Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Our BIGGEST Gaming Hot Takes - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

Go to Boot.dev and use code KINDAFUNNY to get 25% off your entire first year on the annual plan. Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at Shopify.com/kindafunny Thank you for the support! Run of Show - - Start - Topic of the Show: Our BIGGEST Gaming Hot Takes -  Mario is overrated - Greg’s hot take - Nioh 3 isn't memorable - Andy’s Hot Take - silent protagonist suck - Roger’s Hot Take - Games should have downloadable demos - Bless’ Hot Takes - Ads - Gaming industry is going to have dark times going forward - Greg’s hot take - Final Fantasy16 should have had the game play from FF7 Remake - Andy’s Hot Take - PS Portal is a waste - Roger’s Hot Take - Price points shouldn't be a factor in reviews - Bless’ Hot Takes - Superchats Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Go to boot.dev and use code Kind of Funny to get 25% off your entire first year on the annual plan. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at Shopify.com slash Kind of Funny. If you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows, go to Patreon.com slash Kind of Funny. Yo, what's up? Welcome to Kind of Funny Gamescast for Tuesday, February 17th, 2026. I'm on your host, Blessing at A.OA Jr. joining me is back from Dice. Greg Miller. Everybody's me, Greg. Oh.

How you doing? I thought it was a big. No, Kevin thought, Kevin thought the hat was fit. No, it's just, Jen had a doctor's appointment. So, you know, it was president's day yesterday. I took it off to be with many. Then this morning ran the dad shift. It's right from the library to hear.

So not only am I in a hat, which I rarely am. It used to me and you know, you know this. I didn't shower. I hung over. We had the third thing of dad mode, where it is dad mode. So it's a dad mode day, which you can tell, of course, because I'm wearing rain boots. Oh.

Let me tell you, you want the kid to wear a, rain boots. You gotta fucking wear rain boots. Otherwise, he's gonna be like, why are you? Why do you not have to wear? Yeah. I got to wear a fucking rain boots. Like a goddamn idiot. That was like something to Sam Porter Fisher wears. Yeah, I could see that. They're really good. San Porter Bridges. Fischer. Do we know what Sam Fisher's middle name is? That's a big question. Jay. Jay. Jay is there. Jay. We don't know what. Is it like Jay J. A. Y. Like Homer Simpson. Remember that was a big reveal? Oh, was it? Yeah. Oh. Homer's true. I'll let you guys know. I'll let you guys know. I've been in a content a week. So I'm ready. I'm ready to go.

I was thinking about this. We don't do this enough. We don't really do that. You look like an undercover Avenger. We don't think about that. Yeah, well, the hat's too bright.

I have the other porty hat that's in the charcoal color way. Sure. But as we all know, it's quite chilly on our Animal Crossing Islands right now. So I've been rocking this hat on my Animal Crossing character.

So I was like, I'll, I'll do a little like cosplay. But not only, not only did I dug this hat out and put it on, right? Then Ben looked at me when I was like, all right, put on your hat. And he goes, I want to wear your other porty hat.

God, we got the other porty had put it on him. Justin, what a cute kid, you know what I mean? He's playing Ocarina time. Whoa. Listen to Greg away about it. Oh, my God. Also, that was an intro. We're going to start with Greg for the hot takes when we get there.

Also joining us is the nitro rifle, Andy Cortez. Hello, gamers. And you also have The Locke, the tastemaker, Roger McCornier. It went past over there, but someone said that, canonically, his name is Sam Leo Fisher. Don't like that. It's Jay. Yeah.

Don't ruin it. He's a real fan, so he knows. Yeah, that's the hot take. Everybody's starting there. Should have been Shamport Fisher. We got a lot of hot takes to talk about on this episode because that is what the theme of the episode is. The topic is us giving you our hot takes.

But before we get there, remember, if you're watching live, you can be a part of the show by super chatting in over on YouTube.com, so I was kind of funny games. I want you to super chat in on what your thoughts, what your reviews on our hot takes are since we've been giving our reviews on your hot takes. Let us know if you think we're on point or if you think we're done. Some dummies, especially Roger. Whoa. Remember, we couldn't do this without our producers over on patreon.com slash kind of funny.

So thank you. The Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, and Delaney, the Somme, Twini. Hot take. Shout out to the producers. Wow. The real heroes. The real heroes. And the teachers.

For now, let's begin. Not one clap. Not one. I mean, they won the strike, right? So yeah, shout up to the teachers. Yeah, no, we did it. Hell yeah. We clap for the producers.

And the teachers, just like, we all sat with the time. The time of the song. You know, like, I miss volleyball because the teachers. Oh, wow. Because I play at a school. So they're like, we're like, we're like, we're like, we're like, we're the janitors striking to? I don't know.

The teacher has to do with keeping the gym. I don't know. You know what? That's a really good question. I could go back and be like, yo, wait a second. Who do we need? I can open the doors. Bless on the other side going, can we work this in the negotiation.

Keep the gym open. He's pretty easy. Just open this. You know, open. you know, open. It's a school night, not a school day. Take the basketball hoops to fucking put them up. Yeah, raise it up.

It's easy. It's all you. It's easy to do. Yeah. Yeah, right? I've done it before. Wow. For now, let's begin. The little thing you fight. With Topsy of the show.

Tots, Tots, Tats. It's a crank? Yeah. Yeah, you get it. Well, no, it's not a crank. It's a, it uses a kind of a spinny thing, but the stick you have is really, really long,

and then it comes down until like an L shape. And then you grab one side, and then you spin it around that way. and then it's the type of knowledge that I never want to know. I'm actually mad at you that you told me that because I feel like when I was a kid, when it would just be up or down, I'd be like, that's magic. You know what I mean?

That's teacher magic. I don't want to know where a pyramid head comes from, you know? Exactly like that. Yeah. Exactly. Thank you. That's good. Topic of the show is our biggest gaming hot takes.

Of course, we've heard about your hot takes over the last few weeks. But some of you've been asking for ours and so we're here to give them to you. We've each brought two to three. hot takes to each talk about. How many did you guys bring actually? I asked for like three. I got three. I have two and a half.

Yeah, I have three. I have three. I got four. My fourth one being an emergency one, you know, in case the show's done in 15 minutes. Yeah, yeah. Hot take, we just go, yeah.

Yeah, okay, cool, yeah. Of course, super chat question is, what are your takes on our takes? But for now, let's start off with Greg's. Wow. First hot. He's already, he's already smiling at me.

Here we go. He's got the chapstick. He's loosening. up the talk. It's actual. Moistrives them lips because he's going to spit some fire at it. Mario is overrated. All right? He's unserious.

I get it. Like I get it. I get serious. I respect Mario. I respect Mario. Okay. For what he's done. Okay. Right. For the Italian community. For the advancement of the Italian American community. No, I mean, obviously when we look at the annals of history

and what they, we're talking about NES Mario, right, and moving it there. We're talking about Mario 64. Of course. I'm not taking away from any of this. But Mario's like So unsirious. Mario is a character just played out. No, I just know what I'm saying It's bug's bunny played out. Yeah, yeah. Bugs Bunny sucks.

The peanuts suck. Like I have a golden book with Mario in it. When I read it, it's so mad. Why do we still care about this little fucking blumber? You know what I mean? This is the Ghostbuster fan talking. Like, fuck their shit. So what is your line, like, where do you draw the line when it comes to legacy characters in general?

Because you don't, you don't like the Bugs Bunny. You don't like, do you like Mickey Mouse? What do we like, actually? I do think Mika Mousbos sucks. Thank you. It's the Sonic count. And again, this is, I like Bugs Buckeye. Thank you for bringing this up.

Does Sonic count? Give me the one shot over here that's got me and blessing it, all right? This is the problem, bless. Uh-huh. Is that fucking Sonic the Hedgehog has been fucking trying. Yeah. Oreo doesn't try. You know what I mean?

Mario effortlessly succeeds Your games can't get his shit together Most of your games were great Don't get me wrong, we're not taking away from that But what is going on in any four-year-old's head That they walk into Target They go, oh look at this, I want that guy I want that just white man's face on my shirt

Okay, that's what I want. I want a mustache and a hat. We're getting closer to the crux of this When it's 2017 And Game of the Year, it's like Is it going to be Breath of the Wild Or is it going to be Mario Odyssey?

Should have been an Odyssey. We all know that. Okay, so this is... You can't say that. I can't. He's saying the character of Mario. I'm saying Mario is overrated. I'm not saying he's not great.

The character is not great. You know what I mean? I'm not trying to... This isn't me taking a giant stone and saying Mario game sucks. No, you're saying the character. Mario Odyssey is a great game. But you're saying...

But you're saying... But he's running around with his little nips out. Like, what are we doing? You didn't say Mario Odyssey is great. He said Mario Odyssey is Game of the Year and deserves over breath of the wild. Yeah.

Okay. That's where you lose me. Okay, so it's more of a, it's just a dude with suspenders. Yeah, I don't like that. Why are you so popular? So you feel is the name with Mario that Tim feels about Astrobot. Okay. Yeah, I mean, but Tim's wrong, but yeah.

You know what I mean? Astrobot a new idea. Because here's the thing. Here's a robot. You know what I mean? He's dressing up. He's got friends and family. If we're digging into this,

what is, I think Mario has a lot of friends and family. It's a lot. Well, my mom, I'm like, fuck, that's a bad point. Unless you've heard a bad. Unless you've heard a lot from Mario friends and family, like, of them talking shit about him. You know what's funny is I was looking at Mario's family tree yesterday. Why?

Hyped into Google Mario Family Tree. I think I forget why. I think it was for like Game Showdown or something. I was trying to think of a good question about Mario's brothers and sisters or whatever, how many brothers and sisters. Now I'm just imagining the Super Mario documentary of a lot of people going, he's surrounded himself with a lot of yes, man. Like, these people were not his real friends, you know? The thing that I understand, but. also I come back around to as far as like, man,

Mario just works, is that I know why I love Mario. Why do you love Mario? Because my first game was Mario 64. And my sisters would also, my older sisters also loves Mario Brothers 3. And so we'll play that all the time. And so like, I came in at like arguably the prime, where it's like

Mario was moving and shaking things, right? You couldn't get better than Mario. And now you're just gross. But, but like you say that, but I am utterly shocked by how much my little nephews love Mario as well. They're obsessed with the Mario movie. My sister's like they don't stop watching the Mario movie.

It drives her insane. And so there's something that Mario still has. And here's something I'll say. Mario movie Mario pretty great. You know what I mean? It's the random generic tofu Mario. What are we doing? I mean, I get what you're saying. Do something. Are you in love with Princess Peach? What's your fucking deal? You know what I mean? Make a move.

You got no taste. He's got nothing. He's got no flavor. Gotcha. You got to put him in a hat. You got to put him in a tinoo suit to make a matter. But that's the whole thing about Mario is that he's a literal, like, he's a blank slate almost, around all, like, the more interesting characters. Like, that's, like, that, like, I mean, dry bones. Spike, you know what I mean?

Now, you're just, Louisi and Luigi's Mansion. He's the jump man, you know? Yeah. He's just like the generic protagonist. Maybe you should be something else already. You know what I mean? What do you want him to be? Talk. No, you say.

Have a story. Okay. You know what I mean? No, give me your pitch right now. What do you want Mario to be? You're perfect Mario. I like this. I like this, too. I would say, let's scale it back even more.

You know what I mean? I had no problem with when him with... I have no problem with this man when he was pixel art. All right? I was like, I get it. I get it.

You're in a fucking arcade cabin or whatever. Neat, cool. Now he's just... You're taking advantage of the most of your situation. I understand what you're saying now. I understand what you're saying now. I understand what you're saying now. They are all like, this is a fake tape.

When I'm serious, think about it. Think in your heart. Why do you care about this little cartoon man? It's weird, right? There's a YouTuber. I walked around with a cartoon man on her shirt. And he's been a rock for 40 years or whatever.

Just being a man. It's not Mega Man. It's not a cool robot. Like, yeah, why do we like this Middle-A-Lish man? This guy rocks. This guy fucks. You know what I mean? Look at the 16-bit one.

Yeah, let's go. But he also has all of the outfits. I think you're underestimating the Tanukis. You're underestimating the Fire Mario's. These are all 16-bit or 8-bit. Well, I'm just saying, like, you know what I mean? There's more to him than just being a plumber. You know what I mean?

Like, he flies around in the Tanuky's seat. But why? He does things. Well, now you're asking. Well, now you're asking different questions. I understand what Greg's saying now. He's not just a generic guy. Like, he does other things.

He's a cat sometimes. He's doing other things. When you start a Zelda game, you know what you're getting. I'm Link. Maybe I don't have a fairy. Big adventure. Maybe I've been in a fucking sarcophagus for 100 years because that makes sense. But I'm getting my ass out of here.

I'm going to go on a grand adventure. I'm going to see the dayku tree. I'm going to fucking go slay some monsters. You're turning me around on this. You know what I mean? If that makes sense. When I start up Mario, what is it? He is this fucking man.

who is just run into a wall of no forward progression. Mario's story has changed in his entire life. It's like I'm a 43-year-old man soon playing the same thing I was playing when I was four years old. What are we talking about? See what I mean? What is wrong with this guy? Something is wrong with this guy.

To Brett's point, they had to add a fucking eyes to his hat because his hat can have the personality. They don't want Mario to have the personality. They have, we're stuck with a talking flower because they don't want to give the Mario characters more personality. No personality. They have to do all the personality The talk of flour

We didn't really talk about that in Mario Tennis Oh, you didn't talk about that? I see you on there fucking shaking it I'm bad at dapping But I saw you on there every night I'm playing something

And I see you pop up Mario Tennis Plus playing Mario Tennis is my current Game of the Year by the way So you guys know Mario Tennis is my front runner Is it gonna be there By the end of the year?

We'll see Are you doing adventure mode Did you do all that? I started adventure mode I beat the JV and I was like I was like, Yeah

Let me tell you That's gonna take it's Is he here? Buss in the door Oh yeah, that's cute Are you pressing that? There's a YouTuber named Jenna Steber

Who makes video essays And she has a very popular video on YouTube About Mario, specifically Mario's nipples And about how For decades Nintendo has gone out of their way To not let Mario have nipples

Yeah And I think this goes to Greg's point Of how big of a deal it was In Mario Odyssey When Mario was finally allowed to have nipples Because even if you look at Mario and Sonic the Olympic Games they have

swimming like swimming mini games in there they hide like does Sonic has got pasties or no Sonic has fur well yes Sonic has nibble

because he's a mammal okay what kind of dumb question is that Ron I just I mean have they ever shown the nipple of Sonic I don't know

they would have to shave the fur while would they I mean he's ever spread it open yeah no while he's a kid's character right okay I'm sorry oh Jesus

we're talking about nipples here okay I'm sorry but I think that speaks to you the amount of brand safety around Mario.

They're afraid. They're too afraid to do anything with him. Why does he have big kids on the right? I mean, look at that Kataku thumbnail right there of him spread eagle. Go up one, go up one, go up right there. Spread eagle, go woo. You know what I mean? It's like, you don't want your kid hanging out with that guy.

There is a reason why. That guy would hang out with. There is a reason why so many of these games are, you know, when they appeal to us as kids, when it's, you're the young kid, you're the rookie, you're the no name that's about to make, a name for himself and that like there are a lot of video games that start off that way where you create your own character and it's like I am living this fantasy but there it does make me wonder why did I as a kid give a shit about what this guy's doing in his life it's that thing yeah this

40 year old plumber got sucked into a world and had a jump on mushrooms it's like I get it you know what I mean but the fact that that that that concept when miamoto hit the fucking bong and said that in the border room you know what I mean and everybody was like this will be the rest of our lives this thing is what we're going to do I want to bring in a couple of super chats. I like this one from D. Jacob, okay, who writes in and says, agree, I don't play Mario games for Mario. I mean, yeah.

The mechanics, tight. The gimmicks, cool. The adventures you go on. Why do you all take it for the, I mean, the actual, you wanted to be the last of us? No, what are we doing? I disagree with that. Why can't I be, let's just, lay down your arms for one second.

You can count this in my second take. I think it's still in the first take or whatever. Maybe it is just, the chip on my shoulder as a Sega kid, but Sonic should be so much bigger than Mario. No, you're right. Sonic's a cool hedgehog with cool shoes. It's super fast. He eats chili.

I know this has been added over the years. But the cast of characters, the adventures they're on. He's crossing over with DC. I really want to agree with you, even though I can't agree with you, but I really want to. Then you look over here, you got this fat bummer. Melissa with the Y earlier was like, Greg, you're just a normal man. Why do people like you? Well, children don't.

I look at our stats. So there are right there's a great. There's my counterpoint, Melissa, with the Y. Andy, we see you. Okay, so whenever we have like big sporting events, most recently the Super Bowl, oh. We look at it as a very, this past Super Bowl was a very defensive, strong battle, right? Sure.

And then we look at each team's quarterbacks and we go, yeah, the Patriots quarterback was real bad. But if you put him on the Patriots or on the Seahawks, would he have done well with a really, really good defense? Would he have thrived in that situation? And we always do that in sports or it's like, yeah, Michael Jordan never, or, you know, Charles Barkley never won a ring. But if you gave him the casting crew that Michael Jordan had, would he have succeeded, right? And now I totally feel that way about if Sonic were the first dude instead of Mario. Well, that's, I think you're, if Nintendo comes out and their first game is Super Sonic Bros.

And it's a little blue hedgehog. Yeah. And he's jumping. You're nailing it. Would that, would we feel the same, would we feel like way higher about Sonic right now? 1,000% because again, the gameplay of the Mario games, fantastic. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, we know what we're talking about there. So yeah, that's what, you can go and put anybody into that thing. Shit. You could put Sonic in it, you could put Drybones in it. Put Joel from Last of Us in it. You're so right. Like that is, yes, you're right. And meanwhile, you take Mario, you put him in and Sonic the Hedgehog.

He's fast Italian man. Yeah. No, because of, you know what I mean? Shit. I like, but, but isn't it like, like, I don't know, like, Isn't the whole thing that like Mario is inoffensive? Like isn't that like the reason why he's so popular? Like again, we look back at all of these like legacy characters.

Like Mickey Mouse and everything. Like these are characters that are just completely ineffective. But here's what I would say. Like Sonic's offensive a little bit. No, but he's cool. Yeah, but he's also offensive a little bit. Mario's a jack-in-a-clothraise. And a master of none, which is oftentimes better than a master of one.

As a cage that he called everybody. Come on. To your point. I thought he was going to someone with that. I heard Kevin to do the one. I love that. I love that. Oh, fuck, I lost it. What was your point? Andy calling Mario's system quarterback.

He is Matt Batson. He really is. No, Rajah, what was your point you just made? My point was that Mario is just pretty inoffensive vanilla. And that's my thing is that I think both are all, when we're talking about a Bugs Bunny, a Mickey Mouse, a Mario. I think they all start off and they're not offensive. But I mean, they're doing things because they're making it up as they go along. But at some point, they become so enshrined in America, pop culture.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. characters, obviously. Pop culture for Mario, right? That suddenly you can't do anything without offending someone and screwing it up so they don't screw it up. So it's just Mario plastered on it, all these fucking tea towels at the goddamn Nintendo store. Yeah. Overrated. He's overrated.

Sonic would have been... We go back in time. Yeah. In the alternate history, when we slip a Miyamoto, just a little image of a blue hedgehog. Change history. But I feel like Sonic would then become boring as fuck. No. He wouldn't have taken the chance. He wouldn't have... He wouldn't have

him a werehog. He would not be a girl. He wouldn't kiss that girl. He wouldn't have ate that chili dog. No. So he wouldn't have failed is what you're saying? He wouldn't have been awful. No, but I think we end up in the alternate universe where Mario was the coolest guy ever. Like Sega Genesis then releases with Mario the guy and he's fucking smoking back and he's fucking doing cool shit. He has a cool like cast of homies.

Because Mario hasn't had to be desperate like Sonikas. Sonic has had to experiment. Crash Bandicoot has had to experiment. Okay, Mario has just always been on the top So he's able to just kind of ride that He's coasting. Yeah, he's coasting. Which I hate, here's my thing

On a character level, coasting. I don't want to take away from the fact that the games do shake it up. Mario Galaxy, you're jumping. Here you can be a fucking cat for some reason in this one. Like there's things going on. Exactly, exactly. I don't want to leave us open to a counterattack you. This could have been a whole...

We're all in the same thing. I brought you around. I sold you all on it. You're all. Mario is such a better game. No, you're not wrong, Petewell. Mario's like, I I love, you can get a beer with Mario or Sonic Vennshog?

Who are your answer? Don't lie. I grew up Sonic. Come on. Honestly, I would rather get a beer with Chris Pratt version of Mario because he seems like we'd actually drink a beer. I don't think anyone else. Okay, I'm with you on that one. Sonic way cooler and I think, well, you know, for me, I grew up loving Sonic even though I hated the video games.

Like I think. Like my Sonic fans. I still think they're so, no, no, but even like the ones that people love, love, like Sonic Mady and stuff, I play those. I'm like, this just isn't funny. Well, that's a failure of character for you. Yeah, probably, probably. But like, I grew up just not really understanding, like, man, this game kind of isn't fun

to play, but Sonic is so cool. And stayed so cool to me despite me hating the video games growing up. Genius in the chat, the super chat. In offensive, Mario falls asleep in Mario 64 and snores while naming miscellaneous posse issues. Yes, you're citing something from Nintendo 64. What have you done for me lately? you. Oh, hoo!

You know what I mean? Come the fuck. In wonder, he takes drugs and never fucking references that he's high as a kite. Oh, damn. That is a good point. He's snorting wonder seeds. Fucking seeing pink elephants. No reference. Andy, what's your first take? Man, I don't know. I can't follow that out. Yeah, that's a tough one. I'll go with my other, you know, I'll go with one that is kind of recent on my mind. is that you want to do something in a video game that is like special and memorable

and memorable rather than just making a solid game that has no lasting memory. I was, I am completely right about Neo3. I, like, I am not backing off of the fact that I think Neo3 just came out to Matt.

Where's the conversation? Nobody's talking about it. Did you remember Neo3 was out? No, you did. I am not wrong about. Neo3. I read those comments. I argued with everybody. I argued with everybody saying like, Andy's so wrong. Neo3 has so much sauce. No the fuck it doesn't. Art style, awful. When I talk about sauce, what is sauce, Greg? It's something we put onto a meal to make an already awesome meal better.

Even better. It's just a little, it's a little, it's a little topping, right? That's what sauce is in video games. And if you don't got sauce, that means your mechanics could be solid, but you're missing anything else that makes the game memorable. Rise of the Roden. That game is just gone from everybody's memories. As much as people say that the Neo games are so mer... Dude, Team Ninja has been

putting out a consistent rate of video games, but it's like they are always the same shit. And they may add a new mechanic here and there, and the gameplay is fun. But God damn, that game just came and went, and it will have no cultural lasting impact whatsoever. Andy's take is so correct that when he said it,

I was worried he was breaking embargo. Because I forgot Neo3. Well, I won't want me to add on one of them? Please. What about Ninja Gaiden 4? Another one. Like, everybody in the comments were like, Oh, you guys didn't play the other ones.

Who the fuck is talking about Ninja Guiden 4? No one talked about it. No one talked about that video game. It was such a vocal minority. And I'm just like, I wanted to love the, and I still like the gameplay. But, man, missing anything to make these games memorable. And that's why Stranger Paradise is memorable,

because it has a fun gameplay of the other games. But it's awful in a lot of amazing ways when it comes to dialogue. These games, they try to take themselves so seriously. Shigaraki, you have to forget the main character's name. I don't even remember it. They say it a lot, though. It's just like, these games are just missing what makes video games memorable and special. I like that.

But I will also say, though, I did talk to somebody in real life this morning about how they love Neo3. Who was it? My gym, my trainer. He was talking to him and he's like, oh man, Neo3, man, I'm fucking obsessed. That's all I'm playing. You gotta put him on a bit different video. You gotta put him on a more stuff, man. Because like, for anybody who loves these Neo games, there's just like, there is way better stuff out there for you.

Like, you've experienced fun gameplay, but what if you could have fun gameplay and, like, actual characters and actual story? And like, like, like, Neo-3. I think I like the team ninja games for my, fun, like action gameplay. Like, I just want to, like, get in there, Perry or Dodge, do whatever, fight a tough boss. I like that sensation in the game. I think that's why that's what saw me all the way through

a long following dynasty. You can get that and get good sauce with Liza P. Yes. And, you know, when I think the sauce thing was becoming such a big, you know, controversy point for us. Yeah. For me especially.

I'm sorry about that. People saying, like, I didn't know that these guys, I didn't know that they lacked sauce. I'm like, no, I saw somebody else say, No, it's just not his type of sauce. No, no, no, no. Sauce is the extra stuff that makes a game even better.

You could have awesome gameplay, but if you're not doing anything memorable in the other things that make a game awesome to experience, then you're lacking sauce. And like, I just, I don't know, I just like, my whole feelings about Neo3 got more and more strong as I went on. And I don't want... And it's so hard for me to, like, not to not talk shit about Team Ninja.

because they are putting out games a lot, but like just do something else, man. Get a different art style. For somebody in the comments to go, actually, I think Ninja, I think Team or Neo's art style is awesome. You're fucking,

you're bad at like looking. Your vision is awful, dude. How do you feel about Code V in chat that says Andy also didn't like Wu Kong just for clarity, L.O.O. Well, Wukong didn't have like awesome combat. Like, it's just not good.

It looks cool. It had the presentation that you love. You know, I think that game had sauce. I thought the gameplay was like good. It just wasn't great. Yeah. You know, I don't, you know. You know.

Is Black Mids, Wulcun's combat bad? No, it's just not great. It had good combat. It's just, you know. For me, it brings me back to, excuse me, the quote that I freestyed on a KFD like a year or two ago where I said, gameplay will make me love a game right now, but like story and characters will make me love a game forever.

And it'll make me remember those. moments. Yeah. That's beautiful. All time. I think there are a lot of great capable games with fun gameplay out right now that you could go get anywhere. But are you going to have that lasting impact and those story moments that Expedition 33 hits

you with? Or like those big sort of, you know, twists and turns and, you know, I don't love the Last of Us gameplay part one, but that game had awesome story beats that made me really remember those things. Sure. That's awesome. Yeah. Like, so to try to come in me with the Wukonks of it, it's like, I, bad, bad, you're, you're, yeah, you're coming from a place that doesn't even, you know, deserve.

You're coming from Kansas. Exactly. Roger. What's your first off take? Where do I go? Where do I go? Where do I go? I'll go with the general one because I just been feeling it after playing Dragon Quest, uh, reimagined.

We got to stop glazing or talk. Silent protagonists actually take away from immersion in video games. Wow. Period. End of story. Interesting. The idea is such a bygone relic of older video games. They're like, oh, well, we're going to have this character not really say anything. They're going to say yes or no, or they're just literally not going to respond to most characters because we want you to be the character.

No, I'm fucking out of it. When my character, my main character, dot, dot, dot, dot. Everyone else around them is everyone else around them is talking, is having a conversation, and this one character is just either saying yes or no or just sitting there, just silently, just looking around like an idiot. Why is my, why am I the idiot? Why am I'm the one playing the game You just make the character talk, have them,

it's okay for them to have dialogue, make choices that I wouldn't make. Playing a game like metaphor was like such an eye-opening moment where it's like, oh, the main character can just speak and have their own like thing and going on and have voice acting. Yeah, tell me their story.

It's fine. It's fine if it's a little bit different from what I would have done. It's okay, you're telling me an RPG. I don't need to fully be so immersed in it where all of my choices. I have to be that character. No, it's fine.

Drag Quest 7, where there are no choices. Yeah, exactly. Do you say yes or no? I say no. okay, well, you have to say yes. So whatever, I'm going to ignore it or I'm going to lead you back to the question. Exactly.

What are we doing? A little bit of Octopath there, too. Sure. Sure. No, you're not wrong. You're not wrong at all about that. So when we talk about, you know, picking dialogue choices, are you talking about,

you still want to have an impact on where story goes and things like that. But give my dude some character. Yeah, a little. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's less about like, I would say it like, yeah. To be clear, is choice even a problem? Because you're not with JRP's wrestling? No, no.

I'm talking about JRPGs. I'm talking about JRPGs. I'm talking about silent protagonist that like, I'm not even saying like Fallout versus Fall 3 versus Fall Out 4, right? I'm not saying like I need voice acting specifically. I'm just saying I don't want my character to sit around like a fucking idiot. Yeah, exactly. And just everyone else is talking for me and it's like, okay, well, because of immersion, this character is not going to do anything or say anything or have any dialogue in the game. It's the same argument

we make all the time with Pokemon, right? Yeah. It's like, sure. On top of there just needs to be VO and Pokemon, there needs to be a character. I don't feel about Portal. That's different. I think those are a little bit different. like that and also half-life, I think it's a little bit different because it's like, sure, people are talking around halfway, but that's like truly like the whole point of the game. Like it's a first person viewpoint.

I give those ones a pass. But like when it comes to like RPGs. Exactly. When it's talking about RPGs, it's like, oh no, everyone else is talking around me. That is the whole point of this game. And it's like, why is my character not? Why am I the guy who was discovered in a jungle effort?

Exactly. Who had no communication skills. Like it actually takes it away. Like the whole thing with Dragon Quest. It's like, I liked everything around it. It's like, my character is such an idiot, bro. I hate this guy. I hate me when I look in the,

mirror now. All right. All right. I like that. So far, we haven't been wrong. Wes, can you continue the trend?

I don't know if I'll continue the trend. Well, it depends. Because I have one that I think is agreeable and I have another one that I think a lot of people are not going to like.

Which one do you want me to start with? Uh, does, let's go an agreeable round. I think we do agreeable. Okay, okay. Okay, I'll start with the agreeable.

Everything's going to piss everybody off next. Everything's been agreeable so far. Everything. Downloadable demos should be a standard for nearly every video game, especially with video game prices rising. I should be able to download a demo for 95 to 98% of video games.

If it's like a multiplayer thing or whatever, like there's some weird off case for why a demo wouldn't work, sure. But if you're putting out a single player game and you're putting it out for $70 or more than $70, I should be able to download a demo and see if I like that game before I pay money for it. One of my favorite things that the Xbox Live ecosystem did was the Xbox arcade, where every single game had a demo, you were forced to do that. And of course, it was only for smaller games.

But even back then, that was such a heyday when I was a kid, like I'm trying to convince my mom to buy me games. So I would play, I remember Just Cause had a demo. And that demo was something that I was like, man, most games should do this. Where was the timer? It's just in the corner, 30 minutes and it would just expire. As soon as 30 minutes were done, you just couldn't play it anymore.

Most games should just do that. 100%. Yeah, I think that's the answer to it, right? That's the push and pull of it. I agree with your take that they should. Then you just get into the weeds of how much work a demo is for a team that's already stretched and trying to get Goldmaster out and I know that I'm making excuses

if you put it in the pipeline and that was going to be standardizing but if it could just be as simple as the PlayStation game trials anything else 30 minutes I know you get into an interesting point where lots of games the first 30 minutes aren't interesting it's all cut scenes you're not even getting on sticks you're not doing the whole thing I wish there was a happy medium somewhere around it because I do think you know a game like Dragon Quest 7 right

like I wasn't or yeah reimagined I wasn't I was like I'm interested enough but I don't know if I'll try to commit for the review. And when the demo dropped it was going to carry over, I was like, oh, fuck in, I dropped. And I was like, okay, yeah, let's get a review code. Let's go all the way through. Yeah, my counterpoint would be, I think, for the jump from 60 to 70 and in some cases, 70 and 80,

like, I think you can find somewhere in that money to be able to make a build. Sure. Maybe as, like, the president of gaming, it's something that you go. All right, all, this is kind of a requirement for a lot of studios. Yeah. Summortown in 2016, which is my car, Honda Civic. That's the year that they were like, you have to have reverse cameras. From here on every car is.

That's just part of your process. Yeah. You know, that's part of the development process. So, like, keep that in mind. This isn't something that you're going to, at the last second, kind of go like, oh, shit, we forgot about that demo, you know. Just to get into it while it's here because I like this. Kobe Super Chat and says, if they're already creating vertical slices for media to play,

release that demo a few weeks after press talks about it. Again, a great idea, a bit flawed in the way that actually goes down in terms of when you see even with demos that are playing come out, hey, it got data mine to hell, it did all this different stuff. There's been plenty of times I've been playing a video game demo at a thing and you click R3 and L3 and here comes the dev menu.

Like, oh, God, don't do that. You know what I mean? Like sometimes it is held together by chewing gum and band-aids. Yeah. Wasn't there the, I remember watching this video about years ago, I think it was Yakuza 6 where they just accidentally for the demo put the full game. So then people, if they just turn off the internet

could just play Yakuza-6 for free. Yeah, it's a good idea. I wish it existed. I understand the price point for sure, sure, sure. Yeah, I like that. I like that. Agreeable first round, everybody. We did it.

Nobody was wrong. Nobody was trapped. Now wait until round two when we start getting wrong. Of course, we got way more of this episode to get to. But before we get there, I want to tell you about pageron.com slash kind of funny. And YouTube.com slash kind of funny games where you can go and get the kind of funny membership, which allows you to get shows ad free. Speaking of ads, let us tell you about our sponsors.

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hi are you ready with your second hot take of the other time I am I am I am I am I so I brought three the second one I think is too Greg focused if we need it at the end I'll give it to you okay but I'm going to jump to the third one but I don't know if it counts as a hot take or if it's just prognostic

So everyone keep me honest if it's a bad take, but then I do want to talk about it all the same, right? We'll do. I think and stick with this going to sound so dumb to start with that I've stuck with you through a lot. I appreciate that. I believe in you. This is the kind of Feudy problem where it was like, what's a game that Greg Lerd hates that you're surprised he hates? The results of that I think about all the time. Again, I don't hate those games. The screenshots were were doing me dirty where it's like, you know, again, like a crazy list. I argued. What was the list? Oh my God It was red dead

What is a game that Greg should love But doesn't Oh So was it hates What should I love But I don't want Red Dead Red Dead Red Dead Red Dead Redemption So for Stone 5

Red Dead Red Dead Red Dead Redemption 2 Ballers Gate 3 I think was one Yeah Great players here It was like A greatest hits of video games Of all the time

My hot take here Which I think might just be A hot prediction That will seem cold But stick with me As we get warmer Is that it is going to get So much worse

In the video game industry It is going to be so much worse in the next years, but then I think we're going to get to that other side and it's really going to be a new golden age. And so what I mean by that is I die. And is that, does that count as a take, do we think? Okay, cool, cool, cool. So let me expound on it. Okay. Because I was thinking about what I could bring to the table today, what I wanted to talk about. And I was,

originally, I think this started a little bit as like, the golden age is done. We're well past the video game golden age and not even a throwback to, oh man, eight bit. my man, 16-bit, you know, not even like that kind of golden age. I would even go to fucking, and stick with me because it'll sound like a joke. I'm not joking. PSP, DS, I mean like, hey, we are making another platform that will make entirely different games for, that won't be as grandios as the games we already have, but we're going to make this thing and it'll be there for you, the gamer, right?

And this is where I started growing this take. Because obviously we talk about layoffs here, studio closures, guard fucking fucked after three weeks out of the gate. You know what I mean? And it really then started from this handheld thought process to how how great it is to have a steam deck, a ROG, a switch, and have your same experience there. But then how homogenized the industry is becoming, right? Where you lose those handheld things and you lose this playground of creativity

and this place to really expand. I was like, well, why did we lose that? And of course, we lost it chasing money, capitalism. We need to make as much money out of this as possible. And you start really going into that of, especially me starting at IGN in 2007 and really covering it professionally, you know, all day long, not having another job. And it is that conversation that, well, video games became so successful on the back of gamers like us, gamers, like you, I would assume, who have been playing games your whole life and love them. Or maybe you're not, but you're here now listening to a show that is so much about the art of video games, right, and really being nerdy about it. but the problem is when call of duty had the biggest entertainment opening of all time gta did this

there was such an influx of capital so many venture capitalists so many investors so many companies going public that you really flooded this market with we are going to chase that almighty fucking dollar and i know we use it too much as a scapegoat or like to point out and say they fucked everything up they didn't but like to look at something like fortnight in the amount of companies and people and shareholders and CEOs that decided they needed to chase that fucking model, right? Which is now ending with all of these studio is closing. We can't chase.

They're chasing trends that probably never even fucking existed, but they thought they didn't. They wanted to go do it. So what you're seeing, especially coming off dice, is sitting there talking to these developers independent, you know, that I don't even mean like two guys in a basement independent. I mean, we own our studio and now we need another contract because we're not owned by Xbox. Right.

We're not owned by PlayStation. there's no money for them to go make those games anymore. And so that's terrifying for them. And I think on the independent scale, you have a few other options to get that funding and do the thing and make a game that's smaller, double a, even just an indie game, you know, keep some people on, whatever it is.

But then you look at what we've talked about so much on the shows. EA, PlayStation, Xbox, etc., etc., etc., etc., where it's like Xbox is in such a fucked quagmire of like, we need to make, we've been known to make consoles. We're still making consoles. Consuls are more expensive than ever.

Oh, fuck, RAM, this, the other, where it's like, there's no way for them to go hat and hand to their shareholders meeting and say, hey, we're stopping Xbox consoles fully. It's not going to work. We're not going to, we're going to double down on games. You're going to see a huge drop in profits or whatever. And you shareholder value, of course.

And then we will build that slowly back up over years, but I doubt we'll ever get to where we were X, Y, and Z. That is a death nail for Xbox. So they are committed. They have to go do this. And you see that throughout the, everybody else doing it. These companies, I think, are going to continue to falter, fall, fold, sell, shrink.

And again, it's going to be a bloodbath. And I know we've already existed in it. But I think it's going to be so much fucking worse. Then you bring in what we've been talking about. And then yesterday's Bloomberg article, right, of talking about like, is overall the RAM crisis and the fact, okay, PlayStation 6, 2028, 2027, 2009. Thank you. I was going the wrong way with it. it's being delayed that far out.

And again, you then see Sony, I think, will then take a hit on that. And look, it is. And this is, on the one hand, I think good for gamers. You've invested in this hardware. Great.

It's there for you. You will see more stuff come to it. But it's going to be a bloodletting of all these different companies, all this different stuff. And I think it's such a forest, an overgrown forest analogy of like, it sucks.

I know how many jobs are going to be lost. I don't know how many jobs are going to be lost. It's not going to be lost. It's going to, You have to raise the forest. Like you have to burn it. You have to burn this forest so new life can grow. And I think when we're on the other side,

it'll be that chance or, you know, my tired, you know, the Matrix 3 thing of like, well, now the cycle is starting over again where now it will be a smaller market. It will be a smaller industry, but it will have that chance to be creative and do different things and yada,

yada, and yet and yada and grow up that way again. And then I'm sure eventually decades from now bring back in somebody chasing trends and doing the whole thing. We do the whole fucking thing again. But I just feel like, It is so dark right now.

And it's not that there's no light at the end of the tunnel. I don't even think that it's dark for us. Like I still think for the gamer, you won't notice much of it. You know what I mean? Like, you're still going to get your big franchises. When Ubisoft fucking closes up or sells or does whatever.

When Embracer closes up, when EA, like these weren't games that you were expecting to be 10 out of 10 usually, right? These are the ones you, we usually throw out of like, oh, design by community, oh, skate early access. That's, you know,

these are the things you're losing, which sucks for the people who work on those things. It sucks for the people who enjoy those. things. But it's more the fact that it's going to be so bad when you look at the stats, when you look at this thing and the RAM and everything else. I don't know exactly how that plays into it, but I know it doesn't play into it well.

I agree with you. And I would even go further. I think this is what happens for the entirety of the tech industry. Where I think we're going to have this growth of everybody needs to do AI. Everyone is to do AI. But then the gamer and the normal person, there is going to be this backlash.

You already see it when it comes to Gen Z. You already see it with younger people. that they don't want to be connected to their phones the entire time and seeing AI slop. So there's this rise of people being like, hey, I want, I have now broken up my life where I have a flip phone. I have an iPod. I have a fucking PSP that I bring around. Like, of course that is a niche genre of people that are, you know, super like, hey, I'm going to, you know, disconnect myself. But I do think that there is this desire to do something different and to see something different from this industry.

And when it comes to tech and when it comes to gaming. So yes, I completely agree with you where when this all burns down and everything changes, I can see this growth of, hey, what if we did do another DS-like type thing? What if that actually, what the play date ish actually has a market where people are interested in something that isn't just, you know, we're going to push the market and trying to do 4K, 8K, people want to just play video games and get to the root of this is the novelty. It's not just novelty. It is, this is sustainability when it comes to all of us. We can't just keep on going, going, going because you see what happens.

That's what AI is. That's what, you know, the chasing of DLSS and all this stuff is. It's like, we're at peak technology right now. Like, how many times can we refresh the iPhones? How many times can refresh any of these laptops, whatever? Of course, things can get better on paper. But the day to day, we're at the point now where I think you all look around and say, okay, well, I'm getting this thing, but it's not really,

it doesn't feel like back in the day when I went from the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 6, right? And I think that's what we're getting with technology. And you see it when the PlayStation 5 is quote unquote delayed or whatever. there's joy, uh, is delayed, right? There's joy in the normal gamer because it's like, fuck man, like I didn't feel like I got enough out of this console. I don't even know what the next one would be. I feel like I'm getting grifted out of my money to this point.

So I do think that there is going to be this, this, this, this, you know, this growth. And again, that is great, sounds great for you, the gamer who's invested in these things, but then it's the problem of the companies that are trying to keep making money because they feel like they have to keep making double digit percentage year over year growth, right? I was talking to Jen the other day of like you know oh man when it's all said and done here and we retire I'd love to open a comic book shop

and I know that it's such a failing business but like I don't I'm hoping to leave kind of funny one day in the hands where I don't need to fucking be making 10% on the comic book store to survive this is more of a passion project on the side if I can bring up a chat Ali Boe

Ali Boe Easy says Indy can succeed without AAA literally dying out entirely why can't naughty dog and a one man studio both make good games that actually release. Well, you're not wrong that, no, triple, I'm not saying AAA is standing in the way of independent development happening at all. It's more the fact that with AAA development stagnant, struggling, not turning profit, getting out fast enough, you are seeing a chilling effect across the industry of people going, oh, well, I had money to invest, but now I don't know if this is a sure bet like I thought

video games were. And to take a gamble on it, why can't an indie person at one man studio succeed? Well, you can. Like, you can go off and you can go be the Star-Due Val. guy and work on it for five years, six years, whatever it was, and then publish and be huge. But you're working a second job, doing a second thing. It's more the idea if there aren't people willing to invest in these things, and they aren't willing to invest because the industry market graph is going down, down, down, down, as we see layoffs and closures and everything else. Then you start to see the chilling effect of, man, I really wanted to be a video game

developer, but now I'm going to go off and go into web development. Man, I was working at AAA at Studio having a great time, and we got laid off, and I have a fucking family. So I can't take a year off to prototype a game and then go out and get it. Like it, the stories you haven't heard, and you've heard them before from other things, but like the stories that are being told right now are terrifying from developers out there trying to get their games made. Like, it is bad out there right now. And I would say, to some degree, it's always scary. It's always scary to go do the independent thing. But like, remember, I, what was it was, it was 24 dice where it was survived till 25. And then it was they, they had all

these little kooky little catchphrases for what it was and it's like yo nobody's having it's it's fucking money bags 27 yet like we're still in this thing where it's like oh fuck what do we do i still really worry about the indie developers that look at the industry and maybe aren't privileged enough to continue development on that solo project so that they could just go work on another job and like because the money is kind of drying up we're going to see a big loss of talent, I think, of just people giving up on that dream because people just don't have enough time or money to be buying all these, you know, there's just, we are drowning in quality video games still, somehow still, and just don't have time to put that, you know, effort everywhere.

And I worry about the amount of people going, well, why am I even doing this then? And you, hope to God that some of these super talented developers are still going to work part-time on their, you know, passion project. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As opposed to just dropping it entirely, but I do worry about the loss of talent from people just moving on and saying, it's not worth it, you know? Yeah. Andy, what's your next hot take? I think that if Final Fantasy 16 had the combat of seven rebirth and remake, it would be

the biggest Final Fantasy of all time. Biggest, what do you mean? Most successful. It would go out of just the Final Fantasy gamerverse. It would become the largest, you know, best-selling everything that you would, that the studios would hope that every game in their, that every entry in their franchise would do. I think that the story is so, like, well-ridden and able for ever,

and I guess, like, not as anime-ish that turns off a lot of outsiders. I think whenever we talk about, you know, how, man, my dad got into Game of Thrones, and he doesn't give a shit about fantasy stuff. my wife got into Game of Thrones and she doesn't care about the fantasy genre because it's, you know, you're looking at human interactions, you're looking at stuff about the story

that's relatable and it's like well-written characters. But because the combat was hack and slash character action, the greater Final Fantasy audience goes, that's not what I want out of my Final Fantasy game. Therefore, it's going to, if you're not going to hit with the core Final Fantasy audience, you don't have a chance of succeeding and blowing out and blowing up past that. Sure, sure, sure, sure.

And you need that core Final Fantasy audience to grab it, go this is amazing. Yeah, you need the core to go, well, dude, the gameplay is just, like, imagine the gameplay from Final Fantasy 7 remake, but it's got a story in characters that I could recommend to Joe Schmo working at the store as opposed to Joe Schmo working at the store going, oh, let me check out that game. And I pick it up and it's an anime character going, oh, you know, and he was just like, what is this bullshit? Like, what is this?

You pedify. And like, and that, that sounds like demeaning. Like, I'm talking shit about the anime stuff. I love that stuff. I know that it's not palatable for everybody.

And when you recommend anime to somebody who's like, oh, dude, you like that TV? You like that HBO drama. You should check on My Hero Academia. And they turn it on. It's like, oh, I don't know. And it's like, oh, that's,

what is this bullshit? You know? And I think that could turn the larger audience off. I just wish that Final 2016 had a chance to succeed with being, with having the combat that everybody loves. And then from there, people would have gone, oh, shit, this is actually like, has story and characters that are serious and awesome and well-ridden.

You feel like it could have been Clare obscure before Clare obscure. Yes. Clarebscare, I think, is the perfect example of what you're talking about in bars again. That wasn't afraid to be turn-based and have those, like, peer RPG mechanics, but then I have an aesthetic that was able to please people who are more along the lines of, like, Western sensibilities. Yeah. Now, I think Clare Obscureers had some story beats that.

still are those big memorable like twists and turns, right? That when we think of, oh my God, remember in inception when the top is still spinning at the remember that one moment in fucking, when we think of like the cool Christopher Nolan movie twists, I don't think that Final Fantasy 16 is quite there. Sure.

But it still had like amazing moments and amazing characters. Not to say that seven remake or rebirth didn't, like they absolutely did. They're just not super palatable for the grander gaming audience to kind of latch onto the way that, that we suddenly like Claire Obscour kind of, when we talk about, yeah, all of Tim's friends love and played that game.

Like the Normies, you know what I mean? I feel like 16 could have hit with the Normie crew, especially with how massive Game of Thrones is. And it just, it wasn't given a chance to succeed because the combat wasn't as palatable for the core.

Yeah. I hear you and I agree with you somewhat to the combat. I would also extend that to the rest of the game, right? I think even in terms of the story that is telling the world that it is, the Game of Thronesy vibe, I think a lot of that just doesn't say Final Fantasy to the Final Fantasy fan base, right?

Like if you're looking at the people that love a Final Fantasy 7, love a Final Fantasy 10, right? Love like the more kind of like anime-leaning sensibility of it. I think a lot of the decisions with Final Fantasy 16 feels like it was them being like, all right, let's lean off of all of that.

We gotta be grown up here. Be grown up and try to lean into what more of like the mainstream gamer wants, but the mainstream gamer plays Final Fantasy. I think that's the tough thing is there might be a medium point where it is that clear obscure thing where you have that combat, but I also think you might have to reel back the story a little bit, or not even reel back. You might have to like, I guess take it back toward the anime or Final Fantasy like vibe a little bit more

so that it's so that it feels more familiar to that audience because when I think back to the story of Final Fantasy 16, I love it because I'm, I guess I love both sides of it, right? I love the turn-based and I love the action. I love the seriousness and I love the anime shit, right? So I'm able to vibe with it. If I'm somebody who loves Final Fantasy for Final Fantasy 7, right, or what that aesthetic is traditionally

and I play Final Fantasy 16, I just don't think there's anything for me to grab onto as strongly. Gotcha. I got to be honest, for half of that take, I got it opposite. So I thought you're talking about

Final Fantasy 16's gameplay in Final Fantasy 7. Oh, no. And you were like, it would be the biggest thing. I'm like, isn't Final Fantasy 7 already pretty big? No. No, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's a weird one. Roger. I'm gonna go spicy. We're going to do it. The PlayStation Portal is one of the most frustrating pieces of tech in years. It does a job that is highly specific that already can be done on any modern device, and instead of building it with Android, it is proprietary. Meaning, as soon as the PlayStation Portal is out of fashion,

there's no other use for this hardware as it is not being made to be modded or do anything else. This is a fucking waste of plastic and technology. It should have just been an Android tablet that you can do other things on. It is so frustrating that a company, like PlayStation is creating something that is this expensive, and of course it's premium, of course it feels great, but you can do this on any other tablet. You can do this on your fucking computer. Why is this thing not able for me to mod it or do anything else with it? Because PlayStation at any moment can just be like, you know what, PlayStation 6? It's not

compatible. Okay, cool. Now I'm fucking S.O.L. I can't do anything with this product. You need to be thinking about this, and I do think that PlayStation is fucking culpable. When people throw this in the fucking garbage, they should be paying the governments around the world for all the garbage that it's going to create around the world. Holy shit. What are we talking about? To me, that's like Sony kind of being like Apple where it's, well, you're going to do things our way.

You're going to have all these other ways to go do it. You could go do it right now. But you will do things our way. And I think back to old Sony with, you know, we're not going to. Memory cards. Yeah. Proprositary memory cards. This is going to be, we're doing things our way in hopes that we kind of either create

the standard or we should. show everybody, damn, that's how popular we are. People are willing to do other things. People are willing to buy the special shit instead of just like going on Amazon and buying the, you know, the generic version of it. Yeah, that kind of, yeah, Apple does a lot of very similar stuff. I mean, I'm mad at Apple too. Yeah. I think where it's like I hear you, I'm hard pressed to get angry about it because I feel like there's so many fucking wasteful pieces of plastic we have in our lives. Yeah. It's like, it doesn't need to exist. I think the, the anger for me is just like, hey, this, again, already exists.

Like, I'm using it on the Logitech G Cloud. Thank you for that. Yeah, no problem. And it works great. I have all the settings where I'm able to go in there. Of course, maybe it has a stronger connection with the proprietary software there, but still, like, again, this is all the back end of this. I misspoke over there.

The back end is Android. Like, the way that built this out is Android from what I can read online, the fact that you can't do anything with it past that, like the fact that I can't go in there and emulate, you know, some S&ES games just for fun. And like, I hate that companies like this just don't trust the end user. And, like, that's what frustrates me to no end of, like, seeing what Valve is doing. And, like, they just trust you. Here's the thing.

Fucking mod it. Do whatever the hell you want. We'll show you the breakdown if you want to fix it. Like, when a company like this doesn't trust us and then they also say, by, by the way, we can just pull the plug at any moment, I never trust that. And I get pretty upset about it. I thought this is going to be a PSVR take. No, no.

That's what I was talking about with it. Yeah. And PSVR actually will loop into, I think, my take off of that take, right? which is like, when you bring in steam into it, I think the difference is that the steam deck is made to sell. The steam machine is theoretically being made to sell. That probably changes with the RAM shortages. But this goes into,

I think the opposite of PlayStation is that I don't think PlayStation is looking at the general consumer, the general PlayStation consumer as being the audience for this. I think they're looking at the most premium PlayStation consumer. And I think they think that way with things like the PlayStation Pulse headset, the PlayStation Pulse elites, the new speakers that they have announced that are coming, right? like PlayStation accessories more and more feel like they have that Apple mind state of we are tying this into our specific ecosystem and I don't know if this was done on purpose. In fact, it most definitely probably not, but it kind of feeds into what I think is going to continue to be the future of PlayStation because one of the conversations we're having yesterday about the RAM shortages and all these things and what happens with the RAM shortages is I think these companies will start to cater to the people in their audiences that have the most money because they can get the money out of them, right?

Everybody else can't afford this shit. And so, hey, if you have fun playing our PlayStation 6 games on PS5, because a lot of you aren't going to be able to buy the PS6, because it's going to be fucking expensive. We are going to focus on the most profitable part of our audience. And so we're going to continue

to make an expensive-ass PlayStation Portal 2. We're going to make accessories that cost a fucking buttload of money, and we're going to keep doing it because those are the people with money right now. I totally get that. But the only thing that makes the PlayStation Portal more egregious is that all the other accessories work on other things, right? Like you use the earbuds on

your phone, you can use PSVR on the PC, you can use the speakers on PC. The fact that portal, I can't connect it to my PC and play in video games. I can't, you know, do any type of cloud streaming is, again, frustrating because it has the back end where I can stream things perfectly for the PlayStation. Let me just do it other places. It's not going to hurt PlayStation's brand. If you can use a PlayStation portal, give them the money and then just do whatever the fuck I want with it. It doesn't hurt anybody. This is back to tying it together. to what you're talking about, right? Where my take of how the industry is failing and bleeding out right now

and how do you find people to make money off of, it's what you're talking about of this expensive. Did the Matt Piscuitella stuff get in yesterday on Games Daily? I didn't have a reason. No, I don't think so. I put it into assets, but I want to read three different things here. So Matt Piscitella is a quote BSing. That's Blue Sky Tim.

Someone talking about video games and saying, my kids buy games at $299 or $1.99 on sale down from $1999. It's called a race to the bottom. We've hit bottom. We're here. Matt quotes this and that's three different things. I think are interesting. It's salient to the points we're making. Matt says,

this is from Sircona. Matt, of course, studies on the industry stats, formerly NPD. We have a relatively small group of price and sensitive game buyers that, if interest into the game, we'll buy it regardless of price

and we'll buy the most expensive addition available. Most others will wait for dirt cheap sales, giveaway, or subservices. K-shaped game buyers for a K-shaped economy. Lowering game launch prices, 20% or something, won't help. The high end of the market will just pay a little bit less, while any

corresponding growth in audience size from that decreased price won't come anywhere near to making up for the price gap per purchase and Fortnite's still free. And given the continued rapid increase in the number of games being made each year, pricing is going to continue to be a real puzzle and pickle, and there's absolutely no

easy answers. He goes on to talk and what we're talking about of like, you're chasing the people who will pay the most. And so it is these people who will buy the premium PlayStation Portal, the premium, the premium PlayStation speakers, the premium Xbox console or whatever, where it's like trying to set those things of, you're seeing the mainstream video game market chase the whales in the same way we used to see mobile games try to do that too, where it's like we want to, it's 14 million

installs, but we only need 2% of people actually buying what we're doing. I think the best example of this in the economy at large is Disney and Disney Park specifically of like, it's like the attendance never grows. It's just, but they make way more money every year. They keep on bleeding from the same families that are saving up for years and years and years or the one percenters that go all the time. My blessing. This is your offensive one.

My offensive one, which is funny because we're talking all about price in this round. And this is, I think, the one that might piss people off as far as my take on price here. I know where you're going, this. Do you? I think price is an important conversation to have when talking about video games

and needs to be talked about, especially as games get more expensive. However, I don't like price point being a factor in video game reviews. For the following reasons. One, price is extremely subjective and no one will ever be on the same page as far as how much money they're willing to spend on something because everyone's financial situation is different. Two, if price point is a factor in reviews, then no full price game is going to pass, and this will only continue to be the case. As far as, like, a new Nintendo Switch game comes out. we already know Nintendo games are too expensive. Every Nintendo game is too expensive.

I think that'll continue to be a point, regardless of us talking about it in reviews or outside of reviews. Lastly, conversation about Price Point feels more appropriate when discussing the product viability of a video game, but detracts from the conversation of what makes the art of the video game special. That's not a factor I care about when it comes to reviewing art. That's the take.

I don't feel, I mean, this might be offensive with the audience. I don't feel as a fellow video game reviewer, it's offensive. I think it's, I think, you know, I forget even if it was ever a main standing point. An audience, you'd probably know better than me. If that was ever something that I brought up my IGN reviews, because I feel like it's good for the discussions of it.

But to what you're talking about of when I'm judging this piece of art and did it accomplish what it's set out to do, that's where I get down to it's a 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, or whatever it is. And then it does become the, okay, well, yeah, you know, Mario tennis is this, that, and the other, but is it worth, you know, is it worth $70? Is it different thing of what do we think it is? How do you describe the game?

To your friends, I know I've said it before. I'm like, oh, it's great. I'd wait for a sale. It's great. Oh, do this, whatever. Like, I know when I'm talking to Hayes, what he needs and what he likes and where he'd want to spend his money or not spend his money. Whereas when you're doing a blanket review to the world, it's weird to come in and be like, ah, should have been $15 rather than $20.

Yeah, I don't know. I think I disagree on this one because there's been so many games in the last few years that I've played, especially, specifically like, um, I've comes to mind is a man who erased his name. The game, it's like 30, 40 bucks. And it's like, I play this game and I'm like, this is six hours. I would never pay $40 for this game. And I do think that's an important part of my review of like, hey, this game is not, it's fine for whatever. But like, as the price point here, I would not recommend it.

Because that's the interesting thing here is that when we're talking about art, we're talking about reviewing things, video games are not like movies where it's like the same price for every single ticket, right? At video game prices scale, they go up, depending on Nintendo, they might be $80, maybe $20 here and there. I do think it's important to call them out, at least for me personally, and when I'm playing a game, I do think about the investment that you are putting into it. And if I didn't, was on the outside, I didn't get a review code if I would have made that investment. Because there are some games where I'm just like, no, I would have never made this investment at this price point. And the reason why is because X, Y, and Z I didn't like this, didn't like this, didn't like this. Which I think is valid.

I just think it changes what the review is, right? I think for me, I look at video game reviews in taking different forms. and like I think everybody reviews the thing things in her own way, right? But I think when I bring in the price conversation into it, for me, that's a product review. I'm reviewing this as a computer thing. Yeah, but I mean, isn't this all product and it's all software? Which I agree. And I think that that's a valid way to review things.

But I also think that there should be room for I'm reviewing this thing as a piece of art to which I don't care about price point, right? Does this thing live up to what it's doing as a piece of art? Is the way that like, I don't know. If I'm reviewing the Mona Lisa, I'm not going to bring in the price it takes to get into the Louvre, which I know is a weird example. not comparable thing, but I think... It's making your point. Yeah, like, my point is more so to, I think,

if we consider video games as art, I think there should be the space to be able to talk about what does this thing achieve and be able to look at it as an art. As soon as I'm thinking about the price of something, I'm, there's something in my brain that removes the art conversation from it, and now it's like, oh, I'm telling a consumer whether or not they should pay $50 or something, which is 100% of valid conversation, but it's not necessarily what I look for out of a video game review.

Yeah. I think I look more for from the aspect of the consumer, though, who is largely consuming this and not getting the product for free. And that's, I think, I'm more on Roger's side, where I disagree with it only from the standpoint that, yeah, you can't really put a good price,

you can't really put a price on art necessarily. But if I told you to, like, man, this indie game is so transformative and it's awesome. And how long is it, Andy? It's a three-hour experience. It's so, like, efficient and great. Oh, nice, dude. What's the price?

$90. Oh, well, then what the fuck? I don't know if I would pay that. It's Celeste not a 10 out of 10 if it's $90. Oh, so you're saying that the price, that if it were 90 bucks that I would give it a lower review score? Well, no, I guess the question I'm asking you to it is like, does the price point, if we're talking about Celeste, right,

does the price point make it a worse or better game? Like if it came out as $90. Oh, I guess I don't, okay, I misunderstood the initial thing. No, it doesn't change the review score for me, but I'm not going to not talk about it. Okay. And we are all on the same page. Because I'm with bless of like, yeah, I would be like, in my review, this game is a 10 out of 10, three hours.

It was incredible. I can't, in good conscience and face, say you're going to get it at $90. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but no, I disagree with all of you then. Like, if Celessa's $90, I'm going to be like, no, fuck this game. Like, I don't, I don't care if this game is a 10 out of 10 as the thing itself. This is the product that you are selling the consumer.

no, this is not something that I will ever recommend and call a masterpiece. Like I think that that is, that is like, we're in a weird place where I get, totally get what you're saying. Like if we're like playing like God, we're looking down here, okay, this is art, this is the price. But like, this is all together and they are selling a product to the consumer that is art. So I have to play both sides. And that's the way that I will always look at this. Yeah. I think the thing there is like you're connecting recommendation to the score, which obviously like I think we often do.

But I wouldn't, I think I would say it's a 10 out of 10. I don't recommend buying it. But then for me personally, I will never. never be able to like not connect those dots, right? Where it's like, I cannot play a game and then be like, forget that this thing is the price. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know. Like that's-

But for me, it gets weird because like I think for me there are video games I would spend $100 on. My favorite video game, I would spend $100 to play Breath of the Wild for the first time, right? And like for me, that is that lives up to the 10 out of 10 thing. I could never tell somebody else what price they should value this thing at. I think that's, that gets to the heart of my thing is like I cannot connect to like what's in your pockets and what you value at that price. I know for me, I love this thing so much that I think it's worth $1,000.

For me, this goes back to the controversial quote I think I had of, like, Here's the Kingdom was coming out. And I was like, I'd pay $1,300 for Cheers to the Kingdom. That's me speaking for me and how much I know I love this game that's coming out. But I would never recommend anybody else pay it for that price. For me, that's just like how much I love the art of what this thing is. I understand. I think I could totally see, though, like, you know,

Oh, Celeste's 100? Like, all right, well, these devs think that, like, this game's actually worth that much. Now I'm, like, judging you as a dev. And that could kind of get a little dicey there. Well, that's where it comes into of then, like, art from the artist. Jonathan Blow said a bunch of shitty things, right? So, like, when this new puzzle game whose name's escape me... Order the same thing.

Do you start ding-in? Yeah, exactly. Do you start dinging at points because Jonathan blows the guy who made it? True. I don't know. For me, like, I just... When it comes to value in something, they're selling you. that price and the review, I think,

go hand in hand, because I'm always going to be thinking about, well, I remember spending $60, $80 on video games, and I remember buying games and being like, this was not worth my fucking money. And this was an overpriced video game that should have been $40. And I don't know.

It's tough for me, but I get where you guys are coming from. Fair enough. We are out of time, unfortunately. Unless anybody has any last second shotgun one they went throughout there. Yeah. Oh, wow. Any super chats?

Oh, that's a good call. Let's look into super chats. See what people are talking about. First name, no last name says. If groceries rent, electricity, transportation, and console slash PC parts weren't as high as they are, gamers would be less opposed to $70, $70 for Mario Tennis Fever. If the government gave us a guaranteed salary, everything would be great. You play that adventure mode, though, and it's like, you owe me money.

Marcus Daniels says, I know for me, the palatibility and gameplay of a game isn't the issue is that games are just too long now. I just don't have the time. But then we get back to. Cool. Here's a three hour long game that's great. Will you pay the 20 bucks for it? Mob Axie writes in and says, saying this for the 1,000th time,

story doesn't mean everything. Mario is the Jack Black of the gaming world. We love Jack Black because he's super fun on screen like Mario, not because of his backstory. Is he super fun? Listen, I would never describe I like Jack Black.

I, you know, I loved that original Tenacious D album in college or whatever. Jack Black does not put my ass in the seat for a movie. You know what I mean? It does for kids now. Yeah. They love Jack Black.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Never seen it, but I have to listen the fucking song on. Fucking good movie. Science talk official says watching on a lag, but my video game hot take is that Fallout 3 isn't the monolithic transformative experience that everyone said it was.

I couldn't get into the loop in the world was ugly. Also, speaking of Fallout, Cody writes in and says, my hot take is Obsidian Games gets too much hate for no reason. Even Fallout New Vegas was only rated in the low 80s. OW2, Outer Worlds 2, is a 10 out of 10 video game. In five years after DLC, everyone will be clamoring for Outer Worlds 3, which they killed. Is there DLC for Outer Worlds 2?

I thought they were just done with it. No, it's not a 10 out of 10. You're wrong. Your hot take is cold. It's wrong, I guess. You're the first hot, wrong hot take we've had all day. And then we'll do one more from, People just run with their own in hot takes, by the way.

I asked for opinions about our hot takes, but they just run it with their hot takes. I like it. And I'll close with this one from Openness Prime, who says, Kojima is so up his own ass. And so are his fans saying he's a genius. Oh, I made a guy who's made of cheese and he breathes farts. His games are good, but MGS could only be made by others and are just fine.

Fuck off. Just say you don't have any whimsy. Yeah. No taste. Anybody else make an MGS game, and that's a Splinterest. sell right there. Oh, that's a hot one right there. That's a hot one. That's a hot one.

Fuck you, Roger. Wow. Some of the greatest games of all time, what are we talking about? He wasn't expecting that one. And that is it for kind of funny games cast for each and every week to get together. I could have said that. You can't have said that.

You can't hurt my feeling. I can talk about the biggest reviews, previews, and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and all podcast services around the globe. If you love what you do, support us with kind of funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Apple, Apple, Apple, or Spotify, I'm so hungry. To get all of our shows ad free and get a daily exclusive show.

Enjoy, in review. After this, what is it? Robocop. Robocop. I haven't seen it. Roger's first time watching Robocop. Can't wait to hear about it. Wow.

Do you expect any of that? No. Do you expect that fucking movie? Did not. Did not. You got another reanimal stream right after this. We're on Cape Shed, Mike, threatened the end.

I don't know if Andy heard it. He's a lot of threats from them lately. What is he saying? He said if we don't beat this game, I'm a slap up Andy. Did he say slap up Andy? He said something like that. I don't know if it was that exact phrasing, but it's something like he was going to slap you up.

I just don't know where he's at mentally right now. Like, guys, we had an HR company come in. The only thing they talked about was threatening violence at work. Yeah. All they talked about. That's all they said, yeah. Until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you. Chronot.

Yeah. Chrono trigger's fine. Oh, wow. It's just okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay.