Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - PlayStation Portal Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: November 14, 2023

Barrett and Bless talk about their return to Persona! Run of Show - - Start - Housekeeping - PlayStation Portal Review - Ads  - Alan Wake 2 - Cocoon - Sea of Stars - Armored Core - Modern Warfare 3 - Final MK8 DLC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yo, what's up? Welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast. I'm one of your host, Blessing. Adioia Jr. joining me is Boss Baby himself, Barrett Courtney. Is Dave the Diver an indie game? Don't get me started. We also have the Nica Rifle himself, Andy Cortez. No, it is not. But the term has changed so much over the past couple of years, Barrett. Welcome in, everybody. Welcome in. Welcome in. I'll say it is an indie game. I would say it is not an independent game. But that's not a conversation for here. That's conversation. You can check out on KFGD that went up on Monday. That was me and Andy. or we can go back a week and listen to Gamescast where Greg and Andy almost fought.

I love that that was the conversation last week that inevitably led into the nomination announcements today. Also, very fascinating stuff. Like, I'm not fully committed to one or the other. I see where Andy the Nighter Rifle Cortez is coming from there, but yeah. I also like that's an interesting conversation. Because like, I forget how even the start started

where I feel like Greg brought it out of nowhere of like we're typing one conversation and then like mid-convers and Greg turns to Andy. He's like, Dave the Divers on indie game. I'm like, where does energy even come from? I think that it maybe happened on a different games cast possibly another episode of something

that we had done in the past where I was just, you know, making my point that I think we don't want to get into it. Let's not get into it. Of course, this is the kind of funny games cast your weekly gaming podcast that you can watch live on Patreon. dot com slash kind of funny or later on podcast services around the globe remember you can use that

recruiter code kind of funny on all up store and epic in game purchases like rock elite and fortnight to help support the channel to be a part of the show head to kind of funny dot com slash gamescast write in with your questions and more and remember patreon dot com slash kind of funny we'll get you the show ad free plus a bevy of bonus content thank you to our patreon producers jackson hampton and deliney twining today brought to you by better help but let's start with our playstation portal review So, again, it is me, it is Barrett, it is Andy. Greg and Tim are gone on assignment. What's that assignment?

Getting attacked by snakes. Getting attacked by snakes and or a secret meeting in LA. I don't know what's going on. But it's less three. I had the PlayStation portal over the weekend. I'm the person reviewing it. Of course, Greg is going to come through for PS to love you, and I'm sure Greg's going to continue to talk about it forever.

Mom said it's my turn to play with the PlayStation portal. Yeah, mom said this weekend it's my turn to play with the PlayStation portal. Hashtag provided by PlayStation. Thank you so much for that. Yes. the PlayStation portal has been provided by PlayStation 4 review. So I've had a weekend with it. I played quite a bit of it.

I played probably like in total, maybe somewhere between 12 to 15 hours. Yeah, because you got your, portal and your portal and your earbuds on Friday, right? Thursday. Yeah. You've had a good weekend with it. I've had a good weekend with it.

It's funny because like going into the weekend, And me and Greg have had the conversation of, yeah, like, I'm kind of looking forward to the portal. Greg's very much looking forward to it. But I'm somebody who, like, I've used remote play before. I've enjoyed remote play. But it's not my main way to game. Greg used remote play all the time. So that is his bag.

He's a backboneer. He's a backboneer. Yeah. And I'm somebody who, you know, again, like I was looking forward to hearing Greg's thoughts on this. I'm still looking forward to hearing Greg's thoughts on it. But going into the weekend, I found myself fascinated with this thing in a way where I'm like, yo, actually, let me look at the schedule. We're recording games cast on Monday.

Let me just review it because one, that'll get it to y'all sooner. And the way this thing works is like, you know, the sooner we make this kind of content, the more clicks is going to get because that's how y'all work. But then also, you know, like, if I don't review it here, I don't think PSLW would have been the review necessarily. Just because PSW you don't record until later into the weeks. And that's why I'm excited that you're here today to kind of a review.

Because you're not the super enthusiast case for this. like Greg would be, you're just kind of in it just for the fascination of new PlayStation Tech. Yeah. And so, like, I think that's where I'm starting this review off is I've been very fascinated by the PlayStation Portal and specifically the audience response to the PlayStation Portal because I've been keeping an eye on PSLU numbers. And the fervor that the audience has to, like, learn more and understand more about this thing is kind of surprising.

Like, our PlayStation Portal unboxing, I think by the second day, had like the same amount of views that you'd get out of a big game review out of us. It is kind of shocking how many people are really excited. New hardware gets people excited. Yeah. Like new hardware gets people excited. And yeah, like,

I'm, I've been, I've been surprised by it because I feel like the PlayStation Portal is such a niche type of hardware. And even after playing it throughout the whole weekend, I still think it's a very niche kind of hardware that I love. Like, I've been enjoying the heck out of this thing,

despite qualms and despite, issues and all that stuff and we'll get into all that but I think my biggest thing is if you're somebody who likes remote playing which again is a niche like is a small percentage of us um this is the best way to remote play you know like in the past I've tried a remote remote play on my steam deck I've tried to remote play on my phone and I've had like good experiences remote playing all those things I remote played on my Vita I remember when persona 5 first came out of I remember played the hell out of persona 5 on my Vita because I was like oh this is a Vita game to me And so, yeah, out of all the different devices that I've used to remote play,

PlayStation Portal has been the best one. And it's for obvious reasons. The screen is really nice. Gorgeous. Yeah, it's gorgeous. You guys are seeing it right here, right? And it's not OLED, but it is. Like you have C of Stars on here right now, and I had that moment where I was like, is,

is this OLED? Yeah, I have not seen the ROG ally in person. So I cannot put this in that comparison. but I would say this is the best-looking non-O-led portable display I've seen. Yeah. Like I, when I think of how the switch looks, when I think of how the Steam Deck looks, when I think of how other like third-party type of like ROM hack machines look, this display just shows it.

Sony knows how to do hardware, man. They know how to make things look good. And it made me even more interested in the idea of their monitors, because I know they have gaming monitors that like InZone brand. Yeah. And it kind of like, oh, shit, maybe that's a possibility now because otherwise I just would have likely gone with LG or Samsung. Yeah.

And so the screen looks good is that it is also the meme of the PlayStation Portal is literally just a dual sense cut in half and then stuck onto a screen. It's that, but it also feels great. Like ergonomically, if you like the way the dual sense feels, you are getting that one-for-one experience here. It's not like a weird, like even like I love the Steam Deck, but even the Steam Deck can feel a little weighty, right? Yeah.

You know, the Wii U game pad is like a weird feeling thing. And I would think picking this up, it would kind of feel like that. But it doesn't. It feels high quality. Like when I look at the steam deck or the switch or many handheld, modern handheld devices we get, like a lot of them are shaped like rectangles. Right. And they have the ridges in the back to help them feel a bit more agronomic.

But PlayStation says screw that. Like we're actually just going to have the like the shape of the dual sense, right? And so it's not a rectangle. The only rectangle on here is the screen. Right. But then when you get your hands on the. controller part, it is shaped like a dual sense and it feels right. Yeah.

Like it doesn't feel like I'm holding a weird handheld thing. It feels like I'm holding a dual sense. I got to assume there were a lot of their industrial designers going like, but we have all these really cool designs for a handheld thing. And they're like, but what feels better? And I agree. Like holding that feels better than holding any other portable I've held. But that's because those portables have to be kind of chunky because they're also

housing really powerful hardware inside of it that isn't just streaming. you know from the cloud or whatever and it comes complete with the dual sense features too and so it has haptics the haptics feel real nice right like you have the adaptive triggers

you have all that stuff that you'd expect sticks are a little bit smaller right compared to a normal dual sense I don't know if they are like is there a dual sense in here that we can grab Andy's running

because I'm not being able to know I will say after playing the spoilers for later on the show I've been playing some Alan Wake 2 and I was playing it last night and these definitely I was playing on my dual sense and these definitely feel smaller.

Okay. Yeah, I'm curious on the one for one. Hold them up a little bit. There it is. Look how small they are. Yeah, because I've not been able to notice the difference. Small little nipples. But I've also, like, now it's been a while

since I've held an actual dual sets. It's been a good weekend. Yeah. But yeah, yeah, pass over that dual sense. Yeah, those are definitely. I mean, yeah, you're right. They're smaller. But, like, marginally.

Yeah, they're a little bit smaller. It's not like dropping down to the Vitas sticks. Exactly. Yeah, it's not even like, it's not even dropping down to like a switch, right? It's like, if you didn't look at the, that the comparison, like, I think you'd feel like the same thing.

Oh, they look very similar. Yeah. So, yeah, like, the form factor is great. The, like, it has a speaker to it. The sound, I think, is decent for what's coming out the speaker. And you still walkie-talk of your friends? Yes, you can. Because they have a microphone.

Come in, hello. You can probably talk to him right now, wherever he's at. Yeah, they got the microphone button on here. This has always got that note that's loaded. So, yeah, like, form factor is great. the battery life is fine. Like I, what I think I played continuously

for like three to four hours, maybe like at longest five hours before I had to charge it, which honestly for a PlayStation thing isn't that bad. Like it's comparable to a dual sense. Yeah, it's like comparable to a dual sense in that way.

And so, you know, battery is fine. I played a lot of cocoon this weekend, right? And like that's been my thing. So for the games that I've gone through, I played the entirety of cocoon on this. I then, once I beat Kekoon, started playing Sea of Stars. I played about two and a half hours of Sea of Stars on this thing.

How often were you charging? I had to charge it full two or three times. I think three times. Because Kikoon's like a six hour game. Yeah, Kikun, I beat in like six hours. And then, yeah, with Sea of Stars a couple hours. I think I found myself charging it full about twice, like twice and a half. But you played Kikoon fully uncharged, fully all the way through?

Yeah, I played it uncharged. I did, I mean, I had to charge it partway through my game. Okay, okay. Yeah. Yeah, I played Kekoon, played Sea of Stars. I played, I boot up Spider-Man. I played FIFA, like a match of FIFA. I played Street Fighter.

And I've also played on my home Wi-Fi, my home internet connection, and also on the kind of funny Wi-Fi on the kind of funny connection. Reason why that's important is because I have two different Wi-Fi experiences between being at the office and being at home. But both Wi-Fi instances,

you're still connecting to your PlayStation 5 back home. Okay, so I'll get into it. So let me start off with the weekend. which is where I was playing at home. I am playing off of my home PS5 that entire time. My home PS5 connected through Ethernet and I have great internet connection through my Ethernet. My Wi-Fi at home sucks.

And that was my first worry with this thing is that I would have to deal with my own bad connection and that like this thing would just be a piece of junk in my house because I wouldn't be able to play anything. I invested in a Wi-Fi extender for my home just because of this. I was like, all right, cool. Like, if I'm going to see if I can make this work,

I might as well extend my Wi-Fi, see if I can get that. that working. And it did work for the most part. Like a good 75% of the time, I was having a great time. And then there was the 25% where my Wi-Fi was giving out. And it did then become a struggle to play on my PlayStation portal. Were you having to like restart your internet or anything like that? Yeah, a couple of times, right? And that's not me. That's not on the portal. That's more so just on how demanding it can be on the kind of internet it wants. And then also what just is the remote play experience. Because I think the big thing for me with the portal is that

there's no changes to how remote play works. Remote play works exactly how remote play has always worked. And so if you've tried playing remote play at home and you're getting a certain type of experience, that is the same exact experience you're going to get playing on this thing. It's not like an enhanced level of remote play. It's not like this thing is connecting to the internet better than your phone or anything else.

Really, where you're getting the portal for is the form factor and the convenience of like how this interacts with the PlayStation. And a nice screen that's like slightly bigger than a phone. Yeah, and a bigger screen than a phone, right? Like, all these things I think are cool. I've also more preferred, like, separating my phone from the game. I've, like, anytime I've thought about doing any sort of cloud thing, I'm like, well, but I want to have my phone.

What if someone texts me? I don't want to interrupt the game, all that sort of thing. Yeah. And so, yeah, like, with that, the internet situation was very hit or miss for me, where, again, if you don't have really good internet, especially Wi-Fi, because you are connecting this thing to Wi-Fi, you're going to have. some struggles. Like, there are times where I would get disconnected from my PlayStation. I would get the little icon pop up that is unstable connection. Like, we're going to disconnect you. Um, you know,

that was probably a good 25% of the time. The other 75% where I'm playing Kekoon, I was surprised by how often I forgot I was playing remote play. Yeah, when this thing worked at its best, it was actually a really cool way to play this game. And Kikoon being a game that's not demanding of reflexes, right? It's a puzzle game. You are taking your time. That was the perfect kind of experience for me to play with the portal when I would boot up something like street fighter again at its best not bad I would never play online like that right I was mainly just fucking around in practice mode but like doing that was even impressive playing on this thing and that's me doing with that at home Wi-Fi when I got it today I started playing this thing on the work Wi-Fi to see what the comparison is

because work Wi-Fi incredible like Kevin I don't know if you have numbers for what are up and down is but our Wi-Fi here is really good and also my my work PS5 is connected along with my home PS5 and so I did both. It's also I think we have a more solid strength throughout the entire building compared to like our apartments because Andy and I deal with something similar where it's like I can do remote play like on my phone in our apartment if I'm in the living room like 10 feet away from our router but if I'm in my bedroom it's like same for me actually yeah I should mention that is yeah when I'm playing in my bedroom that's where I have the most struggle when I'm playing in the living room I get like it's better overall but I still get a little bit of weirdness

It's why, you know, I had some homies over at Astro and Logitech. They sent me over the Logitech GCloud thing. And I tried it. I was like, I knew it wasn't going to work, but I still tried it out. I was like, this just doesn't, which, by the way, I should probably give it to one of you all, because not only am I not really using that as my method of play, but I just know that in our apartment. Like, I've tried to, I tried X cloud on my phone back in the beta days, and even when it got progressively better, and people were kind of talking about how great X cloud works now,

it just still doesn't work in my apartment. Bless, the numbers for the office just right now on my phone, 400 down, 400 up, symmetrical. Pretty good. Yeah, pretty great. And also, quick question. Like, have you guys thought of just getting an Ethernet and getting, like, a cheap Wi-Fi, like,

um, modem? We need you to come over, Kevin. Yeah, we need you to come over. Hey, guys, I'm available. I'm available. Let me know. I'll come and make your lives better. What do you mean?

Like a modem. for my room? Yeah, just put a little Wi-Fi bubble in your room. Right? Because like that's where you're doing. You know, can you link me to one of those? Because like I have, right now my Ethernet court does go all the way into my room. Yeah. You're talking about like the Google Nest stuff or whatever. Or like

Euro or whatever. It doesn't even have to be that. You can just get like a like a $60 Links's Wi-Fi modem. Put it in. Because like you only need one device to connect to it, right? Yeah. That's true. But it would have to be, there's a lot of

like weird stuff. We've tried stuff like that that we haven't been able to get fully into our bedroom, but that's a conversation for another day for sure. Yeah. And so while playing at work, I did the thing where I connected to my PS5 at home and my PS5 would work. Both of them work great. Have you tried doing

because I imagine in both instances your PS5 is plugged into Ethernet? Yeah. Have you tried just to fuck around and find out like having your PS5 only on Wi-Fi? Oh no, I'm not. I didn't try that, but that's That's an automatic assumption of this is going to be garbage if I play it that way.

Yeah. That's the thing is like, and this has just been remote play in general, because I guess that's the thing is I used to do remote play back in the day. And there I would have it be where my PS4, I guess at the time, was through Wi-Fi or my remote play device. I'm also doing through Wi-Fi. And that shit was just was not worth it. Like it was a hassle.

And so that's not a way I would recommend it. The other thing that I found interesting, and this is again to the remote play thing, not necessarily just the PlayStation Portal, is, Playing like a third person action game, like a Jedi survivor, it hurt my eyes a little bit just for like how stutter it could be. I did the same thing as Spider-Man too. Like it's playable and you can get the job done. It is far from how I would recommend playing those games.

Like those are games where I would say, hey, just play it natively because I felt like I was getting like 25 frames per second on Spider-Man, if not maybe lower. Can you imagine the Perry windows and Liza P? No, my God. Well, that's thing is for... They're already tough. For C of Stars, right now how C of Stars booted up,

and C of Stars has a parity system where if an enemy attacks, and you time you time your hit at the same time, or hitting X at the same time, then you get to block it. And I'm missing it way more doing a role play than if I played out on my PlayStation, right? And so there's a little bit of latency.

It's not the end of the world if you're playing the right games on this thing. And I think that's the thing that matters. If you're playing games that don't need that quick reflex, right, if you're playing games that are a bit more laid back or a bit more like puzzly or a bit more like a turn-based RPG, then I think it is a good time.

So, like, that's been what my experience is. If I'm throwing out complaints, no Bluetooth is a bummer. That is wild. But maybe it's one of those Nintendo Switch things where they forget that they had it. Yeah, they're like, oh, shit. Three years down the line. Hey, we're turning on Bluetooth.

They're like, do we add Bluetooth in the thing? Mark Sternery's like, ah, shit. I had on my to-do list. I forgot about it. I have been playing it alongside with the, what they call these things. The PlayStation Pulse Explore earbuds. So what do they connect by? These connects with PlayStation Link is what they're calling it.

So it's still wireless, but it's like. It's wireless, but it's like PlayStation's own link technology. It's Bluetooth, but different. It's Bluetooth for proprietary. But here's the thing. I wouldn't be surprised in a year, no joke, like they do a firmware update to add Bluetooth to this device because out of the gate they want to try to tell.

In fact, I might even Google to see because I wouldn't be surprised as surprised as they said they're already out of it. It's Bluetooth without the E like Blu-ray. But here's the thing. Here's where this actually is kind of nice. Is these, the PlayStation Pulse Explorer earbuds, they connect to the portal

via the PlayStation link thing, right? They also do connect Bluetooth to other devices. And so I am listening to podcasts on my phone while playing PlayStation Portal. That's pretty cool. And it works seamlessly. And honestly, it's my favorite

feature so far. Like, I've listened to so many albums while also just playing games on my PlayStation Portal. And I'm listening to both things at the same time, like two devices at the same time. And you don't get that out of like many Bluetooth earbud devices. So it is Bluetooth 5.0, which allows

you to do that, right? With two devices. Oh, is it? I think so. I just think that PlayStation is just making it so you can't connect to their which is such bullshit. Yeah, it's weird. That's some Apple shit right there, dude. Some Xbox stuff.

I'm like, come on, guys. We're better than that. Because like your only other options then, if you don't get the earbuds, right, is to do wire, because it does have a headphone jack in here. If you're a caveman that has a 3.5 millimeter headphones. Some of us, you know,

have really nice headphones at home that just plug in. Yeah. So you either do that or there is a speaker in this thing that is decent. So those are your two other options if you don't have the PlayStation Link earbuds and you want to go, Bluetooth.

Did you ever play with an extended amount of time with the speakers? Or it was just like fuck out. No, because like the, I mean, I have the earbuds. The earbuds works so nicely. And so, and moving on to the earbuds, right? Like, I like these things a lot as well. Um, they're kind of bulky. That's one of my main complaints.

Um, my other complaint is that like, I think the sound quality is good. It's not the best, um, earbud quality that I've had, right? Like, when I think about the best experiences I've had, I think about Senheiser, like Senheuser has, um, earbuds that are not bulky. They're kind of small. They're, the sound. Sound quality is fucking chef's kiss. And then also the sendizers have control on the earbuds where you can tap in like,

pause your music, play your music, pick up a call, fast forward, like do all that stuff. You don't have any controls on these earbuds for Bluetooth functionality. You do have control for controlling volume on the PlayStation portal specifically. And like there's a button for you to connect to the PlayStation portal. But for actual Bluetooth control, you don't really have any of that out of these, the earbuds. And so aside from that, though, like, I like them a lot. How much of the earbuds?

Oh, that's a really good question. That's probably a ghoul. I'll assume like 200 bucks or something like that. But to sort of bring it back to the portal, from what I gather, right? It's not really a reinvention of the remote play wheel, but possibly the best iteration of what we've had so far. Yeah, like, that's the thing is, if you know what you're getting, if you understand. Yeah, it's 200 bucks. There you go.

if you understand what the PlayStation portal is and that speaks to you, then yes, I recommend it. If you're like, if you're somebody who's on the fence or you're like, hey, I just want another way to play or whatever, I'd be like, uh, look into it a bit more, right? Like, just make sure it's for you. Because all the information you need about this thing is out there. For what is doing, for what it's trying and attempting to be, it's great. Like, I think it completes the job. A four out of five on the kind of funny scale.

And literally, like, I would call it, I would say it's a four out of five on the kind of funny scale. I think for the mission that it sets out to do, it achieves. I think the big bummer is no Bluetooth. And also I think it's a weird device, right? Like it's not having native cloud and stuff, you know, being able to play games on the cloud and all that stuff. I think that's weird. But if you're somebody who really likes remote play for Greg Miller out there,

I think it's an excellent device for that. Yeah, this is the luxury piece of hardware for the remote player that wants the best experience possible. Yeah. Do you think it's, it's, us to put a PSA out there that this is not like a kind of just a handheld like you can play games locally on it because I do wonder and fear a little bit of like how many people are going to try to pick this up like for Black Friday for their kids or something and think it's like just so

singular device and then the kid doesn't have a PSI. On some level that's on them right on some levels like do your research on what you're buying but on the other level like my grandma sold she doesn't know what to research yeah on the other level it's just like yeah it's such a weird device that I would If my sister bought this for her kids, I'll totally understand her being like, hey, why can't, like, I bought them the PlayStation and they can't play PlayStation games. I'm like, do you have a PS5? No, it's like,

you can't be buying shit like this without asking questions. I mean, shit, you're going to get questions asked to buy a controller, like much less a device like that that does it. Well, but he has a PlayStation 5, so what would this be? Well, this play, it's, yeah. I'll put him almost more on the Best Buy employees to let the buyers know, like, hey, you know you have to have a PS5 for this, And I only trust myself as a Best Buy employee.

So, like, yeah. Employee of the month, everyone. Some quick questions I'll throw in here because some people wrote into Kindofutri.com slash gamescast. Gary Gutierrez writes in and says, how is the lag slash latency? One reason I want it, like everyone else, is to play it in bed. How does it run multiplayer games?

I want it mainly for Fortnite slash NBA 2K slash EA and some indies. So to the multiplayer game question, it runs multiplayer games like your PS5 runs multi player games, right? They work. Now the question is, are you down to play multiplayer games with a little bit of lag? I would say don't do it. I would say that's not a good idea. I think for multiplayer,

you want to have the best connection possible. You want to have that split second reaction and I would say stay away from that. Test shit out on your phone first. Yeah. Yeah, if you really want to know, test it on your phone. Yeah, you have a free way to, essentially a free trial to test out all the Wi-Fi stuff.

Yeah, and to the same thing with Howells Lags has latency. Test it out on your phone. It's going to work pretty much the same way. But for me, at its best, it actually works pretty good. And again, I'm picking and choose them, kind of games that I play on it, but for the most part, like when I'm playing a C. Cof Stars or I'm playing a cocoon, I'm having a pretty good time. And just a heads up, the app, I don't know if it's called something different on Android,

but it's called PS Remote Play for those who I want to check it out. My brain is so broken by this point just by the amazing fast power of PC gaming with insane monitors that like when we did the Starfield stream and I was playing keyboard mouse on the TV. I was like, this is awful. And that's not even like a wireless connection. That's just like PC into a TV. Playing on 60 Hertz.

I'm like, fuck, this is terrible. And like, I'm the type that whenever I have tried cloud stuff and I hit that A button and I feel what feels like a millennia passes between me seeing the character jump and me hitting the button, it's really, really rough. But I think it's great for stuff like C's Stars, you know. Yeah. Michael Pulaski asks, how's the volume?

that's, I'm actually not. Pretty good. Oh, that sounded like chocolate rain. I thought it was to be, I thought I was here. Chocolate rain. You should play CSIRs. This is for the soundtrack. Oh, can I do over mic?

Yeah, I'll do it into the mic. Very cool. A song sounds cool. There you go. Is that as loud as it goes? That's as loud as it goes. Like, I think it's a good volume. The sound quality is what is what you expected to be.

Like, the speakers are small. It's not the best sound quality. When you try to go any higher, it sends you a link to buy the PlayStation your earbuds. Yeah, I was like, just get these. Just get these. John Kellogg writes in and says,

Mr. Kellogg himself. It says, can I play a game on the PlayStation portal while my wife watches Netflix on the PS5 or must the console be in standby for a Mo Play? What happens is that it's just mirroring your console. And so right now, I believe, if I'm, I forget if I'm doing my work, PS5 or my home PS5, say I'm playing off my home

PS5 on this thing right now. My monitor at home is on. like my PlayStation 5 at home is on if Hymn goes on to your PlayStation 5 at home and puts on Crunchyroll It's just The CrunchRole will appear on this thing Yeah like if Hym goes home and starts moving my controller at home

It's gonna affect what word? Oh shit I didn't know that Yeah it's it's a mirror And so you you cannot watch Netflix on your PS5 And then play remote play or play yeah play portal Remote Play at the same time You can just leave your monitor off too right? I could also just leave a monitor off yeah

And then Michael Pulaski writes and says, was there any stuttering as you're playing from your Wi-Fi? Yes. And the last one from Johnny Salas says, Hey, everybody. I have the question. I feel like everybody wants to know, or at least should want to know

that I'm sure you'll get multiple times. In my research, it's been hard to find an answer. Does the PlayStation Portal work better at remote play than any other device? You find yourself getting a more solid and less laggy connection than you would with your phone or tablet.

Love y'all. Johnny. Again, as far as I can tell, it's not, the remote play functionality isn't working better than any other device. That said, like, it is nice to have a device that I turn on. It immediately knows that I want a remote play to a PS5. And so it skips a lot of steps of, like, you have to turn on your phone. Like, five minutes to, like, connect your phone.

Yeah, like, you know, opening up the app, doing this thing, doing that thing, right? Like, as soon as I hit the on button, the first thing it tells me is, hey, do you want to connect your PS5 at home. I press the X button and it automatically goes and it takes a second to connect to it depending on how strong your internet is and then it goes. Does it ever drop in not only just lag but do you ever

see a drop in visual fidelity with Wi-Fi issues? A lot of artifacting sometimes. Yeah, the worst your Wi-Fi, the worst that stuff is going to look and so... It's such a weird product yeah because I just know of it's, I think the most your mileage may vary product in gaming

because everybody's house situations are so different, everybody's Wi-Fi situations are so different. And it's not like, it's not like playing a game off of a, like, you know, if I'm sitting in front of my PlayStation with my PS5 connected to Wi-Fi, the game's still going to look good, but you might, you know, that guy may kill you and you didn't even see him. You're like, oh, what the heck, Wi-Fi lag or whatever. This is like different than that because you are pulling the image from what the PlayStation

5 is doing. So it's not only going to feel delayed. it's also going to start to look like garbage and 240P suddenly and back to 1080 or whatever it is, you know? Here, I'm going to bump out of this. I'm going to bump into, oh, this is my, okay, this is my work PS5.

What do I have one here? Do we have Spider-Man installed? Have Spirited Man installed? Do you have a Chartered 5 on there? No, I do not have a charted 5. Oh, fuck, I don't have Strider Man 2 installed. Liza P? Ooh, let me see.

Because I want you guys to see how a 3D game looks like. I, like, I've tried remote play with the, I think it was Assassin's Creed Valhalla. It was like, it came out that winter and like, you know, like during the winter break Alyssa and I are usually hanging out in the living room a lot. So that was like one of the...

That was like one of the few times. I was like, all right, I'm in the living room. Alyssa wants to hang out in here, but I want to play Valhalla, so I tried it out. And yeah, like, even on my phone, like it would look decent in some parts, but then, yeah, if I've got a lot of enemies around me and stuff, it's like, not the best.

Or if you just have a lot of really high definition movement like C stars looks great because it's a pixelated game that is static and we're watching like just one battlefield where the camera is not moving but as soon as you add elements like a moving camera where trees are now affecting the bit rate of how that quality is coming in. I got armor core six. Boliage is the number one enemy of a lot of these games. Unfortunate or a lot of these devices. Armored core probably would be up there as well with the amount of just bass paste trash on the

ground and buildings and everything. I mean, that's gonna be the test. Right now, honestly, I'm in the menus for Armor Core 6. And I think right now the internet is interneting. Like, everything is looking crisp right now. Can you angle it towards me a little bit? Yeah. No.

It looks great. There it is. I was like, it's a black screen. You got like some one. It's a loading screen. Once it goes back, I'll show it to you. Oh, here we go. Once there's movement on there.

We shall set to blaze the fires. Do a little jump. We see a little jump. I mean, it looks really good. It looks really good on that. Let me see. Yeah. Holy should, yeah.

See it, dude. Here's, okay, so right now it's running at best case scenario. Yeah, this is like the best Wi-Fi. The best situation you'll ever have. I forget how to play this game. Armored Core 6 is a very fast-paced, AAA-looking games. Played like eight games since Armored Corps.

Yeah, so I'll let Andy mess with that for a second. And while I'll let him do that, I want to tell you about patreon.com slash kind of funny. Over on Patreon.com slash kind of funny, you can go. You can get the show ad-free. And speaking of ads, let us tell you about our sponsor.

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Visit betterhelp.com slash kind of funny today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P-D-com slash Kind of Funny. We're back and Bearcourtney. You've been playing some Allen Wake 2. I have been. It was daytime on Saturday, the non-scary hours. And I was like, ah, these are the safe hours to actually start up Allen Wake 2. Not a huge horror game guy.

Make exceptions here and there. Obviously, the Last of Us is a weird one, right, where it presents as a horror game. but it's so much more than that. So, like, I feel like it's worth it to... Speaking of the last was, the background. Oh, that's crazy, that's crazy. I find it worth it to endure the horrors to get what the story brings and stuff like that, right?

But when it's just, like, horror games, Res and Evil, stuff like that, it's not usually my fancy. Even when it's just bad vibe games, you know? Control? Bad vibes. Like, creepy office building. I hate... Like, there's something about a...

fucked up office building that to some just like nope noped out uh and so it was that and also the terrible map of control that like i played control for a little bit uh because andy was you know hyping it up back in 2019 uh nearly five years ago at this point which is crazy uh and i noped out of control pretty early i would say like two hours in or something like that i'm a little over three hours in allen lake and i'm i'm really digging it like even dude despite like the scary like being chased by a big naked man holding a tree trunk swinging it at me and stuff. Like,

I'm just really into the weird meta stuff. Whereas, like, I played like the first, uh, was listening to the, the giant bomb cast, I think,

and they're saying like, oh, if you can last through like the first, like, sequence of, uh, Alan Wake 2, like the first 15 minutes,

like, you should be fine. You should be okay. Which, uh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna press a hard doubt on because I'd talk to Andy off, uh,

off screen. He's, he's in a section right now that is really messing him up. Um, But after like doing like the, I essentially played till the title card of like the big Alan Wake to end like I got like hyped up and I never played Alan Wake before. And I don't really know all of the lore with like the all the remedy universe and all this stuff. And I immediately paused and I watched like a recap of like the Alan Wake universe so far. Did you do the game spot one? I did the game spot video. Shout out to the game spot crew for doing like a whole kind of like breakdown between like Alan Wake one. The weird like live action. Yeah, American Nightmare thing that they shot like a little bit after the first Allen Wake

they brought into like a little bit of the context of control. They didn't bring up quantum break at all, which I find interesting because I think they confirmed it's not in the- It's not? But Sean Ashmore is in Allen Wake 2. What's going on there? When I told you I had a brain blast moment. His last name is breaker.

It was like it was like the second or third time where I saw that character and I was like, are you from quantum breaker? Like I never Not are you from X-Men? Yeah. Yeah, I was like, wait a second, this guy's an actor.

Like, I know this fucking guy. And then I had to look it up. I was like, you're the guy from Guantam, and I was like, are you the guy from Quantum Break? And so I'm really early on. I'm only like a little over three hours in. I'm in like the kind of first like, chunky section with, uh, playing as Alan,

because you can go back and forth between, uh, Allen and Saga. I haven't gotten to the point where I'm, I can choose which one I'm playing at. So I'm still like pretty early on, but I'm really digging it despite all of the creepy horror stuff going on. There's just something about the weird meta stuff where

it's like the first time you're playing as Alan and you start in like an interview with Mr. Door and then you know he you have to like kind of play it again but this time the interview includes Sam Lake the director of Alan Wake 2 who is an actor in this universe who is

going to be playing Alex Casey a character that Alan Wake writes in his book series but then it's funny because in the saga universe where you're playing a saga. Her FBI buddy is Alex Casey played by or face stuff by Sam like and it goes deep. It's just like one of those like what is reality? What is going on? Are any of these people even real where they conjured up into existence by Alan? It's all like really cool stuff.

Like the first thing that really got me and the thing that I was really surprised about was like you had told me Andy like before when I was telling you like oh I think I want to start this up. you're like, you cannot play this around Alyssa. Alyssa, my wife, like, really hates, like, gory stuff. Kind of gets into mystery stuff, though. And so I was explaining. Yeah, this is that true kind of a vibe, yeah. And so I was explaining to her, like, the stuff that I learned in the recap and, like,

what I had played so far in, like, the first hour at that point. And she was like, this actually sounds kind of interesting. So last night, she was, like, watching me play. And, like, you know, I had the sensibilities of, like, hey, I think I'm about to fight, like, a really scary boss, maybe, like, tune out for, like, 10 minutes. But she's getting into it as well. All of like the weird mystery cult things that are going on. And so that was like the big surprise of just like us kind of like having the shared thing of just like what is going on here, man.

So yeah, I'm digging it. My biggest criticism and this was something I had to text our friend Ari about was like not understanding how like the light mechanic works. Like there's like these enemies that are called the taken, which are just like people who are being like taken over by the. the darkness, um, and you have to like, kind of like, stun them with like your,

your light, like not just point the flashlight at them, but like you intensely point your flashlight at them with R1. And it kind of breaks the button harder. Yeah. And like it breaks their shield. But I didn't really understand that it was like a shield that like I was breaking. I just thought it was like a,

just like a stun kind of thing. So like in my first boss encounter, which is the, the guy I talked about earlier, the big naked man, uh, uh, I forget his name.

Uh, but he's a, Jeffrey. Nightingale, thank you. A significant character from the first game. Like, I was really confused and like the horror stuff of like being chased around by this big dude was really terrifying for like the first like minute and a half. But then after that it started to wear off because I was like, what the fuck? What am I? What is the gameplay loop here? I was really confused by that. And then yeah, I texted her friend Ari and she was like, no, this is that works and all this stuff. So besides that, like that was my only like that's been my only gripe with. it so far. But now that I understand that, it might have a little bit more of an easier time, like, you know, with enemy encounters and stuff.

And we were talking about on Games Daily earlier today of just like the, what is it, the mind place or whatever. It is very, like, hand-holdy for sure. It is very much like, all right, you didn't put this card in the right place, find word to put it in the right place. So Saga can, like, kind of put it all together in her head and all this stuff. But I don't mind it.

it kind of, it sets the tone and the vibe more so, and I'm, you know, I really love story. I just like a recap of story also. Yeah. Like, I don't mind it as a recap mechanic to keep me in the loop because they know I wasn't paying attention during half the cutscenes. Yeah. And like, shout out to like some of the music. I don't know if it's all original or anything.

Yeah, that is. The interstitial, like, music that plays in between chapters. I'm like, God damn, they went hard on this. And they get, they get even better and better. Yeah, I guess I don't, I don't mind the caseboard being a recap at all. I just thought it was going to be more. I think with how involved and how present it is all of the time, like the amount of times you end up having to go back,

especially in recent chapters. I feel like I end up taking like 10, 15 minute breaks away from the gameplay to go back to this caseboard. I was just hoping that it would be a little bit more puzzle-oriented. I was hoping that there would be more moments where I'm having like this, oh my God, I can't, holy shit, no way that that thing connects to this. Oh, my. It's really just I'm putting the card next to,

This card says banana, so I put that near yellow. And this card says tomato, so I put it near the red card. I was just hoping it would be more than a more sophisticated, more involved Mass Effect Codex. It's essentially a lore board. And that's cool. I just wanted a bit more from it, especially with how much you have to end up using it. I'm a decent amount further than you into the game. How many, like, hours, do you know?

probably around 12, 14-ish around there. I'm having a great time. It's very scary. And obviously, you know, when I stream, I play up how much I'm hating the experience. I think it's just so, it's so artfully done. Remedy knows what they're doing. They're great at knowing what looks good and knowing what's good about their presentation. And I enjoy their, I enjoy the puzzles in the game.

I enjoy having to make this light go away. suddenly that doors open and that sort of like all the in-world puzzle stuff totally digging. I do think that the map system still suffers from what control did. Like it's still, it's not as bad as control by any means. Don't get me wrong. It's legible. But I still find myself having to open up the map button. The maps make it feel like the areas are much bigger than they are. So it's like, oh, I'm over here.

I've got to walk all the way over here. and then I close the map and I walk like 10 steps. It's like, oh shit, I'm already over. Yeah. So it disorientes me. They do a decent job with like sign posting, just like Control did, but I am the type to always need to bring up the map anyway. And I just, I would much rather just like a little radar up top or just like the compass thing.

Yeah, dude, I would love a compass over. Yeah. I'm with you on the map where the maps are meant to be like these like, oh, you picked up a map in a grocery store like or like a, you know, convenience store, right? And it's like, it looks like a map that you would read in real life almost, but I'm like, I would prefer something that's simplified and just tell me exactly where I am and like in relate like tell me the paths I can go down. Yeah. I think it's because it's to force the area too.

It makes it tough to make it clear. I also dropped the difficulty to easy. Yeah, not this last week. Just scary. I mean, I guess I was just getting more frustrated with the amount of bullets it took to kill a normal ass taken. And I was like, I don't even want to deal with what a know what a boss fight is going to feel like. And so when I tell you that those checkpoints, like I'm somebody who I like I usually stick to normal, because I'm stubborn, the checkpoints almost broke me where I was like, I don't even want to do this anymore. Like the gameplay is fine. Like the gameplay is good, right? Like serviceable. It's it's survival horror. I think the gameplay is totally fine. Like I am not a I think of when I think of control and how much more fun I had with that as a what that game is doing with combat like that game was just so much more enjoyable. I'm doing like I'm playing a game where I'm like I'm playing a game where I'm like.

Gameplay wise is find good. And then you're kicking me back so far when I die. I'm like, the game does say save often, even though you can only save in certain spots. Yeah, I'm like, I'm like praying to God that I find a,

what, a coffee service? Yeah, same room. And I'm like, dude, I'm about to, I almost turned to easy because of that. Yeah, I think it's a very good game. I don't know if it's going to be super high on like any of my personal, like,

you don't know if it's going to be a contender for you. I think it'll be a contender for you. I think it'll be a contender for sure. I just don't think it'll be in the upper as Sean. Like a lot of people think of it way more highly than I do. I would probably be around the four out of five if I were to give it the kind of funny score. I think I'm in the same boat probably. And that's more, it's all. It's more so because like the last few hours of the game I wasn't as into like I was surprised. I was like, oh, snap. Okay. I thought I was going to like where this is going more. But right now like for my

contenders right on my top 10, I have what, Spider-Man 2, I'll wait 2. And I think probably now Kaccoon fighting it out. like I don't know which one I'm going to put on there because I look at the rest of the slots and I'm like everything's filled. Yeah. And like one, I think only one of these games might cut it and I have no idea which I'm going to go for. Part of me wonders if like as much as I love Saga as a character,

I think I would enjoy the game if I was or if they took some of Alan Wake's mechanics and put them into Saga's gameplay because. Yeah, I like they're taking the light and like messing with like other rooms and stuff. But not even that because their equivalent of their, Alan Wake's case board equivalent to Saga's case board is a lot more game mechanic involved

where you start to rewrite these stories in a very, very cool way. It's like I'm stuck in this nightmare, I wrote this story, what if I took the, what if I made the world around me change to the horror vibe of this? What if I made the world around me

go to the cult side of things? And when you change that, it drastically changes the world around you. It is mind-blowing. how fast it works and how beautiful it looks. I think their art direction is so fucking phenomenal. But again, for them to have two very similar, I mean, I call them similar,

but that's what we're looking at. It's like, Saga's caseboard is a, I put down cards next to the word that, you know, is close to it. And Alan Wakes is like so much more involved and so much cooler. I wish they were a bit closer to each other. Yeah. In terms of what it does for the actual gameplay of it all.

because I'm not doing anything on Saga's caseboard that's drastically changing anything in the world. If anything, I have to put down those cards in order to continue playing a saga. But as Alan, I feel like that is so much more cool when it comes to... She's a character, he's a writer. True, I just wish it changed a bit more gameplay-wise

and I just find Alan Wake's adventure through it all a lot more, like, I guess, creative. See, I almost had the opposite where I liked Saga, I like how Saga's thing is detective mystery. I'm trying to figure out who these cultists are and I am straight up detective gameplay whereas like when I switch to Alan Wake

right like his stuff is more surreal, supernatural I'm changing the environment doing all this stuff and I think that's where like I almost wish that they're two separate games. Dude that's what I'm saying. Like if you gave me a game that was

only about saga trying to find out what's happening in this small town and these murders, that sounds so intriguing. True detective. I mean, that's some straight up, like, just true crime, HBO type shit. And I know that they would have,

but as soon as you kind of throw in the Allen Wake angle, that kind of makes it all. That throws a really big wrench into a very cool and interesting ranch, but, you know, you're still throwing something in there, this variable that is like, who knows what the fuck is happening in this world? Like Barrett was mentioning, what is real?

what is actually happening. How does this lady know me when I've never met her in my life? All that stuff is really cool and intrigued. That was like the first big hit that I happened to me and I was like, oh, this is really cool. And that was like when I told her listen to that,

that was what brought her in. I'm like, whoa. And I'm hoping by the end of it, I feel a bit higher on it, although like I'm still very, very high in this game. Don't get me wrong. I just, um,

I don't think it's like as perfect as, I just enjoyed playing control way more. It's the thing to where like, I think, I started off so strong on it. And I am still, like, I'm, I'm high on the game. I think it's also just the thing of, they have such good ideas of, like,

the way, like, the way they have the title pop-ups, the way they have, like, the chapter and essentials with the music, the way they have, like, I think that my place is a good idea. I think Alan Wake's Riders' Room is a great idea. Everywhere you look, it's art. Like, art, art, art. And, like, that's where I come back for the best, art, or best direction thing for a video game this year.

I'm like, you all had ideas and you went, for it, right? Like the whole, the way the whole package comes together, I could see places where you could do better, where you can improve, but like no other package looks like your package. Yeah, like this is such a unique game. Some of its parts a little bit. Yeah. Um, yeah, despite how scary it is and how much of a big baby, I'm probably going to be similar to you, I do want to stick with it, which is like, I'm, I'm really surprised by, like, I've been saying to Greg, like, hey, for Game of the Year voting, like, I want it, like, you love this game so much. I want to give it the, like, the time it deserves to see if it's something that vibes with me.

Other people in the industry who talk about this game, I'm like, I should check this out. And so three hours in, I'm definitely going to stick with it. It will probably be the main game I focus on for like the next, I don't know, probably three weeks while I slowly play like 30 minutes to an hour every day. Two games I want to knock out that I've been playing. This is going back to the PlayStation portal thing. But again, I've been playing Coon and Sea of Stars.

I beat Coon in one sitting. Andy, you beat Coon, right? You played that earlier. This game is incredible. Awesome. Like this game is fucking sick as hell. And I'm not like I, it's the thing where I expected it to be good because it's made by people who worked on games like Inside and Limbo and Inside is probably one of my favorite games

ever. And I look like I look forward to that kind of game, right? Like give me a game that, yeah, zero dialogue, all puzzle solving, incredible art style and like ideas that blow me away by showing more than telling. And Coon, like you get to a certain point in Coon where you kind of understand. understand what's happening just mechanically of, okay, there are each orb is a world and how that filters into the gameplay. And it is so cleanly designed in a way that I don't, I don't understand how they did it. Like, I keep thinking like, how did you design this game? Like, where did you

start with this? Because it is like, as you're going, you are like, okay, I have to be in this part of this world to then be able to take this orb and put it here so I can then go to the other world and do this thing and it's so four-dimensional and how it wants you to think and it works so seamlessly and easily in a way that I am so impressed with. My favorite thing about it, aside from

everything else you just mentioned, I think it's like a legitimate genius type game that I couldn't even fathom how your brain works on a level to make something like this. The thing I love the most about it and it's something I struggle with a lot in puzzle games is not knowing how far to backtrack

and Kekoon lets you know very very quickly that they're not going to let you backtrack because what you need is in this area. Yes. There's a lot of moments where I wanted to go way the fuck back to see like, damn, do I got to go? And they close me off and I go, oh, shit, good for you all. You're telling me that the solution is right here. I'm not going to go running around for an hour loss, not knowing what I'm doing, and then eventually give up on this experience.

What I need is in this area. I'm just not seeing it right now. And then it eventually does click. And again, you're just like, holy shit. The amount of like holy shit moments in this game I had were next to none. This game rules. And the art style, incredible. And like, runs green and steam deck.

How plays while and plays baseball. And like how everything kind of moves. And like it's so, again, it reminds me it feels like a game that it was made by people who made inside. Right. Like it's almost like in when I compare it to something like Somerville. Is that the one? Right. Like Somerville had a lot of the energy.

Like Somerville had a lot of the ideas. It had the vibes. It had the vibes. But this game, Kekoon, also has the. polish and I think that's kind of what Summerville is missing a bit was the polish of it. Coon feels so like again seamless but also so well put together. And yeah, like I it's an easy contender for me. Oh yeah, absolutely.

See if stars. Barrett's been asked me to play it forever. I'm a couple hours in now. I'm having a really good time with it. It's the kind of game that yeah, like I want to play it on my couch just like laying horizontal. And that's why it was the perfect switch game for me. That was just like, I think the entire time I played through C of Stars was like in bed. Yeah.

And, you know, I mean, I like it from the presentation, the story so far. I'm engaged. My guy was his name, Garl. Garl for life, baby. From the get go, I'm like, I'm like, this guy, this guy, Garrell, I can see myself, like, being a fan. But I think if there was a category for most wholesome character, Garl would win it easily this year. But yeah, like, I'm already like, okay, I like this guy.

The art of it is really good. And it's, there's a few things, right? Would Garl lose to Rusty from Armored Corps? That's a fight right there. Great to fight alongside you. That's a five years. No, no, you gotta keep playing. You gotta keep playing.

See, Garl is, right now I would have to say, Rusty. Garl is most wholesome, wholesome friend. See, here's my thing. He looks cute as hell. Man, I think I might already spoil it for myself. I was hoping that Garl would somehow become the villain. Just based on how this thing starts, where it's like, he gets his eye cut and like,

you know, he gets separated. And I'm like, oh, I'm going to meet him 10 years. He's just going to be evil. And then you meet him again, and it's like, all right, when's it going to happen? Like, I know you're going to turn on me, but it sounds like he doesn't. What's the total amount of time for this? I think I clocked. Can you make it shorter?

I think I clocked in just rolling credits because there is a true ending. Yeah. I mean, good for them, but yeah, it's like 30 hours. Oh, no, man. I was trying to hear 10, man. Yeah, I'm not going to say 20. And that's the thing is, like, I do think it's worth it. And I think, like, the biggest criticism I have with this game,

even though it is a top five for me this year. Like, this will, this is a strong contender for me this year, is that the first third of it feels like a very basic hero's journey. And that's, that's like the first roughly, like, eight, nine hours. And then it's like, all right, like, this is a cute story, whatever. But once you get past that first act, you're like, oh, this is, this is the story. Yeah. And then you have that moment over and over.

oh, this is where we're going? And it's so goddamn good. There's so many good twists and turns. When I asked Tabits Austin make me like a little bridge version. God, I read JRPG I feel like needs a bridge version. But yeah, I like the traversal stuff too. Like it keeps things interesting where it isn't just walk from point A to point B. It is hop over this chasm, climb up this thing.

Like there's a lot of platforming for a quote unquote JRP. That's the other thing is that like if you didn't tell me this game was made by, sabotage studio, the people that did the Messenger. And if I'm not like, I've met the lead behind Sabotage, right? Like, if I didn't meet that guy, I will believe fully, this is a G-R-PG. Like, the energy is fully there, the vibe is fully there,

the polish is there. The art style is great. I've heard a lot of, I was listening to the besties talk about it, and Russ Frustic talked about, I think it was Russ or Chris Plan, either talking about how many ties there are to the messenger, like shocking amount of...

Oh, yeah. Like, because it's in the same world, and but I, they just weren't expecting, they were expecting that to be more of a lip service type. I, I read up on like some of the, like, bigger world lore stuff, like once I got deeper in the game, because there's some things that I was like, I kind of understand what's going on here, but I don't think I get the full picture. And then when I was reading up on like bigger lore stuff that sabotage is setting up, I was like, oh, oh, that, if like you're into the messenger and you want to give this a shot, like, I think there's some really cool payoffs for sure. Andy, I want you to take us home talk about both armored core and bottom warfare three.

You only have 30 seconds. I finally be on... I'm just kidding. I finally be on... I finally be on... I got the ending that I wanted and it was everything I wanted it to be... You got the fucking anime-ass hype ending.

And it is like easily a contender. And then a lot of people, you know, Blessing told me about the multiple playthews and how things changed and a lot of people in my chat were telling me, Andy, but keep going. I'm like, y'all, there's a lot of games.

But what if I did just kind of start it over, just to kind of see? And then I kind of started over, I'm like, all these boss sets are real easy. Now that I'm, like, super power and I know how to play the game better. And then I just kept on going and kept on going. And I'm probably, like, close to finishing.

No, never mind. I'm maybe around, like, chapter three of my second play-through. I don't, like, halfway through. I don't know if I'm ever going to fully see it through because I already kind of spoiled myself and what the other endings are. But I just wanted to see what sort of things change. change in the other play-through.

The weapons you get in your second playthrough are sick as hell. Dude, I had no idea about the laser dagger and that thing is so goddamn slick to have that three-hit combo of and then back to shotgun and like, dude,

it is, it is so slick. This game is just impeccably made from software, once again, not even like the A-team of A-team. This is the team that made Sekido that decided to let's bring back this old mech franchise we haven't made it a game of for like 13 years or whatever we made one of the best uh modern action games with securo let's put that energy into armored core

and i think i think the story is so damn good as well like it is there are no cutscenes it is all i mean well i guess there's like some in-game cutscenes it's very visual novelty yeah it's it's just your codec calls pretty much uh of characters talking to each other but i think all the built-in lore stuff is really fascinating. The performances are really good. Performances are great and I love the character motivations. It's very much one of those kind of gray area stories. There is no

right choice to make but there's a choice to make based on how you feel things should happen. I think it's fucking amazing. There's so many moments in this game too. Oh my God. Moments where it's like, you know, when I first played through it, early on I was like, okay, I don't really care about the story.

Like it's kind of fading into the background. for me. And then I hit a moment where I'm like, oh, that was cool as fuck. And I hit another one where I'm like, oh, that's really cool actually. And now I start paying attention to the story because they do such a good job of like playing it low key until it's time, it's time for something high key to happen. And when that high key thing happens, they're like, the worm sequence, I think is a top, top three moment this year. I totally agree. Yeah. And I think that's kind of what we're seeing a tease for. And it really is just rusty saying, I won't miss. Oh, God. I won't Music stops, explosion, music kicks back on.

Yeah, the soundtrack's phenomenal. I mean, even like in the first chapter where you come across like the big colossal, like... Yeah, the Walker, that big Sandwalker thing. God, what a game. Yeah, this game just plays with scale in really phenomenal ways. All of the customization when it comes to different weapons

to equip and there's like an infinite number of ways. Some people say it should have been RPG of the year, especially with the choices you're making. I think it's phenomenal. The customization on just coloring your mech and giving it different looks, I'll tell you what, I put my mech up there as like top five mech in the USA.

Wow. Of all the Harvard Core 6 mecks. This game kicks so much ass, and I'm so glad that I ended up going back to it because I know a buttload of other stuff had come out. And it was like, will I ever get back to it? So glad I did.

I love that, like, I had the shared experience of you playing Eldon Ring last year and streaming it, and I would hang out in your chat a lot. The thing that we would always say is believe in the build. And I just love that. This year we had like a follow up to that

where it's like, forget the build. Yeah. Fucking for like, don't believe in any, yeah, believe in your heart. Believe in any build. Change to anything that will work against this enemy.

Yeah, you have to be very, you have to be very adaptive in this game. Oh yeah. That's very, very cool. It fucking rips. It rips when it came out and it still rips. Tell me about Modern Warfare 3? Modern Warfare 3 is, I mean,

it's more. the same for anybody who's played old modern warfare games again these are all the same maps uh it's very disappointing for a lot of people i see i played about two hours of the campaign and and it ended on a very cool story moment and i was like yo this shit is kind of sick and then it turns out that we were like 80% of the way through the story and there wasn't a whole lot left to see again what modern Warfare 3 did to piss off a lot of people was apparently the campaign was made in like 16 months and it reused old map stuff from the old Verdansk Warzone map and it was just kind of shoehorning in story segments and scripted moments into these already made maps so for me I'm seeing these war zone

maps going oh cool damn they're having us here at the prison that's kind of cool because like that's from the war zone map and we're getting these cool like villain moments and stuff and it seems like it's setting something up very, very awesome. And then it ends up kind of going nowhere because a lot of it is just, let's reuse an old map area and just kind of have NPCs talking to each other. And what I thought was going to be, I thought we ended like a fourth of the way through to a very cool campaign. Apparently it's just like one of the most lazy games done.

So I'm not going to go back to the campaign. I have no urge to go back to it now. But multiplayer, I've been having fun with it. Like it's, again, more of the same. Nothing too surprising about it. I think my favorite mode that we've played so far is a new mode that I don't know the name of the mode off, the top of my head, but it is a 3V3V3 mode.

Oh, cutthroat. It's called cutthroat. It is a 3V3 mode where you and two other teams of three hop into one of their usual maps and you're all at different spawn points. And if you die, you're dead until the next round starts. It's the first team to get three wins. on the board, three round wins.

And if the time runs out, you have to go cap at the little area that they have. That's kind of like the, hey, this is the spot that you'll both have to meet up at. So hopefully there's a winner after this. It's a lot of fun. It's still so goddamn annoying that if I want to level up this MP5,

I have to go to CVS and buy body wash or whatever. There's just so much bullshit. This is the most. I went to Chipotle for Street Fighter earlier in the year. No, I mean, it's not even that. You can see if you get some body wash. It's like the, you want to, you want this gun.

It's not unlockable unless you don't. There was a great TikTok that's been going around everywhere where this guy says, I'm trying to get flash grenades. And in order to do that, I have to have this goal happen. But in order to have that goal happen, I need to flash three enemies. But I don't have fucking flash grenades. It's like the meme. of like the, you need job experience on your fucking resume.

Yeah, but how can I get a job experience that I haven't had a job? It's hard to get a job. It is one of the most terrible UI experiences I've ever seen. It is so hard to get around and find out what you're doing. And they try. That's not for a lack of trying because at the beginning of the game, they have all those like, boom, click here to find that. And you hit okay and you confirm that.

Blum, click here on the bottom left. And this is where you find your whatever the hell. it is just still so convoluted and it still feels like three or five different developers not knowing where to take this game it's messy as hell once you get into the games they're fun but

my god trying to level anything up feels like the most biggest of chores and I hopped into a couple of matches last night and saw what I needed to do to level up that game I don't want this right now this is not for me you had me in and then you unsolved like the 3V3V3 thing sounds incredible Just hop into that.

Yeah. Just hop into that. Yeah. It's a lot of fun when you're actually in the game. Again, the gameplay is very similar. They added, they improved the movement back from what Modern Warfare 2 had done, where they had taken away a lot of like the,

what the movement gods loved about it, which is like the annoying shit that when I get killed by somebody and I see their kill cam, and I'm like, oh, you're one of these fuckers. Like, oh, please go touch grass. It's great when you're in there, but everything else is just kind of a mess and super unfun to see what I have to level up

and I just don't, I'm just not about that life anymore, you know? How do you like Armour Corps on the portal, by the way, just now? I see what you're saying about it kind of hurting your eyes. Yeah, I had the same issue. I think response time pretty decent, like pretty good. Not what you'd see if you're playing on a console, obviously, but like not terrible. Not unplayable. No, not even artifacting.

It felt like I was getting. getting like the way a movie looks when you don't have. I've been on this whole time. I'm getting shot. You know the way a movie looks when you don't have your 3D glasses on? A lot of them, the fast movement in that game was kind of giving me that effect and it was kind of hurting my eyes a little bit. Gotcha. Really quick blessing.

One thing I want to shout out really, really fast is the Final Mario Kart 8 DLC came out last week. Oh. Nothing really to like write home about it. Take on. Yeah, new racers, or the racers from Mario Kart tour are now and there, and all that. The new tracks are solid. They're always, the Mario Kart tracks are always fun. I think it's like the big highlight was the Rainbow Road from, I think Mario Kart.

I think it's Wii. We. There are like two or three, like, Rainbow Road tracks that all kind of blend together because they're all, like, very, like, moon-focused. Yeah. They're all roads and the rainbows. The big thing that hit me, though, was credits hit. When I three-starred 200 cc and credits rolled when I did the last

fucking thing and well I imagine credits hit like 100 cc or 150 or whatever I just happened to be playing on 200 and credits hit for the full DLC and all this stuff and it was like and the credits was kind of like themed around like a wooden like cart box or whatever and there There's like stickers on it and stuff and it felt like, oh, they're like, they're packing it up, man. Like this is an end of an era kind of thing, which is like, it hit me a little bit. I was like, Sam. I might shed tears. So I hit if I like 200, you see everything and I got there and they started doing credits and the credits was like, yeah, we're done here.

I get emotional. It was kind of a moment. That's really all I have to say about it where it was like, it really hit me. Yeah, you've been playing this game for 15 years. Yeah. It's been out for nearly a decade. This game came out. I was in college.

Yeah, this game came like this game came out almost a decade ago. And then it got repackaged with. the switch and then we essentially got like an entire new game. Dude, I've been just through the DLC. I've seen tweets of people tweeting screenshots of vanilla, which is crazy to say, vanilla MariCard 8 and like just like the eight different grand prix tracks or grand prix that are available and like the small ass character roster. Yeah.

You're like now like you take that and you like compare it to now. People are like, yeah, how do you how do you make Mario Card 9 without having it be what Marri Cardi deluxe is? And that like that's the like the question we've been having. with Smash for the last couple of years with the reason Smash is like how do you follow this up so I don't know that I just wanted to shout that out of like this specifically the Madden and 2K

do it every year I just want to shout out because that like rolling credits on the Mario Kart 8 DLC was like I did not expect to have credits but then to have it be this like weird kind of like oh shit it's they're packing it up man it's emotional end of an era

we're gonna pack up this episode because we're at the end of an era let me know how you feel about PlayStation Portal in the comments below. Are you excited about it? Are you curious about it? Did I sell you? Did I unsell you?

Let me know. I'm curious about your thoughts. Of course, I've been blessing at AOIA Jr. That's been Barrett Courtney. That's been the one and only nitro rifle, Andy Cortez. And this has been kind of funny games cast. Until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you.