Video Gamers Podcast - The Community Forced Us to Play THESE?! – Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: August 24, 2026

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan, and Ace are taking on a TRIPLE DEEP DIVE after the community absolutely crushed our Patreon challenge! We asked for 5 new supporters… and somehow got 15, meaning all three hosts had to play games chosen by YOU. Now it’s time to find out who got blessed and who got completely screwed. Three hosts, three video games, and three very different opinions as we break down the good, the bad, and the painful. The gaming community chose our fate, and now you get to hear the results. If you love video games, and hosts being forced outside their gaming comfort zones, this episode is for you!   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps, Bobby S, NorwegianGreaser, Dettmarp and NightWizard63   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: Milkman, Drewsky, Jigglepuf and BadGam3rDad   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/h2cHKAvSmu Follow us on Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠  Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@videogamerspod Follow us on X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod     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. We put forth the challenge and the answer echoed through the halls of history. Not one, not two, but three hosts hijacked and each forced to play a game of the listeners choosing. Mass Effect 2 for Ryan, Grand Theft Auto 5 for Ace, and uncharted 4 for myself. All first forays into iconic series for each of us. Well, we put in our time, and now it's time to find out what we thought. But first, some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh, and joining me, if I'm a betting man, half his playtime was spent aimlessly wandering the Citadel, and the other half was trying to seduce Miranda, it's Ryan.

You don't know me. You don't know me. I know you so well. Let me guess. Ryan gets lost in the Citadel for like four hours, checking out every little store, and then the whole rest of the time is just laying the riz. Laying the Riz on Miranda.

This isn't the transport. Where am I? Oh, man. That's too funny. I feel like that there's a 97% chance that that's the most accurate. I did change her outfit and then I was like, nah, let's go back to that white one. We're going to go back.

Yeah. And joining us, I don't know that I've ever seen someone more reluctantly have to play what many consider one of the best games. But after putting in his time, has his opinion changed or is he still the edgy indie guy that just hates AAA? No matter how good the game might be, it's ace. I hate how you're just going to invalidate all of my opinions on this by saying you just like in the years. Well, are we, Ace? Are we invalidating some opinions? I know.

I don't know. Are you? Is that exactly what's going to be? I don't know. Stay tuned to find out. I don't know. Stay tuned to find out. Yes, stay tuned, people.

I'm predicting the future. I'm going to say this, Ace, I'm going to say this right now. We've called you out on this. I have never seen somebody be forced to play a game that was more reluctant and whiny and like, I don't want to play GTIA's play. I don't recall being reluctant and whining on the stream I did. There was only one other time, and that was when Ace played Red Dead 2. Yeah, that's true.

It's the same one. I can't believe we're going to play this game. I can't believe we're going to play this game. One of the best games ever. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. The be moaning stopped with that one pretty quick. All right.

To be fair, all three of our games that we're about to talk about on this episode are pretty legendary games. Alzheimer's for sure. None of us have ever experienced. So that is kind of the fun. Shout out to our community. We put forth the challenge that said, hey, and this whole thing started for anybody that may not be aware, and they're just tuning in. Number one, welcome.

Number two, stick around. But we said, hey, if we get five new subs on Patreon, you can hijack one of us. And then they said, what if we get 15 subs, can we hijack all three of you? And then we went, sure. And then they got 15 subs. in the matter of like a few days and then they were like yes uh and then as a community they voted together uh again shout out to to bobby for leading this one up uh as far as putting together the documents and stuff like that uh and handling the votes and all that kind of stuff uh and just

obviously bobby and zombie i think for the yeah it was to zombie yeah the two of them man you all should be in marketing what a cool thing though to see like they had like a spreadsheet and they were making like music of like trying to excite people. Yeah. It was cool. And promotional posters. We need four more sums and stuff like that. So here we are because we are men of our word and we each got picked to play a game.

Now this is a hijacking, which means we don't get a choice. And this is probably why Ace wine so much about the game that was picked for him because he didn't get a choice. This was not his idea to play this. This was the game that got picked. And then he was like, oh, crap. Um, he's not in the credits. So we're going to get to our thoughts on these games. Each of us is going to say what we thought about it, give a kind of a rating for it, uh,

you know, our overall thoughts on this. And I'm just going to say it right now. I'm going to start with Ace because I really want to know, we're going to, you know, we're going to get this out of the way. But before we get to ACE's thoughts on Grand Theft Auto five, we got somebody to thank, uh, you know, number one, thank you to everybody that, stepped forward to accept and complete this challenge and make this episode possible. Everybody that signed up to support the show is incredible. We are humbled. Like, honestly, we are humbled by the response that this got.

The support of the listeners is what makes this podcast possible. We've been doing this for five years now. We have grown into one of the largest independent gaming podcasts out there, like, legitimately in the world. Now, there's, you know, we're not saying we're the biggest by any means. because there are industry podcasts, you know, IGN has their podcast and, you know, it's probably the biggest one. Kind of funny games. You know, they have theirs. They're probably the largest, if not the second largest.

But then you have the little guys like us that are not tied to a website or not tied to industry people. You know, we don't have family that's in the biz to boost us up or anything like that. We got here because we have a passion for gaming. We have been gamers our entire lives and we're gamers just like you out there. So to have people support what we do and so overwhelmingly support it is incredible to us. So thank you to everybody that did that. And even after that, we still have people signing up because, again, we do depend on the supportive listeners. So a huge shout out to Marcus Bruce, who is our latest rare supporter of the show signed up on Patreon.

Sent us a really nice message, by the way, on Patreon as well, just saying, hey, thanks for making my days a little bit better. We love seeing that. So Marcus, thank you, buddy, for supporting the show. Thank you for making RJ a little bit better. Yeah, exactly. And then one of the things that people can do to support if they can't do it monetarily is they can leave us a review and let other gamers know, hey, these guys in this podcast are worth checking out. And Ryan, I believe we have a new review that you're going to read. We do.

We do. This is another amazing five-star review from Inky Insanity. And it's titled, Where Have You Been? in all my life, and it reads as follows. I legit just started listening, and already the vibes are better. Y'all's personalities are better, and ideas for episodes are better than your typical gaming podcast. If I could add a gift right now, it would be the John Hamm dancing in the club 10 out of 10.

So now we dance. Oh, yeah. I said, ooh, baby. Love it. Good review. I couldn't hear Inky Insanity without thinking of the Jamirikwai song. Oh, Inxiety. That was a good song.

That is a good song. Yeah, it is. I like it. All right. Well, Ace, I can't wait anymore. I'm so excited for this. That's enough of the housekeeping. I'm throwing it to you, buddy, because you have been silent.

And Ace might be pulling the wool over eyes and thought this is just the greatest game ever. I don't think so because he did finish. Red Dead 2 and I was like oh Red Dead 2's got his hooks in Ace and I don't think Ace is fit as GT5 but maybe so Ace we have trolled you we have trolled you mercilessly

about you not being happy about having to play GTA 5 so why why were you not happy about having to play this game it's just not the kind of game I usually bother with not usually a big fan of the

open world cityscape kind of games outside of watchdogs because watchdogs had that kind of special hook to it with the hacking. So that was something that drew me towards that. As well as, uh, we'll get to it, watchdog's character has development where he does,

he becomes a little bit less of a complete a hole. Oh, here we go. It's starting already. It's starting already. And also Lester does a lot of hacking. Okay, so I don't want to hear it. He is the man. I love hacking to a third party that's not me. Trevor's supposed to be this way, Ace. Okay, he's supposed to be like the crazy guy. Well, that's great. He's allowed to be the crazy guy. So, so not Ace's kind of game going into this.

And I will say as much as we pick on Ace, you know, the open world fatigue is real these days. You know, like I can actually. I love it. I mean, yeah, right. A lot of gamers are kind of fatigued with the open world thing. Like, I actually understand that. But so open world aside, is this just that you didn't think you were going to like this is it did in your mind did you think this was just driving around running over hookers and committing crimes like i mean that's what it kind of was but i'll just say now most of my fun did not come from any kind of missions or anything like that it was just driving around the world doing my own thing i felt the mission welcome the gta bro yeah that's that's the game well ace to be fair and i'm gonna i'm Because again, we've been trolling you, but I have to be fair to you as well.

Your big concern going into GTA 5, because Ryan and I were honestly dumbfounded. We were like, bro, this game, GTA 5 is one of the most popular games. Like, GTA online's going on. Like, GTA 5 is incredible. I didn't touch the online. I got to say that now. Did not touch the online. No, and no, you didn't have to.

I'm just saying like, but the, you were worried that the story was going to suck. You were worried that there was no story to GTA 5 that this was just an open world where you drive car, steal car. cars run over hookers and have poor gunplay. And that was your concern going into this game. And I, well, I think you're wrong. I understand the like why you would approach this game the way that you were approaching it. So initial impressions, not final impressions, but initial impressions. You get in, you're bitter. You hate everybody. You're like, bro, I hate all these people that supported this show. I hate this podcast. I hate this community. You don't get to say that I hate the

people to support the show and I don't hate their picks. Everyone who voted for this. I am a man of democracy. I understand when people vote for something you acquiesce. As a man of my word, I was going to play the game regardless. I hopped into it, started it up, played through the first mission. Thought it was fine. It was good.

I like a good heist. A good heist is something everyone likes. Why not start the game off strong? And then immediately it drops you into Franklin stealing a car. and like the scope of the game has shrunk significantly from what I expected and wanted. But Franklin's view is like more personal. It's Franklin. Well, that's great.

I mean, Franklin is unfortunately. Franklin. No, it's not that Franklin, buddy. But no, like, you know, you start with Franklin and eventually you unlock Michael and then eventually Trevor, which is by far the most unique part of this game is Trevor because he is. Oh, yeah. The most unpredictable character. in a video game, like ever. Yeah, baby!

Any time I would transfer, like, characters, and I'd go back to him, I had no idea where I was. When you, like, zoom in and you're like, what the heck of me? I was like, he's just standing in his underwear somewhere, and you're like, what the heck is happening? Just like buy a trash can one point. I was like, that's Trevor for you, man.

How did I get here? Good old Trevor, man. This is not, I'll tell you one. Doesn't matter. That's where you are. And then every time I would. swap back to Michael or Franklin. I was like, oh, okay, we're just walking out of a coffee shop and they're going to throw their coffee cup on the ground for the third time in a row.

But like, Oh, can you believe those litterers? Unreal. I may have hit some people with a car for luthering in my little, my stream. You did? No, I couldn't.

I just, all right. Everyone talks about how these characters are great and that the story is great. I don't feel like any of these characters develop past being complete A-holes. And they don't, they don't become bigger than they were when they started. They are still the same miserable people. And Franklin doesn't move past being just Franklin. He never gets his own arc.

He's very much just like, do what Michael says now. He seems like he's going to have something, like something for him to work towards. He's ambitious. He wants this. He wants this. And then he just takes the handouts from Michael and Lester and Trevor. And now he's up there with them, but he didn't really work for it. Oh.

Oh, wow. I feel like we did a lot. Franklin just, yeah. That's all right. So Ace hates Franklin. That's good. No, I don't hate Franklin. I actually think he had a lot of potential.

And they kind of waste it with a, I'll just say, white savior, uh, story. So, so let's let's talk about the gameplay because, you know, they're, you know, I, some of, I will say like, GTA 5, I really, really enjoy the game. It is no Red Dead 2. Like, let's just be honest, right? Like, Red Dead 2, one of the greatest games ever made. GTA 5, fantastic game, but not nearly on the same level. It might have the strongest lock on I have ever seen it. Yeah, I was going to say, for me, the gunplay, like, even in Red Dead isn't the best.

And especially not in GTA 5. Like, I really didn't enjoy a lot of, like, the shooting in GTA 5 and stuff like that. It was very basic. It was very uninspired. And without the dead eye, I didn't really enjoy. I didn't really enjoy what I could do with it either. Also, unlike Red Dead, unlike Red Dead, I never ran out of ammo in this game, ever. Like, I never found myself scrounging corpses for ammo or trying to get to come.

You're not supposed to. It's Grand Theft Auto, dude. You guys, I just don't even understand. This is the game. This is. Don't say you guys. Why am I getting lumped in a piece here? Okay, well, you were just talking about the gunplay.

I'm just trying to host and prod a little bit, Brian. I'm talking about the gunplay in this game. You were saying that it wasn't good. The gunplay in GTA 5 is not great. It's not supposed to be great. The game play in GTA 5 in general is not that great. All right. I'm going to say that right now.

It's very repetitive of drive here, shoot this, chase this, drive here. It's very repetitive. I got it. Well, that's 80 game A's. Every Metroidvania is go here, jump on this ledge, get this ability, fight this boss, get new ability. Oh, yeah, see how many things you've just said now, whereas I said you drive here, shoot this, drive here, shoot this,

chase this. Yeah, that was three things from me and you said like six or seven. How is he supposed to get there? Walk? I don't know, but you're not supposed. Take the bus. You chase people in car. Like 90% of this game is chasing people in cars. Oh, maybe he could ride a bike or fly a plane or a jet or a

or a motorcycle. All right, go ahead, Josh. Continue on. All right, so you don't like the gameplay. You find it repetitive. No, I think it was very basic compared to how felt about Red Dead. Like, I think Red Dead did a much better job

with the gameplay, and it's not even its strongest suit. Right. The gunplay is functional, but it's not engaging. The driving is okay, but it feels very disproportionate

part of the game. It's very heavy on the driving. Driving was fun. And the mission structure. Let's just talk about the missions. Okay, he's not. He can't. You never just cruised around at night

in your car, listening to tunes and, like, getting on the highway and just, just driving? Yeah, that's when I was having fun when I wasn't trying to play the game, when I was just driving around the world. That is the game, though. That is playing the game.

That's not the game. That's not the game if you're playing the story. Oh, the guy that's played three hours of the one version of the game he's played is telling us how the game is. Yeah, see me too. The game is the story if you're playing the main, like, freaking campaign. If I'm playing the online, that's the game. The game is driving around the big open world, just doing whatever. You told me, play.

the story. Okay. So how... I don't even know where to go on this. No, you don't. What was your favorite part? Tell us your favorite part. Favorite part?

Yeah, favorite part. Probably the heist. I think planning the heist and doing all the parts of the heist and bringing that together and to be like an actual big moment was really cool. Like I only did two the highest. I think generally that's the right answer. The heist in this game. Doing the jewel store heist by getting the, that was so fun.

Yeah, like getting the knockout gas, getting all this stuff together and doing it like the quiet way or doing it the aggressive way. But also the fact that by doing some of the side quest, you unlock some of the people you could hire for the heist was a cool detail. I thought that because I did like the, uh, the quest where you blew the CEO's head smooth off with his cell phone. Unlocking the hacker guy as like the primary hacker was a cool detail that I could bring him in. He would hold off the alarms until I could basically. rob every jewel case. And then doing the other heist where you steal like the, the government weapon under the water and you steal a submarine and you

steal a military helicopter was cool. I think those are cool things. But the game doesn't lean into the scope of that as much as I think it could. Online actually does. The heist that you can do online are very detailed. And they update them. And again, nobody's expecting that you had played the online. No, I didn't play the online, unfortunately.

But yeah, but I'm just saying like if you like the heist, that's kind of like what's. Yeah, I think that's where the planning, like the actual criminal masterminding is what worked for me for this. Actively, like, trying to be more than just street thugs and deadbeats. So what didn't you like? And we don't, we only have a few minutes here, so, but like, what are your main complaints with this? All right. Los Santos is, it's one of the most detailed open worlds probably ever created.

But it, like, there's MPC behavior's great. The radio being able to, like, pick up on things I've done in the world is cool and all that. I just feel like it's an enormous world that's incredibly detailed, but it doesn't have a meaningful feeling into the progression or the narrative of the game. It doesn't really change with the game. And it doesn't work for me, especially in the mission structure where every mission throws you from this open world into a linear segment where you're just like,

now you're in this hospital, now you're chasing someone down a highway that you don't get off the highway. Also, you fail missions, like super easy. I step there. I'm sorry that the game gives you a chance to, to, you know, go and do the missions or explore the world. A second too early from pulling up on someone in a mission and it failed me instantly. Instantly.

You probably ran that person over. No, I didn't. Probably so. You probably did. Like, yeah, he's trying to come up with excuses. Dude, you, like, I've never heard someone say this game like, oh, it just gives me too much. It's too much. Like I, you know, I got these.

I think also the story and character structure is very disjointed. It doesn't feel very flowy. It doesn't work for me. It feels very wrong. Because you're jumping between characters so often, the story doesn't fit sometimes. It doesn't make sense how you got from point A to point B. I will say, I could see that a little bit. I will say to defend Ace on this one.

I, Ace really tends to enjoy like the focus on a character and their story. and GTA 5 having multiple characters where they try to tell like their story from their perspective does not really jive with a lot of like aces taste in like characters and story and like focusing on one person so I can kind of get that.

I say black flag works for me because we spend all of our time with Edward and we see him progress from a deadbeat pirate who has a soul and has this potential to become a better person eventually become a better person eventually become a better person through trial and error. That works for me because we spend so much time

building this character and building your attachment to him. Aidan Pierce and watchdogs works for me because we spend time with him as a miserable man who is regretting his decisions that got his niece killed. Spoilers, but that's like the first five minutes of the game. And then eventually get to see him reach his redemption or continue down his dark path depending on what choices you make.

Michael DeSantis never. gets to be a better person. Trevor doesn't change at all, which is fine. Trevor's the best part of this game. He doesn't matter because he's psychotic. Like, why do you have to explain psychotic? And then Franklin just never reaches his true potential. And that's the only thing that doesn't work for me.

It's like I wanted to see more from these characters because everyone talks about them like they're legendary. Ace wants a redemption arc. I don't want redemption. I want to see them either go full on villain and like actually take what they're owed. or redeem themselves in some way. All right. All right.

We got to get to your rating on this ace because you're killing Ryan. Like you are killing Ryan. My heart hurts so bad right now. I'll just say that. I don't think GTA 5 is a bad game. I think it's an incredibly polished game. It's built around design that just doesn't prioritize things that resonate with me. But when you strip away the production value, the satire,

just the sheer amount of stuff in the game, I don't find the underlying gameplay or narrative compelling enough to rate it higher than a 7.5. Oh my God. Breathe, Ryan. Did you, hold on. Take a breath. When you take away all this awesome stuff, you know, oh, man, you know, that's like. I don't find it awesome though.

I found it bloat. You know, I'm going to take away the, when you take away the bun and the, in the lettuce and the tomato and the ketchup and, you know, you just got this patty. Like, it's not very good. Like, what are you talking about? Do you think that it's partly age at this point? It does also show it. It does show its age. I'll say that.

No. No. No. No way. What's compared to what? Like, compared to what? Like, what is, how is it aged? Like, what about it has, like.

Animations are very stiff. Very stiff. I mean, Ryan, this game is 13 years old. PS3. All right. I just played Mass Effect 2, okay? I just played Mass Effect 2. You played the legendary edition of Mass Effect 2, which is a remake.

That's true. Oh, we'll have a comment on that. Don't worry. Yeah. All right. So 7.5 from A's for GTA 5. And now if you want to ask me what I think, I feel like if I'm hyped for GTA 6, my answer is no.

No, I'm not. I'm not hyped for you. That's insane, dude. Okay, hold on. Did you ever, did you ever just like, and this is, this was what made GTA what it is? Did you ever just go out and just wreak havoc on the world? No, because the star system basically sent Robocop after me as soon as I've killed one person.

Then you kill them all. Like, that's the thing of the GTA. You go. And every time you die, you use $5,000. You can't tell me. There is no reason to spend money in this game. There is no reason. You can't tell me.

You play GTA. Your game gives you all your vehicles. If you haven't gone into a strip club and killed everybody, that's the game. Like, that's what you do. I'm sorry, I'm not a 13-year-old who just wants to see people die in boobies everywhere. I'm sorry, I'm more mature than that. All right. Listen, we got to let Ryan compose himself.

We're going to take a break, people. we're going to come back. We're going to hear about, I don't, I'm going to let Ryan go next because I don't know that he can take what I might say about uncharted. Oh, man. You better not have anything I'm going to say about Uncharted. We're going to go. We're going to see what Ryan thought about Mass Effect too right after this break. Ryan, you okay, buddy. Ryan held his breath that entire break. It's okay. We knew that Ace wasn't going to like GTA. I tried really hard. Genuinely. I, I, I streamed the game. Dude, I could tell the way that you went into this game. I know you did. I'm just saying I knew before you ever touched GTA 5 and I'm pretty sure that Ryan and I have DMs where we were like, there's no way that Ace winds up saying he likes GTA 5. Like no way.

I'd be lying to you. I'd be lying to our listeners. I'd be lying to everyone. And I'm not going to lie. That's fair. I like legitimately, I know Ryan's reeling, but I can understand that like GTA 5 is not. Red Dead 2 I think is legitimately. No, Red Dead 2 I think is undisputedly.

a masterpiece. It's got great narrative. It's got good gameplay. The world is engaging. I could see people not liking GTA 5. Like legitimately, I can understand that take. I don't agree with it, but I can at least understand that. So, all right. So Ryan,

you got picked to play Mass Effect 2. Now, everybody went, hey, if we're going to make him play Mass Effect, because you've never experienced any of the Mass Effect games. I have not, no. And people were, they really were kind of waffling between, do we make Ryan play Mass Effect? to start the trilogy, or do we just say, hey, play the best one, which is Mass Effect 2?

Mass Effect 2 is the best Mass Effect. You, because I've been calling out Ace, you had a hard time getting started with Mass Effect because life just got in the way. You were insanely busy. You know, if you got a moment to game, you were playing a round maybe of Overwatch with Ace and I just to say, hey, I played some video games with the boys, but I will say in your defense, like the last three weeks for you has been pretty chaotic. But I also feel like you were not that excited to jump into a game that is pretty old at this point. And then when we checked in and we

were like, hey, Ryan, how's your Mass Effect going? You were like, bro, I've gotten like, I've gotten like an hour and a half in. And then we were like, okay, well, I guess we're going to delay this recording a little bit. I have three and a half hours. I had three and a half. To be fair to you, too, you've been working your butt off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, this isn't your fault. I will say that my thought was I was as excited as everybody else to go, oh my gosh, Ryan's finally going to experience Mass Effect too.

But I also went, man, this is an old game. And I'm not sure that it's going to resonate with Ryan in 2026, especially when it is a long game. It's an in-depth game. and it can be hard to just jump into Mass Effect for like an hour if you get like a chance to play for a little bit. It's one of those games where I feel like is better situated if you really can devote like four or five hours at a time to like really get enveloped in it.

And I know that you didn't really have that opportunity. What was your thinking going into Mass Effect too? Well, I will say going into it, obviously I've heard the things forever. I've dabbled with the world of Mass Effect. and I've seen videos and I've seen the characters. I know them between, you know, old host of the show, Paul, our best friend in the world who is obsessed with this game and loves it. He actually replayed the entire thing just because I was having to play it.

He offered to talk to me as I played it to explain things because he loves it so much. I love you, Paul. But, yeah, it was almost daunting. Like, I'm like, I know this is going to be. a big deal and there's going to be a lot there, you know, what am I going to get myself into with this? You know, what really is this all going to entail, especially for an older game where, you know, quality of life and different things may not be as good. So, you know, I was curious to see really what I was going to get myself into. So it was, I was, I was, I was, yeah, it was,

it was, it was an interesting, like, emotional part getting into this thing. Is there any fear when somebody makes you play a game like this where it's like guys what if I don't like it like Ace is nodding his head because he's like I just had to admit that I didn't like GTX5 in front of the world. How much I'm going to get ripped apart on the internet? Oh rightfully so and I'm going to do it I'm not rightfully nothing

opinions or opinions yeah there's going to be a couple extra extra reels on the Instagram when you hear people say Mass Effect is one of the greatest series ever made it was the literal pinnacle of Bioware yeah I mean that's a lot to kind of

digest and take in as you're about to embark on playing the second game in the series, you know, and kind of going like, well, okay, I mean, let's see what this is about. Does it present well in, like, in today's day and age? I mean, you did play the legendary edition, which is kind of the remastered, you know, upgraded edition. And, you know, that's the most recent form that you could take. But, like, did it hold up? Um, I will say, uh, for it being, I mean, it released in 2010, um, for being as old as it is,

it's, it's a game that, uh, that played well, but you can, you can really feel the age. You can tell that it's 16 years old, you know, like you can see that the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the gameplay is, and the way they structure it, and the way they structure it, and how they set things up, you can feel it. So, um, good, bad and different. Otherwise, like, you know, we'll get into all that and my thoughts on the game, but like you, I absolutely felt, uh, the age of the game. And I felt it the most so, if I'm going to get into this, like, in the combat. Like, I thought that the combat was, um, very lacking to me. It felt very bland and just kind of like just shoot at these guys until and use your combos and use your special abilities and then they just like just fall over and they just fall over and die and you're like okay you know

that that guy's dead and go on to the next one so you can you can definitely see the age um and that this game is you know getting close on 20 years old i don't know that i've ever heard anyone say like play mass effect for the combat so that that sounds about right like yeah yeah yeah which is fair which is totally fair i'm just saying that like playing the game itself like I felt that was the part where I was like all right you know let me get through this section or this stage to talk to somebody like that's what I felt myself kind of doing in some of the parts did it explain the first like well enough for you to understand where you were playing the starting with the second oh not at all no no no no not at all do not even a little bit I had to watch a whole review I actually watched a review thing before and I still didn't know what the hell was going on. I had no idea. I had no idea. And then, and then, like, spoilers. I mean, the game's 16 years old. Shepard immediately just, he dies. And then,

he's rebuilt. And then two years later, it's two years later, you know, and it just, yeah, there was, it definitely, I had no clue was going on in the beginning. And I researched a little bit and learn some more stuff. And that helped for sure. But yeah, you don't, you don't get much. You know, it's not one, it's not as easy to just jump in. Fair enough. Yeah. All right. So you're playing the game.

You get a few hours in initial impressions. Is it like, man, this game's old. Is it, okay, these characters are kind of cool. Like, yeah, the gunplay is feeling a little dated and, you know, the combat's maybe not the best. It's not up to snuff for, you know, 2026. But it's serviceable. Like, what were your initial impressions as you started to get going? Once I kind of really got in a few.

hours, I was, I'm not going to lie, I was having a hard time booting it up. I was, I was busy. I can tell. I know, and I know, that's why you asked. Like, and I even told you guys, normally we try to keep things kind of like very close to the chest. We don't, we don't talk about what we're playing, but I'm like, man, guys, I'm having a hard time booting this up. And you guys keep like going off playing Overwatch, you know, like the new season's coming and all this stuff's going on. And standing outside the window. And I'm just like, I'm just like outside the window watching. Just like, oh, I got to go play this game.

And so I had a hard time booting it up. But I have a feeling that it's because I just didn't. It is a continuation. I didn't know the characters. I didn't know what they went through and what happened in the first one with the Citadel and the Prometheans. And like everything that happened. Like I didn't know that. So I don't have a connection to them.

So I was kind of like, you know, it didn't, it didn't connect with me. But I will say after a certain point, you do start to get that, especially in the second game, if you haven't played the first. Like, there is a point where you will get a connection to these characters and you will start to bond with them. And you will get that drive to like, oh, okay. All right, I see what's going on here.

And then you'll start to like get a little bit more of a drive for this to find out more. A bit of an emotional investment in all this. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, because you have to have Garris do what Gareth does. Morden, you know, you have to have, you got to be around Morden enough as a scientist to kind of go like, okay, this guy's more than just a mega nerd. Like, okay, like, you know, Miranda, you know, what's the, it's Rex, right? Yeah, the, I can't remember his race, but Rex is the guy.

There were so many alien races, yeah. I mean, you know, like, encyclopedia for that. Right. Yeah. But, I mean, that is, to be fair. something that if you played the first one, you kind of automatically go into to with this knowledge and these relationships. And things carry over. Build. Right. Right. Exactly. And so if you don't have that, then you are at a disadvantage and

it's going to take a while before you start going, okay, I like Garris or I don't like Garris or you know, what's up with Morden? Right. Why is this guy such a nerd? And, you know, he's very, it's almost like Spock, right? Where it's like he just talks a certain way and it's, I don't know if this annoys me or I like it and maybe it's okay whatever so I get it you kind of you go into the sequel to Mass Effect kind of behind the the eight ball a little bit you know and so it is going to be a slower start I think and I think that's completely fair um all right so you start to finally get your feet under you you start to get into the gameplay the characters are starting to become familiar to you you hinted at something in our pre-show

that made it maybe seem like you are a little bit more interested in seeing where this game concludes. But like what is your now you're in where you're at? Like did the game start to grow on you? Did it start to kind of leave a favorable impression or did it just stay confusing? Um, so I will say there is a very good like I, I loved once I started to get into it and I understand the mechanics and how I use the mass relays to travel about to do the different missions. And I'm jumping, you know, jumping through to other systems and stuff to go to different planets or other areas. And like, once you really get into it, I did start to develop a connection to this game. And I did want to see what else was going to happen.

I wanted to see more. I wanted to know, well, what are we going to do with this? What are we going to do with that? Like, where are we going? How do we find this person? how do I save you know this this guy's thing and you know everybody has a side mission

everybody's got something going on Jacob's like oh my family and then this is 10 years ago but like hey there's a ping on this you know and I need to go see and you know so it's there's so many things and that's one of my things with these types of games is that I just you know ADHD brain

I just get sidetracked and I go off and do a million different side missions which is what I did but you're you're going to get sucked into the world, you're going to get sucked into the different characters, and I think they did a really good job on creating a space to where there's always something to do. There's always, there's always, a million different missions. There's always like, hey, this person wants to talk to you, you know, and they always let you know, and you're like, oh, okay, you know, and then you can go find them. And then

if you miss that mission a while back, and then they'll remind you again, and you go, oh, and you can go look for it, you know, in another spot. So. there's a lot there I absolutely started to settle into this game and I understand why people especially

16 years ago would have been enthralled and absolutely loved what they saw the oh my gosh I'm forgetting his name night now the whatever man in in can oh the

oh not invisible man I keep wanting to say it's I would have had it if you hadn't said anything. In something. I can't remember it. Oh, my gosh. I can't remember it. Because it's, it's, uh, it's, uh, Charlie Sheen's dad, Martin Sheen, um, who voices

it, which is awesome, which I love to see. And he's like sitting in a chair. Elusive. It's elusive man. Yeah, there we go. And he's like invisible man. Yeah, I know. It was something.

And he's got like this cool backdrop. And so like there's, there's a ton there that just draws you in and makes you want to seek out more and want to learn more and want to go to these side quests and discoveries and learn things. So I think they did a really, really good job with that. I will say this, because I know you didn't quite get there. The culmination of Mass Effect 2 is one of the, it's like up there with Bioshock. You know what I mean? To where it's like, I don't think you can fully appreciate this game if you don't actually see what the ending of this game brings. Because it goes, it's nuts.

dude. Like it's it's like legitimately nuts. And I know you hinted at that because you said in the pre show you were kind of like guys that think I might actually like stick with this and finish this even though we had to record this episode. But you were like I think it's like you kind of need to see where it's going at this point. And that's where the ball is starting roll down the hill and pick up speed. And I think you're starting to see that. It's hooks in you. Yeah. I got like all the I got I like went and I found all the people almost all the people to like add to the team. And I'm I'm pretty far in that and getting everybody together and, you know, doing everything, uh, as far as, like figuring everything out with, um, what the collectors are doing. Uh, so there is, now I'm

invested. Like, I feel like I want to know, like, what, why are they, why are they snatched? What are these bugs up to? Like, what are, you know, you want to keep going and you want to keep unlocking like these things. But it's not, it's, this is where the, the age comes into it. It's not that easy to unlock that. Like, it's not that easy to figure it out. You got to, like, look around and then I did think it was neat. Like, uh, when you get set up to, like, go to different areas, you have a little ship and it's like, and you just go a teeny little ship cruising around, like it's an old video game and you're cruising around. And you could try to get there and like, oh, you don't have enough fuel. So you got to go to a fuel depot and stuff. But there's,

I think there's a lot there that if you haven't played this game, give it a chance. check it out. You may have to watch some reviews. You may have to look at some stuff. You probably should. But it's definitely something that you should take a peek at. So how would you rate it right now? And again, I know you haven't beaten the game. And if you do beat it, we'll be very, we'll make sure to let the people know if it changes your rating at all. But how would you rate Mass Effect 2 based on your playtime with it so far? I would say, I will, I will guarantee that I will beat this game. Oh, I am, yeah, I am absolutely going to finish it.

I have probably 24 hours, probably two of those are like idle time. I got a lot of time in, but I also, like I said, I'm a wander. So I just kind of go and look around and talk to random people. And this guy's like, yeah, I spent like five minutes, 10 minutes talking to a guy and then he's just like, you know, F you. and then I'm just like, okay, well, that was a waste, you know? I was like, I did nothing at all, but I get that all the time. But I would say that I will rate this so far an 8-5. Dang, that's pretty high up for you.

I really, my biggest gripe so far is the, is the gunplay. It's so bad. I think that's, do you think you'll like it enough to want to play the third? To know where it is. No, absolutely. Yeah, no, I think so. I'll also say a lot of the voice acting was very, very well done. Shepard is one of the worst voice actors I've ever heard in my life.

Yeah, there's a lot of people that like all the other characters. Ever, like a lot of them are so good. And he's like, hey, what are you doing over there? You know, that's how he talks every single time for everything he does. I don't know. It's like a white run guard. We're going to go there. Yeah, that's what he sounds like.

He sounds just like a weird NPC guard guy. You have violated the law. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's, that's, you know, what's your, what you're dealing with there. But, uh, yeah, 8-5 in 2026 for, like you said, a game that's as old as Mass. It's impressive to make it up. It is honestly pretty good.

And it may go up. Like, it may go up. I'm, I've, I've, I've started. Knowing what I know and you don't know, I think it'll go up. I've started to understand that, like, it's going to be horrible gunplay and, and it's just not good. And it is what it is. And so just enjoy the story. Enjoy the character.

and traversed through the world. I loved, dude, that, that, uh, I forget what level it was, but you're on top of that ship and you're fighting through everyone and there's like a lightning storm and you're using the lightning collectors to like charge at the other people and you can use those as defense. And like I thought there was a lot of really cool meat features that again, 16 years ago would have been, oh my gosh, look at what I can do. you know, so I understand why people love this game.

I understand why people are still nostalgic for it. It is absolutely dated. I did not like the gunplay, but it's serviceable. I will finish this game and I'll probably play the next one. All right. Well, there you go. 8.5 from Ryan for Mass Effect 2. Not bad.

That's pretty good, man. Honestly, that's a little bit higher than I thought because I'm happy to have played it. I really did worry about the datedness if that was going to affect things or not. And it also goes to show you that at the time. time. You know, anytime we talk about nostalgia games,

right, you've got to remember, like, at the time, Mass Effect was the most insane thing that people had seen. Prominent name.

To play that game at release with the choices that you could make, the Paragon and Renegade system, the characters, your choices actually matter and they carry through from one game to the next.

That's such a good thing. You know, you had your continuous save. Like, that kind of stuff at the time was really legendary. You know, 16 years later, it might not seem so legendary at the time. So, all right. You're going to tell us about your time.

Our time with your big. Unsharded four. Uncharted four. I have never played an uncharted game ever. You beat it, didn't you? People are, what's that? You rolled credits. I did.

I rolled credits. You were the only one to roll credits so far. Which is rare for me. People know this. I don't finish very many games. I did actually roll credits on Uncharted 4. I have no understanding of this franchise. I know the characters just because I'm a gamer.

You know, who doesn't know Nathan Drake and Sully and stuff like that? I was very excited to jump into this. You know, yeah. Which is great, by the way. Now that I've played the game and I know Ryan's cosplay, I'm like, really good cosplay. Yeah, there you. Yeah, there you.

Thank you. That's funny. I will say that I probably was the most excited out of the three of us to jump into my game. I felt like not having played Uncharted was a glaring hole in my in my gamerness. You know, and it was like, okay, well, I finally got a reason to load this up. I know that there was talk about, hey, let's make Josh play Uncharted 2. No, that's kind of dated, but a lot of people think the story is the best in Uncharted 2. Eventually people said, let's play Unscharted 4 because you can play it on his PC and it is the most modern version that we think he has the best chance of

enjoying. I will say right off the rip, really enjoyed the game. Like, you know, as soon as I jumped in and I got my controls under me, I did play this on controller because it just seems like a controller game to me. You know, it is. It is. Yeah, you know, right away, I was like, okay, this is naughty dog, dude. It's like, you know, the presentation is excellent.

Everything about this game is polished. So it was like, okay, I'm instantly impressed. I'm getting to be Nathan Drake. I'm meeting his brother. We're breaking out of prison. They're setting up the story and all this stuff. They're doing a little bit of like, hey, this is the history. You know, you run through the orphanage to start off the game as little kids.

It kind of teaches you the climbing and the parkour and the stuff like that. I'm like, okay, okay, this is all really well done. So my initial impressions, because I asked both of you, were very positive for Uncharted Four. I was like, okay, I think I'm actually really going to like this game. you know and then I kept playing I never found myself dreading playing this game you know you're doing your little heist type stuff because you know you're a treasure hunter and you're Indiana Jones basically so you know I'm at the auction with the bad guy and we're trying to figure out and I've got to stealth my way into this stuff and I like stealth in a game if it is minor like if they give me you know stealth sections yeah and if you fail you don't just fail completely and maybe you can shoot your way out or something like like that. I think the story in this game is really good. The characters are insanely well done.

Nathan and his wife, again, who I knew nothing about, but Elena. I will say, just so people understand, too, I watched countless videos of what happened in Uncharted 1, 2, and 3. I really wanted to go into for knowing the characters and knowing the story and not feeling like I was completely lost. So I watched a lot of videos that caught me up on everything in the first three games. I know it's not the same as like experiencing it, you know, and like living through it with those characters and stuff. But you didn't feel lost.

I didn't feel lost enough. No, yeah. And I will say this. Really good videos like for follow ups and recaps and everything. I equated this 100% to like God of War and Cretos, right? Like if you have played the original God of War and then you play 2018, you have that history with Cretus to. see how he's changed and how he's evolved. And that does something.

And that is one thing I could absolutely tell in Uncharted that I was missing a little bit. Like I knew who these characters were. I knew their background, but I didn't experience it. You know what I mean? So it's like, there were parts of the game where I was like, man, if I played the first three, this would hit a lot harder, like a lot harder for me. Like I knew it. I could tell, but I also just didn't play them.

So it was like, I know why this is an epic moment, but it's not. as epic as I know that it should be. So at least I was aware of that too. I will say there's one thing that I figured out because I have played Last of Us and Last of Us 2 and now Uncharted 4. So now I'm starting to like really get into like Noddy Dog. Nottie Dog loves traversal.

Yeah. They just love you going from one point to the next, dude. I don't know what it is. about naughty dog. And this is the last of us. It's so pretty. It is beautiful. Bro,

it is gorgeous. But Nottie Dog's M.O. is let's make you go from point A to point B so that we can tell the story of the characters along the way. And we just need to keep you busy enough so that we can do these so that we can focus on the characters.

And like the characters in Uncharted are awesome. Nathan Drake, I would hang out with that dude in a heartbeat. Like, what a freaking guy, dude. Like so much that we had to ban him from any of our drafts because everybody wants to hang out with Nathan Drake. Sully, it's the same way, you know? And then like even Nathan's wife, Elena, I was like, she's freaking cool, man. She's making you play Crash Bandicoot to challenge her and all this stuff.

So I'm like, okay, I like all these people, like instantly likable. But there was a point in the game where I literally was just going like, naughty dog is just making me walk so that they can just have a video game man like and and in uncharted it's not just walking it's climbing it's a lot of climbing bro you guys know how I feel about climbing and I trolled Ryan about this without giving anything away because I was like you know how I feel about climbing and then Ryan was like oh no oh no you hate climbing and then I was like yeah I do hate climbing games and then I'm like all of a sudden I'm just doing nothing but climbing everywhere.

And so, like that is my one complaint about this game is that I don't know how, like it's 20 hours. Well, not 20 hours. It's like, it's 14 hours of just climbing ledges and shimmying along ledges and jumping like an impossible jump that no human could make.

Like, also, I know it's a video game, but like you would rip your fingertips off. Oh, yeah. No. Really, like, rip your hands off trying to make some of the,

Drake, dude. There's no way. This guy has the arm strength of a gorilla in a human body because there's no way. Come on, bro. He's just like, wham! And then he can just throw that thing. He can unhook it. He can unhook the grapple with no problem.

You're good to go. Yeah. There was a certain bit of like suspension of, you know, disbelief that had to occur on this. Was there like a memorable, like standout moment from the game that like, Oh, plenty. Totally landed for you. Like a lot of the set pieces, like there were parts where it was just,

when they get into the set pieces where like things are falling and you're having to like grab onto things or you know do any of that stuff there were multiple times where i was just like oh my gosh like this is amazing dude like this is one of the coolest scenes like in gaming and then they temper that with like climb this ledge now climb that ledge now climb this mountain now climb that mountain now climb this ledge now make this jump now climb this pillar and scomp this tower and then climb this tower and then it was like like that part of the game felt so repetitive to me that I was just like naughty dog

you're reminding me of like walking in Last of Us where I'm just walking from point A to point B and it's like now I have to place a plank so I can walk across a gap in the two, like that's like the gameplay you know so it's like that part didn't resonate so much I will say I did not like the gunplay in this game I'm surprised I really didn't like it I mean it was fine

The gunplay is so strong in The Last of Us, though. It is, it's way better in Last of Us, if you ask me. Like, like, legitimately, I thought it was way better than The Last of Us. It's like, I don't know, man. Maybe it's just, I don't know. Maybe it's that I'm not, like, on the side of a mountain in The Last of Us and I'm in a post-up with your house and likes a little bit more sense. It's the altitude.

Yeah. The altitude's thrown off his aim. Maybe. I don't know. Maybe. It was fine. Like, honestly, I kind of equated to Red Dead. Like, it was serviceable, but there was nothing to write home about a

as far as the combat and the gun play goes in this game. I like that they gave you different guns, you know, that kind of thing. I really, really enjoyed the setting. This game is freaking beautiful, dude. Oh my goodness, dude. If I could live on any one of those islands or locations, I would do that in a heartbeat. I will also say that I really like the story and Uncharted for.

This whole like pirates thing trying to figure out, you know, I can't remember all the pirates names now, but it was like two, two and the other guy, the main guy that you're trying to find. And, you know, I finish my game early, unlike you two. So it's actually been a few weeks since I've beaten Uncharted for at this point. Pirates make everything better, man. I really did like the pirates story and you uncovering what the heck happened amongst the pirates and their whole like, where did they go? Where's the treasure?

It is this grand just treasure hunt across the world. You think you're getting close and then you're not close and then you think you're getting close and then you think you're getting close and you're not. close. I hated the villain. He did a good job of being the villain and all that. Absolutely love the setting. Love the characters. The moment to moment gameplay was really not that engaging to me. Like I get why people love Uncharted 4. I get why they love the series. And I never like, I never hated it at any time. But there were moments where I was like, another climbing sequence. Like another jump from. from this ledge to that ledge.

Like, you know, and they tried to mix it up. Like, you get your spike. You get the peaton at one point, you know, and it's like, now he can reach and he can hit a spike. And it's like, okay, so you tried to mix up the climbing, but it's still just climbing. Like, like, three quarters of this game is literally just traversal, dude. It's a good thing. It is. It is.

So, so do you think that, um, having, having to be forced to play this game, the traversal and like the, the climbing and that stuff? like maybe meant a little different to you than like it would have otherwise or would you have felt this way if you just chose to play this game? I think I would have because I felt this way about last of us like to be honest and I asked you a very specific question after I beat uncharted if you remember and I said Ryan which one do you like more do you like uncharted or do you like last of us more right and you were like oh man and then you're like bro and you were like it's really really close, but I think I like Last of Us more.

And I like Last of Us more, too. Like legitimately, because it's the interpersonal story, it is that, like, that apocalyptic world makes a little bit more sense for you to be walking from one point to the next, whereas, like, in Uncharted, it's like, how many mountains

can I climb? Like, how many towers can I shimmy up? You get a Jeep in Madagascar. What are you talking about? Actually, I thought the Jeep part was really cool. And I was fun. It's almost like an open world level to a degree. And you're like,

uh, yep. And so like there were lots of little clever things, uh, in Uncharted 4 that I really did appreciate. I, I enjoyed the heck out of this game. It's a solid game,

dude. It's just a solid game. It's a solid, solid game. I found it to be a little repetitive with the amount of climbing that was in this game, but I can say the exact same thing about Last of Us, right? And if you guys remember,

that's fair. And I covered it. I went, how much are they going to make me walk from point A to point B. I love that stuff. I love the traversal. I love exploring the worlds. And I just kind of set in and envisioned this as just part of the journey of the game.

And that I love that. I love action RPGs. I love God a War, Last of Us, Uncharted. All those are my favorites ever. So that part to me is like what I love. Yeah. See, I found it to be a little repetitive after a while. Like another gunfight where it's like I'm fighting.

fighting 16 guys, you know, and then it's like, all I got to do is hide for long enough to get my health back. So there's not really like, I died plenty. You know, it's not like I didn't die, but it was just like the, I didn't find the gameplay itself to be very in depth. The story, on the other hand, incredible, dude. I mean, some of the best characters that gaming has ever seen. Like, let's be honest, naughty dog knows how to make characters, dude. Ellie, Joel, Nathan, Sam, Sully, Elena. Soley's the best, dude.

Hey, kid. Yeah, you know. They know how to do it, dude. So I got to give them credit on that. But at the same time, it's like their gameplay is just mid, you know, like climbing, walking, climbing, walking. Like, to me, that part was a little bit mid. But I think the other parts of the game.

I mean, but am I wrong? Like, legitimately. No, you're not. No, you're not. I mean, I think the combat in Last of Us is insane, but. I think it's good. Like, like legitimately, I enjoyed it. And if, and that's why I say, I think I asked Ryan very pointedly because at, at the end

Uncharted, which again, I rolled credits on, which is rare and is a testament to the game itself, you know, but at the same time, I kind of went, I'm trying to process how I feel about this game because there's parts of the game where I felt were very ho-hum, you know, and that's the traversal sections, which is a massive part of the game, but then there's the set pieces and the characters and the interactions and the historical stuff. The locations are fantastic, dude. Like, you go all over the. the world and they're beautiful. And so there's that part of it.

You can swim. There's puzzles. There's the whole story with the pirates and you're trying to uncover what the heck happened. And then that gets crazy near the end. And so it really did like, I wanted to play. You know what I mean? There was never a time where I was like, I got to play on chart of four. Yeah.

But there were parts where I was like, I feel like this could be a little bit better, you know, at the same time, especially for it being naughty dog. And then also naturally comparing it to the last of us at the same time. I am going to rate Uncharted 4, and this is not to steal Ryan's rating, but this is legitimately what I was going to rate this game as an 8-5. All right. You know, I don't think it's a 9, like legitimately, and I know that there's going to be people that are like, what?

You know, but I think it just was held back a little bit by too much repetition, and I feel like they drew it out a little bit. Like you could have shortened the game by like three, four hours and cut out a few of the climbing parts and that part and had it be a little bit tighter. and a little bit more like just cohesive, I guess. But yeah, 8.5 for me, it's not quite a 9, but it's definitely better than an 8. So I'm just going to give it an 8.5 at that point. I'm insanely glad I played this game.

The characters are incredible. Like, you know, naughty dog, they're just a, they know their stuff, man. And it's weird to me that their stuff is let's go, let's make you go from point A to point B. And we'll tell this incredible story along the way. But going from point A to point B isn't always the like the most engaging like amazing gaming at the same time. So really enjoyed it. Super glad I got the chance to play it. You know, feel much like much more in tune with the characters in the world.

You know, I mean, like I said, just eye candy galore with the locations and the way they present this game and stuff like that. What did you think? Okay, real quick. What did you think of the, gosh, I don't know how to describe the level. Basically the downhill like cabana level with the Jeep where you're running from everyone and you're like was that not so sick? Oh, it was so fun, dude. And then you have that giant armored car that's chasing you where you're having a run from that thing and it's smashing. That's what I'm talking about.

Like there was the, you know, that part, I'm trying to think of some of the other parts in the game where it's just like when you get into the set pieces where. where the world is falling apart around you and then you're, that's where it was just like, I am eyes wide, mouth open, like, oh my gosh, dude. They do such a good job at like cinematic gaming to where, to where like what you're doing is like almost like a movie set. Like it's, it's running along and it's highlight of the game for me. Highlight.

Every time one of those happened. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. And that's, that's one of the things that I love so much about these games is that that's what it made you feel like you were you were like playing in a movie yeah yep and that's where i thought the game absolutely excelled i think the game was at its lowest when i was just climbing mountains you know like oh like you know it's it's near the end this isn't spoiler you're trying to find sam

you're on what you think is the pirate island and you see a flashlight like way way way off in the distance right you're like oh that's sam and then it shows this whole island and and then my initial thought was like oh i'm really going to have to climb all these mountains and then sure enough, I had to freaking climb all the mountains. And that's what I was just like, are you really dragging this game out like two more hours for me to just navigate from one mountain ledge to the next mountain ledge? Like,

and that's what they did. And that's where I was kind of like, guys, this isn't it. Like, this isn't it. Like the story, the characters,

those set pieces, Ryan, like that was it. And so there was part where I just felt like it was a little bloated. Like it was a little bit like you guys are making me do the part of the game that's the least enjoyable part more than the other parts. Well, Well, I don't agree entirely.

I do think that that's a fair statement. I will say that that's very fair. A5 is a really good score. And this is a really good game. And I will be honest, there were a few parts of the game where I went, this makes me wish I had played one through three because I knew some of those moments would hit even harder. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Even though they hit, they still hit for me, but it was like, I feel like this would have been like the moment if I had the experience with the characters from before. Because you're getting like the, you're getting like the Drake, like Twilight. Like he's at the end. You know, he's old now and stuff. And then all of a sudden he finds his brother. And so it's a really cool story.

But, um, yeah, the, the first three were, were something different too. I don't like Sam. Am I weird for that? No, I don't like Sam either. Oh, okay. I didn't know if he's like not. He's just kind of like the, he's kind of like, yeah, no, he's the kind of like, uh, loser. Loser self, self-centered like older brother guy.

Like, yeah. Okay. All right. I just didn't know if that was my take or if that was like they kind of intended that or something. But like the whole time I'm like, number one, I had to punch Sam in the face if I was Nathan Drake. I don't want to spoil anything because it's still a relatively new game. You know, but it was like there were multiple times where I was like, I don't think I'd be doing what Nathan's doing on this one, man. Like, he's the most forgiving guy ever.

What's going on? Right. So, all right. Well, listen everybody. There you go. So Uncharted 4, 8.5 for me. Mass Effect 2, 8.5 for Ryan, GTA 5, 7.5 for Ace.

One of these things is not like the other. But you pick the games. Also, thank you to everybody that didn't make us play like really, really stupid games, you know, and just torture us. Because they could have done that. And instead they were like, let's catch you guys up on some of these amazing experiences. So we are very thankful for that as well.

So thank you once again to the community. Thank you for putting this together. Thank you for the incredible support. There you go. There's three games that we should have played long, long ago. And in 2026, we finally played them. And there's our thoughts on these iconic games, to be honest. Listen, if you enjoy what we do, remember to follow the podcast.

Hit that plus button, that follow button. That way you get our episodes the day that they release. Come join our community. We talk about it all the time. This is where everything got set up. This is where they decided the games that we were going to play. We have almost 1,400 gamers in there at this point. It's insanely active.

I'm always surprised when people hop in and they're like, whoa, you guys are talking like all the time in here. And it's true. I mean, it is true. So come join us and hang out with us. We'd love to have you. And if you love what we do and you want to be like Marcus, who we thanked at the top of the episode and support this podcast, you can do that on Patreon. there's a link in the episode description. It is as little as five bucks a month people.

We all know that five bucks nowadays, especially over the course of an entire month, is nothing. But it really goes a long way to helping us continue to do this podcast, put out this content for the world, and hopefully bring some entertainment to your lives. And make your commutes and your gym sessions

and your chores just a little bit better. So think about supporting us. You can do that over on Patreon. Look for the link in the episode description. all right that's going to do it for this episode everybody this is our second triple dive ever right I think so yeah I think so yeah I think so yeah I think it's yeah so yeah so yeah so we'll have to see if people like it maybe we'll find a reason to have to do another one of these in the future

so let us know what you think let us know if you think we're crazy if you think ace is crazy for given GTA 5 a 7 5 if you think I'm crazy for given uncharted 4 and 85 or Ryan giving, you know, what a lot of people consider to be one of the best games ever made, you know, a lowly 8-5 as well. Let us know in the comments. What? Let us know in the comments. Got some shame there at the end, bud. We'll see you next time. Until then, happy gaming. See ya. Peace out, I guess.