YOU'RE NOT MY PAL, GUY - EP 84

[00:00:00] Speaker A: So, Cat, have you got the OGR starter on your soundboard? [00:00:05] Speaker B: No. [00:00:08] Speaker A: Okay. [00:00:09] Speaker C: All right. 4321. [00:00:25] Speaker B: U'and. Welcome to Oceanic Gaming Radio. Thank you for joining us. How you doing? You look great. Good to have you here. It is the 22nd of the first 2024, episode 84. My name is Captain Perth. You listen to oceanic gaming radio and alongside me is always grizzly gaming and a special guest returning because we can't keep him away. Pat, London space. [00:01:07] Speaker D: How are we? Hello. [00:01:09] Speaker A: Hey, you watch the numbers spike in this episode now, Pat? [00:01:13] Speaker B: Well, they already have. They already have the live Twitter feed. Twitch feed is going off. I will preface this with Pav is here for a finite amount of times that don't get too excited, but get a little bit excited. [00:01:27] Speaker A: About one specific game, isn't he, Cap? Which will be soon. [00:01:31] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:01:34] Speaker C: I'm still deep diving. [00:01:35] Speaker B: Yeah, we're mid dive. Mid dive. I think everyone is, but it's exciting. So I'm good to have you back here, mate, because I couldn't have thought of anyone I'd rather speak about this more with. So I'm glad you could make time. [00:01:51] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:01:53] Speaker B: If you know who Pav is and you know what he gets into, you probably know what this game is, but we'll reveal it shortly. Now, look, guys, how's things? What's been happening? Pav, I want to start with, you know, haven't seen you a little bit, so I just want to see how you're going. What's new? [00:02:06] Speaker C: Well, I can tell you not much has changed because it's been a big one. [00:02:10] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, big one. [00:02:12] Speaker C: Had a brutally big weekend. Lots of fun stuff. Caught up with the grizzo on Friday night. [00:02:21] Speaker A: Sorry, in the flesh. Didn't we, Pav? [00:02:25] Speaker C: For the first time in a little while. [00:02:28] Speaker B: That's great. [00:02:29] Speaker C: But that was wonderful. It was a little stream Perth event. Y'all know stream Perth? Yeah, we collabed with Ground Zero. Y'all know ground zero, one of our very good friends here on legends. Yeah, we did a collaboration event with them at Elizabeth Key. That's like a city center area for Perth, Wa. And yeah, they refitted a shipping container to put a bunch of video games in there. We played a bunch of solid, solid, solid night. And yeah, that was. Started my weekend. Very big. And had a huge weekend after that. Just a bunch of Christmas parties, late Christmas parties. Played some DND, started some planning for Pixel Expo 2024. [00:03:15] Speaker A: Can we go back one step there, pav? You played very DND. Please. [00:03:19] Speaker C: I did. [00:03:20] Speaker A: Elaborate a little bit further, please. [00:03:22] Speaker C: I did have a DND, one of my friends from the Pixel team actually asked me if I'd love what would be interested in doing a one shot with him and the crew. And look, I love DND, but I haven't really played a proper session since. I cannot even remember. [00:03:38] Speaker A: We did it with. [00:03:39] Speaker C: Yeah, the last time was probably there. We did it with the game on Oz event. [00:03:45] Speaker B: Was that when we did it? [00:03:46] Speaker A: No, I can't remember, dude. But I remember online you were the only vegemite dangerous who died. [00:03:51] Speaker D: Pav. [00:03:51] Speaker A: Yeah, it was with vegemite dangerous. [00:03:53] Speaker C: Yeah, that was on the game. [00:03:56] Speaker A: You died, and it was heartbreaking. [00:03:58] Speaker C: That was years and years ago, but, yeah, super fun. Super fun. One shot. I played a. Oh, I was a raven guy. I forget what. I can't remember what the race is called, but I played a bard, as I always play a bard. Lots of mischief and mayhem was one shot. [00:04:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:23] Speaker C: So it was a great time. I'd love to do it again, and I think we may do a one shot on my stream in the next few months, maybe see how it goes. We had a lot of fun, so we had a really good group doing it, so hopefully that might be a cool thing. But, yeah, that was it. Very full. I'm so tired. I burnt myself out, but I managed fucking you. Yeah, very true. But I managed to jump onto a game that's recharged me a little bit, but we won't go into that a little bit. [00:04:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:55] Speaker A: Arakocra or Kenku. [00:04:59] Speaker C: I was a kenku. The Kenku. [00:05:02] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:05:02] Speaker B: Very rad. [00:05:03] Speaker A: Thanks. [00:05:04] Speaker D: Love it. [00:05:04] Speaker A: You're legend. [00:05:05] Speaker C: Hey, thanks, Eric. Oh, we got to catch up with Erid finally. [00:05:09] Speaker B: Did you? [00:05:09] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:05:13] Speaker B: I know Erage was at the podcast thing we did a while back at Pixel, but we didn't get a chance to say. Well, I didn't get a chance to say g'day, so. Still waiting on my opportunity. [00:05:23] Speaker A: I had a really good chin wagged, Erich, and he is just a delightful Human. Guys, I can confirm, just a down to earth nice bloke who likes video games, much like us. [00:05:34] Speaker D: Just a legend. [00:05:35] Speaker B: Love to see it. [00:05:36] Speaker D: I love it. [00:05:37] Speaker B: Love it. Nagriz, what about you, mate? What have you been up to? I know you've been pretty flat strap. [00:05:43] Speaker A: Flat strap? [00:05:44] Speaker D: Yep. [00:05:44] Speaker A: I had a rent inspection, so. And we just moved into this house not long ago, so. Trying to prep for that, but I guess more on the social side of things. Yeah, I saw Pav at the. [00:05:55] Speaker D: Ground. [00:05:56] Speaker A: Zero, twitch, Perth meetup, which was awesome. [00:05:58] Speaker D: Because I've kind of been out of. [00:05:59] Speaker A: The loop for that for a while, Cap. In fact, the last one I went. [00:06:02] Speaker D: To, man, was the one at escape. [00:06:04] Speaker A: Portal, I think back like years and years ago when the lop area and. [00:06:08] Speaker D: A bunch of people were there. [00:06:09] Speaker A: So I got to meet some really cool other Perth content creators that I haven't had a chance to meet yet. Just going to ramble off some names here just in case they hear, but. [00:06:16] Speaker D: Airidge was one of them. [00:06:18] Speaker A: I saw Jim and Sukai there as well. Pav, Emiko, doom, cutie Tanuki and Blue Streak and a bunch of other awesome Perth content creators. [00:06:29] Speaker B: Yeah, love me some blue streak. Yeah, it was great. [00:06:32] Speaker A: It's really cool. It was really cool. So I did that. [00:06:34] Speaker D: Hell yeah, dude. [00:06:36] Speaker A: And then I got really pissed on Saturday night. Drank a heap of tequila, and then I woke up Sunday morning and went to a spin class, cap, which was pretty cool. And sweated out on a bike. On a bike, mate. Yeah, in the gym. [00:06:50] Speaker B: What the fuck? [00:06:52] Speaker A: I'm trying to do two dedicated cardio sessions that are classes per week. Someone else pushes me and it's dude. Because I was like, hungover. I got home and I just felt physically unable to do anything. So I hopped into bed for a little bit, then I got up because I had to prep this fucking wrench inspection. And it was just a nightmare. So it was like children. [00:07:14] Speaker B: I don't even know if it's possible having that level of exhaustion with children under five. [00:07:21] Speaker D: That's wild. [00:07:22] Speaker B: Absolutely wild. [00:07:23] Speaker A: It's been good, man. I'm very grateful for everything that I've got and life and things. Cap, things are good. What about you, good, sir? What's been happening on your. [00:07:31] Speaker B: Well, look, we're kind of going through another round of just general, kind of like daycare borne illnesses again. So we were kind of a bit crooked last kind of week, towards the end of last week, and wasn't too bad, but it was just enough where we're just like, we're just not going to go anywhere. And then today, Ted got up, had a big spew and didn't go to daycare. Almost definitely gastro. We got a post in our daycare app and it was like, viral gastronitis. He's going around the fucking thing. And I was like, oh, you don't fucking say wow. Anyways, me, I had to stay home today, but just kind of navigating that at the moment. I'm not sick yet, but it tends to be sick. No, she's at the right at the moment. She spent all day with Ted. So I'm hoping that we've been a lot better with just washing our hands properly because that's obviously how it fucking spreads and stuff. But there's just things you can't avoid, like just children being children around you and just unavoidable kind of grossness. So we'll battle on, mate. But things have been pretty good other than that. In between that, I had a couple of days of feeling good. So I actually played some DND on Saturday night, which was great. [00:08:50] Speaker D: What? [00:08:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I've had a little campaign going with a few mates, actually. Mates? I know through our good friend Adrian. [00:09:02] Speaker D: And Adrian's in the campaign as well. That is cool. How's it going? [00:09:07] Speaker A: What are you guys. [00:09:09] Speaker B: So they started before I could jump in just because it was around Christmas time and availability is like. So I was like, look at me. I'll come back in. But the guy who's running the campaign, he's using the planetscape, I guess, like expansion or whatever you call the DND kind of stories. And it's essentially like outer planes outside of reality kind of shit going on. And so the whole kind of planescape world exists in this big city called Sigil. It's like this city that's inside, like, a doughnut shape. And that donut shape has access to all the different planes within the entirety of the forgotten Realm. [00:09:53] Speaker D: So, like devil realms and really, dude. [00:09:56] Speaker B: All kinds of shit. [00:09:57] Speaker A: It's a really cool setting. There's all the different. [00:10:00] Speaker B: Yeah, there's like elemental planes. Planes and fucking all kinds of stuff, but, yeah, so it's been really good. I am playing a gif Zerai monk. [00:10:14] Speaker D: Which is pretty cool. Playing a monk. [00:10:17] Speaker A: Are you high enough level to pick your subclass? Have you gone open hand or what are you. [00:10:23] Speaker B: No, I went ascendant dragon, which is sick. [00:10:27] Speaker A: Is that like a fucking expansion one or something? I don't think I've heard of that one. [00:10:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it is an expansion one. So. Not that we have the expansion. We're just doing a bit of red on the Internet. But, yeah, you can do cool shit. Like when you attack, you can choose to make that attack as an exhalation of dragon fire or breath. Basically, it's like two d, four of damage to every enemy in a cone or a line. [00:11:00] Speaker A: Does it use all the key points still with the monk, applying key points to empower your attacks? Yeah, that's cool, man. I love that. Monks are great. [00:11:08] Speaker B: Yeah, very cool. Yeah, really fun class. And I've never played a monk before, so it's been quite fun. So that was on Saturday and the guys doing it, the DM, he's really into building set pieces. So the way he structures his sessions is a bit of character development and interaction and bit of travel and kind know, exploration. And then generally everything kind of ends in one big fight and it doesn't push you towards it, but generally you go towards it anyway. And so you kind of have a nice blend of everything in the entire session to guide him. [00:11:49] Speaker A: Cap or is he kind of just writing this for you guys? [00:11:52] Speaker B: No, he's written the whole thing himself and it's fucking impressive, honestly. It's really good. He's built his own. I don't know, we call it just like a miniature thing that all our miniatures go in and he's put a grid on it and he's sort of made his own bookshelves and all kinds of stuff. So it's really cool, really fun. So that was my Saturday, but other than that, I've just been doing a little bit of gaming and just general chilling out. So it's been really good. [00:12:25] Speaker D: But yeah. [00:12:26] Speaker B: So there you go. Happy days indeed. [00:12:29] Speaker D: Now look, we should probably fucking dive. [00:12:31] Speaker B: Into it because pabs got places to do it. Let's dive in. Yeah. As always, I just want to say a big thank you to our wonderful listeners. Whether you're listening live via Twitch tv, oceanicgamingradio, and if you're not listening live, you listen to this via one of our amazing podcast platforms that we release this bad boy on. You can come and listen live as we record this as well. We do it every Monday night at 07:00 p.m. Australian western standard Time. And we'd love to see you in here alongside such legends as Donny 92, Erie J, Blue Streak, secose, Mezan Nong. Who else we got here? Sukai au. Yeah, just a bunch of freaking rippers and Mousey Fuz. Welcome. But yeah, you too could join them as well. Now, as I mentioned before, we release this weekly on Tuesdays on every platform. So podcast platform, that is. So just go and check it out in your favorite spot. We'd really appreciate some reviews. So if you get a chance to. [00:13:32] Speaker D: Give us a five star, please do so. [00:13:35] Speaker B: We'd appreciate it. And finally, a big old cheers to all of our wonderful Patreon subscribers. These are the legends that come out every week a month, sorry. And put some bucks in the buck draw. Now, they are the following legends. Sukai, Moosey, caging, runt, Sergeant Paul Legyd, jlibs, Brendan Dan, fantastic strops and slatos thank you, guys. Bloody appreciate you. You rock. If you want to join that list of legends, you can do so by going to. I believe so, yeah. Otherwise, if it's not that, just go to our OGR show website and you can go and find the link there. It's floating around. All right. [00:14:23] Speaker D: With all that out the road, let's. [00:14:25] Speaker B: Freaking jump into a cheeky little quest log. I reckon first off, we're going to dive straight in with what is actually a. How's your gaming going? Because there is a game taking the world by storm and it is actually kind of mental how quickly it has risen to, I guess, lofty heights. And will it fall from lofty Heights? We'll find out. But the reason we've got Pav here is because Palworld has released. Now, I haven't got a current figure, but one of the last things I saw was like they were selling like 1800 units in a fucking minute or something stupid. And then beyond that, it was like they sold like x million. I mean, have you seen a recent stat, Pav? I saw like one yesterday. It was like 5 million copies sold. And then later it was like fucking ten or something. It's just going hotcakes. [00:15:21] Speaker A: It's the top played and top sold for the week on stream. [00:15:25] Speaker C: The last one I saw was two mil. But I have no doubt in my mind that it's going to skyrocket to. [00:15:31] Speaker B: God knows how many as world gets out as well. But, yeah, let's dive in, I guess. Firstly, what is it, Pav? I guess let's be honest about what it is. Do you want to begin? [00:15:50] Speaker C: Yeah, look, I think a lot of people are calling it a Poke clone Pokemon clone. But I would argue that it's not. I think the monsters draw heavy inspiration is what I'll call it to popular Pokemon. But it is far more an arc clone, 100%. [00:16:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I definitely agree with that. I think there's a lot of elements that are Pokemon adjacent and obviously the art style for the characters and what do they call them, pals are insanely close to that of Pokemon. But I think realistically, it definitely kind of blends that, I guess, collection kind of Powell kind of Pokemon thing with the arc kind of survival. You collect things and make survival kind of game with the building mechanics and stuff. But then it literally has guns. The game's been marketed as Pokemon with guns. And so you can build weapons and give your Pokemon pal creatures guns that will then use them in combat and shit, which is fucking wild. But yeah, it is just a crazy. [00:17:15] Speaker D: Amalgamation of so many different genres and game ips. [00:17:21] Speaker B: I think one of the first things I noticed when I loaded into the. [00:17:24] Speaker D: Game was it had something that was. [00:17:29] Speaker B: Insanely reminiscent of when you start in Breath of the wild. Like you kind of open into this kind of cave and you walk out into the wider world. And then when you walk out into the wider world, the name of the area pops up. And the name of the area is in a very similar font to the Breath of the wild font. And then a noise. And that fucking noise sounds like the noises you hear when you discover stuff in Breath of the wild. There's just so many games that it pulls and draws from. I'd say it's definitely taking a lot of inspiration from Fortnite as well, I think, visually. And then on top of that. Yeah, I mean, you've got the arc, you've got the breath of the wild, you've got Pokemon, obviously, and it's completely unapologetic about it all, but it works. [00:18:18] Speaker C: Yeah, they've done a really good job of knowing what the market of people want in a video game and they've just put out exactly what people are craving for. From Nintendo especially. [00:18:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's unfortunate because people have been craving a, I guess not necessarily a survival game, but like an MMo style experience from Pokemon that gives you the opportunity to actually have an open world and persist in it and do so with your mates as well. But the Pokemon company just hasn't done it for whatever reason and probably just to reduce risk, I guess. But ultimately, look how good this game is going. It's one of the only five games that has had a million concurrent players on Steam ever. It's just going off. [00:19:15] Speaker D: If you have a look at that. [00:19:16] Speaker A: Figure cap active players sitting above the. [00:19:19] Speaker D: Likes of Dota two and Counterstrike two is just like. [00:19:23] Speaker A: That really sets the scene. But also, and I think it's interesting, like relating this to the devs, Pokemon devs not creating a game like this. [00:19:31] Speaker D: And it's because they seem to just. [00:19:33] Speaker A: Rely on these single releases and they bring them out periodically so they can constantly make the money from selling those games to such a franchise and knowing that people are going to buy those games. [00:19:45] Speaker D: Right. [00:19:45] Speaker A: They haven't really made a live service game, so to speak, or something they. [00:19:49] Speaker D: Service beyond a certain period of time. So I don't know. [00:19:53] Speaker A: See, obviously the people wanting this, but yeah, it's crazy. It's taken off. [00:19:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, obviously Pokemon just haven't been able to capitalize on that at all. I'm not even too sure if they want to, but yeah, let's have a bit of a chat about, I guess, just the standard gameplay. It actually handles pretty well. I mean, everything that I've seen from the marketing and the screenshots of this game and the trailer, it just looked like a garbage asset flip game that you'd just find as some uni students, I don't know, like portfolio piece for know, for game design or like, it looks like one of those games that you see on your Facebook ads and it's like pretends to be a game that it's not. Then you load into the game and it's fully featured. It runs really well and it's entirely surprising. I mean, I guess the whole kind of game loop is you are kind of having that survival thing. You're going out, you're smacking trees and getting resources and wood and rock, and then you're using those resources to craft things. And the main kind of goal, I guess, beyond that is to capture Pokemon, well, pals and use them to your own devices. They've got farming and stuff and you can use your pals to help you kind of build your settlement, operate your settlement, and I guess just kind of persist in the world. And they've even kind of got the whole arceus approach to catching a shitload. [00:21:32] Speaker D: Of one pal as well. [00:21:34] Speaker B: Pav, like you kind of get. You try and get ten of a type and then you get like an XP bonus and you use that XP bonus to get more technology points and unlock your technology hierarchy. But yeah. Have you done much of the multiplayer? How does that feel? [00:21:52] Speaker C: I haven't done any of the multiplayer yet. I'm kind of just. Kind of just jumping into the world and kind of experiencing it for myself first because I like to play these games my own pace because otherwise I'll get left in the lurch. I kind of just go at my own pace. So I've just been really enjoying exactly that. It's just farming, building, exploring just at my own pace and just seeing all the new monsters. I definitely went into this expecting to see every single creature I came across to be an exact rip off a Pokemon. But I'm finding that to be more the minority than majority of these creatures. [00:22:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I suppose it's probably a good time to maybe chat about some of the controversy that's kind of come out. [00:22:54] Speaker A: And that's the fact that they have. [00:22:56] Speaker B: Been accused of some degree of plagiarism. Now people on Twitter have been kind of reverse engineering some of these pals and comparing them to existing Pokemon. I think one of the main comparisons was this kind of weird cat like looking pal that kind of operates on all fours and looks vaguely like the Galarian. I think it's Galerian meowth version. And to the point where the eyes. [00:23:26] Speaker D: On the pal are virtually exactly the. [00:23:30] Speaker B: Same in terms of the mouth as well. Yeah, the mouth as well is in the exact same shape. All those elements are in the exact same position, and even the pupils are in the same position within the eyes. And it's just there, all the look. It's not definitive, definite. Here's what they did, but it's pretty close. And people have uncovered some stuff that the CEO of the power World studio, I can't remember what they called it, pocket something or other, basically was sharing. [00:24:06] Speaker D: The fact that one way to get. [00:24:09] Speaker B: Around plagiarism is to run things through AI to then obviously spit something new out, because you can't prove that it was plagiarism at that stage, especially when AI is supposed to be able to kind of regenerate brand new kind of things. It's hard to reverse engineer backwards. [00:24:30] Speaker A: How much of this game has been generated. [00:24:32] Speaker D: With AI Cap, you reckon that could. [00:24:35] Speaker A: Explain drawing from other games even you're talking about the font used for certain things. [00:24:40] Speaker B: If they're using that, honestly, I would probably say that the vast majority of the pals maybe had some iteration of AI that were then iterated on after the fact. They probably just plugged a shitload of Pokemon into whatever AI they might have used and then generated, what do you call it? Like a data set to then generate some random kind of pals, I guess. And then from there, use the designer to flesh those out. Because one thing that the company has been saying is that all the pal designs have been done by one person. And it's quite hilarious because they say, oh, yeah, this one designer is this designer who was refused employment at all these other studios, and they've been single handedly designing all the pals in the game by themselves. They're amazing. It's like, is this like some bizarre way to try and pretend like you didn't use AI? But yeah, overall, obviously a little bit dodgy. And then obviously you're mixing that with, know, blatant. And some people are calling it, what do you call it? Inspiration from other video games. Now, pav, you're telling me something earlier, before we started, that they've been fairly, again, just kind of open to the fact that they're happy to just completely copy industry trend. [00:26:12] Speaker C: I read an article this morning. It was I think the president of the company or whatever saying that their interest is not to make an original game. They want to capture. [00:26:28] Speaker B: What'S popular in. [00:26:29] Speaker C: The market and make a game that will be what people want to play. [00:26:33] Speaker B: Yeah, and I mean realistically that's being shown. But I guess the big thing to note about this is plenty of people do this shit on the Steam marketplace and other gaming marketplaces and just reproduce very poorly made versions of these industry trends and games. But in all honesty, this is probably the first time that I've seen a. [00:26:58] Speaker D: Game of this, I guess, approach to. [00:27:03] Speaker B: Development actually come out on top and produce something that people are willing to play and pay for, which is wild because it's also probably realistically one of the first instances of AI generated content being used and not being it is obviously being critiqued. At the moment we can't prove it's AI stuff, but I mean this could realistically be one of the first real big hit games that has successfully utilized what I think personally is a significant amount of AI generated assets, which is wild. [00:27:42] Speaker A: It's selling like hotcakes and people are playing it in the hundreds of thousands. More than AAA studios and more than battles Gate three. They put a stat on their Twitter cap saying that pal world is breaking. [00:27:57] Speaker D: The record for the most played game. [00:28:02] Speaker A: That has a monetary value. Turns out that was incorrect because PUBG wasn't always free. It was a pay back in the day. And that still holds a record second over the top of the likes of games like Beldor's Gate three and all those amazing AAA games that you pay for. [00:28:17] Speaker B: So it's like pretty mental. [00:28:19] Speaker A: Absolutely wild. [00:28:21] Speaker D: Wild. [00:28:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess one of the other things to kind of note about this as well is so it's obviously co released on Game Pass as well. So you can play on Game Pass. But one thing to note, if you are keen to kind of get in. [00:28:38] Speaker D: There and get involved, just beware that. [00:28:40] Speaker B: You won't be able to play with steam friends yet. And there's no defined answer to how long the yet will be. Basically they don't have direct ip server connection in the Xbox Game Pass version. And on top of that, the other issue they've got is they're having issues getting patches past Microsoft's patching like Xbox Game Pass patching policy, which is really. [00:29:13] Speaker D: Fucking bizarre because the way that they've. [00:29:17] Speaker B: I guess positioned what's happening is that essentially they're having an issue getting it past the patch policy authority for Game Pass. [00:29:28] Speaker D: But then also in my mind, Microsoft. [00:29:32] Speaker B: Is paying them to be on Game Pass. So it's like, where's the holdup, fellas? What's going on here? You know what? It's just. I kind of find that bizarre. Whereas obviously in Steam it's just like fucking sweet. Let's go. But I just feel like there's an added benefit of them not twiddling their thumbs about getting this patch because apparently the patch. Well, firstly, the patch that's missing on Xbox is missing a shitload of bug fixes and tweaks. But on top of that, quite important. [00:30:04] Speaker D: Multiplayer, I guess, what do you call it, multiplayer. [00:30:12] Speaker B: Multiplayer optionality fucking connections. You can't fucking connect properly. So I've got a theory, Grizz. What is theory? They aren't going to release the patch until they've sold a shitload of copies. [00:30:27] Speaker D: And then they'll release the patch because. [00:30:29] Speaker B: Otherwise people will just go and grab it off game pass for free. [00:30:32] Speaker A: Might be right. Maybe there's some thinking behind that and. [00:30:35] Speaker B: I think that's a maybe given who these people are and what they've kind of suggested and how they want monetize their games. Sounds like probably a fucking definite. I think it's funny because I think the way that they're talking about the whole process is I feel like they're kind of trying to sort of vaguely put the ball in Microsoft's court. But then also they're kind of trying. [00:30:59] Speaker D: To be. [00:31:02] Speaker B: Careful about what they say because I think realistically it's them who's holding it up. But then obviously they don't want Microsoft to be like, wait a second, you guys are just fucking not putting the patch out? That's your problem, mate, not us. So anyways, haven't heard more about it, but wild and crazy. [00:31:19] Speaker A: I haven't actually heard your opinion, mate. How many captain person, how many pabs are we given this game? Are you guys actually enjoying it? Or is this something you just want to jump on for the hype? Or what is this to you guys? [00:31:30] Speaker C: I think it's something that I'm probably only going to play for the hype. I have enjoyed it far more than I expected to. It is really captivating me. But yeah, I don't know. I think it will get old quick because I've played for about 5 hours or so. I've got about 50% off the monsters. I've traveled across most of the area. I think within like ten, maybe 15 hours I'll have been ready to finish my solo play. Through then it'll be dependent on how the multiplayer works and we'll see how that goes. [00:32:11] Speaker B: Yeah, look, I think I'm in a pretty similar boat. I think a lot of the enjoyment out of the game is a pure sense of disbelief that this game isn't shit. And so I'm kind of just enjoying that moment. [00:32:25] Speaker D: But I think I'm the same with Pav. [00:32:28] Speaker B: I ended up buying it on Steam because I wanted to play multiplayer with a couple of mates who are playing Currently. I think I'll play with them for a little while and then I just think it'll fizzle out for me as well. I can't see these guys being able to be agile enough to add because it's still in early access. The game seems pretty fully featured to. [00:32:50] Speaker A: Me anyway, when you buy it, how much is it? How much are they making here? [00:32:53] Speaker B: It's currently under 40 australian dollars. I think it's like $39 or something. 10% off. So it's not a full priced AAA experience. It's kind of like an EA kind of pricing. But yeah, I think I'm the same. Look, honestly, I think realistically the game. [00:33:12] Speaker A: Is probably like a three out of. [00:33:14] Speaker D: Five, to be honest. [00:33:16] Speaker B: It's average, but I think just the. [00:33:19] Speaker D: Whole what it does and what it. [00:33:22] Speaker B: Combines and it does a really good job of it. The fun fact is definitely a five. [00:33:26] Speaker D: Out of five, you know what I mean? [00:33:29] Speaker A: Kind of came out of nowhere too, if I like games like that, where. I mean, I'm sure this was advertised previous to this, right? But like you said, I actually posted about this. [00:33:38] Speaker C: I posted this on my Facebook two years ago. [00:33:41] Speaker A: Yeah, but just because I thought it. [00:33:43] Speaker C: Was a meme video, Cap was like. [00:33:46] Speaker A: Saying in a chat earlier that it seen the first videos of this. It was like, this is going to be fucking shit. Look at it. [00:33:52] Speaker C: I think the first videos actually had Pokemon in the game as well. [00:33:59] Speaker B: Wild, but yeah. So there you go. Fucking power world. I'll keep you guys updated and I'll bring you little Pav updates as well as I hear about them. Just want to say thanks for jumping on and having a bit of a chat with us about power, mate. It's been great. [00:34:18] Speaker A: We miss you, Pav. I'm sure I'll be back at some point. [00:34:25] Speaker C: Oh, God, Ed sure will. [00:34:28] Speaker A: Next week. [00:34:29] Speaker C: Good luck, fellas. I'll see you next time. [00:34:30] Speaker A: Bye bye. [00:34:31] Speaker B: See you, mate. Peace. [00:34:33] Speaker A: All right, Cap, just quickly, there is shinies in this game, right? [00:34:36] Speaker D: I've seen them. [00:34:37] Speaker B: I don't know, actually. [00:34:39] Speaker D: Maybe so there's shinies. [00:34:40] Speaker A: They make a noise. Except this, apparently, when you catch them and you throw them back out, they're not shiny anymore, but they have different empowered abilities and stuff that do more. [00:34:50] Speaker D: Than the normal standard versions of those. [00:34:53] Speaker B: Jesus Christ. Yeah, I'm just looking at it now. They are literally shiny, by the looks. [00:34:58] Speaker A: Of things, as fucking noise. Actually, I read a really funny tweet. [00:35:03] Speaker D: Someone loaded into a world and they couldn't figure out how to fucking get. [00:35:07] Speaker A: Rid of that really annoying noise that it was making. So they went and made a new world and deleted the old one, turns out, because there was a shine. [00:35:17] Speaker B: That's so funny. Yeah, infancy of a game like that, you just don't even know, do you? So you make some pretty critically bad mistakes. But yeah. Look, honestly, are you going to give it a crack, grizz, what's your plan? [00:35:30] Speaker A: Probably not. I'll just listen to you talk about. [00:35:32] Speaker D: It and read media. [00:35:34] Speaker A: Yeah, it's kind of not really in my wheelhouse. Kind of is. [00:35:37] Speaker D: I love the survival craft stuff, but I don't know. We'll see. [00:35:42] Speaker B: You've done a few Pokemon Nuzlocks in your time. [00:35:44] Speaker D: I have. [00:35:44] Speaker A: I enjoy those a lot, actually. The Nuzlocks are fantastic. So maybe if it's in the right format. [00:35:50] Speaker D: Yeah, could be, for sure. [00:35:53] Speaker B: All right, Chris, well, what about. Would you be trying. Actually, let's start this correctly. Did you play Final Fantasy seven remake? [00:36:02] Speaker A: No, but I did play the shit out of the original Final Fantasy seven games. And I must admit, cap, that watching. [00:36:10] Speaker D: The rebirth trailer, which, by the way, dropped. [00:36:14] Speaker A: How long ago, cap? Five days ago. The most recent. [00:36:17] Speaker D: Recent? [00:36:17] Speaker B: Yeah, about five or six days ago. [00:36:19] Speaker A: We're about to talk about, definitely gave me a massive hit of nostalgia and the drive to actually pull my finger out and address my new year's resolution. [00:36:29] Speaker D: Which was to play some games that. [00:36:31] Speaker A: Are coming out this year and give at least this one a crack. Maybe the ones before it a crack, but it looks great so far. [00:36:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I definitely recommend playing remake first because I think you get your best bang for buck in terms of story and continuations and all that. But, yeah, like you said, mate, we've. [00:36:50] Speaker D: Got a brand new trailer for rebirth. [00:36:55] Speaker B: And it's looking pretty sexy, if I do say so myself. A lot of nostalgic kind of moments and stuff coming out of the trailer, but also just some weird events in terms of timing and who's doing what and in terms of what we'd expect to be happening in, I guess, the original game. Right. So it kind of further solidifies this idea that something's going on with the timeline in the Final Fantasy remake trilogy. Basically, we know that this game is going to be, or the games are going to be in a trilogy. And the things that happened in the first kind of. There was a few things that happened towards the end and some boss battles and stuff that kind of suggested that, hey, wait a second. That's not how that went. Or that's really weird. That wasn't in the first game. And it seems like we're going to get that now. So look, in the trailer, we get some. Well, we get some footage of us fighting, I think. Is it the Leviathan? It's like the Leviathan esque thing. In the first major continent, we see the mad scientist. I can't remember what his name is. Who has Red? What's his name? Red five. [00:38:09] Speaker D: Whatever. [00:38:10] Speaker B: The dog. And we see a lot of separoth. Your boy red, see a lot of separoth as well. But then we also sort of see the new characters that we're going to be able to play as in the remake. So we get to see Yufi, who we were exposed to in integrade, which is the dlc kind of expansion for remake. We will be able to play as red. We'll also be able to play as the other characters that we played, as in the first of the trilogy. [00:38:46] Speaker A: Is Barrett in the first one? [00:38:48] Speaker B: Barrett's in the first one. Also Tifa and Erith. And we've also got cat Sith, who is the cat? Or I think Kate Sith, that little cat thing that walks on a fucking marshmallow, man. Yeah, it all looks wild. And we've got confirmation that we're going to be going to the golden Saucer, which is kind of like their version of, I guess, like a carnival kind of thing. And. Yeah, I mean, honestly, the trailer looks phenomenally gorgeous. [00:39:26] Speaker A: The golden saucer cap from the original game, is that the one that kind of felt like you're in almost like a space age, kind of like quite a modern, very modern area. [00:39:37] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:39:38] Speaker B: And there was also minigames and stuff you're doing, like racing. And so this apparently is fully fleshed out with minigames and whatnot. So, yeah, I mean, it looks really cool. Now, a couple of things that have been kind of confirmed as well is that you're going to be able to. The combat style is very similar to the remake, but now I think they're doing things called, like, synergy attacks or something where your characters will blend together and do different moves. The combat sounds really wild. Sounds like the campaign is going to be about 40 hours. So what do you think about our wise sweet spots? Because 40 sounds pretty good to me. [00:40:24] Speaker A: Yeah, 40 sounds all right, cat. But also they said that Elden ring was 40. Right. But when you go and do all the side quest, you're fucking up around 100. No speaking last week about this, we have seen little teasers of the open world, nature of this, of the rebirth Final Fantasy seven rebirth, and it's definitely more open. There's fast travel and it looks to be much more of a, I don't know, side quests and stuff. Cap, it sounds like there's going to be more. Outside of that linear approach to the. [00:40:57] Speaker B: Game, which was obviously in the first remake, it was a bit more of a kind of on rails experience. There was certain areas that were kind of a little bit fleshed out and open, but they were still pretty small in comparison. This is like there was a couple of weeks back, I think there was a leaked image of the map and kind of give you a vague idea of how big it was. But then on top of that, with this trailer, there's been a few interviews with some of the lead devs and they were saying one of the major pillars of this new game is to promote you to explore a lot and go out and see the enemies. I think that's going to be pretty exciting. [00:41:42] Speaker A: You're kind of about to touch on it here, Cap, but there's a lot. [00:41:45] Speaker D: Of little whisperings, mate, that this will. [00:41:48] Speaker A: Be the one where they deviate from the original storytelling a little bit here. So can you touch on any of that? Quite dramatically. So do we already know that that is going to happen from the trailer? [00:42:03] Speaker B: There's a few things in the trailer that. One of the things that was being said is that there's a couple of new cities and towns that the characters go to in this game that weren't explored in the original. So obviously that's a bit of a deviation, but I think they might more so just be doing that to kind of flesh the story out and kind of make the world seem more lived in and all that kind of stuff. But I think the big thing is, well, another one is they don't go to Wutai, which is where they originally meet UFI. So Wutai is quite an important place in the original game, but potentially the biggest thing if you haven't played the first Final Fantasy seven. Spoilers ahead. Basically, at the end of disc one, we have probably one of game's most well known gaming's most well known moments of all time. You see Sephiroth fall down from the sky in the temple place, and he drives his sword straight through Erith. And it's like one of the craziest twists of all time. And I remember seeing as a kid being like, holy shit, this is crazy. [00:43:17] Speaker A: You just bought it for Jim. [00:43:19] Speaker D: Fuck. [00:43:20] Speaker A: I'm sure Jim knows. He's a video game aficionado. [00:43:24] Speaker B: If Jim doesn't know, then that's mind blowing. But it's going to be interesting to see what happens, because we obviously haven't. Well, in this trailer and in previous trailers for remake Rebirth, sorry, we haven't gotten any inkling that that actually happens in this. [00:43:43] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:43:44] Speaker B: And to go a little bit further, in the original remake, there's certain things that Sephiroth say, and also Erith says. [00:43:52] Speaker D: That kind of allude to them knowing what's going to happen, which is weird. [00:43:59] Speaker B: Because in the original game, they don't have those kind of dialogues happening. So. [00:44:05] Speaker D: Basically anything can happen from this. [00:44:08] Speaker B: Point forward, from the sounds of things, and that'll be the first major deviation. There's a few theories online floating around that basically Erith and Seperoth are caught up in this timeline deviation thing, and they both know the events of final Fantasy VI to the point where Sephiroth is trying to get the party to do certain things, and he's trying to resist the act of killing Erith because he knows that that act is what sets cloud on his path to stop Sephiroth ultimately. [00:44:43] Speaker D: Dang. [00:44:44] Speaker A: So he's kind of, like, using that to his advantage, knowing the outcomes of Final Fantasy seven. [00:44:49] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:44:51] Speaker A: Okay. [00:44:51] Speaker D: All right. [00:44:52] Speaker B: Which is kind of mean, obviously. We don't know for sure at this stage. The game's not even out yet. I don't think the game's out till Feb. 29th or something like that. But, yeah, ultimately, the trailer looks freaking impressive. Rebirth ends on disc one. We know that for sure. That's been confirmed. So we know that whatever happens in. [00:45:19] Speaker D: That scene is going to be the. [00:45:22] Speaker B: Final kind of cutscene or whatever that happens earlier game. [00:45:26] Speaker A: All right. Okay. I get what you're saying. [00:45:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:28] Speaker D: Wow. [00:45:29] Speaker B: So we know that that's probably going to be the major deviation point, and then the final disc is going to be, like, hectic. So, yeah, anyways, it's going to be really cool. [00:45:38] Speaker A: A couple of little comments from me, Cap. I have always felt that graphically square Enix with the Final Fantasy seven games have always generated these visuals unlike any other game. And I remember seeing the cinematography in Final Fantasy seven, Final Fantasy eight. So beyond what was currently being produced on other consoles at the time and being quite like blown away. [00:46:03] Speaker D: Wow. [00:46:03] Speaker A: This is what real graphics look like. But I kind of almost had that moment again here with the rebirth trailer. I just think that the attention to. [00:46:09] Speaker D: Detail and now they've got these. [00:46:12] Speaker A: It's almost like they've gone beyond reality with these now. They've just done such a good job at constructing the faces and the movements. [00:46:19] Speaker D: Of people that it's just amazing. Perfect. [00:46:23] Speaker A: On top of this, Cap, I actually felt like the music score. One of the biggest things for Final Fantasy seven that I remember, Cap, there's a couple of songs that I still remember. The name of them, berse is one of them. There's a couple of other ones. I still have them in my d d playlist from that. [00:46:38] Speaker D: Love it. [00:46:38] Speaker A: And they're just like really pinnacle moments. [00:46:42] Speaker D: Of gaming in my mind. [00:46:46] Speaker A: But yeah, actually felt like the trailer. They are really good. Even where is like. [00:46:54] Speaker B: It's just such a good theme, dude, it's like everyone knows that song. Sorry to interrupt you, but I had no. [00:46:59] Speaker A: I was just going to say that the music in the trailer is fantastic as well. I think they've just done a really good job with the trailers as a whole for these games at paying homage to the classics and giving you a little bit more potentially through story changes and other bits and pieces to really draw people back in. Even if you haven't played the originals, there's still appeal there because they look amazing, but there is definitely a thing where they're pulling on people's nostalgia factor to draw them back in from Final Fantasy Vi as a whole, but then. [00:47:32] Speaker B: Bending the rules of what a remake can be, right? And I mean, even like you think about the blindingly obvious one is the fact that Zach flair, one of the soldiers alongside Cloud and Separoth, he's not in Final Fantasy Seven after the first disc, whatever. I can't remember exactly where he is in there, but he's alluded to in the game and I think he's in advent children's mothership, but he is in this next game as well. So the events are changing. They're giving you new things to look forward to, which I think is just such an intelligent way to approach it, but also doing it in a way that isn't abrasive. It's a great addition to the story. It's not like a bit of an eye roll. I've been really impressed with what they've done so far. So I'm pretty interested to see what the final product looks like. [00:48:27] Speaker A: I remember you and I speaking about this whole idea early cap, around breaking Final Fantasy seven into these piecemeal things. And one of our concerns at the. [00:48:36] Speaker D: Time was that there wasn't enough content. [00:48:40] Speaker A: To be able to split too much. [00:48:42] Speaker D: To have it meaningful for each of. [00:48:44] Speaker A: The games that they were going to bring out of that or each of the parts. Do you still feel like that's the. [00:48:48] Speaker D: Case, or do you think that they've. [00:48:51] Speaker A: Done a pretty good job at piecemealing it into sections like they have? [00:48:55] Speaker B: I think they've pretty much broken it into the exact space places that I expected it probably would be broken into because obviously remake that ended at exiting Midgard just after the whole second kind of terrorist attack, I say, in inverted commas. And then I thought probably the next ideal spot, storyline wise, would probably be that first moment asked for disc one. But then that's only disc one. Isn't there like three discs in the original one? [00:49:28] Speaker A: Three or four? [00:49:29] Speaker D: I'm pretty sure there was four. Yeah. [00:49:32] Speaker B: So I kind of thought that maybe they might go beyond a trilogy and. [00:49:37] Speaker D: Do more, but they haven't, which is. [00:49:40] Speaker B: Kind of impressive, ultimately. To answer your question, grizz, I'm pretty happy with how they've done it so far. I think they've done a really good job. [00:49:50] Speaker A: You're right, cap. Three discs, mate. Look, I want to do, once they finish the Final Fantasy seven, whether they're going to do this to the number eight as well. [00:49:58] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I heard rumors that they want to do something similar to ten, which is interesting because I guess maybe deviating because, I mean, seven and eight have a similar kind of futuristic, kind of apocalyptic kind of thing going on, whereas ten is very medieval. [00:50:20] Speaker A: So I think ten was the last one that I actually played. [00:50:23] Speaker D: No joke. Back in the day. [00:50:25] Speaker A: That one had that weird ball thing. There's a midi game where it was. [00:50:30] Speaker D: Like soccer, but some. [00:50:32] Speaker B: Maybe. I'm thinking of nine then. Sorry, I think I got mixed up between ten and nine. My bad. I meant nine, which is the more medieval high fantasy kind of one. Let me have a look at this. [00:50:44] Speaker A: Yeah, you're thinking of ten splits, ball. [00:50:47] Speaker B: Jim blitzball, which is one of the best minigames of all time. [00:50:52] Speaker D: I think it's a banger. [00:50:53] Speaker A: It's kind of like Quidditch, but not Quidditch. [00:50:57] Speaker B: Yeah, but also Final Fantasy has a great track record of making really good card games inside the actual games. [00:51:05] Speaker A: Dude, I swear they invented, like, the idea of Gwent in the Witcher series. But how good were the card games? Man, I think finals Final Fantasy eight was so in depth and almost everyone you could go and play. It's great. [00:51:18] Speaker D: Yeah, well, even. [00:51:20] Speaker B: Okay, one final thing before we probably should definitely move on. They've got a minigame coming to the golden Saucer in Final Fantasy seven, rebirth, which looks very gwent like, and it's called Queen's blood, so it looks pretty damn cool. [00:51:38] Speaker A: Dang. [00:51:39] Speaker B: All you card game lovers get excited. [00:51:41] Speaker D: So you go do it. [00:51:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:42] Speaker D: All right, that's Final Fantasy seven. [00:51:45] Speaker B: Now, Grizz, over the week as well, we also had an Xbox developers direct where they didn't announce anything that we didn't already know was coming out, but they kind of fleshed out some of the things that were on the radar and whatnot. So firstly, we have, before you dive. [00:52:04] Speaker A: Into the games cap, I actually quite liked the way that they ran all of these, and some of them were kind of done differently, but they actually saying a developer's direct. Rather than sit there and show you gameplay footage, quite often it would be just conversations with the developers themselves and guys that were developing monsters and some of the assets and bits and pieces. And I actually found it quite interesting from a technical point just to get a bit more of understanding around these games. Like you say, most of them we've. [00:52:31] Speaker D: Heard from them before, but actually having. [00:52:34] Speaker A: Those discussions with the devs, I thought was pretty cool. [00:52:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I think I do like that format. I mean, they're a bit long, which if you're a dad like me, you find finding eight minutes in your day pretty difficult. [00:52:48] Speaker D: But I do think it's nice to. [00:52:51] Speaker B: Kind of get that perspective about some of the decisions they've made. One thing I cannot fucking stand, though, Grizz, is when they do things like this that are kind of documentary, mini documentary esque kind of scenes of developers doing things and whatnot. But then they always seem to have the slow mo of them walking away from the camera, and it's just like, dude, this is so fucking cringey. What are you doing? Can't handle it. [00:53:20] Speaker A: They are a little bit like that. There'll be the old classic where you see someone working on something. It's like they're walking away from an. [00:53:27] Speaker B: Explosion, like a Michael Bay film. It's like, dude, he's just written fucking twelve lines of c plus plus code. Like, this isn't the right scene for him. It's ridiculous. Anyway, so look, we had avowed, which we kind of knew was coming again now avowed is that kind of Skyrim esque experience made by the obsidian guys? They've done pillars of eternity. I think this game is set in the universe of pillars of eternity, but they've also done things like fallout new Vegas, and, you know, these guys know how to make an up just to. [00:54:00] Speaker A: Give a little bit of sprinkling of sugar on these guys. Not to sugarcoat it too much, but the pills of eternity. The last game was almost like a spiritual successor to the early Beldor's Gate game one and two. So it's kind of like a top down rpg, almost like A-D-D esque ice wind Dale and those kind of games that were around never winter night. [00:54:20] Speaker B: Yeah, that kind of isometric CRPG experience. [00:54:25] Speaker A: I actually played pillars of Eternity and. [00:54:27] Speaker D: I actually really got stuck into the. [00:54:30] Speaker A: Storytelling in there and I actually kind of felt like a DND inspired look. I'm not going to puff it up too much. I won't say it's anything like Ballados Gate three, but it kind of feels. [00:54:39] Speaker D: That way, which, I don't know, maybe. [00:54:41] Speaker A: If this has got some similar writing and stuff in it, cap, it could. [00:54:44] Speaker D: Be pretty cool, but yeah, pretty good. [00:54:46] Speaker A: Big Skyrim vibes, though, cap isn't. It's like someone's got a GoPro strapped to their chest. That's the kind of perspective you see. So you see the hands swinging swords and casting spells and using wands? [00:54:57] Speaker B: Yeah, you've kind of got your left and your right arm within the frame, and then you can kind. You know, the whole thing about Skyrim was you could combine spells by having one set. Say you had like a fireball in the left and a fireball in the right. You do a bigger fireball together kind of thing. So I don't know if that's how the combat works in this. It didn't seem to imply that, but I mean, ultimately, you put things in each hand and you utilize them together. So you might have a shield and a wand or you might have like a flintlock pistol and a sword or something. So you can kind of mix it up. And it's kind of that hack and slash kind of combat that you get from Skyrim. Now, the visual style is a little bit more colorful. I don't know, it looks a lot nicer than Skyrim. Obviously, Skyrim is quite aged, and this kind of is a bit more of a nice looking kind of rpg kind of. But I guess on top of that, it's kind of a bit more pastely and it's a bit more bright and vibrant. Whereas I guess the elder Scrolls games tend to be a little bit more subdued. [00:56:02] Speaker A: What's the saturation? Spells and stuff, isn't it cap like, you see him cast lines on the ground and it's this bright green color. I will say, cap, that some of the enemy AI and some of the. [00:56:12] Speaker D: Combat kind of gives me jank Skyrim vibes too. [00:56:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I actually think the game looks pretty fucking stale. [00:56:24] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know if you got into the comments section of the YouTube video, but there's a couple here that I just want to touch on. Someone said here that if the enemies had a little bit more of a rag doll effect to them, it would help with the impact. [00:56:36] Speaker D: In inverted commas, the weapons and abilities do as right now it feels very oblivion like. And you can kind of. I don't know. [00:56:44] Speaker A: I mean, there's a lot there too. And then someone else kind of says here the first teaser trailer for this game showed a dark, epic glimpse of what could be an amazing game to get lost in. With each trailer, this impression slips further and further away. Looks like another lightweight rpg. [00:56:59] Speaker D: Like the outer worlds. [00:57:02] Speaker B: Actually, that's the first thing that I thought of, because when they released the outer worlds, I was quite excited because, I mean, being a massive fallout three new Vegas fan, I thought, shit, yeah, let's go. They're doing one in space. Let's freaking. I'm going to eat this up. And it was just an rpg light kind of thing. The writing was pretty fucking average. And in all honesty, it was probably more akin to something like Starfield in terms of fleshed outedness and just being fairly forgettable. And then I've seen this game as well, and I'm kind of getting similar vibes. Unfortunately, even just the dialogue just looks kind of detached from who's delivering it. You know what I mean? [00:57:45] Speaker A: They have the choices kind of similar to. Is it like Starfield cap where you can kind of choose your different dialogue options and bits and pieces? [00:57:56] Speaker B: Yeah, obviously there's a lot of games that do that, but I think there's not an awful lot of dialogue options either, which from what we've seen, I mean, there might be more later, but look, I think for me, I saw someone, a guy called Paul Tassie. He writes for Forbes and I was reading an article he wrote and he said that he thought the game looked almost like a VR game that had. [00:58:20] Speaker D: Been ported the console, basically. [00:58:23] Speaker B: And it's a perfect rendition of what it feels like because it has that kind of VR jankiness with the approach to even just things on the screen. Like when you're having a talk to someone, there's not an awful lot on the screen because it's almost like you're trying to minimize the amount of Hud you've got. And then they're kind of doing the same thing, which I think is good for immersion. But then also it just with the way that the dialogue is being delivered and there's not an awful lot of facial animation or expression. It just seems really lifeless. And so you kind of get that VR experience because. [00:58:55] Speaker A: And even where the camera. Even where the camera is held, cap, it kind of looks like you could imagine yourself holding the VR handhelds, swinging the hands. Yeah, big time. Look, I guess the only bit that we can take away from this, which might be good, is the writing in. [00:59:10] Speaker D: Pillars of eternity was really good in. [00:59:12] Speaker A: Terms of the storytelling and stuff in there. [00:59:17] Speaker B: Hopefully they can summon that into this game. I hope they don't pull a misstep and just make the storyline completely forgettable like our other good friends at another studio that likes to make rpgs of this nature. I'll let you fill in the gaps there. [00:59:36] Speaker D: But, yeah, coming in September. [00:59:40] Speaker A: No, September to November 24 this year. End of the year, mate. [00:59:43] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:59:44] Speaker B: And it looks like there's a shitload of Cobalt's in there, so get ready for that. But there you go, Grizz. [00:59:51] Speaker A: Yes. [00:59:52] Speaker D: Harrison Ford. What do you think of him and. [00:59:54] Speaker B: Him as a kid? He was my fucking. [00:59:56] Speaker A: We smashed the Indiana Jones movies as kids. [01:00:00] Speaker B: Big time. Me too. [01:00:02] Speaker A: Love them. [01:00:02] Speaker B: I thought he was the coolest dude of all fucking time. [01:00:06] Speaker A: Raiders of the Lost Ark and the last Crusade. Some of the best. Actually reading this and watching this has made me kind of want to put it on for my kids at family movie night and rewatch those movies because they're so good. He's just so charismatic, isn't he? [01:00:23] Speaker B: Yeah, he is, man. And he's just Mr. Fucking cool. But I think one thing I remember as a kid as well, I mean, I used to love those movies. I'd watch them with Mum and Dad all the time because I can't do it now, but I would rewatch movies over and over again all the time. And that was just one of my. That and Star wars were like my go to and Harrison Ford, obviously, in both at the time. And it was just this guy's. This guy's the legend. He's in fucking space and he's in fucking archaeology. He's the coolest. [01:00:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:00:52] Speaker B: I don't know. And then one of my first video games that I ever played was the Indiana Jones SNES game. Can't remember the full name of it. Might have been a lost idol or something like that. And I can still remember one of the first levels, opening levels, is you being chased as Indiana Jones by the Boulder. [01:01:14] Speaker A: Yeah, the boulder. Take the idol and off you go. [01:01:18] Speaker B: And there was quite a significant running segment in there. And, I mean, I was like, I'd be lucky if I was like four or five max. [01:01:26] Speaker A: Dude, I should replay that, man. Maybe I'll replay that on stream. [01:01:28] Speaker D: It's a banger. It's a real banger. Yeah. [01:01:31] Speaker B: But I remember I always used to have to call Mum to come in and do it. And then I'd hide under the couch because I was too fucking scared of the boulder coming. And then I'd be like, tell me what it's done. Tell me what it's done. And then mum would sort it out. But, yeah, so I've got really fond memories of Indiana Jones and I feel like Grizz once they announced the Indiana Jones games. [01:01:57] Speaker D: I kind of felt more recently when. [01:01:59] Speaker B: They said that they had one coming from Bethesda. I mean, first off. Oh, fuck's sakes, here we go. Bethesda's doing this great. But then I kind of. I don't do I want an Indiana Jones game? I'm so not into that anymore. You know what mean? Like, just feel like the Indiana Jones IPS kind of lost its luster and stuff. But then I saw the fucking trailer for this game, dude. [01:02:19] Speaker D: And I was like, yeah, let's go. [01:02:22] Speaker A: They've rarely leveraged hard off the movies just to let people know. So this is Indiana Jones and the great circle. It's coming 2024, and it's actually set. So it's actually set in the movie universe, obviously. But between the two movies, it is between the Raiders of the Lost Ark and the last Crusade. And you play as Harrison Ford in. [01:02:43] Speaker D: The game and, yeah, it just looks pretty cool, cap. [01:02:47] Speaker A: It's got all the tropes, know, you've got your whip, you've got your satchel. [01:02:52] Speaker D: You'Ve got your pistol, and you just. [01:02:54] Speaker A: Work your way through kind of like aztec ruins and stuff and solving puzles. [01:02:58] Speaker D: And a bunch of stuff. It looks pretty cool. [01:03:02] Speaker B: Yeah, it's definitely giving me, I mean, obviously, for vague kind of paintbrushing of similar things that it sort of almost looks like. It kind of seems like they went. [01:03:13] Speaker D: Okay, what has tomb Raider done really. [01:03:15] Speaker B: Well in the last few games? And what has uncharted done really well in those last few games. Let's just chuck them all into this. And it looks really nice. The graphics are really nicely done, very realistic, and just really kind of just wonderful. The trailer looks. [01:03:36] Speaker A: Now, you say that uncharted is totally like a modern day Indiana Jones kind of, isn't it? [01:03:41] Speaker D: He is 100%, yeah. [01:03:45] Speaker B: Cool thing, though, Grizz. Troy Baker is doing the voice of Indiana Jones in this, you know, emulating. [01:03:53] Speaker D: That of freaking bloody Harrison Ford. [01:03:57] Speaker B: Doing a pretty good job of it, May. But yeah, you know, in the trailer, we get a bunch of gameplay. You are solving puzzles. The combat is kind of that first person. The entire game seems to be first person, which I think is an interesting. [01:04:14] Speaker D: What's the word? [01:04:15] Speaker B: An interesting perspective to take, especially when you've obviously managed to secure the rights to use Harrison Ford's likeness, and then you do everything in first person where you can't see Harrison Ford. I just find that really fucking weird. But obviously they made that decision to kind of give you that rPgness. I'm playing as Harrison Ford, kind of. Yeah, you've got your fucking whip. You got your little magnum revolver, dude. It's a freaking Indiana Jones ass. [01:04:47] Speaker A: What'd you say the hat is, cap? Because I was thinking, I was like, it's not a cowboy hat. What is it? Is an a cobra. Is it an Aussie? [01:04:54] Speaker D: Fucking. [01:04:58] Speaker B: Pretty close to. [01:04:59] Speaker D: It's basically an a cobra. [01:05:01] Speaker B: Yeah, it's basically an a cobra hat because it's definitely not a cowboy kind. Know, the sides are turned up a little bit. It's definitely got the australian accubra hat. [01:05:10] Speaker A: Fedora. [01:05:10] Speaker B: Platos is saying fedora best mate. Don't you. Don't you hit my boy Harrison. [01:05:15] Speaker A: Harrison Ford is not a fedora wearing. That's for sure. [01:05:19] Speaker B: No way, mate. Mate, he does not have the neck beard at all. But yeah, look, you can wish list it. It's coming out in 2024. Looks sick. Really keen on that. I'm actually surprised how keen I actually am. It's fucking ridiculous. I never thought I'd get this excited about another Indiana Jones experience ever again, but I am so very cool. All right, Grizz. [01:05:44] Speaker D: Now we also got another trailer for. [01:05:47] Speaker B: Seniors saga Hellblade two. Now, this game has been in development for what seems like an aon. I feel like we've been talking about this game since this podcast came out, and then this game's also been coming out for even longer than that. Look, the game is plugging along, but, yeah, I mean, look, if you've probably seen the trailers. If you're listening at home, you've probably seen the senior sacrifice senior saga, hellblade two. I mean, the title is just way too big. Sorry. I'm just going to say hellblade two. You've probably seen the earlier trailers that came out at the game awards a few years back, and not much has really changed. They've shown you a little bit extra. It seems like they're really knuckling down. [01:06:31] Speaker D: On that no hud kind of hyper. [01:06:35] Speaker B: Realism, but also that weird nordic kind of mysticism. Very dark, but then also kind of blending in this kind of internal struggle that Senya was going through. Know, I mean, there's a lot of metaphors for mental health and all that kind of shit going, so. But it looks really nice. I'm getting big God of War vibes from just the over the shoulder cam and how the environments kind of look, but obviously not as vibrant. [01:07:08] Speaker A: It's much dark and gritty, isn't it? [01:07:10] Speaker B: Yeah, looks very much dark and gritty. [01:07:12] Speaker A: One thing I'll say about the Hellblade games, I think they were kind of. [01:07:16] Speaker D: Like a. I'd almost say, cap, that. [01:07:18] Speaker A: In terms of a game that I've played, the only thing that probably compares close in audio design for me was returnal. [01:07:26] Speaker D: But I had a really good pair. [01:07:28] Speaker A: Of headphones when I played number one, and the audio design in that game is insane. They have just paid so much attention to detail in terms of where things are coming from. The 3d audio is fantastic, but it's also the sound effects are really. They really get you going. And it was kind of like, I felt like in the same way God. [01:07:48] Speaker D: Of War was where it tells this. [01:07:50] Speaker A: Great storytelling through video game media. Hellblade kind of does that as well. So I've been had this on my radar for a while, and it's good to see it's finally got a release date, so. 21 May. [01:08:03] Speaker B: Did you play the original one, Grizz? [01:08:05] Speaker A: I did end up playing it. [01:08:07] Speaker D: Did you finish it? [01:08:08] Speaker A: No, I didn't finish it, but it was one of those things where I was like, you can tell that this. [01:08:12] Speaker D: Is a beautiful bit of game production. [01:08:14] Speaker A: Right there, especially the audio stuff. There's one particular fight where. And it's like one of those things, cap, we got to press certain buttons, quick time events. You have your headphones on and you're fighting this guy, and you were like, in this little cave, and there's like smoke and stuff, so you can't see much. And he's coming out of different ways very similar to the way God of War does in some of their combat. [01:08:36] Speaker D: But the audio during those bits and. [01:08:39] Speaker A: Pieces in your ears, it really does get you in that moment. And your heart rate's pumping and she's breathing. And like you say, there's this whole thing about mental health that kind of resonates through those games as well. [01:08:51] Speaker D: And you can kind of feel that. [01:08:53] Speaker A: Anxiety in the game as you're playing it. So they did a pretty good job. I think it would be pretty cool. [01:08:59] Speaker D: But also I do worry cap, because. [01:09:01] Speaker A: It has been a long time in development, and you know what it's like. [01:09:03] Speaker D: When you've got something that starts aging. [01:09:06] Speaker A: A little bit when you're not releasing your game in time. [01:09:10] Speaker B: It's hard to keep it up to date. And I guess looking real schmicko alongside other games that have released in a similar kind of, well, in a similar time window to yours that maybe weren't in development as long. But hey, ultimately this trailer does look really schmick. It looks really nice. But time will tell. Grizzly gaming 86. We'll see. We shall see. All right, other games that were announced? Well, I don't know if this one has been announced or whether we already knew about it, but I didn't know. [01:09:42] Speaker D: About this one personally. [01:09:44] Speaker B: It's called Ara history untold, and it basically looks just like a sieve game. Like, it's pretty much almost exactly the same hexagonal tiles. You're doing term based, kind of like civilization style board gaming kind of shit. You're trying to make fucking pyramids and stuff to out science and out religion your opponents. [01:10:07] Speaker A: So this is the same dev as Siv five cap. [01:10:11] Speaker B: Oh, is it really? [01:10:12] Speaker D: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. [01:10:14] Speaker A: I don't know whether the Sieve games are based on actual history, but from. [01:10:17] Speaker D: What I gleaned from that, from this game, was that it is history. [01:10:23] Speaker A: More like of a history lesson as you're playing through. So it seems pretty cool. Yeah, like strategy, explore the world, build. [01:10:31] Speaker D: Your civilization, and tell a story through events. [01:10:35] Speaker A: Kind of though. [01:10:36] Speaker D: Kind of like comparing to the Sieve games though, captain. I don't really know how they work a whole lot, but the combat seemed. [01:10:42] Speaker A: A little bit more like Aoe to me. Like Age of Empire's combat. A little bit where you got units and stuff. [01:10:50] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:10:50] Speaker B: In all honesty, I've actually never played a Sieve game in my life because I don't normally play rts and strategy games at all. I mean, probably my only real claim to fame for any kind of rts style game is having played probably Warcraft three to death, in all honesty, when I was a young tacker because it was one of the only games I had on my computer. But yeah, look, I never really got into these games, so I don't really know what really to think of it. But I mean, it looks really nice. I think the environments look really good and the scale at which you're looking at all these things happen and you're zoomed out from all of the models and stuff look wicked. So it does look really nice. And it looks like they've got a. [01:11:35] Speaker D: Lot of cool systems and stuff kind. [01:11:38] Speaker B: Of marrying together from the similar kind of sieve games and stuff in terms of building out your wonders or whatever they call them and kind of going from there. But yeah, if you're interested in a cheeky strat game, well, it's all these games that we're talking about from the Xbox direct coming to Game pass. So you won't even have to fucking buy this one if you've got Game pass. [01:12:00] Speaker D: Yeah, wild. [01:12:01] Speaker A: Pretty cool. [01:12:02] Speaker B: All right, now, the final one, Grizz from the Xbox developers direct was visions of Manor coming June to September. [01:12:10] Speaker D: We're not too sure when. [01:12:12] Speaker B: I think this is a american summer period game or whatever. But anyway, so continuing the kind of. Of manor series, my personal one was, I remember, on the Super Nintendo Entertainment system. What was it? Secret of Manor. [01:12:37] Speaker A: I'm the same as you. That's the only one I've played. [01:12:39] Speaker D: Cat. Yeah. [01:12:40] Speaker A: What do you remember about curiosity? What's the little bits that you remember? [01:12:45] Speaker B: I remember in the village in the opening moments of the game, you fall into an earthquake and then you fall into the praying mantises hideout. And then also another game that I was fucking terrified as a child. Oh, my God, there's this massive freaking pray mantis boss in here. What's this thing doing in here? [01:13:10] Speaker D: But I didn't have another game quite. [01:13:14] Speaker B: Like it in terms of its approach to rpg and combat and stuff. It was quite different for me to wrap my head around as a kid. [01:13:23] Speaker D: Because, I don't know, I was used. [01:13:25] Speaker B: To the Mario games and used to Mario karts and stuff like that. [01:13:29] Speaker A: Was that real time combat in that game, Kat? [01:13:32] Speaker B: It was a blend. It was a blend of real time with kind of you using skills and stuff. And again, I was a bit young, so I didn't quite understand it very well. But looking back on it, it was such a cool game. And I wish I kind of managed. [01:13:47] Speaker D: To push it a little bit further. [01:13:49] Speaker B: But I think also my ability to kind of get far in video games at that age was also a little bit impaired, but, yeah, so that's my early memories. And you obviously had a similar kind of memory, Grizz. [01:14:02] Speaker A: Yeah, similar memories. You know what's interesting, the things that stand out to me most now is actually the soundtracks of these. So when I think of, like, chrono Trigger and Metroid and stuff like that, it's usually the soundtracks. And Secret of Manor had an amazing. [01:14:16] Speaker D: Soundtrack. [01:14:19] Speaker A: Actually, if you go back and. [01:14:20] Speaker D: Watch the Vod, I was actually playing a secret of manor cover at the. [01:14:26] Speaker A: Start of the stream tonight. Still listen to that stuff to this day. Like retro covers, but, yeah, it was a great game. [01:14:32] Speaker D: I remember you had, like, it kind. [01:14:34] Speaker A: Of weird because you had a party. [01:14:35] Speaker D: Of people that you could swap between. [01:14:36] Speaker A: Who you were controlling, I think, and have different attacks. And you would approach the game almost. [01:14:41] Speaker D: Like not rogue like, I'm looking for. [01:14:45] Speaker A: Metroidvania, where you'd need different things to get through different areas and stuff. Yeah, we were talking about Cap, which is visions of manor seems to be a lot more 3d ish. It actually gives me vibes of some of the Pokemon games in terms of the art style and the way you kind of look, but with combat. [01:15:07] Speaker D: So I don't know. [01:15:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm getting big dragon Quest vibes as well. But ultimately, it definitely looks a lot like an of manor kind of game. Looks really kind of, I don't know, like, I guess just kind of simplistic a little bit. Time will tell what kind of game it plays like, but it looks really nice. You can get a mount and you're kind of running through an open world kind of trials of manner, style, kind of environment, and you're fighting very similar enemies and stuff. But yeah, they've obviously released a big kind of developer chat where they're talking about the design and elements of this new game. But, yeah, I'm definitely getting big dragon quest vibes. That's kind of, if you're sort of wondering at home what this game kind of looks like, it's kind of similar to the more kind of 3d later titles of the Dragon Quest series, in my opinion. But, yeah, there you go. Meghriz. That was the Xbox developers direct. [01:16:10] Speaker A: All in all, Cap, I thought it was pretty good. They did a pretty good job. Few nice little snippets there. Yeah, a couple of good games. [01:16:18] Speaker D: 100%. [01:16:19] Speaker B: I think avowed left a little bit to be desired. Indiana Jones, holy shit. I mean, again, I was just taken away by the fact that that game looks so good, so very keen on that one. And I mean, obviously the other ones we've spoken about looked really good as well. So, yeah, nice little kind of morsel to wrap your teeth around. So it's good. [01:16:38] Speaker D: Now, Grizz, not developer direct related, but. [01:16:43] Speaker B: Related to something that happened during the week that piqued the ears of Elden ring aficionados such as yourself and I. [01:16:51] Speaker A: Again, two weeks in a row now, mate. [01:16:55] Speaker B: Yeah, two weeks in a row. We've been talking about this, which is rare in recent weeks. So what happened? Grizz was on Steam. There was a Elden ring DLC package that was added to the Elden ring files. Now, the way people find this is through, they look at the back end API calls and stuff between steam and where it collects its sort of downloadable packages and stuff, so they can read what's kind of going in and out. They also use data mining and stuff like that. And so what they found was this DLC package called SteamDB Unknown App 277858. It was the first downloadable content thing that has been added to Elden ring since the last one, which was the EU pre purchased DLC bundle two years ago. There you go. That would have been when the game came out. [01:18:04] Speaker D: So look, it's not solid 100%, but a boy can hope, grizz, a boy can hope. It can. [01:18:15] Speaker A: All the stars are aligning, capo. [01:18:18] Speaker B: In response, I have downloaded Elden ring on my steam deck and I might give it a bit of a crack here. [01:18:25] Speaker D: And how does it run? Run all right. [01:18:27] Speaker B: I haven't tried it yet, but apparently it's pretty good. Apparently you just do your usual kind of drop the graphics down a little bit and set the resolution and it's not too bad at all. [01:18:40] Speaker A: Does it sync to your state? [01:18:43] Speaker B: Yeah, it should do cloud save, so you should be able to play it between both. I'll just slowly work my way through the opening areas and stuff on a mage, and then once the new stuff comes out, kind of slowly make my way to it. [01:18:58] Speaker A: Well, cap, this podcast is going to be a Elden ring centric podcast again very soon, mate, I am sure. [01:19:06] Speaker B: Yet again. Excellent. Bring it back. But yeah, so there you go, Grizz. And that was our quest log. [01:19:14] Speaker D: Well done, mate. [01:19:15] Speaker B: UXP points to me, mate. Well done. Divvy those as you will. I've got a question for you, mate. I want to know, how's the gaming been down? [01:19:25] Speaker A: I'm going to disappoint you, Cap, because my gaming has not been going. Once again, real life has been kicking my ass. But I have been doing little bits of gaming, mainly on the Steam deck cap, so I've been enjoying a bit of that. I have been continuing my auto mode playthrough of battles gate three. In fact, we theory crafted some classes and bits and pieces in stream, which was really fun, so I've written those down. We're yet to decide which ones I'm going to pick up yet, but it was definitely going to be min maxing for that to try to get the golden dice in the beldor's gate three from beating on a mode without ripping. So it should be keep your eyes on that. [01:20:01] Speaker D: That's going to happen. [01:20:03] Speaker A: But look, kev, I actually wanted to spend my how's your game and going getting your take on backpack battles because I have been playing a bit of that as well. I know that you mentioned that you had played it and you downloaded it. What did you think? What did you think of backpack battles? [01:20:18] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:20:18] Speaker B: Now, backpack Battles is the one with. [01:20:20] Speaker D: The little mouse, isn't it? [01:20:22] Speaker A: The little mouse? [01:20:24] Speaker D: No, I'm playing a different one to you. [01:20:27] Speaker B: I just realized what's the one I'm talking about. Yeah, you're playing hero or something. [01:20:32] Speaker A: Is backpack hero good? Is backpack hero good? Similar idea. [01:20:36] Speaker D: I haven't played that yet, actually. Yeah. [01:20:38] Speaker B: I actually think backpack hero is the. Yeah, it is. Backpack hero is the one that we were talking to with Adrian, and that's the one that he's played. Now, Backpack heroes is freaking awesome. Really well put together, but yeah, like Erijay is saying in chat, similar concept, but different. [01:21:04] Speaker A: Good. Backpack battles, dude, is a PvP Pve game. Now, I implore you, cap, at some point this week, go. Give it a go. It's free right now. [01:21:13] Speaker D: It's classified as a demo, so if. [01:21:16] Speaker A: You can find time. Not on your steam deck, though. I'm sorry, I don't think they offer. [01:21:21] Speaker D: It on Steam deck yet, but I. [01:21:23] Speaker A: Would love to hear your opinion on it because I think when it's in full release, it's going to be huge. [01:21:27] Speaker D: It's going to be really good. [01:21:29] Speaker B: Really? Okay. I'm kind of looking at it, and it kind of reminds me of, like. [01:21:33] Speaker D: An old flash game. [01:21:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's one of those. [01:21:38] Speaker D: Games that until you play it, it's hard to know what to expect. [01:21:45] Speaker B: So is the idea you set up your backpack and just leave your character to go and fight something? [01:21:50] Speaker A: Yeah, it's an idle thing, but it really matters where you place stuff because the different bags do different things depending on what items are in them. And then with the items, you can craft items by having them next to each other, but there's only certain recipes. So, for example, if you get a short brown sword and you put two of these sharp stones next to them, then it will turn it into a better version of that sword. [01:22:15] Speaker D: And then if you do that again. [01:22:16] Speaker A: With another couple of sharpstones and another version, and then you can kind of, like, build these things. The way it works is you start every round in a shop, and the shop will generate random items, and you got money, and you've got to buy stuff and drag it into your backpack, but you also have to fit it in the backpack. And that depends on what bags you've purchased to fit the stuff. [01:22:36] Speaker B: Yeah. What size, what orientation, what else you got in there. [01:22:39] Speaker A: Yeah, you got to shift stuff around to make that work. And then the idea is that you are battling against other people's backpacks. [01:22:46] Speaker D: They have prepared as well. [01:22:48] Speaker A: So it's kind of like a PvP. Pve kind of thing. [01:22:53] Speaker D: Yes. Sick. It's just cool. [01:22:55] Speaker A: It's a cool concept anyway. [01:22:56] Speaker B: Yeah. So backpack hero has got a similar kind of vibe, but it's not idle. So what you do is you're kind of moving along in, like, it's almost like a similar kind of structure to what's it called, slayer the spy. You kind of got a map that you're moving through, you know, what's on the map, and you're kind of coming. [01:23:19] Speaker D: Across battles and stuff, and then you're. [01:23:22] Speaker B: Putting stuff into your backpack as you win battles and they drop items or you open up treasure chests, et cetera. You buy stuff at the shop, and then those items, you do place them in your backpack. You can expand your backpack once you. [01:23:37] Speaker D: Reach certain levels, and that is kind. [01:23:42] Speaker B: Of done in a run. So you'll kind of start with a fresh backpack. You will level up during your run because it's like a rogue, like kind of structure. And then you're expanding the slots in. [01:23:53] Speaker D: Your bag over that run and then. [01:23:57] Speaker B: Building your backpack and synergizing different items that you're finding now. The way that it works is the items you have in your bag. [01:24:04] Speaker D: You click in battle to do things. [01:24:09] Speaker B: And you have, like, energy, so you can spend that energy on the items you have in your bag. [01:24:15] Speaker A: So it's not idle. You actually have to use the stuff depending on what you want to do. Okay. [01:24:19] Speaker B: I think you'd really like it because it kind of sings to your love for rogue lights, and it's a real cracker. It's a really good one, so I definitely think you get a real good kick out of it. So it's worth a check as well. So I'll trade you, mate. [01:24:32] Speaker A: Trade your backpack hero for backpack battles challenge. You play backpack battles, I'll play backpack hero before next week and we'll have. [01:24:39] Speaker D: A chat about them. [01:24:40] Speaker B: All right, sounds good. [01:24:41] Speaker A: Let's do that now, kat, how's your. [01:24:45] Speaker D: Game been going, mate? [01:24:46] Speaker A: What have you been playing? [01:24:46] Speaker D: Really good, mate. [01:24:49] Speaker B: Obviously playing power world. I've only had about an hour and a half of that game, but enjoying it so far. [01:24:55] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:24:56] Speaker B: Stay tuned for Cap's next big kind of pow wow about that one. Also been continuing to play yakuza like a dragon. That game is really, really enjoying it. Just bizarre storyline, but sort of still rooted in some degree of reality, but just funny shit going on all the time. And just in that kind of classic kind of japanese, just bizarre, hilarious kind of comedy. [01:25:30] Speaker A: It's great. [01:25:31] Speaker B: So I'm really enjoying that kind of JRPG approach to the series. Really, really good fun. And another game that I played a little while ago but I forgot to bring up grizz, is a game called against the Storm, which is actually, you know how I said I don't really play RTS games? [01:25:48] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:25:49] Speaker B: Guess what that is an RTS game. Well, I mean, it's more of a strategy management kind of game. I guess it's probably a better way. [01:25:57] Speaker D: Of doing very much. [01:26:00] Speaker A: Looks like StarCraft and Warcraft three from the top down perspective that I'm looking at. [01:26:04] Speaker B: Got those old Warcraft kind of three Starcraft kind of visual aesthetics, but yeah, really cool game. The whole idea is it's like a rogue light. You're working for the queen and she wants you to go and make these settlements and you've got to try and juggle. Building a settlement and keeping the queen happy with getting the settlement up and running quick enough. But then also juggling the happiness meter of your subjects that you're drawing into your area and setting them to work and tasks. So there's little synergies. Like humans work best on fields and the beaver people work best in the lumber yards. So you're trying to kind of meet those demands and build them houses and stuff like that. But then those little areas that you're going to go and colonize, you're kind of chopping logs in these thicket kind of areas and opening up these little misty zones that have little events and stuff that go on there and you're uncovering those and it might be a curse that you've now gone to suddenly deal with, or it might be an enemy that's going to lay waste to your area, but it's a really good fun. There's kind of the rogue light. [01:27:23] Speaker A: I. [01:27:23] Speaker B: Guess, persistent upgrades and stuff that happen between new. Building new settlements, but it's also, again, got that kind of new run kind of feel. So you finish a settlement, or you fail building a settlement, then you go and start a new one and start. [01:27:38] Speaker A: That sounds cool, man. [01:27:39] Speaker D: I like it. Yeah, it's really good. [01:27:42] Speaker B: So worth a crack if you're looking for something in that kind of ilk. [01:27:45] Speaker D: But, yeah, really freaking rad game. There you go. All right, Grizz. [01:27:51] Speaker B: You know what time it is, baby? Rapid time for the rapid fire news in the freaking game. Grizzly gaming 86, as is your name now, starting at the top here, Grizzo t pain. Our good friend t pain, he's in GTA six, confirmed. [01:28:13] Speaker A: Is he doing voice acting in it, too, cap, or what, mate? Is that what's happening? [01:28:16] Speaker B: Well, I think that's the idea. So I think the reason. Well, okay, so let me preface this with T Pain has been doing GTA five roleplay. T Pain does a lot of streaming these days and has been operating on the no pixel GTA roleplay. [01:28:39] Speaker D: Service. [01:28:40] Speaker B: Now, recently, people noticed that T Pain's character was removed from no pixel, and he'd stopped playing the roleplay. And he was queried about this, and he basically said, yeah, basically, Rockstar told me not to role play anymore because I'm in the game now. And he was like, what the fuck? This is shit. Why not? And then they apparently had this speech that they basically said, what if someone took your album and re recorded it? And more people were listening to that. [01:29:10] Speaker D: Which is a really interesting take, because. [01:29:15] Speaker B: I just don't ever see that happening, ever. GTA six is going to sell out of control regardless of whether it's good or not. So, weird take. But basically what they're trying to get at is like, we don't want you to. I think, like, what's the word? I don't know. They just don't want him doing shit whilst they want to preserve the t painness for themselves and not have it elsewhere. [01:29:48] Speaker D: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. [01:29:50] Speaker B: They don't water down the t pain in their game. Right. [01:29:54] Speaker A: Thoughts on having T pain in GTA six, Cap? Is this a draw card for you, mate, or what? [01:30:01] Speaker B: Oh, man. Do you know what? I've kind of spoken about this. We had Jim on the show. When we're talking about GTA six and you weren't here, but I just don't give a shit about GTA games at all. [01:30:13] Speaker A: I'm the same as you, dude. [01:30:14] Speaker D: Give me the top down back in. [01:30:16] Speaker A: The fucking day, mate, and I'll play those. [01:30:18] Speaker B: Yeah, the original. Yeah. I don't know, mate. It's just not my. Know. I definitely can't say this is a draw card for fact, you know, I've got nothing against t pain. In fact, the other day he put out a fucking amazing. What was it? He did a war pigs cover by Black Sabbath. [01:30:41] Speaker D: Okay. [01:30:41] Speaker B: And it was out of control. [01:30:43] Speaker D: Good. [01:30:44] Speaker B: Like, he's got a phenomenal voice. [01:30:46] Speaker D: I think it was warpigs. [01:30:48] Speaker B: Anyway, it's one of those. [01:30:49] Speaker D: So I got nothing against the guy. He's a fucking legend. [01:30:52] Speaker B: I just don't give a shit about GTA six. [01:30:57] Speaker D: Anyway. Well, there you go, Cap. [01:30:59] Speaker A: Neither do I. [01:31:00] Speaker D: Trademark tussle, Cap. [01:31:02] Speaker A: In a striking clash of gaming titans, remedy Entertainment finds itself locked in a legal showdown with take two interactive over a contentious logo design. Central to the dispute is take two's claim that remedy's logo bears an uncanny resemblance to Rockstar game's iconic r. Now, I don't know whether this has been updated since you posted this in earcap, but apparently there has been an update on this story. There was a response to Eurogamer saying that a remedy rep confirmed that the trademark dispute is resolved and there is nothing to see here. Both companies are working together amicably. No one has not affected their relationship moving forward. Both remedy and take two initially declined to comment when Polygon reached out. So it sounds like they've sorted that out. But they are pretty similar. [01:31:49] Speaker D: Cap. [01:31:50] Speaker A: The Remedy R and the Rockstar R. [01:31:52] Speaker D: Are almost identical, apart from the star. [01:31:55] Speaker B: Yeah, they're very close. So I can understand why. I mean, who filed it? Was it Rockstar filed it? [01:32:01] Speaker D: I can't remember. [01:32:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:32:04] Speaker B: So, yeah, I'm not surprised. Also, Rockstar being a fairly big company, so you got to be careful now, Grizz, do you ever play the original Frost punk? [01:32:14] Speaker D: Was that. [01:32:15] Speaker A: No, but I've watched a couple of streamers play it. But I have heard we got some news on the second one, cap Dewey. Tell me about it. [01:32:23] Speaker B: We do indeed. We do indeed, my friend. So you can now add it to your wish list. We got a recent official gameplay trailer. Looks very frost punky. Yeah, just looks like a really nice looking kind of game. That whole kind of arctic kind of resistance strategy game. You'd be sort of trying to fight to survive in an arctic tundra. But then you're kind of routing all this power and heat, but then you're also dealing with internal politics and conflicts, voting for policy and stuff in this one. [01:33:04] Speaker D: Have you played it, Cat? [01:33:06] Speaker A: Because I think on paper and the visual aesthetics of it look fucking really cool. And I like the whole idea where you got to build like heaters and stuff to keep the cold out and you can see it like encroaching on your town and the stress that brings to everyone and everything else. I actually think the idea of it's. [01:33:21] Speaker D: Awesome, but I don't know, when I. [01:33:23] Speaker A: Watched some of the gameplay, it seemed like there was just too much involved in. [01:33:27] Speaker D: It seemed like more stressful trying to. [01:33:30] Speaker A: Manage everything that was happening at one time. [01:33:32] Speaker D: And. I don't know. We'll see. [01:33:35] Speaker A: I hope number two draws me a. [01:33:37] Speaker D: Little bit more, but yeah, cool. I think it's pretty well received. [01:33:41] Speaker A: The first frost punk, big time. [01:33:44] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I think a lot of people really enjoyed the first frost punk. The next one looks pretty good as well. So probably a lot of people pretty keen. And it's also going to be available day one on game pass in the first half of the 2024. So there you go. [01:34:00] Speaker D: This bit of news is one for. [01:34:03] Speaker A: Straightjacket Jim in chat because I know Jim loves this game, but an update on rock Band. After eight years of weekly rock band for DLC releases, we're here to let you know that January 25 will be the last DLC release for rock Band. All of the live service will continue as normal, including rival seasons online play and everything else. [01:34:25] Speaker D: But that is it. That is it for rock Band for now. [01:34:28] Speaker A: Cap and the dlcs. [01:34:30] Speaker B: End of an era, mate. I think someone made a comment that apparently they've been doing weekly updates for 17 years between rock band and rock. [01:34:40] Speaker D: Band one and four, which is wild. [01:34:43] Speaker B: I mean, some of it is rerelease of old content and stuff, but you cannot knock them for that run. That is a phenomenal effort. 17 years of weekly update songs. There's not many companies that do that amount of dedication to their players. [01:35:01] Speaker D: It's crazy. [01:35:02] Speaker A: I was actually talking to Jim about rock band and he was telling me that he broke the symbols on his. [01:35:07] Speaker D: Rock band drum kit. [01:35:09] Speaker B: Oh, really? [01:35:09] Speaker A: Had to hardwire in actual proper acoustic drum symbols and you can actually make them to work. He like stripped some of the wires out and re put them in there. [01:35:20] Speaker B: That's sick. [01:35:21] Speaker D: Yeah. Well done, Jim. Good game. [01:35:23] Speaker B: I'd love continuous. They had a couple of years break between three and four, but a couple of years in 17. That's pretty good. Even so, well fucking done. All right, Grizz. Smite enjoyer. Yeah, one of those people, actually. [01:35:43] Speaker A: I still don't know why I stopped. [01:35:45] Speaker D: Playing smite, because I quite enjoyed it. [01:35:47] Speaker A: For a MOBA, I think the servers. [01:35:49] Speaker B: Were garbage for Australians from memory, because I remember really liking Smite as well, because that whole kind of over the shoulder MOBA thing was just sick. I loved it. [01:36:00] Speaker A: It was cool. [01:36:02] Speaker B: But the servers were just not australian friendly. Anyways, maybe about to change. With Smite two coming soon, they've released a trailer. It looks pretty. [01:36:14] Speaker D: I don't know. [01:36:15] Speaker B: What's it look like, Grizz? Just looks like it's got the same. [01:36:18] Speaker A: Heroes, got Loki, plus a bunch of other ones in there. It's kind of based. Is it greek mythology, cap, as well? Is that what it's based on? [01:36:24] Speaker B: I think they blend all mythologies. So there's nordic, Anubis gods, and egyptian gods. There is a blend of all. [01:36:37] Speaker A: It looks super nice. [01:36:39] Speaker D: Wow. Holy shit. [01:36:41] Speaker B: Yeah, it does look really good. Like, the visuals are quite gorgeous and the spell effects and stuff that you're doing and skill shots and stuff, but, yeah, definitely an upgrade on the original smite kind of engine, so it looks quite good. [01:36:56] Speaker D: Hopefully we get some good freaking servers, mate. [01:37:01] Speaker A: This comes out. We've got to give this a go because Smite's free to play as well. [01:37:06] Speaker B: So it could be we can both play on our steam decks in bed. [01:37:09] Speaker D: Fuck, yeah. [01:37:10] Speaker A: We'll be so shit. But, yeah, let's do it. [01:37:15] Speaker D: There you go. Very cool, man. [01:37:17] Speaker A: I didn't have the next one up. I was too excited about Smite. [01:37:20] Speaker D: Okay. [01:37:21] Speaker A: Bethesda releases a huge Starfield update into Steam beta that contains over 100 fixes and improvements. But the game, according to Captain Perth, is still fucking boring. They didn't fix that, apparently. Cap in the patch. [01:37:36] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I think that's a direct comment from their patch notes, mate. [01:37:40] Speaker D: Is it? Right. [01:37:40] Speaker A: Sorry, that was not a captain Perth quote. [01:37:45] Speaker B: Sorry, guys. We couldn't make the game any good, but we've fixed a lot of bugs, so enjoy that. But, yeah, there you go. Look forward to that. [01:37:52] Speaker A: Now, Grizz. [01:37:54] Speaker D: I feel like 100 fixes is not that many, dude. [01:37:58] Speaker B: Well, do you know what? I do think it's a fair bit, but what I will say is that we have been very spoiled by boulders gate three's approach to patches. [01:38:09] Speaker D: Where they go, we've made a billion. [01:38:13] Speaker B: Fixes, and we've also added all this extra fucking content. So I feel like I definitely thought the exact same thing, but then I was like, you know what? It's probably a fairly realistic amount of bugs to fix. Also, I don't know how big those bugs were, so who knows before they. [01:38:32] Speaker A: Release it, caps and they can write those patch notes? [01:38:35] Speaker B: Well, normally they get the modders to fix the bugs for them, so it's a very unique approach for them. No mod support as far as. Well, maybe there is. I don't know for that for sure, but anyways. [01:38:47] Speaker D: All right, enough about Starfield. [01:38:50] Speaker B: No, you're right. Like a dragon, infinite wealth has been steam deck verified. That's the new like a dragon Yakuza game. The one you're playing. It's the next one after the one I'm playing. [01:39:02] Speaker A: Oh, right. [01:39:03] Speaker D: Okay. [01:39:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:39:04] Speaker B: So it'll be coming out soon, if not out. Yeah. I can't remember the exact date, but that's coming out soon. [01:39:09] Speaker D: So get ready to play it on. [01:39:12] Speaker B: Your deck and I'll tell you what. Like a dragon. What's it called? Yakuza. Like a dragon or whatever the first one is called. It runs schmick on a steam deck even. It just looks really good. [01:39:25] Speaker D: So very stoked about that. [01:39:27] Speaker A: So, Cap, this is pretty crazy. So a year after being branded a flop, Mario Rabbit sequel is steadily selling. When they say steadily selling, Cap. It has sold nearly 3 million copies. [01:39:39] Speaker D: That seems like a lot. Yeah. So I think in comparison, the first. [01:39:45] Speaker B: Mario Rabbits game sold a fair bit more. [01:39:48] Speaker D: So I think it sold about 10 million ish copies. [01:39:51] Speaker A: Right. [01:39:52] Speaker B: So it's kind of undersold ultimately, but. [01:39:57] Speaker D: Yeah, 10 million players. [01:40:03] Speaker B: I think it just underperformed. Obviously they were kind of expecting similar numbers and didn't quite get there. I think some issues just people probably aren't playing the switch as much because the console is just fucking old. And I guess ultimately, yeah, I think the timing was just maybe a little bit off. The CEO mentioned that they thought probably what would have been smarter would have been to stagger the release to coincide with whenever the Switch two released, which they were probably right. That would have been a good time to release your game, especially if it's coming out soonish, because I think they released this last year. So if they held out another know, they maybe might have been able know, kind of make a better go of that. But anyways, who knows? [01:40:53] Speaker D: All right, Chris. [01:40:55] Speaker B: Golden sun and Golden sun, the lost age for Game Boy events are now available on the Nintendo Switch online expansion pack. [01:41:05] Speaker D: Exciting. [01:41:06] Speaker A: Some good games on there now, Cap. Yeah. [01:41:09] Speaker D: Cap. Yoshi P. We love Yoshi P. According. [01:41:13] Speaker A: To Yoshi P, Final Fantasy 16 was initially developed for PS four. He wanted no loading with high quality graphics. In the Final Fantasy series, as it's known for trying to make no loading on the PS four, they found the graphics dropped below Final Fantasy 15 levels, so he decided to make it a. [01:41:32] Speaker D: PS five, only in the middle of development. Pretty crazy good on him. Yeah, so pretty wild, I think. [01:41:42] Speaker B: Very good decision because that game is like, the graphic fidelity is nuts, and to lose that would be a real rough one, I think, for that game, which already was kind of rough around the gameplay edges really good everywhere else, but yeah, otherwise great job, Yoshi P. Your bloody legend. [01:42:08] Speaker A: Good job. [01:42:09] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:42:10] Speaker B: Anyways, grizz, I think that'll do it for us, mate. I think we've done a pretty good job tonight. I think we can take the rest. [01:42:16] Speaker D: Of the night off. Beautiful. Nailed it. [01:42:19] Speaker B: Well done, mate. Look big thanks to all of our wonderful listeners and viewers watching live. You can do so too, if you'd like to by going to Twitch TV, oceanicgamingradio, or if you want to listen to this podcast in your own time, just go to your favorite podcast platform, type in oceanic gaming radio and you'll find us. Other than that, all of our other wonderful links are on our website OGR show. You'll find a link to our twitter where you can go and vote in polls. There'll probably be one next week. We haven't had one for last couple of weeks, but don't worry about it. And a discord. If you want to come and join the conversation, want to talk to us personally, you can do so there. [01:42:55] Speaker D: Pretty cool. [01:42:57] Speaker B: Other than that, you can also become a patron by going to the same link and looking for the Patreon Link, or going to show and join all the other wonderful people that are solely. [01:43:08] Speaker D: Funding our obsession with becoming TikTok famous. Pretty cool. It's going to happen. There you go. Yep. It's not far off. [01:43:19] Speaker B: All right, Grizz, I've also got a thing here. It says OGR starting on my soundboard, so I'm just going to click it and see what it does. Oh, that is definitely the one. [01:43:26] Speaker D: I've got it, apparently. [01:43:28] Speaker B: I don't know how well that sounds in post, so we'll see how it goes. But anyways, thanks for being here. Appreciate you guys mentally, and we'll see you guys next time on the oceanic gaming radio podcast. Peace out, wild.