Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Dying Light 2 Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: February 2, 2022

Get 25% off and zero delivery fees on their first order of $15 or more, when you download the DoorDash app and enter code KINDAFUNNY. We give our review of Dying Light 2 and early thoughts on Pokemon Legends Arceus. Intro Music By: Zachary Zizzo Time Stamps: 00:00:00 - Start 00:01:47 - Housekeeping 00:03:47 - Dying Light 2 Review 01:01:40 - Pokemon Impressions Epic Creator Code: KindaFunny Follow The Gamescast Team On Twitter: Tim Gettys: https://twitter.com/TimGettys Greg Miller: https://twitter.com/GameOverGreggy Blessing Adeoye: https://twitter.com/BlessingJr Mike Howard: https://twitter.com/SnowBikeMike Janet Garcia: https://twitter.com/Gameonysus Barrett Courtney: https://twitter.com/SadBoyBarrett Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up and welcome back to the kind of funny games cast. As always, I'm Tim Geddes and I'm joined by the new face of video games blessing at Ae Oye Jr. Was anybody else thrown off by that intro? Barrett hit me up and he was like, you know, I'd be getting a little bit more involved and like trying to make the game shows better. And he's been absolutely kicking ass if anyone hasn't noticed with all the B-roll and all the fun ideas and stuff. And one of his ideas, he's like, I want to do custom intros for some of our bigger reviews. And I'm like, that is a fantastic, fantastic idea. So there you go.

Our first one for Dying Light 2. We got a fun one plan for Horizon. I'm actually having a Carter Herald make a new custom jingle just for Horizon. So we'll see how that goes. But shout out. I was, killing the game. You know what I was inspired by? You know, I was out taking a stroll.

And I just said there's a hint of something in the air. You know what it was blessing. Yeah. Yeah. Baird, I know exactly what it was. Go ahead and say it. It was review season. That's what it was.

Review season. And this is one of the first reviews of the year, of course. So we are being joined by a very special mega cast here on the kind of funny games cast. It's not just the new face of video games blessing at a yoia junior. It's not just one of the coolest dudes of video games, Greg Miller. Hi, Tam. It's also the master of hype snow bike, Mike. Tim, what up?

Thanks for having. And one of my favorite people in the world. I haven't done a show with her in 2022. So I'm very excited to have this happening. And now the one and only, Janet Garcia. Yeah, what's good? Happy to be here. I lied. We did the game of the year together, but that was the best episode we've ever done to this show.

So let's have a little repeat here, right? Exactly. Exactly. That's the type of energy I'm trying to bring here because 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. You can get it on YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games or Roosterteeth.com. You could also get it as a podcast by searching your favorite podcast service for Kind of Funny Gamescast and we'll be right there for you. If you wanted to get the show ad free, if you wanted to watch it live, as it's being recorded. And if you want the exclusive post show,

you gotta go to patreon.com slash kind of funny games, just like our Patreon producers, Gordon McGuire, a new name. Shout out to you. Gordo! Big old Gordo! James Davis makes pranksy, Tyler Ross, Delaney, Twining, first responder, and D. Julian, the gluten-free gamer,

James Hastings and Casey Andrew. Bless, what do you have to say about Gordon McGuire? It's the fact that in Lisa McGuire, her friend is named Gordo, right? Yes, yes. Okay, that is what I want to say. Do you need the same person? Oh, 100%.

Yeah, it's them. It must be. It must be. It's got their answer for it. They married Lucy McGuire and they took her last name. Cannon. Good friend. If you don't have a dollar to toss our way on Patreon, that's totally cool.

You're out there buying video games. And if you're buying them on the Epic Game Store, make sure you use our Epic Creator Code kind of funny. And it helps us out a lot anytime you're buying anything there, whether it's the Fortnite bucks or the Rocket League bucks or any types of bucks, bucks, Epic Creator Code kind of funny. We love you and appreciate you. Kind of funny games cast is about to be crazy because bless, give me it one more time.

What is it? Tim, when you go outside and you look out, right? You look at the trees. You see the leaves changing colors. You feel the air on your skin and you can only know one thing, Tim. It is hashtag review season. And that means that there are going to be weeks where you're getting multiple kind of funny games cast in one week. You'll just have to stay on your toes and find out when all of that happens.

But there's a ton of games for me talking about. Some of them full reviews. Some of them partial reviews. some of them just impressions but you're gonna want to stay tuned right here to the kind of funny games cast for all of the latest and greatest speaking of all of that i want to talk to all of you about dying light to greg miller i'm going to give you the opportunity opportunity to choose who gets to go first oh oh i didn't see that coming i was prepped just to go first you know what i mean then you do that you can choose you yeah but then everybody's going to make fun of me

for doing that. No, kick it off. Big Doug, set the tone. Dying light two is all about the journey and not about the destination, Tim. Here's what I'll tell you, ladies and gentlemen, if you have been interested in dying light, too, if you enjoy dying light one, if you've just seen stuff and you've been like, oh man, a park or zombie game, that seems like fun. You're going to have fun with this game.

And I think it's important to put that out at the top because I'm pretty sure this review is going to turn into us beating its dead corpse, no pun intended, for quite some time. Because Dying Light 2 does the hallmark of what I, I always think of a PS2, PS3-era game, which is leave you with the worst possible taste in your mouth by giving you such an annoying ending, both in terms of the battle mechanics, them just throwing waves and waves of enemies at you, and then just an unsatisfying payoff to an otherwise great, really fun game to play. And so I wanted at the top that we all like this game. We all enjoyed our time with this game. And I've had individual conversations with everybody.

We'll see where everybody's actually at on the scales we go. But I do think we're all a little bit Matt, the journey ended. But it's important to point out that's like 20, 25 hours of gameplay we all had to get to that an ending to then be like, what the fuck? Blessing, you're the freshest here. You just beat the game today. Or we're trying to. I know you're running too many bugs, as we all did with the ending.

Where are you? So I did beat the game. I think the way I would describe my experience with dying light two is the fact that dying light two is a game that I absolutely love, but the game absolutely hates me. And the way that there are so many times where I felt absolutely disrespected by like, the story beats where I'm all in on the story, right? And this is especially for the first two-thirds of the game. I was all in on the story in the way that I think for where my expectations were at for dying life, too story, my expectations were on the floor. I wasn't expecting to get anything

worthwhile. I wasn't expecting to get characters that I would love or anything like that. And granted, right, like, I don't think I'm going to look back at this game and think about any of his characters or think about, think about any of the big story moments. The story in dying light too reminds me of how I feel about like CW stories in terms of like Arrow or The Flash where it is, I get a full season of a show that like has one or two, maybe nine out 10, 10 out 10 episodes, but then the rest is kind of like the garbage you watch just to get there.

That's kind of how I feel about dying light too, where like for a lot of it, I felt like the story was serviceable, right? It's kind of your run in the middle zombie story. Like there's infected. You got it, it's dying light, right? So you're like, during the night, the zombies are even more powerful and like you play as aiden who is infected and has to like you know

stay in the light stay in the uvd or to not turn and all this stuff it's exactly what you'd expect but i think there are moments of heart and moments of like oh shit i did not see that coming in the story that it's really exciting and really good and really hits but then right after you'll get another story beat where it's like all right i don't care about this or you'll get to the end and go all right well i didn't like that at all yet you know which is my story with it gameplay wise, I was really surprised by dying light two. I again did not have big expectations. I remember during E3 it was me, Mike, I think Andy, and I forget if anybody else is there, but we watched one of the streams that was dying light two and them breaking down what the actual gameplay was

going to be like, what existing in the world was going to be like, them talking about game states, right, you can partner with the survivors, the peacekeepers and what you can do to the world based on your decisions. And I think during that E3, I think all of us were like, oh, this looks pretty good. Like this actually is kind of exciting. And then over the year, I think we've just had time for our expectations to dampen as like there was no hype for it, I feel like, at least out of us. I know Mike, I think out of all of us was probably the most excited going in. But over the year, I think that excitement just dampened. And even from the audience, I wasn't seeing that many people get hyped for dying light too. And I think that is the proximity that

it is releasing with Horizon Redden West and Eldon Ring and all these. other games coming out. I think when you put it next to those, it's like, all right, am I really excited for dying light to you when I have Pokemon Legends RCS in my pocket? Maybe not as much, but getting into dying light to you, when you get into the motions of it, the game is actually really fun and really well designed in the way that like the skill tree abilities are really good. It's a lot of the abilities you expect with some thrown in there that I think really make the open world free running really sing in a way that, you know, this is kind of, this is kind of my Mir's Edge Catalyst in a way where Mirage Catalyst came out.

was open world free running and didn't live up my expectations as a big mirrors edge fan. This game, I think, does so much of what that game failed to get, which is design the world around the free running, right? Like, make it so that I can look around it and see any sort of building and kind of figure out how to get there, right? And half of it feels like a puzzle, the other half just feels completely natural in terms of why I want to get up this thing. And I think that's one of the enjoyable things about the game, right? And I said this, multiple times talking to you guys about it, that I think it's the best parkour that's been in a video game. And you talk about it being a puzzle and, you know, looking at it, I think most

of the time, the way they've designed rooftops, I felt like it was natural. Like, even though you can't, there wasn't a, this is the line to take. There were enough branching ones that I would go, go, go, and I would feel like I'm doing the right thing. I'm doing the right thing that is my own thing that I'm ad-libbing or improvving as I go. I was doing it without having to think. It wasn't get to a rooftop look around. I think they've improved on it since dying light one where I remember being a bit more stilted. Now, granted, I dropped out of dying light one a bit early just because I didn't love the world. I didn't love some of the characters and stuff like that. This one, I thought, even though it starts, same way, you know, you're underpowered. You slowly level up. You get new stuff. Things start

unlocking. I thought from the jump, it was fun to explore the city and I felt powerful. Janet, how did you think the gameplay felt? I think it was really good. I think, man, there's so many feelings attached to dying light too, because I was so up and down with this game. I will say holistically, it starts a little bit basic and only gets better from there. Like, the more I played, the more I started to love the game, both as I got more into it, but also I think the mechanics evolve really well. Like, I'm genuinely impressed by how much things fail to feel repetitive in this game, despite the fact that inherently it's the same stuff of you fighting and you have choices to make. That's the bread and butter of the game. But the way it continuously rolls out, like,

these little tutorial screens, like, 18 hours in, I was like, oh, you have a new thing. And I'm like, that's wild that they can keep giving me new stuff without also just like completely throwing me through a loop and making me feel like, oh, my God, I'm constantly having to, like, relearn anything. They tell you that here, here's how you use this thing. you're using it, it's now part of your tool set, and you're just going. I was really impressed. To bounce off that real quick, too. The tutorial screens, I think, are some of the best tutorial screens I've had in a video

game, where it is like, here's basically three sentences that'll tell you exactly what you need to do and how to do it, and it's over. And I don't feel like I need to read through a thing. And they have pictures too, which is great. Yeah, it's like the classic sort of like three up that a lot of open world games do. I think Far Cry did this quite a bit, but it just feels really like well ingrained. I think for me, it really, you know, just fell apart in that last third, both narratively and then mechanically and then both at the same time. I kind of feel like not only did not stick the landing, but it also like broke its leg and the leg won't be the same again.

Like that's how the game ended for me. And frankly, you know, I do recommend this, but it kind of pains me to recommend it because I know how bitter I was with the ending. And I'm like, I'm sad that I'm going to make people go through that. But then me saying that now, I'm like, well, I almost don't even want to tell you that because I want people to experience. because I had so much fun. I think there was so much heart there. But I really ended in a conflicted place. But generally, I was very impressed by what they did for the most part.

I think one of the things that we have to wrap our heads around with ending is that for us, rolling credits meant we're done with Dying Light 2. We can review it, move on to the next thing. Whereas I really feel like when I ended the ending, the way it ended, and like literally, I won't spoil anything, but it's like literally Poochie died on his way back to his home planet. Like that's like I want to the some of the story telling at the end of this game. I was like, what the fuck? And I made myself go play more of it.

And then even today, I played a little bit before this to get into it. And then Mike and I are streaming it tomorrow and getting back into going into these side quests running around, unlocking more inhibitors, which of course is the way you know you power up your character. Like, I'm forgetting that hour that was really bad.

But I understand that for so many of us, and for other people too playing, it will be their end thing. Should you do the machete order where you go back and play more of it? Also, you know, I'll take most people don't finish games. That's the other thing, too. This was a really dope game and you got no complaints. If I was playing this as a normal human being and not as we ever, I'm on a review and then I want

to move on to the next review, I would have done the Greg Miller thing, which is I'm going to put off golden path. I'm going to do all the side stuff. And the sides. I just did, you know, a memorial mission, which is like super early. You get really early that. I just never did. Went and did.

And I'm like, oh, you know, this was good. Like, this was good storytelling. This did make me feel a little bit more connected to these characters. Mike, you've been quiet. Where are you right now with dying light two? Dying Light 2 is a fine video game. It is a good bad and a bad good game. In my opinion, if you are a dying like fan like myself,

of course you're going to be excited to jump back in. I think Techland really improved upon what Dying Light 1 was, and I'll talk about that in the moment. But if you were just a fan looking in in and especially looking at the month of February, we have coming up, this is the perfect on-sale video game recommendation. That's what this is to me.

But when I look at the goods, yes, Techland built the ultimate parkour playground. They took what Huron was in Dying Light 1 and they took it to the sky. And that's literally the truth. They took it to the sky with incredible skyscrapers, awesome vistas, great parkour lines where you get into the flow. You're in the flow state and you just can't be stopped. You're going left. You're going right. You're jumping.

You're sliding. And it just feels great. And there's also an emphasis on just a slight elevation of combat from the first one, which I really, really enjoy, right? The foundation is there, the Dodge Block, the Perry. But once you go back into the Duffy and you go a little bit deeper, the combat you can see is actually elevated from the first one, and there's a big emphasis on stealth this time around, right?

They really encourage you to look at some of these open world missions where you're going to go in and try to find upgrade materials or maybe unlock a new area. And it's all about stealth, right? And I think it did a great job finding a balance of the flashlight, the UV light, and your ego. sense vision and trying to stealth around these sleeping zombies or even the renegades, which is another big improvement, right?

Dying Light 1 was really, the emphasis was zombies. This time around, it's a balance between humans and zombies. And you'll see that moment one, when you're in daytime, the zombies have gone down by about 50 plus percent. It is barren in the streets, zombie wise in the daytime. But it's replaced by humans with these renegades, which make it fun and exciting. then the nighttime they come right back in full force with the zombies. And I loved everything about the open world. I think they did a great job adding new tasks. I think they did a fun idea with making

these choices manner or when you take over a stronghold, you have a choice. You can choose group A or group B. And both of those are really cool to see of like one is clearly take back the streets with awesome fun gadgets and traps. The other is, hey, let's build upon this parkour playground and make it even more exciting to move around for you. So yeah, I want to jump in there, Mike. I want you to keep going, but I want to explain that system a little bit more, right? Because I think we talk about as if, you know, we've played multiple, multiple hours of this game. It's one of the things I wasn't expecting. Yeah, you can look at the trophy list and you can see, obviously, there's stuff take over windmills, which are like towers from the old far cries. And then, yeah,

take over water stations or electrical stations, right? Water towers are electrical plants. And the idea when you go into these, I think it speaks to something who Janet was talking about, or she was like, it fails to feel repetitive. What I loved about both of these buildings, and I can get into the windmills and everything else, too, is it never felt like the same thing. As somebody who, you know, over break platinum Far Cry 6 and love Far Cry 6. Far Cry 6, I think is a lot of fun and I love the gameplay mechanics of it. Every base, every time I went and blew up the anti-aircraft cannons in Far Cry, like it felt like I was doing the same thing.

Like I knew what was going to happen. I knew where I was going. Going into a power station, like get it, first off, you got to figure out how to get into it. There's always a big puzzle of how do you get into these places. You get in there and then it's multiple floors with a bunch of different lock doors and you need to start piecing together how to get from. one power station with a cable to the place it needs to plug in to then get to the other one and go.

And sometimes this had me going underwater. Sometimes it had me scaling the walls and doing all the kickflip tic tics and whatever they'll call on when you're parkoring and stuff. But I was having a great time and I was always thinking about it, right? Same thing for the water stuff too. And once you do this, Tim, you go, you get to the end of it, you then get to basically pledge it to either the peacekeepers, which are like the police of the area, the military, or the rebels that are the ones out there. And when you do it, they show it very clear because this game is,

And in your face, we're a video game, which I love for what they're trying to do here. They have a little thing on a little meter as you fill it in. And as you add each one of these things, it gives you a perk for the open world. And so the rebels, their stuff is all about making parkour better. So it is the fact. Cycline for us, thank you, Janet. Survivors. There's stuff like boxing bags on top of buildings that you could then run into and then ride them down to slam into the ground and then keep running on the ground now, stuff like that.

Meanwhile, the peacekeeper's stuff is all about like being able to arm the streets, have more weapons and distractions in there for zombies and rebels and stuff like that. And it's a really cool system. Sorry, Mike, back to you. Yeah, just to wrap up the goods. I think Techland has elevated the facial animations in the game. I will give them kudos on that of each one of the facial animations for the characters does look good, right?

And the biggest one, the biggest positive for me is they have a banging soundtrack. They have a soundtrack that nails the theme of what Dying Light is all about, right? There's hope and majesty in some moments. There's thrill and adventure. there's despair in other moments. And they really nailed this vibe of like at all moments, whether you're parkorn around or climbing up a skyscraper, they smack you with some great music to really elevate the experience.

And now on to the bad, right? Blessing used the word, the story is serviceable. And that's my biggest gripe right there because that is such a cop out, right? That's that like, eh, you know, and it's just not good enough. There's multiple times where there's characters that are super underdeveloped. Right? you show up to a mission and they're like, hey, you got to meet Jeremiah over here, man. He's our dude.

He's going to give you four line of dialogue and I need you to care about him because he might just be killed off tomorrow, right? And it's like, okay, well, that sucks. And that happens a lot in this game. And then on the flip side, right, there's these moments where they make you make these big time choices in the game. And you're like, okay, you want me to side with the group that just tried to murder me and spat in my face for being an outsider or you want me to side with the group?

We've never met yet. We haven't even talked to them yet. There's a great decision to choose from. And I felt like every decision was like that. Where it's like, this is such a bad decision making because clearly I'm going to side with the group I've never met. This side is awful, right? And then finally, the bugs, right?

Which was just so sad. It's like there's that charm of the tech land and open world charm that we all put up with but we expect better. And that's the bugs in the gameplay, right? And there's bugs from the final boss, which I had multiple bugs with. There's story bugs where one guy. dialogue for the entire game, a character you met multiple times, his dialogue

was just gone. He didn't even speak to me. It was just silence for three minutes, multiple times. And it's like, okay, I'm not going to connect with you nor if we make a choice, you're going because I don't know who you are, right? And to jump in like, yeah, I'm like, that happened to me too. I had a VO

drop out and then when it would drop out, subtitles would only flash for like literally 0.5 seconds. Like, I couldn't read them. And so I was, there would be sections of the game around. It would be at the end of you. I'm like, I don't know any of these people. I don't. know it. There was one where it was like a branching choice of like, cool, go to the objective or you can go talk to Frank. Like you can go talk to Frank and it's optional. So like obviously they're

going to give me more of a backstory, make me care about Frank. I run to Frank in his square popped up and plan on PlayStation and it just said please wait. And it always was please wait. And I went and came back in, did all reloaded. No, couldn't do it. And then you bring up the end. I think all four of us had bad, I mean, bugs that were like, okay, I got to restart this boss fight at the end of the game. Yeah, like those one that I sent Greg earlier today where it was, me in the final boss fight just stuck in a texture and I just couldn't get out and for that I was on I was later in the boss fight and if I restarted at that point I would lose all that progress right and so I kind of had a wait for myself to kind of get out of that situation and get back into

the fight in order to fix it which fucking sucks and it's it's it reminds me it's funny because I look at it and I compared a little bit to cyberpunk where cyberpunk for me in my experience with that game was a game that had bugs throughout especially because I was playing it pre-release before any of the patches had bugs all throughout but none of them were game-breaking that shut down my game. Whereas with Dying Light 2, I had bugs that would pop up here and there during the main experience where I was like, oh, that's a weird thing. Like I had the thing that Greg described where for a cutscene, it was a pivotal cutscene too. All my dialogue just cut out. And yeah, my subtitles would appear for half a second and then blink out and I'd be like, is this supposed to

happen? And then I restarted. I was like, okay, no, this is fixed. I had all that happen. But then for me, the worst thing was I got 18 hours into the game, finished admission, I tried to I put down my controller kills, it was the natural end of the game, restarted my game and saw that I got stuck in an infinite death loop because the game thought I was in the previous mission, even though it registered my progress

as going into the next mission, and it was an instance mission, and so I couldn't leave my boundaries. And so I just lost my save, and I had hit up the dev, and they did a really great job of being like, hey, you know, we're gonna fix, we're gonna patch this bug out,

which I believe as of now, that specific bug is patched out. They patched out. They emailed all reviewers about it, so it wasn't just you. Exactly. died for us. It happened to me too.

Your service. When I was on that mission, I was like, let me not mess this up. Don't do it. Don't do it. I was so stressed. And again, I think Mike mentioned it in his kind of thing. Oh, you know, it's Techland and, you know, the bugs they have are like, not charming, but kind of like the way we think Bethesda games are going to have bugs. I need to remind everybody, you know, a decade ago I reviewed Dead Island at IGN.

And this is blessing when he got to that game breaking bug, I was telling him like, this is wild because this is exactly what happened with Dead Island, except instead of blessing, it was Damon. where we were he was like i was like i'm reviewing this game and it's great despite i really enjoy i think i gave a date despite like the flaws or whatever and dam it's like i was really enjoying until i went to a building and couldn't leave because of an invisible door the door was open but i couldn't get out of it and that's the kind of stuff we're seeing it what was really interesting to me though is this happened to bless he told me and it's like a heartbreaking stomach sinking like this sucks that 18 hours is a lot of time to put in a game that overall sounds like you're not glowing about this isn't something this isn't the game of the year right at the time i was glowing about it

At the time, I was like, I fucking love this. At the time, you're thinking top 10. Yeah. You went back and you wanted to start over. Yeah. So, like, I got that bug. I emailed the devs and they were like, hey, we have identified this. We're working on a save that you can get back to on PC.

That'll have that same level of progress. But it'll be a few days in the working. And in that time, I was like, well, and this is before we got like any other games that were reviewing and anything. So I didn't have much else to play. And I was like, man, I was really enjoying that loop of dying light too. I'm just going to start from the get-go because I know, like, they're not going have my same choices in that save and my same skill tree and all that stuff so let me just start over and yeah

i put in an additional uh seven hours into a new save and then i jump back into the save that they provided just because i wanted to get it done for this review but that is how much i was enjoying my time with the game i was willing to replay the entire game again to get to that same point and get to the ending so i think that that's really telling that there is a quality game here and there's a lot of fun to be had that you wanted to keep playing and you wanted to do things differently i remember a couple years back, it must have been the same E3 that I first saw the the cyberpunk gameplay demo. I also got to see a dying light two gameplay demo. And one of the things that was the focus of the presentation was how much your

choices matter and not just for character relationships and narrative, but for kind of like the overall gameplay of the bases and kind of things that Greg and Mike were touched on a little bit. Do you think that this game fulfilled that promise, especially with them talking about the how many hours, how many lines of dial blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Do you guys think that the choices are impactful and that what you did was different than what everyone else on the panel did? Mike, you're nodding.

Yeah, I'll jump in really quick. Yeah, it does. And you can see it clear as day because it's really cool as you evolve this world and you make these choices, right? I sided with the P.K. And I know Greg's on the opposite side, right? You see it in the rooftops. Everything starts to be rebuilt.

And you can see that bridges that were once broken are now full again, right? Or down for me when you side with the. the PK, it's all about gadgets and traps. And so when I'm on the ground, instead of fighting for my life and worrying about what I'm doing, I can set off a trap or I can jump onto a turret. And so, yeah, you could see it in the world that the world was being rebuilt. And the PKs have these massive fortresses that look like they're straight out of a cathedral drawing, right? And like, you could see it on the rooftop for me.

So yeah, I thought every choice mattered. And I was jealous because if you choose with the survivors, you elevate that parkour world. But I don't know how cool it would look compared to more of the people. P-K, which is like, you know, a better look, I guess. For me, I think it ranges, too, where I get reminded of when Greg would talk about. I think it was either tell-tale games or Life is Strange, where it is the journey, the journey in making choices in those games often is you coloring in the page and not necessarily dictating what your ending is.

And I think it's a combination of that, where in the narrative, making choices, I thought was really fun and really cool. And that is to a certain point. I think toward the end, the choices get kind of ridiculous and follow back into what Mike was talking about, where it's like, why would I make this choice when I would obviously make this choice. I don't know who these people are. But also like in in the places where it doesn't matter as much, like in side quests, right, where it's like, hey, this guy is poisoning the water. Do you want to tell on him or do you want to side with him because he has a

reason for doing so? Right. And it's like, I kind of like making this choice because I get to see the outcome of what this side quest that is ultimately non-consequential to the story, but it is like consequential to that moment. It is coloring in that page of that moment in the game. And I think those things do work pretty well. But then there is also that overarching what Mike is talking about in terms of, yeah, siding with the peacekeepers, siding with the survivors. I sided with the survivors because I was all in on the parkour stuff. And like, I was even caring about the story at that point, even though I think story wise, I'll still side with the survivors over the peacekeepers. Gameplay wise, it mattered enough to where I was like, cool,

yeah, I want all the parkour stuff in the world. I don't really care for the for the survival stuff because I'm just here to get to point A to point B because I think that's where the game shines, where somebody like Mike, who might be enjoying the combat way more than I am, is like, no, this is where the game shines. I want to push in all the way in there. And that honestly reminds me a little bit of, like, earlier this week, I put out a tweet that's like, man, Breath of Wild is really one of the most influential games of all time. I said it kind of like jokingly, but kind of seriously at the same time as I'm playing

these open world games. And like Dying Light 2, I think, is kind of an example of a game that identifies what it does well and leans into that. Where it is, gameplay-wise, it is the park horror and the combat. Those are the two main things you're doing. and everything gameplay-wise, I think, revolves around that, where it is choosing the side with the PKs, the survivors. That is going to increase the combat or the parkour, right? Greg mentioned finding the inhibitors and looking for those and bases in town, right?

That reminds me of the shrine system, where it is find the inhibitors, and then you can use those inhibitors that you find to increase either your health or your stamina. And again, that falls into those same two systems. I feel like along the skill, the skill tree does that as well, right? Where it is two skill trees, one is for combat, one is for parkour. They know exactly how they're designing the game. And I think them really honing in on that focus of we want to make these two things shine brightly throughout the experience and make these two things the thing that people take away from this game really does go a long way in terms of making it such a fun game to play because they know exactly what to focus on. I think they do a good job to like forcing you to have balance

within those two. Obviously there are the examples of the factions where you can kind of just pick park horror combat in that scenario. Obviously you can also like mix them up. You don't have to only pick. You could have like this this windmill is going here. This other things going here. So you can't have a more balance like play through in that sense. I always pick the survivors. I was like, ain't a world where I'm signing with the cop military. Nope. I'm good.

Who is survivors? I don't even care what you're offering. You could offer me nothing. I'm still going to pick the survivors. But that's just me and how I want to play it. But I think what was fun and at first I was a little frustrated by this, but the way they do the skill tree is there's two separate XPs with the two separate lines. They're very much two separate trees instead of just being like a big map of two different lines or

branches. So you have a combat XP and parkour XP and those feed into those skills. But then also you have the inhibitors, which you need to level up your stamina and your health. And what I think is really smart is that when at first it was frustrating, but then I'm like, now this is a good idea, is they lock some of the skills behind a certain level of health and stamina. So I did get to the point where at first I'm like, I'm going all in on stamina because I think that's going to progress me more. And the combat isn't too difficult anyway. And then I'm like, okay, well, I'm locked in on my combat, I want some of these skills as I'm getting these combat points anyway. Can't use them for parkour, so I might as well build up my health. And then later on the game,

I'm like, I'm so glad that the design sort of funneled me into a more balanced skill set, because otherwise, maybe I would be dying a lot more. And I'm like, I'm glad I got this help that I wasn't looking for earlier. So I think that was really good. In terms of choices, I felt like it's weird. I don't know how much replay value there really is in terms of the choices. It was fun like, you know, texting Greg and Bless and being like, oh, this thing happened. It's like, oh, I didn't do that at all.

Like this other scenario occurred. But ultimately, I think we're all taking different paths to the same place. like, okay, we're all going to the grocery store. But like, I took a bicycle there and like, maybe I saw something different and I took my car. Like, it is slightly different. And I think there's a lot of fun to be had in that, but I don't know how like deep it really cuts.

That said, I think this would be like the most fun game to stream for an audience because I was like in it with the drama. Like, was it always sensical? No. Did I care? No, I'm like, this is life is strange, but you're cutting people's heads off. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Before we move on real quick, let me tell you. you about our sponsors. This episode is brought to by DoorDash. If you've been listening to any kind of funny podcast, you know that we absolutely love using DoorDash. It's so great. It's so simple to just be able to order whatever food we want and then have it delivered right to our house, along with the restaurants you love. You can now get groceries and other essential items delivered with DoorDash. You can get some drinks, snacks, and other household items in under an hour. With over 300,000 partners, you can support your neighborhood go-tos. We're always talking about Balcato Curry in San Francisco. Of course, ordering is easy and your items will be left outside your door when you choose contact list delivery drop off,

whether it is the local favorites or the nationwide chains like things like Popeyes, Cheesecake Factory, all of that. For limited time, y'all can get 25% off and zero delivery fees on your first order of $15 or more when you download the Door Dash app and enter code kind of funny. That's 25% off up to a $10 value and zero delivery fees on your first order when you download the DoorDash app in the app store and enter code kind of to funny. Don't forget, that's code kind of funny for 25% off your first order with DoorDash, subject to change terms apply. Blessing. Well, I wanted to bounce off the choice thing for a second, because like I thought it was fascinating actually talking to you guys at the same time as all of us were playing, right, and figuring out, okay, how did things go for you? Because I was talking to Mike about a certain choice he made of, hey, do you want to save this character or leave this character

behind? And I think it was the thing of eventually we'd get to the same place, but it was, hey, that changed how we met certain characters, right? Like me and Mike met Rosario Dawson in completely different ways, which I thought was really cool. And then there were discussions I was having the Greg in terms of, man, Greg, I'm fighting this person. How many times do I got to fight them? Greg's like, oh, you fought them? And I was like, wait a second. Like, this isn't a thing.

I'm in the same choice. Yeah, I think those things are really cool. I'm sure like by the end of it, our stories probably ended up in the same place, though I'd be curious to have that conversation. But I think there's enough choice there to really actually justify them. Greg, I know you have something to say that. I have a question that I want everyone to answer real quick before we get to that. Speaking of what Bless was just saying there about the end, do you guys, you all clearly dislike the ending.

Do you think that different choices could have been made to change that? And the other question is, do you think that the ending is going to hit for people? Or is it just you guys didn't like it? Oh, my God. No, I'll start. Greg, go ahead. I mean. I'm going to say something Greg's going to say.

I don't even know what Greg's going to say. Yeah, I saw it was already shaking her head, right? So no, I don't think the choices would change this ending. This is very much the, you get to the end. And like the gameplay ending and where we leave Aiden and where he wraps up some of his things are going to wrap up the same way. It then gets to this thing of the game then gives you the different shades at the end like I was talking about of like, here's what happened to this character. And this would happen to that thing. I think there's differences there.

I've already talked to the team at large about that of what mine said very specifically. And back to a little bit of what he was talking about. in terms of will it hit for people no i can't imagine anybody where this would hit for it and i oh it's like you know we did a tic-tok a quick version of this that everybody you know read the script for already but like what i said there right is like it reminds me of your one of your guilty pleasure zombie movies 80 zombie movies right where you enjoy the movie but like it's nonsensical and you get to the end like that's what this ending is and there's no choice that's going to suddenly make any of that makes sense or make it go where it needs to be and so like that's the thing about i did

find interesting when we finally did end this, and we all did get to talk about it, was going through these. Because I wrote down every choice I had in the game when it was like, do you pick this person or this person? Are you going to do this thing? The guy asked, are you going to run and try to do this thing? And looking back at those now, back to the story, the story service. Well, the story is forgettable. It's right there. Like, I look at some of these and I'm like, I don't remember these two characters. I chose these people, but they just don't matter to me. They didn't do anything. And like, yes, it can lead to something cool. Like, there's one. in here that it's the one that Janet you texted me about originally where you're like,

holy shit, wait a second, this game's getting good. It was like, that was like the standout choice, I felt of like they gave me two characters that I met at a, you know, a crafting booth or whatever, and then their story evolved and changed and when it got to the end, I was like, that actually is a good one. I'm still making this choice because I'm doing that, but I do feel bad about it. But that was the one, you know, that I felt that way about. I think, you know, we mentioned Rosario Dawson's character. I think she's the standout to all this. I thought for sure, playing this game, she doesn't get introduced for a while. And I was like, oh, man, this is going to be one of those things where she shows up for like one scene and that's the thing, blah, blah,

and then when they introduced her, she's there the whole ride. She's like a main character alongside you talking to you do it. Like, you get some heartfelt moments I thought with her. I liked her backstory. Like, I enjoyed the stuff that happened with her and then again, they fuck it up in the end, but that's a, well, spoiler cast at some point, I'm sure. I was thinking maybe we do PSI Love News Post Show next week as the spoiler cast for this so people can pop in. But we'll figure it out. four hours that we're going to need to get unpack everything that but like the one thing i want to call out though the one thing i want to call out tim is like you brought up that e3 demo and i'm pretty sure it's the same demo you and i went to right where you got to the water station and you were like do you

flood the city or do you not flood the city i think we're in the same demo right and i was like we're in different demos but it was with uh brit from uh what's good games but we and i'm sure at the same time and yeah and i i asked her you know it was an e3 story that was traded quite a bit of like, wait, so if you flood the city, do you eliminate all those quests and all that stuff? They're like, yeah, like, you'll totally change the face of the map. That shit is gone. Like the game has been, the scope has been, in that this, again, now, I'm not trying to at all come out and say that like, this is false advertising.

They haven't said anything about that recently. Yetty, yeah, yeah, out of video games, change scopes all the time. That's a vertical slice. Also, that was literally four years ago. 15, 14, or 2016, we're going, the other, I'm going the wrong way. Yeah, it was a while ago, and they haven't done it. But I think it's important because up until I started playing this game, I was very much talking about this thing.

I'm like, oh, yeah, I don't know, dying like one. The choices seem cool if you're going to drag, and like when 500 hours of gameplay, it was like, oh man,

yeah, that makes sense if you're drastically changing the map. You are not drastically changing the map. You're putting different set dressing on it like Mike was talking about. Like, I, it's funny to hear Mike say the towers and all this stuff because I'd been watching a preview on another YouTube channel the other night.

And they were showing some stuff. And I was like, did they change that too? Did they scope that back? but that makes sense of what Mike's saying. I never saw one of the peacekeepers would have built their shit into. So it does look different that way. But again, we're talking window dressing.

The main meat and potatoes of the game is the same throughout. Can we talk about hours? Because I'm curious because there was that the whole debacle of them saying, it's going to take 500 hours for you to complete this. And then they're like, well, actually, it'll take 80 hours for a regular playthru, plus side quests. And they're like, no, it'll take like 20 hours. I'm curious on how long it took you guys.

Because for me, if I do the math, because I had a switch to PC because I got the new save, I think I in yeah I think to to mainline all the way through it probably took me around 25 hours 26 hours something like that I was that's right I'm money yeah I was at 27th yeah you know PlayStation loves the fudge your numbers on your profile and I did there's a real yeah they have a load and also what I realize what I realize might be what the PlayStation thing is is that like I think a lot of us had to play this game offline for most of it because of embargo or whatever and like I think when you're offline on PlayStation. I don't think it counts for hours.

Like if you, not even if you appear off. Someone needs to investigate why the PlayStation cannot tell the time. Yeah. It's like the fifth console. Why the fuck? Oh, okay. Well, there you go. I've put 30 hours and 55 minutes in.

So there you go. No bike, Mike. I have a separate one I want to talk to the panel about here. Oh, real quick. Before that, I just want to, I've done 30 hours in the game. That was mainly main pathing. And because like today, like when I was getting ready for this, I started going and like my quest log is just chalk full side quest quest,

going all the way back to level one, even though that sounds maybe crazy, I'm level five and a half right now because the leveling system is so fucking weird in this game, but that doesn't matter. But I have a ton of shit to do. And back to what we're talking about earlier, like, I want to do it.

I am excited to stream this game for three hours tomorrow with Mike. I'm excited to do other stuff. When will I do it after we do the stream? I gotta go to review season. Can you smell it outside? It's review rain. You know what I mean?

I can't get away from it. I can't get away from it. I also want to mention right on top of that. That means saying my 20, six, 27 hours isn't even counting the seven hours I put in on that new save on PS5, which my plan was to finish this game on PC, just so I can talk about it during the review, and then go back to that original save and just do side quests and not worry about having a main line. And that is something that I kind of still want to do. And but it is review season, right? Like I don't know

when I'm going to actually, in reality, do that. But it's something that like if I didn't have all these different games, I'd be open to doing because I just like existing in the world. And so exactly. And like, again, to talk about why we're recommending this game, even though we have shit on it a lot and we'll continue to, right? Because it is like a zombie movie. Like, you know, it can be, it's pop for filler. I do that constantly.

Maybe they'll figure it out at this point. For me, it's this idea number one of like, yeah, I'm putting it down and I'm going to go do all the reviews and stuff, but I see myself coming back to it. And if the, the collectibles on the trophy seem like, hmm, that sounds like it might be a bitch. And maybe there was probably missable ones,

but I don't know. I need to see a guide when somebody actually commits to it. But more importantly, I think it's worth pointing out of like, remember dying light one came out in 2015, was supported through 2020 with content. So I am expecting like, this game to get updates throughout.

Is that real? Holy. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't like consistent like monthly, monthly stuff, but it was like they added cars. They added more multiplayer. They did this thing. They bought, like they put in like a new line. So I really live in that game.

And that's kind of what they were talking, not to defend the marketing or whatever, but when they were talking about the 500 hours and stuff, I think part of that was they wanted to speak to like that hardcore community that like really lives in dying light. But yeah, Mike, you seem like we were going to say something. Oh, yeah.

I want to talk about the parkour for a second and talking about the new equipment, of course, which is the glider. And so for me, we return with the grappling hook, which I actually think is a huge downgrade from Dying Light 1. It is a different grappling hook. It is not a attach something and pull yourself into it. It is more a touch anchor and then swing yourself, right? And I think for Dying Light 1 fans who are coming off of that,

if you've played it recently, you're gonna come to this, you're gonna be like, man, this grappling hook sucks. And I will say you grow with the grappling hook, you understand that. But for my biggest disappointment, it is the glider. I think the glider is actually the weakest part of the game. It is slow. It is tough to traverse.

And I think they missed the mark where it should have been a little bit tighter, a little bit faster, more agile. You're going to notice that the glider becomes more of just a last ditch parachute before you fall and die. And I'm telling you, Greg Miller, this is the worst glidering game right here. Go give the resources to it and upgrade it. What do you do, you clown? I will say, I'm curious about that with you.

y'all because overall I did enjoy the progression in the game and I never felt too underpowered. But I will say I felt like I didn't really have a whole lot of money slash resources to do a lot with my tool set. The main thing I personally did was I'd pick my highest, like, you know, grade weapon slash damage weapon and then I would, if I could, because not every weapon is customizable, I would imbue it with like, oh, this has like an ice thing or a poison thing. I'd rock that till it broke. And then I'd be like, who's next?

And I just keep lining them up. And I'd sell the, like, you know, and I do think you get like a lot of inventory space and you have a stash. So it's pretty convenient. But mostly like I just picked up everything I could find everywhere all the time, which I love doing in games. And then I just sold my lowest weapons like periodically. And then I just kept picking them up and selling them.

But I didn't really find like I looked into like the glider stuff. And maybe it's because I didn't loot enough of like the zombies. Because sometimes you loot them and you get nothing, which is kind of like, well, then why am I going to loot them? But then sometimes you get a rare coin that you can use late. So I personally didn't end up updating like upgrading my glider. or making many upgrades other than I think I upgraded the lock pick. And that was kind of it.

But I'm curious as to like, what was that progression like for y'all? And did you enjoy the cadence that that came at? I'll jump in. Like, I was surprised there wasn't more upgrading and more repairing of your weapons. I was the same way. I love this machete. I've done these cool things to it. And then when I was like, oh, I guess I can't.

Okay. Like, I got over it and moved on. And like the weapons, I feel like you do are plentiful. Like, I honestly never sold any. I dropped a bunch because I would just let it fill up and I would go through and kill stuff and then I was wasting money you're leaving money on the table I know I know I know I'm gonna come to me for my PS plus redemptions but you're just

drop it out of the world what I'm not gonna you're not gonna run you're not gonna run back to the base in the middle of miss mission I don't like you can swap y'all act like swapping it's not a possibility you can get out of here but then yeah I did I did up upgrade stuff at the craft master but again it was the same thing of like that's actually I felt kind of buried. Like they didn't make a big deal about it. So like I did it, but like,

even that I was, while we're talking, I had one upgrade left in the pair rider. So I went and looked at it. It's like, oh, well, I still need to go get military tech. So it's like, I have the money for it. I just don't, I have a lot of money. But like, you know, I don't have the tech for it. So but again.

Where did you know? Big money. Everybody. Everybody. What are the trophy is having like a million dollars? And that's when I knew I wasn't gonna ever plot. I'm like, what am I like starting about business? Like what's going on?

Where is this? income coming from you could have asked me if this game had currency and i'd be like i don't know i don't think i bought one thing in this game yeah and like that's the thing like anyway i feel like i want to hear from more y'all's experience with that but see i talking about the weapons i think is interesting because yeah i had the same thing where i was just going through weapons like crazy like it reminds me a breath of the wild where it's like cool like i'm breaking weapons but i don't care because i got the next one the one thing that i did that i do that i was bummed about in terms of not being able to repair weapons was the fact that yeah you would find some

weapons that would have slots in them so you can add in like a bolt ability or a fire ability. And that would literally give you basically magic powers where you can shoot fire out of your wrench or you would like be able to hit somebody and like have electrify them and shit like that. And that stuff I thought was cool and I wish there was more of that. And maybe it is the fact that like maybe if you do more way more of the side quests, maybe you start unlocking even more of that stuff. But for how I play, which I feel like is was a very normal way to play aside from losing my save and getting a fake save.

You know, like I took my time in the way that I like to take time with with games. and did probably like 70 to 80% mainlining. And I didn't find anything that was over the top like, oh shit, here we go. Here's a big wrench that has like, turns people into zombies or something crazy like that, right? I was looking forward to something over the top. You know, again, Dying Light 1 didn't hit for me originally.

And I think it's both the time, the setting of the game, a few different things, right? But I mean, I was a big Dead Island fan. I reviewed both Dead Island and Dead Island Riptide. And so I was like, all right, cool. I'm going to start crafting crazy weapons here. Like, I'm going to get to that point. And that never happened.

Yeah, I put, I put electricity mods on every, why, you know, I unlocked or got the blueprint for electricity mods for the main part, the middle part. And so once I had those, I didn't bother investing in any other ones, right? I just ran those on whenever I needed to. Because, like, weapons are breaking slowly. But I wasn't using crazy weapons and doing stuff that way. But then also, I felt like, there's so much stuff of like, all right, cool, here's a fire resistance booster.

And here's this thing. And, like, none of that was. was ever important. You know what I mean? Like, and the same thing where it's like, you can put these different mods on your weapons, the electricity, the whatever, and that's cool. And I enjoy the same way of like, you know, whatever is my critical hit then arcs electricity to everybody else that's there. That's neat. But I was expecting that to build to all right, cool, you're going up against an enemy that is going to be only weak to poison. So I really need a poison weapon here, blah, blah, blah. And maybe like for better or worse, that could go either way, right? Of being

annoying if I never had that stuff to get there or also what it was. I'm just like, cool, I'm just hacking everything to death or hitting everything, which is a Techland game again, you know, this is, this is the fourth one that's like this. So we can't be like, well, what the fuck are they doing? Like, when this is, they know what they are and they, we all keep buying the game and liking the game.

Snowmike, Mike, what's something we haven't talked about yet that you want to talk about about this game? Ooh. You know what? Everything has been talked about that is on my big to-do list. I will just bring up one final thing about bugs, and it is, has to do with parkour. And the parkour is so pivotal in this game, and it's the best part about this game.

But the moment that the bugs start to kick in and the parkour doesn't feel right, that's the most frustrating the game will get, right? And there's these really interesting windmill puzzles where you're climbing up the side of this, right? And now you have to trapeze artists and get momentum to swing onto the other thing. And the moment that the bugs affect the parkour, now you jump sideways. You jump backwards. You never jump to where you actually want to go. And I found that to be the most frustrating.

part of the best part of the game, right? And that was a really big downfall for me. But we've touched on everything that I wanted to touch on. I want to go around before we end the dying light two section of the game, moving on to Pokemon. I want to go around to everyone. What's your favorite thing about this game? And if someone else says it, you can say it too.

That's okay. But I just want to know what's your favorite thing about the game. Because listening to you all talk about this, like clearly you enjoy this game a lot. There's just a lot of really big problems with it. it. Who wants to start? My thing is I wonder to how big of a problem it is. Like again, and I'm not trying to at all give it a get out of jail for your card. Everything we said is 100% true here. I didn't have the, my bugs were pretty much limited just to the final fucking hour, which was annoying and shit, but better than most tech landing. Like, so I don't mean to make such

a mountain out of a molehill of that. It was just that that final hour really drives home. Hey, we can't tell a story. Hey, we don't know how to end this thing. Hey, our performances aren't that great. Hey, I don't like fighting the humans. And for my ending, it was like, cool. Oh, fuck. Slow him down. He's got to fight. Kill all these guys to advance in this room. All right. You go in another room. Kill all these guys. Oh, fucking Jesus. All right. You know what I was running around. Clack. It's, and it was that classic video game shit of like, man, it's 10, 45, 11. I probably got 30 more a minute to cut to 1230. And I'm like, end. And why am I fighting this monster, man? That sucks. He was getting trapped in the wall. I think Tim said a good thing.

So what was your favorite thing? No, no, no. I'm saying, I wasn't even getting into my good thing. I was saying, remember, Tim was like, it sounds like you really enjoy it, but it has some major problems. And I'm like, does it have major problems or do we all have the same problem

that really just it magnifies what the problem is? And I go back to the thing of like, this is a game that I love that hates me. Where, yeah, like, it's just the fact that like we love it so much that we're just disappointed when it doesn't work because it's a game that when it works, it works so well, right? We're not mad.

We're just a little disappointed at like a lot of things. in the game. I'm Janice a little mad. But I think for me, the thing that I'd say is my favorite thing about the game is honestly like the open world structure. I think it nails what it's trying to do in terms of being that middle point between a fallout style open world RPG, but then also being an action game that functions as an action game and you are parkhoring in a world that is built for parkhoring and you are getting into the action bits and it does feel good when it works. Like I honestly think this game is really impressive. And honestly, in the cutscene moments even, right, where it is you going through the dialogue trees, making the

choices, the way that character is a moat, the way that the game looks, I think is beautiful. I think they nail so much about the formula of the game and creating a game that I think sticks this landing and so much of the gameplay. And I think the thing that, the thing that comes back to like the man, we're not mad just to this point is the fact that I think we can see so much more for this game. Like this game, this game would have been in my top 10. A week ago when I was talking to Greg and I was talking to other people, right? When we were talking about this game, I was like, dude, I think this game might be my top 10 games. to the landing. Yeah, and you get to the last few hours of the game and I'm like,

I maybe not because I lost my save because I had all these bugs because I hated the final boss fight because I hated where the story went, right? Like so much of it, if it worked, would have put it in top 10 territory, but it's still that same stuff where I'm like, no, I recommend this. Like people should play this. And so I think that's my favorite thing about the game is all the things that it does nail. And I think so many people are going to enjoy so much those things that it does nail. Janet. Yeah, I think too, you know, I actually think I like the story more than anyone else here. And so I'm going to say my favorite thing is the drama.

I love the drama of it. And I think, you know, Snowbank Mike nailed it where there are times where they force you too often, I think, into instinct versus info, where it's like, who has like the right vibe? And so I'm like, why don't they know enough to have an informed decision? And of course, one can argue that like that happens in life. But I think in game, that can become frustrating if you do that too often. And I do think they do it a little too often. That being said, I was here for it. Like, I was glued to the screen playing this game.

I was like eating up the drama where at any second they're like, no, I didn't kill this person. How do I know you? You're the, you know, like suddenly the guns turned on me. I'm like, maybe I'm the bad one. Maybe the person I'm working for is double-crossing me. I'm rolling with this guy. Just kidding. He's dead.

Now who's whatever. I want a more. It's too late. We gotta keep going. Like, I loved the drama of this game. Again, I want to repeat that if you like streaming stuff and you're, you know, you know, know you see the gameplay and you're interested in this it would be such a fun ride to do a full let's play of this because i i was entertained at my own reactions playing this alone in my apartment i'm

just like oh my god like texting people i i was loving i sent you guys a video like when i was playing there was a certain scene that i got to you and because i'm playing on playstation my mic just automatically records me uh and so i saw one scene and the scene was honestly my turning point with this game story where i went from being like oh this is serviceable to where i was like oh this is awesome this is fucking great and like during that scene, I was like speaking verbally. I was like, oh shit. Oh, no, they didn't. Oh, I can't believe. And like, all that stuff got recorded. And so I went back and watched the clip again. I like heard myself and I was like, this is funny. I'm sending this to Janet and Greg. Both of them were like,

this is amazing. There are so many fun surprises in it. And I think, you know, again, I honestly think the story is more than serviceable. I think it's actually, it's surprisingly good. It just started off a little too melodramatic. Because you're not used to the world. And you're like, I don't know, one person's like, it's the end of my life here, take this and run. And then meanwhile, I'm like, I hit someone. when they fly 80 feet, like where react here? It feels a little bit, but it works. You know, I'm working through my written review now to post up tomorrow over on my site Pet of Pixels.

And I describe it as chocolate cake and a lager beer where that sounds kind of nasty together. Like it wouldn't work, but it totally does because it cuts the right way. And that's my favorite thing about dying like too. I think the parkour is great. I think the melee starts basic, but as evolved. There's a lot of good things about this game.

But what I personally really loved about it was the drama and maybe the decisions didn't lead me to a totally different crazy ending experience. You know, I still hated the end, but I had fun in in the drama of it. I even paused the game during all those decisions. I cheezed my way through this. They had a timer. I'm like, not for me. Hit pause. Okay, what do I know? What don't I know? Who can I trust? Who do I not want to? I really love that aspect of it. That's awesome. That's my favorite part. Yeah, I agree with that 100%. Mike, what was your favorite thing?

Parkour playground, combat and stealth. And of course, the open world. They really added a lot of things to do and keep you active even after the game or before you wrap up the game. So there's a lot of fun things to do. The elevation of the puzzles have been great. And the one thing that we haven't been able to talk about because we didn't get a chance to do it is co-op. Right. You hear all of our excitement in the gameplay.

I can't wait to get with Greg, Blessing and Janet, or three more of my friends and just who can do the best line. Who can find the nastiest, gnarliest jump off point? Because co-op will be fun with three friends. And so that is my favorite parts of the game. So now before we get to. Hold on to say my favorite part. I was just telling you, the one thing I just want to say is,

you're listening to your chance complaining about it. Well, I wasn't complaining. I was saying, I would make a good point. For me, it's the fact that I'm still going to keep playing after this. And I still want to go and get every windmill. I still want to go and get every facility. Like I want to pop those trophies. It's still like existing in this world.

And I still want to run through and make the city better, if that makes sense. So I still want to do that. And I think it's a great whatever you want it to be. Like, you know, after we had beaten it and I was getting ready for the review, you know, I sat there and I put on This American Life and I just went around and did windmills. And like those windmills, I think are so great in terms of, you know, I didn't have the bugs Mike was happening. So for me, it was just, how do I get up there? Okay.

Sometimes they're super simple. Other times it would be five, ten minutes of me failing and falling and trying to figure out what exactly it wants me to do when. You have to time the time when you're getting on the platforms to make the jumps. So I thought that was great. And I think that's really enjoyable. Did you ever do the like supermarkets or like the dark hollows or whatever they're called? Like the places that you would find the inhibitors that they would say to go to. But like for the four, the ones that are like four rooms or four levels or whatever.

Yeah, they're basically, they're basically like what I would I equate to to like this all the shrines of like, hey, come back here during the nighttime. A bunch of those. How are look? Because I didn't actually do as much of those. I never weighed. Yeah, I just didn't like going around at nighttime. So I was like, oh, maybe I won't do as much of this. Mike, let me know.

Well, I'll do like those. Those are the ones that capture the excitement and the adrenaline and the scared nature from the first one, right? I think the nighttime in this one is not as scary, right, because of the big world, but they capture it in these dark hollows, right? That's when you're at the edge of your seat. Your heart is pounding. You're using the eagle sense. You're flashing your flashlight on occasionally. This is where they found that mad.

they had in the first one, and that's in the dark hollows. Gotcha. Yeah, 100%. Like, I'm right there with my same thing with like taking down subways, right? Where it would be, all right, the door's right over there, but I know it's going to be locked. So how do I get around these zombies without waking them up? Or if it's humans, how do I take them all out and get over there and do it? But yeah, some of those inhibitor like, GRE facilities, like, I was like, oh, do one of these.

And I went in there. I'm like, oh, it's a little bit higher level, no big deal. And then I'm like, because you get four at one go, the inhibitors, the upgrades. And I was like, cool. And I started doing it. I was like, oh, like this is like four different floors. Like I need, and when I finally got to the very bottom, it had a bunch of like super zombies that just killed me.

I was like, you know what? I will come back when I'm leveled up, but I understand what I'm getting into. And I appreciate, again, the different scope of it, right? You can go to some that are just inhibitors you break in. There's a little, a tiny little safe that you have to find the code in the room and open and it takes you four seconds or it's these ones that can be giant, giant ones. When you say subway, when you exported the subway, would that, would that unlock fast travel for you?

Yes. Correct. So like I played most of this game without fast travel and like it's funny because I almost brought this up during PSW a week ago, but I didn't know if this is like embargo or if I can say this or not. And I didn't know. I was like certainly this can't be true because like I played it and I was like, why is there no fast travel? I am running from place to place, which I didn't mind because it's literally like that's what the game is for. It's parkour. But like it wasn't until I got the save that Techland provided for me where I opened up the map and I was like, oh, what are these green things? And I was like, wait, you can fast travel in this game. I had no idea. Yeah, I think, you know, just for like last thoughts, that that is one thing I lightly want to touch on because I think what works well is because the parkour is so fun and like I didn't have people the glider, but also I love someone to be desire. So I think my problem. Thank you, damn. You know, like, you know, like the way I spun, the way I would like sometimes just spin into it. It took me a minute to figure out exactly how to activate it. But it all jumped and then click in and it wouldn't come out like. Exactly. It don't, you know, you get that you get the swing of things. I did use. This is Mike. footage right here right quick tip of everybody back on the stick mike bring your feet up you can go

further quick tip reset the change reset the uh controls go in go anti-inverted or not inverted whatever it is and you'll have a better time with the glider i promise you you change the controls but with the fast travel i i kind of give it a little bit of a pass because i think the traversal is so fun that i'm like it's fine but i only locked unlocked like one or two of the stations and i just feel like making me work that much for fast travel when the fast travel also like isn't that way be like there's a couple stations spread fairly far apart like the only one that I really was the one by like one of the bars where I'm like oh I'm always going there so like let's make sure we have this one yeah and then the fact that you also have to do it you basically have to do it at

night because that's when the interior buildings are like less occupied I'm like that you're making me do a lot for something that I feel like I should be able to just do but I like exploring enough that I didn't mind, like, I just didn't do that many of them for that reason. That was my beef with it, and that's kind of why I didn't do as much as like Greg and Mike, because it was the thing of, cool, the inhibitors will give me more health and stamina. And then, yeah, if I do like the subway, then I guess I get more fast travel. But there was no point in the game where I felt like that was as necessary to my experience. I felt like I had enough of the health and stamina stuff.

And I just didn't feel like, there were like only a few times where I was like, I really need fast travel. Otherwise, I was fine running around everywhere because running around everywhere is fun. So now. officially before we move on to Pokemon. I want to go around and everyone give their thoughts on the official kind of funny ratings of where this game lands. And what are the official kind of funny?

We have a four scale rating blessing. Do you want to run us through those ratings? Oh man, sure. I do because I remember them. It is four ratings, right? It's based on recommendation at the bottom is don't bother. Above that is worth checking out or we're trying out. Above that is recommended and then above that is game with your contender.

Yes, exactly. I think third is like a wafer, isn't it like something with a sale or something? Like check out of when it's on sale or something? I think that's like screencast. I think they do like movies. Yeah, three is recommended. Okay. We're working to do the scales, everybody.

But like the scales right there. Don't bother worth trying out recommended game of the contender. Who's first? Oh, I'll like, what's happening? I'll start first because I'm probably the lowest. I'm gonna put this at a number two. This is worth checking out if you're a dying light fan. Yes, you're gonna wanna jump in.

If you are looking at February or you're just apprehensive on this, this is a for sale game, go find it on sale in my opinion. So we're checking out if this is the kind of game that you want. It pains me to say that I do recommend this game only because, again, it really falls apart the end. Like I cannot understate how badly this ending is. I literally, and I'm not exaggerating, people can attest this who are in my apartment. I was crying, laughing at the ending of this game,

which to the point, again, the stream vibes, I'm like, I was entertained in a way like this was, but yes, it was really, really an awful ending. But I still recommended because I think the highs were really incredible. And I think the overall, my overall experience is still positive. So I feel like it is my more obligation to still recommend this as much as the ending did crush my spirit. It's funny. When I was beating the game today, I, in the middle of the final boss, I messaged Greg. And I think Janet, too, I was like, I might rage quit this. And that is after doing so much work to get to that place of like region out to tech land getting the new save

spending yesterday and this morning you know catching up to where uh to get to the ending i was like i might not just i might not finish this because i do not like this uh but i am with janet there where i don't know if i'll say it pains me but i do recommend this game because i think there's so much fun to be had and i think like it's hard for me to imagine anybody hating this game anybody not having a good time i think it is a very solidly good game um that is that is worth going into, I think it's a great open world game that just has some rough edges that like we can all get past together. But yeah, I definitely recommend this game. Yeah, and I'm a recommend. I'm a recommend as well. Like I think for all the things you just, I think again, we're all so hot coming off the ending.

But I can't look past again 30 hours now in the thing. I want to put in more. I'm excited to put in more. If the collected last two or the last couple collectible trophies aren't bad, I can see me platinum this later this year to come back. Because again, there's a lot to do, but chipping away out of getting in there with, I'm sure, other stuff that'll add. Even without that, just as it is right now as a game, I recommend it. A lot of fun to be had in Dying Light, too. So now we move on to Pokemon Legends Archaeus. I want to know what are our thoughts after one weekend playing the game.

This is impressions, it's not review. To be clear, kind of funny, did not get a review code for this game. So we're all on equal playing field while playing through a bunch of different games. Janet, oh my God, I think I have to start with you because you chose, the one true starter, Sindaquil, let's go. I love that so damn much. I love it so much that my first girlfriend I ever had made me a custom Sindaquil plush.

Wow. She was learning how to sew. Oh, that's nice. And she, yeah, and she had the date that we met on our on a little heart on the single house just bought this at the time. I'm not single anymore, but anyway. Like myself, like at a convention, like let me buy this little purler, a little 3D purler of Cinequil.

But yes, that is my starter. I have a little 3D purler of Cyniquel. Cinequo is adorable and becomes a badass, which is one of my favorite evolutionary arcs. No spoilers. If he looks different, I don't know what he's going to look like now. But anyway, I'm really enjoying my time with Archaeus. I'm only about six hours in. So I did, I don't think it's spoilers to say, like the first boss thing, right?

the first big thing you do. I did that and I did a little bit of the side stuff. But just off the bat, I like how different it feels. It did take me a second to figure out like, do I like this more? Is it weird that now the Pocodex is see this one move and do this everything? Like it's a lot more questy. But I also like that it's a lot more, despite the slow start, a lot more open out the gate. Like I like that once I got over all the tutorials and we got the game really going about an hour or two in, I'm like, all right, forget what everyone else needs in. I'm getting my hair cut. I'm going shopping.

How much money did you give me? I'm spending all of it. Now I'm realizing why I didn't have money in Dying Light 2, but I digress. I really like getting to do some of that stuff really early on. And I think my favorite thing so far of the game has been just being surprised by walking around and seeing a Pokemon that I wasn't expecting to see, just out in the open, seeing things that were way over-leveled,

seeing things and not having an answer for right away, or doing things that are familiar in a new way. Like, the fact you can throw Pokemon to gather resources for you, is for you. Like, I think the combination of stuff I have never really seen before in a Pokemon game and things I'm familiar with having a fun twist is making for a pretty delightful experience, I think, in those opening hours. Yeah, I want to jump off of that, actually, because I come from a similar but different place

where I am now also about six hours in. I think I might be in the same place you are currently facing the first boss character. But I think that Pokemon is something that I love so near. and dear to my heart, but I do think that it is that Star Wars kind of syndrome that we've seen over the decades of toxic fandom. And I think that I just kind of need to admit that I might be part of the problem when it comes to it all, where I'm playing this and there's so much that I enjoy. But for everything that I enjoy, there is something that I'm like, yeah, but. And I'm like realizing it's, it's the, it's the trees. But mainly for me, it's like, okay, I've spent,

20 years of my life complaining that we just did the same gyms over and over and over again. And here I am like, yeah, but I liked the battles though and I liked the gyms. Like, where are they? So I'm still kind of stuck where legends to me so far is such a step in the right direction. And I think I, in the same way of dying light where I have more negative things to say than positive, I'm at the end of the day, happy the direction we're going. because I want to see what the next Pokemon Legends looks like and what the fifth Pokemon Legends looks like

and what the next Pokemon game after Sword and Shield looks like because they're getting the ideas right, but I also want to see them meld them with the ideas that I actually loved. A lot of people have been saying, this is the Breath of Wilder Pokemon, myself included, and I definitely don't think it's that. I also think that it is some steps in a lot of directions. And I think that at the end of the day, every step they took was towards a positive.

So that's a good thing. Like we are moving in a good direction. I just think that we get stuck as Nintendo fans and as Pokemon fans even more so in this rut where we want to see the best in things and we want to see the changes as they happen because most of the changes over the last two decades have been incremental and also not substantial because by the next generation they're taken away and that's always been this kind of give and take thing i do feel like game freak understands what they have here and are truly trying to evolve the whole situation with Pokemon and and and make something a little different i just don't love

that what their different take is is just a lesser than version of other games because like it kind of just feels like oh i've heard gregg and kevin talk about monster hunter world for the last couple years of how into that they were and that seems a step above what we're getting here and we're all stoked about this as Pokemon fans because it feels fresh and different but it's still just kind of like the basic kids first RPG version of it and i know a lot of people are going to hate what i'm saying here and that's totally cool i started the saying i'm probably not the audience for this anymore and it pains me to say that because syndicul is my fucking favorite starter and he got another chance and i'm not having a great time with this i'm like enjoying elements of it but the things like the graphics are

bringing me down more than i wish they would and that sucks because i remember growing up being like graphics aren't everything oh they shouldn't make or break a game but look at childhood you say look at you now look at what we're looking at here like it's just kind of like upsetting to me And I and this this game is so personally hitting me in a way where I'm like, man, you're taking the biggest steps forward by making me care as less as I possibly can. I don't love the Cino region. So cool. Let's go back in time and go there. I don't know if I want that.

If it was Canto, if it was Joto, would I have a different opinion? Maybe what does that say about me? So this is lesser review about Pokemon Legends and more review of Tim Getty's as a 32-year-old man. Look at this. Introspection. I'm gonna tell you right now. I get Jeff Gersman Reggae here. I don't recommend.

Wow. Wow. Holy shit. You're saying on the kind of funny scale. This is like some dark shit. Tim Gettys. Tim Gettys, I don't recommend. He says, no one, don't bother.

Don't bother, he says. But if I'm being honest, and I'm only a couple hours in. So it's like a lot could change. I don't think it's going to based on how they presented this game, I still early on would put it pretty low. Like I don't think that this is the game changer that Pokemon needed, at least for me. And I know there are a lot more, more important people out there than me. But this isn't what I was looking for.

They're not on this call. So it doesn't matter. Yeah. Yeah. They had their chance. No. Go, oh, Janet. Go for.

Go deep, Janet. I just wanted to ask really quick to you, Tim. Is there like, what's like the last Pokemon game that you really think knocked out of the park? And to the point of not having gyms, how did you feel about Sun and Moon if you played that? Because I think there was always that debate of like, I wanted to be different. And then it's like, oh, but like also the same somehow. Like, well, you know, like, where are you at with that? So Sun and Moon was actually a breath of fresh air for me.

And I think that it was dancing, wasn't it? No, not the dancing. The surfing Pikachu. It's okay. And you can just be honest. No, serving Pikachu, I'm talking. down for it. But it's like, I've never been a fan of the gimmicky stuff, the beauty contests and the like all that shit. Every generation has some version of that. I've never been a fan. Like

dating back to Ruby and Sapphire. I didn't like that stuff. I like the core gameplay. And I've always been a fan of red, blue, gold, silver because, duh, I was eight years old when they came out. But also just that they were direct sequels to each other. And they built on each other and the lore and coga who was the gym leader in fuchsia city in red and blue became an elite four member in golden silver i loved that type of storytelling then it kind of felt like after that they got derivative of just there's a new team your rival doesn't even dislike you anymore now they kind of are your biggest cheerleader and that's weird like all that stuff i just didn't vibe with and again i grew out of it like they're reinventing it for people in a way that i always appreciate

because I grew up watching the cartoon so that reinforced Surrelian city meaning more to me than it did in the game. I'm not watching the cartoon now for whatever Cynor region that they're talking about, or not now, but then. You know what I mean? So there's a lot of shit there that I just am not vibing with. But I think that the last Pokemon game that I really, really, really thought did something cool was what you just said in Sun and Moon. I liked that they got away from the gym thing and did something different with the trials. I don't think they nailed it all the way through, but like I liked that it took the same idea, but did it a little different.

It was kind of the Orange Island, Orange Islands version of Pokemon. Like from the show or? Yeah. Okay. But adapting that to a game. And sure, it was 15 years later, but they did it. Yeah, it was cool. It's one of the ones I haven't played.

So, like, I played Pokemon up until, you should. Ruby. The 3DS don't look that great anymore. That's really good. That's why I never went to it because I never had a DS or a 3DS. And so like I played it up until Gen 3 and then bounced down and I came back with the Switch and all the Pokemon games for the Switch. And so like hearing Tim talk about it strikes fear in my heart because I've only played the about like an hour of Pokemon, Pokemon Legends RCS. And that is over the course of however many days it's been out because we've been playing all these different games. And so I try to get back into it. But somehow I've just been in this tutorial for the last, however,

many days because the tutorial seems to go on forever and I just can't get out of it somehow. But I mean, I think as a Pokemon fan, I think I'll put myself in the same place as Tim in terms of expectations and my lineage with the franchise where I am like, when I look back at my best memories of Pokemon, I think it is me being a kid and it is me playing red and blue and gold and silver and then watching the anime and playing Pokemon Stadium of Pokemon Stadium 2 and being surrounded by all the stuff where I think back to Pokemon and I think about, yeah, Surrealian City. I think to like Sabrina as a gym battle. And I'm like, oh, did I appreciate that because the game or because the anime made that dope as hell, right? But I think it was the, the, the, the,

this Pokemon culture that really elevated that IP for me in a way where I haven't in, I haven't fallen in love with the Pokemon game. I think since maybe I was young, right? Like Pokemon sword. I liked fine. I complained all throughout it. Pokemon Let's Go. I liked as a way to revisit something that I liked as a kid. And then Pokemon, uh, brilliant diamond. finding Pearl, I think both me and Tim were like, oh, this is boring. And that was my first time with that Jen. And I was like, yeah, no, this is just Pokemon. Like, this is the same Pokemon game I've played a billion times now, but just with a

different code of paint and I'm not into this. And I've been looking forward to Legends RCS as being the thing that'll buck the trend and make me fall in love and give me that experience that, like, I've been looking for out of Pokemon forever, right, since a kid. But now, like, hearing Tim right now and also having put in that first hour where my first impression was, oh, this is ugly, because I booted it up on my TV. and I was like, I've not seen a game that looks this ugly in a long time. Granted, that was on my TV.

I switched my OLED switch, and I was like, okay, this looks better. Yeah, that's a good point, though. Yeah. OLED switch handheld? Yes. It is a different experience. That is the only way to play. Yeah, do not, yeah, don't play the game on your monitor or on your TV because I was, I was

astonished. I was. It's not flawless. It's not flawless handheld, though. There are still frame rate dips. There is still a lot of tech issues that I'm like, how? What are we fucking doing here? I will say, though, visually.

like is this the same better or worse looking than sword and shield because like and i don't know if you just also hate how sword and shield looks i'm not going to be here and say that like Pokemon has ever really looked that good but also like and there are really good in looking Nintendo games right dread looks great got no beef with dread looks awesome more Odyssey very good however just generally speaking when i play games that are not on my switch i'm like oh my god i forgot games actually look good now You know, and you can argue part of that is art, part that is the art direction they have with it. But I'm just curious as to like where that lands for you in terms of Sword and Shield. Because personally, I look at Archaeus and I'm like, it don't look amazing, but like this looks like what I thought it looked like based on. I mean, I think Shorten Shield at least visually, maybe not like graphically was any better. But I think it like stylistically and visually is much more interesting. I think the wild area is. I don't know if I agree with that.

Isn't the art like the say? Like what is the, maybe it is. different. It looks kind of, the art style looks the same to me. Like it just like, I, I think when you go into this open world, um, kind of areas and stuff, right, it's just, if you'll sew bare bones and at least like in, uh, I don't know, there's just something I think stylistically, just with like the, the locales and stuff like that that they at least, you know, got, um, a little creative with word because they wanted this to be quote unquote, Breath of the Wild. It feels just like Breath of the Wild again. But, way less interesting to look at that and i think that's the problem is that breath the wild is when you compare it to horizon not as like the resolution's not there and the the image quality and all that's there like all that stuff the art styles there to back it up and there's there's something whereas this kind of like is horizon is to breath the wild what breath the wild is to Pokemon legends, you know?

Like it just kind of goes down to down to down. And like I think that that is where the biggest problem lies is that Barrett showing the sword shield now. Yeah, now I do see kind of the different vibe. This is exactly like the presentation I think just because it was a more basic Pokemon game. Like I think this is visually much more interesting than RCS. It's glossier.

Yeah. And it's the fine lines because they went for the water painting look, uh, watercolor painting look with legends. And looking at Sword and Shield, they went with the more like traditional Pokemon, hard black lines on everything. And either way, they don't look great.

But like we don't expect a Pokemon game to look great. But Mike, I want to hear what you have to say. You played a couple hours of this. I played three hours of it, Tim. And it is nice to rejoin the Pokemon world. It's always cool to jump into it. I'm disappointed in the starters besides,

your favorite one, Tim. I did choose that one. I am disappointed that we continue to get like mopey, sad water type Pokemon. Really, it's falling off since Squirtle. Just going to throw it out there, everybody. Don't disrespect it, don't.

I mean, it's just falling off. Toto Dile's name. But after that... Is he not just an alligator? Yeah. Alligator's cool. It's a long tutorial. It's a difficult tutorial, and it's one of those... Tim, I'm like you, right? You have to realize who you are

and where you are in your life. It's not built for me. It's built for me. It's built for... for, you know, baby BJ's first Pokemon game, right? He's got to learn how to play it. He's got to understand it. I wish that I could just skip that and jump right into it. But it is cool to see it. I have the complaints like everybody else.

The world feels very empty. It does not look good. And it doesn't encourage me to jump back on my switch at all. But it is a really cool take on a Pokemon game that makes me smile a little bit. Now, this might be me setting up something that puts egg in my face. But Greg Miller. Yeah, buddy. I think you're higher on this.

this game. I'm having a great time. I'm super early. It's one of those where I had heard all the takes good and pot bad. I don't know, Jen had started it before me. She's a huge Pokemon fan and texted Tim. So I had inside knowledge on Tim's opinions based on my wife. But I, my plan was to keep it set to the side until dice when I'd be on a plane and have to have, I'm going to sequester in my room in between rehearsals and actually doing the Dice Awards rather than go out and catch COVID to Vegas. And so this weekend came around and Benjamin down for a nap and I knew it wasn't going to be enough time to get into any, you know, of the other games I'm playing and reviewing. So I was like, you know what? Let's start it up and started it up

while there was something else on TV and came back to it throughout the day. I'm still super early. I'm probably maybe two and a half hours in. It's upstairs somewhere that, but I'm, I like it. I, you know, I'm not a Pokemon fan. I've played Pokemon before. Most recently, Sword and Shield, I played and beaten and I had done some of Let's Go and not been super high on it. But I have no, like, there's no sacred cow for me, right? There's no golden goose that I look at and I'm like, oh, this is my Pokemon. I started it up and I told you already.

I had seen the photos and I was like, I'm gonna roll with this iguana with the fireback. He seems cool. That's gonna be my dude. But then I started it up and what did I see? Raulet. You kidding me right now? You got blathers.

We got a baby blathers over here. You're my boy, let's go. So we're out there and he's doing the leaflet shit. I'm like, yeah, fuck this thing up. But I like, I enjoy the number one, the exploring of it, obviously. I enjoy using the Pokemon. to get items out of the tree.

I think that's a cool idea. I enjoy having to approach the different, the Pokemon, different ways. You know, stay stealthy, go over and get them, these fucking bedofs. And then I do appreciate the, you know,

what is a Greg Miller game these days, right? Usually it's some terrible Marvel game, or it's going to be the fact that it's a checklist game. And so to go into the Pocodex and be like, cool, you know what? I'm just going to catch five of these guys right now

and move that up. Then I'll go back to battling them, going in battling. Like I'm, you know, even though I played Sword and Shield recently and I played the one I was get confused about from way back in the day with the pedometer at IGN and I played you know

here and so silver the literally one of my top three games of all time great they're all the fucking same I'm gonna remember way more about this game than those fucking ones all right here's your lunch go fucking be a polka master great I had to Google I'm like when did fucking porca man sword and shield come out oh my god

2019 yeah that's the one we played in France that's the one I played in France and I play the entire fucking thing on a plane ride and all it is just fucking going and throwing balls at people and I got to talk to people in the gym and whatnot. Like, whatever. Here, I'm with Janet. I get to change my hair. You know, Taylor Swift fell out of the time portal. I'm excited to know how am I getting back to my time. They're not even caring about it. They're not, Taylor Swift's not even mad about it. The France is like and fuck you, Tim Porigons. This game's great. Yeah.

Well, that was a lot. I feel like that was a lot of information taken, but I guess I'm more with Greg on this, which is not a surprise because we're the same. But yeah, like you can also, you can walk around during the battles. Like, I think there's just like a lot of small things to love about it. I think Pokemon at this point, such an established franchise, it really does come down to the details. And I can totally get the, you know, the visual exploration stuff doesn't hit as much as it could of if it was designed differently. Like, it's a lot more like this is a big open space where you're catching the Pokemon and you're not really doing a lot else. And that's why there's not a lot else to do. You're not going to go like, at least to my knowledge, go like underground,

explore stuff and then you open up a secret. Like it's not like that. It's just a big area that has like other areas connected to it. But I'm fine with that because I'm just here to like work on catching the Pokemon. I also like the strong versus agile style a lot. Kind of reminds me of like a Bay version of Bravely default. We have the brave and defaulting. I like that you can bring up this like I've always been someone that struggled understanding and utilizing the speed stat. I'm like screw it. I'm not just I'm just going to play it all basic. I barely know fire versus water versus magic. I don't know, right? I'm just here with my animals. That's what I'm here to do. But I like that you can drop down and see how the speed affects the order. Like there's a lot of little things.

like that that I'm enjoying with it. But yeah, so there you go. I don't know. I can get my haircut really early, which is nice. Yeah, no. And honestly, that is a good point because, like, I want our characters to look how we want them to. And I appreciate that this game lets us at least start to do that as early as it does

because normal Pokemon games take a little bit of time to get there. But I'm sure we're going to talk about Pokemon Legends more as the weeks go on. Go for a chance. Also, the last thing is I like, This is like a dumb thing that I like. Maybe I only like this, but you can like pass out, because your Pokemon can pass out, but you can pass out in the wild and then you drop your satchel with all your stuff. There's like inventory management, that's big thing.

But you can find other people's satchels and you get MP for it and you can use that for items. I'm obsessed with finding these satchels. It's dumb. It's not even that interesting. It's just my lizard brain loves like I look on the map and then I'm looking. You can barely see it. They could have made a sparkle or something. But I'm finding satchels and I'm like, I'm a pillar in the community, baby.

Like I'm here. And if you fall, I got you. no one losing items when I'm logged on because I'm out here. And then you have like the writeables really easily there. You get that pretty early. Like I'm, you know, does it look great? Admitted, no, but most switch games don't. This doesn't.

You know, wordier jumps a little bit weird, but I'm right in a deer and that's good enough for me. Yeah. I love you so much, Janet. Really quick, uh, I just, um, I feel like I'm in between everybody where I totally get like, uh, especially Gregory, you're coming out with like the whole checklist thing. I love going into the, the polodecks that you're building. being like, I will like, so do I, by the way.

Like, Hey, you already said you hated. Fuck you. Yeah. No, no, no. You hate this game. Blessing Hiles for hours.

It's all, it's all good. You know, I love going through like, oh, like, I need to have Sindaquil, like, do more quick attacks, right?

Yeah, have them involved and stuff like that. I love the, um, we're like, when you go out on missions and then, like, come back and then you, like, report in, like,

everything that you've caught. There's something just so satisfying about, like, it clicking and you getting more, uh, like, money and XP at the end of all that, like, uh, like reporting and stuff like that, that I absolutely adore. Um, but at the same time, I am like, after like 30 minutes,

like I can't play this game for more than 30 minutes because I do get sleepy no matter what time of day. Because I thought it was just like, oh, I'm playing it at night. I'm playing it late. That's probably what's happening. I can play this game two hours after I woke up, play it for 30 minutes and I'm like, all right, I'm out. Like it is. Yeah. I can't play a year for more than 15 minutes. I want to jump in here. Barrett, you just brought up something that I actually really, really appreciate and love is that the task system of how it all works of like how many times they've quick attacked and all that.

I actually love that. Apply that to the main core Pokemon game. And all of a sudden, finding a Zubat for the 3,000th time becomes a little bit more interesting because you're trying to like actually work towards a goal. I love that stuff. I can't wait till the two mainline Pokemon. on series converge at some point. And we're a decade away from that, but it's going to be really cool.

I don't want another legends, I'm going to be honest. I want them to take what they learned from this game and just start integrating it into more mainline. Like you and I talked about this like offline. Like there are so many cool ideas and I'm like you. Like I miss having battles regularly. I miss, you know, like going to gyms and stuff like that. It felt like you're building up to something.

But then at the same time, I love the kind of checklist. listing and also not running into Pokemon, feeling like a chore and stuff like that. Like they weirdly did kind of the let's go thing, but made it less, you know, you got to, you know, do the motion control of throwing the ball and stuff like that, which is really, really cool. And I think gets people like Greg into it because of that kind of stuff. And so, yeah, it's an interesting, like, I'm in that weird, like, it's never going to go on sale kind of thing. but like I think it's...

I hope I love this game. I think it's worth like checking out maybe at one point when it's like a less busier time is what I'll say. To close the show, I'm going to say it's a step forward. I'm not going to give a kind of funny ranking on it, but it is a step forward. And with that, everyone, this is the kind of funny games cast. Please leave a comment below.

What are you thinking about Archaeus? What are you thinking about dying light too? Until next time, I love you all. And if you are at patreon.com slash kind of funny game supporter, we got a post show for you. It's another what blessing? It's another bless who. Woo! Oh, God, no.

Love you all. Exactly.