Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Hot Take: Insomniac Should Stop Making Spider-Man - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

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What is up, everybody, and welcome back to Kind of Funny Gamescast for August 15th, 2025. I'm Roger Percorny, and today I'm joined by Blessing at E.Oye Jr. Roger, I'm excited for this one. Yeah, man, this is a fun one because you and I were tasked with doing a little games cast, which is you and me, and we're like, what do we do? Maybe a shit list. I don't know. We've done that a bunch of this way. What are we going to do? And I was like, well, we got to look to the audience. You little freaks out there. We got to ask you what your hot takes are.

because I see you guys in the chat every day. You guys are just getting all these hot takes off. And we want to give you a platform to finally say the things that you hold deep down to us and we will judge it and we'll let you know if we like it or if we hate it. I love this because usually they're the ones judging our hot takes. Yes, exactly.

Now, you get to be in the hot seat because what we do, you say, oh, it's so easy, oh, it's so easy to have all these beautiful takes. I have all these opinions all the time. Well, now we're actually going to see how your opinions stand between us. us. I'm excited because you, you're the one who, you're the one who went and, like, fielded the audience write-ins or call-ins that they've done. I've not heard anything. Yeah. And so

these are hidden me fresh. Yeah, and I've heard a lot of them. Some of them, some of them, not as good, not good, but a lot of them, a lot of them, really good. We're going to see some ones here. Oh, you know, honestly, next time, just a little constructive criticism for y'all out there. Yeah. Get hotter. Oh. Go crazier. Like, some of these are, good topics, and they're fun topics, and there's some good ones where I'm like, oh, okay, that's like, I haven't heard that one before. But I want you to go crazier. I want you to go crazier.

I want you to kind of get a, not like, not like horribly unhinged, but a little unhinged. Are you saying that our audience has good opinions? I think so. Like, are a lot of them, like, well, like, informed? I know, I know. Yes. Or milk toast opinions. A little bit of both.

I think they're informed because we're so smart, right? You and I specifically are so smart, so we inform them, and we kind of just kind of made their opinions better by, you know, osmosis. But I also think that we need to kind of look deeper within ourselves. and I want really specific hot takes. There's one in here that I very much like, and it is connected to you in a good way, and us in a good way.

So I'm excited for you to hear it. But of course, remember this is the Kind of Funny Gamescast where each and every weekday we get together to talk all about the biggest reviews, previews, and topics and hot takes in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon, YouTube,

Spotify, Apple Podcast, and YouTube music to get all of our shows. ad-free, watch us record them live, and get a daily exclusive show. For a chance to be a part of the show, submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube superchats as we go. If you have more hot takes that you weren't able to get out to let us know. You guys submitted a lot of hot takes, so I wasn't able to get through all of them. I'm sure if this video does well, we are going to be able to do another one. I'm sure just in general, we're going to do another one of these, so don't worry.

I'm not deleting the hot takes that you submitted. But if you have one that you really want to get off right now, send us to super chat, and we will read it. and we will rank it and we'll let you know what we think. Well, Housekeeping Monday. Kind of funny goes head-to-head with Giant Bomb in a sponsored pizza band and Let's Play Butts with a twist. We have a real chef in office helping us make pizzas as we played the game. It's absolute chaos and you need to tune in just to see Tim and Dan Reichert

attempt to make pizzas for the very first time. Spoilers, it's embarrassing. Tune in on Monday on YouTube before Kind of Funny Games Daily to watch. This is going to go up as a YouTube premiere at 9. 30 AMPT on Monday. Make sure to check it out. It will lead right into Kind of Funny Games Daily. What happened to that dough he threw on the ground?

It just was there the entire time. Don't worry about it. Yeah. Oh, you wanted it? No, I'm just making sure that it didn't get picked up and then used. Don't worry about it. No, no. Don't worry about it.

Chef Andy Luneek would never let that happen. He would never. We would. What kind of funny would? Dan Reichert would. Honestly, that's incredible dough. It's incredible dough. Because I've been trying to make pizzas at home now.

Oh, yeah. And I get the Trader Joe's pizza dough, which is pretty... Yeah, it's not the same. This dough is fucking incredible. We got it from like a local business or whatever and has like a sourdough starter in it, so it has like a little bit of it like that. Can I say something? Yeah.

I'm not... I would never claim to be like a cook or like somebody who's like... I mean, after this video comes out, I definitely would advise against claiming that. Listen. I wouldn't have claimed myself to be somebody who like would even judge somebody else's cooking ability because like I'm not that great. Yeah. when we were going into this,

and Tim was talking about how he's like, yeah, dude, I'd never made a pizza. Like, how, like, he seemed, he seemed very worried about the steps to make a pizza. Yeah. And I'm like, I don't, I feel like, out of all the things, pizza might be the easiest thing to kind of, like, break down, right? But you would, you would.

Because it's just dough, sauce, cheese, cheese, but it's also the rolling out of the dough. Like, I am, I would say I'm a pretty good cook. You would think that I'm not because of kind of munchies, but I actually have a good cook, trust me. But it is just, it's difficult to understand the dough aspect of it. And that was the big thing. The dough was fucking...

You will see on Saturday, we'll upload a clip, but it's Dan Reicher, his first time experiencing the dough. And literally what he says, he goes outside, he says, how does dough happen? And then Andy, Andy Lewis opens up the little case that has the dough, and then Dan just says, oh, whoa, this is crazy. And then he's holding in his hand, like, he's never felt it before. He's like, whoa, whoa. And he's like, how do we, he's like, you need to get some, Andy's like, you got to put some schmutz on it. You got to put some flour on it. So then, you know, most people take the flour and they put it on the table and then they put the dough out.

He takes the dough and puts it right onto the plate. He dips it into it. He dips it into the flour. Which is honestly smart. And then you have the other side of it, which I think you see in the Tim one. Or no, maybe I didn't post it yet. Whatever, I posted it internally against a little bit of spoiler. Tim, when it's like, okay, it's time to roll out the dough, right?

we all understood that you take the rolling pin and you go out and you roll it out like that. Tim just starts rolling it, like taking it with his hands and rolling it like he's like rolling a cigar or something. And it just makes this long tube. So it is just like things that we take for granted that they just are not thinking about. But I feel like I think pizza making is so it's like pop culture damn near. Like I feel like in a cartoon I've seen people whip out like the fucking roller. Yeah, yeah. Or do it with their hands or stretch it out.

But even here's the thing, people that do talk a big game, right, like Greg Miller's. Yeah. Not very good at it. He talked a huge game about it beforehand. And then he goes out there and he makes a long boy. And it's like, you didn't even try. He threw the dough. Yeah, you can see it in this clip here.

Yeah, he's like, he's doing it. He doesn't know what he's doing. It's like, what are you doing? And that's me not talking shit. Because I'm sure my stuff is going to come out too when you see the thing. So like, don't come at me. Oh, no. If you were talking a big game, I'm not claiming that my pizza was great.

either. It was more so, like, at the very least, I was like, okay, well, you know, flatten the dough, put the sauce, put the cheese, put the toppings, put in the oven, take it out the oven, boom, pizza, that's how that works. But you're going to want to check this out because Pizza Bandit sponsored us to do this Let's Play, and it's a fun time. Again, we're playing the game while people are outside

making the pizzas, and we're running in, tagging each other out. It is absolute chaos. It's a 30-minute video. It's a really good time. We can see who wins, kind of funny, or Giant Bomb. You'll never guess who wins. We're an 11-person business all about live talk show. today was Games Daily, which we talked about opening night live predictions or just thoughts or what's going to happen. And then after Gamescast is going to be Mike and Nick going back into Battlefield 6. If you're a kind of funny member, today's Gregway is going to be from you, right?

Yes, it is. I keep getting reminded every moment. Maybe a few album reviews. A little bit Dexter? I'll do some Dexter for you. Yeah, throw it in there. I think Michael C. Hall should be Batman. Interesting.

Were you the one who posted that the other day? Yeah, I did. Five likes. I mean, I'm thinking about it. I'm not mad at it. He could have. He's just a little too creepy. He kind of already plays Batman, though. Yeah. Like, the only difference between Dexter and Batman

is that Dexter kills. Randy Orton's trying to become Batman. That's bad. Randy Orton should play Dexter. Oh, okay. Old Dexter. Thank you to our Patreon. Thank you to our Patreon. I'm Twining. Today we're brought to you by

Shady Ray's and Orofranes. but we'll talk to you about that later. For now, let's start with the topic of the show. Your video game hot takes. Again, we asked y'all to send in some voicemails, and I picked the best ones, or some of the worst ones, and we're to go in, and we got some rules. You and I blessing and I,

in the interest of how all of the internet takes should be responded to, refuse to give judgments within the gray area. We will each either 100% or 100% agree or 100% disagree. No in betweens. Really? No in betweens. Okay, so you didn't consult me on this going in.

100% agree. So no gray area. We can talk through it, of course. But then we have to, at the ending, be like, we 100% agree, 100% disagree. I feel like gray area is like my thing. We can talk through the gray area. But we have to, this is a hot take episode. We have to say 100% agree, 100% disagree.

I don't know if you've ever listened to any of my opinions. I love the gray area. You can have those opinions. We should tell everybody about the opinions. But we should, at the end, say, 100% agree. No, I like this, because, like, this is a shitless situation. Yes, like, is it that shit or is the shit?

We don't want, because, like, I think it's, the episodes get boring when it's like, Andy Van Teno is like, do you agree or disagree? He's like, oh, I don't know. He never does that. He says, I agree or I disagree. Okay. So, let's start off with the title of these episodes.

Well, I'm not a centrist chat. It'll go too far with it. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. The title of this episode is. I'm far to the left. But if you go so. far. I'd love to go out. But I'm not so far.

Title of the episode is Fortnite ruined video games, question mark, exclamation points. So we're going to start off with Andy and his first voice mail. Not our Andy. Oh. A lot of Andy's. Hello, kind of funny crew. This is

Kind of Funny best friend, Andy. My hot take is probably not going to be super original, but I want to explain it a little bit what I mean. Fortnite kind of ruined the game industry and how it works both from a financial point of view as well as just kind of

a quality point of view. I'm not even saying particularly the gameplay or mechanics of it, that all works fine. But the way that game's financial success showed companies what kind of money they could be making, I think, helped bring game profits and what executives and heads of companies believe they should be making into an unrealistic set of expectations that has ruined games and companies that did not deserve it.

I think that the kind of marketing stuff with other licenses and properties was not as big before Fortnite and now has done damage in terms of both denying us great licensed games from properties that instead went, hey, let's just throw a skin in Fortnite and make so much more money, as well as steal whole ideas from other games. So we've had them do counterstrike, had them do just all these different other games that take it and redo it. I think Fortnite's the biggest enemy in gaming right now. Wow. The biggest enemy in gaming.

That should be the title, actually. It's Fortnite the biggest enemy in gaming. Fortnite enemy number one. You want to start off? I agree. 100%. I mean, I don't... You have to 100% agree or disagree.

I agree with a lot of what he said. Like, if I had to go one or the other, I'd say I'd more agree than disagree with what he's saying. As far as it being the number one enemy, I don't think so. I think the number one enemy are these corporations that make the bad decisions based off Fortnite. But it's like, if I come through and I... I make the best meal ever, and everybody is fucking like, oh, we got to use the same ingredients. Oh, we got to do all we got. Like, that's not my fault that you made a bad decision to try and chase my fucking pizza.

You know what I mean? Like, I just made a great pizza. You can find your own way to make a great pizza. That got to a weird analogy. But you always say what I'm saying. I like it. I like it. I was going to do a food analogy as well.

Yeah. But that said, I do think that there's, I think a legitimacy as far as the impact that Fortnite had. And Fortnite did reconfigure. change a lot, right? I think it introduced us in a very big way to the idea of a battle pass and that route toward monetization, which obviously has had a huge effect on the post-launch process for a lot of live service games, and that's led to a lot of failures. A lot of games tried to chase that battle pass method didn't work out. It turned battle reall into a big thing, right? And like, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. And also, like, maybe it's wrong

to say Fortnite did. Maybe PubG would be the more accurate one, right? But Fortnite was so popular that you continued seeing that shit. Um, and like, that's a trend, right? Trends come and go. Um, I don't think battle royals are, like, bad by any means, because I actually do fuck with, like, quite a few of them. But that happened. Um, as far as, like, the thievery aspect of Fortnite, that's a thing as well. He mentioned, uh, some examples, right? But, like, Fortnite has taken from a lot of games, whether it be apex, whether it be Realm Royale, whether it be Among whether, like, you go down the list or go down the biggest trends of video games in the last seven years, eight years, Fortnite's kind of taken from all of them.

Yeah, I agree more than I disagree on this one. I 100% disagree. Okay. I don't think that Fortnite is the number one enemy, and I think that we're looking at this incorrectly of, like, Fortnite is kind of like the scapegoat. I like in Fortnite to, honestly, this is, again, a weird analogy, but stick with me here, of it's like almost blaming the entirety of obesity in America to McDonald's. Of like, yeah, of course, McDonald's is extremely popular. It has probably brought billions and billions of unneeded calories into everybody, and it made it very easy.

But they're not the reason why the culmination of processed food has came into our diets, right? They are just an easy way to go about it. and the same thing with Fortnite. This has already been in the works before Fortnite. Fortnite is just the most popular version of what a free-to-play video game has become. And when it comes down to, like, the thievery aspect of it, I think the most egregious thing is, like, them trying to copy the smaller games,

right, when it comes to, like, among us or whatever. But I honestly don't feel any which way about them trying to get in the realm of a counterstrike or another big corporation that is making billions of dollars and them trying to kind of take a little bit of their market share because if anything, that makes that market a little bit more interesting. It makes CounterStrike not the only place to play these types of games. It gives a little bit of competition there, and I don't think it's, especially with the numbers and the way that it's netted out.

Fortnite is very good at making a battle royale game. They are not great at continuing or creating a brand new subsect of their business. I think the best vertical for them has been like the Lego stuff, but like that's even pretty small and comparatively to Roblox, right? Like they are not actively good at creating brand new ideas and games. They are just trying to create brand new things and try to have as many people within the Fortnite game as possible. But when you look at those numbers,

like Counterstrike still destroys, you know, Fortnite when it comes to that specific mode, right? Like, they're not good. The egregious element of it is when they steal from the smaller developers, and they bury them. But I can't really think of one big... I think for me, it's less so... Because I wasn't even thinking of the modes.

I think I was just thinking of, like, the big features within Battle Royale. Sure. Like, the revival system is from Apex. Yeah, but I mean, that's just like... Isn't that, like, you know what I mean? That's just, like, you know what I mean? That's just, like, you know what I mean, that's just like...

Sure. Yeah. I think so. I think it's also the thing where... Again, this is why I struggle on the 100% agree, 100% discreet. Because I also think, like, when we're saying Fortnite ruined gaming, right? Or Fortnite. I don't agree with the Fortnite's the number.

one enemy. I think Fortnite is kind of a result of just where what the trends that video games are barreling towards anyway, right? Like, it would have happened any sort of way, whether it was Fortnite or not. Yes. Yeah, like, Fortnite is kind of just a result of like where

online has gone, where trends were going. It is the result of, first of all, I mean, free to play games have existed for a long time. I mean, Battleful Heroes. I even think about the stuff that I was playing as a kid, like Wizards 101. I don't know if you remember that. Pop Tropica, Maple Story. like these free-to-play games that were kind of the people don't look at them as the pioneers

because they were for kids and they were for little children, but those were the pioneers of free-to-play and the idea of it into the consciousness. But when it comes to microtransactions, I more so blame mobile games and like kind of that rise of stuff and like how that started trickling down into the ecosystem than Fortnite of anything. I mean, Fortnite is just the juggernaut, so it's an easy target to blame. So I think that's kind of, that's where I'm at with. And I think it's what Blessing was saying of like, this was all roads were going to lead here in terms of where the industry was going to be inspired by.

Everybody's trying to, all these big corporations try to chase after the kind of Fortnite model just because that's what, you know, it worked for Fortnite. But one game would have gotten there eventually. It just happened to be Fortnite. that was the first thing to really blow up in that way, and then inspired all of, or, you know, like got all these different companies to try to trend chase in ways that were either

semi-successful, not nearly successful as Fortnite, or just completely fail, which, again, would have happened in any sort of way. So again, this is all just, you know, capitalism is the number one. You know what? I changed my answer. I disagree.

Roger, you convinced me. No, yeah, look at that. But we have another one, a little 1A right here. This is from, this is from Mike drop. Or did Fortnite save the industry? Whoa. Let's bring this one up. Here's my hot take that got downvoted into oblivion on Reddit.

Microtransactions saved video games. The only reason video games are being made today is because of micro transactions. If they didn't exist, we'd get maybe one or two, if any, video games a year. I think they would be small experiences like mobile. if microtransactions didn't exist. But yeah, that's just my take. Don't hate me. It is what it is.

It is what it is. Hey, listen, it is what it is. Listen, Mike Drop put this on Reddit, got downblown, voted into oblivion. Into oblivion. Into oblivion. Remastered. Remade.

Force armor. What do you think about that? Is microtransactions saving the games in destruction? Here's the thing. 100% agree, 100% disagree. Let me live in the gray area. I'll start in the gray area and then I'll say why I disagree. I think my contractions are probably like the main reason why we didn't see video game prices go up until very recently.

Right? Like I think that kind of helped us stabilize at $60 for a very long time there. And I think there is something to be said about like how that's allowed things to continue flowing, I think to the extent it has. That said, I don't think without micro-transactions that we would have only been getting a couple of games a year. I don't see the correlation there.

Did it save the industry? No, I think games would have just gotten more expensive and, like, we would have just balanced that out. Yeah, I 100% disagree with this take because I'm so interested in the alternate universe of what the world would look like if we didn't have microtransactions, because video games would still exist. I think video games would be extremely

popular. But, but, but, But also, these micro-transactions weren't inevitability. We were going to get free-to-play games. We were going to have different ways to monetize this just because of mobile games. But the idea that micro-transactions save the game industry is a false one because it also hurt a lot of the games industry, specifically when it comes to a lot of original video games that are just not made nowadays. Right? Like, there are games, their subsets of the industry that existed,

that are just way harder to break into and to find success right now. and I think back to the early 360 PS3 era and I look at what we're at right now and I just think about the alternate universe of like man imagine if we did have those license games like we did back in the day or we had like these these growing subsects of games that were not

microtransaction latent but yeah I don't think it saved anything I don't think we would get I don't think we would have this massive drop in video games we would have two video games a year I think it transformed the industry I don't think it like was the maker break and, you know, the industry survival. I think it would have much different. It just changed the way that we looked at money.

It changed the way that we looked at money in the gaming industry. And back and now we have to, as soon as we figure out microversons transactions, it was how do we just milk this? How do we, this is the new, this is the new growth potential. We're just going to focus in on that and that changed the entire industry. I do wonder, you know, we were talking about that Sean Layden story yesterday, right, of the whole like, video games should have gone up every generation yeah and then him talking about like the cost of you know making like

DLC and micro transactions was essentially like next to nothing next to nothing which would help fund things in certain ways I do wonder if you know in the magical land or micro transactions like the the man who thought of them didn't think of them that one day right and they didn't exist

I do wonder if there would have been less of a belittle looting of studios and companies and industries and honestly maybe it would have been a little bit healthier in the long run in terms of like yeah maybe there would have been less like of like this crazy growth in what we've seen in like the last decade but I do wonder if uh for the longevity of what games are

if there would have been a bit more of a healthier expansion like more realistic like yeah maybe more and not exponential growth but more of like a you know steadier growth and and also an ability to focus in on the studios and make sure that they are making games. But I also think... $300 million. I think the tough thing for me is I also think

without microtransactions, a lot of, like, the multiplayer stuff that I love probably just wouldn't be able to exist in the same way. Right? Like, I think that's what allows for a lot of the genres we have from, like, the free-to-play stuff to even, like, the premium multiplayer stuff, to exist and function and be supported over the years.

Without micro-transactions, like, that stuff, you wouldn't have updates for, games three years later. Like what games? What are we talking? I'm thinking of an apex, right? I'm thinking of an Overwatch even.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they would just be yearly releases. You know what I mean? Yeah, they probably would just be yearly releases. It would be different, right? I mean, Call of Duty has microtransactions. Again, I think it would just, it would look

different. I don't think those. But I also, but I also, I think, here's my. Legal Legends would not be able to exist. Herbie says that, Goda 2. My hot take on the hot take is that I don't think it's a,

I think micro transactions are what you do with them. I don't view micro transactions as a net evil thing necessarily. I think when we take it everything, probably are a net evil thing. But I think microtransactions, depending on the game, can be utilized for the good and longevity of the title. I think Overwatch, for example, right, I don't want that as a yearly release. I think a lot of these yearly releases suck. Yeah, Madden 2K. Matt 2K, WW.

I think a lot of these things. Hey, listen, WWE is going to get it. Yeah, but I like WWE, but it shouldn't be a yearly release. No, it should be packs. I think those are cases where micro transactions should allow me to like get the new updates, get the new players, get the new whatever without having to spend $60 to $70.

See, I mean, if you think look back at it, right? I remember, see, it's like we talk shit on micro transactions, right? But then that also allows us to not have map packs like we did back in the day for Call of Duty, which sucked. Map packs were awful. It was an awful idea to split the fan bases and split the audience of, oh, I can't play with my friends now because we're about alone into a fucking map

that he doesn't have. And now that doesn't even exist, right? Like, they give you free maps throughout the year. And I'm not saying that, you know, whatever. But, like, that is an interesting side of this, where that was them trying to not do micro-transactions and to be like, oh, we're going to put out a map pack for $15. And that was worse.

That was a worse idea than them putting Beavis and Butthead. I would take an entire game lobby of Beavis and Butthead and Call of Duty rather than splitting up my friends playing Call of Duty. I think that shit sucks. Yeah. I think my biggest hot take here is the thing that, we're not talking about, and this is going to get real and, like, a little bit dark here, is that the side of micro-transactions that we should be fucking angry about,

we should actually be talking about, is gambling. And specifically when it comes to, but, like, specifically when it comes to Counter-Strike, when it comes to, we talk about EA, we talk about all those Madden, 2K or whatever, but, like, Counter-Strike, I know for a fact, and this is not a bit, like, has contributed to gambling addictions in people I know. Like, I was the first generation of people to grow up. with people opening up packs every single day in boxes and and trying to find knives and selling them online and they're 15, 14 years old, 13, 12 years old playing these games and they are absolutely addicted to online gambling now. Like, and like that is a one-to-one connection and we talk about, you know, oh, well, microgences here and there.

Like that shit, that is the evil right there. That is the stuff that I don't, we look at a valve and steam and as a company of like, oh, wow, they're so progressive and they're doing all this interesting stuff. It's like, no, they are contributing to a lot of people's gambling addictions. That's where I land. True, really deep gambling addictions. That's where I land on the net evil thing. Yeah. I think micro-transactions as far as what they've introduced, yeah, like, I think that dark, dark side of it when you bring in the counterstrikes or you bring in like some of these mobile titles and like some of the gotcha stuff and like how deep down the well that shit goes.

Yeah, like it's been a net negative as far as how that's affected people's lives and wallets. But I think even that stuff still comes down to how Valve has implemented this stuff, right? How these gotcha companies have implemented this stuff. But on the other hand, right, like I look at a Marvel Rivals, and that wouldn't exist without microtransactions. Yeah. Or it exists in a dynamically different way. I think they would get there eventually just wouldn't exist in the same way. I do think of like maybe the subscription model would be maybe a bit more prevalent in stuff that isn't just like...

World Warcraft? Yeah. Okay, and then Meldo in the chat says, without gambling, Steam wouldn't be the jerk or not it is today. I disagree completely, or at least the way that they handled it was awful, right? Because you can still have loot boxes, right?

The issue was that they were allowing people to sell them online and third-party platforms and get real money for it. And they didn't crack down on that for years. For years, and they knew about it. Like, they absolutely knew that this was happening, and this is the reason why people were buying so many boxes, right? You can have cosmetics and video games.

You could have the bea-bivis and butt. heads. You could have a fucking knife that has a weed logo on it, but like, you don't need, if you're allowing people to sell it for real money and then people get addicted on making money off of your virtual thing, you go straight to hell. Like, that is evil shit right there.

That is fully evil stuff right there. I will say, this is separate. You're still thinking about Overwatch and Marvel levels. I do not want a subscription model for those games. Like, I'm just saying, like, if we lived in alternate reality, right, where microchanges actions just blipped from existence, I think that's

how companies would eventually try to... Try to make those things happen. Yes. But I think micro-transactions, I think, are probably an easier way to make that money. Like, I don't know if the subscription model... A world in which most of these multiplayer games, instead of being free-to-play and having micro-discations, where they have subscription models, so many more of them fail.

Yeah. Because there's no way everybody sub-bting... Especially now in 2025, with everybody having fucking Paramount Plus and HBO Max and everything. It's like, we're just all split too far. Like, I'm shocked at like MMOs still get away with it. Yeah, I mean, barely now is like how many MMOs, right? Like how many MMOs that actually are successful? How deep we're going to this episode?

29 minutes. 29 minutes, perfect, everybody. Well, we'll continue with your hot takes. We've got some fun ones that are not as dark. We'll tell you about that after our sponsors. This episode's brought to you by Shady Rays. You know that moment. The one when you realized you left your favorite pair of sunglasses at the beach.

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This is for you, blessing. This is from Clawmaster. Oh, shit. I forgot that that's on me. Make up a take right now, man. Hello, Clawmaster here.

The Clawmaster. I wanted to say, hey, fighting games are not that hard to learn. There's a stigma of try and learn a fighting game, and it's always, like, a daunting outside thing

that a lot of people kind of look into, but honestly it's not that hard to learn it takes some time some efforts and with some upcoming games that are especially in the tag genre of Marvel Tollcon with the TXCO if Invincible versus their upcoming tag games are on the horizon

and I think that for anyone who wants to get into the fight of game scene or finding games in general probably the perfect time anytime honestly it's a perfect time to go ahead and join the fun But in case and point, fighting games, not that hard. Folks, pick up a fighting game. It's a lot of fun.

We are very welcoming to new players, and we always like to teach new players how to play the game. Thank you so much, Clawmaster. Yeah, thank you so much, Clawmaster. Fighting games aren't that hard to learn. Yeah. I think I agree. 100%.

You have to say it. You don't have to say it. You know, I'm going to say 100% agree. Now, I'm not going to say every fighting game is easy to learn. I do think they vary. There's some virtual fighter I tried to learn a little bit earlier in the year, and I was like, fuck this. I'm not doing this right now.

That one was just a weirdly tough one for me. But I think fighting games, especially the modern ones, have given so many good tutorials, so many good tools, so many setups and modes to where you can hop in, and just have fun, right? Street Fighter has the modern controls. Tekken has like a modern control scheme. One of the ones coming up, I think in Municipal Versus maybe,

has like a modern, like, easy to play a control scheme, right? Where it is like, hey, dude, just press buttons and go. Dragon Ball Fighters, and I assume the same is true for Marvel TollCon Fighting Souls as well, they have auto combos, where as long as you press square, just tap square, you're going to do a combo maybe into a super, right? if you had a triangle in there as well. So I think fighting games are doing their best to try and find accessible ways to get people in. I think the biggest tough thing about fighting games and getting good at them is understanding how to get good.

I think a lot of people hop in and you're faced with just a character and all these different moves and it's like, okay, well, I'm just going to button mash my way through. And I think that's valid. So I came in learning fighting games, right? But I think being able to figure out how to lab and how to like, all right, these are the special moves I want to learn, these are the combos I want to learn, right? I think getting into that process is very daunting to people. But I think I ultimately agree with the super chat as far as like, hey, if you want to, like, yeah, fighting games nowadays are very welcoming.

Yeah. I 100% disagree. Yeah? 100% disagree. Maybe with it. It's easy. Sure. it is easier to get into it,

but every time I get into it, I just think my brain is just not built like that. Like my brain, I mean, I can button mash, I can play the video game, like, on a technical level. But once you start, like, telling me to add on things, it just doesn't work for me. And I understand, like anything. Do you play action games?

Yeah, I do. Yeah. It just, it just, I think it is, like, my brain doesn't want to understand in the moment, specifically playing it's another player, that I have to now block them by doing a back and a B and then it up. Like, that stuff just doesn't work for me. Maybe my brains are slow.

Yeah. Maybe I'm broken, blessing. But I think it's like any other genre of action, right? Where you kind of just have to learn what the game wants from you. Yeah. See, here's the thing. The weird thing about this is, like, I believe I'm a very, I'm a very determined, a determined person. Yeah.

I can do anything. I can't fucking, I can run a mile in three minutes right now. Yes, you can. If I try really hard. I try. And I train. Hang out with Mike way too much. I train.

Mike, Mike, Mike's like to me nodding his head. How fast can you do a mile? Sub four. Sub four. We can do that together. We have done it before. There's no cameras. We just like to do it by ourselves and hang out.

I can do anything. I can do anything. And I guarantee you if I spent a year training, I can get really good at fighting games. I think you spent three months training. If I spent a year, you know what I'm doing for a year. I guess I can confirm this to the audience now. Big news.

A year from last week. A year in the future, starting last week ago. So I guess a year in whatever. What are you saying? Next year, next year, next year. Next year. I am going to go head to head with Andy Cortez in a three-point shooting contest. No, you're not.

I bought a basketball, and I have a basketball hoop that's down the block. And I texted him, I said, give me one year. Give me one year. Look at that. I already learned it. I already learned it. I already learned it. He was talking shit.

He was behind the camera. I was putting my body on the line. That's crazy that he's doing that to me. Right there. Boom. And I've been texting him. I'm insane. Why is your hand...

I wanted to be in the... Why is your hand above the other hand? I got denied because... I got like this. Well, this is just me. This is just me like doing the shape of the basketball. Oh, so you're using the hand. Your hand is the basketball at your throat.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm showing you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, like that. Because you want your right hand... Yeah, yeah, like that. You want your left hand kind of like guiding. I'm learning. You want to, like, have the left hand, like guiding it.

A year from now, I think it was August 5th or something like that. I think it's the week before my wedding date is, so I can get out of it pretty easily. I'm focused on wedding stuff. We'll move that. Fair enough. Now you're just... So you're still admitting...

Learning how to shoot three-pointers is easier than learning how to play a fighting game? Yeah. Okay. For sure. For sure. Corey Pitchu in the chef says, if you shoot anything like you skip, Andy is not at trouble. Andy said, I said first to 100. No, he said, first to 100, I'll let you start at 50.

That's good. That's great. Yeah, I don't know. I know I can do it. I know if I spent three months putting my head down and learning, I can do it. It's just, it is just not a, I don't know. It just doesn't work for some people's brains as easily. I think that's true, but I think that's true.

Like, I can learn League of Legends faster. You maybe could, yeah. Yeah, and that's kind of the weird thing about finding games. It looks like it's like, oh, it's like Mortal Kombat, how hard it can it be. It's like, it's fucking hard, man. It's difficult. It's hard, but I also think it's like any new genre of video game, right? Sure.

Like, when you hop into Souls, you kind of have to understand what Souls wants from you, right? When you hop into the league, right, you kind of had to understand what that game wants from you. and it's really it is just learning the language of the game. And I think if you are really good at action games, I do think that translates to some extent, right? Because at that point you're learning, all right, what are the combos I can do? When I'm playing First Preserker Kazan,

it's a bad example because I don't know if this translates. But like if I hit, if I hit square, or if I, let's say, let's do Spider-Man, right? If I hit square square triangle, that's probably going to do a combo. Yeah. If I do that in a fighting game, right, it's kind of the same thing of, all right, what are the combos that I can do?

It's the same thing as an action. What is the block button? A lot of finding games, it is back, which is like kind of a little bit of a learning thing for the brain. But once you understand that, it then kind of comes natural, like, okay, cool, I'm playing an action game. Then it really just comes down to, like, combos and stuff. I think playing against other players. And just memorizing it. Memorizing, right? I think the big thing with finding games, though, is that, and this is the thing that I think discourages people is playing against other players.

Yeah. Because it is like any other competitive genre of video game where, guess what? other players are very fucking good at the game. Yeah, like, really good. They're really good of the game. And so, like, it's not that you're bad. It's just that other players are fucking legendary and that you keep fighting them.

If you stick to, like, playing against the AI or playing, like, that's why I like that story modes are a more popular thing. Because I feel like that's... And I have played story modes. Yeah, and I feel like it's more of a fair and even level playing field. And also, they help you to kind of get your feet wet

to hop into the practice modes or whatever. I love that. Let's go to another one. We're going to skip to seven Barrett, if that's okay. Let's do an easier one, a simpler one. we should be in and out of this one pretty fast. I'm excited for this one.

I was very happy to hear this. Hey, this is Samson, aka Samson L in the chat or Samson XP, depending on, I don't know what YouTube feels. My gaming hot take is that there shouldn't be any of these mouse cursors on these console games.

So stuff like Apex Legends, you have a little mouse cursor with your inventory. I'm playing tiny bookshop right now. It's mostly a fake mouse cursor. And I think Marvel, rivals has that too. These fake mouse cursors, got to go. Instead, bring back the Wii remote motion controls or you can just point with your controller to point on icons and all that, because that'll make games so much easier than dragging around your little thumbstick, clicking and pretending

your mouse. If you want to do PC stuff, I'll go play PC games, you know? So get rid of those mouse cursors, bring back Wii remote motion controls, kind of like what the PlayStation does with typing already. I use that all the time. Okay. No, I feel that. Yeah. Get rid of fake mice. Bye. Yeah, Destiny ruined the video game industry with this.

I remember the moment when I booted up Destiny 1 for the first time for my first four hours that I never went back to and I just threw away that game. I booted up and I had the mouse curse. I was like, wow, what a novel idea. It's like I'm playing a PC game. How cool is that? And then everyone did it. And it was, that is the number one game's enemy, as Corey Cuddy says. Yeah, 100% agree.

And yes, we should be doing, we should be using the fucking PlayStation controller to have the, the mouse movement there. I think that's cool. Or let me just highlight it like a regular menu. Or just make a, yeah. Just make it a menu. Or just make it a menu for controllers. Don't do the fucking mouse cursor.

It's not allowed. Yeah, I 100% agree with this as well. I love that. The mouse cursor always, it's discouraging when it comes up. When you hit the pause menu and you're like, oh, I got to fucking drag. It's slow and there's no setting for it. I just drag this thing across the screen. to change my gear.

Get the fuck out of here. Yuck. Let's go to, let's go to, there's a lot of, you know what, let's go to number six. This is from Barista Brand. This is also an interesting one. I've heard this one before,

but I want to talk about it. Good morning, Roger. It's Barista Brand. My hot take is Insomniac games were better making original games than they are making Marvel games. I love the Spider-Man games. They're great eight out of ten experiences,

great stories, great gameplay. But it's nothing that the Batman Arkham games haven't already given us. I love Sunset Overdrive. It's incredibly original. And I think the studio would be better off making more of those, more original ideas, than to continue making Marvel games until they inevitably just get shut down by PlayStation. Love everything you do. Thanks so much.

See you. So this person's argument is that resistance, sunset, overdrive. Ratchet and clank. Ratchet and clank. You're just starting all the way. Go deeper. Spiro. They've done so many games. You're on their website. Wait, hold on. Are we counting Spiro in this conversation, though? I mean, just talking

about their pre-Marvellous. It's part of their history. Yeah. Okay, sure. Spiral. No, I 100% disagree. Yeah, I'm sorry. I 100% disagree. And I kind of, well, Spider-Man, I totally understand the idea of like, okay, well, we've done that kind of game before. I think, Insomniac is at the peak of their powers with Spider-Man.

I think, though, I think the closest thing is probably Rift-A-Part Ratch and Clank. I love Ratchet and Clank. I think they should keep going back and forth between doing Marvel things in Ratch and Clank, but you're not going to stay here and telling that resistance is more worth their time than Spider-Man. I 100% disagree if we're going to be doing this, 100% whatever.

But, like, I... You know, I don't know who would make those rules. You know what I mean? Like, I want to be in the middle. Who would make those rules? But 100% disagree. I really, the more I think about it and very disappointed in Spider-Man, too. I don't think that game is... hits the highs of even what Miles Morales did.

It's a very safe sequel. It goes bizarre places, and I don't like that story, the more I think about it. Oh, you 100% disagree with him? Or with me? No, with him. Sorry, with you. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, I guess 100% agree. My bad. You 100% agree with this take. I do think that...

For your soul-disputting, Inspiring Man, too, that you want them to make resistance. I am just saying that they are locked into this world now of Marvel. And, like, you know, we've all seen the leaks. We all see what they're working on in the next 15 years, right? It's a lot of Marvel properties here. It's a lot of stuff that they're just locked into being the Marvel. It's Wolverine and then seemingly X-Men. X-Men and then I don't know what's going on with Venom or whatever.

Is that an actual thing we don't know? Whatever. I'm still in mind that I don't think that's right. It's a lot of Marvel stuff. And this is a very unique studio. And yeah, sure. If you want to look back at this stuff and you're like, well, which is better than Spider-Man? Spider-Man is a really fun game to swing around them.

I have a good time with it. I like creative studios doing unique things. that they've created. So when we get into the place of them, I like the idea of them doing Spider-Man as like a one-off, or that's just like one of the many pillars that they have. But now they're becoming the Marvel studio,

it's like way less interesting to me as a studio. And it just, it also just, you know, I'm not the business guy, so like, Yadi, I know these games sell very well, but like that's a huge budgeted video game with, you know, it's a very single player-driven video game with a license. Like, it just, it puts their studio in a very peculiar

and precarious situation, which I don't like for Insomac. I want them to create original stuff that they can kind of build up and make franchises, like a ghost of Yote, like a Shushima. I think I agree with everything you're saying except for the, like,

the final conclusion of it. Because I also, I, Spider-Man 2, I was a little let down by 2, even though I love the game. But, like, you know, I don't, I think I like Spider-Man 1 still as, like, the most out of the games that they made in recent years.

That said, right? Like, I, the, I think my thing is, Spider-Man, out of so many of Insomniax games from the last, let's say decade, right? Let's say starting with Sunset Overdrive. I think Spider-Man is the best display of what they're able to do as a studio.

They're great in making these bright, colorful games that thrive off of the movement and motion and having all these different, like, active abilities that you're doing. I think Spider-Man and Ratchet, I would put Ratchet in that thing too, right? are the two best examples of what Ensoniac thrives at. And, like, if I felt like...

Sunset, I'm not trying to take away from either, because I know some people love sunset. But, yeah, like, I just don't see those being more... I don't see a sunset or a resistance or, like... I'm not saying that they couldn't make a new original thing, but we've seen their original things. I think Spider-Man and, like, the Marvel shit, is going to allow their talents to shine so much more.

I don't... I think here's my thing with more. Like, what do you mean by that? Like, because, like, when I play a Ratchet and I play Sunset Overdrive, it has all the DNA of what Spider-Man is. It's just, are you saying it's a bigger audience? No, I think here's my hot take to bounce off of the hot take. I like that.

I think, I don't think Insomniac creates worlds that I'm invested in. I think them playing in other people's worlds actually makes me more invested. I 100% disagree. I 100% disagree. Well, let's tell me about the Insomniac Worlds that you're super invested in. Ratchet and Clank. I think that's a very fun, unique universe for, uh, Sony and PlayStation in general.

I put my hat take in the chat that I don't think they've made a game that's above an 8.5, and I think that's okay. I agree. Going back to them playing in other people's worlds and creating their own worlds, I am not sold on their Spider-Man world. I'm going to be honest. I really am not sold in this universe that they're creating. I was sold on it in Spider-Man 1.

I'm less sold out of it. That's what I'm at, too, is that when they made Spider-Man 1, I was like, maybe this could be good, but it always just felt like, I've seen this before in movies. I've seen this before in comics. they're not creating a universe that I think is particularly unique. Like, they're not creating a Spider-Man that I'm in love with. I'm not in love with this Miles Morales.

I'm not in love with this Peter Parker. Like, I can really take them or leave it. Like, I just genuinely do not find their take on what Spider-Man as a character in his world to be fascinating or pushing the narrative forward when it comes to. We've seen so many different Spider-Man's. I want this one to feel unique. I want to be excited at it. I think I disagree as far as, like, this Spider-Man needing to do something to,

truly separate himself from other Spider-Man. I think over the years we've gotten so many interpretations of Spider-Man that I really like this version of Spider-Man being more of centering. I like Insomiac Spider-Man being, hey, here's a Spider-Man that is kind of the Spider-Man that you know and love, because you've gotten amazing Spider-Man video games,

not amazing as in quality, but Amazing is in like the literal amazing Spider-Man game. You've gotten the movie version. You've gotten the movie versions. You've gotten the edge of time. Sains of time. You've gotten all of these different interpretations of Spider-Man. As Insomniac, let's have a more centered, clean slate, straightforward Spider-Man thing. And we can give you, we can run the hits. And I think Spider-Man, one that worked, and I think that was held up by the performances and just like the actual script writing and all of that between the characters and the relationships.

and I think Spider-Man too, because I also really love Miles Morales, because I think Miles Morales was just kind of more focused version of Spider-Man one. And then two, I think they jumped the shark a little bit on like all of the weird shit. It was like going from, you know, the first, not literally the first six months of Spidey,

but it's like trying to do the clone and like Venom and Carnage saga, like way too early. That's just like, okay, like, what are we doing? Yeah. It's just an interesting thing because for Spider-Man, it is such an easy property for me to get excited about. I am excited about even the bad Spider-Man movies.

Like, that's like, even Amazing Spider-Man, too, there's so much there about Andrew Garfield and Gwen Stacey. That is good. It's good stuff right there. And when Andrew Garfield comes back, I'm excited to see that Andrew Garfield. I'm excited to see if they bring back Emma Stone eventually. You know what I mean?

She's fucking Spider-Gwen. I would be excited for that. And also, like, the animated show that they did recently is incredible. It's awesome stuff. Like, that character and the world that they, have is so unique and you do different things with it, specifically with that animated version they did recently. So to have this

be like the milk toast, like, kind of the most generic running the hits version of Spider-Man that is, if you kind of squit your eyes, I guess it's Tom Holland, I guess it's like... I do. It doesn't, this is to have, to feel meh about a Spider-Man world, specifically one that is a video game that feels so good

that is so beautiful, is just that's disappointing. And I look at Ratchin and Clank, and I'm like, man, what a fun world. What an exciting universe that they've created. I have a good time playing it. I do hate that they change the design to look kind of like Tom Holland. But that said, I totally disagree with you

as far as the milk toast and feeling met about it. But I think that's also just like a, how it hits you sort of thing. I like this universe. Is it the best Spider-Man universe ever? No. Maybe for video games, though, it is. I think actually, I'll say yes for video games.

Yeah, I think this is. It's the best playing one, for sure. It's the best playing one, but then also I think in terms of what they're doing as far as characters and the villains and, like, building out world of Spider-Man, I think between the three games they've done so far, I am really into this universe. I genuinely really like the Spider-Man universe. I think the tough thing about this

conversation is that, you know, the conversation is the Marvel stuff versus original IP or original ideas, right? And, you know, I don't know what I want out of an original idea because that's going to be something, that's going to be a new thing, right? Like, I can't compare Spider-Man to an unknown quantity that I don't know about. If I'm going to compare it to a Ratchet or a Sunset or a Resistance. Ratchet is like the one thing where I'm like

I want Insomniak to give me one Ratchet every, maybe a generation. A Ratchet a generation I agree. I agree. I think Ratchet is the one that I do have a soft spot for as far as what that brings to the table. Gameplay wise, world wise, all that shit. You know, I'm not like, I'm not here in the Ratchet lore looking up things. I love Captain Quark. I love the characters.

But I'm here for the gameplay, the weapons. that shit. That's what they're good at. And that's what they're good at. That said, if they're doing anything that's not ratchet, I'm like, just give me Spider-Man. I don't know what a new IP for a lot. I will say, I adore playing Spider-Man. I play it way more than, maybe anybody in this office,

because I just booted up every few weeks and I just swing around for a few hours. You and Tim are probably tired. I love playing Spider-Man. Like, it's an incredible experience. I just, I am not excited about this world and being locked into that for 20 years. It just doesn't necessarily excite me of like, oh man, like, I want them to try different things. So, yes, I agree.

I would love for them to do Ratchet stuff. But how long are we into this episode? Pretty late, right? 52. All right, let's do one last time. We can go for as long as you want, but if you want to end, don't worry about it. Oh, he's out and about.

Okay, we got a few ones. All right, you can't go for as long as long as. Okay. I love this one, and I want to do the one. This number eight. I would love to do this one. This is great. My outtake is that I don't think games have gotten more political.

I think that games have gotten less political. Take Sonic the Hedgehog. You look at him today and he's this family-friendly mascot, all about friends, family, and chili dogs. It was like a dentist and menace thing going with Dr. Eggman, but nothing too mean-spirited. Why are they fighting? I don't know. Maybe he stole Aladdin's magic lamp. Maybe he built an evil amusement park. Oh, how they massacred, my boy. Let me take you back to the year 1991 when Dr. Robotink was just straight up dumping oil to the ocean, just tossing napalm into a rainforest, just constructing factories, belching carcinogenic smoke. Why? Who knows? Maybe he just wanted. wanted some AI artwork of the Golden Girl to the Ventures or some shit.

The important thing is there was one lone, blue, eco-terrorist with the attitude to stop him. That's right, Sonic, the Black Block Anarchist. He took one look at those death egg factories, and what do you think he did? Did he call this member of Congress? Did he donate to the Sierra Club? No man, that's Mario shit. He laced up his shoes and started blowing up factories like it was going out of style. No dated references from Ben Schwartz.

No wise cracks from Jason Griffith. just a dead silent needle mouse burning downhill from the inside. And when he discovered the blood emeralds that were fueling production, you better believe he sees the means of production. You know, people threw around the word radical quite a lot back in the 90s, and most of the time it was bullshit, like a turtle eating pizza or a dog wearing sunglasses. But when used to describe one Sonic the Hedgehog, gospel, freaking truth. Thank you.

What are we doing here? Incredible. That was awesome. I love this person so much because they sent this in, and then it cut out halfway through. I was like, fuck, this would have been so good. And they redid it again. They read it again, they sent it in it.

I was like, thank you so much. Whoever did that, that was incredible. Yeah, they didn't leave a name. Yeah, they didn't leave a name, and I very much appreciate that it starts off, and it's like less political. I'm like, okay, I could kind of see that argument because I know a lot of games where we played Dead Rising recently. Like, damn, this game's fucking hella political, right?

Yeah, exactly. I was like, okay, we can have that argument. It's a fun one. And then it goes into this all about Sonic. That's incredible. It's so good. 100% agree on my side. Yeah, I agree.

I'm not agreeing or disagree. Because they're not taking the take seriously. What? They are. They just gave you all the points. Let's be real. All right. I came here to have a serious podcast.

To bring in a serious thing for you, I just wanted to shout out this video essay that I mentioned on our Mafia review the other day. This is from Peter Spitech on YouTube. They wouldn't make this game today, and it's all about the modern Wolfenstein games and how much commentary there was in both of these games about the deep-seated racism in America

and the rise in fascism before Nazi Germany came about and breaking that down in a very serious way and what have we gotten out of this franchise since? Absolutely nothing, right? We get Youngblood, which does absolutely no interest in commentary on any of that whatsoever, even though that's 20 years after, I think, Wolfenstein too, right? And then, you know, I felt that same way

with Mafia of the Old Country. as well, where it's like Mafia 3, there's like some interesting, actual political commentary and dissection happening in Mafia 3. And then their next original game is Mafia, the old country, where they do absolutely none of that. Final Fantasy 7 is about ego terrorism? Eco, terrorism, yeah. I mean, they're doing that in the remix. Here's my thing is I got to watch the video. I say to listen to the full argument, because I, that game came out in the midst of like Nazis with their fucking, fuck, well.

Yeah, they will not. replace us. Yeah, they want to replace us. The cheeky torches. Yeah, like... They talk about that. Yeah, like, that game came out in a very, like, heated time. Yeah. And so, like, I'm more... I guess I'm interested in, like, the argument that wouldn't come out.

A lot's happened in the last 10 years. Yeah, but I'm still interested in the argument that I wouldn't come out today. Yeah. Because, yeah, Indiana... I guess Indiana Jones is a different game, but I also was, like, anti-Nazi. Beres has given me looks. I need more than... You should watch the video. Okay.

I think he makes... some very salient points, especially when talking about that stuff in the, when it's coming out in 26, I don't even, 2017, yeah, 2017, and then also talking about

Indiana Jones, and more so, like, the easy thing is like, yeah, fuck Nazis, but the more deep-seated what Wolfenstein is actually saying and actually getting into versus what Indiana Jones does.

Okay. Yeah. I highly recommend it. He's very good at making video. Let's switch gears. to 4A. I want to go to 4A. Oh, you're not even going 4. No. Because I have 4, I think, it's just like we need better games.

This is from Eric. It's from Eric, and he's basically saying we want games with, we don't care about graphics. We want better games with better stories. But this is a more... A little-ass take. Yeah, exactly. This is a very specific take, which I like. It's from K. I think the biggest hot take is the retressing. So I think the tracing is kind of overrated right now for the consoles. And I think it's good.

for the marketing screenshots and game pay trailers, but it's barely worth the performance played off right now. Things might change with BS6, with more advanced technological changes, but right now I think it's overrated. What do you think about ray tracing? Do you think we need ray tracing right now? Do you think it's worth all our games running at fucking 45 frames per second? Well, no, definitely not with that. I turn that shit off every single. time. I'm running that shit at 60 fbs. Except for Indiana Jones, where you can't

where it's baked into the game. We can have a conversation about Xbox, because they keep doing that shit. These Xbox games... It's not even Xbox. It's a lot of games now. But it's a lot of Xbox games. Sure. It is the future of what games are going towards right now. Yeah, like there are so many like, oh what, it was Hellblade. I think did the same thing.

I'll come with the receipts later. Sure. But I think I agree. I think Ray Tracon's overrated. Because every single time, I swear to got it in the last few years. where I'm like, man, this lighting looks incredible, and I look into it, and it's not ray-traced. Yeah.

It's just lighting. Yeah. I like ray tracing fine, but it's like, when it comes down to it, if we're just kind of pushing our hardware, just to push our hardware, it feels like, and I don't know, I don't necessarily, there's games, as you're totally right.

I've played games, like, oh, it has to be ray-traced. It's just not ray-traced, right? It's about the way that you design these games, and I don't think that pushing everything to be rate-traced. Also, sometimes ray-tracing creates a weird look for some games, especially older games when you start adding in ray tracing gives like this kind of slippery, weird feeling to it. Yeah, I'm just not sold on ray tracing,

specifically with the way that it's pushing our hardware and everything. I do think it's a really good thing to put on the box. I agree with that part of it. I think it's for these new consoles... And it's more obtainable than 8K. Because, like, we're never getting 8K, right? They put 8K on the PS5 box, they removed it. So it's like they're trying to put things on the box.

So ray tracing is an easy one. Yeah, yeah. I think, you know, these new consoles needed marketing. Yeah. They needed buzzwords. You know, graphics cards need marketing. They need buzzwords. And oftentimes, like, Andy will show me something on, like, his RTCS,

you know, 1,030 or whatever. And it looks incredible when he shows me the ray tracing. Yeah. But I feel like half the time I... Are you really paying attention to that shit, you know? Not really. Yeah. Like, that's the thing is, like, when it's off, and I...

First of all, I'm always sacrificing it for the 60 FPS whenever I have to make the choice. Always sacrificing that shit. And then also, yeah, it's like not really... It's not changed my life. Yep. I'm looking at the superchats really quick. My computer's taking a long time

to know. There it is. Oh, we got some hot We got a lot of hot text. Should have that before. Let me read that for, blah, blah, who? Okay. I see Weiner gave a super chat and says, I forgot to call, but people who play retro games, they didn't play in their youth, not out of historical curiosity, are try-hard posers. I like that. I disagree, but I like the heat.

I like it. I like it a lot. Because why you play in that. But I also disagree in the sense that like I didn't grow up playing. Can't be curious about a game and try it out? No, you totally can't because we're sensible people. I like this as a hot take. I respect it. I respect it. Honestly,

100% agree. Because as for a while, I try to be that person, right? Because I didn't grow up with a lot of these games. So I was like, oh, let me go back. I'm in the video game industry. I'm talking about my opinions. I got to play all the classics. And I start boot up these fucking games. What the fuck am I doing? What the fuck am I doing? Let me go play Shadow the Hedgehog again. If I think about it, the first, I'm going to

Metraedvania I probably played was Guacamayle. And guess what? Same. That didn't mean I was posing. Oh, sorry, I didn't give me the thumbs up. No, you shouldn't have? Because it would have been payback for Roger never giving me the fist bump on that. I saw that after it happened.

I was like, I didn't realize who was doing that. I should have just fucking missed it. Yeah, and I didn't play Guacamalee because I was trying to act like I was into Super Metroid. It's like, no. Guacameli was just a fun. New game. That was cool.

Yeah, guess what? I played Rogue Legacy. And that's like a Rogue Light, right? But it also has a lot of Cassavania shit going on. That in like Dead Cells have Cassavania, like, influence to him. Guess what? Those are just good-ass games. So I disagree with the hot tape.

If you watch a movie that came out before you were born, you're a fucking try-hard poser. I mean, yeah, I watched Blade Runner 2049. Well, I think it's a different. I think if I Sue Wiener added it on to this and say, oh, well, it feels like a fucking 22-year-old is acting like Super Mario 64 is the greatest video game ever made. And they didn't grow up with it.

And they didn't grow up with it. It's like, okay, well, fuck you. And that I had a thousand percent. See, that's a better take. of like, you know. It's like the film bros. We're like, oh, you got to watch this movie. And it's like, fuck you.

You didn't watch this movie until you spent $30,000 a year on film. What are your thoughts on Tetris? Which one? That's the right answer. I like this guy. Because the original Tetris fucking sucks. There's no hard drop. There's a lot of issues with it.

Fuck that game. But when you talk about fucking Tetris Effect or specifically Tetris 99, that's the goaded one. Man. Tetris 99 is going on. Because they have the DLC. I'm more with the Tetris. I'm more with touches the effect. But, like, yeah, touches 99, fucking fuck.

Guitar Hero Aero says, one of my hot takes is, I'm very pro remaster, 60 FPS, and dual sense features are worth it. Plus, I always love working on a new trophy list with the replay. I'm not mad at it. I'm not mad at that. That's not a hot take.

It's nothing wrong with that. I think, like... She's making a partial remake. Got some content. I can't stand this guy. I fucking hate you. When they remastered Last of Us, I think that pushed people to the edge.

I'm not right. I'm not wrong, though. I know. Like, when they remastered Lasmos, I think that was... A breaking point. Yeah, that was a breaking point for a lot of people. But I'm also of the mind of like... I mean, make a game look better.

I don't go, fuck. I don't have to buy it. But whatever you say that, people get really mad too. But, like, this is true, though. I was like, listen, if I want to play a really better-looking Lasplus, I should have that right. I should have that ability if they want to make it. So, like, you know, fucking remaster your shit.

I 100% agree with their... It's not like they're not. making new games because of it. Uncle Death says, Last of Us ruined gaming for a while. Talking about Lasasas. Oh, there we go. Everyone tried to make a Lassov style game

and ignored the fundamentals of what makes a game is great, the fun. I need the examples of like the bad ones though. Yeah, I mean, I understand with what you're saying, but I just don't really have them come to mind necessarily. Like, it's hard for me, chat. And also, I don't think, I mean, people were trying to make, you know, very story-driven, serious type of games

that were more emotional and, you know, What are the bad last of us clones? Yeah, I don't say anything. The chat let us know, we're going to move on. Can I read this one from Norman? Yeah, of course. Because this is a real hot take. Norman, that Aboncourt, says,

my hot take is that Super Giant was better when they were making games like Bastion and Transistor. Wow. That's it. No, I'm not. Oh, okay. Because I 1,000% disagree. Yeah.

But, like, that's a hot take. But also, like, that's, hot take is that Super Giant was better when they were making games like Bastion. and transistor, amazing games as well? You're just saying that you don't like Hades specifically? Like, they're all, you know what I mean? Lumped into me as like the same, I know they're not the same type of game.

You get what I'm saying. But like, they're still the same caliber of video games. They're all super giant. And they also don't feel like so different. Like when I play transistor and I play Hades, I don't feel like, oh my gosh. They completely have changed the way they make video games. Like they feel like very like almost like linear progressions of what that studio was doing. Yeah.

I think they're just saying that they like bashed in a transistor more than Hades. Which like teach. That's fair. They're their own. That's cool. I mean, there's different types of games. Oh, I guess the turn-based element of it. Is that what they're going for?

And maybe the... Are those games, like, big and rogue-like type of shit? No, no, no, no. They're more like strategy and, like, those grid-based stuff. So I understand. I get what you're saying. I get what you're saying. So yeah, if that's what you're into, cool, but I 100% disagree.

Shout out to Pire. Cobbup. Super Chats. It says, my hot take is that spiritual successors usually end up being really boring compared to what it's inspired by. Amen. They're usually just filled. with references. See of Stars.

Ukulele. Chained to echoes. Play old games. Adding C of Stars in there. That's a crazy one. That turns it into a hot take because I was with you until you said C of Stars in front of Barrett like that. Yeah, I mean, I didn't play any of these games, so I can't say anything.

I was reading, I got to find who made this Blue Sky Post. Shovel Night people are saying question mark. I think it was Taco. Yeah, like, any you know, we just brought up Guacamay earlier. Yeah. You know, like I don't know. I disagree. Yeah. I think there are some games where it's like, oh, yeah, this...

You're just trying to do the thing. You're just trying to do this thing again, and it's not as interesting. But I think, like, Cia Stars has enough going for it that makes it interesting. That doesn't make me constantly think about Krono Trigger, where I feel like a lot of other games that try to go for that Krono Trigger feel do make me think about, like, oh, I could just fucking play Krono Krook. Play Krono Trigger again. There's a Blue Sky Post from August 12th from Taco that I read that I agreed with where he says, I don't think I've ever played a video game inspired only by other video games and thought it was a better video game. Oh, interesting. Obviously, there are exceptions. Someone out there prefers one match three clone over another. But games that try to, quote, fix another game never do.

Killers never kill. Oh, I see. Blank Killers never kill the original. The 50th farming sim is good, but not better. and spiritual sequels often, but not always, live in the original shadow. I 1,000% agree with that. I think ukulele, I think, is a good example of, like, why would I play this when I can just play Banger Cizoozooie, right?

Like, if your whole thing is trying to ape the original thing. Yeah, it's a little bit different that one, because it did have the developers that made the original one, so it's like... But that's what happens most of the time. It's like, oh, we worked on this other thing that you loved. We're going to make it again. Yeah. I just don't think that works out most of the time.

but is that really the goal every single time of like we're trying to make it uh we're trying to fix a thing from the original or is it like mighty number nine sorry i just remember the thing starry valley was better than harvest moon and then guess what what's that now fields of mystery but in the sturdy valley boom i mean so and it's like i think this concept is also just like kind of weird uh or this take and this kind of conversation it's weird it's just like i don't know art inspires other art and sometimes it works out and sometimes it's Yeah, but I understand the idea of like, yeah, when you're just trying to continuously ape the other thing and make a better version of that thing. Somebody says back for blood is a good example. Yeah. I used in Chronicle.

I'll throw it. Yeah, it's very similar to the ukulele too. Dante the clerk, Superchatsen says, hot take, shooter esports are not fun to watch. Most fun esports to watch, Pokemon. Easy to follow and full of surprises and upsets. Dante the clerk a little bit.

bit bias. They have a Smash Brothers icon right there. You know what I mean? So maybe it kind of in the... Mike come over here. Tell them they're wrong. He can go up on his mic. Dante better be watching the Pokemon Championship all weekend long right now live from Anaheim because it's live now. So...

What are you doing in here? I've been to see your ass in the fucking chat, Dante. Yeah, I don't care about a shooter e-sports. I mean, the fighting games are the most fun e-sport to watch, so... Yeah. I want to end with one that kind of takes a turn here. that I don't like, and I'm happy that Mike is here.

Let's end it with number nine. It's from Colin Barry. Hey, Colin from New Jersey, 973, 8662, what up? Doing it from the car. My hot take is that all Kojima games are one giant bit prank

that Kojima starts. He boot up the game and there's a title screen with Kojima's face on it saying, hey, just go along with it. There's no real game here. I've tried watching the Death Stranding streams with Mike and Roger,

but it's just one big mug bang. Let's be honest. There's no actual little gameplay during those hours, those marathon streams. So it's, at the end of day, one giant break. All right, that's it. Farts and kisses.

You all like so hard to. Okay, Colin. Colin, where the fuck did we go? 100% disagree. No, no, we got Colin. Because just like Kajima, we're fucking with you, Big Don. There's no game playing. It's just buckbacked.

We have never played the game. We have never played the game. We did a whole review. We've never played this game, everybody. We got your ass. I just appreciate that, like, it is like a perfect transition between songs of like, yeah, it's just one big prank. Also, I was watching this fucking stream, and these guys are doing shit.

I don't know what's going on. This is one of those ones where you brought in another show into this show, and I just don't know what's happening. I just don't know what to do with that information. I just was stunned a little bit there. So thank you, Colin, and I appreciate you so much for your hot take, but 100% disagree. Where are you out with that?

I don't know what it's take is. I think his take is that it's, Kojima is all a big prank what he is, what Kojima does, but then also Roger and Mike, we're also pranking everybody because we don't play our game. I guess I agree with the second part. Disagree with the first part. All right. 100% agrees, he said.

We beat two video games in a row. Yeah, we're crazy with it. It's a prank. It's a prank. Some people just don't vibe with Kajima. That's it. I mean, that's the thing. Some people just don't vibe with Kijima games.

Especially recently, when he's moved away from Metal Gear Solid, where you can clearly see it's a spy espionage game. His next one is this super heady, mind-fuck game where you deliver fucking boxes as a post-guy. And it's like, that's not a video game that a lot of people, people are into. And so when they first got it, they're like, no, Kajima, I just wanted to become fucking solid snake.

Not Norman. And then, Kajima was like, here you go. Here's the most AAA budgeted quop. All right. If his hot take is that he doesn't... Am I wrong on that?

I'm not saying that's bad. I fucked with Deserating, too, because I realized I was like, oh, this is just quop, man. You got a quap. Yeah, I love quop, though.

If his hot take... But like, if Roger doesn't know what quop means, what does that mean? Oh, it's like Roger would know. Wait, do you not know quop? Do you not know quap? So it's like, it's like,

it's like the song Wop. Yep. Oh. What about cussies? What the fuck are we on? What's his name? Bennett Fottie, getting over it.

Oh, okay. And like baby steps. Yeah, yeah. The first, I think the first thing that they made was quop, and it's like you, controlling like a running guy. Right.

And now I understand. And you use Q-W-O-P to control the legs. Oh, okay. Okay. So he made a walking. Just me and, Just be a blessing on stage and everyone's on. All right, everybody, thank you so much

for an incredible hot take episode. This has been a fun time. Bless, did you have a good time? You know, I had a time. I had a time. We learned a lot about you guys. And next time we want you to get a little freakier with that. Give us some weird ones.

And we'll make sure to do another hot takes episode soon. Thank you so much, everybody. And enjoy a Battlefield 6th stream with Nick and Mike right after this. Peace out, everybody. Bye-bye.