Video Gamers Podcast - May’s Most Hyped Games, Rivals Support Strike and Expedition 33 - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan and Ace are breaking down this week’s video game news you need to know about. On this gaming packed episode we dive into The Midnight Walk, Doom: The Dark Ages, Elden Ring Nightrein and discuss the Rivals support strike, plus a whole lot more of the video game news you need to know. It’s another gaming packed episode from the Video Gamers Podcast! Thanks to our MYTHIC supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake and Gaius Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/  Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1    Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello fellow gamers and welcome to the Video Gamers Podcast. What a week we had for gaming. From the surprise release of the Oblivion remaster to the long-awaited Expedition 33 release, gamers have been swimming in a sea of fun games. But now what? Well don't worry, there's still a ton of games to look forward to. May alone has us looking at A Midnight Walk, Doom the Dark Ages, and Elden Ring Night Reign amongst others, and we've got a lot to cover

for you, but first some introductions are in order. I am your host Josh, and joining me, he's been closing the gates of Oblivion with a side of Expedition 33. He's treating like a plate of green beans that he's being forced to eat. It's Ryan No, mom. How many do I have to eat? You got to eat the whole plate? You're not getting up until you put at least 20 hours. I'll eat five. I'll eat five seven six

Fine deal. All right Come here Fido. There you go Deal! Alright! Come here, Fido. Here you go. And joining us, he hasn't played either because he's busy campaigning for the rights of support players in Marvel Rivals. It's Ace! Krusty Krab unfair. Oh man, there's people out there that went, I got that reference, you know, and then there's people going, what? Like, support players in Marvel Rivals, what are y'all talking about?

But hey, as gamers, we love our game drama and there's some game drama going on with Marvel Rivals right now. So we're gonna be digging into that one too, but I'll tell you what, let's not let's burn through some housekeeping real quick fellas before we get to because we got a lot of games to talk about first and foremost a Huge thank you to two new supporters of this podcast You guys hear us say this all the time, but this podcast would not exist without the support of the listeners

so and I love this name dude, so a Big big thank you to bearded dragon with a sombrero for signing up for Epic status. So thank you bearded dragon with a sombrero for signing up for Epic. And then we have a returning member, the one, the only Joe Flynn, who was with us a long time ago and then you know life happens Hey, we totally get that that's fine. And then Joe came back to us and he said hey, man I'm back to support you guys and we went we're still here because we've been around for a while So thank you Joe for coming back and helping this podcast be in existence And then you know, we said this before we we're gonna read a couple of reviews real quick,

cause we have some catching up to do. This first one comes in from Gosh Josh Games. By the way, number one, awesome name, named Josh. Number two, awesome guy. Josh actually does some Twitch streaming. I have personally tuned into a few of his streams. Really just genuine dude, entertaining to talk to and watch. Um, he's like me, he's got game ADD. So every single time he's playing something different.

I almost feel like it's like, you know, when you're like surfing Netflix or like Hulu or something and you're just looking through whatever movies they have on there and you scroll past like a hundred of them, that's, that's like Josh with his games, uh, where it's just like, you know, that's every time I try to eat a meal I'm like yeah I'm gonna sit down and watch this show and then I'm done with my food before I ever even find something to watch. Yeah I'll sit there and scroll for like yeah minutes straight and then my wife's like you gonna watch anything and I go no I think I'm just gonna go play the computers. Oh man. Alright, so this review is titled gaming gains and

it says some people need metal to motivate them up in the gym. But all I need is the gravelly voice of Josh saying it's Ryan to amp me up for another episode of gaming discussion while I lift buys and tries indies and RPGs go hand-in-hand as far as I'm concerned Video gamers podcast makes my morning gym sessions far more bearable and the guys really feel like someone I could easily be gaming buddies And get along with which is a great familiarity for the show I'm also learning from them for my own content creation and discussion ideas all around always a great time and honestly the only Podcast I listen to other than our own. Keep at it guys. Much love. Love it.

Oh, much love back to you, buddy. Much love indeed. Yeah. You're a good dude, Josh. We're glad to have you, buddy. And then Ryan, you've got one as well. I do. I got another amazing review from Tubster000? I think that's Triple Ot. I do I got another amazing review from tubster 000 That's triple ought triple. Oh Tufts or triple lot fan

Well, what do you know? I'll run with it. Who cares Just say it is I'm like Ron Burgundy put on the teleprompter and I'll just be like, yep, we're good to go but it's titled fantastic podcast. After searching high and low for the best gaming podcast, I finally found it. Just a great group of people sharing their passion for video games. The content they put out is just incredible and they have a variety of means. Uh, Oh, the variety of it means I can read. I promise you will most

definitely find something you love. Do yourself a favor and check it out. Thank you so much. That was a double triple awesome. Awesome. Oh man. You're a literate. Oh my goodness. Uh, guys, I mean, look, I said it at the intro last week was epic for games, dude. I mean, you know, I've been super excited for expedition 33 for months and months and months. Now we got the oblivion remaster and we went, dude, we are just eating good right now as gamers.

And then, you know, then everybody kind of was like, okay, well, and it's funny, cause even in our Discord server, it's like people went silent when Expedition 33 released and then everybody starts talking about it. And then everybody goes back and they start playing it again. You know. It's so crazy. It's just like a light flips on and off all day long

in our Discord where people are just going to play the game Oh, this is where I'm at back to the game It's like have you ever been in a restaurant and everybody's chatting and then the food shows up and everybody starts eating and it's dead Quiet cuz everybody's just eating their food. Yeah, it's like The thing that's super cool too that I've noticed is between this and then blueprints like I've never seen so many spoiler tags Oh, yeah, our discord. It's just like nothing but empty blocks and I'm like this is this is pretty great. Our Discord looks like a classified document right now. It really does. Redacted. Redacted. But guys, I mean, May is here. I think, isn't this episode released like May 1st I think? So May is here and I think, isn't this episode released like May 1st, I think? So May is here, and I know people

went, well, what now? Dude, May looks great, man. May might be even better. I, maybe, I mean, I hope so, I hope so, but look, so let's just touch on Expedition 33 very briefly. We are deep diving this game, so we're not going to give away a lot of thoughts. I know everybody is waiting to hear what Ryan thinks about Expedition 33 so no pressure Ryan. John and myself have not been very good at hiding our thoughts on that game so for anybody that's not in our discord server I ain't telling you nothing you're gonna have to listen to the deep dive to know what I think. You know maybe the hype is real or maybe this game is just a crushing disappointment for me after all the waiting for it. You'll never know. But one thing we do or maybe this game is just a crushing disappointment for me after all the the waiting for it you'll never know but one thing we do know is this game

done sold a million copies boys a million copies now this is copy sold this ain't no Ubisoft PR speak where it's like we've had a million players yeah yes now they have sold a million copies of Expedition 33, and not only that, but they came out and they said, that does not count Game Pass players. So this is a million people that actually purchased this game. That's good on you, man, because they deserve it.

The craziest part about this is 30 developers made Expedition 33. That is insane, dude. And teams, man, they can make dreams come true. And like you mentioned Ubisoft, these guys are all like former Ubisoft devs. And that just shows you how much Ubisoft holds people back because oh boy, a million people already.

Dude, I'm gonna say this. If Ubisoft developed this game and released this game Ubisoft would not be in the street in the dire trouble that Ubisoft is in right now could have saved from a company standpoint yeah but my goodness so listen you know I don't want to harp on Expedition 33 for too long because again we're gonna have that deep dive coming up soon for that one but kudos to them kudos to the developers. Yeah, kudos indeed. Big time.

To make a game like this with the music, the graphics, the combat, the story, I mean, this game has all of those aspects in spades, and to realize that 30 people made this game is nuts to me, dude. That's a lot of work, man. It's an insane revelation. That's a lot of work they put in. And Josh, do you know how many people are on Expedition 33 right now? Probably a lot.

I don't know, Ryan, because the Game Pass stuff you can't track. Oh, that's... Oh, it sounds like somebody's preparing for a lower number because it's 57,000. On Steam alone? 57,000. Yeah, on SteamDB. It's almost like this also is a console man, but almost weird. Like I mean, Elder Scrolls, Oblivion remastered 141,000. Whoa. There's a lot of nostalgic old people out there, huh? I was going to say, so wait, we're, yeah, don't talk about yourself that way. Don't talk about yourself that way.

Yes, I was going to say like they don't, you know, Expedition 33 doesn't have the, the, you know, weight behind the Elder Scrolls name, like Bethesda does. And the fact that they have as many players and have sold a million copies in, I think it took them 48 hours to sell a million copies. I know they sold a half a million in the first 24 hours. So that's, that's just insane to be able to sell that. That's wild.

To be fair, if they're going to take a page out of Bethesda's book, then within, I don't know, probably 2026, we're going to have, you know, Expedition 33 remastered, you know, director's cut developers edition. Thirty three and a half. The definition point to two five repeating, you know, all those. So, oh, boy. All right. Well, let's get into some new games coming out guys. This first one, this comes out in a week and we have covered this game on the show before,

but a midnight walk. Yes, dude, this game, this game looks incredible. So for anybody that hasn't seen the trailer yet, ACE, I mean, this is an indie game, so this is right up your alley, but I mean, number one, the art style is incredible, but tell people what this game is. Well, this is a horror atmospheric sort of dark fantasy adventure game

where it's all done with stop motion. It's stop motion graphics with real stop motion figures for like every model in the game. So it's super cool. And it going to be in VR on release, which is insane. And again, another Indy. Like, I didn't know it was going to be in VR. It's going to be in that's wild. You actually threw people off because they were like, is this game available

like on PC or consoles? And they went, yeah, it's not just a VR game. This is actually, but it is also releasing for VR headsets. I don't know that I've seen a game that looks this cool, man. Like the clay, is it all claymation too? We say stop motion, but it's like stop motion claymation. It's stop motion and claymation. It's a mix of different kinds of stop motion.

It looks to me like, yeah, you've a mix of like armatures with claymation, but also just some regular old stop motion thrown in there as well. And it just looks incredible to me. Like, you have a mix of like, armatures with claymation, but also just some regular old stop motion thrown in there as well. And it just looks incredible to me. There's no game like this. Like, I think I said on that, uh, indie episode, even if this game, like, it doesn't underperforms, people will remember this game for how it looks and how it's animated and how impressive it is.

Yeah. Atmosphere's the word for sure. It's very, you know, Nightmare Before Christmas-esque. And it's, that's the one. There you go, Ryan atmosphere is the word for sure. It's very you know nightmare before Christmas s and it's that's the one Yeah, it's for me. It just looks for Christmas the arm. Don't know any other stop-motion films, you know Coraline Wilson grommet say Coraline Coraline's I actually like Coraline more than a nightmare before Christmas. No Coraline's too scary Yeah, I This game looks incredible. I don't know what it's going to be like. I mean, to be fair, and this is, I'm not trying to be negative here, but like South of Midnight

looked incredible. And then everybody kind of went, it's really neat looking, but it didn't quite live up to like the hype levels for that. Like, you know, John played it completely. We had a couple other people that dabbled in it. I have not talked to a single person that went south of midnight is fantastic, dude. That's why I never picked it up. I was so into it.

I was into the look. I was into the vibe. It was given off. And then everyone around me just said, it's okay. That's weird, dude, because like, you know, we say this all the time, but not every game is going to be a nine or a 10. And not every game is going to be a four or five. Right. I mean, but, but maybe it is, maybe it's just the fact that we play a lot of games, you know, but a seven out of 10 game is, is just like a waste of time.

And that sounds terrible. Yeah, that sounds really bad, man. It sounds terrible because it's like, but you're saying we made a good game, right? Like you're saying we made like in this market and in 2025, a seven out of 10 is an average video game. And so anybody that can make an average video game is doing way better than most other people. But at the same time, it's like,

but I don't wanna spend, I don't want to spend my time playing an average game. Like when there's so many good games out there, dude, you know, like I'd rather play some indie game that I've never heard of before. That's going to be great. Another crab's treasure is still on my backlog, you know? And it's like, I would rather go play that that I know is going to be good and is supporting an indie dev than some seven out of ten game like south of midnight man. I think that's a perfectly valid take. I'll be honest. I know people won't like to hear that, but that's like we have limited time to spend playing games. So if we hear a game is not like a nines and tens across the board like Expedition 33 was, you kind of just instantly lose interest if you weren't already super, you know, into it.

Yeah, I'll wait for a sale. You know, exactly. That's exactly where it is. I'll catch you on sale. Will you? No. Like, that's the thing. No, no, no.

That's my point. If South at Midnight goes on, and I'm not trying to slander South at Midnight, it's just the example I'm using here, right? So people that are like, oh, South at Midnight's great. It might be I haven't played it. I'm just using it as an example.

OK, so don't shoot the messenger. If South of Midnight goes on sale for 15 bucks, that doesn't change it for me. Like if I know it's a seven out of 10 game and there's still it's it's the time commitment. It's not the money commitment necessarily. It's the fact that I've limited time for gaming and I want to play games that are impressing me or memorable or something like that versus the I've had my fill of these seven out of 10 games, dude. You know, I hate a Dragon Age Veil Guard. I did

not like it. But even then I can still say, well, technically this is a seven out of 10 avowed, which we did not deep dive is the definition of a seven out of ten. A Vowd, which we did not deep dive, is the definition of a seven out of ten. Now I put about 15 hours into a Vowd, but I kind of just went, I think I'd rather be playing something else, dude. Yeah. Like I'm not going to remember a Vowd a year from now. I put like six or seven. I'm like, Josh, are we deep diving this? Cause I don't want to play anymore. I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want no more, boss. That's the kicker, man. It's like, I'd almost rather a game just be memorably bad than to just be average at that point, man.

So, sorry to South at midnight. Like I said, I mean, I've heard good things about the development team. I don't mean to use you as a- Yeah, catching strays, bro, man. Poor South at midnight. I had to use something recent, man. I will say, I think the midnight walk is promising.

I don't think it's. I think so, too. I think it's going to be incredible. Yeah, I think because it is a story based game that looks that looks, I could be wrong, looks like it has limited gameplay elements to it. That this is like your fire watch, your what remains of Edith Finch, you know, these kind of story-based walking simulators with minimal gameplay elements to it. I think if you're going to make that kind

of game, Harold Halibut, which I didn't play, was another one where it's all about the story and the characters, you know, and that's one of those things where it's like, I think if you're going to make this kind of game, you lean into that and you say this is simply for the experience and the visuals and stuff like that. I think if you try to to make this kind of game, you lean into that and you say, this is simply for the experience and the visuals and stuff like that. I think if you try to lean into the gameplay portion and it's mid, it actually winds up detracting from the other part of it. I agree. You know, and, and, and I almost called it South South walk. We don't need a name for mid game.

There's too many Midnights around here. What is this, Midnight Born? Yeah, I was just gonna say, there's a bunch of words, Midnight Born, whatever. Oh man. So I think this game looks amazing. The art style is incredible. The characters look incredible. I might actually play this in VR, dude,

just because I haven't played a VR game in a long time. And I think this looks really, really cool. But that comes out in a week. Be on the lookout for this because you have not played a VR game in a long time and I think this looks really, really cool. But that comes out in a week. Be on the lookout for this because you have not seen a game like this, I guarantee it. Whether it's good or not remains to be seen, but I am willing to bet that people have not seen a game like this ever, honestly.

So, all right, well, a game that I know is gonna be good. I am planning my flag, boys. I'm planting my flag just like I did on Expedition 33. I'm planning my flag on this one, and we're gonna talk about it right after this break. All right, we're back. The flag has been planted. It's flapping in the wind.

Doom the Dark Ages is going to be incredible. Incredible. Rip and tear. Until it is done, dude. Dude, number one, Doom Eternal, I've said this many a time, if you haven't played it, you're missing out on one of the best single player first person shooters that exists.

Like legitimately, it's up there with the Titanfall 2 campaign. I mean, it's amazing, dude. I think Doom the Dark Ages is going to be better than Doom Eternal. And that is saying an awful lot, dude. Wow, that is a bold claim, sir. I'm telling you, man, they understand what makes the newer Dooms incredible. They are gritty, they are so super polished, it's ridiculous, dude. These games will run on a potato in 4K HDR, 60 frames a second, I don't know what magic they work

behind the scenes on these Doom games, but Doom Eternal is one of the best optimized games ever, and it looks incredible. The music goes perfectly, the gameplay is top notch. I mean, there is, I don't see a way that they whiff on this, man. Every trailer that I've seen, every preview that I've seen just gets me amped because they are leaning into the stand and fight, dude. Take that shield with the saw blade. Everything, dude.

Nothing. Doomslayer don't care. Doomslayer don't give a darn man. Well that's what you want to do. Like when you are like Doom guy, you know, or you want to go through and you just want to bash and kill demons and spawns and everything of the like, like you don't want to have to go hide and use a health pack or do any of those things. You just want to go through and destroy.

And it looks like it's leaning into that, which is awesome. So I'm kinda with you, Josh. I don't know if I'm gonna plant my flag that strongly, but I'm very, very excited and optimistic for this one. We'll be deep diving this one too. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, for sure. Ace, like, I don't, like, you're not a big, like, first person shooter campaign kind of guy.

I'm not. Right? But I did play through all of doom eternal and it's DLC. So I enjoyed it. So I will be picking this up. I am curious if dark age is going to be able to stand out this year with all the other games that have come out so far, because oh my gosh, what a year for video games. No dude. I think it will, to be honest.

I think it's going to be different enough. And they've shown this in some of the preview stuff, where you get to pilot the gigantic mechs that you see in Doom Eternal that are all broken down. Yeah. Because this is a prequel to everything. That's the other thing, man, is this is a prequel to the Doom games, you know, where

it's like Doom guys under control of the weird alien, like angel. I don't even know, I don't know the lore of this stuff, man. I love the visuals and stuff, but it's like, this is absolutely a prequel to that stuff. But you get to pilot these mechs and then they show you just pummeling on people, but then you get these Godzilla-sized Gatling guns. You're just bowing stuff down. Dude, the Gatling gun that shoots shreds of skull and you have to load a new skull into it

is just the coolest, most metal thing ever. I love when games just lean into that ridiculous, over-the-top nature of that kind of stuff, like loading skulls in, you're just like, gg, gg, gg, gg, gg, gg, gg, gg, gg, gg, gg, gg, gg, like loading skulls in, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like,

you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like,

you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like,

you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you're just like, you they're like, dude, that's crazy. We're not doing that. That could never work. Just give them another shotgun. Give them a pistol. Give them a machine. And this guy's like, what if you tear up skulls

and it shoots out shards of bone? And of course, it is like, yeah! That's such an amazing idea! Let's also give him a shield that's a saw blade. I love it, dude. Lean into what you are making, dude. Like if you're making a game and it's not serious, lean into the not serious part.

Make me laugh, make me go. I love the fact that these devs knew what they were making. Yeah, doom the dark ages. I always say like, one thing, the best thing a game can do is if it's that type of game is when I'm playing, I just sit back and cackle Just like As I'm as I'm destroying enemies or something like that and and I have a feeling that this is gonna do that in spades

So I am I'm so excited dude to two weeks Yeah, it's it's here in two weeks guys It's like man seems so far away and now it's like, it's here, and ah, man, I'm so pumped, dude. That'll be perfect timing for me to be done with Expedition 33, get a little bit of Marvel Rivals in in the meantime, because that's my comfort game. That's our drug. That I hate, you know, at the same time.

We were playing, we're gonna get to Rivals talk, but we'll get there, we'll get there. But we played last night a little bit. Ace joined us a little bit after we started playing and he was like, Oh, I can tell Josh is frustrated. And I was like, dang it, man. I don't know what these games do to me. All right.

So guys, this, this game is an enigma to me because I should be more excited about it should be, I know, dude. And this is so off brand for me to not be just like singing the praises of this game and saying like, I cannot wait until May 30th because that is when Elden Ring Night Reign releases. It's freaking Elden Ring. Elden Ring is one of my favorite games ever.

Like ever. And I think that's the problem, dude. I think the problem is, is that I'm worried that Night Rain is going to be a disappointment and I'm worried that it is going to be like the you're cheapening my franchise, you know? Yeah, I understand this. I mean, because from sauce never done something like this. They never like revisit IPs and make them a whole another genre of game. Right. Because for people who don't know, Night Rain is going to be a Roguelike,

which yeah, souls like Roguelike. Okay. Roguelike. Oh, yes, your buddies, like, which will be incredible. It's going to bring back bosses from all the old souls games, you know, like some of the worst ones you've ever fought in your life. If Ornstein and smell is in this day, if Ornstein and Smough is in that game, dude. You don't want a little bit of smoe in your life? Dude, I don't even know what I'll do. I don't even know.

Yeah, you never even beat them in Dark Souls 1, did you? Dude, I never beat them. Screw those guys, man. I beat Melidania, you know what I mean? I'm Elden Lord, like I can do all of these things, man. And just take a Bernstein and smile. You're Elden Lord, I've never heard that before. I've never heard you say that. Dude, it's on my resume. I literally on my resume at the top, you know, because it's like, you wanna put like

the important information, dude. It's like Josh, Elden Lord. So you're worried about that. I'm worried about the orphan of cause from Bloodborne. That's who I'm scared of running into again. I got no clue on any of these bosses, what you guys are talking about, but I will say, I will say the, the rogue like nature of it and the fact that we could play together is highly enticing to me.

And that might be a thing that would get somebody like me into End Set Elden Ring. So just throwing that out there, Josh. Okay, so this is the kicker, right? I have this fear that this game is going to cheapen Elden Ring, right? But at the same time, I have the hope that somebody like Ryan, who really doesn't have much interest in Elden Ring

Even though I am convinced I am still to this day convinced Ryan that if you played Elden Ring you would be like Oh my gosh, dude. This game is insane. I'm rolling I think you would lose your mind over it also Perry. Oh, yeah, you can Perry Although only crazy people Perry in Elden yeah. You can parry. Although only crazy people parry in Elden Ring. You are not wrong. Yeah. So, but my hope is that will this draw in Ryan? Like, can we get him into the lands between by having him play Night Reign with us?

Let this be the stepping stone that pulls you into the actual adventure. Like, oh my gosh. Yes. And so the fact that you can play this with friends. Like, yes. Oh my gosh. The fact that you can play this with friends, we all love roguelikes. So that sounds interesting to me. And I'll be honest with you. I have not really followed this game.

I know that like I've seen the trailer for night rain and that is it. When they announced it and we talked about it, that's the only trailer that I have watched. I have not watched any of the updates. I've not watched any of the technical tests. I am going into this almost as blind as a person can go into it, especially for somebody that loves Elden Ring

more than just about any other game out there. This one's just weird for me, man, because I think I am worried, but at the same time, if it works out, this could be one of the best games of the year. They can take it again, man. It could happen again. Shadow of the Erd Tree.

I went, dude, it's DLC. They're just saying it's just more of Elden Ring. And I could not have been more anticipating that. And it blew me away. Like Shadow of the Erd Tree is up there with Phantom Liberty as one of the best DLCs ever made, like legitimately. And so I think that's my like like, but now I see Night Rain and I kind of go like, what are you doing guys?

But it might be amazing. And the fact that the three of us can play this together, which we will be doing really does excite me. I just don't know why I can't kind of wrap my head around. Is that, is that the max is three? I think so. Yeah, it's max of three. Three or four, three? Yeah. And so this is one the max is three? I think so. It's max of three. Yeah. Yeah. And so

this is one where we're just going to have to see, man. And maybe this is like the best way for me to approach this is not have hype for it and not be like over, you know, over hyped for it. And then it comes out and we're all just having a blast. And it's like, Oh my gosh, this is the best thing ever. I just have this worry where I'm like, well, this is just dumbed down. What is this garbage, man? This is an Elden Ring. Why don't I just go play the real game? Yeah, exactly.

I still have tons of hours of content I could do in Elden Ring if I wanted to do that, man. So, yeah. All right, so. That's enough of that. But wait, so Ryan, are we getting the official commitment to play Night Reign with Ace and I from you? Yes.

Yeah! Woo! We did it in America! Nothing else matters this year. Playing with you guys in a rogue-like, I will roll around all through that area. Can't wait to teach you how to souls life this is gonna this is gonna open up a world for Ryan because if we go into this and Ryan likes it then we're doing the Ryan

Elden Ring co-op through all of the Elden Ring together too yeah yes and then and then Ryan's gonna be like I'm eating my words words. This game is so great. It's so much more than just dodging. Ryan will be the guy that it's like, it's 3 a.m. And he's like, guys, guys, they just fought the fire giant. We're like, dude, you started playing yesterday. What are you talking about? That probably will be what happens. Fire giant.

Oh man, all right. And then, hey, we promised it. What gamer doesn't love a little gaming drama, right? Well, drama your mama. I'm gonna throw this one to you again, buddy, because I'll be honest I I'm not I'm not completely sure on this I like you mentioned this to us and I got a preface this by saying oh my gosh, Josh You you what what does you coming from you? I'm not sure about this because

Ace goes have you guys heard about the support strike in Marvel rivals? Now ace only plays support ace has has like I mean you're extraordinary I I'm gonna give you props not because you're a friend, but you're an incredible support player I love love playing with you because I know I'm getting heels if I die. It's because you could not keep me alive It's not because you weren't paying attention or you're off doing something else or like look at the flower Like it is because you you could not keep me alive and then I that's that's great. I can understand that So ace main support and he says guys It sucks playing support in Marvel rivals all the supports are going on strike because some guy said something mean about support players,

and I just went, what are you talking about? So Ace, for the uninformed like myself, explain to people the kind of premise behind this and what's going on with this. So support is knowingly, you know, the lesser viewed role by a lot of other players. That's crazy talk, number one. Oh, yeah, is it?

Yeah. Time out, time out. Look at him trying to hype you up already. Look at him. He's an option here because he's better than me because he's not a support. Oh, man. Let's see that. No, I'm actually going to praise you.

I'm surprised he's not just yelling, heal, heal, heal. Look, as a lifelong gamer who has been playing video games way longer than most people, okay, the support role is the most important role. Like, everybody knows about my days in EverQuest. You know who the most important role was? The healers. Like, in any game, the healers are the ones that are the most important, they keep you alive.

Heal, healer. Protect the healers. It's just brain dead gameplay. I can't help you if you can't heal. Okay, sorry. So anyway, I would just like to put on the record that here at the Video Gamers podcast, we respect our support because,

and we view them as the most important role in the game. So there you go. Okay, now back to you, Ace. Okay. So a popular streamer, I don't know what his necrosis is his name, is a Spider-Man main, which is a DPS. Oh, what do you know?

Spider-Man. Timeout number two. That says everything right there. Oh, my goodness. Oh, no, but Spider-Man is the most annoying DPS in the entire game because he could just delete you with a single combo. Yeah. But he basically said that support players are stupid and brain dead

and that they're pointless. So a lot of people kind of picked up his mentality within the community of Marvel Rivals and just started dunking on their supports all the time to the point where like, it gets really depressing to play support in Marvel Rivals, especially in solo queue. So you'll be trying your best to heal, quite frankly, some very,

un, untalented DPS and, uh, G G no heels. Yeah. If you would've healed, you know, that, uh, that, uh, Mr. Fantastic or whoever would have been, you know, instead of like three and 18, they would have been, you know, 15 and four, you know, it's your, it's your fault. If you can't get kills with Mr. Fantastic, I don't know, you're doing everything wrong. You don't need heals for that. But, but no, basically every support has now decided to put their foot down and we're not healing you anymore. You're on your own. We're instalocking DPS tanks, just like you, like you guys until people start treating us a little bit better.

I, all right, dude, it's wild, man. As, as somebody who's not a support main, I in battlefield, battlefield four, I strictly most of the time, like 99% of the time I was medic and I love to revive and throw med packs and I just, I love to be like that. I got you. And I just would bring everybody back over and over and over and over again, especially at a choke point. So when I hop into it and rivals, like, I'm not good.

I'll say, you know, I'm not a good healer, but I'll heal because everybody Insta-locks DPS you get, you get your, you know, your wand or your Spider-Man, your winter soldier and all these Insta-locked DPS and I'm like, all right, whatever. So then I'll go, I'm like, I can heal. And, and then all they do is complain heal. And then all they do is complain. And what happens when you're solo healing? Do you get dived and then nobody heals for you to help save you?

Cause they do not care about you at all. Where's the heals? Where's the heals? And I'm like, I'm dead. I'm back in spawn, bro. What do you mean? What do you mean? Where's the heals?

Ping, ping, ping, ping, ping. Yeah. Yeah. Dead. Ping, ping, ping, dead? Ping, ping, ping, ping, ping. Yeah, yeah. Dead. Ping, ping, ping, dead. Ping, ping, ping, dead. So part of this issue is that with Marvel Rivals that the dive characters are the characters that are supposed to dive the back line and kill the healers.

I play a dive character. I play Cap, which that's my job. My job is literally to just do nothing but make the healer's lives miserable. And I take my job very seriously. But dive characters are too strong in Marvel Rivals right now. And so it's too hard to stay alive as a healer, especially if you're solo queuing.

I mean, in a coordinated team, two very good healers can kind of keep each other alive, but that's like a higher level type you know, type type player kind of thing. And so what you said, ACE is very true is that it's just not fun. Yeah. Like I, I don't heal very much. I like healing. I'm just not a good healer. Um, but there's nothing worse. I mean, you guys heard me just, I don't look, look, these games really aggravate me, okay?

We were playing a few nights ago, I was trying to heal, I'm getting obliterated by a Black Panther or a White Moon on last. You lost in like two matches, bro. You did not last. You lost in like two matches, if that. Okay, but admittedly. I'm switching, I'm switching, I'm not doing this. I literally just went, I'm not healing anymore, this is stupid.

And I did, I jumped over to DPS, cause I'm like, this is dumb, I'm not, I'm not just sitting around to be a punching bag, man. So amazingly, NetEase is listening somehow. This created enough drama in Marvel rifles that NetEase, who does not balance their characters mid-season, kind of went, oh, guys, this is not good for our game. We have to tweak this. And so through this support strike,

you guys got NetEase to listen. And they said, okay, we have to fix healers. We have to fix support in this game. And they're gonna do it. We don't really know how yet. They've talked about buffing up how dangerous they are. So maybe you can just hold your own in a fight. You know, nerfing a couple of the stronger characters, Ripcap,

that really makes me sad. I'd say you left out the best part. The Spider-Man getting that nerf. Yeah. Yeah, see Spidey. Yeah, so we'll see what happens. I thought this was fun because anybody that's playing Rivals knows what's going on.

It's neat to see that this so-called strike actually got the developer to listen and actually say, okay, well, we're going to make some, some immediate changes to this and then we'll make some more kind of at the end of the season kind of thing. We'll see. I don't know how much they're going to change things. So that still remains to be seen, but I do, I do think that taking balance into consideration at any time during the point of a game is a good idea. You know, um, I will give props to netties just as a company.

They listen to the feedback of their players. Like they are very good about like, no, they don't. Spider-Man is still super OP and Jeff is miserable to try to kill, dude. Hey, I love the player, Jeff. Those two characters infuriate me more than anything else in a video game ever. Ever, dude. They balance for fun, not competitiveness, I will say. Well, Spider-Man can get deleted from the game for all I care, and Jeff needs to be

able to be killed. That's all I'm saying, dude. It's all I'm saying. How about that team comp, bro? Ace is in the heart of playing Jeff right now and he's getting really good at him and I don't like it because I feel like you're going to the dark side, Ace. I don't know. I like those bubbles, bro. Those bubbles are nice. Yeah, it's very nice. Yeah, when they say support, they mean every support. So that includes Jeff the Laird shark. It's a dark side.

I love this game and I hate this game so much, dude. Maybe hero shooters are not good for me, but I love them so much where it's just like hot dogs. I like hot dogs. I probably shouldn't be eating hot dogs every day, you know, because they're probably not good for me ultimately, even though I really, really like them. And that's like Marvel rivals, man We can always tell when Josh is on one because then he just starts just destroying our own team He's like he doesn't get to the uninstall mode, but he's close. Yeah, he's almost there

I do call it education Educating them Party education. I do call it education. Yeah, he says, yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah, Josh is educating them. Ace was the party leader, and he's like, Josh, do you need to finish ripping this guy, or should I re-queue us? And I just went, no, Ace, I'm just educating this guy. That's what I've called it ever since. Education.

Education. I can't help it, guys. I admit it. I admit it. I got a problem. There's a fire in you, buddy. I love it. I love it.

I'm too competitive is the problem, man. I really am, and I don't like losing. That serves me well in some ways, and not so much in the being nice to random people in Marvel Rivals who all want to instalock Spider-Man. Go to and go. Uninstall, bro Instalock Spider-Man. Go to uninstall bro. Yeah, there you go. So do it, do it, do as I say, not as I do. Be good people.

Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, you guys want to go play some rivals? Oh man. All right. Well, that's going to do it for this episode. Everybody. Thank you for hanging out with us, chatting video games. It's one of our favorite things to do. Listen, if you are new to the podcast, thank you for joining us.

We hope you had a good time. If you did remember to hit that follow button, that plus button so that you make sure you get our episodes the day that they release. You know, if you want the best gaming community in existence, you always hear us talk about our Discord community. Everybody that has joined this community has literally confirmed and gone like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that it's actually this cool. So don't take our word for it. Come check it out. We have people of all ages, men, women, everybody's gamers. There's no toxicity whatsoever.

It really is like the oasis of the gaming, uh, you know, culture, I guess. Uh, and I know it's hard for people to believe that that exists, but it actually exists. Josh won't tell you to uninstall in the discord. I will not. I will not. You are saying from the wrath of me. You play Spider-Man at community night, he'll be nice to you. I will. Maybe. Maybe. It's not going too far. I do have standards. So, Maybe. Maybe. It's not going too far. I do have standards, so. Speaking of, hold on.

So this will come out Thursday. So tomorrow, tomorrow night, Friday, we are having Community Night Marvel Rivals. Oh. So come hop into our Discord. Come get some heels. All our stuff's in all of our socials. Links are in the bios and everything like that.

Come join up. It's such a blast. We always play a bunch of crazy customs. And the best part is we all stay in the same voice chat. So it's madness. And it's my absolute favorite part of the whole night every time is that we're all talking at once. It's amazing. But Ryan, I'm not good at Rivals. Can I still play? You absolutely still can play cuz neither is Josh. Yeah But ace I've never played rivals, but I'm willing to install it. Can I play? Oh, absolutely everyone could play

I mean even Josh plays so anyone And it's free they even gave it to Josh cuz it was free one V one me both of you except Mr. Fantastic you swap the iron man. Okay I didn't want to V-1 you as Mr. Fantastic. You swapped to Iron Man. Okay, okay. What, all right, you know what? One V-1 me again in a wider arena with very long sight lines where I can just play Hela.

Yeah. There it is. There it is. All right, everybody, thank you for joining us. Until next time, happy gaming. See ya! Peace out!