Get Played - Marvel Rivals with Cody Ziglar

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

Cody "Zig" Ziglar (Futurama, Miles Morales & Deadpool Marvel Comics) joins Heather, Nick and Matt to talk Marvel Rivals! They talk about hero shooters in general, what Marvel Rivals does right, Netease laying off the North American team, and more. Plus talk of Alan Wake 2, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Avowed and more. Check out our brand new merch at kinshipgoods.com/getplayed. Follow us on social media @getplayedpod. Music by Ben Prunty benpruntymusic.com. Art by Duck Brigade duckbrigade.com. For ad-free main feed episodes, our complete back catalogue including How Did This Get Played? and our Premium DLC episodes and our exclusive show Get Anime'd where we're currently watching Dandadan go to patreon.com/getplayed. Join us on our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/getplayed Wanna leave us a voicemail? Call 616-2-PLAYED (616-275-2933) or write us an email at [e-mail] Advertise on Get Played via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Podcast. Get the Angel Reese special at McDonald's now. Let's break it down. My favorite barbecue sauce, American cheese, crispy bacon, pickles, onions, and a sesame seed bun, of course. And don't forget the fries and a drink. Sound good? I'm participating in restaurants for a limited time. All right, Netties has a huge hit with Marvel Rivals.

Now here's the thing, we obviously can't get the Marvel IP, but the hero shooter format with an existing franchise feels like instant gold. I mean that's just a recipe for success. So I think we need to figure out our own IP to make into a Rivals game. Yeah, that's just a recipe for success. So I think we need to figure out our own IP to make into a Rivals game. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, something that's current, something that the people are eating up and want more of.

Something in the zeitgeist. Yeah, you could do like a DC Rivals or a Shonen Jump Rivals. You could do, I mean, there's so many like really great IP out there. And I bet there's a lot of places we could look, where we can negotiate some deals that are like in the live play space versus, you know,

like structured first person campaigns. I bet there's a lot of negotiation room in those contracts. So what are you guys thinking? I mean, those are great pitches. I think as far as where my mind is headed in terms of of hits that we can attach ourselves to yeah young Sheldon rivals That's pretty good you get young Sheldon in there you of course get Sheldon's mom Mary Cooper You of course get George Cooper senior who's the father of Sheldon. And then you gotta have Melissa Missy Cooper, who's the younger sister of George.

I'm sorry, you know, I'll be honest. I feel bad, because I was on my phone finishing up an email at the beginning of this meeting. So maybe I misunderstood the assignment. I thought we're talking about Marvel rivals, the video game. And because we're a video game development company, we're going to sort of, we're looking

for adjacent ways to like crack that code, to really hone in on those. I just feel like you're, I don't understand your pitch. I mean, I think it's pretty straightforward. You get an Annie Potts' character of Mima, and you're making me print money. Yeah, and then also- She's kind of a tank build, maybe, I think it's pretty straightforward. You get an Annie Potts' character of Mima, and you're making me print money. Yeah, and then also- I think she's kind of a tank build, maybe, I think. Yeah, probably a tank build, but what's good about this, too,

is that you're starting with the young Sheldon universe, because then you can do a seasonal event where it's a multiversal thing, or a time jump sort of situation, where then you get the characters from the Big Bang Theory coming in as well. Like Penny and the rest, certainly. The rest of course join.

Okay, and you guys are seeing this as sort of like a fighting game for you. Are you handing me your notebook? You want me to take notes on this meeting? No, I mean, you know, it might be nice to have someone write something down. I am doing something. I pitched like several... Well, let's go. That was just one idea. Let's figure out some other areas.

Frasier. Right. Now we're talking. Because you can get Frasier in there. Yeah, you can get Niles in there. Niles, their dad Martin, the dog Eddie. Do you see these... Ra's games- Yeah, you can make room for Bulldog. As photo realistic? I don't understand what art style this would even be. Like, I don't know.

I mean, like Marvel Rivals isn't photo realistic. You can have some stylized aesthetic. Right, but these are human men that you're describing a fighting game of human men who, to my knowledge, wear suits. Well, they wear other regular clothes too, not just fancy pants suits. We can also have the Cheers characters come in,

like Diane could come in. Oh, that's great for DLC. Sam Malone could get in there. Coach. Woody. Woody. The rest. The rest are gotta be in there. Yeah. Cliff.

Oh man, Cliff would be so funny in there. Imagine his quips. Okay, can I... maybe, again, maybe I'm just missing the target here. These are fighting games, right? It's like a... It's like a hero shooter. I guess it's analogous to a fighting game. Yeah.

You'll give them guns? Like, them guns? You'll give them guns? Like, regular guns? Well, some of them will, you know, Frazier will have like a microphone because he's like a radio therapist. So he'll like sort of talk you down into like submission, kind of.

I'm listening. Yeah. That's like his finishing move. As long as you're building out these very bizarre television-based hero shooters, why not go with a show that has like a larger legacy? Like The Cosby Show? No.

Kind of sounds like that was your idea. Are you pitching The Cosby Show rivals? Cause I'm raising some red flags about women. I'm not. I was not pitching The Cosby show rivals? Cause I'm raising some red flags about women. I'm not. Okay. I was not pitching the Cosby show. I'm not pitching that. I don't even. Look, it's a funny show.

I would like to get fired. Can one of you fire me? I would like to be fired. We squat up with Squirrel Girl and lay off our entire development team as we discuss hero shooter hit Marvel Rivals this week on Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between. It's time to get played.

I'm your host, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, Nick Weiger. That's me, Nick Tiger Weiger, along with our third host, Matt Abedaca. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the premier video game podcast, where this week we're talking about a game that is in the zeitgeist.

That's right, we're talking about a hero shooter where you play as a team. And you know what? As such, we've expanded our team beyond the usual triforce of friendship. And of course, our producer, Rochelle Chan Ranch. A writer and comedian from Rick and Morty, Miles Morales, Spider-Man, and Futurama, Cody Ziegler is here.

Hi, Zig. Hello, I summon the Seven Seas. I actually have my own thing that I come in with. What the hell? It's inappropriate for the episode. Okay, well, it can't be better than any of ours. It's really good. Zigg, I know that you're a comics writer.

I know you're someone with a lot of knowledge of this medium. Have you grafted yourself onto superhero games, comics games in the past? Yeah, but only I think probably what people would assume, like the AAA ones. Right, sure. Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, the Arkhamham series, things like all of those are my favorite. Funny enough, like I tried Overwatch when it first came out and I'm just not a hero shooter guy. This was the first hero shooter where one,

I have been actively putting in time to get better at it, but also the first one where I actually understood what a hero shooter does. I thought for the longest time, it was like, oh, I gotta get the most kills, right? Like that's how it works as opposed to this, where like, oh, I gotta get the most kills, right? That's how it works, as opposed to this, where like, oh, they're intricate systems, like you play a very specific role,

and the idea is to compliment other people on the team, which has been really fun. So this is my first actual diving into this game outside of just standard third-person perspective, action-adventure type game. It's interesting when an IP gets you into a genre you normally didn't play. Like for me it was, and I'd already played card games quite a bit, so this is a bad example,

but Marvel Snap, just speaking of Marvel, I know has, for a lot of people, gotten them into card games. I was like, oh wow, okay, I can wrap my head around this because I know who Adam Warlock is. And the, but like for me, I feel like my example was, not that I ever really got into MOBAs, but the one MOBA I kind of could play, partly because it was dumbed down,

but partly because it used Blizzard characters that I was familiar with. And so I understood their like move sets a little bit inherently was Heroes of the Storm, which was the Blizzard one. Matt, what were you gonna say? Well, speaking of like superhero games, Marvel games in particular, I know that Zig is like the one person I know that

liked the Avengers game. Yeah, I was... Oh, interesting. I did enjoy it. Well, there are two things. One, like I... it was the first like Avengers game that had come out. Yeah. That wasn't like, you know... A movie tie-in or something. And I think I actually replayed it last week whenever the PlayStation network was down. Just like, oh, I need this Marvel itch scratched. And I was fiending for it. I needed it. And playing it like the mechanics of it, like the actual fighting mechanics are so fun and well timed and like some of the animation is just so intricate that I'd never noticed

before. And also I had a friend that like did a voice in the games that wanted to play horror. But in having taken like three or four years off there are definitely some, you know, there's some rust on that thing. There's not, there are definitely some bad things about the game but I did enjoy it for like the actual campaign. I think the actual contained, this is like a 20 hour story, it's very focused. That was really well made. The sort of, what's the term? It's like a loot shooter,

whatever you call that aspect of it. The gameplay loop? Not the gameplay, the multiplayer aspect of it. Yeah, so it was meant to be kind of a live service game. Yeah, it's the live service part of it, didn't work for me. Yeah, so it was meant to be kind of a live service game. Yes, the live service part of it didn't work for me. Yeah, I actually didn't even know it was still playable, but I mean like, yeah, that was one that came out that I was like, oh, this will probably,

an Avengers game from Square, this will set the world on fire, and then just somehow just completely fizzled in the marketplace. It was so buggy, like there's so many like comical bugs like they gave you this free like Captain America suit and like his eyes would like pop out of his skull but because it was so well rendered you would see like the actual orbs of his eyes it was very unsettling but actually it sort of reminded me of the I think

Matt I know you played the the Guardians of the Galaxy game that came out later like that to me was like the best version of that game. That game, the Guardians of the Galaxy game fucking rules. It is legitimately so good and deserves sequels and sequels, it's incredible. And like a good Guardian story. And it's just like a good story for a game, honestly. Really good. I've heard nothing but good things about

the Guardians of the Galaxy game, which I was surprised by and I've never played. It's interesting that Marvel became, there was such saturation of Marvel everywhere that we ended up with games like Guardians of the Galaxy and the other one is Marvel's Midnight Suns that are critically acclaimed. Everyone says these games are awesome and just no one really played them it's kind of almost it's almost like a like a remarkable that there's just that that you know you're able to come up with something that has such like a Well-known IP attached and then just like aren't able to make a dent even if it's even if it's good Yeah, I mean when there's like a lot of games out. I guess so yeah, I think also like that's a really interesting point We haven't really talked about this in a while. There are actually a lot of games, and there's maybe too many games actually. I haven't really thought about that,

but when I think about the number of games that are out, there's probably more than I can actually play. It's also funny because when you're a kid playing video games, even if you are aware that there are a lot of games, you only have access to the number of games your parents can purchase for you. Yeah. So like, for a year, there might only be two games.

Yes. So you don't build up a year, there might only be two games. So you don't build up a backlog. Now, too many games. Yeah, that's why I would like play like Family Feud for NES single-player games. I was like, well, this is a game I bought for like $2 at a garage sale. This is one game I have to play for the next three months.

It's why I had, I think maybe 15 saved files on Final Fantasy VII when it first came out. Like that's the only game that I would have for the year. Right, right. No, yeah, just playing and replaying things endlessly and developing effect, like whether they were, some of them are, some classic games that I did that with and other games that were just like not even good,

but it just still having an affection for them just because they were my one thing that I had. You would say crazy answers to yourself and then mug to yourself in the mirror, too Name something you'd find in a butt About the prompts now are all just like trying to see that I'll just like trying to see that shit Keys Steve

They can't like a little mustache to be drawing himself This is for a different time I think Steve Harvey on Family Feud maybe maybe top three funniest things ever. It's so funny. It's very funny, yes. It's pure comedy. I'm curious, and I want to put this to Heather Mann and Rochelle, I'm curious for you as well, has anyone else dabbled in hero shooters beyond Marvel Rivals? Has anyone played it, put any time into Overwatch or any of those other similar games? Just not the kind of genre that appeals to me,

so I never have. Not me either. And then it's so funny, because you can see what your friends are playing on Switch or whatever. My brother, like my younger brother, has like 900 hours in Overwatch. And I'm just like, one, I've never heard you even speak of this.

Yes. But two, it's the thing that I can see him doing the most. Like it's so crazy to me. And also I think that shouldn't be allowed. You shouldn't be allowed to see somebody just like... Oh, they're really going through it, huh? Yeah. I better call him. Let's see if he's all right.

I bounced off Overwatch, I tried it, but I just totally bounced off it, and I think that was the last time I tried a hero shooter before we played Rivals for this podcast. Oh, Ranch, how about you? Is Valorant considered a hero shooter? Good question. I don't know the genre well enough to know how to classify it.

I'll look it up real quick. You get powers in that game, right? Doesn't each character have a specific power or something? Good question. I don't know the genre well enough to know how to classify it. I'll look it up real quick. You get powers in that game, right? Doesn't each character have a specific power or something like that? Yeah, it's kind of similar to Rivals in the fact that, like, yeah. You know what? I know that I'm the judge of the show. I would go ahead and say, yeah, that's adjacent. I wouldn't give you that one, Ranch.

Wikipedia rules it a tactical hero shooter. So yes, Valorant does qualify. So you've played Valorant. I dabbled very briefly, but I kept dying, so I stopped. Oh, I wonder if, no, because I think you went into the game without stats. I can't remember if in Final Fantasy I Soldier, if you went in as a mage or as a gun.

I think you chose maybe your class before you started, in which case that was a hero shooter, but I'm not quite, I don't know for sure if it was. Yeah, I mean, if I think back on it, I mean, I was certainly playing Team Fortress back in the day, like 20 years ago, and I guess that did have classes, but maybe that is classified as a hero shooter,

though it feels like a completely different game from this or from what I understand of Overwatch. If we're blowing out the definition of that, then I definitely have... One of my, honestly, the game that I have 500 hours on PlayStation 4 and 5 is the free to play game Gundam Battle Operations 2, which also... I think I yelled about it the last time I was on the show, but you also have classes like a Rock Paper Scissors system and like that's probably the closest thing I've gotten to like a hero shooter like actual plate

Final Fantasy 7 the first soldier was a battle royale game not a hero shooter Score Score! Game-changing innovations with limited time DEALS on select next-gen Alienware gaming tech! New dimensions await with advanced gaming systems like the Alienware M18R2 Laptop powered by an Intel Core i9 processor, featuring awe-inspiring visuals, liquid cooling, three-dimensional audio with Dolby Atmos, and impressive overclocking potential. Plus, build your dream setup with great DEALS

on select gaming monitors, mice, and more must-have electronics and accessories. When you shop online at Alienware.com slash deals, you'll have access to leading edge gaming technology to conquer the competition and free shipping on everything. Amazing prices await you for a limited time only at alienware.com slash deals. That's alienware.com slash deals.

Alienware.com slash deals. Well, we'll get into Marvel Rivals in just one second. But first up, the question I have for you, Zigg, and for the room is, what are you playing? What are you playing? Hi, it's me, the Resident Evil Merchant, and I'm here to ask you the question of the week. What are you playing? You know, Resident Evil Merchant,

I'm realizing in a bit of kismet, if you will. Kismet! Last time we had Cody on the podcast, we were discussing Resident Evil 4, the remake. Resident Evil Merchant, you were not present for that record. No, I boycotted that episode. Yeahchant, you were not present for that record. No, I boycotted that episode. Yeah, you also were not present in that game,

I was going to say. Fuck you! Why do you think I have a job here? Yeah, they replaced the merchant, for those of you that don't know, at this point, with a different merchant. A different merchant. A inferior merchant.

Because you have to assume if this merchant is real, that merchant is also real. It's just a different one. Yeah. Fucking scared. You know what I'm saying? He also sounds a bit, he's a little more British. He's like, what are you buying stranger? He does, like he fell out of a chimney into that little more British. He's like, -"A little bit more." -"What are you buying, stranger?" He does look like he fell out of a chimney into that little Spanish village.

-♪...village." -♪-BOTH LAUGHING Be lucky if he doesn't fall under a knife... -♪...that I'm holding! Oh, okay, well, you've made it... -♪ -♪...explicitly into a threat. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah's actually text now. I Love text. I know you won't stop texting me you got I love it Madness my friend you've been yet. We're friends, but you've been sending me too many memes. I love a meme You guys see no wee wee wee cat no what's a wee? Good Wee wee wee cat is a is a cat, is a small, is a little kitten,

and it fits inside of the food bowl. And when it's so happy to be eating the food that it's sitting in, then it goes, wee, wee, wee, wee, wee, wee, wee, wee, wee, wee, but I really hide. Like a fucking little piggy? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Going all the way home. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Going all the way home. Yeah. Wow, are you looking it up? Nick this is one of those things where you know when I because this is probably this much This is probably an established meme that what I'm seeing now are now the derivative memes about the weewee

This is what interesting to me too and this is what interesting about getting memes from the merchant in general we with WI WI that everybody's everybody's everybody the memes that everybody sees As an individual are different. Yeah, everybody's got their own that's true ones that they're sort of like, okay This one's I have to show it's my duty now to share this. Oh, yeah, like gum man I can't find anyone else who's seen Gum Man. Gum Man? Gum Man. Gum Man?

Gum Man. Gum Man. Look, I just got to know your meme to look up the wee wee cat. Wee wee wee cat. Okay, so let me see if I can find Gum Man. I've not seen Gum Man up, so this might be a pretty recent one.

It's probably too new. Yeah. I see a guy who's got gum all over him and you go, no, what happened to that guy? No, it's a- Gum Man! Yeah, I mean, I haven't stumbled upon it yet, but I'm excited to see it in a while. We, we, we, we can't- Like, Zig and I are in a group chat and Chill Guy was really taking over the group chat

for a little while. Yeah, Chill Guy made a very big, not only effect on me, but also on the group chat in general. So that's what I live my life by, I'd say. Yeah, I'm sort of also- I am sort of a chill guy myself, you know. If I'm thinking about it too, I'm actually a pretty chill guy also. So that's why we wanted to respond to it.

Yeah, but it's not as much as me. It's kind of crazy. Matt, you call yourself a chill guy? You think I'm not chill? I don't know. I'll fucking kill you, man. I think you're a very pleasant person to be around, but I feel like you sometimes are like a little high strung. I can get a little high.

I'm a little wound up. I mean, you might shove a piece of coal up my ass and it might turn into a diamond. You do have the, I would say with leprosy and infection, your glasses do scream, oh, he's about to have a falling down moment. Hey, that's about to have a falling down moment. Hey That's why I got him. We like don't I really relate to that bumper this bumper sticker That's also a meme that I've seen that says don't honk at me. I'll kill us both So appreciate of the people in this room you picked out a falling down moment you didn't pick me Next also clearly post-falling down.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's going to it. He got away with it. Yeah, yeah. Nick is very much giving Brazilian beach, he got away. Yeah. My dog's on the fucking pier. How did this happen to this body?

Where did the guy go? Joke's on them, you're on two podcasts in the United States! Hiding in plain sight. Hiding in plain sight. Always on a white background. Good to see you as always, the merchant. Oh, good to see you. Matt?

Wait, oh, I forgot to ask. That's right, yes. Oh, that's my job. The order of the day. Nick Wager, what are you playing? I am going to defer to our guest because I have a lot to say about Alan Wake 2, but I don't want to just dominate the conversation. All right, Zigg, what are you playing?

I've been balancing between two games, not including Marvel Rivals, obviously, but Helldivers 2, I'm coming back into that. Wow! They just released a new faction a couple months ago, the Illuminate faction, which, honestly, one thing I've really enjoyed is that each faction sort of represents almost a different genre of third-person shooter. This one is very much like a zombie-type shooter.

Cool. It's been scratching that itch, but I recently had just got into Magic the Gathering Arena, the mobile game. Oh yeah. I'm only on like the last, whatever the last tutorial person is, but I can already see this is gonna be

a very powerful cornerstone of my personality going forward. Did you ever get into MTG? No, first time. I've never been like a card-based guy. I collected Pokemon cards, but I never actually played the game. I played Magic the Gathering when I was a teenager. So like, you know, many years ago at this point

and playing on physical cards. What's that? The cards were made of stone. All right. They were Cuneiform tablets. They were, but like, Magic the Gathering Arena, which I messed around with for a bit, and I was like getting really into,

and then I just kind of walked away from. But I was really impressed by its presentation. Because for a long time, Magic of the Underground line was like, it was represented how to play Magic, but it was a little bit of a cumbersome UX, and Magic of the Underground Arena is much more approachable.

Yeah, I think being able, this is what I enjoy. One, I'm running the game, I'm running the system, but also I can just do it on my phone So if I like oh, I have 15 minutes to burn Let me burn through a couple of games get into this but also I have this may not this may surprise everyone this room I have a couple of nerdy friends who are into magic the gathering and they tell them either they people are telling me They release different I guess different properties crossover. So like there's a Final Fantasy I guess different properties crossed over so like there's a Final Fantasy I guess magic the gathering co-op

Yeah, yeah doing and because of that actually bought my first deck because I saw that they had cloud and clouds my boy He held me down So I got that and I'm actually gonna get into physical match the gathering after I get a little bit more for me I was playing the video or they the mobile game I bought a commander deck because I had some similar like I also have some nerdy friends who were trying to get me into magic and and I I did commit to like actually Purchasing it but I've still not gotten into a proper game against someone else. Matt. What are you playing? Okay, so I'm I'm still playing Kingdom Hearts dream drop distance online in new Nintendo 2ds It's insane.

So many modifiers, so that's an issue. Yeah, it's just truly, it's nuts, but I'm getting toward the end of it. Wow. And I'm, the combat in the game is so good. The thing about it, it's like, I kind of feel like it's a game that's like really pushing the capability of the 2DS,

because it doesn't look that great, but it kind of looks like a PS2 game. It's just, it's remarkable to me. Those later gen 3DS games, I mean, they had Metal Gear Solid 3 on those, the three. I mean, they really pulled some things off on that hardware. It's really crazy, and the combat is so fun and good. I have a really fun loadout for both Sora and Riku.

But I'm almost done with that. But a new game came out on Game Pass. And you know, as the Xbox kid, that's my beat. That's right. I had to see what was going on. This new Obsidian RPG, Evowed. Very interesting game I haven't played it yet. And let me tell you something about this.

This game fucks actually it's really good I'm not that far into it, but I it kind of It kind of sunk its teeth in kind of early, and I think I might Stick with it at least for a while RPG. Yeah, it's like it's a first-person RPG first person um yes It's kind of akin to like a Skyrim, right? First person? Yes. It's kind of akin to like a Skyrim, right? I don't know why I was thinking they had fucking AKs in this game.

That makes so much more sense, yeah. But it's also kind of like This is going to sound like I've only ever played This is my new character guy that's only ever played Baldur's Gate 3. Kind of giving me Baldur's Gate 3 vibes. It kind of has some of that in it. You're like this character who's sort of different than everybody else right? You they're called God likes it's set in the world of pillars of eternity

Which is the world that I'm not familiar with But it's part of a larger franchise. It's a it's sort of an isometric RPG on like Diablo But more of a heart like more that those actually games are more akin to like a Baldur's Gate. They are like very dialogue driven, story driven. And I'm interested in checking out, because also one and two are on Game Pass also, which I didn't know. Game Pass is like the only good video game service.

It's pretty good. Yeah. I love Game Pass, and it's one of those things where it's like, then Game Pass is just going to become ubiquitous, and then we're all, like, no one's gonna own any games anymore, and it's just gonna be, it's gonna make everything run but for now enjoy the show.

It's okay I heard that Xbox has AI technology that they're gonna use to emulate games now so thank God. But I started messing around with this your character is they're called they're called god likes or something and the thing that's interesting about them is that they kind of look like normal like you can just make any character however you want but god likes have like like trees and like mushrooms growing out their fucking heads and face and stuff it's really it's really cool it looks fucking nasty it looks like like clickers almost like in The Last of Us. But you don't see it because you're in first person,

but everybody sort of responds to you in a certain way. They're like, ugh. Yeah, because they're like, Jesus Christ, what's wrong with your face? They'll literally be like, what's wrong with you? Because there's a plague going on in this world, that I can't remember what it's called. Free face.

I mean, almost, because it has a similar look to how you look. So people are sort of treating you as if you're, like, plagued almost, because it's sort of like a zombie-like plague that can, you know, infect anything. And right now, the real issue is that it's infecting these big bears, and I have to fight bears a lot. And you can switch between different, like, I mean, you probably wanna focus on a particular build.

I'm gonna probably lean more toward the wizard class because the magic system is really fun. But you can sort of dual wield different classes, at least for now. Like, my first loadout is like a sword and shield if I wanna go melee, and then the second loadout is like a sword and shield if I wanna go melee. And then the second loadout is a spell book and a wand and I'm just like blasting people with like a wand

and it fucking rocks. It's so good. How far are you? How many hours are you gonna do it? I probably only played like maybe like three hours. Oh really? That's pretty dense for only three hours. It's nuts.

It's like there's a lot you can do right away. And I guess people are, there's been a complaint about the nuts. It's like there's a lot you can do right away. And I guess people are, there's been a complaint about the game that it's like too short. You can finish it in like 20 hours or something. That's a sweet spot. But like you can, there's so many side quests I'm hearing that like it could take you 90 hours to see everything if you want it to really hunker down and like do stuff. And then I've heard that the side quests are all very extremely rewarding and then heavily impact the gameplay and the end game as well.

That's cool. You're the Xbox kid, you're also the finisher. Yes. You think you might actually finish this game, you're that into it. I'm pretty into it. I was shocked how into it I was when I started it because I was sort of like, this doesn't really seem like my thing. Yeah. when I started it because I was sort of like this doesn't really seem like my thing yeah because I mean I guess in some ways it is because I loved Baldur's Gate 3 and I like I like that type of thing but I don't I've never played Skyrim like I've never played one of those so I was just sort of like I don't even know if I like this and then right away I was like this kind of

fucking this rock there's like a blue guy that you meet right away that he looks insane and like yeah I love this blue guy. It's good. Does he go real fast in love with Tilly dogs? Wait, actually, hold on. I was playing the wrong game. I fucked up. And I wasn't even playing the game. I was watching the movie.

So your first person view was you watching a movie? And I was trying to punch the other stuff on the TV. He has a lifeline. He's in it just like mine. I broke my TV. Your eyes are what you're engaging with? I will say, because I'm playing it on an Xbox Series S. And I do think there's been a lot of discourse about how

that, having the Xbox Series S, which is underpowered compared to the Series X, which is more akin to the PS5, how it's sort of holding back a generation of games because of the limitations. The brand's point, yeah. I do think that playing it on a better Xbox would be better, probably. It's not like it's playing bad,

but it doesn't look as good as it could. Matt, why did you get an S instead of an X? Was it a size situation? Or was it just the price point? That point it was the price point. Yeah, didn't it launch, wasn't like $200 cheaper or something like that? It was a substantial price difference.

It was like $300, and I was like, I've never had an Xbox, and I was like, oh, I could just get Game Pass and have this. This seems like a home run. But I sort of didn't know that it wasn't fully the same thing. Matt, would you like my Xbox for free? I'll take it if you don't want it, sure. You can have it.

Hey, look at that. You can have a Series X. Do you want my S? No. Here, you throw this away. Here's what I need in return. I don't even want to plug it in to delete my user stuff Great I'll bring it to the next recording thanks So I'm playing about it. I think here's the thing.

You might want to keep it. It's pretty, he might want to play it. It's pretty good. I feel like I heard our friends over at TripleClick talking about about and it was that and then combined with your testimony. I feel like this game is very much for me, this is exactly the kind of game that I like to play. And so I might dig in on it, we'll see. No, the game you need to play is the game I'm playing.

Nick, you have to play it. Heather, what are you playing? I'm playing Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. And I finally have gotten to the first village because there's a pretty lengthy preamble before you actually get the credits to go to roll and it's like oh now you're playing Kingdom come deliverance on so I'm gonna that move by the way in a game I love the delayed the delayed opening credits goes to Tsushima does that too and it's great because you're kind of like wait I haven't even been playing yeah

There's a pretty long preamble, like a little backstory. You get to learn a lot of the mechanics. You get to introduce yourself to characters. And then you finally go to a village and the credits roll. And you're like, oh, OK. Wow, I think you go to a village. Yeah, that's the inciting incident. The problem is saving is extremely stingy in Kingdom Come.

You have to craft save elixirs in order to save the game or I think you can like save and exit like, sort of like in a cheater's way. You can like, you know, freeze and leave your PlayStation or whatever. So I just wanna clarify, To save your game at all, or is that just to like save a save you can load? Like you're saying to end a gameplay session,

you have to have a save, some sort of save elixir you've crafted. Well, no, you can save an exit. You can save an exit, okay. But if you start up the game again and you die, it does not take you to that save, as far as I can tell. Right. Which I'm aware of because the way that I play is,

how far can I go when I first start a game? I'm like, oh, I wanna, like, what's the quest in my journal that is the farthest away? And again, this game is so fucking ridiculous. Like- RPG, I'm assuming? Yeah, it's a first person RPG, but it's also incredibly intricate, where you can't just put on armor,

you have to put on the armor in the right order, or the townspeople will make fun of you, and your reputation will go down. If you take clothing from somebody, you cannot wear it in the town where they're from or somebody might be like, Oh, that looks like Stephen's curious. And you're like, Oh, no, you cannot. If a guard walks past you and you don't say hi back to the guard like the guard goes, I know, keep the peace. And you don't immediately reply with like, yes, of course, sir, because there's a trigger button

and you have two options and a very fast timer. So like you're constantly negotiating all of these different systems and there's menus within menus within menus within menus. So I finally get through the opening sequences and I'm into the open world. And... I don't know what to do.

ALL LAUGHING I have no idea what to do. I don't know where to go to learn to craft. I refuse to look up anything, because I'm like, oh, this is the closest I've ever come to being dropped off in medieval Europe and just having to figure out shit. So I have died so many fucking times,

and I always get sent, and I will walk a half hour of real time towards one of the few quest markers that I have, which is, where's my dog? And I'm like, well, I gotta go save my dog. I can't leave my dog, but the dog is like from before the opening credits. So I have to go all the way across the towns,

the town and the farmland and like cut through wilderness and there's a boar there and now I'm dead again. Okay, so I gotta cross all the way across the fields. Oh, there's a town. I walk through the town. I walk through the town Uh, I accidentally pressed the wrong remark when a when a guy says something to me. I'm dead Okay, all the way back So I gotta walk all the way through the town across the farm fields avoid the area where the boars might be avoid the town

Where that guard was talking to me? Ah, finally, I've gotten it. Oh god. There's a guy coming out of the woods. Oh Ah, finally I've gotten it. Oh, God, there's a guy coming out of the woods. Oh, he wants to talk. Okay, I'll talk. Fuck, I pressed the wrong button and I drew my sword. He kills me immediately. Like, it is really joyful and also it's so self-serious.

I mean, it's got a really good sense of humor and timing, like, written into it, but the gameplay systems are of somebody who is a rule-biter in a Dungeons & Dragons game. Who won't let you get away with fucking anything. So I have no money. I'm in clothes where also, I think I was in a town and I was wearing these clothes that I stole from like a dead body

and I walked into an area and a woman was like, take a bath and I went, oh fuck. Press the trigger button to pull up dialogue options, apologize to the lady, back out without bumping into a guard, go over to a bucket of water, clean my body so that I can walk past her. It is so fucking intense. It is really, really, really my kind of game, but more than that, I think it's Nick's kind of game.

Yeah, I probably would love it. It's probably partly why I've been keeping it at arm's length because it's the worst it's gonna take over my life. It does, what you're describing like in terms of just how granular it gets, but also just how perilous this reality is. It is, and I'm sure, I imagine at some level, the developers were going for this of like,

because obviously it's fictionalized, but it's meant to be sort of like this historical period, where up until maybe 90 years ago, people just died all the time from like whatever. Like you'd just be walking down the street and like an ox cart would fall on you and that'd be the end of your life. You know?

Too long at an eagle. Yeah. And the good news is that's gonna start up again pretty soon. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It's also, it's like, there's not, as far as I can tell, unless there's something I haven't turned on, there's no like glowing shit in the world. It's not like, oh, there's a glowing barrel so I know there's something in it. Everything is just kind of mixed into the reality. If there are flowers that you're supposed to pick,

did I talk about this last time? Like, my friend is sick and I have to make a potion Which is also the training course for how the potion works But the way you fucking make the potion is the ladies like go up on the hill There's chamomile and sage and I'm like Okay, okay And then I like pull up the dialogue and it's like what is what do those look like? And she's like well chamomile is a yellow flower with a white spot in the middle

and the sage is going to have a small purple flower. And I'm like, okay, so I go up to the top of the hill thinking, oh, there's gonna be like glowing fucking like, no, it is all just rubbish nature. And I'm like, fuck, my friend's gonna fucking, I don't know if there's a timer on my friend's life. It feels like the kind of game that there would be. I have to like look at the ground until I find flowers.

And I'm like, it's not highlighting. It's nothing, oh, I really have to point this dot, this period size dot, which is my like, my cursor focal point, at the actual flower, and it's like, and then a little thing pops up and goes, camomile. And I'm like.

I have two questions. One, do you have a general idea of how long it takes to complete this game? No idea, I haven't looked up anything. Well, this goes into my second question, do you even care? Do you want to complete the game, or is it all about just living in this world,

in this grounded reality? I would like to achieve some forward momentum in game. Like I talked to a guy who like, one of my objectives is to get into this wedding because I have to talk to a different guy. And they're like, well, that guy's going to be at the wedding. And then I had to like fucking talk to like 50 fucking people to find out where the wedding was, when the wedding.

It's not like, it's not like, you know, Final Fantasy town where they're like, boy, the cave up on the hill sure does look like it has treasure in it. It's like you, I'm talking to this guy and he's just fucking, he's talking about nothing. And I'm like, is this a guy I have to talk to? But you, you eventually found the Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn NPCs. Yeah. They got you in.

So then they're like, oh, you got to go to a wedding. And I'm like, well, can I sneak in? And they're like, absolutely not. It's going to be full of knights. And I'm like, well, how do I go into the wedding? And he's like, well, there will still need to be people employed at the wedding, so maybe you could get a job.

X to file your W-2. That then will require, will allow you into the wedding because there's like people who work weddings because it's a real world. And the blacksmith is like, you know, if you are, you might wanna, like I'll take you on as an apprentice and I bet I can get us both in. And then there's another guy who's like,

got some other, like he's like, no, no, no, I'm a, I don't even remember what the other guy was. Cause I was like, well, I wanna be a blacksmith cause I eventually wanna make swords. But after this scene happened, I can't, I don't know where that blacksmith lives. It's a fucking town. There's no like beacon.

I'm going from door to door and I'm opening doors thinking oh it's the blacksmith on the other side of this door and there's like a little like a thing that comes up and it's like you're trespassing. If you get caught you're going to get arrested. Cause there are still like prompts on your UI and I'm like fuck and I like close that door And I'm like, how do I find the fucking blacksmith? I

There's also no The the map is like an old-timey map. So it's not really accurate. Yeah. Yeah. They just like big rock little stream They're just like big rock, little stream. Yeah, and your player icon is like a... Monster over here. It's like a wooden guy, like a sculpted wooden guy walking around on a drawing of the town that is not very accurate.

It's great. You've described a perfect Nick game and an absolute nightmare for me. Yeah. Well, the combat's also cool because, so there's, it's not just like strike. Like in Skyrim, it's not you just strike over and over again.

With this, you have to toss your sword from like position to position based on what the other person is doing. So you can strike their left, strike their right, strike their head, or stab them in the stomach. You also have to be on guard. So you can like hold a guard up, but then you'll get tired. Or you can do a perfect guard and then repost.

So like they strike a little like perfect guard icon pops up, you block their attack and you have a split second to attack them back. But if you do an attack in that window, there's a high likelihood that they will also do a perfect guard back to you and then repost you. So the combat is like two, it's like a guy facing you and he's like, I'm gonna fuck you up

because also everybody swears. And so you're like tossing your sword back and forth between your arms and like you go to like Like oh, he's on that. He's got his sword in his right. I'm gonna hit him on his left I hit him on his left. He goes Like it's not like a souls game where there's a gush of blood. Like, your sword hits their armor and just goes, clang!

It's fucking great. It's a nightmare. Wow. Well, let me talk about Island Wake 2 a little bit. Matt, I know you're the finisher, but I'm known to finish a game on occasion, and I rolled credits this morning. Holy shit! You dropped this king?

What a fucking video game. I really, really enjoyed it. Ranch, you still playing? I'm still playing. How, like, do you know approximately how deep you are into the game? Do you have a sense of it? I'm like 20 hours in.

Okay, okay, I think you might, you probably, cause I finished, I think my last save was like 23 hours. So depending on how much, I kind of reached a point where I was just mainlining it. I also did the DLC, but like depending on how, you might be close to the finish line. I'm at the hotel. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, okay. You're pretty deep in it. Anyway, I really, really enjoyed it. It's got this incredibly high quality of writing and art direction. I'm not gonna really veer into spoiler country very much because I love playing through this knowing almost nothing. And Matt, you did a great job of getting me to play it,

but also not really like, you know, telling me the stuff that happens that's just also, you know, unexpected and so unique to this experience. Yeah, there's like the one thing that I know that has like been spoiled to death. So like, I haven't even said it on here. But I feel like at this point, you know what it was. And it was like cool and good, right? Yeah.

Like, it's cool and good. It's aesthetically just so marvelous environments are so varied in detail. This is the thing you talked about that, but like part of it was like it feels lived in because there's like empty spaces like you're, you know, if you're going to like to share a station, you'll just go into a bathroom. It's not like there's not like you're necessarily even scrounging for resources there. This is just like just feels like a real bathroom that would be here. And there's just like a note up on the wall.

That's just color. It doesn't, it doesn't actually inform the story or anything. It just sort of makes it feel like real people are living there. I love the diner environment. Diner's great. It's just so great. And that speaks to mostly what I love about this game

was just, it's just so fucking weird. Yeah. It's like you're basically in a Scandinavian colony in the Pacific Northwest. It's like everyone there is Finnish. Yeah. And it's because it's a Finnish developer and those are the local actors they cast but they're just like whatever Yeah, just a bunch of a bunch of Finnish people immigrated here. The Finnish brothers who run coffee world And also they have the TV ads you keep seeing them on all these shitty local commercials. They're so funny

They're so funny. Ati the janitor is just a character keeps popping up. He's so great. Well Ati is from control Okay, so there's just like a lot going on with him. Oh wait, just in the same universe as- Yeah, it's a- Oh, that's so funny. There's a bunch of Control, like Easter eggs and stuff that I like did not pick up on, but like there's a bunch of stuff

that ties in the Remedyverse. And I played through the DLC, the Night Springs DLC and the Lake House DLC. And my understanding is that, you know, some of those characters are Control characters as well. Yeah. So Control is on the agenda at some point in the future, but there's like I

Mean there's there's there's like a full-on rock opera at a certain point. There's one point There's one point did you get that level yet? Yeah, I think you did. Yeah, that's such an incredible levels all-time video game level for me There's one point in where you're in a movie theater And there's just like a 20-minute live-action finished short film that you can just watch in its entirety. It's just playing there. I love that. Just watch it start to finish.

It's so awesome. And there's also these characters with dual identities that in a meta sense are extended to the casting. Like we talked about Sam Lake last week, who's one of the directors of the game, the creative director of the studio, and also is in the game in two different roles, as himself and as a detective who has a, the voice actor who plays Max Payne, who also is his likeness is doing his voice.

But also Icavilli is the actor who plays the physicality and likeness of Alan Wake, but he's voiced by another actor, Matthew Perretta. But Villi also plays another role where he's using his likeness and his own voice, which is like just another layer of... There's also cinematics that are rendered both with character models and live action stuff

that's been filmed sometimes in the same frame. Sometimes these things are coexisting. And it just feels so surreal and dreamlike. And the voice of Alan Wake also plays a live action character in the game too, which is very funny and weird. Yes, it's also layered and like stuff you start to, it just makes it all feel like a little bit unsettling and unreal, but like that's the point.

And it's really effective. And Ranch is the thing we talked about last week, but like I overall really love this game despite not loving the core gameplay, which is the combat. Like I just like, I felt like there's not really enough variation on enemy types. I feel like you're fighting kind of the same mobs throughout the whole game.

Some of the big end of acting counters, they're pretty underwhelming. They're either boss fights that are kind of like whatever, or they're just shooting galleries of the same minions you've been fighting. And I just like, yeah, whatever. The flashlight's cool. The flares are very cool.

And the game's lighting is so spectacular that I like that those are gameplay elements in the combat, the ways to peel off layers of the shadows or scare them off. But I mostly found myself opting out of combat as much as possible. And similarly, the puzzles I think are kind of like, there's like 10 puzzles where you have to find fuses to turn the power back on. It's like that stuff is,

but it's also kind of just secondary to the experience. Cause it's like, it's so much just like a work of fiction about fiction and a story about storytelling and about the process of creating something in your creation, having its own impact on you. And that stuff, because it's conveyed interactively, it does feel really visceral and really connects with me. So there's the Night Springs DLC.

And Night Springs is basically like a Twilight Zone show that's within the Alan Wake universe. And so the Night Springs DLC is presented as episodes of the show. That's so cool. And so you go into it, and it's really cool. And so it's basically like, it's almost like a Twilight Zone length episode of a game,

and you just kind of go in and it has its own premise, its own protagonist, and its own weird thing that's going on. One of them was the one that features the sheriff character. Oh yeah, Tim Breaker. Tim Breaker. Who is the character, who is Sean Ashmore from, I think the game is called Quantum Break, which is another Remedy Universe game, but they don't have the rights to it because Xbox made that game. So their way around it was it's like, it's basically the same guy with the same premise,

but his name is Tim Breaker. The Tim Breaker one is good because it's like, you're jumping between different genres as you're within it. There's a part where you're actually playing and it feels like the Twilight Zone, but it's also so much about like, it's something that's about the multiverse, but it talks about the multiverse in the sense of like,

we kind of just inherently occupy a multiverse because we're all individuals with our own subjective realities, with one shared reality, but we're all seeing it in different ways. I was like, ah, I thought that was really a good one. I think I'm gonna play Alan Wake. You gotta play it.

I loved it. In that one also, I mean, you play as Sean Ashmore. Yeah, you do. Yeah. Yeah. It is really funny. You're Sean Ashmore talking to Alan, or talking to Sam Lake, and he's giving you notes.

Yeah. That's so funny. And then you're the actor like, wait, what is this? I'm sorry. You're explaining this to me? I don't know. I would say, yeah, Zig,

and I would say this to anyone out there, people play games for different reasons. Some people play games just, you know, for whatever, cause like it's a social thing or it's an escape or whatever, but there are people who like me who play them for story and or vibes. And I think if that's the kind of like gamer you are, I think Alan Wake 2 is a best play.

Cause I think the vibes are impeccable and the story is just like like, the ending of this game is an absolute knockout. I thought the ending, like, lands so well. Rancho, we'll see what you think when you get there. But it's so dramatically satisfying. The final two chapters, the way they're presented, they're not focused on combat.

They're much more, you know, about, like, just exploring the internality of these characters, which I found super interesting. Incredible timing on the credits roll, They're much more about just exploring the internality of these characters, which I found super interesting. Incredible timing on the credits roll. Just so dramatically satisfying. And I thought it just all worked, all came together so effectively.

I mean, I'm gonna play it anyway, but do I need to play Alan Wake 1? Would I appreciate Alan Wake 1 as well as this game? This is a question for Matt, because I went into Alan Wake 2 not really being a Remedy-verse guy, but you played Alan Wake 1 as well as this game? This is a question for Matt, because I went into Alan Wake 2 not really being a Remedy-verse guy, but you played Alan Wake 1. I played through Alan Wake 1,

and the only reason I wouldn't recommend it is not because it's bad at all, it's just the gameplay, if the gameplay of like shooting people with a flashlight and a gun in the new one doesn't feel that great, the one that's 13 years old It's gonna feel a lot worse. Yeah and Sam Lake

Did a very good like explainer video of Because he probably he figured that not everybody had played Alan Wake one when Alan Wake 2 was released So he did a very comprehensive like like, Ranch, you watched it. It was like not a very long video. It was like a nine minute video or something. Yeah, it was totally enough. Okay.

Or he explains it, you get it. Yeah, and also I will say that it's like, it stands on its own regardless. So yeah, I don't think you'd, I mean, based on my experience, I don't think like you need to have played through the first game in its entirety in order to appreciate Alan Wake 2.

Control is the one I am, I heartily endorse playing. I love Control. Matt, I have a question for you, and then I have one thing I want to play from one audio cue I want to play. Do I need to play the new game plus, the final draft? Now, this is interesting because I haven't done this yet. Yeah.

And I would like to because I know that the DLC slots into the game instead of playing it at the very end. Well, it does. I did. It does slot into the version. I got the complete version or whatever. And it does slot into like you will just find a TV that's playing Night Springs and you can go right into the DLC in mid game in the base game. I'd like to try that.

But without saying too much, I think there's a good reason to play it again. Okay, I won't do it right away, but I'm intrigued enough to maybe revisit it. Anyway, I mentioned Night Springs, so Night Springs being like a Twilight Zone, it's very much like kind of a 50s slash 60s sort of vibe, but then it has an end credits theme

that plays at the end of the DLC that is I guess supposed to be the end credits song for the show that is completely like, it's just from a different era. Okay, Ranch, can we play this real quick? ["Street Fighter II"] Space invaders Looked into an enormous suit Secret agents It's like a 70s disco sort of song.

It's like something that would be in a James Bond movie. It's like completely, it's like something that would be in like a James Bond movie. It's extremely good. I would put this up there with any of the songs from the, the artist from Smile 2 or Lady Raven from Trap. These are all very good songs. That's so fun. This, you just, you truly just sold Alan Wake 2 to me. Oh, I love it.

Hold on, hold on. I didn't describe how you make a potion in Kingdom Come Deliverance, which involves, first you have to start a fire, then you have to lower a kettle onto the exact right space over the fire so that it doesn't burn the liquid inside. You find the decanter on a shelf, you pour the wine in. You boil it, but how long do you boil it? Well, you have to flip an hourglass on one of the shelves. Watch the hourglass because you can't over boil

the wine because you don't want the alcohol to come out of the wine. You pick the kettle off of the fire, you push it to the side. Now you can process your herbs while that's cooling so you have to process with a pistol your fucking sage before you drop it into the thing and then reheat it. Then you have to decant it and filter it. Then you have a potion. And that's for the basic potion that you start. That's your tutorial potion. Wild.

I love that you do that. And then you could also die to like a mosquito bite. Fucking way. So what do you want? Pop music or like an extremely stressful recreation of cooking? Oh no, you caught the rickets. I will say, Alan Wake 2 is no picnic in terms of like, it goes into some really dark themes,

like a lot of stuff is exploring these characters, like personal traumas, and then there's like, it is like a survival horror game, or at least as a tra exploring these characters, like personal traumas. And then there's like, it is like a survival horror game, or at least as a trappings or survival horror game. So there are some genuine like jump scares. There are parts where it's like really very creepy. But I mean, I overall really loved it. But maybe just just things to be aware of going in.

It I mean, I haven't played I mean, I haven't played out on like two but is anyone here played I believe it's called like El Paso elsewhere? I've heard of this. I haven't played it. I did not play that. I play it. I mean, it's very much like a Max Payne adjacent type game, but it's this guy exploring basically a field relationship as you go lower and lower into like basically their version of hell. But it has this really cool sort of like meta text where I don't just text the game, but like

there will be there will be portions where you'll start a level like oh I'm just playing a max-tip game you just start hearing like spoken word poetry about why this relationship doesn't work and it's so interesting and so different and I want to like play Alan Wake 2 to see if it's so it could be like a what would be like a double feature type yeah I could see a reality which you enjoy this game oh no that sounds very much like a, they'd be up my alley. Yeah, Matt, I'm curious,

cause like, do you think, I almost wonder if like, they are not even necessarily that interested in the combat, but just to justify a game, cause the game is absolutely gorgeous, it has really high production values, to like justify a game with this budget, they like, well, we gotta throw combat in there.

Cause I don't know, it just kind of almost feels like it's, it's like, not that it's even poorly done. I just found it like not super engaging. And it doesn't feel like what the, I'm making a huge inference here, but it doesn't feel like the focus of what the development team wants to be doing here. Yeah, I haven't heard too much about that.

I don't think from what I mean, gosh, just based on like the presentation of it, and like hearing Sam speak about like what he likes and like the art that he enjoys and stuff, I would imagine that it's a very secondary to creating the vibes and like the lore of it rather. Whereas I do think, and I know that Heather played control and Didn't love it if I recall

Yeah, I played I think almost all the way to the end of control and I was like, you know what? I'm not enjoying myself. I don't need to finish the final boss. So I think that the the gameplay in in control It's also secondary to plot and like vibes because like that thing is like I mean that's that sort of scratches that speculative fiction like weird sci-fi thing that I write which is like Lost or like Severance. Like SCP or whatever. Yeah exactly. The combat in control is pretty good. It's awesome. But like in Alan Wake 2 it is 2, it is almost like a spooky walking

simulator, kind of. That's what I wanted. It feels like they wanted to make a AAA walking simulator. And those are the parts of the game that I really responded to. But you can't justify making a game of that scope and not having gameplay that appeals to a mainstream audience.

Or a AAA investigation game. Right, yeah. It does that stuff incredibly well. I know this isn't in the same vein because I really enjoyed the combat of the game, but Last of Us 2, I replayed that game recently. I was like, I don't even, the combat is fantastic, but I could just read weird sketching on the wall.

This game is almost here for just performances of Last of us 2 And it seems like I mean this isn't a one-for-one But I could see without awake who it seems like you hear for like the story the performances and also like what they're trying To say not necessarily like the gameplay combat loop. It seems like yeah I think though and like I think that's a that's a good comparison and you know, they're in the same genre obviously But it's like I do feel like the Alan Wake 2 combat is so comparatively simple versus,

like, you know, you can crouch, you can go prone. There's so many different, you know, like... Trip traps and stuff. Yeah, even that in and of itself is something. Like, your movement is really limited in Alan Wake 2. You have a dodge, and then you can move and that's basically it it's yeah so it's it's pretty bare bones not that even disliked it but I just like it was like the way you hear exactly that's exactly what I mean when you kill people

in Alan Wake to does somebody else go yeah when you shoot a dog is a dog when you shoot a dog or the dogs are you shoot a dog's or the dogs are crying You mostly just hear wake I wear a deal mask And also the weird with the one-liners that just like make no sense that they're saying it's unnerving but in the last of us to and I know we have a topic to get to last of us to like the main thing in that game is like violence bad, don't do that. Yeah. And then in um, Alan Lake 2, it's like art is hard and art is like, it's hard to be creative and AI fucking sucks. I love that. It rules, it's so good.

But also like, what does it mean to be alive? Like it's like, it's like just like getting to the core of it. Why do we do this? Yeah, yeah. Are we alive? Do we know? Are we even sure we're alive? It's, I don't just like getting to the core of it. It's like what it's about. Why do we do this? Yeah, yeah. Are we alive? Do we know, are we even sure we're alive? It's, I don't know, I really enjoy it. I had one thing I wanted to do real quick before we get into Marvel Rivals. A couple of weeks ago on the podcast,

few weeks ago here on the podcast, we did of course our backlog Thunderdome, where we went through our backlogs, we made some hard cuts and we used RNG, the Ranch Number Generator, to decide what the matchups were going to be. I figured I should revisit that, and I am going to use RNG to determine

which of the six games in my own backlog I am going to play next. Those games are Bloodborne, Divinity Original Sin 2, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Hollow Knight, Mother 3, and Yakuza Like a Dragon. Ranch, can we spin to win and find out what I'm going to commit to? It could happen right here, live on the fucking show.

I can tell you something right now. It could happen right here on the show. If it lands on Mother 3, I can almost guarantee you Nick's not doing it. No, I will do it. I will commit that I will play through whatever Nick is going to play if it lands on. Oh my god, it could happen. Okay, god. I won't be through whatever you're gonna play if it lands on me. Oh my god, it can happen. I won't be alone!

I also want to say that I checked my steam and I have logged 73 hours on a holo night. Oh my god! I just want to say I beat Final Fantasy VII Rebirth when I had COVID and I put 120 hours in that game next. Holy shit! Oh my god!

I can't look! I can't look! No, it's not gonna be that. Ooh! Oh! Da da da da! Yeah! Da da da da! Final Fantasy VII Rebirth it is. Oh man.

See ya in 200 hours. Yeah, I wish you radicalized and be an eco-terrorist. I love DreamHack, excited to play Rebirth. There we go. Wow. All my dreams are coming true. Yeah. Man, I can hear the planet's cries.

2025 is actually my year. Yeah. Let's talk about Marvel Rivals. Marvel Rivals was developed by NetEase, directed by Gyeong-Goon Chen, primarily a Chinese development team, but there was a North American branch, which we will come back to.

It is a 6v6 free to play hero shooter that is insanely successful. Currently a top five game on Steam, 200K concurrent players. We've talked about this before on the podcast and Zig, I'm sure you've experienced this as well, as someone who like is known to play video games and your circle of friends, sometimes something breaks

through into the, you know, the mainstream awareness and someone who doesn't normally play games comes up to you and is like, hey, what's up with Elden Ring? You know, like, I had that happen with Marty, the CEO of HeadGum, was like, hey, what's, like, Marvel Rivals, like, he's, like, been playing Marvel Rivals and wanted to get my perspective on it. This is a game that has become, contrary to some of the other Marvel games

we were talking about earlier, has become enormously successful. Yeah, I feel like before this, so I'm judging this all by like a video game group chat that I had. Before that, we were called Diver Dudes when Helldivers 2 came out. Yeah, Helldivers 2 was another one, yeah, for sure.

But I feel like because that one was locked to one platform, didn't have the reach of this, but like it recently transitioned into specifically a Marvel Rivals group chat. And this is the only game in a long time where I'm like, oh, I'm going to hop online and actually want to get good at this game. Like, I want to go into ranked. I want to get sweaty with these fucking nerds. And like, I feel like a sense of enjoyment when I get like, whatever like little part of my reptile brain sees like oh big number good if I play Captain America, and I guess we'll get into that some point, but if I see like oh, I have

54,000 block to damage in Captain America like oh, I did work today And there's gonna be dinner on the table tonight Yeah, I held every two was on PC But we had a lot of trouble squatting up when I was on PC and y'all were on PlayStation. Yeah. And so, like, I actually didn't check into the cross-platform play of Barbed War Rivals,

but I imagine it's in there. It's good. I have a... I play with, like, Xbox friends, PlayStation friends, myself and, like, PC, and the only thing that you really can't do is competitive with PC players. But, like, truly, I think of our group chat, there's like nine of us, and we're all evenly split between PC and console.

What do you mean you can't do competitive with PC players? Is that because mouse and keyboard gives them such an advantage? Yeah, because you can hop into Quick Play, and for me, it used to be set to anyone. You could just tell who was doing PC, because they're just reaction time, it's just so much better than anyone on consoles,

unless you really go in there and tweak the sort of settings you have. This was, I think, something that was very recently added to Fortnite, because all of the player base was completely mixed forever. I think only recently have they flipped a switch where you can play console only or PC only. Yeah, I set mine to console only after the second week,

and my playing experience was so much more enjoyable for myself. Matt, like I feel like you're a bit of a comics guy. Yeah. A bit of a, certainly the MCU had among the host of the show. Don't get me started on the recent output. I don't want to talk about it. But like, you had not messed around with this game

before we decided to do this episode, correct? Yeah, I hadn't messed with it. I know that ZIG was there like day one. But this type of game, not typically my thing. Even with like a battle royale like Fortnite, I even tried to play Apex Legends for like a little bit. I was like, this is not my thing think I'd rather a campaign or like a story To bring to bring me that's just like the type of game. I prefer. Yeah

But having messed around with it a little bit Like, you know over the weekend I got pretty into it. I think I put about Something like five hours into it, like for this episode. Yeah. And I texted you guys over the weekend, I like Marvel rivals. Yeah. Which I was pretty surprised by if I'm being honest,

cause like I had down, you know, actually I had downloaded it and played one round of it and was like, yeah, same here. I'm out with this. And then when we were decided to do the episode I redownloaded it and was like let's I know that I was being a brat I just didn't like it because I was just not good but then I don't actually understand like the systems like you were talking about like

No, I just kind of get in there and just try to just try to wreck house and see what to see what I can do But that that's how I've been playing and I know I've been playing incorrectly because I have not won that much. Yeah. Yeah. You sent that text over the weekend. We got another text or get played a group chat from Ranch. Quote, Marvel rivals is crazy.

WTF is going on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there would be times when I'd be playing it, and very quickly I found a good synergy with Squirrel Girl, who is not like one of my favorite Marvel characters,

but I tried a ton of the characters and I was like, which of these works for me? And the truth is, even though we were winning, and also you'll get on a run where you're like, just keep squatting up with these random strangers because you get on a good, successful win streak, and we all stuck with those people also, which was cool. I still don't know what I'm doing

that works as Squirrel Girl. I'm getting fucking kills and shit, and it'll be like five kill ten kill streak and you're like I don't know what I'm not even quite sure what her power Yeah, I've done the the ten kill streak before and my reaction every single time has been oh really So yeah, the the way the game works is it's got a, you know, it's, it's, there's a bunch of characters from the Marvel universe, but they are, they kind of have classes. And so there's the way the game's language are vanguards, duelists, and strategists, which approximately is kind of tanks, damage dealers, DPS characters, and then support

characters. Yeah. Kind of in the healer role, though they're not necessarily all just healers. So it's the kind of thing where it's like, it's geared towards team play obviously, but it's also geared towards complimenting, you know, like your fellow players. And I imagine it's the kind of thing, Heather, and I know you have a regular Fortnite squad, but imagine it's the kind of thing where,

if you found a group of players that you were regularly squatting up with, like you were saying, Zig, like you would figure out how we're gonna compliment each other. Yeah, is that a question for me or for Heather? I completely, I don't know who you're, I don't know if Heather would-

I think it's both of us. I will let you go first because I don't play Fortnite at all. Oh, well, I think that when you play Fortnite, obviously there's not like class systems in it and not like specialties, but you do find out what your roles are naturally as players. So I tend to be a long distance, I'm really good with sniper rifles,

but I am not fantastic with shotguns. So as a general rule, I'm playing from high vantage points. I'm a spotter. I'll be signaling where people are. We have a guy in my regular squad who is the guy who always rushes no matter what. We have a guy who I would call the, I guess he's like the support class.

Like he's always the guy coming in to help. He's like, where are you? And he'll get to you. And then we have like a chaos agent. And that's sort of our squad breakdown. And then I also, I will duo a lot with a listener that I met on our Discord whose name is Tobocito. And our gameplay, I would call, is embedded in cowardice.

Like we are very fast to retreat, and that is how we win. Because it's like duos is so fucking hard because you can't really mess up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think that's very different from this, where it's like, I would imagine if you've got a squad, not unlike fighting games, you'll have mains. You'll be like, oh, so who are your mains in this game?

It's funny, I made a list before I came in. So when I first started, actually I was very timid, because I've never done a hero shooter. I was like, I tried to do DPS, I would get smacked and I was like, I want to have fun playing a video game. So I sort of regressed to just healer because I can learn mechanics, I could actively support my squad.

And after that I got a little bit more comfortable. So right now I have basically a main in each category. For DPS I do Namor. For those of you who haven't played the game, he's definitely more of a sit back and hang out with the healers type of deal. Like his whole thing is like, you can throw up these like little squid turrets and you sort of hang out in the back line. He can like sort of have like a sniper capability where he doesn't really have damage fall off

with his spears that he throws. For tanks, I started out with Venom. He's definitely more of a dive. Like he's getting in there, cause chaos and I started out with Venom. He's definitely more of a dive. He's getting in there, cause chaos, and get out with a swing. But I've recently, within the past week, been learning Captain America, and he is so fucking fun. I never feel more like an actual Avenger

than when I pop the Captain America ult and he yells, Avengers assemble, and then you just sit on a point for the entire game and you don't move, and it's so much fucking fun. like it truly is like we're at the point down the group chat Well, someone would just see and send a symbol and we'll come together our squad and sort of IQ like everyone has their roles that fall into I think one of the things that I've been learning about this in this whole experience is that like I've never had a game where I've actively wanted to get better at it like competitive sense where I'm like

Oh, I'm gonna watch a YouTube video about how to play Captain America. Or like, I'm gonna warm up before I play. I'm gonna go into the practice and just work on accuracy. I'm gonna adjust the custom timers to have a small, squishy character like Luna Snow be 20 meters away and have her jump up and down

so I can practice my aim. I treat it almost like a part-time job where I'm like, I'm gonna put in four hours today and I just wanna get at least, I wanna go at least 60% wins, 40% losses. And part of the fun of having a squad is that you can sort of switch roles because you're like, I usually do damage or tank. But I was like, you know what I wanna learn?

I wanna learn Invisible Woman. She's become like my main healer. And it's fun just like playing with people that I don't normally hang out with. Like I've never been a Discord guy, but like hanging out with people that I've known for 10 years, but I don't get to see all the time has been fun.

So it's become this sort of, it's taken the spot in my life where I'm like, I'm doing something I love, which is like, I love comic books, I love video games, but also I love chatting with my friends on a regular basis. Yeah. Right. And through that, like, I've found that, like, I formed tighter relationships with people that I've known for for for for years. Like we have a mutual friend, Garret Bernard, who, like, I've known forever. But like we actually hang out now multiple times a week because of this game.

And I'm like, I love that. I love that. I love that it's like brought has made my friendships tighter and like if I had known that like playing fucking overwatch ten years ago would have Done this for my friendships. I would have delved in so much deeper into hero shooters. Do you remember? Do you remember when Halo infinite came out and we were had a plan to squad up with iffy yeah We need a plan with iffy fell through if he was like we all sort of agreed upon a time It was like late. You were like, let's get on it like 830 at night Yeah, and play some Halo infinite Squad up together and then around 845 we had her from iffy and like iffy where are you like?

Oh my bad. I'm on my way back from the airport. We're like, what the hell? I'm on my way back from the airport. We're like what the hell? What are you doing? It's just so crazy So on rivals I was like I I had started I think the default character when you boot up the game is Wolverine Oh, you know it was Punisher, and then I think I switched it to Wolverine. When you're more politically, you love what he does, right? Well, the thing about Punisher is that I think it's cool. Yeah.

I think it's cool that he hates cops, but also cops are cool too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I was playing Wolverine on the outset,

and I think actually having Punisher as the default character kind of makes sense because the thing I was saying is that I was not used to playing the other characters with different move sets. I couldn't really wrap my head around Captain America or Wolverine, just slashing with claws. like Captain America or Wolverine, like just like slashing with claws.

These types of games typically have a player with a gun, so it sort of made a little bit more sense for me to play with the gun characters at first. So playing Punisher, and then I moved on to Rocket, and was sort of like a Rocket main for a while. Saw that there was a battle pass, and was like, I'll get the battle pass and see if that has any tangible benefit. It does not. But I did buy, I bought a steampunk

outfit for Rocket and now he looks like a little cowboy. I like that. That's pretty, that's pretty fun. But then I just recently switched over to, to Namor and he's he slept he slept he's a fucking beast it's cuz like I just was like oh you just treat any ability like it's a gun kind of yeah just kind of just like hold down our to yeah just let it rip and then just meanwhile no more is just tossing try chopper Like, he just left it fly, you know? Um, so as a, like, the new season, or the current season, and I don't know what the state of the meta of Marvel Rivals is right now.

I didn't investigate that at all. But, like, the current season, Fantastic Four is the new, like, these characters are being added to the roster. Unfortunately, the thing is not out yet as of this record. I think he's coming later this week. I think tomorrow, actually. Tomorrow, okay, yeah. So, but I, like, that's what, like, I was like,

oh, it's Mr. Fantastic. You know, I wanted to go on to that. My thing is, like, my reaction to this game, first off, it's very much not for me. Like, this is just not the kind of game I want to play. And then also, to quote reaction to this game, first off, it's very much not for me. Like this is just not a kind of game I wanna play. And then also to quote someone's terrific insight, Marvel Rivals is crazy, WTF is going on. I just immediately so disoriented.

I will say, at this point I think I put in like 55 hours. But the first seven hours, it felt like that scene, the beach scene in Save It Private Ryan where like the sound goes out and you're like what the fuck is going on? I just remember I would see a Spider-Man would come in and then I would just be back in this Player Select lobby. I'm like what happened?

So I actually felt like, and Fortnite I had a better response to, but also I think Fortnite actually has, maybe it's just because the game's been out for so long now, has pretty decent onboarding for new players. Like they certainly, the matchmaking is such where it feels like, okay, I'm kind of getting my, even though there's so much here, there's so much that's just like an overwhelming amount

of content to try to absorb. So many gameplay mechanics, so many different ways to play. It's also like, you do feel like you're being eased into the water a little bit. Whereas this is a little bit more like, like jumping to the deep end, sink or swim. It's a little bit more of that feeling. But one thing I will say, yeah.

I was just thinking that there was a small time during this season of Fortnite, because as of record, the chapter ends tomorrow for Fortnite, but there was a time when some of that onboarding would have been, also Godzilla is here. Yeah. And you have to rush to become Godzilla,

and if you don't get there in time, then you have to rush to become Godzilla, and if you don't get there in time, then you have to kill Godzilla. But don't worry, Monarch is going to drop weapons for you. Be like, wait, on top of all this other shit? So I worked on a couple of Fantastic Four video games. So I'm always, back in the day, back when I worked in game development, I'm always interested in how the Fantastic Four

is utilized in games. I'm actually curious, because the thing, I guess, is a tank, and I'm always interested in how the Fantastic Four is utilized in games. I'm actually curious, because the thing I guess is a tank, and I'm curious as to how he plays. I probably will dip in a little bit, just to try that out, give the thing a little test run. But when I worked on the first Fantastic Four game,

we had a point where we were Activision, who was the publisher, and they had focus tests, and it was one of the only times I've ever sat in a, that thing you said, I mean, there's that thing you've seen for the Simpsons episode with Itchy and Scratchy, where you're sitting behind one way glass watching people play something.

And so they had like a bunch of different groups of kids come in and play this game. Normally you're on the other side. Yeah. Where were you? And I remember there's one of these sessions where they're played through this Fantastic Four game and this one, there's always like one kid who would like dominate the conversation and this one kid was like, he was like, he's like, I know how to fix this game.

And the moderator is like, okay, please go ahead, let us know. And he's like, here's what you gotta do. You got a Fantastic Four, but you also gotta get Spider-Man in there. You gotta get Superman in there. You gotta get Robocop in there. Give them all sniper rifles. Best game ever. The kid just pitched Fortnite.

Back then, we were like, what the fuck is this kid talking about? Kick this kid's ass. Have him floss on his dead body. I don't know. Hit a dougie? I'm just guessing. Currently, I don't talk about it much because there is an ongoing strike, but I have been continuing to play Fortnite.

And currently I am Jake Sully from Avatar. And his emote that you can purchase is him touching flowers as the Avatar theme plays. And I think it has to be the most disrespectful emote in the game. Because all the other emotes imply some sort of like, I don't know, avarice towards the other player. This, you kill somebody and then like the avatar theme

plays and you just start wondrously touching flowers from Pandora. It's like, It fucking sucks. I will say this game has brought out just the tiniest bit of toxicity in my mind. If I do a really good kill on someone or a embarrassing kill, I'll drop the Captain America emoji, which is him catching Thanos as a glove and just struggling. You can just let that go indefinitely. So sometimes I'll just set it and let it go for like 10 seconds until I know they respond and then I go back

into the fight That's so great. The thing that is a funny experience in this game to me is that you're playing against another human being right so a human being Can be mean in a way that a video game can Like I could be rocket like firing at Thor and then Thor could start like charging at me Intimidate me and chase me and I get scared and then like blasting at him trying to run away also And then he could kill me it happened a lot a lot. There is, has anyone seen the,

so you know in Iron Man the game, he does like a chest beam attack? Yeah. Well there's a way you can cancel the animations, which is him air humping. And sometimes people get a particularly good kill, they'll just air hump the corpse. I have seen that, yeah, yeah.

I'm sure I've been on the receiving end of that. I really like the built in banter in the game. I like that the character's all sort of like, like I'm squirrel girl and the fucking little land shark is in the game and she's just like riffing on how much she thinks it's cute. And I'm like, that's nice that all this like color is built into the programming of this shooter.

Yeah, it does have a sense of fun. And I do think it has a really pleasing aesthetic. Like it's like, you know, it leans into, I don't know. I mean, like, I didn't play the Suicide Squad game, but that was one where I was just like, I don't necessarily even connect with this visually, but Marvel Rivals, I feel like, is really pleasing to look at.

Yeah, and also speaking to what Heather was saying, it does feel like, I really pleasing to look at. Yeah, and also, speaking to what Heather was saying, it does feel like, I mean, I know it's based off a franchise, but the world seems so lived in and so rich, where you do have these moments where, you know, Peter Parker will talk to Captain America about queens or whatever, and you're like, oh, this A and B back and forth for five lines is so rich and so fulfilling.

It makes you kind of pump shit for the team as well. We're like, oh yeah, I'm with Spider-Man. I gotta do it for Queens. I better take control over this base over here in Wakanda. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And plant my American flag. So the bummer part of this, and this was not the reason we did the episode, this timing

came out after we, this news came out after we'd done this episode. It's really unfortunate timing, but I mean, this is, I'm just gonna read this post. So the Polygon article is Marvel rivals, lays off NA based team amid explosive success. Thaddeus Sasser, who is the game's Seattle-based director, posted on LinkedIn the following. There's a quote, "'This is such a weird industry. My stellar, talented team just helped deliver

an incredibly successful new franchise and Marvel rivals for Nettys games, and were just laid off.'" So the whole team, basically the entire US-based team got laid off. Nettys, who's the company, had a pretty shitty statement they released explaining this, which was, we recently made the difficult decision

to adjust Marvel Rivals development team structure for organizational reasons and to optimize development efficiency for the game. This resulted in a reduction of a design team based in Seattle that is part of a larger global design function in support of Marvel Rivals. We appreciate the hard work and dedication of those affected and will be treating them confidentially

and respectfully with recognition for their individual contributions." Very AI written statement. Just like saying nothing. Yeah, yeah. It's also, I mean, that's just like classic corporate messaging too. Just like we actually had to do this

for a good reason that helps us only actually. But isn't it like, it's one thing if a game completely eats shit, and it's just like, well shit, we released this game, I can't remember the name of the unfortunate. Concord. Concord, yeah, like release Concord, no one bought it, no one played it,

we were having to shut down the servers, having to retool, and you know what, the economic reality is, I actually don't know what the fate of that team was, but I imagine they also got laid off. That you can at least, like even if that's shitty, you can at least kind of understand there's some rationale behind it. But when it's just become,

hey, we made something that's super duper profitable, and then we can make even more money by firing all the workers. Like that's just a layer of like, oh man, what a bummer. It's similar to a thing that sometimes happens in the film and television industry, which is you can have an enormously successful TV show,

but if it is pulling in, like I once was on a show that got, that was the highest rated show on the network. It was on Game Show Network, and it was Drew Carey's Improvaganza. And it was like a huge hit for the network. It was on Game Show Network, and it was Drew Carries in Proviganza. And it was like a huge hit for the network. But because the content was skewing a little bit blue compared to all of these Game Show reruns, they were getting tons of calling complaints from the old people who were also watching Drew Carey's Improvaganza, which affected the advertising revenue. So you could have a show that is a big hit

and then is immediately destroyed because of just, like, circumstantial bullshit. It's weird. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, like, whatever. The rationale seems pretty tenuous. It seems like they want to, you know, concentrate their labor force in a country

where it's cheaper, but it's a bummer. And it's, you know, the hope is that you craft, you make a hit and it's, and you would think that there comes some job security with crafting that, but I guess not anymore. Look like you were gonna say something when I started that story, but if not, then we can cut this part. No, well, I was thinking about,

I can't remember the name of the specific TV show, but it was like a Teen Titans type show, which was wildly popular, people loved it. But because the viewership skewed more to the, it's not even female, because they were kids, it was more to girls than boys, and they were like, girls don't buy toys, they just canceled this wildly successful show.

And like, that's all I had. Like I had no real. Well, I've also heard of shows that because they, when Netflix came out, they negotiated the streaming rights way back when. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And that in order to get their streaming rights back, the show had to end

so that they would get their streaming rights back from Netflix. Now that all of these other sort of like branch, like Max or fucking Paramount Plus, all of those networks, some of their streaming rights are tied up with Netflix because of ongoing contracts with the airing television show. And so they have to cancel the show

so that they can get the rights back. Yeah, it's And so they have to cancel the show so that they can get the rights back. Yeah. Yeah, it's a bummer. But that said, the work they did on this game is impressive and it's laudatory and I imagine that all these, hopefully they'll all land on their feet and be able to use this credit to get future work in an industry where employment is unfortunately very tenuous. Any other thoughts on the game itself? I wanna make sure we get to everyone's.

I liked it. I wanna say I liked it. But coming from Fortnite, the movement was, unless you're playing like a Spider-Man style character, the movement's a little slow on its feet. And I understand why that happened, or from a design standpoint, my guess is, with so much crazy shit happening on screen, if you added that they all moved at like superhero speed,

that it would be too disorienting to play. It's like if you've never played a fighting game and you're trying to watch Marvel versus Capcom 2, You're like, what the fuck is happening on screen? Yeah, yeah. It's funny enough you say that because there was a moment, I was playing last night and there's the character Penny Parker, her belly is like, she can lay down like these webs. And there was a moment where there were two Penny Parkers,

each shooting out webs, each shooting out little minds. There was a Thor like doing his like magic mill near thing and like Rocket Raccoon was a Thor doing his magic mill near thing, and Rocket Raccoon was dropping his special. I'm like, this would kill a Victorian child if they saw what was going on. There's so much stimulation. And this one pocket between four characters, there are six other characters doing their own thing.

There's so much happening in this one section. I think Doctor Strange was opening a portal. There's so much happening. I can't fathom also I can run fast yeah yeah that well sometimes I'll be playing a game and like it could be something like vampire survivors or when I was pretty heavily into Diablo 3 a lot you know a lot can happen on screen in the game like that and my wife would just be like what the fuck am I looking at? What is this? And I have to try to explain, and she'd be like,

God, never mind, I don't care. Mine's just biting down on a piece of fucking leather, tried to mainline it. I remember my friend's dad looking at four players Smash Brothers with items on, and so the screen is just full with Pokeballs and lightsabers and baseball bats and Jigglypuff versus Ganondorf or whatever the fuck and his comment for some reason was just why are they dancing?

Rochelle any any any thoughts on your Marvel Rivals experience? I was playing with some friends one of them old friend from high school, who is like a platinum rank on Marvel Rivals. Wow. Wow. Put some respect in my name. Yeah. Yeah. And then I was playing with Scarlet Witch, I think, and he was Dr. Strange, and he's like,

okay, here's the plan, I'm gonna open up a portal, and you're gonna go in there and use your ults on like the entire team that is like, okay, here's the plan. I'm going to open up a portal and you're going to go in there and use your alts on like the entire team that is like, they're all like there. So he owns up this portal and then he's like, all right, go do it. So I just walk in and I just immediately die. I didn't even get to press Q. And that was basically my whole experience of that game. It's funny to think, like, there are times in video games

where I can't stop laughing because I'm imagining what I've just seen has happened. Yeah. And that feels like one of the moments where it's like, I don't know, I told Scarlet Witch to walk in and open fire. She walked in and just did nothing One the infinite world One of the things that I love about the game because like obviously there's probably an in-world

Canon reason why the characters are not dying and are responding for whatever whatever it is but when When your health is depleted There your body becomes so floppy you fucking you look dead Look at Peter Parker, and he looks dead. You're just like that's a fucking teenager When someone's doing their own, like pure... And then they just stop and it's in this... There's one that's popped up where it's venom, his says, we are venom. And so sometimes we'll just say, we.

And I just picture him with like a bat cat. Running a bike under the Eiffel Tower. Alright, should we do a segment? Let's do a segment. I'm going to name some video games and we're going to find out how many characters Heather, Nick, and Zig can name. It's time for how many. Oh Matt, oh. Matt, your games.

This is how it works. Yeah. I'll say that. Pote, games. Yeah. I think this is going to be good. Okay. I'll say the name of the game, and we're going to just go around. You're going to tell me how many you think you can name. So it's going to go in order.

I'll go, we'll start with Nick, Zig, and then Heather. Okay. So that we're kind of like, this is, this is a, oh, I remember that we did this previously. Yeah, we did this previously. And so you're kind of wagering how many you think you can name? Yeah, so like it was like Marvel rivals you could be like I'll can I can name you know three characters from that game It could be like I can name five Heather could say I can name seven girl and then if Zig wanted to he could challenge

Whoever the high person is. Yes, exactly. Do you have like full rosters? I have pretty comprehensive rosters. You have pretty comprehensive rosters. Okay, great. Okay. So, and I don't, and there's only, I only have four. So we'll get through this quick.

The first game that I'm going to name is Resident Evil 4. Oh. Ah. So Nick, how many characters do you think you could name? Um... Oh, oh, then Nick how many characters you think you can name? I'll start low and I'll say three three characters. Yeah, I'm gonna say four. Okay Four Four characters, so you'd also say four. Yeah. I think that means you have to do it. Me?

Yeah. Okay. Because you're sort of matching Zig's bet. Oh, God. Okay. And the challenger- Yeah, is the rule you have to either raise or tell the previous person to do it, or can you match it?

Oh, yeah, maybe, yeah. You have to either raise it or tell Zig to do it. And then point goes to either the victor or the challenger So wait, I can either say for you name them. That doesn't seem fair You can either say look you could either challenge zig to do it or you could try to name five Well, I may I oh You could say five and then no, I can't do that though. Then then I would say challenge zig to his four Okay, I challenge you to your four Leon

Ashley Salazar a Ramon tells our okay El gigante And El Lago there we go. That's five right. Okay. I'll give I'll give I'll give you those yeah All right, you got you got four so zig gets a point all right Wow okay? God pretty good. Thank you the merchants gonna be upset I That was one of my four Next on the list Final Fantasy 7 how many how many characters and we'll start with Zig okay?

How many characters do you think you can name from Final Fantasy 7? I could probably do at least ten. You think you could do ten? Hold on, just give me a second. Heather and Zigg are both counting on their fingers silently. Yeah, and Nick and I weren't feeling this way. I was looking at the sky, wondering why everyone was being quiet. I was looking at my iPad counting how many I had. Ten might be too many.

I could do a dozen, I think. You could do a dozen if you're raising yourself. Oh man, man, man, hold on, hold on. Heather is continuing to count on her fingers. Yes. We're going to need a either to call or to raise. I'd say I'm actually counting on my toes right now. Those are great shoes by the way. Oh, thank you.

I think he's wearing some Nike's. I think I can do 12. You both can do the same amount. So you both can do the same amount. I can do 13. You can do 13. I was gonna say I was gonna say 15 but I don't know if that's too high. Well, I'll give you the opportunity because I'm gonna say I'm gonna say 14. Holy shit 14. I'm gonna say 15 then I'm working I'm done. I'm out. I'm out. You have to challenge zig to name 15. Wait, I do but I can't do 15 I did know you'd say you challenge 15. Okay, okay cloud Love it if you stop there. Oh, oh, don't fuck.

Cloud, Tifa, Barrett, Ares, or Aerith, Red 13, Euphy, Vincent, Dr. Hojo, Sephiroth, Rude, oh fuck, Rude. Oh, fuck. Oh, shit. Oh, oh, oh, I'm Sid Persephone, which I believe is Sephiroth's mom or Vincent's mom. And I'm going to say. Sing when the Turks and finally What's Elena the other the lady turk okay that 15 so here's the thing yeah, I stopped counting

Matt's game You have one job. Matt's game. Matt's game. I'm literally over counting my toes. I got my pinky toe out. Struggling. I legitimately right now, like the burger hit me and was like, oh. We should maybe stop eating cheeseburger dinners before we record.

Bunch of grease and organ meat. We're doing sweet greens from now on. I feel great. I ate a protein bowl. Yeah, yeah, we gotta do that instead. Zit gets the point. That was impressive. That was impressive. My eyes rolled back. Because you also had, because the thing that was tripping me up was you were naming some

that I was remembering that I don't have on the list. So like you had some that I didn't have. In an RPG of that scope, it's like there's so many possible characters that could be named. So I guess if you're saying any character from the game, then yeah. Chopkeeper One.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh boy, Chadley of course, that's from the remix. Next and final game, The Last of Us Part II. Oh wow. How many characters can we name in The Last of Us Part II? Here's the problem. I finished Last of Us II twice.

Yeah. I don't know if I can name three characters from the game because I have an old brain and I have trouble with recall, but I will start the bidding at... I think you could do at least three. I will start the bidding at... I think you could do at least three. I will start the bidding at three characters. Yeah, I'm gonna say three. I'm gonna say 12.

Wow. Wow. Well, I think you have to name the 12. All right, here we go. Let me see how many I have on my list first. Okay. I have exactly 12. Wow. Okay. I have exactly 12. Alright, alright, here we go. Ellie.

Abby. Joel. Steven! Roger! Elliot! Kevin! Todd! No, Jill!

Annie! Lacey! Eleanor! Wow. Heather gets the point. But ultimately, Zigg is our winner of How Many. Well done, Zigg. That's this week's Get Played.

Our producer is Rachelle Chen. Ranch yard underscore underscore sard. Our music is by Ben of How Many. Well done, Zig. Thank you. That's this week's Get Played. Our producer is Rachelle Chen. Ranch yard underscore underscore sard. Our music is by Ben Prunty. Benpruntymusic.com. Our art is by Duck Brigade Design. DuckBrigade.com. And hey, check out our Patreon.

Patreon.com slash Get Played, where you can find our entire pre-HeadGum back catalog, plus ad-free main feed episodes, as well as our Patreon exclusive show, Get Animated. Matt, what's up this week? We're finishing up Dan to Dan, folks, and it's been quite a journey. We'll be moving on to our next series pretty shortly,

so tune in to find out what it is. And also, we want to remind everyone that if you're looking for some merch, we are partnered with Kinship Goods. So you can find all of our Get Played merch over at kinshipgoods.com. They're very soft. I'm wearing the hoodie right now.

You're wearing the hoodie right now. You look like a million bucks. Oh, wait, wait, wait. I'm cozy. Look at this. Look at this. I'm wearing the hoodie right now. You're wearing the hoodie right now. You look like a million bucks. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Look at this. I'm cozy. Look at this. I'm wearing a t-shirt right now. Wow. Wow.

That's all available, kinshipgoods.com. Our guest, Cody Ziegler. Thank you so much for being here, Zig. Anything you'd like to plug? You know, yeah, check out Miles Morales' Spider-Man and Deadpool. I write both those comics, and I guess Futurama. Those are the things you need to watch. Hell yeah.

Yeah. The coolest shit you're working on Like the little kid lottery I get to only do the coolest things ever But I hate to I hate to bring you back down to earth my friend But you got played actually and I'm sorry tough way to go up. Yeah, I hate you bring you back down to Earth, my friend. But you got played, actually, and I'm sorry. Damn, tough way to go out. Yeah, I hate to see it. You get to catch an L at some point.

Yeah, I need to be humbled. Yeah. Also, your save is so far back. Yeah, I gotta cross the board. I go through the potion tutorial again. That was a HateGum Podcast. Hi, I'm Caleb Herron, host of the So True Podcast now on HeadGum. Every week me and my guests get into it and we get down to what's really going on.

I ask them what's so true to them, how they got to where they are in life, a bunch of other questions, and we also may or may not test their general trivia knowledge. Whether it's one of my sworn enemies like Brittany Broski or Drew Fualow, or my actual biological mother, Kelly, my guests and I are just after the truth. And if we find it great, and if not, no worries. So subscribe to So True on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, or wherever you get your podcasts, and watch video episodes on the So True with Caleb Herron YouTube channel. New episodes drop every Thursday. Love ya! Hey, it's Nicole Byer here. Let me ask you something. Are you tired of endless swiping

on dating apps? Fed up with awkward first dates and disappointing hookups? Girl, same! Welcome to Why Won't You Date Me, the podcast where I figure out love and how to suck less at dating. Each week, I get real with comedians, friends, and celebrities about their love lives. We swap dating horror stories, awkward hookups, and dive into the messy and wonderful world of relationships. I've chatted with amazing guests like Conan O'Brien, Whitney Cummings, Sarah Silverman, Trixie Mattel, Tiffany Haddish, and so many more! So whether you're single, mingling, or boot up, there's something in it for everyone!

Tune into Why Won't You Date Me with me, Nicole Byer, and discover insights that might just save you from your next dating disaster. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And catch full video episodes on YouTube! New episodes drop every Friday.