we have a five minute break? Yeah. Um, bass. Great pretty trailer. Hopefully soon. BRB. Piss. You know what? Mm-hmm. Now that we're back, I have, when I was pissing, I figured out exactly how I want to phrase

my issue, which is, you know, when you're playing like, I'll use Alan Wake, but also Baldur's Gate 3, and you're playing know, when you're playing, like, I'll use Alan Wake, but also Baldur's Gate 3, and you're playing it, and you're constantly overwhelmed by the developer's love of, we are making a goddamn video game. Look at this video game, shit you can do. Look at this stuff you can do because it's a video game. Why I love this medium yadda yadda right when you're playing GTA 5 or red dead two mission it feels like the people making it are annoyed

they even have to let you play it at all and they would rather just have the entire thing be their little movie be their little movie. Interesting. Interesting. So with games like, whatever a game is particularly expensive enough, something like Tsushima or Last of Us, right? There's always that bit of like,

there's still gonna be a game here. It'll be pretty easy for anyone to pick it up and grab it. And like, there will be a focus so that by the time you're done, by the time you hit the end of the game, there's gonna be enough, or I'm a God of War as well, right? There's gonna be more than enough to like cycle through to have a fun experience with the different combat things it's asking of you.

But like, if you just wanted to movie similar like easy way your way through the game, there's a method that is not challenging that you can take. And like I kind of I thought that like red dead especially would be like leaning into all having a lot of different like shooter things because it's a cowboy game so There is more depth to cooking your own food than there is to shooting guns in that game And I'm that's that's wild. I expected the shooting would be some of the most sophisticated just based on the premise of what it is, you know huh like shooting would be some of the most sophisticated just based on the premise of what it is, you know? Huh. Like,

yeah, you think. You think? Yeah. Huh, okay. Well, it's also not the thing that like, of anything that is a, again quadruple A you know or quintuple A you know the size project is you also hit a point to I suppose where you're

not the people crying out for making the gameplay that work better are a minimal voice compared to like oh yeah just you know does it does it oh yeah, just, you know, does it, does it shiny? Yeah, it does. Yeah, you know, I can strip it. I can steal car. I can roll play. It is, I think it's really, I think it's really brave that Rockstar is willing to make the best selling video game

in the world be a really bad video game because they want to make a bunch of Hollywood movies while simultaneously ripping off a bunch of Hollywood movies. Interesting. Also, I think, well, I mean, beyond that, I would didn that, I didn't mention it earlier, but Bonnie and Clyde, like theme system thing could be a fun story telling mechanic. I always, like, I always kind of go, whatever I hear or see something like that, I always go like, man, it would be cool to be able to like co-op, or your way through a story

or whatever like that. Yeah, because- Well luckily we've got GTA online for you, fucker. And then my brain goes back to man, we never got faith in a 45. The original Bonnie and Clyde shooter that got canceled forever. I'm really excited for them to do it a couple of interviews where they tell us what movies they watched right before writing the games. You can go just watch those movies instead or tick tocks for that matter of like like do you remember when vice city was coming out like that whole game was like, did you fucking see Scarface? Like no actually at the time I had not and then after I played Vice City, I saw Scarface and I was like

BWALLY SHIT Okay, I guess I should have just watched Scarface. And I would have said Miami Vice, right and and and Scarface and I would as and Miami vice right and and and I Think I like San Andreas comes down like you see boys in the hood and menace to society Juice etc. Yeah Okay And then yeah, I guess Only other thing there. I mean, so just teaser to the teaser, but dread wolf footage via a environment teaser to say that next year they're going to show off a trailer with content. That's big like energy of like this teaser trailer that proves that the game is not in development.

Hell answers your questions, please. Dragon Age is not canceled. And I'm watching it. And I'm like this looks like it's a super dev hell. Dragon Age is happening. Here's a trailer to announce that we will be showing you a trailer next year. Sure. What are you saying? that we will be showing you a trailer next year. I, sure.

Whatever you say, by the way, Dragon's Dog was coming out on March 24th. Please quarterly call attendees, look at this trailer to the trailer, and don't get upset. I'm definitely going to come out. As someone who is standing just outside of this game hearing about all the interesting things they do in comparison to Mass Effect and Cotor and stuff,

I'm officially ruined in advance because the teaser today was called Thedas calls. And I just like and I'm like, yeah, that being the name of the place and knowing why in advance is ruined forever. It always sounds stupid. It always sounds stupid. It does. It does. Oh, by the way, I need to go into Dragon Age,

it's a Dragon's Dogman a little bit. There was, they did their little preview event and it's coming out on March 24th, but there's something really funny hidden in that announcement where they ask, you know, they do like a fake Q&A, right? And they're like, oh, well, I need to play the first one. It's like, how excited should I be?

Dragons Dogma II may look very familiar to Dragons Dogma players, but it takes place in a parallel world. So it's actually a completely different story. And as I'm watching it, I'm like, this is the evil dead two of video games. Oh, yeah. Like, when they're standing there and they're saying, it's four times the size of Dragon's

Dogma one. I'm like, wait, Dragon's Dogma one, the game got cut in half and then got cut in half again. So it was a quarter of the size of what it was supposed to be. And like the same characters and same voice actors are in Dragon's Dog with two, but you've called them different names. And so it's not fucking, we do it again. We just do it again.

We're just gonna do it again. That's pretty funny. Okay, yeah, okay. do it again. That's pretty funny. Okay, yeah, okay. It is the first redo of a video game I can think of. Not a remake or a remaster, just a redo. And as an avid Dragon's Dogma fan,

do you have a problem with that? I do not. Okay, then. That is what I would like please. Apparently info of note for the Dragon Age teaser is that it mentions countries that were not just the one empire they mentioned before. So that's right.

It'll include more of the places. You're gonna go all over the place. I don't believe that for a second, but okay. I'm at the point with BioWare that I would be like shocked if they ever put out another game ever again. Well, you know, sometimes not putting out things takes courage. That's true. That's true.

Sometimes you need to be really brave to take someone's shit and just throw it right in the trash. It takes courage to throw it in the dumpster, guys. Never forget. So if you want some insight into the mind, we got an update on that whole coyote versus acne sort of situation. We talked about where WB was just dumping movies in the garbage after completion for tax write-off purposes, of course.

And so the CEO of Warner Brothers, David Slaslov, came out in an interview recently and said that scrapping films for tax write-offs takes courage, actually. The mentality is what content is, what content is gonna help us win? The content that wasn't, we made a strategic decision on, and it was difficult and painful, but necessary. Right, so- So if it was necessary how come you're undoing it?

And how come, again, the feedback was generally positive around that because you see, if it was generally positive around that, because you see, if it was just Batgirl, right, that's the thing with it. I remember when the story was like, when that was one of the first ones, and it was like, the idea that a bad movie gets shelved because it sucks they watched it and go,

oh, this is terrible, is like. That happens. That does occur, and that is something that can happen if the final product is like nobody associated, even wants to be a part of this or whatever. So, you know, it's not to say that that doesn't exist and within studios. But then when it happens again and again on different projects, including something that is generally a good movie slash people are more or less happy and fine with it. And people

that work on it are upset to hear that that is not coming out as opposed to trying to distance themselves from the project, which a lot of people do if they're not happy with the thing they made. And people, hey, hey man, like whatever. We don't get that benefit of the thing. This is the same company that decided to throw hundreds of millions of dollars after the flash in marketing and release.

Right. Because if it was like, oh oh bad movies get canceled, man. Like the fuck you put you, you want to talk about courage. Quarter of a billion dollars on a shitty movie, starring corpses with the main man being an on the run fugitive. You want to, you want to, what about the courage to stand and take bullets in front of Esra Miller to create a force field and like right heart walk him to the point, you know, what about that courage? That's real brave, man.

Oh, fuck. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, it takes courage to fucking just trash and dunk this shit in and get that tax money back You know, Uvee Bowl is a brave man It took courage to Really is Just it's it's I love these things because it's like it's just like in case you want to get a little bit of insight into what they do inside

Their brains to make it make sense, you know, I'm sense. I always want to see that. I want to peel it open a little bit and see, what is your internal justification for this terrible decision you're making? Oh, okay, cool. That's how you spin the world, got it. So you know what, my favorite part is, it's not that, though that's pretty good.

My favorite part is the one layer removed where like a thinking person would believe that, but then they would have the secondary thought, which is yes, I do believe that, but I shouldn't say that out loud with my mouth. So the part that always gets me is not rich out of touch, piece of shit says rich out of touch piece of shit thing.

It's rich out of touch piece of shit guy is so out of touch. He can't even fucking see it anymore. And thinks when he go, you know, it's hard. It takes a lot of courage and expects people to go, you know what? Yeah, you're right. That was very brave. Like the concept of needing a mask is so far gone already that it's not about going mask off because I can't fathom the need for one.

Right, yeah, yeah, okay. Well, just shout outs to fucking WB on that. That's good shit, that's good insight. And while we're at it real quick, I don't know what it means, but it's always nice when I don't know where Casey Edwards is It's always nice when out of nowhere, KC Edwards is like, hey, yo, what if I made some more devil make cry music officially? Seriously?

Everyone's like, uh, uh, what? Yeah, just random out of nowhere, tweet, the only thing officially happening devil make cry wise that that's been announced is the anime so maybe it's that but Yeah Fuck him. Yes forever. Please. Absolutely God damn incredible, you know the like I love that like

for all time like you have you've had these anthems for the game and the most recent one has just these definitive tracks that are like the character. What's that gentleman's name again? KC Edwards? KC Edwards, why not just to heat it? Why am I thinking of, I'm thinking of something else. Okay, composed, composed, bury the light and all the other... Well, not subcruelated.

No, there's something I'll get to it eventually, 10, 15 minutes from now. Okay. Ha ha ha. Well, in any case, that's fine. I would like to see more and I hope that it is for the anime. Or, you know what? Actually, rephrase, I hope it's not for the anime.

Oh yeah. Yeah. That would be a massive fuck up. Wouldn't it? Stoops. Again, leaked it out. I hope I hope it's for something that is not in fact the anime. Um, let's take some time.

It's crazy how far ahead of DMC 5's announcement it got fucking leaked out by fucking Daniel. Mm-hmm. Like just four years? New music confirmed for pinnacle of combat. Damn it. New straight to your phone. new music confirmed for pinnacle of combat. Damn, new straight to your phone. Damn it. All right, if you've got a letter, you can say game sucks, dude.

I've been keeping my eye, I've been hoping, you know, there's a multiplayer and shit, and I'm like, oh, you know, anyway. Well, luckily they're going to announce DMC six of the VGA's tomorrow. I confirmed. Sorry, the TG fucking, I don't know what the name of it. What if you got a letter? The thus.

If you got a letter, you can send it to castle super beast mail at gmail.com. That's castle super beast mail at gmail.com. That's castle super beast mail at gmail.com Got any good letters this week. All right. Here's one George asks dear birthday boy and birthed a boy I Gave birth to my son. It was very difficult Which do you generally prefer when playing a new game for the first time? The first handful of hours where every experience is new and the possibilities seem endless or the last handful of hours where the badries are apparent,

but you've learned exactly how to exploit and master them. I mean, that depends on a game by game basis. It does. The general thing for me is whether or not the transition between those two things results in elation or disappointment. A lot of games start out with a lot of potential, but then you realize they're kind of front-ending

a vertical slice at you. Only to then open up into the, we're out of like time and we're just gonna rush a nothing nothing moment in the middle and then a cutscene drops towards the end and you call it a day. And some games you get like vanquish where the fucking game is like this is what the fucking game is. We're going to do five missions of this. But you're okay good. But not everything builds up to a comprehensive like all the abilities you have are meant to work together for this end specific purpose.

You know, sometimes it's like narratively things are exciting happening, but it's not reflecting that in gameplay necessarily. So it's like every time you talk, so vanquish is a clear cut case of the end is what matters. Same for zone of the enders, right? It's the state you're racing towards the finish and your full abilities are what matter there.

You know what's a really good game that fits both of these extremely positive? It's armor core. Mm-hmm. Armor core starts out, you're like, ah, man, I'm getting, you know, the first couple of missions when you're starting to get new types of parts. And you're like, ah, man, I'm getting, you know, the cut first couple of missions when you're starting to get new types of parts. And you're like, oh man, I could do all sorts of

zany shit. But by the time where you're at now, Wally, you're kind of gotten into the rhythm of how what kind of stuff you're going to get. And you're, you're starting to optimize it. And you're starting to focus on piloting. And the rest of the game is gonna be an optimization of just becoming a bigger genius. Yeah, yeah, if it's a clear, if something is set like that in place, or it's like, this is what the challenge is,

and here's how you surmount it, and here's how you can exploit it and use, here's the system that you're gonna be playing around? And that's an enjoyable mechanic or a main thing. Then yeah, absolutely it's gonna be about the finale. But if that thing sucks or is actually not at all that interesting or if you just can... Or if it's just like... It's never a challenge, it never really gets harder.

It's the music just gets louder. You know, you know, Alan Way too is very adequately described by what you just said. Okay. Yeah. It's not getting any harder. Yeah, music is getting a lot that's yeah, then of course it's not going to be that, you know, I think I think the more that I think about it, I think Baldur's Gate 3 has a very specific place on this question because when you start that game and it feels like endlessly open, you're actually stupid and you can't even see how open it is. Like most games, particularly RPGs are a pyramid. It starts wide at the bottom, right? And then as you get further and further and further and further, as you approach the ending, stuff starts to fall off at the sides until you

reach the ultimate conclusion. And Baldur's Gate 3 is the only game I can think of in its overall structure is an inforded pyramid where the beginning starts a little narrow and then it just at each act is getting wider in its scope because usually like you think about Mass Effect and Mass Effect is a diamond right Mass Effect gets its widest at the middle, and then it forces it back into a diamond at the end. Everything, all roads have to lead here. BG3, like I got to act three, and I was like, near sick to my stomach,

with big, very big. Mm. I think, um... Oh, Beat, you know what, BG3 is an hourglass. That's a much better way to phrase it. Oh, okay. Starts big, tightens up and then reopens up. Yeah, act two is very tight and then act three is is another big hourglass. Interesting.

That's interesting. That's cool. I feel that like at some degree this has been affected by, you know, a decade of alpinging. But I think that I think I often start, I'm almost in a race against the game's openness to understand where the limits are because there must be. And then once I know what those limits are, I can start to engage with the game on its own terms, because, um, you know, playing again for yourself, you experiment, you try shit out, you might uncover something, you know, you might never discover something, etc. Playing with a lot of people right there weighing in, you're trying to understand what you're supposed, what it's, you're trying to understand what it's supposed to be communicating and

or pick up on things that are not being communicated at all. And in a lot of cases, there's things where you, something about the system that has not been explained or clued in, but you still do need to know it in order to play the game properly or better. So you're playing it for the first time, but you also wanna play not even optimally, but just like you wanna get the system

and be able to be competent at it. And play on a trajectory that is by the time you get midway towards the end, you're playing good. That's the goal with the let's play. You know what game sums that the way you just described it up? Perfectly was FF 16. For 16, I very much enjoyed that first 30%

where I'm like, oh man, I'm learning how to do things. How's it gonna work more than the last couple where I'm like, I'm straining up against the walls of the system and doing everything because it let me do too much. Mm. At the same time though, depending on what the games goals are,

like someone like me, I'm gonna also be like, so I'm playing Silent Hill for the first time. And I'm like, okay, I need to get away from the scary thing. And to some degree, especially based on its age, the game's asking you to just, don't think too hard about it. Just kind of panic your way. Kill it or run.

Panic your way to the next progression point, right? And do what exactly, do what you can with what you could figure out of the weapons and things you've picked up. Just go, just try to live. I'm like, okay, I do have a backstep. It is the thing that is there. Do footsteps matter? Does light matter? Does vision cone matter? Every time I talk about stealth games, and it's like,, does light matter, does vision cone matter? You know, I talk about this every time I talk about stealth games and it's like, what does this game

consider hidden? Do I need to be crouch? Yeah. Do I need to be in the sunlight, or in the shadow? Do I have to make a sound? If I tilt the stick to the full degree, versus half tilt on analog, do I have to move it full speed? Is it about just being within the vision cone

in front of the enemy? And that's the only thing that matters. What about elevation? If I'm above somebody, can they see? There's so many questions about whether an enemy can see you are not in a stealth game that it becomes a route checklist of this game features daylight,

this game features sound, this game features vision codes. You know? Bro, there is a fucking upgrade you can get while you play as Alan and Alan wake that is like enemies are less likely to notice Alan and there's like no indication of light darkness vision cones enemy proximity Light reactivity nothing. It's just like they're well They're they're less likely to notice him. I'm like what the fuck does that mean? It was that like five feet was it like ten feet. I don't know right and

I'm like, what the fuck does that mean? Was that like five feet? Was it like 10 feet? I don't know. Right. And in a world where nobody's watching me, and I'm playing alone, I'm playing snake eater, and I'm trying to figure out how to fight the end, crawling through this jungle,

assuming that all things real are possible here, and that I can get sniped no matter what, you know? But in a world where there is a fucking audience watching, you can't do that. So then it's like, okay, I have to just push it to see where the limits are and find out that, oh, actually running versus walking slow doesn't matter, the game doesn't care. Okay, great. Well, then we're going to do this. And, you know, because you just, yeah, to some degree time is of the essence, great. Well, then we're gonna do this. And, you know, because you just, you just, yeah, to some degree,

time is of the essence too. So it forces me to kind of like, find those rules in the closed system and then turn it back into a limited video game and then try to exploit those rules as much as possible towards the end. It, so if the game is good, it tends to be the back half, when I'm more comfortable in the system. If the game is good, it tends to be the back half,

when I'm more comfortable in the system, if the game is less good, it tends to be the beginning before I hit those walls. Like, we just mentioned Devil May Cry. Like, once you and I had gotten to the end of the campaign and we're like, fuckin' around with Nero's buttons and Dante's shit and we're like, feeling the walls of the system

and seeing how far you can go in what direction, it's like, okay, now it's time to start playing the game. Right, and that's like the best part of a double-made cry game is starting the new game on the harder difficulty with all your moves unlocked. But that's kind of unique. The interesting thing about me being like, oh, I have to lab.

Will he, you know, will he will never leave the lab? And it's like, yeah, I've learned to enjoy that process of discovering what the games rules are and, you know, learning how to break them or exploit them or just at the very least use them efficiently. But on what is on smart, you can call yourself a mechanical scientist. But what's not stated in that is if I don't lab, I suck, and I'm garbage, and I'm annoying to watch, and I don't know what to do, and I'm just going to take guesses and hope that they work, and I'm not going to be able to improvise under pressure to do anything slightly resembling an interesting or entertaining

thing to me. I legitimately have to start understanding in order to do anything competent at any point. If I just improvise my way through all of it, it's going to be awful because that's my weakness, that's something that I'm aware of. I'm bad at doing, you know. So it's not, I've attached to some degree that the labbing part to something that I enjoy, as something I enjoy, but it's not just that I enjoy it,

it's also mandatory for me to be able to fucking get anywhere or accomplish anything. I just can't, I'm not gonna improvise in a way that anyone will, again, find interesting or even get, or get. You're just like, you're nuts. I'm like, yeah, I don't know. And if I explain why I try it or what I try, it's not gonna make it any better.

So it's become mandatory while also being the thing that I enjoy, you know? Anyway, let's take one from Surge.exe says dear lords of the superb east Frequent search how you don't know Frequently you both referenced the Kickstarter board game where the creator was told by the son to stop making it We do we fucking do I love that shit. Did you know that that game, Catacala, Catacelca, Catalaca, Catalaca was actually finished

and released after many delays and more posts detailing the creator's worsening mental condition, it was eventually done. Now only about 40-ish copies were ever received by backers, and the creator has since vanished from the internet without a trace. The game is a- Yeah, the sun. The game is apparently kind of a mess and not that great to play, but the value is sky high because of the low amount of copies thought you'd like to know The of course the sun allowed the release but of course the finale is in the end Not even that great kind of mid after armistice I remember like scream laughing with you in the van

between the fucking Toronto shit airport to Hamilton is when we were finding out about the sun stopping you from fucking was that where yeah I was in that game. Yeah, it wasn't that we're blue van with the lighting on the side. Okay. I mean, just like it's the the petering out of the fucking balloon at the end, the the flaccid deflate that is it's it came out it was made and only people got it. Oh God damn perfect perfect ending. All right. And lastly we got one in from Clay. Hello, Blank and Blank, think of your own funny names. As an American, we have a crap ton of tales about outlaws and gangsters. This Canada have any famous ones you guys know of that Americans might want to learn about. No respect but much love from clay. Nice. I'd say there's one.

There's one. There's one really important one that I think is very loud and clear and important that Americans should know if they have not heard of the great Canadian maple syrup heist. That is a good one. The great Canadian maple syrup heist, or otherwise, or in French known as the Heist of the Century, is a real important one for us because that was, it's a really insanely impressive heist.

It's, you have to just stand back and go wow what They pulled off the theft of 3,000 tons of maple syrup From syrup reserves over the course of 2011 to 2012 grand totaling about 20 million million in maple syrup and did so by slowly taking barrels out, filling them with water, draining the contents into their own private storage facilities in Vermont, and then putting them back into the reserve. That's it. Just did it for two years straight every day.

Millions and millions. And then we're able to distribute illegally the maple syrup to people who were none the wiser, because the people who had access had the ability to then take the raw material and bottle it and do their thing otherwise. And yeah, millions of dollars, 20 million or so from the facility that there was, they were ticket from provides 77% of the world's maple syrup. Like, this shit was huge. It was a massive fucking heist.

And then, you know, they kinda got caught eventually when the people who check the syrup, they only check it once a year or some wild shit. Like it's, it's something like, no one ever goes to work. How the stir up can a single guy steal? Yeah. Then the answer is like an infinite volume if you let it be.

And then yeah, they all got caught. And I think the leader went away for eight years or something like that. So the Quebec man's daring theft fell short after police were tipped off and he is an accomplice landed in jail. Now the ring leader behind Canada's infamous high space has a new challenge. Pay his victims $9 million or serve six more years in jail

They straight up told him if you give all the money back Will let you out And he was like I don't know where that money is We take our maple syrup very seriously All kid decide. You don't fuck around. You don't fuck around with the reserve. I'll be honest, that's a bad deal.

I would not pay $8 million to get out of jail six years or... Do you have it? Yeah, that's the question, right? Do you have it? Do you have it? Like, you know the question, right? And do you have it? Have it. Like, you know, yeah. There you go. The great Canadian heist of the century.

All right. The more you know. Oh, wait, hold on. 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, 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, stop TV slash pet stairs that me Reggie. Don't watch that mean Reggie. Mineral so good. I'm gonna be watching. I'm and we're gonna be a little the energy will be more reluctant over here. Energy the mean page bring to every TGA is oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I get it.

I get it. All right. you