Remember when "the dress" broke the internet? Well, Taylor gets GOT by it, lol. Join us as we get to the bottom of it and then talk about some of our all-time favorite video games.
Remember when "the dress" broke the internet? Well, Taylor gets GOT by it, lol. Join us as we get to the bottom of it and then talk about some of our all-time favorite video games.
In this episode, we each present (2) games off our all-time favorites lists. Exploring Resident Evil, we talk about door animations and how RE opened the door for countless horror survival games. Then, stop in Hyrule to remember you could cut grass, and Taylor invents a new item called the "Wind Stick" for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. A love for sci-fi adds Prey (2017) to the list, and Willie and Taylor chat about finding their friend's pizza box design in the game. The list wouldn't be complete without one of the best 1st person-shooter franchises ever—Halo. Willie picks Halo 3 and talks about the impact of the marketing campaigns for the game. Gears of War reminds us of just how badass the Lancer is, and Joseph talks about playing the game with friends during a deployment to Iraq. We wrap by discussing the art direction of Surviving Mars and how the gameplay is impressive for a city builder made for consoles.
Our All-Time Favorites picks in the episode are Resident Evil, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Prey (2017), Halo 3, Gears of War, and Surviving Mars.
Other games briefly mentioned in this episode: Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, Tomb Raider, Secret of Mana, Fallout, Starfield, Dishonored, Red Dead Redemption 2, Dead Space, No Man Sky, Halo Infinite, Guitar Hero, Gears of War: Judgement, Gears Tactics, Gears 5, Halo 2, and Civilization.
Here's the full transcript for this episode.
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The music you hear on the podcast is by ELFL, Lexica, and Christian Nanzell.
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00:00:00
[Alienated by ELFL plays in background]
Willie: And it just builds on itself in this like, really amazing way.
Taylor: Oh yeah. By the time you're like, running around jumping, throwing grenades, everybody's alerted, they're shooting at you. It's just like, [singing] "daaa-da-da-daaa-buh-da-da-da" then a fucking electric guitar kicks in–
Joseph: Yeah
Taylor: –cause a dude with a sword is invisible and coming after you and–
Joseph: Word.
Taylor: –Yeah dude. Yeah, that was–
Willie: Yeah
Taylor: Man, their music is, like I said earlier, I didn't mean to interrupt, but that shit's easy to take for granted-all the audio. I know as, uh, somebody who's into audio and engineering and, you know, all those types of things.
I think whenever I take a few moments to step back from it and try to wrap my head around all that audio, it's freaking wild. Just ungodly amounts of tweaking and Foley work, and I can't even imagine how much went into that.
[Intro theme plays - Tiger Tracks by Lexica]
00:01:09
Joseph: What's up everybody? Welcome to Berries and Blades, a place where we analyze and break down some of our favorite video games. My name is Joseph Bullard. I'm here with my friends Willie Garza and Taylor Garratt. We're just three regular guys sitting in our bedrooms, with our minds blown because a photo of a dress from 2015 generated more than 10 million tweets in one week.
But I digress. So what's up with you guys?
Taylor: Oh man. I'm thinking about that dress. I do remember that debacle. I was actually wondering–
Joseph: Was it black and blue or white and gold?
Taylor: I saw yellow and green, to be perfectly honest, and that could have been because I was looking through a stained glass window at it, [Joseph laughs] but, I was just curious about what kind of socks everybody's wearing out there right now.
Not you guys, but just the, the people listening, so–
Joseph: Did you say, what kind of socks?
Taylor: Yeah. Yeah. What kind of socks you're wearing. I can't go into deeper context, [Joseph laughs] but just leave it at that, you know?
Joseph: Taylor has uh, knee-high socks on.
Taylor: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll accept photos, but not close up. Don't send us close up photos of feet, please. Thank you.
Willie: I think Joey put this in here cause I saw that picture again recently. Someone was trying to start some shit on their Twitter timeline, I think.
Taylor: Always.
Willie: I did, I, I did see white and gold.
Joseph: Mm.
Willie: And I could see how you could see the other colors. Like, I get it, but I'm not one of those people who could like, flip back and forth between the two.
Some people are just like, oh, I'm gonna think of that combination, and then I'm- that's what I'm gonna see.
Joseph: Mmhmm. I couldn't do that either.
Willie: But that's not- but I can't do that.
Taylor: What do you search to see the dress? I-
Joseph: The, "the dress"
Taylor: I don't think I ever even–
Willie: Oh, I bet you just pick "the dress" and I bet that would find it.
Taylor: Ok.
Joseph: I saw white and gold.
Taylor: Oh, there it is.
Joseph: I couldn't make myself see blue and black either. They did confirm it though.
Taylor: Why am I seeing both?
Joseph: Oh ok.
Taylor: I see the dress both ways. Oh, well, no, no. I mean, I mean like literally I'm seeing photos on image search that is both.
Joseph: Yeah, yeah, okay.
Taylor: Okay but I see the original...
Willie: But click on the Wikipedia article and then like, the first thing that you see is–
Taylor: Oh wait, there's a wik-, oh, there is a Wikipedia-
Willie: –is the original photograph.
Taylor: Okay–
Willie: Yeah, it's just called "the dress." [laughs]
Taylor: It's a lighting thing. Okay. So people that don't know anything about [Willie: Yeah] photography would see that, and be like, oh, that's blue. And it's because of the blue created by the lack of light or warmth. Okay, gotcha.
Joseph: So you didn't see this?
Taylor: Wow. I'm glad I didn't waste my fucking time with that.
Well, I saw it, but dude, sometimes I see things like this, and I purposefully ignore it.
Joseph: Mm, sure.
Taylor: Uh, also that was around the time. No, not, that wasn't the time. But yeah, I was having a bad time on Twitter at that point, so I was not caring.
00:03:32
Willie: So what color do you think it is then?
Taylor: Me?
Willie: Yeah. If you don't really, you don't really remember this phenomenon–
Taylor: Oh, oh. So, okay. So what I just explained, that's what it looks like to me. I could be totally wrong, but I think it's like a white silk and a gold.
Joseph: Gold stripes?
Taylor: Yeah. Yeah. The gold stripes.
Willie: It's not. That's not what it is–
Taylor: Shut the fuck up. Oh God.
Willie: That's what we see.. It's actually confirmed to be black and blue.
Taylor: Oh my God.
Willie: That's what the actual colors
Taylor: What?
Willie: The lighting, is the problem, like you said–
Taylor: Oh God.
Willie: –but it's not what you said.
Taylor: Oh God.
Willie: It's the opposite.
Taylor: Why?
Willie: [Laughing] Cause it's actually black and blue.
Taylor: Oh God.
Joseph: This is why it was such a big deal–
Taylor: Okay.
Willie: [Laughing] Yeah.
Taylor: Yeah
Joseph: Why it blew up. [Willie laughs]
Taylor: [Reading] Blue and black under a yellow tinted illumination. Left figure. Or white and gold under a blue tinted illumination.
Okay. So they're still blaming the lighting for it. Okay. All right. All right. That's enough of that.
Willie: All right. Glad we got down to the bottom of that–
Joseph: Yeah yeah.
Willie: –from seven years ago.
Taylor: Ohh my God. Now I see it. Okay. All right. Oh man. Get away from me, dress. [Joseph laughs] Okay. Onward and upward.
00:04:30
Joseph: Onward. Okay, so in our last episode, we wrapped up a three-part series that explored how each of us got into gaming. So if that sounds interesting, you can go back and listen to our first three episodes to get to know us a little better. In today's episode, we're gonna be discussing some of our all-time favorite video games, which the three of us are excited to get into. Willie–
Taylor: Yeahh
Joseph: I've been having some fun trying to guess what's gonna be on your list. So why don't you kick things off?
Willie: I have to go with the thing that I said in, in my episode last time. I've gotta go with Resident Evil as my first on my favorites list.
Joseph: Is it Resident Evil one or like, the entire series?
Willie: I guess that's what I gotta ask. Can we take entire series? Because I have some other issues that are gonna come up too.
Joseph: I wasn't planning to take an entire series. I was specific about the title, but–
Willie: Mmhmm.
Joseph: I'd be interested in hearing any arguments.
Willie: I think that I'll go with just the first one. I could definitely take that series because I, I like that series a lot. I don't think it'd be fair to take that series when I haven't actually finished seven or played eight at all.
Joseph: Oh, that's a great point.
Willie: I mean, I need to play those. They've been out for a while now, and I like them.
I just haven't done it. In general, I have to pick that one because it did get me back into gaming a lot. That was my first PlayStation game actually. And so it was like, into a new generation of stuff and while I know that there were like full motion, like cinematics and stuff- or like, used actual people and actual actors in intro sequences and stuff, that was one of the first ones that was like–
I don't know why that one caught my attention so much. It's just like, a really good, I say really good, but like, a B horror film intro. Complete with sort of bad stilted voice acting and like, very grainy shots in a black and white field of grass, and you don't really know what's going on. And they keep cutting to pictures of like growling dogs–
It's obviously gonna be scary, but you don't know why. You don't know what's happening. That, just like, opening cinematic that's got a really B movie quality to it, sort of like, sets the tone.
Joseph: I have to say, I'm looking at the, the box art, and I cannot get behind the typography that's on the front cover of this thing. It looks pretty whack.
Willie: Yeah, I remember that cover pretty well. So that's the other thing. I picked this because I've played it a lot. I have probably bought the game on three consoles or something, four consoles. I don't- if that's possible. I've played it on PlayStation, I'm pretty sure on PlayStation 2, on Xbox 360, I think. And Xbox One. I've played it on multiple systems. Anything it was on, I probably played it on.
Taylor: This intro is ridiculous, dude. I've been watching it while you've been talking about this [laughing] and wow, [Willie laughs] dude. Just the- where they're introducing the characters. Oh my God.
Willie: Yeah, the like the cast portion–
Taylor: Yeah. Jill Valentine.
Willie: –of the video? Yeah, yeah..
Taylor: The last one, uh, what's her, what's her? Rebecca Chambers. And she like, does her po- her pigtails and smiles. She's like, "hehe, I'm here to die." [laughs]
Oh dude, [Joseph laughs] that's nostalgia 9,000. Thank you, sir.
Willie: She lives, I think. She's like, she's a side character in Chris's story.
Taylor: Okay.
Willie: They made another game where you got to play as her for a larger portion.
Taylor: Okay.
Willie: I think that was Resident Evil Zero that came out.
Taylor: Ah. Okay.
Willie: I don't remember when that came out, if that came out after Resident Evil 2 or between one and two. But they went back and made that game where you could play as her because her team was there first. Before –
Taylor: Okay.
Willie: –before your team of members gets to the house–
Taylor: Oh wow.
Willie: –to the mansion.
00:07:59
Taylor: The doors like, uh, you go to a door and it shows you the doors and, oh, man.
Willie: So that's one of the things I, I definitely wanted to talk about because I think it's obviously a loading screen, right? That's just hidden behind this mechanic of a door opening.
Taylor: Yep.
Willie: The way those doors open is like such a good way to build tension in a scary game.
Taylor: Mmhmm.
Willie: I don't know. There was something about going to a door and clicking on it and watching that cinematic and just being like, please don't let some scary shit be in here. [Taylor laughs]
Like, please–
Taylor: Yeah.
Willie: Whatever it is, might kill me.
Taylor: That's back before the whole wave of zombos too. Between then and now, we are oversaturated by like 30,000% at this point of zombies everywhere. But that was still where a zombie was behind that door. And you were like, "Oh, shit. A zombie!" And scared. Like, now you're like, "Okay, well what else does a scorpion tail come out of his ass? And then he stings me in the head?"
Joseph: The doors, man, I have to say they, they nailed the sound to make it just creepy.
Taylor: Mmhmm
Joseph: And eerie. During that door opening animation.
Taylor: And it's just the same sound over and over too, right? They just use that same, there's no alternate door sounds, I don't think.
Willie: As much as I've played it, I can't answer that with certainty. I feel like there are. There are definitely different designs on doors.
Taylor: Okay. Maybe if it's a different type of door.
Willie: Yeah, there's some different sounds. If it's a- yeah, exactly. A different type of door.
Taylor: Yeah. Oh man. That's bringing back some memories, seeing that.
00:09:26
Joseph: This seems like a game- because I remember not liking the controls... the character movement.
Taylor: Mmhmm.
Joseph: I don't know if I'd be able to go back and play it, even though I want to. I might be better off watching somebody play it on YouTube.
Taylor: Did they do a remake with different controls?
Willie: They've done lots of remakes and yeah, some of them- at least one of them has slightly different controls.
Taylor: Okay. Slightly different. I don't think that's enough. [laughs] I don't think that's- [Joseph laughs]
Willie: The thing about Resident Evil was that it used a lot of fixed cameras in rooms.
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Willie: I know a lot of people who play stuff like that now, who are like, you're running in one direction and suddenly the camera flips views, and then you accidentally run the other direction–
Taylor: Yeah
Willie: –because the camera changed and you didn't. And you, like, decided to change where you- what your stick was doing. Suddenly you're running back to the other screen because the camera flipped.
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: Final Fantasy was notorious about that–
Joseph: Yeah man, I ain't got time for that shit.
Taylor: –I think VII you would- Yeah. You're just going across the fucking thing and then it turns over and then you're going back across the thing–
Joseph: You're like, whoops. And then it takes the second to like, turn in the animation- to like turn, like do a 180 and change direction.
Taylor: [laughing] Yeah. Yep.
Willie: Well, Resident Evil 2, maybe it was 3, fixed that with a little, um, quick turnaround so that you didn't have to like, take the time to watch them spin around in a circle.
Taylor: That's cool.
Joseph: Did you have to input–
[Willie laughs]
Joseph: –input a button command to do the 180?
Willie: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Joseph: Oh man. I hate that too.
Willie: Yeah.
Taylor: Like a down and- down and B or something?
Willie: Yeah–
Joseph: Mmhmm.
Willie: Exactly. Some sort of yeah, down and a button to like, yeah, flip direction. And that was just, you know, if you did mess up the moving from screen to screen. I don't- I never found it to be that big of a problem after just like, playing for like an hour or two. I think some people say like, oh, it made the game scarier, those controls, but I, I don't know.
They never bothered me. It's just what it was at the time. I think so. I like, didn't care.
Taylor: I could see it adding to people's frustration or like the fear of like, "I can't move or shoot this thing right." I wanna say I did have kind of that experience, where the controls made it scarier–
Willie: Yeah
Taylor: –because I didn't just adapt to them. Instead, I like fought them, you know, [laughing] hand and foot.
Joseph: Mmhmm
Taylor: Then–
Willie: Yeah.
Taylor: –you gotta shoot a zombie or a dog or something, and good luck if you're not okay with those controls.
Willie: And there's definitely some janky stuff where you're like standing on some stairs, and you gotta shoot up at a zombie that's like coming down the stairs at you.
Taylor: Yeah.
Willie: It's hard to pinpoint which direction you're actually aiming cause the gun doesn't have a sight or a laser sight on it or anything, and you're just like, shooting up, but you're actually missing, so you're wasting bullets. Where like–
Taylor: Oof.
Willie: –which is actually very precious if you're playing- if you're trying to play conservatively with your ammo and stuff, cause there's not a lot of ammo around the game.
Joseph: That's right.
Willie: You know, and that was another thing, just like the save system. You had to get an ink ribbon to go to a typewriter.
Joseph: Mm.
Willie: And those you could also run out of–
Joseph: Mmhmm.
Willie: –if you were one of those people who were like, I'm gonna save before I go to every spot.
Taylor: Damn, yeah.
Joseph: Yeah. Not gonna work out.
Willie: Yeah, it's not gonna work.
Joseph: Interesting. I didn't remember that part.
Taylor: That is a good anti-cheese mechanism. Way back when. That is a very good anti-cheese. I forgot about that cause it- You definitely didn't wanna run back to the same room over and over and keep saving in there. Like you wanted to get everything and then get away from whatever the thing was and then save.
Yeah.
00:12:41
Joseph: Yeah, that's a great pick, man.
Willie: I think the only other thing I'd wanna say about it is, um, I think I just like a good puzzle.
Taylor: Hmm.
Willie: It had a lot of like, not overly complicated puzzles, but you still had to go like, find a piece, you know, of a crest to go find to what door it goes into. Or each key had a, a symbol on it, and that was the other thing. You had to like look at the keys, like you could examine items that you picked up, rotate 'em–
Taylor: Yeah.
Willie: –your, in your menu and be like, oh, this one has a picture of a helmet on it. This one has a picture of a shield on it. And then it became named the shield key, or the sword key–
Taylor: Yeah
Willie: –or whatever, and you opened books up in your inventory to find the thing that was hidden inside. It was like, okay, this thing obviously is useful to me, so I'm gonna find what door it goes in or where, what plaque it goes in, or whatever.
Taylor: That spinning exploration like that is still a key mechanic in so many games. Uh, like Resident Evil still does it, but I also like that–
Joseph: It’s in Tomb Raider.
Taylor: Yeah, and it was kind of like mysteries on mysteries because first off, you've gotta find- first off you find the the crest or maybe you find the place that the crest goes and then that's not just it- sometimes you do have to get that crest and roll it over and there's a piece of tape and a number on it or whatever.
And that was really smart. I forgot that they were doing that that early on. But that was a great system that you still see in some really good games where you're collecting stuff. And like you said, Joey, Tomb Raider, did they have like uncoverable, unlockable stuff there? Or was it just like, look at it and get a real good look and zoom in; you could see it from all the different angles?
Joseph: At least in the, the newer trilogy, it was lore where you'd be able to inspect and rotate the objects, and then it would give you some vibration feedback–
Taylor: That's right.
Joseph: –when you were like something. And then if clicked–
Taylor: Okay.
Joseph: –you'd play some audio from Lara reading the message, or you'd have to read it on screen.
Taylor: Oh, that's cool, cause that is a great mechanic that I, I use a lot- or enjoy a lot, rather.
Willie: I think they just set the tone for a lot of, a lot of things that came after, like you were saying.
Joseph: Yeah, I agree.
Willie: It spawned a whole series of games in itself, but all of the other like, survival horror things that came after it, like picked some of the best parts and made their own, their own things after that.
Taylor: Yeah.
Joseph: I definitely think it's- it has its place in time, and it's the start of a, obviously, a long running series that a lot of people love. So I, I think it's a good pick.
Taylor: Ties right in with playing a little Resident Evil 7.
00:15:06
Joseph: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But, uh, I'll take the next one and then we'll move on to Taylor for his first all-time fave.
My first one is gonna be Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, because it's one of the very first games I ever played. I still love playing it. I think the 16-bit graphics hold up to this day. The music is awesome and some of the most iconic in just video games period.
And I think because I played it so much as a kid, it just holds that place in my heart of just being one of my favorite games to play. And I played it- I played back through it maybe two, maybe longer, three months ago, and it was just, still as good.
Taylor: Hm.
Joseph: The sprites look good. If you've never played it before, I recommend it if you can get a hold of it. Or at least from–
Taylor: That one was so polished.
Joseph: Yeah, I think, I think it's just like, Prime Super NES video game, like for that console.
Taylor: That was when I went nuts over like you can swing the sword and chop the grass and stuff like that. And that was, that really got me, I think that was like an early on need to like, clear the thing, clear the stuff, you know, like probably some early OCD or something where you just really want to get that stuff cleared and see what's under it.
I love the SNES. I think that's my favorite all time Zelda as well.
00:16:24
Joseph: It wasn't the first game in the series, but it just seemed to like, blow up. It just blew up because of that game. I think.
Taylor: Did you also enjoy Secret of Mana? Did you ever play that one?
Joseph: I know of that, but I've never played that.
Taylor: I don't know if it was before or after. I think it was after, uh, Link to the Past. It was like they added to that formula. Like, they took all the good stuff, and they really added to it. They made this story, they added a lot of–
It, it played on a lot of tropes now, but it was awesome at the time. I believe it is, a- also co-op, so it was like being able to play, uh, Zelda, but with other people. I think if you didn't have other people, then the people would just follow you. I don't, I don't remember exactly, but that was a great game. If you ever decide to go back to something like that, maybe check that one out too.
Joseph: I can remember the artwork for that game–
Taylor: Oh so –
Joseph: –even though I haven't played it.
Willie: Same. And actually for both of those, it's funny how many games I have, like fairly vis- vivid memories of just seeing the box art on the shelves–
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Willie: –at the store to rent games, ya know?
Taylor: Yep.
Joseph: The format's unforgettable, especially for Super NES games because they were all formatted the same with the kind of Super Nintendo frame.
Willie: Yeah.
Joseph: It's pretty obvious when you're looking at a Super NES game.
Taylor: Classic Nintendo man. Their branding has always been amazing. Like that is one thing you cannot fault them for is the consistency in that branding. You know, if you're looking at a Nintendo game or product or whatever it is.
Joseph: Yeah, exactly.
Willie: I haven't played through A Link to the Past. I don't think ever–
I watched a friend play it. I never had a Super Nintendo so, and I never rented one, but I remember going over to a friend's house and that was like all he did was play that game. That was not my first introduction. I definitely had seen people play other Zelda games on NES, but I do remember him just being super stoked about that one.
Taylor: It was good. I was the same way. I think I got it pretty soon after it came out cause I did have a SNES. I think that was the, that was the first console I had after the NES and um, that game blew my mind. Just the exploration, the open world aspect of it was really cool. The mysteries to block off the borders, just like Resident Evil, you know, you just gotta figure out that thing how to, how to get past that spot and get the, the wind stick or whatever, you know?
Yeah. That blew my little mind for sure.
Joseph: Taylor with his little mind.
Taylor: Little mind. Yeah. Imagine me with a little mind.
00:18:50
Willie: I do like, just in general, over time, the formula that Zelda has had, of like, you need this weapon, you go to this dungeon, and you do these- like you learn a new skill to complete this dungeon, and get this, whatever, this object or this like piece of armor, weaponry, whatever it is, and then that becomes like, integral to like, whatever you're doing next.
Taylor: Yes.
Joseph: The way you needed some of those weapons to progress through some of the dungeons, I thought was pretty cool for its time. I mean, they kind of broke that now, like looking at Breath of the Wild. They've changed a lot, which I think–
Taylor: Oh yeah.
Joseph: –makes that game so great. But at the time, I did really enjoy that. There's the hammer stakes and things like that, so they're different colored stones that you can pick up with the different power gloves.
So you encounter all of these, all of these different situations and paths that you can't get through until you do go later into the game and get some of those objects. So it's cool to experience them. To not understand how to get past them, but then find the item that allows you to do that. So then you get to go and backtrack through the world and like go back to those stakes that you saw since the first couple of hours of playing the game and now you can actually get past that area.
I love that about the game.
Willie: Yeah and I think other games do that. I don't know why I, why I sort of fixate on that being a, a Zelda thing, but it does that, it always just sticks out to me that that's in many of the games, that there is that formula that they just, I think they just do it so well. So that experience that you're talking about seems really rewarding when it happens.
Joseph: Yeah, there's a lot of satisfaction in that for me, but I mean, it was a pretty good puzzler. Or like the dungeons, like they were pretty good puzzles. You know, they're not the best, they're not the worst. But everything combined, like the total package of the music and you know, just the, the graphics in general along with the story is a total package game that just had a really big impact on me growing up.
Willie: Yeah, that makes sense.
Taylor: That one could do it.
00:20:44
Willie: And I think that it's worth talking about that music too,
Taylor: Oh yeah.
Joseph: [chuckles] Yeah.
Willie: That definitely has become iconic, like the evolution of that music and how recognizable it is.
Taylor: Yep.
Yeah absolutely. That main theme to the music on every single one. They really cap-, captured that. You know, [sings “The Legend of Zelda Theme” melody]
If you hear that anywhere in it, you're like, oh, okay, this, this fool’s playin–
Joseph: Yeah, you know it, man. Even people that have barely played any Legend of Zelda know these, these tracks.
Taylor: Yep.
00:21:16
Joseph: Anyway, Taylor, what game you got for us?
Taylor: Oh man, I've got a few in mind. Um, my first, uh, was pretty, um, it was a tough choice and that was between Prey and Skyrim, because those are two of my all-time faves and I gotta go with Prey though, um, because of the, just my love for sci-fi and space and things like that. They really nailed it for me. Skyrim got there. You know, they had a lot of celestial stuff, which made it cool.
But Prey was, it still is one of my favorites of all time cause it's the perfect cross section of what Bethesda- I guess it's one of their studios. I'm, I'm blanking on who, who did that one. But, um, it's just the amount of polish in there- because I was already a fan of Fallout(s) and Skyrim, pretty much anything they did that had legs and depth to an open world discovery thing. But Prey was a departure for them. Which actually has me excited about Starfield because I really liked Prey. And if they can recapture the movement, the fluidity going between the scenes of what you were dealing with. The story was good and compelling.
The details that they put into it really got me, I think I mentioned this my first episode, but they had a recycling system that was amazing to me where you could pick up most things in the world, whether it's like a little, a writing pen or a folder or you know, like Fallout. If you guys have, have played- or any kind of open world game where you're just collecting stuff, you can always use it to craft.
But the way that they did it was real interesting. So you could pick that stuff up, but you have to take it back to a recycling station and the feel of everything was like, gritty and spacey. So it was like, futuristic and sciencey, but it also had some grit to it.
You would go up to these stations, and they looked like they had been used a ton, and you would throw all your stuff in there, and you would see all your things go in. They'd be like, "ding ding ding" and all your items would go in, and then you would recycle them. It's all almost like, glass fronted. And you would see your items cruise under and then turn into something and then recycle into little cubes that come out at the bottom like a vending machine.
So they didn't just stop there with that system, they went deeper with it. They ga- they added- I know they added grenades, and I don't remember if there was a weapon too, but there was a grenade where you would throw it, and it would suck in everything. Every object in the area into it, like a black hole. And then it would just immediately turn all those items into the, into the materials. And, and you could even throw it at enemies and turn them into carbon materials so that you could use it.
And the enemies were terrifying. That was the other part of it. The horror was- the fact that en- the enemies could be anything. The little mimics- that was scary. Because you're going through an empty office and you- you know, that perfect horror where, "Bam! Violins." That was another thing on this game is the, the sounds were amazing. They used the strings, like the string violin sections. Every time you came around a corner and boom, there's a mimic on the floor, "da da da da," spidering around and like, running away, you hear the violins kick in, and it's just horrifying.
And then you come around the next corner and there's nothing anywhere. And he could be any object in that room. He could be the chair, he could be a table, he could be a pen, he could be a coffee cup, literally anything. And you're just walking around looking at stuff thinking, where is this thing? Because they're like little face suckers so, you know? So they're also kind of scary. You don't wanna have one on your head or anything.
That was just a really good game. The weapons systems, the upgrade systems. And, and then they added in elements of some- one of my other favorite games, which is Dishonored. You have all these powers. In this one, you're more of like a mutant, and you're mutating. And you can- you have the option to stay a more powerful human and not mutate, and not become scum of space. Or you can mutate and become, you know, super powerful and destroy everything else and, I always like that option. Or you can combine, you know, you can combine both and then you're just a, a dirty son of a what?
That's a real fun game. I try to tell everybody I can that's ever- If you've ever been into Dishonored or if you've ever been into Fallout or Skyrim, then Prey, if you're into horror and you're into sci-fi, should be a frigging no-brainer. And it's on the Game Pass, which is even better. So you can check it out without any penalty.
Joseph: Is this the game from 2006 or the game from–
Taylor: No, no
Joseph: 2017?
Taylor: It's 17. 2006 was a good Prey game. I like that one as well. But this one is, um, this one is a total different re-imagining.
Joseph: Okay. Got you.
Willie: Amazingly enough. I, I never played that one. I've heard you talk about it a number of times and I, uh, for a couple different reasons. I don't know why I never played it. I have definitely seen gameplay of it. It definitely looks like a thing I would enjoy, and I just never played it. You mentioned you didn't remember what the studio was, but it's Arkane Studios–
Taylor: Oh–
Willie: –which did also make Dishonored–
Taylor: –that's why.
Willie: –which is why they have those systems. But I remembered that they had a studio in Austin.
Taylor: That's right.
Willie: Which was one of the, one of the reasons that you and I had talked about it, because there was like an Easter egg, not really an Easter egg, but a–
Taylor: Oh, right.
Willie: –a thing from a friend [laughs] in that game.
Taylor: Right!
Willie: Because we, we didn't know any of the developers, but they obviously knew some people that we knew–
Taylor: Yeah!
Willie: And it was, uh–
Taylor: I totally forgot about that, dude. The Lucky's, uh, Lucky's Puccias pizza box. Yeah.
Willie: [laughs] Yeah.
Taylor: Our buddy Lucky who owns a, [Joseph laughs] a pizza place in Austin, which if you're ever there, check it out. He has a, is it Lucky's Pizza? It might just be called–
Willie: That's sandwiches. I thought it's, it's, I thought they're sandwiches
Taylor: Okay. It might be. He opened a brick oven pizza shop as well, that's like brick and mortar.
Willie: And that's what's in the game, right?
Taylor: Yes
Willie: That thing?
Taylor: Yeah. And it's a pizza box from that. But that blew my mind because I'm sitting there playing one of my favorite games. I'm glad you remembered that. And like as I'm going through it, boom, I look down on the desk and there's a stack of pizza boxes and it says Lucky's Puccias or Lucky's Pizzas on there.
And it was literally his icon like–
Joseph: Oh damn, that’s pretty cool –
Taylor: Like, I mean, branding,
Dude, it was so wild. And just to reach out to him and be like, "Lucky, why are you in one of my favorite games?" And he is just like, "Oh yeah, the developers were in here all the time." He was super stoked about it. He didn't even say anything about it.
It was amazing. But he is that kind of guy too, just like one of the best dudes in the world.
Joseph: Nice.
Taylor: But yeah, go check that place out. Lucky's Puccias, Lucky's Pizzas in Austin. But yeah, stuff like that.
Joseph: I barely know of this game. I read more about the original.
Taylor: The original was an awesome concept, but yeah, this one is more, you're straight up in space. You're a, a scientist on a space lab. There's a lot of mystery. You have a brother there. Everyone has disappeared pretty much when you get there. You could straight up go around that space station and you can go outside of it.
They do the Dead Space stuff too, where you have like little jets and you can go outside and explore, but they have a security station that you find pretty early on and they have a monitor and it's like, here's a list of, uh, of the, you know, guests and scientists right now and security people. And it's a list of all these people and it shows you their locations.
So you can click on one and it'll say, okay, this person's 80 meters away. And so you go find them. And that is how you kind of, uh, launch yourself into the. I don't know what you would call it, but you know, like where you run into a new boss or a, a nasty man that's coming after you or whatever. cause you're going to look for John, you know, Jacobs over in security.
And then you go and you find that that dude is actually just a head and his key card [laughs] like sitting right beside it. And it brings the mystery of kind of like Red Dead, you remember, uh, Red Dead 2 how you come across things. You come across like the, the serial killer spots and stuff like that just because you're going, you're going on a mission somewhere and you come across just a myster...aster...mysterious, like people are hanging under a train track and you're like, “wh- what's happening over here?”
It's that same kind of mystery and awe. They'll set something up and, and you see that a person has been cut in half or dragged into a room or something, and... well, there's the thing that did it in the next room, and it's great setups. Great setups. I, I cannot tell people to play that game enough, especially if you're into first person shooters, sci-fi, Fallout kind of exploration, Dead Space, any of that.
00:30:05
Joseph: Nice. Willie, what do you wanna talk about next?
Willie: I think I've gotta go. I've gotta go with the obvious Halo.
Taylor: Oh
Joseph: I thought you were gonna say you really had to go, like you had to get off the–
Willie: [Joseph and Taylor laughing] No, no, no.
Taylor: Yeah, I'm getting the Hal-outta here.
Joseph: “I have to go. It's actually too hot in here, and I think my computer's about to crash.”
Taylor: [Imitating screaming] No!
Willie: No. I think we're good. It's, it's actually fine today. That rain definitely helped.
Taylor: Nice.
Willie: No, I gotta pick Halo. And you know, we talked about whether or not we'd be picking series or not. If I have to pick one of them, I think I'm gonna go with Halo 3. I'll talk a little bit about all of 'em real quick. Halo 3 just has like a, there's just a lot of good memories around it and I think that's why, like, we'll probably talk about this in future episodes, but one of the things that draws me to games is a good multiplayer or co-op experience.
It has been a way for me to connect with friends and throughout the series, like there's just a lot of good memories associated with it. Halo first, like the, Combat Evolved. The first one like, changed the way people thought about first person shooters on consoles.
Taylor: Oh yeah..
Willie: It was the first time that just the layout of the controller, shaped what everyone else was doing after that. And I just have so much time playing that game. Like just doing LAN parties and, and then Halo 2 got Xbox Live sort of off the ground. Like introduced this idea of having clans in the game, like separate from your friends list, you could just like, make a list of people that you wanted to be in a clan with and play games with.
And the multiplayer maps in Halo 2 were just next level, it felt like. I... and I feel like a lot of people hold Halo 2 as being like one of the best competitive multiplayer first-person shooters.
Taylor: Oh yeah, that dual wielding man. Oh man. The first time you pick up those two SMGs at once–
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: –you're just shooting all the bullets. Oh man. That was a good feeling.
Willie: Oh, while we're on that, one of the things that I saw recently was, um…I don't know when it was, but just sometime recently, there was, uh, some talks about the level that was in the Halo 2 E3 demo in like 2003, that like wasn't playable. It ended up not being in the game because the system couldn't handle it. The Xbox couldn't handle it.
Taylor: Oh snap.
Willie: They're finally like gonna be releasing that level, like–
Joseph: Oh, that's badass.
Willie: –because they finally built it or something.
Joseph: [chuckling] Nice.
Taylor: Was there somewhere that it obviously belonged in the campaign or was it like an entire section that, that just wasn't in there?
Willie: I don't know if it's obvious where it was, but it was definitely, it took place on earth in New Mombasa, it was like roaming the streets in a warthog.
Taylor: Oh man. New Mombasa was awesome.
Willie: If you go back and watch the 2003 E3 trailer, everyone saw that and was like, "oh, this is gonna be amazing." And then the game got delayed. And then, when it finally came out that level just wasn't in it.
[Joseph laughing]
Taylor: It was the sand worm on No Man Sky. [Taylor laughing] It was the sand worm all over
Willie: Sure, yeah.
Joseph: I didn't know that they showed a demo of something that didn't end up in the game.
Willie: And some of the, the tactics in it did, like, I think there was a, a shot in that game where Master Chief, like boarded a, a ghost that was coming at him, like he knocked the–
Joseph: Oh, I see.
Willie: –the grunt or whatever, like off the ghost and took it from him. But yeah. And that mechanic ended up in the game, but that entire level, like just wasn't, just wasn't there.
Taylor: That's lengthy. It's lengthy. I'm looking at the video now, like that's a serious level right there.
Willie: Yeah.
Taylor: And it's funny that it couldn't handle it cause it looks like dog's ass. Polygonal dog's ass.
Willie: [chuckling] I mean, it's talk...that's talking about like original Xbox, right. Like, I remember getting that game.
Taylor: Yeah, there's a lot of explosions and stuff happening.
Willie: But again, if I had to pick, I think Halo 3 is probably my favorite.
Taylor: Mm.
Willie: Out of all of 'em. I... there was something, like Halo 2 did this thing where, I mean, it was sort of a bait and switch, right? That like everyone thought you would be defending the, the world from the Covenant at that point.
By the end of the game, you were like, oh, well they're on Earth now and the game's over, but you didn't save Earth. Like they're still in trouble. And then people were like, oh, so now we have to wait for a whole nother game.
Taylor: That was the one where you could play as the Arbiter, right? Like you're switching between...
Willie: Yeah. Halo 2 you could.
Taylor: Oh, that was Halo 2. Dang.
Willie: Both you did. But Halo 2 was more, and I think that's why people were also upset at that game, at Halo 2. They were just like, I'm playing not as Master Chief the whole time and it felt different.
Taylor: Go figure. People didn't want to put themselves in somebody else's shoes. How about that?
[All chuckling]
Willie: Yeah.
Taylor: Ha ha ha...huh.
00:34:40
Willie: And I think Halo 3 sort of went back to, I mean, the whole campaign slogan was like, Finish the Fight, right? Like that was, that was another thing about Halo 3. Just the advertising for that game was so good. Every commercial spot was amazing. They had a whole campaign that was the Believe campaign that, you know, it started with this like monument to this battlefield.
That is the John 117 monument that has like really good music going behind this trailer of watching this scale, like this model of this battlefield. And Master Chief is being held by a brute in the end of that video, just like, body slumped over being held in the air. Like he fin... like he's dead and he like, lights up a plasma grenade in his hand and the, the trailer cuts out with seemingly, him waking up from whatever's going on.
And it's just like, and all of the campaigning they did around that, where they like, recreated the world of Halo as if it were real, right? They found people to play soldiers who had been in the war with the Covenant and tell stories about John 117 and how Master Chief brought them hope on the battlefield. And all of that shit just feels real.
Taylor: Yeah, they did a good job on that one. I remember that one. That one felt more like you were in a world than ever before because that first level maybe where you're kind of in the jungle and you've got stuff hanging down and just all that stuff was pretty revolutionary to me at the time. Maybe it was already happening on PC for a while, but it was really–
Willie: Yeah
Taylor: –cool on Xbox.
Joseph: Yeah, I think this game checks a lot of boxes. Two and three are the Halos I played the most of, especially multiplayer. I mean, obviously one of the most iconic video game, video game characters period, in Master Chief.
Taylor: Yeah. “The murder man”
Joseph: Not counting out the voiceover in the acting for the character, but just in general, like you see him and you know who it is, right? Like he just has that look and his armor is so memorable. And the main theme music I think is also something that if you–
Taylor: Mm-hmm
Joseph: –hear it, you, you instantly recognize it. Yeah. Even sound effects, like the, the shield recharge, you know, like that's something you hear and you instantly know what that series, what series that's from.
Willie: Yep.
Taylor: Oh, yeah, yeah. [mimicking the sound of the shield draining] It goes down. [mimicking sound of no shields in Halo]
Joseph: Yeah, exactly.
Taylor: Yeah. Yeah, that's, that's true man. Their audio–
Willie: Yeah
Taylor: –is stuff of legend.
Willie: It really is. Those, I mean those first three games with, um, Marty O'Donnell on the like, soundtrack and stuff as well. Like, I know he had some help too, um, for, for them. But just the way that he talked about the sound design for that game was so fascinating to me. And I think it probably was during, it was during Halo 3 that they were doing a lot of ViDocs
Like I knew that they were doing like video updates cause I've never followed a game's development as much as I followed the development of that game. Watching their weekly updates, they did, like Bungie weekly updates every Friday and the, just the videos that they would put out and just like getting glimpses of stuff that was gonna happen.
But I remember Marty O'Donnell just talking about the way that they build the music for that game. And I'm sure other games have done it and do it now, like regularly, but like just adding in instruments when like, your player crosses a certain threshold to like, add tension to like the scene of the battle.
And if you back out of that scene. Those instruments or something will go away and the, it drops the tension in a different way. And if you like go to a different part of the map, there's a different part of stuff that gets layered into the, the music and it just builds on itself in this like really amazing way.
Taylor: Oh yeah. By the time you're like, running around jumping, throwing grenades, everybody's alerted, they're shooting at you. It's just like, [singing] "daaa-da-da-daaa-buh-da-da-da" then a fucking electric guitar kicks in-
Joseph: Yeah
Taylor: –cause a dude with a sword is invisible and coming after you and–
Joseph: Word.
Taylor: Yeah dude. Yeah, that was–
Willie: Yeah
Taylor: Man, their music is, like I said earlier, I didn't mean to interrupt, but that shit's easy to take for granted- all the audio. I know as, uh, somebody who's into audio and engineering and, you know, all those types of things.
I think whenever I take a few moments to step back from it and try to wrap my head around all that audio, it's freaking wild. Just ungodly amounts of tweaking and Foley work, and I can't even imagine how much went into that.
Willie: Two other real quick points on this, is I think that it, like, it has a lot of replayability for me. Like I think anytime I load up, uh, the Master Chief Collection, it's the game that I'll make sure that I play at least a part of. Or if I'm gonna play multiplayer on the Master Chief Collection, I'll make sure that those maps, are the maps that are picked and that gameplay is the style of gameplay that I'm gonna be playing in.
Taylor: Are there still quite a few people playing the multiplayer? Are you able to find matches fairly easily if.... have you done it lately?
Willie: It happens pretty quickly whenever I've, I've done it, I haven't done it in maybe like a–
Taylor: Oh, ok.
Willie: –month or two, but I, I have loaded it up, you know, on my PC, then just like, will play, just because.
Taylor: So they must be doing cross-platform. Their hoppers are probably just refined at this point. They've just got 'em working perfectly.
Willie: Like I said, it's, it's, it's been a little while, but I'm pretty sure they're still doing it and I have, you know, I've played on it.
Taylor: That's, oh yeah, a couple months ago. That tells me everything I need to know. There are still people out there playing that. That's cool.
Willie: I think maybe it's been longer than that. Cause I think especially before Halo Infinite came out was, it was obviously still really active, but I think there's a lot of people who probably haven't, you know, might not have picked up a new console yet, or don't, don't have a PC to play Halo Infinite. So they're probably still doing that.
The other thing I'll say is it also added Forge to the mix, which was like their map building program, which was ba- it's kind of the tools that they used, but not exactly. And so like people started recreating old maps or new maps for the game to play multiplayer on and like that, that created a whole nother thing.
And other game types, like people started making, you know, we start, we made like an American Gladiators map was like a one versus seven, where like everyone was on different parts of the map being the, you know, the gladiators whilst one person ran through the thing.
Taylor: Yeah. And, and somebody's on a turret, somebody, somebody had like a, a bag of grenades. They were just surrounded by grenades and could just throw, it was cool. That was cool as shit. We were always looking for that, that extra, like, or... or the ability to make a game type that we could think of and then have a lot of fun playing it.
I think if Infinite, if they can get that figured out, if they can have enough options and and then you could really, cause it would always be some kind of limitation. If they, if they can get it there where you can play that with 16 people or a decent amount of people and kind of do anything you want using a, a diverse rule set. Whew, they've got a winner right there cause that game, the engine is excellent. I can't wait to try that co-op.
Willie: I could go on forever about that game cause it just did so much and there's so many memories. I guess I should say. There's an interesting thing that happened with being on Xbox Live and playing with friends that like, there was a point in my life where the sound of the, like Xbox friend, someone signing on sparked some form of just happiness in me.
If I heard that sound from the other room, cause I had like gotten up, I like needed to know what, who was on–
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Willie: –needed to like see like, oh, is Jerry on? Like, let's play some stuff. It was just like this just response that just like came outta nowhere because of so much time playing online with friends.
Taylor: Oh yeah. Yeah. And you still know that sound.
Joseph: I feel you there, man. That reaction to the, the sign on. Yeah. I feel you. Uh, awesome man. Yeah, I think Halo's great. I mean, I would go back and play two and three for sure. Along with Infinite. There are definitely games in the series I haven't played, but have definitely burned some hours of daylight playing multiplayer and, and for a lot of the reasons that I like Halo.
00:42:46
Joseph: I also like my next pick, which is Gears of War, which is, I don't know, I'm kind of combining Gears of War and Gears of War Ultimate Edition. Like the remastered version.
Taylor: I think that's fair.
Joseph: Yeah. What I played was, or I guess, let me back up. So the, one of the reasons why this game is important to me is because I was playing it when I was deployed in Baghdad, and we were just playing it every single day after work.
We’d basically LAN party. One of the guys in the group was, um, working in the IT office and he got a hold of like a long spool of ethernet cable.
Taylor: Ah.
Joseph: So we routed it out the back windows of our trailers and connected all the Xboxes to each other since we weren't–
Taylor: Nice
Joseph: –like in the same building. And we would play, uh, just like 4v4 or you know, 3v3 or something like that. And we were doing that just like day after day after day after day. So it was like one of the things that kept us sane during that deployment.
Taylor: That's a fun game if you, once you learn it, that is a lot of fun. That's, so during the day y'all are doing just like kind of your daily grunt work or, or tasks–
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: –or whatever you've gotta do? And then at night, there's probably not shit to do other than like, talk to your family and were y'all able to do that?
Joseph: Sometimes.
Taylor: Were you…were you regularly able to? Yeah.
Joseph: Yeah, sometimes there would be some communication blackouts where like nobody could call anybody–
Taylor: Okay.
Joseph: –depending on what was happening in the area. And then if you did want to call somebody, there was like one phone at the battalion headquarters, which was walking distance–
Taylor: Okay
Joseph: –from where we stayed. Uhm, but there was always a line of people. So like you, you had to show up in the wee hours of the night to like, actually get through.
Taylor: Man.
Joseph: And then the time difference between Iraq and the US, like it was pretty significant. So we had to be up in the middle of the night to begin with–
Taylor: That was early technology days, right?
Joseph: –just to call home.
Taylor: Like you- that was 2002 or or something?
Joseph: Yeah. This is um, 2006, 2007.
Taylor: Oh okay. Geez, man.
Joseph: I had a 360 there. Yeah. cause we played–
Taylor: Oh, okay.
Joseph: –well we played that, Gears of War, but we also played Guitar Hero and a few other games.
Taylor: Oh-ho-oh Guitar Hero, man
Joseph: But, uh, Gears of War man. The, the cover system.
Taylor: Oh, and the chainsaw.
Joseph: Yeah, the Lancer.
Taylor: [Laughing] The chainsaw was also, man, that was a–
Joseph: [Laughing] Yeah, a terrific weapon.
Taylor: Yeah, the Lancer. I was like, what? You have a gun, a machine gun, and a chainsaw as one. That's the smartest thing I've ever heard of. Yeah. [Laughs]
Joseph: Yeah, that was badass. I think that weapon is still like, a really awesome looking weapon–
Taylor: Mmhmm
Joseph: –but even the way they implemented into the gameplay where you could, like just melee saw somebody in half or one of the locusts in half–
Taylor: Ah
Joseph: –was, was pretty rad. And gory.
Willie: Yeah.
Taylor: The way they implemented that into the, into the multiplayer, I thought was interesting too.
Joseph: Mmhmm
Taylor: You know, like they didn't shy away and be like, ah, we're not, we're just not gonna have the saw do the saw thing instead. They like, made it a sword fight, kind of. Did they do that on the-was that on the first one too?
Where you would be going at a guy and come down and he would have the opportunity like, block it or, or something you could like mash B to try to get through? Or was that a later mechanic? Do you remember that?
Joseph: I don't know if it was in the original, like if you could parry with it–
Taylor: Okay.
Joseph: And kind of like sword fight them?
Taylor: Yeah.
Joseph: I mean it was definitely in,
Taylor: Cause I remember the second one third or something you could, you could start doing that, like you had a chance.
Joseph: It was definitely in the campaign, you know, in just the main play through. It would turn into like a, a kind of halfway cinematic view when that was happening.
Taylor: And the locusts are a good hateable enemy. [Joseph laughs] I thought they really did a really good job on them, like, and they weren't... too much like, the Ha- with Halo, um, because we were just talking about it. I feel like they really, um, weird wording, but humanized the aliens. You know what I mean? Like they–
Joseph: Mmhmm.
Taylor: –Once you started playing as a Arbiter and experiencing their journey and stuff, you realize that they were just being led astray as well.
And, but Gears always seemed to stick with it. They were like, no, these people are shitheads [laughs] These–
Joseph: [laughs] Yeah.
Taylor: –These things are awful. Kill them all.
Joseph: Pretty much. Yeah. But I love that game, man. Multiplayer. The campaign is good.
Taylor: Mmhmm
Joseph: I love that linear narrative, like where the game- it slows down, and you know that you're not about to get attacked, and it kind of feeds you through a very specific pathway. Like in that time, I loved being guided through the game that way because they can really craft the story really well.
Taylor: Mmhmm
Joseph: Some of the dialogue is a little cheesy, through like all of the games. But Marcus Phoenix, the voice acting-his voice is like, so ingrained in my memory that if I hear him in anything else, I'm like, that's Marcus Phoenix.
Taylor: So you've played all of 'em since then? Is that just one–
Joseph: Yeah.
Taylor: A series that you–
Joseph: Well, no, the only one I haven't played is the one that focuses on Baird, which I think is called Judgment Day. It was like a spinoff.
Willie: Mmhmm, yeah.
Joseph: But I've, I've played one through five. Oh, and I haven't played Tactics. I haven't spent any time playing Gears of War Tactics.
Taylor: Is that the, that the one where they're pops? Where they're like pop characters? Or is that–
Joseph: It's like a strategy based game, like turn by turn strategy.
Taylor: Okay.
Willie: You started to talk a little bit about the sort of mechanics, like the cover mechanics, and that was definitely a, a game changer for lots of things. Like you were saying. The roadie run, [Joseph laughs] I remember being such a big deal as well.
Joseph: Mmhmm.
Willie: Moving from cover to cover was like, really well done. But even that roadie run, just that duck and run as fast as you can to the next piece of cover in front of you, or just cover ground when you're being shot at.
Joseph: Mmhmm
Willie: Like–
Joseph: Yeah. I love it.
Willie: It was a really good game.
Joseph: That game also, like A Link to the Past holds like, a really special place in my heart just because we, we were playing as a group, right? And it was just like a really strong bond between us all, and it was like almost all we had, for like a lot of those nights. It was the only thing we could do.
And to have that many people into it and dedicated to playing it as often as we did is like something that I'll probably never experience again.
Taylor: No, dude, that's, that's two very strong brotherhood things. The military–
Joseph: Yeah, exactly.
Taylor: –And not even just military, but active military. Like, you're out there, you know, in a spot that literally anything could happen anytime. I've felt that brotherhood with my friends and stuff, uh, just from playing games. So it's like, it's like you were combining that, you know, you were getting like–
Joseph: Mmhmm. Like doubling down on it.
Taylor: Exactly man. So I bet, I absolutely bet. That's some stuff that you never forget, and especially if it gets you through some hard times, like that's, I'm sure that shit wasn't easy at all, so I could see why that one would, would stick. I do wanna play through some Gears with you sometimes soon though, cause I still need to play through five. Never played through it. And anything like that, that's co-op and on the Game Pass-hell yeah.
Joseph: That's exactly when I played it.
Willie: I think I started five, but I didn't finish five. I'm pretty sure.
Joseph: Yeah, I remember you starting five.
Willie: I know I finished four way after it came out, just before five came out, so I could play five. And so I did that, and I don't know if I finished five. I kind of feel like I did, but I don't remember. I'm not sure.
00:49:37
Joseph: One last thing about this series. Is, it's definitely, we're talking before the days of digital downloads being so accessible or cloud gaming, things like that. So this series is one of the very few where I actually physically went to a midnight launch and waited in line to get a box copy of the game.
Taylor: Oooh.
Joseph: And it's like, just one of the, the few series that I actually physically stayed up and went out and went outta my way to get the game, like at the release moment.
Taylor: Yeah, and you wanna play it right then. I feel like they killed that with the digital release. But it was good.
Like I, I was at the point, I don't know what the last one we went and did. It might have been Halo 3 or something where we went and- nah, I probably got a lot of other games, uh, release night, but I, I was tired of that. I was tired of that. I think I was already sick of people. [Laughs]
Joseph: [Laughs] Yeah.
Taylor: Sick of being outside, by the time the digital age really hit where you could, you know, download any game the moment that it comes out.
Joseph: Mmhmm.
Taylor: I do miss that feeling though, man. Just sitting in line feeling like–
Willie: Yeah.
Taylor: –you're gonna pee yourself cause you're like, I can't fucking wait to get this game. Some Grand Theft Auto or Halo or something.
Willie: I think that is another reason that I picked Halo 3. Cause I, I went to a midnight release for Halo 2 with Scotty, but Taylor and I went to Halo 3 midnight release. We both had the legendary edition and I remember I met you after work, I think in the parking lot–
Taylor: Mmhmm
Willie: –at your work. And then we rode together to the store and waited in line for that and then got it like right after midnight. For some reason they were like, super efficient that night and got it.
You took me back to my car. We both went our separate ways cause we weren't living together at that time.
Taylor: Hopped online.
Willie: Both went home and then hopped online and then played until like 8:00 AM
Taylor: Yeah, absolutely. Played till the sun came up on that one. Yeah. That was fun.
Joseph: Nice. Good memories. Willie, what you got next?
Willie: Did Taylor go again?
Joseph: Oh maybe not.
Taylor: Oh yeah, no I gotta.
Joseph: Maybe not. Am I skipping Taylor?
Taylor: Yeah, man, how dare you–
Joseph: Oh, right. We started with Willie.
Taylor: I guess Prey was that good. [laughs]
Joseph: My bad.
00:51:38
Taylor: So, um, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take a, a departure from the first-person and third-person shooters, which I prefer. Which, this one, Surviving Mars, is one of my favorite all-time games. I have probably as many hours in it as, almost as in Skyrim. I think Skyrim, I had 400 hours in. Multiplayer games, I can have a lot of hours in. Um, that's just because that's-sometimes it's conversations and stuff happening.
But Surviving Mars is a, i- I would think you would call it isometric real-time strategy, Mars base building game or city slash base building.
But, it blew my mind. I've played some RTSs in the past. Um, I played the Command & Conquers. Those, those were a lot of fun to me, but for some reason this one just blew me away. I think it was because I already have- I'm inclined to, like I said, I- I love space. I love all things space. You know, that, that new telescope picture, I could sit there and look at stuff like that forever and just look at details and wonder.
But this was really cool cause you're the first people to land on Mars. And it's done in a way of like, choose who you're going up as. You can go up as the US or China or uh, India, and you have different perks for different-you know, like the US you may start with more money. Uh, it's very much like, uh, Civilization.
Have you guys ever played those or any of those types of games?
Joseph: I haven't spent much time doing it, but I know exactly what you're talking about.
Taylor: It's similar in the right ways to those, but it's more exciting cause you can, like, you could pick that and you could also pick corporations and things. So they have the equivalence of like, a Tesla, and a Amazon, and a Virgin. So each of those give you different kind of perks. Like you can just get your- you know, send a ship to Mars faster or get more people. Because you, you have to get people there.
So whenever you first land on it, you start with one ship, you've got a bunch of drones and some fabricated thing. So fabrications you can just set up real quick. You can have yourself some drone stations that allows them to recharge. They keep it kind of basic with-you just lay power. And you can have solar, you can do nuclear, you can do all of those different kinds of things.
But you're essentially trying to as fast as you can, beat the other nations and other businesses to Mars and to get people there. And as you play through it, there's all kinds of challenges. Like be the first person to have 10 people on Mars, or a hundred or a thousand.
And the art is great. You can zoom way in, you can go very granular on the art. And the domes are cool. You can have domes and you fill 'em up with all these different things. It can look like a big city or it could be farms, and...
Even the loading screens, uh, they're short, but when you do a loading screen, it'll have a quote from somebody, some famous scientist or famous artist or author. Just a ton of great quotes. And they're all about Mars or space or humanity. And the whole, the whole thing together is a great package to me. Like any, anybody who is willing to sit and play an RTS at all, or, or a builder, I guess would be the, the better way to put it, should definitely check this out. I think it's also a Game Pass game indefinitely. But it, it really got me, I loved it.
Joseph: You make me wanna try it. I've almost played it before because I was a little hooked in by the game art itself.
Taylor: The art's beautiful. The art is beautiful.
And they add in cool, mysterious stuff too. Like every, you can either do it random or you can choose from a list of mysteries and it'll be like "the box." And then you get in there and you'll be doing everything you're supposed to do, making your base, doing all that, and at some point something will happen that is according to that mystery. And it'll be like, "Something weird has appeared. Do you wanna send your scientists to look at it?" And they'll go look at it and they may be like, "Oh my God, this is an infinite source of this." Or "Your scientists were fucking- [laughing] vaporized . They're gone now." But yeah–
Joseph: Mmhmm.
Taylor: If you ever wanna try it, dude, I, I highly recommend it. It's amazing.
It- and I think it steps outside of the typical builders in that, what throws me off is if I went and tried to play Cities: Skylines or whatever it's called on there, that's a beautiful game. I like the art, but it's so in depth, man. You've gotta control the power going everywhere, the grids, the plumbing, the this, the that. And it just gets to be like, I feel like I'm a city manager, like literally a city manager, but not in the cool way. Just I, you know, I'm not trying to sell you on it, but I think that it, it's way more interesting per moment than any other kind of strategy or builder game I've ever played.
Joseph: Mmhmm.
Taylor: But in all fairness, I've al- I'm also into those periodically.
Joseph: I'm kind of surprised that the style of game made it onto anyone's list actually.
Taylor: Really that's, yeah, I would be too. I definitely would be- like, if I hadn't played that and that was on somebody's, I'd be like, what are you talking about? But it's so polished and they kept adding to it. They kept adding DLCs and stuff that are all free. You don't have to buy any DLC, I don't think. It's just built in, and it's just really well done.
I think the developer, I wanna say they're Paraxis?
Willie: I think it's Paradox–
Taylor: Paradox okay.
Willie: –is what I’m looking at. Paradox Interactive.
Taylor: Yeah. Paradox Interactive that's it.
Joseph: What about you, Willie? Are you surprised that this style of game is on any of our lists?
Willie: Um, maybe, yeah, I guess a little bit, but I definitely can get into those games, those types of games. I've watched someone play this game, but I've never played it. But I've watched hours of someone playing this game. I don't even think streaming it, but watching like a YouTube channel and watching 'em just play through.
Taylor: I think what compels me so much, or, or compelled me to play it so much and just pushed me to play it for tons of hours, was the variety of the gameplay. Like it has good story in there while you're playing it. It keeps you interesting or interested in it.
And it seems realistic too, like in like, like Cities: Skylines or builders like that, I feel more like I am applying things to here on Earth. You know, this is what a house looks like. This is what a city looks like. This is what a power grid–
This is more- what would it be like if you were on Mars? It's very much like they talked to SpaceX and NASA and places like that for a long time, and were like, what do you think would happen? How do you think we would have power? How do you think we would sustain this or that? And they applied that. It wasn't like- it doesn't feel like you're adding magical things. You're adding things that are not too far from what we have now.
Until you get towards the end of it. And then you really do like, you know, you have a- I think one of the options towards the end was, you can create a singularity. And it came with those kinds of things, where you could, once you did it, you could integrate your people into the singularity, I think, if I'm [laughing] remembering it correctly. So suddenly your city's become 50% more efficient, obviously, and everybody's happy all the time. It's really good. It's really good.
You know, like I've, I've explained multiple times how I feel about all of it coming together cohesively, like a lot of polish on top, bottom, everywhere in between. And that includes story, looks, gameplay, and this checks every single box. This is a good one.
Joseph: Nice.
Willie: Yeah, I can see why you would say that about that game. Cause like I said, I've watched, I've only, I've watched people play it and it seems good. I think it's interesting that you picked it, and it's on console though, I would say, just because I, I think there is something special about getting one of those games to work well on a console.
Taylor: Yes. That's a good point.
Willie: That and real time strategies have always had a stigma around them, about being like, better on pc.
Taylor: Yeah. Yes.
Willie: There is something special about it when it works on a console.
Taylor: I agree.
Willie: Like, the extra effort it takes to, to make that happen.
Taylor: Yeah, and not to just say, you know, get effed, go get a keyboard and mouse. It works on there. Yeah, that's- they did an interesting system where they use a, a circle that works really good to select things, and you can expand the circle and a very simple way with like, the bumpers, I think. And, and it can, it kind of has a stickiness to it, to things.
And if I'm not mistaken, you can go into the settings and adjust. You can go in there and adjust the, the stickiness and things like that. So. Good point, man. Good point. That is one of the things that kept me in there and kept playing it cause it never felt like, get the arrow on the thing. It just did it.
Willie: Yeah.
Taylor: And once you know how to do it and you learn the controls, you're off and running.
01:00:34
Joseph: Yeah, I have a question for you, or both of you actually. What do y'all think about just doing multiple episodes of our all-time faves?
Taylor: Yeah. Oh yeah.
Joseph: I mean, we're barely getting through two each.
Taylor: Yeah.
Joseph: At an hour and a half, so I wonder if we just stop here and then–
Taylor: Yep.
Joseph: It doesn't have to be the very next episode, but at some point we just kind of continue to- the discussion about some of these games that we, we have on our all-time favorite lists.
Taylor: Yes. Yeah. cause we don't wanna have to go in and cut that later and talk about it later or something. A situation like that. Or face having to have an hour and a half or two hour podcast episode.
Joseph: Mmhmm.
Taylor: Yep. I agree.
Joseph: There's at least three games on here that I would like to talk about–
Taylor: Yeahh
Joseph: –just because I do consider them some of my all-time faves.
Taylor: It's tough to condense it. What if we did three episodes and two, two games for everybody in each or something?
Joseph: Yeah, we could probably do that.
Taylor: Yeah. And then we can kind of cover everything and, yeah.
Joseph: Mmhmm.
Taylor: And that, that's easy content. Easy, easy fill-in right there.
01:01:34
Joseph: This is pretty awesome. I mean, I knew Taylor was gonna bring some stuff to the table that I haven't played, just cause it, it seemed like that. They're games I know of, but somehow have never played any of them. But it's interesting to hear.
Taylor: And I would love in the future that if y'all do play them or try any of them out, I would love to hear what you think about it and–
Joseph: Yeah, totally.
Taylor: –and know, like, it- did you bounce off? Did you play it? Did it, you know, what did you like and hate about it? That'd be cool.
Joseph: Mmhmm.
Taylor: That's easy, easy content as well.
Joseph: It's good to hear why y'all like these games too, like especially Surviving Mars. Like hearing you talk about that game. Hearing why you like it–
Taylor: Yeah.
Joseph: –definitely kind of, it would shape my experience going into the game. And maybe looking at it from a different perspective about, of, you know, the difference between us and what we like about different games.
Taylor: Yeah. And it helps you, helps you overcome assumptions that you might have about it otherwise, just from a quick description or, or whatever. Yeah, I agree. I agree. It's much better to see these things from, from y'all's perspectives, you know?
Got me excited to go play some Gears again too. Like that's, uh, that's something I need to- especially five. I need to go tear that shit up.
Joseph: Oh yeah. And they're short man five, it's probably like 12 hour campaign–
Taylor: Oh, that's easy.
Joseph: –So it's not gonna eat up a ton of time to, to get through the main story.
Taylor: We could do that as like, a co-op playtime or whatever.
Joseph: Mmhmm
Taylor: We gotta come up with a good name if we're gonna start doing stuff like that. That's a good idea is to have a kind of catchy name or whatever, you know, like, Come Play Friday or Play Day or something. We'll come up with something.
Joseph: [laughing] Come Play Friday.
Taylor: Yeah. Yeah. Come- Come On Friday Play
Joseph: I get what you're saying, but that was awful.
[Willie laughs]
Taylor: Yeah, that was awful, dude.
[Laughter]
Taylor: Um, I'll keep working on it. [laughs]
01:03:13
Joseph: Word. Willie, you have any final thoughts before we get outta here?
Willie: I, I'm definitely excited to, to have some time to think about some more favorites, cause I have some on my list here that-I got a lot of honorable mentions that I could definitely talk more about if, if we had more time. So if we give more time to it, then there's some other things.
I think for me the, the huge piece is just a like, and part of the reason that it's fun to do this podcast, is just to have another thing to connect over; because that's definitely been-I think that is why I enjoy playing games as much as I do.
I do love a good story, I do love like an interactive storytelling sort of thing. But I, I really like-over the years it's been- we've said it a number of times, just a way to connect with people, wher-no matter where they are.
Joseph: Mmhmm.
Willie: You know, as we have the privilege of having internet and Xbox Live and other ways to connect with each other.
It's just a nice way to like sit down and chat and then like, experience the story together too for the first time.
Taylor: I agree, man, in some ways co-oping with your buds and catching up on life and playing the game. It's almost like, uh, you're getting the, the best story of, of all, which is the IRL story.
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Taylor: Co-oping and playing a game and completing it, but you're also hanging out with your buds and you're catching up, you know, what are- “what have y'all been up to? And what are the kids doing? And what's this and that,” like, that's, that's powerful.
Games are powerful to do that, and that's- gives you those memories that you, you might not have otherwise.
Willie: Yeah.
Joseph: Sadly, I think it's those kinds of intangibles that people who are not people who play video games very often kind of lose out on. You know, like if–
Taylor: Yeah.
Joseph: –If you're on the outside crowd, you just think video games are worthless? There's so much community, so much fantasy, so much escapism and just so much camaraderie.
Taylor: Yeah. [laughs] Yeah, like there really is dude, and, and it's, you could say escapism and to one person that sounds like bliss and to another person, it sounds like laziness.
Joseph: Right, right. Exactly.
01:05:14
Taylor: It's so weird, man. They really are amazing. I've, I've been chomping at the bit for something good co-op to come out just because lately it's been tough for me to, to, like I've mentioned before, justify hopping on a single player with no other intent other than I'm just gonna burn some time.
So I've been really wanting some good co-op experiences to come out so that we can just link up and, and catch up. And I mean, there, we've got some in the pipeline. But hopefully–
Willie: Yeah
Taylor: –hopefully Halo. That would be a good one to get into, the Infinite. If we can get on that co-op. I want to see what happens when I shoot a co-op partner in the face with a, uh, tether hook.
See how that works out.
Willie: Yeah, no, I'm excited to try that out. And that's, that is supposed to be in, uh, one of their early release phases right now in one of their flights. So could maybe, maybe potentially get on that. But also the game that will come up in my favorites list next time, just, just, I'm gonna call it now, is I am gonna take [bleep] eventually–
Taylor: Yeah.
Willie: Cause I have so many hours on that game.
Taylor: Do it.
Willie: But recently that, that mod [bleep] finally released.
Taylor: Oh, we're doing that shit [laughs]
Willie: [laughs] I'm curious to check that out.
Taylor: We're doing that buddy.
Willie: So like,we probably really need to get on that too.
Taylor: Yep, yep. I'm down with that, man. Totally.
Willie: So I think they've said that it's best for like between two and eight players–
Taylor: What?!
Willie: But they have like–
Taylor: It's not just two people?! [laughs]
Willie: So they have load tested it for like 25 to 30 people. And as long as you've got a good system, like you could still do it.
Taylor: Do they compensate for the amount of people? Like are there more
Willie: I don't– [laughs]
Taylor: –enemies and stuff or are you just [laughing] going in? There's like two skeletons [Willie laughs] that are getting whiplashed by 20 people. I don't know, man.
Willie: I don't know. I just, I need to check it out because I need to know. I've seen people play earlier versions where it was still really, really buggy.
Taylor: Yeah, that's what turned me off too.
Willie: It seems to have gotten to a state where it's playable and they thought it was good enough for release. So I'm, I'm definitely wanting to check it out.
Taylor: Oh, I am game. I'm gonna be bringing up [bleep] That's gonna be one that- [Willie laughs] that I'm doing in the next one. Same kind of stuff. I mean, I want us to play that, and I want to-I haven't played it in probably at least six months since the last time we got on there, but I would love to get in there, check out the DLC. If I remember correctly, all their DLC is absolutely free, which is amazing.
So you can play that for free, DLC for free. So that'll be one that I'm bringing up.
Joseph: Nice. I think it's gonna be awesome to continue this conversation and not try to limit it to a single episode. Just cause I think, I mean, I have three other games plus honorable mentions on my list right now that I don't even wanna mention if we're gonna continue the conversation. But I think it's probably a good idea to do so because we, we could just do this shit all day.
Taylor: Yeah. [laughs] Yeah. Seriously.
[Outro theme begins to fade in - Caribbean Arcade by Christian Nanzell]
Joseph: Yeah. It's awesome to hear and just reminisce about these games. And to anyone listening, thanks for joining us, and listening to us just talk about our favorite games and just kind of like, yeah, just hanging out, right? If you're here, then we definitely appreciate that and appreciate all the support. We hope you'll come back and listen to future episodes, so until then, take it easy.
Taylor: Peace.
Willie: Later.
[Outro theme continues - Caribbean Arcade by Christian Nanzell]
01:08:23
Joseph: Berries and Blades is an independent podcast created by Joseph Bullard, Willie Garza, and Taylor Garratt. Thanks for tuning in and consider subscribing if you enjoyed listening to this episode. You can also support us by telling your friends about the show, and we hope to see you in the next episode of Berries and Blades.
Until then, thanks again.
[Outro theme fades out - Caribbean Arcade by Christian Nanzell]
Taylor: [vocalizing sound effects] Eer-Omm, wa-wa-wa-wa [Joseph: pew pew pew pew] wa-wa-wa-wa “You are now listening to DBX 5 X, X, X.” Pew, pzew, wa-wa-wa-wa
Did that sound like Tom Cruise? [Joseph and Willie laugh] Like you're fucking watching War of the Worlds 2?