Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Marvel’s Avengers SPOILERCAST & Review Update - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 37

Episode Date: September 10, 2020

Greg, Blessing, Imran, and Fran come together to catch you up on their week and a half with Avengers and get confused about the story! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:07 What's up everybody? Welcome to the Kind of Funny Gamescast episode 37. I'm one of your host, Greg Miller, alongside the former, informer, Imran Khan. Games cast a symbol. Oh, look what he did there. He did that thing. Well, it wouldn't be a games cast, you know what I mean? God, but his heart wasn't in it at all, you know? Blessing, Adioia, Jr.
Starting point is 00:00:29 When the world tells you to move, you look back and you say no, you move. Oh man, this bar is just getting higher and higher as we go. And the best hair in the business, Twitch.tv slash FM3 underscore Fran, Mirabella the third. How you doing, big guy? Does that count? Are we counting that?
Starting point is 00:00:53 Yeah, it's the Hulk. He got it, dude. He got a good job. I don't remember anybody ever seen. After Imran, I was like, I got to come up with something. That was the best I could do. Plus, I play his Black Widow.
Starting point is 00:01:03 I don't know, almost something. Fran, I was a very, impressed by that. You're the only one. You kind of had the right tone, too. Good. That's my voice audition. This is the kind of funny games cast. This is going to be the Marvel's Avengers spoiler cast. Don't turn it off just yet. I think we're to talk non-spoilers at the top for a little bit. Talk more, but it's basically, you know, last week, Imron, we did, you know, our Marvel Avengers review so far kind of thing. Clearly something a game like this, a games is a service we need to follow up on. And so I think the best way we thought to do it was,
Starting point is 00:01:35 Probably you've been through the story so far, so we can talk about that today. But we can also just also talk about where we're at in the video game and what's been going on. Right, Mr. Con? Right, indeed. Thank you. Tim Getty's had to go. His home planet needed him. Also, he's getting so distracted by his Tony Hawks and his other switch games that he couldn't play through and finish at Marvel's Avengers.
Starting point is 00:01:56 You know what I mean? Well, embarrassing. Embarrassing. He never wanted to burn the first place. I played Tony Hawk in like an afternoon. Yeah. Thank you. See what I mean?
Starting point is 00:02:03 You're a man of taste. He didn't want to play it. He doesn't like games to serve. Here's what I'm going to put this out there. I don't think Tim likes games. You know what I mean? Like he's just here until the Nintendo podcast takes off. Once the Nintendo podcast takes off, that's what it'll go do.
Starting point is 00:02:17 Anything else? He's 40 under 30. He's out for the Moola, dude. That's it. The bomber jackets. That's all he wants to. If he wants to start a Nintendo podcast, I'll be his co-host on that podcast. You can't do a PlayStation podcast and a Nintendo podcast.
Starting point is 00:02:30 That's who. It's just a general podcast like we're making right now. I'll be on the Nintendo one just talking about Nintendo but then go on the PlayStation 1 and be like hey Shuhay you know you should also replace like Gary Witt on the Xbox podcast Just like I'm down No I don't I don't have allegiance
Starting point is 00:02:48 All I know is that PlayStation paid me the most Recently and so I really like PlayStation You know They deliver that briefcase of money Did you get that like that email about You're one of the biggest patient fans You should You get a pre-order early
Starting point is 00:03:03 that no one else knows. But did you make that? Wait, did those go? I registered for that. I registered for that. But you have to assume blessing being a host of PSI-L-U-X-O-X-O should be one of the first people to get them.
Starting point is 00:03:14 And if he has it, then clearly, so he does not feel the same way about you that you feel about them. Well, see, here's the big thing about it, of course. For the PlayStation 5 pre-orders, they asked you to register on this website.
Starting point is 00:03:23 And they said, hey, yeah, you know, if you want it, give us your PSN name. They didn't even say your email, your PSN name. Yeah. Because, of course, they're going through and looking for true fans. and Imron, Fran, I ask you, if I go to PSN Profiles.com slash Merck City 64, and I look at this pitiful
Starting point is 00:03:44 platinum trophies, seven platinum trophies. Who cares not trying? Jim Ryan going through his list saying if you're naughty or nice and if you deserve a PS5 free order, you think he's going to look at this clown list and be like, oh, yeah, let's give it the blessing. I feel like the question is which seven platinum is because like, I'm not sure how many platforms I have, but I know Bloodbourne is one of them. And that shouldn't get me on that list.
Starting point is 00:04:07 Dude, I didn't know about this website. Go, get the fuck out of here. Here's what you want to know. Here's what the Platinum's are, for one, blessing Adioia Jr. All right. Middle Earth, Shadow of Mordor. That's a great game. That's a great game.
Starting point is 00:04:18 Sure, sure. Tales from the Borderlands. All right. Now, everyone gets a platinum. Great game, but yeah, easy platinum. Also, seven. Tech and seven. Also a great game.
Starting point is 00:04:28 Undertail. Okay. Great game. I have great taste. Rocket League. Self-proclaimed. Marvel Spider-Man. And then Castle Pails.
Starting point is 00:04:39 We end on Castle Pals. Oh, yeah, I got that one on accident. I didn't want that one. That was one of the ones where we were playing it for PSLW. And halfway through the platinum popped. And I was like, how do I accidentally get this platinum halfway through this game? I'm just saying here. First off, it's what the most insulting is the Tales from the Borderlands one.
Starting point is 00:04:58 So you've played Telltale games. You've played Telltale games. Oh, yeah. But you didn't finish them. No. Where were you on the Batman? Oh, I didn't play Batman. I played Walking Dead on PC.
Starting point is 00:05:11 Actually, now I think about it. I played it on PC for whatever reason. And that's it. You think Jim Ryan's going to look at this list and be like, oh, this kid deserves a PlayStation 5. I guess those are the only two telltale games. Thank you. Now, to be fair, Greg, you looked at this kid in this list and said,
Starting point is 00:05:25 this guy deserves a PlayStation podcast show. So, I mean, you're out there. Fair enough. types of decisions, man. Listen, I'm not going to sit here and tell you he doesn't have talent. That he doesn't have an eye for a game. He doesn't have a critical eye and a great, you know, delivery here. He's not a true fan.
Starting point is 00:05:39 But I'm just saying if they're giving out plays a issue five, it's the difference between Greg's a completionist. I'm more of a competitionist. A true gamer. I like, I mean, I wouldn't say that. But I like to compete. That's where I get my enjoyment out of games. And also I like to try a bunch of different games.
Starting point is 00:05:54 And I like stories and all that stuff. I'm not a completionist. You just described every aspect of video games. Except for completing them. I like to do everything else except for 100% in games because I just don't. I'm right there with you actually. I get tired of things.
Starting point is 00:06:06 I hope you finish this one since it's a spoiler cast. Yeah, I finished this game. I'm not going to platinum it. Meanwhile, more embarrassing, I hop over to freaking FM3 here on PlayStation 4, right? First off, trophies hidden. Trophies hidden. He doesn't want people looking at them.
Starting point is 00:06:21 But what I can see, of course, is his bio. IGN since 2000. Like that's a bio on PlayStation. Oh, I didn't even know. That's funny. Come on. Say what it says after that. 7.9.
Starting point is 00:06:34 7.9. Yeah, 7.9. I'm just going to delete the first part. I thought that was a 69 joke about me and honest. No. Because he just said 7-9 and I was like, oh, I see like 6-9 or whatever. Close. Oh, I see a different number.
Starting point is 00:06:47 A different number. You changed it. It's like perfect sense. Hey, Ron, you got it's so good. What are we looking at? We've gone down the line here with everybody else. What am I looking at one to look at your trophies? You say you only have one over here?
Starting point is 00:06:59 I don't remember. I have a decent number. I'm just not sure. Like, it's nothing compared to your. Oh, you're hitting your stuff too. Oh,
Starting point is 00:07:05 because we have to. Yeah. Can we pull up Greg's Xbox profile, see how many achievements he's got? Go for it. I'd love for you. How many thousand gamers scores
Starting point is 00:07:14 he's got? You know what I mean? Come on. I'm over there doing it left and right. You know what I mean? Don't worry about that. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the kind of funny games cast.
Starting point is 00:07:20 Each and every week we come together to talk about all things we love and don't love so much about video games. If you love that, you should go to patreon.com slash kind of funny games. where of course you can be part of the show writing with your questions, comments, concerns,
Starting point is 00:07:33 everything under the games cast, Sun, but more importantly, you can get the show, ad free, you can get it with the post show we do. You can watch it live like Mike L, Jasek, Jasek, Cooke, Alex Beesonel, and Laserfoot, all are. They're watching live right now, just like you could be if you supported us on patreon.com slash Kind of Funny Games. However, if you have no bucks to toss our way, it's no big deal. You can get the show each and every week on YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games. roostercheat.com and podcast services around the globe.
Starting point is 00:08:03 Thank you. We, you know, in the date's malleable. We move it around. Usually you're getting it on Thursdays, but I think today we're off because of the whole free holiday. Wait, today's Wednesday, isn't it? No, we're on right. We're on.
Starting point is 00:08:14 All right. Imran's showing me his trophies. Now, hold on. To interrupt, I have 14 platinum, 994 gold, 360 silvers, in 2012 bronze. Hold it up to the camera. Let me get a look at this thing
Starting point is 00:08:25 since you're hiding out of me over there, you know? I don't know how to autofocus is better. I know. It'll get there. No, it doesn't do auto focus. He has a different time of camera. All right.
Starting point is 00:08:34 Fine. All right. Well, you know what? Again, well, blessing junior left for a second. Now he's back.
Starting point is 00:08:40 What? Oh, there he goes. I've been here. The feed's catching up. Yeah, your internet is spotty. Spotty at best.
Starting point is 00:08:48 Oh, no. That's not good. I mean, it's not friends internet, though. Not funny. Don't start this.
Starting point is 00:08:54 Don't start this. Don't do this. Of course, like I said, all the stuff about Patreon, podcast services around the globe. Housekeeping for you, be like our Patreon producers.
Starting point is 00:09:03 Mohamed Mohammed, aka Mo Mo Mo Mo. Get Healthy with Hiram at Gmail.com. And we go on an entire adventure with Hiram on the new PSI Love UXOXO. So go check that out. Tom Bach, skin tight salmon, Jeffrey, peep, peep, peat, pealong,
Starting point is 00:09:17 Julian the gluten-free gamer, Sancha West Gaming and James Hastings. We're sponsored today by Honey, draft kings, and raised by wolves. But I'll tell you about that later for now. let's begin our follow-up to the review of Marvel's Avengers. Time to assemble. There are four people on the podcast today.
Starting point is 00:09:39 A beggars doesn't. Thank you, Kevin, right there with it. So, yeah, I think obviously we're going to spoil the story eventually. I don't think we do that right away. I think instead, let's jump off a little bit after a week of Marvel under our belts. Blessing Eddie O. Yeet, Jr., where are you with your roster? Like who are you maining? If you're doing endgame stuff, what's your level?
Starting point is 00:10:00 What's your power level? Where are you a week after with Marvel's Avengers? I finished the game. I finished the campaign. I have not done any of the end game stuff and I don't think I'm going to. From the other missions that I played outside of the campaign, going in there with friends doing the whatever the missions may be, whether they're the iconic missions or just the missions that are available,
Starting point is 00:10:23 I've not found that stuff to be much fun. and so I don't, I don't feel motivated to go back and do any of that stuff. So I have the whole roster unlocked. I've been enjoying Black Widow the most. And whenever I go back, when they drop story stuff, I'll probably go back to her. Just because I really like how, I just like her control scheme. Like the whole, I forget what button is, but like being able to grapple to your opponent and like pull forward.
Starting point is 00:10:48 R2, yeah, get into it from that. And like her gunplay, I just find really satisfying for whatever reason. Sure. I enjoy that. I could not tell you my level or my mission power for any of my characters because I just Oh, that makes sense. I think if you just did the story stuff and that's how you plan on seeing it through the future, why would you give a shit?
Starting point is 00:11:05 Outside of the one I'm mating through endgame, I couldn't tell you any of that other stuff. But what I found interesting there is so the multiplayer endgame stuff, you're not finding interesting, but you enjoyed campaign enough that you're still excited for expansions and characters. Yeah, I'm still excited for whenever Hawkeye comes through. whenever they do story expansions that are the hawk i one is called taking aim right because i think that might be pink bishops she might be taking aim and then oh do they have different
Starting point is 00:11:31 like different things yeah there's two releases there yeah october is kbishop and then no no no no october's k bishop taking aim and then clint is uh end of november or november i think they might have just said oh damn well that's really exciting um yeah like i'm down for those story expansions but I I guess that depends too. I imagine the story expansions will have
Starting point is 00:11:53 cut scenes akin to what we've gotten with the campaign and stories stuff akin to that but that might I might be placing my expectation too high.
Starting point is 00:12:01 Either way, if I can get more story stuff and get more that similar kind of enjoyment that I got of the campaign,
Starting point is 00:12:06 then yes, I'm going to be looking forward to the Cape Bishop and the Clint whatever his name is stuff and the Spider-Man
Starting point is 00:12:12 stuff coming in the future. His is called future imperfect. There it is. Thank you very much. Oh, that's a way less cooler name. You know what? I'm out.
Starting point is 00:12:20 I'm only playing game. I'm out. And I'm done. Taking a name is such a perfect name. Of course, of course. Franz, again, top of the show, top level here. Where are you right now with the game? Who are you meaning?
Starting point is 00:12:31 What's your level or power level? Top levels right where I'm at, Greg. Yeah. At top of the show. Yeah, I'm at 130, which, right, the way it works is that's your actual drop cap. So all your gear stops dropping at 130. so I've maxed out on the drops and then I'm actually 132
Starting point is 00:12:50 but by choice I'm not spending my materials until I kind of get the stuff into the spreadsheet right and level up the way I just want to pause I just want to pause full stop because I understand everything you're saying but I appreciate it I'm like top level
Starting point is 00:13:02 where are you at and you're being like well like deer drops are 130 but I'm doing this and I got that but I'm saying I was top level power sorry I'm going too deep on the power stuff but anyway I am level one 132 about and then I'm playing Black Widow as my main. Strategically, I kind of decided not to play as Captain America or Thor or Hulk, which I really wanted to.
Starting point is 00:13:28 But I said, you know what? I like the feel of Black Widow kind of for the reasons that Blessing was citing and it's been a lot of fun. And yeah, so of course beat the campaign. I've been clearing the map. I've played about 35, 40 hours. So I've been trying to do everything. Sure. Imron Khan, where are you?
Starting point is 00:13:46 So I finished the campaign. I did as much multiplayer as I could before it just became like untenable because there's a lot of, that multiplayer is real broken. But I went through. I'd seen me main in cap by like momentum even though he's actually probably like in terms of gameplay he seems to be the best character. But in terms of what you can do with the character, he's actually kind of the worst because like you literally can't open doors.
Starting point is 00:14:11 Yeah. So I wrote down my. can't as Black Widow either. You know, you can't, you can't, you can't, you can't do the smash doors, the smash doors. There's smash doors and there's hack doors, Cap can't do either.
Starting point is 00:14:22 Or whatever reason. But, okay, so I wrote down the, what level I was and every, and the power for every character, because it wasn't until I wrote these down, that I realized I have no idea what the correlation is. Sure.
Starting point is 00:14:36 None whatsoever. Sure. So Miss Marvel's level 10, 19 power. Hulk is level 10, 16 power. Iron May is level 11, 29 power. Thor is level 9, 15 power, Cap level 17, 31 power, Black Widow, level 8, 19 power.
Starting point is 00:14:50 So I don't know what the two have to do with each other at all. Sure. It's gear, right? I assume it is mostly gear, but also, like, why do I have, like, why is gear dropping in such, like, non-commensurate rates? To what, your level?
Starting point is 00:15:06 Yeah, to my level are, like, because I just played the campaign, and then I try to play through multiplayer, like, moving around characters, but still, like, I was still getting the same, gear or same level gear that I had before. So I don't know what to do.
Starting point is 00:15:18 Yeah, there's two different things. It's confusing and makes no sense until you wrap your head around it. Level is your skill points. It's the easiest way to think about it. You get 50 skill points to level up all your skill trees. So each character, that's what you're seeing is each one of those levels is experience. So you get skill points and you put them into your skill trees. Has nothing to do with your gear drops.
Starting point is 00:15:40 Okay. Those as you sort of slowly stack the power of the gear. That goes all the way up to 130, as I was saying, before you can power it up all the way to 150. So two completely different things. And correct me if I'm wrong, Fran, because again, what I've been talking to people about when I talk about, so for me, Marvel's Avengers, sorry.
Starting point is 00:16:01 A week later of playing this, I guess a week and a half now playing it, right? I'm main in Captain America. He's level 50. I've beaten the story. I guess I did that last week. He's level 50 and my power level is 142. And so it was that thing. My initial thought was,
Starting point is 00:16:18 I'm going to beat the story. I'm going to go through and start playing. And then I want to keep a couple. I want to have a team of four that I'm bringing up to the same level. That way I can go with anybody who has ever wants to drop in. I can drop in and have not even if my main isn't available. Let's say, you know, Imran's playing Captain America. And that's his character.
Starting point is 00:16:35 If we dropped in, he's like, oh, I only play cap. I'd be like, okay, cool. I can play somebody else. I didn't expect the. end game to be in Fran here's where I'll start getting out of my comfort zone and need you to explain or tell me if I'm right or wrong I didn't expect the end game to be so destined where destiny has you going for light all the time right and I remember this when I talk about destiny and enjoying both destiny one and then platinum destiny two it was the idea that I enjoyed the gameplay
Starting point is 00:17:00 and I enjoyed the story and I enjoy doing things with my friends but then we got to that thing that Fran is known for which is that grind and it is sitting there and doing the same missions over and over and over again. And like for me and destiny, when it turned me off was patrolling the moon looking for the, you know, the ingredients I needed to go change things up. I expected that to be the same case here. I've been playing mainly, I've been playing with a whole bunch of different friends from the industry, but mainly it's me and goldfarb every night within a cycling casty characters playing with us. And, you know, when he was, he was a little bit in front of me explaining stuff about how this all works. Because again, yeah, to try to simplify the convoluted nature of all this
Starting point is 00:17:38 and what an endgame is, right? 130 is as high as the gear goes naturally for drops for what you'd find. However, you can then use your upgrades. You can take the materials you've acquired and use that to then upgrade the equipment 10 levels up to 140.
Starting point is 00:17:53 And then one of your artifacts, you can upgrade to give you plus up to plus 10 power, thus getting you to 150 is your power level. And I know that's weird and crazy and whatever. It makes more sense when you get into it. And when
Starting point is 00:18:08 I was having that explained to me. I was very much like not a fucking chance. Because it's, you know, like Simon Cardi from IGN, we've been playing with me and Goldfarb. And he devoured this game and was so far ahead of us. But it was that thing of when he was on this grind to 150, it takes so long from 140 to 150 to actually make progress. Because once it becomes gathering the resources and the materials,
Starting point is 00:18:32 you need copious amounts of resources to then spend on these upgrades to get one point. And it's not that the one. point immediately goes in. It's then the average of all your gear and it's all the stuff and yada yada, but I totally lied to myself and now that I'm there, it's all I want to do. And I won't stop until caps 1-50. And so I'm just running the same villain sectors every day and running the same missions and taking on the same things. And, you know, to open this up, I'm having a blast with it. However, the game is every criticism you've heard of it. And we talked about this last week, obviously, with the difference opinions we all had on it. I liked over on Kataku today,
Starting point is 00:19:08 Actually, yeah, today, right? Yeah, 2 p.m. today. Mike Fahey's review went up, and I'd like to read you the first three paragraphs because I think it sums up a lot of what's happening. There are many things I do not like about Marvel's Avengers. One of the best comic book video games I've played. I don't like grinding missions to earn more powerful equipment
Starting point is 00:19:25 so I can take on more difficult missions. I don't like my hero's inventory slowly filling with junk until I have to pause the game and spend 30 seconds dismantling useless garbage. I don't like having to pick up faction missions in two different social spaces is separated by minutes of loading. I don't like spending five minutes traveling to a mission location,
Starting point is 00:19:41 only to have the game lock up completely, forcing me to restart. I don't like endlessly repeating the same handful of boss battles against foes, a full team of seasoned Avengers should be able to make short work of. But none of that can top the feeling of Thor's hammer slamming into a robot's metal body, Captain America's shield flying true, Iron Man's rockets hitting home, the Hulk's earth-shattering rage, black widows sting, and Miss Marvel's shape-shifting fists and feet. In the heat of battle, even a battle I fought a dozen times,
Starting point is 00:20:09 the sheer joy of being one of Earth's mightiest heroes drowns out all the little irritations. When I play Marvel's Avengers, I am a superhero. That's exactly what I wanted out of Crystal Dynamics, third person, comic book, adventure. Yeah, it's funny that if you were to take out all the Marvel references, that's basically exactly why people play Destiny. Yeah, and why a lot of the industry is chasing,
Starting point is 00:20:33 wanting to be Destiny, which now has reached over 150 million players, granted, with its free-to-play stuff now. And also worth noting, this is its sixth year anniversary of the launch of Destiny 1. Yeah, it's been six years since 2014 when Destiny launched. And a lot of games have been trying to chase that, right?
Starting point is 00:20:50 I mean, you have games out there like Division. Obviously, Borland's had set the original pace of, like, loot drops and stuff, but Destiny for shooters really took that Diablo, you know, style to heart and started to turn it into these action games that you use. see. So yes, as a
Starting point is 00:21:06 hardcore destiny player, I got to tell you even I was surprised at how much it is based on the formula of destiny. Like when you mentioned that artifact, right, so you can power your gear up to 140 and when your friends tell you, but wait, you can get to 150. It's confusing at first. Like, yeah, but you have this special
Starting point is 00:21:22 artifact that is separate from all the other things that you can power up. That destiny just introduced I think was last year. And so that's like a recent development that I'm even seeing now in this game. I don't know if it's like a World of Warcraft thing because I know that
Starting point is 00:21:38 Luke Smith and the team they're big fans. But what's interesting is you now are, this is what you're going to see. You see Dividea players who are like, look, I like the campaign. I just want to play the stories. I kind of like the skill trees, but I'm not in there like trying to like optimize a build and play RPG and get all this gear. So I think that's where, you know, maybe this discussion will go is like, Oh, totally.
Starting point is 00:21:59 Is there enough to do for fans like that versus some people love grinds? you know, for the gear. I have a lot of commentary on where the end game's at, and it's certainly, it's got a lot of content that's going to need to add, but it's a heck of a start. Imran, I want to turn to you, because obviously blessings talked about
Starting point is 00:22:15 being a single player and being, or, you know, a campaign player and it's done. Me and Fran are grinding. You were a roller coaster of Avengers emotions on Twitter this past week. Where are you sitting right now a week later? I think I would like to play multiplayer. I'd like to be able to get into this
Starting point is 00:22:32 and be like a thing that I can bring friends into or play with like just in turn i played monster hunter world every day for about a year because i would just go into the game and i'd just do some sOS hunts and like that was a couple of hours a day and then i was like okay yeah i'm i had fun doing this i would like to do that with this game because i think there is that like part of this game that does shine pretty brightly that you can get really into the problem is the thing where i am right now and the thing fran is describing of that high level thing i don't see the ramp between those places Like I went into the end game part, and this is also confusing because every time I say end game, I think of like the movie.
Starting point is 00:23:11 But I went into that stuff and I was thinking, okay, I'll do these like a rappuccini quests. And like I figured it's going to be probably not quite as good as the campaign, but so kind of good. It's not nearly as good as the campaign. Like there's no set pieces. It's just multiplayer missions where like somebody talks into and that's it. And that got boring real fast. So I don't know what the rope is for me to reach. that idea of
Starting point is 00:23:36 okay yeah I want to go to 150 because that is a goal because I'm I think about it like to what end what does that get me because I one of these things is going to have to be the next group of content has got to show me what the future of this game is
Starting point is 00:23:51 because if it is like if Kate Bishop comes out and it's like these repetini quests that it is her like just going through this aim hallways or the same forest or the frozen tundra again and again while somebody talks at me and like that's the story, then I'm probably not going to be that interested in investing a bunch of time
Starting point is 00:24:12 to get a character up to do these things to just get another character who will also have to get up to do these things at some point. Yeah, I mean, I would say the good news is it does have scaling for, you know, all the characters. So if you come in, for the most part, there's a lot of missions you can do. Whether you're 20 and I'm level 130, it doesn't matter for a lot of the missions. but yes, there's some that you start getting up to the 110, 120 plus that are supposed to be an incentive. And I agree.
Starting point is 00:24:38 It's the elite, right? The elite stuff, I think. The elite stuff. Yeah. And then there's like now mega hive and secret labs. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. I would argue that game actually gets way too difficult because there is no ramp for that.
Starting point is 00:24:50 As that game, so because they're just like so little variety in the enemies, the enemies just get harder. And there's shots to like, I got to the point playing multiplayer with other people that I could be shot 20. twice and I would die. And that's it. And that's not a fair thing in a game that one is very hard to tell where you're being shot from. So much shit going on on screen. So much shit.
Starting point is 00:25:11 They track like crazy. And then like the other added difficulty is every enemy just has shields now. So if you've been buffing up, if you're making a build towards stun, which is what my Captain America is doing because that's the way like, that's the way I like to play. I think that's the easiest like combo thing to do. Here's a sudden thing that's like,
Starting point is 00:25:28 okay, your build doesn't fucking matter anymore. You have to beat down this guy. and then dodge and hope for the best and not do any of these things that take long animations because if you're in a long animation, you can still be hit. You can still be knocked down.
Starting point is 00:25:40 And they did not plan out that bridge between getting to the end of the campaign to wanting to really be a high-level character. And that's, I think, what annoys me the most, especially because so much of the campaign was spent going, yeah, going to multiplayer. Multiplayer is the real thing. We want you to be really invested in multiplayer.
Starting point is 00:25:59 So I finished the game. I was like, okay, I've done enough of this. I should try this. now and it's just baffling how little is designed to guide you to it. Yeah, it is almost two different experiences. I don't know that I agree as much about there's no ramp. I do know what you mean, though. I would argue there is a ramp.
Starting point is 00:26:17 It's just confusing. And I face this as someone very experienced in these types of getting. I'm like, what am I supposed to do? And I'm out here talking to chat. I'm like, all right, chat, what should I work on right now? Because there's all these things on the map, but I want to optimize. Like, what am I going? And they'll be like, oh, just go to the, you know,
Starting point is 00:26:33 go do the hive, follow your main mission chain, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, okay. And then, you know, I do agree there's an occasional squishiness. You get, in games like this, is really interesting, between now and 150, and then once you get to 150 and you finally, hopefully, start getting good drops, that you can power up and create a build, which is missing. And your stats, it's funny, I made Greg, like, go through stats with me. But you start to realize, you're like, whoa, I have, like, no defense.
Starting point is 00:27:01 And in a game like this, there's no guide. like you're saying. Like if you're like, you look at your defense and it says like 800, you have no idea. You're like, I don't know. And yeah,
Starting point is 00:27:10 as it turns out, that's super crap in some missions. And you got to figure out how to put on a different type of gear. Really interesting for a game like this, which kind of goes back to what I said. I think it's at odds with the campaign, which is all fun in games,
Starting point is 00:27:23 that Tomb Raider on charted style of play, epic nature, superhero. But then all of a sudden, they expect you to be an MMO RPG kind of person. Totally. And there's not much of a guy. for it. And that's the thing about it that I
Starting point is 00:27:35 wonder and Blessing and I talked about earlier today, right? Of like, it's a game, it is two different kind of games and will that work for them in the end? I think the fact that Blessing, you finished it and you're like, cool, I'm not doing the other shit. I'm just putting it down, but I'm
Starting point is 00:27:51 excited for future updates speaks that that part works. And then the fact that me and Fran and Goldfarb and a variety of other people are in there going and part of my thing of going, right? because being invested in it, I remember when Destiny 1 did it, and I finished the story,
Starting point is 00:28:07 and I was like, I don't want to do any of this. What am I really doing this for? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This one having finished it, and we'll get to all this, obviously, when we're a little bit more sporty, but, you know,
Starting point is 00:28:15 there's like, as people keep bringing up, they're like, there's two villains that you fight now that in post game over and over again, that aren't the two other fucking robots you fight, you know what I mean, for your villain sectors. And it's like,
Starting point is 00:28:27 yeah, that's stupid. And I can't believe they overlook that when I go to, you know, the next day I check in on my shield things and I'm like, oh, fighting this guy again. Great. All right, let's go.
Starting point is 00:28:35 Like, I get that that sucks, but it's also this belief as I go and I do it as like, I'm committed to this game. I'm excited to be committed to this game. And I'm hopeful, even though I have no idea, I'm hopeful that, you know, Kate Bishop comes with the new villain. I think Hawkeye comes with the new villain too,
Starting point is 00:28:51 that as you even get to like the end of the year, this game looks dramatically different than it does now. But it's this weird thing of me and Fran being motivated for a similar yet different reasons. to continue to grind over and over and over again and we're okay with it and blessing meanwhile is like I don't want that at all but I'm committed for the new characters that are free for the game like it's such a weird tale of two games in one that you don't see often yeah it's funny because um I would kind of put it like this you don't not really you don't get addicted to like a campaign
Starting point is 00:29:22 game and an action game with like a cool camp you don't get addicted to it sure you play for 12 hours maybe 20 and then you're yeah maybe even 4060 and then you're like cool That was awesome, and you love it, and you might want more of that. You'd be cool with another, say, character installment. It seems like that's that side of it. But you do get addicted, and over 150 million players, you know, I don't know, they're all addicted to Destiny. But that's the scale you're talking about that. I think they're trying to reach here.
Starting point is 00:29:47 And that's what you'll start to see the difference is. Maybe Imran is you give it more time and start to understand what the heck is going on. Destiny has the same barrier. Anthem had that barrier. Division as the barrier. You're like, what am I supposed to even be doing right now? But if you do cross that bridge, you might find, you know, that you're starting to be like, dang, I really got to get that drop today. I got to do the villain sector today.
Starting point is 00:30:09 You know why we got to do the villain sector? Because I get polychoron material. Oh, you get me that polychoron. Yeah, I can upgrade this fucking artifact. I'm all about it. Blessing, doesn't this sound like fun? Join us. I have no idea what y'all are talking about.
Starting point is 00:30:21 What is the polycoron? I am in the same place as them. I don't know what a villain sector is or the hive section. I don't know. Like, the game doesn't explain any of these things. And the stuff it decides to realize and doesn't tour realize is weird. Like every single harm room, even if you're using heroes that have introduced at the end of the game, tells you how to dodge. Every single one.
Starting point is 00:30:42 It keeps reminding you. I put 15 hours at this point, maybe 20 hours in this game. I don't know what charges the heroic meters. Like, sometimes they start, like, sometimes I start a mission. Then a minute into the mission is like, well, your heroics ready. I'm like, I just started the mission. Why is it just now ready? Like, why don't it not start ready?
Starting point is 00:31:00 Like, this is the kind of thing I'm talking about that I wish there was just a, they had this big, like, lobby area at the beginning of the game. It says, like, hey, do you want to play multiplayer? Do you want to play single player? They both kind of go to the same places, but whatever. I understand that. But there should be a thing saying, hey, here's what all these things do. Here's if you want to do this.
Starting point is 00:31:20 If you want to build on this, go to this place. And I feel like I need to go to a goddamn discord to figure some of the stuff out. For the record, you do. Like, you do. And like, again, that's, that is where I think is the loudest to what your comment was, Imran, that I agree with of the bridging of it. Where if I didn't come in even with my basic knowledge of destiny, I would be even more lost than I was. And it's the same thing of like when Fran and I were going through, what's your defense at? What's this at?
Starting point is 00:31:51 And I already knew, even though I hadn't looked into it, that the might levels on my armor were applying to that kind of stuff. And I know that from DC Universe online. It's this weird thing of cobbling together different things and understanding it. And then also totally being lost and not it. I'm with you of like, you're right of like what is the villain's sector? What is a hive? Like I had to jump into all those things and have them figure it out for you. And I think the main complaint people come back to you outside of stability because we're not even talking about crashes.
Starting point is 00:32:19 I mean, last week we talked about load times. I know they put out a patch today that they said optimized to an extent. So I have no idea what that means. Improved. Whatever that was. there's a whole bunch of technical stuff but quality of life is such a big thing to this where it is that yeah you finish the campaign
Starting point is 00:32:32 and you want a little bit more but you jump in and it's like they this game is designed to bring in people to games of service who aren't games of service people and for it not to be breadcrumbing it that way or in some extent I think even to explain even though this isn't at all and out for them and don't get me wrong in some level to explain
Starting point is 00:32:50 hey the campaign you're playing isn't really the game right like when I got into cap skill tree and got the masteries unlocked and finally understood choosing between the three. And then I'm like, oh, my God. All right. So I'm going to make my takedowns, give me health, which will solve one of my problems here. I'm going to upgrade this so I can ricochet the shield over and over again. Like it went from, I think that initial concept everybody had of it being a button masher to be like, oh, no, there is this level of customization on top of it that again speaks.
Starting point is 00:33:20 Like to show you and tell you a little bit of the obsession, right, and not obsession, but how much I'm enjoying the game. like we were talking last night with i think yeah tam from game spot when we were playing and he's like oh did you guys see this post he talking to me goal for that like you know you can go and grind for 90 minutes and get your characters to level 50 and it's doing just in the challenge room if you don't do the one thing and you do all this you can do it and it was that thing of like man 90 minutes of fight in the same i might do that i might do that with my black widow because again in the stupid way the character isn't the character until you have those filled in or am i wrong frame because once i have that built out and i have it the way i want it makes
Starting point is 00:33:55 more sense because it's so hard right now for me to go from cap to my black widow and be like cool like i'm getting my teeth kicked in it's a lot like ultimate alliance three when you drop a new character you're like all right fuck i don't know what to do it's literally like playing a fighting game but not having all your moves it's like you playing street fighter and you don't have hadoken until you like unlock it and charge it up or whatever but like you can imagine that'd be a huge problem if you're switching between characters so right i'd very quick comments for guidance for people out there to keep it simple no the game doesn't explain it but number one the best thing to do in the game. I'm curious if you agree Greg or if anybody else, but villain
Starting point is 00:34:29 sector. So that is the boss, you know, that you actually go to the end of a mission and fight a cool boss and you pick up one a day from these faction vendors. Just number one, that's all you want to do because it's the funnest thing to do by like a long shot, I think. I mean, number one, if you didn't know what to do, definitely hit up your shield and Ant Hill vendor guys to get not only the villain sectors, but then the daily objectives. Which is that's the thing that's grinding on XP. I now realize I have done one of these. And I did it with AI.
Starting point is 00:35:00 And it was against Bomination who had like a field around him that does damage. The AI just like stood around him and then died. That was like great. So AI is, you know what's interesting too? The AI is based on your characters, which is. So it's your fault, Imron. It's your family. But I'm glad you brought that up.
Starting point is 00:35:22 But here, don't forget, just do judge it first. on doing once you finish the campaign do a couple of villain sectors like if you guys right now in run in blessing you're like wait which just go to finish this fucking show and go do it you have to pick it up though to go do it and yeah the game doesn't quite guide you but that is the most rewarding thing to do in my opinion it also rewards you some of the best stuff
Starting point is 00:35:39 but I just like go to the end of the mission and fight something and that's the biggest thing this game's missing you know a game like destiny which actually they're removing some of this now to clean it up had like whatever 25 strikes as they're called this is a close thing to it you go through guided fight a boss at the end. Honestly, some of the most fun.
Starting point is 00:35:57 But, um, I'm right, the villain sectors or whatever are basically strikes? Basically, yes. They're like an actual mission strike. And they're fun to do.
Starting point is 00:36:06 You get to the end. You got a real boss fight versus the difference is you go to a lot of this other stuff. And there's like, you know, five question marks on the map across a map. And you're like, I don't know, I can go pick up a chest and beat up like 20 people or I can go to the diamond
Starting point is 00:36:21 at the end and like, find another group of people. and like that's the stuff that I think people are getting into that like even vaults are just they're not as like cool and straightforward you get two villain sectors a day hopefully go do those and judge it first on that and honestly imagine if the game had 10 of those I think it'd be cool but I also just oh 100% sorry go you know you agree the villain sectors are the most fun or no I agree they're fun I mean it is the same thing of back to what I was saying earlier and I again this is not spoiler cast really because it's what we talk about and you've seen it before, right? The two villains are Abomination and Taskmaster and then two giant robot things that you can fight, right? So it's both in the first hour. Yeah. So like, yeah, it's, it's fun and it's cool or whatever, but it's also like lame that I've now fought abomination seven times or whatever it is. Like that, that's the downside to it and what is not
Starting point is 00:37:11 working in the game's favor, right? One of the main criticisms is I'm not even doing the same stuff over and over again because number one, it's a video game, but that's also a games of service where you expect that. It's number one, seeing the same stuff over and over. again, where it is the same aim hallways when you're in these hives, where it in like even when, even a hive, which was cool to open up, which is again, if you don't know, you battle, you know, from the
Starting point is 00:37:33 outside of the map into a building. And then you have to go through a set number of floors right, base, if it's hive or hive elite. And you go through those, but there's still floors you've seen before. You've had fights in the lab before. You know what you're getting into. Like every arc reactor is the same. Every like, Snowy
Starting point is 00:37:49 pundra area is the same. It's a weird thing because like, this is a Marvel game. I'm comparing this in my head directly to Ultimate Alliance, but like Ultimate Alliance, you went different planets, you went to all these different locales. And here it's like, you have so much opportunity with a team that is literally cosmically based
Starting point is 00:38:06 that they could go anywhere. Even anywhere on Earth would be more, like an underwater aim base would be more interesting with just the same damn tower every time. Namor, right? Get in there and do that. But this is what I keep, again,
Starting point is 00:38:19 and this isn't me giving them a pass for this. This is just, I think, when we sit here and critique something or talk about it, you have to believe that to them the games, and I know this sounds stupid, but isn't done, right? They do, I would imagine, think of this on a three-year plan, which means that for them when they finish whatever their roadmap is,
Starting point is 00:38:37 that's when they would think the game is done. And I'm not saying this is an excuse at all for early adopters and people who are literally like, what the fuck I've been on Snowy Tundra a million times? Why are they only two villains? It's to Franz point, as we go through this, when you are six months out, what is this game going to look like?
Starting point is 00:38:53 how much content has. Again, that's not an excuse. I think it's just the reality is the games as a service. That's kind of where I've been sitting with it is like, as you guys have been talking, I'm like, man, I can't wait to play this game maybe a year and a half from now. And maybe get into actually get into the mission stuff and get into the leveling. Because as it stands right now, I'm shocked to hear how much fun you guys are having, but I'm happy with it because that means that this game has a good enough foundation to keep people pulled in.
Starting point is 00:39:19 But even though, like you guys mentioning the villain sectors, and some of the other missions. Like it's still from structurally in terms of how you approach it as a player, still sounds like everything else when it comes to the game. Like it still sounds like I'm just going in and I'm fighting and I'm like doing my abilities and and doing that stuff. And that is the game. Like that is the point of the game.
Starting point is 00:39:40 But at a certain point that does kind of fall still to me where like a year from now, year and a half from now where they've had time to really build things up and you are able to be like, oh yeah. Like the villain sectors really are like strikes. And these over here really are your. your in-world events or whatever they're called in destiny. I forget the exact name for them. And then over here you have like your harm rooms,
Starting point is 00:39:59 which are which do feel distinct from this thing you're doing over here. It feels like in a way they're still building that stuff. And that excites me because I think they'll get there. As I mentioned last week, I think this game is too big to go away. Fail. Yeah, they're not going to pull a plug on it.
Starting point is 00:40:14 Yeah, it's exactly. It doesn't feel like it doesn't feel like that's possible. One, because it's good enough, but then more so because it's Marvel and Avengers. and people will show up for it and people will play it. And they have that foundation to which, up from which to build from. And so, like, I, like, right now I'm not necessarily sold
Starting point is 00:40:35 on playing anything outside the campaign and the expansion DLC or the updates, whatever you want to call them. But, you know, a year from now to years from now, I'll probably be all in, if I'm being honest. So my worry is that not that they're going to pull the plug, I don't think that's going to happen. But this game is just like a, an interesting competition.
Starting point is 00:40:52 of good, broken, and incomplete that makes me think that they're going to focus on the last two for so long that it delays the things that need to be, you know, not necessarily expanded out, but like new things, new interesting things that make the game feel more fresh over time. Like, I'm sure they have a roadmap, but does that,
Starting point is 00:41:09 do that roadmap account for COVID? Did it account for the, like, massive QA, like, layer this game needs at this point. I mean, like, to your point, And this is obviously the right thing to do is stick with me. This isn't, I'm not trying to be ghoulish here. But it didn't account for Chadwick Bozeman passing, right? I wonder if that hadn't happened what that last war table would have looked like.
Starting point is 00:41:35 Because obviously, if you missed it, they opened with a memorial to him. But then also a statement of like, based on that happening on Friday, this Tuesday war table, we had to cut content from it. And so would we be having the same conversations if they were like, guess what? we're going to tell you because my hypothesis was that I think with Hawkeye coming or Hawkeye Clinton coming in in November end of November I think but for sure
Starting point is 00:41:59 Kate coming end of October I think they wanted to do the Wakanda stuff end of September and so I think it was going to be like if we're talking about like there's only two villains there's only so many locations if they would have been like we're giving you a Wakonda thing and a claw or whatever Andy Circus's character he's going to be
Starting point is 00:42:16 a villain in there too right like would that have been a different thing of like we already see what you're doing we see how this works as a map and now we're a little bit in the dark because it is no okay bishop and clinton are coming but and then there's the well they're the same fucking character kind of how are they different who's the villain and what are we doing and i don't know i don't have the answers i don't think it would have changed the conversation that much i think it would have got people excited about some more content but like um i'm uh there's i have so much to say you know so try not to go tangent but i haven't even got really came to this podcast to have like really short thoughts and
Starting point is 00:42:45 be done in a good yeah i know 30 minutes just thought uh okay one that i I didn't want to forget if you're playing as well, Blessing and Irron. Also, do look in your objectives, your left most tab, and actually just follow those main missions. They do have a cookie crumb trail. Cookie crum trail. And in the same way that Destiny is, you have no idea, like, should you even bother with it. But it really wants you to just follow it.
Starting point is 00:43:12 And there's a lot to do. It literally is like, do this. Go do this mission. Go to this elite hive. And it literally will help you power up, get to where you need. don't pay attention to all the other things in there. There's only like one or two main mission trails that you can change that you can follow. Okay.
Starting point is 00:43:27 Outside of that reminder, I was going to say, I haven't even gotten to the end game, right? And a lot of people say, how's the end game? Because some people talk about when you finish campaign, you're in the end game. Absolutely not. You're in the squishy middle game where you just level up your blues and greens, the purples, and all the stats like overall are kind of throw away. They suck. So you get gear that you're just deleting, like you guys were saying.
Starting point is 00:43:50 Like, was it Mike? Mike, Mike, and Kotaka. Yeah, you literally are just there to delete stuff until you get to a level. I've even reached the cap, and I'm deleting a bunch of stuff waiting because I'm such a hoarder to get something that looks good enough and fun enough that is worth leveling up. I don't feel like I've gotten those good drops. I don't know how to get the good drops. I think you can get them out of hot mega hives and stuff, but we'll see. So now I'm just grinding and waiting for that to happen.
Starting point is 00:44:15 And my point here is like, I don't know what these. end game looks like. I was talking to Greg about getting into this four player. I think it's effectively a raid, the secret lab. We know that it'll have a strategic takedown. You have to work together for a big boss. It has all the makings of a cool sounding raid, which you only can play once a week for a really good reward normally. But we don't know what that looks like. That for me is the biggest question. Hold on. I'm looking ahead. It's going to be multiple floors of robots. It might be kind of glitchy. Yeah, I know. There's a current upon walls. Yeah. And I want get into the whole glitch and readiness of the game conversation.
Starting point is 00:44:51 But to me, I'm not even an end game. I don't know too many people that have gotten exotic drops. And nobody is in the end game in my opinion. You can't even play the raid yet, the secret lab. Until you do that and determine how fun that is, because that is the reason that we might be able to turn around blessing in Imron, Greg, and say, dude, you got to play with us. And they're like, let's do it. And I'm like, what level are you?
Starting point is 00:45:11 And we might find out you have to be 150 for Secret Lab. For Secret Lab, you said you have to be 150. Oh, you have to be 150? That's what the last Wartable said when they introduced it. That seemed like a big ask. It's a, I thought you'd have to be like 130 for entry or something, but I don't know. It's, I don't. You know, I know I'm right.
Starting point is 00:45:28 It's more the thing of I'm, I wonder how many things are going to be gated like that, where I don't expect there to be a ton. I think the game knows what it's doing in terms of approachability and keeping people. Because it is the same thing of like last night, you know, goldfarb is a little bit ahead of me. So I think he's 142 or 143 to my 141, which doesn't sound like a lot, but that is hours of work grinding out resources
Starting point is 00:45:49 to then get those little points up there. And like when Tam joined us with his Hulk, his Hulk was in like 43, and we all played together and everything was fine. We couldn't do the elite stuff that I needed to do what I was doing other stuff and getting, you know, I already had DNA keys that I was using on the special chest
Starting point is 00:46:02 to get the, you know, the gear that was good for me. That is a huge concern. I talked to Greg about it offline, but as much as I love having Marvel heroes, the rule that you can't have duplicate characters in the same match, right, is a huge, huge, huge problem.
Starting point is 00:46:18 Like imagine, you know, that we want to play together. Like, are any of you Black Widow or... I'm Black Widow. Yeah, you're Black Widow and Greg, you're Captain America, right? Yeah. And Imron, that's one of your means. My highest level is Cap and I don't really have like a preference. I like the play is everybody, but...
Starting point is 00:46:33 So let's see. Yeah, we were all grinding and you guys are like, let's do it. Let's play. Let's get the crew together. Can't do it. I'm like, I don't have any other characters. So remains to be seen like what that even means. It just kind of is.
Starting point is 00:46:46 what that's why i don't think 150 well first off as always like the level capital increase so like all the stuff we're doing now is great for now but you know it'll be a moot point right in six months whatever when they want to do an update that pushes and changes all that shit even if it could even be fucking kate bishop or whatever if they're dropping new gear and loot for that yeah boy but i do think it's i think that kind of content in terms of hey you know what we're doing this thing and it's going to be super high level and you need to be super high level for it i think that works itself out that the people who are motivated to do that would already have a crew right like what you're talking about yeah it would be awesome but i i don't like if we were like all right cool blessing let's
Starting point is 00:47:21 let's pull your widow all the way up i'd probably roll somebody else i'd probably like all right cool let me get my thor involved then or whatever my my come all right it is a fair point too in most m m m m r pgs and now action m m m m rpgs you actually do need to go in with a plan like nobody rolls into a division raid number one without a plan and certainly uh destiny raid as well like you you know my point is you got to know what you're doing and get ready to do and get ready and have a grind plan going in. Or do it later, yeah, doing it day one. We don't know when it drops yet, right, Greg?
Starting point is 00:47:52 It's maybe weeks out or even... The Secret Lab. Oh, no, yeah, they talked about it in the last thing, but they didn't say, yeah, yeah. He said shortly after launch, so we'll see. But, yeah, also, I am, to be fair to the game, it is an RPG. You've got to get to end game. I actually had a thought that I did really want to ask Imrod about. Oh, Blessing's got a question.
Starting point is 00:48:10 Yeah, what do you expect from the raid, like just a hard, like, Like a room of difficult enemies, or do you guys expect it to be like destiny where you are? This is why I look together and working together. I do not think that Secret Lab is going to be the raid. I think it's raid like in terms of, hey, you have to be high level and it's this special thing. And it's only available on the weekend or whatever they said in that war table. When they get to a raid, I think it's going. And this is me being hopeful, I guess.
Starting point is 00:48:35 Or when they get to a raid, I think it'll be six people. And I do think it'll be like new location, probably some of the same enemies, obviously. But like new location. And yeah, they already have, you know, I use incredibly like, puzzle elements in the game, right? Hitting the number of buttons, standing on the number of buttons. On some of those aim laboratories, right,
Starting point is 00:48:53 they are hiding them really well. We have to break grades. You have to punch through fans to get to them and stuff. It's like, I would imagine more of that getting you into fighting the new raid boss or whoever it's going to be.
Starting point is 00:49:03 Yeah, you make a good point that numerous people brought up. I keep referring to it as the raid because it has all the makings of it. It also is smaller in scale in that it's just a normal strike team of four and can they go beyond? that and get a full cast maybe you're right destiny has something like that called a dungeon and it's a
Starting point is 00:49:21 mini raid effectively and then they literally describe it as the all you know the elements of a raid but for a smaller team easier to get in and out of so maybe that is what the secret lab is um but regardless yeah i expect exact what craig said in fact you pretty much nailed it i guarantee it might have whatever you open it up you fight a little group of enemies with a shielded guy but then they're down and there's like these plates and you got to stand on them in a timer and get a puzzle right and then you move and then there's like a robot with crit points you got to hit and you know i think it's fairly predictable that honestly sounds like it could be really exciting like the the idea of it you know it being you could have six players with it uh in the game limiting you like limiting it so that it's
Starting point is 00:50:05 one person per hero which can suck but in the in the thought process of yeah you have you're playing as all the Avengers in this one thing going through this raid like going through the secret lab whatever it is, right, to take down this enemy, uh, with waves to it and methods to it. That sounds in theory like it could be incredible. Uh, and that could be a thing where if it's good, if there's enough raid reviews for it and people go crazy enough for that type of thing, that could pull me in sooner than later. And you, you just said on something that's really interesting is that's the moment where I think Imron, you mentioned how frustrated or was it you blessing that you can't smash or
Starting point is 00:50:37 hack a door or whatever. That was yeah. That's everybody. Anybody. Anybody he did. I had that frustration also. This fucking super soldier, I can throw this shield and take out that fucking robot. I can't throw it through this goddamn door that's meant to be breakable.
Starting point is 00:50:49 It's so weird, too. There's like a Captain America iconic mission, which is by definition single player. And by definition, you have to play his cap. You can't be anyone else. There's a door he just can't open. Okay, I thought it was crazy. Wait, are you able to complete that without opening that door? Because I got very stuck.
Starting point is 00:51:05 You can't complete the level. You just ignore that thing. But it's like, why is this in this level? I try to get into that door for a long time. Because the AI won't do it. Like Thor could have opened that. door but Thor was like yeah if AI unfortunately
Starting point is 00:51:16 you can't prompt to do it but I was gonna say in a secret lab or a raid if there is one that's the moment where it becomes really interesting it's like dude we need to hack this and it's like where's our Kamala nobody's black widow you're like uh
Starting point is 00:51:27 change out and sometimes like if you're doing a raid race it becomes that moment of like holy crap like go go go so I don't know it'll be really interesting to see if the hero fantasy really comes through even more in the raids like a a raid that is specific like let's say this is the Titan
Starting point is 00:51:43 raid and this is the way where you go through and you're facing Thanos or whatever the thing is. It requires specifically an Iron Man, a Spider-Man, a Doctor Strange, and somebody from Guardians of the Galaxy or something. That could be, that has hints of a good idea, though you're then limiting the people who can't enter that because somebody might
Starting point is 00:52:03 not have any one of those characters. But I'm sure those are the kinds of things that they're thinking about because that could be a really cool thing in order to in order to really tailor-make an actual level, right, that catered to the abilities of certain heroes. That's what I was getting at. In fact, what do we have?
Starting point is 00:52:16 You know, I can hack as Black Widow. Can anybody else hack? Yeah, Tony can. Tony can use those terminals. You can also smash with the Hulkbuster. Yeah, so I wonder if Kater Click. But then, like, Kamala can smash through big doors, like Hulk.
Starting point is 00:52:31 And so there you go. You have these archetypes that do exist already. I'm still trying to figure out what Cap does other than look pretty. It's, again, what I was comparing it to when we were bitching about it is like it reminds me a lot of a Lego game, even Lego Marvel or whatever, but before you add the rest of like the 75% of the other characters,
Starting point is 00:52:50 right? Because in Lego Marvel, there's a gazillion characters. So when you're like, you come to a terminal and you need a smart guy, you can go get Reed Richards. You can go get, I mean, you can go get Tony.
Starting point is 00:52:59 You can switch these on the fly, though, which is why it's so annoying in this game when it is that it's me and Goldfar are playing, he's Kamala and on cap and we're playing as with, with the Tony and with the Black Widow AI. And we come to those terminals and neither of us can do it and we can't tell the fucking computer. That's the, and I mean, we're back to quality of life at that point of like,
Starting point is 00:53:17 give me the goddamn ping system, give me a radar, give me at least northwest, southeast on a thing so I can tell people which direction to go. But also, let me point at things that the AI could then interact with. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, the AI problem is, is definitely a big one. It's not like it's awful, but I think it's boring. And then it creates these problems that it just doesn't do anybody any favors. Like, it's a, it's a number of quality of life things.
Starting point is 00:53:41 like the objective button, like pressing up on the D-pad. One, that's a weird place to put it, but fine. Two, it just goes away so fast when he's like, before something. Once I tag that stuff, leave it up and like opaque or something. When I'm trying to follow or find Fran on the map and I ping and I start moving towards them and it goes away, just leave it on the camera and then the icon is gone. And on top of that, there's a bazillion things that pop up that have no, yeah, layering or
Starting point is 00:54:06 opacity. And it's like, yeah, you know, five question marks come up and it's like, all right, cool. And you get close to one and it just peered. and it's like, all right, so is that a chest now? Am I looking for a chest icon now? Like, what am I doing? You can also get this come too early because I had one that was a, like, Avengers Ally is stuck or somewhere.
Starting point is 00:54:21 I just wandered by the building for like five, six minutes and just I couldn't figure away to get him. Later in the stage, they had enemies around there and then I could do it. I don't know if it was a glitch. I don't know if it was bad like scripting, but something was wrong. Yeah. Are we at the part of the show, we talk about its technical promise? Sure, if you want to.
Starting point is 00:54:40 I was going to do it while I'm thinking about it. Before, I want to get to technical prowess, then I do want to do spoilers for the story, obviously, and still talk about the campaign. But before we do either of those, let's have a word from our sponsors. This episode of the Kind of Funny Games cast is brought to you by Honey. Ladies, gentlemen, children of all ages.
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Starting point is 00:58:34 Yeah, I just flat I want to ask you guys, do you think this game was ready for release? No. Fuck there. I'm glad that was Reaction. Folling through the world Friends we know who can't advance the story
Starting point is 00:58:46 and are hard locked until something gets patched out it didn't launch with backup saves like this in more ways than one feels like the last gen version of a next gen game like Shadow of Mordor PS3 or something
Starting point is 00:58:56 of like this clearly has like way more work that needed to be done on it and just like the loading and all of those things just feel like this game even though it was delayed six months needed to be delayed
Starting point is 00:59:07 another six months but they weren't going to do that because of next-gen systems and the holiday and probably a Marvel deal and all that. Yep. Yeah, I'm just really disappointed. I know there's a lot of people out there who needed the distraction or having tons of fun, and it's easy to,
Starting point is 00:59:23 whatever, seeing an unfinished movie or playing on finished game and you'd be like, honestly, though, I'm still pretty happy to have it. But, like, I do think it was really the wrong, no, I don't think. It was the wrong thing to do to take the, you know, the 60 bucks. And we really could have used the proper early access period that they could test. See, that's the biggest thing about it. You and I talked about this last night, right?
Starting point is 00:59:43 Of like the beta, while fun and obviously sold people on it and showed what the game was, it was back to being one of those betas that really is a, hey, this is a demo. This isn't, I mean, they changed some things off of it and get, you know, added screen shake. I'm not saying they didn't work or go off of it. But like, universally, people are like, there's no ping system. There's no compass. There's no radar. Like that is something if you would have done this six months before, that you would have, that's going to be. being launched and that's what it needs to be like but see but even that is uh i agree with you that's quality of life stuff and i think that there's going to be people that come to the defense and i've
Starting point is 01:00:17 already been hearing it and they're like well it's games as a service this always happens it's huge and bub i'm like no no that's not even what i'm talking about i'm talking about what you guys were mentioned like me 90 minutes of trying to matchmaking of course yeah the insane and unacceptable slowdown on a piece four pro that i'm playing it's not all the time but it is an action game with combos in it and all of a sudden it's like moving slow-mo. Combos and like peri windows are almost impossible when the game frame might slowdown. And the frame on top of slowdown. So it's like big technical issues that shouldn't come from a AAA studio. And again, I understand the challenges and it was already supposed to come out in May,
Starting point is 01:00:53 but it was just not ready. Yeah. You know, we're just going to trudge through it, but part of it sucks, right? It's going to sell the millions of copies and squares like, well, we managed. And guess why it'll probably happen again in the future and I just think that kind of sucks for I think for fans and the industry for me it kind of falls on two things one this game should have been delayed and just wasn't ready period but then also I mentioned this kind of last week but this game just in general is just a big undertaking as far as what it is at its core because it is trying to be a hey let's present ourselves like a triple a almost like a marvel spider man kind of game where you are playing these fully realized heroes and this fully realized world and you're
Starting point is 01:01:32 going to the quinn jet and the production value is going to be the there. The single player campaign is going to be there with cutscenes and all these things. But at the very same time, we're also going to make this a game of the service with multiplayer and we have a gear system and these different cosmetics, but also like we can't we're not going to show you the gear and how
Starting point is 01:01:49 it appears on your character because of Marvel and we want to make sure that we don't fuck with how Iron Man looks too much. So we have pre-canned costumes we're just going to play into this. And like the snowball keeps like going further and further in terms of a tale of of this like big budget, almost single player-ish sort of
Starting point is 01:02:05 campaign game mixed with this big budget, destiny multiplayer thing that's also a brawler that like, like there's there's, there's so much in it that I'm almost surprised that it's as good as it is despite all that. But yeah, like this game should have been held back because it feels like it's, it's coming in way hotter than it should.
Starting point is 01:02:25 Yeah. Like I had a glitch doing a multiplayer mission where we had, you know, those like objectives where it's, hey, there's five elite enemies, kill these five. Yeah. The last elite enemy just,
Starting point is 01:02:34 wouldn't take damage at one point. And like every single time, because by that point in the game, you have to, they're only taking damage to take downs. And I understand that I had a, I had a build around setting them until like they get into take down range.
Starting point is 01:02:48 But every single time I did it, they just got their energy back. And I couldn't tell what was wrong. But like, there was no huge power difference. There wasn't like any real reason for it to happen, except that just the game was little broken.
Starting point is 01:02:59 And thus the last like 40 minutes of this mission were just pointless. Yeah, I've had plans. that where it's like clear the room of enemies all right we get it down and like where's the last enemy oh it's a drone and it spawned behind that closed locked door so there's no way for us to get it and we need to quit out and come back in
Starting point is 01:03:15 that's a classic division experience totally in that that's the thing about it where not that I struggle with it but because this is just a sad state of affairs I think for games in general where it's like could this game have used more time oh my fucking God yes of course it could
Starting point is 01:03:30 have however it's still not by far the most broken game I've played at launch. And it's just that thing that it is that in games, especially games as a service I do feel end up most of the time coming out half fake to some extent. And correct me if I'm wrong or you don't agree with me. I just feel like there's tons of shit wrong with this game for sure. But it's like, I've seen so many people saying it's bad. It's broken. And it's like, well, I don't think it's a bad game. I definitely think parts of it are broken here and there. But it's again, I've reviewed games worse than this. I've reviewed games that were way less ready for prime time than
Starting point is 01:04:04 this one. I think it's a lot of that it's a in a lot of ways it's a very polished title and it's a triple A retail game that you know has a big marketing campaign and all that behind it. So people bought it expecting like okay it may not be like all the way there may not be fully baked but at least it's not like poisonous and there's part of it they're like oh this is straight poisonous
Starting point is 01:04:24 this is bad. No there's a lot going on in the game actually some good stuff. Yeah like that's the thing it's like a blessing kind of came close to saying the phrase that it's been in my head, but it's a tale of two cities. That is, there's a really good game in there. It's just so difficult to get to sometimes. And I feel like the game is fighting me when I want to hit it. Sure.
Starting point is 01:04:46 No, that's 100% fair. That's 100% fair, I think, yeah. So, now let's actually enter into spoiler zone if you haven't beaten the campaign and talk a bit about that. I think for me personally, like, so it's spoilers. We're into spoilers now. Get out of here if you don't want to spoil. I'm sorry.
Starting point is 01:05:02 Spoils, spoils, spoils, spoils. Oh, Fran hasn't beaten it. sound there. No, I did. No, sure. Do you want me to wait for you? You want me to say, I can kill time while you go.
Starting point is 01:05:08 No, you're going to take all this. It's going to be a long one. I don't understand why he cares so much about that focus, you know? No, that was really cool. He's rubbing this microphone in your face. He's hiding something in his background.
Starting point is 01:05:19 But like, look how good of a visual. That's like a good Twitch. Like, we'll be right back image. Yeah. I would be as jazz. I've always want to.
Starting point is 01:05:30 Play some jazz. But up do do do. You were made to play jazz. Yeah, this is like Mala land. There's like knee slapping and all that, too. Wait, what? There's like knee slapping and all that? Oh, yeah, no, he's good to it.
Starting point is 01:05:52 Yeah, yeah. You asked Kevin to fill it for time. Kevin's going to fill some time for you. Let's bring scatting back. That's what this is called, right? I'm a scatting. Yep, 100%. Let's bring scatting back.
Starting point is 01:06:02 You know, they call poop scat, too. That's why I was confused. I was like, did I just say a bad word? No. I mean, like, yeah, you know. Unintentionally. No, and it's not a bad word because I saw, I watched the show alone. And it's where they drop somebody like in like, not a desert island, but more like an Arctic.
Starting point is 01:06:20 And they'll always be like, oh, here's some bear scat. Like, scat's a cool way to say shit without saying shit. Yeah. Right. Fran, you wouldn't think scat is a bad word if I said scat. Not a bad word, no. Cool. Okay, sure.
Starting point is 01:06:32 What about ski? Do you think skeet's a bad word? Yeah, that's probably a little more of a bad word. Doug's best friend. Skeeter. Hey, I was watching Doug yesterday. This is a tangent, but I've been watching a lot of Samsung TV Plus for whatever reason. Because that was Samsung.
Starting point is 01:06:48 What I have existed? Hashtag ad? What's going? So like if you get like a modern Samsung smart TV, it comes with Samsung TV plus, which has a bunch of, like, if you connect you to Wi-Fi, it has just a bunch of channels that you play just off of Wi-Fi. And so, like, that's how I've been watching then for no reason. And, of course, yeah, gaming channel with a bunch of, like, shows that correlate to gaming pop culture. I've watched a lot of that, but then also they have a channel on there.
Starting point is 01:07:13 And I guess this is turning into a full sponsorship. So, Samsung, if you're listening to me to this, please sponsor me. They have a Nickelodeon channel. That is, like, old school Nickelodeon shows. And so I've been watching a lot of SpongeBob, a lot of I Carly, a lot of Victorious, a lot of Doug and Keenan and Kel. And those shows all hold up. They're all great. That's it handy.
Starting point is 01:07:31 all right samsung tv plus i highly recommend it it's actually way better than i thought it would be all right it'd be great if you stood up a stretcher we're at a samsung tv plus there's also an igon channel were you guys just killing time when are you going to use the restroom is that what i'm yeah that's right yeah we i don't know if you know this this is like the avengers it's a team effort and we can't move on without you because of course if i went and collected the fragments you wouldn't get the fragments unless you're with me which is another dumb fucking thing but no i digress on how fragments work uh story wise yeah um um let's Let's talk about that because I think Kamala Khan's story and the campaign is what caught so many people off guard.
Starting point is 01:08:07 It looked like in terms of what they expected from this game and what they wanted out of it. Blessing, now that you've rolled credits, what are your thoughts on the campaign? I like it overall. I think I liked it more so in the beginning half rather than the latter half. I feel like it lit up on the gas a bit. It started off so strong. Like when you first meet Kamala and her dad and you get into A-Day and you do all that stuff. I remember during the beta, I was not blown away by the A-Day.
Starting point is 01:08:31 scene. I thought it was fine, especially as it worked as a tutorial I didn't think it was good. Playing it in context to what's going on in the proper game. I still don't think it's great as a tutorial, but I think the game does a good job after that of introducing you slowly to each of the Avengers
Starting point is 01:08:47 and so it's not as big an issue for me. But yeah, like that stuff, the story stuff for the beginning was great. One of my favorite parts was the reunion between Bruce and Tony. I thought that scene was really excellent, especially Tony being pissed off from the get-go and in us as the audience kind of getting that look at oh
Starting point is 01:09:06 okay so like Bruce really did kind of go awall with this when he said that the Avengers weren't safe for society and got them shut down and like seeing seeing that Tony wasn't happy with that and then seeing the following scene where we're going into it right we're full spoilers you can go you say whatever you want now like seeing seeing how followed like followed by that right you see that aim is following Kamala and Bruce and you get into the scene where you're playing as Tony and slowly putting on the different elements of his suit. But like not the full suit. Just like the, all right, I got my thrusts from my right arm,
Starting point is 01:09:38 thrusters from my left arm, thrust for my legs, and putting on the helmet. That shit was so good. And it honestly was so good that it made me go, like, why have we not seen this in the MCU? It's okay. We've gotten, we've gotten close to it in the MCU with Civil War where like you have that, or was it so.
Starting point is 01:09:53 Yeah, yeah, it puts on just the glove. Yeah, it puts on just the glove to fight against Winter Soldier or whatever. But like, yeah, no, I thought that was such a, cool idea and honestly there are so many parts in this game that made me go like man i wish there was a kamala game or man i would be down for an iron man game like that's what i thought the way they treated they treated that stuff was so good um but toward toward the end of it like the climax itself i thought was fine like it was very predictable about where it was going to go some of it kind of lost me in terms of how modoc's head got that big that kind of confused me and i was also kind
Starting point is 01:10:24 of confused about why modoc hated superpower so much like they that never gets really like established because the entire time you think oh there was a conspiracy that's like he did that's on purpose it turns out he didn't he just kind of like just doesn't like superheroes and which I don't get because he weren't the superheroes yeah he's very idealistic
Starting point is 01:10:43 like he doesn't seem like that bad a guy until he just goes nuts and he comes modoc and he calls himself modoc for no reason and the captions don't match up when when the captions go oh you're calling yourself Modoc now Captain America never says that I'm like
Starting point is 01:10:58 what the fuck is going on Why is he something to call himself Modoc? Because Modoc is mental organism designed only for killing, correct? I believe so. Tarleton's not that. Because he's not designed only for killing. He was a human.
Starting point is 01:11:10 And he doesn't like super want to kill. He has like a, not a valid reason. It's a little crazy. Genocide's obviously. Yeah, it was more about the purity, right? But that's what it was. But where did that come from? Isn't it part of the,
Starting point is 01:11:26 isn't it part of A-Day? that like he's he's not fully bad there yet right they're there to get the cree century but like he he does blame them for what happened to him and then okay wait so are they there to get the cree century that did not come up until the end of the game correct that's 100% correct no you look at the game and like I am with you I think though in the beginning I think they're doing such a great job of Kamala and her father what a great relationship uh Kamala and Bruce is a budding relationship. Bruce and Tony were getting against each other.
Starting point is 01:12:01 But once we get Iron Man on the team, we start getting Avengers at such a quick clip and we lose all that. To the point that, yeah, Thor just walks up. Yeah. And he's like, I'm here. And you're like, what the fuck? And he's like, I was helping this to do you. And you're like, all right, cool. And then he's there.
Starting point is 01:12:16 And then he immediately leaves again. He's like, oh, fuck, you guys haven't solved anything. Goodbye. And it's like, what the fuck was that all about? Like, you could totally remove Thor. And it, like, the story will be no different at all. And I think that's part of my with the writing in this game is that I love Kamala Khan. I think that story works really well. I think her and Bruce work really well.
Starting point is 01:12:33 They both had full arcs for their stories. Nobody else did. And like, nothing in this game really has time to breathe. Like, the discussion you were talking about Thorough leaving. Every, like, the helicier is in the air. Then everyone just, like, walks off the Camara.
Starting point is 01:12:49 And then comes back, like, 20 minutes later. Like, where did they go? Where did, like, I get her Why was Blackwood old tiny dancer? Like, I understood. I understood the revelation. I didn't understand. Like, does she like the song?
Starting point is 01:13:05 Is that? No, no, no. It's because of her ballerina music box. Oh. She was in the red room. She was a ballerina there or whatever. If you do the optional dialogue where you walk around her room as her, she goes to the jewelry box and she's like,
Starting point is 01:13:18 I can't, you know, it's such bad memories or something, but I can't get rid of you kind of thing. Like she's still hung up on everything that happened to her in the red room. Okay, that makes sense then. Yeah, I think that everyone has details to them. Like, Tony just kind of, he forgave Bruce really easily in a way that doesn't make a lot of, like, okay, sure, we need to work together.
Starting point is 01:13:37 That makes sense to me, but then still holds it as a grudge later, but then also forgives him immediately after. Yeah. Yeah, I was just going to say, I do think they absolutely struggled with, like, introducing all the mandatory characters, like how Thor just has to show up because, like, you've got to get him in the game. Did you guys understand why he was in a t-shirt though? Yeah, I mean, he was volunteering somewhere. Yeah. Like, that's his whole thing is that he put down the hammer and went off to live among the mortals and take care of them. And he was out.
Starting point is 01:14:09 He was really good. Exactly. I know, right. Hey, you know, you look exactly like Thor with his hair pulled back. No, not me. You know what I thought he was like undercover and then they never explained it. And I was like, oh, maybe he was just chilling in a t-shirt, I guess. He was working in the dogs.
Starting point is 01:14:25 He was undercover working with these people. But yeah, it was literally one line. I'm screwing it up, but it's akin to like I was, you know, volunteering. I was working with the commoners or something like that where we went down there. Yeah. Yeah. But I was going to say, yeah, the focus story on Kamala, I thought was really nice, you know. It's sort of like.
Starting point is 01:14:41 Yeah. Oh, yeah. In a way, it's cliche, but I thought it was super fitting. It's, you know, somebody who has these dreams, isn't fitting in, then gets to like live out these dreams, become, you know, all that. really find herself in the process, find a relationship. I actually thought that was really nice. It was a little unexpected even.
Starting point is 01:15:00 I felt like it did have a nice emotional thread that you don't get as much out of a pure action game, let's say. So I was happy with all that stuff. When she gets the call from her dad or when she accidentally calls her dad via Jarvis, and he picks up and he's like, he's like, you know, begging her to like come, come home. And she's just like, they're listening. That legit got me. I was, I was legit like, man, how is how did they do? do this character so well.
Starting point is 01:15:25 She's really good, like, Muslim representation. Like, she references, like, she made her superhero from, like, a Burka swimming soup. Yeah. Mother gave her. It's like, okay, yeah, I totally get this. I, like, I understand, like, growing up Muslim myself, that, like, that, things like that are difficult and especially, like, Kamala Khan as a character was created because
Starting point is 01:15:45 the whole inhuman thing is kind of, like, a reaction to the way Muslims are treated after 9-11. So I get what they were going for here. I feel like they could have gone more that direction and maybe made that a bit more explicit on this one, but I also like maybe you don't have Muslim writers and that's like an area that's kind of fraught with like difficulty
Starting point is 01:16:03 if you don't. But I appreciate that they took this character that is diverse, interesting, and in a lot of ways it represents the antithesis of the way end game and Infinity War worked from like the split up the Avengers and how they got together through tragedy. This was like, oh, we got
Starting point is 01:16:19 together through hope. And that's what they came back together is because somebody had hope. And I think that works really well as comparison point for that. Yeah. Wait, so the crease entry, because I'm still on this. Because when that happened to the end of the game, I was like, oh, that was the thing that was under there. But then I thought about it more and I was like, or was it?
Starting point is 01:16:37 Like, I don't know. No, that was the object to energy statue. Yeah, explain that too. That cap was going crazy about. So the timeline, that was the thing that was underground, the big statue. Yeah, that was the heat signature that was in the bay that they were talking about. And that's like an alien thing that crashed or something. Because that makes sense because that's where the, that's where the, that's where
Starting point is 01:16:53 that's where the inhumans come from the Cree as I understand from Marvel's Agen's of Shield TV show. I get to the bank. Yeah. And so it makes sense that like the Cree are tied up in this and that the Terrigan would activate that statue because of the like if it's a Cree statue, I'm sure there's some like connection there.
Starting point is 01:17:12 Well it has stuff in it, right? Like that's its eyes light up. Yeah. Yeah. Like Cap at some point figured out through computers that the Territon is what was causing that whatever was big in the bay, the Creece statue, to actually like react.
Starting point is 01:17:28 So he smashed it. And then causing a bigger explosion. That was bigger than the actual destruction that the Cree statue. No, he's very clear. They're very clear after the fact. Because Tony asks him. I have to ask. Another great scene, right?
Starting point is 01:17:42 Like, I love the, I love everything about the Tony flying to space, which was, oh my God. Like, I wish there was more of that in this game, right? Of like, hey, let's do something completely different. Let's keep you on your. was not what's happening. I love that Kamal's like, I got some of your music, right?
Starting point is 01:17:57 And you're doing this crazy fly thing, then you get up there. And it was this thing of like, cool, I'm here to get one of the other nameless in humans that they've been milking or whatever. And you get in there and find cap, play his cap.
Starting point is 01:18:07 And then even getting into the escape pod, right, and just sitting there and like, all right, we're going to suffocate. And Tony asks them, right? Like, I gotta ask, why'd you smash it?
Starting point is 01:18:14 You know, all those people. And caps, like, it would have been way worse if the thing they were going to, they were trying to get to would have gotten up. But what would it have true?
Starting point is 01:18:21 Because it got up if you beat it. Yeah, but it's a different thing because they beat it. Yeah, they wouldn't have beaten it. Nobody could get big. You know what I mean? They didn't have Kamala yet. Think about it. Also, there was no modoc to crawl into its head and control it.
Starting point is 01:18:32 You know, guys, you're asking a lot of questions. It's just, let's just, it's just, it's like, I wouldn't have these questions if they didn't literally just beat it at the end of the game, meaning that less people would have died if they didn't, if Captain didn't cause the explosion. Right? I guess Kamala is like the secret weapon here because Kamala did beat that thing. The space station thing actually kind of being pissed off that they didn't hide the cap thing better.
Starting point is 01:18:53 Like if they had actually hidden the cap was dead, it was not coming back, they didn't make you play as him, they didn't do any of that stuff. And then you discovered him, I'd be like, oh shit, Captain America's still alive. But the entire game,
Starting point is 01:19:04 I'm just being like, is this the mission that give us cap? No, not yet. Okay, is this the mission that gave us cap? It turned out eventually to be true. See, I'm on the wiki here, and this is what you know what I mean? Blah, during which captain reveals
Starting point is 01:19:13 he destroyed the reactor because it was an earthing something that threatened to stabilize the San Andreas's fault and destroy San Francisco. Now again, that's a threat. You got to weigh your options. Don't want to kill a few hundred people, a few hundred thousand people?
Starting point is 01:19:27 They're all to kill millions. The San Andreas fault thing, and that destroying San Francisco makes way more sense. In my mind, I was like, wait, so the Crease century soldier statue thing is going to like fuck up San Francisco when you guys literally stopped it. But I guess the second time around,
Starting point is 01:19:42 it didn't fuck with the fault. Wouldn't Tarleton have known that? Like, he was talking to Cap right up until he closed the door and then Cap smashed the thing. So it wouldn't even like there was a thing there a cat needs to get rid of this. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Starting point is 01:19:57 And please do. And maybe nobody has chat. I'm looking at you if you want to too. Like, Tarleton doesn't start off as a bad guy. Like he is, it's Monica who's pulling all the strings and being the bad guy.
Starting point is 01:20:09 So she knows about what's really going on there. That's why she brings in Taskmaster. And he's a pawn in it. And that's why he fucking kills her, right? they have that conversation early on that Kamala over here's where they're like conspiring a little bit being like I don't want to have this yeah remember Kamala goes yeah yeah yeah okay so he's not
Starting point is 01:20:29 100% good but he also didn't know what was about to go down okay I mean I'm not saying he's like you know fucking the white gloves over here again you are right that Monica is starting to conduct experiments on him and like using him almost as a puppet and you're right she and they reveal that at the end like she's still pretty much the mastermind and she didn't die. Now, well, hold on.
Starting point is 01:20:48 Jason Cooks over here in the chat says he doesn't kill her. She gets the super serum. Yeah. Does she or is she a clone? I thought she was a clone. Because remember when she's in the post credit scene, when she's revealed the scientist Supreme, aren't there a bunch of monicas in tubes behind her?
Starting point is 01:21:03 Were there? Yeah. I missed this. I didn't see that. I'm going to go watch. I mean, you're not, you might not be wrong. That sounds really cool.
Starting point is 01:21:10 You are right. That happened. I don't, but I don't think I pieced together or thought, interpreted that as, that's the clone monica. I thought that was the real monica that made clones of herself.
Starting point is 01:21:20 Oh, God, we're into a Spider-Man clone saga? I mean, we don't know, technically, to be fair. Star Wars is episode nine. We also don't know if that was Modoc flying out. We assume it was. That was not Modak flying out. That was like a Cree. That was like a creed.
Starting point is 01:21:34 I thought that was a flair. Like, boom. We got trouble to bring everybody down here kind of thing. We think Modoc is dead. I mean, no one's dead in Marvel. I forgot what happened to Modoc. Maybe he was in the beacon, too. Maybe it's a double.
Starting point is 01:21:48 Can I say I wish they would have let you control that fight? Yeah, I thought they were going to go full Kajima on that one too. Yeah. That it was going to be like the street fighter like Kamala like. I thought it was like a punchout fist fight thing or something. Like the fact that it was just QTE and a game that has honestly way too many and kind of bad QTEs was pretty disappointing. BKD, I'm sending you the YouTube link here from. Yep.
Starting point is 01:22:13 Sharaku's YouTube channel 1.1 million subs. I'm like to have those numbers, you know what I mean? I should be timestamped to watch this post-credit scene together here with Monica. I haven't been in the game. No, I'm looking at this scene. Oh, but you're on the spoiler cast and you just heard exactly what happens. No, I've been talking to Paul about
Starting point is 01:22:29 some stuff, so. Monica is a clone, maybe, or they're all clones or who knows. Stop, shut up. Guess what? All the abominations you fight afterwards also clones. Very pieced together. That makes a lot of sense. It's why you fight them seven times. Yeah, okay. I'll give you
Starting point is 01:22:43 that, then why is it when I run other missions several times? They're still acting like I've never done it before. No, that's not in. Hold on, guys. I was looking, I don't know if I had the full scene, though, so let's make this bigger. Yeah, make it big. I love this cap out of it, by the way. I love all, I shouldn't say all.
Starting point is 01:22:59 Kamala and. Do you want audio? You probably shouldn't do audio. They're not going to claim. They're not going to claim. See, that's her. Oh, right. You guys can't hear it.
Starting point is 01:23:11 You want to hear it? Oh, that is... Those are two clones of her back there. Yeah. And look at it. I love this. Unknown is it talking. The captions are unknown. And then you turn around, it's just Monica.
Starting point is 01:23:20 You're like, oh, I don't fucking... I don't understand a lot of... I'm sorry. Do you want to hear it or not? I mean, I would like to, but if you were already so deep into it, you can just let it go and we'll keep talking over it. So just hit... Yeah, we got captions.
Starting point is 01:23:31 Yeah, we're fine. I don't really get her, like, a whole deal during this, uh, this game. Like, I don't know what her motivation are. I don't know what her end game really is. Like was she just making the soldiers She was the bad guy the whole time Who what the fuck's this?
Starting point is 01:23:46 Who's this? Is that the Golden Gate Bridge? Kevin, look it gets better. Look at this Kevin It's going to go. Stabbed him, you ready, Kevin? Do you think he uses
Starting point is 01:23:59 one of those things to talk? It's a good thing That could be Modoc. It's a good thing That is not Modoc. It makes more sense to me than a modic. What's a modic?
Starting point is 01:24:10 Don't worry. Is that it? That was it. That's all you wanted to see. We told you. I'm not convinced that she's a clone. Do you think she's the original? Why are the two clones of her behind her then?
Starting point is 01:24:20 I mean, maybe that's the new power. Unless they explicitly show her dying, I don't think she's dead. So is there any meaning to the fact that, you know, when she gets stabbed with the needle from Modoc, right, he turns on her and is that terrigin? What is he injected? That was a super serum stuff they were working out. He is punishing her by making her a superhero, which. But it kills her, right? That is what she,
Starting point is 01:24:44 what, punished me, man. So what is there, what is the meaning behind the different colored eyes? Do we know? That's,
Starting point is 01:24:50 I was going to say, J.Sick, in the chat is saying that the clones don't have the green eyes that OG Monica has. The Monica at the table has super serum eyes. Oh.
Starting point is 01:24:58 No, the clones have two different colored eyes. I'm looking at it right now. And so, you're right, though, that she at the table doesn't, does she?
Starting point is 01:25:09 I'm looking. I'm double checking right now. This is another one of those things. Like, Like, who knew? The right eyes different from the left eye? Okay, so, oh yeah, wait a second. This is, okay, I'm seeing it now.
Starting point is 01:25:18 She has brown eyes, I think, in the beginning. And when she gets stabbed with a serum, one of them turns green. So, Greg, you nailed it. But the clones have two different color eyes, but her at the table, she just has green eyes. Wait, wait, wait. Which she originally didn't. Like, we're talking like a husky, one blue, one brown? Yeah, like, exactly.
Starting point is 01:25:40 The clones, after, so she got stabbed with a super serum, it changed one to green, I believe. Did she? I'll double check that. Did she originally have two different color eyes? No, we just covered that. No, she just had brown. And now, you're right, Greg. Greg, what's with the attitude?
Starting point is 01:25:53 Come on, man. I haven't been listening. What do I tell you? I'm excited for this game. Go back and talk to Paula. When are we playing? Let's play together. Oh, man.
Starting point is 01:26:01 It's already confusing enough. I've been super busy recently, so, you know. I know. It's been helping me move. Thank you, Kevin. But you beat the campaign. You didn't have wrong. I mean, I did beat the campaign, you know.
Starting point is 01:26:13 It also took like... He just played what Kevin did all the work. I'm not going to lie. There was a lot of that happening. So that's funny that they were actually... I noticed the I thing and I didn't, you know, I don't know why I didn't watch at the end. That's exactly what they're trying to communicate to you.
Starting point is 01:26:29 So is this like... Are they a clone or no? It seems like she's a clone or something new, at the very least. I'm not just like a clone. I can't wait for the expansion to expand all this. Taking aim will definitely deal with this. I'm honestly not joking. The aim stuff is the most boring part of this entire story, honestly.
Starting point is 01:26:52 Of course. It's like, oh, they took over all of Tony's stuff, and now we're like doing clear and obvious evil in a way that I find inexplicable that no one is like, oh, no, the aim gunship, the shooting at us is actually doing good things. It's the Avengers that are bad. It's like, no, write this story better. This is bad.
Starting point is 01:27:11 It's the same way at the end of the game and then the post game stuff where they're like, public opinion is still down on the Avengers, but we'll turn it around. I'm like, what the fuck? How does AIM have this much control? They took down a giant in San Francisco. Yeah, exactly. Public interest or whatever, you've got to chill. I mean, like the part where you go to New York, which is on it, it feels like a failed admission,
Starting point is 01:27:33 actually, was like, oh, aim is bringing us there because they want us to seem like a disaster. But we go down there and we just beat up a bunch of robots that are capturing people in broad daylight like next to buildings. So like what is what is happening that eight? What is Ames PR? The more and more we talk about this, the more and more I think about police presence
Starting point is 01:27:52 in the United States lately and I'm like, ah, you know what? Maybe I can understand when it's probably true. It does say pretty close to home. We don't know what we're doing. Let's turn it over to this private corporation. They're wrongly arresting people in broad daylight. You don't say, huh?
Starting point is 01:28:05 Huh. That's a new one. Maybe everybody should be against this. But I feel like NCU kind of does the same thing with like Oh the Avengers are as popular as they used to be because of this This is like Civil War is basically about this Yeah
Starting point is 01:28:17 But they do it a lot better And I think more interestingly And I feel like a 10 hour game Should have a better More time to breathe than a two hour movie Sure No And I think
Starting point is 01:28:31 And I think that's where the game Harts the most is that it gets rushed at the end Yeah And I don't know why You know what I mean? We're talking about the dialogue not matching up with what's being actually spoken. So clearly things have been edited and changed and I don't know how last minute or whatever that is, but it is clearly getting to a point. Like, wait, what is this? And why would you start calling yourself Modoc and what is going on?
Starting point is 01:28:53 And it's like, okay, cool. Like, it's overall, it's what I talked about last week in the review and a more non-spoiler thing. It's like, for better or worse, it reminds me a lot of a Marvel comic book. And that works really well in the touching moments. And I think, think of, you know, being a Ms. Marvel fan, Ms. Marvel fan, you know, the way she's always been with her father and her family and the Avengers. Like, that all rings so true. I think, like we're talking about, with Bruce and Tony and all the stuff we've talked about being so positive. And the big superhero moments of Ironman
Starting point is 01:29:23 taking off. Even in, you talked about a bit, but even a more spoiler fashion, how great A-Day was, where A-DA was such a fun section when we were Kamala and walking around and, you know, collecting comic books and interact, even though it's cheesy in the way a comic book book is interacting with Thor and Cap and having those conversations I thought was great. But it does get to this point too where it's like, wait, you're clearly super evil. Why would anyone just let this happen? And it's that weird thing of when a comic book you go through three pages of it, you're on to the next thing, you don't think about it.
Starting point is 01:29:52 And when you see that projected in real life in quotes, right? Like something that's more grounded. But it's also the thing like in the comic books, Miss Marvel is you've got her origin story. And this game is also supposedly her origin story. At no point does she say like her original story in the comics. says she really loves Captain Marvel and she wants to take her name as like homage to her. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:30:11 But this one is like, when does anyone call her Miss Marvel? When does she call herself Miss Marvel? Like there's no point where she makes that leap from I'm a kid who had this thing happen to me to I love this superhero and I want to take her spirit on. Because Carol Danbridge is like mentioned twice, three times. Oh, she got all the posters and stuff. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:30:33 And Cap eventually talking to Kamala's. and maybe post game, but talks about, I'm sorry, she's off planet right now or whatever. But that's like also one of the biggest parts of Ms. Marvel's origins is like maybe eight issues in. Carol Danvers does show up and say like, hey, I know what you've been doing with my name. I think you have the right to carry it. And this one, it's, I think Thor remembers her. And that's, that's her big moment. It's a great point, I guess.
Starting point is 01:30:57 I do know that people on the ship caller Ms. Marvel. But yeah, there is no point where she was in the very similar to Modoc way. Yeah, yeah, there's no the same mod. same Modoc way. There's no moment where she's like, this is who I am. Or they call her. Do they call her that on TV? Does the Daily Buegel dude call it? I don't think they call any like not. I don't think they
Starting point is 01:31:16 refer to her, but I may have missed reports. Yeah, exactly. That's the thing too. It's like then we're just missing it. That's not necessarily on us. But in like, the thing about the comics, like, we were talking about how the villains could have enhanced
Starting point is 01:31:30 the gameplay a little bit, like adding more villains. Yeah. Marvel has a good like villain set. Like, she has Thomas Edison who's actually like a parrot, I think, like the head of a parrot. You know I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah. But like,
Starting point is 01:31:41 it would have been like a funny thing to add into the game. Like, that'd be a funny thing to add into the game, but they don't. And it's a mis... For a game that's about her, they don't commit to it being about her. I mean, maybe there could,
Starting point is 01:31:54 I mean, there could be a Miss Marvel expansion, right? Like... I mean, yeah, Captain Marvel has to be coming to this game. I have to imagine the Cree stuff is wrapped up in that too. And when that happens, I want that scene. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 01:32:06 I hear you've been calling yourself of Ms. Marvel. I see the symbol and stuff like that. Like, I hope you get that. I hope you get that kind of stuff out of it. Yeah. Quick correction. I was focused on that eye stuff that I double checked. So Monica has two different colored eyes.
Starting point is 01:32:20 Thank you. From the big get-go. And then from the gecko, she has one brown and one green. Hold on me, blah. I didn't say anything. Shut up. Not you, you're an angel. She had two different colored eyes from the gecko.
Starting point is 01:32:33 It's only at the end you do see. here with two green eyes and they're clarifying that yeah something's up the clones in the tubes though Greg have two different colored eyes oh so what does that mean what about has been a clone all along and finally we get the real one oh
Starting point is 01:32:49 actually that explains it maybe is that yeah the clone got killed or a scroll yeah also you guys are way smarter than me with this oh scrolls guys what if she just turns out to be a riot bot you know what I mean like we can have that happening right there too you know what's going to happen She was a clone the whole time.
Starting point is 01:33:07 The one we're seeing is the right one. That would explain one of the moments I had like, where I was talking about last week where Monica gets captured and like she's on the chimera, then you do the Hulk mission and she's in the building. And like, why did someone just not rewrite this? I can, it's someone who doesn't explain whether Avengers are like, why would Monica be here?
Starting point is 01:33:25 See, that was my thing. When you said it last week, I almost brought it up and I'm trying to be non-spoil, but I was like, wait, if I was an Avenger and I'm like, I know we have you. And then I see you. I'm like, isn't, don't we have her? on the ship. And you know what's super interesting when they reveal that
Starting point is 01:33:38 those were clones? There's three cases and one of them is empty. Oh, yeah. It's hinting that there's two clones. She's probably in a human and like cloned herself right? I mean, they simply referenced an in a human that can clone itself that they sat powers from. But none of the adaptoid I think have that power.
Starting point is 01:33:56 And I recall a piece of fiction and at this point I don't know if it's Marvel or if it's a different thing but I remember a thing with two different colored eyes being able to clone themselves and I don't know if I'm making that up or not. I don't know if I'm not remembering this thing, but I'm remembering this thing that I think I remember right there. I could have sworn, I watched this recently. There's a clone different colored eyes. When they clone themselves, things happen. I think I know what you're talking about. I don't also know what it is. It may or may not be true. I might have made it up, but I remember it.
Starting point is 01:34:26 I'm looking it up. It might be my hero academia, but it might be. I really enjoyed the story for all the plot holes we're having fun with and screwing around with. think the performances were great. For me, the flatest thing about it were the final mission slash boss fights where I saw you tweet about this and I was the same way of like, we're building up to this thing. We're building up to this thing. All right, cool. Now I need you to go collect all this random shit. And I was like, oh, okay. And so I did it and came back expecting now Tony's going to do something cool with it. And no, we head out on a mission where it's a really boring fight with the floating battleship. All right, we beat that. And we come back.
Starting point is 01:35:05 home and now it's on to the final thing and i'm tony stark and i have a cool suit for us to get for everybody we get them we walk out i really did i didn't have it spoiled i guess it was in the launch trailer but they all walk out and she's like to cap like i can't say it and he's like say what she's like you know avengers is assembled it's like we don't really do that and she's like play a cool kid i thought that was brilliant i love that moment now those relationships but then into the final battle i enjoyed everybody working together we're in the cool suits we're doing different things but then actually doing the boss fight against modoc seeing a bomb nomination get brawled with and not have to do anything with that.
Starting point is 01:35:37 I was like, that kind of sucks. But then getting into the Modoc fight, it reminded me so much in the bad way of what we didn't like about the bridge, where it was like, all of a sudden, be these Avengers for very specific things, and it doesn't make you feel really super powered or fun. It's just what you need to do. So, Tony, fly around and shoot
Starting point is 01:35:53 his fucking jets on his ass. You're like, all right, fuck. You know, boom, then I switched off to somebody else. It was like, this isn't the assemble moment you want it to be. It's not frantic. It's not fun. And then I thought it was even though I wanted more of it and I wanted to control it, I thought it paid off nicely with that Kamala and Viggan in the Bay fighting the Cree.
Starting point is 01:36:11 The Thor was really weird because it's like, oh yeah, you use Bifrost. And I already had Bifrost charge it up. It's like, yeah, okay, I'll just use it. And like, all right, you're done with Thor. It's like, that was two seconds long. Yeah, it was that one actually confused me because I, I might, I miss a lot when I'm streaming. But I don't know if they told me to use it,
Starting point is 01:36:27 but I'm usually terrified to use, like, powers if I don't need them. And I actually was playing it on hard just for stupid reasons. I guess in the end. I wouldn't recommend it. But anyway, I literally was running around that stupid bubble for like three minutes and everybody's like, do you sure we tell them? And I was like, I thought, I didn't even, I think,
Starting point is 01:36:47 I missed that like, you're supposed to use a bifrost. And so I was like out of the bubble and I was using, I was, maybe they didn't. I have no idea. I think it's just the same, it's from the first fight where they introduced the war and it's like the guys in the bubble and they're like used the bifference. Oh, I wouldn't have thought of that. Yeah, like, I was using all my different abilities. And I was like,
Starting point is 01:37:02 oh, why can I get to them? I like ran around circles and my bifrost loaded and I was like might as well and then that worked yeah it was like i get it but yeah it's just didn't come together quite right i agree with you that it was like yeah trying to make you play as these different characters and assembled but they all felt like two piecemeal out and i really wanted yeah definitely a moment we're just an epic fight and everybody's like attacking you know and doing their part maybe would have felt better um but what i would say is i was really surprised at the epic nature of that whole last fight. And because I played it on hard,
Starting point is 01:37:35 it took me like two freaking hours. Jesus Christ, really? It was insane. I died a number of times because the AI was just not helping me out. Not that fight, I hope they figure out a way to either take pieces of it or somehow maybe upgrade it so you can truly go through as like a team in multiplayer.
Starting point is 01:37:55 Would be really cool. I know they have some like cut scenes and stuff. But man, like that's what we need more of in the game. is to be able to go back to some of the campaign stuff where there were a few characters or more, you know, and just experience more of that campaign feel. But it was pretty epic, to be fair. Like, there's a lot of production on the bosses,
Starting point is 01:38:13 the cut scenes, the effects, the unique location at the time. Like, I did feel like it delivered as a final level with a lot going on. But yeah, like even some of the boss fights, I actually thought were okay, but the very last pieces fell flat. I felt like it lacked a little urgency.
Starting point is 01:38:29 Like, there was a big thing. of make sure no more planes leave the quarantine zone. He's like, Tony take care of it. But then we don't switch to Tony taking care of it. He just goes off and leaves a battle. Yeah, it should have a cutscene, right? No, they don't understand what the final, like, big climactic battle of every MCU movie is.
Starting point is 01:38:44 Like, let's take Black Panther as an example. You have the CIA agent chasing down the plane so they don't leave. And you also have the big battle down there. But you switch between the two, so the audience could be like, oh shit, there's actually a time limit to this. He can't just stand there fighting killmonger.
Starting point is 01:39:00 for like six hours, there's a actual thing at stake here. Here it's like, okay, Modoc's here, but what is he doing that's going to cause a problem if we just take our time? Yeah. I thought he was going to kill you, you know, if you just, that was your... Gonna die, that's what's your...
Starting point is 01:39:20 I still understand why I said got so big. It's what happened when he got dosed with the terrogen or whatever. The terrogen. That's his power, is that he gets a big head. He got super smart, right? He can use... You could use mind control stuff. It wasn't the stuff that that girl was given him?
Starting point is 01:39:36 No, yeah, he was giving him. That was African America's blood, right? Yeah, Captain America's stuff was going into him. They were also using to cure, they were trying to cure the inhumans, right? They were using Captain America's blood to cure the inhumans. But it didn't work. The dark Terrigan is what he used to take the powers of the in humans and put them the adaptoid.
Starting point is 01:39:58 He was using the regent formula. which is her own formula based on Super Serum to save Harleton's life because he was injured in the coming out. And that's why he was all pissed off because he was like, you're injecting me with Captain America's blood that tainted stuff.
Starting point is 01:40:10 Yeah, which if you follow all with which I still understand. Because he was friends with Captain America beforehand. But he wasn't really. That was like the, you know, like him, remember.
Starting point is 01:40:18 That's what you worked with Tony's. I work a lot of people. I don't like this wrong guy. He seems flaky. I was waiting the entire time for like the explanation of his motivations of being like, okay, so I don't think he was on the up and up.
Starting point is 01:40:29 but I guess the twist is actually he was not lying about anything. It's just he suddenly changed. He didn't have all the information. Yeah. Well, what about when he closed the doors on Captain America? What's up with that? Captain America told him to. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:40:44 What a good guy at Captain America. Captain America, I'd say, yeah. America's ass. He knows what's up. America's gas. Hey, I like that reset air thread. Yeah, I know. Anything else we haven't talked about for campaign stuff?
Starting point is 01:40:59 I feel like the pacing of that campaign is you do a cool thing, and then the next mission is like boring or bad, and then eventually you'll do a cool thing again. And like that's the roller coaster field and everything. It's like, okay, the set pieces are really cool. I get, they understand what the AAA design better. Like that part where you're Captain America, like Titan falling your way to the space satellite.
Starting point is 01:41:23 Like that's cool. But then immediately after it's like, okay, let's go to New York and, just wander around for a bit, free and like in humans. It, again, feels like two games smashed together. And there's a really good campaign there, but I think it's like half the campaign is actually good. The other half is like multiplayer stuff kind of tacked into there.
Starting point is 01:41:44 Yeah. And even some of the like just jump from this end of the level to the other one, you know, as you learn some stuff. Like, I appreciate, you know, you just need to teach people some stuff and some downtime. But they were like, you know, they were like boring uncharted, you know, missions from A to Z. They don't teach you enough. Like when they start you off as Black Widow, I've never played as Black Widow
Starting point is 01:42:04 except for like one fight against Taskmaster. Yeah, they really threw her at you. And they push like really difficult enemies for you to fight when you're a completely unleveled, unskill-pointed, spent Black Widow that you've not been to tutorialize at all. Like they should have found some way to tutorialize you better. But instead they're like, shoot these things. It's like I've been shooting these...
Starting point is 01:42:23 Didn't you see that big rectangle on the screen? That you press circle to dodge. sometimes you can dodge with perfect dodges and that makes you dodge better but I was going to say like what I'm definitely somewhat still confused at what is going on in the game the more I listen to you guys talk about dark tarotin and different colored eyes but whatever happened I'm actually pretty excited you know based on it not being a Marvel expert of like I'm pretty into it now you know in a way that the movies you know the movies are awesome but like I'm kind of more invested in the characters you know meaning my background as I used
Starting point is 01:42:56 to watch X-Men at the cartoon, but I never really read the comics. And so from someone more on the outside, I think you guys all read the comics, I'm kind of excited. I'm like, who,
Starting point is 01:43:05 Bishop? And I was like, who is that? I was like, did Clint, you know, train her? Is that related to it?
Starting point is 01:43:10 And it's like, oh, yeah, he trained her, right? I was like, oh, that's cool. If you like in humans, I highly recommend Aden's of Shield.
Starting point is 01:43:17 I think season two and three, Kevin, you watch season of Shield, right? You know what I'm talking about. Yeah, this is like the actual, like, drama show or the show, right?
Starting point is 01:43:26 really good. Yeah, I love the Eames or Shield. Yeah, they had a couple seasons. It got a little bit boring after like the third or fourth season. What? Which way? Which one are you talking about? Because the one where they went to space after that.
Starting point is 01:43:39 Every season starts the boring and then like it's more and more interesting. At some point, I don't know that I want to. What they try to find Atlantis or something like that? Do we know? This is my point. I'm not going to do. You just play the game frame. Just keep playing the game and join the game.
Starting point is 01:43:52 And then they got back from space and that's where things started to get like, all right. And then they started like getting to Thanos and all this stuff with the Infinity War and they decided to ignore it. And that's when I was like, all right, enough is enough. Yeah. So that's like season six and a half, right? Yeah, everything before that is great. All I wanted to say was a year from now, which tends to be the cycle for these games, you get the big annual release. I'm actually super excited to see not only where the game might be from a games and service perspective, but actually this campaign.
Starting point is 01:44:20 Imagine they finally have all the tools, especially on NextGen and doing something really refined in the way that we've seen Crystal Dynamics do for a new character. Like, I'm pretty excited. I think that is the potential this game has that other games as a service just absolutely do not. I want to fight Dr. Doom and then I want to play as Dr. Doom. How long do you think we get the, before we see the Cree? How long do you think it takes them to get to Earth? My big question is that, like, are they, do they see that as an expansion thing?
Starting point is 01:44:47 Or do they see that as year two? And if that's year two, I might be a little bit underwhel. I think there is a year two starting with an expansion. What do you know, what's the difference between? you, what's the difference for you blessing between year two and the expansion? Because like I, when I think of year two, right, I'm thinking of like something big. Like this is the big thing that's happening for the year. And I feel like if that is the Cree arrive and we're fighting the Cree, unless it comes
Starting point is 01:45:09 with something that's big revolving around that. Like if the Guardians of the Galaxy come with that too, then that's exciting. But like, I think for me my expectation of what a yearly expansion, I guess, for lack of a better word for, would be like, right? I'm thinking in my head, and this might be just way too big of expectation. like Phanos or Dr. Doom or like one of the big bads we know from Marvel or Avengers coming through. Do you guys, so we're supposed to get more roadmap in the next war table.
Starting point is 01:45:38 I don't know if we know the date on war table. We do not know the date. But it's coming up sometime and they'll give us more info on the road. I imagine before Black Friday. Yeah. Yeah, I think definitely before the release of Cape Bishop, right, we'll get that war table. Probably right before that. So mid-October, let's say, maybe.
Starting point is 01:45:55 But I was going to ask, do we, actually no factually. Like, what are they? So there's more characters releasing. We know Bishop, Barton, and then Spider-Man on PlayStation is like next March or something, I think. It's next spring. Okay. Did they promise more characters beyond that?
Starting point is 01:46:14 Like, not the characters, but a number? It's been data mined that, like, there's a whole list of them. Like 15. Yeah, I don't think they've committed anything beyond those. New ones? Yeah. Holy crap. Like new can mean like a lot of things at this point like there's obviously templates for like this is the character who swings this is the character who like jumps and like you can mix and match those together pretty easily.
Starting point is 01:46:37 Yeah. But still that's like you can do a ball with paralysis and a Spider-Man which probably be very similar. But it's all free right as long as you're in the game. So that's that's kind of the thing I was trying to wrap my head around is is this game going to be one game but it's not seasonal purchases like you see in destiny and even division. and then next year maybe we see a new $40-50 release I would bet that there are big expansions like Destiny of like this is this year's big content thing Right that's what I'm thinking next September
Starting point is 01:47:07 You'll see that Yes and I think that would be new characters Yeah But it'll be new even that you're selling it short to an extent Right because it's new characters but they'll come with new villains And new storyline not every time But like there will there's going to be content around them And then the giant yeah I
Starting point is 01:47:21 And this is me talking my ass the giant story expansion, I would think, would be, yeah, the Kree or whatever. That's what I'm thinking to, exactly. Is there, like, somebody who leads the Kree, who's a big bad? I don't know enough about Marvel. I just know all this from Aeges of Shield. I know the MCU stuff. I was always a DC comic book kid, so not a Marvel kid.
Starting point is 01:47:38 I think, what, you know, who leads the Kree? I would watch Kempel. You would enjoy it. Jude Law. Do law does it, I think. Like, we briefly touched on the micro-transactions parts, which reminded me of a thing that, Fran, you also tweeted about this, but that fucking cosmetic store. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:47:57 Where you don't have to spend 14 bucks or something? Go in and there is no way to leave it without buying something. Oh, you mean the mission, the tutorial mission thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they send you a vendor. Like the healthcare right. I never actually did that. So I didn't do this like mid end gameish.
Starting point is 01:48:15 But so they give you 500 credits. They do not tell you this at any point. There is a Thor nameplate that is exactly 500 credits. that they want you to buy, but don't tell that to you at all. But you can't leave until you buy something. It's being reported by some as a bug I came to find out after tweeting that. Because I was agreeing with it. I was like, yeah, I got in the store.
Starting point is 01:48:34 And I was like, I didn't understand. But basically what happens, right? They send you to a vendor on the ship. You guys remember that? And it's like, buy something. But that rectangle is sitting there until you click on something as the part of the tutorial, you can't move away. But it's very confusing.
Starting point is 01:48:49 Some people said they just crashed the game and then they got. passed it and others were like no you were supposed to buy a nameplate but like they gave you the credits for it and i was like i didn't even know they gave me credits so either way i think it was a little too and it was too touchy in terms of like they're putting me in a store with a bunch of stuff i want it's like what i said as a follow-up i was like you gave me like a dollar for like a pack of bubblegum and you sent me into a candy store and every piece of candy i want is like five bucks i don't want a pack of bubble gum. And so I'm sitting there like, and then sure enough, well, if you just buy like this, you can have a pack of candy bars for just a little more. And so I just didn't
Starting point is 01:49:28 like the vibe of that. And that's what I don't like about the challenge card either. There's materials. There's upgrade modules in there. And there's a lot of vanity items, which you really, you aren't able to earn in the game. So we'll see how it plays out. But I did the math. And if you do, you know, your two dailies a day and your weeklies, two weeklies a week, it takes roughly three weeks to do a character. With only those challenge points, I don't know if you get any other challenge points than the Dailies and Weeklyies. I have my conspiracy theory about the challenge cards because like what of mine was
Starting point is 01:50:04 finish off this many enemies with a heavy combo. One, it doesn't tell you what a heavy combo is. So I had to go through the skill tree and I figured out which one is that. Two, every single time I tried to do it, one of the other AI characters are rushing and then beat up the enemy before I can finish. Oh, there's no way that's the conspiracy. That's just bad AI. It's weird.
Starting point is 01:50:21 This keeps happening. I don't think that honestly are going that far. I mean like any card like this. To be fair, if you only play a character or two, asking you to play a game as a service for like six weeks
Starting point is 01:50:32 and unlock all the vandy items, honestly isn't that bad. But there are... I mean, the battle pass part of it, I think's great. And granted, we're going off of the six ones that are included with it. But remove that from it
Starting point is 01:50:42 and let's talk about if nothing changes because there's four tiers to the battle pass, right, Fran? There's four different screens or is it five? there's 40 levels. Okay. Yeah, exactly.
Starting point is 01:50:52 And there are 10 every once. There's four different screens. It costs five points per level. So it's 200 points per card. Right. But my point being is that, you know, people are like, oh my God, like they're giving, even though they give you the new characters,
Starting point is 01:51:04 you have to pay from here on out for the battle passes. And they're 10 bucks a pop. They get a battle pass for Cape Bishop, for Hawkeye, etc. For me, I still think that's such a great deal if you want those cosmetic things. Because it is right now I can go buy, There's an Iron Man suit I want on the marketplace.
Starting point is 01:51:20 That's $14,000. No, I'm not buying one skin for $14. But if I buy this one, right, I'm getting, what is it, two skins per part of the card? I'm thinking of the cap. I know for sure he has a couple. But let's just say-a-bunch of the car. You get like...
Starting point is 01:51:33 It's five to eight. There's five to eight skins, right, that you would get for that, let alone the resources, let alone the nameplates. And granted, it's that thing of maybe they're not the ones you want, and, you know, compared to like, like, Iron Man's card doesn't have anything I'm, like, fucking Jonesing for as much as I want that Iron Man skin. Eight skins on Black Widows.
Starting point is 01:51:49 It's still that thing of like, Black Widow skins are so bad. It's still that thing where I'm just like, all right, cool, 10 bucks for all that I'm fine with. And again, I don't have to spend it. Well,
Starting point is 01:51:57 that is my assumption is that the costumes you can earn because you mentioned Black Widow and every skin she has is like a cat suit. And like maybe there's two that's not. Like, I assume the skins you earn are not going to be interesting compared to the skins you have to buy. And that's the thing I'm always going to be suspicious about.
Starting point is 01:52:12 But you don't have to buy them, right? Well, then you would have to buy if you wanted them. Wait, why do you have to buy the skins? No, I mean, like, if you want the more interesting skins, I bet those are the ones that cost money. Yeah, he's saying the more interesting iconic skins or whatever would be on the marketplace that you'd have to buy that way. Because even the ones they're dropping are variants sometimes of those. Like my great example is, I think it's Captain America at level 38 has this Captain America suit that looks more like the comics and it's more vibrant, whatever. And so I've been working on the challenge card to get to it.
Starting point is 01:52:45 However, I got a fabrication pattern and drop. the one very similar to that, not exact, but enough where I was like, this is what I wanted, and I'm happy with that. So even like the Iron Man suit that I want for $14 that's on the store right now, I'm sure I could get a drop that would be similar looking to that,
Starting point is 01:52:59 but probably have a different colors. Right. Like I don't think, for example, just pulling the hypothetical out of my head, I don't think a Spider-Ver suit is going to be one you earn. I think that's one you have to buy because they know people will want that suit. But see, that's what I've played the game of ton
Starting point is 01:53:16 and I just missed this. I thought you always earn in-game currency that you can always buy. There is a currency that is only for buying certain things. Yeah, but you earn it. You don't have to buy it. I thought there was one that you have to pay money for. No.
Starting point is 01:53:32 There's one you can own. The units can only be earned in game. You can't buy units. Those weird gear-looking crosses you can buy with real money, but you do also earn those off the battle pass. That's where people are when they're talking about like back to the buying a battle pass for 10 bucks it's that you'd pay 10 bucks and if you went through and didn't spend any of those credits you'd get more than enough to buy another
Starting point is 01:53:55 you'd earn your money back and then more but of course the idea is that you invested it you get the credits and then you go spend them and you buy the next battle pass then i'm wrong but i'll also add there's way too many fucking currencies in this game that's also true yeah welcome to games as a service but yeah like i'm pretty sure it just takes a ton of time actually everything the battle pass is included they can all be you know as long as you finish them all yeah you can buy the next one for the credits you earn as part of the pass, right? Yeah, so you never have to spend money.
Starting point is 01:54:22 Yeah. As long as you spend the time. Which is a lot of the time. But it's a ton of time. Yeah, like at a minimum, it's what, six characters times about three weeks. Jesus. 18 weeks to do. It's a years now.
Starting point is 01:54:36 Passes. And that includes walking in every day. It's not a leisurely catch up, you know. Oh, yeah. That's work. You're doing work there. That's the grind, bless. That's the grind.
Starting point is 01:54:46 I'm looking at the, not to derail, but it seemed like this conversation was reaching his natural conclusion, and I tuned out because you guys are talking about currencies, and that's where you can understandable. No, we're a nerdy here. I went on a, on a research journey about the Cree to try to figure out like what does the next thing look like. Number one, Carol Danvers is half Cree, and so it seems like she's going to play a huge role in whatever thing comes up, which is obviously because Miss Marvel, but it seems like the Cree invasion or whatever, Miss Marvel. What I say? MIS.
Starting point is 01:55:17 Like the MIS. Oh, MIS is the DC character M-I-S, right? But M-S is M-S. Yeah. Well, wait, is that pronounced it really? Is it not just M-S? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:55:27 I've always pronounced M-S and M-S the same. Now there's misses, there's M-I-S, and then there's M-S-S period. There's a difference that I, like, an actual, a difference that I forgot at this point,
Starting point is 01:55:37 but yes, that is not true, Greg. That's not true. That's not true. It is true. Why wouldn't it be M-I-S-it's just short for miss. Yeah. You've never got. You're making stuff up because he's from Mizoo. He's trying to pull this like Missouri.
Starting point is 01:55:51 I've never done that. No. Like it's the same as doctor. Doctor is spelled DR. We don't pronounce differently from doctor. No, there's a there's an actual like gesture. Here's what I'm getting from the internet. Miss. Use miss when addressing young girls and women under 30 that are unmarried. Use Ms. MS. period
Starting point is 01:56:07 when you are not sure of a woman's marital status if the woman is unmarried and over 30 or if she prefers being addressed as a marital status neutral title. This is when they're married a woman. Well, I like they're putting ages on this stuff too. I mean like first off, you don't even get me started.
Starting point is 01:56:24 Do you know, you want to know as a newspaper journalist when I actually had to go out and interview people, the amount of times I would say ma'am and get corrected, you don't even want to know. I'm not a grandmother. Oh, fucking lady. Will you answer the goddamn question I have about what's happening here? I've had people get pissed off and I call them sir. It's not that different. Please, sir,
Starting point is 01:56:43 is my father's name. A lot of those are. dated, I think. Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's completely both. But it's still how you fucking pronounce MS period. I digress. Who's the three champion? What about the cream?
Starting point is 01:56:55 But yeah, Carol Davis is tied with the crepe. Then there's also Rodin, who I know isn't like big, but you know, it was worth shouting out of the creepy villain. But like, you know, I'm not really finding anything as far as like a notable huge tree villain that like we'd all know of.
Starting point is 01:57:09 Like I'm doing Supreme Intelligence, and I don't think Supreme Intelligence is coming through to fucking reset history. If you do a Cree Scroll thing, in the Avengers you do a secret war so it's like it'll be I assume that's actually how they would get multiple characters in a single like player thing but you would do a thing where you don't know who to trust and that's probably a smart way to do like a year to do like do like do you feel like that be a lot though like that mixed in with the with the inhumans because I feel like they're they're throwing
Starting point is 01:57:33 a lot of concepts at us for like our simple brain people who just watch the movies and the people who read comics would understand but I feel like like in humans already I'm like all right these are just the X-Men but different once you throw in like the kree and in the in the, versus the scroll and the scroll invasion and all this stuff. I feel like that's when you're like, oh wait,
Starting point is 01:57:50 so Sam over here who can teleport is now bad is what you tell him? That's what you're going to get, dude. That's the whole point of the game. Welcome to comment. We definitely have to get away from the inhuman storyline because everybody wants new shit. Like I think that when you get to a year two,
Starting point is 01:58:01 year three kind of giant expansion. I imagine like, I saw Spire to make a sec box is the scroll invasion. They're going to get like probably into X-Men at some point. Because I would hope. I would hope. I imagine this game was made at a time. where X-Men was not coming to Disney stuff at all.
Starting point is 01:58:18 So now that they do have the rights, maybe the next set after this 15 is X-Men. Yeah, that would be, I'd be super stoked. Honestly, the more you talk about it and more we ponder about it, the more I'm excited about what the year to, or like six months from now even looks like.
Starting point is 01:58:34 Yeah, 100%. I want Waukonda. Yeah. I want, I want, I want, different planets.
Starting point is 01:58:40 I want a whole bunch of different locales because, like, it's marble, take advantage of it. Yeah. And they have. That has to be what happens, right? I mean, famous last word, but that's the whole idea of this games as a service and what they're building, I think.
Starting point is 01:58:51 Yeah. It gets interesting, though, because games as a service, like keeping things balanced, which we're already seeing, there's plenty of issues. Like, it might just be inside a game. Like, Borderlands is a bit that way, right? It's like, dude, some things are just like crazy. That's fine. It's all for fun. But it's, you know, it's also different because it's a true game as a service.
Starting point is 01:59:06 And, in other words, having, like, you know, 30 characters to try to balance out every release. And all these locations becomes an issue. You arrive where Destiny's. at, you know, where they're actually removing stuff from the game to try to simplify, you know, because it's because it's the Marvel, it's the Marvel universe. Like you want, it's a universe. You want to be able to go to different places and do different things and see all stuff. But you want balanced characters and you want to feel like, in other words, I don't want
Starting point is 01:59:31 to get a character and find out a different character is way better now and you should honestly just raid with them. That's where I get into like, yeah, it would bother me. I'd be like, but what if you felt that? But what if you felt that? And it was like how destiny does it where it's like, all right, cool. A year from now, they've dropped over 15 characters or whatever. They dropped somebody else new.
Starting point is 01:59:50 And it's like, we've obviously heard you. And I don't even think it'll take this long. But we've heard you. We're also giving away a token that you can use to get your character at a 50, level 150. And then start building from there. No, that's fine. That's just leveling them up. I mean balancing them out, you know, like even now I'm trying to figure out who is the best endgame character.
Starting point is 02:00:09 And that naturally happens. But in other words, how do you balance out 25 characters? To be fair, maybe they'll be fine with it. It is a little different. You know, like... See, I think you don't have to worry about as much if you're not doing PVP, like Buss was talking about.
Starting point is 02:00:20 If it's PVE and it's... When I granted, I know there was some PVP in it, but Marvel Heroes, right? It was a game from Gazillion that was Diablo with Marvel Heroes. And I fucking loved it. And it was just clicking and getting shit and putting on new armor and being more powerful. But it was that thing of...
Starting point is 02:00:35 They just kept dropping heroes on you. Yeah. And there were so many heroes. Same with Ultimate Alliance to an extent, where I'm sure that like, well, yeah, Ms. Marvel, right? And Ultimate Alliance 3, launch was like, like super OP for the challenge rooms.
Starting point is 02:00:45 It's how I leveled everybody up. Like if it's just that kind of stuff. Yeah, you make you the point without PVP, it eases things up that if whatever, we find out like, dude, you really should just level up Thor because it's insane. And I want to play as Thor,
Starting point is 02:00:57 but, you know, it's not the end of the world. I guess we'll see how that pans out. Yeah, because like it's, at the end of the day, you can just spend the time and level them up.
Starting point is 02:01:05 I got one question here about PVP and scrolls, believe it or not, but I'm going to save it here for the post show. Before we sign off, gentlemen, do you have anything else to say that we haven't covered in this year? Marvel update, spoiler cast, whatever you want to call it? I think this game is fine, aggressively fine.
Starting point is 02:01:21 Okay. Yeah. I like when Modoc choked abomination with his claw thing. Yeah. I thought that was really cool. I liked his speech there, too. Oh, his speech was really good. I forget what it was, but it was like when I was a kid, I got bullied, joke.
Starting point is 02:01:35 Or whatever. That's a good synopsis. That's a pretty good synopsis. Yeah, I think I love the performances in here, you know what I mean, regardless of how many plot holes are and we're going like, wait, what's going on? Like, I thought Modoc did a great job. I thought the Avengers did a great job. I really enjoyed it from a character, you know, standpoint like that.
Starting point is 02:01:53 And in general, obviously, I can't stop playing the fucking game. So there's something there for sure. And I can't wait to see the future of it. Ladies gentlemen, this is the kind of funny games cast. Remember each and every week we come together to talk about video games here on the games cast. You can support us at patreon.com slash kind of funny games where you can ask us questions, be part of the show. Watch it live. Just like J.S.ek was.
Starting point is 02:02:10 You got a million shoutouts today. Cameron Kennedy, the Lou. and so on. Of course, you can get it ad for anything I said that part. You get the post show we're about to do. If you have no bucks tossed our way, though,
Starting point is 02:02:20 YouTube.com slash kind of funny games, roostate.com, and podcast services each and every week. Until next time, we got a post show to do. It's been our pleasure to serve you.

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