Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - We Played Red Dead Redemption 2! - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep 188

Episode Date: September 24, 2018

Join DC Universe today at https://dcuniverse.com Easy Allies' Brandon Jones joins us to talk all about playing Red Dead Redemption2! (Released first to http://www.Patreon.com/KindaFunnyGames Supporters on 09.21.18) Thanks for the support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up guys, welcome to the first ever. Episode 188 of the Kind of Funny Games cast. As always, I'm Tim Getty's joined by the Reverend, Jared Paddy. Dokey, dokey. It's our first time on games cast. It's the first time on a show together in a long time. It has been a very long time. I have missed you tremendously.

We're talking about this in the pre-show. It just doesn't feel right. I'm stealing this from somebody else, but it kind of felt like Ed McMahon hosting the Tonight Show. Like I just, I don't belong in that chair. This is the Tim's show. I appreciate that. I really appreciate that. But more than that, I just missed the warmth.

I must the enthusiasm, the vibe, the balance. The hype, baby. That's what it is. And ladies and gentlemen, joining us once again on the Kind of Funny Games cast, Brandon Jones. I also missed you a lot. Thank you. I missed you. It's been way too long since I've seen you.

Once last time I saw you, I guess it was E3. E3, probably. Yeah, yeah. I love E3. I can't wait for the next one. I love it. Let's get started. Let's go.

Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the kind of funny games cast. Each and every week we get together, talk about video games, all the things that we love about them. You can get the show early by going to

Patreon.com slash kind of funny games. For just one dollar, you can watch it live along with us. For a couple more dollars, you can get the audio or video early. The video includes the pre-and-post show that we do for this. It was a good one today, a solid 20 minutes of high-quality content.

I was there, Jared was there, Brandon was there. Joey was there for a bit of it too. It was fun for everybody. Or you can just get the show for free on Mondays at 9am on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games. are on podcast services all over the place, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Get hyped about that. Today we got a fun show, and it is brought to you by Patreon, producers, Warren Moore, Eric Heights, and Tom Bach, the Legends. Yeah, the Legends. Kevin, do I need to do some shout-ups or something? It wasn't on the calendar, but, okay, cool.

Tom Bach's shown up, supporting us at Pax. Fantastic dude. He is amazing. He's great. How was your Pax? My Pax was great. It was wonderful. The panels went wonderful.

The Superman panel was a lot. lot of fun. It was completely devoured by the Twitch stream, but the backup copy exists, and I'm patching it together from three different pieces of footage-less audio. I've got a middle section, the one where Greg talks, where all I have is audio. So I really want somebody to animate it. I'm hoping to get somebody to animate it, and then finally patched that whole thing together. The Red Dead panel was a ball redded live with the What's Good Games folks. And John Ryan had a great time there. Of course, at the tournament got my butt kicked. That was delightful. It was my first Pax West.

Wow. Oh, man. Had a wonderful time. Pax West is a good one. One of my favorite conventions for sure. Spectacular. Hit that pink gorilla booth. Shabit's pink gorilla, great stuff there.

Walking around, got a bunch of dice. About a whole nice. About $100 of dice. That might have been a mistake. It's a lot of money. Yeah. How many dice is that? That's a lot of dice.

Okay. A lot of really weird dyes. Were you at Pax, Brandon? My first Pax, I skipped in many years. Yeah. I intentionally skipped it this year. Intentionally. For a very special event.

and I'm so happy that I went to Mr. John Williams at the Hollywood Bowl He does it that weekend every year And my wife always goes And so it'll be I'll be back at the hotel And I'll get some video text from her Of like everyone's the lightsabers

Like doing the bit And was that as rad as it sounds? I think it was the 50th, the 40th or 50th anniversary Of him playing the bowl Oh my God So not just him like composing music or anything Specifically at the bowl Spielberg was there

They played the opening of Last Crusade Without the music So it was just fully in a dialogue and, you know, sound effects and stuff. And then, uh, he, like, played the music live over it. And, uh, I just like, he's like my favorite artist. Yeah. Did they do Superman?

Uh, they did not do super. You can't do everything. Didn't do Harry Potter. Didn't do Jurassic Park. Wow. Wow. Didn't do, yeah. No Jurassic Park.

That's surprising. And he'll play, uh, some stuff he didn't, right? Just stuff, you know, inspirations and stuff. Really? He played psycho one year that I went. And like, everyone cracked up when it got to, when it got to like the shower scene. And he finished and turned around. And he was like, that's hilarious, isn't it?

He's like, I never really thought about that. funny that is when you're in a social setting like this. Oh man, that's so cool. Yeah, no, I've been unfortunately missing Pax's because of stupid weddings the last couple of years. Stupid weddings. It's just like, I was on such a hot streak with Pax where I was at every Pax West

and East and then Holy Matrimony. Oh, man. Two years in a row. Lifetime commitment. And I think next year I already have another fucking wedding that weekend. Like, already confirmed. Say no. Go to Pax. Jared, I wish that that's how life worked. You know what I mean? All these stupid

friends and their stupid wives. I have absolutely just not gone to weddings. There are times you just don't go to a wedding. The problem is that it's like it's the cycle where it's like I'm that age and G is a year younger than me so now she's the age. So it's like we're just getting through all my friends. Now next year's all her shitty friends.

I hate all this shit man. Stop. Love needs to stop. Everybody. If somebody's getting remarried, you got to draw the line there too. Yeah. No way. Not going to be the second time. Maybe we could like inject you with a slow acting poison and then hide the antidote at pack. and the only way for you to survive.

Exactly. I'm sorry. Yeah, you got to do it. Oh, man. It has been quite the travel season. But thank God for the Switch. Being able to play the plane on the plane. It has been awesome.

Speaking of the Switch. Yeah. The online service launch this week. It has arrived. Did you get it yet? Not at all. I didn't get it yet either. I'm not to...

I know. It's been nuts. But I'm again flying tomorrow to a goddamn wedding. But this one's a Disneyland, so I'm pretty excited about that. But I'm going to download. the Switch Online stuff today, so I get to mess around with the NES games, but you got it. I did. I grabbed it. It's a pretty painless download. It's a very easy process

to get into not a lot of barriers to entry. I was able to pay for most of my year one subscription with my whatever little gold coins are called that you get for buying stuff. I forget the name of them. And hopped in and yeah, the 20 streaming slash on your switch Switch games are great. I don't think they're actually streaming

because NES ROMs are so tiny. I suspect they're just stuck in cash somewhere and that it's like, did you check in this week, you know, something in the software is checking. Is it streaming? I thought it was straight up down. I think it's, I think that it's just an app. Like, it's another little app in there. It's like, here's your NES. And then when I'm offline, it's fine. It just works the same

as it does anywhere else, but it does have some neat features. It's got online multiplayer, which I fooled around with some. I actually hopped on as soon as I downloaded it and streamed it on Twitch that night. And it played a lot of stuff, including with some people in the chat. Played Mario Brothers online, like the classic one-on-one, you know, arcade.

Oh, no, Mario Brothers is good with two people. No, it's not. No, you don't like it? It's not good with any amount of people. Mario Brothers is a fucking atrocious video game. Expound. I, first off, hated how it was packed into every Mario Brothers advance game on the GBA. Give us some different mini games.

Like, Mario 64 DS, the mini games were great. You know what I mean? Stop giving us the same game over and over and over where it's like, I don't believe anybody actually enjoys it. I feel like it controls horribly compared to Super Mario Brothers. It controls differently. The key to Mario is that it feels good to play. Mario Brothers is so slippery. It's like playing Luigi in Mario Brothers game if he had oil on his feet.

It's so bad. It's a very deliberate slipperiness. It's the same way that you play old survival horror games. We were talking about Resident Evil earlier. And if you don't have tank controls, I'm not scary anymore unless you completely build, rebuild the game from the ground up. And the same way, Mario Brothers is not fun if you have precise control. Even with what a take. On precise control.

it's not fun either. Especially, no, no, this is the inspiration for Super Mario Brothers Wii and Super Mario's Wii, the whole like cooperative, competitive. I'm down for. I am just a fan of games where you can be a complete jerk to the person you're playing with. You can be a jerk in some of those multiplayer ones.

What's the one where they actually account for you in physical space? So if you jump and a friend jumps at the same time and you bop their head, you'll like knock them down. New Subaru Brothers. Yes. Yeah. Well, this one, that's where they get that idea.

It's the same. How you played Mario Brothers? Yeah, of course. Do you like it? Have not played it in a lot. long time. So it's... I can visualize it.

That's about it. I don't get any like contact. I'm going to make this argument. It's slippery, but it's consistent. It's precise. It's not like you do the same thing twice and it feels clodgy or anything like that. It's just a matter of getting a feel for the controls. Once you understand how far you can move before jumping and how to turn in midair,

it's great. You're fine. It just takes a little while to get that down. And I'd argue that those remake mini-game pack-ins that you were talking about actually refine the controls quite a bit. And it was definitely a lot better. I just feel like the game is, when compared to either Super Mario Brothers, obviously, is worse. And also compared to Donkey Kong, it's worse.

I feel like Donkey Kong is an example of challenges and the controls working against you, but in a way that feels like it's meant to feel that way in the video game. Whereas the example you brought up about Resident Evil and not being scary if there's not tank controls. With Mario, there's not fear. There's not scariness. There's not any of that. It's literally just about the gameplay. I feel like the gameplay is backwards.

It's a game about looking a second ahead. It's not a game about reacting the way that Super Mario Brothers is. It's a game about knowing that crab is there, and that means that in about one and a half seconds he'll be here, so it's time for me to move and jump. It's like playing Dark Souls. It's about looking ahead. The Original Dark Souls.

The Dark Souls. I think that's like Monster Hunter. It's same way. It's about looking ahead, figuring out exactly what time commitment you can get it. But let's not dwell too much on Mario Bros. I like the service. I don't know if it's worth when I'm paying for it. $20 a year is...

$20 a year. Is really not too bad. But right now, what I'm really getting for it is the ability to play a few good NES games that I've mostly been able to play other places and trading that off... For $5 each? Yeah, but I probably would only have bought six or seven of these.

Well, me, no, I'd probably bought 14 to 15. That's what I'm saying. Do you only need to buy $4? of it for it to be the price of a year. Again, I'm not, I'm not going to go off on a rant here. Ultimately, the ability to play ice hockey online with another person is worth $20 a year to me. Right there,

that's it, because ice hockey is the best NES hockey game except for Cuneo hockey, but that's a whole other argument. Anyway, there's a lot of good games on this thing. Have you all seen the lineup? So yeah, saw the lineup. I saw a video today, like, I'm so excited to get it. I've just been busy doing stuff, but I saw a video

of the interface. It looks, it's beautiful. I love the look that it has. Some of the box starts too big, but I don't know. I just love looking at that library that way. I love that. And like the organization eventually might get a little cumbersome, but I'm sure they'll come up with folders or some system. They're only adding three games a month at this point.

So that means this time next year, there's still only about 50 games. Yeah. I think they're going to give bigger batches. I hope because that's one of my complaints. If I'm sitting popping into $20 a year and I think about, you know, virtual console when at launch, gave me five, six new games a week. For $5 a piece. Yeah. But this one gives me.

three new games a month. And I understand their pricing model, but it's not, they can do better. They have done better. If I had to choose between this and virtual console, virtual console all the way. Oh, I don't know. Absolutely. Now, maybe what this is in five years, but what they've shown me so far is okay. Now, they do choose some good games.

I love, I love how snappy it looks. I love that it's an app that all the games are in one place. And I believe that they're going to add stuff at a more substantial. rate than we're seeing currently for the rest of this year. Why do you believe that? Just because I think that this is the gateway point to get people in. And once Smash Brothers comes out, and there's like another huge boon of online play going on on the Switch.

Because right now it's Spiltoon and it's Mario Kart. But, you know, those have been free for so long. Paying for it kind of feels backwards. Whereas with Smash, it'll be like from day one. That's the service. I think as that grows and as user base grows, Nintendo's going to want to keep giving people. reasons to want to stay subscribed.

That makes sense. I think that right now, we're at the early points where it seemed kind of dire, but I think that sooner than later it's going to be more similar to Netflix than in its current incarnation. If that's where it's headed, I'm much more in favor of it. And again, for all the griping, let's look at the good games that are there. River City Ransom, Super Mario 3, Super Mario Brothers, the legend of Zelda. There's a lot of really...

Ice hockey, I'm not joking, ice hockey is a great game. There's a lot of really good stuff. good stuff in this pack. There's some crap. Soccer's there. Yoshi's there. Who cares? I've never played Yoshi.

Don't. Yeah. Yeah. It's one of the two Yoshi themed puzzle games on NES. Neither one of them is worth your time. Did Yoshi come out after Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo? Yes,

I'm almost positive it did. It's one of the really late NES games. Yoshi and Yoshi's cookie are both very late games. Interesting. Yeah. It's one of the, either Yoshi or Yoshi's cookie might be the last U.S. release.

it's right up there in that area. It's really close to that period of time. Because they were at least in N.E. N.A.S. games well into the early 90s. I didn't know because, I mean, I didn't have the NES until later after my Super Nintendo even. But I didn't realize that Kirby's adventure didn't come out until towards the end. It's a very late game. Yeah.

Life cycle. I thought it was pretty good. Probably why I wasn't that familiar with it. Yeah. That's why it's so beautiful. They've learned to master the thing. Because that is a gorgeous NES game. And super spiked.

smooth, but there may have been a school of thought. People argued this that like maybe older kids were going to pass their NES down to their younger siblings and they might have gone more kiddie game with things like Kirby and like, hey, what's going to appeal to younger players? And that might be why it came out so late, but nobody's really sure about that that I've ever heard. So yeah, that's my take on the service. The online multiplayer is a lot of fun. I haven't played local multi with anybody yet, so I don't know what that's like. I assume it's great. I've been playing handheld mode and on my TV. I've had a lot of fun with both. I've not had any trouble with the joycons on anything except Ghosts and Goblins

where I just, I just gonna have to play that with Pro Controller. That game is so janky anyway. The Niest version of Ghost and Goblins, I love, but it is not good. That is not a good video game. Gotta play that. It's unkind. It's, yeah, and it feels like, it always feels it's just like about to explode your television. Like, there's something wrong with that game. I think if you play it long enough, it comes to life and, like, gains sentience and tries to start World War III. Do you like it? Do you like Ghost and Coons?

If you're lucky. Yeah, I, the Super was the, I think it was the ghouls and Ghosts when it was on Super Nintendo? Yeah, that's good. It's Cools and Ghosts. Yeah, that was the only controller that made me break controller, or the only game that made me break equipment. Really? Yeah.

I mean, it makes sense. I yanked that. It was so pissed and I yanked the controller so hard that it like, you know, pulled the, just busted it as it as it came out of the Super Nintendo. It made me mad. Once Super Dodge Bowl is available to play online, my entire attitude will completely shift to pro this. I think the reason that I'm so high on it is

that they are trying to make these games better by adding online features and adding, like they're making them the definitive versions of the games in a lot of ways. Yeah, I think you're taking a healthy perspective, Tim. I'm grumpy about this because I bought a Wii in 2006. And I have wanted online multiplayer for NES games

for 12 years. And now I'm finally getting it in a form that only gives it to me with a few games that I can't just grab the ones I already bought or just buy them again and have it finally. I want my certain. I love, I mean, I totally understand that. And of course, I want every Nintendo game I've ever bought to be able to be played on the Switch. Like, that makes sense.

But I just feel like there is no actual way to go back and be like, well, what games did they buy on the Wii versus the Wii versus? I think this is good. Everyone gets the same things. If you subscribe, you get the games. Yeah. Like, we're building. towards a future, you see it with Spotify, you see it with Netflix, you see it with Xbox

GamePass. You see it now today with PS Now adding downloads for PS4 and PS2 classics. Like we're going towards a future that in every form of media where, this is also in comic books, it's also in digital books, where people want to be able to do to play anything, listen to anything at any given moment. My problem is it's never anything. I want to, I think there's a lot of virtue to a streaming future. But I've also discovered a situation where I will go out and look for a particularly an older movie or an older television show, something I want to look at for historical

value or something that's not really in the mainstream of entertainment anymore. And I won't find it on Prime and I won't find it on Netflix and I won't find it on Hulu. I can usually find it on Amazon for sale or for rent, but then I'm paying a fee to have it. If this follows that model, if I can run out and grab, you know, If I can play my NES games, they know we're going to be profitable streaming. That's fine. And I can spend three bucks and buy Clash at Demonhead, which isn't available for streaming, but I still want to play it.

I'm fine. But if they start leaving behind the little things that, quote, unquote, nobody cares about, then we have fewer choices, not more. Yeah. And I don't like that future. I want the ability to not have them decide what I want. And that's what every streaming service does. It is not about you seeking out what you want.

It is about them telling you in huge bold Netflix letters at the top of your screen with an obnoxious trailer that starts whether you want it to or not. You want to watch this. You want to watch our thing we made and give us your money for it and not what you think you're after. And I don't like people telling me what I find entertaining that I don't have a personal relationship with. I want you to tell me. I want you to tell me. I don't want some jerk and palo.

Alta running Netflix to tell me. American Man, a really good show. I just see it differently where I'm like, you're making a very good point. I just think that we're at a place now where it's easier to find anything you're looking for than it ever has been. I remember 10

years ago, if I wanted to watch Batman the animated series, I couldn't do that. You know what I mean? Like that show was on TV and if you didn't watch it, like maybe it was on DVD at some point. We had to wait for that to happen. I had them on VHS, but we We're friends then, so it didn't work out.

Yeah, but then it's like, yeah, it's stuck on VHS physically, and it's like, do you have a VCR? Yeah. And I feel like now it's at a point where it's like Batman not only is it on Blu-ray, it's also on streaming services. And guess what? Like, even if it wasn't, there's always YouTube. There's always somewhere to find the things to be able to play. And it's like, for you, what you're talking about, it's like, yeah, should there always be a legal way to get the things that you want? Yes, there should.

But we all know that there's other ways to be able to play games and consume. many of these but I don't want to live in that world that's why not why not have it all because for a little while because of licensing at the beginning of Xbox 360 at the beginning of of we virtual console it looked like we're going to get that for a little while and that it didn't happen because money is terrible I also though for all my griping you're also making a spectacular point we have so many options and again I bought the service because I want the service I'm taking I'm going on vacation I'm taking my switch up there I'm going to play a whole lot of ice hockey up in the house You're so Jared and I love it. I love it. I'm going to give it a shot. I've never played it. I'll be giving it a shot this weekend.

He's got little skinny guys, little fat guys, and it's just, it's a fun little hockey game. It's really good. I guess I'm just really shocked at a lot of the feedback of the pricing of this online service.

The online stuff I really could care less about. To me, I see this as a $20 subscription service for the year. And honestly, it's less than $20 because we're going to get a family account for the office. And it's $35 for eight people, split across eight people.

Like, that's nothing. I think about families with kids. You know, that's the main one for me. You've got like, hey, I've been playing on this game. You know, I've been playing Mario Card. I've been playing Splatoon. And then suddenly, I'm not anymore. And 20 bucks, we talk about 20 bucks like it's nothing.

I used to live in Indiana. I used to live in North Carolina where people are making real American national minimum wage. And 20 bucks is sometimes the different. between keeping the lights on at the end of the week or not? It's a year. It's $20 a year. And I understand that, but you don't need it. Like, that's the thing is like $20 at this point gets you 20 NES games.

Some of the best games of all time and some of the not so best games of all time. But then there's only going to be more. At this point, it is a dollar a game. Next month, it's going to be less than a dollar a game. And these are the same games that I have bought on the Wii, on the WiiU, on the Game Boy Advance when they released them physically for $20 a piece. Oh, I've probably spent $1,000 in virtual console in my life. I think that I am shocked that Nintendo is giving us Mario Brothers 1,

Mario Brothers 3, Zelda for $20 a year. It's a good start. It is, and I do bet that they're going to add. It's an okay start. If it goes in the direction, we hope it will. A year from now, you may find me much more on the same, but I want to see it first. I want it in my hands.

Causiously optimistic. Brandon, we haven't, what about you? I mean, where do you fall on this whole thing? I, it's funny that you brought up, you're like, I have very specific wants, I have a movie in mind, and I want to go see it. I'm the total opposite with streaming services, where I'm just like, all right, Prime, you know,

I'm, I'm cutting our podcast right now, entertain me with something in the background, and she's like, okay, some weird movie, Cheryl, put that on. Yeah, when like Spider-Man 3 popped up on Netflix, I was like, let's do this. Let's do this. I'm so sorry.

I kind of like the overlord coming in and being like, these are your entertainment options. It's like, I'm fine. I can make do with those. So you just have a different perspective on a completely lot. And I think that, I think just at the point in my life, like I'm, which is really interesting to see once I get into this over, especially the months ahead, how much value I get out of the game selection.

Because like, not that, not as focused on TV and film as I was in my youth, in my 20s, I think. I'm like pretty much mostly games now. As far as like something that's like, that's coming out at this point, I'm going to absorb that then. But like, I didn't see solo until like three days ago because I was like, I'm fine. Wow. You know. Yeah.

I'm totally fine. stuff off unless it's a game I'm really excited about then like gotta play that immediately. Sidebar, how do you cut, how do you cut video and watch a movie at the same time? My eyes would melt if I tried that. It's nice just putting something on in the background, just something dumb. Like, you know, if it's

if I know something, somebody's going to export or if like it's a podcast I can play a game, I play Dragon Quest 11 while I'm listening to the podcast and I'm just like setting markers for the timestamps and oh, here comes podcast halftime, I got to cut that part. Yeah. But sometimes it's fun if I'm editing a long project. It's nice to put on

something very, something very, Visually exciting, but not like something I would actually want to watch. Just some dumb movie. You're like the Bionic woman. Like Matthew Broderick and Inspector Gadget. Put that on the background. Sure, let's do it. Man, I saw that in theaters.

And I was jazzed. Moving on for Nintendo Switch Online. Capcom Brawler Collection. This is a Jared Pagy game. You're playing this too? We streamed it. That was our great stream game this week. All right.

Why don't you jump it on this then? Oh, this is great. It's so great to play these types of games to just devour them. super fast and it's, I love how different all of them are. They're in the same genre, but they're just like the styles wildly different. Some are like very sci-fi. Some are very anime. Some are very, you know, fantasy based. And I just a sense of power playing something that you know is in the arcades and every single time that continue comes up. You're like free, free, like every time. And I love that it got announced. It was released like right away. Yeah, that's really good. I didn't know

it was out. We played it on PS4, but I think this is just a dynamite pickup on the switch. If you're into that genre because there's got to be a game in there you've never heard of. Are you playing on Switch? I'm playing on Switch right now. Yeah. And I've really enjoyed it. These are games that I have a lot of affinity for, several of them anyway. And I like the fact that you can just be like, hey, look out to the internet. Do I want to play a specific game? Or I can just look and see if anybody's playing any brawler right now. And if they are, I can just hop right in. That's cool. That's a very neat feature. I love, of all of these, Captain Commando sold me immediately. I love Captain Commando. I beat it as a kid. It used to be in a, like a university lobby in my

hometown. And some friends of mine and I was a three-player brawler. And we just pumped quarters in one night and blazed our way through it. This is a game where one of your heroes is a baby driving a meck suit. Another one is like a mummy ninja. I mean, it's a-a-money-dja sounds cool. Yeah, it's a great game. Captain Commando was a really iconic, awesome brawler with weird, wild art. And it's just like, it's just Like final fight, but better because it's weird. Yeah. And that's really all there's to it. But I think I'll play all of these games online every few months.

You know, I'll just like I'll pop on. I'll find some friends or I'll have friends over, play through it all for an hour and not touch that game for months and months. Yep. And then maybe a year from now, I'll be like, ah, I think I'd like play Captain Commando again. And for that price for that pack, I think that's a really good deal. Now, I have had some trouble with online. I've had some lag issues on Wi-Fi with my switch.

I don't know if that was just an isolated incident with somebody on the other end. How was your online experience? We played on PS4. We did it online. We just did that couch co-op and everything worked fine. But, yeah, that has been an issue with brawlers in other collections in the past. Okay. I can't speak, again, I don't want to smear the game at all because that's a very anecdotal local experience.

I don't think I have a broad enough body of work to see if that's a common thing. So I wondered if you had played online at all. Had not. Okay. Yeah, one game you can punch off people. people's torsos, like, come, you know, just, it's these types of games that have those fun surprises. Yeah. And it's just like, you can strategize and you can like, okay, I'm going to see if I can beat this

boss without dying, or you can just completely turn your brain off and just continue, continue, continue. Yeah, either way. And Knights of the Round, is there, great things for a party if you're having friends over, just just pop in and do one of these. There's a ton of games in this. Yeah, there's seven of them. And again, Knights of the Round is fun.

Oh, geez, what's the dragon? Are they different enough from each other or are they all kind of just the same thing they're different? No, they're very different. Yeah. Yeah, they feel different, they look different. I mean, they're still about walking, punching, and doing a special move that cost you a little life.

But they all have a different vibe. One of them, I forget the name of it, almost feels like if somebody, a magic sword and golden axe had a baby. Yeah. What's that one called? That was the first dragon something, but I can't remember. Yeah, I played this one before.

King of Dragons. King of dragons, yeah, in arcades. It's a classic. I'm a cleric. Always a cleric. What about you? Well, the cleric was arranged. I didn't play that.

I just watched the three of the guys play it. But yeah, the clerics great, because he doesn't start out that powerful, but then like his spells get more distance. Oh, that's cool. And distance is a good thing to have. Yeah, yeah, yeah. By the way, just a sidebar here, too.

As much fun as this is, and I do recommend this if you have friends to play it with, because you're not going to have a lot of fun about with a single player, but if you got buddies, or maybe you are, you what, I don't know, maybe disagree. I have for very long. I did co-op is the way to, wait in course. Yeah, co-op's a way to play. But D&D Shadow of Mysteria is available on some services right now. I have mine on Steam, but it's other platforms too.

That is the ultimate co-op brawler. It is that or Scott Pilgrim. I'm not sure which. It's class-based with multiple branching paths and all kinds of weird hidden secrets. And it was an arcade game. But they just like, what's make a D&D arcade game that kind of feels like super weird, way too granular D&D? And it's beautiful and it's so good. Try that too.

Oh, Dragon's Crown. It's kind of the game, I think, inspired Dragon's Crown. Okay. Brandon. Yes. You were playing a game called Castle Store. Yeah. I'm unfamiliar with this.

Well, this is, I mean, you described, Joe, and you said, this is a game that I can potentially play with friends and then forget about, and then eight months later be cycling through my switch. Oh, there it is. And that's like Castle Sturm for me. This, I played on the 360. I'm a big fan of tower defense. And it's a game that borrows a lot of different styles from other games, but kind of like crams them all together. So you have, so you are on one side of the screen. You have a giant castle.

You can send troops out. And the point is either different missions have different, um, very like jokey, like writing, jokey art style, kind of over the top, like fantasy humor. But the point is either to destroy the castle on the other side or to grab their flag and take it back to your base. And you have projectiles, spells, or your troops. And there are totally different buttons. So when you go to hit a button, it'll swap to that menu and then you select the things on the menu with the shoulder buttons. So if I'm like, oh, I need to send some warriors out.

I can just be like, why, why, why, why, why, send some warriors out. And then they'll just start walking along the path towards the castle. And then if I want to go back to the projectiles, then I can shoot some javelins over their heads to take out some guys. But there's friendly fire, so I've got to watch not to hit them. And if you up the difficulty, it takes away the actual to be able to see the arc

of stuff that you're shooting. And then there are spells where you can like buff a troop or the first spell that you learn is like the hero of the game, the knight guy. Like you can physically like zoom into the bridge and like pop onto there and manually go around and fight dudes. And I just love tower defense. So it was just like right up my alley when I played on 360.

And I started to give us on Switch. A couple bucks. It was like, sure. I'll give me another reason to play through that game. Cool. Do you ever play Arcon? No. Okay.

I think this sounds a lot like like if Arcon were a tower defense game. Okay. It seems like a lot of fun. Okay. I was just wondering, that was an useless comment if you haven't played Arcon. So let's move on. Yeah. But missions are totally linear.

Each mission takes like three minutes to finish. And so it's just a great game. So I love having it on Switch. It's just a great game that like you don't need to remember where you are at. You can go. back and replay levels. You get money from beating every level and so you can then level up any of the troops that you want,

any of the projectiles for spells and stuff. Have you guys played Kingdom Rush? Oh yeah. The mobile game? Is it anything like that? No, because this is specifically like a fighting game. Like it's like Castle Here, Castle Here, and everyone's going sideways back on. Okay. Whereas, yeah, Kingdom Rush is more. I love Kingdom Rush. I got so addicted

to it. Origin is great too. They made at least two sequels, I think. Oh, I don't think I got into those. Yeah. Really fun. Again, fun fantasy parody. if they make fun of Lord of the Rings all sorts of other stuff. The only game I've been playing a lot of it especially on my flights to London was again

the messenger. Have you been playing the messenger? I've not touched the messenger but yeah. You got it man. If you're a fan of 2D platform, it's all. Messinger and Deadcells are two games that are just like whenever you're ready. Oh man and Dead Cells is so good but so so frustrating. But Messenger man

Yeah what a damn game. The more I play it the more I'm just in love with it and like the higher it's going up my game of the year list like Yeah, it, it really, we talked about on the, a couple shows ago, but like, it reminds me so much of shovel night where it's like this game is not just Ninja Guide and this game is its own thing. Yeah. And it just keeps surprising me. Like I finally got to the big twist part and I love that there's story reasons for why things are happening. And it reminds me of Celeste in that way where it's like we're finally at a point where 2D platforms can be more than just go to the right and jump over things.

And it does such a good job of fooling you and to thinking. that's what it is when you start. But this game turns out so simple. This game turns it up to 11. It really does. It's extraordinary storytelling. What a year. What a damn year.

It's so cool. Yeah, I love the messenger to me, it's not like crazy difficult, but some of the boss fights give me just enough trouble. Like I died just the right amount of times where it's not horribly frustrating. It's like when I overcome it, I'm like, I learned the pattern. I did this right. And it's just, I love that somehow video games have been. matured over the last couple decades where back in the day you're facing a boss and it's just

learn the pattern or else you're going to fucking die. But now I just feel like when they're aware of how people play games. Yeah. So it's like it's not just figuring out a pattern. It's like figuring out a pattern and them kind of being three steps ahead of you of how you're thinking about tackling that issue. And I just feel like it's just more fun than it used to be. Did you ever play Mega Man 9?

I did not. I think the messenger steals a piece of design. philosophy from that that you're describing right now if you Mega Man 9 is really based on Mega Man 2 you know it was made like decades later but it looks a lot like it but it's also in design inspired by it you remember the parts in Mega Man 2 where you'd hop from the little disappearing blocks you do do do do do Mega Man 9 has those two but as somebody pointed out to me once I don't remember who might have been Jeremy you when you're jumping on those blocks in

Mega Man 9 from place to place the designers know that you know how Mega Man work you've learned over the years. And so they work just the same way in terms of the mechanic, but when you hop on them, they subvert the expectation and appear at precisely the spot you think they wouldn't. And the designer has messed with you. And it's very clear the designer has messed with you.

And they're like, you know how games work. You know how to get ahead of the... Nope. And the messenger is like that over and over and over again. It really is. And not just in gameplay. I mean, it feels like it nails it in gameplay. Like I say from a gameplay perspective, this game is a 10 out of 10.

Like it is just pure and amazing. But when you add on just the aesthetic and you add the dialogue and just the lore of what's going on and the humor, the story, all this stuff. Really funny. This game is obviously made

by people that love video games and that know video games. And it's not just a retro throwback. It's like this is a modern game that is really just given a lot of shoutouts to some of the best games of all time. And it's just, it's a special, special game. It's almost an act of art critique itself.

Like it really is And I finally took me forever to figure out What the jumping mechanic reminded me of And then I was working on a blurb-fry G& the other day It reminds me of Klinoa I couldn't place it But the bit about grabbing something And using that to boost the jump

Is a lot like using the lamp system I was like oh my gosh this feels like Klanoa It took me forever to figure out what it reminded me of Weeks but I finally nailed it Actually that was just last night I was like oh wait That's what this is it's Klanoa Video games are cool man

Yeah Video games are cool Ladies and gentlemen, this episode of Kind of Funny Games cast is brought to you by DC Universe. The Ultimate DC membership created just for DC fans. You know it's the only place that you can watch original DC series like the all-new live action Titans, which is premiering in fall 2018. Young Justice, outsiders, Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing, Stargirl, Harley Quinn, they're all coming in 2019.

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Nick, it's time for the topic of the show. Red Dead Redemption 2. You guys got to play it. We did. The second preview event for this game? I don't know. I think there was at least one other one. Yeah, there was one of the one.

That we did not go to. You want me to do my belt? I didn't need you to bring the... Yeah. Can you shock mic? It up? I mean, Nick, you could bring that. But the true champ today is Red Dead Red Dead Red Dead Red Dead Red Dead Red Dead Red Dead Red.

I'm sorry. You have been supplanted. You have been defeated by a greater force. I will live again. And don't ever use the word supplanted to describe me. I'm a simple kind of man. I am planted. That is what I am.

So I was in London. But while I was in London, you guys got to go play Red Dead Red Dead Redemption. to, including Nick Scarpino. We did. In a weird twist of fate, they let me go see that game. Which I was very honored by. I was very honored by that.

It's exciting times. Was the event in San Francisco? It was. Yeah. And did you come up here for? Oh, yeah. Oh, man. Did you go back and forth?

It's my second S.F trip in the five days. This is great. We passed in the hall. Because it was like a one-on-one set up. Oh, okay. Red Dead Bros. Passing the little fist bump in the lobby. Ships passing in the night.

We did have the fist bump. It was at the Spanish Suite in the Clift Hotel, which they've done a lot of game demos for. And I had been there, I don't think I've been there for like, it must have been seven years since last time I went to a big, like, media press. So I'm assuming I'm going to run into a bunch of people, and it's, you can hear a pin drop quiet. And I text the person who set it up, and I was like,

I think I'm in the right place because there's crash service and stuff, but like, I don't want to be like, if I'm in the wrong place, let me know, because I'll come. And he's like, oh, no, I'll be right out. Opens the door. It's me. It's him and another dev. That's it.

And I was like, let me stop you. I am not worth your time. Is you really? No, I was like, am I the only one? I'm like, am I the only one here? And they're like, yeah, it's just for you. And I'm like, in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, oh my gosh. Like, what did I do?

But these poor souls are just. But it's such a great marketing decision on their part because this is a game that is not going to be the same. If you've read a big crowded room full of people. This is not a game that you want to share with others while you're playing. It's a game you want to share with others after you play. Like most of Rockstars. best games. This is a game about water cooler talk. This is a game about telling your story and

listening to other people's stories. But that's not what happens while you're there in the stream. That's what happens when you finish and you discover that you were both walking around the same world at the same power level and therefore should have had very similar experiences, but you never do. You have your experience and that's why setting it up that way I think was such a great decision. And good. Lord did it work, am I ever sold on a video game? I have never enjoyed a demo more than this one. Wow. Never. Wow. Brandon, what's your top level takeaway? Yeah, I know I'm super excited.

It was, yeah, a little stressful when they demoed the game and then handed me off the controller and they're just like, okay, now go. And I'm like, no, if you're looking at me, I'm going to be terrible at this. And it was fascinating with an open world game like this where, you know, they wanted to steer the demo eventually back to the camp and then you get a mission that wrapped up our time with it. But for a good half an hour, they were just like, go around and do whatever.

And it was fun. I'm like, I want to hunt. I want to go get a deer. I want to check out this bow and arrow. And I love that it's not the type of game when they're like, oh, you go here, there's deer there. They're like, there might be. We don't know. We can kind of steer you, but we don't know how this world's going to react to what you're doing. And so they were kind of surprised. It was fun to see them demo stuff.

And I didn't know that character was going to do something or this person reacted or you just can't count. We were playing and I came across a rotting deer carcass that was like an animal kill out in the distance. And I walk up to it and near the carcass, there's nothing to salvage from it. But there's like something else in the grass out in this open area. So I walk over and it's a dead possum laying over by the deer. So I reached. Stories being told here. I reached down to pick it up and the possum jumps up, kisses at me and runs off of the wood because he was playing possum.

And both like the people from Rockstar are with me to start laughing. We have never seen that. I was riding my horse when they first handed the controllers to me and I looked over and we saw a snake. And I was like, oh, cool. Go and they were like, be careful. And I didn't know why. But as I got over there, my horse started freaking out because the horse saw the snake and started and started running the other way.

And I had to like pat it and calm it down. It was pretty fun. That's awesome. Yeah, it was pretty cool. Nick, what was your takeaway from it? I mean, that was, you know, so obviously they played through the first one of the missions and they played the, you know, we watched them play like the first 30 minutes and then they handled the controllers. I was, I was like, I really enjoyed watching them play, not expecting that they were actually going to give me the controller, largely because the game is just stunning. It's beautiful looking.

And it was running a 4K what I saw on a PS4 Pro. And that was, it just, you know, you start. I assume you guys saw the same thing I saw. You start in the snow after you had sort of been on the run for a while. You're getting a bound on the run because they had a bad encounter. The last time they were in, they were hiding out. And then as you go down the hill, one of the things that it was, it's interesting, was that I didn't really recognize that you were going down in elevation because it was so seamlessly done from snow coming down to little patches of snow.

And then little puddles of water that were left over from like, you know, from a rainfall the night prior. And then all of a sudden, you're just in the dry land and you're waiting for this train. And it just, it seems like this is going to be a world that you just live in for a very long time. You know? And I think that's kind of the goal. I think the goal is not necessarily to tell us a story. It's more of telling us a story, but also letting you live in this character's skin for, like, just, like, you just live this person's life. And it's, it's, I think they effectively have achieved that.

Yeah, they created a place to inhabit. They created a place to experiment and play, but that has a gravity and realism that other, digital playgrounds you've encountered in open worlds don't really have. And so you feel grounded. And they've done these very subtle things to take the layers that normally exist between you and the abstraction of a video game out and counters. Almost everything you do is controlled just by the left trigger, whether you're engaging with a human being, your horse, a flower, something you notice. It's all dictated by that. And then a face button contextual menu that changes based on what's happening in that moment, your relationship with that person, et cetera, pops up and

nothing freezes, nothing, the world's just going on, and you're just seamlessly in it. And you engage and you never know what's going to happen. You don't get this feeling that you're going to easily get used to this or that you're going to find those seams and exploit cracks that you feel in other big open world games. It's just, it is different than anything I've ever seen before in a video game. in a very good way. But is it fun? Yes.

Yes, it is. Kind of not fun to play a preview like this because you're rushed. Because you're like, I want to absorb as much as I can. I'm reading previews today and people are like, well, then I naturally ask this question. I'm like, ah, good question. I didn't think to specifically point that out. But that's what's fun. It's like I normally, you know, if I play through a part of a game, it's like I'm not necessarily going to rush out and read other people's articles because they play the same thing that I played.

But like, I am dying to absorb as many takes as I can. It's just like, I want to hear your stories. I want to hear the stuff like that, you know, the possum story. I love that. Yeah, they pulled a gun on a guy and he pulled a gun on us and was like, you're not robbing me today. And then we like apologize. Like, no, no, I'm sorry. And put our gun away.

And the guy wandered off. And the entire time he was walking away from us, he kept looking over his shoulder at us, had still had his gun out, was still like on, you know, on edge. So you just said it was like nothing you've ever played before. Yeah. Red Dead One, Grand Theft Auto 5. Uh-huh. Does this game feel like a melding of the two or does it feel like an entirely new thing?

It has elements of both that you recognize. In many ways, it is the sequel to Grand Theft Auto 5. But Grand Theft Auto 5 is a world of parody and a world that is there largely to throw a kind of a black mirror against ours. This is a game that more celebrates an idea. It shows the darkness of that idea, but it also shows the beauty of it, just like real life. So in that sense, I think it accomplishes more than GTA 5 did from an artistic perspective, even though GTA5 is an amazing technical feat that I love. In terms of Red Dead 1, you see all the elements are there, dead eye, conversations, lovable characters, quirky humor. The dialogue, by the way, and this one I think is much better than the dialogue in Red Dead 1.

I love the writing and the voice acting. The great. Just encounter voice acting and encounter writing is tremendous. But this feels like, yeah. I see all the pieces that it's building on, but this is the great leap forward. This is another level. The nearest I can put it, this is an analogy I very rarely use when I was a kid in 1985, six or so.

It was at my birthday party at Chuck E. And I saw Super Mario Brothers for the first time in an arcade machine, even before I'd seen it on an NES. And I walked over and put my quarter in and played it. And at that point, think about the video games I'd played on the Atari 2,600, I'd earn our kids before that single screen, you know. And the world just went on and on and on and on. And there were places in the sky and there were oceans and there were underground areas. And it just kept going.

It was a world, a whole wide world. And it was like that game came down from outer space. That's how I felt when I walked out of this demo. Interesting, because I, look, don't get me wrong, I was impressed with the visuals of it. And I was impressed with how seamless everything transitioned from, like, you know, outside to inside, how vast, like, the draw distance was, all that jazz. But it didn't, like, you were very taken by this. Yeah. To me, I was like, oh, cool, there's lots to do in this game.

That was my takeaway. Okay. But to me, as a person who did not play Red Dead and who doesn't traditionally gravitate toward these giant open world games, I didn't think I was immediately struck with the vastness or why this was so important to you. So that's my question you do. What did you see that that makes you think this is in, and not to say revolutionary, but like, but a different step forward. Because to me, this looks like, yeah, it's, it's GTA. If GTA, the map was bigger and the loading screens were seamless and your car moves a lot slower.

Right. Brandon has his hand down. What about, Brandon? Well, did you like Last of Us? I did not play Last of Us. Did you like Last of Us? And I'm sure a lot of viewers enjoyed Last of Us. One of my favorite moments, maybe my favorite moment from The Last of Us was I can,

I came up to a fence and there was a chain on it and I learned by that point, oh, I just got to shoot this chain off. And so Joel raises up his revolver and he says, Ellie, get out of the way. And I was like, and I stopped for like 60 seconds. I was like, that's amazing. I didn't push a button. I didn't tell him to say that. He just naturally realized, hey, I'm going to fire this gun next to you. Get out of the way because I don't want you to get any shrapnel or something like that.

And I was like, that's awesome. I'm really excited to see more of that in games. It's more of these tiny interactions where I'm not like, oh, the big emotional moment for me was that giant monologue at the end of Act 2. It's like, no, it's a collection of just these little tiny bits. And so Red Dead for me is what if everyone is that? Every single person in the entire map. Whether you know that person or you don't, whether it's an enemy or a friend or a stranger

or a gang member, you know, it's like everyone has those possibilities of ways that they can interact. And I think I'm just at that point with where we are in games where, like you were saying, like, when you look at a big map and I see people walking around, like if this is a bunch of mannequins that are kind of animated to look like people, you know, like I still, when I play sports games, I look in the crowd, and I'm like, we're almost there. But it's just, it's exciting to see, to, you know, like I was staring at a guy, threw a guy out of a bar, you know, and they started yelling at him.

And it wasn't like, oh, I'm doing the argument animation. Like they were just, it just felt like a much more fluid moment that I was observing that happened in this world and not like, ah, yes, you walked into town at this time, therefore this is going to happen. Yeah, as concisely as I can, the people don't feel like set dressing. The animals don't feel like resources to harvest. the towns don't feel like hubs for missions. And it's not just about the fidelity of the visuals.

It's not just about the sharpness of that, although it does help a lot, that it's beautiful. It's beautiful. It's about things like the ability to change a camera angle dynamically while I'm traveling without it screwing up my control, and that camera angle change not being about, oh, now I'm looking from a little distance, but suddenly it's a cinematic movie shot,

and the dialogue and the music don't change, and I'm just talking of it's like I'm watching a movie cutscene, but I'm controlling it, but not in a crappy QTE way. And then cutting again, and now I'm close up and the lights different in a valley, and it's completely different, close up there, and then onto a third, and then back to the traditional control,

and none of it feels any difference. That's one. Another, the fact that the ways I would interact with this world aren't a matter of a particularly menu-driven, exclamation point over-the-head approach. Even like finding encounters is based on, oh, here's a fog on the map. It might be something in there worth checking out,

And it's not you see a fog. It's a fog on your top-down map and you go in. It's like, there might be some interesting stuff around here, but we're not going to tell you quite what it is. I'm walking past a guy on the street. I just start talking to him. And because of the time of day, where he's been, and the fact that he knows a little about about me,

his greeting goes one way. Then I respond one way. Then he goes down another tree. Then I go down to another, but we're not stopping playing. It's not like, hello, citizen at all. We're just walking along in the early morning dawn, and it's drowsy and it's wet. and everything I could see in the game

from that left trigger interface to the interaction system with human beings to going and buying guns in the store and discovering it was a shooter's viable catalog that I could just read pages of extemporaneous X-on if I wanted to to the fact that if I get a haircut I can only get it cut down

because my beard doesn't grow out I have to wait time for that I can't just get a big beard I have to grow. How was your beard in the game? I made you. That was me? Yeah, I tried to make me Then it turned around.

I was like, it looks like 10. I don't think that. So, long, yeah, long j-erun ran over. All the, every step of the game seems to be calculated to take those layers of video game out from between me and the world and make everybody feel like they're real. I wonder how I will react to this. And traditionally, like, you know, I'm the least gamer in this. I played it. I'm like, this is really fun.

All the mechanics are great. I want to play around in this world. My big question is always the same question when I start these games that seem to take away less direction from you. how long until I get lost and go, I think I'm losing the story in this. I have nothing to hold on to. Because all the things that you guys are describing as benefits and merits of this game,

while I can absolutely see that they are, are also the things in these games that tend to get me to lose, like, you know, I lose a little attention span when it comes to this stuff. Like, I don't necessarily love hunting, so making the hunting mechanic a little more organic.

I'm like, no, tell me where the bears are. So I can go fucking love the bears. Like, I don't want, I have to happenstance and happen by this stuff. But, I mean, again, saying that those are you, these are minor criticisms based on person that this is not. I looked at this game and I'm like, I want to play this game. I do because it's based on how it looks, how it plays, the story elements that I saw.

But I could definitely see hours and hours of wandering and exploring that after a certain point, it might tucker me out a little bit. I wonder about that. They made the point that the storytelling is not strictly linear. And so that line between MainQuest and I quest is kind of blur. some, you know, there's things that just advance the story. And I wonder if that wandering will feel is listless in a world that's designed with that design principle in mind. And maybe you won't be able to help but stumble on to what you need to stumble on.

I think that's the goal, right? And that's the thing is, again, I'm basing this off of being able to wander on this, you know, toward a town for approximately five minutes. I didn't get a lot of exploring. I think I came across a group of either bucks or dears or something I can't remember. And I took my bow out, nailed them with one shot, very much in. the two PR people that were with me, or the dads, rather, and then took it back to camp and, like, you know,

did all that stuff. It was fun, but again, I, you know, I'd have to sit in there and play around for a couple hours to tell you if that, if this next design evolution is that big of a jump. I'm curious to see how much it evolves to playstyle, because, like, even going back to, like, Final Fantasy 2, the way they try to set up the leveling system was like,

you know, if I use this weapon more, I'll level up that weapon, and then... Because of the game's like, oh, you want to do that, and then I'll go do that more. And I'm really curious to see, like you were saying, you're just like, I don't really feel like hunting. It's like, you don't have to. And it's going to be interesting to see the story ramifications of you, you know, down like eight hours into the game where like people are kind of looking skinnier and you get a comment while you guys you're in town. We're just like, man, I could go for a meal right now.

And you're like, yeah, stop complaining. I'm sorry I didn't go hunt it. You know, it's like you're getting all of these things that are occurring naturally in the world that's not just like time to load the everyone's sick and hungry cutscene. It's just like peppered throughout everything. you know, little conversations when you're riding on, going on a mission and you're on horseback with everybody, they might comment on things. Just so listeners at home note, there was a dog outside. Somebody's skinning a dog outside.

Like, what the fuck is going on all with it? So that is on our side and we apologize. Kevin kept moving. And so I kept thinking every time he moved, oh, he's going to shut the door at the window. He's working on something totally different. Yeah. He's doing a manifesto right now for whatever, for the Kuella way of life. I don't even know what could be happening out there.

Who the hell knows? Yeah, no, I'm really interested with this because it's like, I'm with Nick. This is not my type of game. I enjoyed Red Dead one quite a bit, but it was more for the story elements, not so much for the gameplay side of it. I just when it comes down to it, I'd rather play a GTA game than one of these, but like it does look gorgeous to the point that I'm like, I'm interested in giving it a shot. Don't let the gorgeous full you. The gorgeous is the hook, but the fidelity extends beyond the visual board. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Everything feels crafted and consistent. It's like the, we were talking about the messenger earlier, right? And like the game reflects the theme, reflects the game like Celeste. You know, yeah, this is a game about overcoming something and climbing a mountain that's also super hard and literally like lives out that metaphor. I got that same sense. When I looked at the snow melt coming down a mountain glistening off a rock, looking like something out of where I grew up in North Carolina and realized that somebody drew and crafted that tiny little spot just so I'd see it so beautifully like that. I got that same feeling when I talked to a person when I wandered into a clearing and saw something. that was a little hidden away when I looked at over a mountain top or when I looked in a book or when I looked in my arsenal or everything feels

crafted it's a universe where you almost can't help but believe in a god like they are the gods of creation and they have made you a world so it's very early to say this but based on what you've seen and played do you think that this has a chance of dethroning god of war in the game of the year conversations so previews are are a tenuous beast, but I just said to you that this is the best preview I ever played. This made Jared re-believe in God. So, and I can just picture you looking over your shoulder at the preview and he's in the back there. But no, to be, to be honest with you, that there's no way that unless there's just no reason to believe that the rest of the game doesn't feel like what I just experienced because their track record. Yeah.

They know what they're doing at this point. Yeah. I would be very surprised that this game isn't very in the game of the year conversations. I think we have a lot of reason to believe that we're than an exceptional generation-defining video game is about to descend upon us from on high. What do you think, Brendan? Yeah, I definitely think so, especially because it's coming out like perfect game of the year time. You know, like a couple months before all those votes are going to go in. and I think, you know, it's, like, painful to say something negative about God of War,

but, like, a lot of us maybe did some things in a different order in that game, but generally had a lot of the same beats. There's a very specific story beat that, like, you would always kind of check in with the people. Did you, wait, how far have you gotten? Did you get? Okay, you still have the, all right, then we'll talk. Let me need to have a conversation about this crazy moment in that game, where with this, like, the wonderful, you know, experience I had with Jerry today,

where it was like, what did you do? And that was the question actually I asked when Mike, I knew he played it before me. I was like, what did Jared do? Tell me. Like, well, he pet a lot of dogs and, you know, and like the differences between his play style and mine. And the thing that's interesting about that is you and I both played a Arthur Morgan

that was manufactured by the developers for that demo, for that slice of the game that we got. Whereas if I'm starting from scratch, from Mission One, and from that moment on I can pick what I wear, what weapons I bring, what, you know, designs I have on those weapons, who I decided to be friends with. It'd be really interesting to like watch a friend play that game and they go back to camp, but one guy goes by and it's just like, yeah, screw you. And it's like, whoa, that guy's mad at you.

What did you do? And like, I don't even know at this point. You know, like, and trying to figure out because normally in games I can be like, no, it was this mission, it was this thing, that's when things turned around or the game deliberately put a choice in front of me where it's like, ah, I'm now betraying this guy.

Whereas this game, it's just a lot of little tiny beats that add up to that stuff. Video games very rarely surprise you. Even the best video games only surprise you. few times. God of war is great because it surprised you over and over and manages that. Red Dead also surprises me in really good ways. I think about, I got in a shootout during one of the missions, and I just wanted to see how the systems interacted. I was looking for a breath of the wild style interaction. So I pick up a dead body, and the body starts bleeding down me. And when I get the body

off the blood's like all over me. And I throw the body like down on the ground next to a campfire and the wrist falls in the campfire and the shirt starts to smolder and then smoke. And then the fire goes up the shirt. Each individual thing, pretty soon there's this burning corpse laying in front of me and I'm like, okay, well, we can transmit fire from the thing. But I thought about that blood on me and realized that was not going to get cleaned off on its own.

And if you don't wash it off, it's going to stay or if it doesn't rain, it's going to stay. And I talked to John Ryan from IGN, who also. played at one of the demos. And John told me he walked into town covered in blood after a shoot out and people freaked out. They're like, what happened? And it wasn't like, oh no, get the sheriff. It was like, what's wrong with you, man? Like, because you walked

into town covered in blood. That's a surprise. And I think there's going to be thousands of those. That's rare. Especially in an open system game like that. Nick, yes. Did your horse poop at any point? My horse did not poop at any point. But let me ask you this question. If I told you that I went into a bar and accidentally hit the wrong control

and started a 15 minute shootout that ended with me giving myself up to the cops and going to jail to pay a, I had to go to the post office to pay a fine, a bounty on my head. Would you believe that? Yes. Yeah, that's what happened.

That's exactly what happened. I went to talk to the bartender and I ordered a beer and then I went to drink the beer and I don't know what I hit, but I just blew some dudes head off. That would get everyone triggered. And it was hilarious

because everyone's scattered. And then people started filing in to come get me and I went all the way up to this other house and I got a lot of them Tim. I put up a good fight. But at a certain point they just, they got me. And then when I came back there,

you got to go pay your bounty or else you can't come back into town. And so I had to go back and avoid the sheriffs and pay it. So it was fun. Cool. And yeah, the dev said they caused a ruckus in one town and then paid the, you know, went to jail, slept it off.

And then went to one of the someone in some store. And they said, oh, by the way, my cousin's the sheriff. And we were talking the other day. And like, you really got to slow down with your attitude here. And, like, the stuff that you're doing in town. Otherwise, it's just going to get to a point with the sheriff's like, I just don't want you around here anymore. Yeah. Interesting.

So these weird threads. It's like hard to tell where they stop. We haven't even talked about the characters, the camp. I mean, the whole like Robin Hood element of the game. Did you talk about that on Red Dead radio? If you want even more in-depth thoughts on all of this, go check out. Red Dead Radio, the Red Dead Red Dead Redemption podcast, which you can find on iTunes on Android podcast on YouTube at YouTube. slash hot blip in a jump.

Last week, John Ryan and I talked through playing this game for about an hour. This week, Brandon and I talked through playing this game for about an hour. That episode will be up probably about a day after this one goes live. And you'll be able to check that out. But yeah, if you would subscribe to that and go and download every episode and listen, I could continue to live. So please do so. Please do. Thanks, Nick.

Talk about real world consequences there, you know. Oh, yeah. That's a decision you can make. I desperately need these people's help if I'm going to continue doing this. So, yeah, the crisis is definitely reached. It is now time for everyone's favorite game show. Mobile game or bullshit. It's no game or bullshit.

I guess I'll take this back because this can't be a championship about without the champ. That's right. Nick one last week. Nick Carpino. Actually, that was two weeks ago. Yeah, two weeks ago. Yeah, two weeks. I was one last week too, but I guess I missed that call.

Yeah. I'm back and defend my title. You want to stay for this one? No, I'm good. You're right here. Come on over. All right, ladies and gentlemen, today it's mobile game or Nintendo game in honor of Switch Online and those NES games. And I was griping about earlier.

We're going to give you the names and descriptions of seven games, some mobile games, some NES games. You tell me which is which. We're going straight games on games. None of this mobile game or German houseband. None of this mobile game or Amazon porn. This time, it's just mobile game or NES game. Oh, yeah, we did that once. Totally. What's that? I missed those and I'm sad. Oh, yeah. They were good ones.

They were good ones. All right. So I think I am infamously bad at this game just so you know. Oh, I don't expect to be good at this at all. I won once. Greg Miller was undefeated. He had like an eight-win streak until Nick defeated him. Nice. So we'll see how this goes. But you did win one time. I did win once. All right. So it's not complete. Game explains Andre Seeger's. All right. So I'm going to read the game and the description or a piece from the description. If it's there, it's from the mobile game description. Some of these are made up. Some are not. All right. Got it. So all you got to do is say mobile game or Nintendo game. You want to go first, Brandon?

Why not? All right. Are you keeping track? No, I'm not. That's a very good. I'm sorry, I used to have in Greg here to do it. Seven. Seven today.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we were having tie things. So I wanted to make sure I had a few more options. Number one. Brandon. Yes. Bubble bath babes.

The Sultry text adventure returns. That's mobile. All right. Mobile game. I'm going to go Nintendo game. Nintendo game. Number two, Battle of Olympus, Tim, Battle of Olympus, God's Titans, and Gorgans of legend. Fuck, I hate this game.

I'm going to Nintendo. What do you think? Oh, mobile for sure. Mobile game. Number three, infiltrator, the sun never sets on the Chinese hegemony. Or hegemony, pardon me. Aegemany. Hedgemany.

I can't say it right. NES, why not? NES. I also think NES. NES. Number four, Shadowgun Legends. Download the best mobile

FPS RPG shooting game for free now. Tim. Wait, what? Shadowgun Legends, download the best mobile FPS RPG shooting game

for free now. I saw Jared. I hate you. Because here's the thing. Did he make up that description? That's the real test of this one. He did. Definitely.

Give me it again. I need it one more time. Shadowgun Legends. Download the best mobile FPS RPG shooting game for free now. It's the Nintendo game. FPS RPs. Yeah, N.S. FPS RPG.

All right. Number five. The Magic of Sherazade. 1001 Arabian Knights are yours to command. Knights spelled with a K. The Magic of Sherazade. 1001 Arabian Knights are yours to command. Oh, this one's Brandon first.

Not bad. Right? Yeah, Brandon first this time. Mobile. Mobile. Mobile game. Yeah, mobile. Mobile game. Number six, gunnack, that's spelled GUNN space NAC, brought to you by the Canadian Rifle Association. Okay.

No, NES game. NES game. NES game. NES game. Number seven, finally Brandon, 3D world runner. Leap the abyss cross the frontier and achieve eternal victory. NES game. NES game.

Mobile game. Mobile game. All right, ladies and gentlemen. the hour of truth, the hour of decision has come. I saw a recognition in your eyes for one of those. I recognize one of those. All right. Bubble bath babes.

The Solstery Text Adventure returns. NES game. Yes, baby. Yes. The unlicensed NES game with a bit of nudity. It sounds like an unlicensed NES game. That's right. Bubble bath babes.

Number two, Battle of Olympus, God's Titans and Gorgans of Legend. Battle of Olympus. NES game. Damn. Buck. Yes. That's right. One of my favorite NES games, a really good like Zelda 2 rip off with Greek gods and great music.

But Greek gods, you can just see the Facebook ad. You know what I mean? Oh, totally. These were carefully chosen, yeah. Number three, Infiltrator. The sun never sets on the Chinese something or other. Hegemony, hegemony, I don't know to say that. Hegemony.

There we go. Hegemony cricket. That's how I said it in high school. Hegemony cricket. Infiltrator, NES game. Really crappy NES game that I had growing up. up. And we both said a yes, right?

Yep. Yeah. So our team is winning three to one. Three to one, Tim. Yeah. Number four, Shadow Gun Legends, download the best mobile FPS RPG shooting game for free now. You'd think I made that description up, but I didn't. That's real.

Shadow Gun Legends, mobile game. That sounds like some made up bullshit. There was too many buzzwords. You're not allowed to have that many buzzwords. SEO, baby. SEO. So number five, the Magic of Sherazade. 1001 Arabian Nights with a K are yours to command.

Magic of Sherazade, excellent, underrated NES game. We both said mobile, didn't we? NES. NES. Magic of Shiazat. What's the score, Kevin? Three to one. Still three to one.

Same winning. Gunnack, brought to you by the Canadian Rifle Association. This one was the gimmie. That one's an NES game. Yes. That I'm familiar with that title. Gunnack. Not the game, but I'm just those letters together.

So Gunnack is seen before with my eyeballs. It's by Compile, the company that made Guardian Legend and some other great games. It is a superb, superb shooter. One of the best I've ever played on the N.S. By the United. Yeah, it's got space rabbits and bunnies to shoot carrots at you. You're attacked by packs of cigarettes in outer space for some reason. It's really weird.

But it's very good. And number seven, 3D World Runner, leap the abyss, cross the frontier, and achieve eternal victory. 3D World Runner brought to you by Square for the NES. Really? That's right. Wow. Yep, with 3D glasses. What?

That's right. Just like Rad Racer, another square title, which you could play with 3D glasses. I did not know that. And get a really terrible 3D effect. 3D World Runner kind of a weird, like over-the-shoulder running game. But I think that only takes the score to 3-2. Kevin, is that correct? I got the last 2.

3-4-4-4-2-4. Tim wins. 4-2-3. Tim Gettys is the victor. It's the guests. I can get the guest. I can't get Nick. and I can't get great.

Okay, so one time we're just going to have Nick Greg and you play like 20 questions of this or something. Oh, God, I'm going to get to short. What game was this? It's mobile game or bullshit. I still have no idea what you're saying for half of that, but it's okay.

It sounds fun. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for joining us for the show. Brandon, thank you for joining us all day. I love it. Being on Games Daily, being on Red Dead Radio. That's all the shows you got. That's it.

That's all the shows, man. All the shows. Thank you so much. Go follow him at trailer Jones on Twitter. Easy Allies on YouTube and Patreon and everywhere else like that. Is there any anywhere else? Twitch? Definitely Twitch. Definitely Twitch.

Do that Twitch thing. Until next week. I love you. Ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass.