Video Gamers Podcast - Blue Prince Hype, Silksong Confirmed & Rivals Season 2 – TWIG | Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

Gaming hosts Josh and Ryan, and John dive into this week’s biggest video game news! Blue Prince is generating massive buzz ahead of its April 10th release on Game Pass, Rivals Season 2 brings Emma Frost and Ultron into the mix, and after years of silence, Hollow Knight: Silksong is officially confirmed for 2025. Plus, Bungie teases Marathon gameplay, and Switch 2 announces pre-sale delays. Your weekly hit of gaming insights, video games buzz, and all the gaming headlines worth knowing—from the Video Gamers Podcast! Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Ol’ Jake, Disratory and Gaius Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/  Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1    Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello fellow gamers and welcome to the Video Gamers Podcast. It's a great time to be a gamer, 2025 has been off to a fantastic start and some of the best is yet to come. We've got some great looking games looming on the horizon and some truly hidden gems coming that you may not even know about. We've got a ton of great news to talk about today, but first some introductions are in order. I am your host Josh and joining me he's excited because Moon Knight is getting a big buff and he might maybe But probably not get close to my level in rivals. It's Ryan

Oh this guy this guy that No, this guy that couldn't handle the standard keyboard at game on expo This guy that couldn't handle the standard keyboard at game on expo It was set to modern control oh man, what am I gonna do between that and Street Fighter man? I don't even want to hear it This is only cuz you came at me Ryan you came at me earlier in a private chat on yeah Bring it on brother. It's funny cuz we're on the same team You think we would both want to be like yeah, dude way to kill people. That's why that's why we do what we do same team, bro. Oh Man, okay

Joining us when he's not busy practicing for his world of dance audition He's practicing his Cajun accent for south of midnight and counting down the days until silk songs release It's John. Hey guys, insert bad Cajun accent here. Oh man. Yeah, yeah, now you gotta do it, John. None of you guys are gonna do it? Come on, somebody's gotta do it.

I can't do it, it's a little too close to home, guys. Yeah. I lived with a Cajun accent for like 10 years, so. No, boy, you gotta tell tell me that they are different. Come on now, Ryan. Yeah, boy, you got to give me that Cajun accent. Invite me to a crawfish boil, Ryan. That's pretty good, but I feel like you're

bordering on inappropriate. Boy, that's a life I live. Invite me to a crawfish boil, Ryan. You want to come down to a crawfish boil, partner? And you want to come down to a crawfish boil partner, we got that air toufei and the, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, you say no more. Say no more, man. Yeah, done boy, come on down.

Gumball, air toufei, jumballaya. Oh dude, Cajun food is some of the best on the planet, man. Give me the spices. Just all the food that has just a bunch of spices it's always great every time yeah every time we're just like you're putting that much of all of that I mean did I mention that my wife was born and raised in Louisiana mmm you know there's there you go exactly that's why Josh always goes well guys I gotta run to dinner yeah Yeah, you're darn right, man.

Speaking of, we should probably not do these right before dinner. Yeah, right. That's really true. Quickly derail the food. Oh man. Well, welcome in everybody. I mean, this is gonna be a heck of an episode. I am so excited for this one, man.

We have so many amazing things to talk about. But first, we've got a new supporter to thank you guys. I mean, listen, sometimes people hop in the discord, they lurk for a little while, they kind of hang out for a little bit. And then they go, you know what? Okay, maybe this place isn't crazy. You know, maybe I can talk to people a little bit. And this is just one of those stories that I love so much. And then they started talking. And then it was like, boom. And now I it's, it's one of those things where I love so much. And then they started talking and then it was like, boom. And now it's one of those things where

I love seeing them chiming in on games and stuff like that. And then lo and behold, we saw that they went, you know what? Let me support this show. So a huge shout out to Lucy Moon for supporting the show. We see you chatting in the Discord, Lucy Moon. Thank you. Thank you. It's awesome. It is awesome to have you participating and talking video games with everybody else. Reporting the show we see you chatting in the discord Lucy moon. Thank you. Thank you. Awesome

It is awesome to have you participating and talking video games with everybody else and thank you for supporting this pod Didn't they just have a birthday to like we just have a birthday. Yep. Yeah, we remember to say happy birthday their birthday Happy birthday to you. This is bonus video content right here. What people can't see is us dancing, but guess what? Oh yeah. We have video. We are fully video.

Oh no, this is not John. John is talking. Okay, this is, all right, well listen, you can see, you can see this dancing. We are on video. On Spotify, there is a video option now on every episode where you can watch the show. We are on YouTube on Spotify. There is a video option now on every episode where you can watch the show. We are on YouTube.

We are on YouTube. Every episode gets uploaded to YouTube as well. So if you want to see three middle-aged men just putting on some sweet, sweet dance moves, there's your opportunity. So also we apologize for nothing. Sorry. Oh man. And then listen, we've been promising this

for a little while, but we do have some reviews to read. So we've got to get back to these. We are way behind, but honestly, to everybody that has left this show a review, thank you so much for taking the time to do that. It is incredible. It helps people when they find the show to go, let me look at these reviews and see

what these guys are about. And if you have seen the reviews that people leave, how do you not give us a shot and just say, okay, let me check these guys out. And there's a good chance that we're gonna read your review like this one that comes in from Johnny D1441 and it's titled, The Best A Video Gamer Can gamer can find and it says one day while I was looking for a cool podcast to listen to I just typed in video games in the search bar since that

is one of my major interests. Am I ever glad I did that? This podcast just feels like I'm hanging out with friends who love games. Josh and Ryan also shout out Paul, hope you're well, are just two awesome guys who genuinely care about their audience and their content. You're not gonna find a podcast like this anywhere else. Please keep up the amazing work guys.

Can't wait to see how the show and amazing community will grow and continue to evolve in the future. PS, they aren't kidding. Join the discord. It's awesome. Way to go, Johnny. P.S. they aren't kidding. Join the Discord. It's awesome. Way to go, Johnny. What a guy. What a guy.

Now, if that also tells you how far behind we are because they didn't mention John, we might be a few months behind on the reviews, guys. Just a little bit. But we are catching up. His name is John. He was sensing it, I think. There you go. He knew. Yeah. It's like the John ESP thing going on. All right, Ryan. And then

you've got one too, right? I do. I do got one. And, uh, this one is another five star titled amazing. Can't recommend enough from the honey badger one, two, three, four, which probably, uh, is like maybe their dog's name and that's like a standard password for most people dog one two three four but anyways the review reads this is a great podcast the hosts are energetic and you can feel their passion it's great getting multiple shows a week in about an hour each I drive haul trucks for work about 60 hours a week and I'm looking for good and fun podcasts and I can't stress it is enough that this show has it all. Woo. Yeah. Number one,

thank long haul drivers. Y'all keep this country functioning. So number one, thank you. I love it. They do not get enough credit, man. Always let me over in traffic too, dude. Like legitimately, like truckers are like, yeah, dude, go ahead. I'm not in a hurry. You can have that spot. I would also like to know if you are, if you're a trucker, if you drive the open road, I love to drive too. Every time I'm on the road, you got to do that double pump. Like give me the honk. Give me the honk. If you guys still do it, like I've had a few that don't, they just look over at me and like disgust And I'm like man, this is not my childhood. I'm having a good time

I've known a lot of truckers and they get a kick out of it. They're good. I think so. Yeah Yeah, I think one or two bad ones ruin your fun Ryan. Absolutely. I'm gonna always do it forever. I'll be 80 Honk. Oh Man, okay guys and then one other thing that we've promised is, hey, we've got some quick questions. If you want to ask a question for the show, you can do that as one of the perks for signing up on for the epic status over at multiplayer squad dot com. You get to ask a question that we will answer at the top of an episode like this one that comes in from your boy, Alex.

And his question is, if someone didn't have a million hours to put into gaming Like host John does what are the top ten games here? She must play before they die now listen We don't have time for top ten. So we're just gonna throw out a couple must play games Maybe like four or five for me Elden ring God of War 2018 cyberpunk 2077 I'm gonna say Outer Wilds just because I've had that itch and people that have played it know, and Subnautica are some must plays for my opinion. John, what about you? Uh, firstly, I don't have a million hours. I have all of the hours. Infinite hours.

Which is a lie Let's see spider-man 2 definitely little nightmares to Super Mario Odyssey Breath of the Wild or tears of the kingdom those two are interchangeable and halo 3. Oh, that's a good list That's a that's a solid solid banger of a list for sure Ryan mine too That's a good list. That's a solid, solid banger of a list, for sure. Ryan, what you got? Mine too, I'm going to go with, obviously, best game ever made, Red Dead 2, Last of Us, Half-Life 2.

Got to play that. Got to check out what made first person shooters and gaming what it is. God of War, like you said, Josh, 20, Cyberpunk. And then Metal Gear Solid 3, Snake Eater, I think it's slept upon quite a bit. It is a really solid game for what it is in the time era it came out in. We're getting the remake.

That's a great choice. Yeah, we're going to see. You're going to, you guys are going to find out. Yeah, I'm excited to play that one, Ryan. You don't even have to force me on that one, man, because I'm excited to check that one out. So thank you, ya boy Alex for the question. Guys, we got a ton of news to talk about, so let's get into it.

I mean, I think the first one we've gotta bring up, guys, because it released today, the day that people are listening to this episode, this game released, this game came out of nowhere. There are a few things in life that I love more than a game that is just taking the world by storm that nobody has heard about because there's just some kind of like excitement

that comes with that. It's like this unknown, nothing's been spoiled yet. We kind of saw this with schedule one a little bit which we're gonna talk about here in a second. But this is a game by the name of Blueprints, P-R-I-N-C-E, which I think is a play on the word blueprint, you know, if you think about it for a second. But Blueprints is a rogue-like puzzle game

that came out of seemingly nowhere. I'll be honest, I knew nothing about this. We had somebody in our Discord community ask about it, and I went, I've never heard of this game before in my life. And I was doing something where I couldn't look it up. And then later that day I went, let me see what this is about. And then all of a sudden it's like, guys,

this might be one of the best puzzle games ever made. I have seen people talking about this game saying, this is up there with the likes of Portal 2, The Witness, Outer Wilds, The Return of the Obra Dinn, The Talos Principle, like some of the best puzzle games of all time and they're throwing out blueprints in that like Pantheon, the Mount Rushmore puzzle games, how dare you? How dare you, I say! Did you guys get a chance to watch this trailer? Yeah, man, and it just looks like like like junk like junk drawer simulator to me or something like I don't know like all I got was just a bunch of people opening doors and drawers and stuff. I don't know.

It... Whatever. I love how Josh is just like, I'm so pretty excited and then John's like yeah junk at home what do I need to look through somebody else's junk yeah oh man that's great the cell shading is cool yeah I mean it looks it looks cool I uh I'm always man it's hard because some of these games when they blow up like this, like you know, Lethal Company did, everyone's like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. And we hopped on and I was like, this is amazing, you know? And then there's other games that you hop on and you're

like, it just didn't really sit with me. It didn't fit right. This one is Stardew Valley. Oh sorry guys, got some of my stuff right there. But I just, it's interesting to see. 500 comments. I am not the biggest puzzle guy. I'm not gonna sit down and do a puzzle, I'm not gonna sit down and do these things unless I'm competing against someone.

So to me, I just feel like it's just work. You're competing against your brain, Ryan. Yeah, but like, okay, whatever. It's not much of a challenge, I get it. Yeah, I know, it it's just work. You're competing against your brain, right? Yeah, but like I mean, it's not much of a challenge I know it's not It's simple it's it's cake, you know, it's just you know, it's it's borderline Elementary did my dear Watson, you know, there's just nothing to it. But no really I think this does look good I am NOT the biggest puzzle guy, but this one does intrigue me and I think we may be checking it out. Oh, we are checking it out. I've already committed

Okay, so we are checking it out Yeah, so the one thing that you guys will have to let me know that looks appealing is that it doesn't look like it's very like reflex driven. It looks very much. It's not at all. Yeah. And I've been looking for a game to sort of bridge the gap between my wife's sort of like skill level and her interest level. I think she'd be interested in getting into games, but it's just like, if you didn't grow up playing games for the last 20, 30 years and you don't have that reflex, there's like a barrier of entry.

So it seems like something her and I could figure out how to play in tandem. You guys will have to let me know. I will be playing something else. I will say this. The thing that really interests me is people are saying like, you know, there are puzzles in this game. This is not like Myst where it's nothing but puzzles and you kind of bang your head against the wall. There is a rogue-like element to this game where as is not like Myst where it's nothing but puzzles and you kind of bang your head against

the wall. There is a rogue-like element to this game where as you go through a door, you actually get presented three rooms that you can say, I want this door to lead to this room. And you have limited number of steps as you play the game. So every time you go through a doorway, you use steps. So you're limited in your run through this mansion. But the thing that interests me the most is people are saying the story,

the things that you discover about this mansion that your uncle gave to you is incredible. And as you delve deeper, there are things in this game that even the people that reviewed it said, I am not going to spoil a thing for you. I don't even wanna talk about this anymore because there is some crazy stuff in this game that is like a revelation and that is what Outer Wilds is like. The reason I'm always screaming about Outer Wilds is you discover the story by just playing

the game and at the end you sit back and you go, oh my gosh dude, like what just happened? And people are saying that Blueprints is like that. And that gets me very excited, dude, because that's the thing that leaves those lasting memories. I like puzzle games, but I'm not like some just puzzle game aficionado. I think there's a time and a place for them. And I definitely do get like the craving for one from time to time,

but I'm not the guy that goes like, this is my favorite genre, but this game seems to be something very special so far. We're going to find out because we're picking it up, but it comes out today. So we'll see. So I am super hyped for this one and I was not, I woke up this morning knowing nothing about this game. I love it, man. I get it. No, I get it. And I get, I know after, you know, losing in street fighter, you probably want to down and retire. And you want to, you know, you wanna dial back and just kinda sit in your cozy, relaxing puzzle game.

So I totally get it, man. I get where you're coming from. I understand. So I support you in that, you know. Ryan, didn't I beat you? Yes, you did. So you are the ultimate champion, but I beat Josh. So that's all I care about at all

I'm the biggest loser. Is that what I'm hearing? You are the big Dang, I I quit while I was ahead. I didn't give Josh the opportunity to complete that triangle That's fair Ryan. I deserve it But I will say there's a lot of people out there that are blowing us up right now because they thought The Minecraft movie was a good movie. So I am not in a position where I am trusting what most people say.

You saying that the rogue-like element is a foot counter, a step counter, just now makes me think it is a junk drawer simulator with somebody who has planner's fasciitis or something. That is not interesting to me. You have left to give me a break. We'll see. Two minutes left.

You love walking, John. This is right up your alley. You get to walk through a mansion. I know. And if I started running out of breath halfway through walking through my house, I'd have a real problem. I wouldn't be playing Blueprints. Oh, man.

All right, well, listen. We have got to talk about Marvel Rival Season 2. That releases tomorrow from this episode. We are having a community night. I know we have some listeners that are going, what do you mean, a community night? Almost every week, if not every two weeks,

we get together as gamers and we play games together. Shocking. I know. But listen, as gamers, you know that the best part of games is playing games with your friends, having those people that you are able to just relax and have fun with people that aren't yelling at you and screaming at you and being toxic and that kind of thing. And we do this almost weekly in our Discord server. We have had an average of over 20 people for every single one of these.

It is an absolute blast. If you have not joined us, we are sending out the invite. I know the very first thing is, well, what if I'm not good? Or what if I don't play Rivals? That is A-okay. Doesn't matter. You've gotta be better than John. I mean, you've a-okay. Doesn't matter. You've got to be better than John.

I mean, you've got to be better. Exactly. If something that's on your bucket list is beat a podcast host at a game, now's your opportunity. Yeah. I mean, listen, we have people of all skill levels. It is just an absolute fantastic time.

So we are sending out the invite to you personally to come join us. We're gonna be doing it this Friday. Come join our Discord server. The link is in the episode description. And come have some fun with fellow gamers, man. That's what it's all about. All right, so let's talk about Marvel Rivals Season Two,

cause there are some big changes right after this break. All right guys, Season Two is going to be giving us a couple new characters. Now the first one is a new Vanguard Emma Frost. The internet's losing their minds over this. I mean, it's probably the fact that she can chokeslam somebody I'm gonna say. And that's why people are really, really interested in playing Emma Frost. People know what Emma Frost is. She's a

good vanguard, she's got diamond skin, she's got a good attack, she's a solid solid vanguard. Don't make it, don't make it weird. Yeah don't make it weird people but also that's my new main. My new main is gonna be Emma Frost. No, it's mine. No, it's mine, dibs. So. You bailed on Psylocke for Emma Frost. I mean, yeah. It's what's new. It's what's new. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, listen, Rivals is still going strong. I know there, it's funny. We've talked to a lot of people that are like, dude, it looks so fun. I've just never hopped in. Come play with us.

It's a fantastic game. As a a lot of people that are like, dude, it looks so fun. I've just never hopped in. Come play with us. It's a fantastic game. As a guy that played Overwatch for over 1800 hours, and I thought I will never leave this game, Marvel Rivals is the game that pulled me away from Overwatch. It is just an absolute blast. Season two is the perfect time to get back into this. We're getting Emma Frost halfway through the season. We're gonna get Ultron?

Yeah. Okay, now this kind of caught me off guard because Ultron is cool as anything, dude. But he's a healer? No. Like, yes, he's gonna be a tanker, you know, in the panda right now. He's gonna be a strategist. Oh, what? I know.

I mean, I guess, you know, he's healing people with drones and technology and he flies, so it's kind of like the first flying healer, which I think is kind of cool. There are gonna be some balance changes that are coming. Listen, Marvel rivals developers. I know you're listening to this podcast right now. You have said we are your favorite podcast. Please. They all got laid off. Oh, dang it. Okay. Whoever's left at Marvel rivals and John, we're going to need you to translate this. But please nerf Spider-Man and make Jeff killable. OK, that's the only two things I'm asking for, man. I don't need to cry.

You've been asking for that forever. Yes, and they don't listen. They don't listen. Also nerf the triple healer meta. Thank you very much for coming to our Marvel Rivals season two request talk. Ryan, I know you're excited for this one. Moon Knight's getting a huge buff.

Some characters are getting needed buffs. Some are getting nerfed. It's always a good time to kind of have a new season, new characters to play. Yeah, oh yeah. And that's all we're gonna say about that. Come beat up on Jon, you know? It'll make you feel good, man.

It really does. I'm just here so I don't get fined. Yeah, he doesn't cry. He just goes, oh, you got me. And then, you know, he just plays that on loop. It really does. I'm just here so I don't get fined. Yeah. He doesn't cry. He just goes, oh, you got me. And then, you know, he just plays that on loop. I was talking to my buddy Jeremiah about this. I'm like, man, I just like, I left so sore.

I got beat so bad. And he was like, yeah, I'm not really good either. So I just like listened to an audio book. So like, I don't feel so bad about it. My brain is like, so I may be listening to a business book or something when we play this next time. There is always somebody better than you out there. So I fully admit, I get tilted when I'm playing bad

or somebody is wrecking me over and over. It's just my competitive nature, but it's still a good time regardless. The best guy in the room. You're in the wrong room Speaking of good times guys. Let's talk about schedule one. Yeah So alright for anybody that's curious because we've been getting a lot of people asking us that's our next episode We are going to record the schedule one deep time that will come out on Monday We have been playing it. The Empire has been growing

I mean there is a lot to talk about with this game So if you are curious as to what schedule one is all about we are doing a deep dive on Monday Do not miss that episode freaking Keith. Yeah. Yeah, Ryan's gonna talk about Keith Yeah, he's got dude Keith came to our door the other day Ryan. You must, bro. Keith is unhinged. So everybody before we do our deep dive, just watch out for Keith. Yeah. Unhinged. Keith is not a guy you want hanging around your front doorstep. That's for sure. So unfortunately, schedule one is coming with a little bit of controversy. And no, it's not over the fact that you were building up a drug empire. It is over the fact that a rival developer is claiming copyright infringement against schedule one the makers of drug dealer simulator 1 & 2

Apparently got very upset over schedule one's popularity in the fact that more people are playing schedule one than drug dealer simulator And they have sued schedule one for copyright infringement. Now we are gonna turn to our copyright expert, John! To get his thoughts. John, is this copyright infringement? I don't believe so. I believe this is frivolous at its core. I think that you have a developer that probably is

jealous of the success that this other property had and is looking to capitalize on it. It's an unfortunate part of our judiciary system where you basically can sue somebody for whatever you want. And I think this kind of thing is predatory. I think that it is, there's some level of, everything is derivative of something these days. Like is every first person shooter a derivative of Wolfenstein you know like or Doom or

whatever I mean like come on guys this this stuff drives me nuts worry about making your own game good and and lay off the lawsuit yeah they already had a sequel if they did it good the first or the second time they wouldn't have to worry about this and there wouldn't know is schedule one we'd be talking about drug dealer simulator three or whatever. I mean, apparently drug dealer simulator is not an unpopular game. It had like 18,000 reviews, which means it sold at least 18,000 copies and probably a lot more than that.

I mean, I'm, I'm with you on this one, John. I think this is simply somebody's mad because the game is more successful. You cannot say that any game that involves dealing drugs or building up a drug empire is copyright infringement. I mean, we wouldn't have video games if that was the case. Like legitimately, if you want to be the best, then be the best. But you just because a genre exists does not give you, you know, power over that entire genre.

So I'm with you. Shame on you, drug dealeraler Simulator one and two developers for putting the solo dev for schedule one through this, man. Yeah. There's two sides to every story. So obviously I'd be here. I'd be curious to hear their side of it. But like in these cases, unless what we're talking about is that solo dev used to be on the drug dealer simulator team and took assets from that development and made their own game. I'd be like, oh yeah, yeah, there's clearly a claim there, but this just seems frivolous to me. Yeah, there's right now 300,000 players playing schedule one. There's about to be 300,002 because we're hopping on after this, right?

in schedule one. There's about to be 300,002 because we're hopping on after this, right? Yeah. That's like five football stadiums. Yeah, that is a lot of people, man. That's for you, Santar. All right, guys, this next story just warms my heart. It just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

It's such a great story. Hollow Knight Silksong confirmed for 2025 release. We got a like three second snippet of this during the Nintendo Direct that people astutely saw and went, what a minute. Did that just say Silksong 2025? And then people went, did you mean to show that? Because this was also when the Nintendo direct was kind of lagging a little bit.

And they did come out and they did confirm that the game is releasing in 2025. Now this has been a myth for, I don't know, four, five decades now. I mean, we're finally getting Silksong, guys. We we did state a while back that we were curious if this would be a launch title for like the switch to doesn't look like that's going to happen. But you don't know yet. But, you know, I am not a person that gloats over like a street fighter victory at a convention or something like that.

I just want to ask a very simple question to Ryan directly since John, you are, you were absolved of this one, but Ryan, do you remember who drafted silk song in our most anticipated games of 2025 draft? By chance. Do you, do you? I think the answer is you, Josh. I think you answer is you, Josh. I think you drafted Silksong. Did I?

Is Silksong on my list, Robin? I think Silksong is on your list. Oh my goodness. Wait, okay. So I happen to come a little prepared for this episode. I am the host. I have to do my research. I just want to read my list of most anticipated games for 2025 for a second

I mean, let's just start with Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Quite possibly, you know game of the year for 2025 and a little game a little game called Hollow Knight silk song that I picked up for $10 in that draft a game that's coming up soon that looks incredible called Claire obscure expedition 33 Whoa, I've heard of it a little a little game called Monster Hunter wilds. I don't know if people have heard of that one The alters which I know we're higher man, I'm so excited for that game so Yeah, we're not worthy I just carry you. How does it make you feel? Right? I feel like, uh, you either have a, uh, uh, uh, eight ball of magic or you, you sold your

soul to the devil or you, you're just really that good brother. Like, cause you picked a lot of good games, man. So I will concede props to you. I don't know. Five is your year, dude. No, no, there's no way. Cause even GTA five, just that one game or six is not going to take place of all those games that you have that, that accumulation. That's too good. The dark ages, Ryan, that's the one that's the one I'm actually really jealous of, man. But those two lists, you got a bunch, man. I do. You're right. You're right. Solid list. Yeah actually really jealous of. Man, but those two lists, you got a bunch, man. I do. You're right.

You're right. Solid list. Yeah, you're right. See, he didn't expect me to come with kindness. He doesn't know what to do. I don't know what to do. All right, let's go on to the next story, guys. Go back to the Street Fighter thing.

All right, and then look, here's a game that came out that we have talked about a few times, and I know people have asked us, hey, are you guys gonna be covering this game? South of Midnight, it's out, it's out. John, you were pretty darn excited for South of Midnight, but- Yeah, I am excited for it.

My excitement level's kinda gone up and down. That's actually pretty high right now. I watched some more of the initial gameplay that was released without the review context. And, uh, I'm, I'm definitely into it at this point. I am at a point though, where I'm really struggling cause I'm playing ghosts of Tsushima and I haven't had a game like this where I'm like. Really, really like, I want to complete it. You know, I want to, I want want 100% this game, but I feel compelled to finish up,

to get to South of Midnight, cause it's new, and a lot of people are probably waiting for our opinion on it. So I'm really conflicted, but I, you know, right now me and Jin Sakai are just ransacking through the Mongols as quick as we can, so I can start playing with big catfish. So, yeah. So let me, let me, I just just want to I just cuz we're friends here, you know, we're all friends here

Yeah, so let me get this straight So you are you are rushing through quite possibly one of the best video games that has come out in a really long time in Ghost of Tsushima To dive into South of Midnight which is by all you know reviews and comments from gamers. Is that what I'm hearing? Here's the thing you guys know how I play. Narrative beats gameplay for me. I want to feel like I'm playing a movie and I'm sort of being guided through the story and obviously gameplay enhances my experience but like I like the story of it.

The look, feel and story of this seem to be very much John Games and I don't care what anyone else says I I want to play this I want to play it as blind as possible and if it sucks you know what I'll turn it off and and Jin Sakai will be waiting for me and or maybe Arthur Morgan man honestly like this this this game has been making a really strong claims for me to go back to that I was a little worried you know it's a generation old I was a little worried that you know, it's a generation old. I was a little worried that it was gonna show its age.

No, no way. No, it's such a beautiful game. I am so good. I'm so much more pumped for Ghost of Yote at this point. But yeah, I'm feeling pretty strong about South of Midnight as a little lily pad on my leapfrog to Clarab's Gira. I am actually really curious about South of Midnight, to be honest.

We have said from the beginning that the gameplay looks fairly mediocre. Like, you know, the combat in the game doesn't look like it's doing anything revolutionary, but combat is still fun, man. I mean, it doesn't have to always be revolutionary. The narrative of South of Midnight, the art style, the music, is all seems to be top notch. I will not be playing South of Midnight because I am now just on this Blueprint's hype train

and then we're going to have Claire Obscura very, very soon after that. But I am actually really curious, John, if you jump into that to hear your thoughts on it. You know, because as somebody that says, look, I don't into that to to hear your thoughts on it, you know, because as somebody that says, look, I don't necessarily have to have the gameplay wrote me in as long as it's got a really good narrative. You know, is that presentation enough to say, dude, this game was really good, you know, at that point? And so I'll do my I'll do my own little mini deep dive.

You know, I'm going to be coming off of ghosts, Sushima, which has really rich, you know, third person action, gameplay mechanics. I love it. All the gimmicks. It's all samurai gimmick stuff, but I love it, dude. Every time I walk into new fort and I do my standoff, man, I get fricking jacked. So I'll have a lower talent tolerance for mediocre gameplay going into something like South of Midnight. But yeah, I'll let you know. You know, if it's worth it, I'll play it. If it's not, I won't. Yeah, that's always nice.

And honestly, you did say something that I really like to reinforce is that if you are hyped for a game, and I know you've been hyped for South of Midnight, play the game, man. Don't let people, don't let the internet put you off on something. You know?

I mean, I think that there is absolutely something to be said for jumping into a game blindly and just saying, let me, let me base, let me, let me judge this game on the merits of the game itself. You know, that doesn't always mean that it's going to work out and it might be a mid game, you know, at that point, but at least you got to experience it and kind of form your own opinion on that. And that's a weird thing to say, especially in an industry that is, you know, so review heavy and people's thoughts on stuff.

And I mean, we do this all the time. We give our thoughts on games and we just say, Hey, this is what I think. It doesn't mean that we're saying that's what you have to think, but you know, it's like these are our opinions on something. We'll always give our honest opinion on it. It doesn't mean that we think that you should have the same opinion. And so this is why I'm very curious

to have you play it, John, and go, dude, this game was on my radar, it's kind of off my radar, but maybe I need to put it back on my radar when I get a break in gaming that is in Expedition 33, Blueprint, Doom the Dark Ages. You know, that's... Yeah, I will say, so like, it's on Xbox Game Pass, which is like one of the best deals in gaming as far as I'm concerned.

And it's like, you know, very low risk, honestly. Yeah. I'm pumped for it. If I don't like it, like, it just goes back into the cloud and I find my next game that I play. But even if you don't like it just goes back into the cloud and I find my next game that I play. But even if you don't like it, you know for a fact that you don't like it because you got to play it. You were not saying, well, so and so said they didn't like it. So I don't

like it then it's different. It's a completely different experience to say, yeah, I tried it. I don't like it. It then to just go like, well, some guy said that he didn't like it. So I'm not ever going to even give it a shot at that point. So, all right. One last story, guys, we're running a little bit long here, but we've got to talk about this very quickly because we want to put this on people's radar as well. Bungee. Oh my goodness. Now there's a name. There's a name. The makers of destiny and halo are finally about to show off the game that they have been working on for it seems like 10 years now. They are going to be showing off marathon gameplay on April 12th during a live stream

where they are going to show off marathon and what this game is all about. I'm nervous. Like I'm excited because it's like, dude, how do you like you have the pedigree of Halo and Destiny? If there's anybody in the world that knows how to make an engaging shooter, it's got to be Bungie, right? But like, I'm a little nervous. Like, you know, please let this be really good looking. Yeah, well, no, that's the thing is it will be good. Look, it will be it will be will be absolutely mind blowing how good it looks. And it will be crisp and clean. And that's one of the biggest things with these bungee games. And this is what I

fell in love with with destiny. I got thousands of hours, more than I ever care to admit in Destiny. And it is one of the crisp, the most crisp and clean shooters that have ever existed. But I just, there's something fell off in the last few years that it's just not what off in the last few years that it's just not what what Bungie has kind of held that standard to and it's not what it used to be and I am concerned but I'm excited to see what you know they could do what maybe they you know will make happen I I don't like the fact that they're like hey we're gonna show off gameplay and they just like, Hey, we're going to show off gameplay. And they just like make an announcement about the announcement type thing. Yeah. It's the whole like we're announcing and announcing. And it's like, it's like, come on, man, just like drop, drop

some gameplay, like put it on the people and be like, yo, this is what we got. Boom. You know, and like, and then show them. But, uh, you know, who knows, maybe it'll be good. I sure hope so, man, because I missed. I sure hope so. Dude, I used to play, I would read every Tuesday night, I would grind out, I played so much Destiny because it was just so dang good, and I'm looking for a shooter that has that same addictability, it just draws you in and you want to play, you wanna go back to it

every single day, and I haven't had that. So, you know, I hope that this is the case, otherwise I'll just keep playing Rivals with you. Yeah. I have faith, you know, I'm a little soft for Bungie right now because they, you know, they were on the show and they were super awesome to talk to but I'm confident it's gonna be it's gonna be a solid game

I hope that there is a single-player campaign and that this isn't an online only sort of situation Because that's definitely more my wheelhouse But but I have faith I think it's gonna be good. I think I know, like my thought is Bungie knows what they're doing for sure. I am a little concerned over just the fatigue of first person shooters and battle royales and you know, PVP type games. I mean, we saw the failure of, what was Shroud's shooter that he had that came out?

I don't remember, but it failed. It lasted like two months. It looked like it was gonna be okay. We've seen like Frag Punk, like there's these games that we hear people talking favorably about, but then they just fade away because they don't get enough traction. You know?

So yeah, I am nervous for this, but I am also really excited to see what they've got and to see what they've been working on for so long. So. Guys, there is actually one other thing that I wanted to talk about, because I feel like we have kind of like a responsibility to do it, and it's a little sensitive, so I want to make sure that we're talking about the impact and not sort of the political side of it.

But Nintendo just discussed the fact that their pre-orders may be getting pushed back as they are assessing the impact of the tariffs that have been levied against them. Japan has a 49% tariff right now that has been proposed against any products coming in from that country, and I think that there are pretty major implications there. We already saw some price bloat that the gaming community is concerned about with the Switch 2 going up to $450

and we're talking 80 or $90 a game. Certainly if they prove that that's solvent, everybody else will tow that line too. And this increases a level of uncertainty by quite a bit. I'm wondering if you guys have any thoughts on that. I, my, so, you know, just for people that are like, wait, we're not talking the politics behind this. We were talking the effect on the game industry.

So anybody that might be going like, uh-oh, like, no, we're not, we don't get political on the show. We keep it to gaming. And this is, this is a topic on gaming I I think Nintendo's crawfish in a little bit, dude. I think the Nintendo Direct did not go Exactly, like they wanted it to go. I think Nintendo was not stupid I think they heard the outrage over the cost of the games and the cost of the switch too And I think that they tactfully went,

maybe we shouldn't open up these pre-sales yet until we actually have a little bit of a conversation about our pricing structure and all this stuff. Now, will tariffs affect the pricing? Yes, absolutely. But I think this is Nintendo using the tariffs as a way to go, ooh, this did not go like we thought it was gonna go, man.

Gamers are kind of ticked right now. Like even people that want a Switch 2 are a little peeved about the price and the price of the games. And John, you said it, if Nintendo gets away with charging $80 and $90 a game, every game developer in the world will follow suit, dude. This is not a light topic. This is, this is not

a light topic. This is not a light decision. If Nintendo can do it, everybody is going to do it. I mean, plain and simple. So are we ready as a planet of gamers to have games cost us 80 and $90 because if Nintendo charges it and they can do it, everybody else will follow suit. I don't think that them delaying the pre-orders is necessarily about the tariffs. Again, yes, the tariffs will affect the price of it, but I think Nintendo is smarter than just that. And I think they're using this to kind of reassess things. The other thing that I'll say is this is also very much,

we're already hearing this is going, well, digital copies of games won't be affected by a tariff because they're digital they don't have to get shipped but a manufacturer or a company or a developer like Nintendo that no longer has to worry about the resale market that's costing them probably billions of dollars is probably a okay with everybody in the world just buying a digital copy of the game that they can't turn around and sell

on Facebook Marketplace to somebody. I don't know, man. I mean, I don't know if that's a little conspiracy theory or what, but that's my thoughts on what Nintendo's doing, dude. So I think that ultimately markets settle themselves out. Like the customer base will decide whether or not they wanna pay this kind of money.

I think that what this is going to ultimately do is push games more towards like a subscription model like we saw with the fall of Blockbuster and Hollywood Video and stuff. Are you playing Blockbuster? I don't, I don't, I mean, no. Oh, I love Blockbuster and Hollywood video and stuff. Are we, are you playing Blockbuster? I don't, I don't, I mean, no. Oh, I love Blockbuster. It's the subscription model.

You don't own anything, guys. You don't own these games. You just, you know, you lease the ability to play them. I don't like that idea. Even though I, I mean, we just said Game Pass is great. It lets me play all these games for super cheap, but it's like, I still want the option to just say, this is my game and I can play it when my internet is out

And I got something to do Yeah, that's true. I hear you. I mean I guess as long as they are Subscription based and I have some ability to play it offline too because that's the majority of my gaming there But anyway markets correct This will also my opinion is this is all gonna settle out and it will ultimately settle out for the good of the consumer. There are games that are getting produced right now. South of Midnight was released at a price tag of $39.99

or you can just play it with your game pass. Games can be produced economically. Good, you know, big games can be produced economically. This'll sort itself out. It yeah, it'd be yeah. I'm an optimist. I believe that I think things are going to work out the way that they work out and you know, things need to get that you got to shake things up occasionally or everybody just gets

complacent and then we start having Far Cry 34567, you know, and Assassin's Creed, Mirage, Valhalla, Odyssey, Shadows, sorry, Ubisoft, that's a dig at Ubisoft again. I can't help myself, man. He just can't, he's at Ubisoft, he's like, it's an itch. He can't scratch, he's like, Ubisoft, Ubisoft. I've had a really long time. On our last twig, we had a little commentary about Ubisoft and the success of Assassin's Creed shadows

Breaking three million players in that same news release Ubisoft committed to releasing ten more Assassin's Creed games in the next five years. That's what who? Assassin's Creed games per year for the next five years, so they're not all gonna be like big broad multi Consular multi-platform releases summer like there's like a mobile game that's being Released or whatever first party mobile game, but still guys come on, man You were fewer better games, please Yeah Quality not games, please. Yeah.

Quality, not quantity. Please. I don't know, man. My kids think McDonald's is the greatest thing ever. So sometimes it just mass-produced. If it makes dollars, it makes sense, brother. I don't know. All right, listen, that's going to do it for this episode.

I mean, oh my goodness, guys, we are swimming, swimming in good games right now. Yeah. With some incredible looking games coming up on the horizon, it's a good time to be a gamer. That's all I got to say, man. Listen, thank you to Lucy Moon once again for supporting the show.

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