Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Game of the Year: Greg and Tim's Two NEW Different GOTYs - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 89

Episode Date: September 8, 2021

Go to http://betterhelp.com/kindafunny and take care of yourself. Visit http://joinhoney.com/KINDA to get Honey for free. Go to http://freshly.com/kinda to get $40 off your first 2 orders! Download the DraftKings app NOW and use code KFGAMES.  We give our reviews on WarioWare Get It Together, Life Is Strange True Colors, and The Artful Escape. 2 of them are now Greg and Tim's Game of the Years! Time Stamps: 00:00:00 - Start 00:02:30 - Housekeeping 00:06:44 - WarioWare: Get It Together Review 00:32:31 - Life Is Strange: True Colors Review 01:06:36 - The Artful Escape Review Follow The Kinda Funny Team On Twitter: Greg Miller: https://twitter.com/GameOverGreggy Tim Gettys: https://twitter.com/TimGettys Andy Cortez: https://twitter.com/TheAndyCortez Barrett Courtney: https://twitter.com/SadBoyBarrett Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This show is sponsored by BetterHelp Online Therapy. Without a healthy mind, being happy is hard. Visit BetterHelp.com slash Kind of Funny and see if online therapies for you. What's up and welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast. As always, I'm Tim Geddes. Join by one of the coolest dudes in video games in an amazing sweater. Greg Miller. My dreams jumper.

Thank you very much. But on the PlayStation Gear Store, don't worry about it. It's good. It's real good. I love the colors. It's a very, of course, the nitral rifle, Andy Cortez. way. That's why I love you. So don't

you to let them show. Guys, there it is. GameC.A. Don't do it. Don't do it. It's too good. It's too good of a cover. Andy's trying to make it up because he was really mean to me on Slack. When we're doing meetings a lot of times, we're having a real conversation, he'll like to slack me something mean to try to throw me off in my game. But it doesn't work, that's what happens.

That's not true at all. I told, I said, for what it's worth, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then Greg messaged me in Slack, in quotes, for what it's worth, don't interrupt me. I didn't do that. I didn't do. There was a budding rivalry. There was one time. I forget what it was like games cast or something, where we start, and I'm like smiling at the beginning, and Greg messes and he's like, wipe that smirk off your face.

That voice you hear of course. I'm a fun boss, everybody. It's the new face of video games blessing at Ae Oye Jr. What's up, everybody? It's a good shirt, too. Nick Scarpino, a big fan of that, I'm sure. Oh, yeah. Sake.

Gotta love it. Sean Spencer. the other guy Sean blessed wore this shirt when we went to film the reveal of the new studio and everyone asked him

what the shirt was and he was like oh it's a psych shirt it's for Nick it's mainly for Nick and then Nick got there and like Nick flipped out for the shirt

and it was so sweet it's like the one thing Nick's Carpino have in common yeah every time like we hang out it's just I see him in the corner like so psych

what's up of that that's all I hear Not a whole lot of conversation between Blessing and Nick. Just, you see that new episode? You catch the new movie, the Psyc movie that drops once every three years. Oh, yeah, I caught it. It's good, isn't it? Yeah, it's really cool.

You heard about Pluto? That's a psych joke. There you go. If you want to hear about psych, you got to go on our YouTube channel, YouTube.com slash kind of funny. But this is the kind of funny games cast where each and every week we get together to talk about video games and all the things that we love about them. You can get it on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games or roosterteeth.com.

If you want to get it as a podcast, just search your favorite podcast service for Kind of Funny Games cast will be right there for you. If you want to get the show ad free, if you want to watch live as it's being recorded, and if you want the exclusive post show, all you got to do is go to patreon.com slash kind of funny games just like our Patreon producers, Tyler Ross, the kind of funny Destiny 2 PC clan, Julian the gluten free gamer, Alex Jay Sandoval, Techie Haas, James Hastings, Casey Andrew, Elliott, and Brian Ward have all done. which means they're Patreon producers and they don't need to listen to the ads for honey, freshly, and draft kings that we're going to give you later in the episode. Greg Miller, I saw you had your hand, raise. I just want to give a shout out. You said, you know, of course, you can watch this live

as we recorded on patreon.com slash kind of funny games, which is often true, not today because of our review embargoes, but I would like to give a round of applause to Blessing at Eioia Jr. Of course, on PS, I love you last week when he was recording the episode. At one point, Barrett goes, yeah, I have the chat saying this. And Blessing goes, Wait, we're live? And it's like, yeah.

And he's like, I didn't realize that at all. And I love that blessing likes to work without a net that way. Not understanding that it's being broadcast to an audience. I just love that because you were gone, blessing. I was like, oh, yeah, everything's different. We're probably like not on air or anything. It was like some embargo. We inserted the Far Cry preview in there.

So I think that's what led him to believe that it wouldn't be there because it was convoluted that, like, you could say that we had seen Far Cry, but we couldn't say what we thought of far cry yet. It was just a funny moment. I'm putting together all this baby room stuff listening to this episode. The kids say, wait,

we're alive. I also want to shout out to me for winning the Gamescast Summer Game Fest final score, like for having the highest squad of all of us. That's not the topic of the show. That's not the topic of the show. And me for having a 100% guess rate

with my one guess. Wow, bad in a thousand right there. Yeah. Do you have that pulled up by any chance? I sure do, yeah. I got a 3.2 points. Blessing came in second place with 3.05, Greg, 2.5, Tim, 1.9, and Barrett 1.

What put you over the edge? Because I would have sworn that I would have taken it away, because I think I predicted St. Roe. Let's see here. The new scores came from Andy, guessing that Pokemon Legends Archaeus was getting a dedicated direct. That's one that pushed me over the edge. And also... You don't deserve points for that. It did not get a dedicated direct. Boo, Andy! These results are garbage! I mean, that's where all.

the point that's where all that's how i have 3.2 i'm assuming that's how blessing has 3.05 so tim got extra points because the legos star wars skywalka saga gregg got extra points because horizon forbidden west is not coming in 2021 which is confirmed sometime in a summer game fest probably a long blog post is what he said looks like i won though that's crazy good job there you go congrats the blessing the the true king of halloween fuck off tim appreciate it appreciate it i mean gregg you're gone for october it must be a sign that you're not the true king. It's going to be interesting how much Halloween shit I'm up to you.

I'm so into fucking Halloween. I had a baby. I made a baby to make sure this baby comes out around Halloween. Made a baby. You're going to get Halloween. I hear you. I would do the same thing if I was up against me. Yeah.

I love it though. The boys are back. The four of us haven't done one of these shows together in a while. There's been a lot of this and that and a whole bunch of things going on. But here we are. And it's a mega games cast, everybody. It is the fall season, which of course for video games means we're getting reviews left right we're getting some fun previews and this episode is very special we got not one not two but three

reviews of some of the biggest games and sure that might mean they're some of the smallest games but when it comes to video games that's what's cool about them small things can be big big things can be small it's whatever we want to do here so let's make it works for gamers too everybody don't worry don't just apply to your video games apply to your gamers exactly exactly what it really comes down to is no matter how small, no matter how micro things can be. Video games are still video games. And with that, I want to talk about Warrior Wear, get it together. A video game full of micro games.

I got to play it over the last week and a half or so. The new game coming to the Nintendo Switch. It is the first entry, first new entry in the Warrior Ware franchise in quite a while. We got the debut trailer for this during E3 this year. Definitely was a huge surprise to all of us. this one was developed by Nintendo EPD, who are the team that we know as the Splatoon people behind the 3D Mario games,

helping out assisting with a lot of like Mario 3D World and Mario Odyssey and etc. As well as... Exactly, Animal Crossing. The way Nintendo's teams work, there's a lot of collaboration. So that was kind of the main team, but also working with intelligent systems who are mainly known for the Fire Emblem Games,

the Warrior Wear Games, and the Paper Mario games. So this was kind of a, I don't want to say all hands-on-deck type thing, but it was some hands on different teams hands-on-deck to make this video game happen. It is a $50 title for the Nintendo Switch coming out on September 10th.

And I think that that is kind of my biggest criticism of the game, is that $50 MSRP. Greg Miller, you had your hand raised. What's up? I was going to ask as the Nintendo expert, like what are the normal price points for Warriorware? I can't remember if they were like, you know, 10 bucks less than a normal game or whatever.

No, Warriorware traditionally has been cheaper than a flagship Nintendo title. And that's not always been the case. Like back in the day when it debuted like Game Boy Advance, Nintendo games were already cheaper than other GBA games. If you remember GBA games were $40, Nintendo GBA games were $30. So the original warrior was $30 on the GBA.

But as we went on, even the GameCube release, that retailed for $30. at a time when normal GameCube games were $50. So that was a $20 discount. That's a big deal, a big percentage back in 2003 or whenever that was, right? And Greg, I was going to say, and Greg, like, one thing you need to understand is Wario is a, he's kind of a diva. All right. Wario's like, I'm not going on any, I'm not releasing a new game if I'm not an expensive title.

All right. I don't lessen my impact here on this platform. Sure. Or he's a trouble maker, Greg. He is. He wants that money. The games are historically handheld. Like there have been fewer console Warrior's, I want to say, than handheld warioers.

Well, don't forget that with the power of the Nintendo Switch, you can take your console anywhere. So it's kind of handheld. And that's where it does get a little bit kind of iffy and kind of what it comes down to is the GameCube 1, what came out. And then years later, there was the Wii U one. There was kind of a different, semi-different type of game than we're used to seeing with the Warrior Ware franchise. And then a couple years ago, I think it was three years ago. we got one on the 3DS called Warrior Wear Gold. That was essentially a greatest hits of all the different games.

And even that was $40, which 3DS games a little bit cheaper, so that makes sense. But this is a $50 title on the Nintendo Switch. And like I said earlier, I think that is the biggest criticism I have of this game. It's a really damn good game. And the more I played it, the more I ended up enjoying it. I was kind of down on it the first bit as I was playing through it. There was things that were off-putting. The art style really kind of.

bothered me, not of the levels they're very classic warrior wear and it makes sense, but of the characters themselves, they're kind of cheapified in a way and they kind of have that like Marvel's What If slash Rooster Teeth's Ruby 3D animated look for the characters

themselves and I didn't like it. I thought it looked kind of cheap. It looked like it didn't look as refined as the things I just mentioned and it looked kind of like old flash new egg style animation. But as I played a little bit like yeah, Bear just brought it up here. You can kind of see it. But seeing it in motion after the first 10, 15, 20 minutes or so and seeing how these

characters kind of stand out with the backgrounds that are absolutely chaotic in classic warrior wear fashion with a bunch of different art styles that don't necessarily vibe with each other. I actually think it worked out. Like, I think that they made wise decisions and it ends up not looking cheap and it ends up seeming like a decision as opposed to a, you know, kind of a letdown to me. So I was happy with that. But this game, I think, is going to speak very loudly to fans of Warrior Wear. If you've liked Warrior Wear before, you're going to have a good time with this game. If you've never really interacted with the Warrior before, this is actually a fantastic entry to it.

I think that it kind of teaches you how to play these games, how to get used to it very quickly, and has a nice range of micro games to play that keep you engaged. Because at the end of the day, if you guys don't know, if you haven't played warrior aware, which honestly is one of those franchises that you've either known and loved or have never given a shot and seen and heard about,

it's a big see. Have you ever tried it before, Andy? Never tried it. Never had any interest in it. It always just looked like a silly thing that would just, honestly, at that point, I was like, you know when parents said video games are wasted time?

I think this, I get it, you know? Uh-huh. Yeah, so I get that. So the pitch to you and the pitch to people that might not exactly understand what this game is,

it's a series of what are called micro games where you play these rounds that are about four to five minutes long you're going through anywhere between 10 and 20 of these micro games that all last 10 seconds or less and they're weird as hell but most of them boil down to move to a part of the screen and hit a hit a single button any button does the same thing and uh cause something to happen so we're seeing here it's like shoe the flies away from the cake and it's just cool gets the the flies and get them to go away uh here it's like unplug this thing so the water can go to down. And really what it comes down to is your reflexes of how quickly they're telling you the instructions

and then you figuring it out and acting on that thing before the time runs out. About halfway through the round, everything speeds up and you have to do things at an even quicker pace to be able to win. And you have like five lives in this round. And every time you lose, you lose one of those lives. You don't get to retry the challenge if you lost it. You just get you keep moving on. And it's frenetic, fast-paced, nonstop, nonsense. It's chaos, and it is something that you kind of need to just realize you're in this, you're moving forward, and if you make a mistake, don't worry about it too much. You just got to keep going.

But if you run out of lives, you've got to start from the beginning again and do the whole round over again. The randomized, every round has a set of like 20 or so microgames that it randomizes for you, and you're getting into them in and out super quickly. Andy Cortez, I'm kind of funny. And all these little freaks on screen right now, all these little other characters, like, what, what's their deal? Are they, like, why couldn't they just put a little Mario Neoche in there? These are Wario's friends. Well, that's one way to put it.

Warrior's coworkers that don't necessarily like him much is another way. But for people familiar with the Warrior Ware franchise, these are kind of established. Wario is Kevin. My God. I thought that was some audio drop. in that was weird as hell that's how it's how we did that that's where we got hacked zoom bombed these are like beloved warrior wear characters andy like all of them kind of have these personalities and they've been in in all of the games in some way shape or form yeah I recognize the disco man

with the blue fro exactly boy Jimmy but what's cool about it is every round like I was talking about has these like story beats that play like cutscenes that play before it to kind of set up the character and they remind me so much of elite beat agents that kind of like chaotic energy and just nonsense, but like it's fun. And you're either weird Nintendo stuff. And that's the thing. That's what this game is to its core. It's just Nintendo being weird and quirky.

And in some ways, it really works. In some ways, it's really cringy. In some ways, it's for kids. And in some ways, it's not at all. But I think it kind of comes together to work really well, where if one thing doesn't work for you, the next thing's going to, because it is just such nonsense.

But like, it's a consistent nonsense. sense that's moving so quickly that it's more about the energy than it is about anything else. And that's an energy that's backed up with an actually really, really, really good vision and sense of identity that is so hard to explain until you play it for a little bit. And then you can really wrap your head around, okay, cool. Like all these musical cues and like random ass art that wouldn't ever go together in any other place kind of works and kind of vibes. And you're always interested to see what's coming next.

the one difference between this game and the other Warrior Wear games, Andy, time of the characters, is they're all playable characters and the gimmick of this iteration is that in the beginning of the game, no spoilers, like the story is that you get sucked into this game

and all the characters get like cheapified to have the art style that I was talking about and you start off with Wario and as you progress through the game, you're unlocking, you know, tens of other, characters from the Warrior Universe to play as

each character plays slightly differently. So it's all the same thing where you move with the analog stick and there's one button that does stuff. But Wario, you control him, he has a jetpack so he can kind of fly around like you're playing a schmup

and you hit A and he has his charge attack and he just kind of charges a little bit ahead of him. But then other characters will be able to not, like to just jump, they can't fly, but they can shoot something. Other characters can only shoot left. Other characters are constantly bouncing up and down, but you can hit A and have an

attack that kind of goes around you. Ashley here that was flying on the broomstick, she's more of like you can go all around the screen like top down shooter style, shoot in any direction you want, but she's kind of slow. So it's all the exact same idea of movement and one attack, but it's every variation impossible as you're going through these characters. And where it gets interesting is you unlock the characters one by one as you go each level.

Every level you play, you can't just play as one character. You choose three different characters from a Smash Brothers type character select screen and you make your team. Then when you go in to play the actual microgames, every microgames switches what character you are. So you choose your team of Wario, Ashley, and Jimmy. Do you want a good team comp? exactly and you're playing through these micro games and you might get set up in a microgame because it shifts you don't get to choose it's your three you're constantly round one's warrior round two is actually round three is jimmy and then it flips and just keeps going back and forth since the micro games are randomized you can't really prep for like who's best for this so sometimes you might be in a micro game that your character is completely ill suited for what you're trying to do and you can always complete

it with any character, but it's severely more difficult with certain characters. And with that, that's where the fun for me kind of came. As somebody that has always liked Wireware, but never been the biggest fan, I thought that this added a level of complexity and interest for me of like, oh, shit, there's this level of going into a different microgame where I'm like, oh, shit, I'm going into this with 8 volt. That's not good. It's one level deeper than.

And it adds this level of challenge on top of the already frenetic kind of thing going on. On top of just kind of you have like three seconds before the microgame starts where you see what character you have, where you get to like hit A to kind of remember what ability they have. And it works really well that when you hit this point of kind of when you get in the flow, the gaming flow of playing these micro games that are going so fast. In the flow state. It's switching characters like left and right. when you see a character and your brain immediately is like, okay, I shoot left with this one. Or, oh, I can jump higher with this one.

And you can do the challenge. It's super satisfying. Greg. Are there so many characters that it takes you a long time to figure this out, though, and know their strength, weaknesses, all I chest? Yes. There's a ton of characters, and that's kind of the point. I mean, you can see here this is a fair amount,

but a fraction with all the questions there. There's a good amount of characters that it's never overwhelming. Okay. And you pretty quickly understand they find. into it's kind of like Smash Brothers where sure there's 50 characters or more than that at this point but they all kind of fall into some type of trope where it's like okay if you know how to play Marth you know how to play a percentage of the cast if you know how to play Sammas so you can play a percentage of the cast type thing so it's similar here but everything's so simple where it's not like every character has a move set it's one move so it really becomes about identifying like what is that one character able to do that others aren't. Or how are they different than the other characters? Because all the micro games are the same.

Like, it's not like they add that many layers of complexity. Okay. But yeah, like, I'm going long on this, but really just want to get it across. This is a really good warrior wear game. I just think that there is not enough content

to be able to justify a $50 price point for this. Like, if this was $30, I would be like highly recommend. It is a blast. It is a very, very polished game. is a lot of fun. I had a blast playing it for about four hours. And I can't see myself wanting to go back too much more. There's a ton of challenges. There's missions. There's some multiplayer stuff.

And I played a little bit of it. And some of them you can play single players. Some you can't. And they definitely tried to add as much content as they can to what makes this core game work. And I went this whole time without even talking about what everyone's favorite part of Wario Wray games are is the Nintendo Classic. What are you saying right? Picking your nose. There's a lot of picking your nose. And as much as I love that, I definitely love the Nintendo classic levels more.

And the, you know, the amount of Nintendo classic levels they have in this, I was very impressed by. What does that mean? What does that mean? There is a set of levels that are based on, they're micro games based on Nintendo games. So here you see,

it's Mario Land, right? Or there's other ones where, I don't want to spoil anything because like that is a lot. To give an example from like Wario or Gold, right? because that's the one that I just have in the memory bank is like, you'll play as Link and Windwaker and you've got the cloth and it's blowing the wind is going in a certain way. You have to,

you have like three seconds essentially to land on a platform. If you don't get on top of the platform in a certain amount of time, you'll lose. So it's like a little, like fun little interpretations. It's like NES remix, but even more micro. Yeah, exactly. But also not tied to NES. So that's what's coolest is without spoiling anything,

I was shocked at some of the polls they had. This game has some really, really interesting Nintendo Classics and what they do with them from a microgame perspective, I was like, whoa, y'all did it. That was awesome. I just wish it was the whole game. Like, at least there was a lot more of that. What are the expectations for multiplayer?

Do you see this being a good experience for people playing co-op or versus? Does it seem like a meaty enough experience? And is there online for it? So there is not online. There is couch co-op. and it is limited to certain modes. You can play the story mode with two players,

and that seems like it would be a ton of fun. Like, I can totally imagine that being awesome. And like I said, that's four hours, but that could be a four-hour experience that you have with multiple people and multiple family members, like having fun with it. Like, there is a value there. And I think that at the end of the day,

it's a very good time. On top of the story, there's a separate couple game modes. One of them is mainly focused on a multiplayer experience of up to four, players. And those seem to kind of range. If I'm being honest, they're all kind of lame.

Like everyone I played, I was like, this doesn't seem like something I'm interested in getting a group of people together to play. Some of them were fun enough. And like, they had elements and an aesthetic that are really cool. Like there's one that's very smash bros elemented, like obviously based on it. And I'm like, oh, this is actually kind of fun. But I played for 10 minutes and I hadn't lost yet.

And I'm like, well, I feel like I can go with this forever and it's not really engaging or that fun and adding multiple real players to it wouldn't really enhance it. It just seems like more to do as opposed to like more worthwhile things to do. So that kind of I think is the multiplayer side

I think is kind of a bummer and they're not being online or any of that. It's interesting because this isn't Mario Party. I feel like a lot of people can look at Warrior Ware and be like, oh, it's just like Mario Party. It's not. It is very much a different experience that is almost more akin to something like brain age

where it's about your reflexes and about how quick you can just react to what's being thrown at you. And the things being thrown at you are very aesthetically pleasing and weird and quirky and insane. So that's kind of where the fun lies. And the worst thing is like,

I'm not allowed to talk about some of the coolest parts of the game because of embargo stuff. But even with that, I don't think that they're necessarily make this worth $50. Like I stand by at the end of the day. This is a fantastic.

$30 game. $50 is just way, way too much for a Warrior Ware game coming out in the Nintendo Switch in 2021. Blessing. How does it use the Switch joycons? Because like one of my favorite things about warrior wear for Wii, I think it was smooth moves, was that everything was built around using the Wemo in some different way. And so like you would have it so that the image would pop up on screen of like, you know, start with your remote on the table and then you would have to pick it up at a certain point. Does it have anything like that or any cool things that it does with the joythons. No, and I can't believe it. Wow, really? I thought for sure

you're going to say, yeah. No, man. And that's my thing where I'm like, this is, it feels kind of like a weird step for the franchise where they got rid of a lot of the gimmicks and because of that, they made a game that I think works better than most of the Warrior Ware games. I think this is a better video

game than most of the previous warrior wears. And the characters all having different skills that you need to learn. Like, that becomes the gimmick as opposed to controller stuff. So it still does have its gimmick, and the gimmick works very well. It's just less kind of, you know, using the physical space. And you'd expect that from the switch with all of its abilities,

and especially with the HD Rumble and all that stuff. But no, it just, it doesn't at all. And there's even like some throwbacks and some like things you see in the game that reference old warrior wear games. And it reminded me, I'm like, yeah, like, we used to have to twist our Game Boy advance because it had the gyro stuff and all that. And it's like, no, you're not doing. at that like every single game is you're moving around and attacking something in some shape or form like

it's not is that them trying to harken back to game cube warrior because that didn't really have that many gimmicks to it because that really shocks me honestly yeah kind of but again like there is the gimmick of the characters and i can't uh talk about that enough like it changes things up and the there was a meta game to it of picking the right squad or just dealing with the situation you're giving and picking this picking your nose baby exactly yeah dude you know you got a chuckle out of that good you brought it back you know i appreciate you bringing up the game cube one uh blessing because that that was my favorite one growing up was uh what was the that one called i think make a party make a party games yeah um so i have a couple questions just because i really love waria wear uh

warrior wear gold for like the last like year or so especially staying at home has been my like what andy was saying like let's waste some time i've got like 20 minutes or like you know I'm going to bed, but I don't want to, like, sit down and, like, play something for the night. So, like, let's see, like, what high scores I can get with all the unlocked games that I have. So I imagine, you know, like, unlocking characters, like, throughout the story mode and stuff. Is there similar stuff of, like, unlocking mini games as you see them for the first time throughout story mode? Because I feel like that was an element in some of the Warrior Wear games as well. Yes, there is.

And everything you just said, Barrett, you're going to love this game. Like, there is a lot of that high score chasing. Like, I want a better. I want to go through this again because I know, like, I had the wrong team, so I want to get the right team. Or eventually you can do a thing where you, it's essentially random in Smash where like it just gives you, like, every time you hit a new micro game, it just gives you a random character to play with. And that's a lot of fun. And there's like a different kind of high score meter for that gameplay. Okay.

So there, there's a lot of reasons to replay it if you're pulled to do that. It's just at the end of the day, it's like, it just. comes down to the $50 is a lot of money for what this game offers compared to what similar games have offered in the past and compared to what other games are offering right now. Gotcha. But it is a very high quality thing and I just think that the price point is its biggest misstep. Otherwise, this is my favorite warrior where I've played.

Like I said, I'm not the biggest fan of the franchise up until this point. So that's not like the most glowing recommendation. But I am surprised at how much I like it now compared to how. concerned I was about it when I first saw the preview, and how lukewarm I was when I first started playing. So there's some surprises. There's some cool things. And like I said,

some of the coolest moments I can't even talk about. So Greg Miller. Do you think this was a good pick for my fantasy critic Gamescast League draft order? I honestly think this game's going to review well. And I think that I'm going to be the only fucking real one that's calling out the $50 is too much. Like I think that people just kind of get to let that slide, but I'm being honest. Sorry, Jonathan Dornbush.

No, it's just like, like, I mean, because like I got, I faced a lot of criticism when I was talking about how new Pokemon snap was not worth the money despite being an okay game. Uh, but I'm just keeping it real. This game is a very good game. It's much better than new Pokemon snap. There's a lot more to do in it. But still, like we just got to call them out on their bullshit. Like $50 is too much for this title. Did you, anyway, you shake it in the four hours?

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And that's you've seen all 200 games? That's being generous. That's being generous. But you've seen all 200 games then? I have not seen all 200 games. I would say that I'm even counting. I played this game, I would say, five hours total.

About 190, 190? And I'm probably around like 185, 190. Oh, shit. But like also with the story mode, like that, I wouldn't say the story mode is ever like the pole and like the thing that keeps you playing and stuff like that. Like that's the similar to the, like Smash Brothers, that's the place where you like unlock all of the cool stuff so then you can go into like the high score modes

and which is the stuff that I love doing is just like trying to beat my high score and even in this trailer that I see here that I have pulled up like there seems to be some at least like you can see your scores compared to other friends for certain modes which will be like really exciting. My last question Tim was you were talking about

multiplayer and not being like super impressed like what they had to offer for multiplayer stuff and like my my entry point into aria where was the multiplayer for the game cube version and i was just wondering if they have like uh like i don't know if you can talk about it but just like at least like some sort of mode that'll be like entertaining to have like two or three other people to like where you're doing the same mini game and it's all about like kind of survival of the fittest of like kind of like seeing who can last thing passing back and forth because that's what i did in smooth those was like there was i forget if this is a mode or if this is just like a house rules kind of thing

but I remember there being a thing of past the limo back and forth and whoever can go the longest without failing a minigame wins the thing. There's a, I think the game's going to be really good for two players. There's a lot to do. It's going to be a lot of fun for that type of co-op. It's very like work together chaos. And it happens really quickly.

It reminds me a lot of the fun we had playing Mario 3D World, like that type of energy just distilled into these little tiny micro games. In terms of the two to four players, they, I would say half this game of at least half what they're trying to offer is limited to four players and doesn't seem great. Like it just seems like stuff that's there to be there. Seems like decent versions of mobile games I've played a million times. Like there's nothing too interesting and it feels like content for content sake from what I

experienced as opposed to the quality that is in the main line. the storyline micro games which i think is really really good well as long as this is uh another you know i'm laying in bed and i'm just looking to kill some time and be another high score i'm gonna be happy yeah and i mean the fact that you can play on console or just play in your bed on the switch like i do think that goes a long way just again fifty dollars is not necessarily the right price point for that yeah greg you had a final question for this before i just wanted to it's a correction to myself i'm sorry earlier when you said you were going to be the only a real one i called out Jonathan Dornbush.

I texted Dornbush. He is in fact not reviewing Wario Ware. So I'm just going to say, why Tom marks? Why not be a real one? Do I have to text Tom now? Make sure that Tom's not review. I mean, that's Dormbusch. If he's wrong on that fact, that's not.

That's not on me. That's not. Moving on from Wario Ware, get it together. I want Greg Miller and blessing at E.O.E.J. Jr. to tell me all about life is strange, true colors. Life is strange, true colors. cast you is Alex Chen, a girl, out of juvenile hall and all that jazz out on her own, finally reunited with her brother, Gabe. And would you narrate like the trailer or what the fuck?

I don't know. The really good pages I go. I think, you know, before we even jump into that, I want to put on the record that, you know, I love Life is Strange. I'm a Life is Strange fan. I've enjoyed all the games that I've played so far from them. And when we talk about this, I know it's going to be a broad topic. Obviously, there's no spoilers for Life is Strange True Colors, but also I'm going to switch back and forth talking about obviously

Life is Strange before the storm and Life is Strange 2, which of course, Don't nod, obviously made Life is Strange. Then before the storm was by Deck 9, then back to Don't nod for Life is Strange 2. Now, deck nine here working on Life is Strange True Colors. Life is strange true colors is probably,

yeah, I mean, in terms of things we've reviewed or whatever, it's my game of the year so far. I was texting blessing at the end of every episode. Again, it's episodic like other life of strangers before it. However, this time around, it is all released at once. So we're not waiting for anything.

So five episodes, and at the end of every episode, I would text blessing something or some other comment about it. And mainly it was this feeling of I did not want this game to end. Blessing, am I crazy? No, I think you're 100% spot on with like the not wanting this game to end. I'm right there with you that this game, this game is for sure like somewhere in the top of my game of the year list. I don't know exactly where it falls, but I was not, I didn't have high expectations if I'm being really honest about life strange colors.

Like going into it, you know, it's deck nine. Life Strange as a series has been passed back and forth between deck nine and don't nod. And when I think of the Life Strange I love, I do think of the original Life is Strange. Life Strange One is one of my favorite games of the last decade. Life Strange Before the Storm, I also really liked as well. And then Life Strange 2, I played episode one and then I fell off one because the release cadence of Life Strange 2 just wasn't great. I think it was like three or so months between episodes. But then also the first episode I didn't fall in love with.

And so I had kind of been tapped out of Life is Strange and hopping into this one. By the time I finished episode one, I was immediately pulled in in a way that I wasn't expecting, especially because Life Strange True Color starts off pretty slow in terms of, you know, you're playing as Alex Chen. You're arriving in a small town. You're like, you're getting acclimated, you're meeting characters. And the game has a really laid back. tone to it where it does feel like you're hanging out in this hipster small town in Colorado.

Like I assume that it's probably based off of Boulder or some random like, like it very much has that has the vibes of something like Boulder, Colorado, but even smaller. And so like you get there, you're hanging out, you're meeting characters. And it's a very slow burn in that first episode. But by the time the first episode ends and gets into the, the next episode, I was fully pulled in in a way I was not expecting. Yeah, I'm with you actually that, you know, I am a life of strange. fans. So you tell me you're making new Life is Strange. I'm interested. I'm going to play it. I'm

going to be excited. But I was in the same boat of nothing I had seen had made me go, oh, this is going to be something that's super special. In fact, actually, I think honestly, the setup of who Alex is on paper might have turned me off in terms of her powers, right? Oh, yeah. You figure, of course, in Life Strange 1, we were max. We could rewind time before the storm. No powers. And then Life is Strange 2. it was telekinesis from our brother. We actually weren't the superpowered individual that was doing things. We were, you know, talking to our brother, Daniel.

And so to get to life is strange too, and they're like, yeah, the hook is like she's an empath. It's like, oh, okay. Like she can read emotions? My response was like, that's not a superpower. We were talking about it on PS I Love You because the preview embargo was up. And me and me and Janet were going back and forth on it

because I had played a little bit of it. She hadn't, but I wasn't sure where the embargo was. And so I'll stick it with my original thought of like, yeah, like empathy as a superpower does nothing for me. Like, you know, Max and Life Strange 1 could rewind time. The kid in Life Strange 2 had telepathy. And, you know, Alex feels things that other people are feeling. And I'm like, telekinesis. You know, I have empathy.

Like anybody I know has empathy. Like that's not a thing that's not really a sell for me. But in practice, you know, episode one I think gives you hints of, okay, I can see where this goes in terms of, oh, okay, this guy over here, she can feel the anger in him. So she kind of know, she can kind of tell if he's bluffing or she can kind of predict like what this guy's about to do. And like, you know, when there's emotion that's very strong, she also feels it very strongly. And so if there's somebody else in the room who is super angry, her, she too will be, will feel super angry in the moment and might react because of that. And that gave birth to way more cool moments in the game than I really expected.

The way that they use that in multiple different ways, too. throughout the story, I think builds towards something that not only is interesting in premise of, oh, yeah, what does, you know, what can somebody do with this kind of power? But then also, I think does a lot in terms of the tone of the game. You know, like, it is, I, I think this game does a really good job of handling emotion in a way that is very nuanced and thoughtful. Like, you know, whenever, whenever you're in a scene where, like, sad is assault, like, I myself could feel that in the writing, not because of the, uh, auras, which, you know, which if Alex sees somebody who's sad, right, usually they'll give off a blue aura, if they feel sadness intensely.

If they're angry, they'll give off a red aura. If they're scared or something, they'll give off a purple aura. You know, that combined with, I think, how well or how good the writing is in any given moment really conveys like, oh, shit, okay, like this person is angry. And I'm starting to feel tense myself as a player because I know this can give birth to a tense situation or this person is sad. And so I want to go, I want to double check on this person and talk to him if I'm just walking around in the environment. check up to see like, okay, is there, is there something I can intervene with? Like, maybe those will clue me more into what's going on in this town. Like, that kind of stuff I thought was actually really well done, uh, given the premise of the game being something that for me at first, I was like, oh, that's basic. Yeah, I mean, we've seen empaths, right? Like,

I mean, we talk about Mantis and Guardians, right, or something to that effect. And it's like, mantis is cool or whatever, but not in a way that like I would want, give me a mantis single play our game, right? The way they use it here to marry what Life is Strange always has been, which is environmental exploration, right? And then your relationships with people, I thought was really well done to open up different pathways. And obviously, if you've ever played Life is Strange, it's all about, you know, it's choose your own adventure. You choose what to say and when to say and that then influences and domino effects and you end with different endings and different things that, you know, bless has seen things that I haven't seen, we ended our games

very different ways. I can't wait to, I want to do a spoiler cast maybe as like a back half P.S. I love you. We'll do that next week or something. That'd be awesome. Yeah, like, I thought, yeah, reading emotions, oh, this person's angry is what we're going to get, right? But instead, it is very much you read that that person's angry and understand why they're angry and what they're doing, right? Or why they're tense, why they're scared, and then that gives you new dialogue options to move it somewhere, or, which I wasn't expecting either, different objects in the environment have strong emotions tied to them. So you get to do that for your puzzle solving, for your story building, for your world building. And I think that

as a Life is Strange fan who's played them all and beaten them all, right? I enjoyed them all. Life is Strange 2 wasn't a slog to get through, but Life is Strange 2 was a game that ended and I didn't think about again. Whereas Life is Strange 1, and it's kind of cheating to toss before the storm in there,

but I'm going to do it because it's all Arcadia Bay. It's all Chloe and Max's story, right? Rachel Amber 2. Those are games that I finished and then would have those conversations with people who, well, how did you do this? And what did you do this? What do you think the real ending is, right?

And I'm such a dork that I buy the Life is strange comic book. right that does a whole bunch of different things with all their realities that I think super cool but that's the story of redempt time. What I think Life is Strange 2 missed so much was an anchor point of an environment and of a place. And what I can't compliment Life is Strange

True Colors enough for is Haven. Haven the town you are in is its own character. Haven Springs is its own beast, its own character. You are in it for all five episodes and you'll go outside of town or in new locations.

and stuff, but the town itself is a character, which gives you such a grounding. And then on top of that, I think the game, Anahven Springs and the characters and the models and all that is gorgeous. Like, I, there was, you know, multiple times in my PlayStation capture media gallery is filled with screenshots, granted, mainly from cinematics and stuff, but it's all in engine that I want to use as desktop backgrounds and want to talk about how great this game is. because I know it's in the title, true colors, right?

Which, of course, is your true character. Then the aura has to have colors. But in general, the way they use color in this game, it is always saturated, it is always beautiful, it always feels like you are in this watercolor painting, right? And that- The movie poster.

Yeah, it marries so well with Alex's story, this cool, quaint town, all the people that are in it, like, it's for, in terms of what I want out of a life is strange, like it's 10 out of 10 in terms of its character. in terms of its plot points in terms of its art in terms of everything that's going on. Blessing and I both had the same thing. Blessing texted me about it first because he started.

He's like, what is up with the frame rate of this? And when I started it, it was jarring as well. I don't know if it's a frame rate thing or if it's just animation style. But like, see, like, after episode one, I didn't notice it anymore. Me neither. I was like, what is up with the frame rate in this game? This game, is this game running at 20 frames per second? What is going on?

And I like, part of me is like, did they push an update? because I stopped noticing it, but every now and then I'll stop and move the camera and be like, no, I think it's still there, but maybe it is the art style. I think it's our adjustment to it, yeah. Yeah, and our adjustment too and how much they're pushing it visually, because this is easily by leaps and bounds the best-looking Life is Strange game. I mean, Greg, talking about the colors, right? Like, the colors and just the details of it being located in a small town in Colorado,

so seeing the mountains in the background, seeing the Haven Springs has a lot of, like, garden-y type stuff going on. there's flowers, there's, uh, like a lot of, you know, beautifully colored flowers, right? Like, there's, there's a lot of vibrancy going on in this town. And I totally dig it. Talk about the flowers, bless you. No, the flowers are fire, man.

I actually love the flowers in this game. Um, but like, you know, the funny thing is this game takes place in pretty much one block for the most part. Every now and then you go and you go off into somewhere else. But for the most part, you're walking back and forth between a block. And that is something that life strange before it did not do. Life Strange 1, you know, you go to school, you go to Chloe's house, you go to Max's house, and you have all these different locations that the game will pop you into.

This whole game, for the most part, you're walking down one street, one block, and at first, I didn't love that. At first I was like, oh, that's kind of lame that they're trapped me into this one location, and I would get into situations where I would have the objective of, hey, go to the flower shop and talk to this person, and I'm like, where the fuck is the flower shop? I'm like walking back and forth, and I finally find him like, okay, cool. And then they're like, okay, cool, go and talk to Steph. And I'm like, where is Steph?

How do I find this person? But by chapter three, I pretty much memorized the block in a way that really made Haven Springs feel like an actual location. I could go to the record store if I wanted to you. I could go to the flower shop. I could find the park. I could find where any single person is hanging out because I know that certain characters will hang out in very similar spots. And that kind of thing I really adore because so much of the game does have to do with home and community in a way that I wasn't expecting. in like Gabe Chen being an outsider to this community and having to kind of

settle in in circumstances that they're kind of stressful to the entire town it was very interesting to have that because you know Greg you meant I think you mentioned that like she came from well like like juvenile detention I missed like you said Gabe that's her brother right he's already been there for a while but it's they have similar stories they both show up as strangers and you know become family in the town or whatever but yeah she's coming out of a facility right She's 21. She's just restarting her life. Her and Gabe haven't separated.

I want to say it was for eight years is what he said at the beginning, right? They haven't seen each other for eight years because they both got put into the foster care system and stuff like that. And yeah, again, to Blessing's point, and I think, you know, to talk about it as one street sounds like we're putting it as a negative or making it feel small. But it's almost, and it's not 100 percent, but it's almost one street of free roaming, right, where it's like you can go into those buildings. You can interact. You can go to your room. You can go to the rooftop. you can branch off of Main Street and go into the park,

you can go down to the dock, you can go to these things. And if you never play a Life is Strange, you're like, all right, whatever about it. That's not how the other games have been, right? Where it was, Life is Strange. One was like, cool, this scene is taking place at the school. You are in the school.

Like, you can't leave the school, do what you need to do in the school before you advance the plot to go somewhere different. That makes this place feel alive, but then it is also that, you know, reward of what Life is strange is, of branching out and talking to side characters and seeing how they change the world, right?

Of like, there's all these different people that aren't main characters that you can listen into and then guide them along, you know, through multiple episodes, what's going on to get them to a goal that will change the area. Or, you know, there's a, no spoilers, obviously. There's a big, well, not that you would know, but it doesn't matter. There's a spring festival. There's like a big party there doing at one point, right? And I did the whole life is strange thing.

You always do in these games where I explore. I look at everything. I listen to everybody. I talk to everybody. And it was like, all right, cool. You know, you can, you know, I need to talk to this person to advance, obviously. or they kept saying, oh, you should go talk to them. I'm like, cool.

And then I was like, but wait, like, this is the open area. And sure is shit, I broke out and wandered into town and found different people to talk to and other things you would have missed. And it's more than ever a game that when you get to every episode ends, you get your result screens, I was shocked. I always feel like I'm being thorough when I'd get the, like, you know, this many people did this on the roof. And I was like, I didn't even think to go to the roof.

I didn't even, you know, early on, I was like, oh, I didn't even do that. I missed it. Yeah, I had the exact same thing. And even by the time I finished the game, I was shocked by how much, seem to branch out depending on how I played the game. Like, I don't think the game has dynamically different endings by the time you get to it, but things can be affected in the last chapter, like, based on how certain characters react or whatever happens.

And I was shocked by the ending I got and then realizing that in my results screen, I could have changed a lot of things that would have maybe had things favor in my way. And it makes me want to replay the game and actually do more exploration than I did. Because I explored based on what my objectives in the, the game were because if you press the pause button, or I think it's the touchpad, it'll come up with, oh yeah, your main objective right now is to talk to Gabe or whoever, and then you have like a side objective of check out the record store or whatever. I would do those. I would knock those out, but that would be the bare minimum I would do it and then I would go on about my day.

And every now and then I would do a random thing. Like I would clean my room just randomly on a day because I saw those trash there. So I was like, fuck y'all clean it. And like, you know, that ended up on the result screen of like 30% or whatever, like clean the room. This percentage didn't. And so it's funny of the things that they make matter in those small ways, but there also seems to be things, seem to be things that matter in big ways and ways that I didn't expect. And I can't wait to talk to Greg about it in a spoiler fashion to figure out like, okay, what affected this person? What affected this? Because I really want to know. And again, like, that's the thing is they keep it to a small cast of characters in this small town, right?

And even then, like, you know, what Blessing is talking about is we had different endings overall, obviously, but then like, you know, the penultimate thing of what's going up. There was different things based on our relationships with the people in town. And I was shocked of like, I knew I liked the game a lot. And I knew I thought it was something special in terms of life is strangers. But like it would have been, yeah, episode four, no spoilers, obviously. There was two, well not, there was one, you know, you find the, in Life is Strange when you find a collectible, you pop a trophy, like the really hidden ones or whatever. And there was one that I found that made me tear up. And I was like, holy shit. Like, I really love the people in this town.

The characters they've built in the relationships. Just off of the first. finding the stupid thing and hearing the audio play for it, right? And then the second one was something I know Blessing didn't do based on his ending was running into someone else in town that wasn't at the festival and helping them through their thing. And like, this is totally a character that I was like, whatever, he's some quirky dude. You know what I mean? Like, I don't really care at all about this dude. And then again, by the end of his thing, fucking tearing up. And I was like, holy shit. Like, you're not even the main character. You're not even the character. You're not even Alex Chen. You're not even her brother. You're not even like the

real thrust of what this game is. The funny thing is the character that Greg's talk about is the character I did not get a fuck about at all because I didn't run into him. I didn't I didn't hang out at wherever they were at the whole game and so by the time I got to the end of the game to realize that he mattered I was like wait a second really and to me that's a really cool thing the fact that I would see him pop up every now and then and I was like oh you're the sidest of side characters but there are other characters that were probably that for Greg maybe you know like for me it was a character named Eleanor who I met like an episode in one of the early episodes and I loved unfolding her story and by some I got to the even by the time I got to the end of the

game, you know, like there was a result with her where I was like, oh, I probably missed one thing. I probably missed like one thing in one episode to like not affect this thing the way I wanted to affect this thing. And I love that you can, the game doesn't really push you too hard to do those things. But if you pay attention or if you just care enough and treat this community like an actual community and talk to people and grow those relationships with the characters, then that can actually affect how a lot of these characters result in the final episode. And I think, you know, that to me was something special.

And I also love, too, that the game has those tale-tale moments of, hey, this is an important decision, right? Like, usually in tell-tale, you'll get the prompt of, you know, X person will remember this. But in this game, it's very much a, just like a different screen of, like, choose this or choose this. I think the game does a good job of masking a lot of the time, like, what that actually is going to be. Because for me, there were quite a few decisions where I'm like, in my own arguments in my heart, I was like, I'm not going to do this thing.

I'm going to do the other thing. you know, I don't know how this is going to result. This seems like it's dangerous or whatever. And I want to go back and I want to do the different choices because I really want to know how that would have resulted because the game does such a good job, which is going with the flow of what I do. Andy, I know you got a question. Real quick.

Go for Greg. Finish your second. Andy, you have a question. You have something to say, Tim. But before the, yeah, with these choices, I don't think there's like the big ones you're talking about, which is where like time stands still and it literally is like, select this or select that. You like frame it or whatever.

I wish there was more of them. I do agree with you that they're not. But what I love about him is that for the most part, they are very gray. It isn't like, you know, punch this guy in the face, shake his hand. It's not that kind of shit. It is like a thing where I would be like, well, fuck. Like this would help her? But would Alex do that?

Is that like really what I should be using this power for? Is that how to go kind of thing? I like that about it. Andy, I'm sorry. What was your question? Real quick, I was going to talk to Andy. Before we get to Andy, I just want to tell you about our sponsors. Folks, we need to talk about your online shopping habit.

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I was mostly just going to ask, is this, I guess, is your enjoyment mostly out of the interpersonal relationships and the characters and finding out what might happen with them or is there anything that you I guess really enjoyed about the gameplay like is it more of like do you find yourself staying because of the characters or are you having fun with playing the video game or is this something that if you watched a visual novel of you'd be like yeah this is just as good I mean for for me I enjoy it as a narrative game like I love the characters and I love I love the characters are probably what I love most about the game but I also say that the plot of the game is really good. I really love the main story of the game. I think

they do such a good job of hooking you in and having those cliffhangers between episodes as if you are watching a five-episode season of, I want to say Riverdale, but I think this is better than what Riverdale has to offer. Right. But you are watching a five-episode, a young adult drama, you know, and I think by the time you get to the end of each episode, at least for me, I immediately wanted to keep playing and see what was going to happen in the next episode. And for me, that was the draw. That said, like in terms of gameplay, it's the same thing as in any other Life Strange game. I know in Life Strange One, you had elements where you could solve things by rewinding time and doing all that shit. And this game doesn't have that. But it very much is walking around the town,

interacting with objects, getting more story by interacting with certain objects or interacting with certain characters and taking in the town of Haven at your own pace. For me, that's like fun enough in this kind of game that it really pushes it for me. And that's the thing, right, where I feel like it's such a cop-out answer, but it's the real answer of like the choices in talking to people is the gameplay. Like, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, I don't think I would connect nearly as much with the story if I was watching it or unfold as a movie.

And I was like, why would she do that? I wouldn't do that. You know what I mean? Like the fact, it is the telltale. It's just the telltale effect, right? Of like going in and coloring and the coloring book page your way. Of like what makes my Alex and my story different than blessings, right? Even to the point of like, and this is something, you know, there's been, I don't want to say there's never been wardrobe changes in these games before.

That'd be a lie, right? But this time around, there's so many more where it was on the, you know, every, you're in, anytime you're in the room, you go to the dresser, you can change how you look and get ready to go out in a new outfit. and there's new outfits every time you go to the dresser, which is such a stupid little thing, but for me, again, made the game so much more personal. It made being Alex so much more personal of like, oh, this is what I want to rock and this is what I want to do. And so to get rewarded.

Let me wear the NWO shirt. I'd wear the NW shirt every time. You know what I mean? But to, you know, have a, make a choice for the outfit and then go to the festival and then have Steph make a comment about what I'm wearing, right? And it's kind of that thing of like, I know, right? Like, I'm not going to say anything about it. But it was like, yeah, that's a fucking cool call out.

Like, it's cool. And I think this game does a really good job with its objectives as well. And the way that, like, from chapter to chapter keeps its, keeps the structure of gameplay interesting because, you know, it's the game that it is throughout, right? It is a narrative adventure game, right? Or choose your own adventure practically type of game. But at any given moment, you know, like, you do have the choice of, all right, go into this shop and interact with this person.

And you might uncover a cool story because of that. and then like that keeps you on this, you know, like little scavenger hunt type of thing. Or like, I think there are certain chapters that do shake up like, okay, cool. In this chapter, you're doing this thing. That's really cool that, you know, I really dig so much. And I can't, again, I can't wait for the spoiler cast because I know me and Greg really going to talk about those moments in the game. And that's the thing of like, no spoilers or whatever, but I can assure you right now,

even if you never play this game, you are going to hear so much about chapter three. Like, chapter three is going to have Kataku articles and all sorts of stuff. And like, that'll be a fun reaction video. to watch too of people reacting to what happens there because they do such a wow that's out of left field and I fucking love it and like what a cool way of doing that and I think that's something that like

again I don't want to talk shit about all the other games especially because they're not at the forefront of my mind but I remember fuck your shit dog it's our show I remember the exploring and the bullshitting you know the bullshitting of being these characters like it always is being a little bit more like well if I was max right now

would I really be picking up Oh, Final Fantasy, spirits within. Like, this is an under, you know what I mean? Yeah, you would. We all would. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, the plot of Life is Strange True Colors, I think gives it so much more room to breathe in a way that is more organic.

And I appreciate a couple times where, like, you come back and they reference the fact that, oh, man, it's been a while since, you know, a couple weeks ago that happened. You're like, oh, okay, cool. Like, time is passing even when I'm not playing. And that is making it feel like I should be having a beer with this person. I should be shooting the shit with this person. And I, I, my powers are, you know, so inactive in the way that they're active in the moment, but not all the time.

I could be doing something that could help the world or whatever. This is a pleasuring like, that sounds weird as hell. This is a pleasurable, I guess, you know, pace to what this is. And it sets up again how Heyman Springs actually is in terms of like a cool chill. We're hanging out town. And I think chill is a really is a really good word for it. Like the town is fairly chill despite like they're being like a lot of crazy things happening. but it's not crazy in the way that in Life Strange 1, it's like a high school drama

and like, you know, like there's shit happening in Life Strange 1 and 2 out. Like two has a lot of shit happening too because they're literally on the run. This game for the most part is really laid back. But despite being laid back, it's also, I think really good at handling emotional moments. Like there are multiple points in this in this game I can point to where I felt like, I really felt what the characters were going through. But I finally hit the beginning of chapter 2. I texted one of my friends who's also playing for review,

and I was like, dude, I can't believe I tear it up already. Like, I mean, the first part of Chapter 2 and I'm already, like, you know, tearing up, and that doesn't stop. The game has so many good moments on that level. And yeah, I absolutely love that about it. But I do want to shout out, like, you know, Greg mentioned earlier the frame rate,

which for us was, like, weird from the get-go, but I think we both settle into. I think the game also, well, I'm not even think. the game did crash on me multiple times. I had a point where I started writing down the technical issues I was having because, yeah, like I started off with the frame rate stuff and I was like, cool, whatever, I'll settle into this. And then there are times where characters would T-pose. The first time it happened, it's scared the hell out of me.

Because legit, I like, I come downstairs. I'm hanging out at the bar and, or actually no, I go from hanging out in the downstairs bar and I had to go upstairs to get a thing. So I go upstairs, I get the thing. back downstairs and I'm like, okay, cool. I can finally set the thing on the table. And then I turn and I see one of the characters, Jed, just like standing there in a T-Pos in like a, in like one of the booths in the bar. And it's, it scared the hell out of me when I saw it. I was like, what the fuck? And he's just like standing there like, oh my God, it's this tall dude with a with a heavy

beard too. And so like he just had like these dominant vibes to him that, you know, terrified me. But then like another time I had another T-pose mid-cutscene and like a day later Greg text me a picture of him having the exact same T-pose. I never told Greg about it. But he texted me the picture and I was like Greg, I had the exact same T-pos at the exact same moment.

And so like there's some consistent bugs in there. I didn't have the crashes like what scene did I played on PlayStation 5-2, didn't crash once on me. But yeah, the T-Pos I had a couple of times. But it's like I yeah, and I'm not making excuses. Obviously, you know, those are things. But I think overall like those were such back of my mind, right?

Like, it's not what I want to talk about or what I want to, you know, I can't wait. I will say like, you know, when I started taking notes, I did count. I had three, three crashes. One of them was like a hard crash that like turned off my PS5. And then there was a moment later in the game where, and I don't know if this was, I think this is a bug. Or maybe it was just like a weird thing that they didn't take out. I was in the chapter that Greg was talking about where like, I think there's like a festival

in the park or whatever. I'm like walking around. I do go into the city. And Alex keeps saying to herself, oh, maybe I should go check in with Jed. Maybe I should go check in with Jed. And the whole time, I'm like, well, I try to check in with Jed. And Jed didn't have a dialogue option. And I circled back and I tried to check in with Jed.

And he just doesn't have, he didn't have anything to check in with. And so, like, maybe that's the thing of they meant to take that out and they left it in. Or maybe it was just a weird bug that I couldn't talk to him. But like, I would have stuff like that every now and then. Again, like, didn't ruin the game for me. I still absolutely adore the game. And I'm with Greg. That's one of my favorite games of the year.

But yeah, there are those things in there that. made it feel a little bit more tail-tail than deck nine, even though deck nine at this point, I absolutely love where they're at because, again, like in terms of art style, in terms of presentation, I think the game just looks so good. And for the most part,

runs pretty good. And one thing to toss out, I know we're going along on this one, sorry, Tim. But to toss out about what, I think, another thing that they nail, and you'd expect it to nail

because it's life is strange, but to say the soundtrack. Like, you know, life is strange games are always great for soundtracks, always great music. They nail it again. And this time, you know, Alex is a guitar playing singer or whatever, right?

And we are on that journey. She's not, like, professional or anything. Like, she actually picks it back up because, you know, her brother's like, welcome home and there's a guitar kind of thing. And so, like, going through that, I really dug in how she, how that's, how music in general is always used in the game is great. It's great here. And I really enjoyed the added aspect of her being a musician.

That's something they kept pushing, right? At any time we, yeah, when they would do like the E3 things, they would make a big deal about it. Yeah. I forget who they brought in to be your voice. Andy, my question. I'm a famous singer and I'm, I'm doing this.

Hey, everybody, it's me. I'm the guy from Traylorah. I'm very popular. Andy, are you going to play

Life is Strange? No, because I know that I would want to play all the other ones. That's just a lot of time. I don't know. I do hope,

I do hope that they're all thinking about one day doing like, because I mean, they're building an X-Men universe where we just have all these people who are all off on their own feeling like outcast.

Like, I wasn't until Greg said that that I thought about like, oh, it. They could do a Life of Strange where they somehow get, I don't know where the kid from Life Strange 2 ends up. I mean, mine ended up in Mexico. I don't know where yours ended up.

But like, yeah. Maybe they can somehow like find them and. What's your superpower? I have acid indigestion. I'm basketball, dude. I would like, I, it's that thing of, you know, especially with the kid and time and I got to play these infamous games on stream or whatever or whatever. Huh?

How long? Oh, same as always 10, like right around there. Every episode's about two hours. Well, this game, I will say it feels shorter than the other Life Strange games. Because I think the other Life Strange games per chapter, I would have thought they were three hours and maybe like 15 hours overall. Oh, man. I always thought they were right on two hours everywhere.

I might go back and replay Life Strange too. You know what? Andy, I'm sorry. I was asking you a question. You can fuck right off. Blessing, if you go back and play it, make sure you play it on Twitch. Because they have the crowd choice extension thing for this where you can let the audience make the choices and like the game has it integrated?

Yeah, yeah. And I would love to see, do, I would love to play through that way, but I know I won't have time, probably. Here's the thing. I'm 38 hours into ghosts and I'm about 30% of the way through with it, you know. Do you want to cry to a young adult story? No, I want to just slice dudes down with swords. I'm going to answer the question for you, Greg, for Andy. But like this, everything you guys have said, I'm like, this sounds like a Gia game.

This sounds like I hold the sticks, let her make the choices type thing. Like, that sounds really fun. Super narrative based. Funny enough, like, given another. other game we'll probably talk about on this game's cast. I think for sure you and Gia would enjoy playing through this because there's a lot of parallels between this game and a different game we're going to talk about. Okay, cool, cool, cool.

You guys ready to talk about that game now? Yeah, I'm ready. Because I am. Let's talk about the artful escape, aka the artful escape of Francis Fendetti, aka Tim Getty's game of the motherfucking year so far. I have been waiting to talk to you guys about this game for the last week. been held up inside me ready to come out and I can't wait because I don't think there has ever been a video game that I have loved this uniquely and from everything I've heard from other

people I am alone in that in that and I'm so so interested by this normally when we do kind of funny in review and Greg Miller does the plot he has his own way but when Nick Scarpino does his plot he always starts it with what Andy Cortez? I don't I don't know oh he He does a little quote. He does a quote. He does a quote from it, from the work that speaks for it all. And I want to do that right here. You got to build the hype of your entrance.

And hype always begins with the early swell. And the swell begins with who you truly are. If there has ever been a game made for Tim Geddes. It is this right here. The artful escape. It's coming out September 9th, 2021. It's coming to Windows to Xbox game. pass and iOS.

I couldn't get confirmation on iOS being on that date or if it's coming later. It's by Anna Perna. And this is the first video game by Beethoven and Dinosaur. A team led by a man named Johnny Galvatron. So shut the fuck up. Everybody. Get hyped about that. From the Galvatrons.

Who is the lead guitarist of the band, the very kind of a cult classic band, the Galvatron's named after, of course, Galvatron from Transformers 1984, not the Bloodborn character you guys might know in love. But here we go, everybody. I want to read you a description of this video game from Beethoven and Dinosaur themselves. This is a story about great expectations, towering legacies, aliens folk music, guitar solos, making stuff up and living your dreams like memories. This game's a cool jazz. They're visceral. It's got a stacked cast. They traverse dimensions. Craft your own stage persona from the sci-fi beginnings of your backstory to the trim on your moon boots converse consult and chill with all manners of beings disenchanted

publicans nostalgic villagers lumbering alien wildlife and reality defying behemates shred sore and dance across the multiverse traverse landscapes made of sound composed by your movement as if the world itself were an instrument so you hear that you've seen the trailers for the last what forever eight years forever when it comes to xbox like every time we see this and every time i'm always like, that looks fucking crazy. But I don't believe it's a video game. It doesn't look like a video. What's the gameplay?

Like, I just don't believe, A, we're ever going to get this game. And B, it's actually a game. It just seems like some weird ass interactive movie to some extent because it doesn't look playable. And now that I've beat the game, I am bewildered at the experience

that I had because everything I thought before still stands. But somehow, everything I was looking at before was a video game. all of those things I remember are in this. They're all playable. So many moments that I'm like, there's no way they're actually playing this.

Yeah, you are. This is a 2D walking simulator. And that is going to turn off a ton of people. And I don't blame them. I totally understand. This is not going to be for everybody. But this game is for me. And Andy Cortez, I knew that 15, 20 minutes into it.

You start playing through. It has this very, very, very, very... Well, yeah, you slacked everybody immediately, which you never. do. I mean, I was just so shocked by how much I loved it off the, the beginning of the game where I was like, wow, this shit is special. Like, it has elements of it that I have never seen before. And you start going through. And once the title screen hits, and it goes through the cast, and you see Carl Weathers, Lena Heady, like all of these like Indyson shortsman, man, random playing it. Come on.

Exactly. Like, all this stuff. I didn't know that. Now, here's the funny thing. I've been cover in video games a long time. A hefty percentage of my life at this point. And I react to a lot of different press conferences and all that stuff. One of the only conferences I've missed that you guys have reacted to that I didn't, was the Anna Perna one a couple, like a month or two ago. So I missed that this game even had a release date. I missed that in that trailer it announced this voice cast.

So I was playing this without that knowledge. Greg literally hit up our Slack was like, who wants this code? And I was in disbelief. I think like no fucking way was your when I asked for it. Yeah. So I was like excited going into it. But booting it up, I was like, I don't know what the fuck I'm about to get into. I only have the questions of how was this a game.

So start playing it. And it's very, very Bob Dylan, which is something that I don't have many ties to personally, like with my own tastes of music and all that stuff. But my dad loved the hell out of Bob Dylan. My mom and dad were hippies in San Francisco. Like that makes so much sense. So I started hearing this. I'm like, all right.

Look, on some nostalgia level, I'll give it to this, even though I'm not necessarily a folk music type of person, right? Within minutes, all that's shattered. And I'm just like, okay, we're going into much more Tim direction. This is really interesting. You're in this town. You're talking to these characters. They're building this world with some of the best voice acting I've ever heard in a video game. And you see this title screen.

It gives me those chills, Andy. It gives me those like title screen hit chills where I'm like, this thing needs to make lists for best title screen moment of all time. Greg Miller. Nip check. Oh, I mean, on another fucking level. Like, legitimately. To the point that there was a moment around the title screen and it was a little bit after because you get to go into the town, you start talking to some characters or whatever.

I just want to ask you really quick, when you mentioning you're talking to people in the town, is that voluntary? Is that just cutscene? It's a combination. There aren't, it's hard to explain, Andy. There's not necessarily cut scenes in this game. It just kind of happens. It just kind of happens.

It is very much a 2D walking simulator. You're kind of walking through. There's points you're walking by people and their text is popping up as you walk by them. So you're not really like, it's voluntary. Yeah, exactly. Like that type of thing. But then there are times you're in a conversation with someone where you're making dialogue decisions to progress the story and keep going from there. But it was about 20 minutes in, a little longer maybe, that I texted Greg Miller.

And I was like, I'm getting Game of the Year Convo vibes from the first bit of this game. This is unlike anything I've ever seen. And then a couple days later, I texted him. I just beat it. Holy shit. It so quickly went from a Gregass game to the most Tim Getty's thing imaginable.

I still think you're going to dig it too. It's journey but hype, no, sorry, it's journey but about hype and neon blue. And like, I have never experienced something like this. Like it is, like I said, unlike anything I've ever seen, unlike anything I've ever played, where immediately I'm like, oh, this seems like one of those indie-ass video games

that's going to get everyone talking and everyone's going to love for this reason or that reason that it's normally a Greg Miller thing. And then it all of a sudden turn, it was something so different that I expected, but it maintained that quality just in a different direction where it became something that I simultaneously

can't compare to anything I've ever seen before and can also compare to 10 million aspects of things, where this is an, Image comic come to life. This is saga mixed with paper girls just as a video game as you're playing through it. And all of that is something that I never really thought I'd get from a video game. But also to say this is a video game in the same way I was just saying like it's a little bit everything and nothing at all.

It's like it is a video game, but it's also just a walking simulator in the way that you're just holding right and hit a lot. Did you play Sinar Wildheart? yeah I did how can we compare it to that is it that's more of a video game yeah okay

yeah that I'd say is more of a rhythm yeah exactly whereas this is talking and moving and interacting with the next thing yeah and there are rhythm game

aspects of this that are easily the worst part of the game like undeniable the two two major criticisms I have are the rhythm aspects don't feel like a rhythm game

and there it is just kind of button prompts like it's riddled from a dialogue gameplay perspective where you are kind of just hitting things like in a choice manner as opposed

to like hitting things to a beat or to a rhythm I was rocking out to those because like basically what that is right is like you have your guitar and they'll give you like it's essentially Simon says yeah I was going to say Simon says yeah they even like a Simon says thing and so you're playing your

guitar along by pressing what like X Y B and the RD. It's like a memorization game. The explanation that they give there kind of early on the game, like when they first like have you go through that Simon Says type of thing

pretty early on is like now do it to your own pace. Like feel out the music and like I mean kind of like which I did appreciate a little bit of like try to like not have the game tell you what to do but feel out the kind of what you want to do with the music and the tools that you're groove on this.

That's why I appreciate it because it felt it. me be creative you know i felt like i was putting together my own masterpieces yeah it's it's a guitar solo andy like it's it's kind of like you you have this kind of you know uh song that's playing and you're trying to match the experience of it but it's not necessarily hit this at that time got okay uh but it's like it's not about that and i think that's the thing is like my my two biggest criticisms of the game are the rhythm gameplay is bad compared to rhythm game uh expectations and the fact that you have to hit A to move through dialogue choices,

kind of slows things down a bit. Like I feel like a lot of stuff, it's like I would rather just let these voice actors speak and then move on to the next line without me hitting A. Because- Is there an option for that? I don't think so. Okay.

I don't know. I've been clicking it. I personally like it because like when I'm in, I can read faster than I, they speak sometimes. So I'm able to get through it. But I hear you. Yeah. So you could do that, but I mean, you can't just like,

you need to hit it on a board. Yeah. progress and like that I think kind of is a hindrance to this game because the biggest compliment I have is the pacing of this game is impeccable and the quality of the narrative and the characters and the voice acting

is I just think unparalleled where it's like they they nailed the vision of what they were trying to do for this experience in a way that I put up there with Bo Burnham's inside this year which is one of my favorite things I've ever experienced in my life like legitimately it's very different

but I think they just fucking nailed this. It is a four-hour experience. And earlier I was talking about Warrior Wear and the financial kind of demand that that game has for the experience you get out of it. Whereas this, it being on game pass, it being, I think even an MSRP of,

I think it's $20. Like, I can't fucking believe that for the quality of this experience right now. Because it is, it's so fucking awesome. And it is one of the best four hours I've ever had in my life. And I can't wait to experience again. I'm planning on streaming.

it with Snowmike Mike playing through for his first time. I just want to hang out with him to see it again because the it is so well written and the dialogue choices you have are so fucking fun. And the amount of times I'm seeing things, I'm like, oh, I remember this in the trailer. I remember wondering like, how the fuck is this a video game? And I'm like, I'm actually playing it. I can't believe it. Like, it is a cinematic wonderland of emotion and color that are all backed up for

thematic purposes and telling this amazing story of finding yourself in a world where there are expectations of you. And I am just so blown away by this thing that is not going to vibe with everyone. And again, I understand that. But it vibes with me so damn hard. And I can't wait to hear what you guys have to say about it. Can confirm it is $20, Tim. And fuck.

And that's $20. Game Pass. If you have Game Pass, give this fucking game a shot. It's so fucking cool. I'm in settings right now and I can't confirm. You cannot auto move dialogue. Yeah. And the last thing I want to say before, Tassin de Bless,

is that for me, I love this game because it is so emotional without necessarily making me cry, without having necessarily like character deaths or whatever. It's like characters just mean something to me. Every character in this game matters and has a purpose and makes me feel something that's backed up by an impeccable score and colors and cinematic. motions of the camera where the game feels like a one shot god of war style take even though there are a bunch of cuts but every cut feels like it has a purpose and it's backed up by a vision and a choice to to mean something that by the time you beat the game by the time you get to the end

it is so satisfying it is like it has earned every fucking moment of you becoming this alter ego of who you're trying to be to find yourself and yeah i'm just taking a back by what this game meant to me. Blessing, what did you think? Terrible. That was all right. So I played about two hours, made it about halfway, and I dropped off. Like, I think what it does visually and with audio is beautiful.

You know, I think that, for me, that is my favorite thing about the game is getting in there. It's pretty nonstop with how much it throws at you and how much it goes for it in terms of throwing a bunch of exchange shit on, insane shit on screen. Like right now with what we're looking at, I feel like there's so much this random, vibrant, cosmic imagery that is throwing at you in any given moment. And I think that stuff is really cool. Gameplay-wise, like, I fell off of it pretty quickly.

Like, it is what you're saying, where it's pretty much a 2D walking sim. And with that, like, I just found myself not interested to keep going through. And, like, usually for these types of games, like, that's not as much of an issue. Like, I'm down with narrative. I'm down with, like, weird shit.

I'm down with Anna Perna usually, but I don't know. Like, I couldn't find the hook there for me, if that makes that. It's an amusement ride, but let's just take a hit, bro. Take a hit of this. Maybe, maybe I need to smoke some of that good stuff. Get it to Tarantula from Snowback Mike. Yeah. I mean, this is one of the ones, though, where I was like, you know what?

Like, I respect what it's going for. This is game point that we're watching right now. I respect what it's going for. It's not for me because, like, the, I think the thing that I took away from narrative was mainly that it's more of a game about creativity and trying to figure out what that looks like for you. Like having expectations put on you,

being in a place where you're trying to figure out what your niche is and going after that in a way that is super creative and super out of the box. And I think that stuff is really cool, but just the way that is telling that story just didn't do anything for me. Greg.

Hey, how are you? I, yeah, I mean, if you would play in the game, I guess this would be spoilers, but just to place it because I'm not sure. I started playing last night. after I had, you know, I've been off, but it hasn't been a vacation. I've been working on baby stuff. So, finish life is strange, transitioned over to this.

I'm to the point where I am on like the first planet or whatever you want to call it, and I'm going to the guy's office, the agent's office or whatever, to the guy I need to actually work with or whatever. I would assume, Tim, correct me if I'm wrong, that's like an hour in. It's already been so broken up playing that it's hard to be to do. Yeah. You know, Tim, you put it beautifully, I think early on of like, you vibe with this game or you don't. I don't vibe with it. Like, it's one of those that's like,

psychedelic everything you said everything you and blessing have said right it's like this psychedelic the music is the the thrust of it it's this you know heavy metal it's this you know operatic guitar i guess you'd say i'm not a music opera it's a playable space opera and like right i was just i've never been into that kind of thing even when bowie did it like it wasn't my thing uh you know so it's like not hitting for me on that level of it's not it in you know it's funny to talk about this comparing contrast with Life is Strange, right? Of coming off Life is Strange where it's like, that's a world and a story I want to be involved

with. And this one, I have not run into that hook yet where I'm like, this is a story I want to be involved with. I like the premise of it of like, you know, it's this nephew living in his uncle's shadow and like kind of being forced into this role and him talking about like, you know, it's not who I actually want to be. And then getting to open it up here and like, you know, at one point, you know, choose your space opera name and go through and be, you know, colorful and stuff.

But like the characters I'm being presented with, I'm not like, oh, man, I want to know more about you. I want to hang out with more with you. Part of it does feel like that. You know, I think blessing put in Slack when we are all starting to play it, right,

of just like, this game was designed for people. This game is going to encourage people to do drugs or something like that. Yeah, like I wish I, or this game makes me want to do drugs and play it. Under the influence.

And it's got that vibe to it, which I mash up with that kind of adult swim kind of vibe too, which I like certain things on adult swim, but I don't like everything on adult swim. And this is one of those things where it's like, I get what you're going for, the cast is awesome. The soundtrack so far is awesome.

The visuals are awesome. It is gorgeous and beautiful. It's just not a story or a world I'm connecting with yet. Yeah, I mean, again, like I said, I totally get it. This isn't going to vibe with everybody. I think from a technical standpoint, like, it is the cinematography in this game for a 2D platformer. Like, the only thing that comes close is Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze. And I think this outclasses that easily.

And it's a different type of game. And that is definitely more gameplay based. this it i mean the amount of ori vibes this game gives off is insane but on i i just think that like ori is probably not a distant third to it but like it's a third to the two games i just mentioned um the way that this game kind of like uses the camera to go in and out and have you focus on different characters or different aspects going on while you're still playing it while you're still the thing moving it forward and it has again i mentioned earlier like this journey aspect to it where there was a lot of sliding going on.

Like the gameplay is fairly limited, but the amount of times throughout the game that I was surprised by being like, fuck, it'd be cool if they just let me do that thing on command. And then you get the ability to do that thing on command. I'm like, fuck,

that's awesome. Like the fact that you're dealing with characters, Greg, you bring up the adult swim thing. Like, I'm with you to the extent that adult swim for the most part does not vibe with me. Like I don't like that weird for weird sake like psychedelic for psychedelic.

sake like whatever this to me doesn't feel like that like this feels like every single thing is purposeful for one unified vision and that vision isn't to be weird so when things get really weird in this it kind of feels like that is to stand out against some of the other stuff and not to say it's not weird the whole game is weird but it's a a choiceful weird where that weird backs up themes and characters and the character violetta the the female character that we saw a little bit and what barrett was showing like her storyline is awesome like her going through what she's does in her place in the world is just as important as yours. And I think that the choices they make with that and what your place means to her place is so relevant to where we're at

today and all of that. And blessing, what's up? Do you find this game fun? I mean, that's the thing. It's it is yes, in the sense that it's hype as shit. And yes, in the sense that I am feeling all these fun things. And at moments to moment, I am enthralled by what's happening around me. But like fun as a video game, not necessarily. There are moments that make it fun, like being able to, like imagine the sliding mechanics and journey where you're sliding down to sand dune. But I had a little bit of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater doing some tricks while you're doing that. That's kind of it. And I'm kind of like, well, and you got a fucking guitar.

It's like what's cool is this game seamlessly shifts from you speaking to a character that hates you that is perfectly voice acted with amazing dialogue. dialogue to speak into another character where your whole I wrote down a couple things that I just fucking love about this. You got moments where you're like talking to somebody and your options for dialogue are fantastic, totally fantastic or totally and utterly fantastic. And I just love that where it's just like you're not really making a choice. We fucking get this. It's a video game. But like how stoked about this are you? It's like levels of stoked. If you like the words rad and dope and stoked. This is a fucking game for you.

There's a level you're in a mall out of nowhere. I'm not going to tell you how you get to the mall because it's fucking awesome how you get to the mall. But you're in this mall. And when it's asking you, are you ready to leave? Your options are no or yeah, I look dope. And I'm like, come the fuck on. And if that was it, if I'm only basing this on, oh, this game gives you options that

have funny words that Tim likes, it's nothing. That's backed up with your experience of the mall being awesome. being really well designed to fit the story and make me feel like I'm making a character that I can relate to in this. It's really damn cool and really special. Like something I haven't seen ever in a video game. This is one of the more unique games I've ever experienced. And for better or worse, it is what it is. And it is that thing.

And it doesn't care if you like that thing or not. And a lot of people are not going to like that thing. But if you do like that thing, you're going to fucking love it. Like, I don't think there's ever going to be a person that likes this. I mean, to come off the bench on it, right, as somebody who's not vibed with it, I'm so happy it exists. I mean, again, as somebody I talked about it,

I think during the Annapurna, like, direct, right, of like, I fucking love Anapurna and what they do and all these crazy things. And so, yeah, that doesn't mean I'm gonna like and play and you think everything is a 10 out of 10 on their label, but I'm glad they're still taking chances. I'm glad they're putting something at this. More than anything, I'm glad you, Tam, are so into it.

It's struck a chord so much with you. I feel like I say that about all sorts of different games, and it's a rare treat for you to come in and be like, this is the fucking game. And I love the fact that it is so different that it doesn't slap for me or blessed in the same way, but you are all about it. And that means there's going to be an audience that is all about it that way. And again, to what you said, which I agree with,

it is undeniable how beautiful the game is in motion, how great the voice acting is, how awesome the music accompaniment to the product is. I mean, technically, we're talking no slowdown. We're talking just amazing, blissful animation. and the sound design is unrivaled. Like this game is so well designed that it's on a 2D plane. But often there'll be times you're in an elevator

or going upstairs or something that like kind of bring you to levels. Like it's very well designed level design wise in order to give you like Andy, visual feasts as you go through things. But on top of that, the audio design, every room has its own unique kind of sonic aura to it. that there'll be rooms where you're in a, in a hallway. The next room you're in is a giant concert hall. And then the next room you're in is outer space.

And it's like as you're going through those, they sound different. And the way that like the 3D audio or not even 3D audio, but just kind of like stereo audio is mapped is fucking impeccable. Like this is clearly made by audio designers that love audio and drugs. You got to play this at Tim's. house. You gotta play this at Tim's house, Blast. Sounds like,

oh no. It sounds like Tim had the better experience in Blas. I mean, I'm with Greg that, like, I'm so happy that, like, there are people that really dig this thing. Because for me, I know I know if they made the same game and it was hip-hop, I'd probably be all about it. I just don't care about- Oh, yeah,

like, it'll be my favorite game of all time. Like, I just don't care about, like, the, Bob Dylan and, like, David Bowie of it. Like, I don't, that's never really been my jam. Like, guitars have never really been my jam. And so, like, playing this game, I'm like, cool. Like, I think I see what is, what is going through here. And I wish there were some gameplay hooks. That way I could at least, like, identify with that. But nothing, like, nothing about it, I guess in terms of energy and character

really speaks to me, aside from the fact that it's really going for a specific thing, which I, like, which I really respect. But I'm not in, like, I'm not the target audience for it. I mean, with that, bless, I'm so with you. Like, if this game were about hip hop, it would legitimately be my game of all time. Like my number one, where it's just like, holy shit. And that's to me, the testament to the actual quality is, and I don't think I'm doing a good job explaining this, but like, I could care less about Bob Dylan and that stuff. So it's like for this game to still be as dope as it is to me, like, I think it won me

me over in a way that I wouldn't necessarily care about that stuff. It's cheating a little bit because I am into space opera. I am into fucking like 80s metal shit. What's up, Andy? I was going to say we can all agree Bob Dylan overrated right I just wanted to throw out

a fucking grenade you dude like fuck you yeah I'm playing guitar holy shit damn Andy that was good that was good

but like two more things I want to say is like I love that this game can go from you talking to a human character like a mom your mom you talk to her and it's just the dialogue and it's written so well

and so authentically and then next you're speaking to a character who literally speaks in jazz music. Like they don't have a voice. It's jazz music. That's cool. Fucking is just awesome.

Like so much of this is just so awesome and builds upon itself in a way that I can't wait to see Mike play through this on Twitch because it is so fucking damn cool. And the last thing I want to say that I have a note about is this year surprised me with the movie The Green Knight where it's another thing that I hate fantasy. I hate that type of stuff. it's normally not a Tim thing and it won me the fuck over. Even the Lord of the Rings?

I mean, that is a debatable exception. But Green Knight won me over where I'm like, holy shit, despite this not being a Tim thing, it is so perfect and I love it. And our full escape, I put in the exact same way where moment to moment I was captivated

by the wild twist and turns I'm taking on this adventure that I wouldn't have ever signed up to go on in the first place. But at the end of it, I'm like, that was one of my favorite things I've ever experienced. So shout out to A-24 and shout out to Adipurna. I love the comparison because I was going to make the same comparison,

but I'm the literally opposite way because I hated the green night. I was going to be like, this feels like playing the green night where like the green night, I was bored out my mind watching and like fell asleep in the middle of it because I didn't like it that much. And this game has the same effect for me. I respect this more than I respect the green night. But that is a, that is a, damn, wow. I don't respect the green night.

Well, as someone who I feel, I feel. feel like I was kind of the target audience for this. And like I did not know this game existed before. It was like last week. And Tim, it was Tim's reaction where I was like, oh, man, maybe I should be paying attention to this. I loved Dylan. I was raised a lot of that like 60s into 70s music with like Dylan Beatles going

into that era to the David Bowie era. And I'm going to contradict you here, Tim. I liked it. I wasn't in love with it. I didn't like downright hate it. I thought it was a cute coming-of-age story that used the vessel of the transition of music and performance from the late 60s to kind of tell this story of this kid who feels like overshadowed by, you know, not just, I would say, one particular person, but just like the expectations of where music was at kind of at the time in the 60s, right? And I thought it, like, I think it did some things well. Like, yeah, I thought it was cool that like Carl Weathers is there throughout.

out most of the game and he's one of the main characters and I had fun chatting with him whenever he popped up and there's some like Mark Strong as as one of the characters that you meet I thought was like very fun and Jason Swordsman shout out to Jason Swartzman's character

who I loved but I don't feel like the game gave me enough reason to love them but there's just something about like the design and performance from Jason Swartston and that was that was really fun yeah the game plays stuff like I side with Blessing on there where it's like I felt like there were moments where I felt the journeyness of it Tim where it's like yeah we're sliding down and I'm just like holding

X and like riffing on the guitar and it's fun but like I felt like those moments happened less than I wanted them to and it felt like the where Blessing was at with like the all right like I'm failing to see the gameplay like capture capture me here and keep me going that mixed win with like I do agree some performances are great. I don't know if it's just like the dialogue that was written or if it was the performance. There are some things specifically from like the main character that like made me cringe. And I don't know if that's what they were going. Really?

Really? Yeah, especially in like the last third of that game. I was like, oh, like this feels like hard to even listen to. And I was like skipping through some lines just because of like it felt a little heavy handed at some moments. but at the end of the day like I enjoyed it like I didn't regret like spending four hours in this world

and kind of like delving into this like era of the like music history that I personally like love and grew up with a lot with like what my parents listened to and even into going into my formative years where I'm still listening to those artists and stuff like that. So yeah I think if you got Game Pass

and you want to like have like a fun trippy time and, you know, go on your own, make your own space opera type of thing. Like, I think, I think check it out for a weekend. I think it might be something fun to, like, have, like, if you've got someone who, like, watches video games, but it doesn't, like, necessarily play them. It might be, like, a fun, like, let's sit together and, like,

experience this thing together. So, yeah. And if you do drugs. Yeah, and this might be your game in the year. I have done a drug once or twice in my life, and, you know, there's some things where I was like, oh, man, like, this is really fun. But then there's other things where I was like, I feel like I've seen this.

like hit-hiker's guide to the galaxy and things like that. So, um, real quick. I'm sorry. No, go ahead. It's piggybacking off what you said, but it's a question for Tim.

You said, if you have somebody else. So was Gia watching you play this? That got referenced for life is strange. Yeah, was not watching me to play this, but, uh,

I've been telling her, like, I was like, I'm so stoked by this fucking game. I've been talking to her all about it. Uh, but I've been holding back, spoiling things because I want to replay it.

Got it showing her. Um, and I think she's going to be interested to, to an extent. I don't think we're going to complete the whole game together. Like that I think is an important thing to say. It's like this is not for everybody. But I do think there are cool points.

And like I do want to show her this just to have that moment of like, look what video games could be. Because this game is, for this being their first video game, like they have sold being away where any time I see their name, I'm going to buy their preorder their game. I'm in. I'm like, I want this. Like they absolutely nailed what they're going for. And I would say like the stuff that like kind of made me what I was referencing with. like a cringy stuff. I don't know if it's because

I was raised with that era of music, like knowing so much about David Bowie and this is very much of like the journey of David Bowie like finding Ziggy Stardust kind of stuff. And there was just like a lot of moments where it felt like, like they were like trying like too hard

to like try to tell their own version of that story where it's just like, I don't know. A lot of little moments didn't vibe with me there. But there are still moments that like gave me chills, you know, like when you're riffing and the, you know, like the music is soaring. Like, I do think the soundtrack is rad as hell, even just like environmental stuff and like how that kind of mixes itself into like some of the tracks and stuff.

And I don't know. Yeah. I enjoyed it. I don't know if it'll even be on my top 10 games of the year. But I think it's, I think it's worth checking out and giving it a try. Well, everyone, I recommend you give it a shot. Let me know in the comments below if you think I'm right. if you think I'm a complete fucking idiot.

Either way, I respect you. Only if you're nice and respectful about how hard you call me an idiot. Greg Miller, what's up? For the record, I recommend you give it a shot too. It's on an Xbox game pass. It's what, 20 bucks we said if it wasn't? Like, that's a fun thing.

I mean, you know, you gotta lay it out. Like, I think it's what we are. I always talk about, right? This game is a work of art and everybody's going to take something different away from it. But if you have Game Pass, for sure, try it out and see what's up. If you have game pass, play for fun. Also, one of the games, things.

One of the greatest writers like in music history Fuck you, Andy. Have you ever read Tolkien? He's pretty good. Tolkien's musical. Lord of the Rings, everybody. Let me know in the comments below

what you think about this or Warrior Wear or Life is Strange, True Colors. We're about to do the post show for patreon.com slash kind of funny game supporters where we got a brand new, spank, a new hot episode of Bless Who. Until next time, I love you all. Goodbye.