Video Gamers Podcast - The Gaming Extravaganza Episode - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: August 25, 2026

Gaming hosts Josh and Ace are doing what they do best and talking all the video games they’ve been playing lately that haven’t made it onto the podcast. From Mortal Shell 2 to Wardogs to Duskfade, we’ve been playing a ton of video games and it’s time to give them the gaming spotlight they deserve! It’s a gaming packed episode with over 10 video games covered you don’t want to miss! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, fellow gamers, and welcome to the Video Gamers podcast. Part of having a gaming podcast is that we play a lot of games. Sometimes it's a cool-looking demo, sometimes it's a hot release that we might want to cover, and then other times it's personal interest that drives our gaming. What that adds up to is a lot of games we play that we don't always have time to cover on the show. Well, on today's episode, we're playing catch-up

and chatting all the games we've been playing lately that we haven't had a chance to cover on the podcast. Before we get to the buffet of games, some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh. And joining me, he's the host who actually picks up games and plays them and doesn't just say he's going to.

It's a vindication. I mean, it is a gaming podcast, Josh. I'm pretty sure it's in our name. The video gamers podcast. It's in there somewhere. It's in the title because we are a gaming podcast. And I think that means that we're supposed to play video games as part of this podcast days.

No, no. You're just supposed to watch walkthroughs on YouTube. Is that what it is? It's the walkthrough podcast. We're the walkthrough podcast. We rate who gives the best walkthroughs for these games. Hey, something's missing here today. Is it, is it something,

are your lights off in the background? Is it like, yeah, I mean, I got my lights on. I think everything's on my shelf. I think, I think I'm good. I don't know, man. I feel like, I feel like there's something missing here, but, hmm, I don't know. Oh, I don't know.

I don't know. Weird. Maybe someone will show, we'll tell us if we miss something here. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it feels, feels normal to me. Just the people who play video games doing, doing their video game podcast. video games, playing video games and doing the podcast like we're supposed to. We're the worst friends ever.

We're terrible. We're awful. Ryan, Ryan, we're about to make it worse because Ryan went and I'm doing air quotes hunting this weekend, hunting with big air quotes. Because as we just discussed in the pre-show, Ryan 8 killed nothing in years. And we were discussing at what point can you not call it hunting anymore and just saying I'm going camping. Yeah. Camping, but you're bringing weapons. Yeah, I'm going camping with weapons that are nearby. Camping with weapons.

And permission to maybe shoot something if it walks by right in front of me because that's the extent of Ryan's hunting skills apparently. If it falls asleep at my feet. So Ryan is camping slash hunting. And then Ace and I called this way ahead of time. We said, Ryan, you're not going to get anything. And then Ryan sent us a message earlier today. said he's on his way home and he didn't get anything shocker shocker shock and awe but then before

we could jump in with the uh the trolling he posted a bunch of photos of him and his son having a great time and he said but the vibes were great and then i was like didn't have the heart way to diffuse we got the heart now yeah i know yeah we can troll right all we want uh yeah so ryan is out today, but we thought, let's just pile it on, Ace, we thought, what better time to do a show about all the games that we've been playing lately? Because, Ace, I'm looking at your list. Let's see, one, two, three, four, five, six games that you've been playing recently. I have one, two, three, four, five, six, technically of seven, because you didn't mention one that we played together on there.

So like seven recent games for you, like six, if you count Overwatch, seven recent games for me. And then we were like, Ryan, Ryan, have you been, oh, that's a silly question. Never mind. What a silly, silly thing you're asking. Right. Right. Now, before Ryan hears this episode and absolutely just kills us, he's been busy.

His life is a little bit chaotic. And so maybe he doesn't have as much time to play games like Ace and I do. But at the same time, get your crap together, Ryan, start playing video games, buddy. Come on, man. Lock in. We're getting to the busy months. Listen, hunting, it ain't, it ain't your hobby, buddy. It's not for you.

You're not, listen, we love you, but you're not so good at that. You know what I mean? So maybe you should give that hobby up and focus a little bit more on gaming, you know? And then I think, well, you know, he'd probably be. be happier that way too. Yeah. You know? Animals.

Yes. Difference. Wait, what's the hunting game? Isn't there that one? Call of the wild? Call of the wild. That's it. I'm gifting that to Ryan right now.

I'm gifted it to Ryan right now. So here you go, buddy. I wonder if he owns it because he's been practicing. Oh, man. Okay. All right. Well, there we go. We've sufficiently bashed our buddy good at long enough there.

We got a lot to cover on this episode. We have been playing a lot of games. Some would accuse me of being in a gaming slump. And that's why I've been dabbling in so many things. I've been in a gaming feast. Who are you to judge, by the way? You know, just because, you know, I have a hard time finding games that stick with me. Yeah, you have been feasting, Ace.

And I'm a little jealous. I'm not going to lie. You've been like talking about. I'm just showing up all happy. I all happy and like, I got to play Tales of Iron again, and I got to do this. Oh, I was so happy. And then I'm just sitting here going like, I can't find nothing, man. I can't find nothing.

Nothing sticks. Nothing sticks. Oh, but listen, we've got some recent games to cover. We're going to be talking about. I have been playing Mortal Shell 2, which I know a lot of people have been asking about. I just got off of playing War dogs all weekend, which I was very excited for. so I'm going to be breaking some of that down, and a lot of other games as well.

But before we get into that, a little bit of awesome news, and that is always thanking somebody for supporting this podcast. Our listeners are what make this possible. Legitimately, we could not be doing this year after year if it wasn't for the support of the listeners out there. And so one of the ways that we like to say thank you

to people that go out of their way to support this podcast is to give them a thank you on the show. show. So a huge shout out to Ben Corvus, who has been a member of our community for a very long time. Yeah. And then just went, you know what, it's time. And Ben signed up not just for rare status, but for epic status, which is extremely helpful. Also gets people the ability to ask us questions directly that we answer in our pre-show. And those are always a lot of fun as well. If you've ever wanted a little bit more, more of the laid-back banter, a little bit less structure,

and the occasional what the heck just happened moment, that's the pre-show people. We've had a lot of requests for like VGP after dark. That's as close as it gets. It's as close as it gets. So if you've ever been like, man, I just, I want these guys a little bit more off the cuff.

I want them a little bit less official. Not that we're very official anyway. I don't know. Can anyone call us official? No, but that's the pre-show people. So if you support. to show you you get access to that as well. But Ben, we know you've been with us a long time, buddy. Thank you for the amazing support. Thank you for going to support us on Patreon at the epic tier. It really does make all the difference in the world. And it helps us keep this podcast going year after year. So yeah. So thank you very much. And then Ace, we did just as an announcement for people. We did break a thousand reviews. We did a game giveaway on our on our Discord server. We gave away a copy of War Dogs to celebrate that. But we will not stop reading reviews on the show because, number one, we love to hear what people say.

And we want to encourage people to leave reviews as well. So what do you got for us, Ace? I say, speaking of reviews, I got one right here. This one comes in from Cree 080188 and it's titled, I love this podcast. What a great and well-balanced gaming podcast. I found it a couple months ago and I have been listening consistently ever since. an indie dev myself who pours my heart and soul into my work, I enjoy Ace's appreciation of indie games.

Oh! But honestly, all three of you are great, except for Ryan. Thanks so much. That's not in there. That's not, I'm just joking. I'm just joking. Oh, man. Thanks so much for never failing to give me something interesting and gaming related to listen to or watch.

Keep up the fantastic work. I see why you pick this video now, Ace. Please edit that review to add except for Ryan. Yes, yes. That would be amazing is just to put that in there and they'd be like, what the heck? Thank you, Kree. That was a wonderful review. Yeah.

I love to see Indie Devs as our supporters in our audience. One of the things that I don't think that indie devs or devs in general, and maybe they need to do a better job of this, in all honesty, is to remind people that you are gamers. You know what I mean? Yes, yeah, absolutely. a camaraderie there? Because like a lot of times I think

a lot of gamers look at a dev and go like yeah but you probably don't play games a whole lot. Like you make them but you don't play them. You know and I don't think that that's necessarily true because you kind of have to love games if you want to go into actually making games. You know, but I do think that that

relatability and that camaraderie is something that devs could probably remind gamers about a little bit more because I do think that especially on social media that gets lost a little bit. That's one of the cool things we get from interviewing them, is finding out where their inspirations came from and what games they do play that, like,

influenced what they made. And it's a cool thing to find out, you're a gamer at heart. Honestly, like, the types of games that people enjoy is always fascinating to me, too. You know, like, you and I like very different games. Like, obviously, we do have some overlap on games that we love, but I always think it's a really neat thing to kind of go,

like, what kind of games do you like? And that's not a judgment thing at all. It's just a, like, it's a neat kind of look into somebody to go, like, oh yeah, I like these kind of games. I like those kind of games. So, well, Ace, speaking of games, buddy. We play a lot to cover. We got a lot to cover.

So let's hop into it. I would ask you, what have you been playing? But you've been playing a lot. So why don't you pick out one game that you've been playing? We're going to have to move quick on these because I, otherwise, this will be a two hour episode with how much we've been diving into different things. But what's one of the games that you've been playing?

lately that you want to chat about? Let's just go ahead and start with one of my most anticipated indies, like, probably ever. Dead is Disco entered its early access earlier this year, and I have been cracking out on that game. It's got its hooks in you, huh?

It absolutely has its hooks in me. You would think a rhythm-based, like, beat them up like this would lose its, like, interest. But it has a skill tree, and it has moves you can pull off, and it has, like, unlockables in a story and it's all so well done. Like it is so well done. You the, I remember you being so excited for this game, dude.

Like you said it. Like I don't know that I've seen you more excited for like a game release. And then it came out and we got busy playing something else. And I felt so bad. I was like, maybe Ace doesn't like. Yeah, maybe Ace doesn't like this game. Like he was so excited for it. But you finally got time to jump in. I know you've been enjoying it because you've been sharing it with Ryan and I. What, like, if you had to pick out the thing that stands apart the most for you with Dead as Disco, like, what is, what is the hook for you?

It's the presentation. The boss fights are just unreal. They're like larger than life experiences where you are playing as Charlie Disco, you're fighting your former bandmates who have sold out after you died like 10 years ago. And now you came back for one last night to reclaim your band. Oh, this is like a redemption story? Revenge story? Yeah. Oh, okay.

You sold your soul to the devil to come back from one night. 10 years later kind of story to bring your band back together. It's cool. It's genuinely really cool. There's like one fight where you do against like your metal bassist and he just like rips open the background of the stage and there's a giant version of him there while you're fighting him and you're like, holy crap. That's kind of cool.

I do remember because I did play the demo for this. I'm not super big on rhythm games. It's probably because I have no rhythm and I'm terrible. That's fair. This will teach you. that. But I do remember the fighting being very satisfying. I remember being like, I don't know if I'm supposed to wait to punch something until I hear like the beat. Like, do I intentionally want to slow down my button mashing to like try to do this? And that confused me a little bit. But I do

remember this game seeming really, really well done. And then going like, yeah, this is, this is going to be a successful game because of just how fun it is. Like you said, how polished it is. and it seems like there's a lot of content there. Is that, would that be fair to say? There's a good bit of content. Even after you get through like the story stuff, there's like unlockables in the level you can go pick up

and that'll progress the story even more. And if you finish that, there's these events that you can do that unlock even more stuff. And it's like doing these custom challenges to different songs using different weapons and loadouts. It's just great. Like it's generally awesome. There's something about a good just fighting game.

We've been kind of talking Absalom again lately. We just did the re-release for that episode, and it's kind of got both of us kind of missing Absalom, because it's just a genre that you don't, it's not like a mainstream genre, but when you get into these games, they just tend to be a lot of fun, man.

I played Seafood for a little while back in the day. Back in the day, that wasn't that long ago, but, like, Seafood was a really good fighting game. I grew up playing the 2D side-scroller type games. So, I know, so, like, how many hours would you say you're into Dennis Disco? at this point. I know you've been playing

access. I've got eight hours in it. It's still early access? Yeah. And they just put out a massive content expansion too. Does it feel complete? Like if somebody was on the fence

but maybe goes like I'm waiting on the full game or is there enough content? There's enough content to justify buying it and playing around with it and getting used to it. I mean, plus it has infinite content because you could just import your own songs and it has an auto BPM feature now. So you don't even have to try.

try to look it up or figure it out. Oh, that's cool. It'll just figure it out for you. Oh, that's pretty cool. I've never understood how that works with, like, copyright stuff, where it's like, how do you let me import a song? Yeah, don't stream it, but like, how would the artist, is the artist okay with, like, you letting me import the song into your game kind of thing? I don't know.

I don't know what the rules are. I guess I don't have any issue with it if you're not making any money off of it, really. But you are streaming it. You're selling a game. I guess it's just a feature. Like, the people are. It's just a feature.

Yeah, the people have access to the music. So it's like, It's not, you're not saying it's my music at that point. Although they definitely licensed out the song Maniac because I've heard about 40 different remixes. Yeah. Sweet. Well, I'm glad to hear you liking it, dude. That's, that makes me happy because I know you had to kind of put this one on the back burner for a little while for the pod.

So it's, it's nice to see you finally able to dive in. Yeah, I was glad to finally get to it. What about you? What did you, what do you want to start with? Well, I will start with Restory. I can't remember if I mentioned this on the pre-show or the main show. but I did pick up a Restory to give that a shot. This is me going against every ounce of like,

this is not my kind of game, not the genre that I like, not the style that I like or any of that. I did play Restory. I checked. I have six hours in the game. I was really enjoying it for like five hours and 59 minutes. And then I just hit the wall, which happens,

that when that happens. I don't want to repair a, another thing. I've repaired 15,000 of these things and if I have to undo the same screws and the same thing and all this, like, I don't want to do it. And so I stopped doing it. But I did get six hours of fun. I mean, I really enjoyed your money's worth. I really enjoyed those six hours, dude. Like, I am not ashamed to say it. I really enjoyed those six hours. But at the same time, like, I have zero desire to ever play this game ever again. It's just that wall. And I'm actually surprised that it took me that long to hit that wall. And so, like, maybe there is a place where I

kind of like these games in short doses, but... What do you think you liked about it? Like, what do you think held your attention with it? I mean, we joke, but I'm, I'm, you know, I love progression in games. And in this game, it's like, you start off and you have to manually undo the screws with this slow little screwdriver. And then when you save up enough money, you can get like an upgrade that does it twice as fast. And then you can get another upgrade that does it instantaneously. And then I I'm like, oh, well, this is sweet because now I'm just, you know, undoing the screws in these things. And I'm like, okay, this is kind of cool. But there's always that point where a lot of these games with progression, like they slow down the progression.

Yeah, you start paying the grind. If you want this next upgrade, it's four times the amount. And then it's an incremental upgrade. And then my brain kind of goes, like, I know what you're doing here. And it's not worth it to grind that out for me kind of thing. So, like, there is that part of it. But yeah, progression. and I will say there was something about just chilling with my feet up on the desk.

It's a very simple one-handed game, you know, just moving my mouse, repairing the things, and just kind of vibe in a little bit at the same time. So gave me a glimpse into why people like these games. They're not necessarily for me. And I would still say I don't really like this genre. But I got six hours out of Restory. And it was quite enjoyable. Do you have somewhat a new respect for these kind of games?

No. No. see a good, like a good quality one? No, you wouldn't recognize it. Those people are weird, dude. I'm just kidding. I mean, I do. I do see it because that was me for six hours, you know?

So I actually do understand the allure at that point. It's just funny because right at that six hour mark is where it absolutely reminded me why I don't like these because it legitimately just felt like work at that point. It felt like work again. But up until that point, I was kind of vibed. And it was like, okay, I think I get why people like these now. Yeah, fair enough, man. All right. All right.

What about you, Ace? What else have you been playing? I got a nice little surprise treat over the weekend. Our good friends at Oddbug Studio decided to invite. Those guys are awesome, by the way. They are. They're great. Awesome studio.

Freaking amazing people, dude. Oddbug, you're great. Jack Bennett. You're awesome. Like, all of you guys, absolutely fantastic people. But they dropped a free expansion to Tales of Iron 2, called Blood and Brine. Blood and brine, huh?

Brian's becoming a thing, dude. Abysses had all the brine stuff in there. Apparently, Brian's becoming popular. Brian's, Brian's the big Norse mythology for this year, I guess. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, something like that. But yeah, no, they dropped a free expansion for Tales of Iron 2, and I was all ready to hype and hyped to jump back in.

It added 11 new quests, like 12 new bosses, a new fishing mini game that you could go do and fill up an aquarium with fish. It was great. I had such a good time hopping back in a Tales of Iron 2, man. I just, I love those games. You were like a kid on Halloween that's like walking up to the first door. Like you were so giddy because you even posted.

You were like, well, I'll see you guys. I'm going back to the ratdom, you know? Back to the ratdom. Ace is so happy right now. And it was such a surprise drop for you. And then we just didn't hear from you for a few hours. And we were like, yeah, Ace is living, living that rat life. He loves so much.

Because I already, I had the game 100% of it. And then, of course, when they add an expansion, they add more achievements. So I was like, I got 100% it again. And then I got a nice little surprise of finding out they added some like indie game collaboration armors, specifically the armor from blasphemous. And now I get to be a rat dressed as the penitent one. And also, oh, hell, yeah. That's the least effective armor imaginable.

Like, that helmet's so tall. The penitent ones? That helmet's like five feet tall, man. You break your neck trying to lug that thing around. I don't think it's really meant for protection. I'll be honest. I think it's meant for punishment in the world of blasphemists. Yeah, I guess maybe.

But yeah, that was cool. I like to see that. It's a short expansion, but it's free. I mean, that's what matters to me. It was great. I have a question for our completionists out there, our platinum people. When a game does this, is it aggravating? Because like, hey, 100% in this game,

oh, but now they release DLC or content. and now I don't have 100% anymore. Like, is that something where you're like, oh, come on? Or is it like, I got the platinum back in the day. I'm not worried about it now. I think it depends what game it is. Really? Because some games are really hard to get that platinum back.

Yeah. Like Abysus, whenever Abysusis has new achievements, I'm just like, oh, no. Oh, no. Yeah. I tell you what, I don't understand the mind of a cozy gamer. I understand the mind of a platinum gamer even less, you. That's...

Oh, yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure that's like a realm all its own for you. It's a mythical realm that I just can't even fathomed. So... Well, you talked about Restory. What is the opposite of Restory? Machine Party? I would say Machine Party.

I don't know. I got a couple opposites on this list, days. Oh, man. So we streamed Machine Party. Now, this is a game that we covered on the show. And then we had, you know, shout out to. the to the devs on this one. They actually reached out to us and said, hey, if you guys want to talk about this, here's some keys. We stream the game. We got to play it. I will say this. I was

pleasantly surprised by Machine Party, dude. Like, pleasantly surprised. I am the one that keep asking you and Ryan to go, hey, guys, why don't we play this again? Well, we can't play it just you and me. I know. Well, that's fair. And then once again, we can blame Ryan. for this because he's not here and we're going to blame him for everything. But I still haven't installed. And I did not uninstall machine party, which is a huge thing. Most people that know me know that. That's huge for you. And I have been asking you guys to play another round of machine party for people that, how would you describe this game for people that haven't ever heard of this Ace? Mario Party X. Saw. Yeah. That's like the 100%. It is Mario Party meets like Saw.

Mario Party meets Saw is what this game is. Horrific games with horrific outcomes that are really fun and you are just going up against your buddies. And maybe it's one guy versus the other three guys. Maybe it's teams of two or maybe it's solo. This is 100% Mario Party if some demented person made this game. Maybe one guy's up in a sniper tower while the other two are trying to creep their way towards an exit. That's my game. That one's terrifying.

That one's absolutely terrible. I think there's 15 mini games, if I remember right. There's 15 mini games. They're different. They're fun. Machine party is legitimately a really good time. If you have three people to play with, I don't think it's even very expensive, to be honest.

I don't remember what the price is. I thought it was like eight bucks. Yeah, I think it's cheap. But this one is well worth the money and the time. and like I said, we've played, I think, like, two full rounds. So we played 30, like, full mini games. And then we left going, like, let's leave this one installed so we can hop back in this and play another round or two later on, which I am actually craving. So don't sleep on machine party people.

I didn't think I was going to love this. Yeah, it is legit. Like, this is another one where I kind of went, is this just friend slop? Like, is it going to be fun for one night? And then it was. But unlike most friend slop, like, I actually want to dive back into this one. again. And when we say it's like saw,

it also isn't like super gruesome like saw. It's more cartoonishly funny. Yeah. When you see your friend get their head blown off. Yeah. You're not like, oh. I like the mini games though. There's a wide variety.

There's like skill base. There's a little bit of luck base. There's like the piece one. Yeah, there's weird ones like how fast you can click a button, but then you have to pay attention and pause at the right time. There's like visual memory parts of it. There's even like organization. They had a really good variety.

Yeah. Like the variety in the minigames was really impressive to me. Like Ace mentioned, one of them is even like a shooting-sniping minigame. So, yeah, that one, I'm going to just say I would highly recommend Machine Party if you have a group of four friends that won a good time that will last more than just one or two nights. In my opinion, I think this is a game you could go back to, like, not like, you know, week after week kind of thing. but like this is one I could see leaving installed and hopping in every other week or something and playing a round or two. Kind of like a jackbox game.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Like you keep it installed because it's fun when you decide to pull it out and play it with other people. So, all right, listen, we've got to take a quick break and then we'll get to a few more right after this. All right, Ace, there's a game on this list that we've both been playing. Oh, yeah. So why don't you tell the people what's been going on with the war effort? well we finally made our return to protect super earth oh my gosh hell divers is not the same game it was

it's we were playing i've never felt like such a noob in my life going back to a game that i have like a hundred hours in and i was like what is this i felt like such an anchor i was such an anchor i was like i don't know what to bring i don't know what's good anymore and then we get down to the planet and there's these guys with a freaking gunship and they flew up for us. Dude. I, we, you have backup now. There's troopers on the ground with you.

This game's wildly like different than back in the day. And honestly, yeah, I'm here for it, man. I was like for the better. It is for the better. It is for the better.

I will say this. We have a thriving hell divers community on our Discord server. This is what kind of got me to back into it as I was like, you know what? Let me play a couple rounds with you guys. And then I hopped in. On one end, it is like riding a bike. You do kind of remember like, oh, yeah, it didn't take me more than one time to remember the, like, the revived stratagem to call in the reinforcements and stuff.

And, like, the muscle memory kicked back in. But then there's so many upgrades now. Like, you can customize all your weapons. They have levels and attachments and stuff now. There's an entirely new race called the Illuminate, which are freaking tough, dude. Like, those guys were really strong. They're really strong. We're lacking us, man.

I thought the Atomotons were bad. I mean, dude, if I said there's 30 to 40 strategums that I don't have at this point, that might be an understatement because of all the war bonds that they released with all the strategans in there and stuff like that. Now, like, I could easily die back in this game for another hundred hours. Like, it's still fun, dude. It's still just an absolute blast, man.

I enjoyed chasing you all around with a chainsaw. Oh, you freaking, you, okay. Out of all the people, by the way, I'm running for my life. Ace picks up some weird alien bomb pod thing. And I'm like, I'm running past. And I'm thinking, like, is he going to throw that at me? And no, he doesn't throw it at me. You mailed me with it and just absolutely wrecked me.

I face-plained it into the ground. And I don't know what I was running from, but I hope they killed you. That's all I'm going to say. No, they did not, unfortunately. Do you remember when you were calling down your meck suit and I ran by and I belated you? Yeah, and then you knocked me out of that. And that was what was going to save me.

And I was just like, okay. I was just like, oh, no, they found us. Yeah. They found us. I'll say this because I have seen people say, hey, I miss the Hell Divers 2 boat, you know, and I can't jump in now. I can't jump in now because it's too late. It's not too late people.

It is a healthy community. that game is still thriving. There is so much content. If you are sitting there thinking like, man, I wish I had caught the heyday of Hell Divers 2, pick this game up and play this game. It's on PlayStation Plus this month,

so you can try it out. But I guarantee you, you will absolutely have a blast with Hell Divers 2. So it was really fun to go back to that. I'm leaving that one installed too, just so that I can randomly hop into a match if I know people are playing. I wouldn't necessarily want to do it solo,

but if I see that two or three people are online playing, like I'm absolutely going to be like, hey, I'm going to dive with you guys. Yeah, it's worth squadding up with people. Yeah, for sure. All right. Let me talk about, I'm going to talk about the two big games

before we run out of time here, Ace. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I'm going to start with Mortal Shell 2. I did not really plan on picking this game up. You kind of pushed me into this one. I pushed you to check this one out, yeah. You did. And I remember thinking, like, I played the demo.

it was it was pretty good man like i remember thinking like wow okay this game's got some stuff going for it this is absolutely a clone of dark souls there's no other way to spin it you like there you know some games say we're dark souls adjacent or were dark dark souls light or any of that this is dark souls like there's it's just dark souls but it is presented very very well you get these shells which are basically like the spirits of dead warriors and stuff like that that you can inhabit and then activate and you play as them. And these shells have different abilities. So you get to kind of pick and choose like how you want to play the game a little bit,

whether you want to be really tanky or agile or like you get a shell that can go in a stealth or you get a shell that has like a grappling hook like a la Scorpion from Mortal Kombat where it's like, get over here and they pull enemies in. I just unlocked a shell where it's like I'm a knight and I can. can shoulder bash things and stun them and stuff like that. And I still have like five or six shells to discover at this point. Dang. All right.

There is a variety of weapons because I remember telling you Ace, like I've just got this big two-handed sword that I don't love because it's really slow and clunky. And I remember telling you like, I found anything yet. I found a bunch of weapons after that, which is cool. And I legitimately am sucked into this game, dude. like pretty big time. I'm very excited to play this game. The boss fights are epic.

The graphics are incredible. The combat feels good. The upgrades feel good. There's things to discover. There's dungeons. You get rewarded for exploring. I mean, this might be like if Eldon Ring was cut down

to like an eighth of its size and then just given to you. Like it doesn't have the builds. It doesn't have the variety of like armor and weapons and things like that. But it does have some of the, some of these like you can customize you get these like stone slots almost and there's like 10 of them to where you can upgrade your character

like a lot of different ways so there is a lot of options man dude I am surprised at how much I am enjoying Mortal Shell too I'm glad you are man because you've been looking for a good souls like for a while now and nothing's really been sticking what's funny is like I am absolutely in the mood for this kind of game I almost it reinstalled Sekaro to play that and then Mortal Shell

two came out and you kind of pushed me for that because I think you wanted to know because you I wanted to know as well because I like a good soul's like I'm telling people I am quite enamored of this game I saw people complaining about it online and saying that it was too difficult not difficult enough uh this one boss fight was hard and aggravating uh the that's souls likes yeah that's a solstike like the the only complaint is like you do have your beacons a la bonfires and yes sometimes they're fairly spread out so if you've really been going a long way and then you you feel like you have to go pretty far back. But the game's pretty forgiving in the monster agro range.

You could just sprint past most stuff if you want to. So I strong, strong recommend from me for Mortal Shell too. I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying this, dude. All right. I'm just going to let you jump to your other one that people definitely want to hear your thoughts on. You're going to make me do this. You're going to have to say it, man. All right.

I want to end on a happy note. All right. Okay, that's fair. I'll leave mine for that. That's fair, because I'm out of games after this one for the most part. War dogs. I was very excited for war dogs. I had heard nothing but good things from people that got to play this game.

I pre-ordered so that you can get access to the closed beta this weekend. I'm going to say that I don't think that this is an issue with war dogs necessarily. I think this is just, it's not necessarily my kind of game. I was going to join you for this game. game. Yeah. Well, you were. You bought it to play with us. And then I remember telling like, we gave the way a copy. You know, and like I knew like probably 10 people that were super excited to do this. We were like, there's no squad size. We're going to have like 15 people. I played a lot this weekend, dude. Like a lot. Like, let me, I'm going to actually look up how much. I have 14 hours in

this play test for this weekend. Wow. 14 hours. So that's how much I played in the last couple days. It's a really well done game. It's not what I thought it was going to be. Like, I thought this was going to be Battlefield reborn and everything that we ever wanted from Battlefield, that Battlefield hasn't given us since the days of like Battlefield 2, you know, kind of thing. And War Dogs is very much a mix of Battlefield on one hand and like escape from Tarkov. I've seen people equated to Arma Reforger or just Arma. in general. Okay.

It is very much the DNA of like Mill Sim. You know, it's way slower pace than I thought it was going to be. It is kind of brutal. There's no sniper glint on scopes. There's no hit marker indicators. You can dive very quickly. Time to kill is very, very fast, that kind of thing. It does a lot of things right.

Yeah. It does a lot of things right. Dodging bullets here. I told, I told, Ace, I reached out to you and I said, I don't know if there's a game that might be less of an Ace game than this one. And I said, say no more. And I refunded it instantly. If you liked, I got a buddy, shout out to Steve that really likes Milsim type stuff. And he really likes this game, you know, and he said, hey, it's not perfect.

I'm glad for him. It's the early access is coming up. This was only the closed beta. But he was like, this game does a lot that I really, really like as a fan of this genre. Um, it's just the pacing for me. If you, if you don't have somebody in a helicopter to tote you back to the battlefield, it can take like four minutes, like legitimately four minutes. No, driving.

Oh, yes. Like in a truck. It can, like, it's, you're very far away. So you're really, really relying on the helicopter pilots to get back to the battle. And then the thing that's aggravating to me is you're trying to get somewhere and then boom, sniped from some dude laying in a bush 200 meters away. And it's like, dude, you're not even near the war. zone. Like, why are you hiding in this bush? You know? And then it's like, okay, so now I just

respawn at the base. And I got to spend four minutes running back to the battlefield. And then it's like, oh, well, the hot zones over there. Let's start go, boom. Snipe from a guy that's hiding in a window on the third floor of some building that's 250 meters away. And then it's like, oh my gosh, dude. Like, that's infuriating. That was always the most favorite part about battlefields. When it worked, it worked really well. And I had a really fun time. But when it wasn't working, I just found it to be frustrating. And I played a lot with Greg. Great friend of the show, Greg, does a lot editing for us. Greg kind of felt the same way. He was like, dude, I really want to like this game, but there's just too many parts about it that aggravate me. And I know that that's just inherent in the

game itself, because this isn't meant to be battlefield. It's not meant to be Call of Duty. Like, it's intentionally slower pace. But he's like, I don't know if it's quite working for me either. there's just some weird stuff too dude like you build up these bases these forward operating bases and then you can like really deck these bases out with like mortars and anti-air and stuff like that and there's this weird crafting building part of the game that I could care less about to be honest yeah I don't know sadly Wardogs is not for me it's not for me I can see this game being really really good for a lot of people I think if you're interested in this knowing that it is a mix, but I would say it definitely means more towards the Milsim side of things than it does

like the Battlefield side of things. And I was hoping for Battlefield. Yeah, that doesn't appeal to me at all. I'm glad I'm glad I noped out of that one. I got it. I'm going to say this last thing. Kudos to the devs on this. If you are on the fence on this game, try it because these devs are the kind of devs that we like to see. They have been very transparent with everything. They said, hey, come try it. If you don't like it, refund it. No hard feelings. You help us test it. You know, that kind of thing. But like this kind of just transparency from devs and honesty from devs is very refreshing. And so we like to see that. And I wish I could reward that by sticking with this game, but it's just not my kind of game. I think it's totally fair. I'm glad they,

you know, gave you the option, though, to experience it. And if you don't like it, get your money back. Yeah. Yeah. And I like legitimately, I could see with some tweaks this game like a year from now being something that maybe I could go back to and say, yeah, you've eased up a lot of the pain points or maybe not. Maybe it's just the game. No sniper glitz is just kind of crazy to me. I mean, if you're sniping, it's great. If you're not sniping, it's kind of weird at the same time. But, you know, all right, Ace, bring us home with some happy news here, buddy. I have been in my kingdom hearts era these last few weeks, to say the least. Oh, what would you say, pal? What would have brought on your kingdom hearts era, Ace? Any

any local recent news or anything that might have kicked us back in the year? The announcement of Kingdom Hearts for which I know people on the internet is the 14th entry in the series. I love Ace knows King's Heart's better than most of y'all out there. So having people

try to tell you stuff was really funny to me. Trying to tell me what Kingdom Hearts is, he's insane. All right? I know. Okay. I'm working on a freaking video for all of you that's a massive recap. It's going to take me like,

Months. Yeah. I'm excited to see this. That'll be cool. But I've been craving Kingdom Hearts. I wasn't sure if I was going to jump back into the base game. So I picked up Dusk Fade, which was the PS2 Kingdom Hearts and styled action 3D platformer. Great game.

Awesome game. I played the demo for this. And I quite enjoyed the demo. So I know what you're talking about with this game. Yeah, you get very nostalgic feeling. It does not lean as much into Kingdom Arch as you expect. It leans far more into those Jackson Arch as you expect. It leans far more into those Jack and Daxter, like, Ratchet and Clank style of action and platforming just without guns.

Yeah. Yeah, it felt very 3D platformer-ish to me. I don't have Kingdom Hearts knowledge, so I wouldn't know anything about that. But I do remember playing the demo and being like, number one, this feels really good. This is a high-quality game. Very much the 3D platformer with combat type game. But it seemed well done. Yeah.

And I played that for a little bit. I had a good time with it. It's not going to be game of the year or anything. but I think it's definitely worthwhile for getting that like nostalgia hit. And I finally just broke down and I've been playing through Kingdom Hearts One again. Oh my goodness. Oh, I just feel so good. Okay.

I've never like a wave of nostalgia as I fight the camera. Yeah. As you're reminded how far gaming's come. As I'm reminded how far gaming has come and how important quality of life things are in games nowadays. Okay, so question for you. We're going to cover Kingdom Hearts 4 on this podcast. Oh, yeah. Like, there's no way we're not.

And listen, Ryan's going to whine about it. I might whine about it a little bit, but we're going to play it because this is what we do. And honestly, we're open-minded. You know, I mean, I just got them talking about re-stories. So we're open-minded about what we know we like and don't like. And honestly, there's a part of me that's very excited to jump into Kingdom Hearts 4. However, as somebody that will not play the pre-13, previous entries, do you think I will be able to appreciate Kingdom Hearts 4 as a standalone game?

I think so. I appreciated Kingdom Hearts 3 without having prior knowledge past like I hadn't played birth by sleep or anything yet, which is a massive part of three. So I was like, I appreciate it the game. The gameplay is fun. Even if you don't know the story, you're going to enjoy the gameplay. Okay, that's, that was my question because I don't know the story. I'm sure with this big project you're working on, I will know the story. Oh, what such tragic. Yeah. And so, you know, there are the primers and stuff that give you the history and all that stuff.

But, you know, I know myself not going to play these previous entries. No, you're not going to get. But we will play one. You're not going to play any of those. Yeah, but we will play Kingdom Hearts 4. Hearing you say that we're going to play Kingdom Hearts 4 makes me very. Yeah, your eyes are sparkling right now. I'm very excited to bring you guys into the world of Kingdom Hearts with me.

And you're either going to love it or you're going to hate it. are you going to hate it? And it's going to be interesting. I will say this. I will go into this game with an open mind. Like there's a part of me that is excited to kind of go, all right, let's see what all the hubbub's about.

I think it's a little weird. Remember, there's like 100 Instagram comments of people and they're like 40s. We're relying on it. I'm just saying, we are nothing, if not willing to get out of our comfort zone and play games that we would not normally play for the pod.

And honestly, more often than not, we've been pleasantly surprised by that. So I will say this. This is the Josh guarantee. I will go into Kingdom Hearts 4 with an open mind and a touch of excitement. Oh, boy, oh boy, oh boy. Yeah.

So we'll see. That's all I promise, dude. That's all I ask. And I'm like, what is this nonsense? Then I'm going to say it. And then I'll get ripped apart on the internet. But at least you can't say that we didn't try it at that point. You know what?

That's fair. All right. So dusk, I mean, Dusk fade, you're liking it worth the money. absolutely worth the money. I feel like I've seen online discourse about this and most people say it's a worthwhile game not breaking any boundaries, feels very comfortable,

you know. It's just a good nostalgic time. There's something to do in every level. There's exploration. There's loads of enemy types. I was very, very impressed with the amount of enemy variety. It's just kind of,

it's kind of hard for me to put down Kingdom Hearts 1 for Dust Faye. Yeah. That's all my, that's all my fault. Dust Fade is. definitely more modern than Kingdomarts one. It plays a lot better. Yeah. I'm just, I'm just a nostalgic idiot. That's all right. Hey, man, sometimes you go back to these things and you're like, oh yeah. And then you go, oh, no. Because there's been a few moments right now where I'm like, oh, this part. Yeah. Quality of life really does matter, man. And I think sometimes you have to go back to go like, oh yeah, okay. I see why we like gaming nowadays. You know, people may not like the micro transactions and the day one

and this kind of stuff. But at the same time, you ain't fighting your camera really, you know, a whole lot anymore. You forget, like, how obtuse, like,

story progression was in gaming, were they expected you to, like, go somewhere without any instruction at all, touch something or break something, and then walk all the way back to the first area to progress. Right.

Or remember what one character said. Yes. Without a quest marker or, you know, or a journal. That's what gaming was back in the day. It's like, Wait, someone's so said to go look at the waterfall and it's like, wait, and then you're near waterfall and then it's like triggers some memory and you're like, wait a minute.

So I think I'm supposed to do something here. That was games back in the day, man. We didn't have yellow paint and journals. You had to remember this stuff. Oh, my gosh. And it just hits you. You're like, oh, I'm so glad games progress past this. It's his agony.

Well, but I've been happy. Great games. Real quick. did play bomb banana. We streamed this. Oh, yeah. And we won't spend time on this. This is keep talking and nobody explodes with your friends.

Very, very, very fun game. Very fun. We beat the demo. Hilarious. Play the demo people. Grab two of your buddies. Play this demo. One of you can't see.

One of you can't speak. And the other one can't hear. Yeah. And then you have to try to diffuse a bomb using the three of you. And it winds up being really funny, really fun at the same time it's and it's fun to solve the puzzles and the challenges and the stuff like that too so bomb banana which we talked about on a indie episode uh wound up being stupid fun dude stupid fun and i am looking forward to the full release of that game all they need is to i'll say this because we completely beat the demo uh it needs a wider variety of puzzles like a wide the double or triple the amount of puzzles and this game will be it'll be gangbusters dude and i i love this kind of game It made for some great moments. I absolutely loved it.

Yeah. So, all right. Well, there you go, everybody. That catches you up on all the things that we have been playing that we haven't officially been able to cover on the podcast. Strong recommend on Mortal Shell 2 from me. Wardogs, if you are a Mill Sim person, if you were looking for Call of Duty or battlefield, you're not going to get it with that.

But if you like the Millsim stuff, Wardogs is worth checking out. There is a very good video game there. Just not my stuff. If you miss the Hell Divers 2 train, the news is you didn't miss the train because this game is still just as enjoyable today. Yeah. So jump into that.

Ace, dead as disco. Dead as Disco. And Tales of Iron 2 is still a very solid Souls-like game. Like, it is so good. We had a lot of people play Tales of Iron 2 after we interviewed the devs. And I don't know that a single person came away

not praising that game. They were very impressed. Some people like played on their steam decks and we're like, I couldn't put it down. Yeah. I was like, yeah, it's so good. Yeah. They're both so good.

And then machine party, I think the both of us can say, that's a, that's a recommend, man. If you've got some buddies to play with, that game was stupid fun, simple, stupid fun, but with a lot of replayability in my opinion as well. All right. Well, listen, that's going to do it for this episode, everybody, for the two true gamers on this podcast that actually like playing video games and, and, you know, actually just play video games in our downtime.

Because we're gamers, you know, um, that's, that's what we do. And, uh, we,

we, we don't do, ace, do you have any hobbies that you really suck at? I'm just, I'm just asking. For no reason at all. No reason at all.

No, I don't think I have any hobbies I suck at. I don't, see, it's funny because I don't have any hobbies I suck at either. I tend to give those up if I'm really bad at them. Yeah, so usually I'm pretty good at my hobbies if I keep,

doing them. I know, right? It's so weird. Huh. Yeah. Anyway, no reason for that question whatsoever. No reason at all. All right. We better end this episode. Right. It's going to kill us, man. We're in trouble. We're in a lot of trouble. I would say, I hope he doesn't listen to this episode, but I know he's going to, too. Maybe you won't make it to the end. That's fair. That's fair. All right, listen, everybody, we hope you enjoyed this episode. Let us know what you've been playing. We're always on the lookout for games and recommendations from people. We're coming into September October, we're going to have an absolute plethora of games to play. So there will be no gaming slumps or backlogs or any of that stuff for the next couple months. But you know, you've got your last few weeks

here before that kicks off. Let us know what you've been playing, what you've been enjoying. If you played something you didn't like, hey, share that too. That way maybe, you know, other people will know that that game's not worth their time or money either. We see all the comments you all leave on Spotify. If you haven't done so, please leave a review on Apple Podcast. or if you listen on Spotify, rate the show five stars. That helps other gamers know that we don't suck. And this is an alright podcast sometimes. All right, that's going to do it, everybody.

Until next time, happy gaming. Peace out.