Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Explaining Kinda Funny's Review Scale 2022 - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: March 31, 2022

We breakdown why and how we are using the new Kinda Funny review scale and alos give our thoughts on Tiny Tina's Wonderlands and WWE 2K22. Time Stamps - 00:00:00 - Start 00:03:55 - Andy Beat Elden Ring! 00:08:48 - Housekeeping 00:10:43 - The Kinda Funny Review Scale 00:39:20 - Ads 00:50:23 - Tiny Tina’s Wonderland 01:05:11 - WWE 2K22 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up and welcome back to the Kind of Funny Gamescast. Of course, I'm Tim Gettys, and I'm joined by one of the coolest dudes in video games, Greg Miller. Hello, Tim. I got to give you a shout-out. Is your background color always this for Gamescast? Or is this a new development? I do it when I remember to do it. So it's either hit or miss where I change the background or I have screencast red ride for three days.

And then I'm like, oh, that's a mistake. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Well, either way, I appreciate it. It looks fantastic. And the colors. And this is what I like to see when Kevin's not here. Because if Kevin was hearing, be like, the pink's not pink and the blue's not blue and have go home,

go V. You know what I mean? And I'm sick of this persecution that I have from Kevin. Hey, you know what? Greg, Govie for life. You know what I'm saying? Barrett.

That's what they say. Oh, wow. Barrett's running the show, of course. But joining us on the show with visuals is the master of hype. Snowbike, Mike. Yo, what up, though? Thank you so much for having me on today. I'm excited to join the games cast crew.

A last minute edition. Blessing not feeling too well, so we're going to give him the afternoon off. And I was like, you know what? Me, Andy and Greg can handle this. I was like, bud, and I could just hit up Mike and be like, yo, what's you doing?

And I called him because I was like, if I slack him, I'm not going to get a response. And that's not even a hit on Mike. I know how Mike's day works. You got, you got to know your business partners, right? You got to understand the way that their heads work.

What's the best way to contact them and actually get an answer to them? And I know that if I call Mike, he will answer. So I called him. I didn't even try slacking him. And he's like, Tim Geddes, what's up? And I'm like, yo, Gamescast, bless is out.

You win. What's up? We don't need you, but I'd like you. And he's like, Tim, I'm either going to join you guys on Gamescast or I'm going to drive an hour and a half to get some in and out. Not damn. I was going to do it. So I'm happy you're here with us, Mike. We'll make sure to get you some in and out soon enough.

I know we want to move on, but man, when we get this studio up and running and we're all. in the same place again, Mike. I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Week one, I'm allowing myself two trips to in and out. But from there, it just needs to be a once a week standing thing. Because I don't want to get, I don't want to go ham on this. But we need to pick a day, Mike, when we can just go. When it's in and out, it's in that Friday or whatever it is.

Go hamburger. It's one of those two times a week is going to be a lot already, Greg. That's why just for the first time. The lines, man, even once a week, it's going to be, it's going to be crazy. We've got to figure out. But that's why it's an out of time. It's an adventure and it's an excursion. You know what I mean?

Now, I don't want to go too deep into this, and I'm sure you guys already know, and I know I tuned into the stream earlier, so I heard Kevin already dropping some of his knowledge. But I don't think y'all motherfuckers are ready for the fact that the new studio is blocks away from the main in and out, but also just a couple more blocks away from the new in and out. So it's like we got multiple options depending on the day.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's near Saramonte. It's been up for a bit, but it is new, yeah. Yeah, like to a year and a half. You know, Kevin's thing was that, you know, when the line at the one's too long, you go to that one because it's still off the grid, doing an extent.

And it was that we, Jen and I came back from a trip months ago now, but came back and it was one of those you land, you're starving. You want to go to in that. And I was like, oh, but Sarah Monta that we got there. And the line was still bad, but not normal bad. Yeah, yeah. And also, I know we're already going off on a tangent on a tangent on a tangent. I just want to say I fucking hate that Nick Scarpino, Sarah Monta, is now the way. that we refer to ceremony the mall that i grew up with my entire life but now seramonte it is

andy cortez you're rounding out the group the nitro rifle himself very happy to have you before we get in all the other bullshit a big accomplishment happened in the last couple days do you want to tell us about it ladies and gentlemen and nb's all over the world a young tarnished decided to forego continuing the golden order Well, I don't want to get it. Spoilers. I beat Eldon Ring. After 160, after 169 hours.

Nice. I beat Eldon Ring. God damn. The game is crack. It is a masterpiece, one of the best games ever made. I talked about it on stream, Tim, but it's like, and Michael appreciate this. Maybe Greg, but mostly Mike. Fuck me.

You know, every, you know, you get DeMaricens in the league, Mike. you get your Derek Roses, you get Chris Pauls, you get all these like NBA stars, right? But once in a generation, you will get a Michael Jordan, a LeBron James, a Tim Duncan, the type of player that could change the franchise for decades. I mean, with Tim Duncan and, you know, all these other players, decades, right? Eldon Ring is that game.

Eldon Ring is the Skyrim. It is the Witcher 3. It is that game that will be talked about for Eons, Tim. I don't even know how to calculate that, right? I don't need it. What is it? How do you spell it? E-O-N.

E-O-N? I have to look that up. Barrett, you on that? Anyway, yeah, I beat it. It's incredible. I am still treating the game like it's my goddamn, you know, you go back to your parents house you keep opening the cupboard in hopes that something new pops up like maybe that maybe i missed a snack in there that i didn't see last time but you know you keep

opening that fridge you're there's not something going to be a soda in there it's the same damn milk or whatever that's been there all goddamn weekend that's how i am with elden ring i keep on opening up like maybe i forgot a mission maybe i did that other mission on my other character on xbox no andy like you you're pretty much done with the game dude like it's time to start new game Plus. Yeah. I'm prepping the New Game Plus run. I have my character still with Mike that I really do want to get back to because a lot of people have been kind of clamoring for it because we have a blast doing co-op over there.

Man, yeah, I think it's 169 hours on PC on my main character. And I think I'm at like 75 on my Xbox character. And yeah, it's a really, really good game, everybody. I am dropping my rating, though, to a four out of five. Great. Still not amazing, though. Damn, there it is. Wow.

Wow. Okay. Look, I'm trying to pull back his little smile. You're going to say that. Don't be like that. There are people that are only going to listen to six minutes and three seconds of this show and just be like, oh, this fucking, this rating system that kind of funny is doing. Like, I can't even make up their minds.

We're going to talk about all of that because this is the kind of funny games cast. But before we get into the rigmarole, Andy, an Eon is not officially, but commonly referred to, as a billion years. In Buddhism, it is defined as the life cycle of the earth. Oh, wow. I mean, it's right, though. Yeah, let me talk about it until the end of the earth.

Another thing I want to schedule out at some point is an Eldon Ring spoiler cast. How do you feel about that, Andy? Are we there yet? Because it's crazy. Eldon Ring's been out now over a month. And, you know, the conversations have happened many times. The conversation, the discourse has happened.

Is the world ready? Like, do you think that people are at a point? You've now beat it, which I think is like a major hurdle. I want to wait for Tam to beat it because I just still don't think like he'll never be it yet. Bless beat it as well. Yeah, because I think there's like a lot of really cool shit to talk about the fallout and a lot of the side quests that do happen. Because Elder Ring is the ultimate like, oh, I beat that. Ooh, since you killed that person, why don't you go back and check on so and so?

And you're like, why, wait, what? They're going to have something to say? And you go back and that person, a person might be dead, Tim. Like I said, what is going on in this world? So, like, yeah, it's the ultimate game that you always want to go back and check on what characters have to say or go back and check to see if characters are even alive still. So, yeah, there's, it's definitely something that we should talk about

because I would love to just do a full, similar to what we do with Bloodbourne. Just let's just do a big old dump of our feelings here. you know Greg Miller Can you get Miyazaki on the line? Can we get him for this? I'm bringing him right now. Thank you. I appreciate that.

I appreciate that very much. And George Aramarton. This is George Rayoran Martin. This one. You want him in there? Uh-huh. Kind of funny games cast,

of course, where we talk about video games and all the things that we love about them each and every week right on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games or roost your teeth.com. You can also get it as a podcast. Just search 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, which a shout out to all you trogs out there, all the Patreon supporters. This is the first live episode of the Kind of Funny Gamescast we've done in a couple weeks, over a month because there's been so many reviews to do.

And we have a nice little reprieve right here without anything to review officially, which is kind of nice. So instead we're going to talk about our review scale for this episode, let you all in on that conversation. But you can go to patreon.com slash kind of funny games to be a part of the trog nation, just like our Patreon producers. Gordon McGuire, Fargo Brady, Pranksy, Dan, Golden Spider-B,

Tyler Ross, Delaney, 21st responder, ND, Julian, the gluten-free gamer, James Hastings and Casey Andrew have all done. if you don't have a buck to toss our way, you can go to the Epic Store anytime you're buying games over there and use the Epic Creator Code, kind of funny on all Epic Store and Epic in-game purchases,

like on Rocket League or Fortnite, especially right now with the No Build Mode that is going on and seems to be going on forever. So that's a cool thing that we might talk about later in the show. But anyways, that's enough of all of that. Greg, I always talk about how sometimes I do the Rickmorel and I just black out. This was one of those moments.

I did not remember anything I just said in the last minute. It was just, you actually just started reciting the lines to usher, an usher song. Wow. Which one? Yeah, let it burn, yeah. Oh, let it burn. Confessions point. Always there for me and two.

Anyways, let's start to show off talking about the review scale that we implemented a little bit ago here at Kind of funny. Greg, you know, we've been doing kind of funny for a long time now, which is really crazy to think about over seven years. And even before that, we were still doing kind of funny in different, different shapes and forms, whether it was Game or Gregy or kind of funny before kind of funny games existed back when we were at IGN. When we were at IGN, we were very tuned in to review scales in video games, specifically you being somebody that's actually reviewed games there, me more so on the video team kind of understanding, being a part of the meetings and conversations. But with all of that, I feel like we have made a lot of strides in terms of what kind of funny content means. What kind of funny games content means, what our team looks like, what our opinions mean, how we want to deliver them to the people, X, Y, Z, all of that. Through that, we've brought on blessing, we brought on Andy, we brought on Mike, we've got on Barrett, Janet, Paris, so many different people. whether they're part-timers, full-timers, any which way,

we've tried to foster a group of people that are like-minded to us. And I say that not in the sense of they agree with us, but I say that in the means of they understand the type of content that we're trying to make and who we're trying to make it for. Is that fair to say? Yeah. Well, I think that's what I mean, we know we broke away to, like we always say, right, exchange the reach of IGN for the intimacy of kind of funny,

which means, of course, you have a special relationship with that audience, which means that we are trying to serve our audience. When the looky loop pops up to talk shit on Twitter comments, I don't really care if you watch this, you seem like a dick. I care about the trogs. I care about Ronan Cassidy, Omega 3, Josh EG. Andy, your hand went up. What do you got to say?

I was wondering, like, Mike, I don't know if you're on the same wavelength as me right now. Are they about to tell us the company's closing down? What's going on? Forget the odd start. That's right. It's like building this review scale up here. It's funny to say that.

But I mean, honestly, that's kind of a good example of where we're at with this, where it's hard for me to find the right way to address our review scale, why we implemented it, how we're going to continue to implement it, and the reaction that it has caused in the public recently, where I'm sure you guys have seen, you know, I think everyone here has done an official kind of funny, review at this point for a game. I know Andy asked Greg, Mike,

have you done one? Uh-huh. I think I did, uh, what, dying light too? Did you do one for GT? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, Gtt team first timer. Yeah, uh-huh.

Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah, so. Four. That was a solid game. That's a good game. Yeah. So with that, it's like, you know, we kind of, um, are now kind of in it in a different way.

And it's just I, I wanted to talk about it as a group, but really like how it applies to the formation of kind of funny, which I think a lot of the, criticism I've seen of our scale is like, oh, or not a lot. One of the criticisms I've seen of the scale has been, oh, kind of funny always said that they don't like review scores. So this seems like them going back on their word. So that's why I wanted to go back to the beginning to start off with at least that point

to address that. Greg, do you have any thoughts on that aspect of it all? Oh, I mean, for sure, right? We talked about that a lot at the launch of it. And I think, correct me if I'm wrong, I love doing this and I love doing this conversation. You would have wanted to have done this when we did the same. scale initially, right? But the problem was we did the scale as review season hit. So we didn't have a time to ever talk at length about the review scale beyond the video I put up and then a comment here or there.

I got that kind of thing, right? Exactly. That was the plan. And then we realized, oh, shit, we got embargo early. So we had to like hit review, review review. But at the same time, I think that is kind of even bigger evidence to kind of funny and who we are, which is it is always a work in progress. And we are trying, we're not ever trying to claim we got this right. And you got this wrong. especially when it comes to the subjectiveness of a review scale, you know? I mean, you know, the things we said in January 2015 are the things we still do to this day, right? Which is that we're not building this for you. We're building this with you.

Again, we are a small company with a small audience in the grand scheme of things. And that means that we're making these things. And when you have opinions or thoughts or whatever, we listen to them and then actually sit there and go, okay, well, what do we want to do with that? What do you know, do with that information? Although, if you want to keep on giving me shit, everybody in the comment, I'll lower my horizon score to a three out of five. All right, don't fucking tempt me. I will do it, all right?

It'll go down to an okay score. So far, it's great, all right? Fucking sit with that for the rest of your life. God damn it. Go ahead, Greg, sorry. No, that's all right. You are a just and fair ruler. And I understand what you have to do.

You got to do there, you know what I mean? Yeah, like, so the reasoning behind it and they change or whatever? So I think it comes from a different thing. I think you nailed it in a lot of ways, right? It's been seven years of kind of funny. So things have changed and evolved. And, you know, coming away from IGN, one of the things I think we attached to review scales was toxicity. Because it was that idea that you put up the review, people scroll to the bottom, they don't read the review, they just want to argue about the number you put on the game.

And so when we left and had carte blanche to do whatever we wanted in terms of how we make content, we're like, cool, we're just going to talk about games and movies and everything else under the video game son. and you know you'll have to listen to the two hour long podcast to understand the impressions of it right that's how it is and that's all well and good but i also think that it was too far i think it i think it was number one it went too far because of course you're still giving your opinion it's still coming down to an adjective it's some point someone no matter what i review whether it be you know a friend or somebody on the street will text me or ask me what did you think that game and i don't sit there and i give them the two hour long thing i give them the three sentence oh it was great or it was this or was that and you move on from that, right? And so you get to where we were before the review scale

and the thing we were running into is how many times do we sit there and litter our reviews would be, yeah, okay, that's what we all thought of it. Where do you think the Metacritic's going to be? Oh, well, I think IGN will give it a 7.5. Yeah, I'd be closer to a 7, but I could see a 7,5. We started having these actual conversations where we were doing all but the review score. And as I put in the video and as I did there, right, like the move to this is just a way to give a billboard to the podcast. It's a billboard of like, hey, here is the snapshot of what we think of this thing that we hopefully are not inspired, but enticed to come listen to why we thought this is a three out of five or that's a four out of five or this is a five out of five.

And it goes back to, I've seen a lot of criticism of, and I should say, and I think I'm even, I don't want to speak for you too, Tim. I should say, overwhelmingly I've seen positive stuff about this. Obviously, we're talking about criticisms right now because I want to answer those things and I know that's where you started too, Tim, but like, overwhelmingly, everybody seems to be down and think it's fine and it's cool and it doesn't change the content at all except there's now a conversation of what do you think? What's your score? Somebody goes, oh, I think X, Y, Z and then you move on to the conversation. The idea. Hold on. Let me, let me stop you there, Greg, just to say it. Like, yes, the reception

has resulted in overwhelmingly positive reaction, I would say. Of course, there's going to be negative reaction. Of course, there's going to be Reddit threads and Twitter responses and things of people that disagree with this and that how we're doing it, whatever. Notice we're listening to that. We're talking about it and we're taking it all in. But in terms of the views on things, the attention we're getting on stuff, like the whole point of why we instituted it, it has been a major success. So it's like I do think that it's important to point out like what you just said.

Like it has been fantastic for us. But, you know, to cut back to it, you know, I've seen some of the criticism that seems to be going on more recently in some of the threads. that the buckets are too big. Five points isn't giving enough leeway to get into the minutiae, and get into the stuff and argue that some people want it to be a 10 point scale, a 20 point scale, 100 points scale, all these different things, these conversations. But what I would say, again, of course, is that we want those buckets broad.

I want you to be, puzzle quest gets a four out of five. Why did puzzle quest three, a mobile game, get a four out of five, the same thing that GT7 got for a mic, or the same thing, you know, the razor chair got from Greg, right? We want you to listen to the podcast. At no point do we think that three out of five, this game's, you know, okay is where it'll stop and start for so many people. And so it's both, as I put in the video, right, the thing we want that to be able to be

shared on reset error, on Nival threads, or wherever super easily. It also speaks, you know, in 2022, we gave Roger a TikTok team, and he has been fucking killing it over a kind of funny games and everybody should go like subscribe share uh but the other thing was we wanted to tackle reviews over there and so especially for a ticot review where you are you know we are still even though they've expanded it since we started you know it's 60 seconds but you want your script to be out 45 seconds you i've had to retrain myself in a very interesting way right because for me and what i was trained to write and review is show don't tell right and the 45 second ticot reviews tell it is here's a score here's what here's what at top level fun not

fun what I liked to what I didn't not getting into a game mechanic or explaining the developer's pedigree which I have tried and Roger has had to tell me no edit that out um it's a score that the score I think works so well and what in what we're doing number one like you said just because it's achieving what we want but it's also giving us unified uh kind of funny scales rubrics right where I love the idea that you know I've seen so many people um not so many I've seen one of the comments be like and it was a totally you know here's the thing there's a lot of reasons to hate me Greg Miller I get it don't go wrong you can look down my long and I'm being not facetious here I'm being 100% of true I understand why people dislike me for a number of reasons and all I ask

you do your fucking homework when you want to come at me somebody the other day on reddit came at me it's like man this game must be really bad it's the only game not to get a four out of five and I was like here's the fucking list of everything we've reviewed the games we've reviewed right we've already done more than a dozen reviews, which might not sound, video game reviews, not including movies and everything else, which might not sound like a lot, right? But it is for a team of 11 people in the first three months of the year. You know, we're correct. We're trying to explore that scale. And of course, it has been, you know, a feast right now in terms of games to play and go at it and stuff. So I like the idea that the buckets are broad so that you can get in

and understand why something is a four, but then also it's not into the minutiaeat. Not to mention and it's back to the old IGN argument of like when people would get super mad that whatever PlayStation exclusive got the same as some DS Kids game. You know, it's not that's not apples to apples thing. It's what it is. But like kind of funny in the core of what we do is still this. It's just talking.

It's about the communication. It's about the conversation. And I think the scores, I personally think the scores facilitate that and drive that. I do think it's interesting when we all go around and, you know, Andy or whoever's the lead reviewer and that's going to be the kind of funny score, but you go around and somebody isn't on the same page. They're giving it a lot.

lower score or whatever and you go through and do that and I love doing that and I think again it's a nice shortcut to get to why you don't agree with somebody or what you do agree about. I don't know why I'm so abrasive. Sorry, but no, I mean it's kind of it's necessary. You're adding the levity to it, Andy, that I think is required for this type of conversation in the context of what we're doing where it's like it is a very serious thing that I know means a lot to a lot of people. So we want to get it right. Having said that, we're still kind of funny. Like it's in the name. We're we're having fun with this and it is very much a conversation start to what Nick's, sorry, Greg saying a lot. Nick's the one person on the team that still doesn't understand our scale in any,

if we were like, Nick Scarpedo, what's the kind of funny scale? He would have no fucking idea. You got to love that about him so much. I'd give Nick a two out of five. But I keep on doing like the word association thing, Tim. Like I'd, um, and, and I've seen Greg in the comments and I try to be in the comments. And I will like, I usually reply to people's. dumb comments on my personal account.

But if it's something that I think I have like a decent enough of a response to, like somebody said, how is Tunic a five out of five and Eldon Ring also a five out of five? There's no fucking way these games are on the same level. And in no way did we ever say that that's what this scale was. It's like if this game does enough amazing things, it will get the five out of five amazing score from me. And this will get a great.

score for me because I think Horizon is a great game. It's a fucking great-ass game that you should definitely buy. Like I said in the fucking review a million goddamn times. And with that, I think that it's kind of in a lot of ways, this scale and Greg was kind of touching on this a bit about having to relearn how to write a review for this new format that he's never written for is it makes us all think about our criticism differently. And I know that for sure it's made me better at being normally when we review a game on Gamescast, Barrett will ask me, hey, what is the tweet you want to write for me to schedule for you

to tweet about the gamescast? And that is the most stressful part of Gamescast to me is coming up with that tweet for whatever reason. It's like putting it into those succinct words to sum up and advertise the conversation I'm about to have on the show is so difficult to me. But doing these TikTok reviews has made me so much better at it that I don't stress about that anymore. It's like, It's not even that difficult. It just kind of reframes your mind into how to think about this and kind of make it just a little bit more official just to make your own thoughts crystallized. And because of that, I think it kind of helps us, you know, addressing what Greg is talking about with the criticism that I see a lot from people that is like, oh, they're just giving everything a four and a five. You need to understand the context of a couple things.

One, a ton of amazing games are coming out right now. Like we are in a great time to be a video game fan. Two, we're only going to for sure review the games that we are interested in. So if we're interested in them, we're kind of assuming they're going to be good. So there's already a bias of the scale is going to be slanted on the higher end because of that. But for people to say, oh, they're never going to give a game a low score is people not actually looking into what we have done. because Greg has given a game a two. You know, we have given games.

Shout to Mark. Yeah. It's like it's, and that's just not going to be as common because of, I mean, quite frankly, us not wanting to waste our time and us really kind of being authentic to who kind of funny is and doubling down on our interest.

And, but just last thing I want to say, and I don't want to jump up to you, Greg, is like, but part of our interests are all not one thing. It's not like kind of funny, likes this,

it doesn't like this. We all have our own things. And Greg has an interest. in reviewing games that he might not be interested in in a way that I don't think all of us do. And I think that that is a valuable asset that Greg provides to the team. And that is why we got that review from him.

I was fascinated that when we did the reviews scale announcement and started using it, people, yeah, interpreted that as we were going to review everything or more or do whatever. And that's on us for messaging probably and not having thought that way. I think you're nailing it to him, right? The idea here is that the marching orders were kind of funny, right?

Our mission statement is the same thing it always is, which is we're hanging out and having fun and playing games we like or don't like sometimes. And so, like right now, right? Like we have cleared out of what's going on. I think we're going to talk about Tiny Tina in a little bit, right? I started it. But I played Tiny Tina and I'm like, man, I could either fall in love with this game and platinum it and go on,

or I could stop and get obsessed with WWE even more. And like, I'm going to WWE route. Like I don't feel the, I don't feel the need in the pull and the job, uh, defining quality that I have to go review Tiny Tina because I started Tiny Tina that I have to see that through and go all the way. In the same way, you know, when stuff drops next week game wise, like obviously I'll look at everything that's coming out. But if nothing there is like, that sounds like something I want to play. I'm not going to go and just review something to review something. It's still the same thing it always was where what we reviewed or talked about on the shows is what we were drawn to. And like, you know, I'm drawn to horror games, which is.

why didn't Martha is dead and I didn't like it. So then it gets that kind of review. But it's, yeah, we're not going to change what we are and how we tackle games that way. Yeah, I feel like we'd have more twos and threes. If we were reviewing, let me read today's out today, Katie and Meadowland, Richie's Nightmare, G. Darious H.D., like I'm sure if we were playing a lot of these kind of more random games,

like a gigantic outlet would have with a lot of reviewers on the staff, then there would be more. games like that but yeah Tim nailed it perfectly of like yeah the games that we're playing are usually games that we're kind of looking forward to anyway and yeah they might disappoint us and get a four instead of a five or they might overwhelm or you know um not overwhelmed but they might overperform like tunic did for me where I thought that was probably going to be a three or four and it was fantastic and it was like god damn this game is amazing and doing things that I wasn't expecting so yeah that's it's usually games that we are going into knowing that it's something

that we want to play. Yeah. So taking that, like the idea of kind of funny versus kind of funny games, we review movies and TV shows. And I think that applying our scale to a lot of the movies we talk about I'm kind of funny,

there would be a lot of ones and two, specifically applying the scale to what we cover for in review. Because the point of that is all of us investing in a franchise week to week talking about everything, even if it's bad, you know? But video games are a totally different beast,

and I personally have no interest in covering every single thing that comes out. I want us to cover what we want to and test out what we like. And if we aren't really vibed with it, like I don't want to force anybody ever, that kind of funny to play through an entire game if they're not vibing with it. Like that is not who we are. I don't want us to be that.

I don't think anyone here wants us to be that. So, meanwhile, I am okay making people watch making people watch Catwoman because it's funny. And we're making fun of it. And like we're in on it. We understand what the content is. But that's also an hour and a half, two-hour experience.

And that's the thing. Exactly, exactly. So there's a lot of nuance there. Mike and Andy, I want to get your input on this because I know Greg and I kind of had a lot of just history with dealing with this type of stuff. And again, I can't make this like explicit enough. There was a lot of care and time and thought and conversation with the entire group put into these decisions. When we first started doing the review scale, it was using the scale where game of the year was the top. level of the conversation. And all of us were like, this doesn't feel right. Like this doesn't speak to who we are. And we need to address this. So we had conversations internally trying to come up with a scale that we thought best represented how we talk about video games. And that's why we got to the five.

People can compare it to the IGN scale or GameSpot scale, game informer scale, whatever. Don't do that. If you want to go for it, that's up to you to do. But what I'm asking you to do is compare it to how we talk about video. games because I think it actually really services the way that these people you see on screen and the rest of our team talks about games to fall into those categories. If a game is a game of the year contender, you're going to hear that in our review.

We're going to give it a five and we're going to be like, I wish I could give it more than a five. We're going to make that extremely clear and you will know the difference between that. And a lot of people got at me last week when I gave Kirby a five and I said, it's a low five. But they're like, why have the scale be five if you're going to say it's a low five? And it's like, well, because I can give it a five. Because you just heard us say it's a low five. You just heard the color we're applying to the review.

Exactly. And it gets so frustrating to kind of hear that feedback. And the last kind of diatribe I want to go off to address the criticism. I'll fucking you up, Andy. Is coming up with the scale and what the words associated with the scale mean. That I think was the biggest. conversation we had to have, and we all talked about it, and there was a lot of back and forth about specifics, because we're trying to make this a broad thing that can apply to everything

that we do. And I think that the biggest point of contention is what a three out of five means in terms of our post decision making so far, which could change any time of what our scale means. Because number one, one is terrible. Two, bad. Three, okay. Four. Great, five, amazing. And a lot of people are like, how are you going to jump from three okay to four? Great. Where's good? The answer is a three.

Okay and good are the same thing. We just didn't want to call it good because if it went bad, terrible, good, great, amazing, people would be like, well, then where's just okay? And the reality is it's about words. It's about the way we have conversations. Any game that we're saying is good or saying, is okay, we're saying the same thing about. That's the reality of it is we're like, yo, it's, it's pretty good or it's okay.

We're saying the same thing about the game. What I love about. Am I wrong? Okay is my favorite segment. No, you're not. Okay is my favorite segment because for me there's two okays. They're the, it's the, it's the okay or it's, it's good, right? It's okay, which is fine.

Or it's okay. Like it's the, you know what I mean? The inflection of where you are where it's okay is, it's good. It's okay. It's like, oh, well, it's fine. But either way. But the thing there, though, Greg, and this is why I think that our scale actually works really well.

And that's why what I talk about, I try to say, okay, slash good for three, is that the inflection is the important part. But the differentiator is the tone you have is either taking it from, you thought it was going to be bad, but it's actually okay. Or it was supposed to be like good, but it's okay. you know what I mean? So give it that three, I think, says something. And it backs up the words that we're actually trying to put out there.

Mike, what are your thoughts on the scale so far? Everything we just said, where do you land with it? Yeah, for me, Tim, I actually was probably one of the most to be excited about having a scale. Because as most of the listeners know, I run my own podcast with the kind of funny Xcast. And I'm not on games cast all the time, right? And so I was looking for that uniformity, something to bring us all together and kind of have a cohesive scale on, especially since this is, you know, my early times in the quote unquote video game industry, right? I came from where it would just be me and my friends of, oh, you should buy this right now or maybe catch it on sale or just skip that, right? And I think I brought that in to my career here, kind of funny in the Xcast where you listen to our early days, that's how we kind of graded things over there.

So we'd have the conversation of, oh, I think you should buy this right now if you like this. this or you could wait for that to go on sale. And I think listening to all of you and the insights, especially, you know, as Andy can tell you and I'm sure blessing, having you and Greg here, right, in all of your professional years to be able to learn and be mentored, right? That's what we're all looking for. And I love that we all can come together, have our voice heard and also have something where we can walk out and say, hey, this is the kind of funny scam. We all can get behind that because that's something I needed. I needed kind of a guide to what I wanted to do moving forward. So for me, I was actually a big fan of this.

And I do like where we fall in with the five point scale. I think you hear it when I talk about GT and I gave it a four out of five as a newcomer, right? That is a great racing game. And there's a lot of stuff to go into that. And, you know, I think Greg has touched on it so well, right? A lot of people are just going to hear me say four out of five and just think, oh, okay, whatever. But we also had an hour and a half long podcast where I went in depth on the things that I liked, things that I didn't like, what drew me to that conclusion, right?

And so I've been a big fan of it and I really, really enjoy it. I think it's something easy for me to bring over to my side, right? Because I work with two part timers and contractors where it's like, hey, this is what the team wants to do. Let's try to do this and follow in their ways. And it's fun for me. I like that. Andy. Yeah, I'm the same.

I talked about it on a post show one time of like, of more of how the words are. the words are more important. What we're saying goes further than just what the score is, right? And I talked about how I will grade a game based on what I expect from the developer, what the developer is telling me they're going to do, and how well enough they sort of exceed that. And I think it's more important to obviously listen to the conversation. I think when the number is up there,

a lot of people will immediately say, wow, well, this side-scrolling 2D platformer is a 4 out of 5, and you're giving this gigantic open world game a 4 out of 5 as well. How does that make sense? And I think I challenge that person to just listen to the context and listen to what's being said and listen to the conversations and what we think that, yeah, this game could do better here, and here, but it does this thing so well enough that, therefore, I think it's worthy of this score.

I think all of that context really, really matters. But I also don't think anybody's in the wrong for feeling certain ways when they've been presented that review scores are meant to communicate X, Y, and Z. I think, like, people who aren't necessarily kind of funny regulars, who have probably long by now tuned out to this. But I think people that are like, the hardcore people are going to understand what we're saying and are here and their right or die. But I think people that are more sort of casual on the listening side who may only tune in

for certain reviews, right? I think those people, I don't begrudge them for how they feel about our review score because they've been conditioned to think certain things about review scores their whole lives, right? Because this number should mean this. And how could that equal that if blank number? Like there's so many different things you could throw at this. But I think that's just the way that they've kind of grown up with review scores, you know, whether it's three out of five stars or four out of five stars.

And we're attaching words to these review scores in order to hopefully better explain ourselves. But yeah, I don't know. I believe in our review scale. I like it a lot. And I also don't necessarily, you know, again, begrudge anybody for going like, wow, how does that make sense? Well, it's like, well, you just got to listen to the podcast. Yeah. I think I begrudge them for that.

I begrudge it of the knee jerk. I'm mad. And I don't even know what's going on. Or similar to what we do when we go to Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes and we see that number and go, you know, I think Rod, Tomatoes is probably the biggest offender of it all where the score is based on how many reviewers gave it a positive score not like the average score is not an eight out of ten if it's an 80% that just means 80% of reviewers thought it was worth watching like uh recommended you know so that that could be a range of like this is the best movie of all time or like yeah sure where you're

there uh go watch it but yeah i don't know i just feel like people who are in that sort of People who listen to the podcasts or go to IGN4, their score at the bottom, that's just, that's how they consume games media, you know? I don't know. Barrett, what were you going to say? Before you said, though, Barrett, let me tell you about our sponsors. Shout out to Uplift for sponsoring this episode. I've been using my Uplift Desk for well over a year now. I love the thing so much, I decided to write a rap song for them.

The bill quality is real good. It's made of real high quality wood. They didn't ask for it. I just did it anyway. Getting my uplift desk immediately improved my mood. Whenever I'm on shows, I'm standing up. I'm feeling a lot more energetic. And also, I kind of feel like I was just maybe creating some bad habits sitting down at a desk all day.

I would move my legs up. I'd sit underneath my legs on my chair. And eventually all that stuff just created really bad back pain for me. Choose from laminate, whiteboard, bamboo, solid wood, butcher block, or even custom solid wood or laminate options. Uplift desk won New York Times wirecutters, best standing desk from 2019 to 209 to 20, 2022. And while I'm at it, I'm just going to give them an award as well. Best sending desks that I use in my bedroom from when they sent it to me until now. Uplift desk have a 15-year warranty. They ship the same day you order with free shipping and free return shipping. So if you've been feeling

the effects of sitting at a desk for eight hours a day, maybe you want some more energy in your life. Maybe you want to do squats in the middle of a Zoom call or something. Uplift your life. Go to kind of funny.com slash uplift. I think there's also something in the way that like, you know, we didn't do review scores for the longest time and then but you know we do all these podcasts specifically in review where we're ranking things and I think that that might be another mindset that like people might need to get out of the headspace of when it comes to like review scores when

specifically talking about like oh how are you going to give this this game out of five out of five when it's nowhere near Eldon Ring or it's like well it's not like we're like you know ranking it on a list or something you know like these are you know very two very different conversations of why they're an amazing game and stuff like that. So I think that's like another interesting headspace that I think a lot of people might have already been in after so long of like no review scores and, you know, the closest we get to that is like ranking a bunch of movies and stuff like that.

So that's another aspect that kind of just popped up in my mind when y'all were talking. Totally. And you know, Andy bringing up the Rotten Tomatoes thing. It's interesting because at the end of the day, it's like that it's the fault of the people for not understanding. on tomato scale. They make it very clear. They try to,

they over explain it all, but then people just look at the number and they associate that number with something. And like, that's not anyone's fault necessarily, but that also adds into the kind of the, the words and like meaning of it all where it's like, even though okay and good do not mean the same thing.

They do mean the same thing to us as a three, but that's language-based. And when I look at scores, we had conversations about, this do we do a 10 point scale do a five point scale three point scale four point scale hundred point scale what are the differences and we have found that we all tend to agree that a five out of five doesn't mean the same thing that a 10 out of 10 does and it's like I think that a 10 out of 10 100 those mean like yo these are some of the best things of all time like you need to really

really really pay attention to this because it is special how it's like ranking exactly whereas like a five out of five is like well that is one fifth of the possibility it just means it is yo this is good they achieved the thing they nailed it and i like that because it addresses the way we talk about games i think better than some of the other scales because i think there would be too much pressure and that's when i'm like okay looking at just if you only looked at the number kind of funny gave a game to 10 out of 10 means a lot more than kind of funny gave a five out of five. By numbers, that just is how it works. But more important, the numbers, it's the words that back it up. And it's the language that we use to discuss our criticisms.

It's also like the tendency to go about it the mathematical way, that a four out of five, that means an eight out of ten, that means it's a B. That that's a B score in grade school. And like, and anything at a seven or below is a failing grade. grade when really like I just I think people always just kind of do the math that way oh a three out of five so that's a six out of ten that's a failing grade you know like that's a that's a 60 score on a test or whatever and I think it's I think people still have the tendency to do that as well and that also throws off people's kind of their thought process of what a review score and a review scale should be yeah Mike

No, I mean, you have some thoughts. No, I just, I'm breaking it all down. I really love hearing from you guys and how your feelings are, right? I brought up how I liked having the uniformity and us all coming together. So for me, I've enjoyed this process. And also, you know, as somebody who I think we've all been there has rushed to the bottom of the IGN review to read the number and go, okay, here's this paragraph, right? I am somebody now where I look at the digital age of TikTok and Twitter and social media, right? like how many people are really listening to my full hour and a half long to two hour long podcast,

right? I hope a lot. We do it because we love what we're doing and we want everybody to enjoy the content, right? But I also want to get my words out there and I want to be able to share, hey, I'm really hyped about this game or I think that Eldon Ring is a masterpiece. You should go check it out, right? And I need this condensed version on TikTok and on Twitter or maybe through this review score process that we're currently going through and doing, right, of being able to share that with more people

and having them being able to share my product and my, you know, conversations that we have on these podcasts to more people, maybe in an easier or faster way. Yeah. Any final thoughts on the review scale for now? Again, this is an open conversation. If people have thoughts, we're going to look at them. We're going to be able to adapt for sure.

Let us know what we're missing. You know what I mean? Because I just, I think it's the fact that the people who I've seen have a problem with the review scale, I feel like are coming at the review scale going, this is how I use a review scale and I'm looking at this and you and I it doesn't work that it doesn't work and it's like well no you're trying to apply how you would use a review scale you're not listening to how we use the review scale I want buckets of fours and fives and that we talk about and I want I also still to this day like when I do this don't hem and ha ha about the score this like

what you're talking about Tim right of like a 10 out of 10 or a 9.5 or whatever would be a far different thing than a five or a four and I think it is you come in and they clear which one of these which one of these five adjectives do I think when somebody asks me what I think of a game what I apply to the game. That's what I say. That's what I do. And then I go and talk to you about what I think about the game for an hour and a half and drone on and go, the thing is, but you know.

Yeah, totally, man. And, you know, I keep using Kirby as my example because I gave that a five. And like, that was a decision for me. You know, like that. And it was a choice. And I'm happy that we had a scale because I would not give that game of 10 at all.

But like, I'm happily. standing by the five that I gave it. Because to me, that means I would recommend it to essentially anyone. Unless I know you don't like that type of game, I would recommend it to you. Like, if you like video games, you should try this out. And like, that to me is what a five should be. And so I like that. Whereas like a 10, to me, Tom Mark's giving Celeste a 10 made me play that game.

And I am so happy that that happened. That's a very different conversation than giving a game of five. You know what I mean? And like, I love that there are the IGNs out there that are. reviewing more things than we are because that allows that scale and allows those those numbers to mean a little bit more. And not to say they don't mean something for us because they do, but what they mean is a reflection of our thoughts.

And I do more so than anything, think of it as advertising. Back in the day at IGN, they would have never, ever put the review score as the main image, the thumbnail that people see, right? because people want you to click through. They want you to see the article. That has totally changed nowadays. And that's why we use it the way we do. Oh, is that true?

So Les was the very first IGN review where we advertised the score. I remember like having like being kind of a part of that conversation. And that was like, yeah, a big choice. That's amazing. And that makes so much sense because the only reason I knew about that game is that it got the 10. And I was like, well, this random game I've never heard of got a 10. I need to check it out. So it's like, that makes sense to me.

And seeing IGN now, like they tweet out the score and that gets people to go in. I know I've read more IGN reviews than the last three years because I saw the number. And I was like, huh, how'd they get there? You know, that's why we do it. That's the simplest reason of why we do it. And I don't think that it's changed the content. You know, I'd be obviously interested as a consumer or listener as somebody who, what you think, a person right now who listening to this driving your car, will look out for that road.

I don't think it's changed the content I think it's enhanced it personally and I think that you still get the long rambling reviews we always do. It's just at the front or back somebody says a number and that's it. But it's not like they say the number and don't talk about how they got there. It's very much show your work.

And I feel that's what's interesting when we get there and it's a bunch of fives and a four. It's a bunch of fours and a three and you go sit there or it's just me saying I didn't like this game that I thought I would like and I explain it to you guys. I also appreciate that like it's given us another avenue in a way to talk about a game and review a game in a way,

I don't think we would have. A memoir blue, right? I reviewed last week. And it's that thing where that wouldn't have fit on a games cast until today. It would have been older. I don't think it would have fit on, you know, PSI-L-Eves delayed this week, the Thursday and stuff like that. The fact that we had the TikTok and we had this bite-size review thing and the fact

that I was able to just give a score on it and be like, listen, this is what this game is. It's a three and this is why and move on. Like, I think that was helpful to that discussion and another avenue for content. There will be a little that I just drop a number and that's it. So get ready for that, everybody. I'm going to review a game. Just going to be like four out of five. Nothing more, nothing less.

Go figure out for yourself. Andy, tell us, but what did you like? What didn't you like? Nope. I love that. But, great. To your point about changing the content, I do stand by. I think it has changed the content.

I do think it's for the better because we did it before. We just all had our own scales. We would all in our own way. And even now, we still do it. We are still going to continue to say what we would give it on the IGN scale or the G4 scale or the whatever. That's the beauty of scales. They're just tools to kind of like express the way that we're trying to talk about something.

So I appreciate that that still exists. It always has. But also us going around in the beginning, what did you think of this? What did you think of this? It is just kind of us having that conversation in different ways, you know? So let's continue to do that. Speaking of that, Greg, what do you thinking of Tiny Tina Wonderland? Oh man, yeah.

So not a review, ladies and gentlemen, don't worry about it. I played, what, Monday? I played a bunch of hours of it because I had time of the schedule to get through and do it. Sorry to catch you off immediately, Greg. But again, this is a perfect example of we don't need to review everything. We can also say, I don't feel confident giving it a number on the scale. And we're going to do that. So please continue.

And so I think I talked about it in the middle of the review scale there, right? But like Tiny Tina, I feel like is a game. that I could either fall madly in love with it or leave it and never play it again. And I think that sounds negative, but I don't mean it to because I was impressed with what I played of Tiny Tina. If you're not familiar,

obviously a spin off of Borderlands. You are playing as your own character that you roll in this game, but what's cool about it is that it is bunkers and badass. It's D&D, right? It's a role-playing game that Tiny Tina from the Borderlands universe is, they are still in the Borderlands universe,

a round at table with their miniatures playing this game that you are then playing the game that they are playing. You are inside of the game that is going on. You are a game inside the game. You are a game inside the game. The campaign. Exactly. You are participating in a Bunkers and Badass campaign. So it has the borderlands mechanics, right,

of shooting and having a million guns and having your over shield and having your special ability and your grenades and stuff like that, but it's all themed to this D&D way. And so I didn't know what to expect, you know, we had done a partnership with them where we had went up there and played the end game and did some stuff there. But that was dropped so late in the game, like, that didn't actually give you any idea

of what the story was going to be. I've been impressed with Tiny Tina from a narrative perspective because it is, of course, Ashley Birch killing it as Tiny Tina, Will Arnett, killing it as the bad guy. Wanda Sykes, killing it as one of your companions in the group. And Tiny Tina narrating what's happening, I find incredibly interesting. As somebody who isn't the Orks &L's D&D kind of person, having her talk about it, And, you know, she changes her mind mid sentence. And so whatever you're seeing also changes and jumps around.

I enjoy the way that story is being told and how they're doing it that way. And then it's a bunch of little stuff of like there, you know, in Borderlands three, let's go from there, right? A big old open world game, obviously you take a bunch of quests. You run around. You fast travel. You fight things. You drive.

This one, like, there are, there is an overworld map, which I find so fascinating. Like, you know, you are running around an overworld and a, you know, it's a first person. game when you're playing it. The overworld is a third person big head mode character that you run across this cartoony, you know, overworld map that Tiny Tina Tina has made where the tipped over orange soda is a river of lava and there's Cheetos over there. You know, you sneak around and fight through different areas and then you get to the bottle cap bridge that you knock down and now is a shortcut to get to where you want to go. You pick up side quest. You do all this different stuff there. That's given it such a different vibe. Like the fact that this game has actually, I think,

very well pulled off playing a game inside the game, where it is very different. I know that I am playing Bunkers and Badasses. I do not feel like I am playing Borderlands inside this. You know, the fact that this is a first person looter shooter that has random encounters, like in the tall grass, enemies pop up and you can fight to go get dropped into these little encounters, fight them, get your XP, get your little reward.

Like, it's taking the mechanics and stuff that Borderlands is, of course, of shooting and fighting and then getting to upgrade and level up and get a skill point and giving it a new lens and a cool way to go through and do it. And so that has all been impressive. I would say what has caught me off guard is that I feel like it is really a single player story for me. This is how I would play. Of course, Borderlands is a four player dropping, drop out, you know, lutes divvied up. They have the great scaling system now where, you know, you can be level 16,

and drop them with a level six character and everybody feels like they're being challenged. Since Tiny Tina is narrating the story and I'm getting the quips from Juan, and like, you know, Will Arnett's popping up to say different shit. Like, I would only put- And Andy Samberg, come on, Greg. Is he the other guy? Is he the other at the table? Okay.

Fucking rules. I don't, he's done nothing of like note to me where I like, he's popped up and I'm like, because you're there, you must be important, but I don't know who you are. I'm not catching. I love him. I love. I love listening to them interact with each other and talk to each other. And so like I, I obviously Borderlands is meant to be played other people and

have them jump in and yet, idiot, but like I would not do that with the main campaign. I would, I probably wouldn't do that until, the end of it when you switch over. However, like, I think that's the upside to it of, like, how great this sort, how interesting the world is in the, there. Then the fact of playing it is, it's still very much borderlands, right? It's still shoot, shoot. It's still run over there and, you know, open the crate.

And like, I had said when we had when I, I don't know if I've talked about on a show, I thought I had. But like, like, the end game stuff, I was impressed, like how it didn't seem like they were reusing a lot of assets. It felt like its own thing. Playing this version of it's like, oh, these are the like reskin safes and crates and everything else from Borderlands 3 to open to get this up. That's not bad, but it also just doesn't make it feel like exciting and new.

And in the same way, like, you know, I'm getting these, it's early for me still. You know, I'm not like high level and I'm still exploring the skill tree and yada, yada, yada. My powers aren't outrageously fun. So it's like I do feel like I'm in it for the story, but then also like the gameplay, I feel like's well-worn territory at this point, which is where I'm talking about being on this precipice of like if I really wanted to, I feel like I could commit another a couple hours and be in love with it and platinum it and do the whole rigamarole. Or

I could walk away and play 100 more hours of WW2K with my time right now. Mike and Andy, you both played it, right? I feel like I might have played maybe a little bit more now, but like you've played it, right? Yeah, I think we chatted about it last week, maybe. I don't know if it was on the post show or the regular show.

But we tried playing on stream and then they had a lot of issues at lunch. It was a pretty broken game in terms of just matching of people, which is unfortunate because that Friday I was like really wanting to play, because I had really dug the short time that I had had with it. I had played about an hour and an hour and 45-ish, and then I put in an extra maybe hour 45 after that, just kind of on my own time. The game's just really creative and fun. Again, I think my biggest, one of my biggest issues with Borderlands

3, such a fun game to play, but I am one of the people that I always just thought the writing was like just really kind of cringy and it just tried too hard. And I have really been digging a lot of the, the angles that they're taking with Ashley Birch as Tina and the rest of the cast and crew, which are phenomenal. I think it is super creative. Like Greg was mentioning, you'll run into moments,

Tim, where you are, you land in a place and Tina's telling you the story and then she'll just go like, I don't know, and then a blah, blah, blah happens. And then that thing will happen in the world. because she's making it happen. So there's a lot of really cool visual things that are happening because it's this sort of

story that she's just telling on the fly. At one point, at one point early on, you are breaking these catapults to stop the enemy from, like, you know, catapulting their trebouches, you know? And then you have to get to this next area. And then Andy Sandberg goes, well, what if we just magically put the Trebyshay back together and then use it to launch yourself over? And Tina's like, you know what? I usually wouldn't let that pass.

But yeah, sure, that sounds fun. Let's do that. And you just kind of magically put this Trebyshe back together and you get in it and launch it. There you go. There you go. Bear, Bear, just brought up a Trebisheie right now for all the audio listeners. Age of Empires, Trebyshe. Age of Empires, Trebysh.

It's just, it's super creative. and I'm way more impressive than I ever thought I'd be. I think it's a neat spin enough on the formula that we are really used to. Because I still think, like, the general formula of Borderlands is fun as hell. And I'm higher on the gameplay that Greg is on it. And I think this is, I think it's because it's my first time playing on keyboard mouse. So mixing up all of these sort of abilities that I have. And I feel like a badass.

Just spell here, headshots, hedge have headshots, spell. there, like you feel really, really in the action. I'm way higher on it than I ever thought I'd be, so I think it's... Are you getting back to it, and you're going to, like, get in? It's either that, and I want to play Stranger at Paradise

Final Fantasy, and I want to play an indie game named Eitora. There's just way too much to play, man. Huh? What's Atara? Eitor is a sort of like side-scrolling game based on

I think like Aztec culture, I believe. It's kind of like a fantasy side school. Oh, I never seen it. Yeah, really cool graphics. But I saw it on my Steam wish list. And I was like, oh, my God, I forgot I wished this way back in the day. So I ended up buying it.

Here it is. Yeah, it's gorgeous. So this is a game that I was like really wanting to start up. And I was like, no, maybe now's not the right time. I'm not in the right headspace for it. But this is one that I want to definitely dig into as well. And there's one more thing aside from all of these other games that we've been talking about. And I'm having trouble.

But see, this is my point with it, right, where I just feel like it's, we have had this review season. You smell it in the air. You do the thing. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And Tiny Tina came out and is a really fun game and is a really creative game and is a really enjoyable game. But it's just all those things, right? It's all those reels. It's all those adjectives you put the really in front of that like, yeah, 100%.

I really feel like it's a game I'm going to put down right now and then maybe in May or some other. You know what I mean? When I've run my course a little bit with WWE and I've got that out and whatever else takes my attention, yet to yet out. There's going to be a day where I'm like, you know what I could really go for? Just laughing and questing and leveling and getting a cool skill tree and that'll be tiny Tina. Mesoamerican says Jorge Suarez. Thank you, Jorge.

And then Josh U.S. U.S. says, buy your review season scented candles to keep the season going. I love that. That's a money. opportunity right there. Very few people out there know. There is a kind of funny scented candle out there right now that you can get. What's the company, Greg? Wic and skull. Wicked and skull. Yes, exactly. You can get the kind of funny scented candle. A lot of conversation back and forth. What does kind of funny smell like? We're trying to get some chicken wings.

They had barbecue wings. They didn't have chicken wings. It was a whole thing. So we have, we ended up just going with what does blue smell like? Yeah. And so that's what that's what this is. It smells like ozone sea salt and light musk. It's a really nice way. Makes sense. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But the fun thing is we should probably hit the back up and what is the review season smell?

Blessing. Blessing's got to figure it out. Sweat and depression. Exactly. Mike, have you played it, right? What did you think at times? I'm a 12 hours in and it's really fun. Oh, wow.

You're waiting for you guys just thoughts. Well, I've played one character pre-release, so thank you to Gearbox and the team over there for sending me that code. So I played one character. Of course, now I switch consoles. I didn't want to do the whole carry this character over, so I restarted. But I've played 12 hours of Borderlands,

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. And it's fun because hearing you too, it's like, oh, that's exactly how I feel. And I'm actually similar to you, Greg, but on the opposite side where I'm actually like, I don't want to play much more of this game. I'm finding it on the gameplay side to just be the repetitive borderlands.

And when I'm playing it with friends, I'm missing all of that writing. I'm missing those jokes. And I think for me, it's like, the only way I'm going to stick with Borderlands is to play this single player or else I'm out on Borderlands right now. Because I find myself, we're playing at multiplayer, me and Washie, and now we're having a conversation. And I'm missing Tiny Tina's fun quips. I'm missing the goblins telling their story to Washie. And it's like, oh, man, I'm just mindlessly shooting at these skulls and all these skeleton fighters and goblins and monsters.

and it's just kind of going by the wayside for me. But I will echo some of your guys that starts. I think the special part about this was the new fantastical setting, right? Getting away from the dusty, just burnt out borderlands vibe that we've always had with the Mad Max and the gears and the cars. This has been really nice to see the fantasy settings and what they can do with those settings. I think it's really, really cool. The writing has been elevated where it is fun to listen to.

It is fun to see these new jokes that they bring into a franchise that we've known for so long. and another one I would highlight is actually the character creator. I think it's really, really cool, right? When you come from Borderlands, you know you usually stick to the characters they've given you and you put on different customization and different colors. But this is the first time where you get to be you and you create that Bunkers and badass character. And I thought that was really cool of like, oh, wow, I'm really actually customizing a Borderlands character that will be put in the game.

And then on top of that, what I found interesting was the new skill tree and what they're doing with attribute points, right? this isn't something that's very familiar to the borderlands formula of instead of three skills skill trees you take it down to one skill tree and then you have attribute points to put in very similar to a dungeons and that dungeons and dragons RPG type system um another one filled it off a character sheet right like yeah i was very impressive the character creator too i made diana them mascara right and it was like i felt like that made so much sense like you're talking about because i was flack in borderlands three and no matter how many customizations i got

God, I still never thought Flack looked awesome. I like the character, I like the moves, but like the look of it I didn't dig. Whereas this I'm very much into, okay, cool, customization, getting to change her face around to all these different things. I do think that the ultimates and the special abilities are lacking in this one. I don't think they have the wow and the pizzazz factor, like previous borderlands where you would see Amara go up into the air and shoot down, you know, acid rain onto people flying all around.

And now these ones seem very basic and by the books. They're not flashy. They're not wowing, right? I see a couple of tornadoes that washburn throws, but my berserker just kind of ax jumps into somebody. My paladin just threw their hammer on the ground. There was a small lightning bolt around it. So for me right now, the gameplay isn't catching me.

And that it's more of the single player like, oh, man, I do enjoy this story. And I like the jokes when I can hear them. So I might fall out of borderlands or I might play by myself. But I'm on a weird tipping point with this game right now. Yeah, me too. Moving on from Tiny Tina. Let's close out the episode talking a little bit about

WW2K 2020. Greg, you seem completely in on this game in a way that I'm a little surprised by, but very excited about. Timothy, I can't believe how much I love WW2K22. I already did the review, obviously,

gave it a four out of five as you might have a call. And, you know, talked about what a great time was having with it in the different modes and yada, yada, but it's the fact that, like, I still,

turn that thing on and I'm like, what do I want to do today? There's still so much at my fingertips to do and it's so fun and it's so different and there's so many crazy things to go do. And I mean this from, you know, me and Mike just came out,

our coming off of right now, our first KFW stream, kind of funny wrestling, right? Where, of course, Olive Party has been making all of kind of funny in the game in the amazing creation suite. Today we went in and, you know,

went through and made everybody's attributes where they needed to be. We're going to have everybody be 80s. You know, we built out all these things. We started making the rules. We called WW Superstar Xavier Woods because we want our Intercontinental Belt to be the up,

up, down, down. Xavier is, of course, going to be the commissioner of this in video game league. If you're not paying attention, we're basically going to do a federation on Twitch and on obviously YouTube.com slash kind of funny plays where you can catch the series of KFW stream where we are going to do my weekly stream will be KFW,

and we will do basically a raw or Smackdown show where we have this whole, Federation where the AI plays and we commentate over it and we build the paper views and milk mommy will defend the world title and yada yada yad all the stuff that's goofy about it. But even right there, right, the fact that all we're doing there is letting the AI play each other and then we're going through and using all parties creations and changing moves and changing entrances and building out logos and stuff like this is one way to play the game. And then on Saturday, my friend Sean, who's of course you know probably from the Avengers

play sessions and stuff, he came over and we finally got to sit on. the couch and play this together. And it was like such a fucking trip, dude, of just like, I haven't enjoyed a wrestling game like this since No Mercy, period. End of statement. And I'm talking about everything. That's awesome to hear. And you know how much I fucking loved, you know, SmackDown just bring it on PS2.

When I still have my college stat sheet from all the different wins we had as a dorm floor and who had what and blah, blah, blah. And you know, here comes a pain. And you know, I reviewed all these games for IGN and yada, yada, yada. Like, sitting there with Sean was such a trip back to being in the basement. with Po and the guys in playing No Mercy. And it being the thing of, you know, we went through and we did a bunch of different match types. And then it was like, all right, cool.

Well, let's do the thing where, you know, House rules. We each hit the random button three times. And then you pick the wrestler. You're going to be in that match. You know what I mean from those three. And like shit like that and like having fun. And like I was telling Mike on stream today, right? Like it's the first time in a long time where I've played a human being in a wrestling game.

And this is not, Andy, I gave you all of your flowers. I gave you all your flowers on the stream today. this is not me doing the character like when i do about and golf like annie's decidedly better at golf than me right in the video game golfs in real at golf too but video game golfs you know what i mean but i get really shitty and you know pompous and character about it like wrestling games i've always been in my friend group right like top of the thing are right there with it right and this is the first time where i've played a friend in a wrestling game and been like oh man i'm a step behind like sean's better than me right Like I'm, but the game, and that was, there's two different things to pull away from there.

Fucking getting old, bro. You can't know it. It's that number one that, okay, cool. I like the gameplay mechanics of, even though he's better than me, I'm still in this. I can still reverse, like, I know people are back and forth about how you can reverse finishers and you can reverse whatever and do it. Like, the fact that it is this sim-like arcadey game, like, where it is like you, some people, you know, it's annoying sometimes when Goldberg's no selling your shit. but like the fact that you are able to get back up and be back in the fight like i was never out of it even in the matches where i was like oh man like you have a way better advantage here

than i do and blah blah then the other side of it like i was selling mike today right like as a pve person somebody who plays like games like the division or avengers because i like teaming up and fighting the the computer right like i when sean left i was very much like i need to go to the lab i need to get better i need to like you know use my stream time to actually get out there and wrestle just online. But like it wasn't demoralizing like oh man that sucks like kind of like and I guess this also would speak to the fact that gap's not as great but like how playing Tim or Barrett and Mario Kart is demoralizing. I'm like oh you know all the shortcuts and you know all the things and I just I don't have a shot at you. It wasn't that big of a gap but that's how I kind

of feel where like that and smash where I'm like well I'm never going to enjoy this game enough to put in the time to get as good as I need to be. Whereas this I'm like I'm not that far off. If I commit and I do this, I can be as good as, and then it's like, how good could I be? And yet, yeah, yeah, like, there's that. And then on top of it, then just like my faction I'm still playing. I'm still doing all that shit. I'm still getting all these different things.

Like, I, and I just started a new Twitter list of WWE creators I'm following because so many people are doing crazy cool shit in there. If I can download an amazing Raven and Jericho today, like, it's, like, there's so much cool shit in this game that I'm playing this, like, probably unlike any wrestling game I've ever played. There's a bunch of different touchstones for things. I've seen or done in other experiences, but I'm still so impressed with this game. Mike, I know you've been part of the streams and all that.

Like, how are you feeling about the game? You know, the game is actually kind of becoming something really special to me. And I think it's because I get to bond with Greg. This is something, you know, Greg is a big single player guy and the games that we have tried to bond over back for blood. He had a baby and missed out on all the fun, right? Of course, he tries to bring me into Marvel's Avengers and I, you know, begrudgingly do play. but I never vibe with it, right?

But for me right now, this is becoming something special because not only do I get to bond with Greg and we'll get to create some awesome memories, but on the flip side, like, I'm now using this in a different way than I ever would have used a WWE video game before, right? Back in the day, it was me and my little brother

smashing every button trying to do the biggest, craziest things, but not understanding, right? And so I still do that, but actually I'm more using the AI simulation tool of this video game and really elevating my commentary and broadcasting skills. And I think that's really fun, something I've never really done before. I think I've used Halo and Fortnite and Apex in this realm, but I've never gone over to sports games and go, oh, wow, I could have just put on

NBA 2K and Sim mode and just broadcast it over that, right? And so being with Greg and actually having a touchstone to kind of funny now with the creative characters that we've had and just kind of playing in my own sandbox on a Saturday night where the kind of funny best friends will tune into a stream and I'll just turn off my camera and commentate it's been a ton of fun and I still don't understand the buttons I have come full circle with my good friend Kevin A sex who makes it more fun right as Greg brought up of like selling it and making the match worth watching and enjoying it's not a fighting game anymore to me like I used to take it on a show I have to beat you Andy is right I have to know all the buttons it's more

oh man that's crazy Kevin you did this to me and then like the momentum swings my way and I'm learning more of like let's put on a show and have fun instead of that pressure of oh I have to beat this person because it's a fighting game right and so wbd we is actually getting more playtime than I definitely thought it would and it's becoming something that special not only sharing it with Greg but with my friends of what would be able to do and I i'm enjoy using it as a tool to elevate certain aspects that I really really like in gaming a hundred percent And I think, you know, one of the things I found interesting today, like when we were streaming is I did at the end, we did. I just did an online match randomly against some guy, Tim, right?

And in the middle of the match, we start, me and Mike started talking, or my, Mike and me stumbled on the fact that I was like trying to change my streaming day permanently to Monday. He's like, oh, really? And I kind of got distracted and this dude dropped like three finishers on me, right? And I was like, well, this thing's over. But I was able to get a reversal in because he was playing around, right? And suddenly I gave him a run for his money. was hanging in there with him. Like, we went the distance, and it was one of those things I love the star rating up in

the corner for your match. And it was that thing of like, I lost that match, but I didn't get dominated. Like, you watched that thing, and it was kicking out of finishers. It was this. Like, I'm giving him, you know, I was Triple H. I'm giving him pedigrees. Like, is this going to be it? We're all in on it.

We're freaking out. Oh, this is when I was just playing the AI today, I downloaded this awesome Raven, and I have this Tommy Dreamer, and I put Dreamer through a flaming table as Raven. And it was like, again, like, then I ran in the ring, and I was like, he's probably got the right taunt, right? And I run raven over to the corner and taunt and sure he's got the ravenfall before. Like, it's just such, so impressive the way things are happening in this. And like, even here, like, you know, I'm granted, I'm playing the AI, but you see the star is ticking up over there. I think it's another thing of like, all right, cool, you can

beat the AI, but can you go to a five-star match? And that speaks so much to me and my heart and soul of no mercy. And I remember so distinctly, you know, whatever, months of having that game and uh me it might have been rustling in 2000 based on how i got rid of no mercy when it was broken uh but the idea of you know having cactus jackus jack and having triple h and having the royal rumba arena and like i remember distinctly the time i for no i'm just fucking around and i pedigree cactus jack on the announced table the announced table explodes his face busts open and i was like this is so perfect i was just going through and doing spots and trying to make a cool match not try to win i knew i could do that it's the same thing that's happening here when you're out there of

Like, what are you trying to accomplish in the ring that time? Dude, I love it. I can't wait to go to YouTube.com slash kind of funny place just like all you can and check out the stream. I actually have it pulled up. It's live now as of even recording this, the stream they did today. Because I want to see all of the dumb jokes and shit that you have about everybody, but like the choices you make about their movesets. I watch some of the stream seeing what you're doing with Andy and with Johnny Ace and all that stuff. But like, it's just so, so cool.

Are you happy with the level of customization? It allows you like top question for me is can you have a, okay, your entrance is the Shane McMahon entrance, but your in ring move set is the Eddie Guerrero move set. But the taunts are this, is it that granular or is it kind of like, okay, you can just copy this person? It is 100% that granular. Wow, that's cool. So you can make like what we're doing right now. And again, this is, you know, we call this day zero for KF. W, right? Because it wasn't us actually doing the show we think we're going to do, but it was

us building out and making people work the way they should. But it's like we were going in there and it was, all right, cool. Like we went through and set everybody's attribute points to where we think they should be to, we want everybody to net out to 88. So it's kind of an even playing field. But that did, you know, like, well, Janet should be strong, but, you know, Janet should be fast. And yet, yeah, et yada. And then it was like, all right, well, let's just assign movesets to people. And if you want to, like, blessing is like, I want to build my own moveset. We're like, go do it. Go do your thing, right? And Andy's, you know. I do too. Okay. Well, we He gave you a move set now, but you're free to go.

I'll watch it, and then I'll see how I feel about it. And I think it might even be as easy as like, yeah, because you have the Mizz's moves applied. Okay, cool. Uh-oh. Oh, he lost. Trees. Am I gone?

Hey, he's back. He's back, everybody. Oh, there is Jesus Christ. Yeah, I was like, I was like, we gave the Mizz. We gave you the Mizz's move set, Tim. And then I just looked at you were like, fucking frozen. I was like, oh, God, here we go.

Anyway, so, yeah, like, I mean, I think it might be as simple as, you know, people like what they don't. and maybe people pick their finishers, you know, what you want your entrances to be. But yeah, you can break it up however you want. Like, it's to the granular level of, like, you know, I was showcasing Mike's entrance. You know, he, uh, Olive Party gave him Ray Mysterio.

So he shoots out of the ground and does all that. And then he was like pointing to the sign. He's like, oh, yeah, new day. I like that I have the new day thing. I'm like, well, I'm going to make you an Xcast entrance video. It's just like on the litany of things we need to make for this federation and do. That's a bit far behind. Yeah, I want to jump off that.

And, you know, I'm actually really impressed. with the creation tools that they have coming from NBA 2K background, right? And seeing what the 2K team does with wrestling, it's actually very similar because NBA 2K, you can really dive deep into the animations of your custom characters and what they do. And so to see it on wrestling and even be kind of tenfold with what Greg is bringing up of like intro videos and all that jazz,

it is really, really impressive. And it's cool to see they put the love and care into this game with that kind of creation tool. It's awesome. Hell yeah. Well, everyone stay tuned to. YouTube.com slash kind of funny plays and Twitch.tv. slash kind of funny games for all of your amazing content that you're about to see,

our amazing content you're about to see. I'm distracted by something happening. Anyways, we're about to do the post show. It's about to be fun for everybody on patreon.com slash kind of funny games. But for everyone else, I love you.