Video Gamers Podcast - First Descendant Thoughts, New Noire and Nobody Puts Kratos in the Corner - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: July 11, 2024

The Video Gamers Podcast is back with another incredible episode of This Week in Gaming. Gaming hosts Josh, Paul and Ryan are chatting the latest gaming news. This week we talk our thoughts on the new release of First Descendant, dive into what the creator of Kratos thinks of the reboot of the series, discuss a new game from LA Noire devs and more. All the video game news you need, each and every week from the Video Gamers Podcast! Thanks to our LEGENDARY Supporters: Disratory and Ole Jake Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Discord: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU12YOMnAQwqFZEdfXv9c3Q   Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello fellow gamers! Welcome to the Video Gamers Podcast. We are three lifelong gamer dads and on Thursdays like today we talk about recent gaming news stories for This Week in Gaming. I am your host Paul and joining me he's an absolute madman. He's already put 40 hours into the First Descendant in a five-day stretch. He's been playing it full-time, apparently. It's Josh. You're darn right I have, man. Don't be jealous, Paul. Don't be jealous. There is no jealousy. I have some words for you, but I will hold them off for now. All right. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. To be fair, it was a four-day weekend, 4th of July. So I had some extra gaming time this weekend.

And also 20 of those hours was in one day. Sure they were. All right. And then joining Josh and me, he's got 30 hours in the First Descendant over that same time. And he has a power leveling service for him. It's Ryan. Hey, if you want, you don't have to buy those expensive services online.

Just get a child and level him up and he can play for you. Get your kid hooked and don't let them have their own account. Is that what I'm hearing? And you know what's funny? I had my little brother do this on WoW when I was a kid too. I'm like, you can play, but you have to do these things. Sorry, Jake. You were my little WoW bot.

Nice. No need to pay for a glider and all those services back in the day. Oh, I still had a glider. I got banned. Oh, did you? That's funny. I never did. Although I did buy gold once online.

All right. Guys, there's a lot of news we can talk about. Obviously, The First Descendant is the biggest news story, at least in our corner of the gaming world. gold once online all right guys there's a lot of news we can talk about obviously the first descendant is the biggest news story at least in our corner of the gaming world the game launched on july 2nd after they accidentally i think trolled users for a couple days they posted that it released on the 30th but it was really just to preload we had a lot of hype for the first descendant i think that's fair. We all love online looter shooters. I think the expectation was kind of like Outriders light, but we knew

it would have microtransactions because it's free to play. I think I even said on the show, it's going to be like Lost Ark. We're going to have fun for a few hours. We're going to hit like where you have to engage in the microtransactions to keep playing end game. Assumed we would probably play up to that point and then quit the game pretty much plays like warframe meets destiny and apparently this is the greatest game either of you two have ever played i cannot believe how quickly i got left behind in the dust ryan was just saying to josh i can't believe you left me in the dust and i'm like you both left me in the dust within the first 12 hours of release.

Like goodness gracious guys. But apparently you're both really loving it. You should get a gaming podcast, Paul. And then you have to play these games like a lot to be able to talk about them on a gaming podcast. It's our job. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Also, also to be fair, you did leave town and go out into the woods for over the weekend so that's on you i mean you could have picked gaming over nature paul i was out of town for about 24 hours but within the first day josh you were like level 23 i hopped on for the first time with you and i was not yet level 10 for us to fight

like the first Colossus. And so I had to drag the two of you on my earlier missions just so I could hit level 10. And then next thing I knew you had 40 hours in this game. And I'm like, all right, I don't think I'm going to be able to play much more of the first descendant at this point. Also, I was AFK. Those are AFK hours. Sure they were, Josh. I can see in your eyes. Yeah, no, I will say I am enjoying this game. I was, I think I was the most hyped

out of the three of us for its release. I just love looter shooters. I love progression. I think you hit the nail on the head, Paul. Now that I am 40 hours into this game, it does have its hooks in me. I am really enjoying it. I actually am going to play when we're done recording. I'm actually having a lot of fun. Is it unique? Is it the next best thing out there?

No. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Like there's nothing really new that this game does. You know, you will see a lot of bad reviews from people that say, just go play destiny, just go play warframe. But I don't play either of those games. So why, why can't I enjoy first descendant if I don't play either of those?

Like, that's like saying like, you know, you can't play another first person shooter, just go play doom because doom's been around longer. And it's like, yeah, but I don't want to play Doom. I want to play something else. So I don't understand like the whole like go play these games because they've been out longer take that people are doing. But all that said, there's really nothing like magical about First Descendant.

You know, like, yes, there's other games like it, but this is the game that I'm playing right now and i'm having fun so that's kind of what we hope for right for eight hours a day well i mean those are afk hours paul no they're they're mad because they spent so much money and so much time on destiny or those other games that's that's the problem but how how about these free-to-play games? We got X-Defiant. We got... I forgot the name. My brain's so melted right now. First Ascendant. It's just...

It's been awesome. I've been having an absolute blast playing as well. The little bit I can get in with Madman Josh over there. I even got... I downloaded it on my PlayStation. I got my son playing now. So we've been doing some stuff. But it's just one of those fun guilt free games.

Because you didn't have to pay for it. You can go and play. If you didn't like it. Okay. No harm no foul. Just uninstall and you're good to go. Go play something else. If you love it.

Play it until you're bored. And then you're done. I don't see why anyone would have an issue. With somebody playing it unless maybe they're jealous that other people are having fun. But yeah, it's been an absolute blast. Well, Misery definitely enjoys company. I do know a lot of people have poked fun at the fact that its icons are pretty much lifted straight out of Destiny. There's definitely some heavy borrowing from other games with this one it is sitting at a 51 on steam on metacritic the user score is 5.4 so it is a little bit divisive a lot of the complaints are about one of two things one

the monetization they've got a little bit of the hot dogs to hot dog bun quantity ratios going on here where you can only buy currency in increments of 250 and 520, but then the descendants cost 300 and 600. So it forces you to buy way too much currency. And then also everyone seems to say it's pretty much a generic run of the mill looter shooter. I mean, Eurogamer's review that I sent to you guys says pretty much exactly that. They said, the game is neither bad nor outstanding. It doesn't do anything particularly well, but it doesn't do anything insanely badly either. It is a mid-range shooter that is outshone by the greats of the genre. Josh, I assume we would both say Outriders is a far better game than this.

This is just new and something that we haven't played. So that's why we were hyped. A hundred percent. I mean, yes, Outriders is honestly one of the cream of the crops for a co-op looter shooter. Remnant 2, I will continue to just shout to the world as being an absolutely incredible game. I get it. That's why I kind of started off saying like, yes, Destiny 2 has been out forever. Warframe, which I've never played, has been out forever. Could you jump into those games? Yes,

you could. There's something about jumping into a game when it is a new release, right? Like we have talked about this on the podcast, Paul, where we say, Hey, sometimes it's better to join a game when it's a new release so that you can kind of get involved in the hype involved in the, Hey, we're figuring out builds and we're figuring out fights, and you can kind of like just, you know, you kind of get caught up in that energy. If I was to join Warframe today, there's no hype. There's no conversation. You know what I mean? Like First Descendant is the new thing. And while it may be very similar to tons of other options out there, right now, it's the new thing, you know? And I,

I do agree. Like, I don't think that there's anything necessarily magical about this game, but Ryan, like you said, it's free to play, you know, like you don't have to spend money to enjoy it. Like you certainly can. And you're right. There are some kind of predatory practices with, Hey, these amounts don't line up. Right. Um, you know, but it's like, it's just, it's a fun game. I will one, I can, I can predict it right now. I'm gonna play this game for another week or so. I'm going to hit that wall where I just don't feel like grinding, you know, that one little piece of equipment so that I can have three, you know, damage more so that I can eventually beat this boss so that I can just rinse and repeat.

That time will come. I'm well aware of it. It will happen. And then I'll just abandon the game and move on at that point. But for now, I have gotten 40 hours worth of a lot of fun for basically free, man. There's nothing wrong with that. That's kind of a win in my book. Yeah. man like that's there's nothing wrong with that like that's kind of a win in my book yeah and it's it's kind of scummy where they do that whole kind of uh purchase technique to make

you have to pay more but at the end of the day like you said you got 40 hours if you have to pay five or ten bucks to get a character you want to try and play out you're still net positive like and you had an awesome time and i mean i'm just like you said with with the something fresh something new i'd say i'm probably the resident uh destiny guy i have hundreds if not a thousand hours playing destiny and destiny 2 i know the story i know how it all goes is it a better game yes is the gunplay crisp and clean and beautiful absolutely but this is brand new this is new bosses new colossus new new maps i i love the way they have it set up you go through you clear out this area you do all your little simple

missions and you got this big boss to fight and i want to talk with you josh about uh death was it death bride dead bride oh dead bride yeah dead bride yes the colossus fights they're real fun man they really are paul you nailed it they ripped this fun, man. They really are. Paul, you nailed it. They ripped this off from Final Fantasy XVI. They are the icons. They look very similar. They're stylized. But, dude, there's something really fun about fighting some five-story tall giant boss that has this really cool, unique look to it.

Especially when 15 runs in and then we finally get it when we get a good team we're like yeah yes yeah ryan and i fought this boss 15 times for hours like i mean i think it took us what two two and a half hours worth of probably straight attempts back to back to finally beat it and we did and we both were just jumping out of our chairs and like oh man we did it you know and then we ran our buddy andy through it because we were pros and then we beat it first try with him and he's like i don't see why this fight's so hard we learned it for you as you carry them yeah well you guys definitely aren't alone i mean there's about a quarter million people playing it on steam alone let alone console and uh yeah i mean it

seems like the gunplay is great but then you've got really goofy voice acting a nonsensical storyline not good like it's a little it's a little disjointed all around but it's free like if this was a 50 game i'd be a lot harsher on it for free it's tough to beat um all right and then before we move on we would like to let you guys know about a way you can help support the show. We do have Patreon support options, which start at five bucks a month. If you appreciate our work, please consider signing up,

even if it's just for a month or two. It's solely because of Patreon that this show has continued the last few years. You get awesome perks, like two bonus episodes every month called the Squadcast. Those are always an absolute blast. You'll also get a shout out on the show.

Go check it out at MultiplayerSquad.com. All right, so let's do a shorter news story here, since I know we're going to hit our break here pretty soon. Let's talk about this story about the LA Noire dev team. So basically, long story short, the dev team that created LA Noire are now working on a new project that we have only a little bit of details about. Now, Josh, I don't think you ever played LA Noire, right? I was going to ask if Ryan played it either. You might be the only one that's played it. I know you speak really highly of it, but Ryan, did you play it? I did not. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So I did not like LA Noire when it came out because I did not follow trailers or anything. It was just a rock star game. So I was expecting something like Manhunt, GTA, something very

action forward. And instead, it's very story forward and you're a detective. And a lot of it is like reading facial cues and trying to figure out who did what. So what's so weird is that L.A. Noire is 13 years old, and I still think today it is the best motion capture we've ever seen in a game. The emotions on the face, the way it lines up with the mouths, no one's done it better, even though we've seen 13 years of tech. It's pretty wild. Anyway, so an Australian composer posted on Instagram that he's working on a project for Rockstar called, I don't know if it's Sowden House or Sowden House, but he says that it's a psychological thriller set in 1940s LA and that this is being done by the same dev team that made LA Noire, which takes place at the same time, and that the game will have you questioning your sanity. I mean, that's not a lot to go off of,

but that reminds me of like eternal darkness, sanity's Requiem. Like if it's kind of like that, but it's in the forties and it's by people that already made a great game, that gets me pretty excited. What about you guys? I want another psychological horror game that messes with your head. We have been saying that for a long time now.

It's funny because I actually just had a conversation on Twitter or X today with a guy that was saying, hey, I'm looking for a new horror game to play. And I had recommended a couple. And he's like, yeah, I've played all those. I'm a huge fan of the genre. And then I was like, oh, well, why don't you recommend some to me instead? And it's just like... But one of the things that came up was, at least to me, horror is hard to do right in a video game because you have to capture a certain vibe, a certain feeling. And not all horror works for everybody. Like gore horror, like the Outlast games, doesn't really do it for me at all. It's just, I don't know.

It's just like, I just kind of tune it out, I guess. But psychological horror really gets me. Like Amnesia? Yes, exactly. That was the game that I actually said was Amnesia The Dark Descent, because that game will really psychologically mess with you. And Eternal Requiem does the same thing with the you're going insane and it starts messing with your display and these sorts of things. And I love that. And I want to see more of that. So when you give an article that says, Hey, we're really going to mess with your sanity and your mind, that gets me really excited. But at the same time, I have to filter it a little bit through the, well, of course,

they're going to say this horror game is crazy and messes with your head. Cause that's what all horror games say. They have to, you know? So i'm very curious if to see what they do because again if if you give a horror game from a developer that has a good pedigree that is saying hey it's really going to make you question your sanity you really have my attention but i need to see a little bit more before i trust you i'm for one i'm questioning my sanity a little bit because I can't believe this is where we are in the world today is because I started to look up the game

and I recognized it by the doubt meme. Oh, yeah. And I was like, oh man, I can't believe I recognized the meme before the game. I'm like, no. No, I'm excited. I remember seeing stuff about L noir and and um never really got around to playing it but yeah i hope this one i love same thing those psychological kind of horror

aspects to it anyone can just throw blood and guts everywhere but if you start messing with my brain and and freaking me out um that i'm all for it nice well for the record if our force of friends ever come back, let's just say L.A. Noire is on my short list. So one day in the future, one of you guys might happen to play it. See, this is what's weird because I don't mind. I wouldn't hate getting picked to play that because I never played it. Yeah.

You say that now. As long as you have proper expectations, you might like it. When I was expecting action and the game was 90% press X to look at a bottle, I got kind of mad the first time I played it. But then I re-bought it later on 3DS. And that's when I really fell in love with it, playing it on vacation. All right. Well, let's go and take a short break and then we'll come right back. This episode is brought to you by Samsung Galaxy. Ever captured a great night video

only for it to be ruined by that one noisy talker? With audio erase on the new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, you can reduce or remove unwanted noise and relive your favorite moments without the distractions. And that's not all. New Galaxy AI features like NowBrief will give you personalized insights based on your day schedule so that you're prepared no matter what. Buy the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra now at Samsung.com. All right, boys. So moving on to our next story of the week. This is a little bit of setup, so I'll get through this as quick as I can.

So David Jaffe is a pretty famous game designer. He's best known for directing the god of war and twisted metal games he actually created god of war back in 2005 he worked on the first two god of wars he moved on he directed a few other games and nowadays he hosts a show on twitch and on youtube and he recently has made a lot of comments about the direction of God of War, especially in regards to where they have gone with Kratos and Atreus. And he also has touched on some other games in general, but what I mostly wanted to talk about was when he had John Garvin on as a guest.

He was the director of Days Gone, and they were basically talking about writing for video games. And they were saying that when you write a novel or you write a movie, it's all about major character development. You have a character who needs something or they have a major flaw, and over the course of the story, they completely change internally in order to get over whatever obstacle is in the way. When you're writing for video games or TV, where you have a recurring character, they were saying you really can't do that because you have to be able to have a character to go back to. You can't completely change a character over the

course of the first game if you're planning a series. So here, they were basically saying that the 2018 reboot they thought was great. They loved giving Kratos another son and you have the family dynamic. Kratos is older. They found all that very exciting. What they thought was a major misstep was Ragnarok. And to be honest, I've had some trouble putting into words some of my issues with Ragnarok. And this to me, and I think it's a great game. I mean, I have Ragnarok rated very high on our leaderboard, but I do have it lower than 2018. And basically, long story short, they say Kratos is now too mopey and he does not feel terribly fun to play as, not talking about gameplay, but just him as a character. Who wants to be a mopey old man now?

And Atreus was not set up very well to take over as the main protagonist so they feel like they've kind of backed themselves into a corner storytelling wise do you guys think there's some truth to this like what are your guys thoughts after seeing this hey why are you talking about me that way i'm a god I'm out on god business. He's not as whiny anymore, but I mean, do we all agree? Like if the next god of war, they say Kratos is dead and we're all playing as Atreus. I think we'd all be pretty bummed, right? Yeah. See you later.

Yeah. Yeah, I think they made a lot of really good points on that. I know we watched that interview for a while and it's just it's it's hard it's one of those things where you want to have that character development you want to see the the progression and how things unfold but you you don't want to like you said you don't want to make it not fun like i mean i still had a lot of fun playing kratos but he did he seemed like kind of like a oh i'm you know all i've lost my wife. I lost my kids. And at some point, I don't know, maybe bring back the rage. You know, something crazy happens and he just goes off again.

Or I don't know. It's hard to say. I'm not a writer. I don't know these things. I just know what I enjoy. And it definitely, it was a step back from 2018. So I'd like to see kind of where the future holds for for the series um but it's definitely you know they were very on on point with everything they said this is tough because i it's kind of

hard to argue with the creator of a character and say no you're wrong you know like i i mean for me i i have played the original trilogy of god of war and I get that Kratos was intended to be this super powerful, murderous, rage-filled killing machine that is doing all sorts of debauchery and non-things that kids should do in a video game kind of thing. More R-rated. Yes, exactly. And so I get that in his mind, he created this character that is what Kratos in the original God of War series are. And I've played those games. They're phenomenal. But then when 2018 came out and you see the change in Kratos and you see the character that he is and how they started to kind of develop him, I don't know if it's because I'm a dad and Kratos and you see the character that he is and how they started to kind of develop him, I don't know if it's because I'm a dad and Kratos is a dad and he shows that dad side a little bit more. I don't know if it's just like, is it my age? Is it the fact that I'm a dad? But I can relate to Kratos in the 2018 God of War much more than I can relate to murderous Kratos in 1, 2, and 3, where he's just

slaughtering every guy he comes across. I can't relate to that Kratos. And so I'm going to disagree some because I really, really like the Kratos that is in 2018 God of War and Ragnarok. Now, I'm with you guys 100%. I don't think Ragnarok is as good as the 2018 God of War. It is kind of hard to put my finger on it. Maybe it's just because it's a sequel and we've already had a little bit of this. So there's a little bit of that like initial magic that's not there anymore. I will agree with Atreus. I don't think Atreus was, was handled properly in Ragnarok. And he is a major part in that. You that. I didn't want to spoil anything in case people haven't played it because it's coming out to PC soon. So it's like, I don't want to

spoil stuff for Ragnarok at this point. But I do fully agree there that they could have done a better job with Atreus. I do understand what they're saying about maybe they've painted themselves into a corner because where do they go with Kratos from here? But in the same vein, in that interview that they had, they said, you don't change Spider-Man. You don't change Superman. They stay the same and you can add different arcs and things like that, but they stay who they are. And in this case, you've taken Kratos who he was and you've completely changed him into a different character at this point. Which they say is fine. It has to be the end of the story. Because now, when I think back...

But we kind of assumed it was, right? With Ragnarok. Right. I mean, before it came out, we all was like, oh, well, Kratos is going to die. But yeah, it's hard to imagine them killing him off because it's such a cash cow. But when you think back on 2018,

what's the first character you think of? It's Kratos. Right. Because it was so different in all the character development. But when you think about R 2018 what's the first character you think of it's kratos right because it was so different and all the character development but when you think about ragnarok you're not thinking about how cool kratos was you're thinking about how cool odin was and how cool thor was yeah it to me it's almost like they've turned kratos into batman where it's only going to be as good as the villains around him because he himself now is kind of just in sad dad mode,

and there's not much beyond that. So unless they do something to really rattle Kratos out of that, I understand some of their concerns, even though the 2018 one is by far the best game. See, on the same vein though, Paul, in Ragnarok, they focus on a much wider cast of characters as well. Whereas in 2018, you have Kratos, you have Atreus, and you have Freya, and you have Balder, and that's it. I mean, yes, you have Mimir and stuff, but in Ragnarok, you have twice the size of the cast of characters, which means they're not really focusing on the intimate stuff

between Kratos anymore. So he kind of naturally just shares screen time we'll call it with a much wider cast of characters that i don't really care about as much like freya and and what's her brother's name and you know that whole little clan of merry men that they have and you know now you've got odin and thors his girlfriend and yeah agrabota and stuff and so it's like is it really kratos's fault that he isn't as interesting because they just they doubled the size of the cast and so he naturally has less time i don't know i i it's weird because it's like i get it but i want to argue with him at the same time you know i think it's just like like um i think that was a necessity because

where were they had nothing to write. What else were they going to write about him to make him that interesting? They needed those other characters. They needed that kind of filler, if you will, to carry this story through. Yeah, I don't know where they're going to go. What if some crazy Midgard time travel happens, young Kratos comes back, old Kratos has to channel his inner youth in rage, and then they battle. So this is like that Will Smith movie

from a couple years ago where he has to fight his younger self. That was some bad AI in that, or CGI. Yeah, special effects. Yeah, CGI. Wow, okay. I did not expect us to talk this long about God of War. I think it's because we love the series so much. I mean, whatever they they come out with next i'm sure it's going to be a ton of fun

to play i mean you the the gameplay is impeachable in ragnarok but story-wise it was a little bit of a step down for me i i get the the trepidation there all right well uh we only got time for one more story let's talk a little bit about GTA 5. So, you know, Rockstar... Talk about a villain. This is an all-time villain for sure. All right. So, we never got any GTA 5 story DLC, which was a huge disappointment because it's one of the best games ever made. It's very beloved by so many people. They still rake in, I think, like a half billion dollars a year with GTA Online, something like that. And we got great DLC

like in GTA 4, which was fantastic. And I played and bought all of those, thought that they were great. Well, we did hear from a former dev that said that they were working on dlc for gta 5 it was supposed to be trevor centric and he was going to go undercover and the voice actor who does trevor confirmed all this said that it was basically like james bond trevor phillips oh my god i don't even know what that means or what that looks like but i feel like we really missed out i really wish we got to see a trevor centric dlc phillips trevor phillips just shows up with just stuff spilled all on his suit can't find his gadgets because he was up all night on a bender and can't figure out where he put his super spy watch and yeah i would love to see that i would too i don't i don't even know what to make of it and then the voice actor

who played michael said that originally there was a plan to have three dlcs one for each of the main protagonists but the problem is that gta online just started making hand over fist, and all of it got shelved. Because why would you put money and people and resources to something that you're going to sell once and then no one will buy it again? Or selling GameShark cards and GTA Plus subscriptions for GTA Online? So they pulled all those people off, focused on GTA Online, which is a little bit of a shame. They should have put them all on gta 6 so we can finally get that stinking game this is all right this is your reminder to go buy good dlcs like shadow the earth tree witcher blood and wine heart of stone

phantom liberty for cyberpunk like because you know all those companies made money hand just tons of money but you know what they did they said man, let's give more of this awesome game to gamers instead of just going this online route and then saying, we don't need to develop anything else fun. Why would we spend time doing that? Also, shout out to Lair of the Shadow Broker for Mass Effect 2. There's some great, very well-beloved DLCs out there. This one we did miss out on. It does make me worry a little bit about gta6

like i don't know if they're just gonna bundle everything as one package and that's all we'll see i have a feeling they're gonna put a lot of money continually toward gta online so they're gonna you know they're gonna treat when gta6 comes out they're gonna use gta online as like a refresh or a world renew or i would be amazed if they didn't do something to try to push people into gta online to go along with gta 6 i swear it's the only reason that they're making more of them is just to get more people playing online yeah oh for sure yeah all right well i think that wraps everything up here for this week. I did also want to mention for stories being left on the cutting room floor, Nintendo says that they're going to be pumping out so many Switch 2s. They're hoping to bypass all scalping. So their goal is

to have so many made at release, everyone can have one on day one. Call me skeptical. I guess we'll have to wait and see, but it's a lofty goal. Credit to Nintendo. I hope they do it. But yeah, that's pretty much it here for this week please consider supporting the pod through patreon you can do that through multiplayer squad.com for those bonus episodes and other perks and please take a couple seconds to rate our show five stars leave a review on apple podcasts and come join the free discord you can also find us on socials everywhere at video gamers pod and we will be back on mond Monday with a new episode until then. Happy gaming. Oh,

see ya. All right. See ya everybody.