Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Detroit: Become Human Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 172

Episode Date: May 28, 2018

Greg and Andy have beaten Detroit, and Jared has some questions! (Released first to http://www.patreon.com/kindafunnygames supporters on 05.25.18) Thanks to Blue Apron and Hims for sponsoring this episode. Get your first 3 Blue Apron meals free at http://blueapron.com/gamescast. Start your Hims trial month for $5 at http://forhims.com/gamescast. Time Stamps - 00:00:15 - Start 00:07:14 -Detroit Become Human Review 00:56:46 - Andy Interviews Shaq 01:08:00 - What Is Jared Playing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up everybody? Welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast, Episode 172. I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller, alongside the Hispanic heartthrob, Andy Cortez. Great to be here. I like this member's only jacket. Yeah, man. Come join. I can.

It's members only. I'm not one of the members. You know what I mean? Does it on unbutton? I think it does. Now, over there groping you right now, of course, is don't break the jacket. I don't want to break the reverend, Jared Petty. The Reverend Jared Petty.

Hey, dokey, dokey, what's up? So did what, run me through the history of the members only, Because I feel like if you remember in shallow hal, there was a joke, a barb thrown out, because Jason Alexander's character was wearing a member's only jacket to have Gwainish Polter said, what are you like the last member? Yeah. And I was like, ha, ha, ha. But are they back?

Are they back? You're a hip guy. I have no idea if they were back. The only reason why I like them is I saw, well, obviously it's sort of an evolution of the bomber that I used to wear, but they're not cheap and shitty and they don't break. Oh. Like, the pockets don't tear as easily. they're much higher quality.

Now granted, they're like twice the cost, but I'm fine paying for quality. And in Ricky Bobby's dad is wearing one in town digging nights. And I think it's the same color grace. And I was like, I want that gray fucking member's jacket. So I bought the black one, then I bought the gray one. I'm trying to buy one that's like called C blue. But if you see it. They don't have them in smalls.

They're like sold out on Amazon. I remember the C blue ones. I'm old enough that I actually wore. one of these unironically. Back when they were still new and relevant. And mine was actually about... Well, that's my thing, right? We've come around, is what I'm saying.

They started off being popular. Then there's the shallow haljoe because they're not popular, but now they're popular. Have we come around? I don't know. Andy, I wear them. Andy. Andy.

You are one of the coolest people I know on terms of books. Yeah, I don't know. Reis Poppy, a guy keeps a cucker in his car. He knows what's up. Yeah. I just bought it because I wanted

a higher quality, better version of the other jackets. I'd have been buying. And a lot of people seem to like them whenever I'm wearing them on these podcasts. Hey, where'd you get that jacket? Maybe it's no longer sort of frowned upon. Sure.

I don't think it's rad. I don't really care. How are we evoking shallow howl? It's just what came to mind about the member's only jacket. It was such a great burn. And I remember that. It's a great burn.

I remember that. So what are you like the last member? It's a tail. It's a good joke. Yeah. It's a good joke. But I've forgotten that movie even happened. Oh, really?

That's amazing. I feel like shallow howl's one of those ones that there was a good few years where it was always on Comedy Central or TBS or something. So I've just seen it like not start to finish a million times where we just drop into a middle portion. Like, oh, here comes Tony Robbins. One of those movies where the rights wasn't that expensive. So some network bought it and just ran it all the time.

I feel like when I support Jack Black, I'm supporting Tim Schaefer. And as long as I'm taking care of Big Tim Schaefer, I'm happy. That's why. There was a solid two years where on stars and Showtime. Sure. Non-stop, like rush hour, Shanghai Knights. Like, that was all about it. Yeah, I was like, yeah, HBO, sure, it's more expensive, but they don't have all these buddy cop movies that are really hot and popping right now.

I was all about the rush hours, Shanghai, noon, Shanghai nights. Sure. There was a few others that I don't remember. Sure. And rush hour two, three. Sure, yeah. Dang, he ain't you going to be in rush hour two? Blue streak?

Blue streak was HBO. Blue streak was HBO. Martin Lawrence. Luke Wilson. Okay, okay, yeah, yeah. I still have stars through Amazon. Oh, yeah. I went and grabbed it.

And I still like having it. I watch a lot of movies. I don't watch that much TV, but I watch a lot of movies. Sure. And Stars is good for that, like, mid-level, just like, hey, I kind of want to watch a movie at 11 before I go to sleep and watch half of it and then go to bed. And Stars is great for that. Blue Streak was known for Martin Lawrence saying, Blyde. Remember that?

No. You don't remember that? No, I don't remember that. So Nick and I were, like, sleuthing, and we had Rudyo, Google, like, quotes from Blue Streak. What, you had Rudeo? Yeah, the guy in chat. I was thinking Rufio for a minute. I thought we had a new nickname for Cool, Greg or Cabin or something.

We were asking, Chad, what are the quotes from Blue Street? Like, there's one that, there's a line that, like, because Nick was comparing it to, to, oh God. Independence Day, welcome to Earth. No, no, no, no, no. With Will Smith, Martin Lawrence and Will Smith in Bad Boys. In Bad Boys, where he's like, Mike Lowry, you know, he's doing that thing or whatever. Well, in Blue Street, he says, bleed at, like believe that or whatever, you know, so there you go,

guys. This is some deep lore. If you didn't know, this is the kind of funny games cast, where each and every week, we get together to talk about all the things we love in Vee's. video games, you can get the show early. How early, Andy? Oh, the four days. So early, you can be watching us recorded right now

on patreon.com slash kind of funny games each and every time we record it. However, you could also go to patreon.com slash kind of funny games. Get the show when we put it up as one MP3 or one big video that has a pre-and-post show that no one gets to see unless you catch it live or support us over there on the Patreon video.

Of course, if you don't want to give us any money, you can get it for free. YouTube.com slash kind of funny games and podcast services around the globe each and every Monday morning. Some housekeeping before we get into the heart of the matter. That is Detroit, become human review. Next week, it's what you've been waiting for,

what you've been subrediting about, what you've been tweeting about. It is our annual E3 predictions games cast. We will all come with multiple predictions for what we expect to see from the show when we talk about Sony, Xbox, Nintendo, and then all the third parties. Then, of course, that means E3's right around the corner.

At E3 this year, kind of funny is going hard, going deep, getting in them guts, as Andy says. Jeez, hell yeah, man. Do you not say that a lot? No, Kevin says that. Really? No. Yeah, you do.

Kevin, do you say getting the guts a lot? Because it's about eating food, right? I mean, I wouldn't say I say it a lot. He said it once on a party mode. Gotcha. I did say it on a party mode. He was like getting the guts. And everybody was like, what?

He's like, oh, it's an anal joke. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. Oh, yeah, 100%. It just isn't sex in general? It's specifically. No, no, it's sex in general. Thank you.

Yeah. E3 is coming up and we're getting in the guts going hard for each and every press conference other than the PC one. We'll be doing pre and post shows and live reactions. You can watch along on twitch.tvs. com slash Kind of Funny Games with us. If you want to watch it without our commentary,

no big deal. But make sure you come back for the post shows. If you miss any of that, the live reactions, the post shows go up on YouTube. com slash Kind of Funny Games. The post shows, of course, are gamescast. They'll go up on your podcast feeds as usual. We will be doing that Saturday through Tuesday

before we go down to L.A. to see a bunch of games, do a bunch of things, probably do a live stream, wink, wink, and I can't tell about next year yet, but one day you'll know about it and then we'll be able to promoted correctly. While I'm here, patreon.com slash kind of funny games keeps all the mics on. Thank you to all these people for their support. Of course, thank you to who, Andy. Paul Walker.

No, Tom Bach. Tom, Patreon producer, Tom Bob. Now while we're here, of course, thank you to Paul Walker as well. Yeah. Come on now. Rest in peace. Tom Bach, we love you, man. Go Spurs.

Next season, baby. Let's do it. And finally, this episode is brought to you by Blue Apron. and for him, but I'll tell you about that later. For now, let's begin the show with what is and for once will be. The Detroit Become Human Review. Let's get into it. Time for a David Cage review.

Oh, Tim's not here because he's at a bachelor party. He's not dead. Andy? What's up, Greg? You and I have been playing Detroit Become Human. Correct. Have you beaten it? I did.

I beat the game. I did not try to go back and get multiple endings. Not yet. Okay. but I have talked to other people and gotten other endings who have also played it. Barrett Courtney who works at IGN. He's played it earlier.

He and I just had a nice little discussion after work and talked to each other about our stories and how our stories unfolded. How different were they? So different. Yeah. Holy shit. Right?

And I think that, I mean, obviously I think that's the most compelling thing about the game is like having, you know, telling your story. and sometimes that can be kind of watered down because some of the decisions may not be super important or that changing but in this game I feel like they I feel like they are I mean like compared to old

Oh okay you're past ones Yeah to old I want to point out to just while we're getting into the weeds here We start to dip our toes in the water and go to the deep end We're not going to spoil the game We're going to stay away from specific spoilers Right Andy? Sure Okay, cool yeah No aftores are crashing here

So I've beaten Detroit become human as well I've played through it with my wife Jean-Vier of St. Thonge Miller. And we haven't actually talked about our endings at all. We haven't. No. We'll have to dance around that a bit. But I am interested. Jared, you've played none of it, right? Absolutely not.

So you're going to play the role of interviewer a lot here. I will play the role of interviewers? You can put on your press hat and chime in you. Interested bystander. There you know. That's wanting to hear. But you guys have the meat of the conversation. So take it away, gentlemen.

What I want to know, Andy, is what do you think of Detroit become human? I think it's a good, not great game. Okay. I feel like all of the different endings and all the different branches that you can take is not only the strength

but the weakness of the game where some decisions that you make your characters start to, their stories and their statements and how they feel sometimes contradict how they felt earlier. And I know that

I was talking to Kevin about this. I feel like if you pick certain if you have certain decisions made in the game, somewhere in there, there is like a flawless narrative that's told perfectly. Sure. And it's like, yeah, this is a really well-told story.

But I feel like if you do take different paths here and there, your characters start to not only contradict themselves sometimes, which... They're incongruent. Sure, but that could... It could be the false of the player, but I mean, the choices are there for the player. So somewhere in there,

There's an incredible story. And I do feel like I really, I experienced a lot of moments that blew me away and was like, holy shit and talking to Barrett about this stuff and telling him my story, he was like, fuck, I didn't know that. Like, yeah, dude. Like, we were really excited to talk about it. I was really excited to talk about some of the outcomes of some of the characters. But I think at some moments, I think at some points the, it can feel a little bit too over-gramatic.

Oh, yeah, of course. Of course. This really wants to be a dramatic motion picture, and at some points, the characters react some ways. We were just like, I don't really know if that was earned. Melodrama and a David Cage game, right? That's just getting kicked around the internet. And I'm not making fun of you at all, but it is, it's kind of the guy's trademark.

Camfistedness. He's a super direct storyteller. I'd like to go back before you move on and ask a question about that narrative dissonance, if you don't mind. you were talking about characters kind of making choices that earlier contradict choices you made. Do your choices change dynamically with earlier choices? Like as you move forward, are you the one choosing to make your character act out of character? Or is the narrative taking what you did, then making that decision and then placing you with a decision you wish you didn't have?

I feel like they try to lead you in certain directions, right? But towards the end of the game, if you act in a certain way, certain decisions, decisions are then not unlocked for you, if that makes sense. So sort of like, I don't know, telltale games where decisions unlock for you and show you like, oh, or even like Paragon Renegate stuff in Mass Effect, where if you act a certain way, a certain amount of time, you get additional options, additional conversation trees unlock for you. But because I acted a certain way, I felt like I was, it's hard to get into this with. about spoiling stuff.

But I feel like I was acting a certain way with one of the characters because I felt like it... I think for the record, I don't know what thing you're driving at. I'm not saying we can't say any specifics. I think...

I'm looking at the camera if you're an audio listener. I don't know how many people are coming in this sight unseen. I think what we knew from preview material can be used going forward, right? Where Cara, I think we already knew was going... Because I'd pitch this all in the game's Daily Show based on like trailers, right?

Kara was the android with the girl. It seemed like that would be motivation for her to leave and try, because the whole thing is about them breaking out and becoming human, right? Or are they going to become human? Connor is the cop. He wants to be the cop robot. Great. And then Marcus is the one that they've shown through so trying to lead this robot revolution

kind of thing. Correct. Fight for Android. And for me, the story, because I'm going to, I don't want to handicap you or, that's not even a PC term anymore.

I don't want to take you out right now before you get going and then have it go to me and me talk about like, like what Marcus means. Because like Marcus for me is the weakest thing. Because his story I think it's so fantastical and makes so many quantum leaps of like how the fuck, okay, that's what's happening, all right. And to clarify, there's three main storyline.

There are three. Yeah, yeah. And so Marcus is one of those three main areas you travel through. Yeah. And, you know, of course, as you go through the game, the, you know, the storylines do sort of mix up with each other. But for, for Connor, who's the cop, I felt like I was making decisions

that would best tell the story of the game rather than sort of curate this experience that You were trying to You were playing Connor to get what you thought the most would try to get the most out of the game

not necessarily what you wanted Exactly yeah And it did kind of screw me in the end because I ended up with a Connor that I didn't really want where I got too deep into a certain side of the character that I didn't really want him to be, you know? Interesting.

And I thought it fed the story better early on. Connor is somebody who's becoming conflicted. You know, he's a cop and he's still a robot, but he also is, he abides by the law and he wants to... Wait a minute. It's in Detroit. Yep. And he's a robot cop? Yeah.

Yes. It really is a robocop. He has a gun in his leg, too. I'm just kidding. He doesn't. I got so excited for him. Yeah, so he, uh... I want Telltales Robocop so bad.

He's, he tries, um, obviously he's like very, he's all, he's all for the law and he's like, if you fuck up, I don't care who you are. I don't care if you're a robot. I'm going to stop you. That's what I was made to do. Yeah, I'm programmed to enforce the law. Um, but you start seeing some conflict there where he starts feeling a certain way and, and, and the game is sort of, sort of wants you to break those restraints, but I,

You didn't want to? I chose to kind of lead it on for as long as possible before I eventually did. Oh, wow. Interesting. And by the time I wanted to, it was too late. Like my character had... You can't blame the game for that. Sure. For me, I mean, for me, I thought...

I just felt like things were changing too quickly. I felt like his opinions on things were... Okay. ...were changing way too quickly and way too dramatically where I was like, man, like... That's fair. That just seems like... That's out of character. Yes, exactly.

Exactly. For me, I hear you on that front. That makes sense. to me in terms of it. For me, the Connor storyline, I think was my favorite. And I think it's just because they,

you know, it's your traditional buddy cop movie, right, where hey, you're Connor, you're this android. Guess what?

We're, of course, partnering you with the incomparable, Clancy Brown, who happens to be a down on his luck, alcoholic detective

who hates androids. Right? So, like, you have that thing. And then it is the, I totally leaned in in the buddy cop movie.

Yeah. Of cool. Like, no, I love Clancy Brown as an actor and then even the performance he's giving here. I'm all in on him. I think that's great. I'm backing him up. I want to do that.

Whereas you could have pulled back in Benmore. I'm going to follow the letter of the law and be the Android, which puts Clancy off of you rather than on yourself. Oh, go ahead. Which threw me off. That's part of the storyline that did throw me off because I feel like Clancy's turn

happened way too quick as well. But that's just how you played it now? Or do you think that's how it just happens? I don't know. I think, again, I think that just some of these decisions rush different parts of the story where it doesn't feel natural at all. For me,

what's so interesting in my play-through and my review, I guess, of Detroit Become Human, is that Jen and I, it was very much, we were getting ready for Judges Week. I got Detroit Become Human,

but when I get back, I'll have time before this review right here. I'll play it when we get back. I don't want to start it before we leave. And it was that Friday night, we cooked dinner, and they were sitting there. I'm like,

I got Detroit. Do you want to just pop it in, play for a little bit? and we played however many hours and then played a whole bunch on Saturday and it was like we were riveted. It was like, wow, this is so interesting and so well done and the characters

and their motivations and the people they're interacting with, their families or whatever you want to call their employers or owners. This is all really, really great and there's a pivot point where Saturday night we stopped playing and we went out to dinner and in the car there was this great moment

that I think I'll always remember when I think of Detroit of us sitting in the back of this Uber just silently both of those looking out different windows. And then Jen just turned to me like, but I don't understand why is, and I was like, I don't, and like us talking about it as if we were watching a Netflix series and we left there.

And I was like, that says something for a video game. And so we did that, went down to Judge Week, brought the PlayStation with us because I'm like, I want to play every chance we get or whatever. And then started talking to the people who were further ahead of us, including yourself, where I texted you and I was just like, man, this game. And you're like, yeah, it's good. I just beat it.

Oh, man. Some parts I don't. And then I got down. I talked about a little bit on. Games Daily today, right? Like talking to Kim from Game Informer who had already beat and she's like, yeah,

but then this stuff happens and we're like, really? And it was literally, as soon as we started it back up, we were into that section where things just start happening way too quickly. And it was just like, whoa,

like, okay, oh, that's what's, what? So it's just a jilted feel to it? Yeah, it was like, I thought we were doing so well and I thought the story was being told intimately where it was like,

all right, cool. I mean like at the start all of them Kara Connor and Marcus all their stories are so tight and so small and like it's this small circle let's see how we go from there and then for me it's Marcus's that was just like what like that it just

it just I feel like it just it's tumbling down the hill and it's going slowly and well and then it like hits that bump where it starts and then it's just out of control and it's like things are flying off of it as it goes starts feeling cagey yeah starts feeling she starts feeling cage I'm not here to to crap on on the work at all

There's some fascinating stuff in heavy rain. There's some interesting stuff in Beyond Two Souls. Oh, did we send up? No, we got some Ghostbusters. Oh, we got some. Oh, I like to call it the Ghostbusters. It's my refrigerator again. I like that.

That's cute. I still have ever brought you those figures. No, it's okay. All right. But as it goes in it, it doesn't for me fall apart. It just goes from me like, holy shit, I can't believe we're doing this. Like, okay, cool. Oh, same here.

Yeah. Like, I want to make sure that, you know, I put up a tweet at an embargo, right? I've just like, I loved it for a long time. and then it was like, oh, okay, I like this. I'm enjoying this. I recommend you play this game. Oh, absolutely. Gives are your thing.

Okay, you're scaring me here, though. Okay. So this is all great. Yeah. But there's something very frightening you just said. So here's my challenge to both of you. I was very interested until you got to, and then it gets jilted there toward the end. Now, for narrative games, I live or die by the strength of the ending.

That's the part of, if it falls apart at the end, I can't help but walk away disappointed from a narrative game. I've gotten through narrative games that have weak medals, but if it's got a weekend I end up angry that I spent any time in the whole thing. Convince me otherwise with this one. Bring me in. I don't think the ending is weak. I don't think it's as strong as the start was. I don't feel like I wasted my time with this.

When I beat it, the first thing I did right was I want to go back and reload the save point play again. Because it was very much like, you know, obviously it's one of these games. Characters can live or die, right? And I totally fucked up a choice at the end where it was just like it's, we're going to get to this reader question. thank you for submitting them. But I fucked up a button combination

that wasn't fast or anything like that. There's no part of this game that's like in heavy rain when you had a drive into oncoming traffic. But it was just like I screwed up a button combination. I should have held something longer than I did and it killed this person. And I was like, fuck.

I went and I went back and replayed that. And then while I was there, I was like, well, I'll make a whole bunch of other choices. And I did different and I got to a different ending and had a great time. And, you know, I want a platinum it. So I was looking at the trophies now. Like, looking back,

I'm excited to go back and see the alt decisions and see how they go. Like, I don't think it falls apart. It just becomes hamfists like you're talking about, right? And it's that thing of, you know, so many people were worried about like when the car stuff happened and it looked like the domestic abuse with the kid. And like, well, you know, is David Cage, the person who can address this, that, the other. That I thought was fine, right? You get to the end and it is, I mean, again, this is Detroit become human.

We already talked about Mark as leading a revolution. There are the choices of like, how do you want to address this or that? and what do you want to say to the androids or to the humans and it is like I have a dreamer. Like you know what I mean? Like it's beating you over the head

with that stuff. Yeah. And that was when it was like there's a lot of stuff that's really on the nose of like you know comparing these robots to slaves.

And you know, I guess that's kind of the comparison they're trying to make but it gets really, really, it gets way too on the nose and just kind of cheesy at points. And like there's a conversation

with a human being in there, right? Where they're like, why are you helping us? And she's very much like, hey, my people went through. And it's like, yeah, that's a real conversation and that's a real character motivation in this world. I can understand that.

But you know who's view. You know how this game is being viewed. You could have not said that. I think I can get through, you know, why are you doing this? Because it's the right thing to do. You know what I mean? Like, that's enough, I think. Well, yeah, allegory is hard to pull off anyway.

I think about something like District 9, which I really enjoyed. Did you guys like that? I like District 9. You know, not many people, I think, were willing to rush out to a theater to watch a movie about the plight of refugee camps, but they'll watch a science fiction movie about aliens and the plight of refugee camps. And it does manage to do that kind of old Twilight's a thing where he would sneak social themes and current issues into science fiction and people could look at it and go, oh, yeah, that's right. When you do it right, it's great when it comes off hammy.

And that's the thing is I don't think it's as bad. I've seen the screen, like before doing this, there's some screenshots going around from a review of like, I have a dream thing up there. and like people really just fucking beating it into the ground of like what the off and it's like I don't think it was that egregious it is on the nose it is very much oh okay we're not even gonna joke or not even you know you're not even gonna let hint it what it is you're gonna tell me you're gonna tell me rather than show me you're gonna tell me which is never what you want right you want to show don't tell I want to come away with those ideas on my own have you have you seen the postman the kevin costner post apocalyptic thing no have you seen it oh kevin's talking about the postman

Kevin from the weeds likes it uh so yeah there's that I can't ask there's a seen in that I was going to ask about and make a comparison. I can't because you haven't seen it. So we'll move on. I don't know if one. I mean, some of the ending, you were, we were talking about the endings whether we liked some of the endings or not.

A few of the endings that I got in my play through actually mainly for just one character that I was retelling the story to Barrett about my roommate about retelling what happened with this character because he told me what happened with his

and telling him I got goosebumps. I got kind of like, this is sort of like teary-eyed almost, but not really. Like one of the endings that I got just blew me away and I thought it was so well done.

But in my opinion, that doesn't really make up for some of the other, how we got there. Oh, 100% yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I do think, I agree with you, Greg. I think like,

you have to play this game. I, at the end of the day, still really enjoyed it. But I do think that it is a very, imperfect game. How long is it? In terms of time, how long? That's a great question.

It's really hard for me to tell. I'd say like maybe around 10 hours. Yeah, that sounds about right. I feel like I'm trying to think of how I broke it up, right, with Saturday or a little bit Friday, a lot Saturday, a little bit on Sunday. And then I think it came back and it was like just one more sitting. So that's long for a narrative game. Yeah. But it's, it's, I mean,

it, it goes too fast if anything. And that's the thing. I enjoyed the scenes. I enjoyed the breakdown. I think the interface on the game is brilliant in terms of, hey, you know, you, think about heavy rain, right? Uh-huh. You'd finish it, and then you'd get somebody's face as a loading screen while trophies pop.

And you were like, oh, man, I wonder how different that scene could have gone. And the fact that they embrace being a game and you end now and you see this tree, this giant, like skill tree kind of, but it goes through and it shows your choices connecting to your ending. But it shows all the question mark ones shooting off. Yeah. Do you get like that wonderful, I bring the subsist, every show, Tactics Oger, ability to go back to those nodes and follow it straight from there instead of playing all the way through? Not from the node. I think you just have to restart the scene.

There's checkpoints. Those checkpoints. Those checkpoints. That's pretty good. Yeah. I'll take that. So that's the thing is like you have this giant tree branching out, showing you what you did, where you did. Clearly like, you know, you asked this question, which had this new path shoot off of it, right?

And then even there, there's things you didn't light up. When you go and you want to jump back in, which I was doing right at the end, it asks you if you want to just, do it and not save anything, but it won't affect your tree, or do you want to jump in and save and it'll fill out your tree? So you go in there and then now you have your original play-thru up there, but then you now have another, the other one in there as well. So you can see what happened there. I really like that. Yeah. And I mean, like, they're huge. And that's why I was like waiting for the trophy list to pop because it was like, wow, like that's crazy gargantuan. Like, I can't visualize playing through each one of these things and not knowing if that's

what I need to do. I feel like after every scene, there was a conversation between my girlfriend and I looking at the web and being like, wow, I chose to do this. If I would have done that, look at that shit. Look what that sort of branches off into. I wonder what that could be. So some of the biggest appeal of what both of you are sharing, you just said, Andy, you said with my girlfriend. You said with Jen, both of you played this with people you love side by side. And it's an awesome experience to spend with anybody.

Like if it's just a friend of yours or whoever, like it's going to be something that you both watch and you both will sort of challenge each other on decisions that you may have made. There was a few times where she was like, shouldn't have done that. You fucked that. I was like, I know. And I do think there are moments, because you mentioned you messed up a QTE where a character died or... Yeah. I mean, there are definitely QTEs

that don't affect anything that are very much sort of the crumbling wall and uncharted where it doesn't keep crumbling unless you keep moving up. That sort of thing. It's all very visual, sort of just to kind of... to add adrenaline and you know to sort of get your blood pumping but there were a few moments where I'm in I'm towards the end of the game and I am really hoping not to fuck up and I do mess up a

QTE and that didn't change anything you know there are moments where you mess up and it's very forgiving of you or there are moments where as Greg you know mentioned earlier character died I didn't I I don't think I the only reason I had characters die was because I chose not to go back for them that sort of thing. Oh interesting yeah Yeah, I'll explain to you off there. Before we moved to Reader Mail, this is cool because that's why I love doing the show. It's celebratory and it's informative and interesting and I work with really smart people that love games. But before we sat down on camera, I could not have cared less about Detroit.

Yeah. And right now I'm like, no, I think I want to go play this now. I feel like it's a fascinating game. Yeah. And that's the thing is I think it just got really close to being like, holy shit, I came. Oh, okay, now we're coming back now. I think if it could have maintained this, it would have just been like,

wow, I can't get over it. It is a game that I've thought about since then. You know what I? I'm happy with the endings I got on my first one, but I want to go do this. I do want to go make choices. There are a lot of, like, you know,

inconsequential choices, as you're saying. But I think even when you make those, it's just, it's what I used to talk about, the telltale book, right, of like shading in your version of the character.

You know, like, this is not a spoiler, but Marcus, right? does he, he plays chess against his owner or whatever, his helper or whatever you're going to call him. Oh, I played piano. Oh, you played piano?

I played chess. And so, like, for me, it was like, do you want to win? Do you want to lose? You want to draw? You know what I mean? And like, like, I chose to lose, I think, right? And it was like, no, I chose to win. I don't have the trophy for the other one.

But it was like, for me at the time, there was a justification for that. And then there was a conversation about, all right, why did you do that? I know you just did there. I think some of the characters are super well written. And then we run into some that are like just, Stereotypes. Really stereotyped characters in a movie

that you'd watch that maybe aren't very good movies. Like, I don't know, like super overdone, I feel at some moments. And then it's just, and like we were talking about earlier with,

I always make fun of the origami figure and a heavy arena. The origami killer who just shows up his hands. There's like, there's the leaps I have with Marcus's story logic, but then just the logic of the world

just doesn't make sense sometimes. where you're just like, all right. Like, I don't, this wouldn't solve the problem or what's, how does that? But it's like, whatever, you're watching a movie and not like, you know, not a Schindler's list or something. You're watching a, you're watching a DC Universe movie. All right, you can talk to me. All right, this is better than a DC Universe movie.

All right. Don't insult Detroit by putting it in any bucket with suicide squad. I'm very, very happy to hear that. You want to hear some reader mail? I'd love to. I want to start with this one right here because we were just talking about it kind of Throbicio, right? and says, I don't like quick time events. Is this game for me?

I think so. I didn't, as somebody who loved heavy rain and hated the heavy rain, drive a car and oncoming traffic thing, it wasn't for the most part, quick time, like, oh, do, like, I was all over it. It was like, hold R2, hold L2, hold circle, you're moving. And like, I didn't feel like there was that many that were like, make or break. I can't believe I screwed this up and now everything's ruined. I only hated the motion control ones.

Oh, yeah. I always sort of forgot what the icon was. And it's also just awkward to be sitting there. And maybe like I'm leaning back and I have the controller like on my lap and I'm hitting the buttons. And then it requires me to jerk it to the right and left. And it's like, oh, that's not like a natural thing whatsoever. And then they do have the ones that are flick the sticks, but they kind of look like moved the controller. Yes, exactly.

Is there any move support? Can I awkwardly undress heavy rain style? No, there's no controller. Nothing like that. That's good. No nudity either. Not in any of the stuff I saw Yeah, in terms of my play.

Whoa, whoa. Yeah, I was wondering about that because obviously Madison Page getting it all with Ethan in heavy rain. Yeah, I didn't see that coming around here. And not to mention too, like, relationships is the one thing they also don't handle.

There's one in particular relationship I really think is so terrible that they force on you, which I found really interesting. Where I had made a decision early on, like, no, that character and I are not aligned in anything. I'm not going to do anything

to get on her good side, but they kind of force you be lovers or whatever. It's like, what? Not like love, like, a sex scene, but like they want you to have a romantic thing. Same thing happened to Barrett, and I chose not to do that. But I mean, I tried

not to. It was an active thing where that person didn't like me. Yeah. But then all of a sudden it was like, no, no, no, you guys share something. I'm like, yeah. Now that's a, that's a very, that's a fatal flaw in a game where you're given age. Well, he just said it didn't happen for you at all. At all. It never, even, the game never forced that person to soften you.

Yeah, so I don't know. There was never a relationship formed or anything like that. Now, I will say as far as relationships go, there are a lot of moments where you get the tell-tale thing where you go one way and two of the people on your side say, hey, good job. And one of the people says like, I don't like that decision. Yeah. People like in your party, you know.

And that's another part where things really contradicts each other because there'd be a moment where I'd make a decision and these two people would say, uh, we don't like that. And then the next cut scene, they're like, hey, awesome job. That's true. And that happens quite a bit. And it's just like kind of bothersome, you know. Just once I want to play a narrative game where you're trying to please people around you all the time, only to discover that they're going to throw whoever they love the most into the volcano at the end,

like where you're punished for trying to be a crowd pleaser. Oh, that would be cool sometime. Yeah. Ian writes in it says, I love narrative-driven games, but seeing the lukewarm takes has me reserved. For people right in the middle of the road, is this a must-buy should you wait for maybe a sailor, skip it all together. That's hard to say. I don't know.

I mean, if you love narrative-driven games, I think you play this. This is what this is, this is what this is. And early on, Jen and me were having conversations and it was like,

man, I wish Tell-Tel would have kept evolving and become this. And granted, I don't think it, like, by the end, it's like, you know,

pretend out of time or anything, but it is, like, there was some really interesting choices to be made. And there were interesting wrinkles to it. And the way it all branches out and the way that you can end one scene in one of three different spots,

then you start the next scene in one of three different spots. Like, that's cool. Yeah, I think this is a game to show people who aren't necessarily even into games, just to show them what games can do nowadays where, like, yes, you can watch a movie

or you can watch me play this and have totally different things happen, right? And I think it's just sort of really impressive. And I do think you should buy it. Yeah, I totally, I do recommend buying this game. Would you call this a good game? Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, like, you know, Metacritics 8-0 right now. Like, that sounds right to me. Sure. If I was still at IGN and I was reviewing, I could totally see a flat eight and be like, all right, yeah. Like, like, it's great. It's close to being good. It's not close to being amazing.

It's right in that section, right? Yeah, thanks. I appreciate that. Yeah. Jake writes in and says, with the game having the possibility of different endings, how many times do you see yourself playing through? I personally want to see it through twice, but didn't know. if it would have, didn't know if it would have more than two to three endings. Thanks. Always stay kind of funny. Are you going to play it again? Yes, absolutely. I think it's like the cool

game to play on stream where where I want to see these different endings and I think it'd be cool to experience that with people and have people make the decisions for me and stuff like that. But also I did the same thing with heavy rain. Like when I beat heavy rain, I didn't play the whole thing again, but I played that final sequence to see like, sure. I think there was seven outcomes where three of them were super similar, but they all had a, like little, little tendrils that were tiny, a little bit different here and there. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I don't, I'm gonna, I want to platinum it, so I want to sit down and do it. But the thing is, I don't know with this checkpoint system and the flowchart system, if you need to go back and how far, like, as in heavy rain,

there was a very specific part for trophies where it was like, hey, have a save here, because from here and out, you have to make all these different decisions. With this thing, I'm not sure if you need to because I feel like it's just filling in the flowchart for each scene to get where you really want to be. Because at the end, I feel like I got the complicated ending right where I already had enough of the evidence or whatever. I'd gone through enough of the optional things because I was scouring, enough of the optional things that, you know, I could piece together what I imagine is the hard one, but I need to look through it. So this conversation is really cool. I do have to admit for about half of it. My mind drifted away because I was trying to remember the three different endings

of clue. And just who was guilty in each one of them. I'm going to go home. woman have sex with my wife. Exactly. Mr. Green. That was Mr. Green when everybody else was guilty. Andy. What's up? Cozy Bear Rides,

and it says, which of the androids in the game would you have as your personal assistant? Um, not Connor. No? I liked Connor a lot. No.

He's a bro. My Connor was a bro by the end. And not like a bro pop collar, but like, hey, you're cool, Connor. I'd say either Connor or I'd say either Marcus or or Kara mostly because they they have that sort of

that's sort of like, I don't know, like a almost like a loving, like a guardian, like a, yeah, like a loving parent sort of. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they give off, yeah, they definitely give off that loving companion. I mean, Marcus being the companion to his person and Carr being the

companion to her person, you're both like, man, there's a lot of cool family, human traits and there's a lot of like, there's a lot of like touching moments between them and the people that they're caring for. Yeah. Where Conor, you know, is obviously, you know, he's way more robotic than either of them. Well, he's like, in an advanced model, right? He's like the experimental model that they put out to try to help do all these crime things. Liquid metal. I'm not going to ruin that for you. I'm not going to ruin that for you.

Does he have a visor? I'm not going to ruin that for it. Ryan writes in it says, does this game deserve to be a game of the year contender? I'd say no. My, my, yeah, my knee jerk reaction based on playing it, no. I'd say no. Just compare to God of War. We talked to all this last week. For me, I think it's God of War. I think it's Celeste. Like, I think that there's a bunch of games that I could see in it before. Just because I think it's good, but I, and I think, you know, even great by the hygiene scale. But I just don't think it's like. I think it deserves to be somewhere on like the best narrative game, you know, or whatever.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think it's, I don't think it's, I don't think it's, I don't think it's, far more flaws than there are in the other game of the year candidates. Well, I mean, there is, there's this, I don't know if we, we get so hyperbolic in this industry that we forget that there does exist a space between worth playing. Oh, yeah. It's not a masterpiece. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Where it's just like, no, good. Yeah. Good. Yeah.

Some flaws, totally enjoyable and fun and interesting. And you'll be done with it like in like, you know, if you play it as as quickly as we did in a weekend or maybe two weekends. It's not this big, giant open world game where it's like if it's bad, I'm going to lose 40 hours to it. No, you just. This was my thing too, playing through it in this, even though I'm now the guy saying that, you know, it went, they did too much too fast. Playing it, I was like, man, I hope this is short. Like I like the story and the choices I'm making that I I think the checkpoints, you know, change it. But I would like to go back and play it all the way through again.

I think it's just long enough where I don't want to do that multiple times to get all these things. But like in a different world, yeah. I just feel like even they could have, uh, Jen and I were talking about it, right, of no spoilers or anything. But I feel like you could have done Connor and Cara's story and had the Marcus thing happening just in the background of news reports of this. And like it's affecting their lives what's happening. But I don't need to play through it because that's where they lost. maybe even drop me into the market stuff way later when I wouldn't be like

this is a weird thing that we're already here, but okay, cool. Again, that's that old Chris Culler quote where he said he truly believes that in the heart of every good 20-hour video game is a great 10-hour video game. Yeah. I think of some truth to that. Hey, Kevin. I forgot. So I'm going to tell you now to make a note.

Will you do the thing? Because of course, PlayStation sent us this game for review. Can you put the FTC thing in the very front in the very back of this video? Thanks. So there you go, FTC. Don't come after a Ramja, Don't you dare. Here we go.

Simar Beer says better than heavy rain. Yes. But there's just something about the murder mystery that I just love. I love that true crime shit. Yeah. But I think this game in every way, in terms of acting, in terms of character development and stuff like that, I feel like this game is overall far better than heavy rain. And that's what gets interesting about it is I agree.

I think it's better than heavy rain. But I don't remember being as critical of heavy rain as I am of this game. But then I guess that heavy rain I didn't have the expectations of it. And maybe I was just blown away by the fact that there are these different endings. And it was a different time. You know what I mean? In terms of because the heavy rain, I think, was if not PlayStation 3 game of the year that year. It was a contender when we were working on you.

So without spoiling anything, if you can answer this without doing that, I think about heavy rain and I think one of that wonderful atmosphere, a killer that murders people by drowning them in the rain. That's amazing. It's a great, like, conceit to build a story around. And then that, I don't know if twist us the right word, but the turn, the revelations that take place in that, they're really startling if you don't know they're coming. They were for me. I didn't see it coming.

Sure. In heavy rain. Are there moments as dramatically compelling as that in this? I'd say there are like action-packed dramatic moments that really had my blood pumping. I don't, I guess there are a few twists here and there, but I don't. I don't remember feeling the same way that I did during heavy rain, but heavy rain is such a long time ago for me. So here's my thing.

It's hard for me to speak to it. And this is me looking back now on heavy rain years and years. Yeah. Reviewing it or playing it and reviewing it. Did I? I'm out of reviewed it. I don't remember. But liking it.

You can look it up. We don't have that technology. I wish somebody did. You know what I mean? We don't. Heavy rain, I felt so many plates were spinning that the story got convoluted. for me. Whereas like you say,

oh, he murdered him in the rain, right? And it's like, yeah, I remember him being a murder to eat,

he drawn him and it was just like, the reveal of who the killer was there was so ham-fisted, I thought. You know what I mean? It's so weird and so many leaps of lodge.

It was like, all right, like, this one is so much more digestible, which I appreciate. Now, the moments,

you know, there is a big, in quotes, moment that if you're paying attention, I think you piece together before you get there. Yeah. Because for me,

it was very, much like there's, no, Chris Roper reviewed heavy rain, okay, go there. The Roper report, whatever. There was this reveal in Detroit, the big one I can think of, similar to the killer in heavy rain, right? And there had been enough

comments already about it that, like, I was like, I think I was, hey, Jen, this is what's going to happen. And then when it happens, it's like, okay, well, I kind of saw that happen. I don't know why I didn't see it coming at all. And when it happened, well, when it happened, I was like, oh, yeah. Well, when it happened, I was like, I should have suspected something like this is going to happen, but I don't

why I had and not neither did Barrett. We both talked about it. We were like, yeah, did not take a couple. Neither did it. It does exist. Okay. And then, but then when we when we talk about that and whenever you want to hear about it, that is also just one of the logic things again though, just like, wait a second, really? Like, all right. Yeah. Whatever.

But it's fun. This is more nonsensical. I think it's better than heavy rain, but I think it's, it also has the benefit of being right now. Okay. Where I'm playing it right now. But I do think overall acting performances, visuals, the game's beautiful. The game's stunningly beautiful. Water effects are awesome.

Well, it's also hard to get over the fact that, like, most of the voice actors in Heavy Rain were not American, but they were speaking, trying to speak like an American, and it kind of threw you off a bit. There's a couple news addresses. This isn't a spoiler, but I want to say. There's a woman on the TV making a presentation at one point, and we were watching long enough from like,

and Jen's like what, and I'm like, this woman is clearly French, and she's trying to play the most American American. They did the thing. Yeah, and I was like, why didn't you just cast someone? Overall game of the year that year, heavy rain was in the running yeah well there we go but I think it didn't

only look oh wow what a year it was it was Haylorish heavy rain Mass Effect 2 oh yeah Red Dead oh no no so then yeah but I think it might have won PS3 game of the year but I don't know Galaxy 2 Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead all the same is my pick wow out of those really

Oh yeah oh man Galaxy 1 1 yeah yeah Yeah um Kai says does the game has a narrative structure such as in a telltale game where all branches eventually fold together in the end or does it spread out from beginning to end? Now I if I can jump in I think he means what I was talking about right where you started at one place with the telltale game you bow out and

then you always come back to the same ending right. Spoilers for fucking Milwaukee Dead season one, Lee is always going to die or be a zombieer but he's dead at the end of it right. I would say this doesn't do that. This does not do that. This does the flow chart and you pick up and keep going and you at no point does it say all right everybody come back this is how it's going to Your endings can be more. My ending was far different than what my roommate's ending was. I can't wait to hear your ending. And like the three different characters all had very different things happen to them.

Yeah. It was cool. Impressive, man. I wonder if we should do just a spoiler part at the end of this. You can leave if you don't have a ruin for you. Because I want to know, but I'd also know, what was the embargo? Are we allowed to talk about endings? You have to.

The PlayStation trophies are already. I'm totally willing to hangar. I don't mind. We're not going to do it right now. We won't do it on an ounce. We'll make a big deal if we do it. I'm going to pull a Getties. I'll be right back.

Oh, you got to pee, too many LaCrois. Stephen says, yeah, okay. So he says, Stephen says, did you feel like you compare the subject matter and themes to other media tackling similar stuff? For instance, did you think about Westworld or Blade Runner

when playing through and go, oh, they handled this better than Westworld or vice versa? Um, no, I didn't really think I, I mean, obviously Westworld is on the mind, right? Yeah,

because it's just kind of, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're watching right now. Yeah, yeah. I do think Westworld handles probably everything better, I feel. Like, just in terms of like how the... I don't know, that's a tough question. It is a weird...

I did think about Westworld, I think, just in terms of hosts and these Androids, but I really thought they did an awesome job in this game of crafting a world where, cool, this is what it is, and these are the real ramifications, and these are the unemployed people because of Androids, and here's why people are mad at Android's. Here's where it's set up. Here's what is happening. If Marcus is going to rebel,

here's what it means for everything. Here's how there's a realistic response, I feel, to what would happen. Yeah, I guess with Westworld, they serve one purpose and it's to entertain. It's to play a role.

To push them guts. Yeah, punch them guts. But in this world, they're everybody. They are employees. They are housekeepers. They are, you know, they're not just a theme park entertainer, you know, sort of thing.

So I do think, it's way different there. And I think that's another interesting wrinkle to how they use them is as I'm watching these Android's populate the earth and what they do with it, it was a very thing of like, wow, this really is the next step of Alexa where it's like if they did reveal, put out, you know, obviously not this advanced of a model right away. But like, gen 1 model of this, they'd be like, yeah, okay, cool. clean the house, walk Portillo, do that, you know what I mean? Like give it remedial jobs around the house,

like not send it off for like paint and all the stuff. Like we're not going to get there right away, but like, huh, that is an actually cool idea. Yeah, I think they did a great job with just crafting the city of Detroit and what it looks like and what poverty looks like and what being without a job looks like. You know, all that stuff, I think they, you could tell they put a lot of thought into it.

And I think that's one of the better parts of the game. And you're talking about that Alexa. I feel like almost like a puritanical, like minister on the prairie from a western yeah because angia and i have talked about i'm like i won't have it in my house yeah like it and it's not because i'm biased against artificial intelligence although i do think we don't give that nearly the gravity of thought we probably should but i i don't like i don't like it being there listening to me are you in a lexigai oh i love it yeah i got i got the i got the i got the amazon echo in the kitchen and then we have a dot in the bathroom i can't

i can't do it man yeah i don't want it in there it doesn't it's not listening like it's not doing that It is listening. No. It's absolutely listening. No, no, no, no. There's a great Reddit threat I'll send to you where it's an actual smart person who develops technology totally tearing it apart. I'm like, no, it is not listening to you all the time. You have to say the keyword because it only has this many megabytes so it can't do this.

So it can't store that. So it can't be listening. It listens for the key phrase. Here's a crazy moment. Last night or last week on Gamescast, we were talking about some fucking game. Kevin gets an ad for it on his phone. And Kevin has never looked up for It was Atlas

Yeah He's never once tried to look for an Atlas game And it popped up on his phone as an ad Okay that was not Alexa being creepy That was the Lord God bringing you the good news My friends No that was definitely That was Instagram listening

Atlas makes Great great great midget games And they are there to bring us all happiness Have we all heard Tim's story about like The Coffee Table The Light Up Coffee Table where he was like, oh man, that sounds really cool. And then he got an ad.

It was like, it's something like, take on my information. I don't care. No, no. I'm more annoyed that I went to look at a, I went to look at a trophy shop online a couple weeks ago, didn't buy anything. And now every one of those like widget ads is that trophy shop. I'm like, motherfucker, I'm not buying your trophy. Beyond paranoia, I talked about it. Listen, the real reason for me is I want more of a buffer in my life between my consumerism and my day-to-day living.

Because I feel like my phone has already stripped a layer. of the way I think about the world, a way that I'm not comfortable with. Sure. And I don't, I think Alexis is another step in that direction that as long as I'm able, I don't want to take.

See, for me, it's interesting, because I think it actually does the opposite, where it keeps me off my phone. Oh, yeah, yeah. For me, it's a superpower, super shortcut of I use Amazon

for just about everything anyway. So it is like, fuck, last parole of paper towels. Like, I'm in the middle of cooking a meal. I'm not going to break out my phone or get to my laptop or do anything. It is just,

oh, Alexa, reorder paper towels. I think it will take me away from my phone. but I think it'll take me even deeper. That's another layer closer to my life being absolutely absorbed in my consumerism. But you need paper towels. I'm not using it to be like, Alexa, look up a fungal pops. You need paper towels.

But the act of going and getting paper towels or even sitting down and purposefully ordering paper towels forces me to do things that I won't otherwise do. It forces me to think about how I'm spending the money, who I'm getting them from, who I'm going to meet on the way, where I'm going to go, what the weather. is like that day. You have a car. What I'm right, sir, I don't. I want my 24 paper towels and I don't want to get an Uber or a bus.

Yeah. I've had enough of you. Good day. I order. I order plenty of stuff. Good day. Yeah. Good day.

I said. Good day. So what is that? Why is that ringing in my head and I can't remember it now? I guess he's a lot, but I was thinking when Stephen Colbert did it when he called somebody and was like giving them a hard time or whatever. And he was asking the guy to say you sorry. And he's like, I'm not going to say you sorry.

Well, you just did. So thank you. Good day. And the guy's like, I didn't say sorry. He's like, good day, sir. That's from a movie. Final question comes for Paul, who says we often talk of Nintendo,

we often talk of a Nintendo Halo that may cause their games receive more favorable ratings than other studios due to nostalgia or other factors. Stopping you right there. If you put Halo on Nintendo, that would totally get good ratings. Do you think the reverse may be true for David Cage, especially in light of more recent allegations against him in Quantic Dream? I do, Mr. Jared Petty taking shots of David Cage before even played the game?

Yeah. Well, for me, I'm not going to get here caught up in the metatextual narrative around that because I am not deeply enough informed to speak intelligently about it here. I'm talking purely about the storytelling chops in the past where his way of making games is David Cage is not subtle. He's not a subtle storyteller, not consistently. He is very much, he's kind of what would happen if like Sherlock Holmes and Jerry Bruckheimer had a baby. It would come out looking like a David Cage game. And that's, it's weird and funny and strange. The stuff outside of that, I'm not afraid to talk about.

I'm just not as well researched as I should be here to answer that question. So when I make fun of Cage, I am talking about his video game making legacy, which is weird. Really weird. I do think this exists. I was talking to somebody else who I haven't mentioned the show because I know I've named a lot of names here. I was talking to somebody else who was playing Detroit for review. And the conversation was, man, I'm really. enjoying it and I really didn't want to because I don't like David Cage.

Huh. And it's like, damn. Like, yeah. And I don't, I should say playing. I don't think they were reviewing. And they definitely wouldn't let that influence their review if they did. But it was the thing of like, that's a real thing that like, you know, for how do you separate the art from the artist?

Can you? Should you? All these different arguments questions. No. I do think that based on the way David Cage has acted in interview, the allegations, the past games. Like, there's baggage that comes with him. The power of creators.

can affect how we consume our product. It doesn't always. We give some people passes. We do that individually. And we don't just get passes. We make judgments. We sit and go, no,

I'm only to trade this for this. I used to love watching football. I think I'm done with it after yesterday. Pro football. I think I'm just finished. And I'm not making a large political statement there. It's just I don't want to buy what those owners are selling, even though it's a quality product.

It's all over. It's the news. They put out a statement basically. saying that you can't, you can no longer not kneel during the anthem. Yeah. And they're free to make that decision, but I don't have to buy it. And I don't like that decision and enough that it's affecting the way I think about it. So I don't want to rant about that. But I think that when it comes to any product, when we know a lot about the creator or the creators, it can absolutely and legitimately affect the way we perceive the art. Yeah. I mean, I think about every time I read

Norse and Scott Card's story, I go, wow, this guy's a really good storyteller. And wow, how he sure is not someone, I feel very comfortable enjoying his work. H.P. Lovecraft, who was absolutely a maniacal horrible racist and wrote amazing horror. And he did both those things are true about him. He did both of them really well. That's how I want to put it. But I mean, it's like that guy was really racist. And it made it into his writing a lot.

And yet his horror defined a generation of storytelling. Both those things are true about him. If somebody says to me, I'm never reading Lovecraft again because he's a racist, I'm not going to sit there and go, well, you should. No, I get that. And there are certain people I won't touch because of it. I can't really speak to it just because I haven't been in the games industry like you guys have. Although in the one year, I'm heard of the number one game journalist. It's hard.

It's just, it was a wide open field you came and took it over. Rocket ship. Yeah, yeah. Rocket ship to the top of ice cap. Yeah, I can't really speak to it. I know that when I was in high school, I thought that Indigo Prophecy was one of the coolest games that ever played. Yeah. Just because it was this new idea, right?

This new sort of 24 TV show style, like multiple cameras showing you what's happening at the same time. And it's just weird. It starts off very weird where you wake up and you just kill the guy and you don't know how that happened. Right. Like, this is really, really intriguing sort of thread. And then heavy rain happened, and I really enjoyed that game, right? Didn't mess with Beyond Two Souls or whatever. But I just never really looked into David Cage as a person.

So I don't really, I can't speak to if he's been rude to people in interviews or, or the work environment stuff that's been going on recently. Yeah, I mean, to dial it back, I mean, even before toxic workplace shit, I think there was just, there was definitely rumors and definitely people in the industry shit talking the fact that he was just pompous That he just acted like his shit didn't stink and I'm talking about other developers I would talk to who are like oh that guy Like I don't mean it to be like yeah, yeah, yeah, he was fucking pushing old ladies in the street or something Kevin Kevin's over here pointing at my phone oh Are we putting the shack interview in this? Yeah I didn't know that awesome well you know speaking number one games journalists

We have an interview with the one and only shekela Neal of course Detroit become human Thumbs up everybody should go play it I should, yeah, I recommend you play it. I think what we might do is when we come back, when we take this break here to insert the shack thing, I want to look at the review embargo and see if we can do spoilers because I would love just to talk to you about what actually happened. Yeah, yeah.

We'll tag that. Again, if you're a listener or something, don't panic yet. There will be very clear, hey, we're going to spoil things. But for right now, let's check in with number one sports journalist, number one Twitch streamer, number one video game journalist. Yeah. Andy Cortez and the one and only, Shaquille O'Neal.

Hey, what's up guys, it's me, Andy Cortez, the number one games journalist in the whole world. We're here with the big Shaqdus, the big Aristotle. I knew you were number one. You knew you're all's number one, right? Yeah, I'm gonna get the vibe, right? No, I just know where you are. The Diesel, Superman, the, what else you got?

The Big Chambu. Shack Fu, the Reborn. Shack Fu, the Legend Reborn. We're here with Shaquille O'Neal, everybody, and we're really excited about this. We're here to talk about Shaq Fu, the Legend Reborn, the new video game, but first I'd like to go back to 1994. Shaq Fu had just come out.

you are dominating the NBA in your second year, averaging 21, 29 and 11 actually. 2911? 2911, yeah, 2.4 blocks. Pretty good for your second year, right? Yeah, pretty good. And it's 1994. Is that the height of celebrity where you are not only

killing it in the NBA, but you also have your own video game? It wasn't the height, but it was me starting to learn how to maximize my potential. And the crucial mistake I made with the first video game is I haven't a high. I haven't heard of the word digital yet. So everything I was still doing was analog. Because I used to play Sega games in college,

and there were the block figures and this and that. So I figured that was still the norm. And then I created Shaq Fu on the death of analog and the birth of digital. And I didn't know what digital was. And then that same year, it came out with all these different games and different graphics. And Shaq Fu got kind of lost in the rubble.

But he's back now. He's back. Just broke my sternum. How was this game pitched to you? The new game? The new game. Shack Fu Allegiant Report. A couple friends of mine said, hey, we need to read, do Shaq Fu.

One of the designers and gamers played it when he was a youngster. He thought it was a cool game. And he said, we want to bring it back. And for years, I was like, nah, nah, nah, I don't want to do it because having kids, you see different graphics, you see different technology. Technology, every time a new game comes out, I'm just amazed at what's going on. I didn't want to go through the same mistake, but he finally convinced me. It's been a couple of years in the making, and I think people would like to finish product.

Fantastic. So 1994, obviously, was a pretty big moment of celebrity for you. But now in 2018, not only do you have this new game coming out, you're also in this new Uncle Drew movie, and you are also one of the stars of probably my favorite basketball announcement. analysis shows, NBA on TNT. What sort of, how do you compare those levels of stardom? I don't compare them. I don't, I've never considered myself a superstar. Just a regular guy that works hard.

I listen to the powers around them. I have a Cynthia, I have a Lucille, I have Uncle Jerome, I have Uncle Mike. They keep me out of trouble. They guide me down the right path. And, you know, everything is great. And we always live by the simple slogan of, it could be worse.

Sure, sure. So there's a lot of guys in my position that when they get done playing, they don't have anything to do. So, you know, the fact that I'm still working and I still own things, I'm smart enough to do the right thing most of the time. It's very refreshing. But again, I have a panel that always makes me look good, but I never consider myself one of those big-time superstars.

Just a guy that listened, and, you know, people recognize me. What would you rather, what character would you rather play as? What character do you think is the best gaming athlete? Shaq and Shaq Fu, Legend Reborn, Bo Jackson and TechMobile, Michael Vic and Matt in 2004, or Michael Jordan in the 1994 Super Nintendo Classic, Chaos in the Windy City?

Well, Shaq Fu was a better game. Shaq Fu, clearly, right? Clearly, by far. Did you think that 0.4 second shot was going to go in against the Spurs? I'm a big Spurs fan, and you really kind of broke my heart that game? No, I was kind of,

kind of upset because Duncan was killing us all night, but I wasn't guarding him. So I told Phil, I got him. I was all over him. He hit that fallaway shot. It was incredible. It was a bullshit shot, but he hit it. I mean, I was all over him. I was saying to myself, he's not going to score on me. I was right in his face, and he threw it, and it went in. I was like, damn. Yeah. I ran around my house. I thought the game was overshed. Yeah, I did too. And then Phil called a play for Kobe.

I was the second option for Spinoflop. Yeah, they doubled them. and I wasn't open and then they left fish open and he got it and threw it in. And then that's what I said, one lucky shot begets another lucky shot. Yeah, exactly. I love the back and forth that you and Charles Barkley have on NBA on T&T. One thing, you're always sort of jabbing him, hey, I have rings, you don't. It's not a jab. It's a fact. It is a fact, correct. Yeah, absolutely.

But one thing that you don't bring up enough and I think is good ammo for your arsenal is that Shaq Fu is still talked about today, right? Not only because of the new game, but because of how it just has sort of this resonance amongst gamers. But nobody talks about Charles Barkley's Shut Up and Jam on the 1994, in 1994 on the Take of Genesis. Nobody talks about that video game. He had a game. I didn't know that until I Google it, Shaq. Yeah, I never know that either.

It's crazy, yeah. What was it called? Shut up and Jam? Shut up and Jam. Charles Barkley, shut up and jam. Nobody played it. And so I think you killed it because we're still talking about Shaq Boo, and he's not. Jam.

Yeah. You're also, you're a spokesperson for the general. What's he like? General is very, very cool guy. He's not that small. There's a lot of muscles. That's what I thought. Yeah, that's what I thought.

Yeah, that's a nice guy. Okay. Fantastic when I'm out, people ask you, where's the general? Like, I have no idea with a general, but you know, like he's a real guy. Oh, I thought, oh. Hey, where's the general? Well, I don't know. I thought it was just based off a real person.

Okay. Do you have any words of advice for me? for me. Well, I just hit 30 years old, Jack, but I still feel like I could come off a bench and play meaningful minutes in a playoff game. I still have this NBA fever dream. You know, I'm only like 6 foot 1 maybe. Maybe some people might say 5, 6. Give a take. Give a take. If you're dreaming about making an NBA, you need to wake up right now. Oh, okay. Wake up. Oh, man. All right. Well, wake up. Thank you, Shaq. I appreciate it, guys. It's not easy. I appreciate you, your words of advice. I'm still going to keep trying, though, because I still feel

like I got hustle. Thanks for watching, guys. Tune in. He's the number one guy. Number one games journalist. Greg Miller, Tim Getty's back to you, man. Wow, what a great interview.

Whoa. The funny thing is that the interview is great, obviously. But you did a morning show where you talked about all the shenanigans surrounding it. Yeah. So you go to YouTube.com slash kind of funny. Check all that out.

All right. Also, while we were cut away, we read the thing for what we are allowed to spoil, we cannot talk. Yeah. It's very clear. Like, please don't talk about all the endings at the end.

like, oh shit, okay, we shouldn't talk about all the endings at the end. We won't do that. So no spoiler cast for that. Not yet. Yeah, yeah, exactly. One day, though, we'll get to there for sure. Maybe. Yeah, when is the, when are we allowed to? Well, I think it just says, please don't spoil, like, you know, that for your, your, your, viewers, or you say readers, of course, because they're old people, they're old fogies like

Kevin. I like reading. Please don't. I'm young. I'm young. It's your birthday. Kevin, you turn 38 tomorrow. 38.

38. And you look 44, Kevin. To be honest. Oh, y'all shut up. Here we go. Yeah, I'm actually old. I mean, honestly, here's the thing. I feel like we could do it

because it'll be out. Oh, that's the hitch probably because it's Thursday still. The review embargo, everyone doesn't have the game. That's right. We should just say, games daily next week, we'll do it games daily.

Where you just come in and we cap it off that way. All right? Is that okay? Look how cool this looks. Oh, geez. Look how cool this looks. Because I spin it and when I push it down and I could.

Oh, wow. That is actually cool. I do like that. Well, Andy spins his phone. Let me tell you this episode. The Kind of Funny Gamescast is brought to you by Blue Apron. Ladies gentlemen, I don't even need the sheet to talk about it at all. You know why?

I love Blue Apron. Andy, do I love Blue Apron? He loves it. Kevin, I need you to go to Google and I need you to open Instagram.com slash Game Over, Gregie, and bring up last night's meal. I cooked with Blue Apron last night. What are you going to make me some shrimps, huh? Whenever you want to come back over.

You don't talk to me at work anymore. I did this seared steak with roasted potatoes and caper. Aoli. For some reason, didn't talk about the kale in there, but I put it in my Instagram post here. Here it is. Kevin's going to show the people watching. Ooh, yummy. I love Blue Apron.

You know, I have a cooking show. Cooking with Greggie, YouTube.com slash kind of funny. I do a bunch of different recipes. What I love about Blue Apron is it just makes it simple for me. That I get to come home. I got step-by-step instructions, pre-packaged ingredients. I get to cook. I don't have to think about it.

Because ahead of time, I plan my meal. Blue Apron offers 12 new recipes each week, and customers can pick two, three, or four recipes based on what fits their schedule best. I pick three. Jean-Vier of St. Aalange and myself, do it. It's a fun little thing.

I got the mobile app. I put it in there. Choose what I want. It shows up in 45 minutes. Bam. I got an amazing dinner. That looks great and tastes great. How's that garlic kale?

Good. Real good. Yeah. Yeah. It did it in a very interesting way that I've never done it before. And when Jen was eating it, we always like to eat our food

and then immediately critique it as we go. And so she was trying to guess what I did. She's like, oh, you blanched this and you did this. I'm like, no, what they have you do is, right, do the steak in the frying pan sear both sides pop the steak off

let it cool on the cutting board you got the fond of the steak still on the pan toss in the kale toss in the garlic toss in a little bit of this sherry vinegar then toss in a fourth cup of water

then cover it with aluminum foil then toss it around every few seconds not seconds but a minute or so or whatever for four minutes to get to the consistent salt and pepper it's amazing blue apron's amazing

I wonder how to cook everybody get out there Blue Apron offers 12 I already said the part go check out this week's menu you get your first three meals free with blue apron.com slash gamescast. That's blue apron. com slash gamescast,

Blue Apron, a better way to cook. Tell them Greg sent you. There's no way to say that, but you can do it. And the next sponsor is For Hems. For Hems.com is a one-stop shop for hair loss, skincare, sexual wellness for men.

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I'm using it, yeah. It was easy, right? Because you go there, you sign up, you send little photos of yourself. They put you in touch with a doctor. Doctor, they send you the stuff. Happen with that, within about less than a week, I'd say. Nice. And you've been using it.

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It's shipped to your door. order now. My listeners can get a trial month of Hymns for just $5 today right now while supplies last. See website for full details. This would cost hundreds if you went to a doctor or pharmacy. Go to forehems.com slash games hym. That's F-O-R-H-I-M-S dot com slash gamescast. Forham.com slash gamescast. Jared? Yes, sir. I feel like we've let the show run away with our Detroit stuff. That's okay. That's all right. No, it's not. I want to know what have you been playing. Well, I really missed you last week. Had a lot of fun with Andy and Kevin hearing about their

2018 games of the year so far. We talked about a couple of games we were playing then. I really enjoyed Walden, which I think is very interesting. And Walden kind of... What book is it based on? That's based on Walden by Henry David Thoreau. Okay. Life on the Pond or Life in the Woods, pardon me.

It's a really interesting experience. Talked about that. And that's what led into my next one I've been playing this week, which... So I discovered Walden through each and every weekday and kind of funny games daily. Right. We do a list of the games that are coming out today. Yeah. There's a very long name for that that I can't recite from memory.

You probably can't. Oh, no. That's why I have you guys say it. Yeah, so we have this list every day. And I encountered Walden the game through that while talking with him. I'm like, that's an odd name. And the developer reached out and suddenly was like, whoa, this is a really cool thing. We also have noted several times on Games Day LAM.

I was there when the Switch releases come out on Thursdays that Johnny Turbo's arcade. Yeah. Keeps releasing titles on Switch that we kind of mention and move on. And I started to wonder just who is Johnny Turbo. Thank you for asking that question, because I've been wondering myself. Well, I found out who Johnny Turbo is. Okay. Johnny Turbo, not just the mascot for marketing the Turbograph 16 in America in the early 1990s,

but also a completely different entity, a human being person who has created a number of emulated releases of old Data East arcade games on Switch. So these Johnny's Turbo Arcade games are actually old arcade games. machines with very good emulation done on the switch handheld in a format and some of these are games that haven't gotten too many wide releases in other packages before at least not in a long time and certainly not portably.

So I play two Johnny Turbo arcade games this week. One of those you may know as a bad dudes. Oh, bad dudes. That's right. Bad dudes versus Dragon Ninja, distinct for being to my knowledge the only major video game mentioned by Steve Martin in a motion picture. Which motion picture? That would be parenthood. where he mentions his boy is playing bad dudes.

It's like, well, I guess that's why they call them bad dudes. Is that the one where he has like 12 kids? No, that's a cheap brother doesn't. No, that's a cheap brother doesn't. Parenthood's the one where like they throw away the retainer and they got to dig it out of the Chuckie Cheese and stuff. Yeah, apparently it's actually a pretty good movie. If I remember it's been a long time to watch it.

It's got Bill S. Preston, I believe, in it. Does it? Well, it has, let's see. That's Bill is, but which one's Keanu? No, Ted. Ted Theater or Logan. I'm sorry, I get mixed up. Okay. It's got Keanu in it.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he's like the deadbeat boyfriend. He's like, we can record our love. Yeah, yeah, how old is it? It's old. Oh, shit, never mind. But it mentions bad dudes versus dragon ninja, which is a late 80s arcade brawler, and it is exactly as you remember it.

It's walking to the right and punching ninjas for many, many stages. Okay. It's a good emulation. It's interesting. I had a lot of fun. I played it on a train ride. You can, you know, you can pump as many quarters in as you want, which is kind of how bad dudes is made to be played anyway,

because there are parts that are absolutely designed to eat your quarters. But it was fun. It's a good implementation of an old game. He's not remaking the wheel here, but it looks good. It controls well. It's fun. It sounds good. I had a lot of fun with it.

So if you liked bad dudes and you want to team up with a friend or play it on the go, good way to do it. What if I've never played bad dudes? Should I have to go play badditch? Bad dudes is not a lost classic. No, it really is kind of a derivative brawler. It's kind of like a double dragon and Shinobes. had a baby. It's a must play if you want to understand memes on the internet. Yeah, like if you want to play that, exactly, the Ronald Reagan. Have you played it, Andy? No, I have not. Okay, yeah,

the only video game I can think of off the top of my head also that has Ronald Reagan at the end, uh, going out to have a hamburger with some bad dudes. Huh. Yeah, let's go get a burger dudes. You got to rescue Ronnie. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue Ronnie? No, I guarantee I'm not. Yeah, the Japanese name, bad dudes versus dragon ninja. Definitely my favorite. Okay. I think of Japan is just dragon ninja. The other game from Johnny Turbo's Ruehazard. that I sampled is Super Burger Time, a very rare arcade game, the sequel to, or one of the many sequels, because Burger Time has a weird, strangely convoluted family tree. It's like Detroit, where it's just like that.

Yeah, because you have Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory, and they have you the weird and television exclusive sequel, and then you have Super Burger Time. David Cage is not proud of this one. You guys ever have any Burger Time? Never. Yeah. Burger Time's fun. Yeah.

The original Burger Time is a ridiculously difficult, but very good, persistent. arcade games. So those games that like if you die, it's your fault and you're angry and you throw your controller and then you go back and you play again because if you can really master burger time, you've accomplished something. You've been like, whoa, I have poured way too many hours into being chased around a map by little eggs and weaners. Yeah, there's a there's dancing weeners. I've had a nickel. I get chased around by dancing wean all the time. Well, that's, I don't remember exactly the context, but I remember there was a video at IGN somebody made once. I was in it where they were talking.

about the nightmarishness of Burger Time, describing what they thought of the horror, the nightmare of being chased around by giant weaners, to what somebody wrote in the comments, not to be ironic, but for some of us, being chased by giant weeners is actually a good dream. Fair point.

Fair point. Yeah. So Burger Time's really good. Super Burger Times interesting. Had you played it before? Yeah, but only through emulation and ages ago. They can say it's interesting. There's some deep lore

No, because it's sort of a remake of Burger Time. It gives you way more weapon agency. There's a lot more enemies, but you also have the ability to hurt them more. It scrolls, which the original Burger Time didn't do. Burger Time's about making giant hamburgers, and it's all but chaining. That's what makes it fun. Yeah. To be bad at Burger Time, you die quickly.

To be mediocre at Burger Time, you can survive. To be good at Burger Time, you're learning to chain combos and crush enemies and build multipliers, and you can build these insane scores. So it's a kind of game you can get real. It's like pinball. You get really, really good at it if you practice a lot. Super Burger Time. Time has a lot of that in it, but it's a little more forgiving.

And it has continues. You can pump our quarters in. Sounds good. It's fun. Again, it's not like a lost classic, but it is a game that has not been widely available. Okay. And I like that Johnny Turbo's bringing in this out. I say, Johnny Turbo, well done.

There's some other games in that arcade. Those are the two I played this week from that. Sly Spy, which is kind of a neat little spy arcade games on there. They're eight bucks each. That's, that's, that's the hard part for, I mean, that's how much it costs, I believe, to make these games that have a chance of making money on them. Okay.

You know, you buy a big compilation disc, a video game, you know, 20 things from some publisher. They're varying quality. But these are games that folks were not putting a lot of time into or effort into before necessarily. And to have them on the go like this, that sounds like a boutique price, but I think it's about what it costs to make this happen.

Okay. And so I say, go Johnny Turbo. I'm looking forward to see what he has available next. Super very good time. or Taco Master. Super Burger Time doesn't have platinum. Yeah, there's that too. Super Burger Time's fun.

I think I prefer original Burger Time still because it's so difficult, but Super Burger Time you can certainly play longer. Now you have to be thinking about sushi strikers. Yeah, come on. I don't know anything about that. What's that? Sushi Strikers?

Don't know anything about it. I'll show it to you when we get it. Sushi Strikers is up, I think, right now, actually. Yeah, Swiss Trakers is neat looking. I really think that's radical. So I hope I didn't rant too long about that. You didn't.

I invited you to. I invited the rant. You got one final game. Yeah, I mean, as always, there's been Red Dead because I play there for Red Dead radio every week. And I am a slave of desert golfing. So, of course, must continue on through that rapidly approaching 2,000 holes. Jesus Christ. So getting on my way there.

But the other game I really enjoyed is Indy Creates Bloodstained. You just got this last night. You've already played a lot. Yeah, I played quite, I mean, not like hours and hours, but I got as much in as I could before I realized, I need to sleep. Yeah. It's really fun. Have I there of you guys? I haven't.

Pre-ordered bloodstained? I haven't preordered it, but I told you I got a code. I was playing, I played the first level last night. And I was like, okay, I see what you're doing here. It seems for me, someone who doesn't have that affinity for 8-bit games and remembers trying Castlevania people's houses and just being like, man, this is too heavy and I'm dying all the time. It seems like, it reminds me of kind of Axiom Verge and the thing of like, oh, wow,

this is clearly inspired by, you know, obviously Super Metroid for Axi and Verge. It's inspired by Castlevania and it's approachable for me. Same thing of a shovel night, right? of like this is approachable in a way that has modern tendencies to a classic idea. It does. It feels like it has that kind of that learning curve built in a little bit, that the earlier Castlevania's didn't as much. Later, Castlevania's got easier, but the 8-by Castlevians are just viciously difficult.

The first and third, especially two is not too bad. And this one kind of eases you in more, which I really like. It's a really smart, you know, people hear me talk about old games a lot. Most old games are bad. Just like, there are tons of... Thank you for finally saying it. Yeah, tons of old games. Old games are awful.

The ones I talk about it are the good ones. The Castavina one and Castavina three are both bona fide masterpieces. This one draws from the best parts of those and then adds to it modern game design, which is what they did. Inti creates did Mega Man 9. Yeah. That's what they did do. They're doing, man.

They're a talented group. They did great stuff. And Mega Man 9, my favorite Mega Man. That's right. I like it more than 2. Okay. You like it more than X? Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I like X, but I like 2, 3, 9, and 10 more. I'm dying of thirst. I'm going to go get some LeCrois. You should get some of LeCroy. Can you bring me another place? I'm going. I'm going to bring it for the group. All right. Group of McCroy coming. Do you have any interest in this thing, Andy? Have you seen it yet?

I did see that, I saw them when they were here, actually, and they were showing us the very limited NES color palette. Yeah. Which is really cool. Similar to what Shelvin N. I did where it's like, we're trying to, we're trying to be as, like, authentic with this as possible. Yeah, Shelfenai created, like, they cheated a lot, but they gave you that vibe. They get that feel. Indy creates really does seem to have kind of doubled down. Like, if we had... Is it 4-3 ratio?

No, no. It's white screen. Okay. And, I mean, it does a lot of flubs and floges. There's some stuff in there that's definitely cheated on. But it creates that vibe of the legitimate game. And it feels very specifically like a game crafted around Konami's proprietary VRC6 chip, the one that was used in Castlevania 3 in Japan.

It's got this kind of neat color palette, this cool parallax scrolling effects and background things. it feels like just right there at the end when NES games and Famicom games were just blurring the line to 16 bit but still have these kind of glaring things they just couldn't do. They embrace that and they make the game feel that way. There's not a lot of enemies on screen at once most of the time

but what's there looks really good. The art direction's superb. The weapon design is great. Multiple characters and as soon as you start playing through you see stuff you're like, I can't get in there. I can't get up there. I can't go through this thing. I just burst a wall but I can't go under.

What's because there's multiple characters and you play through the game, you pick them up, and you go back and play through earlier levels. And suddenly there's new pathways available and new stuff to find. And I'm not done with it by a long shot, but my initial impressions are very cool. It is, obviously, there's been some talk about the fact

that didn't get out on all platforms as quickly as they wanted for people who had ordered it already in Kickstarter. I was a backer like that. They did the best they could by releasing Steam keys for those people to give them time to play until it came out across all platforms.

I was playing on Steam right now. Sounds like that mighty number nine problem. Yeah, and I, yeah, not going to touch out with a 10-foot-full. All right, so that's me talking about an old game for a long time. I don't know, Greg, are you going to play it anymore, do you think? Eventually, there's so much stuff coming and stacking up on Switch right now for me that I'm excited about west of Loathings right there. Sushi Strikers is right around the corner.

Everything will stop for Mario Tennis Aces. The demo's out right now, right, for Tennis Aces? Oh, is it? I thought I saw some people in the morning show chat. Yeah. I have not turned on my switch in a long time. Really? Yeah.

Missing up, man. Because, you know, Kevin, I don't know if you've been keeping up on the thing. We're dancing around here on what we've been playing. The names are there, obviously, but we've been dancing around. It has been keeping up. I've been taking notes for you.

I can update you after the fact. I'm being better than Tim is what I'm saying. I'm pointing out than I'm better than Tim, right, Kevin? Kevin, do you hear me the same? I'm better than Tim. Yeah, I think I'm keeping up. up, but thank you for keeping notes.

I got notes for you, baby. What I want to say then for me, I'm going to jump around and throw to the front garage. I talked about that when I got it. The zombie game or zombie fight humans, Hotline Miami mixed up with survival horror, whatever. Oh, right. You saw this at a GDC.

Yeah, and it came out and I started playing. I got it and started it like the night before the last game castos on, then went away. It's the first switch game in a while, and this is not meant to be a knock against Switchall because everybody knows I love my switch but it's the first game in a while where I've been like man I'm so into this pop in the dock and actually play it on the TV rather than get home and be like well I need I want to play whatever else on my PlayStation so or like I want to do this on Xbox so I'll do

get this later it's been like oh fuck I actually want to play this it's fun it is hotline mammy zombies you know what I mean which is like good for and it's like it's incredibly indie you know I mean it's from it's published by tiny build there's a different developer working out I forget their name off my head but like I was at this one tough part trying to figure out what to do. And Jen was in the other room. She's like, the sound effects are awful. Because it's like, ugh, it's like the same like can dying and noise. But like, it's charming in that respect. And it's small and it's easy. Not easy. It's small and it's simple. That's everything I need in life is what you're describing. Yeah. Get a shotgun and go shoot some fucking zombies. And like

the checkpoints are plentiful enough that I feel like encouraged to fuck around when I play it rather than like, I want to save my ammo. I want to do this. I'll go do this. And they do a couple weird things like drugs that are like you know you can see through walls at certain how's the music it's all right it's fine it's not like no it's not it's not it's not like how i may me on that or do you think it's very much a it's trying to do a lot of those things not doing them as well but doing it in a way that i keep wanting to play it but i keep coming back to it right and i've jumped around and i have a whole bunch of things on the switch that i've been jumping between but like that's the one i actually put time into and do but i just downloaded a couple other things i keep carrying the switch with

me because i feel like every day some other game that i want it on the switch is finally come to the switch and now I got to get there. However, I was gone at Judges Week. Those embargoes, of course, for games I saw before E3, most of them lift the week of E3. So I'll probably do another video. It's like the five best things I saw before even three, E3 even started. But the PlayStation embargoes are all up from the PlayStation event there. So first and foremost, played Days Gone. I'm super in. Like it, I think, I wouldn't say, I never would have told you I had no excitement for Days Gone, but it was that thing of, is it just another, A million zombies run at me.

I mean, I know it's Sony Bend who I like. I know that it's Sam Whitore who's friend of the show. Like, there's a million reasons on paper you should like it. It's weird. I just feel like everything's, this game has been set up with so many things opposing it for some, for no real reason. No, the real reason is the fact that, oh man, it looks like last of us, right? Oh, there's zombies.

You know what I mean? Like, that's the reason I think people are, can Sony have two zombie games? What's going on with this? I think that's been the biggest thing. And I think it hasn't, I, I, even playing. it was my big thing. And when we talked about it, Andrea and I on Games Daily, somebody wrote in and was like, well, do you agree with the people who are saying it's the people who haven't played it, the audience is saying, hey, man, this reminds us so much the last of us. And then people are playing it and saying it doesn't remind us the last of us.

Yes, that's how me and Andrew both felt. And for me, and I think this is the biggest compliment I can pay the game. For me, the game it reminds me of is Red Dead Red Dead redemption. Because for me, it was like, Like, all right, start the game. Dropped into beautiful Oregon. And it's like dark and like, but I'm in the woods and all the stuff. I'm at a camp. It's like somebody else's camp. I talked to this woman who wants me to go get zombie ears, whatever.

But then I did a thing where I just wandered her on camp and looked at other people. I mean freakers. Sorry, my apologies, freakers. Thanks. And saw their names pop up and saw, and it was that thing of, I think I was expecting NPCs on the level of an infamous game where they start repeating. And like, no one repeated in this camp. everyone looked like they were there with a purpose.

They were there with a reason. They were there with a backstory. And then to get on the bike and ride out into the open world and be like, wow, so much cool shit is happening here that isn't the story. Right. I went and I did the story mission, which was go over here,

do this thing, bring up the thing for this guy. But then, you know, I got the gas for my motorcycle and you know what? I'm going to ride in this direction. Like I didn't read Dead the first time I played Red Dead. I'm going to ride in this direction.

Just took off the opposite direction of the objective. It was going. And as I'm driving, I see something I stop and it was a trip wire across the road. And so I went over there and like it pops up like you want to cut the wire and I cut the wire and sure enough two dudes run out with guns and I get into a gunfight with them, right, kill them, loot their supplies, get on my bike. And then I was like, well now I want to go up that hill.

Just went up that hill and got up there and there was two other guys up there with their backs to me when I got up there. I was like, oh fuck. And I started shooting them. They started shooting me. But what they were doing was they were spying on the horde down there. And so the hoard heard the gunshots and now they were all running up here to get me. And they started getting there. I shot them for a while and there's too many.

Jumped on my motorcycle. And then I was like, you know what? Let's just fuck around their logic. Drove around them kind of hurting the horde and like going a little bit and having them chase me and seeing. And sure enough, yeah, I could totally lead these guys doing an enemy encampment if I wanted. Like you just give them a little bit of time and go. And it was just like the thing I keep saying about it is the world feels so lived in. The world feels like it's telling me stories and that it doesn't revolve around me, which is what I want.

When I stopped in a, I was trying to find more gas. So I, which I, this is my one thing. I was like, I don't know it. I was put a pin in that one. I was trying to find more gas and I drove through a tunnel. Got out and I went into like, you know, this door, went in another door, open this thing. And I'm just going and random places looking around for stuff.

Open one like door that's in this tunnel or this office in a tunnel. And there's a guy who hanged himself. And it was just like, oh, like there's no reason. And maybe there will be later on or something. But like there's no reason for me to come in here so far. The game would tell me. It's just something they put there to be like, hey, this guy's story. here. There was a game that happened here. Environmental storytelling.

That's one of my favorite things in video games. There's an old NES game called Gimmick. There's this boat you're supposed to get on. And if you run past this late-bit platform or if you run past the boat, it scrolls over and there's this beautiful like seashore with birds flying off the distance. And all the art there is pretty much just drawn for that one little moment because somebody thought maybe you'd want to stand here and watch the birds. And that in an era when that didn't happen, that jumps out so much.

The fact that somebody's just like, this closet shouldn't be empty. So what would be in it that makes sense? And it's going to speak to somebody. That's really, really cool. I couldn't, I was not particularly interested in it. You made the Red Dead comparison and I turned into a GM soldier and went like, bleep. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Exclamation point over my head now.

Yeah, and I mean, it won't be, you know, founded by then, but, or I mean, it'll be unfounded opinion. But yeah, it's just, it, what it did, pulling the pin back out of the thing from Waga, right, is that for me, I think it's one of the reasons I'm not feeling. than state of decay 2. And state of decay 2 is so much just stated decay 1 again. And Days Gone is borrowing

the elements I really like from state of decay but putting it into an open world, beautiful, you know, story driven game. Whereas like, yeah,

I don't mind getting gas for my bike or like, yeah, my bike's gonna break down. I'm gonna need to go get supplies to fix it. That's cool, right? And then like state of decay is all the time.

Oh, these motherfuckers ate food or they stole my supplies. And it's like, how's that motion blur? On days gone. Yeah. It's there. Cool.

There's motion happening. So, yeah. But I don't know. It's just, I was more impressed with days gone than I thought I'd be. I feel like the way that you're describing sort of hurting this zombie horde and having all these systems with the environment. Like, it seems like sort of a, a Breath of the Wildish playground where in Breath of the Wild, Wild, you could play with the weather.

Like, is there anything like that where you can sort of just craft your own thing with You know, and we see all these crazy videos with people doing hilarious shit with Bacoblins and stuff. Sure, sure, sure. Like, it seems like there might be something like that. Maybe. I mean, I didn't get that deep into it to know if that's an actual possibility.

You know what I mean? It was pretty clear like shotgun. I'm using them on these guys with that. Yeah. You know, the bike, you know, they didn't stop my demo, but the guys from Bend over there know me, obviously. So they came over like, in case it's not clear, like, you're on the worst bike. This is the starter bike. This is, you know, you'll get a better because it was

like not going super fast, but I was still taking it off sweet jump. Hell yeah, dude. I'm just hoping they embrace the opportunity to have you get the best bike climb on and then Bon Jovi's like steel horse starts playing. Hell, yeah. I'm picturing you like taking zombie hordes to any enemy encampments similar to in Breath of the Wild where you have like the, you see those clips of the big moblin fighting

the guardians, right? Yeah. Like you sort of lead them together. Then you just sort of watch this fight ensue and you see what the airs. AI does to each other. Totally. Totally. Yeah.

I totally see myself doing that with, yeah, there's a bunch of bad guys over there. Why not? Go kick this bees nest and bring them over with them.

Yeah. That's cool. I think bees live in a hive too, by the way. Played a bunch of other stuff there. I've talked about it here and there. I play that Astrobot rescue mission. They had a bunch of PlayStation VR stuff.

These are the little robots from the PlayLink, VR demo kit or whatever. Remember the guys who came in your controller and you threw them around? Playroom. That's what I'm talking about it. Not just VR. It's a platform. with them. It's very cute. Gave me

the Moss vibe in terms of like, cool, it's a platformer with traditional controls that I'm controlling the little guy with the cape but then also like lean your head and look left. You're the fly in the wall sort of observing like, well, not even that. It's just like having to lean into a regular video game level and look around to figure out where to go on how to get stuff

like that. It seemed fun. It seems like to be a good platinum. Played more firewall, zero hour. Our game from PSX. It was a new build. It looked way better. Like I mean, graphically looked way better. Had a way better interface. And I think the biggest, or not even the coolest thing for us. I think to people who at PSX saw this is, of course, is the PlayStation VR,

4V4, a rainbow six thing where you're all in it with guns. When we got there, a bunch of the other judges are like, we're the PlayStation guy, like, what should we see? And I was like, this, that, and that's cool. And so, like, people came back from that one and were like, holy shit, that was awesome. And people who I don't think usually play PlayStation VR. Like, man, firewall actually was really rad.

So that's exciting. I want to see more of that. That's good. That's awesome. Blood and truth was there. It was a new level as well. That's the one I always talk about. but where I threw back the grenade in VR.

It was like a Guy Ritchie film, like Snatch or whatever. This was a less impressive demo. This was more of just shooting and stuff, but it was fun. They had creed there, boxing game looked not good. Oh, yeah. Heard about that. Yeah, it's out. It just looked like, it looked like the latest Mike Tyson boxing one for Wii U or whatever.

Like that kind of graphic style, but then in VR, I was like, you can't have Creed fight Rocky. I didn't, not that I could see. Maybe eventually, you know what I mean? Dreams was there, but it was the PSX demo. We got to use our hand. We got to play it. We can't use our hands.

we got to play it hands on but it's like a game for a baby it was you gotta use your hands that's a baby's toy but it was more dreams and I'm still interested and excited to see where that one ends up

thanks for correcting the quote you have no problem I know where you're on Elijah would Back to the Future 2 that's right it went that went over my head the weakest point in the trilogy

I'm sorry remember we went to go see it what's that you say back to future 2 is the weakest part of the trilogy yeah dude back to the future 3 is not a good back to the future 3 is

is hardly stalwart. Hardly a stalwart Russian picture but Back the Future 2 is worse. Never seen any of them Kev. You've seen the first half.

You've definitely seen the first half. We left. You've seen the first half of back to you. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been the kind of funny

games cast episode 172. Thank you so much for joining us. By the time you get this, this will be old information but it is breaking

for us right now while we were recording this total biscuit passed away. I know a polarizing figure in the game's landscape, but it was always very, very good to kind of funny. It was in our Twitch chat quite a bit. Had me on the show more than once. It was just a good friend.

So, of course, rest and peace to him. And everybody would be better to each other, obviously. I know that's a tired Greg Miller saying, but it plays on every side of it right here. So until next time, no, we love you.