The Besties - Tactical Breach Wizards Does Practically Everything Right

Episode Date: August 23, 2024

Tactical Breach Wizards looks like XCOM, plays like FTL, and has writing as good if not better than most RPGs. Rarely are all four Besties this hyped for the same game, but here we are! Get the full list of games (and other stuff) discussed at www.besties.fan. Want more episodes? Join us at patreon.com/thebesties for three bonus episodes each month!

Do you think the audience is gonna be like pissed when they find out we had a solid half hour of some of the best people sweet pepper had? And then I'm Paul McCartney. It's my student to oblivion this podcast would not exist anymore. All the Patreon money would go right to Paul. Right to pay with his pay for his destiny addiction. Paul's on the moon spending that Patreon cash. He gets all the silver, he gets all the special, the Ghostbusters aesthetic set, all the shaders. The thing that was impressive to me was not that little John was at the DNC. It's that little John, when he's at the DNC, manages to work 10 walls into the Lyric window to the walls.

And when he realized that he was going to do it, when it came to him, and it definitely was his idea, 100%. In a dream. In a dream, when it came to him, and it definitely was his idea, 100%. In a dream. In a dream. When it came to him, I bet the Genesis was there. He picked it up the face, like, listen, hello, it's Lil' John, or please Lil'. Tim Walls, window the walls, book me a flight.

I'm going now, they'll see the vision. I missed the song, How did he replace balls? He didn't Didn't he didn't know it was it. Yeah, it's a VP Harris Governor walls Tell sweat drops down my balls like he just went Like he didn't have to change the whole song. He's not weird. I'll fucking Yankovic. Yeah. No, you're right. I don't know what I was thinking. He has integrity, Chris Plant. Yeah, you're right.

He's not gonna change himself. He actually, I heard it, he said, Kawhal Harris, Governor Walz, they're gonna save all our malls. And everyone was like, yes! And then they kinda looked at each other like, was was that are we gonna save all the malls? Yeah, little John gave two thumbs up like yes Now you will this is my this is my West Wing spinoff right in this thing you pay out And it said this message is a formal message brought to you by the campaign of President Kamala Harris. Yeah

This is good Kamala Harris is so lucky to have somebody like him supporting her. Huh? My name is Justin McElroy and I know the best game of the week. My name is Griffin McElroy and I know the best game of the week. My name is Griffin McElroy. I know the best game of the week. My name is Christopher Thomas Plant and I, I know the best game of the week. My name is Russ Frushtown, the best game of the week.

Today we are going to be talking on this video game club that you are now a member of. Congratulations, welcome aboard. You were before. Yeah, you were before, but you are now, especially. Because we have these membership cards made up. Please take one. This week, we're gonna be talking about Tactical Breach Wizards.

Funny name, but is it a funny game, Chris Pliant? It actually is a funny game. You don't expect great writing and humorous writing in your tactics games, but here we are. Tactical Breach Wizards is a tactics game that reminds me of why I won't even go into all that. Let's say it's somewhere between XCOM, which it's not really like, and the GO series by Square Enix,

like Tomb Raider and Hitman GO, but it's not really like that either. It's its own thing, like Tomb Raider and Hitman Go. Uh, but it's not really like that either. It's its own thing. And we're going to talk about it right after this. Twenty years in the business folks. Nobody does it better than Blam. So some other games that it's not like. No, um, tactical breach wizards.

Okay. I mean, it's, it's actually like into the breach. If you want to pick a game. Yeah, I think that that is a much more accurate description. But it looks, it looks like XCOM-esque and it looks kind of, and it had, when I make it, let's just describe how the game works first. Okay, so the extent to which it is actually like SWAT.

Okay, yes. It is actually closer to the FMV SWAT games. Okay, it's a tactics game where you are in control of wizards that metaphorically all the things that you would associate with like tactical military weaponry and tactics and all that stuff has been has had like a magical layer transposed onto it. So the guns are actually wands. And the the tactic skills like the grenades, for example, they are controlling time and the elements, they're not just regular grenades. And that you still have a couple of, well, the tone of the thing is much closer

to like a lethal weapon or like a high octane buddy cop picture, and it is not like the sort of like winking, like magical or more lighthearted fantasy kind of thing that it might sound like. It's like weirdly, I guess gritty. It's kind of faux gritty, I guess you'd say, fun gritty, but that is the basic idea like tonally and narratively. I think there's a piece of the tone

that you're missing out on, which is that the writing in this game is shockingly hysterically funny. Like really, one of the best written sort of comedy scripts in a game that I can remember. What it really reminded me of was Donut County in terms of just like incredibly, just constant wit from all of the characters,

like an earnest sort of wit that, I don't know, I certainly was not expecting from this game. And the wit is tied to who the characters are. That's so much of the trick, right? I think the two things that it gets right is the characterization breeds the humor. It's not just like goose for the goose sakes. And this is not a game where you are having

a massive impact on the story, but it lets you pretty often choose lines of dialogue. And the trick there is it'll give you three goose. So even if one of them doesn't hit, you still got two more shots. It is very smart, yeah. I wish that was a feature that was available to us as podcasters who do jokes sometimes.

Yeah. Is like, if you don't like this joke, here's two other ones and you get to pick which one you hear. Try these. Try these out. There's a, one of the first, I guess, bosses that you face is a traffic cop whose ability is to summon ghost cars at people and you've got your squad kind of prepped up at the door,

and you're ready to breach the door, and they're on the other side. They don't know you're there. And you have some dialogue between the two main characters that you start with, and one of the characters is not familiar with this guy, this traffic cop named Steve, and the other one hates fucking Steve.

Steve sucks. And- He's a traffic warlock. Sorry, traffic warlock. Everyone hates Steve. Yeah, everyone hates Steve. Even the people who work with Steve, Steve sucks. He's a traffic warlock. Sorry, traffic warlock. Everyone hates Steve. Even the people who work with Steve hate Steve. And you can choose to just breach the door and not have a conversation about how much Steve sucks. But if you go ahead and have the conversation

about how much Steve sucks, halfway through Steve will be like, Jen, is that you? And you can yell like, get fucked Steve, and then breach the door. Right then, yeah, it's great. It's really good, like it's genuinely very good. I feel like we could talk for hours about like, comedy writing in games and how it so often falls flat

because it's hard to do that kind of stuff diagetically and not have it feel like it's just punchline after punchline after punchline after punchline. But it's like so woven in with who the characters are that it like, it works really, really well. It's holistic across the rest of the game too. See, it's tied to the characterization, but it's incredible to have a game,

have dialogue about a traffic warlock who fires giant vehicles at you full of raging skeletons mentioned in dialogue. Yeah, the game actually delivers it. It's like, Oh, I didn't realize how often a silly joke like this in a game does not get paid off in the gameplay. Yeah, I think you look at something like Borderlands, which I think throws a lot of that stuff. And it's just sort of like for flavor text, but doesn't actually come up. And then here, obviously, it does. Tactics, in terms of the tactics,

I do think the most apt comparison is Into the Breach, because it is a game about small numbers. It is like every enemy has like, this enemy has two hit points, and your attack does one, but also movement and the forced movement of enemies around the field is the most important thing. The character that you start out with, Jen,

all of her abilities are just based around knocking enemies around, whether that means into a wall so that it deals extra damage or pushing them in the way of another one of your team members attacks so that it deals extra damage, or pushing them in the way of another one of your team members attacks, so that it automatically pops off, or the big feature of this game is definitration, which is throwing enemies through a window,

which is an instant kill. And so you load into a room, you see where the enemies are, you see where the windows are, and then you start piecing together like, okay, well I can bump him with this guy back towards the window, and then throw a grenade here and knock both these guys through a window.

It's really a game about throwing dudes through windows. Which seems to be the interest of the developer. Yes, of course. Yeah, he defines defenestration every time that it is one of your goals. Spreading around this word seems to be a very important goal. Well, also, what was the last game, the first big game? Gunpoint. Gunpoint.

Gunpoint. A lot of kicking guys out windows. Seems to be a kink. Sorry, Tom. It's also worth noting he's very interested in not having anyone die. No one dies in this game. Right. They intentionally make it so if you kick people out windows, they're actually like floating in space.

So I think the whole game is presented, even though it is presented as like a traditional tactics game in some way, there's definitely something being said about like cops using force in these sorts of environments. It is, it, uh, I'd like to talk about the tactics elements specifically are like what I think separates us, because it is, uh, like, like you said, similar end of the breach, but it goes kind of a step further with the extent to which you can sort of pre-plan. Yeah. Uh, with, with, with end of the breach, you're doing a lot of that calculus in your head, sort of.

You would see one move ahead, two moves ahead, like you would have to sort of calculate that. Attack Breach Wizards kind of lets you like, why does it say, this game lets you sort of like play through it in a way that is actually like part, it's really hard to explain, but it is part of the gameplay and it isn't. One of your characters has the ability

to see into the future, right? So like- One second into the future. One second into the future. Or really it's a full turn. Yeah, basically. So you can see into the future and then you can rewind to undo that, right?

And it really, for me, who does not have a great ability to sort of like keep a lot of those moves in your head and visualize, it really helped me to play it out and see how it would go. It made it like really, really accessible to somebody who like doesn't play a ton of tactics games. Yeah, there were definitely times when I was playing Into the Breach where I would feel like I was

on the right path for doing whatever this step was. And Into the Breach does do a very good job of showing you what the impact of your thing will be. But once you make that choice and you realize, oh, I fucked up because I didn't factor this, this, and this, I think they added like undos. There is a rewind thing you can do, but it's like once per lot.

It is very limited. And in this one, it is part of the game. You can mess around until you figure out like the perfect line. This game is balanced with that in mind, such that like, if you only had one rewind per level, you'd probably be fucked. There's also like, there's achievements and goals

that require you to do things during that phase. So it is like part of the gameplay. It's not just a... No, I wanted to talk about the achievements. I'm glad you brought it up. Oh yeah. How funny was that, right? How funny were those achievements,

considering the conversation about World of Gu-2 that we had. Exactly, yeah. It's really, it felt very targeted. So for people that didn't listen to that episode or want a refresher, we were talking about the fact that at the end of each level in World of Gu-2, you would get pop-ups saying like, oh, you didn't listen to that episode or want a refresher, we were talking about the fact that at the end of each level in World of Goo 2, you would get pop-ups saying like, oh, you didn't complete this challenge or this challenge or this challenge. And it'd be kind of a frustrating bummer of a choice.

In this game, there are similar statistics and similar challenges, but it makes a few choices that makes it very, way more digestible and not much a pain in the ass. For one thing, it breezes right past that screen as fast as possible. If you finish a mission and you don't happen to complete all the challenges, you're past it before you really kind of obsess over it. You could go back and replay those levels if you want, but it's not kind of shoving it in your face.

The other thing it's doing is it's letting you know what the challenges are while you're playing. So you can actively work for those without having to see the end of the level and then like, oh fuck, if I had done it in two turns instead of three turns, I would have completed this challenge. So I think those two choices make a huge difference.

To add to those, just a couple more that are a little bit smaller, but like they are also the challenges are built in such a way that it's also teaching you a little bit smaller, but like, they are also, the challenges are built in such a way that it's also teaching you a little bit. So if you see a goal where it's like, knock three people out a window with one barrel, you start to think like, well, wait a minute, how would I do that?

So it's more like a, almost a thought starter, like, hey, here's something you can experiment with. It is also when you hover over them as you're playing, there is a reminder underneath. Reminder, this is just if it's too easy for you as is, don't worry about it, don't even sweat it. This is just for costumes, and you can come back and do them later,

it is no problem at all. You might get other stuff and make it easier, like don't, and the whole game feels like that, it does not wanna trick you. It is a whole game feels like that. It does not want to trick you. It is a tactics game that doesn't want to make you feel dumb. It's a tactics game that wants you to feel smart. It wants you to feel like you're, you're getting it. I think that's right. That it wants you to feel smart.

It also wants you to feel creative. I think more than smart. Um, it's, it's not duping you and to think you're a genius because you do have the ability to rewind everything, but it is like, what would a sandbox version of each of these levels feel like? And there's so many ways to bully your enemies. The defenestration, yes, but there's explosive barrels, there's these kind of like electric wall panels

that you can knock people into. You get the power to create portals that you can send people through. There's all of these ways. It feels like almost, almost overly Jenna generous at a certain point. I'm like, wow, I am so powerful. Um, with my little army of people, there's a character who can, um, kill your own teammates and then revive them to like get rid of like effectively

they're like damage buffs, or I guess what's the anti-buff called? If they're drowsy or take more push damage, things like that, you can kind of reset a character just by killing them and their powers. It's a necrometic, so their power is when something is dead, they can revive it, but if something's alive, the only way to revive

it is by killing it first. I think the other thing that really helps, and this is where I mentioned the Go series, the Lara Croft Go and Hitman Go, is the levels are small. They feel almost like little puzzles. And while it looks like XCOM, you're right, Into the Reach is the perfect comparison. They are these very small little maps and even when you go through a stage a stage is like a series of these rooms i mean that's the whole idea of like. Breaching is you reach a room. Take care of everything in it moved to the next room and you restart that little sequence all over again yeah we should know we should note though unlike into the breach.

You don't get into a situation where you're like a couple hours into a run and you made a couple bad choices and your build, as it were, is not going to make it to the end. This is a narrative thing you kind of reset. For the most part you reset back to like full health at the end of each mission, there are perks that you unlock as you play and like level up each of the characters, but it is kind of just pushing you through this and these narrative beats, these narrative puzzle levels, such that there's not really like a rogue like element to it. No. How do you actually, it had me thinking, and if this isn't an interesting conversation, you guys will blow right past it,

but the way this is structured had me thinking about, how do you differentiate this from a puzzle game? Like at what point when you have this much like sort of mechanical access to see things to their logical conclusion, back it up and then try a different way until you find the most satisfying or most efficient way through. Like, you know, at what point do you cross that line

and does it even, does it like, does it matter? I think there's a few things. I think most puzzle games generally only have one solution, maybe two, and this has seemingly dozens per round. The other thing is because of the fact that you can customize your characters in pretty significant ways, the powers you unlock as you're leveling characters up are like big changes.

The example being one of the characters will always fire like support fire if another character is firing at a unit. Again, very reminiscent of Into the Breach where like if you upgraded one of your robots, it would be like, now this power pushes back into these one more space. And what's so great about games like Into the Breach, where if you upgraded one of your robots, it would be like, now this power pushes back into these one more space. And what's so great about games like Into the Breach and games like this is like,

by reducing the calculations to that level, all of a sudden having a power that does one more damage or pushes back one more square, fucking blows the whole thing wide open. Because it's like, God, how many times could I have finished this area a little bit more efficiently if I just had that one little extra bit of juice

behind my attacks? It really makes it very appealing to go after as much of the bonus stuff as you can. I gave one of my characters the, so the Jen, who is the character that like pushes people around for the most part after using her like basic push attack gets another turn to run and running around the map allows you to like seal doors off and pick up items and things like that.

So it ended up being a massive change to the way I play that character where I'm constantly like refreshing her primary to like get way more movement options. And again, that's all in player control. I could have picked a different power that seems like it makes perfect sense. You could have picked nine or 10 other powers instead of that, that are all kind of feel OP in their own way.

I think that's the trick, and where it's different from so many tactics games, and especially puzzle games, I think the way that it's balanced is in favor of you winning by a lot. And because of that, they can give you the choice between all these skills and know no matter what, you're going to be able to complete this game and even complete the bonus challenges for the most part. Your first go through if you want. And I don't know, that is what feels different than all both these genres that we typically play

is it's not about you're the smartest person in the world. It is, are you having a nice time? And everything else around it is also that, like from the costumes to the conversations and the dialogue to the ability to, there are side missions that you can entirely skip or you can play. There are conversations that you can entirely skip or play.

It just constantly feels like it wants you to have a nice time above all else. That is, I will say, I'm glad that we're mentioning this because I will say that is the only point at which I found myself sort of disengaged from this game. And this is not a criticism as much as it is sort of telling people like, I think you have to play this game for a little bit to understand what it isn't, because you have a lot of muscle memory. Like, at least for me, at first, it felt very mechanical,

because you don't have a lot of these options that we're talking about. So it did feel very much like find the solution. And when you're learning, it's very, it's kind of like, okay, well, this is all very obvious, right? So I didn't get the fun until I got a bit past that and realized the extent to which it wanted me to experiment. Because at first I was really sitting and staring at these levels like,

okay, brain, let's figure it out. And then you're not gonna, like you gotta just mess around with it. And that took a little bit to click in and to get past that habit of like staring at it, everything in the level and trying to calculate rather than just like, just click the guy around, see how it goes.

I mean, you can't mess it up. Which is I think a better way of doing it. Like I agree that like it takes a while to get on that wavelength, but that's only because so many tactics games have hurt us so badly in the past. Yeah, a hundred percent, a hundred percent. I think there's a case here of it doesn't feel like an endless game, which I'm fine with.

Like it feels like, yes, very specific levels were made. There's a specific story to tell. There are the bonus missions. There was probably 20, 30 hours worth of stuff here. But after that, like, is it, is there procedurally generated stuff? So far as I can tell, no. And yet they seem to have thought about that too, because there's a level maker inside and like an immediate option for playing other people's levels. So damn, they just like covered the basis. And this is, I don't think we mentioned his name at top, but Tom Francis is the designer of Gunpoint

and then did Heat Signature after that. I believe like a team worked on this game. You know, it feels like the evolution of a single developer going into like a larger group. But yeah, what a hot streak. I'll tell you what it reminds me of, sitting here thinking about it, kind of reminds me of Dishonored,

in the way the Dishonored approach to stealth, and this game's approach to like tactics, where if you wanna get deep in the nitty gritty and nail it, like that option is open to you. You can do all of that stuff if you want. Or you could try that and just decide like, eh, this is just a fun one. I'm just gonna mess around. I'm not gonna try to do this perfectly.

I'm just gonna go back. You can have units die and still win the level and then they're back on the next round. Like you do not have to. But both options feel good, right? Like both options and dishonored it's, ah, I couldn't sneak around. I'm gonna shoot all these guys. Fun. And you also know if you're like bummed,

oh, I wasn't able to complete that side challenge, you also know that you can come back with upgraded powers and probably have a way easier time if you came back like an hour or two later. Also, one last thing. The idea of making a SWAT police game in the year 2024, some obvious challenges. Pretty incredible that the idea was like, okay, you're wizards and you're private investigators. And the enemy

is more or less cops and private military, but you don't kill anybody. We are just striking the balance, baby. We are like, we are just right there. It is, it walks a fucking tight rope, and it is Philippe Petit, you know? It is just jumping up and down on that rope, like it knows exactly what it's doing. It's incredible. It is also really smart.

I do wanna mention the breach thing. I just think it's a great idea. It feels really good to breach through a door with a bomb and then come in when no one's expecting you to be there and shoot them with magic. It feels good and it's really smart how often this game is just built around kicking things off with. Like when a dialogue is interrupted by a bomb exploding in a door, it always feels funny.

It feels like a cast. Like it's like a cast. Like it's like, yeah, it's like some spell. A place, magic spell. Yeah, what would you, a ward or something? Yeah. And the animations for each person after they breach, like how like the SWAT style dude like really gets in there.

And then I am obsessed with the medic character in this game. Yeah. He like breaches and then just kinda like casually walks out with their little bag. Oh, it medic character in this game. Yeah. Yeah. Like, breaches and then just kind of like casually walks out with their little bag. Oh, it's, what a game. There was one, there was one thing I wanted to call out before we wrap. Um, this is the second game in about a year that we've played that has a

narrative, uh, board where you track characters and plot points. Thank you. So much better. And I actually think this version of it is much better than it was now in Wake. So much. It seems like it would be very boring and dull, but in this case, you are basically making decisions of like, okay, who is this character?

Who do they employ? Who are they working for? Why do you care about them? Where are they going next? And this is all stuff that you're kind of like attaching via like string in between levels. And in addition to being satisfying, there's also flavor text on each of the cards

that like gives you backstory about the characters and you feel ownership and more understanding of like the exact plot beats that you're facing throughout. I think it's... That's the huge thing. I know that you could do it in a lot of games, but I think I would love to see it in more games. It's kind of great.

I think a challenge with video games and storytelling is you're doing so much of the game stuff that you can lose track of a story. Very easily, yeah. And then you can lose your emotional connection to the game. And this, by having that board, one, by you just filling it out is like, it's just a good way of learning something,

but two, then you have it for reference and it's very visual and you put it together. So when you look at it, you look at it for a few seconds. It's like, yeah, I remember everything. I remember reading the game. It's all a lot more useful and concrete than like, here's four pictures of racist stuff I know. Now I know that my uncle Otto is a night bat.

All right. All right, dude. All right, Alan. Good game. Good game. All right. All right, Alan. Good game. Good game. Good game. Rent it at your local Blockbuster. It's super fucking good.

Let's take a brief break and then let's all hop on a plane and jet off to beautiful Cologne, Germany for some hot gaming news. Jet! That wasn't even in the intro. I know. We can't call back to things

that weren't even in the intro. Do you guys smell that? Ha ha ha! So we got a snoot full of cologne over here. Yeah, that's a good intro. That's a good way to jump into these calm news. Do you like that? I ate my first Jäger schnitzel

with Brian Crescenti by the beautiful Rhone River, I think is the one that goes through. And I just wanted- What is a Jäger schnitzel? What's that? What's a Jäger schnitzel? I'm so glad you asked. It is a finely pounded breaded pork cutlet covered with a mushroom gravy.

You get one of those, you drink a bunch of their little weird three ounce Pilsners and you're just having a great time. I miss this event more than any other from the gaming industry. So many precious memories made over there. And I also, I should mention, didn't follow Games Club 2024 at all.

So I am excited to be a listener in this moment, put on my listening ears, find out what the fuck happened. Guys, our good buddy from years gone by has returned to us at the turn of the tide. Peter Jonathan Molyneux is back. And making promises right away. He's apparently finally dropped the liquid U.

He's just Molyneux now. We love him. He's making a game called Masters of Albion. game called Masters of Albion. It's I guess a strategy city building RPG. Kind of, it's kind of a mix between black and white and fable. Let me take a picture of rolling it out. Yeah, sure.

The game, the trailer starts or a video starts and we looks like we're in fable. It looks like we're back in a fantasy. Peter's back. He's making a Fable. And I do think Albion was the name of the Fable land. Oh my god, guys. And then the camera pulls back and we're like, oh wait, we're in a god game? We're in a city builder.

Okay, well that changes my expectations. And then we have Peter Molyneux come in and he's like, you can control anything in this game. You are the god. You can make their sandwiches. Zoom in and we're deciding, is it onion on a sandwich or is it tomato on a sandwich? Is it a rat on a sandwich?

And then they eat the sandwich and they're like, yuck. And he's like, everything has an impact. I am, nothing else matters except for you have a giant hand I am, nothing else matters except for you have a giant hand and the incredible yeeting functionality of Black and White is fully at play here. It's returned. It's sold. I'm sold. You can pick people up and just launch them.

You can rip the roofs off buildings and just kind of like toss them to the ground. Can burn people. You can electrocute them. Talk about game mechanics that never got topped, man. I don't think we've had something in tactics, or in like, what would you call these? World building sims?

God games? God games? Nothing as good as picking stuff up in Black and White and throwing it around. I am watching the video now. Now it has jumped into a sort of third person action game where you've inhabited the body of one of the heroes of this land.

That part doesn't look good. But now you're setting people on fire with your hand and it's good again, guys. We got back where we needed to be. This is gonna be great. I'm so excited. This is game of the year. 2020 is not. Yeah, okay, confirmed.

I don't think it's coming out this year. I don't know if that's what 2019 is. It doesn't matter. It may not come out ever. It doesn't have to come out to be the game of the year. It doesn't have to come out. I mean, I'm just impressed that he was able to convince people to give him more money.

Yeah, me too. Makes me happy. Me too, God. Unless he spent the cube money on this. That might have been where it went. Things that make me less excited. Borderlands, they're doing it again. There's a logo and the mask.

They're doing it again. Strike while they iron top, man. Fucking, the world has Borderlands fever right now after the film, and I think America's ready. Look, they promised to put all of the revenue that they made making the Borderlands movie directly into Borderlands 4. Yeah.

So that's definitely worth a menu or two. Let's talk about this. The Borderlands movie came out two weeks ago. Is that right? Uh-huh. Two weeks ago. And then we got a Borderlands movie came out two weeks ago. Is that about right? Two weeks ago. And then we got a Borderlands 4 announcement now, right? So they had to be thinking about that

when they release a Borderlands 4, right? Like when they announced a Borderlands 4, if the movie had been a giant smash success and the game announcement had come with no connection to the movie whatsoever, it would have been insane. It seems like they weren't banking on that. It seems like they were banking on the exact opposite thing happened and they need to talk

about something else Borderlands right now, right this exact second. Yes. I, I, Borderlands 4 being in development has been like kind of a thing for a while. I felt like we've like- It's more open than an open secret. Yeah, so I feel like they did want to bank it off the movie. They wanted, you know, what happened with Fallout, right? Like it comes out on Prime, a week later everybody wants to play more Fallout games. No, but they knew, people in Hollywood know because the tracking and the tests.

I don't think the tracking had any idea that it would be this. The tracking was not that it would do as bad as it did. Sure, but it wasn't good. It and the tests. Right. I don't think the tracking had any idea that it would be this. The tracking was not that it would do as bad as it did. Sure, but it wasn't good. It shocked the world. It shocked us. It was this tale of our time. I don't wanna spend any more time talking about Borderlands. We have not seen that movie.

Dying Light the Beast, Dying Light, a series that I always like more than I expect to when I started. And just a reminder, because the name is so bad that no one ever remembers what it's about, this Dying Light is the parkour zombie game. Yes. That's a perfect summation of it. And this time you're in the woods. That basically, that seems like it's basically it.

It's like a rural Dying Light. After being in the thick of cities, it's time for dying light to get rural. Yeah. Speaking of going rural, mafia, the old country. Mafia is back. What the hell? And we're going to Italy.

People are making that hand gesture that they make in Italy. Multibene. Multibene. Mario is here. I liked the first mafia and a little bit of the second Mafia and then haven't really played any of the other ones. You didn't play three?

I didn't play three. Really? No. That was the African American lead protagonist set in some... Yes, it was set in like Louisiana. Louisiana. No, was it good? I thought it was bad.

It's interesting. I thought it was like not well received. It was interestingly received. I think is the right answer. There are parts of it that are good. This is a series that I so desperately want to finally have its moment. It has always had this lingering problem

of being like, why isn't this GTA? Why do you have an open world game about crime, an organized crime, and it isn't GTA? I mean, the first game had a fucking speed limit. If you went over the speed limit, cops would pull you over. Really good. That's really, really good stuff.

Yeah, if they do go lean into the GTA thing, and we get a GTA style game set across the hills of Italy in like the beginning of the mob. That would be the sickest thing. I don't think they're looking to do that. I think the way this franchise differentiates itself is to do the more grounded crime story stuff. I don't think they're going to do a wacky GTA.

Oh, no, I don't. I'm sorry. When I say wacky, I don't mean the wackiness of it. I mean, just like really let me enjoy the open world. I think the way that they've tried to distinguish themselves, especially with Mafia 2 is it's about what happens in the buildings. So the city is like there, it's open-ish. And then there are these like closets that you go into where story and level sequences happen. The city was like L.A. Noire's city. It was like next to dead.

And then you'd go in missions and like... Inexplicably full of Playboys. They were like, that'll get this game to sell. Do you think that they're gonna announce a new Scarface game with a new renovated take on the balls meter? The world is ours. Can we talk about the simulator remaster trailer?

Oh, this is one of the greatest trailers I've ever seen. It's one of the best trailers I've ever seen in my entire life. Absolutely genius. It's one of the best video game trailers I've ever seen. Watch this trailer, folks at home. We'll put it in the newsletter

if you wanna follow along. It is a journey through a prison for remastered games, and it is a chance to drag some truly famously bad video game remasters. There is the... What is this first one? Is it Warcraft III? I think so. I think, yeah, that's probably what it's nodding to. There's a good Skyrim goof of the intro wagon. I think it was Grand Theft Auto III San Andreas

that had the remaster where the rain was so fucking bad that you couldn't see anything else. Yeah. It's really fucking bad. Trying to describe a funny video is comedy poison. Watch it, it is so fucking brazen. And it's also like a Science of the Lambs rip too.

Yes. Which is just great. It's good stuff. I don't know that I've ever loved any of the Goat Simulator games, but they are goofy. No. They're just, I mean, they're on Game Pass or something. Like I feel like I've never bought a Go a goat simulator game, but I've always had access

to a simulator game and they're, uh, you know, Henry likes how silly they are. Plant and I are actually going to talk about a game called Just Crow Things, which I think is in the genre of the goofy game, which I think Goat Simulator is also in. Uh, that's on the, in an episode of Resty's coming on Tuesday. But I do have a lot of fondness and I think kids especially have a lot of fondness for like no real objectives, fuck around, see what happens. And I'm curious to see what like a,

I'm sure they're gonna do some fun stuff with the remaster in the way that like Stanley Parable did some very fun stuff with their remaster. Yeah, sure. I think a couple of other things I wanted to talk about for Gamescom announcements. Interestingly enough, two trailers were in the Gamescom presentation,

Little Nightmares 3 and Reanimal. Reanimal is from the developers of Little Nightmares, the studio that brought you Little Nightmares, the stuff from our game. Oh, shit. Little Nightmares 3 is not, because my understanding is it got bought by a publisher, is owned by a publisher, and so that publisher is now kind of making its own thing,

and the original studio behind Little Nightmares went off and did their own thing, but what's crazy is like Re-Animal looks like a fucking Little Nightmares game, like, you know, same aesthetic, same sorts of environments, giant, scary people, kids wearing masks, crawling around on the ground, watch- dodging like butcher knives and things like that. So it means there are two of those sorts of games coming out.

I don't know which one's gonna be better, but I guess if you're a fan of that franchise, you're kind of a pagan shit. Okay. Y'all gonna watch that Secret Level series? Hey, I was about to ask you about that. That sounds crazy. I can't believe they're making a Worlds of Power television adaptation.

It really, I wish they, man, I wish they'd just written the check. What if it'd been called Worlds of Power? I don't know what Worlds of Power is. Yes, you fucking do. I don't know what that is. It's the novelizations of NES games. They made like a million of them.

That would have required reading. I did watch Captain N and the Power Zone, whatever that was. I think interacting with a Worlds of Power book could only be considered reading by the most generous consumer. Justin was so angry that I had never seen one of these things that he ran off and got several copies. What have you brought back to us, Justin? by the most generous consumer. Justin was so angry that I had never seen

one of these things that he ran off and got several copies. What have you brought back to us, Justin? Yeah, what did you choose as your, as the hot stuff? I just cleared my shelf out. I got Bionic Commando. Oh, sure. By FX9. Now, does the Bionic Commando book reference the fact

that his wife's soul is in his hand a Built-in secret weapon puts the power of an entire army into the hands of one soldier a Bionic arm Let's him climb tall buildings punch with the force of ten men even melt steel Only the Bionic Commando has what it takes to defeat the treacherous villains who will stop at nothing to take over the world Dot dot dot, dot, also the white. Dot, dot, dot. Oh, and there's loads of game solving hints throughout. Oh, sick. That's nice. This, it's basically-

Do they weave in, wait, wait, wait, do they weave in the game solving hints throughout the narrative? No kidding, yes. Fucking, the Metal Gear book is basically a walkthrough. Of Metal Gear. And then on level five, he finds the orange key card. That's so funny. Like, here's how the game- Here's how the game key card is open up level five, he finds the orange key card. That's so funny.

Here's how the game heads up. Here's how the game heads up. Open up level four, said Snake. They're within the narrative, but you have to turn the book upside down to read the game heads up. No spoilers, I love it. Get the machine gun from the Destroyer 2 in stage 18. Good tip.

Good tip. These rules. Anyway, Secret Level is a anthology animated series from the people that made, what is it, life, death and robots? Love, death and robots? Yeah. And this is like, I think it's 15 episodes and each one is like a video game franchise. So there's going to be an episode on like, I guess like PlayStation characters. It's a real grab bag.

Unreal Tournament is one of the episodes. on PlayStation characters. It's a real grab bag. Unreal Tournament is one of the episodes. Yeah, they got some cool stuff. There's an Armory Core one. There's a Mega Man one. Apparently there's a Spelunky one. There's a Spelunky one. It's the only one I can't spot in the trailer.

Can't wait to see what that'll look like. I'm so excited. Pac-Man. But then there's games that... Is there a Mega Man? I've barely heard of Mega Man. Mega Man's there too, but then like, Concord is, that's the middle line.

That's what's like, okay. It does feel a little bit like some companies definitely paid money for some of them, and some didn't. It's kind of like what appears at Gamescom. I don't know enough about animation. Do you think it's because some of these assets are already generated for cinematics and stuff?

Looking at the trailer, I don't think so, because a lot of the assets that are in there look like very modern CG. The Mega Man looks cool. I'm a nerd, but see a Mega Man in silhouette walking out of stuff? Love it. I love that shit.

That was not lying around on someone's CAD file. Yeah. Very fair. It looks neat. I'm very curious to see the spunky shit. The only other thing I wanted to call out is Civ 7, which is interesting because for the first time in the series' history, I've never really liked any of those games, but for people that do, you can mix and match leaders with different cultures.

So Gandhi can rule the United States, which seems like it could be kind of fun. I'm very into that. I have a weird relationship with Civ that started around four, I think, where I get really, really, really into it. And I play like a long game, and then by the end of that long game, I'm like, I got what I do not want to. I don't understand the impulse of like, and now again, another 60 hour long journey through world history.

I think being able to get really silly with it might be exactly what the doctor ordered to get me to stick with one of these. It does feel like the sort of game that's like, oh, I buy one game every four years and it's sick. It's nerd Madden. It's the flight simulator for... Yeah.

Nevermind. I can't wait to hear the end of that. I don't have an end Let me work on something and I'll have a good joke for you later. Okay What else we got going on? I think that was it for games I mean there were other announcements obviously and there will probably be more Throughout the week, but that was the big stuff from the opening night live from your friend in mind. Jeff Keely. Yeah Night Live from your friend in mind, Jeff Keighley. Yeah.

Squid Game has a new, has a game, a Squid Game game, which Squid Game continues to be the fight club of this generation with the profound satirical misunderstanding. It would be better if they released a Pac-Man game where you eat babies. It's like Jonathan Swift's Pac-Man. The Squid Game game just looks like Fall Guys,

which is really pretty funny. Okay, yeah, that's pretty much it. Should we just jump right into Honorable Mentions if anyone has anything? I'd like to do that, yes. Can I start? Because I didn't get to talk about Steam World Heist 2, and I just want to say I'm about to finish it, and it is fantastic.

It's really, really, really, really good. I might have said that last week, because it was good last week, but it's good this week too. The game really, like the powers and the weapons you get towards the end of the game get like fucking bonkers. They really give you so much of an edge and allow you to like combo just crazy things. I was having so much fun towards the end of it.

And hey, you get this one for free. There's a new documentary series on Max called Chimp Crazy. A what? Chimp Crazy is from the Creators of Tiger King. It's called Chimp Crazy and this one's for free. You now know with 100% certainty whether or not you're going to watch Chimp Crazy tonight. I'm not gonna say anything else about Chimp Crazy.

How is it free? No, sorry, from me. The advice is free. This is free. This, I gave another one and then you get one for. Here's what's free, you are going to pay to see what is Chimp Crazy, and you are then going to have a Mac subscription.

And then for free, effectively, you're going to go watch Hard Knocks, the Chicago Bears. And you're gonna say, Plant, I'm listening to a video game podcast. I don't want your sports bullshit. I tell you this in the comments anytime you mention sports bullshit. And I'm gonna say, don't worry,

because it is so fucking fun. You don't need to care about sports at all. This is, do you just like nice people having a good time? Watch this show. It is a great hangout documentary series about a team that has been absolutely miserable for a long time, but watch it. Fall in Love with the Bears.

What is that called again? Hard Knocks, the Chicago Bears, the story of how Patrick Klepek learned to be happy again. Uh, that is its full name. I'll believe it when I see it. Yeah. I want to recommend a movie. I don't know if you guys have heard of this.

It's called The Witches of Eastwick. Uh, stars Jack Nicholson and Cher and Michelle Pfeiffer and Susan Sarandon. And I had never seen it before until this week. And it fucking rules. This movie is bonkers. I've never seen a more Jack Nicholson movie that includes Batman, the original Batman. This is more of a Jack Nicholson movie

than Jack Nicholson playing the Joker. He goes full hog. It's directed by fucking George Miller. Yes, and it's notable for, it feels like George Miller trying to make a normal movie. It's like, imagine if you hired the most insane person you know to direct a straight down the middle movie. And they're like, okay, I'll make it perfectly.

Yeah. And that lasts for about three minutes. And then his true nature is revealed. It's like the boss's lift. Yeah, man. It's a fucking romp. Even the CG, which theoretically should not be very good in the mid-80s,

still doesn't look quote good, but it is massively entertaining. Them just struggling to try to animate a tennis ball is just a feat. That's great. What prompted you to watch Witches of Eastwick? Yeah, I'm part of a movie club where we watch movies that no one has seen in the club.

And so this was the movie. The current category, just like John Updike? Actually, the current category is cinematographer. So in this case, the cinematographer was... I didn't know you did a movie podcast, Russ. That's cool. It's not a podcast. I don't have to monetize everything. I don't understand.

Why do you do it? If you don't... Wait, I wanna shout out the. I don't care. I'll watch a movie. Cinematographer. What's your reach? I shouldn't commit before I hear about reach. So let's put a pin in that rest. We'll circle back around it. Vilos Zygmund, a well-known cinematographer of many different movies, including Chris Plant. Close Encounters. Close Encounters and the Third Kind. Chris Plant? Closing encounters.

Closing encounters of the third kind. Black Dahlia, Long Goodbye, Deer Hunter, very esteemed cinematographer. I've never seen Deer Hunter. Rented it from my library this week. Seems sad. Seems a little downer. Anyway, see you a bunch of people fuck Jack Nicholson. I don't have any new shit.

I've been playing and watching the same shit for like three weeks now, which makes me functionally useless on the, oh, I can talk about, okay, this is tragic because I can't talk more about Sea of Thieves or No Man's Sky or Dimension 20, which is really the media I've been consuming nonstop for the last almost month. I did, on Justin McElroy's recommendation, dip back into Too Hot to Handle on Netflix.

Oh, speak on that, Griffin. Okay, Too Hot to Handle. This is the reality show where no one can pork or they lose money. You know Too Hot to Handle has been on for a long time. Every season, in order to try to freshen up the experience, they add new- It's never been a great show.

This is important. It's not good. Griffin and I watch a lot of reality TV. There's some excellent reality TV. It's never been good, but it is like on. There is a thing in Netflix reality shows specifically, a sort of casting guideline where they just bring on the most beautiful human beings

that exist without much consideration for on-camera sort of personality or improvisational ability. A lot of the shows are built around the contestants being the physical ideal, right? So there's no room for- Yes, but not the most necessarily on- camera ideal. And so a lot of the time, especially in like

the confessionals, you can tell it is some of the roughest, rowdiest first take line reads. Yeah. Like, I can't- They're just feeding, the producers are just feeding them stuff. Yeah, 100%. Just 100% like, come on Lana,

you're gonna talk to me this way? Like, how did you say a sentence that bad? But, but, but, it's, it's, if you appreciate it on the level of like, professional wrestling, where it's like, it's, oh yes, much of this is scripted, yes of course. Griffith is missing, the show is hosted by a AI that looks like an air freshener named Lana.

And Lana is an AI that watches them to make sure that they don't break any rules with kissing or anything, or they lose money from the pot. Oh, so it's not just like, porking. It's like you can't even- No, you can't kiss, you can't- Hold hands? It's too hot to handle.

You can't handle yourself. You can can't kiss, you can't- Hold hands? It's too hot to handle. You can't handle yourself. You can't jerk off, which is crazy. I was trying to be tasteful, Griffin, but okay. Uh, so this season, the big twist that they've added is now, and this is revealed in the first moments of the first episode of the season, now there's a bad lot. Oh.

There's a black and red air freshener. Oh yeah, okay, I was gonna say probably red coloring. Yes, and Badlana will dip in. Looks like Knight Rider. Looks like Knight Rider. Badlana will dip in and be like, hey, you guys are on this date in this private suite and you're trying to fend off temptation, that's admirable.

But what if I said it's happy hour and now you can pork half price That gives way to conversations where the dude who's on the date is talking to the lady like hey, man We can do oral sex for ten thousand dollars. That's a steal That's a good value on the oral set. It's fucking There are glimpses of moments like that where you can tell it's not scripted and the person is actually just like, their logic is shining through of like,

hey man, we could do a hand job for 7,000 bucks. It's, if we're gonna do it, we're probably gonna do a hand job while we're here. We may as well do it while it's half price. Like it's fucking unhinged. It is, it is bad unhinged. It is unstoppable television. Lana locks people in a sex prison at one point, because they are so nasty and naughty

that she locks them in the sex prison. And the people in the show thinks that they got kicked off. So then Bad Lana pops up and she's like, hey, you can watch your former partners in the house from sex prison if you take money out of the pot. So then they had to and she's like, hey, you can watch your former partners in the house from sex prison if you take money out of the pot. So they had to make a discussion like, would I wanna watch my former partner

who thinks I'm sex dead now, because I got kicked out. I wanna watch my former partner deal with the fact that I am sex dead and move on from me. I just have to take $5,000 out of the pot and Badlana will set me up. It's wild.

Whoever's producing the show this season decided to just take it all the way up. Yeah, I fell off of the show maybe a couple seasons ago because like, again, like I do not fuck with the scripted nature of it. Yeah, it makes the show boring when you can tell that people are just reading off a script. But I don't know what it is about this season.

They've just sort of gone fucking absolutely insane. And it is very enjoyable television if you are able to meet the show at its level. And its level is a knee deep dooky sewer. So you gotta get down and dirty with the dogs to fuck with this one, but it'll take you on a ride you'll never forget. I want the quiz show movie, the narrative drama

that goes deep into, what is the legal ramifications of how is this a fair competition for money? It's not. It's not. It's not about fairness, it's about making me laugh. But doesn't it need to be? They have a group pool of money, they start with a quarter of a million dollars. Every time someone makes a to be? They have a group pool of money. They start with a quarter million dollars.

Every time someone makes a mistake in the house. Oh, everyone loses money. Everyone, the money is deducted from the pot. Got it, got it, got it. At the end, they split whatever's left. I understand. So, yeah. And no one gets voted off?

People can get, not voted off, but if Lana decides that, usually, if they're just boring, yeah, making good TV, they get fucked up. You didn't try to kiss anybody yet. Get out of my house. Get the fuck out of here. You're being too good at it.

They used to do a thing where they would bring everybody on the show, but it would be a fake reality show, so it would be like Mario Lopez hosts like extreme love, and it's like falling in love while competing in extreme sports challenges. But then like, as after like a shoot of that fake show, Mario Lopez is like, hold on guys, I gotta go take a shit and he'll leave.

And then Lana just like emerges from the ground and like a cloud of steam. And everyone on the show suddenly realizes. Everyone on the show, after season one, everyone on the show is like, this is the no sex show. This is the first season where it's like, we can't trick you guys anymore. You're on the no sex show,

you know what you're coming in for. It's also given the whole thing a little bit of a weird energy. Before you had plausible deniability where someone could be like, I don't think you're here for the right reasons. And it's like, well, I came here for the extreme sports love show with Mario Lopez. Those are the reasons I came here for. So no, I would agree, I'm not here for the Extreme Sports Love Show with Mario Lopez. Those are the reasons I came here for.

So no, I would agree I'm not here for the right reasons. I was brought here under false fucking pretenses and put in sex jail. That sounds lovely. This is a show where new contestants are added, the show calls them grenades. What season is the evil Lana show up? Because that seems like one of them.

The current season. The current season is currently on air. Couldn't matter less what number it is, but yeah, it's the new one. Fantastic. All right, listen, we gotta wrap up. This has been fun, but we gotta move on. What are we doing next week?

Next week? Next week, we're doing a little game called Black Myth Wukong, starring a monkey, and he fights people. Okay. Plant, what did we talk about this week? Sorry, I got a thing a little out of order here. We talked about tactical breach wizards, and then we talked about everything at Gamescom,

which I'll make sure that we list in the newsletter, including the trailer for Goat Simulator Remastered. And then we talked about SteamWorld 2, SteamWorld Heist 2, Chimp Crazy, Too Hot to Handle, Hard Knocks, The Chicago Bears, The Witches of Easterwick. And next week, Black Myth Wukong. Before we wrap, I want to thank the following patrons. We have Quazer, I guess is how you pronounce it, Ludus Lobro, ZG, and Greta. Thank you for being patrons. We have a new episode of The Resties going up this Tuesday, and we've got a new bracket

episode which is very fun. Our Best Consoles Ever Bracket episode coming up first week of September. Best Consoles Ever without considering the games available on those consoles, guys. It's a lot. It got wild. It's a big, there's a lot of really big thoughts

and ideas and statements that get made in this episode. Yeah. Ah, boy, we did it. A lot of screeching arguments about the Sega Master System. Like a lot of, just a lot. Some second guessing about allowing me to make the rubric every time. The rubric is twice as big as usual.

I'm excited for people to hear usual, which it's a... Man, I'm excited for people to hear this episode. It's a good one. That is gonna do it for us for this week on the Besties. Be sure to join us again next time for the Besties, because should the world's best friends pick the world's best games? Besties!