Video Gamers Podcast - [Force a Friend] The Island Life For Me - Video Games Podcast

Episode Date: October 9, 2023

Video games hosts Ryan, Paul and Josh are back with another Force a Friend episode. This time it’s Josh’s turn to pick the video game, and things are gonna get a little spicy with a possibly polarizing video game he isn’t sure will land with the chosen host. Which host will it be and will this be a gaming triumph or a gaming flop? Thanks to our LEGENDARY Supporters: Redletter, Gaius214 and Nate Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Discord: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com//videogamerspod Follow us on Twitter: 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

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Visit BetterHelp.com today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com. Hello, fellow gamers, and welcome to another edition of the Video Gamers Podcast. We break down all sorts of things like gaming news, first impressions on new releases, and we also deep dive some of our favorite games over the years. I am your host, Paul, and I am joined here with the man of the hour. He holds all the power of this episode. He's going to be telling us what our next deep dive game is later today. It's Josh. You you know i liked being the first guy to pick a force of friend game and i like being the first guy that gets to pick a second game now i like

this trend is what i'm saying phyllis yeah we're gonna keep bouncing off you josh we're gonna just keep picking you for every game all right and then joining josh and me he is still excited and cheering because josh actually liked his very first metal gear solid game after we all played the phantom pain the last couple weeks it's ryan oh yeah i'm here it may have been a a bad thing though because i have done nothing but play metal gear since so i am josh got you rehyped i am so hooked back on this game i it's it's literally running in the background right now so yeah here we are your wife sent paul and i a message that said what have you guys done and then we were like it's technically ryan's fault because he picked the game when i had the power yeah i love that r Ryan picked it to try to hype up Josh.

And all it did was hype you up the most. Oh, it hyped me up so much. Yeah. So much. Oh, it's so great. Man, I love Metal Gear Solid. All right. So we have just a little bit of housekeeping today before we jump into our content.

For those who are not aware, our show is really only able to exist because of financial support from our listeners. And anytime somebody signs up for support through Patreon, we always give them a shout out on the show. show is really only able to exist because of financial support from our listeners and anytime somebody signs up for support through patreon we always give them a shout out on the show and this week we had a new person sign up their name is kc cryptics they signed up with rare status and we want to say thank you from all three of us here at the video gamers podcast thank you so much for your support. Yeah, Chris. Also has been active in the Discord. Super cool guy.

Really just really awesome having him around and sharing stuff. And fellow Anthem fan from what I'm gathering from our episode of the Best of the Worst Games. And I think he became a Kansas City Chiefs fan because of Taylor Swift attending the games, right? Yeah, really putting everybody on the map is what's going on. I'm just so glad that finally people will know who Travis Kelsey is, right? You know, so great.

All right. So, Josh, why don't you tell our listeners here about how our Force a Friend episodes work, along with how people can sign up to hijack a host if they so choose. Yeah. So the way that this episode works is we've all had that friend that we've wanted to be able to kind of say like, dude, you really should play this game. I think you'd like it. Or hey, you play it and let me know if it's worth picking up. I mean, this is a thing that just revolves around the gaming world. We all listen for reviews. We want to know what people think of games. But sometimes you just wish that you could make a friend play that game that you've got in mind.

And that is exactly what we get to do. We get to pick a game that we want somebody to play, and then we get to pick which person is going to play that. Now, we've been doing this for a little while now, but tonight, it is my turn. I have the power. I get to pick the game. I get to pick which one of you has to play the game. And then what we'll do is we'll come back in two weeks, and we will do a full deep dive episode on that. We will find out what the person thought of the game. We'll break everything down. You'll get the opinion of somebody like me. Obviously they thought is a newbie to it. And then if the other host just doesn't play it at all, you'll get the perspective of somebody that knows nothing about the game and has questions. So it works out really, really well. But if you want power. Unlimited power.

Yeah, I really want the power. Josh, like, why don't you pick this game, Josh? And why don't you make Paul play it? Guess what? You can do that. You can hijack one of us by going to MultiplayerSquad.com. If you sign up for a legendary status, you get to hijack a host, which means you get to pick the game and pick which host has to play that game. We'll do the Force a Friend episode just like we're doing tonight, and we'll come back two

weeks later and do the full episode on what we think about that game as well. So it's a great way to support the show. It's a great way to have people try a game that maybe you want people to try as well. You can do that over at MultiplayerSquad.com. Perfect. And also, we have another new announcement. Ryan, I'm going to give you the honors because this was your idea. What did you want to start implementing here with these Force a Friend episodes?

I want you guys to play with us so what i i thought we could do is let's have some sort of giveaway to where you guys can play the game that uh whoever has the power gets to play you know they they get to play that game with us so we're gonna do a giveaway one person one lucky lucky person out there gets to get a free game key. And then you're going to give your review, your ideas, your thoughts on the game with us. And we're going to read it on the show for everyone to hear. I think this is such a cool idea. So if you want to be able to enter a raffle, and this is very funny because we're talking about a raffle

that Ryan and I don't even know what the game is. Josh knows. But if you want to be entered into this raffle, then you can leave a review of our show on Apple Podcasts. If you've left a review before, feel free to update your review and then just send a screenshot of that to us either on socials. You can find us everywhere at video gamers pod or you can send it to us by discord or email it to us through the website whatever or if you

don't want to leave a review or don't use apple then you can also just share a social media post while tagging us and then that'll enter you in the raffle as well and then we'll pick one lucky winner and hopefully there won't be any issues with like international key codes we'll try to figure it all out but as long as we can make it work we'll give you a free copy and then you'll have two weeks to play it along with us and then that way uh you can also send in a little write-up and we'll read it on the show what a great idea ryan i thought that was very very very cool. Round of applause. Thank you, Ryan. Thank you, Ryan. Round of applause. Guys, guys.

No, no, it's not necessary. Don't worry. Now, everybody's like, let's find out what game Josh is picking first. Yeah, yeah. Let's find out. All right. So, Josh, you mentioned how you got to have first honors about this. You chose Subnautica.

You forced Ryan to play it. I have a hunch that you might not be going back to that same well. You guys have bounced back and forth. I have a feeling I might be the target today. But just tell us, Josh, what was your mindset? What was your approach for picking today's game? So initially, I actually had a game picked out and I pivoted right at the last minute. And it was one of those things where it was like, I've got this game picked out and I pivoted right at the last minute. And it was one of those things where it was like, I've got this game, it's locked in.

And then I just kind of went, man, there's this other game in my head. It's kind of, it's kind of itching, you know? And then right at the last minute, I pivoted to something else. I am going with a game that I think might be a little polarizing this time.

Right. We had subnautica beloved game, right? Like Ryan liked it. I don't know that he loved it as much as I wanted him to, but he still enjoyed the game. Right. Ryan picked Metal Gear Solid five,

another beloved game. I loved it. Good job, Ryan. Yeah. And so I thought, you know, I could just pick another game that somebody is just going to love,

or I could pick a game that I love, but I'm not really sure you guys are going to love it. Interesting. And so that is what I'm doing tonight. And there is a very real chance that whoever gets picked to play this is not going to like this game. And that's fine. Not everybody likes every game. The thing is, they're going to play it. If it's Paul or Ryan, that's the deal we make. You guys will play the game. You're going to put the effort

in and do the work that you need to do. And we'll come back and see what you thought about it. But I wanted to go that route. So for tonight, that's what I went with. It's not some super beloved game, but a game that is near and dear to me that I mean, honestly, I hope you guys like it, but I just don't know. It's also lower stakes. If you just set it from the outset, like you might not even like this game. And that's kind of a good approach because you're lowering expectations and it's a better chance that we'll end up liking it maybe even more than you're letting on. All right. So Josh, you get the honors. I don't know how you want to do this. Do you just want to blurt out the name of the game?

Do you want to try to make us guess what it is with some hints? How are we going to do this? Ooh, hints. I'm going to read, I think, see, this is part of the problem.

So I'm going to give away who I'm making play the game first. Okay. Cause I think that's not as big of a surprise. Paul, I'm picking you, buddy. Okay. You haven't,

you haven't been forced yet. Ryan and I have gone back and forth. I'm not surprised. It's you, Paul. It's your time. Okay. And so you are the victim in this case. Yeah.

And I have a feeling Paul is going to get this. I'm going to read you the game description, Paul, and if you know what it is, you can just tell me. Okay? Okay. Okay. I like this i actually if you know what it is hold it because i don't know that ryan's ever even heard of this game before so let's let's see if ryan if it if it makes any sense to ryan and if not then you can chime in okay we have played this we have played this game before on the squad cast and i do tend

to beat the pants off of ryan with guessing the game based on the description. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've been playing a lot of games for a long time. So, okay. Go ahead. All right. So, Ryan, if you know it, let me know. If you're completely stumped, then we'll just have Paul. But I have a feeling this is going to give it away.

Here is the Steam description of the game. You awake on a mysterious island with no goal but to simply traverse the area's multiple landscapes unlock new pathways and solve all the puzzles that prevent you from escaping is it missed that was a good guess right it is not missed no i have no idea i have a guess is this the witness it is the witness oh yes okay now i now have we have talked about the witness on this show and i for the life of me cannot remember if you've ever played it or if you did play it i feel like you didn't play it very much is that true okay well i'm gonna pull up my epics my epic games launcher because i think i might own this through epic game Store. I checked. Dude, I checked on Steam. I went into your profile and I looked at every game that you have played. 213 games on your Steam profile,

Paul. And I didn't see it on there. And then I went, oh no, what if he has it on Epic? But I could not... Epic doesn't let you see the games your friends have. Or if it does, I have no idea how to do that. all right so here's the thing i do not see it in my library i did play it but not very long i'm starting to think that i might have played it for like an hour and you know me i am refunded it yeah i think i refunded it you know me that's not necessarily a sign that i didn't like the game. Whenever I pick up a game, I am always judging whether or not I feel it's worth the price. And if I paid full price for The Witness and I did two puzzles and I was like, hey, this is cool, but I can buy a puzzle game for four bucks and I think it might be just as good, then I'm more likely to refund it. I know you love The Witness.

Is this your favorite puzzle game, Josh? It is my favorite puzzle game ever. Portal 2 is a puzzle game, but Portal 2 is just a different type of genre, right? It's kind of standalone. Yeah. I can't compare this to Portal 2, and I'm not trying to. But if you were talking purely puzzle games that are very memorable, the Witness, to me, stands above the rest in that regard. Because it is unlike any other puzzle game out there. So yes, it is my favorite puzzle game of all time. Oh, I love it.

I love puzzle games. The only thing, for me, is just mostly price. There are a lot of great I love puzzle games. The only thing for me is just mostly price. There are a lot of great cheap mobile games. A lot of them are even free. So I'm very excited to jump back into The Witness. I think this is a really fun pick. Ryan, I know that you are also a big puzzle game fan. Have you even ever heard of The Witness prior to 10 seconds ago?

I have not, and I'm Googling it it right now and i have no clue what this is oh all right paul initial reaction dread excitement like where are you at with this i am excited well he already refunded it so i i promise i will not refund it this time i will i will play it long enough i definitely have some follow-up questions. And I don't even know if you know, Josh, but about how long of a game is this? I'm under the impression this is like a 15-hour game. Is it actually longer? It depends because it all depends on how fast you can solve these puzzles and stuff like that.

I think if I had to say overall, it's probably a 20 to maybe 25 hour game. Now, again, that could stretch into 50 hours if you're getting completely stumped on something and you're just banging your head against the wall. I will say the beauty of The Witness is this is an open world puzzle game. Instead of open world RPG, I know that sounds goofy, but the beauty of The Witness is if you get stuck, just go somewhere else. Don't fall into the pitfall of trying to brute force your way through these puzzles because it can get frustrating at that point.

This is no slouch of a puzzle game, dude. These puzzles are mind-bending. So if you get stuck, just go somewhere else and explore a little bit and do something different, you know, in that regard. Okay. That makes a lot of sense. Is this the one where you're trying to like work your way up the mountain or to the middle of the island? Yes. And then the more puzzles you beat, that's opening the pathways that you read in the description. Yeah. So the beauty of The Witness 2 is that there is a neat kind of

twist or reveal as you get later on in the game. I won't spoil any of that, obviously. But as you beat parts of the island, you know you're done with that because something happens. And then it kind of says, okay, well, I've done everything I need to do here. And then you kind of move on to another area. And then the more of those that you complete, the more like the revelation of the game kind of comes into picture, I guess. Okay, that makes sense. You know what, the more I think about it, I might have this wrong. But there is a chance that I bought the witness and the Talos principle, like back to back, and I ended up sticking with the Talos principle. And I think that might be, I think I was just playing two puzzle games at the same time.

And I think that might be why I refunded the witness. I think I played a little bit of both and then stuck with that one. Both great games. I actually considered the Talos principle for you, Paul, but I really wanted to, I feel like the witness has a larger variety of puzzles and it really tests different aspects of thinking.

Sometimes it's visual. There's even audio puzzles in this game, which is bananas to me, honestly. And so some of it is visual. Some of it is logic. Some of it is audio. Some of it's reasoning. There's just so many different aspects that this game throws at you that I really wanted to do that over Talos Principle. Talos Principle is phenomenal, but the puzzles in that game can start to get more repetitive, in my opinion. And I didn't want to burn you out in that regard, but I did almost pick Tal did almost pick Talos principle for you well I will say I appreciate you picking a 20 to 22

hour puzzle game and not Metal Gear Solid 5 where you could spend a thousand hours still have stuff to do this feels a little bit more manageable all right it's time to for us to take our break and then we'll be right back and we'll talk more about the witness

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I was going to say, just today I was like, oh, I got 20 minutes. I helped my brother move a fridge this afternoon before we recorded. So I was like, I got 20 minutes. I can go run a little quick mission, a little side op or whatever. I hopped on. And then I just hopped in the box. And I was running around with the box in the air. And I was looking out the box and just, whatped in the box and I was running around like with the box in the air and I was like looking out the box and just great.

What's in the box? John Doe has the upper hand. It's me, baby. It's me. But this one, it's a relatively cheap game. I love puzzle games. Not that I'm good at them, but i will probably check this out with you guys just kind of ease the pain of of you paul having to play this so i'm not not that you're obligated

ryan but you should check it out um i will say one of the things that i love about the witness and i was going to bring this up anyway the reason that this game stands out to me is because the game is not about necessarily solving puzzles. It's about understanding the puzzle. And what The Witness does better than any other puzzle game out there is it basically teaches you the foundation of what you need to know. If I said, Ryan, you need to know red and green, right? And you need to know that red means stop and green means go. Very simple premise, right? So then I'm going to give you a puzzle where there's a red up top and a green on the bottom. And I'm going to say, draw a line, which, which, where are you going to draw that line? Right. On the green one, right? You're going to say, well, green means go. So draw a line. So that's kind of what the witness does

is it gives you this very, very simple premise for something, and then it steps you up each time and difficulty. And by the end, you're racking your brain, but it's like the game taught you how to solve this. And so you got to remember sometimes, like, I know the answer to this. I just got to remember that kind of thing. So I really like how it goes about presenting things to you. I actually have some fun facts that we can get to that explains a little bit of how they approach this. So you want me to lay it on me?

Yeah. All right. So a couple of fun facts, right? So to create the game's visual language, the team actually developed their own game engine for The Witness and retained artist, architects, and landscape architects to design all of the structures on the island. So they put a lot of thought and design into the actual location of the game and the engine. I mean, they made an engine for this thing. So this game was made by the creator of Braid, which is a video game that you guys might have

heard of. I believe his name, his last name, I think it's Jonathan Blow, is the creator. But when he made The Witness, he desired to create a game around nonverbal communication, wanting players to learn from observation and come to epiphanies in finding solutions and leading to a greater sense of involvement and accomplishment with each success the game includes around 650 puzzles though the player is not required to solve all of them to finish the game so that non-verbal thing and the the um observation is critical in this game like that's one of those things that i really like is you will learn as you play that not everything is as it seems, which I love. And sometimes you just have to stop and look around. Like don't get, don't get so laser focused. That's kind of what I said in the beginning, right? Paul is don't laser focus on one puzzle at a time. Sometimes pause, breathe, look around, explore a little bit because they designed this game with that in mind.

That makes sense. Like you might be doing a puzzle and you think you understand the rules and you're getting nowhere. But then if you observe, you might realize, oh, it's actually a totally different puzzle than I initially thought. Or there's that kind of what you're saying. Yes. Or there's a rule that you don't quite know about that now helps you really solve that puzzle, right? Where it's like you could have maybe solved it before, but it was a lot harder. But if you take your time, explore, observe, maybe you get an answer or a thing that says, I'm such an idiot, you know?

And now the puzzle makes a lot more sense and it's easier to do. My YouTube's gonna be bumping. Yeah. How to solve. Yeah. Okay, Next fact. The witness is derived from the core gameplay aspect of making the player attentive to the surroundings to discover meaning and solutions to puzzles without any verbal communication.

Okay. So again, the game is expecting you to figure out how to solve these. It does not tell you how to solve them which i think is really neat and then finally uh chloe rad of ign awarded the game a perfect score of 10 out of 10 calling it a masterpiece stating that it was a beautiful powerful and cleverly designed puzzle game with a wealth of mysteries to unravel that's quite a compliment right there yeah 10 out of 10 on ign too so there's there's not been a ton of those so okay so ryan i think this is where you and i have a chance to ask follow-up questions if we have any now the witness as i remember it is just single player right there's no no multiplayer

to this one single player only okay yep are you like a like a first person character walking through okay first person perspective there's exploration which i really like because there's a lot of different biomes so to me that keeps things fresh there's a lot of really cool architecture and structures and stuff so sometimes you might see this really really tall building or like a castle right and you're like dude let me go check out what's in this castle and then there's this really neat just idea of a puzzle laid out inside this castle or something like that so i did i really enjoy the fact that they it's not just like non-stop puzzles but sometimes like i said that exploration and looking around is going to be valuable and rewarding so as you as you traverse through the area sometimes those will

help you on one of the puzzles that you run into what you've gone through okay yep exactly now that's not to say that if you're stuck on a puzzle that the answer is on the other side of the island like guaranteed sometimes you just have to stop think about it say what am i supposed to do here look around a little bit in the area because they all have kind of themes to them. And sometimes that will help you out, you know, as far as that goes. But again, if you get stuck, just go somewhere else. There's plenty to do. That makes sense. Does the game have any kind of lore or central story, or is it mostly just explore in between these puzzles? Now, this is where I got a little worried, Paul, because I told you that this might be polarizing. There is an idea that this game

presents to you. And I will say, because I don't really expect you to beat this game necessarily, but I will say that if you do beat it or you make it super far, you're going to see that it is playing on the idea that we do not observe everything that is around us usually. I think one of the quotes I read is like, you reach a point in life where you see the world a little bit differently, right? Like as a kid, you only care about today, but as you become an adult, you see things differently. And that is kind of like what The Witness does, is once you make it to a certain point, you start to see the island differently, if that makes sense. Broaden your perspective.

Exactly. And that's one of those epiphany moments for the game. And I'll just kind of leave it at that. But there is epiphany, there is discovery, there is understanding that happens. But my only concern for you, Paul, is that there is not like a constructed story in this, like there would be in like the Talos principle. Yeah. And I am a sucker for story, but I'm also just a sucker for a series of puzzles, even if there was no exploration and it's just beat this puzzle and then it warps you to the next one. Honestly, I'd be fine with that too so okay that that's not gonna get in the way that that's for sure good all right any other questions you got

for josh ryan i don't think so run around and uh just be stupid that's what i'm gonna do be observant i don't know what to do and i'm just he's j is going to get so many messages from me, and I'm not even the one he picked. I'm going to be like, Josh, what do I do? Now, you know, this is – Paul is the smart one of this bunch, you know, between myself and Ryan. Paul is definitely like the scholar of us, and that's part of the reason that I picked Paul for this

is like I want to see how smart Paul really is. Like see let's find out how smart you really are paul paul your deep dive is an iq test challenge accepted yeah look at this inkblot and tell me what you see oh i love it all right yeah yeah how a skill skill last question scale of one 10, how hard would you say the average puzzle is? Is this something where you're, you kind of have to bang your head against the wall a while, or do you get most of them the first time around? Or is it like that sweet spot of, of challenging,

but not too frustrating? Here's the beauty, Paul. Legitimately. My answer is almost all the puzzles start at a one. Okay. But they progress to like an eight. Okay, gotcha.

So that's why that goes back to what I told you. The game teaches you what to do. It gives you the basics. It gives you the foundation, right? Like it's like math, right? One plus one equals two, right? But then you're getting to the level where it's like X minus one divided by four

equals X minus Y, you know? And then it's like x minus one divided by four equals x minus y you know and then it's like same foundation just you know carried on a little bit further okay i like it i like it i'm very excited to play this one i'm very excited to buy it for the second time and then this time stick with it all right and uh before we wrap up the show we always like to try to guess the user score so josh i know you looked this one up earlier did you grab the user rating on steam is that what you did i also because i i pulled a few reviews paul because i want to kind of prep you a little bit more for this so i forgot about reviews i pulled a few reviews and unlike subnautica because i only

wanted to get ryan hyped about that i actually did pull a negative review for this one as well so okay so first one 58 hours on record a great game if you'd love to rapidly alternate between feeling like the cleverest and most stupid person in the world oh see that perfect that is the recipe for the perfect puzzle is where you feel like this is completely impossible and then all of a sudden it clicks into place and you say how could i have been so stupid that is what every puzzle should shoot for yep well you're gonna feel that way paul so okay this next one i uh this is recommended 41 hours on record i always have trouble when thinking about how to suggest the witness to friends and other players not because it's not worth your time and

money but because it's so hard to explain what makes it so special and why everyone should at least give it a try there's no need to lie though one of the main obstacles with suggesting it is that at its core the witness is a game. Your interactions in the game are exclusively limited to puzzles, and yet it's so well-crafted that it may be among the best puzzle games ever made. And that is a good point. It's very hard to describe why puzzles are good, other than saying, oh, they're just really fun and challenging. It's hard to describe it, but it's just got that it factor,

that je ne sais quoi, is that the like that that that undescribable quality okay so here's a negative review uh they have 12 hours on record it says let's be clear this is a type of puzzle game and the type is not for everyone me obviously included in this latter category the presentation is beautiful but what it lacks is explanation. Some people love this type of puzzle where figuring out the rules of the puzzle is literally part of the puzzle. I, however, hate this kind of puzzle, and I really only enjoy working within a well-explained and established framework. Does this make it a bad game? No, not at all. So let me be clear again, if you like the kind of puzzle that doesn't give you anything at all, you about the treasure rewards. To me, the reward is solving

the puzzle and clearing out that outpost or getting to the top of the mountain or reaching that ledge. So to me, that is completely fine. I don't need a whole lot of framework. Just give me a puzzle and figuring out the rules and solving it is in itself

its own reward. I'm all about it. That does not deter me in the least okay good i'm gonna i'm just gonna stick to a metal gear solid brian's like i don't know about all this mind-bending stuff okay last review and then we'll guess the score here okay so this one is recommended 37 hours on record there is a general dichotomy i have noticed when people talk about The Witness. There are people who adore the game, and there are people who hate it. There are people who view it as a pinnacle of the art form, and there are people who think it's pretentious garbage.

Me, personally, I find The Witness to be a brilliant game. But you might disagree. The majority of The Witness is solving puzzles. A vast majority. There are good puzzles. They are thoroughly engaging and clever puzzles. Some of the twists on mechanics are outstanding and mind bending. Almost all of the puzzles are designed in a way that makes solving them impossible unless you understand the mechanics. They're the investment of the game and they're truly fantastic. I'm hyped. I'm excited. Okay, good. All right. Well, you've heard a lot of people saying this game is polarizing. You've heard a lot of people say that they think it's one of the best puzzle games ever made.

What do you guys think the Steam score is? I think this one's pretty darn high. I'm going to say 91%. I think most people really enjoy The Witness. I know a lot of people say it's among their favorite puzzle games so i'll say 91 all right ryan um i don't know anything about the game but i have a feeling a lot of people probably got um stuck and annoyed and angry so i'm gonna go a little lower just to shoot out there on 87 87 from ryan that was a decent score that was that's a pretty good score especially for a puzzle game yeah um i guessed

86 just because i wanted to play along and i didn't actually know the score the actual score is 85 so it's considered very positive, again, almost all the negative reviews basically just said this style of puzzle game doesn't really work for me. Yeah. I don't get it. Oddly enough, Paul, you're not colorblind, are you? No, I am not. Okay, because oddly enough, a lot of the negative reviews were complaints that the game had where you had to be able to distinguish between colors. And because there's audio puzzles, it not like accessible to people so that was a

lot of actual negative reviews in there as well so i i don't remember really anything about the witness but i do remember different color wires connecting things or like different color tiles and if there's no like colorblind options there i could see where that would just kill the game where you just wouldn't be able to play they're all gray i don't understand this puzzle at all so i i would say i'm trying to think like i'm just trying to project where do i think this is going to end up on my leaderboard so we've done uh 102 games now i the the last puzzle game that we played was humanity and i liked it quite a bit i liked it more than than you yeah i liked it more than both of you i've got that one sitting at number 43

i think i'm gonna have the witness a little bit higher than that but not too much higher just by nature being a puzzle game i don't think it's gonna reach the ranks of things like fallout new vegas or elden ring or even hogwarts legacy or something like that uh but my guess is it's going to reach the ranks of things like Fallout New Vegas or Elden Ring or even Hogwarts Legacy or something like that. But my guess is it's probably going to be somewhere in like my mid to late 30s. That's my projection. I think I'm going to like it quite a bit. I think I'm going to have it somewhere around the range of like Dead Island 2, Far Cry 5, maybe right around there. I was going to guess that you would place it somewhere in the 30s with a hope that it would be in the late 20s. If it clicks to guess that you would place it somewhere in the thirties with a

hope that it would be in the, like the late twenties. If it clicks for you, I could see it being in the late twenties for you. But yeah, that's, that was my guess as well as it's like, I think you're going to like it.

Maybe that's, yeah, that's the thing is like, if those, that's the thing with puzzle games is if, if that clicks and you're like i get these this this is my type you know my brain waves match with this this sequence and bam i can figure out these puzzles you're gonna you're gonna love it you know these those types of games so hopefully

uh hopefully it is for paul i i don't think it will be for me, but I'll try it. I will say one further caveat, Paul. I don't want you to look up solutions unless you're truly stumped. Like, don't sacrifice the game. You know what I mean? Like, don't just get frustrated and be like, this sucks. I can't. Because again, go somewhere else if you get stuck on something, right? Like, explore, find different kinds of puzzles to do.

Ultimately, if you're just like dude i literally can't play anymore unless i can get past this puzzle and i can't get past this puzzle then then look up one but try to avoid like you know try to figure them out because there's definitely a reward that lands when you do that because you taught yourself kind of how to beat this puzzle in a sense too so that makes perfect sense i i never understand when people cheat at things because then there's no sense of reward if you win or accomplish something so yeah for things like puzzle games especially knowing in this game that if i can't figure out a puzzle go walk around and do a different one that makes perfect sense to me

i'll only look up a guide if i can only find four puzzles and i don't know how to do any of them then i might take a glance here or there but yeah i'll absolutely do my best to only do that if i literally cannot get any further in the game i will say this too if you're 20 hours in and you're like i'd really like to see what this like revelation is in this game just blow through them at that point you know what i mean like that would be cool you know because it is pretty cool it really does add to the game itself um but all right oh i'm excited man i really don't know paul and it's like if paul comes back and he's like josh i hate this game i it's like i could understand that you know like i i get it i'm not saying like it's not where it'd be like shocking to me that it's like what like how can you hate this like there is a chance like i went into this

knowing that you might come back and be like nah dude no risk no reward don't ever do that to me again josh you took your shot i respect it i think i'm gonna like it i i tend to like games like this so it's it's probably right up my alley i am gonna dive into it too i'm not gonna play the whole thing but i actually am gonna refresh uh some of my gameplay on this we got a trio let's do it get it going all right well i think that wraps everything up here for this pre-dive force a friend episode make sure to come back in two mondays when we will cover this game i'll be able to give my thoughts having actually played it and also as a reminder make sure to go enter that raffle if you

want to get a free copy of the witness and also if you want to hijack one of our future episodes and want to pick a game go do that over at multiplayer squad.com we want to say thank you so much to everyone we want to say thank you once again to KC Cryptics for signing up on Patreon. And until next time, happy gaming. See ya! Oh, I hope it's happy gaming for you, Paul. It will be. All right.

See you, everybody. Thank you.