Video Gamers Podcast - Hijack a Host: Josh Takes the Wind – Our Deep Dive Into Where Winds Meet – Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan, and Ace strap in for another Hijack a Host as Josh gets taken over for the highly anticipated Where Winds Meet! This time, Josh is in the driver’s seat, pulling the crew into a sweeping open-world wuxia adventure packed with fluid combat, breathtaking landscapes, and enough swordplay to make your jaw drop. Is this stylish epic the next must-play in the action RPG space, or just another beautiful mirage in the modern gaming landscape? We break down everything from traversal and combat flow to narrative ambition and whether Where Winds Meet actually delivers on its massive promise. If you love video games that aim big and swing hard, this episode is absolutely for you. Plus, we talk about how this title fits into the broader gaming conversation and what it could mean for the future of historical fantasy in the genre. Don’t miss this hijacked deep dive on the Video Gamers Podcast — one of those video games discussions you’ll be quoting all week!   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps and NorwegianGreaser, and Dettmarp   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, PeopleWonder, Bobby S.   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/kKA7EMyM 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. I've been hijacked and forced to play where wins meet. A game I was hyped for when we first saw it many years ago. But then it disappeared and so did my hype. But after being forced to play it, what did I think? Well, we're about to find out. But first, some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh.

And joining me, he's a master. of home projects, overbooking work, and sometimes playing video games, as long as it's on controller. It's Ryan. I miss video games so bad, dude. I played two matches. Two matches are graders right before we started recording because somebody was a little delayed.

But it was, I was instantly like, why don't I do this more? You know? Yeah. Imagine a world, Ryan, where like both of us had the day off and we could have actually played games together like today. You know, the difference is my days off are not the same as your days off. I don't know. I'm just saying.

We could have. Your days off are off and you take naps and you like relax. Mine are not that way. I had a great nap today. I knew you took a nap. I knew it. It's a day off. Ryan's day off is like, let me see how hard I can work today on my day off.

I only got so much time, man. Got to get it done. Oh, man. and joining us he's trained for decades under the harsh tutelage of master door dash but years of training

have led him to the enviable skill of being able to eat an entire pizza on his own it's ace I don't think that's that much food I don't know why you guys are so shocked and I can put away an entire pizza a whole pizza

eight slices where was it large pizza It was dominoes. Domino's large pizza. Yeah. Two topics. You don't think that's a lot of food? No.

To be fair, Ryan, because we love picking on ace. I do remember being in my mid-20s and I could eat a whole pizza, dude. Like, we in our old age now go like, bro, I would die. And I literally said that. And we had a big conversation about how many slices of pizza we can eat before it hurts at that point. And mine is minus four. If I eat three, golden, dude. No problem whatsoever.

And then I'm always like, hey, one more piece. One more. I eat that four slice and then I'm dead. I am so miserable after that. It's like, well, I don't know why I do it, but I do it. I'm the same way, dude. But what I've learned is this crazy thing that just because you start the slice, you don't have to finish it.

Bro, I ain't no, quit. No, no, no. Save it for later. No, no. Bro, get out of here with that quitting thing, man. eating half a slice of pizza? What's wrong with you? Or you could just persevere,

eat the entire pizza, two cookies, and a slice of cheesecake. I mean, I don't know. You ate that on top of the pizza? Oh, yeah.

I didn't even... At that point, I was like, we've made our point. We don't need to just pour ace. You know what I mean? It's rude not to eat everything that someone puts it front of you, right?

Yeah. Just so you know, an average domino's pizza per slice, just pepperoni, Without the extra side, it's 330 calories. You ate almost 3,000 calories just in the pizza. Without the other stuff, too.

That was a 4,500 calorie meal right there. For sure. For Ace. Which is awesome. No, I did the other day. Actually, I hadn't eaten the whole day. And I made street tacos. I ended up eating nine.

And the last four, I probably put a whole pound of carneasada and eat, like, dispersed between the four. I was like, I'm going to make these last ones big and I was like, oh, yum, gnom, so I get it. That's a lot of tacos. Nine tacos is a lot of tacos. That's a lot of them. It's good. Nine tacos way easier than I could eat a whole pizza, man. The pizza's the grease. It's like, it weighs you down. It's like got weight to it. Oh, it expands afterwards. All right. Well, welcome to pizza and taco chatter.

Welcome to the pizza podcast. Anyways, we're a gaming podcast. Yeah, we are a gaming podcast. We are here to talk about where wins meet. So I was hijacked to play this game. This is a perk that we have for our community and people that support the show where they get to say, hey, we're going to make you play a game. We want your thoughts on it. We want your opinions on it. And so I jumped into where wins meet. Guys, do you remember, I mean, you know, this game kind of came to light.

But then, like, just to give some history on this, I mean, back in the day when Paul was still on the podcast, we found out about this game where wins meet. And we got super excited because they were showing off all of these cool things where you were like finding things in the world where you mimic like the these these animals or objects and then you learn from them. So like at one point you're hopping like a frog and then your character learns how to like do a super jump or something. And another one is like you're watching this sheep and it's rolling down a hill and it's like, oh, well now you learned how to like roll around and you can knock things over or something like that. We're like, this is this is really cool. and then the game just disappeared for like two years and then we got a thing that said hey where wins meet is available on mobile

like do you guys remember this I remember this and then finding out that China already had it and it's like oh yeah you guys will get it eventually it's coming it's coming good luck catching up exactly good luck catching up to us yeah I mean we've seen this honestly we've seen this recently because Amazon Studios one thing they figured is, hey, it's an easy way to make money if we bring some of these games that already exist over

to, you know, the United States and introduce them to a new market. So Lost Ark was one of those that, you know, we played. Throne and Liberty was another MMO style one that we played first descendant, although that might have just been a straight up release. I don't know if that one was out early in China or not. But, you know, we've seen this trend kind of time and time again where there's a game that releases, you know, in China or Japan. And it's a, you know, in China or Japan. And It stays over there and then somebody decides, hey, we should let people, you know, in other parts of the world play it. And then they bring it over. They do the localization and all that. And, you know, here we are. So I hinted at this, but my hype level for where wins meets was very low. Like I was curious at best at this point, but it did look like an interesting game to me. And I generally like, you know, some of that. I like combat. I like action. I like MMO type elements sometimes. So I load her up.

I jump in. It's a beautiful game, guys, beautiful. Like, honestly, the graphics, the music, the characters, all this stuff. There's, you know, there's a fairly long intro, kind of like a tutorial section. And, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to sound like an old man here because, you know, let's be honest, I'm getting there, right? guys there are I don't know this I'm gonna assume this doesn't count as a gotcha game because gotcha games like you have to unlock characters

and you have to pay to unlock characters and stuff like that right so this is more akin to like I don't think it's a gotcha it's not a gotcha game but it has some similarities to a gotcha game like my daughter is real big and the genction impact and it's funny because like sometimes I'll watch her play a little bit and it's like she's doing her daily quest and she's doing this little side game and she's doing this thing where she's got to run over here and do that. And it's there's like a bunch of little just keep you busy type things, you know, built into those.

And one of the things that I am finding in my older age that I struggle with is like, just multiple systems, multiple like things, right? Like, hey, it's not just about combat and dialogue and exploration. It's like, oh, well, we've got this system where your character can do these And then we've got this system where you can play sumo wrestling with somebody. And would you like to go try that out? At one point, I was like, yeah, sure, let me go sumo wrestle somebody. But it doesn't give you any kind of directions.

It just goes, here you go. I'm sumo wrestling against some stranger on the internet. And I'm like, I don't know what the heck I'm doing. Like, I beat the guy. Cool. I won some jade. That was also cool. But then one time I log in and it's like, hey, it's the day of the something.

here's nine different activities that you can participate in. Would you like to go to one of these? And I was like, no, I'm just trying to learn the game, man. I'm an hour in, man. Like, I don't even know what's going on yet. And it's just throwing stuff at me. And, you know, I've been gaming. Guy, I started gaming when I was four years old, dude.

I have been gaming for over 40 years now, you know? And listen, the, the, the, my, brain it may not be as sharp as it was but i like to think i'm still a fairly sharp dude also you know i'm gonna interrupt real quick because you're not gonna say it josh just recently had a birthday uh speaking of his age so i just want to say yesterday actually of this record love you love you thank you buddy happy birthday and uh thank you continue on with telling us how old you are so anyway when as since i'm old now i can't learn stuff as easy but but But like, so one of my first impressions with this game was like, oh my gosh, there's a

gillian things that I don't understand, you know, like right off the rip. You know, tutorial aside, because it does put you in one and it says, go to this point, talk to this little girl who's kind of the annoying squeaky voice character that they like to have in these kind of games, you know, like combat, this is where I hope the game shines, right? Like, okay, let me just mess some dudes up, dude. It's a Wusha game where it's like, you know, I am some. folklore martial arts hero i'm gonna be flying kicking people and all this stuff and you know it's got this this interesting kind of combat system where the weapon that you have equipped is

what dictates your move set which we've seen in some games that's cool and is a neat thing when it's not part of like 900 other systems and there's also this thing where you have your two weapons that you can swap between and they have different movesets, but then you have your like mystical powers, but then you also have your charge up ability, but then you also have your unlockable ability. And then, you know, so you have like an activation grid here and then an activation grid under it. And then you've got another move wheel next to that. And then you've got this thing over here. And then I'm like, bro, what? I think, I just want to fight things, man. Like, What's going on here?

And then it's got some kind of Perry system where it's like, look, we know this Perry system's too hard for people. So we're going to, we're going to put a prompt on the screen to where you, all you have to do is like look at this big flashing button and push it. And then Will Perry for you? And I was like, okay, well, that's kind of cool. But then that kind of takes away the point of paying something. Yeah. Like, guys, that is the issue with these kind of freemium open world. RPG games. It's just like they throw

so much into it to try to keep you know, keep you active and interested that for new players, it's just so overwhelming to try to hop in. Well, to me, I was thinking too, like, like remember Josh, you know, I know, I don't know how much, I remember you played a little bit of wow and stuff, but I'm

sure EverQuest was the same when you, when you started is, is it kind of, kind of hurted you along in the beginning, you got to fight a few things, you got to learn the mechanics, you got to see what the world was about, and and it brought you to this state. Do you think that they just throw everything

because of the way like gamers are now, like the way society is and like they just want it like that? They don't want to sit through a tutorial or learn the mechanics or do that stuff. Like, you know, you think that's the way that it just, it became that way? Like, I mean, honestly, dude,

that's a, that's a really interesting like question because like with gamers nowadays, you know, social media reels, you know, we've got the attention span of. of like how like gnats, dude, like fruit flies. You know what I mean?

Well, that's even, I mean, it's been in every game. Like, remember, in our old gamer books, it would tell you how to do this, how to do that. We don't get those anymore. And then used to, they would be on the screen. You'd be able to look through all the menu and it would say, hey, to do this to do this and do that to do that. And like, you don't even get that anymore. Like, they just expect everybody to just go online and find all the info. I mean, dude, maybe that's what they expected.

I'll be honest. but I went into this game completely blind as to like no guides, no nothing. All I knew was the trailers that I had watched. That was it. I didn't watch gameplay. I didn't watch, you know, hey, 10 things you should know going into where wins me. You know, that kind of stuff. Like I literally just went, let's see what this game's about.

I'm completely new to this. And I kind of want that experience. Like honestly, you know, I just jumped into a game called Starvaders. We won't get into that. But like, I didn't know. I thought it was a mobile game, right? Like literally, I thought it was a mobile game. But like, that's a game where it's very.

very clear, like the game shows you, hey, this is how you do it. It's very simple and its premise, but then it gets really complex with strategy and stuff like that. I have an issue with games that want to throw like a thousand things at you at once and not explain any of them. You know what I mean?

And you mentioned like EverQuest and the MMOs. Like, if you remember, even with World of Warcraft, like, you had your starting zone and you had like two abilities. You know, and it was like, dude, go talk to this guy, kill that rat, grab its pelt, bring it back, get your reward, right? And then you level up, right? And that's like, once you have that down,

then you level up and you get another ability, right? And then you learn another mechanic there. And there's some games that are very, very good at like saying, hey, there's a certain complexity here. So let's teach you as you are playing, right? Like literally, you just learn by playing the game. But I feel like more and more lately. And again, I'm fully willing to say that this might be that I just don't learn as fast now. But I don't think that's the case, man. Get good old man. Get good. To where some games want to just throw you in and go experience the world, figure it out.

And I know that there's gamers out there that love that. I'm not one of those, dude. That's the problem. Like, give me, let me figure out the systems. Like, I'm going to use stalker two as an example, right? Do you guys remember when we got in a stalker two? Stalker two doesn't hold your hand. It doesn't tell you anything, man.

No. You know, you figure it out by running into something and dying. and then going, oh, I guess I'm not supposed to touch that, you know, or, oh, I guess these guys are mean, or I guess I can't make noise or, oh, go figure I can't shoot the guards in the town, right? Like, I don't need handholding, but what I'm saying is I like a game that lets you, by trial and error, figure things out along the way and kind of go, ah, see, okay, now I'm figuring this out, and this is the way that I want to play the game. When a game just does this, like, arbitrary, there's 10,000 systems and eight,

different forms of currency and were basically Roblox, right? Like that's, to me, that's where I almost felt like where Winsmeat was going because it's like, hey, we have 19 mini games that you can play and there's leaderboards for every one of them. Do you want to play? And then I'm like, uh, sure, sure. Oh, oh, I'm sumo wrestling somebody. Bro, that sumo wrestling game was the worst mini game I've ever played in my life, dude. Like, what, like, what, so why put it in there at that point, right?

Like, why not polish your game? I'm not a fan of these games that are coming out now that don't feel like games anymore. So much like platforms for other games. It's very, very not my style. Fortnite's becoming this. Okay, I can tell you guys wholeheartedly,

it's a big battle within my household. My son is wholeheartedly addicted to the brain rot. He loves the flashy colors and he's like, look at my thing and then this guy's not trading me that. that. I'm like, what are you even playing? He's like, it's Fortnite. I'm like, this isn't Fortnite. And so, like, I agree with you, Ace. A lot of these are trying to be that model where you create

a platform for all this other development and other stuff, because then people are still playing your game, you know, and then you get transactions and whatnot. But, yeah, I have seen a lot of that. It's unfortunate that this one's kind of fall in that same model. I get the need and the desire to. to keep people playing, right? The daily, I mean, I, you know, I had the daily, you logged in. We're giving you a reward, you know, and that kind of stuff, especially for a free to play game.

I understand the model and I don't necessarily disagree with the model because you're free to play. Dude, this game, like the amount of content and development time that went into this has got to be astronomical, dude. Like, I mean, it has to be. And I get the whole, like, we need to, we need to keep you busy, right? so that you will be busy and play this game every single day. The problem is that can backfire to where it just feels overwhelming, right? And it's like, I don't know that I have the desire to spend, you know, 40 hours learning all these different systems and then figuring out how I'm supposed to play this game. And I know there's people out there that go, well, you play it how you want.

And it's like, but I don't even know what this game is yet. you know what I mean? Like is it an MMO? Is it an action? Like, is it an ARPG? Is it a soul's like? Is it combat? Like, I don't know what this is.

And I'll tell you guys, even after playing it, I'm still not sure what this game is. So look, I'm going to try to break it down for people a little bit in where some of the like the misses for me were. but I'm going to do that right after this break. At Medcan, we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health, from the big milestones to the quiet winds. That's why our annual health assessment offers a physician-led, full-body checkup

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We're talking where wins meets. If you guys, you know, if people can't pick up what I'm putting down, I did not, did not like this game, guys. I, it's not, look, it's not even that I did. Let me clarify, it's not that I disliked the game. It is that, number one, I don't think I was in the mood for this kind of game. And this is just this is not anybody's fault, right? And it honestly is not my fault either, right?

Like sometimes you're just in the mood for a certain type of game. And I think right now, while we're waiting for some of these, you know, these, these game releases to come out and things like that. Where Winsmeet was about the last thing on my mind as far as a type of game that I wanted to play, you know? Yeah. I knew, you know, you didn't like this game when you never messaged me or Ryan to come back. He didn't, yeah, he didn't hit us up at all of you. Because I'll be honest. Here's the problem.

I'm going to just go on my little rant here for a second, guys. So buckle up. Look, when you have a game that has a gazillion thousand million things to do in it, that's fine. Okay. No Man Sky. We just talked about No Man Sky. You can do anything you freaking want a No Man Sky. But you know what No Man Sky does is it eases you into it.

It eases you into the systems. It does all this. It doesn't just drop you and say, figure it out. But combat. I'm thinking where. wins me, the combat in this game is going to be what absolutely like just holds me over, right? But again, dude, I got, like, all the menus were super weird and complex, which I don't,

this is like a Capcom thing. You know, I don't know what it is with making menus and UIs that are just overly like, just out there and have like menus within menus. Yeah. Like, so I'm trying to figure out like equipping a weapon and, you know, in my gamer brain, I got something in my inventory, click and drag it. the slot I want. Nope. You can't do that. Oh, do I double click it? Well, guess what? Double clicking it does something, but it pulls up a window that says martial arts not, not slotted.

And then I'm like, well, what? Am I not a martial artist? Like, what are you talking about, man? So, and then it has it, would you like to continue? And I'm like, well, no, I don't want to continue without martial arts. So then it just dumps me back into the inventory screen. And then I'm like, how do I equip this weapon? You know what I mean? And I guys, listen, I know there's listeners that have played this game. Nexivis, I know you love this game. I know,

next is a good time. You were the biggest idiot ever, Josh. Like, how could you not have to? I figured it out, dude. And I'm not saying that this took me like 20 minutes,

but it took me like 60 seconds to figure out how to freaking equip a weapon because I don't know what no martial arts bound means, you know, because I just started playing this game. So then it's like, okay, well,

I do want to continue. Oh, great, my weapons equipped, but I don't have any skills now. Well, you know what the problem is? Because you have to learn the skills. You have to unlock them by doing, like, but it doesn't tell you that. So then it's like, okay, sweet, I got a fan. I got an umbrella.

Like, what kind of martial arts weapons are these? Oh, I got the rope dart thing. That thing's super cool, dude. So I finally get it equipped and I'm swinging it around and stuff like that. But then you know what the problem is, guys? And yes, I understand that it's, you know, it's the tutorial and it's in the first few hours. Nothing was hard. I'm just murdering everything that I come across.

I got no idea what I'm doing. So I'm just like murking everything I come across And then I'm like well this isn't really fun either You know and then you've got this stupid system Where it's like oh you better parry this push this button And I'm like okay and it's a flashy parry But then it's like oh the guy's glowing blue now Well what does that mean? Why is he glowing blue?

Oh well that means he's he's able to be stunned and knocked down But the game doesn't tell you that You know what I mean so I finally figure that out on my own And then it is just this never ending and then okay So then I get through the first dungeon right And it's like, cool, I killed the boss. That was fun. I get a chest.

20 things pop out of this chest, dude. 20 different lootable items. And I mean, they've got, you know, if you're a gamer and you see green, right? Oh, that's uncommon. And you see blue. Hey, that's rare. Right? Oh, I got a gold thing, dude.

Cool. What is this? I don't know. The game doesn't tell you. You can't hover over it and it tells you what it is. It just gives you some snippet of lore. And I'm like, what could, does that do me? What is all this stuff, man? Like, what am I supposed to do with this loot? So,

you know what it winds up happening? Nothing is satisfying. What good is looted if there's no reward because I don't know what these 18 things are that I just looted? You know, like, this is the problem that I have with this game. And again, I fully, I fully recognize two things. Number one, absolutely not in the mood for this kind of game. This is just, you know, the nature of being hijacked. sometimes you've got to play something you're not necessarily in the mood for. But on top of that, this weird, archaic,

not any, nothing makes sense. You know what I mean? And I'm not saying that I'm an idiot because one of the things I complain most about are games that are overly simple and dumbed down, right? Yeah. But like,

you, you got to give me something, dude. Why should I care about this loot? You know what I mean? Like, that baby Jade, things,

jade pieces, this other stuff. Oh, I got these scrolls. Oh, I got these these tapestries. Oh, I got this. Like, what are they for? I don't know.

Should I hold on to them? I can't even find them. They're in a sub tab within a sub tab within your inventory. You know, like, it's just, why? Why would I play this game? It's a game with everything, but it has nothing, basically. You don't know what to do, where to go, what any of it means. And it never tells you.

And here, you know, here's the other thing, dude, when you look at this game and I'm playing it, and I'm seeing the graphics and I'm seeing the beauty of this and I'm hearing this really just good music. And I'm running and I'm dashing through the air. And it's like, okay, I've figured out some of this stuff and I'm going to this town. And there's 60 villagers in the town. And I can interact with almost every single one of them. Oh, no. You know what I mean?

And then it's like, oh, so like is there a hidden quest here? Am I supposed to talk to these guys? Is this just lore? Is this just filler? Like, okay, there's my quest guy. And maybe again, maybe this is on me because the game gives you, which do you want to play this like an MMO or do you want to play this more like a single player experience? Right?

And I'm like, well, I love MMOs. Like, so let me try the MMO route. But then the UI is just, I mean, it gives Ubisoft a run for its money where there's just icons. There's at least six icons on the screen at any given moment. That's not counting the two different weapon skill tree wheel things and then this other wheel thing. And then, you know, your health and your life. and your other stuff and then your quest menu and then the chat's going on. I don't understand anything going on in the chat because I don't understand this game.

And ultimately, this game felt so generic to me, guys. So this is a part, this is a part from the just over the top 18,000 systems to try to decode. This might be the most generic MMO. I'm going to call it an MMO because. because it literally felt like an MMO to me. Yeah, yeah. I picked the MMO option, so maybe that's on me, you know? But like, I can't imagine the gameplay is super different if you go the, hey, I'd rather

the solo route kind of thing. But like, dude, at least lost arc when I played that had the kind of Diablo-ish type over-the-top combat, right? And it was very just action-oriented with really, really flashy, cool-looking moves, right? When I played Throne and Liberty, it was like, again, okay, well, this has, fairly standard MMO start, but I was playing with friends. And so maybe that helped out on that one.

You know, first descendant, it's a shooter. And okay, co-op shooter. That was super fun with characters and abilities. So this is right up my alley, you know. But it's like, I can't think of more generic gameplay that I've played lately. Like, you know, other than some good animation in the combat, like when I was pulling off moves and stuff, It was like, oh, wow, this guy's flashy and I'm doing these really cool over the top, like kung fu moves and, you know, slamming my sword down and stunning guys and whipping around and these like flips and these, you know, somersaults and stuff like that.

And it's like, okay, well, this is, this, this looks neat. But again, everything was just weighed through this as fast as you possibly can. Like, where is the fun in this game, man? What? So I think the big thing for you, like, obviously you were thinking, like, hopefully the combat is going to be your. saving grace. You know, do you think that it has to do with just like the amount of games you play? Like somebody who goes and see, we live in Arizona, at least Josh and I do.

Grand Canyon, if you see the Grand Canyon for the first time, it's something you've never experienced in your life and it's awe-inspiring. If you've seen it 10 times, 15 times, like, it's not as cool. And you start to like, oh, yeah, that's neat. Oh, look at that. you know and you you kind of diminish like the the grandiose nature of it like do you think that it's it's because you've played so many games you've had the experience with all these great mimos and this combat and all this stuff like that maybe this one is is a little bit lower because of that

absolutely and this is why i say everything felt generic to me because nothing about this game made me go whoa except for the graphics like legitimately except for the graphics like that's the problem. The only thing that made me go, whoa, was when I would loot a chess, which are plentiful, by the way, this game is just throwing loot at you left and right, to where again, that diminishes it, right? Like, you know, Legend of Zelda, when you find a sword or something, right, you're like, oh, sweet, I got a new weapon, like, you know, or Dark Souls, right, where you get that new armor set or that new weapon type or something, you're like, oh, bro, this is totally going to change the way this game plays. I felt like with Where Winsmeat, it's like, I'm just button mashing anyway.

Like, I'm literally just button mashing at this point. I don't really need to time up a whole lot. Like, and here's the thing, because I know, and this happens every time we talk about any kind of game, where there's going to be people that have 100 hours in where wins meet and they're going to go, Josh, you're an idiot. Like, there's totally, there's totally, when you get, when you get 40 hours into this game, that's where the combat's really going to matter at that point. It takes 40 hours. I'm not playing a game for 40 hours just for it to get good at that point.

You know what I mean? And I can't help but look at this game like it's trying to be an MMO. And if you are trying to be an MMO, you were the most generic MMO I think I've ever seen, dude. Like that's, I hate to say it, but it's the truth. And when you're sitting there like playing something and you're like, this just is not, it's like, yeah, this game is a game. That may work for some people though, like that generic MMO. And that's the thing is like that's, that's, I mean, if it works for you,

and you know like Josh is is recounting his experience and what he went through and how he feels on it. But like if it works for you, it works for you. And that's that's cool. But that doesn't take away the fact that it is a generic. I mean, even right now, I'm looking at it. I'm pulling up the stats. 35,000 people are on the game. Oh, yeah.

So generic doesn't be horrible. Not boring. Bad. You know, there's a lot. Basic. And for people like us who play a ton of varieties of games, we go through so. many different systems, so many different genres. Like, it's hard to accept generic as something

you want to keep playing. That is 100% the case, Ace. Like, you hit the nail on the head because we play so many games that we are constantly looking for that innovation, that fun factor, that unique thing that sets them apart, right? And with where wins meets, I got none of that, dude. Like, absolutely none. And so I felt like it got to be where every time I'd log in, I was just like, I'm just wasting my time. Like at this point, I'm just wasting my time because this game is not going to throw anything new at me. It's not going to throw something at me that makes me go like, whoa, you know, or anything like that other than some flashy animations and some cool like fireworks, you know, like, but it's like, that can only take you so far. And as much as I love good graphics,

it's like, you've got to have something underneath to really keep people drawn in. And, Ryan, I think you said it. I think there's a lot of people out there that would love this game. I am not trying to slander the game itself, right? Like, I do think that this game has a lot to offer people that are looking for something like this. The problem is, number one, wasn't in the mood for it. Number two, found everything to be overly complicated, you know, and I don't even know if that's the best word for it because it's like, it's just overly just stuffed, dude.

It's like Ubisoft. Like, why put all this stuff in your game? You don't need it. The best experiences are a bloat. Thank you, Ryan. Yeah, there is. I felt like. like this game was a bloated whale, dude, where it was just like, really? Like, really? And if,

if anyone, if you guys are new to the pod, anyone listening, like, Josh's Mr. Skill Tree, Mr. progression, he loves, like, at a mile wide and he can do and calculate and make everything that he wants. He loves turn-based combat games, too. And like, he loves all of that extra crazy fluff, you know, and then, you know, for this to not hit, it's not, it's not, it's not, yeah, Exactly, when it matters. For this to not hit, something had to not be right for him to not like this. It's not because of that, you know. Yeah.

I really just, it's tough because, like, I really found myself hating this game because it's like, how can you be this flashy and this good looking and then just be so generic at the same time? Dude, like, I'll be honest, if we, you know, if we said what's a game that was made by AI where it has no soul whatsoever? Oh, no. This is that kind of game, dude. This is the type of game. This is the type of game that I envision like AI making to where it's like, you know, we're going to give you, look, we got to check all the boxes. Multiple forms of currency.

Check. Multiple different mini games. Check. Log in every day to get your reward and play this new game that we just came up with. Check. You know, a horse to ride. But the horse really isn't even that much faster than just if I'm sprinting and running around and air dashing and stuff like that. Like check, you know, a shop that pops up every time you log in to try to get you to spend money on this game and it's premium currency.

I was just about to ask how much. I don't even know what the premium currency is because there's 18 different kinds of currency in this game, man. I was going to ask how much of push micro transactions. I wanted to know. You don't like this game because you didn't spend enough money on it, okay? That's the problem. The part that is going to aggravate me the most is the people that are going to say, well, you didn't spend 40 hours learning everything and that's why you think this game's lame. Your game is lame if I have to spend

40 hours just to start finding the enjoyment in it, you know, at that point. And it's not that there weren't parts where I was like, okay, that was a fun fight. You know what I mean? But again, it's like it's the sum of everything together that makes it where I'm just like, I cannot, I can't wait to never have to play this game again. You would have enjoyed Genshin. I can't wait to uninstall it because I think it's also like, 100 gigabytes or something crazy. Oh, it's ridiculous. Huge.

Once I found out we weren't playing with you, I uninstalled it. I was like, uh-uh. Dude, you know why? I didn't ask you guys to play because it's not like, there was no benefit to you guys. Exactly. They would have wasted all of our time. I like you guys.

You guys are my friends and I do not want to subject you guys. Bro values our time. All right. You know, I do. I do. And I was sitting here going like, my time sucks playing this game right now. And again, Ryan, I want to reiterate this.

It's not a bad game. It's not a bad game. Like you said, it's just that this was not the game for me. It was not the time for me to play this game. I do think that there are people out there that would really enjoy this game. And we've talked, there's people in our community that have put the time in, you know? Yeah, yeah. And have said, hey, I enjoyed it, you know.

But even those people went, there's really nothing special, guys. There's really nothing special about this, but it was a fun distraction for me for a little while. It's free. And again, as they can't beat the price. Yeah. It's free. it's free so what what would you like if you were to say hey tweak these things or change this or add that like what would your suggestions be like maybe make it better overall like i guess i guess uh overall like a few all of it yeah because like you like do you have to change the DNA of the game like honestly you have to take away the fact that this is a live service free to play game with 18,000 pieces of bloat to it you know like you'd have to strip it back you'd have to have to you know the combat is fun but you would have to make like timing and and skills like

important to the combat and again maybe i know there's end game i know there's rating in this game there are world bosses and people like that but i i didn't make it that far you know because i didn't want to you know and so there is that draw for people but again i'm not willing to put in the time to get to there in the hopes that maybe this game shows me something that would be like okay well that's really cool. And they weren't, they weren't able to entice you enough to have that draw. Like you didn't,

you didn't decide, oh, I want to get to that point. I want to get to that level so I can experience X, Y, Z, or try this or beat this boss, you know, there was no draw for you to continue on.

So, yeah, so then what are you playing for at that point? I mentioned no man sky. No man sky, Ryan. You've been playing it. You know, you do all the stuff on the planet.

You learn how to, you know, mine things and build things and all that. And then you finally fix your ship and you fuel up your ship and you're like, oh my gosh. And then it goes, okay, well, it's time to take off. And you take off, right? And then you get to go explore. And then you go out in space, right?

And you're like, oh my gosh. Like, I'm in space. That's a moment, dude. That's like a moment in a game where you're like, bro. Okay, now I'm really curious to see where this goes. Absolutely none of that. No, I can't wait to see what happens. No wow moments.

No, nothing, man. Nothing. Yeah, that's, there has to be, there has to be that carrot. like we always talk about like even with no man sky you know there was a point where i had set my base up by these this this type of fruit or something that you had to have special gloves for and i know exactly what you're talking yeah and so then i i eventually like i was doing stuff this and that and i was on the the anomaly ship and then i found the part i needed and i'm like wait i need that part i can go get the stupid plants and like i was so excited and so then like there's something to

look forward to. There's something to log in the next time. And if this didn't have that, you know, then there's nothing, there's nothing you can do. It's not your fault that you're not excited to play the game. You know, it's just, there's nothing to entice you. Yeah. So if you had to rate it, Josh,

what is your rating? I mean, if you're asking, if you're asking me, like my personal rating, dude, like, this is a five out of ten, dude. It's as generic and uninteresting as it as it comes, dude, like honestly. It's a game.

There is. It's a game. It's a well polished. It is polished. It is polished. It is polished and flashy and animated well and it's beautiful. And it's like if you want to just watch like pretty lights and fireworks and cool moves, like this game would probably absolutely do it for you. You know, and again, maybe it gets better 40 hours in.

But I'm not doing that. Yeah. So this is Netties, right? I think so. They're at least the publisher. I don't know if they're the developer. I was just curious because, like, can you, is there like a group chat text chat thing? Can you say like T&M Square or Winnie the Pooh or anything like that?

Okay, buddy. There is chat in the game. I mean, absolutely. But again, and it was active as anything. I mean, there's a good bit of people. They're all talking. And they're, you know, yeah, they're talking and there's, you know, trying to get some items and stuff. Like I said, it's like MMO feel without anything that makes an MMO fun and amazing and any of that stuff.

And good. All right. Listen, we've ranted about where wins meets for 40 minutes now. So I can't, I can't play this game anymore, man. It might be for somebody. It is free to play. If you think this is up your alley, I mean, it might be worth the download if you have unlimited data and storage space to try it out.

And time to watch a video on how to do everything. Yeah. And that's the thing. It's a beautiful game. So on video, like, it looks neat. It just doesn't play that well. I think Paul was the highest on this one, too. He seems so excited for it.

but I don't think how he played. I don't know. I don't know what I was expecting, but I did not get what I was hoping for at all, like not even close on this one. So, all right, well,

there you go. That's where wins meet people. Ryan, Ace, you're very welcome that I didn't force you into this drudgery. And, uh, we appreciate your value of our time.

I mean, you know, Ace figured it out when I was like, you guys don't need to play this with me. Oh, you know, I can usually figure out pretty quick whether you're enjoying a game enough if you invite us or not.

We try not to spill the beans to each other, but sometimes I think it's fairly obvious, too, just with how it's going. So, all right, well, listen, everybody, you know, not every game's a banger. Not every game is good for every person. Weirwinds meet might be awesome for you. If you playing it and you love it, we're happy for you. That's something we always love is just let people enjoy the video games that they enjoy. There's no shame here. Sorry, I didn't like it, everybody, but, you know, we're always honest on this podcast. That's my honest thoughts on it there as well. so, you know, we hope you got something of value out of this episode. You know, we always talk about our community and our Discord chatting games. Guys, if you were not part of our Discord server, you're missing out.

You should literally just click the link in the episode description, join the server. You can hang out and just watch for a little while. It is super active. I mean super. There are always people chatting and talking. And join because Josh is about to get roasted by Next. Oh, yeah, NextVis. I love NextVist and NextVis knows he can do that, man.

And he, you know, we, we love everybody in the community. And it's like, hey, you're allowed to have a different opinion. And that's okay. Like, that's one of the things gamers honestly need to get better at is just understanding that people will have different opinions than you. And that's okay. It's not, it's not an insult to you. It's not slander against you.

It's just like, hey, this game wasn't for me. And where wins meets was not for me. Boy. Remember to follow the podcast. Hit that plus button, that follow button in your podcast app. Subscribe to us on YouTube. You know, we've been putting up a ton of shorts. Ace has been doing awesome work on our shorts.

All of our episodes go up on YouTube and our subscriber base there is growing. So if you aren't following us on YouTube, go ahead and head on over there and subscribe also. And if you love what we do and you appreciate the content that we put out into the gaming world, think about supporting us over on Patreon. There's a link in the episode description. We give you a ton of awesome perks like pre-show access, which is, let's be honest, man. Some of the best conversation happens in the pre-show. you get Discord perks, you get a shout out on the show, and, you know, we try to make it worth your while.

So that's going to do it for this one, everybody. I'm about to go uninstall where wins meets and free up a ton of hard drive space. Until next time, happy gaming. See you. Peace out.