Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - We Played Avowed! - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: November 21, 2024

- Start - Housekeeping - Avowed Preview - Ads - Getting into The Nitty Gritty - February 2025, Huh? - Recent Western RPG Blunders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up and welcome back to the Kind of Funny Gamescast for Thursday, November 21st, 24. Of course, I am your host, Tim Gettys. I'm joined today by Paris Lily. Hey, good morning. Good morning. Blessing at Ayoia Jr. Good day, Tim. And Greg Miller. Kaloo Kalay, how you doing? Palu Kalay to you as well. Of course, everybody, this is the Kind of Funny Gamescast each and every weekday. We get together to talk about the latest in video games, whether it's reviews, previews or just big topics we want to discuss. That's what we do right here.

If you love that, please support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad-free. You can watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show called Gregway. Greg, what's it about today? It's a three-part one today. Three parts. That's right, yeah,

because I couldn't remember what the Greg-O-Wi was supposed to be in the first part because I had a great one. Then I remembered it was about trying to convince my cousin who's not a gamer through Xbox GamePass, and then it was an update because I had to stop the, video to text her to see what she thought. Wow.

I still need to edit all three of those pieces together. I can do it right now on Capcut. Give me a second. I'm not I'll send it over to cool. He's such a professional, everybody. Capcut. For a chance to be part of the show, submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats. Today we are talking about having played avowed. So if you have any questions about our time with it, please super chat away. A little housekeeping for you. You already got kind of funny games daily breaking down Sega's latest huge sales numbers. And then coming up after this, we got Mike and Nick heading into the beautiful. full apocalyptic and extremely muddy wilderness of Stalker 2 to face off against mutated beast

and bounty hunters in order to experience the game's best performance possible on PC. We're teaming up with our friends at Nvidia G-Force going full R-TX on with Kind of Funnies G-F40 series GPUs, which gives us super boosted performance with NVIDIA's AI-powered DLSS technology. It's the best way to enjoy the game and it's the best way to watch the game being played. So go check that out right after this episode on Twitch and YouTube. If you're kind of funny member, you can get today's Gregway in the afternoon. You can also watch our Gladiator in review, which I'm very, very excited because it's my first time ever watching Gladiator. I can't wait to talk about it with people.

Thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs and Delaney Twining. Today we're brought to you by Sonic the Hedgehog at Top Golf, which by the way, I've tweeted out. I'm pretty sure kind of funny at this point also tweeted out a mini vlog social video of our time doing Sonic and Top Golf. And it's just, it's a blast. And you got to stay to the end of the video. a snow bike mic. Snowbike mic. It's like only snow bike mic can.

I don't know what that means. I don't like that. Anyway, today we're about to you by Sonic's Top Golf or Frames and Visual Triangle Merch, but we'll tell you all about that later. For now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the topic of the show. We played a vow. A vowed is an upcoming action role playing game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Xbox Game Studios.

A vowed takes place in the same universe as pillars of eternity in the world of Eora. The Living Lands. scheduled to be released on February 18th, 2025 for Windows and Xbox series X and S. Before we started, Parrish was like, oh, it's going to get spicy today. So where do we want to start? Whose opinions do we want to start with? Who's played the ball? I think I should start. I think I should start as well. Who's played the most? We've all played the same demo, unless I'm incorrect on that, but Paris went to the studio. True. Okay. So you got that deep, deep stuff going on. Paris, what did you think of about how much have you played in it so i played about two hours at the studio and then i got to do

the same digital preview that you did so i maybe played another additional four so probably about six in total um i'll just start it off this way because i did go to obsidian last week so again um i want to thank everybody at xbox obsidian uh for setting that up and inviting me over uh extra special love over to shila at obsidian because she made sure that everybody was taking care of That was a part of the press people that, that attended that, got all needs taken care of. I got about two hours. I sat down with various team members from Obsidian. I mean, combat team, art, environment, sound, obviously narration and ended it where I got to speak with Carrie Patel, who's the game director as well.

So I got various perspectives on a vowed and just how they were putting it together. obviously from their various, you know, strengths, depending on what team they're on. But the common thing that I heard about VAUD was the exploration in it, about them giving you, rewarding you for going off the beaten path in this world, in these various zones that will be visiting in it. And then from a combat standpoint, just the ridiculous amount of combinations that you're going to be able to put together, you know,

be it two-handed weapons, one-handed weapons, bows and arrows, swords, guns, obviously the grimmor with all the different spells that you'll be able to get the enchantments that you're going to be able to put on the weapons, things like that. Then you dive into the skill tree, how you'll be able to enhance it even more. Like as far as spells go, there's a perk in the skill tree where you can have spells that you don't need the grimmor anymore. You'll be able to cast them without it, things like that. So there's a lot here as far as variety with the combat and exploration. The other thing that stood out to me, because this was my second time playing a vowed, I got to play it during Gamescom as well, was a visual upgrade to it, even just from what I saw in August. It really popped off the screen from what I got to see.

And I'm sure you guys will have your opinion about it as well. But it looks really good. I think the dialogue in there, just like the conversation I have with the narration team, And you know, it's, there's a lot of variety there. There's a lot of different things that that stood out to me. Like just the fact that they're openly cursing in there. I don't know why. That just, that just really got me the fact that they had that in there.

But your actions will have consequences depending on your choices that you make. I had one scenario where I ran into these two street kids and they were kind of talking tough to me. And I was like, F you guys and pulled out my sword and I wound up killing them. Then I immediately felt bad. and there potentially could be a consequence to that down the road. I killed them and I fell right at home. They deserved it. But no, I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed a vowed. I think this game has potential. This is, it's in the Pillars universe because I effed that up when carrying Gabe Ron kind of funny, you know, a few months back. But this is the Pillars universe and I think this screams obsidian RPG to me. I enjoyed what I played. I thought it was great.

Do you have any history with the Pillars? universe no i don't just other than you know what i've read about i've definitely educated myself for the past few months about it but this takes place in that universe there is lore that will lead back to previous events in that universe as well but they're obviously with a vow trying to you know chart their own path but they're staying faithful to the to the pillage universe at the same time cool bless i want to go to you next what did you think and how long have you played and what are your thoughts on about. Yeah, I played about two and a half hours. I didn't get to a point in the demo so either Greg or Paris who can let me know of like there's an endpoint worse. Thank you for

playing. Okay, thank you. Okay, because I didn't get to that, right? I played two and a half hours. And for me, playing this demo was one of those ones where I was kind of sad while playing it because I just wanted to be playing the full thing. Yep. Right. Like immediately from the get go, I am getting into dialogue options. I am, you know, having those unique options that pertain to my specific character that I chose for like who my class is and what my background is. I am like, you know, putting in stats into, oh man, no, I want to be, you know, more into intelligence than I am into this other thing, right? And from the get-go, it's funny, coming into this, in the last couple of years of Vaud being shown and talked about and us getting trailers, it's been one of those ones where it's not grabbed me from the trailers. And I think I've been a little bit worried about it just from the sense of, okay, it seems like it's going to be, you know, like a smaller fantasy RPG. We're coming off of getting games like Baldur's Gate and we, you know, we're coming off Dragon Age recently. And it's, it's been one of those. those things where I'm like, oh, what is a VALD doing to stand out and grab my attention? And playing it immediately, I'm like, oh yeah, it's a obsidian.

They know what the fuck they're doing. Like, they know how to make a good ass RPG. I played Outer Worlds and I really, really dug Outer Worlds. Granted, like, that setting speaks a bit more to me than any fantasy setting. But this setting in AVald, I am immediately like, immediately like, man, this is exactly what I want from these developers as far as how it feels like my dialogue's going to matter, what I'm getting out of like, oh man, I love hanging out my companion so far. Like, I'm still in the place of I want to get deeper into those characters and deeper

into those relationships to really judge. Like one of the notes I wrote down here was the fact that this game feels hefty from the get-go. There is jargon that I'm like, I have no idea what you're talking about. And I'm sure if you're a pill is a eternity person, you're going to catch these different terms, these different references and all this stuff. But for me, it's somebody who didn't play pillars, you know, I'm like, oh, I don't know half of what we're talking about here.

And I'm sure, you know, over time I'm going to get. get to learn, but you know, they don't waste time throwing dialogue at you. They get to the heart of like the matter as far as like world politics and character backgrounds and jargon that you might not be up on yet. And one of the particular notes that I want to read verbatim that I wrote here that I think really drives home how I feel about it so far in this preview stage where I've only played two and a half hours of what feels like a hefty RPG is the fact that I can also feel the heftiness as I pick up side quests in the first town, as I look at the map and see how much there is to explore already and look at the stats and abilities I can unlock. There is meat on the bone,

and I don't know if the meat is good quality yet, but it smells nice. And that's where I'm at right now, where I'm like, I went from being like, oh, we'll see if I play a vow to, oh, man, that smells nice. I need some of that. Like, I'm going to feast on this thing. And honestly, after this preview, I cannot wait for it. Hell yeah. Yeah.

Greg, what about you? Yeah, I would echo pretty much all of that. And I think especially to not give it, I'm, I still want to know a pair of thought this is going to get spicier if we're in it or whatever. For me, it would be the thing. Can I say why? Yeah, please. why I'll say why I we were having an offline conversation yesterday and and the the vibe felt kind of negative I was like oh wait I don't think they liked it I go this is going to be interesting because I did like it but it sounds like you did it's for me the thing about it is you know everything echo everything bless said and what we're going to talk about here but like what I love about it is that is a nerdy ass RPG right like for me like starting it up and we talked about this on games cast for my hot takes or I'm just in between games and what I want.

I'm the same way of playing this. I was like, oh, if this was out right now, this would be my life. This is what I want, right? Of like starting your character

and jumping in and like, do you want to be arcane scholar, court, noble, blah, blah, and they all have their little back stories

and what it means. I'm like, that's awesome. And then to click through that and be, all right, here are your attribute points. You know what I mean?

You have this much to play with in might, constitution, dexterity, perception. And I'm like, oh, man, like,

fuck yeah, this is exactly what I want right now to go through and tweak and see how that goes. And so doing all that and jumping in and then getting those dialogue options and seeing, you know, it's something so many people

wanted out of Dragon Age Vail Guard, but as not being a Dragon Age fan, I didn't miss it, but that idea that you could be a horrible person, you could be a dick and it would actually matter. Like, I've always thought, uh,

uh, bioware struggles with it because like in Mass Effect Paragon Renegan, I'm like, these are actually kind of dumb. I don't like this. But like in the conversation choices, I do enjoy that. And so having it here where this guy's being mean to me,

right, fuck you, I'm going to kill you, or I'm going to walk away, or this person needs me to get them out of jail, and I'm actually debating in this one little instance that's not going to play out. I am I going to help them? Or I'm just going to take the information. Like, you know what I mean? Like my character on the fly developing of well, how are you treating me and that'll have it go and that's do it? Two hours or I guess for me it was like a little hour and a half, a little less. Really not enough of what's going on under the hood here. I really enjoyed what I played. I would probably tell you I loved what I played. I do think that, you know, when the lizard guys show up and come to fight me. I was kind of like, all right, you're just lizard guys. And like, yeah, I'm just fighting lizard guys right now. But again, like, it's the choices, the dialogue. When I get the companion of Kai, right, who is the voice actor of Garris, Brandon Keener, right? It's like, oh, you're fucking on another level already and I'm enjoying the banter and what you're telling me in the way we're all. So it's like, that's going to be the experience of fighting the mobs of whoever.

But will it live up to it, will stick with it? You know, I was using sword and a shield, and then I switched to sword and grimoir, and then I was using bone arrow and I was enjoying them all enough, but it wasn't, it wasn't Dragon Age combat, which I think's on another level. It was cool. I'm playing for Skyrim content to some degree, or Skyrim combat to some degree, which I enjoy, but it's one of those weird ones where I want 20 hours with this game to see if it all is going to last and play out. And, you know, again, like, it's early the build we had. Some animatics are still going on there, you know, for it to be a PC build and not to be an optimized PC build. Dumbass Greg Miller is like, this isn't potato quality.

and I'm troubleshooting everything in the game and then going out into my PC and finally getting it to somewhere but again it's like then it's like well this frame rate doesn't run there's all these things I'm jumping through I'm like I wish this is just running on an Xbox series X and I could go to but I'll pass it to Paris

my top level is incredibly excited this is the kind of game I want I just hope it delivers so just on the optimization aspect of it because I did ask Kerry about that because there was some stuff during gamescom about is a valid going to be 30 frames per second on Xbox, things like that.

So I straight up asked her. And what she said was at a minimum, it will be 30, but that is not the target. She did not specifically say 60, but it sounds like they are trying to get in the final optimization, get this up above 30 frames per second on console. And then obviously, you know, PC is going to have DLSS and all that. So I think we'll be fine there. But they are aware of it, but they won't 100% commit to 60, but that is a goal is from, from what I interpreted from what she said.

And so, yeah, you jump out and it's like, again, how much of this is placeholder where I feel like the UI is like, it is a nerdy ass RPG. It's not wowing you with the UI. It's not wowing you with his visuals for the most part. Colorful for sure. Very colorful. Very colorful.

It has a style. It's got a great art style. Whereas, and again, unoptimized, I don't know what I'm doing with a PC. I was like, was that a problem or is that just where we're at with this preview bill? So chalk visuals up to whatever. I love the art style of it.

Honestly, one of the first things I, was shocked in that this is not a thing that comes up in games, I guess, but they have this choice, right? If you look at the avowed box art, the key art for it, right? You have like the Last of Us mushrooms growing out of there, right? When you start this game and you jump into character creator

and it's like, all right, your character is a god-touched character, right? Which has this whole backstory in the universe and it's going to play in and like that. They were like, make your character look how you want the character. And like, going through, like, you have to have... What's your godlike feature? You have to have these godlike touch. that are the mushrooms or, you know, like coral reefs growing off of your head or your hair or whatever. And I had like such a visceral like reaction to it. I don't know what phobia it is,

but I was like, oh man, no. I can't, I can't do it. And like, there are options to hide it. And they're like, you can hide it, but like characters will still talk like you have it because it's key to the story or whatever. And I was like, fine, let's do that. So I made a character who looked like Dana Barrett and Ghostbusters because the hair physics was great. Oh, you know, I go to character creator and like, oh, that looks like, oh, oh, there it is. I got it. It's Dana. Boom. Did that. And I did that. it was just like, wow, and I really enjoyed the way they talked to me about it, but I could

not deal with my character actually looking like it. Yeah, that's like me in the hands and the Leldering where I'm like, I look at it, and I'm like, this just does something to be physiologically that I can't explain. I'm getting fighter flight kicked up right now. I can't do that. It's funny because I relate to you as far as like going earlier into what you're talking about with like, even the lizard guys, right? One of the notes here is like, if I

have any critique, I think the world design and the character design, I think, feels a bit samey and a little bit uninspired, even though uninspired might seem harsh. I don't mean that isn't it looks bad. more so that like I look at some of the creatures and I'm like all right those are lizard creatures I've seen lizard creatures in a million games

or like one of the first companions to come across I forget his name but I look at him on Kai yeah and I'm like I don't really like how Kai looks but that fish man who fucked in that one film from Garumo do Toro yeah that film yeah well that film that film I never it was like nominated for Oscar though Yeah yeah yeah didn't they like miss call that one No I'm thinking of La La Land in the other movie

Yeah that was moonlight yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah God La La La Land what a film What a film but the world still looks pretty even though it's like not one. Great art style. I don't look around and I'm like, it doesn't necessarily stand out to me as a, oh man, this feels one of a kind. There is a good, I guess, a prettiness to it.

Like I like looking off in the distance and seeing like structures or mountains and stuff like that. And I'm like, yeah, this is a, it's a pretty game to look at. And it's a, it's an alive world. You know what I mean? Like, again, you're in this two hour long preview. And Paris, I'd be interested in if they gave you a walk through. I noticed so many of the previews today talking about the bickering divorced couple in the did you see this in the preview? Did they call this out? Yeah, they kind of gave us a presentation of stuff like that ahead of time. So there's two stalls in the market, right? And there's a divorce couple who works across from each other and bicker and stuff like that. And it's like I've seen it now noted to death in the previews because we all did the same thing. I didn't see it in the game, actually, I blew past it. But there was the confrontation on the bridge that didn't matter. It was the, do you want to help this person get out of there? It doesn't really matter. Like it doesn't matter in the way of like it didn't seem like it had universe redefining things, but it was like a fun decision to make in that moment or a thing to cap.

did play some of this game right I did yeah we got the opportunity to preview this and y'all know me this is very out of my wheelhouse in terms of taste of games so I was proud of you from doing it at all and I was like I'm gonna give this a shot and see like what it's all about and if it can grab me did not grab me just mainly just these aren't my type

of games and that's fine having said that playing through what I did I was like pretty impressed with what they had I really like how nerdy and deep it can get it's not for me but I'm like oh people are gonna like this a lot lot like going through the menus and being able to use your your left hand and right hand and have the different options of having bone arrow having your little mace having the different kind of spell powers and figuring out what balance you want to have there it felt very customizable uh in a way that i feel so early on in the game i was like oh this is pretty impressive because i really did feel like making those changes made the combat scenarios feel dramatically different um and i feel like the ease on process of kind of learning the different things that i in the early game, I feel like was well-paced.

And I was like, all right, cool, I have my head wrapped around this, which is good because, like, going to the menus, like, there's just a lot to, to take in a lot of different, like, items to, that you're constantly collecting. And I was very impressed with the art style again. Like, I feel like, yeah, there was a lot of, like,

performance issues, not so much in, like, frame rate, but more just like, I, it felt a little placeholder. It felt like unfinished. And clearly, like, it was, all right, cool. They're going to add things here. Yeah. So, because we were playing a previews. That made sense, but I was pretty surprised to see the godlike stuff, the fungus stuff, be so in the game. Because we saw the art, the key art for it.

And I just thought, oh, that just looks cool. I didn't realize that that was going to be like, oh, these are the characters in the world we're actually dealing with. And having to choose your godlike fungus thing, I was like, oh, this is really awesome. And I spent a fair amount of time in the character creator just kind of like checking out those different options. because I liked having options that weren't just your typical, you know, like what facial hair do you have

and like how tall are you and like skin color and all that stuff, but like having these other features to kind of deal with. I was like, that's a neat thing that I'm not used to in character creators.

So I thought that was great. And then to the point of the world and the lore and me, not only not playing any of the, uh, Pillars games, but also just not playing obsidian games, not knowing any of the stuff at all.

There's just so much lore, so much war. world, so many names and characters and stuff. I really love they have this dictionary feature where you can just click in and anytime you're having a conversation, it'll explain what things mean. I was like, hey, this is great. So as an outsider to this, I was very impressed. And I think that they are on to something here where this is going to speak to the people

that have been looking for this type of game, especially hearing you guys talk so much about Dragon Asian and seeing people where it didn't hit for others. This feels like, oh, this is going to solve that for them. This, you know, and again, I don't mean to set up expectations it can't meet. But what I got from it and what my hope is for it is that for me, this will be the Baldur's Gate that I couldn't, Balder's Gate that I couldn't be for me. Where I just don't like the combat of Baldur's Gate. So I loved all the choices and characters and all that stuff, but I couldn't get into it. Going into the dialogue options and seeing how many they were, how plentiful they were, the ones that were based on what your stats were, the ones that were locked because you didn't have whatever it was.

like it really was like oh if you can do the permutations and that's what they've talked about right this is in paris i'd love to hear you talk to this i'm sure it came up of this being a smaller RPG right you can create a little path it really quickly in the hope that you could go and play it again or you can live in it forever like i really hope that this is the oh man me and bless get a weekend with it and we come back and i'm like where are you what did you even oh my god what about this you never met him you killed him oh my god like and that's the thing this isn't going to be skyrum i don't think anyone should set their expectation for it to be that but i think Greg, what you said earlier about this being a really nerdy RPG. That's what this is. And it's on a

smaller scale, but at the same time, like they kept saying over and over, you are rewarded for exploring, for finding things like everything's handcrafted in here. By the way, the art director, he's one of the coolest MF you'll ever meet. The conversation I had with him was fantastic. But it's that whole point about level design and them strategically placing things within the world for you to go find and discover so like you said Greg you have those water cooler conversations like oh shit did you find this did you find that I didn't oh you got to go over here and do this like that's what they're setting this up to be and the fact that it's a classless system and you're not punished for if in the middle of the game you decide you want to speck into something else they're not over penalizing you for

that they want you to try out all the different various classes and weapon types and spells and all this They want you to just go nuts with the game. Another common theme that I had talking with the team is they're so excited for people to get their hands on it because despite what they may have been testing internally and QAing, they know people are going to create some just bat shit insane stuff that they didn't even expect as far as the weapon combinations and spells go. Like one that was created, this was during gamescom. I believe it was called a blood mage where instead of like, you know, you use up your essence when you're doing all the. magic and stuff like that, you can perk into, I believe, and I could be saying this wrong. So I apologize to them saying this wrong. But instead, it'll at a certain point start draining your health so you continue to fight, right?

So you have to balance that out. But that's just one example of different things that you'll be able to do in the game from a combat standpoint that you don't have to do. It's only if you want to do it. Like you're saying, Greg, you could probably just power through this in 20 or 30 hours, maybe. But if you want to soak in this world and like someone like Tim that doesn't understand lore of pillars and really soak it in and understand what the whole Pillars universe is about, you'll probably extend your time another 10, 15, 20 hours just on that.

So I think this is a good balance. You know, we talked about this on Xcast for years. I always wanted to see what an obsidian RPG would look like back by Xbox. Yeah. And this is what we're getting. with a vowed. So yeah, I'm excited for February. Yeah, Baldersgate 3 is one that came to mind as I was playing through the preview as well. In the sense that I, you know, coming off of Baldur's Gate 3, I always wondered,

how do we follow up on this? Like, you know, how does anybody put out a great fantasy RPG like after this one that sticks with people, that hits for people and all this stuff? The thing that I like playing during this preview is the fact that there are so many RPGisms, fantasy RPGisms that feel like, even though I know, obviously, this game has been in development for years, it's not like Baldr's Gate 3 could directly influence it in any major ways. It was really cool getting to a camp and being like, oh, I'm going to set up my camp. Oh, I can talk to my companion and hang out here for a second and like, you know, take a breath and heal and do all this stuff and then go back about my business, right?

And like, again, this is more of an obsidian thing. But again, the dialogue options and being able to look and see, oh, this stat is affecting this thing. Oh, I'm also specting to this. So I could say this. And like, it feeling like dialogue truly matters, that's one of the things that I ask for so much in RPGs like this. I feel like this has given me like the nice in-between point between what you would get out of maybe a Bethesda RPG with the first person talking to people, all that stuff. And then also something that is like a Baldur's Gate 3, that is a bit more, hey, how do we heighten up the RPG elements that are even outside of combat, that are you exploring and meeting characters and all that stuff? I'm so with you where the dialogue options, I was very impressed with how immediately I could see the choices I made being reflected in terms of like my skills and attributes and like it giving me other options.

and the options it gave me did feel very different than the other like stock options you get. I was like, oh, that's, that's cool. And like, I like that's cool. And like, I like that they even like flag it to like notify you like what that meant because it did make me want to go like, oh, yeah, if I changed this, what would that be? Because like a lot of the words they're using, I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about here in terms of not the classes, but just kind of like the skill sets. But yeah, that was cool.

And I did really like the early back and forth dialogue with your companion. I was like this seems like a very well written. Like the words have intent, which I think is nice. not just kind of like throwing things out. One of my leaser things a game can do and like great games do this all the time where you're hanging out with a companion and they tell you exactly how to solve a puzzle. Here I had one of those moments but it felt way more natural where I'm like in a cabin, you know, I take out some guys and now I'm collecting stuff in the cabin and my companion's like,

you know, he's like, oh yeah, there's stuff up there. I wonder if we can access it from outside. And I was like that is a, that's a nice way to do that without me feeling like I'm being talked down to. Hey, we should go outside. There's a big hole. Yeah, it's like, oh, you see the stair over here? there's a stairover, like it wasn't that. It was like a, hey, let's maybe check outside to see if there's a way to get upstairs.

And I was like, I appreciate that. That's actually helpful. But going back a little bit to, I think those parents mentioning how this game doesn't lock you in into certain classes, right? Like you have the freedom to kind of move around in terms of what you do. One of the things that I like, and I think, Tim, you mentioned this as well, is the loadout system. Being able to press Y on the Xbox controller and switch back and forth, that is something that I don't think you get from many fantasy RPGs, right? That's like a first person shooter type thing. But I like how it functions here because it is the thing of, you know, you go into your loadout, you figure out like, all right, I want to dual wield wands or I want to bust out a gun, which I love that this game has guns.

But, you know, for me, I was dual wielding at a time, like a pistol and a sword. And then I switched or I had a secondary load out that was just like a sniper type gun or like a rifle, I should say. and I press why, you know, far distance, boom, take some people out. All right, I'm going to get close to this bear, switch back to my, you know, short range load out, take him out from right in front of them. And I'm like, yeah, this feels natural. This feels like a very smart way to do combat here. And it did such a great job of encouraging exploration of those combats.

You know what I mean? Where it was, like, usually I'm pretty locked in on what I want to be. So when I got the grim war, I was like, okay, cool. And I used it. And I was like, all right. Well, hold on. Can I put it. Oh, I can't put it in one hand and have the sword in the other hand.

Okay. Well, then I'm sacrificing the. shield and I also know the bone arrow and it's like to go around and like all these things and then have it be those finishing moves those combos when the stagger meters are filled in like you know I'm shooting the bear with like I was a bow boy yeah any chance I got to use the bow I was doing it that's my thing is I love that combat actually feels really good in this game because that's one thing that I'm always I think that's the thing that's the thing that's always I think that's the thing that's the thing that's here like I saw somebody in chat that said you know glad the combat feels great. It doesn't just feel great. I think it feels snappy. It feels responsive. The options feel great, right? Like you have a wand that you can use just cast spells, but then you can switch to, yeah, a gun to take some out yet. You can have a sword. The sword feels good. Like all of it from the get go, I'm like, oh, I am invested in my loadout and invested

in combat one hour into the game. And so I'm very excited to see. And hopefully like, permutations when you grow, when you get, hopefully there's like way cooler weapons that you collect and like you get the leveled up gun or you get the leveled up bone arrow to, you know, do special damage or whatever. I'm very excited to see where that stuff goes. Combat was the thing that turned me off the most. I didn't really love how it was feeling. It felt a little clunky and I was playing on mouse and keyboard,

which is another thing I'm not used to, but it just didn't feel good to like get in there and it felt a little like looser that I would like it to. But again, it did look like it feels like how Skyrim plays and how like other similar games play. So if you're saying it's good, then I trust you more than me. For me, I felt like it was forgiving, which I appreciated in these kind of games.

where I always feel like melee combat first person can be clunky, can't be weird. And so I felt like I was noticing that I was having no problem pairing, which is not usually what I do. I still was, you know, dodging to the side, getting behind things. I was still getting attacked too and missing a cue or whatever. So like it was all there, but I don't think I ever died in it. And I think I don't even remember like health potions being a big deal for me. Oh damn. I died a lot. Paris, I want to get your thoughts on combat, but after a word from our sponsors.

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The full power of the visual triangle is ours. On sale now at kind of funny.com slash store. So, Paris, what do you think about the combat? I enjoyed it. And the interesting part is that I got to, this is my second time playing it. So I had already experienced the combat. And I was even mentioning to the team that when I played it in August, I was like, yeah, it's okay. This is serviceable. But this felt like an upgrade from that. It felt more crisp. I think even how you were explaining playing on mouse and keyboard, because I did play with a controller, I knew mouse and keyboard playing with a controller back in August. is it felt a little janky, the controls, but this felt tighter, felt a lot better.

And, you know, to the point that we've already been making, I just love the various combinations. It's, you're almost encouraged to want to try out new things so you don't just stick with one weapon loadout. Like I said, when you get the bow, you're like, man, I'm really liking the bow. Then I got the grim war. I'm like, oh, shit, I can do the pistol. And I got the grimor.

Like, oh, man, I'm really cooking here, you know. The man, I'm running out of a book and a gun in his hand. Oh, Jesus. Oh, God. but then you could get a two-handed sword and you just you have that power with that right but then you lose the shield like there's all these different combinations that you can have and then when you get the enchantments as well this is why I'm excited to play more because I really want to see how those enchantments on the weapons will just differentiate them and then there's um and I could be legendary might be wrong but I'll just say for this there's legendary weapons out there that you can find and use two so how will those work and those have like specific perks on them that that change you. your play style as well. So yeah, I think combat's going to be rewarding. It's going to be pretty good. There's also like a dash mechanic that they have in there or if you press a A or then you press A while holding left or right. You can like dash left and right. I like how it feels. And like you can hold

the attack button to do like a charge attack. Yeah like that even works with the guns. And I'm like, and I'm like, yeah. And the boat too. Like the way like you pull the ball back and like you can charge a little bit. Wait for that purple. Yeah. Yeah. And same thing with like the effects are cool. Again, the colors are cool. Charge. You had a charge move in there to take them out. One of your specials. CJ splits on super chats in saying how is the, uh, saying how is the third person mode for those of us that don't love first person. Did anyone play with that at all? I kicked it in a third person.

Yeah, I usually like playing my games that way. But for a Skyrim or a fallout or a Starfield, I usually do stick to first person. I think I'll stick to first person here as well. Once I kicked it out to third person, or even when I went to turn it on because it's a menu option. It's right now not a button to tap in.

It was very much like, yo, you can do this butt. It might make it harder to do some of the things you want to do or whatever. it was fine but again it's clearly built i think to be first person and have that what i appreciated you know for me seeing my character is such a big deal and so so many of these games lock you behind the eyes and you just can't do anything with it this was great of course of when you get into a dialogue or option right and it'll kick back to your character when you select what you want to say so i thought

that was nice it's not voiced right i'm not wrong about there there was no voice for it but you're yeah you're picking it which i like seeing my character on screen how'd you guys feel about how that's presented the dialogue between different characters. Traditional. Yeah. I mean, I think, I think we've seen it before with like what Fallout 4 tried to get in there with the cinematic camera and change all that stuff and it didn't change that much nor did people really like it. This is again a nerdy ass RPG. It's us looking at them getting a thing, looking at us to choosing the thing. That's what I want. Yeah. One thing to add to the third person mode, I tried it a

little bit as well very, very similar to Greg. I think I'm going to stick with first person, but in talking with the team about that, um, Um, they just mentioned, you know, making sure they got all the animations and everything right when you're in combat because now you're seeing way more of the character and you have to see the sword properly swing and you're casting the wand and all, all of that. So they, they're definitely paying attention to detail with the third person mode for people that that will obviously prefer that and want to try that in the game. So again, I think it's just good to have the option. I do, I do feel like the not having the main character voice like I understand the decision based on what Greg's saying, right? Like people, they did it for fallout forward. I mean, that's it did it for fall for, right? I'm like, that was one of those things where it's like, ah, he's not saying what I want him to say, right?

Like, the choices feel weird in people, I think, like having or knowing, like, what exactly am I saying? Word for word I want to make work for work. But there is something, I think, that feels almost missing when it is. I click the thing, and he says nothing. Like, he's very silent. And then, like, the other character speaks. But didn't you read it in your head?

Yeah, but like a little bit. But you do choose a voice, though. Right? And the character creator? You're right, we did. Yeah, you do. Yeah. I wonder if that's just for like if you're swinging a sword and stuff.

I mean, they have vocal lines that they read. So it is a little bit weird. Yeah. I wonder if there are cutscenes, like specific cuts. Some of them get it maybe. Yeah. Well,

that was not wrong. Right. Yeah, we picked that. I never heard. I don't remember. Did you pick voice one? I don't remember.

Because that had a bug and there was no, there was no sound. Oh, no. I had that. I did have that. But then when I went back to click on it, then it played.

But, yeah. Hmm. Uh, We got a couple more super chats here. Gator Mashed Potatoer says, really looking forward to this big fan of Pillars of Eternity, and I can't wait for this to scratch that nerdy RPG itch.

Sounds like it's going to be right up your alley then. Daniel May wants to know how much of the progression systems did you see? I didn't get that deep in there because it's a preview. And so one, it's like I'm not going to get spent a lot of these points. And I'm also going to lose all these upgrades I do. But then also, like, you know, it's not like we had many points to work with. but like what did I ask guys about backgrounds and stuff right like I guess for as far as progression stuff you had a couple different menus I think you had one that was almost like more social progression things like intelligence and stuff like that and then you have another one that is more so about like abilities and combat and stuff and stuff seems deep I know where you guys are at with that yeah it's one of those I don't even I was such a glancing look at it in terms of where we are I don't have any opinion on it because I need time with it yeah yeah same I mean I mean I

I guess the one thing, like when you're creating the character, I think I picked the noble, noble person and that affected the dialogue options that I had. So it seems like even when you start starting that, depending on your choices there, will affect the dialogue that you'll get in the game. Yeah, the five different backgrounds you got are the arcane scholar, the court, Augier, A-U-R, that's the word I'm not familiar with. You got the noble sky on, you got the Vanguard Scout, and you got the war hero. And I believe I picked the Arcane Scholar.

Ah, me too. Yeah. Yeah. Big old brains. We got a mellow fellow saying, do you think there's a chance they move up the date to possibly even shadow drop

during the game awards? Absolutely not. There's only early access to this game. As soon as they lock that in, you are goodbye to getting this any earlier. Yeah. No. I also like just playing this previous,

I was surprised at like how there were some things that felt incomplete. Sure. Which I thought, see you splits on all sorts of it. And how's performance did it feel finished? So yeah, not so much from a performance standpoint, but just like, this preview belt,

there was some things missing. I was like, oh, interesting. Yeah, being this close. Yeah, for being this big taste of it, right? I mean, I'm glad that they went and did it because I think people need to play it to understand it and talk about it. But yeah, I was also interested in it. Now, I do remember being at the studio and them mentioning the build that we played

wasn't the latest. There's a newer build that resolves some of the little quirks that we saw in this preview build. the point, I don't think they're moving it up at all for like you said, the early access stuff, but again, going back to the optimization of it, I think they still need more time to properly get it

optimized. So I don't think there's any chance we'll see it come out earlier. Remind me, what's it coming out around again? Is it Assassin's Creed? Is that the big fear that we have with it? February 18. Monster Hunter's right after that. And then that early access is, was it five days earlier, three days earlier?

I think it's five. Yeah, so Assassin's Creed Shadows comes out February 14th. Avald comes out February 18th. Mal Turner Wilde comes out February 28th. And so it's a bit sandwiched in there. Lost Records, Blu and Rage comes out the same day is valid also. So you're going to pick one.

This does seem like it is speaking to a very specific audience that, and it's giving them what they're looking for though, right? Like I don't know that it's necessarily going to get, like those games are going to get in the way of this because the people that want this, like they're going to be all in on this, right? Like, I feel like this is the type of game that if you're looking forward to a vowed an obsidian RPG, you're not necessarily in the same way looking forward to Assassin's Creed or even Monster Hunter.

You might be looking forward to all three games. But like, I think that if you're looking forward to Avowed and especially after hearing how glowing these previews are, like that's going to be your, all right, I'm all in for that. For sure. I agree with that.

I do. I think there's lots of crossover. I can't wait for Wilds. But if you put them down in front of me, I would go to Avad first. Really? Yeah. I think Wilds is probably going to be the better,

more stunning game. But like, I like my single player stories. I like making my choices. I like romancing people. I'm shocked. You're such a monster hunter person. I know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean, like, that'll be there no matter when. I'm always going to be able to run with somebody and do a thing. And this will be as well. But, like, again, I want to see the story. I want to make the choices. I want to go do this. What about Assassin's Creed?

Like, you put all three of those games for running out. I still am quite worried about Assassin's Creed. So I would still go about over that one. Yeah, yeah. But I think, again, like, Assassin's Creed's going to have the combat in the Ubisoft open world to go do all and check the boxes and stuff. but like I'm not going to you know Odyssey was a different

beast so maybe I'm throwing the baby out of the bathwater I don't think in Assassin's Creed I'm going to care about every side character interaction every quest and collectible like that you know what I mean whereas in a vowed I feel like it's going to be such a personal thing of I've built this character these are my moves I'm excited to get that next skill point

because I want to put it into intelligence so I can do this but then I just met this person who needs this but what they need is against what this person needs and who am I going to pick kind of thing See if you were to put in front of me Assassin's Creed Shadows, avowed Lost Records, Monster Hunter Wilds, and asked me, what orders is Greg Miller going to play these games?

I would have put a vowed dead last for you. Wow, really? No, no, no. I'm such a, you know, open world RPG Western guy. Barrett, you're popping up here. I was this coming in to give blessing shit. Do you think you're still going to be all in on Assassin's Creed Shadow with how fucked up? Oh, no. That's my thing is like, I was all in on Assassin Creek

shadows when it was coming out in a month that had no other games coming out for me. Now that it's coming out in February, like I'm going to play lost records before I even touch Assassin's Creed. So where are you at with the games we just mentioned? You've now played, you've got the taste of a value. Yeah, I mean, Monster Hunter Wilds isn't like at the top of my list for things that I'm not a Monster Hunter person. And I went to do the preview with Greg.

And like, in that preview, I just had the thing of, oh, this is just more Monster Hunter. And so like, it might not still appeal to me by the time it comes out. Assassin Tree Shadows is one that I want to try because it looks cool and it's finally the one in Japan. And, you know, this is the one that we've been talking about. And also with pizzas on the line too. And now we have pizzas on the line. That piece should be void after the delay out of November. I'm just saying.

And what was the other one, the last records? Yeah, no, I think Avowed has now become a little bit higher priority for me, right? I went from being like, I'll take it or I'll leave it to, okay, no, I legitimately want to play this thing, and I hope I have enough time to play this thing. I don't think it's necessarily, for me, move everything out the way. I need to play a Valid when it comes out, but it definitely is a, yo, if I get enough time, I'm going to try and, like, maybe put some real hours into Avilad because it is, it's scratching an itch that I didn't know I had. And so, yeah. Paris, what about you?

Well, I was going to say, I think there's a couple games that we're missing in here that I know people are going to also anticipate because like a dragon is around this time too, isn't it? Oh, yeah. Yeah. And Siv. And like for me personally, like a VAL tie up on my list, 100%. Can't wait to play it. But Siv 7 is also coming out around that time. So I'm big on that.

But to the other games that you mentioned, I've never played Monster Hunter. Shame on me, I guess. So I know everyone that played really likes it. So that one isn't a priority for me to play when it comes out. Assassin's Creed, I am so TBD right now. I don't know. I got to see what they're going to do when it comes out. So I would definitely put a vowed over those.

But SIF 7 would probably be the other one up in there where I'm like, do I want to play that first? Do I want to play a Vowd? But I'm biased because I'm an obsidian fan. I love obsidian games. And this fits right into their DNA of what they do. so I was impressed with what I got to see last week, so can't wait. Are you traditionally an Assassin's Creed person?

On and off. It depends. It depends on the Assassin's Creed. I mean, something like Odyssey, I was really into Valhalla. I was not. Syndicate, I think, is one that grows on you when you play, but you go back to Brotherhood and obviously like Assassin's Creed too. Love those.

Syndicate now available with the next gen. upgrade to play at 60 FPS. Yeah, I saw that. Play the best Assassin's Creed. Always going to push Syndicate. That's awesome. It is because here's the thing, and this is just, you know,

spoiling my Assassin's Creed in reviews. Everybody wants Ubisoft and Assassin's Creed to go back to the old Assassin's Creed formula. Syndicate is that fully realized and at its peak. And so maybe the setting isn't for you, whatnot. That is, like, if you want more of what two and brotherhood did, in a really special way it's into it.

Aaron writes insane just want to say you guys rock. We appreciate that. Greg, do you think that this game avowed is going to do

anything new for the genre or is this just a different coat of paint on something that people already know and love? I would say, best case scenario, what this would do

for the genre is remind people of how great the genre was. I feel like that's been the big thing we've seen as we've seen BioWare, Bethesda, get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and become more mainstream, right? The games have moved more mainstream as well,

which is why you see the reaction of Dragon Age Vale Guard, be like, what the fuck, why can't I be evil? Why can't I do this? You see the reaction to be Starfield. This is just fast travel simulator. Why can't I do X, Y, and Z in there? People who love these games and loved these kinds of games, there's a reason Baldrgate

was such a crazy success and so there's a reason the reason people loved Witcher right was the storytelling and this and the choice for over here and the choice like

there's so much happening there that is like great stuff but I feel like at some point the wrong lessons got taken away from success of these kind of games and they were well let's make them more like a movie let's make them more linear let's make them and I mean in terms of the narrative

in terms of the choices and kind of lose the role playing. When everything became RPG elements, right? We kind of lost the idea that like, well, you play the game and you want to make the choices to do the thing. And so my hope here would be that I'm sitting in a developer we know is so

talented, so beloved for New Vegas, right? In outer worlds to some degree, even though that one missed for me in terms of like what story they were telling and the scope of it, I would hope this would be a return to them being like, listen, look, people do want this kind of game

and back to Paris's point, right, of having Xbox behind them for them to support that and say that we are Xbox and we can have all these games of various success levels where not everything needs to be a 13 million unit seller right we can go and say this is a nerdy ass RPG and we're making it for the people who want that what do you think plus yeah it's it's funny like thinking about this i don't view avowed as something that is going to really change anything if i'm being honest right like i don't think it is, I don't think it's the Witcher 3. I don't think it's like, you know, Baldur's Gate 3. I don't think it's Skyrim. What I do think, and this is a bit back to Greg's point, is that I think

it is a return to form or almost like a comfort food type scenario. Like, I don't think it's going to be Ballard's Gate 3, but I think people who played Baldur's Gate 3 and loved Baldur's Gate 3 should should play this game, right? Because it's more of that. And I think it is along the lines of, hey, this is a traditional fantasy RPG. This is the kind of thing you like. If you play Baldur's and maybe you then moved on to Starfield because now you're going to get more of that and you're disappointed. Guess what? I think Avowed is actually going to give you more of what you want because it is about the characters. It is about the companions.

It is about the choices. It is about the stats. It is about building up the party. Like, it is comfort food, but I don't know if it's something that is or something that even needs to change the world. I think it's fine for something to come out, especially if they have scoped it the right way, if they have like the right expectations for it. I think it's fine for it to come out and do whatever sales is going to do, right? Like I just looked up how many, how much did out-of-world sell and pulling from a random Reddit post in 2020. Right? Like this thing says they sold 5 million copies. This is the R slash PS5 so that doesn't help. But no, that

is going because it was art looks like from the official team. Oh yeah, you're right. Yeah. Thank you Spacer's 5 million units sold. So five million copies sold. Big numbers man. Yeah, as of 2023. And like those are big numbers. If you're if we're talking about game pass and how that plays into it and how it being exclusive as well plays into, like about it is exclusive, right? I'm not crazy about that. Yep. Okay, yeah, about being.

For now. For now, right? Like, say we're talking, I don't know, 2.5 million sold and then maybe like 2 million more people playing it on GamePass. Which again, we're, we've talked about this a million times, but like this is fully in the era of game pass getting the big releases and this being one of those big releases.

And I'd love to get Paris's thoughts on this, because I think if we're talking about how this fits into the, strategy or how this fits into like the Xbox family. I don't think a valid is necessarily like the, oh, we're going to sell so many game passes, Christians game. But I think it is the, oh, we're going to retain. Like, we're going to keep people into game pass. It's another reason why somebody should be able to get game pass and someone and why people

should be paying attention to this service. Like, I think it's additive, but I don't think this is the, the world needs to hinge on this thing. And I think that's okay. No, absolutely. I think you're spot on with that. And just to answer your question, Tim, I think this is a fresh coat of paint on the traditional Western RPG.

It's not going to be genre defining, but I don't think it needs to be either. And to add to what Blessing is saying, this goes along with, this is why you would stay subscribe to Game Pass. This probably isn't the reason why you would subscribe. That's your call of duties. Fable is probably the big game for them in 2025 would be a reason to subscribe to Game Pass. But the fact that you're getting a quality obsidian RPG day one in that service.

service. Yeah, you're going to this this is their their opportunity now in 2025 to hit that cadence that Matt Booty has talked about of having these tent pole releases every quarter coming coming from Xbox to keep you as a part of game pass. Yeah, I like I said, I don't think this this reinvents the wheel for RPGs or anything, but I think it's going to be a damn good RPG that you'll want to. That's all I want. Yeah. Yeah. And I think if you're a fan of Western RPGs, it's it's one you're going to want to play. I'm really interested in the business side of it,

all of like you saying like this doesn't need to be the game to get people in. When you're selling five million copies of your previous similar game, it's like, I really wonder what the sales numbers are going to be. And then I have to ask the question of like, is it worth losing out on all of that to put it on game pass and doesn't get enough going into game pass? Like, what do you think about that, Paris? Well, I think the like, it was interesting that they put this on a battle net.

I was like, huh. Okay. So clearly battle net's going to stay around the early access thing because even if you remember they did that with Starfield and we know people are like oh I want to play it early so they purchased even though they subscribed to game pass they still spent more money to get early access to it so I think there's gonna be a PC crowd that isn't necessarily gonna want to have be on game pass that's probably gonna go by about to play and I think that's

probably what they're banking on and you know we jokingly said it this eventually probably shows up on PlayStation at some point you know so let's just be realistic about it so Sure, it might get people on Xbox playing it on Game Pass to get some early critical acclaim. Let's say a year later, it shows up on PlayStation. Those people have to buy it to play it. Yeah, I think if we're talking about what, this game coming to PlayStation, let's say maybe a year after, right? Like, let's say it comes to PlayStation in 2026.

I think you see similar sales, right? Like this was in 2023, I believe Outer World came out in 2019. So four years, you're hitting five million copies sold. I think about it. You're probably talking about the same thing, right? four years, you're getting five million copies sold. Plus whatever you did on Game Pass as well. I think I would hope that that they look at that and go,

oh, that's a success for us. Like this is matching our expectations. Parison talking to them and visiting the studio, was there talk of this is the game we're launching and that's it? Or did they talk about that they want to support with DLC after the fact? Or we just not even touch the idea. Yeah, it's funny you say that because I just brought it up in the way of they're clearly going to listen to the community.

Like if there's a tweak of something they do, To tuning, yes, but adding additional things, it doesn't sound like. Sounds like this is the game that we're getting at launch. And they'll obviously just support the game, you know, depending on any issues or community outcry on something that they feel they need to fix or resolve. Cool. We got a super chat from the penguin saying, I'm really happy to hear your glowing impressions.

I wish Andy was here to do the impression. Any interest in checking out pillars. They truly are fantastic and it's a shame. CRPGs don't get a lot of eyes on them in gaming media, PG3 excluded. Hey, don't forget Disco Elysium. Masterpiece. Any interest in checking out pillars, Greg?

No, absolutely not. If Balders Gate couldn't get me into CRPGs, it's just not going to happen for me. Paris. I mean, same. I don't see me going back. Like I said, I've, again, after the dumb ass thing I said when Carrie and Gabe were on,

I was like, let me make sure I understand what the Pillars universe is. But I just won't have the time. I mean, I just have to, you know, be honest with myself. There's no way I'll go back and play the other games. Yeah, I'm almost like, I mean, I will see when this comes out, what this does for the community. But I'm almost like, does this even need to be in the Pillars universe? Like, could this have been its own thing?

Like, would that, is the Pillars universe bringing in that audience to the extent where you're getting all those extra copies? I don't see it so much as like, is it bringing in the audience or going one way or the other with it as much like, hey, cool, here's a backbone. We don't need to spin up for a year and a half somebody spinning up. the entire lore of everything that's happened before. Here's a jumping off point and go. Yeah. I do wonder if you see that kickback of people that finish about and go, oh, I want more of this world and then go back and play players.

See, and I'm glad you brought that up because one thing, and we'll probably never know the truth about it. This isn't the game that we saw in 2020 when they originally revealed it. It is clearly changed. And I do believe Carrie Patel did not come on until later on as well. So to your point, Greg, it makes me wonder of like, hey, let's anchor ourselves with something that we know we can build upon as far as the universe goes versus trying to spin up something brand new.

I kind of think that happened. I could be completely wrong. Maybe it was in pillars all the entire time. But what I saw in 2020 doesn't seem like it was. Makes sense. Hell yeah. Any final thoughts on our time with the vowed? Greg?

I wish it was here right now. I wish it had switched places with stalker. You know what I mean? I think it would have been nice to be able. And I mean, I were talking about a million different. moving parts. The game's not ready. I understand or whatever. Blah, blah. I don't want to polish it. I just would, I want to play this right now. I want to keep playing

this right now. And I'll be in. I'm fascinated. My hope is it's really gonna fucking hit for me. I'm really going to be all in on it, but it could easily go the other way. Blessing did a great job there of like, the meal smells good, but I still need to really get in there and taste it. Bless. Yeah, I think this has given me, this preview has given me a lot more faith

in terms of the quality of the game. I think they have this stuff. I'm still, I think I'm in the place now where I'm like, I hope people play it in that like, and I hope there's enough success there and it doesn't get lost in the shuffle between not just February, but just in the year of 2025, right? Like, we're entering game of the year season right now for the current year. And it's easy to look back and be like, oh, man, remember this, remember that. Oh, man, that's not getting the shout out that you would have thought during the game award season.

A vow is one of those games that I think is great in that I could see entering those conversations in a year like we're having now. Next year, we'll see. Like, I hope, I hope they get their flowers. Yeah. Pairs? I'll just say again and I'll shamelessly plug. I do have an interview with Carrie Patel up on my YouTube channel, which is YouTube.com slash Marcello 696. I know the name. But the reason I bring that up is I did ask her basically this question because it really

wasn't until August when I played it and this kind of cemented it now. I was like, I don't know what the hell about it's. Like from everything we saw over the past few years, we don't know what it is. Then when we saw it at whatever showcase that was, and clearly they changed direction on the visuals and everything, people were kind of put off by that. And I asked her, I go, do you feel like a vowed needs a kind of reintroduction to get people to understand what this game is and to show it off? And essentially, they feel like this is what this preview is going to do. And I think it does. I think, obviously, we've talked positive about it.

Some of the other previews have been pretty positive about it. I think this visual upgrade that it has here at the very end with polish does a lot for it. And yeah, I think we went many years without knowing what the hell this game was going to be. But now I think we do now. It's in the Pillars universe. This is a classic Western RPG and, you know, obsidian DNA is sprinkled all over it. So, yeah, I think they're going to go into February with some goodwill and people willingly want to go check it out. Well, hell yeah.

Everyone, thank you so much for hanging out with us today. Paris, thank you for joining us. Let us know in the comments below. If you are hyped for a vowed, if anyone wasn't sold, but now is, please, I'd love to hear from you. Right after this,

we're about to do this stream that's going to be stalker to showing off all of the Nvidia goodness. It'll be Nick, it'll be Mike, it'll be a good time. So if you're on YouTube, you're going to make the jump over to the other YouTube link.

If you're on Twitch, you can stay right where you are. Until next time, I love you all. Goodbye.