Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Guardians of the Galaxy Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: October 25, 2021

Go to http://expressvpn.com/kindafunny to get 3 months free on a 1-year package. Go to http://purple.com/kindafunny10 and use code kindafunny10 to get 10% off any order of $200 or more. Download the DraftKings app NOW and use promo code KINDAFUNNY. Greg Miller makes a brief return to talk to Tim, Blessing, and Mike about their divisive thoughts on Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up and welcome back to the kind of funny games cast. As always, I'm Tim Getty's joined by one of the coolest dudes in video games. One of the coolest dads in video games, Greg Miller. Finally, Greg Miller has come back to the games cast. Tim, I am gone two weeks. Two weeks. And what do I got to see on my YouTube playlist last week? You come through and you got Mark, who was the guy from Xbox last week?

Matt Booty. It doesn't matter who it was last week. They're here to see Greg Miller, Tim. They're here to see Greg Miller talk about video games. And I am happy to be back, ladies and gentlemen, from paternity leave for one show only, a one night stand to talk about Guardians of the Galaxy. Greg Miller, you got the approval for two things during your opportunity leave to come back to make content for. And what are they?

I got approval. I told Jen, there's only two things that are like, make or break. I have to come back for. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy review, if I can make it work. and Ghostbusters Afterlife and review when we get to that. I love to see it. I love to see it. I'm very happy to have you back for this special event.

It feels weird. It feels weird being able to talk to you. You're right there. You're so close. See, it's weird for me because it feels like I haven't missed a beat. And you then you guys have done like two weeks of solid content without me. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

There's been a lot. It's been a lot. But a lot has been done with a fantastic team, a team that includes the new face of video games. Blessing at E.O.E.A. Jr. This episode features the return of Greg Miller, but it also features the return of my vocal cords. You hear that.

I'm fully back. This is awesome. Now it's crazy about this. This is another near miss. We weren't sure Greg was going to make this because he has a baby. So many things can happen. We weren't sure Bless was going to make this because he had another tooth taken out. Oh, my God.

Like two days ago. And we're like, oh, man, he's not going to be able to make. Because we're recording on a Sunday to hit embargo. So there's a lot of factors going into this. But we're happy to have you here. Bless and we're happy to have your voice as well. Yeah, I'm happy it worked out because I made, I put that on the schedule. weeks and weeks ago because I was like, oh yeah, I can take a weekend off, right?

Like we don't usually don't do things during the weekend. And so who cares? So I'm going to get another tooth yanked out on a Friday. And then sure enough, the Guardians of the Galaxy comes through and they're like Monday morning embargo. And so I'm like, cool, we'll see how this goes. But thankfully, big shout out. I tweeted this. Big shout out to my old surgeon who over the course of the last year has, this is going to sound, this is going to sound crazy. He's learned my mouth. He's learned my mouth. He's figured out like what to do in there. By this last time, he like, took it out and I was like, oh shit, it's already done. He's like, oh, yeah, it's already done.

We know how it works now. We know what to do with you. And so shout to the world surgeon. Dr. De LaRosa, you're the best. You'll love to see it. And if we're talking about a very hype video game, of course, we need the master of hype, Snowbike, Mike. Tim, I'm pretty excited.

A good energy this evening here on a lovely Sunday. I'm excited to talk about Guardians of the Galaxy because it's hype, y'all. Oh, yes. Oh, yes, it is. And we're going to be talking all about Guardians. This is our Guardians of the Galaxy review episode of the Kind of Funny Games cast that you can get, of course, on YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games games or Roosterteeth.com. If you want to get it as a podcast, all you got to do is search your favorite podcast service for Kind of Funny Gamescast and we'll be right there for you. If you wanted to get the show ad free, if you wanted to watch it live as it's recorded, and if you want the exclusive post show, there's only one way to get that done.

And that's going to patreon.com slash Kind of Funny Games, just like our Patreon producers, Pranksy, Tyler Ross, Delaney, Twining, Julian, the gluten-free gamer, Alex J. Sandoval, Techie Haas, James Hastings, Casey Andrew, and once again, Pranksy have done. Thank you all so very, very much. Also, if you don't have a buck to toss our way on Patreon, that's fine. You're out there. You're buying the video games. And if you're buying video games on the Epic Game Store, make sure you use our Epic Creator Code,

kind of funny, whether it's a new video game, an old video game, some V-Bucks or the Rocket League bucks. I always forget what they're called. Doesn't matter. It's going to support us. Rocket Box, baby, if you're using our Epic Creator Code kind of funny. So thank you very much for doing all of that.

Just a little bit of housekeeping for you. We got new episodes of the Blessing Show out. Of course, we want to keep pimping it. It's all about loops, time loops, in video games. You can check that out on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games. And if you like that, video essay type of content, we got a whole bunch more for you.

We got the Arkham Files, a Barrett Courtney, Roger McCorney, project where every week they're looking back at one of the Batman Arkham games. Two of them are already out. And later today, if you're watching this as it comes out, the third episode is Arkham Origins better than you remember will be premiering on YouTube at what time, Barrett?

2.30 p.m. Pacific. Come hang out with us in the live chat as the video premieres to talk about all things, Batman Arkham Origins. Gotta love it. And we're going to be talking a lot about Guardians. And if my opinion of this game is anything to go off, I have a feeling people are similar. in line with me, you guys are going to want to watch us play a whole bunch of this game.

And guess what? We're going to do that all week long, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Andy Cortez will be playing through potentially the entirety of the game. Maybe not. But either way, he's going to be playing through the game on Twitch. dot TV slash kind of funny games every day at 11 a.m. I'm very excited for that. And then on Friday, we're doing something that I haven't even talked to Greg Miller about.

It's something very special. We will be celebrating the launch of a Mario Party super star. by doing a battle for the title of CEO of kind of funny. Greg has vacated us. He's left us. He's left us with nothing. There is no leadership. What are we to do?

We need a leader. So on Friday, it is going to be me, Snowbike Mike, blessing at Aeoria Jr. and Andy Cortez vying for the title in round one of a tournament in Mario Party. But I don't need to be CEO. That's totally fine. I need somebody above me. Guess what?

I am the champion of one, know well if I win she gets to be the CEO but here's how this is working a little a little more on Monday part two of the tournament happens and that is going to be Roger Barrett Nick and Kevin I'm so so sorry fucking really really when you told me who I was going up against I was like okay cool so I'm going to be the one that they all rally against and join join forces against cool I'm so sad me and Nick don't get to share round one because Playing Mari Party with Nick is one of my favorite things. So Nick better make it to the next round because I'm going to make it to the next round.

Because I'm going to be CEO. The top two on Friday and the top two on Monday will move on to the finals. And whoever wins that will become the new CEO. Kind of funny. Them's the rules. When I become CEO, what do you want me to do? Because I'm down to try and carry on your legacy. If you have any burning wants or needs for when I become CEO, is there any requests you have?

I just don't feel like I vacated the title. I don't think this is how it. This is a lot like when Xavier would strip me of the World Championship, the kind of funny world championship. I feel like a lot of that shenanigans is happening here. And I like how I wasn't even asked if I wanted to try to participate in this Mario Party. The board voted, Greg. The board voted.

There's no board. You were only approved for two things, Guardians and Ghostbuses and nothing else like. That's accurate. That's accurate. Mario Party does indeed have a board. So, it does. And that's the energy we're bringing into this Guardians of the Galaxy review. I am extremely excited about it. But I want to give Greg Miller a chance to get off the bench. He's been sitting here, cooped up, not with a microphone in front of him

for probably longer than he's ever went without a microphone in front of him. That's true. So Greg, I'm going to let you go. What do you think about Guardians of the Galaxy? Based on the energy you all have, I'm very interested for this review, and I can't wait to talk about it because I think Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel's, Guardians of the Galaxy is a fine video game. I think it is a game that is heartbreakingly mediocre.

I don't think it succeeds in anything it really tries to do. And I think the real problem with it is that it is, is this giant barrel of tricks. They shove so many things into this game, and they only get about 70% of each one of them. I don't think it excels in anything it tries to do, which is what sucks the most, because there's a lot of great ideas in Guardians of the Galaxy.

There are great highs to Guardians of the Galaxy. By no means am I sitting here telling you this is a bad video game, but for me, it's a video game that just always was just right, okay, like I'm playing a game. And I really feel like, if you're new to the show, for some reason, you made it this far after the whole rock thing in the very beginning. I'm very much a fan of AAA games.

And obviously around the industry, AAA games get bagged on quite a bit for not being inventive, not pushing the envelope, yada, yada, yada. I think that this is a game, those kind of people will point to and go, look at this.

Like, there's so many things in this game where it's just like, why did you make this decision? This doesn't seem right. What are we doing here? I don't understand why any of this is playing out or panning out the way it is or should. I think it is very much a game

that you can see on a spirit board. They were like, it's uncharted meets mass effect meets you know so on and so forth and like it doesn't nail any of those like i think the influences for mass effect you see come through and they're just not done nearly as well i think you see the influences for something like on an uncharted a you know giant blockbuster movie video game come through and i don't think they're done as well i think you know i was playing it and there was times where i was like man this is supposed to be uncharted and jedi fall in order did this so much better than this game here uh there's a bunch of stuff like that and i know we're going to get into it but yeah my

top of the dome opinion of it is like it's a fine game i i i struggled to think who i'd even recommend it to though like i don't think it's like the marvel a must-play marvel game like i think it was a fun enough time but it's bubble gum and i've i've beaten it and i'm not thinking about going back i'm 74% in the trophies i don't plan on going back to platinum this for the few things i missed i think if anything it swings and misses on a lot of different things which was heartbreaking because i see what they were trying for and i think it's a game that seems like it was designed by committee and didn't have a clear vision for what it was, and that's why it fails. No bike, Mike.

Wow. I am on the exact opposite side of Greg Miller. After completing it, I've had a blast. I think this is one of the best gaming experiences of the year, and I think it's one of the best superhero games ever made. This story is a ton of fun. I think there's going to be some conversations around the combat that we're going to get into, but everything that I'd host Montreal has done with this game, I've been thoroughly impressed by.

And I think it was a solid video game with a whole lot of hearts, a whole lot of laughter, a lot of awesome moments that I think Marvel fans are really going to gock and be wowed by. And then on top of that, this is a visually stunning game. Like the facial animations and all of the characters every single time, I wanted to stop and take screenshots and photos of every time a character came on screen. I was truly floored by that. And so I'm going to be a lot higher on this than Greg sounds like. And I'm really happy to have Greg here to listen.

and find out what he's talking about because I was blown away by this game and I think it is a rock star stellar game. Blessing out of Yoia Jr. And just for clarification, both Greg and Mike have fully beat the game. Bless, how far are you and what are you thinking? So I'm on chapter 10.

I'm about eight hours into the game and I'm probably somewhere between Mike and Greg. I don't think it's one of the best games of the year, but I do think it is a very, very, very good video game. I think going into it, the expectations that they've set in the trailers have been kind of in the mediocre side of things in terms of, oh, this looks kind of janky. Oh, this looks like, kind of like a generic Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

Oh, this gives me Marvel's Avengers vibes. I was surprised by how the combination of Mass Effect, Noddy Dog, and even some of Marvel Spider-Man actually worked out to be pretty good in this game. Like, this game, I think, adapts those elements pretty well, but doesn't hit the highs of any of those three that I mentioned. Right? I feel like it's a strong like step below all of those, but it does come together in a pretty good way. I think visually it's pretty stunning.

I think the banter and the dialogue is really good. And the gameplay, I think in most aspects, it's pretty fun. I do think the combat can get repetitive in a lot of moments. But overall, I'd say it's a pretty great game. I am definitely closer to Mike. I wouldn't say that this is, it's not my game of the year. I do think it is a game of the year contender this year. Um, but I, I definitely think that it is a very good video game.

And I think that it is surprising how much closer it is to a Spider-Man than an Avengers. Because going into this, I was expecting an Avengers, uh, level game. And playing through it, it really kind of delivers what I would be looking for from a Guardians of the Galaxy game, which is a compelling story, uh, great banter and dialogue between the characters and it's fun. And enough surprising, like, Easter-Agey moments that identify it as its own thing, not just a MCU knockoff. At the end of the day,

These are characters that were defined by the MCU. So that is our starting point. And I think that characters like Spider-Man kind of have had so many various iterations that we fell in love with over the years that when we play Insomniac Spider-Man and it's familiar but different. We're a little more forgiving and able to kind of be like, cool, this is a different Spider-Man. What are they doing unique with this? Where I think it's a little harder with these characters because we're like, okay, we know what we have a vision of exactly what they're supposed to be. And if they're not bad, it's wrong. I like that this one is

75 to 80% the MCU versions, but they have enough story elements, enough character moments. Like, I prefer this Gamora over the MCU Gamora for sure. And I love that. And I think that that's really cool, that that one fifth of the team, I can say that about. Some of the other ones, I would say, are

evenly matched. And some of them, I don't think any of them are like demonstrably worse than the MCU versions. Go for it, plus. I will say the one character who I think is very comparable to the MCU version, but this game kind of made me hate them was Rocket Raccoon. I have two big complaints with this game, and one is how repetitive the combat gets. And then the other complaint is, I do think this game went too hard on the arguing between the characters. And Rocket Raccoon was kind of the center for that in a lot of the game.

And I wasn't sure if that was a choice I made, because one of the things that this game does is it gives you a lot of choices to make in a lot of moments that can affect how characters feel about you in kind of a way that feels analogous to what Telltale does in their games. And they'll even get the notification of this character will remember that at a moment. And I think this moment was in one of the gameplay trailers that we got during an E3 or something where, you know, like you get to a chasm. And one of the options is, oh, tell Drax to throw Rocket. And I did that. And it was like Rocket will remember that.

And I swear for the next eight chapters, Rocket would not get off my back. And it seemed like I think that maybe no matter what that would be the case. But they pushed that in a way where I was like, uh, man, this is kind of ruining how I'm feeling about these characters. But for me, that was the one instance of, man, I like, this game made me like this character less as compared to what the MCU did for me in this character. And I think that's one of the struggles of the game,

is that what you're talking about, Tim, being so close to MCU, but then being different. I loved the differences. And obviously, we don't want to spoil the game for you in terms of the story stuff. I'm right there with Tim. This Gamora is awesome. She was by far my favorite guardian.

I thought she was really well done. But then my least favorite guardian, was Peter Quill. Like, I just don't like the vocal direction of Peter here, right? One of the praises I would give this game is that sticking out the entire story and going through around chapter 10, 11, somewhere in the double digits right there early on, the team solidifies a bit more, right? We're starting very much at Guardians 1.

And, like, the team's together, but they're not together. You know what I mean? Like, they're at each other's throats. They don't really know each other, yada, yada, yada. When they solidify, I was like, oh, man, all the arguing and bickering and shit we had to go through to get to here actually is justified by this to an extent. I did feel, yeah, rocket harped a bit too hard on, I being the

same rocket we saw in the movies, right, of just like, I was tested on and this, that, and the other, blah, blah, blah. But again, similar what they're trying to do with the Mass Effect stuff, everybody gets a little bit of backstory. They don't get like a Jacob or Jackside mission like Mass Effect too. They get a story to tell you or something where you like, oh man, I feel

a little bit more for you. I love that. I love getting to know this team that way, so it did pay off in the end going through and becoming that team and going through and becoming those people. Yeah, I actually really liked Rocket so far, and I like it specifically because of his relationship with Groot. And I think that it's a very similar one to what we saw in the movies. But I think this because it's a game and because there is so much more hours you're spending with the characters and like so much more just like little tiny bits of dialogue that it surprises me how often I am Groot could be responded with by something with something that actually makes me feel something and actually makes me care about what these characters are doing, especially in the context of the rest of the team. I like how I agree with you,

blessed that the entire focus of the game is this kind of conflict between them dialogue-wise of where they're all at with each other. But I think it does a good job of balancing those moments and bringing it together in gameplay when it comes to like the huddle in the actual battles and stuff where like Star Lord is the leader trying to like be the glue connecting this team

that most often doesn't want to be together, it feels like. But I like that it seems like there's dynamics between every combination of characters at play. And sometimes those can be focused on a little bit too much. Like there is a lot of the rocket, but I think this is because Rocket talks a lot. And he's very kind of like brash. So he ends up being kind of the one that's saying

what other characters are thinking more often than not. But I like the way that there is a relationship between Gamora and Rocket and Drax and Gamora. And every combination that like I'm invested in, I'm interested in. And I think the games paced really well, but I am having fun the entire time. And Greg earlier was saying that like something to the extent

of Jack of Altrey's Master of None. Like I don't think that this game does anything at a 10 out of 10 level, but I do think it does a lot of things at a 8.5 to 9 at a 10 level. This game does remind me a lot of Jedi Fallen Order. And so far, I would say this is the Marvel Guardians version of Jedi Fall in Order. Different type of game to an extent. This one, I think that Jedi Fallid Order would fall a little bit more on the like Metroidvania side, whereas this falls more on the uncharted side of terms,

in terms of just gameplay and linear progression. But I'm constantly being surprised by moments like what was just seen of like the Star Fox style kind of flying around. There's not much of it that I've experienced, but whenever it's there, it's welcome. Did you enjoy that?

Did that feel good? I wish it was faster. I wish it was a little bit more Star Foxy and more of like a dedicated like holy shit thrilling thing. But that was one of my things, right, like in the bucket of things they do here. That's an example for me of like,

I was the same way. Like I'd seen the trailers and kind of forgotten about it by the time we got to it in the game, even though it's come somewhat early. And it was, I think of like, oh, my God, awesome. And then I was like, oh, well, this is just sluggish and shoot a gallery thing. And I'm like, and then like I died because I banked around and hit a rock there. And I had to do the whole thing over.

And I'm like, all right. Well, this wasn't fun the first time. It's definitely not fun the second time. And I'll have to avoid the rocks now. See, I didn't have that experience. I had the experience of playing through. It lasted two minutes. And that was a fun break from the other type of gameplay we're having.

I think this game does a good job of having things that don't feel too disconnected from the rest of the game of what you're doing that like you're just constantly moving forward where it's like I like how the combat it can be repetitive there's not that much of it like this is there's a lot of cinematics in this game there is a lot of kind of just walking around and like there's one mission that the majority of the missions kind of just walk around and explore a like city and it reminds me a lot of there's a lot more final fantasy seven remake in this game in the DNA of this game than I would have ever expected there to be and I definitely mean that in a good way it's okay I was going to say the DNA of this game is one of the things that surprised me the most because, you know, to Greg's complaint of this game is throwing so many things into the, into the pot. And, you know, that's not allowing a lot of the individual aspects to shine. I agree to some extent. I do think that overall the game does shine. But I get so many hints of, oh, man, a garden's of the Galaxy 2 game is going to be off the chain in the way that this game sets up so much of the formula. Because, you know, I think the naughty dog banter back and forth stuff is surprisingly,

a lot in this game, like to your point, Tim, where, you know, there's a lot of combat, but the whole game is in combat. A lot of the game is, you know, walking around through environments and walking through a city and taking things in and having the back and forth between all the different characters. And you're getting that similar Nottie Dog thing of, in Nottie Dogg, it's Joel and Ellie or it's Nate and Sully. And you're having that, that banter as you go. In this game, it is you and the Guardians. And sometimes it's you and two other guardians, sometimes you and one other characters. Sometimes it's all the guardians. And because of how many characters they have at any given moment, you are getting so many different combinations of banter

and conversations. And because it's guardians, a lot of those conversations do play off of the the exaggerated personalities of these characters. Like the drags is the drags you know from the MCU where he doesn't understand like sarcasm. He doesn't, he doesn't get idioms. He doesn't understand those things. And that lends to really funny moments. Rocket is the same Rocky, you know, who's brash, right? Camora, it's a bit of a different Gamora, but also similar as well. Like, she is the one who is competent

and is good at combat and as good at what she does. The, that combination of characters, I think, works so well for that Noddy Dog style of, hey, let's just have a lot of story and character development through, just walking through missions and having these characters play off of each other.

And, you know, that mixed with the, all right, let's go from planet to planet, uh, mass effect style. I think is done very well. It's not totally mass effect in the way that in mass effect, you can choose where you're going, but it is math effect in the way that every planet does have a different feel and vibe.

And then you come back to the Milano and you get to talk to the characters. And again, never as in depth as Mass Effect. But I think takes the parts that work about that and then the parts that work about Night Dog and the part that work about gardens of the galaxy, it mixes those in in a way where, you know, for a for a first video game, for a entry number one in this series, I'm very excited to see where they take entries two and three because I think from here, sky's limit. And so, yeah, jumping off of that, right? Like, I agree with a lot of what you guys just said,

except for I bring it to that 70% mark, right? Like, I applaud this game for switching it up. Like, I think you keep bringing up uncharted. I would bring it back more towards this weird hybrid of Mass Effect and Uncharted. Because Mass Effect is the one that lets you breathe and lets you talk unless you do this. And this game does that and then also has the weird sequences you didn't see coming from and uncharted. And so, like, the amount of times you're, I start a level thinking,

it's just going to be fighting it's not right you're handcuffed you have to talk to some people and you walk around that way or yeah you get to the city you walk around i was like man this is cool and i like i like i like what they're doing for me especially in the city section right of all right cool this is awesome let's just explore this city and you walk around and have these inane conversations with people that aren't advancing the plot and aren't real conversations it's not like i'm doing a fallout style thing it's not like i'm doing a mass effect thing i hit triangle over them they talk in alien nation about their little thing or alien dialect about their booth or whatever and then i move on occasionally one or two will say something that's just like, oh, you know, we're very interested in what the church is doing. Of course, you've seen the church guys and heard about them before that they're the bad guys in this game or the people moving things forward. And so it becomes like, oh, this is just a dead city. It looks like there's stuff happening here, but there's really not. There's one booth to really interact with to buy things and do. There's like one game you pull. And it's like, oh, man, it's close to a jackpot.

I was like, I'm going to do this much times. I did it one time. I was like, oh, all right, cool. That's it. And then move on. I'm doing all that. And then on top of that, this city that I don't feel is alive at all. that I just feel like is animatronic robot NPCs

they're doing their things going through like I'm at a theme park. Then it would be the thing of how this game is, again, I'm a person who loves video games. Don't hear you wrong. But this game has this cool idea that I don't think it fleshes out. And then on top of that,

just drops this video game idea of, also there's components to collect. And also there's these balls to collect and there's little costume boxes to collect. There's no rhyme or reason for why they're out in the middle of a thing. You walk over, you do this lame animation of scooping them up,

and they just disappear. And I'm not saying, like, this is obviously nitpicking, but what I'm trying to paint a picture of is that I just think this game is at 70% of everything it's trying to do. It just breaks the fact that some cutscenes are fucking gorgeous.

Like the cutscene this game opens with. When that started, I sat up in my chair and are not even cutscene, I guess, because it's playable, I should say. I hated the beginning so much. I was like so concerned about the rest of the game based on the writing of the beginning.

It doesn't look great. And sure, that shit. Yeah, yeah. But the way it looked, I was like, oh my God, this looks great. and you have those cutscenes sprinkled without and then you have some of just the worst stuff

I've seen in a game in years. And like Mike, you're the only person who's been there and I'm not going to spoil anything ladies and gentlemen. But when you get to the part of the game where Star Wars, they're basically like, you remember any of them, well, yeah, any of them, right? But Guardians of the Galaxy, right, when they walk down to Cherry Bomb and they're all in their new outfits

and they pulled on their crash and stuff like that. Like there's a moment of that in this game where Star Wars like, right now we have to strut kind of thing. And it goes on. And I was like, Like, motherfucker, this is Toby McGuire Spider-Man 3 bad. Who the fuck saw this and thought this is what you should put in this video game? It's so bad.

I clipped it. Like I made sure I played through the entire thing, clipped it. I'm like, I'm going to put it up and say, spoiler's out the ass. This is what, to me, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is. Because it is so awkward. It is like, and this is, again, the exact example of what I'm talking about right now with facial animations. You are walking down doing this thing with the guardians, you know, to your left and right. and they are doing the worst can like

and their faces aren't animated and then it ends and you get into a cutscene and it looks gorgeous again and there's animation on everybody's face and like why the fuck would you do this? And again it takes this game that is galaxy wide right? Like you know obviously they're the guardians of the galaxy. It's this huge story you go everywhere with it.

And this strut thing they make seem so fucking small. It seems smaller than some of the things you would do in Mass Effect 1 where I'm like, what the fuck? And again, am I nitpicking this one? scene, yes, but this is my problem, is that for all the great scenes that are in this, all the great things of Peter and Corel or whoever he's dealing with, like, there's this shit where you're like, what the fuck? The Stormriders scene? What the fuck? Like, what are we talking? Like, what? Like, how can we sit there and be like, that's, that, this gets a green light, go with it? And that's so many things

in this game, you brought up the huddle, which I talked about in the preview, I did here on gamescast, right? Where it's like, the huddle is such a cool idea. And if you miss the gamescast thing, I got, I wasn't aware of it. I did the preview. I got to do it like once or twice in the section I was. But what it is, you know, you're fighting as a team. You're building up this bar. When it fills up, you can hit your triggers, your L1, R1, set off your thing. And it's like, okay, cool, huddle up team.

And it goes first person, which is, I remember in the preview, you're like, that's a weird choice. But whatever, it kind of works because they're in front of me and it's this neat thing here. It is, Barrett's got it. The team rocks up. They start talking. And based on what they say, you have to pick a response from A or B to then inspire them to go out and fight better when they'll have, you know, more uses of their super moves. or you, you know, you fork it up and nothing happens. And so, the video version, the video version does actually have the huddle,

huddle itself. But between, like, it cut out out of this preview, which maybe Mike's, make sense of why they cut it out, maybe. And so, but it's not, well, again, in the preview, if you remember, I was like, wow, I didn't expect that. And it was kind of neat. Like, that's, that was an interesting choice. The ninth time you do the huddle, and it's like, in the background, it says fun.

And then it's like, drags is like, but I'm scared. And the two choices pop up. And it's like, don't be scared. or your mom's cool. Like, why am I fucking doing this? This is a 70% idea. Why didn't you just write 14 different speeches from Star Lord that when I hit it, he rouses the troops and go.

And don't even get me started on the fact that goes first person because it goes first person to a bunch of other weird ways in the game. Like, why are you doing this? And I know why because it's hard to animate somebody lying out of fucking bed. But that's cool, though. I like that. I like the huddle is a separate conversation. But there's moments of the game that goes first person.

I appreciate it because that's them realizing this doesn't work in third person. And other games have done it in third person, and then it doesn't work. This allows them to be a lot more intimate and have moments where Star Lord is able to look around to different characters and interact with them and interact with the world that they're in in a way that just breaks up the same monotony of doing the same thing over and over and over that so many third person games kind of fall into. I do agree that the huddle, it's like it's such a cool idea and what it results in is fucking awesome. And whether it's the first time or the hundredth time, what it results in of the music kicking in and you guys all kicking ass as a team and getting the power boost is great, super rewarding. but the actual gameplay mechanic, if you even want to call it it of the huddle that Greg was just talking about of,

it is so simple that there's no way you'll get it wrong unless you're trying to actively get it wrong. And even if you get it wrong, it's not really going to punish you that much. It's just kind of like, it's a waste of 20 seconds in a battle every single time. It's, the huddle for me is indicative of how I feel about the game overall

where that is one of the elements where I'm like, this is good, this is very good, it's not amazing. And yeah, I'm with Greg that by the ninth time I was doing it, I was like, I wish they would, I wish they didn't move forward with this mechanic. Because it's that thing where it's almost like the, and this is a very me reference, it's in Sonic Heroes where you do the team blast move. And, you know, that is a quick animation and boom, you get the effect of it. This feels like it's wasting your time when you're actually in the huddle itself. And you activate it, boom, you're talking to the characters.

You do the decision. Boom, okay, cool. You get the combat buff. And that, it's a strong waste of 30 seconds. single time you do it because the actual mechanic of it by itself you it is it is that repetitive thing of i've seen these options before right i'm clear i've like if i'm paying attention you know exactly what the option is and you could have just removed this and i've had my game and this might be a review period thing there might be a patch that fixes this i swear a third of the time i actually do the

huddles my game has some kind of issue where they get into the huddle formation and it doesn't go forward or they get to the huddle formation in my game crashes i had so many bugs blessing and i didn't I have a huddle bug. I had tons of other bugs. The one other thing I want to say for the huddle is the mapping of the huddle for on the controls is terrible because one of your buttons in the game, or I guess two of your buttons are shoot buttons, R2 and R1, and they're different types of weapons that are using for those two.

L1 is the button they use to bring up the menu of commanding your different characters. When you press L1 and R1 at the same time, that is what activates your huddle. And there are plenty of times during combat where you might want to use those two buttons at the same time and not use the huddle. And so I hated that too, and it doesn't seem like you can remap it, because I tried to see if I could remap it and I could not. Well, I mean, there's already so much going on. I think that, you know, we're doing that thing we do, which is understandable. You're here watching the Gamescast, kind of funny review. I'm sure you've read or seen some other stuff. We ever really talked about what the gameplay is of Guardians of the Galaxy right of being Peter Quill, you have your pistols.

You have some of your own special moves, but then, yeah, you get to command the team. So they're out fighting and doing basic stuff. You can, of course, yes, hold L1, then choose the character you want, and then choose from their radials. You expand them out and level them up. one of their four moves you want them to execute. So yeah, there's a lot going on to the combat in general of trying to figure out what's going on.

And there was plenty of times. Yeah, I was in the middle of, all right, cool, I want to do this. And then I'd go up to shoot somebody with the, you know, the heat version of Peter's gun. And nope, now I've set off the huddle. I'm like, all right, cool,

we're using the huddle on this basic ass worm. I'm fighting for no reason. Yeah, talking about the huddles and stuff for a second. I only had two issues so far with tech problems. One was there was a T-posing guy for a second. And that was it. I was like, whatever,

it's just kind of funny looking. But there was one time in a huddle that it was clearly still loading and going. And it ended up lasting for about a minute and a half. But I didn't want to give up because I was like, I am so far from the last checkpoint. And I'm happy I stuck through because eventually it did load it. I was like, this is my own personal hell.

But those are the only two issues I've had because tech wise, I've been very impressed with the game. I'm like compared to Jedi Fallen Order going back to that, like that had so many issues. And with this, I was like, oh yeah, for the amount of things going on and for how varied so many of the locations are

and how much like, clear loading is going on between areas and how quick that all happens though i've been very impressed technically yeah and to jump in and i want to give mike a chance to talk because i feel like we've been we've been going at it but uh for tim for you waiting the minute and a half for that thing to go i'm pretty sure we had the exact same thing and after about 45 seconds i just decided my game was frozen which you know like i for me i was fine reloading it because i wasn't that far into that thing but i think we had that same thing there and then to bring up combat because we brought it up momentarily the combat is another thing where i'm like oh this is good

but man, I wish this is more developed and way more polished because there is a, I think there's a lack of feedback in the combat that is disappointing because they, they do the thing again where they throw so many ingredients into the pot and none of the ingredients really make it all the way through in terms of, oh, this feels great. The actual gunplay in the combat, I don't, I wouldn't say feels great in the way that you're getting the feedback that you want. It feels very bullet spongy in the enemies. And then they do the creative thing where, uh, each,

of the other guardians, right, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Groot are effectively different abilities that you can throw out and they're all on cool down. But I never, or at least so far in the game, and I'm about two-thirds through, I've not felt the need to be very strategic with the way I throw them out. I feel like as soon as I get to battle, I pretty much spam all four of them. And then as soon as the cool downs go, I spam them all again. And I've not had the idea to, okay, no, I'm going to use this specific ability for Gamora because each of the characters do have different abilities. I'm going to use Gamora's area of effectability. I'm going to use Drax's singular enemy ability.

I'm going to use Rockets' big area of effectability. I'm not having that level of interaction. I'm very much going in there and basically button mashing, right? Like, not button mashing isn't, I'm just pressing buttons, but button mashing in the sense of I'm doing combat to get it over with as opposed to having fun and being creative and doing these things that you want combat to feel like. I'm right there with you, Bless. And what I found interesting was, you know,

as you get going, every character on your team has their one ability. Then as you go and level up, you're earning these ability points that you can then buy new abilities for the rest of the team for. The problem I ran into is that you eventually unlock their final ability and it's like a super move and it's done via story and like, you know, becoming friends and like becoming the guardians of the galaxy kind of thing. Not including that, I really never used any other stuff I unlocked. Because it became the fact that like, all right, cool.

Rocket throws this grenade or does this grenade that'll take everybody out. it. Dax drops on this person. Gamora drops on this person. I'm shooting and eventually when I unlocked Peter's stuff, which is assigned to the L3 button because there's so many fucking things going on in this game. I was like, all right, cool, he's going to do the area effect too. And it was just like, this is the team, this is what it is. This is how I'm using

these players. So even as I unlocked other stuff, it wasn't like, okay, eventually, you know, Grootz starts with being able to hold people in place with his roots. Eventually, one of the ones I got shouts out. I was like, oh, well, that's effective for an offensive maneuver more than trying to stop somebody. But yeah, that's the thing about what combat becomes like the 70% thing I keep going back to is like combat's fun enough sure but it's not like

something I was like oh I'm excited for this and especially in those end chapters when it does become like not we've been talking about uncharted we've been talking about Spider-Man we've been talking about mass effect especially when it becomes uncharted one of guess what it's another room full of pirates oh you killed them cool go around here two seconds another room full of I'm like oh motherfucker can I get to where I'm going can I get to the guy I know I'm going to go fight stop doing this part of it stop giving me monster claws it's to clear to get to the next thing because your combat just isn't that great.

And again, the 70% thing, right? You wear down these enemies and you'll eventually see, for PlayStation players, right? Triangle Circle appear over their head, right? So that you can go in there and do, it's the final enemy. Your team is going to do this one super cinematic thing,

destroy them, and you'll feel great about it. It looks so bad. Like you hit triangle and circle and it's, you know, Peter punching with the gun, rocket throwing a little grenade. And it's like, it's supposed to be epic and cool, but it's done and shot in this way

that like this is not this is doing the opposite. I would rather just seeing them do their moves and kill this guy rather than go through and do this because this just doesn't look fun. I kind of like that stuff. The combat reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy 13 where to agree with you, it's a very cool battle system that just is never, you're never pushed to actually use it to its full intent. So it's like when it comes to your teams kind of moves,

it is kind of button mashy where like I found myself more often than not just like, well, Groot's the square. So square square. Rockets the X, X, X, X, like, it's just like, it is like, less was saying of, like, let's just get it out. But I do think that Peter Quill is fun to control. I really like the way that the, his blasters have the overheating function.

We have to hit R2 at the right time with the little green bar and stuff. Like, it feels really engaging to me. And I, it makes you feel badass. And that's something I always like when I'm playing games that are, you know, combat focus like this. And to me, it was really rewarding switching between the different elemental guns that Star Lord has and keeping track of that, that recharge as you go through.

But yeah, the Guardian stuff does kind of just feel like you're just using extra attacks as your gauge kind of lifts up. And that's something that Final Fantasy 7 remake really took the idea of the staggering and all that stuff from Final Fantasy 13 and perfected it.

And this has the staggered mechanics as well, but it just doesn't feel perfected. And I feel a lot of that is you're kind of just waiting with the Guardians to get that shit up so that Peter can just do what he fucking wants to do. Mike, sorry, I cut you off there. No, don't worry about it. It's interesting listening to all of you.

I know you guys have been in the zone here. You've brought up the three out of the four things that I didn't like, which is the huddle up system. That was the one thing I love feeling like I'm Ted Lassow and Star Lord commanding the team, but then quickly falling out on the ninth time, like you said. I actually really enjoyed the combat. I think once I took myself out of the, I have to be the solo guy doing all the damage and everything, and I actually put myself more into the commander role and worked on playing off of each every one of those characters' abilities

and took the time to see the environmental effects as well, right? Because Rocket can set off and detonate mines on the map. You got Gimora can cut things down off of the ceiling. Like I liked taking myself out of that, and instead of being like, I got to do all the damage, being more of the commander. And I think that was really,

really well done once you start to play into those moves. But I agree, right? 80% of the time, I was just smashing it just like Blessing was doing and kind of lost there. But once I took myself out, it was a lot more fun. you brought up the bridge and that is something Greg that I think would leave a bad taste in your mouth

that that was the very end because that was just awkward is right and then one for me the final one that I would say that I didn't love about this game is the sliding mechanic for some reason uncharted for a thief's end brought in the idea of sliding down the side of a mountain and now every single game has to do it and let me tell you the first two three three moments it's very cool right it's fun it's exciting it's different and then on the ninth time it's like you know what we could figured out something different because there's a lot of sliding in this i like the gimmicks of the milano i actually really enjoyed the ship there gregg i think it broke up the monotony of all the combat and walking there's only about four opportunities to do that so it wasn't that bad for me thought it was

fun and exciting there's a couple of puzzle solving moments that are short-lived i think it really ties into hey here's the different elemental opportunities with the guns let's teach you how to do it but like there's one where you solve some puzzles with breakers that was like one opportunity and you never did it again, which was interesting. But every single one of them has different puzzle building mechanics into it that I liked. It broke up the, hey, we're just walking from point A to next fight, to the next fight, to the next fight. And I actually loved the searching around the different areas. You brought up, Greg, how you just, these things are lying on the ground, pointless and it's no fun.

I loved finding the outfits because there's some rocking outfits there. No, no, no. Oh, well, I'll step right. Greg Miller collectathon trophy hunter. I dug it. No, no, no, I liked it. And honestly, it's one of those, it's the push and pull of these kind of games, too, where we're talking about how much the great the banter was, right?

And how much you do enjoy the banter at my moment. But also, when you turn on your visor view to go see stuff and scan stuff, it kind of gives a weird sound effect to their voices. So I would find myself going into it and kind of losing what they're saying, coming out of it, trying to find. But no, I enjoy it exploring. I think they do a good job of hiding this stuff. And I'm talking about the costumes in particular, the components that you use to,

again, this is, a different system altogether. You collect these components that you can come back then to give a rocket at the workbench to improve Peter's equipment. And again, this is another one where I feel like

I've got the first three things I wanted off the list. And then I was just like, I don't care about any of these things. So I was like, all right, cool, just buy them to buy them. And then it doesn't mean pop a trophy.

I was like, motherfucker. But yeah, I went to a ball and it was just like, this isn't, this isn't, it's back to 70%.

I'm like, This isn't exciting. Like, I wish this was cooler. I wish I was like, oh, man, I'm saving up to get X, Y, and Z. Mike, you bringing up the Milano brings up one of the things I like the most about this game.

One of the things I think this game does extremely well is the style and the energy of it. Because in the Milano, you can walk around. There are, like, I guess I don't want to say that. There are things in the Milano they can hang out with. They're like, you know, like there's the way that they set dress the Milano, I think, is done very well and feels very guardians. And my favorite thing in it is they have a radio you can go to and turn on. and there is a song list that you can go through

and play different 80s tracks. And the soundtrack to this game, I think it's fantastic. Like, it is my favorite thing when you actually do do the huddle and you get out of the huddle and a song is playing and that song is never going to give you up by Rick Astley.

Like, I think that is the most hype shit. I think that for me is one of the things that this game does that feels actually special to this game. And I like that a lot. Yeah, the first boss fight I encountered, right as the boss fight was kicking in, gotten to the huddle, and final countdown started playing.

And I was just like, I had to pause the game for a second just be like, they did it. Like this is anything I could ask for for a Guardians game. And it reminded me a lot of many moments in Insomniac Spider-Man

where I'm like, holy shit, they did it. This is what Spider-Man should be. Yeah, that was really good. I also loved the Marvel music that you could hear in the background. There's a lot of big, like, key story moments where they put in the Guardians of the Galaxy theme

and it was really, really impactful. and well done. So yeah, I think the music is 10 out of 10 blessing. There's some great rock band songs and then some great just Marvel soundtrack moments

that really hit well. And speaking to the score, the score is fantastic and it is not the MCU score. It is a unique score to Guardians. This is a new Guardians theme and I can't believe how into it I am. I thought that they really nailed it.

The audio design of this game is fantastic. Like I think that audio design in general with these AAA games has just really stepped up this generation with the 3D audio and all that stuff. But I was constantly like, like blown away by the level of detail. And we're talking about the planet where you're kind of walking around the city, like talking

to people and stuff. Like you'll walk into or by a club that's happening. And like there's a lot of games that have had this where it's like cool. There's club music playing on the inside. Whether you're outside or inside, it sounds different. This was the most authentic I've ever heard it where I was like there is so much loving care being put into making this actually feel like a living, breathing world that I'm in that I am very, very impressed with them technically.

Speaking of the world, too, I think this game does. a good job of establishing the Marvel cosmic universe. That's something that I feel like is that side of Marvel has been new to me for the last decade, right? I think the Gardens of the Galaxy movie is what really introduced me as a Marvel viewer to that side of the Marvel universe. And I think this game being the thing to usher that into more of the video game side of things, I think it does it in a very interesting and very, in a very interesting way and in a way

that makes the cosmic side of Marvel feel very big, right? Because you are doing the mass-fetched thing where you're traveling from planet and a lot of these planets we've heard of, either through comics or even through the MCU, right, when we think of places like nowhere or when we think of various other locations. The game does a pretty good job of allowing you to visit these different locations and they all have their own different look and feel that. The, what was that?

Colors, like this is a very colorful game. Very colorful game. And I was impressed by how good this game looks. just in terms of, in terms of the environments, you know, I do you think there are some things there in terms of the animations of the characters, especially in combat or, like, very involved or busy moments of the game that could look better. But just talking about pure environment, I think the game does look very stunning and has a really good visual identity

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There's a minimum $5 deposit required, eligibility restrictions apply, but you can see DraftKings.com for all of those details. Now that we're back, going back to the cosmic stuff and the characters, I think that's probably one of the biggest successes of the game for me is it got me really interested

in NovaCore and a lot of the more cosmic elements that are going to be in the, the MCU imminently at some point, but even just like other characters that like I've heard of or I've read in comics for years and like the way that they kind of develop characters and use characters is probably the better way for me to put it in the story. I'm very impressed by it. This is a good story. This is a good guardian story. It's one of the better guardian stories. And I think that the way that they kind of introduce characters, have the characters that are introduced come back throughout the story as well as some characters that are just there for a moment

and you don't see them again. There's a good balance of all of that. And it can be overwhelming when, you know, we know, we know Spider-Man characters. So when we're playing Insomniac Spider-Man and we hear a certain character's name, we're like, well, we know their alter ego. We know where this goes. Like, you might subvert our expectations, but like, we understand. We've seen this before. Whereas with this, there's a lot of characters like, I don't know you.

So you're going to have to kind of introduce yourself to me and like, am I going to care? And I think that for the most part, like, this game makes me care. That's not 10 out of 10. It's not always. But that's never going to be the case with a game that's this ambitious in terms of scope of amount of characters and amount of locations. And I love how Star Wars it feels. Like James Gunn changed the game, changed what space meant to people with Guardians

the Galaxy. He made it colorful. He made it look like this games cast kind of vast nebula type of more fun shit. Whereas like Star Wars has been a bit more like grounded, dirty, tattooini type stuff. But there is that seedy underground. This game kind of takes elements of both and puts them together in a way that I'm really, really fascinated by. And I think services the plot very well.

and the character development between the guardians, the other just like friends you have, and the antagonists of the game. Yeah, you nail it, Tim. I think that's another one of the successes of the games. And I think it's obviously something you don't know until you've gone deeper into the game. But the way everybody who's been introduced early on or whatever

will play into the story later on or come back or how they'll use certain people. Like, I was really impressed with that because I thought that was really cool. And so it was by the end when you get the catching up with this or doing that kind of thing or whatever's going on. one I think so I'm trying to be very nebulous. I like that and I thought that was a cool way of doing it and it did make me pop like you're

saying for characters I've never heard of before but like I saw you in the beginning of the game and I thought you were cool and then later on to the middle middle of the game you show up and do something like oh that was red and you get an attachment to it and again to double way back to where we're talking about the milano not the milano fighting when you were piloting it but being on the milano as blessing was talking about with set dressing yes I think they do a great job of making the milano cool making it lived in and then giving you a space to have really fun conversations with. The problem is I think they shoot the conversations like shit.

It's another one where it is just your character standing there talking to somebody and then they change the camera angle to the other person, character sitting there talking. You're looking at a cutscene right now, which looks great. But when you actually get into the moment, walk up, hit triangle and talk to drags, I felt like, man, this is just giving me a chance to stare at good looking models that aren't animating the same way they animate in this cutscene. They don't animate in a way that make me feel wrapped up in this story.

They call out again, like the components, right, that I'm interviewing. video game. Yeah, it definitely is a video game. It's a very cinematic video game, though. And that, that to me is kind of like the cinematic elements are the reward for playing the video game. See, I think it's a game that tries to be cinematic and just doesn't get there.

I think it gets 70% of it. Because, again, those big blockbuster moments, because it does scale. It scales, man. And you're running up the side of something and it's exploding. And oh, my God, this is fucking awesome.

But then for some reason they put a jump in the middle of it. You've got to go back to before that even started. Like, oh, fuck this. I think it's, I could not to scry more, man. I think it's the compromise by the different things that it tries to do and be. I think it is caught between being naughty dog and also being mass effect and therefore not being able to be both because, yeah, like I think the conversations being there alone

in the Milano are a thing that is a thing enough to where I go, oh, that's novel. That's cool that they have those mass effect type of conversations. But they never go as far as to be that level of involved or even have like the camera angle or you never feel like you are in deep relationship with this character in the way that mass fed goes that extra level to be right and to the uncharted stuff right like you never feels full oh i am in the set piece oh i am in oh man i'm climbing this structure and everything's breaking breaking uh below me right like i don't think it it goes full anything which leaves it being i think uh uh like it leaves it being just under the bar in terms of all those things which is

where i think gregg kind of lands but it's still a thing that's the thing that that for me when I come into it, I'm, I'm blown away that the, that they're able to jug all this stuff, period. See, I'm not saying cinematic in terms of the uncharted set pieces of everything's falling around. No, no, no, no, no, no. It doesn't have that. And I think that that is in service of this game.

And I think in service of it feeling cinematic, I'm talking about the fact that the music in this game is pervasive. There is always some score or licensed music to kind of back up what's happening in the characters and you're rewarded with cinematics that are progressing a story that I'm actually invested in with characters. I actually want to see what happens to them. And I think the gameplay stuff. is paced well that it feels like you're watching a movie.

It feels like you're watching a long movie or even a TV show. I think TV show might even be the better way to kind of talk about this. They do really well with chapters. Yeah, exactly. And it's like every single chapter feels like there's not. So far at least there hasn't been like a filler where I'm like, I want this to be over. I'm always like I'm invested in the story they're telling me here. And I want to see what they're about to do next.

And like with that, that's where I'm seeing the cinematic elements come into play. Like I feel like Uncharted kind of made us all think that to be cinematic in a game, it has to have this like these crazy set pieces. This game doesn't have those set pieces. And I think that set pieces oftentimes don't work well. And even in Spider-Man, I don't think that those moments were the shining elements of that game. It was more like just swinging around in Spider-Man felt cinematic

because that is kind of what we expect and want from a Spider-Man experience. With this, the cinematic elements come between the banter between the characters. And I think that the writing backs that up. So it's like even when you are just walking down a hallway, it can feel cinematic. And I think it is. cinematic coming off of what we're talking about here. I'm talking about camera angles.

I'm talking about making it not feel stiff and making it feel real, whereas this often feels like character models drop talking to each other. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Mike, are you planning on whatever the hell of Xbox calls platinum ink? No, I won't go out and get the 1,000 gamers score for this. I went pretty hard on searching all of the different areas

and had a fun time finding the outfits. I'm actually more excited now to jump into New Game Plus and deck myself out in all these outrageous outfits. I really did not step into the wild side as much as I wanted to because I really liked seeing the cinematics. I like seeing my characters in the outfits that they really worked hard on. But, man, I can't wait to dress myself up in a number of these outfits. I don't want to spoil anything, but like there's a couple where Pito Quill looks incredible.

Gomorra, it's tough to try to get her out of that white and black outfit, but there's a dope one, right? and like Groot, I put him in that 2014 Guardians of the Galaxy outfit and nothing made my heart feel more warm than that. Like that was a homecoming for sure. So yeah, I won't go back and try to 100% it, but I loved every moment.

Actually, what I want to do, going to New Game Plus and replay those moments of decision making because I was really impressed with a lot of the moments that paid off, right? You help X character all of a sudden they're back in that kind of moment or maybe you don't and something happens. but I really loved every decision I made and I would like to try to make those opposite decisions

because that's what I did in the huddle a lot of like, oh, if this works, what happens if it doesn't work? What's the payoff? Right? I did that a lot in the huddle to see, to try to test what was happening. So I look forward to more of the decision making because I was impressed with that mechanic.

Yeah, I'm excited to watch Andy play because I want to see the different changes that could happen in the story because there's some things that I'm like, if I chose the other option, like they're either going to just negate that somehow quickly story-wise or like, I have no idea how they would have progressed that way.

Yeah, I'm in the same place, too. I'm very curious to see how people receive the decision-making stuff when the game is actually out, and especially seeing people compare it with how other players did it, because there are things that I, there are decisions that I made that felt like huge decisions that seem like they had big impacts on what happened in the next, you know, next few chapters, but I couldn't tell if that was my decision or if the opposite decision was still result in the same thing. And if it's the case that those decisions do you have big impacts, then I think that's very impressive in itself for a game that did not have to go this route. Right.

I think the game presents itself as being like a Jedi Fall in Order or like a, you know, we keep comparing it to Noddy Dog and something like that. Right. But it does have this presentation of, oh, this is a blockbuster, AAA, linear video game. And it does that except for the decision making stuff, which seem like they branch off in very interesting ways. And in the ways where you do get the notification of, you know, you didn't give this character enough time to do this. Or this character didn't like this thing. Those already in the ways that they've panned out, I think have been interesting enough to make me like the fact that they went, that they've gone this direction. But I do have the question of how big do those ripples go?

And I'm sorry, real quick, Tim, before it goes to you, I really wish they would have put it. There's a bunch of things I wish they would put in this game, right? For quality of life. And that one of them would be, yeah, the telltale. or now, I guess more nowadays, life is strange, right? Of like, you did this and X percent did this. And could give you a sense,

because I didn't get a sense that there's that many, like the decisions really affect the story that much. And I could totally be wrong about it. I, you know, we all walked into this review, not having talked to each other. So I don't know what you picked. I think, you know, the very end, like the very last thing you see in the game,

I'd like to talk somebody about because I think I got a different one based on something I did there. But like, I don't think it affects the story as much as a comical beat there. I wish that was there. It's the same thing of, you know, for the trophy, stuff. I got out, man, I only have 64% of the guardian collectibles or whatever. And it was that thing.

I went to the chapter select and there's nothing on the chapter select. It's telling me like, you got four or five here. You got three. I'm like, I guess I could wait for a trophy guide and look to you, but I'm like, I'm not going to do that. A question for you guys in terms of the character choices. Did you follow any type of moral compass to yourself? Like, did you have rules or was it kind of whatever felt best to you? Because for me, always, I'm taking Rocket side. No matter what, I'm fighting for my boy, Rocket. Right under that would be Gamora. And if those things competed, I'm siding with Rocket. I'm sorry, goodbye.

Wow. After a while, I started to side with Rocket because I made a decision earlier on that I think made Rocket just really not like me. And I felt bad about it. So I was trying to win him over. Yeah, I was trying to win him over. I was doing the Ted Lasso thing of like, I'm going to focus in on this guy. And me and you are going to be best friends by the end of this game. But like, aside from that, I would kind of go with the flow.

I think the game in the choices that it gives doesn't does a good job of not being a, it. It's not like the Witcher where it's like you either kill this village or you kill this other village, right? Usually it is, hey, like, do you think this character has a good idea or do you think this other character has a good idea? Or like, hey, do you want to encourage the team or do you want to keep it real? And I do like those choices because they do feel like leadership based choices, right? Like, what kind of leader are you? What kind of, are you the kind of person to refocus on the mission or are you the kind of person to, you know, joke around with the guys even though like their jokes might be pushing it, but you know,

you're going to joke around with them anyway. And usually what I was, would do is I would go with whatever seemed like it'd be good for morale. Like I'm, I guess I'm the kind of person I like to make other people like feel good, right? Or I like, I like to fit in. And so I was always making the choices that would make the other characters like me. Because like a lot of the time it'd be a lot of time the guardians are fractured, especially in the first half of the game. And so I was like, I was trying to be the glue, right?

I was trying to be the person to be like, oh, yeah, no, that's funny. But let's keep, let's keep moving. Let's keep it going. That was the person I was. I chose nothing but keeping the team together. I was to Ted Lassow of this group. And I loved that, right? Because we know the Guardians from the MCU,

and that's my biggest backing of it all, and it's a bunch of misfits coming together to become a family. And it feels like that throughout the story of, you know, everybody being their own, and then you get to learn. And I really enjoyed, Greg, I'd love to talk with you after this of like,

because I don't want to spoil too much, but like, I liked every single one of the character story beats that, like, it's their special story. And there was moments where I was like, man, that was really, really well done. And I'm in that. I tear it up for some of those late game, like, when you're finding out about certain things like,

that is actually powerful. And again, it does a great job of paying off where I think starting it off, I was a bit like, all right, you're, you're, you're not Batista,

but you're being so similar to Batista that it's really weird that you're not, and then by then I'm like, you know what, I got it, you're this drags. I like this drags, okay. And I liked it a lot.

And I liked seeing their growth, right? I liked seeing where the banter started and then where it ends. And I think you'll see that in all these characters, like we've talked about with their growth and how the team comes together. And so I always chose to keep the team together. But most importantly, I loved seeing the characters grow themselves, right?

I think Drax at the start to the end is a kind of different but similar character that makes some really funny jokes that I really enjoyed. And I wanted more and more of that every single time I played. There are a lot of jokes in this game and a lot of them worked on me, surprisingly. I'm very impressed by how good the humor was early on in the game. And it might, I think this might be a joke that was in one of the demos. They got to a plane and they were like, oh, this fortress is impracted. impet, no, what they say?

Imregnable. Impregnable. And then somebody else, it might have been dragsules. Like, how do we impregnate it? And that killed me. That legitimately, like, destroyed me. I mean, the thing is, I think the writing is very high quality.

And when it comes to jokes and when it comes to the James Gunn style humor, it's impossible for all of them to hit. I think even by design, they're not all going to hit. They're supposed to come off kind of cringy and corny in certain context. But, yeah, when Rocket says, they call me Rocket the ruthless, because I'm pretty sure I never had no Ruth. It's like, not just that is that funny, but like, the, the, ordering of the words feels very rocket raccoon.

It's like they did a good job writing these characters so that they all are funny, but they're not all funny in the exact same way. And I think that that is kind of the greatest success of it and why I'm so into this game is that the story and characters worked for me. And I didn't expect that to be the case. And I constantly felt rewarded getting story beats. And I am especially shocked. I alluded to this earlier.

But when I first started the game, when you, where the game opens, I was like, this is very cool as an idea, but I hate it. Like, it is not fun to walk around the kind of lore elements you're getting. It's like it's Star Lord talking to himself. And like every single thing he's saying is so cringy and so over the top corny of like, I wonder what space is like. Can't wait to see if we go to space one day. Man, that would be cool.

It's like, what the fuck is this? And I was like, oh no, this is another Avengers bad. And then like immediately after that. within 10 minutes. I was like, oh shit, here we go. And throughout the game, it made me appreciate the beginning of the game a lot more where I was like, hey, the game grew on me for sure. Like so many elements I didn't like, I was like, hey, let's get there.

They're bringing it back. And I understand why they did some of the things. Still don't love all of them. But at least I have a reason for it. I love that beginning. I think I texted. I think it was you, why message is where I was like, I'm two minutes in and I'm totally in on this game.

Because that beginning reminded me a lot of like a life estranged or like almost like a last of less narrative moment of now you're walking around in this environment and you're basically picking up items doing these things and I love that I love when games don't fuel the need to to to you know be big and have action off the get-go for them just to start in that way I thought was a little risky but overall like super thoughtful in terms of trying to establish what the what this character is going to be and what this world is going to be any closing thoughts on guardians of the galaxy I think we were going to be pretty happy with this game I I'm I'm excited to see what the overall reception of it is.

I know we often do the metacritic predictions for what that is, and I can see this game getting a lot of eights. I think that's probably where this game is going to land. I'm sure it's going to get a couple of nines as well, and I'm sure it's going to get sevens as well. But I think for what the anticipation is in looking around and seeing that it doesn't seem like my timeline is super hype when I go on Twitter. It doesn't seem like there are many people that are over-the-top jazz excited about

this game. I think those people are going to be pleasantly surprised with what they get. The people who are, you know, over the top, excited jazz about this game, you know, maybe they'll be satisfied too, but I think regardless, this is a good, a very good first entry that is, I think, going to be the birth of a very good video game series. Yeah, I'm with that with blessing like that. I actually hope they do another one. That was something I questioned towards the end of the game of like, would they dare go back to

this and how could they improve upon that and address. some of the things that Greg brought up. Greg, I think you had some really good stuff there. And to see what they would do in the second one would be really exciting to me. But I will continue to stand firm of like, this was one of the best gaming experiences of 2021, in my opinion for me. I loved every moment of it. I think it has an awesome story and really nailed Guardians of the Galaxy in that Marvel universe out in the galaxy. And I loved every moment of it. Once you start to really become the commander in the combat, I think combat gets better for you. I think at the beginning, like these guys have said, it is going to be kind of like,

oh, this sucks and repetitive. But I was blown away by this game. I really am pleased with it. And it's something I'll remember for a long time. It was a great game. Yeah, I think go for great. I'm so fascinated to see reviews tomorrow. Or you see this because I would have come in here thinking I would have thought we were all on the same page that it's like, it's a fine game. It's, it is what it is. Right. So I'm fascinated to see what it's going to be because like, you know, you're talking why it's on you'll never forget it or whatever i'm like like i have it up over here just because i was like to have the game in case i have a question or whatever but i'm going to delete it from my ps5 and never think about it again and i think when we talk about

marvel games and superhero games like i yeah marbles or guardians the galaxy like that was that i just don't think as i'm granted at this close juncture being done with it that i would look back and point to it as like this is what it nailed this is what this game was about this is why this game stands out to me yes he jumping out that to me this game nailed Guardians of the Galaxy. And I just can't really imagine a Guardians of the Galaxy game being much better than this. There are things you can tighten up here and there, but it's like, I think that a lot of my praise comes from surprise of expecting nothing and actually getting something that is really damn good in terms of what I would want from this, which is a quality, high

production value, AAA experience, linear story-based game that delivers on story and characters. And from those elements, it did all that stuff. So I would give it probably like, a nine because it did those things for me Metacritic I expect I think this game deserves an eight I think it deserves an eight I don't I think I can see a lot of people giving it seven fives I can see a couple people given it eight fives I hope it nets out around an eight because that's that feels right to me because it is rough around the edges in some ways and I there's a lot of complaints that Greg had that are totally totally valid I just think they're outweighed by what the

game did do well and I think that this story stands as one of the better superhero story games and game one of the better stories and games period i'm gonna say mike you had a hand raised yeah i can't wait until we're a couple weeks out of this and we can actually talk spoilers about this because i'm what i'm most excited for is the what the f moments that people are going to talk about and you two are getting close over there and i'm sure you've seen some but like i can't wait to see the whole audience blow up over some of these moments because there's some wacky ones that i really enjoyed oh yeah i'm excited once we're done with this i'm to keep playing.

Same. Gotta wrap it up here, except for the Patreon exclusive post show. If you want to stay and hang out, you can go to patreon.com slash kind of funny games where we're going to have a brief conversation

with Greg about what playing games as a dad is like this whole new life. Crazy stuff. Thank you guys for hanging out. Let us know in the comments below what you are expecting out of Guardians of the Galaxy if you are planning to play it.

And if this review swayed you one way or another, I love you all. Appreciate you all. Until next time, goodbye.