Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Greg Miller's Video Game Hot Takes 2024 - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

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What's up and welcome to Kind of Funny Gamescast for Tuesday, November 19th, 2024. Of course, I am your host, Tim Gettys. I'm joined today by Blessing Adioia Jr. Good day, Tim. We have Snowbike Mike running the boards and twos contributing a bit throughout the show. Don't laugh, Blessing. It's a whole thing here in the streaming labs. Okay, we're trying our best in here.

It's always just so off-putting, though. Even when you know the one frame of the thing that film before is coming, it's still a It's still a little bit weird. And that last voice you hear right here is the man of the hour. Greg Miller. Hello, everybody. It's me, Greg Miller, trending gamer. This episode's going to be all about...

Game Wars. Dropping your hot takes for video games in 20... It sure is. What's this a crew net going on? I like it. I rock this on the Games Daily the other day. This is a new Mill Valley Pasta Company thing. We, of course, love Tony.

We support Tony. You see the heart is made of pasta. I do. I did not realize that. It's a rib cage with a spaghetti heart in there. Very disgusting. Very off-putting. I like it.

I like it. It's just like, it's one of those things where, you know, like some people have that thing where they can't look at like spaghetti. No, well, I mean, I think in this... Spaghetti made into a heart. All right, everybody. Remember, everyone, this is the Kind of Funny Games cast.

Each and every weekday, we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews, and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon. or YouTube to get all of our shows ad-free.

Watch us record them live, and you get a daily exclusive show. For a chance to be part of the show, to meet your thoughts and opinions as YouTube Superchats as we go. And today, I'm going to need y'all to show up. A couple special things. If y'all have some hot takes, drop them. Super chat them in. But if you have takes on Greg's hot takes,

that's what I really want to hear. And clearly I'm going to need you to say you're in. You agree. You're with me. Because you know, Tim's already trying to skew it. You know what I mean? What a surprise. The man who wouldn't feed Snowbike Mike trying to take care of his other star,

We're athead out here. I wouldn't feed him. What happened? He was just so hungry. I just wanted him to take me to dinner, bless. He was like, we're going to the sphere. Now we're going here. He was going to the Gordon Ramsey restaurant, didn't she?

He went to Wolfgang and Puck. Yeah, Wolfgang and Puck. Good for you. Good Lord. A little housekeeping for you. You already got rumors of PlayStation buying from Software's Parenthooder and Company on Games Daily. That was me and Bless.

Great episode. We crushed it, everybody. So go check that out. It's worth pointing out. You crushed it, and I loved it. and I loved the vibe of it because you were in on the couch. Again, if you're an audio listener,

hopefully you don't even know the difference. But we're not at the professional best today. Something cool is being filmed in there. So instead, we're in the streaming room on the couch which I think gives the show is an extra laid-back flavor. Except for Bless right now

who I've never seen look more uncomfortable. It's just like, I'm sitting on a pillow right now. Get comfy in that couch, get comfy in there, it's going to be a three-hour long thing of my hot takes. Yeah, this is a long stream.

Oh, you're going to sit on the pillow. I love that. He's Belmonting. Like, the boys did such a good job with the lab. Like, are you kidding me? Like, this is like, are we eating 8K? We look like what the PS5 box promised. You know what I'm talking about?

Yeah. It's true. Yeah. We got that pisser in us. I'm sorry. The PSSR. That's what we're doing. That is the vibe.

That is the vibe of the game's on the couch. The stream after this is the flight simulator with Mike and Nick. And if you're a kind of funny member, you can get today's Gregway in the afternoon. Thank you to our Patreon. producers Carl Jacobs, Delaney Twining. We appreciate you so very, very much. Today we're brought to you by Sonic and Top Golf, aura frames and visual triangle merch, but we'll tell you about that later. For now, let's get into it. The topic of the show. Greg Miller's video game hot takes of 2024. Now, Greg, yeah. What was the impetus of this? Bless and I were talking about this, and this definitely felt like, oh, Greg has some things to say. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had a moment playing a video game and then playing.

another video game where I was like and then I was like you know what that should be a show but then it was that idea of like well sorry I touched your knee it'll happen to let us pull it out you apologize by retouching it I was like a graze before

I gotta commit you know what I mean looking how good me and Gary are friends and not because of me touching his knee remember true I don't remember it was an up a new episode two yeah up a two god episode two is that right I think it was two wow anyways

yes so I had this great bit, great conversation with myself because I've got to keep myself entertained. Lord knows Ben's not saying anything interesting. You know what I mean? I get it. You like Chase from Paw Patrol. You like Marshall.

He's clumsy. We started talking a lot more about Spider-Man. That's cool. Yeah. You describe me a kind of funny podcast. Last night I'm sitting there with him and I'm reading the goddamn book. And I'm like, who's this, who's that? And he's like, he's nailing it.

Spider-Man. Miles Morales. Great. He's crushing it, right? He just learned Captain Marvel in the new books. He's like, I don't know. He's Captain Marvel. Then we introduced Thor.

and he couldn't say Thor, which was very cute. But then in the next book, when Thor popped up and I pointed at him again, I'm like, who's this? You just learned? Did enough Thor. Come on. Come on. He's using the same fucking hammer. He's the god of thunder, dude. You know what I mean?

Get it together, man. What are the god of hammers? Anyway, so then I was like, you know what? I got a whole hodgepodge of things I've been sitting on. You know what I mean? They're not full meals, but they're great appetizers. You know what I mean? In the year's over, so you're cleaning out your fridge, and here it is.

I'm going in there. I'm finding these olives. I'm finding this bread. I'm like, I can make something out of this. You know what I mean? I can make something out of this. And I know that everyone out here likes to think that their opinions aren't trash, but a lot of people on this.

A lot of people. No, no, no, I'm talking about this company. Oh, yeah. Trash opinions. So somebody's to set it straight. Yes. And it's going to be you. It's going to be me.

You are the star of the show. That's right. Where do you want to start this? Well, first off. Is there an order to your takes? Is it from hottest to least hot or are these ones? We'll start with the hottest one. We'll start with where the take you.

Oh, shit. The glasses. are on everyone. That's because these takes are so hot. I'm going to need sunglasses, all right? So, all right? So we're here in black and white. All right. I put him in different orders. And this will be, I understand a lot of people are sitting there and they're like, oh my God, Greg. I've been following you since podcast beyond episode one. I've been with you since Game Scoop 30s. You know what I mean? I remember at the Columbia Daily Tribune. I've been watching. Well, I started somewhere in the 20s, but I didn't get good until 30s.

I've been around a long time. I just want you to monologue this entire episode, kick the other guys out of the room. said no this will be participatory are we're gonna have conversations you're gonna get in there it's the eye okay I went to the eye doctor today all right I took the puffs of air to the face so just how does that feel you're making fun somebody when puff was air to the face go to the eye why you ever know that when they check your eye they go and you have to like yeah you make your eyes check get your eyes check I do constantly you might have like hole why when you go In high, it looks popping, dude.

Yeah, you should be getting puff. For me, it's like more of almost like a poke. Polk? Yeah, it's all in there. Ain't supposed to be poking your eyes, bro. Anyways, we're going to start with this last week. We got that PlayStation 5 Pro. I'm like, okay, here it is.

Time to start Final Fantasy 7. Rebirth. All right? Hell yeah. I jump in there, play it for an afternoon. But, you know, of course, emails are pulling me, stuff like that. I got through the flashback. Whereas I'll, you know what I mean?

So there's a healthy part of this game or whatever, right? Put it down. Go home. I'm like, what do I want to play tonight? You know what I mean? Like, I don't ever want to push something. You know what I'm not feeling? I'm like, you know what?

I need to get back to metaphor, refontasio. All right? I turn on metaphor refontasio. I play about 30 seconds. I just go, what a better game? You know what I mean? You want to talk about the dog water that is Final Fantasy 7, rebirth compared to metaphor, refentazio.

What are we talking about? We're talking about one game that I was like, oh my God. And I all, yesterday, everybody, oh, yesterday, oh, man, Ayrth deserves a voice actor, Don. Barrett's saying everybody, they, they, I'm looking, I'm looking at this Final Fantasy 7 rebirth and I'm like, you are the most wooden people. You are the most wooden people and the wooden performances here, this flashback.

Are you talking? And I'm just like, thank you very much. This is the thing. I understand, hold on, let me put them up, because I'm talking to you as a human being now, right, not your leader. Listen, I understand some of this is going to be shocking, all right? But you just need to brace yourselves and be, don't be resistant, all right?

Be a read in the breeze. All right, bend a little with me, and you'll find some truth. Thank you very much. And what do you think about that? I mean, I think it's absolutely wild. I feel like there's some choice words used like wooden, which I'm interested in. Because there must have been something specific that triggered you to say that. No, we'll toss back on the glasses now, all right, for this part.

Now I'm no longer any character or whatever. No, because this is what I want this show to be a little bit about. I'll give you the hot take and then we'll talk a bit about it. I don't understand why I wasn't excited for rebirth and why after starting rebirth I don't want to play more of it. That sucks. I loved Final Fantasy 7 remake. I think I did vote it for my game of the year.

It won our overall game of the year. I forget if it was my number one or where it was. Barrett's not here to have it all like his crazy lizard memory. They can just tell you where you put it. Right? Because I'm usually getting at this stuff. I want to say yours is Blastable too, yeah. Perfect.

Okay, great. So, but I really love remake, right? And I was so excited when it was over. And then to be so many years removed from remake, have rebirth coming, and I was not able to find the excitement for it, right? And then I didn't review it with you all because I was reviewing something else.

And then never find, like, even starting it, I was just like, man, I'm not even, I'm not connected to the characters. Like, it's not, and I remember back when it was, and I remember finishing remake and calling Tim immediately, be like, hey, I really liked it, what the fuck's going on? Like, it wasn't a story thing for me,

so it was a gameplay thing for me, me, it was the battle system for me, but then I think maybe jumping into this, and again, this is just personal preference. Going in there, I'm not enjoying the combat like I guess I did with remake. That's wild, because it is so vastly improved in revert. But here's my thing, and I think this might be at the root of the cause for me right now. This is more even action, right? This is, would you consider this more going towards Devil May Cry-esque? No. No? Because that's my thing right now is like, and again, I know I'm, early. So again, I'm going to play more of this.

I want to, and especially with, you know, all the game of the year things, and again, as much as I like remake, right now, when I'm playing it, I'm almost feeling like it doesn't matter what I do. Where I'm just pounding the buttons and I'm doing the thing and then I hit the thing and I do the thing and it's like, everybody's dead, everybody's over. I'm not like engaged in the combat. It's a spectacle. It's beautiful. No one's trying to say that, right?

Did you get to the serpent? The serpent boss? Is that what ends the prolog? Uh, because I'm out of the flashback. I'm out of the flashback for sure. Are you in the first town? I don't know. He's not gotten to the open world yet. No, I've not gotten to the open world. Yeah, I mean, it sounds like you're so early

that it's like, like what you're talking about even, like, I feel like isn't even reflective of the gameplay then, right? Because like, I forget the actual opening. I forget what the prologue is. I remember there's like the, oh, I do remember what the prologue is. Okay, so you went through the, the,

you had a couple of fights with Sep Roth. Yeah, the whole flashback, I've seen, I gotcha, yeah, yeah. I think we can spoil the prologger. Yeah, so I mean, I've met it. I met mother. We saw Seferov and go bad. Oh my God.

Yeah, okay. Okay, cool. Yeah, the flashback stuff. I would say, like, how much more do I need to give? I think you need to get to where the game opens. You need to get there, it has the moment of like,

you go through a tunnel, and it's like, oh, we're out in the world now. Like, I think that is, like, when Rebirth becomes rebirth, as opposed to just kind of like a, I feel like the prolog is the, the bridge between remake and rebirth.

Yeah. The open world, like when you get into the first open section, I had a moment where, you know, I'm going around doing the activities and then it turns into me being like, oh, I guess I'm going to 100% this area. And halfway through, I was like, oh, very clearly this is a Greg Miller or Ubisoft game. Okay. And so you were actually the person I had in mind of like, oh, I think you'll probably end up liking this even more than remake just based on like what the gameplay is.

But I understand what you're coming from in terms of like characters and like, you know, especially jumping into metaphor, which I think just has a bit more. What a game. What a game metaphor. This is a bit more striking, right, when you jump into it where it is, oh, this is fresh, this is different, this is new. I don't know, I've not met these characters before. This world is the world I've not been in before, right? And it's doing so much that I think immediately pulls you in, whereas Final Fantasy 7 rebirth, especially, is coming into it, assuming that you're already invested in what's going on.

Sure. And so if you've had years or like, if you've not been thinking about these characters or whatever, right, like, I can totally understand, you know, being put in the shoes of cloud and being like, oh, man, this guy's a wet blanket. Of course. Cloud is a wet blanket. Yeah. And so like, I understand you have in those opinions where you're at now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know I'm not promising that, like, you're going to love the story this time of around, or, like, that stuff's going to grow on you, even though I think that stuff is good.

But I think when you get into the open world, I could see you being like, oh, man, I might lose some hours. Okay, okay, okay. I think, yeah, the combat gets a little bit more engaging. The combat gets way more, like, like, incredibly more engaging, mainly on the, like, it is still fast-paced. And, like, what was beautiful about remake is being able to switch between all the different characters on the fly. I feel like there are more characters and they're more varied in Rebirth to be able to come up with a team and load out

that you actually like switching between everything and the abilities they have specifically with the synergy stuff of working together with different combinations of the team like that it gets really deep and it really allows you to play how you want to.

So I feel like combat wise like it's I mean Rebirth is I think just vastly superior to remake like do you agree with that? For combat yeah yeah it's like I mean it's almost identical is the wrong word, but it really is just building off of that same combat system. It's just better, right? I feel it solves some of the problems of the first one, like with how slow pace some of the things could be, and how limited I feel like the amount of

things you had to do were, whereas in Rebirth, it's like, you're never, you're never, like, waiting for something to build again. You can always do something else that, like, feels viable. It also, it also took me a little bit to readjust back to the combat as well. Like, I think I was at the same place where you're at Greg, as far as, like, doing the combat, being like, oh, I don't know if this is grabbing me and I had the same fear that early in the game and then it was somewhere in that open road section where like you know the stagger system um you know I got back into it and where I'm like oh yeah okay this is how this works oh yeah I can scan enemies to get a sense of what their weaknesses are and now I'm focusing on the weaknesses oh yeah now I got to build up the ETB to then be able to pull

out these moves it takes a little bit to kind of be I guess just re-reminded of what's going on there sure sure okay and I think from a story and like character perspective and you say like the performances are wooden or whatever, like, comparing that to metaphor, which I am 20 hours into or something like that. Like, I think that even without knowing how that game ends and how the story goes, I can say without a shadow of doubt, like, the story and plot of metaphor is better than rebirth. Like, it feels really good. It feels like there's something to go towards, I'm like constantly like what is about

to happen from a story perspective, because I don't know. Whereas Final Fantasy 7 rebirth, I feel like it's the type of game that, like, really just rewards the more you know about Final Fantasy 7, more you care about. all the different projects, like, you're gonna care a lot more. So I am primed for it, and I get it. And I feel like the characters and all this stuff, I'm like, I'm blown away by it, and there's choices they're making. Some I like, some I don't, but that's good.

Like, I feel like I'm engaged with the choices they're making there. I do think that you're not going to be sold on the story and narrative of Final Fantasy 7 rebirth. And I feel like they almost don't give a shit about that, which is not a great thing. You know, like that's not ideal, but I think that they really do care about the characters. and I think you're going to love the characters. Like, I think that if you were to keep playing, I don't think you would refer to any performance as wooden. There might be characters you don't like as much,

because, to bless his point, Cloud kind of sucks, but, like, that's not the point. Like, him sucking is, like, it's very much a cast of characters and the relationships between them. And if you don't see Tifa and Aeth high-fiving and feel something, I don't know, man. And you're going to.

Yeah, I think overall, for somebody who's beaten both now, right? I think metaphor refaentazio has the better overall story. But I do, and a lot of people might disagree with this, I do think Final Fantasy System Rebirth has the better characters. In fact, I think I said during the review, a conversation that we had is like, yo, this is one of the best cast of characters in a video game, right? I put it up there with Metal Gear.

I put it up there with a recent God of Wars. Like, it is a great cast of characters, but I still hold that cloud is a wet blanket. But yeah, you're right. It's not just about cloud, right? There is a cast of characters that are being highlighted so well. Ayrth story in the game is so good. the dynamic between Tifa and Ayrrith is so great.

You get introductions of new characters that I think are very likable and very awesome, right? And again, not all of them are gonna hit, but I think once you get a bit further in, you're gonna see some of that come to fruition. Okay, fair enough. But also, how good's metaphor? Oh, you know what I mean?

Like, come on now. What a breath of fresh air that's been. What a fun little time that's been. Getting out there, killing everybody. Again, I'm not the turn-based battle guy. Here's my problem with him though. Oh, here we go. Last is coming on.

I'm playing metaphor. like a true gentleman should handheld via steam deck of course the successor to the Vita the Vita 2 the PC steam deck and the problem there is that I'm doing it in such small doses here and there that I feel like I've been in the same dungeon forever

and that's starting to drive me up the wall where I feel like that's hampering my enjoyment of it because I'm ready to move on to something else which is then had this weird one Tim you're gonna like this because you hate the other one you like this hot take it's making me miss Pokemon Violet I don't get a lot of credit

I'm mad of taste here all right I do a lot for company. Pokemon Violet coming up twice in the same day. I don't get a lot of credit for Pokemon Violet, all right? You talk about, you know, Greg Miller playing games, I put more than, to my Switch, according to my Switch, more than 25 hours into that this year. That's what I mean? Wow.

You know how many hours I put into Pokemon Scarlin Violet? No, 140. It's a lot. Which I don't think there's that much content in the game. Oh, there is, blessed. You got to catch them all, and I want every male and female version and everything. I'm crazy. Oh, no, that's not.

That's not. No, but no, 25, that's wild. That's wild. Yeah, because I did in the beginning of the year. Remember, when Ben found the cartoon, and we watched literally one episode. I was like, damn, this is making me one. This actually giving me context for the game.

I've never had context this way. And so I went and played it and had a big thing. I beat all the gym masters right, and I'm ready to go challenge, but I wanted to do everything, and I bought the DLC as well. So I'm like, still there, but the problem is, then review season happened.

I put it in and I walked away. So now what I'm finding, right, here's, you know, hold on. You put it on the glasses again. The glasses are back on, right? For one of my other bullet point hot takes, because they're all kind of connected, right? It's just the funk of not loving a game,

not being in love with a thing. You know what I mean? Where you can't throw a rock right now on my PlayStation, Steam Deck, Switch, Xbox, and not hit a great game. There's a great game out there to play. When you hit the Final Fantasy thing, I'm like, oh, this ain't hitting.

But I know I need to play it. I need to play it, right? Then you get into that thing where you start grinding, and you're like, eh, is it hampering my... Same thing even with metaphor, like I'm saying,

where I really enjoy it, but I'd like to get out of this dungeon. I'd like to move on to the next thing. I'd like to fast forward. I don't feel like I need... And so then it's like that idea of like, I'm like, well, what do I want? And I've been hopping around.

I'm doing this. I've been doing that. You know, I think coming off of Dragon Age and loving that combat so much, I've been looking for more, okay, well, I want a more action-based thing, but then I contradict myself because I'm like, well, I love metaphor,

and I'm having a great time with that, and it's great handheld, and it's great to have a conversation with Jen while I play it or, you know, do whatever, or, you know, commit to it. I'm like, well, if I just want the battle systems, this is how fucking crazy I've been. Should I go back and play Final Fantasy 7 instead?

And then just regular Final Fantasy 7. And then I'm like, well, you know what? I've always wanted to do Chrono Cross. I've always wanted a new Chrono Trigger, right? Should I go back? Because I love time. Should I go do that? And I'm like, I'm overcomplicating this.

This morning we're sitting there. We're watching Pokemon, Ben's sick. And then he goes, Tim, you'd fucking love this kid. He goes, can we play Pokemon? And what he means when he says that is Pokemon Go, because that's what he knows. So I bust out Pokemon Go and he starts throwing it. He's a little sick boy, just throwing the ball. I want the blue balls.

Here you go. You get the blue balls. You know what I mean? He's throwing the blue balls out there. He's catching. He's doing this thing. Then he said, I want to battle. We got a team rocket guy right outside.

We went and battled this motherfucker. And then it's like, again, you'd love this, Tim. This could be your life one day if you want to take Ben or have your own kid. We sit there and I'm like, all right, let's battle him. And so we open to the battle screen. Him and I both just tap on the same screen. Great. Just father and son tapping right there.

You know what I mean? And then he gets mad because I'm tapping the wrong guy. I'm like, it doesn't matter, but okay, I'll cut out of it. You know what I mean? Yeah. But again, then I had the lightball moment of like, well, fuck, maybe this is what I'm looking for. Maybe I just want some turn-based battles to jump in and out of get the XP, do the damn thing when I want to, you know. So do I just go back to Pokemon Valley?

Do I pause metaphor? Pause Final Fantasy. Go just play more of Pokemon, which doesn't seem like a right move for content. But for your heart, is that what it is? And then I'm thinking, fucking, you know, I love Dragon Age. I love another RPG like that. Do I go play other scrolls online? Do I?

What's happening? Do I? Now that I have found a vein, all right? I've found a vein that cares about fantasy for some reason, at least for this moment of time. Do I go

roll a fucking Skyrim character? Like, I don't know, I think somehow we're going to end up with, like, Greg's Beat and Hogwarts Legacies. It's the thing of, remember, I put 30, 40, whatever hours into Skyrim, but I never rolled credits. I never did a damn thing, you know what I mean?

But I'm out there shield and sword, banging around, looking like dying at them as Scareer. There's a new Dragon Quest game coming out. Do you think about that? I did, when I played it. I booted that up. I did that. You know what I'm a three or two remake?

HD and TV, yeah. I was like, hey, this could be exactly what I want. I've never played a Dragon Quest. Me and Tim had to hear the goddamn dragon. Like, you want to talk about like Pavlovian kicked in? I started up Dragon Quest on the Steam Deck, and it hit the music hit, and I'm like, taking it back to GameSpot Manager, Manager Expo.

whatever, 2018 or whatever. Anyways, I was like, maybe this is what I want. I jump in, I go, immediately,

I don't like how they present my side characters. I'm like, you can hire party characters. They're everywhere. I'm like, oh, this is already,

because I had the moment of, that doesn't hit. I'm like, do I go back and try to finish Octopath Traveler 2? Because I put like 30 or 40 hours

into that too. Did you think about Ballard's Gate 3 at all? No. This is such a combat thing because this is what kills it for Dragon Quest. where I was like, all right, I don't like how they're doing side characters

and this is a preference thing, not a quality thing. It's like, okay, not it. And I got into the first battle. And I was like, ooh, this is what battles look like here. First person, fireball is just coming in off this screen. I'm like, oof, no, I'm not going to play 20 hours of this. I'm very interested in what this actually shakes out to look like. Because I do think...

But the problem is the guilt. You know the guilt. Well, this is... Early on, you mentioned content, right? I'm going to play this, but it's not going to be much for content. I am of the mind of sometimes fuck content. Well, I mean, look, I'm making content right now, you know what I mean? Yeah, and I, so, you know, I think my thing is the more I try to play games to keep up with, like, the conversation, whatever,

the more I miss out on games that I end up falling in love with. And some of my favorite games I discover is because I'm like, all right, I have a free moment. All right, fuck trying to play, you know, this game that came out last month that people want me to have an opinion on for game game here. What if I just played something that I missed out on last year that I know everybody was talking about, which is why, like, you know, in the last week, I looked at, um, lower line the laser eyes and I was like, oh, I want to try this because everybody's talking about it. Started it. Didn't really

click for me immediately. Thought about Silent Hill 2 because everybody's been telling me to play that. Downloaded it. Didn't even start it up because I'm not in the move for Silent Hill 2. Yep. Picked up, um, case of the golden idol. Yeah, it's all you do. Yeah, I got a code for rise and I was like, well, I want to play Case first. Start playing Case. And immediately I'm like,

oh, this game's fucking awesome. Yeah. Like, I should have played this game a year or two ago whenever this came out. And I, For me, those are the cases of finding the games that I'm like, oh, this is one that I'm going to be obsessed with. And my, like, a thing I would say for you is, like, have you thought about just going, either typing in on Google just, like, 10 out of 10 video games, right? Or, like, masterpiece game. Like, the games that people are like, we swear by this. This is an all-timer.

Like, finding one of those games that you miss or haven't played. Yeah, and that's the problem, again, because I see so many people shouting out. They're telling you to try Octopath, too. Before then they were, like, Octopath's so good. Remember, these are all games I've put sizable time into. Like, I feel like I know Octopath, and that was when Jen's mom was sick and we were up in Canada, and I played a whole bunch of that. And it's the same thing.

Somebody shot out, there was a bunch of about Cia Stars in there. In C of Stars, I enjoyed a lot, not nearly as much as Barrett, but I was playing it until whatever came along and I moved off. And so it is, I remember, I thought I was getting, the problem with turn-based combat is I feel like he can get, all turn-based combat, I would say, any combat can get repetitive. I feel a turn-based combat has that razor's thin edge of It's repetitive, but it's enjoyable or it's just repetitive and I'm starting to feel like I want it I feel like that's kind of as much as I love metaphor That's where I'm at right now with it where it's like

Siking myself up to try to get out of this fucking dungeon is like All right, but it's gonna be a lot and I know I can auto battle and I can do stuff When I'm auto battling then I'm sitting there going like why am I even playing the fucking game? Yeah, exactly What am I doing? Like what was the point of this and so yeah I have thought about that and I have jumped around and I have tried a bunch of different stuff and You know we'll talk about a game later this week or next, I forget that we did a preview of, and I'm excited to talk

about how that fits into this puzzle piece equation I'm doing or whatever. But it feels like I feel like I want a big RPG, but I don't think I want it to be turn-based right now. And that's why I'm like, maybe I actually

commit to Elder Scrolls online, which I tried at launch and did stuff there, and I think maybe a PlayStation I touched it for two seconds. And then, same thing for, well, what if I went and did Skyrim? Again, I know Skyrim, but I, At the time of playing Skyrim, I remember being so disconnected with the world that it was the, I was sitting there, crouched, listening to a podcast, hitting the same monk in the back to slowly level up my stealth one point at the time or whatever. It's like, if I went back and gave that a chance. But then again, like, why would I do that?

I could play other scrolls online. It sounds like you got to play some Eldon Ring. Do you know? Did you download Elden Ring? That's what it sounds like. I was, because it's like, and that's the thing where I was like, I kept going through. What am I looking for? And I'm like, well, I want to level up.

I want to have, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, third person action, I want to be doing this. And then it was like, I'm like, it's starting to sound like Eldon Ring. Yeah, you just described Elton Ring. But the problem is, like, I, you know, how, I've never been, I've never been Perry Poppy. Like that, you know what I mean? So, Final Fantasy 7 Reberth is your thing. Like that, like, it's funny hearing you say all this stuff because it's like, the combat. You know what I mean, I'm, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The sunglasses are off. I'm not talking about. The combat of Final Fantasy Seven Reber is kind of what exactly what you're explaining, where it's not the difficulty of Elginer or any of that, but it is, it's way more fast-paced and it doesn't feel like the most repetitive thing in the world. It can be if you want to make a load out that way.

Get Ufi and just fucking spam triangle. Like, I know about that life. Yeah. But it's so damn good. But yeah, it is funny though because, like, on one hand, I really want you to play through Rebirth because, like, I love Rebirth, and I want more people to play and enjoy the characters and understand

what I like about it. But the other side of it is, like, I don't know. I think it might be too late for you for it. Like, I feel like Rebirth is the type of game that Greg Miller specifically, you would have benefited from the zeitgeist of having other people talk about it and be a part of the spoiler cast. I tried, man, when we got codes, right,

I remember talking to you, like, should I do it? Because I feel like be my chance or whatever. I forget why I went some other direction. Yeah, I mean, also it's huge. It's a huge game. So it's weird where it's like, on one hand, knowing you, Greg, I wholeheartedly recommend the game because the combat's awesome

and the characters, which I know mean a lot to you, that stuff is so good in the game. Okay. And the UBesopty type stuff that a lot of people don't like, I can see you get really into. That's Greg Miller's shit right then. Yeah. But the other side of that is, like, I know you also do want a story that, like, you're invested in and understand what's going on.

And I don't think that this is for you. And see, again, one of the things that I'm jonesing four after Dragon Age, is that RPG nerdy shit of, like, oh, I'm putting one into stealth. I'm putting. I'm putting one into, is it? Yeah, but I mean, because you don't do that in Final Fantasy, yeah? No, but you have the material system, which, like, I think is. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, with the balls. Yeah, which like that to me is like the manageable version.

But like I like the fall in fantasy system because it allows you to tweak characters immediately. You do a battle and you're like, all right, cool, I like this, but I want more of that. And you can go in and change it. It's awesome and fast. And you actually feel like the changes you're making are affecting your gameplay immediately. Whereas the God of War way of doing the, oh, you're 0.02% up. I'm like, what the fuck? I don't care about that.

It's just numbers. Eldon Ring obviously is way more like you are investing in this shit. and like you need to really, really, really care and know about what's going on. It's just too much for me. Yeah. I mean, I don't think you know, because you mentioned you're not Perry Poppy.

Like, you don't need to be Perry Poppy. You can't be Dodge Daddy. Yeah, and I do like Dodge Daddy and you know that. Yeah. And there are so many different- Bill. Don't call him Dodge Daddy. I don't like Dodge Daddy? Not, no.

But he can be Dodge Daddy. I mean, you don't have to be Perry-Popo. You can be Dodge Daddy. They're like, you can also just be a shield. Sally. Shield Steve. You could be a shield father. I think where you're going on.

I apologize. You're your shield father, right? Yeah, yeah. Like, I think there are so many different builds and so many different ways to play Eldon Ring. The problem is that I know you, you've played through Bloodborn. Yeah. So it's not like you don't know what you're going to know.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So like if Bloodborn wasn't the, oh, I absolutely love this type of game for Greg. I don't know if Eldon Ring is going to change that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it still sounds like what you're looking for, so. Okay, okay, okay. Can you read the Super Chat there that was Skyroom, Greg? Average John says Skyroom, you should play Skyrim.

Greg. ESO doesn't hit the same. Also, you can do a games cast contrasting all different Bethesda flavors. Now that you roll play two, it would be good. But again, oh yeah, no, I don't know, there's a lot of lots of figure out here. Yeah. Then we got Trevor saying, people can hate on me, but I've only been able to play 12-ish hours of Final Fantasy 7 remake, and it just feels like a chore. Unlike playing just the demo for metaphor, and I'm immediately, I asked for it for Christmas. Mike, where are you? Because you're pointing...

Mike's been doing a lot of emoting, which I like. You know what I mean? Because I'm stunning fools over here on the couch. They don't know what's happening. They're lost out there. You stunned me for a minute. They're looking like Mike Tyson biting their gloves. Mike's over there, though.

He's dancing, he's reacting, he's freaking out. I'm vibing a lot with the Skyrim want. I am someone who loves Skyrim. I think that would be up your alley. I do think that Eldon Ring, just that difficulty, is just a little too much to have just a fun time with and explore that fantasy world. for what I'm thinking of you right there, Greg.

So I'm on the Skyrim side. I am blown away by you with this hot take of metaphor over Final Fantasy. I'm a guy who've gotten lost in the Final Fantasy world. I actually don't like the combat, so I'm there with you, Greg. I don't vibe with the Final Fantasy combat. I'm in it strictly for the story in the world, but you're kind of selling me on metaphor. It's like maybe I'll look it up, but then I get a little sleepy when it comes to turn. Yeah, yeah.

Take a nap. See, that's my thing where it's like for all, and I feel that so much. much with turn base games where I personally think it's egregious to be like oh it's 100 hours of you know come on because I'm the same way where it's like turn base is fun but eventually I hit that wall

I've had enough of this and so if it's I hit that wall 20 hours in 30 40 50 like I feel like the end of you know I know stories and hooks and I mean I'm the persona four guys so like I'm not like saying fuck them all but it's just like for me it's such a rare one that like even with metaphor as much as I'm enjoying that I don't see the world

where I finish that I don't see a world where I'm I'm so committed unless I suddenly, I think, again, my biggest problem, no, sorry, the biggest Greg Miller problem, fault, issue with metaphor has been that I was robbed of that New York flight. I was prepared to sit on the plane for six hours out playing and six hours back playing, and I think that would have locked it in. I would have made so much progress. I would have felt like, I got it, now I can take it in bite-sized chunks.

And instead, fucking Ben. You know what I mean? I love you, man. He got sick and I couldn't go. So then it's like, I did 30 minutes here. I do an hour here, but then I get tired and I fall asleep. And so it's like I feel like I've been doing this dungeon for fucking ever. When in reality, I haven't in game hours, right?

That's a tough thing is I understand where you're coming from because I couldn't imagine playing metaphor if I had like a family. Yeah, yeah. You're like, what, in 10 hour a day, 12 hour of days? Yeah, like, I'm out here playing this game chonks at a time. And so, like, you're talking about being stuck in a dungeon. And I'm like, oh, that was two sittings for me because I'm paid for. fucking seven out.

Like, you know, that's the way that I, that's the way that I needed to play that game in order to like, you know, be able to put my own, be able to actually get it. Yeah, for sure. That's why I, that's why for me personally, I love reviewing a game because then it becomes, okay, cool, I got to do this, I'm playing it, I'm doing this, I'm booking time at work to do it. I will say, though, like, if you're willing to take your time with it, it's going to take you a while to finish it, but when you're comparing metaphor to, like other turn-based games or persona games, I think metaphor does a better job than most turn-based RPGs.

that carrot on the stick, I'm upgrading my character and I can see where I wanna pick these characters to. And there's something about the character development and party building that for me has me so excited to get into a battle just so I can level up and be like, all right, cool, now I'm gonna unlock these moves and create the perfect build. It only gets better and better and better at that

as it goes. So the carrot on the stick. They do such a great job with the, you know, I don't remember what the call, but the persona tree. The archetypes, yeah, yeah, yeah, the archetypes are so good. And that system I think is very engaging

and at a certain point me, pretty quickly, honestly, for me, became addicting as far as what it did for me and how much it enhanced the turn-based combat. Like, it almost felt for me like playing an action game. And I totally understand where you guys come from in terms of, like, turn-based not sticking, because a lot of times turn-based doesn't stick for me, right?

Like, you know, I think I'm more into turn-based compared to you guys, but I think most of the time I'll pick up a JRP, and I get in the battle, I'm like, nah, I'm good. Yeah. But metaphor is one of those ones that really works. See, and that's, it's so bizarre right now. I need to just fucking sit and play a metaphor and not get distracted and not.

do anything because again what I like I sit in and I'm like I would love to get back to Pokemon because I feel like I'm so close to the end of Pokemon like the true end right and again those battles I think go so quickly and you're bouncing around I also think they're fucking easy like you know what I mean I was never there's never any thought in my Pokemon battling right but again I think maybe that's what I want out of turn base right now is that I want to drop in and just zone out I love that this turned in from from Greg's hot takes Greg's like RECD support yeah yeah yeah we do it would we're all have fun here thanks for hanging

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The pot! You got caught with it. R.D.J. himself, Superchats insane. Greg, play an immersive sim like prey. It's got the RPG elements you're looking for. Yeah, I played prey at launch. It was one of those, I forgot how many hours I got in. It demoed really well for me,

but then at the time didn't click for me as a game I wanted to go for all the way. I'll let me some prey. But also, I'm just a sucker for those games. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Trevor coming in with a hot take here. My hottest take is Bioshock Infinite was the best game of 2013. Memorable Story, Fun Combat

with Fun Traversal with Skyhook. Elizabeth is probably one of my favorite video game characters. Man, Powshock Infinite. A game that I feel like, I forget about often, but then I think about, like, how much I enjoyed it at the time. I love that game when I played it.

But yeah, that was like such a stacked year. I couldn't... That was probably my top three or four. Bioshock, Invin, his biggest problem is that it wasn't Bioshock. And I don't mean it wasn't biosec in tone or culture. I mean, it wasn't the original Bioshock. So I think people came in wanting a rapture experience and this, that, the other, and they went a little aggressive there with the first person shooting,

which some people love, some people don't. I really enjoy it, and I remember. But I remember distinctly it was like, oh, this doesn't feel like Bioshock. And that was where people were like, I don't like this, and it's not the same. You're trying to live up to this game that was so amazing. That was one that, like, I wish I was more aware of, I guess, like, a picture. opinion pieces and stuff at the time because that's one that post way post-Bioshock Infinite

like looking online. I think that game inspired just a lot of games critique and games like, you know, media think pieces and stuff. And like I've seen so many people talk about Bioshock Infinite about like certain parts of the writing that don't live up, certain parts of like its own politics that don't live up in ways where I'm like, man, if in 2024 I want to go back and play it now like just for where I'm at, just to see like if it still holds up. Yeah. I remember at the time before I thought about games that deeply, I remember loving it. Interesting here, the hot tag, not even necessarily comparing it to

Bioshock 1, but even just the best game of 2013. He's put it up against Last of Us. GTA5. GTA5, so. So false, you know, the wrong hot tag. That's why you're not, you don't have a thumbnail like I do. Thanks, Mike. Greg, that's the thumbnail.

What do you want to take that thumbnail, Greg? I would like to take this to Caravan Sandwich. Now, not Caravan Sandwich, like you're eating a sandwich. Caravan Sandwich, like a witch on Halloween. Okay. Now, you know, usually we would run B-roll. We don't have that ability. So I prepared my own B-roll.

You can see the trailer right there. Oh. Oh. Okay, you know, got to go against your brain on that one. This is a game I tweeted out about. It was a game that had come. I'll turn it around for you guys. It's looping or whatever.

It's, you know, it's a small indie game. Shit. I looked it up right before. Mike, give me a caravan saying. It's playing something or other. I forget what. Indy game. It took me, what, six hours?

to get through and beat, enjoyed it quite a bit. It was the game I needed. Caravan sandwich, it's been in a bunch of, I think, the wholesome directs. The idea behind it is no death, no combat. So you're not doing that. What do you got for me? This is developed by plain toast.

Plain toast, I knew it was something. That wasn't they playing witch because of the sandwich thing? You know what I mean? But it's playing like an airplane. Yeah. Not playing plane. Yeah, exactly. They're always doing that stuff, right?

So I'll not turn around for you guys because that's pretty much the end of the trailer there. Yeah, I wanted to come in and give this one its flowers. enjoyed it. You know, I'm a fan of a wholesome game, a quiet game. I think again in this sea of, I need to play this, I need to play that, I need to do this. This was one that I completely missed, I think the TikTok or the Instagram vertical video I saw about it, which was the developers being like, hey, this came out in September and we'd love people to play it. And I was like, oh shit, like I vaguely remember this. You're driving a van around. You're using it to solve

puzzles. None of these puzzles are remotely difficult. You're collecting scrap to upgrade the thing to help out the people of this town that used to be this basically a mining town for this, you know, big, bad space organization. This giant storm that you see throughout the trailers is out there and they all abandoned the mining town, which is left like, you know, a dozen people to live here in it. You're returning after having lived in a space station for six years. The whole reason you come back is that you left because your sister presumably died and then you get a distress call from her spaceship.

So you come back to the planet, you know, reunite with your fathers, your friends and all this stuff and then try to go out there and do it. It's a game I needed right now in terms of like, hey, this is a great catch-your-breath moment, you know, all these other, oh, this, that, the other. I don't think, the game I would say on the kind of funny scale, either a 7-5 good or an 8-great, you know what I mean? But it's another one where it's indie, which I think comes with the usual caveats of maybe not being the most respectful of your time in certain ways.

Like it wasn't until, like, I was at the end of the game and I was almost the end of the game, right? And I was kind of frustrated. I'm like, God, this game needs a fucking fast travel system. And then it turns out I had been unlocking a fast travel system, but only through these portals. And it's, you know, not voiced. It's just dialogue that pops on the screen.

So maybe I skip through it. But, like, I only knew it as a story device of what I was doing with the person you're working with the most. So then to get there, I'm like, oh, this would have solved some of my, not anger, isn't the right word, some of my gripes. But even then, the game is driving the van around and solving the puzzles and, you know, in collecting shit. So it was kind of a self-thing, blah, blah. I thought the story was interesting.

I had a really fun time with it. And again, I liked catching my breath with it. However, really why I bring it here is a simple reason. Caravan Sandwich is the game. This is one of the worst names for a video game I've ever heard. Yeah, I was going to say. Good call. And so I would like us as this panel on my Hot Takes episode to figure out a better name for this game.

So again. So let's start with where the problem is, okay? Caravan Sandwich. There's a lot of elements going on. Yeah. Let's start with the sand witch. There's sand I'm seeing here. Is she a witch?

No. There's a witch you see at the very end that follows you. She's kind of like a ghost, seemingly a ghost at times where it's like you see her and you run around the corner and she's gone or whatever. That's a narrative element that is in the game. I don't think it's so front-facing that it needs to be in the title for sure. If it did, I would urge them to come up with a better name. Because again, you are on a podcast. You are driving.

You are listening to a podcast. You are driving car. Greg Miller just told you about caravan sandwich and I have to stop everything to say not sandwich like the sandwich you eat sand witch Terrible awful yeah that you're not to mention Caravan means you have multiple vehicles Where this is the last running van in the world. You know what I mean? So I mean you could do I mean Just van let's just call it man we could just call it man We could just get rid of the sandwich get rid of the Kara just van

Vanden that was a good movie if you ever want to watch a vanden movie van Wilder Van Wilder yeah yeah yeah Van Wynch is what you came up on Okay, okay. So, Greg, if the witch isn't that important, what is very important? Is the van important enough to be in the title? I understand it because it does control well. It's beautiful. Roger stopped at one point.

It was like, what are you playing? This is gorgeous. I was like, oh, it's a caravan sandwich. He's like, that's a bad name. I'm like, I know. Yeah, I think the van, I mean, we could base it around the title, right? It could be the search for your sister. It could, you know, we could do something with that.

We could talk about this storm that's cool out there on the thing if you want to make it about that. maybe even just calling it Sandwich But again, you're getting too clever Because again, I would say Sandwich And you'd be like, what do you fucking mean? Yeah Although I feel like that's something you can push the root.

Oh, hold on time out. This is interesting. Danny says caravan means an RV That for you people. Caravan means an RV that for UK people, I think. I think he's trying to say that caravan means just an RV in the UK. That, it does not mean that in America. In America, that would be multiple trucks or RVs

driving together. So right there, they should have had a localization expert. Like, hold on a second. Not a great name. And that would make sense because I do believe, as you see, there's

French subtitles here. I think they are a French studio or maybe even a Montreal studio. I think if you get rid of the caravan and just call it sandwich, that gives it that, like, it's not the sandwich you think,

and that sticks with people. Okay. I tend to agree with that. Okay. But does it focus on the witching up? I don't feel like it does. No, I don't think so either. Again, and I think,

like, eventually they start calling her a sandwich, you know what I mean? But I don't think from the get-go, like, you're here and also beware. There's these rumors of a sandwich out there doing this kind of thing. And even Sandwich would make me think I am a Sandwich. Titling a game is hard. Nobody's saying it's not. But you say, oh, my game's called Sandwich.

I'm like, oh, you're like that witch with the gun game. So you're going to be, I'm on a broom and I'm flying across the desert. No, you're driving a van across the desert, and there's a sandwich hunting you while you look for your sister. Huh. Huh. Don't love that. Desert truck. Pacific Drive.

Pacific Drive comes after you. Yeah, Pacific Drive is like, oh, what the fuck? But, like, Pacific Drive, I thought, worked. Yeah? They said Pacific Drive, you saw it, you're like, oh, okay, I get a vibe of, I'm in the Pacific Northwest, I'm doing this kind of thing. Like, if there's a way to fit, like, a paranormal drive, like, you know, something that implies.

You're getting close to what, I was going to bring it up a long time ago, but, like, terrible. A terrible name, and I was like, almost as bad as whatever ghost drive, ghost ride turned their name into ghost drive, whatever, you know, I'm talking about. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. It's hard to name something new. It's easy to critique people for bad news.

Sure, I know. I'll either use, yeah, the word drive, the word journey, the word, something that implies. I think in Journey because the Witch looks like Journey? No, but also that's a good point. The Witch just look like Journey. It's all the same. Neil says Van Witch. I don't hate that.

That's what I said earlier. No. Okay. First off, you're the king of like saying the same thing I said 10 minutes ago. Actually, I guess probably Nick's the King of that year. Yeah. So I won't take fall for them. Sandwich.

All right, well, I hear your hot take, and I agree. Journey in the sand, says Mad Rocks. I don't hate that either. Journey through the sand. Sand through the hourglass. I journey in the sand. Destination van. Desolation van.

Leave them in the comments below. Thank you. Also, check this out. Sandland. Caravan Sandwich. If you're a fan of Greg games, you want a slow game to drive around. Just collect shit, climb shit.

There's no fall damage, right? So you're climbing up really high and getting stuff. You're doing stuff. You're unlocking all this stuff and, of course, you're helping people, and then they have like a Twitter system where you're looking at their text messages and talking to them and stuff. Beautiful game animated really well, too, it's cool.

Alex Fraser's Superchat saying, I'm on vacation next week for Thanksgiving and will only have my Steam deck. What are some cool games y'all have been playing there that I should consider? Caravan sandwich. There we go. Caravan Sandman.

Dungeons of Hintenburg, I've talked about before on these shows. Prince of Persia, the Lost Crown. If you're looking for something to play the entire trip. If you're looking for something tiny, never, I think is really good. Never! Never! I've been seeing a lot more steam decks on planes lately, and I always have to, like, peek to the Lacey, like, what are they playing?

The ones I've been seeing the most are Hades 2, and Inscription. I've been seeing quite a people play those games. Inscription, fantastic on the Steam deck. So that'll always be my recommendation. It's funny you bring up the Steam deck. One of my bullet points here, fuck you, Valve. Listen. Surprise, surprise, what a hot take.

from Greg Miller. But is it coming the way you think it is, ladies and gentlemen. You know what I mean? Because you think you know the direction Greg Miller's coming at Valve at right now. I'm not, all right? I'm saying fuck Valve for continuing to put out better and better versions of the steam deck after I already bought the original Steam deck. All right?

The OLED drops. And I'm like, God, that looks good. But I don't need it. I'm not going to spend another thousand dollars or whatever the hell it was, right? And then I see Andy's, I'm like, with Dragon Age. I'm like, that looks fucking gorgeous. I don't need it. I'm not going to do it.

I'm not going to do it. Then they have the audacity to put out this all white steam deck. And that does it for you. Get the fuck. Yeah, it's gorgeous. I'm surprised. Why? I don't know.

I don't see you as a white person. Yeah, I didn't see Greg as a white person. A lot of people don't see me as a white person. It's all back out of it before it gets bad. I don't think of you as liking white tech, especially like for something like the steam deck. I definitely see you thinking, I think about you and the Vita. I know you had your little blue one, but like. excuse me, my pink one.

You're right, you're right. All right. Yeah. You're right. Yeah, I love color stuff. That's why I was ready to fight you for that chromo white controller. That's not the default controller at home. I love that. Again, like, I don't think, I wouldn't say that I have a, oh, that white is my color kind of thing.

Or like, in terms of that. But, like, I love my steam deck. I wish it was OLED, and I also just feel it kind of looks ugly. I feel like, I wish the, we've talked about this before, the bezel on it. I wish I was getting more screened for it. Well, it's solved with the OLED. Oh, but I don't want to spend more money on it. I understand, but like...

It's a lot of money for a device that I still don't use all that much. I use it a lot now, but not all that much. My take on the Steam Deck with where you're at, I do not think that the White One is superior. I like that it is an option for people. I think that's cool. We talked a little bit about I don't want the coloring. I like the black buttons.

I don't know like the light gray, but that's personal taste. I do think, though, when it comes to the Steam Deck, specifically the OLED version, black's the way to go, because there's less bezel and the OLED. is so beautiful black levels that like you don't want to have that distracted by like the bright white you just don't want that you want to also more i think that you know you grubby little hands all over it right i think we all learn with the PlayStation 5 controllers you know he turned them over sometimes like oh jesus oh oh i like me that mr clean magic eraser out of your honey yeah i got one of those recently yeah life change i'm really what are you trying to get off the walls um well mostly like the like my stove i was trying to use my stove and then try to use something else like you used to clean your shoes it didn't clean the show no shit Yeah, that sucks. I'll be honest, I'm a little underwhelmed by the hot takes.

I thought you're gonna be bringing it. These are like Greg grievances, if anything. These aren't, these aren't hot takes. You got one, man, shit all over Final Fantasy. Okay, well, you just be on my side, you know what I mean? You can, you know, no, no, you know. Yeah, but like, if I'm on your side, is it hot takers. Yeah, you know, we're pissed in the way.

Look how mad Tim was about Final Fantasy. You know what I mean? Yeah, but I'll think you're that wrong, you know? I know, I know you've already said that you're on my side. You got taste. A lot of people out there, they don't. They're mad. you know?

Like, hit me with something. I want to get mad. Gamers are too angry. I wrote that down. I wrote that down. I, you know, again, in general, like, here, let's just go. You know what I mean? I've said it. Thank you, Mike.

Thank you. I've been very vocal about it, all right? Even when I was at IGN, how much I fucking hated top 25s, top 100s, and game of the year. Because it all led to. us getting really angry and bickering with each other about the stupidest shit, right? We all love these games. What does it matter? Why are we doing this?

And then like, oh, the saccharacanct. Oh, is it a list that we would tell anybody to buy or is it a list you'd tell? Who the fuck cares? We're talking about goddamn toys. So I just find it so fucking embarrassing like yesterday where people get so bent out of shape about DLC being for Game of the Year. It's like, I get having an opinion, but at the end of the day, the planet is fucking dying.

the planet is dying the government is incredibly corrupt why are we fucking mad at Jeff Keely why are we so mad about this nice thing we get we get the Game Wars we get to be excited you gotta play more of a 7 rebirth all we get oh no I know it's great

totally totally that sounds like your subject matter yeah I know fucking rally against Shinra out here you know what I mean it's like god damn but it's like what the fuck like it used to be fun I feel like to bicker about the games and stuff and now nobody's bickering they're actually arguing about like well Well, you know, it's an insult to the people who made a game.

The people who made the DLC made, what are you talking about? What the fuck are we, why are we so mad about this? And then God forbid you want to make a joke about PC gamers. They're going to get fucking mad. I'm out here. I'm out of here entertaining. I'm not entertaining. I'm not entertaining.

You know what I mean? But I think so much of that has been heightened in the last few years by grifting content creators, for sure. Yeah. Elon must's changes to the Twitter algorithm. and how much of it, I think, is forward... What's the what I'm looking for? I guess uplifting, like, content that might be leaving a bit more right-wing.

Rage farming or whatever. Yeah, rage farming. Like, you see a lot more of that stuff. Surface, that's where I'm looking for, right? Surface to your timeline in a way where I'm like, wow, in last year, every time I log into Twitter, I'm just mad. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And now I am reading these conversations and these arguments that all feel so bad faith in a way. Oh, yeah, for sure. You know, I think we've seen so many people's minds and opinions molded to lean toward angry, lean toward, oh, I got to be legitimately upset because a DLC is nominated for a game of the year, or because, oh, man, they put too many woke people in my video game or whatever it is. You know, I think we, in the last, and this has been going on forever, right? But I think especially recently, we've been able to see a lot of that stuff,

I guess we turned into a thing that people are actually mad about. like accounts that I recognize, right? Yeah, like accounts that I follow for, like, news or updates, I see them get mad about things. And I'm like, oh, no, you're actually poisoning people's brains. So I think that's a lot of it of why you see. It's a really good way, but... Yeah, like, we see a lot of it happen nowadays, and it sucks.

But I'm with you of like, man, I think those conversations can be fun when they're fun. Yeah, exactly, right? But some of my favorite podcasts of all time to listen to you, where the giant bomb game of the year podcast, year to year, where it is. We have all these categories and it's not a vote. We are arguing until we're able to pick three games. And that stuff was always so fascinating because it's fun to, I think, sometimes to debate. It's fun sometimes to like, you know, figure out like, oh, yeah, let's, let me hear your reasoning.

Let me give you my reasoning. And like, let's get to the bottom of this thing. We're not leaving this room until we figure out a solution. Because it's content. You're making content. And it's like the content, it's just a bunch of people's opinions. It's not like, hey, I am right and you are wrong audience. it is, hey, the people at this couch are having a conversation about what they think.

And it's like, yeah, when you're getting together to make content, I think that's one thing. When you're then having arguments online and it becomes like an all or nothing type thing, that's not content. Or else it is. And then it's like, hey, all, it's just content. Don't fucking worry about it. People have taken the marketplace of ideas and turn it into a thing of, oh, I'm going to hate somebody because they don't want to hear my ideas or whatever it is or because I perceive them as being

against free speech or they're ruining the thing that I love. And I'm like, that's not what that's supposed to be, right? It is supposed to be the thing of, hey, you can express yourself, I can express myself, and let's be civil about it as long as you're not being hateful about somebody, right? As long as they're not being a racist or a piece of shit. Like, yeah, like, then we can have the marketplace of ideas. But people have taken that idea and turned it into a thing. Free of speech. Yeah.

You say whatever I want. Yeah. Yeah. And that exists legally. But, like, that doesn't be. You're allowed to say whatever you want. I'm allowed to say whatever I want back and fuck off. But that doesn't mean I have to hear you out as an individual or allow you on my platform. or like, you know, have to see you or my social media or whatever it is.

But people have taken that to the extreme. And it's made a lot of, yeah, the gamer rage way more invisible and just way more annoying and harder to get away from. Yeah. You know, we talk about, like, the real ramifications of this, right? I lost a real friend over this. Yesterday I put out the post that was my whole, hey, DLCs, should be nominated for Game in the Year or whatever, right?

And in my Instagram DMs, I got a DM from Stellasey. that's too obvious. S. Chung, who said, we're fighting. And so I responded back, you are dumb. And then she responded back, no, you are. And now we're not talking. That was just over. It's done, man.

This shit's real. This shit's serious. Like, there's no going back from here, okay? Lying in the sand. You either think DLC should be gay to the year or you should be murdered. Publicly executed at the Game Award. That's the thing about it. And I feel like that's why I hated the lists,

why I hate it, the game of the year conversations, was that everybody brings their own reasoning to the table of what game of the year should be or what it is. And I don't mean talking to people making the list. I mean the audience. And so then they don't care how you framed the list at all on what you did, right? And so that's the whole thing with why I'm, I, you know, say whatever you want and blah, blah, blah, like, I love the Game Awards, right? And they're the Game Awards. They're Jeff Keely's Game Awards. And here's how they choose everything, here's how they do everything, here's what it's going to be. And people get so mad because they don't, go make your own fucking award show.

Period. Go do your own thing. They've set up the ramifications, the rules, the rubric for what's happening. It's the same thing with the review scale, right? Of like, oh, well, that's a four shit. I'm going to make your own fucking review scale. I don't know. It's like back when I was arguing, like, at IGN why we shouldn't use a hundred point scale.

Like, what is this is a fucking science. You know what I mean? We're not doing lab tests over here to figure out the fun value. Even though, of course, GamePro had it best with the fucking thing. We all knew what was that. everybody's so mad about just talking about things they love. I definitely think everybody should calm down. I also do, I also do find the, like,

conversations about how to make things better and improve things, I'm always here for, right? Like, I'm somebody who will always be, like, you know, if I see, I look at the Game Awards and I think, you know, Jeff has built it up to be such a great thing. In the last however many years, I still look at certain things about it, and I'm like, oh, I think this thing could be better. I'm not saying, like, it's not above critique.

But there's such a difference of like, what the fuck? It's like, okay, whoa, whoa, whoa, right. is like, you know, I'm, like, I don't think it's above critique, which is why I often critique, right? But, like, I think the line is when you are so mad about it, where you are, like, taking it almost as, like, a personal affront that, like, you know, this award show has a weird category or whatever it is or, like, this thing wasn't nominated. But it's like, okay, we've taken it too far. Yeah, for me, for me, it's like, I'm right there with you. It's like, I feel like the critique is one thing. I think it's the, uh, when you're critiquing something based on what you think or want it to be that it's not.

Like people that are coming in acting like Jeff chose these. Like there are people attacking Jeff for, oh, why did he choose this? He didn't choose it. So it's a bad faith argument to begin with. And I feel like that's the majority of what I'm seeing is people that are making an argument based off of things that are not factual. So at a certain point, it's either you educate them or they don't want to be educated. It's like, what are we even doing here? I think that's just been the biggest thing with the gamers being angry.

It's like only become easier and easier for me to be able to look at people who like, I just don't align with you at all. Like, I do not agree with the way that you and these people think about games or think about media or think about human beings. And there's a lot of overlap with it. And I'm like, okay, cool. That's just making it easier to just not engage with that stuff at all. Or to look at it and just be like, oh, man, I don't ever want to come off that way. You know, if I don't like it.

Or I do want to come up this way or I do want more people to support these type of games or whatever. It's like, yeah, find a place to be able to express that in a way. that you're actually reaching people as opposed to just, you know, grifting for the money of it all. And, like, I mean that in every direction, right? Like, at the end of the day, we're making content talking about video games.

Like, it all is just a business, period. What we're doing is a business. This all makes sense. We're doing this to make content, hopefully for people to enjoy. Yeah. You know, and not, like, our purpose is not to divide, which I feel like so many people,

when the goal is to divide, it's all right, cool, yeah, you're going to make a lot more money. That's great. But you're a asshole. Mike, should we start dividing to make more money? I've thought about it for a while. You know what I'm getting?

It's like, what do I start saying things I don't believe in? But I know the gamers do. Exactly. And I'm like, that's an easy way to make some cash. Yeah. Some people do it. Do you have any more takes, Greg? Do you have an actual?

The Final Fantasy metaphor was a hot take. No, it wasn't. Yeah, a lot of people agree with that. Yeah, that's like, what is that? That's just a take at best. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. That's just an opinion.

We're supposed to support each other out here. You know what I mean? We're supposed to support each other. None of those are hot takes. In fact, that was a cold take that I just gave. Hey, but here's the thing. The headline of Greg Miller's hot takes. Click bait.

For the record, everybody, when I headlined in the show, I thought I had hot takes. Our headline is a hot take now. There we go. Yeah. Yeah. Somebody would think about it. Again, we're making the content, everybody. I love it here.

Can you say one thing I get mad at? One thing that I'm like, oh, fuck. this guy. Can't believe I work for. I mean we not even we, the world. He's going to say Eldon Ring was the real game of the year. The world deserves more Starfield content. All right.

Okay, now we're getting some place. We're getting somewhere. Everyone, let us know in the comments below what your hot takes are and what of Greg's takes today you thought were hot. The world needs to know that. And also, what do you think about Final Fantasy 7? Rebirth versus Metaphor. Do you like both? Is there anybody out there that really rocks for both

and can't make the choice in their mind? Which do I love more? I want to hear from you. But Greg, thank you for this. I appreciate it. You guys had a great time. Yeah, really good time here, everyone. Mike, thank you for running the show. You're killing it. We love the next time, everyone. Stay tuned for a fun stream. Mike and Nick. Love you all. Sam. Goodbye.