Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Does Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty Still Hold Up? - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 88

Episode Date: September 1, 2021

Go to http://betterhelp.com/kindafunny and take care of yourself. Go to http://purple.com/kindafunny10 and use promo code kindafunny10 for 10% off any order of $200 or more! Go to http://upstart.com/KINDAFUNNY to find out how Upstart can lower your monthly payments today! Go to http://fitbod.me/kfgames to get 25% off your membership. We give our thoughts on Psychonauts 2, No More Heroes 3, and discuss Barrett's first ever playthrough of MGS2. Time Stamps: 00:00:00 - Start 00:06:00 - Blessing’s No Good Very Bad Month 00:18:46 - Psychonauts 2 00:58:31 - Metal Gear Solid 2 Follow The Kinda Funny Team On Twitter: Tim Gettys: https://twitter.com/TimGettys Andy Cortez: https://twitter.com/TheAndyCortez Blessing Adeoye: https://twitter.com/BlessingJr Barrett Courtney: https://twitter.com/SadBoyBarrett Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp Online Therapy. Without a healthy mind, being happy is hard. Visit BetterHelp.com slash Kind of Funny and see if online therapy is for you. What's up and welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast. As always, I'm Tim Getty's joined by the new face of video games. Blessing at Ayo, Jr. What's good, Tim. I'm very excited to have you here today, blessed to talk about video games.

Yeah, yeah. And joining us for one of his rare on-camera appearances of the Kind of Funny Games cast, It is the sad boy himself, Barrett Courtney. Hello. Sorry, I had myself muted in OBS as well. Yeah, I had to do your best Kevin impression there. I appreciate it. And joining us as well, just not visually, is the one, the only,

Nitro rifle, Andy Cortez. I wish I had a reverb on my voice for when Barrett was like looking up as if the gods are speaking. I'm here, everyone. I'm among you. There was some issues happening with Internet and Discord that are affecting Andy and not Barrett, even though they're in the same house. But you know what? That's the internet sometimes. Nothing ever makes freaking sense. So Andy is with us. Just not, not visually. So you're going,

I need everybody to go pull up. If you're watching this on YouTube, pull up an image of Andy on the side. I just have it there the whole time just so you can like really get the full effect. You know what I have. I have my favorite Andy picture up right now. So print it out on your on your Wi-Fi Hewlett Packard desk jet printer. Just a little small photo. It doesn't need any to be bigger than, you know, five by five. So I'm like, like that. Just have it up on the side, you know. It's definitely not a games cast without Andy's appearance and Andy's hair just gracing the screen. By the way, Andy, do you have, I know in our intro we have like our different

like character associations like I'm Sonic. Tim is, who are you Tim? Are you the cloud? Is that you? Well, Zach technically. Zach, okay. Ash from Pokemon. Gotcha. And crash as well. Do you have a character? I don't. When are we going to make that happen? I don't I I worry about the curse I think I didn't care about the curse until more and more people started talking about it and it became more and more real I drew Jared he left I do Fran he left I drew Andrea she left

and I am kind of worried about the curse so like if I draw myself I give it two weeks and I'll be working at Spartan final bagging groceries like I don't know what's happening I'll be back in groceries I'll be Uber eating somewhere I'll be back at Best Buy I don't know bless I'm scared or are you working at somewhere bigger because like I think you're you're under wrestling estimating the fact that when all these people left, they're leaving for bigger and greater things. No offense to kind of funny. It is what it is.

But like it is what it is, right? Like, Amron's getting that fan bite money. You know what I mean? John Tonyos. For Google saying it to like this could be you leaving for the Lakers. Oh man. This could be the break. All right.

I'm starting to now. I'm working on the art now. You're going to be. Is it a surprise? I don't know, actually. Yeah, that's a good. That's a good question. Make yourself the drifter from hyperlight drifter.

I want you to be zero from Mega Bad X. Oh, man. Either, yeah, like zero or... It could be a hunter from Bloodbourne. Yeah, Hunter from Bloodbourne. A lot of good options. I'm thinking Arturius from Bloods. Arturius from Dark Souls.

Bless, I can make you the Hunter from Bloods. Is there a way I could sub out my Sonic character? Because, like, listen, I love Sonic. But seeing myself as Sonic in the intro every single week has been doing something to me mentally. But I don't appreciate it. You did it to yourself, though. I didn't realize what I was doing

when I answered, because that came from Greg when I was still an up-and-comer and didn't realize that I was working for kind of funny. Greg asked me the question, either on Gamescast or on what was it, we have cool friends. I think it was Gamescast actually where Greg or you Tim asked me,

like what would my character be for the games cast intro? To which my immediate answer was, in fact, I don't even know if it was media. I think I had to think about it for a second, but in the moment, trying to figure out an answer, I think I just said Sonic the Hedgehog

because I love Sonic the Hedgehog. If I knew that that would become a reality, I don't know if I would have said Sonic the Hedgehog. You're a little too hasty there in answering that question, you know. Well, he had to go fast. And he did. I think at the time we had a bunch of different variations, Tim. Correct me if I'm wrong.

But like, we have you as as Crash as well. Crash, Ash, and Zach. And Zach, that's right. But like in the intro, didn't that all just get replaced by just one person is one? Over time. Over time. more people and we shortened the used to have a whole different theme song because i drew fran as leon kennedy yeah in in r e4 and samis i drew fran as samis i drew andrea as shepherd and i think

something else and i think jared petty i drew him only as mar i don't know it's it's been it's been a toured history it's been a long history there's been a lot and stay tuned here to the kind of funny games cast to see what it ends up changing into and when andy will join the los angeles lakers but this is the kind of funny games cast where each and every week we get together to talk about video games and all the things that we love about them or in the case of blessing ed area junior who's having a no good very bad video game month the things he doesn't love about them uh but you can get the show like i said on youtube.com slash kind of funny games or roosterteeth.com you can also get it on podcast services just search your favorite podcast service for kind of funny games cast and we'll be right there for you

if you want to get the show ad free if you want to watch it live as we record it you You can do just that and get the exclusive post show by going to patreon.com slash kind of funny games just like our Patreon producers. Omega Buster, Tyler Ross, Delaney twinning, Julian the gluten-free gamer, James Hastings, Casey Andrew Elliott, and Tom Bach have all done. We appreciate you all very much and you won't have to listen to ads later for Upstart, Purple and FitBod. But now that we're here, Blessing, I want you to tell me all about Blessings No Good, Very Bad Video Game Month. Well, Tim, it all starts with Blessing Superfund Games Calendar 2021, because the big kickoff for the calendar was supposed to be August. August was supposed to be the month of legends, as some would call it.

Is that because the hit video game, Hunter's Arena Legends, came out this month? That's one of the reasons. The other reasons were I had games that I was really looking forward to, Tim. Games like 12 minutes. Games like No More Heroes 3, did both of those games disappoint me? Yes, some more than others. I talked about it a few weeks ago on the 12 minutes review.

I do not like 12 minutes. I really wanted to love that game. That was, if you remember, on the Blessing Super Fun Games calendar, that game had the hype seal of approval, which very few games do. If you look through the calendar, games like Death Loop have it, games like Key and a Bridge of Spirits have it,

Games like Ryder's Republic has it. Forrestor Horizon 5. Another example, another example. Games that, well, no, I like Riders Republic. I think Riders'Public is good. Oh, it was Mike that was down on it. But games that we know are going to be hits, right? Games that we know are going to be masterpieces, if not near masterpieces.

Twelve minutes came out, played it, and I absolutely did not like that game. It had so many issues, so many, I think there are so many flaws with it. I know, like, that game overall in terms of its critical reception, it's been split two ways. Either you love it or you hate it. I'm very much on the hate it camp. But then another game, I got the code for No More Heroes 3, another game that I was looking forward to a lot. Because here's the thing.

Here's the thing, last. You can't say, oh, I got the code for this game. No, you have been begging for No More Heroes 3 to be a video game for years. You love this franchise. So this is like an ultimate letdown. Yeah, it's a let down an interesting way, though, because I'm not mad at No More Heroes 3. I think it didn't live up to my full expectations, no, but I think there's enough there

that is good enough to where, like, I'm happy I played it, but I'm still sad that it's not everything that I wanted to be. And so, like, yeah, no, No More Heroes 3 is a game that I've wanted forever because No More Heroes 1 came out in like 07. No More Heroes 2 came out in like, I think either 2010 or 2011. It's been about a decade since the previous No More Heroes game. And so getting my hands on No More Heroes 3 is that thing of, oh shit, here we go. Like, we have our Slack where we talk about like code distribution and who's looking for what codes. And I think it was Greg who put in the thing of like, hey, we got No More Heroes 3 codes coming in. Who like, who here's the No More Heroes 3 squad. And I was the one being like, oh, let's fucking go. it's happening. I was hyped in that slack. But I started that game and I was like, all right, like, I don't know, I don't know how I feel about this thing. Off the bat, I think that game has such a good opening. The first like three-ish hours of that game are so strong. But for me, the place where it starts to falter, weirdly enough is where the game starts to open up. You know, like it starts off in the linear path. You remember the first trailer we got for No More Heroes 3,

where you got the cut scene where it is Damon and he's, hanging out with this ET looking alien. And it's this cute thing. It's an animated sequence. The alien leaves and he comes back as this stone cold killer alien who's here to dominate the earth. That same thing plays out in the game with the exact same animated cutscene. And then that then flows into a lot of guided cutscenes that are all really cool, that

all really hold that suit of 51 attitude. We talked a lot about it on KFCD this week about suit 51 and his game style and who he is his developer. All that stuff still holds so well. No More Heroes 3, but it's when the game opens up, it feels like that game ran out of budget out of nowhere. Like, you know, it starts off linear. It gets into the thing of, all right, cool, we're throwing you into the open world where

you're going to go around, you're going to do your designated matches, which are basically fights that you do in order to qualify and raise money for the next fight in your lineup, because the whole premise of No More Heroes is that you're fighting your way up through the ranks. Okay. And so you have like, you have the top 10 assassins, quote, quote, quote, in the world. and Travis touchdown is starting from 11 and it's trying to get all the way up to one.

And so like the game puts you in the open world, you go through, do your designated matches. You do random jobs like in the first game, you would mow grass and shit. You would like... Coconuts, man. Infamous coconuts. Collect coconuts out of trees.

It was a lot of mundane shit. But like that was kind of the charm of it is that like it's mundane for this game where you're playing as a killer with a beam katana. And so like that that's kind of the whole bit. And No More Heroes one, they had that stuff. No More Heroes 2, they thin that stuff out and replace the open world and a lot of those jobs with 8-bit minigames, which I really liked and I thought really handled

that in between boss fight run up pretty well. No More Heroes 3 added back in the filler from No More Heroes 1, which is like my first complaint is the filler stuff from Nomer Heroes 1 I didn't like and thought was unnecessary. Not only did they add that stuff in, they removed the lead-up to the fights for the boss fights. And so like, Norma Heroes 1 and 2 were very boss focused where like I said, you have the 10 ranked assassins that are you taking out. Each of those is a huge boss fight that is really fun because each of the different bosses have a different story to them. They have a different gimmick to them. Like I compare it to something like Middle Gear Solid where, you know, we're going to talk about Middle Gear Solid too later today. But like you look at Dead Cell, you look at the crews from

Miller's Solid 1, right? And you have these cool bosses that have personality. You have cyber You have fortune. You have VAM. No More Heroes as a franchise does a similar thing where you have bad girl. You have like you have X, Y and Z character and they all have fun gimmicks and fun stories to them. With that, you have the lead up to those bosses usually where you're fighting through waves of enemies in order to get to the boss. And that kind of feeds into the like the story of where you're at like leading into the boss who the boss is. It gives it gives that lead up to the boss time to breathe. They took that out. And so in No More Heroes 3, you're thrown into the filler open world sections. You do that stuff for about 30 minutes and then you're thrown into a boss fight. And in this game, the boss fights are way easier than the boss fights in Domor Heroes 1 and 2, which means that you're taking out that boss fight in like five to 10 minutes and it's back to more open world filler. And I do not like that set up for this game. And like, you know, that is probably my main qualm with it. There are also things in terms of out of the game runs. Like the game for a switch game doesn't run amazingly once you especially get into the open world areas. The driving isn't great. The driving in the game is probably as bad, if not worse than the driving in No More Heroes 1. Don't say that. The dude, it is. It is so it is so bad. The open world tasks just aren't fun and they weren't fun in No More Heroes 1. The frame rate, you know, takes a dip at times. The game just doesn't look pretty. I was going back and forth

between this game and No More Heroes 2. And at times, I'd say No More Heroes 2 does have more style than this game, which is so wild, because again, that's a game that came out about a decade ago. And then also the combat in this game is good, but I wouldn't say it's great. They add in a few more elements for special abilities. But I also feel like they took away quite a bit in terms of like the weightiness of No More Heroes 2. I really liked the weightiness that was there. Some of the UI elements and No More Heroes 2, I preferred as well.

they did the thing too where you had a health bar that was the same as your lock on. And so as you would chip away an enemy, the lock on would deplete. And I thought that was a cool stylish way to do it. They just straight have add health bars back into this game, which, you know, like isn't the biggest thing. But it's just in, in terms of the style of No More Heroes, for me, it was, I don't understand why they went this direction with it. And then also, like, in terms of the character animations, like there are things like

in Normal Heroes 2 when you would get your, your killing blow on an enemy, Travis would do like a fun twirl with his katana beam before he hits the final blow and stuff like that isn't in no more heroes three like it it feels like playing this game is like playing normal heroes 1.5 and a lot of elements where they regress to going back to normal heroes one stuff which i'm sure a certain sect of the audience probably likes but for me is overall a regression now all that said the style is there there are some really cool story moments in no more heroes three there are some characters um some returning characters that I don't totally love how they were treated. Like certain characters, they're like, cool, let's remind you that this person exists and then

take them out of commission for the rest of the game. They do stuff like that. That for me was a bummer, but that said, they added new characters that I really liked. There's some stuff that they piggyback off of from Travis Rex again, No More Heroes, which was the side game that came out on the Switch after No More Heroes 2. This game is basically a sequel to that game. and this game actually made me enjoy a lot of the story elements introduced in that game.

That game originally I just wasn't really that big of a fan of, but I think No More Heroes 3, coming off of that one, did a really good job of actually making a lot of that shit hype. And so I appreciated that. They added in a roulette wheel. So if you lose a fight, every time you lose a fight or every time you die in the game,

you have like a roulette spin that gives you like a random bonus for the next time you're going in. And so it might be, all right, cool, you died, you just got a 1.5 multiplier for your damage buff in this game. Or, you know, you go back, but all of your roles for when you do your combos end up on some kind of like bonus ability. You know, it's that kind of thing that shakes things up in a very interesting way.

Also makes it easier, but, you know, I like it as an interesting idea. And I did have fun with the roulette spins. But yeah, overall, go for it. So it seems like you didn't love sort of the open world bloat. Had they removed that, had they found a way to balance that better? Is it just maybe an issue of the game's length? Aside from the other issues you just mentioned, could it have been better in a more sort of concise package?

Yes. I think this game, so it took me about 20 hours, probably less actually, maybe like 15 hours to beat this game. if they took away the open world blow, it probably would have been about seven hours-ish. And I assume that for them, if they took out the blow, it would be boss fight to boss fight to boss fight,

which would make the game a little bit more monotonous and structure. But I think if they would have added back in the lead-ups to those fights, that would have been the perfect balance for it. Or added back in the eight-bit mini-games. I think it's the thing of budget. when you go into the open world and you go around and do the designated matches, whenever you start up a designated match, it sends you into the same playing field most of the time, right? Like, you're doing repeated matches in the same area and they're reusing a lot of assets. The open world, you're revisiting certain areas over and over again.

And I think it's very much a thing of we don't have the budget to do these grand leadups to the boss fights. And so instead, the way we're going to get around it is by placing you into the same. open world. And yeah, like, I think, I think that was just their answer to, uh, beef up the content there and make it so that you're not playing a really short game that feels even more repetitive because you're only doing the boss fights. But that said, I think I would have preferred a seven-hour game than a 15-hour game that's full of bloat. Um, but yeah, like that said, I think overall, the game is fine. If you're no more heroes fan, then I'd say you should play this game. I think there's enough there that you will enjoy. And there's enough there that I really enjoyed.

The ending, I think is bonkers and awesome. I know Suda 51 said that. that we're not going to get more normal heroes. Like this is the quote unquote finale. We're 1,000% going to get no more heroes. Because like this game in multiple ways sets up, you're going to get more no more heroes. Whether or not it's called No More Heroes or maybe it's another Traversex again. Who knows?

But yeah, you're going to get it. Like maybe 10 years from now. But yeah, like for newcomers, it's a harder recommendation for me. But I would say that Norma Heroes is a franchise that's worth getting into. And so if you want to jump into one and two and three and Travis Rice again, 1,000% do it. I think the franchise as a whole is a really fun thing

and a really cool thing. And Suda 51 has a lot of really cool and really fun ideas. But this game by itself, I wish it was more, but, you know, it is what it is. And the first two were recently ported to Switch as well, right? Yep. Yep.

The entire No More Heroes franchise is available on Switch. Damn. Moving on from Norie Heroes, I want to talk a little bit about Psychonauts too. I know throughout all the different kind of funny shows. We've touched on a bunch of different ways, mainly led by Barrett. So Barrett, I want to give you the floor for just a quick sec-secret to let us know where you're at as the first person that beat Psychonauts 2.

Where I'm at currently is by the, when I knew I was wrapping up my play-through of Psychonauts 2 to hit review embargo to 100% it, I knew it was coming to an end. And I was like, I want to keep existing in this world and this universe, what Double Fine has created with specifically the Psychonauts universe is just so damn special and unique. And so after my Psychonauts 2 play-through, Tim, I went back and replayed the first one, watched a playthrough of Rambus of Ruin

because I don't have a PSVR, so I can't watch the VR game that came out a few years ago that does have kind of like important moments to lead into Psychonauts 2. And I'm currently on a replay already of Psychonauts 2 doing a platinum run on PlayStation 5 because I do like getting platinum's on the PlayStation platform. Not as much as Greg Miller, but I still, when it's a game that I really enjoy and there's doable platinum,

like, I do want to get that. And I also just wanted to re-kind of like re-experience the story like all together because of what the second game does and how it wraps up a lot of threads that are introduced in the first game. It almost like looking back at the first game, it feels like definitely an incomplete story. Like it feels like it ends at like an act one kind of moment. and you're like, oh, like, you finally get, like, where everything was going once you get to the end of Psychonauts 2. And it's really, I love it a lot. Story-wise, you know, Blessing and I are known as the collect-a-thon lovers when it comes to games like Donkey Kong 64 and stuff like that.

And this is definitely a collect-a-thon in that same vein, but definitely better utilized. So it scratches that itch. I love the 3D platforming. The combat, definitely my first run-through was. was a little bit like, all right, like it's definitely improved from the first one, but still a little, maybe not as modern as other people want it to be. On the second playthrough, I feel like I'm utilizing the combat way more and way better than I was in my first playthrough, unlike things that they updated. Right, as of right now, it is my personal game of the year. You know, we still have a few months ago.

We'll see where it's at at the end of the year. But by the time I had finished it, even on my first run through, I knew that with everything and how, everything comes together in all aspects of the game. I was fully in love with it. So that's where I'm at. That's why I've been encouraging people to play it. And either way, if it's good or bad, I'm fascinated to hear about other people's takeaways from it

like we had with Janet yesterday on PSI Love You XOXO. So. And so with that, Andy, I'm actually really excited to hear your thoughts. You beat it. What'd you think? Yeah. Yeah, I beat it two nights ago.

I totally understand the game of the year praise it's getting. I think it's a really damn good video game. It is easily one of the most creative things I've played, and a lot of that just has to do with like Barrett was mentioning, just the world that Double Fine has created and how... I think when we talk about on our review shows on YouTube.com slash kind of funny, when we're talking about some of our favorite things about the movies that we're watching where one of my things is I love when everything has a purpose and when you're just not seeing things for the sake of experiencing,

when there's always a reason and purpose behind enemy names and areas that you're in. And I think double fine is like everything is just done with such purpose. And again, it's endlessly creative. This world and the enemy types that you're fighting. and how everything has a double meaning to it and all these sort of metaphorical places that you're playing in and how the game deals with mental health, I think, is just really cool and smart.

There are some really beautiful moments that I was certainly not expecting. And yeah, I mean, the game's just really, really damn good. I think my, what am I main issues with it though and it's something that I have talked to Barrett about it's something I've talked to on stream about um I feel like it could have been shortened in a way and not to say it's a long game because I beat it in about 15 hours maybe but there are definitely moments um going from big plot point to big plot point all right raz your rasputin we need to fix this machine

okay we're going to fix this machine I need to go into something somebody's mind and then it becomes the usual video game sort of, all right, we need to do the three things in order to fix that machine back there. But those three things take a while and it takes about, I'd say, I don't know, maybe an hour, hour and a half a gameplay it feels like. And you're going through a lot and it's really easy to lose the thread of what's really happening back in the real world because you're inside someone's mind. Now, that's not to say that it's like all weaknesses because I think there's a lot of strange. you are getting to learn these characters really well you're getting to kind of understand their motivations and what has made them who they are because you're getting this deeper look inside their brain and it's really cool and really fucking smart but i do end up sort of once i've done all those three things an

hour and a half goes by i go oh shit yeah i'm supposed to fix that machine yeah yeah my bad and now i'm back in the world and now as i'm out to fix the machine they go ah you can't quite fix the machine because this button is missing. Go talk to so-and-so for the button. And then that, rinse and repeat, and not that it's repetitive at all, because it's all really unique and every world you jump into

is so different than the last. And it's still really, really fun experiences, but it is kind of easy to forget the overall, the bigger narrative of what's really happening. And I think maybe it's a very fun video game to play, but maybe this story would be better served as like a movie or something like that where you're not kind of forgetting,

because when you're playing the game, you're not only collecting things inside the world, you're beating enemies, you're talking to every NPC that's kind of standing around, because you just want to hear what they have to say. Everybody's mind who has like a very different worldview of their personal situation. Exactly, yeah, and it's all,

it's all incredibly well done. I totally understand all the game of the year praise that it's getting. It'll be up there for me. I don't think it'll be my game of the year, because I still found myself, wanting to play other games. And I, even though I could still say, like, once I beat,

I was like, damn, that's a really impressive video game on all fronts. But I never found myself, like, wanting to play more. I was mostly wanting to play more just to beat it and kind of say that I've beaten it. But it's incredibly impressive. I didn't play part one.

I'm sure I would have liked part two had I played part one. I'm sure I would have cared about those characters a lot more and understood a lot of the nuances with their relationships. but all that being said, once again, it is so goddamn impressive, and I am so happy that it's a good game because we talked about on one of our reactions, it's like, you wait this long,

and there's no guarantee that it's a great game. I mean, you could come out, it could have come out and been a serviceable game. It could have been a six and a half or seven out of ten, again, with five being mediocre. I'm not doing grading school ratings or whatever. It could have come out and been a six, of 10 and been good and above average and we would have talked about it and said yeah not a bad time

but for it to be this good i think is just a testament to how talented all the devs are over there and the voice casting is really cool and there's a lot of really neat surprises and i definitely recommend playing it if you enjoy um platformers action games anything like that um another small gripe i have and it's something that i experience on stream is that the The, it, I definitely had a lot more fun playing Ratchet and Clank just because I enjoy that fast, frenetic combat. And there is a bit of that here, but just not as frequent for sure. So you're doing a lot of platforming and there's a lot of puzzle stuff and you're figuring out how to make that door open by doing this and that. And there's a lot of cool things happening.

And then combat happens and you go, oh shit, I forgot how to fight. I haven't fought in a while because I've been kind of just dealing with these overall world puzzles. and that's, but again, you know, that just comes with balancing and maybe if I would have beaten those puzzle parts faster, just get good, you know. Good, Andy. Yeah, I'm about an hour in based on Barrett's praise of the game. I wanted to definitely give this a bigger shot that I would have, and I'm definitely going to keep playing.

I am very surprised. I've been saying this a lot that I'm not the biggest double-fined guy, respect the hell out of it, but it's just kind of a weird style that doesn't really vibe with me normally. And like, and that's, and that makes sense because like a lot of their games, like it feels like every game that they have is very different so it feels like very rare that like you're very different but there there is like a core to it though where like there is a specific double fine vibe for sure there reminds me a lot of like very late 90s nicolodean but like specifically early 2000s like that invaders him era that i think it either hits with you or it just doesn't and

a lot of taste yeah yeah and and like looking at these characters like i just personally don't like the character design. So it's hard for me to kind of get invested because I'm looking at it. I'm like, I'm not really vibing with this. It looks like all real monsters. Yeah, kind of. And I was never a fan of that type of thing. Like, especially like all real monster stuff. Like I enjoyed the show obviously, but it's like I always prefer Doug or Rugrats over that or like Rocco or Renan Stimpy. Like there's just something

about that vibe. And not that this goes that far. And again, I think this is more like early 2000s. But despite that, pushing through, even in the first hour, worth the sheer creativity kind of overshadows any of that stuff like uh very very early you're in this hallway and it just starts uh going super long and it's just like damn like uh to andy's point about every single thing having a purpose it does and it is very clear from the offset even having not played the first game um all the way through uh because i didn't really like it there's something about this one that i think that they really kind of did a better job of being

able to grab people like me that are just in it for a good game and in it for the 3D platforming elements of it. Like they, they, they set up the stakes really clearly. And I like the, the beginning like tutorial to teach you how to play the game. I thought was really like, well done and got me way more interested than I expected to be off the bat. And the way that they use all of the in the minds, like what that means and all the different emotions and like, kind of just like feelings that they, that these characters are having.

and how that relates to gameplay is backed up so well with that perfect blend of fantastic voice acting engaging plot like the things that they're doing makes sense so when characters are doing things it's like you understand

what their motivations are and what you need to do to accomplish them and that's backed up with gameplay that feels good so it's like damn they really nailed this so far for me in a way that I am surprised by with my experience with most of their other games games. I still think, and of course I'm very early on, but some of the use of the shoulder

buttons with like the combat stuff and the different telekinetic abilities you have, all the abilities don't feel equally as good. Like some of them feel good. Some of them like the lighting things on fire feels a little bit more like a mechanic as opposed to extension of me understanding with my hands exactly what I'm trying to do. Yeah. Go for that. Oh, you're sorry. Um, uh, uh, Yeah, a lot of things change gameplay-wise from the first of the second. And even the first one, even though the fire felt different, it did feel very much like that. Like, I'm using it less in combat because it definitely slows things down and using it more for puzzle solving. Thankfully, correct me if I'm wrong, Andy.

Like, I'm pretty sure there's, like, pretty much only one enemy type that's actually, like, weak to fire. So, like, yeah, like, I know to, like, all right, I really only want to bring it out if these specific, I think it's doubts that pop up. Like, I only want to bring that out for that. And then use specifically, like, the side blast, punching, the telekinesis, stuff like that, the things that are a little more fast-paced. I use the fire a lot on the ones that project force fields on other people, on other enemies. The enemies that kind of, like, put a shield again. Because they're, because I don't really know exactly what their weak point was.

But for some reason, fire makes them run around in a frenzy. and they're just kind of open to all attacks. And anything else I was doing to them, they were just dodging all my side blasts and stuff like that. That's another thing I want to point out that Tim is mentioning right now is I happen to really like the fire. I feel like I use the fire side blast quite a bit. The time freezing was really neat.

And I think that it's also, this game has a very sort of old school way of looking at game design. And I think that's really cool. because you don't see it a whole lot anymore where if you think something can be done, it likely can be done. Not quite Breath of the Wild, like in that, not going that far right, but there are a lot of moments like there's a bottle being held up by a wooden stick. And sure, you can light that on fire and it'll burn. And the bottle will then fall down because you burned that stick or whatever.

And there are sort of those cool, if I do this, then that. And you run into those moments a lot more than you do. doing your traditional type video games where everything else seems very scripted and non, I guess reactionary is the best way that I could put it. And this game does a lot of cool stuff with that. I will say, however, I fucking hated and blessing, or Barrett was watching me playing it, getting knocked down and having to hit A to get back up. I cannot for the life of me understand that mechanic.

It is so bad and dumb. And I'm used to, hey, if you want to knock me down, and I'm stunned on the ground for a while and I'm open to attacks. That's great. That's my fault. But no modern game ever has ever taught you that you have to hit A to get back up on your feet.

And there are so many times I'm getting hit. I'm pretty sure it's only those fights. I think it's only that enemy type that does that too. It might be, but God damn, there is an enemy later on, Tim, that you will experience where you're getting knocked down, you're getting stunned.

And I'm on the ground and it's not in my second nature. You want to use your dodge button because there is a dodge button that you can use and that's right or me as a me as a gamer in the year 2021 I'm seeing myself on the ground and I'm like all right I'll get back up any second now let me just keep and it's like oh I got to hit A to get back up that's so lame just let just make me be on the ground for a while and I'm vulnerable to getting attacked and that's fine but let me get back up kind of automatically don't have to because there'd be time said I'm just laying there like oh shit I got

hit A what the fuck why do I have to hit A it was really frustrating Yeah, it's interesting. Like I said, I'm very excited to get back to it and everything that you're saying, Andy, I'm stoked about. Like you're talking about how consistently it has those moments of like, oh, I think I could do this and you actually can. So far, that's kind of been my favorite thing about it. And Barrett, Tom, about the collectathon aspect of it. I think that it's so far a collectathon in the best way where I've been completely motivated to get every single thing. And it seems fun to do that.

It feels like it is part of the journey to be able to do all that stuff. And while there is a ton of different collectibles, they, like Andy was saying earlier, feel like they have a purpose. Feel like they're adding to the world that you're in. And it's not just like, here's journal number 3002. So I got to say, I'm very impressed. And I'm excited to play more. And I'm shocked by how much I'm enjoying it so far based on what I thought going in. Bless, have you talked about this at all on any show yet?

No, I'm not. I started it last night on PS4. And I've made it only about like 40 minutes in. I want to get back to it just because from what everybody's described about the game, it sounds like a me-ass game. Like, I've heard people compare it to rare on N64. I've heard people say that it has a double-fine charm. And for me, when I think a double-fine, I think of Broken Age.

Broken Age was my entry point into Double-Find and I absolutely adore Broken Age. And so if it's a combination of those two things, that I'm going to be all in. So far, with where I'm at with it, I'm kind of with Tim in terms of the art style. Like, I don't love the art style. I think it's, it's not even a thing of, you know, I think it's more of a thing of taste rather than like the actual art style being 100%. You know, not good quality or anything like that. Like I can see the amount of effort they're putting in into the art style. But in terms of me and what I, what art styles I like, there's something about it that like it's kind of off putting.

And in a way that seems perfect. It's very crude. Like the first level starts off with a lot of teeth stuff going on. And that stuff for me was immediately like, oh, I don't really like how this looks. I see what they're going for, and they're all in a way that I really respect and appreciate, and the way that I think that's why it works. Yeah. Yeah.

And that's exactly why it works. And so, like, that stuff, I think is really cool. And I also think the fact that it does evoke early 2000s Nickelodeon vibes speaks to me, speaks to me as well because that was one of the things I shouted out while streaming it last night. I was like, shit, this seems very early 2000s Nickelodeon, which, you know, for me, I was born in 94. I came up at the perfect time for somebody who's going to be really into that kind of style. And so yeah, like I hear what you guys are saying about the creativity of it.

I hear what you guys are saying in terms of the story of it and where it's going with mental health. Like I think that stuff all seems cool. And I, that stuff has me excited to go back even though the first 30 minutes haven't really. My experience with the game, I feel like hasn't done the game justice. Because like I said, I'm playing the PlayStation version of the game. And the PlayStation version doesn't have a next gen optimized PS5 version. and so I'm playing the PS4 version off of my PS5 and the game doesn't look that crisp

in terms of the actual graphics of it like something about it seems a bit blurry, a bit foggy or at least more foggy than the games I've played in last year on my PS5 and that was immediately noticeable to me and I had people in chat as I was playing say that the game looks and runs better on Xbox Series X slash S and even on Xbox one, which to me was kind of a surprise.

I've been GamePass PC. It is it on GamePass PC as well. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Yeah, and it has that full integration with saves. That was something I talked about. Oh, I like that.

The, when the embargo went up, that was my first time actually experiencing that since getting a Series S is being able to like play on PC and then realize like, oh, I got to like, you know, run a show or whatever. And then like after the show is done, be like, okay, I need to use my PC to export. Let's boot it up on Xbox and just so I'm not taxing my PC anymore than it should be taxed right now. and then boom like my save was there and that was like my first yeah and it's so cool and like unfortunately before this the only games I've been playing on the Xbox side of things have been like Bethesah games that I don't think support that at least the games that I've been playing don't

support that quite yet so that was like a cool like first experience of like hell yeah this is we're in the future man that is actually a big that's going to be a big feature for me because yeah I'm going to play on on Xbox but I do like my Xbox is set up on this TV that's in my background back here but like I often like sitting on my desk right here and playing games because this desk is where I have my PS5 set up. And so there's something nice about being able to go back and forth without actually having to pick up my Xbox and actually move it all the way over here. But last night, the thing that was my last draw for playing it on PlayStation was there

was a load time early on in the game that I hit. And it was a long-ass load, like longer than anything I've had since getting a PS5. And for me, I was like, oh, like this seems like a lot. It was like a solid 20 to 30 seconds of load, which I had a very long load on. my Series X as well. Really? That wasn't quite 20, 30 seconds, but it was enough for me to be like, I haven't experienced this on Series X yet for any game.

Yeah. The load I had was noticeable and it was funny streaming it because I sat there like in silence for like 15 seconds. I was like, chat, is this weird? Like, is this? Am I crazy? Is this a long low time? It's a big crash.

Yeah. It's so weird to hear that because I've been wanting to like platinum it specifically. So I've been playing it on like PlayStation. And I've not been having that same experience. I think, like, the longest load I ever have is, like, going from, like, the main menu into the game itself. And then from there on, like, fast traveling and, like, other situations or, like, getting in and out of the cutscenes is, like, maybe 10, 12 seconds at most. And even with, like, the crisp thing, like, I think it runs 1440P. I have it up here.

Where is it? 1440P on PS5 is the max resolution. Running at 60, like, yeah, it definitely doesn't look as crisp as, like, like, yeah, definitely doesn't look as crisp as, like, like when I play it on PC, but I would say it's like comparable to like what the the series has and stuff like that. So it's interesting of like maybe for some reason like what be yeah. I don't know like how you downloaded. Maybe you got like some weird code stuff downloaded. I know there's maybe. Yeah. All I know is that like compared to every other game I played on my PS5 console it doesn't look as good graphically. Like there are software that thankfully,

but you were playing on a monitor right plus? Yeah. Real quick, real quick, I want to keep talking about Tycho Nuts too. But first, let me tell you about our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Purple. Sometimes it feels like the world's against you getting a good night's sleep. Whether it's the heat, anxiety, or your neighbors who like to party on a Tuesday. But a Purple Mattress helps you sleep cool and comfortable, no matter what the world throws at you. Only Purple Mattress has the grid.

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Go to upstart.com slash Kind of Funny. Upstart.com slash Kind of Funny to find out how Upstart can lower your monthly payments today. Back at it. So you're playing on the monitor, right? So that defaults at the 1080? Yes. But games still look great on my 1080 monitor. Like there's still, for games that run 4K on PS5

or games that are running in that performance, the other mode, visual fidelity mode or whatever, still look great compared to playing PS4 games on my monitor. Like there's something, like Psychonauts 2 specifically, I would say as somebody who's always playing on this monitor looks like noticeably worse than the other games that I've played on this console on my monitor. But again, like for me, that's just the thing of,

cool, I'm going to play it on my PC and on my Xbox instead. I also wanted to mention there is there is something charmingly low budget about a lot of it and that sounds real bad

I get what you say like even replaying it last night I was like replaying my favorite level of the game which is like it was the same level that I popped into your stream for Andy all I'll say is the Cy King and that level is so far

and there's like a point where you hear like the crowd like there's like a crowd that you hear and they're like they're yelling and they're getting hyped but it's obviously like two people like again it's like it's that like charming budget thing of like a cartoon network kind of thing you know there is something about you know a lot of the animations that aren't necessarily spectacular or anything like that but I think a lot of that is just due to the fact that there's I think it's the sheer amount of animations that there are and the amount of animations that there are and the amount of of cutscenes that there are. And like, not that they're ever necessarily super long cutscenes, but God damn, there's a shitload of them because every kind of moment deserves its own. And the reason why I appreciate that is because the quality of the content you're getting never waivers. And even in the final stages of the game, the last several moments of it, not last several moments.

I'd say like the last four hours of the game, three hours of the game. I'm still running into random NPCs that have really funny lines that will never, you'll never talk to them again, but they just have something funny to say. And again, the quality and creativity of every world that you hop into

is still so mind-blowing. And I don't know, I guess I'm sort of a pessimist when it comes to a lot of games or I expect maybe near the end of their game development journey. Maybe the creative juices aren't as flowing as strongly,

And maybe we just kind of rush it to get to the final moments or whatever. But still, like, so many of the final world and the themes of where you are and how it relates to the world's design, not just level design, but the actual aesthetic design is so goddamn cool. And, like, every one of them is just really, really surprising. And it just keeps on going. And it never wavers creatively. And that's, I think, like, the best thing about. Psychonauts 2. And it's that it's that right there like there's been the the hot conversation of Psychonauts 2 and Ratchet and Clank and even like it takes two in that

same conversation because I mean a lot of great platformers this year and it's like what you said just there Andy that like is why I am personally vived with Psychonauts 2 more than I did Ratchett and Clank. I loved Rift Apart as well. I don't think even I would put Rift apart in my favorite PlayStation game this year though and I think like it has like a fun story and I think both games like what they set out to do, I think they both succeed in. But I think Psychonauts 2 just goes into a different direction that, like, I don't really expect to see from games. Whereas, like, Ratch and Clank felt like a, you know, it's Ratch and Clank.

You're getting like the kind of like act one, act two, act three kind of like almost Disney Pixar story kind of plot, right? And it's just like the sheer creativity of what they're doing, how they represent mental health, even just like the plot. plot, the plot itself of all the twists and turns and stuff like that was just something that I was not expecting to be surprised by it at all. And I was really like, I feel like this game like really took me it back the most out of any other game that I've played this year, which, yeah, I do want to shout out to the soundtrack, because that's the, that's the thing I noticed. And that never wavers either, dude. Like, every, every world, bless, has its own totally different and unique music and it just never ends.

It just keeps on going. Like, it's really surprising. And I think it's going to get to the point where when we eventually get to Game of the Year conversations in the same way that we rank movies over on our entertainment YouTube channel, it's going to get very, very, the conversations I'm going to be having are which game do I think is better put together and which game do I have more fun playing? And I had.

more fun playing Returnal, I would have, but I think Psychonauts 2 is a better put-together game in terms of just everything, all the elements, whether it's characters, uh, scenes,

dialogue, plot, like all that stuff I think is more impressive than what Returnal did, but I just, I would rather play Returnal because I enjoy the gameplay a lot more. The alien with the tentacles that could fly around that first file? And that's what if, and so like,

I think the reason why I kind of wanted Psychonauts 2 to end faster than it did was because I just wanted to get back to playing Ghost of Sushima and I'm kind of just really digging the director's cut and as somebody who gave up the first time because for no reason I just stopped playing the first

iteration of ghosts on PS4 I've just, I missed getting back to that video game so like I was by the end of Psychonauts too it's like this is still really cool but man I kind of want this to end and I hope it ends soon And it seems like it's going to end. Oh, no, wait, we go into somebody else's mind.

And there's another three things I have to find. And it's a lot longer. It's like a, it's a more arduous process, you know. It's funny. Real quick, I wanted to touch on the soundtrack as you're talking about it. And so far, I, you guys all know I'm a stickler for these for soundtracks. And like the quality of them stuff, the quality is so good. And like, this sounds like real fantastic orchestrated shit.

It's not cheap MIDI stuff. And like, while I do agree, the budget kind of shows in the game in a lot of ways, like the voice acting and soundtrack or score, I want to say, are not those things. And I think that that's kind of what like brings this all together and makes it, while it might visually look more like not so much a DreamWorks movie, but like, who made Rango? Like, you know what I'm talking about? Like one of those studios.

Yeah, one of those things. It's like the quality is different there. And that's not to hit on Rango because I actually kind of liked Rango. But I'll get it. Rango unchained. There we go. There you go. Sorry, Bless, I cut you off.

Yeah, no, I was going to say, I think it's fun talking about where this game versus other game lanes in the year because, you know, this year for me in video games feels like the year of two things. It's the year of time loops and then also the year of dope-ass, big-budget 3-D platformers. In between this, Ratchet and Clank ripped apart and it takes two, I feel like they're all on different parts of the spectrum where Ratchet and Clank, this game that I adore, but my thing with that game is that I love the presentation of it. I love the polish of it. I wish that game had more creativity and, I guess, daringness in, like, the narrative and a lot of what it does with the gameplay. But, you know, it's a dope-ass polished-dash-ass, Ratchet and Clank game. Then you have It Takes 2, which is this similar thing of, this game is polished as hell, and this game is also creative as hell, right? Like, the stuff that it sets up in its gameplay scenarios are so cool and the way that it's constantly switching it up with mechanics and having you do different things scene to scene.

I think it's so good, and the story is fun. the characters are fun, the moments are fun. And then on the other side of the spectrum, I think, is Psychonauts 2, which is this thing where, you know, if we're talking about, you can only pick two between polish, creativity, and, like, I don't know what the third thing is, man, like weirdness. Psychonauts 2 is kind of the other thing, where it's this weird game. It is really creative. It goes for, you know, trying to harken back to, I guess, older gameplay design.

We're talking about comparing it to rare games and collectathons and a lot of aspects of three platformers that have kind of gone to the past. the fact that it picks that stuff up and does it in a way where I'm looking around and seeing so many people that are crazy about it and loving it. I think that by itself is admirable and that by itself is really awesome. I can't wait to see what those conversations are by the end of the year when we're talking about where Psychonauts 2, it takes 2 and Ratchet Lans. But either way, like it makes me happy that 3D platformers are still in a place where they're still growing and being creative and doing daring things without there being a Mario. The fact that it is such a big platformer here and there's not a 3D Mario out. I think is awesome and gives me so much hope for the future of the genre.

We got Bowser's Fury this year, Blast. That was this year. You're right. You're absolutely right. We did about it. Holy shit we did. Oh my god. That's honestly in the conversation with me because I love Bowser's fear. I want to vomit.

I know. I know. I forgot about it. Tim, I did research. It was Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon movies that did Rango, which honestly surprised me. There you go. There you go. Yeah.

No, that movie looked. Rango looked great. Rango was a bad example, but you guys got what I was saying. But I get what the, and there's an interesting conversation because, of course, like, the game's getting, like, review bombed on Metacritic as all games do now. It's like a tradition at this point. And, like, people are also giving it because it looks like a PS2 game, blah, blah, blah, the graphics, it's like, the graphical fidelity. When you're playing on PC or Xbox Series X, like, the game looks fucking crisp. The game looks great. It is just...

I don't know I can agree with that. It looks good. It doesn't look great. Yeah, I got to boot up on my Xbox City, because so far I'm with 10. We disagree there. I mean, I get what Barrett's saying, but I think the, I think the look of it, like, it's a crisp-ass game, right? I played it in 1440P. I played in 4K. I still think that it looks like it's running in an older engine.

Now, that being said, the materials and textures and all that shit looks good and leather looks like leather like it should and metal looks good. and there's nothing old feeling about, I guess, when you're actually in the world. Like, you know, I always look at materials and liquids and stuff like that. And does all this stuff look accurate? And is it flat looking? And all those sort of things go through my mind when I'm looking at, you know, a 3D level. But it does seem like it is running, like if you would have told me this is running in an older,

in an upgraded version of Unreal 3 or something like that, that like like it's not in Unreal 4 but it's a better version when it comes to lighting and stuff I think the lighting in this game is not great and there are some things aesthetically that look older gen but I don't I don't think it looks like there was definitely some people in my Twitch chat that were like this looks like a really good PS2 game and they meant it as a compliment and I was like well a PS2 game couldn't do X and Y and Z and A and B and C but I kind of get what you're saying this game like it's insane um I never saw your reactions to some of that stuff that they do.

And, like, the male level, Andy, where, like, you're obviously, like, going into a different section of the area, and it's not connecting fully to... Oh, yeah. I mean, all that shit is really impressive. Like, anytime a game can do that, and I get the vibes that control gives me, like, all I could think of while playing Ratchet is, like, I wish Remedy made this game in their own style.

Like I and I think a lot of that is because of the style that Bless and Tim aren't huge fans of that cartoony sort of late 90s early 2000s crude cartoon style. Yeah. And it's like all the all these concepts of like entering people's mind. It's like you get the inception thoughts immediately like, God, this is just like inception. It's so cool. The opening scenes where they're like they're in the mind and then they're in the plane and they're kind of talking about it all. Like this is just straight up the end of inception. And again, like, and as you keep pushing further, you get more and more than it's like, God, I wish Remedy kind of just stole all of these ideas and made the inception game of, you know, because there's a lot of moments where you run through a hallway and suddenly the hallway extends to be like way further than it is.

And it's like, oh, this is so cool. And there's a lot of creative ways. You go into a refrigerator and then you're transported into like a swamp and stuff like that. Yeah, like I can sort of see behind the curtain a bit. like how they're engineering all this stuff. And it's really cool to think how you can get creative at this level when this isn't necessarily the biggest budget game ever. And I think that's why I'm really impressed by it as well.

I compared it yesterday for PSI Love You. I was like this is like the Tim Burton movie, the game this year, whereas Ratchez is like the Pixar. I'm going to retract that. I don't think this is like the Tim Burton. This is the Lika Studios like a type game this year. It's very much like that Coraline Cubone two strain. type of vibe. Pox trolls.

Yeah. And yeah, I absolutely adore it. I only got into this series this year. I'd try to play the first one many a time before this year. And it took a little bit of dedication because that first game, there's a lot of aspects that don't age super well, just gameplay and design-wise, but it's still as fascinating as this one, I would say.

And I'm just, I can't believe, like how much I dug it. I was not, I knew I was going to, like, be interested in it and maybe dig some aspects. I'm very surprised that I'm as into it as I ended up being. I would have guessed that I would have, like Ratchen and Clank more and some other games,

but yeah. So you're talking about old games, maybe not, you know, living up to the hype and being as good today. You just beat Metal Gear Solid 2, sons of liberty for the first time. this morning, Barrett,

I want to hear all about it. Because for anybody that doesn't know, 40 minutes before we started this show. Barrett has been embarking on his journey to finally play through all of the Metal Gear Solid games for the first time. Recently, they just completed Metal Gear Solid 1. It is some of the dopest content,

most insightful content, kind of funny's ever made. Go check it out on YouTube.com slash kind of funny plays, where it's a more and blessing and Mike for the very first time has been joining Barrett with so many facts. much insight into the game and just kind of experiencing it for the first time for a lot of us

in decades, uh, in some cases. So it's been crazy. You love the first game. Barrett, I don't know your thoughts on middle gear solid too, really. What are they? Uh, yeah, we, you know, um, I know people have been asking for a metal gear solid and review. And we're essentially just doing it at the end of every, uh, game. Mike and I like kind of like went through the motions. We, uh, we did ragu bagu. We're ranking all of the villains as we go. Uh, we've, uh, we've, ranked the metal gears and we we ranked the two games that we've gotten so far. And I know both Mike and I are are on the team of, we like this one more than we like the first one.

The first one is, yeah, the first one is this great first step of like, how weird can we get, here's some interesting, fun characters, but at the end of the day, it does feel like kind of a, and I don't mean this as an insult as it might come out, but more of like a run-in-the-mill 80s action movie where it's like kind of weird but like at the end of the day the plot is like all right like there's some terrorists

you gotta stop them, bang, boom there's gonna be a villain with a monologue and all this stuff and that's just like kind of how it ends at the end of it where Snake literally rides off into the sunset with Merrill you got the good ending yeah yeah

and so yeah I've been told about the other ending with Oticon and then I think Metal Gear Solid 2 Suns of Liberty, they were able to, with like the next generation of hardware at the time, they were able to push that even further on the aspect of gameplay. I really loved the moment-to-moment stealth gameplay. That was such a huge step from the first one to the second one

that just really impressed me, especially with only three years in between each game. And with that, there's also just like the extra step that they were able to take with building out that world and universe and getting super weird with characters. Or there's literally a man named Fat Man who loves to make bombs who's rolling around on roller blades and drinking wine. And you have to fight him while he rolls around, plants bombs, you got to diffuse them, avoid him shooting at you and stuff.

There's wild things like that. But then also, they're able to explore more of like interesting themes, a lot of like the stuff that's introduced in like the last like third of the game that's set up pretty well throughout the entirety. Just with like information and a lot of the things that, you know, people have told me about when it comes to Kajima game specifically with the Metal Gear series, Metal Gear series about kind of commenting on just like the modern day political machine almost and just wild how he was able to predict a lot of things that we were going through now with the

constant information stream that we get through the internet, how political machines can use and abuse that for information on what they give to the public. All of this stuff, I was just like, this was written 20 years ago. I'm talking about stuff that's like relevant literally today, every day for the last two years. And this game was written to 20 years ago. This was pre-9-11. Yeah. And it's just like insane how much he was able to kind of see going forward.

and Kojima is a very smart man. At the same time, there's a lot of things that I think get a little too convoluted in like plot stuff. There's a lot of stuff that I was getting hung up on just the way of like information was being delivered in some of the things, which I think there were some things that had some lower lows for me in two with just like some boss fight stuff, some information drops where it's just like, oh my God, this is almost like too much lower going. on all at once that like my brain can't go jima process what you're even trying to do which like i get like why people wait no i did yeah and i i get like why that draws people but i think that also becomes an hindrance on like what the story you're trying to tell and i know that like i'm gonna i know there's going to be some hate comments towards me after just saying that but i don't think so okay i think that's a pretty common take okay i think it's normal to feel that way also barred because

you're streaming it and you also want to feel like you want to entertain people. And that gets in the way a little bit as well when there's a 20 minute more video. Well, not even just, not even just a single cutscene, but they'll go 20 minutes straight of like, here's one cutscene, then another, then another. And we'll awkwardly fade to black think that the scene is ending and then go back to a different cutscene. Yeah, like, here's a codec call. That's all exposition.

I think when I'm sitting there playing the game, I'm totally. fine with it and I'm I'm loving every second of it to be honest with you but I think if I were to have played it on stream I would have felt the need to like whoa that's cool what's is it like to be reaction you know streamer about it and

some of that can kind of you know maybe you're also reading chat maybe you're paying attention to whatever and I I think these games are maybe best experience with just kind of with just friends and maybe not necessarily feeling the need to entertain even though I watched a bit

and you all were just kind of watching, that's totally, that's great and perfect. Yeah, I also have a very different mindset of, like, streaming. Like, I don't think about, like, trying to entertain on that level as you do, Andy, because I was just, like, reacting to things that I was, like, legitimately interested in. I was skipping things that I was getting annoyed by, like Rose, and then, you know, chat wanted to yell at me about that were 40 conversations with Rose. None of it mattered.

And, of course, the one that I skipped was the more like, oh, you need to watch this. I mean, to be fair, all of it matters. I do love those final moments though where it is just Rose and Campbell interchanging lines as if they rehearsed all of this and I really just want to picture like Kojima popping up in frame be like you know what let me just tell all this to you

like I'll just this is what I've always wanted to be I've always wanted to say this but you know fuck Rose fuck Campbell I'll just talk to you like one on one the thing I also say about like it being convoluted right is I think I think there are two things that go with it One, the fact that once you get to the end of the game, replaying the game, everything is recontextualized now that you know what the ending is. And so for me watching you play the game and this is the second time I'm going through it, I'm catching so much stuff that I didn't catch the first time around. One, because there is so much dialogue.

And even playing through one, going into two and I know going into three and four as well, I'm going to have the same thing. There are so many lines here and there that I'm catching where I'm like, oh, I didn't think about this this way because it was, there was this minute detail in this line. that is buried within hundreds of other lines of dialogue that Kojima is delivering to me all in one go. That is very easy to lose information. That's why I've been so impressed when Mike does his recaps and he's able to actually capture so much of the stuff that actually matters. Because I wouldn't be able to do that, especially my first time playing through Metal Gear. There's so much shit in here that you kind of have to distill down and that you have to remember because a lot of that stuff ends up paying off in ways that you don't expect. Like when you skip that one rose conversation, right?

like, you know, Tame had the reaction of like, oh, no, it was important. But it was the thing of, like, I'm with you of, yeah, how would you know, right? Like, the way that stuff comes around, you're not supposed to think about it in that way of, oh, wait, Rose is actually this thing. And so, like, she asking this question actually meant this toward the ending. You're not really thinking about it in that way. You're thinking about it as Rose is this annoying-ass character who has this weird relationship with Riden and you just go along with it.

So I think it can be convoluted on that end. And then, like, also just convoluted on the end of the more. you play Metal Gear, the more, I think the more you get out of it repeatedly, and it's just a lot of information to take in. But it's been fun. I'll go for Andy. I was like to say, Barrett, imagine you get to the final boss of Dark Souls after a long, crazy journey, and you beat the final boss after like five attempts, and it's amazing, and you're so stoked, and you light the bonfire, and chat blows up,

it's like, you're not supposed to light that bonfire. You've been lighting all the other 40 bonfires whenever you beat a boss, but this one you weren't supposed to light, because you get the bad ending, you're supposed to walk up to another area like the true one. It's like a bloodborn. I was I supposed to fucking know. In Bloodborn, I'm glad I had Eminon there with me because he was the one to tell him

me to, hey, eat the three things before you beat the final boss. And I'm like, how the fuck would I know that? How do anybody know this? And for MGS2, that's a game that's also all about misinformation and tricking people. And this is the thing I said during the Twitch Twitch stream is the fact that the marketing

of the game itself was playing into the themes of the game, right? Like, that game was marketed as, you know, when we watched the 10 minute trailer, you watch Solid Snake go through the tanker. We watched all gameplay featuring Solid Snake. And you go into the game and the game does the switcharoo where you're playing is right in, spoilers for a 20-year-old game. And, you know, it's that thing of the game constantly tries to trick you and the game constantly tries to give you false information so that by the time you get to the payoff of what the actual themes and the actual, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, like what the actual game is, that becomes, like that becomes a big reveal and actually becomes a big payoff. It's really impressive. It lends to it being convoluted. Yeah. And like, again, it really, it is really impressive, like, how they were utilizing almost every aspect of the game to have that when it all comes to a head at the very end to have it all

come together. And that is something that, even though I skip that one rose conversation where it actually got interesting for once. It's still a hit for me in like really cool ways. And I was able to appreciate, I think, what a lot of people have been talking about with this game specifically, Metal Gear Solid 2 for the last couple of years of like just what Kojima was able to like kind of comment on years before things started happening that were very similar to some of the things in the game and some of the themes in the game, which I thought was super rad. That on the other end though, like the just like the gameplay stuff, I loved the, some of the things in the game. stuff. I loved the moment-to-moment stealth stuff. That was really fun. Being able to stand up on my tip-y toes, as Mike says, and do the little shimmy shake and just sneak around and how much more

developed that was from the first game was really cool. Because, like, the first game didn't feel, like, you could see the bones of, like, how it started modern stealth games. But, like, playing it in the moment, you're like, it's hard to, like, have it feel like it is a stealth game, but it's just, like, what the natural gameplay style of a place you. one game is. So, like, there's a lot of times where I wasn't playing the first one as a stealth game just because of how many PS1 games felt at the time. Whereas this one, you really do feel like the, like, you have to pay attention to

everything and all that stuff and all the different systems of being able to see, like, my wet footsteps on the floor and seeing, like, shadows, like, go around a corner. Like, all that stuff was cool. But then, like, on the other flip side, and I talked about this on the stream as well, I'm just, like, some of the boss fights, I feel like those were some of the lower moments than the first one since like they had more of a restriction in the first game there was less to there was less that aged poorly i would say in the aspect of boss fights in the first game whereas like the with the vamp fight in the second one uh in metal gear solid too i hate i watched you play that

and oh my god you were livid yeah it was not that was like the that was like the when we ended that stream like i was still mad and like even like walking away from the stream like 20 minutes later i was still, like, pissed at that boss fight. And that's just, like, and that's not, like, a metal gear solid, like, specific thing. That's, like, a lot of PS2 games, just, like, with a lot of the things that, because they were able to start running Buck Wild, they had a lot of ideas that they wanted to throw out there and not everything, like, really ages super well. And so, like, yeah, a lot of, like, going from one perspective, kind of, like, this weird

third person looking above my character, switching back and forth between that and first person and, like, all of that stuff. There's a lot of like little things like that that specifically I think for a lot of like PS2 era games like have a struggle with aging super well but that's just me.

I recommended this on a stream I think but I want to recommend it again to everybody. There's a YouTube video essay series that I absolutely love by a username Super Bunny Hop and the series is called Critical Closeup and it all started eight years ago when he released 40 minutes

Metal Gear Solid 1 retrospective. And then he followed that up seven years ago with Metal Gear Solid 2 and then Metal Gear Solid 3. And then three years ago with Metal Gear Solid 4. And they are incredible deep dives. This is like, he's like Tam level smart when it comes to that shit, really insightful. And it does a really good job of breaking down the context of when the game was released, what it meant then, what it means now, all that stuff. So it's really cool stuff that I would recommend everyone watch.

I'm honestly going to rewatch the entire series at some point in the next couple of weeks. Would I be okay with watching the first two and not getting spoiled on anything? Let me watch through. I'm pretty sure he sticks to the things, but it's been years since I watch. So let me, let me check it out. I'll let you know, but you 100% should watch it at some point. I do love me. I do.

I just sent assets a link I wanted to bring up. All the background art here on the kind of funny gamescast is done by this artist named Orioto, who is super dope. I've been a huge fan for a decade now, which is crazy. but behind me I have five of the pieces like prints framed and one of them the one of the corner

yeah right there is this one you're looking at right now Metal Gear Solid 2 and it's fucking gorgeous guys are you kidding are you glad that you weren't actually spoiled

yeah so this is something I wanted to bring up because this was a weird thing that happens and it was like hard to like really gather what I was actually being spoiled about

so it was the week that we had started the Metal Gear Solid series Playthrough, right? I tweeted out, like, tomorrow, it's finally happening. I'm finally playing a Metal Gear game that isn't survive. And then Greg retreated it, so naturally it got a lot of attention, and then

naturally it got some shitheads where some dude responded to Greg immediately and was like, I hope no one spoils for you that one and two are all in a simulation. And like, I read that and I was like, fuck, I don't know if this is a spoiler or not. It probably is. I immediately blocked the dude. And then

like in my mind I was like... He said it was all in VR. Yeah, he said it was all in VR or some shit. And in my mind, I was like... So is it all in the Matrix? Like, what's happening with... Like, where's going... So the fact that it, like, was a different

interpretation of simulation and, like, this, like, the thing where it's like... These kind of, like, pre-planned, like, events, essentially. At least that's the way I interpreted it as we finished Metal Gear Solid 2 today. It was interesting to see how that came together and how that asshole was trying to to spoil me of that experience.

It's, yeah, it's one of those things where with Metal Gear Solid, the franchise, it's, I think it's so difficult to actually spoil shit. Like, you can spoil shit, but there, I mean, you've played two Metal Gear Solid games now. There's a reveal every five seconds. It's nonsense until it's not nonsense. Exactly.

But even that it's still kind of nonsense. But that's the thing. Blessing was making such a good point. And like, for many things, this is like just like lip service bullshit where it's like, well, of course, if you play through it a million times, you're going to understand it all.

Like there is an artistry to the way that these early games specifically are designed where it's like, yeah, playing through it gives you more where you're actually getting what's there for you. And it's like it's with the words complex and convoluted are often used to synonyms when they're not. And I think that when you look at Kojima's storytelling

with the stuff, there are moments that are convoluted. But those convoluted moments are always in service of a complex narrative and then complex characters. And I think that that's kind of what really makes it special. And again, like, damn, I cannot give enough props for just like making me appreciate this franchise even more just listening to him talk about it all. And I was I was in love with watching you guys on the stream in the moment where in MGS2 you walk into this hallway and there's blood everywhere. There's dead soldiers.

And you guys didn't even get the reference to, oh, this is Cyborg Ninja from the first game, but done in a different way here. And I just love that that's something that I've known and I've reflected on thought about for 20 years now. But it was just a moment for you that you're so in the moment that's happening. You're not thinking about the context of all of that. And next time you played through, you would get it. You would totally see it all coming because the game, MGS2 does a good job of just being the first game again. But without you realizing that until they reveal it. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Because it's front loading. with like a lot of story and plot that does feel different enough. And you're being told it's a sequel and, you know, Snake is on a different adventure and stuff like that. I mean, I love the reaction that you had, you had Barry. And I think Mike had the reaction too where two hours into the game where they give you the sticks as Riden and you have the Colonel call and he starts explaining to you all the tutorial stuff. And it's like, bro, I've played the first game. I've been playing this game for two hours.

why does the colonel keep calling me to do all the tutorial shit? Like what the fuck is going on here? And again, like, there's so much stuff in there where it's like, you know, weird, like me and me, Tam and the rest were like, yeah, well, this stuff is all on purpose. But even as I was saying that, I was like, I don't know if I believe that. I don't know if there's going to get there and go, oh, this all makes sense. But by the time we all got there, you know, at least for me, I was like, oh, yeah, no, this really does feel like it is all according to plan in terms of trying to replicate what the

first game is. you know, we were having to talk after we beat MGS2 of, yeah, you can take any of the big moments from MGS2 and compare it to a moment from MGS1. There is some sort of equivalent there. And it all feeds into like the quote unquote simulation VR thing that I guess the person spoiling it on Twitter was trying to tell you about, right? And that the game builds up. Tim bringing up the super bunny hop video has really excited because, you know, it was fun toward the end there, especially as you had those final code at calls with the kernel where they're going on their long spiel about

like misinformation and memes and all this shit and you know like motherfucking talk about memes in 2001 and it's the thing where you know like people are going back and forth in chat about what's a stretch and what's not and the thing for me with MGS2 and talking about how for me is how prophetic that game is is the thing of

when it comes to art and when it comes to the theme specifically tackled to MGS2 obviously Kojima is not talking about the funny images on Twitter right like when he's talking about memes where we're just talking about the concept of memes or digitized information, it's all about parallels and it's all about what you take from it. You know, the fact that I think for me, or at least for Meliger Solid is a game that came out,

Meliger Solid 2 for a game that came out in 2001, I'm sure there were people in that era already talking about digitized information in a very deep way and in a popular way because the internet was fresh. You know, people had these concepts. People were talking about these things. Kojima wasn't inventing anything. But the way that Kojima was for,

framing that stuff and was talking about that stuff and was talking about certain concepts, tackling certain concepts in a way that him talking about fake news and digitized information and false information and passing down information and the way the information can get twisted as you're passing it down, the way that that has blown up in the last six years, I think, is the thing that really makes that game shine, right? Like, Kojima was the one to say it the way that he said it. And for MGS2 as a work of art, for us playing it, we get to take from it. what we take from it. And I feel like for us, and I'm Barry, it's your first time playing it,

so you can probably say it better. Watching or going through those sequences in 2021, hits way different than I'm sure anybody playing that game in 2001 would have taken away from it. And, you know, it goes back to what Tim said at the beginning one of the streams talking about how MGS2 is one of the best aging games of all time in terms of story. And like, I think that that is 1,000% fact. Remember when he apologized for predicting stuff? This is earlier this year. Sorry about all the stuff I predict. Like, I don't want it to come true.

And like how, I mean, you think about, again, the parallels keep getting drawn. But the fact that death stranding is about staying inside and hiding from an invisible threat outside is just the craziest fucking thing ever. And the only people working are delivery people. Like, it's just ridiculous. And like, you know, the fact that like delivery, the fact that the year after that game comes out, there is the whole thing with the USPS and like, you know, the government getting rid of that and the back and forth there. And like, there's so many parallels and so many shit that obviously like,

I mean, theoretically, Kojima didn't know that the USPS was going to be under fire. Erratically, theoretically, just Maris says. How does this turn it? Theoretically, he could be breaking the simulation. He's trying to wake up, wake us all up, you know? That's my thing is I don't know what I believe anymore when it comes to Kojima. I mean, predicting too much shit. Playing it in 2021 is, again, it's fascinating.

and like I it's it's wild that this man was talking about all of these things back in 2001 where it's like I doubt like gamers were really thinking a lot about like the political machine especially in like Western society you know in the same way that I was 12 years old yeah yeah I mean the other reality of this is for most of us like I don't want to speak for anybody but but please somebody stand up with me if you agree we didn't get this shit it was fun and it was like oh my god

the stealth is awesome and you could blow up the watermelons in first person like holy shit there's magazines in lockers that's crazy and riding had a sword like it was funny that he was naked as a 12 year old and I gotta assume it was the same way as hearing you know

Luke I am her father or I see dead people and Bruce Willis was dead the whole time that the moment of that for me well, I mean, there was plenty of moments throughout Metal Gear 1 and 2 that I had those were like, oh my God, no way, I'm a 10 year old, like, let me take a hit of this blunt, you know? But the moment that did it for me was the Patriots have been dead for hundreds of years.

I was like, holy fuck, dude. I got to tell my dad about this. For me, it was turn off the game, the snake or whatever he said to write it. That is the moment from the game I remember the most because I remember playing that and being scared. I remember that terrifying me, not knowing what was real or not anymore. Yeah, I was very young, obviously. And like it was the way the way they framed that and the way they introduced that, I think it's so well-paced out.

And yeah, like that all the way up to the end of the game was scary. But I'm with him that for me when I played it, most of it was gibberish. And I played it way after 2001, right? I probably played it in like 2009, 2010. And even then, a lot of the stuff I kind of got but didn't get, right? Like I was like 17, I guess 16, 17 at the time, I would have, I would imagine. And yeah, like so much of it was me, understanding. that Kojima has some weird ass shit to say

and going along with it. I didn't think that hard that much about Metal Gear Solid 2 until maybe like 2017 when I started going back and rewatching cutscenes and going man, a lot of this shit happening right now in the world seems kind of familiar. Maybe I should go back and see what's going on in this game and like re-experiencing

and understanding that oh, I get what this game is now. I totally understand all the shit he was going for. Well, re-experiencing the Metal Gear Solid series through the eyes of Farragutin' Snowmike Mike has been one of my favorite things this year. They're going to continue. They just, oh no, they're going to be starting. Metal Gear Solid 3 very soon.

I can't wait. I can't wait, guys. Oh, my Lord. So much fun things to look forward. Everybody make sure you go subscribe over there. Yeah. Where, Andy? YouTube.com slash kind of funny plays.

It's PLAYS. It's not kind of funny games. It's a different YouTube channel. That's where all the Twitch streams go. Go subscribe. Go show some love. And if you haven't watched any of the playthrues yet, they're all up there.

in one playlist right now as well for your convenience. And they're fantastic. I highly recommend all of them. Honestly, it's some of the only content that I'm like in my free time. I'm just putting it on,

just letting it happen because like just the conversation's there, man. And what I love to is the amount of times like someone on the team will just pop in for a little bit just hang out and like leave. Like, ah, it's just awesome.

Let us know in the comments below what you think about Metal Gear Solid 2. What you think about blessings, no good, very bad video game month. And anything else do you want to talk about? If you just want to say hi to Andy, You know what? Don't be a coward. Say hi to Andy. Okay. We're about to do the Patreon exclusive post show. But until next time, bye.