Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Dead Space Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: January 26, 2023

Greg's reviewing the Dead Space remake, Bless is reviewing Season: A Letter to the Future, and Tim's just gorgeous. Time Stamps - 00:00:00 - Start 00:03:25 - Housekeeping 00:04:40 - Dead Space Remake 00:38:14 - Ads 00:44:59 - Seasons 00:57:15 - Hi-Fi RUSH Impressions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up and welcome back to another episode of the Kind of Funny Games cast. Of course, I'm Tim Getty's and I am joined by the new face of video games blessing at a Yo Ye Jr. What's up, Tim? Nothing much, bless, nothing much at all. Rounding out the group today, we have the Big Daddy himself, Greg Miller. Altman be praised. Exactly. That's what they say.

That's what they do say. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. Really excited for this episode, Greg. Me too. Review seasons here, bless. Can I get some sniffs?

The fog juice. I can't sniff any harder than this But yeah, reviews are about to pop off Like I think that on both the movie side and the game side I think there's probably going to be more review episodes Than episodes that aren't about reviews For the next for this year, right? Like I feel like there's there's probably more games

That kind of funny is going to review this year Than in any year prior Damn, wow That sounds right, that sounds right Yeah, there's a lot of great games 2020 popped off because there was all those like that March happened, there was Doom, there was Animal Crossing, there was an ori right before.

Like there was a lot of things back to back to back. But then I feel like later in that year kind of got a little slower. Here it's like, we're already going. You know what I mean? It's January. Four Spokens already here, Dead Space today. PlayStation VR is coming up. You can't get away. Exactly. And so, of course, we have the Kind of Funny Games cast. We have PSI-WX-O-X-X-O.

We have Kind of FullyX. We're going to be divving up the games to be reviewed depending on the cast and who should be on and all that. So stay tuned to all of those shows. Of course, you can watch them on YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games. You can get all of them as podcasts by searching your favorite podcast service for the name of the show will be right there for you. If you just look for Kind of Funny, there's going to be a whole bunch of fun stuff.

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all right? Oh, dude. You're out here giving Monica Booman Loggin her kind of funny brethren all this. Where is Delaney Twining's moment? Our one producer on the game side. I have totally failed you. I have totally failed you. Great. I knew someone was off. I was like, who are these people?

Who are these people? Jake Holm, stop subscribing to kind of funny shows and subscribe to kind of funny game shows. Well, I, I really... When you started saying Jay Cole, also, I thought you were going to say Jay Cole, and I was like, oh, Jermaine? Well, he's...

He's out. Delian DeLy Twining, I apologize for that. But thank you for your support. And hey, shout out to all the kind of funny Patreon producers. We appreciate you as well. Housekeeping for you. There's just been a ton of great stuff.

I was already getting into it. But we've been releasing a lot of great content already in 2023. We have an episode of The Blessing Show that if you haven't seen, you should definitely check out. We have more of that on the way this year. Thanks to your support over on Patreon. The Forspoken Review is on...

Yes, I love you, X-O-X-O-X-O. And Kind of Funny Games Daily, he's been kind of popping off recently, too. Like, I feel like we've been doing a real good job covering some of the harder-hitting stories that have been going on. So even today's episode was great. Greg totally went off. So check that out. Kind of Funny Games Daily, everybody. But enough about all of that. Today, we're reviewing a new game. Or should I say, an old game. Or maybe it's a new old game. Dead Space, everybody. Greg Miller was our lead reviewer on this. Before we get into it, though, Greg, I have one

question for you. Did you review Dead Space? No, I did not review Dead Space the original IGA, and Jeff Haynes did. I played alongside him, and then I came on to review Dead Space 2. Okay, yeah. Cool. But I was there. I was there. Me and Jeff, you know, we put our heads together back at IGN in the old days about 2008's Dead Space. Did you get to review Dead Space 3?

No, thank God. I did not like it. They got a remake Dead Space 3, and then you'll be able to give the trifacted. Yeah, it's this weird like hodgepots, like getting it back together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I talked about it in the same way, probably. Well, I have a lot of questions about Dead Space, the franchise as a whole and everything. But I need to know, Greg Miller.

What did you think about the Dead Space, 2023 remake? So, yeah, I love Dead Space 2008. I love Dead Space as a franchise. I enjoy it quite a bit. And it's hey-day, was sad to see it go and was happy, if not trepidacious to see it announced here as a remake for this 2020-3 version of Dead Space. And the good news is that EA motive did not screw this up. This is a great game. This is a worthy remake, spiritual success or whatever you want to call it.

It's a great reintroduction to Dead Space. It's a fun time if you've played it before. I think it'll be even more fun if you've never played it before. I do think, you know, on the kind of funny scale, like I'm saying, it's great. That's a four out of five for us. I think a few choices hold it back from being amazing. I wasn't amazed playing it. That might be both the fact that I've played it before.

And I know it pretty well. I think it's more of the fact that you're remaking an old game, and in doing that you want to be true to what Dead Space was, and of course add in new additions, new things. This game's chock full of new things. It's gorgeous. There's a whole bunch of stuff we're going to talk about. But in some places, I think it very much, to its detriment,

stays with what Dead Space was in 2008 when it would have been nicer maybe to move it forward a bit. But I don't want to make it sound like I'm being negative. I had a blast playing Dead Space. I have started my new game plus run. I hope to play more of it, but it is review season. We'll see if I get back to it and actually can platinum it maybe one day.

Plus, did you play it all yet? Not really. I played about 30 minutes, so I'm not that far into it yet, but for the 30 minutes I've played, it's been really cool, right? I've been wanting to jump in and play more. The things that immediately struck me were,

one, upon booting it up, for me as somebody who's not played much of the original dead space, actually getting control and moving around and moving the camera around, immediately it felt like a PS3 game and not really a bad way, right? Just in ways of like, oh yeah, like the camera motion

feels a bit PS3-ish. The way, like looking around the environment, walking around the environment, kind of felt that way. But getting a little bit further into it, looking around, I was like, oh, man, for a game that originally was a PS3 game, they did such a great job of refurbishing everything and making it actually look modern

and making it actually... Well, remember, this is a remake. This is from the ground up. So, like, I want to make sure... I know it's always very confusing for a remaster remake. So before we get going, I want people to understand it.

Like, they start. from a blank slate and redidded it, but are paying homage to everything. Exactly, but it feels like a remake in a similar vein of Blue Point's Shadow Colossus. That's exactly what it is. Yeah. That's the closest analog there is. Exactly. Where you pick it up and it is, oh, this is, and you guys can correct me if I'm wrong.

This feels one for one like the original game in terms of how it moves, how it controls, how it's laid out, all that stuff. But it looks beautiful and it really does feel and present like a modern video game. And so playing through it, there are very few places so far around. like, oh man, this is weird. There are things like the save system where immediately I was like, oh, this is a PS3S save system just in the way it was like you have to walk up to the station and then click

save and then do the whole thing. This giant ridiculous camera on the wall that you open up to save your game. Yeah, exactly. But so far, I'm pretty impressed by it. Yeah. Tim, you've played you've been playing. What do you think? I am. I'm about halfway through this. I love the original Dead Space a lot. And we talk about it a lot

on the show, on these shows as being one of the best representations of modern classics. I would say. Like, I think the Dead Space is such a great new IP that came out during that generation that I think really kind of defined what that era of games even could be. That was probably, I would say, the flagship horror title of that gen, right? Where obviously Resident Evil on the PS1, there was that, then RE4 on GameCube and during

that generation. But to have this new fresh idea that at the time was amazing that I feel like without having, I didn't play Dead Space the original since I first played it, but I would imagine that playing it, it would actually hold up more because the PS3 generation is not the PS2 or PS1.

I feel like that is, it is a bit more, oh, hey, this is where modern games kind of started. Like, you look at uncharted, I think would be a great example of like the whole the way the third person shooters look and feel, even where the camera is, Gears of War being another great example. I think the Dead Space took that concept

and applied it to a Metroid Vanya in space, well, Metroid's already there, but with the horror elements. And it is such an amazing melding of these concepts and ideas that work. And they add up to be something that I think is even stronger than just the parts. I am absolutely loving it so far. And I think that this remake is something that I'm like, I have never realized how much of a Metroidvania this is. This feels like playing Super Metroid in 3D.

but if Nintendo would like go there a little bit more. If they're like, oh, but it's actually going to be scary. Metroid's scary when you think about it. Like you are alone in space. There's aliens. Things are popping up and whatever. But it's Nintendo. So they never go too far with it.

This is like, no, we're going to go all out. It's going to be scary as hell. And even though I've played it before, I know where the jump scares are, there is just a level of ambiance that they have once again committed to and nailed. Sure. But it has that beautiful next year. Gen rapper around it, that it looks great. It sounds great.

And the thing that I'm most blown away by, and I can't wait to keep talking to you about this, Greg, because I know you play a little bit of the original Dead Space to compare, is I struggle to identify, was it always this good? Did it always play this well? All this stuff, because I'm like, this is even better than I remember it, but it's how I remember. And that's that hard thing to play with the nostalgia. Right.

And I think that's what's interesting about this. I feel like, honestly, there should be almost two reviews. inside this games cast about it. Same score, four out of five, great game. But the idea of let's talk about it in the context of it being a remake and what it means to Dead Space and where we are at that, and then also just a standalone game kind of thing. We won't actually break them up that way,

but I think I'm going to personally in my head go back and forth between it a lot. Yeah, not only did I go back, and I wish I'd had had more time leading up to this. I want my, initially, you know, you noodle that, oh, I'll play Dead Space. I'll play it on Xbox Game Pass right before the new one comes out. there's a million other reviews, so I never actually do that. So I, of course, had played Dead Space in 2008 and adored it and yada, yada, and I think I played it once since then.

Then for this was watching a bunch of a full playthru off YouTube, and then, yeah, I was popping into the gameplay lab today to go compare and contrast a few different things from the opening, let alone, of course, with the power of the Xbox, I'm playing on Mike's profile, and he's got a save in there from however many years ago he was playing the original Dead Space, you know, multiple hours in. The long and short of it is what I think will work against Dead Space,

Space remake unto its, you know, what will work against it and is a shame is that people are going to pick it up, be like, oh, yeah, this is Dead Space, and have those rose-titting glasses. This is what it looked like. This is what it plays like, blah, blah, blah. And it's when you go back and play the original Dead Space and go through like, oh, wow, this, yes, this is the same room, but they put so much more detail into it. There's so much more going on, not even in terms of like lighting and shadows. I just mean making it feel real. And so there is that part to it. And to your point, blessed from earlier on, right? Like, even though this is a remake from the ground up, because you're using the same kind of environments you're building and being so faithful, I totally get the camera

feeling PS3, the world feeling PS3 around it, right, of what you're doing. I think you owe it to yourself if you're going to jump in and you haven't played a dead space before or haven't played it in a long time to take a look when you get going to really go back and see it. There are these huge jumps in it. They have done so much under the hood to make it better and feel better. To a point you and I were having, right? Where zero G's always been in dead space. You know, flying around, turning off the gravity and going through these space environments.

Of course, you know, you're on the USG Isha Mura, a planet cracker. You and a team show up to check out what's going on. All hell's broken loose. There are necromorphs all over, these reanimated corpses. They're turning the crew that they murdered. They are then turning into these necromorphs and something's going on. You've got to figure it all out.

Well, just try to fight for your life. And of course, find your real friend Nicole. You go through and get into this and start really experimenting with the world and getting deeper and deeper into it. And again, to compare and contrast and get back into it to go back to something like zero G on this thing. You had that question from me early on of like, yo, zero G's dope as fuck. Was it always this way? Like where you're flying around being Iron Man free control?

And I was like, oh, yeah, totally. I'm pretty sure it was. And I had to go look into it. And it's like, oh, no, it wasn't. It wasn't Dead Space 2 and it wasn't Dead Space 3. And they're bringing that back here. And the original Dead Space, it was, you know, you're on one thing and you look up and you can jump to that. And you can jump to that and you can go.

It wasn't until Dead Space 2 that they added in. Basically the Iron Man, you're flying around doing. That's here, right? They've taken that and put that back into, or put that into this version of the game. You know, the original Dead Space. And it broke just to go off there with that, it took what I remember being a very frustrating

moment from the first game. And then this one made it a very fun and rewarding an epic moment. Like it was like very, very, very cool to, to have that, the earliest bit of that. Be like, whoa. Like, it looks so cool. and the gameplay was more fun than it used to be,

so it adds up to just being a better experience. Oh, 100%. You know, this is something I think we talked about with, crap, what was the other remaster we did recently? Last was part one, remake, whatever. But we were like, oh, this is the definitive way to play last. I think this is the definitive way to play Dead Space, right? Like, it is the modern way, it is the modern sensibilities,

in a lot of ways and not. But I mean, like, you know, similar to something if we really want to get lost in a timeline, Resident Evil 2 remake. how great the map was in that, right? How good the map is in Dead Space remake here, 2023, and to go back and play Dead Space 2008, it was like, it wasn't a horrible map, but it wasn't nearly as good.

It was way clunkier than what this is. This is a more streamlined version, right? They've gone through and done it. They've added in a bunch of things to make it more Metroidvania in this one, right? Like, there's a security clearances this time around. So there's doors and chests that are locked behind, you know, one, two, three clearances and then a master one. That wasn't in the original Dead Space.

Which, see, that blows my mind. Yeah. Because, again, I haven't played the game for a decade. but I would have thought that was in it. Like playing it, it feels authentic to what Dead Space and the experience of Dead Space is, and I think that's what wows me the most and me bringing up all the Superventryrd stuff.

It's funny that that seems like, I guess a lot of what I'm touching on is new. But the map is the same. The layout is the same. And there can be frustrating moments, maybe not frustrating. That's not even the right word. There are moments where you can kind of see behind the curtain,

see how things are made. We're like, all right, this is a loading screen and it's so used to the corridors and stuff, but it's like, all right, cool, I'm on this gondola, all right? And like you kind of dread having to get on the goddamn gondola because you know it's going to be like, all right, this is going to take me at least a minute to get where I'm trying to go. I know I'm trying to go, blah, blah, blah.

You make a mistake. I got to go back, like that whole thing, right? But there's something to the design of the ship that really does lend itself to you understanding, oh, I know where to go. I'm familiar with this area. I know that's where my goal is. I know exactly how to get there. I know a shortcut. I can get through that this way, whatever.

And I don't know if the original had this, but this game has the hit R3 and it has the scanner thing. That was in the original. Tell you where to go. And it's just like, it's just. But I was sorry to double back on that. Yeah. Because I want to compliment Dead Space 2020 on this. Again, with the security clearance and things, it feels more rewarding to get off the beaten path.

They've added inside missions. There's little things going on to go fine. And it's audio logs and text stuff that you're going through and doing it. But it is in a way that, you know, yeah, I think Dead Space has always been great at telling you where to go by, you know, hitting R3 and having the pulse line chase off to your objective or whatever, which of course is built into your rig, this mechanical suit you're wearing. So that's the whole reason back in the day, revolutionary, right, that there was no HUD. Your health is on your spine as, you know, in the suit.

Same with your stasis, which is, you know, your ability to slow down time, right? And then your telekinesis to grab stuff is, you know, unending resource. And then, of course, if you want to go into your inventory and stuff, it projects off of your outfit so Isaac would see it in his real world or whatever. brilliant stuff there. It's brilliant. It's brilliant. And here.

But it's that idea of like, I feel with the security clearance and the improved map, I was even more like, okay, yeah, this is the main hub. I've been in this room before. I know where I'm at and I know that I went that way. You double back, you open a door, you realize where you were, you see how they connect. Okay, you make the mental note that there was a chest back there that was level two. You get level two later on.

You're like, I'm going to come back and check on that kind of thing. Like, it's very interesting playing this game. in 2023, for me, Greg Miller, having played Resident Evil remake, a Resident Evil 2 remake, I should say, because of course I didn't like Resident Evil 2's controls or any of the Resident Evil controls back in the day, so I never played those as contemporaries. Playing Dead Space 2023 after Resident Evil makes me go, man, Dead Space is so Resident Evil, right? In the way it feels controls, which also then, let's keep the timeline even more fucked up, makes so much sense because when Callister Protocol came out. Glenn Schofield, of course, came over here and did content with us,

and Glenn, of course, made Dead Space. And so he talked about on that show playing Resident Evil and being like, when we made Dead Space, I was like, I want to be able to move and shoot. I don't want to play. It's like, you see all that so clearly this time around in the way this game plays, looks, and feels in the map. And on top of that, I don't think I can go far enough to talk about what, this may sound weird, what a joy it is to play. You were talking. You were talking. about like did it always feel as good? Of course, I don't think Dead Space always felt that good in 2008. There were those pieces that were friction points in the moment.

You know, I don't know if they, are we dinged them that hard back in the day, but like you look back and it's like you think about pulling the marker around. You think about like some of the, the, the, chapter eight things. Exactly, right? To, I didn't have those here. And I felt like this game was great to play throughout. I do think it'll be interesting to watch reactions. I, of course, in the Dead Space lore of Greg Millerness, right?

I'm the Goldilocks that like Dead Space 2 more than Dead Space 1. I like feeling empowered in Dead Space 2. Dead Space 2, I always felt like Isaac, you know, spoilers, you know, wakes up and has to go fight all these things. And he's done it before. He'll do it again. Let's fuck him up. And people are like, oh, it's two action. I like a survival horror game.

Dead Space 1 in 2008 was that game for me of every bullet fucking counts. Shit. That objectives on the other side of that, but there's a necromorph down, but I only have one thing. so even if I go stomp on them, how am I going to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I always, and the game does a good job of it here too. I always felt like when I was getting down to my last ammo, I would then cross the finish line, and somehow they always timed it out well to make it happen, right?

That happens here too, but again, maybe it's the fact that I'm just replaying this game, in many respects. It is different, obviously. But I felt like a badass playing this. And again, I don't know if it's me maturing as a gamer, just not knowing, in 2008, not knowing what was around the corner, not knowing how to do this.

But this time around, like, especially with the dual sense edge, which I'm using those back paddle boys, like Andy said I would. Like, P-Blerc, you know, necromorphs are coming. And, of course, if you've never played a Dead Space, know anything about it, rather than shoot them in the head, you need to shoot off their limbs to kill necromorphs. So, you know, I'm blasting by the legs, drop them, blast off the arm, telekinesis grab the arm, shoot it back into the dude.

Stasis, these guys over there. Like, I'm managing the battlefield way better than I felt I did in Dead Space One on my initial play-through. But I guess that makes sense. It's just weird to come back. to something, but I guess again, Colistow Protocol, Dead Space, a little bit of Dead Space 3 before I was like this game sucks.

Dead Space 2, Dead Space 1, like I know the franchise, I know the rules, and I feel empowered in this. Yeah, I mean, everything you're saying I'm right there with, I think that they nailed the vibe of it so much of like, this is a video game-ass video game and it kind of created a lot of those video game tropes in itself. And if not

created, nailed them and really kind of defined what it could be. Like, you're talking about the no HUD, his suit kind of being your health bar. You see it on him. You see everything pop up. The way that the save system is integrated into it, all the work benches for upgrading and like all that. Some of it feels a little bit like

the save stuff I don't really need here. It's kind of weird. There is an auto save feature in this game and I will say that is my, the biggest criticism I have is it's not good. There's been at least three times now where the auto save happens as I'm getting the

death strike on myself and it goes beep, but I die and it pops back and then I die and it comes back and I'm just like in this loop of being dead. And I have to just kind of experiment with angles of way to move to just get away. And I'm like, this doesn't seem ideal. But that to me is the one major like, this is worse. This is not a good feature.

Like they should have worked on this a little differently. Because otherwise, I feel like when we talk about Star Wars Jedi Fall in Order, it was hard to explain that game when it first came out because it did so much right. Not a perfect game by any means, but it did so much right in the sense of like, oh, it has elements of. of Uncharted and Soulslikes and Metroid Prime. And it's all wrapped in this beautiful Star Wars story. And it just works. And it sounds and feels authentically Star Wars.

I feel like with Dead Space, we can talk about a ton of different genres, a ton of different amazing classic games. And this just does so many of those elements right. It might not have done them first, but it does them right. And it adds up to be a really great unique experience that you bring it up, Resident Evil to remake.

It is comparable in the sense of how wowed I am playing it, where it's like every room to room and just going through feels like it was designed for you to have fun with in the sense of Resident Evil 2 kind of being like, look, every hallway you're in is going to be just as scary as the last. And because the lighting system was so good of the RE engine and all that, it is going to up the ante of what that experience was for you back on PlayStation, what you remember of it, but also even more. playing this Dead Space game using your weapon and just switching between the different angles of how it's going to cut off the necromorps.

I'm like, this is fucking brilliant fun. This is a video game, man. Like they have a dope looking character. They have dope looking weapons that are fun to use using the different status effects and all that. It's like, I think when you're talking about like, now you're just like you're running through and you feel like a badass,

I think it's just because video games have now used Dead Space as a template in the way that I'm talking about Dead Space grabbing from other things that We're just used to these physical powers. Like, I mean, and I know it wasn't first, Half-Life 2 even, right? Like with the gravity gun and all of that. But there's something about the toolbox of toys you have to play with in Dead Space that just adds up to, I think, just a really rewarding and fun experience. It's fun to upgrade all the things. And I think that the- And again, to call this out, like, it is fun to upgrade, yes.

And that's something they again tweaked. Like, if you weren't paying attention, you'd be like, oh, yeah, the same as before because you know you go through the game you collect these nodes you go to a workbench you insert them into your weapon your suit to make it better but if you remember in the original dead space there were blank nodes that you had to do to connect to get to as you were wasting these everything has a purpose now every node has something rather than have the whole skill tree unlocked as well like you have to you'll find upgrades that you then have to purchase out of the store to put into the thing then open up more of the tree to make your weapons better and stuff

like that yeah there's the suits and everything else like they've taken what was already a great game and I really do think they were like, how can we make everything more fun to what you're talking about, like you walking into a room and this is a room designed to scare you, spooky, you give you this jump. You mentioned at the top, but as I've always said with Dead Space and I even said in our preview, right, one of the things it gets so right is it's audio design. And I think that this time around, you know, in 2008 playing it, it was the jump scares, the Necromar busts out of the wall or event or the one I thought was dead pops up.

I would say most of my startles from this one came from sound. where it was like you walk into a room and there was an and it sounds like an echromorph and it obviously is it designed to but it's actually the sprinklers turning on over on the hydroponics you know what I mean? Or like there's some other like the way transmission will begin just the noise

like sounds like something it's not. And so it's like another thing I would say depending unless you're Tim living in a movie theater with a THX thing I would wear headphones for this like I had such a better experience I had a great experience playing off my sound bar but when I put on my surround sound headphones

it was so much better have the whispers in there. The whispers, man. The 3D audio with the whispers, it's unnerving, and it really sets the tone. And if you haven't played Desper's before, it's like there's some weird whisper shit

that just constantly happens and you just hear voices around you, which is like, all right, could this be any scarier? And it's like, I just, I'm really wowed by the fact that this remake is as fun as I expected to be

and as scary as I wanted it to be. And that is something that, like, I didn't expect from a remake. And the way that Resident Evil, too, like, the Resident Evil game, games are a bit campier, like just by default. That's just what they are. Their stories goofy, right? Their characters are goofy and they can be over the top and whatever. But Resident Evil 2, because of its lighting, because of its use of water reflections and things, it was genuinely

scary. And I, I love that we can still be genuinely scared by games that scared us a decade plus ago, but put them in a new rapper and it's just like, there's new context to it all. And I, I'm just wowed by the world of it all and just how consistent it all is. And, uh, like I was saying earlier, like there's moments like the gondola and stuff that like feels weird and you start to see the video game design of it all. But then there's moments of just the brilliance where you're like, wow, like it's not you're in an elevator because it has to load. They treat it like you're in an elevator because you know the ship and you're on the second level. You need to get down to the first. It all feels like it's a world that exists.

Like it feels like getting from point A to point B. The way to do that is not some weird fast travel teleport or whatever. It's like it feels like you're actually traveling through. a real space. That was one of their big things at the preview event Mike and I went to, was the fact they boasted that, you know, you can walk through the entire Yishamura, right? Like, it isn't that you're sectioned off into these things that'll be, you know, these loads go between it. It is that you exist in the space. The space is real and you travel throughout it. And I think it's an understated one. And again, I should, if I would have done my homework

and played all the way through Dead Space 2008, it might have resonated louder. I do feel like the place is real. I do feel like I'm going through it. But I didn't feel like that was something that like really jumped out in me. They do, another thing from the preview event they talk about was the intensity director, which is something like they have like, 1,200 unique things that can happen or whatever. So like when you play it,

it shouldn't be the same. And that's even off of loads, which I did notice where I would go through a room, pick up resources, nothing happens, go to the boss or whatever, get into a thing, just get jumped, die, come back, try to do the same thing. And that time a necromorph pops up

and I had to fight him or something like that. I thought that was an interesting twist as well. I didn't notice that. Yeah, yeah. And one of, you know, I think for me in terms of what I was saying earlier, where I think it might be too true or maybe two PS3 or too old school in terms of what it does, things that I find disappointing, I guess. And again, I use it lightly because I highly recommend the game and I love it and do want to play it again.

New Game Plus, which it gives you a new suit. And there's new collectibles, which if you get all the collectibles, it'll lead to an alternate ending. Like there's a whole bunch of stuff they are doing with New Game Plus, let alone keeping all your stuff from before. But back to the Isha Mura and being a walk through and stuff. For me, I think at points the pacing kind of drags where it is, of course, like you are on this one big ship. And again, I'm playing it on a review embargo, right?

I'm going through trying to get a bunch of stuff done as fast as I came while enjoying the game. It was after a while, just like, and I understand it's a planet cracker. Another reason I love Dead Space 2 so much, right? Where you are in Dead Space 2 was a very varied environment. Like there was nothing creeper I thought than going to the kids' classrooms on this other space station you were on. this is through and through, right, a ship designed to crack planets and smelt stuff. So it's like,

it kind of all looks the same. I feel at times, which at times when I was like, all right, can we just, all right, I feel like I'm in the same hallway. What am I doing?

Yada, yada, and then for me it would be the boss battles as well. Like, they are epic and they are impressive looking, but still I feel like that's when I'm getting the gameplay to a not dumb down thing, but a dumb down thing of what I feel a PS3 boss battle was,

which I'm going to sit here in Zero G, go left or right or I'm going to be on the ground and go left or right to dodge the giant tentacles to shoot the big yellow thing to get it to the next phase to dodge the thing to shoot the yellow thing it's like I enjoyed the moment to moment necromorph well now I got the stupid fucking babies I still hate with the goddamn three things coming out of their back that have always been horrible to me they're there there but I got the running around lizard looking dude but I got the regular necromorph and I got these big old necomorphs and I got these necromorphs now with stasis on them and then you play it a new game plus you got these phantom necromorphs that are even tougher like I'm like day You did a great job of moment-to-moment enemies being there, but the payoff to, you got to go fight. The really big thing is like, okay, boom, boom, run here, run here, boom. Yeah, I do think that with that with some of the boss encounters, but even also the like the multi-man melee is going on, where it's like you're in the monster closet of like multiple enemies in the room with you that you're fighting.

That is where the game starts to not feel as modern, where, you know, back in the day people would talk about the tank controls of R.E.2. and then even later it's like, can we, like, Metroid Prime? Can you move and shoot or do you need to just be locked as you shoot? And the game feels actioning enough that playing this in 2023, I feel like I need a dodge button. I feel like I need a pushback role or something like to function more like return or something, but that's not what the game is.

And I think that's where it can kind of like be a little incongruent with like what you expected to be. Because in those boss fights, if those boss fights were redesigned to have a some type of, even just like quick move. Let me tell you about Colisto Protocol. See, and that was our thing, right? And all our conversations about Clisto, both in the review and then in the spoiler cast with Glenn, the creator of Dead Space, I was like, dude, it's a modern game.

Why not have a 180 turn? You know what I mean? Like, I'd never use it in God of War. Me and Barrett were talking about this on the car ride. He's like, God of Warhead. I'm like, yeah, he's like, I never used it. I'm like, yeah, because that game was, you pushed forward. I felt you thought, whereas this game is, fuck, I need to get distance from you, but I can

here, you know, the hairs of my neck are standing up because I know something's behind me. And so it's so annoying to do the slow turn or just the slow run and then try to turn around. It's like again, I feel like that's such a 2008 thing that they kept here because that's the game and I get that, but I still want to critique it.

But then to get to Callisto, I'd be like, why the fuck did you do it? You know what I mean? Yeah, it's so fascinating listening to this as somebody who, you know, Death Space One is a game that I've been wanting to play forever and I've been very excited to play with this remake, right? That was while I was excited for the announcement of it. But also somebody who has played Colista Protocol, right? And like, and enjoyed my time with Colista Protocol.

I have a couple of questions for you. Going back to Greg, how you started this with, there are two different ways to review this game, right? Like, you can review it just as a video game, just as a modern game, and you can also bring in how well did they achieve this being a remake. I think that brings up two natural comparisons, the first one being to Colise Proocall,

the latest game that tried to be a modern Dead Space, and then also bring up Resonable to remake, right? A game that I would say remade a classic survival horror game and knocked it out of the park, right? For me, probably the best remake I've ever played. I guess this can go both ways of what are things that Callisto Protocol and RE2 remake did on their side that you would have loved to see Dead Space remake tackle and then vice versa of are there anything is, are there things that Dead Space did, Death Space remake did,

both as a modern iteration of Dead Space versus Colista Protocol or as a modern survival horror game compared to R2 that you guys enjoyed. I love it. I love this. I know, that's a lot. That's a lot. That's real good. I mean, just like I already kind of said this, but I think that one thing I love about what this did is make it way more of a Metroidvania. And I feel like something I enjoyed a lot about the Resident Evil 2 remake is Resident Evil has always been a semi-3D Metroidvania. Like you, there are locked off rooms, you get different like security clearance for lack of better term, whatever you want to call it, keys, like all that shit. You can unlock new places, get new weapons, all that.

Very similar structure, right? I think that with Dead Space and with this modern one, because it is all in the one location of the ship, I think that they did a really good job. of using the location and having those locked off sections and stuff. Like I think really leaning into that help. My question for you is because Metroidvanias aren't my jam usually. Do you think are you giving it too much credit as a Metroidvania? Because Metroidvania is, correct me if I'm wrong. Yeah.

I went and I got the, I couldn't, I couldn't, this wall looks weird and I eventually get a gun that I can blow the hole in the wall and now that opens up all this new stuff. Whereas with Dead Space, sure, there's security clearance cards, but they're mostly for just extra shit, like more ammo. But it's usually like, oh, this door is locked. I go to my objective, I get a radio call from somebody's like, oh, you need to do this, I'll open that door for you. Like, yeah,

you know, Metroidvania, thank you for call me out on that. I would say it's more, like just playing Metroid dread, not that long ago. This is, this reminds me of Metroid dread in a lot of ways, where there is that kind of like horror element to it, like the tinge. It's like a tense environment that you're

exploring and backtracking. It's very claustrophobic. It's very, there's backtracking, you're going through areas over and over, and also you're often incentivized to go down the road that you're not necessarily supposed to, because you know something's going to be there. But the funny thing is sometimes it's not an upgrade, it's an enemy.

And it's a jump scare. It's something like for that. That to me is something that the Metroid really shines through. I think that, again, Samis being this like bounty hunter out in space alone against the aliens kind of locked down in claustrophobic areas, that is to me what I'm so impressed by Dead Space, having never got a 3D Metroid that wasn't first person, right? That is like this besides Metro Dether-Rem,

and I just think that this is, this is what Metro DotherM should have been. Gotcha. To go to your side of the equation with Clistow, right? Like, cars on the table start from the top, right? Dead Space remake is a better game in the Clistow Protocol. I don't think that shocks most people. Again, we're taking a, I was going to say a cult classic. I would just say a survival horror classic.

Yeah. And remaking it, unless you fuck something up, you're going to, you're whatever. So even my things that I think are dated or drag here and there, I still think it's overall better experience than that. But what I think Callisto does better in the modern sense is give you, and I know this will piss some people off, more memorable characters. I think even so, maybe I didn't mention this at the top, but in the original Dead Space, Isaac Clark did not talk. Your character did not talk. Silent protagonist, right? Dead Space 2 and 3, a voice actor, I wrote it down. Gunther, right? Wasn't his name? Gunner, right, Gunner right, my apologies, Gunner.

To be the voice of Isaac, and that's great. For this one, they brought him back to then make Isaac talk in this Dead Space remake, which is great, but I don't think he gets that much to work with. I think, you know, your girlfriend Nicole, who you're there to check in on, right, you're getting video messages from, she does better. But I think overall, like, the Dead Space story, as it gets deeper and deeper, gets crazier and crazier, gets more put on it and starts adding in people a bit. And, you know, it's audio logs and some people you'll see around the ship or whatever.

But I don't find any of them particularly rememberable or memorable, remarkable. Other, anyway, I can tell you waxed on and on even before I replayed this one ride of Isaac and Nicole's relationship, what it was, why it was cool, what I liked about that. And I make a joke about Altman be praised, which is a whole Unitology, religion thing going on in there. but then to start getting into there was a doctor on there that was doing this and you had this lady with you doing that. It's a lot of lore. A lot of lore.

It's a lot of people talking at you. And even in this game where you're having more conversations, I feel like they are all pretty much just on the page people. Whereas with Colisto, like it or hated or whatever, like I thought, you know, Josh Dumel, Sam Whitwer, Karen Fugaharo, right? Like, I thought their performances gave their characters

personality. And I think the fact that it was a smaller cast for the main story, because, again, this being Dead Space made by Glenn, that being Clistow made by Glenn, like underneath there's this whole undercurrent right of Clistow protocol of there is a similar, like, not Unitology, but Unitology thing going on of what the fuck's happening. And like, I could not tell you that narrative anymore about Clistow really,

other than like, oh, these people and they're doing the thing and they're trying to find the alpha and yada, yada. You're like, I got that part of it down, but I think the character moments of them interacting and acting together, stood out more than it does in Dead Space. Even with Isaac talking, I don't think, and again, they're remaking a game, so how much do you want to tinker with it?

Him talking, I don't think, pushes the narrative forward where it's like, oh, wow, okay. Like, there's a lot in the Dead Space Universe to get interested in and cool in. I think Dead Space 2, if they remake that, I think Isaac's story there is way more interesting for a character that we basically meet who has PTSD.

It's the answer I always wanted from these kind of things of. Every man is thrust into a horrible situation, and then credits roll and then it's like the second one picks up with he is fucked up his life is ruined because of this horror

and I'm like that's very interesting whereas you know Nathan Drake just winks at the camera every time after he kills 500 people and then moves on with his life I think Colisto does a better job with its characters moment to moment

and the story going on there I want to talk about characters but I want to do that Greg after we get forward from our sponsor Yo what's up I'm blessing the host of Kind of Feudy the show where I ask members is kind of funny

answer questions like, name a game where you can fight giant enemies. Name a type of animal you can play as in Diddy Kong Racing. Name a PlayStation character who you'd want on your pickup basketball team. Name a game genre that Greg Miller refuses to play. Good games is not on there, but it was written in quite a bit. And see how many audience members voted for that answer, and it usually makes them kind of mad. Red Faction is our 30-point answer. That is our fourth most popular answer.

Whoa. Whoa. I'm still waiting for Bust to be like, just kidding. Once again. You guys are so bad at this game. Catch up on the latest episodes right now, exclusively on patreon.com slash kind of funny. I agree with you entirely.

Him talking is not bad, and I don't think takes you out of it at all, but I don't know how much it adds to it because playing through it, there was another one of those things. I'm like, did he talk at the first game? I don't think he did. And then I looked up like, no, he doesn't.

Okay, cool. So that's something that they added. But again, it feels authentic to the experience. Like, I think that it, they, there's nothing he says or, like, um, way he, like, portrays it that I'm like, this is not right. Like, this isn't what it should be. Yeah, no, no, no. It just kind of does, that's where the experience overall does feel a little bit more dated,

a little bit more like, all right, there's some choices here. I do like the early characters that they have, um, like the people on the ship with him. Yeah. And, um, I don't remember really giving a shit about them in the original. So I don't know if they've changed or added anything with them, but, they changed one of the characters. for sure for you, but I won't get into too much of it or whatever. But like the two main characters you're thinking of,

they're like, you know, with you for them. No, that's not. And Chen, too. They're all, that's all normal. Okay, cool. Well, I mean, they've twisted things here and there. I've been enjoying things. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The performance is there. I feel like there's, there's like a level of, of, that is what I'm comparing Isaac's performance to. And I feel like he does meet that. It's just, I agree. It's not like mind blowing in terms of like what him having a voice actually adds to it all. But in terms of the. character of the world. I love it.

I love the religion stuff. I love the story of this game, I think, is awesome. Not presented in the optimal way necessarily, but I do think that that's because we're talking about the early days of audio logs and lore being delivered through all that. That's what's so interesting about it to wrap your head around is that I would say, yeah, like, I like the characters moment to moment more in Clister Protocol than the main characters in Dead Space, but the lore in the world as a character, I love more in Dead Space. I do every, like, it's rare, I feel. And again, because they do it right,

but it's rare in a game where I read and listen to everything. And this is a game where I pick up that text log. And first off, it immediately appears in the world and I can just read it right there. I don't have to go to a menu or whatever. And it's awesome to see the fall of the Isha Murrow, to see everything start going off. Listen to the audio logs. Again, the breadcrumb trails, they give you side missions here and have you chase down things for, you know, what's going on. Like, that stuff's all very interesting.

And I think that's way more interesting than what journey, well, not journey. but what Isaac is saying moment to moment with any of the people there. And for me, my favorite character is the ship itself. And I think that my, the greatest compliment I have to Dead Space is that it is a classic.

And it's a classic because it achieves being a video game. It achieves doing something special to itself. And, you know, you think of Mario, you think of the hat. You think a Master Chief. You know what he looks like, right? There's all those vibes. I love that Dead Space has an identity.

Like, the suit that Isaac has. Like, sure, I might forget that his name is Isaac all the time. But like, I know what he looks like. I know, like, there's, there's a vibe to the plasma cutter. Like there's just so many elements and iconic things about Dead Space that they got right. And we talk about the HUD and the HUDLUS and the, um, on his suit having the health bars

and status and all that just being there for you. But even just being on the ship and seeing all of the, the posters for explaining status and explaining the, um, using the, what's it called the where you see the telekinesis. Oh, yeah, R3, whatever. It's like it, it, they do. such a good job. I was pretty wowed by it, honestly, of how integrated the gameplay and world and story of this game just completely are. And we look at it as like, oh, it's huddless, but it's like, no, it's like, it's more than that. Like every decision made was like very, very, very smartly designed

to add to the overall experience where the ship feels like a real place. It doesn't just feel like, all this graffiti here telling you every single thing to do. There is that. There's a lot of that. I believe in it, though. Yeah, there's also so much. graffiti that's just environmental storytelling. It's not telling you something you need to know. It is people having little conversations as the world falls apart around them. Yeah. I agree 100% with that.

I think that's a great way to put it too. So back to Callisto, right? Like, the Isha Murray is infinitely more exciting than the prison we were in Blackwell, right? Yeah, Blackwell. In the Colisto for sure. So we're wrapping up Dead Space here. Any final thoughts that you have? Any final questions you have, bless?

No, you guys killed it. Like, you guys, I was not planning on going back to it soon because right now there's a lot of games that are coming out, right? High Fire Rush is calling my name at home. But you guys convinced me to go back and play it fully just because, like, again, it's Colistow being a game that I enjoyed playing through, right? You guys make Dead Space sound better, like, way better than it. And, like, yeah, I'm down for that kind of experience. So, yeah, I did not love Callisto. I gave up after about two, three hours on that.

And I was a little worried going to Dead Space. I'm like, is it going to be what I remember it being? It is everything I remember it being. Like I walked in after playing the first three chapters, and I talked to Greg, I'm like, is it just me? Is this like, it's really good, right? Like, it's really freaking good. And it is.

It's really freaking good. It is great. I haven't beat it yet. But if it maintains the level of quality that the first half of the game does, which I expected to, I agree with you. I think this is a four out of five for sure. And I think that it being a five is the tallest order possible that I don't think it ever could have hit.

And the difference there being, I think that Reson, to the original versus the remake. To me, that can get up to a five because it's like, wow, you improved this thing so much. This is what I remember Dead Space being, which is incredibly impressive and good for them for nailing that. But Dead Space, to me, was already a classic.

Yeah, yeah, I loved it, had a great time with it. Like I said, you know, I want to keep playing. I started that new game plus and I was like, well, I just want to see a little bit. I'm like, where are all these things and where's all this? And what do I want about this trophy list? That's the best you can ask for for something, especially for something that you've already played. And so hats off demotive for making it happen. Hell yeah.

Hell yeah. Also, black iron prison, not black well. Thank you. Thank you. Now, Bless, I want to get you off the bench here. I want to get those lips flapping a little bit. You've been playing another game. What a review you got for me?

I'm playing season. Season, A Letter to the Future. I've played it. I finished it. And let me tell you, I enjoyed this game. I enjoyed it. I, on the kind of funny skill, I'm giving it a three out of five. but it's a recommended three out of five, right?

If you've seen Trails for Season, if what we're about to describe about this game sounds like it's something for you, then I'll say, go ahead and pick it up. I think it's a cute little game that a lot of people are going to enjoy. I do think it's hampered by a few things, but I want to start off from the place

of the things that I enjoyed, right? So the game is basically, you know, you're playing as this character who is in this world where you're about to transition to the next season, right? Everything is about to get washed away. People's memories of the world

are about to get washed away in your role in this world. is to basically function as sort of a journalist, sort of an archaeologist a little bit where you're going through the world, you are taking pictures, you are taking audio recordings, and you're journaling them, right?

You're putting them into a journal to then record and put into a museum, right, so that stuff can be immortalized. And so as you're playing through the game, you are entering different environments, you spend the bulk of your time in this area called Tang Valley, which is basically this open world

that you're biking through and you're meeting a few characters, talking to them, getting their stories, and then you're also taking pictures of monuments and anything in the environment that sticks out. If you take a picture of something that is notable in the world, your main character will have a bit of dialogue about it, and then you can even take the dialogue portions

and then journal about them, right? And you're designing your journal, and then you are filling up your journal based on the areas that you're in and trying to complete the different areas. And that's pretty much the whole game, and I think the concept of it is so good and so refreshing. For me, the highest compliment that I can pay this game

is that in points, it felt like the world of season, specifically the vibe and tone of it in the way in which it feels empty, but also feels like a serene, relaxing kind of empty, or reminded me of playing a game like Eco or Shadow Colossus or Journey, right? I think the ways in which they realize the world, both through the design of it, but then the art direction and the art style of it, I think it's beautiful. I had such a great time going back and being like, yo, let me just ride my bike through the hills of this game and take pictures and listen to things and get to learn more about this game.

I think those are the places and what the idea of those things are the places in which the game really shines. For me, the things that have brought the game down for me a little bit have been, the substance of the world isn't all the way there in moments, right? I really love the idea of recording this world and taking pictures and having those things stand out. But by the time I finished this game,

I was wanting more, right? I was wanting a lot more substance, both from the characters that I'm meeting and how much lower. and how much backstory they're filling in the world. They have quite a bit of things going on, but it felt a bit lacking in that sense. There's that, there is controlling riding the bike

wasn't the best experience. You're basically pressing L2 and R2 and alternating between the buttons to pedal forward. And that's, at first, I was like, oh, cool. Like, they're really making you feel like you're riding this bike. A couple hours into it. I was like, oh, man, I do not like the feel of riding this bike, right? Where, you know.

Did you mess with it at all? Because you can turn it off, obviously, and change it, like, in the, the settings to not have to be the pumpy, whatever. No, I didn't mess with it all. And for me, it was even deeper than just going back and forth between that, right? I think for me it was, there's a certain character that is also riding a bike at a point where you are following them and you're looking for them.

Oh, I know this character. For me, it was the idea that in this open world map that they provide you with, that was a specific section where they really wanted you to navigate and go back and forth and really explore at kind of a quicker pace. and the control of the bike just did not feel like it, it didn't feel like it supported that, right? Like getting on the bike, finding your bike, turning your bike, all that stuff just felt a bit clunky to me.

It's no Sonic Frontiers. It's no Sonic Frontiers. But yeah, I didn't really enjoy that portion of it. And then there was the voice acting, which for me didn't live up to a lot of the good riding in this game. One of the things that I really enjoyed early on is how poetic the writing is. You take a picture of a monument,

and your character has something oftentimes profound to say about that monument. You know, one of the things I liked is that, like, you know, she's in this new land that she hasn't been to before. She's recording what's going down. And there's a tire swing that I found at one point. I take a picture of it because, I don't know, that seems like a thing I want to take a picture of. And then she has dialogue about it.

And she's talking about how, oh, man, maybe they hung this tire swing to then scare off the other tires in the area because she's not seen a tire swing before. And I was like, oh, that's pretty funny. That's pretty cool. there's a lot of fun and like I think deep moments of writing that they put in there that is hampered a lot of the time by voice acting that just does not live up to it to it your main character the voice acting is fine other characters you meet sometimes it sounds like they're recording from a blue a blue snowball microphone right a low quality microphone other times it does

sound like they called somebody over who's who happened to be in the studio and we're like hey bob can you record a few lines for us real quick right it kind of gives those vibes It's a heartbreaker. Yeah. I've played three-fourths of this game. I got pulled off for Spoken and then on to Dead Space, so I haven't actually rolled credits. But according to Bless, I think I'm right there at the end if I just sit down and play it. Everything he set a spot on.

And I think the VO for the other characters and even meeting the other characters at times works against this thing. Like I would much prefer to be that it was just going around and taking the photos and doing the sounds. Because we haven't even gotten to the thrust of the gameplay, I guess, of exploring. You take all of these photos and drawings and things and you build a scrapbook. And I think so many games have the journal, have the scrapbook that, you know, either you never look at or you do occasionally jump in to try to figure out where you are in the story. And it's totally an afterthought. It doesn't even feel like the character wrote it. It feels like it's just something thrown in there.

Season does such an amazing job of making that the gameplay. of you go through you explore I forget I think it switches every puzzle page or whatever you want to call it but you need to get like seven different things to put in and once you do Tim

that then unlocks what do they call it it's like an aha moment I forget they call what it is uh huh eureka moment a eureka moment it's very much but not that

maybe it's I want to say me yeah it doesn't matter but it's like conclusion reached or something like that they can go in there and do anyways once you do that you then unlock a bunch of decorations and colors and other drawings to go in there. And I couldn't get over how much fun it was to build the journal and make it look beautiful

and do all these different things for it. When Janet, of course, from PSI Love UXOXO, XO, XO, she started late and I was like, oh, this is, the games, whatever, and some of the parts, but this is going to be, and she's like, I will spend hours just doing it. She started sending me the text photos of what she's been building in her journal or whatever. That is so good. And so then when you have these moments with these characters where, yeah, the dialogue is so, the VO is so bad.

Also, I think the way they present dialogue is captions. There are word bubbles that pop up, right? But they also don't, it isn't a high quality word bubble for text on the screen, which also takes that. For a game battle, a lot of it does look high quality. Exactly. And it's an art, it's, you know, that you're building this journal. It's a very, and you saw it in the trailer of how beautiful the game looks. Like, this was like, oh, that's a weird one.

And then what really, really sucks is like, there's a moment in the very beginning when you're talking to your mom. before you leave and it's a magical world right like the season is about to end it's kind of the end of the world you have to go out and journal this for future people to find or whatever and one of the things and this is the very beginning so it's not a spoiler or anything you your mom's making you this crystal but to do it she has to give up memories you have to come to her with a memory you both have she says it it goes in there she forgets the memory but you then wear this crystal around your neck to go have you know adventures whatever and there's all these different things in the house to get and you bring over it's like whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever. And there's one thing I grabbed and brought over, and she had this, like, monologue about it of just like this. And she's like, memory, I don't want to give up. And it was so touching. And it was like, oh, damn. Like, the other stuff around it wasn't that great. This is optional. And I wish the delivery was a little bit better. And then to get some of the other characters. There's more stuff there. It's just like, do we need, maybe your character should have been the only person that talked. One thousand. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. And that's the thing. That's where I became very conflicted on this game, right? Especially with it. comes to a review score, right, where there are so many things I absolutely adored in their approach. And then there are other things around like, oh, man, you didn't need it. Like, you didn't have to have voice acting for these characters. You didn't have to do this. Even for what I'm talking about in terms of the content and the substance of the game, right?

I wish they went one of two directions. I wish they pulled back and had way less substance than they do have because it could just be a, hey, it's on the user to find the meaning in this world. I think they provide enough meaning to where I wish there was more meaning now, right? They hit a halfway point that I wish they could go either direction because I do enjoy the moments where it is. You know, you go through, you're taking pictures of monuments, you're taking audio recordings of animals, of chimes, of whatever seems interesting in the world. And even if it is an element that the developers didn't consider to be interesting, right, even if it's something that's not really, quote unquote, meant to be recorded, it still counts for putting in your journal, right? You just need to put enough things on the page to then have that area complete and then move on to the next thing.

And so you really do get to own your own experience in season, navigating this land that you've never been to before, and really taking in and finding your own meaning of what Tianeng Valley is and what the culture of Tang Valley is. I think that is such a smart way to do it. And I found so much enjoyment and so many moments like that, right, where it is the mom being like, I don't want to forget this, right? Like that is, that's a tailored moment, right? That's great. There's only a few of those. Yeah, it's great. It's great shit, right?

but there's also other moments of seeing a structure and being like, yo, that looks really awesome. And you take a picture of it. And then your character gives you a little bit like a sentence about it. And it's like, oh, damn, that's really cool. And a lot of the stuff is really poetic and really good. I wish they let off the gas a little bit and just really let you to find what this world is for you. And I think that would have maybe been a stronger choice as opposed to giving you a lot of stuff that like doesn't, that now makes the road feel emptier.

you know, because it isn't filled to the brim with that stuff. But that said, right, it is one of those games where I would say it's four fans of the genre, right? And granted, you know, Greg, I don't know if you plan to go back and finish the game. I talked to Janet and she seems like she's in a similar place of being a three out of five, right? So like, granted, if you are into this kind of game, that's not an automatic, it's going to be a slam dunk for you. But it is one where I texted Belinda, my friend who I know does a lot of journaling in her own time, right? enjoys narrative games and enjoys the idea of recording things like this. And I was like, yo, you're going to have to play season because I think season is going

to be your shit. So yeah, like, it's a game that I enjoyed. I'm glad I played through it and finished it. I want to see what's next for Scavenger Studio. Like I think they are a studio that has a lot of talent there. But I did want a bit more from season at the end of the day. Yeah. Any closing thoughts on that, Greg?

I'm in Torn where it's like, I feel like I'm right there. I feel like it's like an hour, maybe, maybe. Yeah. How long was your entire place? My play through was about seven hours. Okay, yeah. So I feel like I'm right around. Maybe two off a bit. And it's that thing of, yeah, why not? But I also don't feel the motivation to go do it. Like tonight, if I get home and I have downtime, I'm like, I'll keep on this new game plus for Dead Space. You know what I mean?

Oh, yeah. I'll go that way with it rather than I don't, I don't feel like I am on the, I guess my main thing is I want to know what the changing of season is going to be. be in the game. But even that I'm not like so interested that I feel like I need to get back to it. What's the game that just came out today? High-Fi rush? High-fi rush. What's that do for you, Rick? Well, we had a lunch meeting, so I've seen screens of it, and I read a little

blurb about it, but I haven't seen enough. It's a rhythm, what game? I mean, it looks like a 3D platformer rhythm action game. It's like a rhythm character action game. I just drinks McQuarrie. A 3D character action game with like rhythm, a game elements to it. And so

you are fighting to the beat, right? You are clicking, it's on Xbox, so you're clicking X or Y for your light or heavy attack to that attack on B. And the arch style of it looks like a Saturday morning cartoon. The way the character is moving, it reminds me of a sunset overdrive. It has that sort of energy. It's got that vibe to it for sure.

Yeah, I played about 30 minutes of it so far, and I'm into it. Like, I cannot wait to go back. I can't wait. I mean, this looks like a dream game. Like, this looks so damn cool. It's so funny because we and you, Tim, we're just talking about this, right? because the title of the game was leaked before the Xbox developer underscore direct. And we were talking about Tango GameWorks and how they've done Evil with one and two

and they've done Ghostfire Tokyo. One of the things I mentioned was, man, I would love Tango GameWorks to make a game that appeals to me. And then they announced this the next day. And I'm like, these motherfuckers, like, they did the damn thing. They're like, yo, all right, let's target blessings specifically because this is my type of shit. And I'm all the way down for it. It's one of those games that looks awesome and I'm just not that rhythm guy. So it's one of those.

I'm just like, I don't know, because it's only tapping buttons and there's no, do you control the character? No, you control the character. So it's an action game

the way you think of an action game. Okay. Where you're going through, you're fighting hordes of enemies, you're walking around, you're doing all that stuff. But then, yeah, in the action which I assume most of the game is action.

I'm not that far in it. But in those sequences, yeah, the thing is when you're fighting, you're tapping X to the beat to fight, you were tapping Y to the beat to fight. And that is, like, from what I've gathered so far, like, your hits are all,

going to land on beat. And even if you don't have like all the rhythm in the world, you still might be fine with this. Because I think it is just bonus attack and bonus damage and bonus stuff that you're getting via attacking on beat. And you also have like a dodge button, right? Like think like Dev May Cry or any sort of action game. It's that kind of control. Okay. Let's go, man. This looks incredible. All right. We're going to wrap this up because I need to go play some high five rush. Let's go. Ain't that damn right. Bless. Oh, that's right. Let us know in the comments below if you are going to pick up Dead Space. the 2023 remake.

Let us know what you've thought of for. Spoken so far. Let us know if you're going to play High Five Rush. Let me know whatever you want to let me know in the comments below. What do you want to know, Greg? I don't want to talk to anybody. Don't tell Greg anything. But me and Bless, we're open.

Talk to me about season. Let me know what you think of season. Yeah. You plan on playing that? Did I sell you on that? Did I sell you? Did I unsell you? Let us know.

In the comments below. Like I said, stay tuned. Search podcast services for Kind of Funny. We're here for you. It's about to be amazing. things happening this year in 2023. We are just getting started. Thank you guys for joining us for this amazing journey. Until next time, I love you all. Goodbye.