Outlaws, Dragons, and finally—there's an Assassin's Creed game that looks exciting to us. A lot is happening in 2024, so join us to recap some of the games we've played this year and discuss other games we're still looking forward to.
Outlaws, Dragons, and finally—there's an Assassin's Creed game that looks exciting to us. A lot is happening in 2024, so join us to recap some of the games we've played this year and discuss other games we're still looking forward to.
In this episode, we follow up on everything we mentioned in episode 26—Games We Want to Play in 2024. A lot happened in the first half of the year, and we were excited to see showcases by Microsoft, Playstation, Nintendo, Ubisoft, and Summer Games Fest. Willie gives his thoughts on Tales of Kenzera: Zau, Taylor reveals which game he's looking forward to more between Star Wars: Outlaws and Black Myth: Wukong, and Joseph makes a case for why he thinks we should run across Mandalorians in Star Wars: Outlaws. But, before all of this, we get side-tracked by an article on The Verge about how difficult ELDEN RING: Shadow of the Erdtree is. Also, console gaming is > than PC gaming...WHAT, FOO!
Here's the full transcript for this episode.
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00:00:00
[Alienated by ELFL plays in background]
Joseph: I think this is right before that. This is when they're, well, obviously they're fighting each other for Mandalore, but at the same or maybe it's right... yeah, you could be right. It's right after they scattered, but you would come into contact with Mandalorians throughout these different systems, right?
Like you might run across them. Some of them might be bounty hunters or had taken those types of jobs and roles because they have been scattered because of what... everything that's going on on Mandalore and fighting with the empire.
Taylor: People are more familiar with the Mandalorians than ever now. Um, who have been in that universe and watch the show and just how good they did with those. And also the Boba Fett show. Like both of those were, was that a show? Did I just make that up?
[Willie laughing]
Joseph: Yeah, Book of Boba-
Willie: There was.
Joseph: -Book of Boba Fett.
Taylor: Was there also a Boba Fett show? [Josepha and Taylor laugh] Okay. For a second, I thought I totally made up a new show, but both of those, like I knew very little about the Mandalorians other than I knew I loved Boba Fett.
[Alienated by ELFL fades out]
[Intro theme plays - Tiger Tracks by Lexica]
00:01:10
Joseph: What's up, everyone? Welcome to Berries and Blades. Thanks for tuning in for a casual conversation about video games. My name is Joseph, and I'm here with my friends, Willie and Taylor, and we're just three guys wondering if Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree, is too hard. But, I digress. What's up, y'all?
Taylor: What's up, man? I would definitely throw out there that it is very hard. I don't think it's too hard, I think it's just like, they made it almost like getting into the game fresh again. All the enemies are little bit tougher. Like, I find myself, um, uh, we, we agreed not to disclose certain things because we do want to talk about this episode.
Or this, uh, DLC at length in the future. But I have gone back with some of the arts and weapons that I've picked up along the way to the original Lands Between, and barely anything has stood a chance against them. So, it is hard as hell, but I feel like they're giving us the tools we need to get through it, if we can use them correctly.
Been a lot of fun, though.
Joseph: Yeah, I should mention to something we were talking about off air. I brought this up because I saw an article on The Verge that was basically saying that Miyazaki knows it's a hard game and it was intended to be that hard. But the person that wrote the article was like, I can't beat Rellana.
Taylor: Mm.
Joseph: And it's like, not even with the tools that the game gives me. And I'm like, really?
Willie: Was this like, even with a summon?
Joseph: I think so. Yeah.
Willie: Or like the NPC summon?
Joseph: Yeah, I think it was-
Taylor: Wow.
Joseph: -with everything you can do in the game. Like, summon, Leda. Yeah, they even mentioned the Mimic Tear ash.
Taylor: Isn't that a direct insult to yourself if [Willie chuckles] you're calling yourself in and [Joseph chuckles] your build is so poor that you and your build cannot beat it?
Willie: Yeah, I think that's, that's strange.
Joseph: I'm just not having that experience with the game. Like, it's hard. It took me, I don't know, 10 tries. Probably at least to beat Rellana, but every time I fought her, I was able to make adjustments that-
Willie: Yeah.
Joseph: -helped me get just a-
Taylor: Similar.
Joseph: -little farther, a little farther, a little farther, do a little bit more damage. Oh sure, occasionally you just get wrecked like immediately because of bad sequence of her moveset.
Taylor: Or just not knowing the boss, obviously you go in there the first time and you get wrecked because you just don't know who even you're fighting.
Joseph: Yeah.
Taylor: You got to learn who they are and how they fight.
Joseph: But for me so far, maybe I'm not far enough in DLC. Maybe that's the thing. I'm not far enough to really experience difficult stuff, but there's always a way to switch your weapon to maybe equip a different talisman. To use a different spirit ash, if you're in an area where you can or do something, right? Use a weapon that has more range, use some-
Willie: Yeah.
Joseph: -incantations that give you buffs. I think there's plenty and enough freedom in the game where you can figure out a way to get past it.
Willie: Yeah. I wonder if, if some of this is coming from people who refuse to play the game with spirit ashes or with the NP sum... NPC summons. Or like had a very specific build at the end of Elden Ring. And they're like, no, I'm going to keep using this build with this talisman with this, and I don't use incantations or sorceries, so I'm pure melee.
Joseph: I don't think so, man.
Willie: And restricting themselves. Like, I don't understand how... I haven't experienced that yet myself. Stuff has been hard, and this is where people are, people are so weird about this game that they're like, using summons as easy mode or something, or it's cheating or whatever, it's like, they built a game with all of these tools so you could choose how you want to play the game.
I can understand why you set certain restrictions on yourself, but why are you going to criticize how someone else is doing it, you know?
Taylor: Or put it into hard mode for yourself and then complain about the hard mode that you yourself have created.
Willie: And I don't know if that's true. Like, you know, Joey seems hesitant on that idea. I'm saying all that cause I haven't experienced that moment of like, shit, I can't do this. I guess I'm-
Taylor: I agree.
Willie: -at a boss right now that is like that, that I'm like, I got to figure something out different. And I've tried a few different tactics, but I've probably not played them more than like 10 times.
Joseph: I fought, forgetting the boss's name in Lies of P, the Furnace Boss.
Willie: Mm hmm.
Taylor: Oh, yeah.
Joseph: I can't remember his name because too many fucking NPC names running through my head lately. But I did that 30 times. It took me 30 times to complete that boss fight. And that was a no throwables, a no summon, really a no nothing outside of just straight up melee. But I wasn't complaining about it.
You know, I wasn't saying this game is too hard because I can't do it with the most limited resources I can possibly think of. Therefore, this game is too hard. They should have made it easier. They did. Because you can summon NPCs. Because you can summon Spirit Ashes.
Taylor: Mm-hmm.
Joseph: Because you can bring a co op player to fight with you. Like, that is literally how they made the game easier for people if it seems too hard.
Willie: Yeah, the reason you had to bring up the Verge article is because I was wondering where this came from because I had just today too before we had gotten on had heard this sentiment that like the game is too hard. And I was like, really?
That's that's what people are taking away. Like, I understand that it is hard. And supposedly there there's at least a boss or two that is harder than anything else that we've seen so far in Elden Ring. But I'm like avoiding spoilers. So I couldn't tell you what that was. And I wouldn't try to spoil that for anybody.
So far, I'm basically through half of the bosses that I know that exist in this game, the main bosses, like remembrance bosses, and it's, uh, it's difficult, but it's fun still. And using all of the tools that are at my disposal-
Taylor: That's it.
Willie: -nothing has been like, shit, I'm never going to be able to do this sort of, or like, this is taking too long.
Taylor: That's what got me was that I, when we started this DLC. I had hundreds of items that I didn't even know what they were. I didn't even know what items I've had. It's been six months since we played it or longer.
Joseph: Dude, that was two years ago.
Taylor: Okay. Well, it seems like six months and 10 years all at once, but it's forcing me to go through and reanalyze all of those items, all the gear, what can help me, what can amplify this, what has, what makes me lighter or whatever it is. They really did a good job of making you want to go back and go through every single thing and see if it can help you to be a boss or beat a section.
And I really like that. Like it's, it's reinvigorated my interest in the game in general. And I think that's cool.
Joseph: Yeah, I did the same thing because it had been so long. I was going back through all the equipment pieces. I was rereading descriptions just to kind of re familiarize myself with where some of these little bits of lore actually are and where they're stated in the game.
But circling back to what Willie said, Miyazaki said basically exactly what you just said. He thinks and believes that even though the game is difficult and they intend it to be difficult, obviously. It's from, FromSoftware so yeah, it's going to be difficult. You should know that coming into those games, but he basically said, we've given so much, we've given it so many tools, right?
There's so many different ways you can play it. You can create different builds or sorceries, incantations, melee weapons, ashes of war, spirit ashes. There's so many different things you can combine different ways to create a unique experience in the game.
Taylor: And plenty of tears to revamp, if you need-
Joseph: Exactly.
Taylor: -totally.
Joseph: He believes all of that stuff will equate to more fun than frustration. Even though the game is really difficult and that's basically what Willie was saying. He's like, yeah, it's fucking hard, but I'm having a lot of fun. It's like a good feeling to get your ass kicked in this game because you know, you have to go back to the drawing board sometimes and figure out a new strat or equip a different piece of gear or maybe even switch weapon types.
Maybe even level up a completely-
Taylor: Mm-hmm.
Joseph: -new weapon-
Taylor: Yep.
Joseph: -that is maybe going to give you an advantage over a certain boss.
Taylor: Which I'm doing, and it makes it so much more fun. Like, I had been using that flame sword from the initial game forever. And to actually pick up a new weapon or weapons that you say, whoa. I need to change everything about my build and everything I've, I'm used to in this game so that I can use this cool new style.
That's huge. I got to agree with him. Like I say, he nailed it. He really fucking nailed it.
Willie: Yeah. And I, I will just say generally, I've been having lots of fun with the game.
Joseph: Oh yeah, it's fucking awesome.
Willie: I don't think anyone who wants to play the game is on the fence listening to us talk about it.
Joseph: Right.
Willie: But I will say you should play it if you are considering it. I'm already like, I've put like 48 hours or something in so far. It might be a little more than that. I've explored a lot, but I still think there's even more exploration to do, and I do think that there's at least still half of the bosses to go. I don't know if that's going to equate to another 40 hours of playtime, but it very easily could.
So, in general, it's a well spent $40 for-
Joseph: Oh yeah.
Willie: -another, like, 80 hours of gameplay for me.
Joseph: Yeah. This is the best $40 I've spent in a long time. And it's on top of an incredible game.
Willie: Right.
Joseph: It's on-
Taylor: Mm-hmm.
Joseph: -top of an incredible game that I can still go back and spend 50 hours in because I didn't do anything, everything in the base game.
Willie: I think my total playtime through for this character is 192 now, or something like that, 192 hours, I think, with this character. So, that was me playing, leading up to the DLC, me playing, 144 hours of running around The Lands Between, just picking up everything I wanted to pick up, killing all of the bosses, and like, getting all of the storylines to completion, and just like, reacquainting myself with the game.
So anyway, lot of fun, time well spent.
Joseph: Yeah, more to come-
Taylor: Yep.
Joseph: -more to come on this game.
Taylor: Oh yeah.
Joseph: Maybe by then we will have finished and we can talk more about how the story concludes and in the lore and stuff like that and how they kind of wrap up.
Willie: Yeah.
00:10:25
Joseph: Miquella and you know, all the kinds of stuff that George R. R. Martin kind of put in place at the beginning.
But anyway, at the beginning of this year, we recorded a conversation about some of the new releases we were looking forward to in 2024. Well, somehow it's July, and since we're at the halfway point, we want to talk about the year so far and revisit some of the games we plan to play in the second half of 2024.
By the way, that, that beginning of the year episode I mentioned is episode 26, and it's called Games We Want to Play in 2024. Since then, there's been obviously a lot of new games, and we saw major showcases like PlayStation State of Play, the Xbox Showcase, Summer Games Fest, Nintendo Direct. Ubisoft forward, probably something from Bethesda that I didn't really care much about.
And at the time of this recording, we're on the heels of Summer Games Done Quick, which is, yeah, like happening in a few days. And there's still a lot more to come in 2024. Anyway, Willie, where do you think we should start?
Willie: That's a very good question. You know, we started the year by talking about that list of games we're looking forward to.
So I think If there's anything that's come out so far that you were able to play at this point, is there anything that stood out to you so far?
Joseph: Yeah.
Willie: Or any more news about something you were looking forward to and still haven't gotten to play?
Joseph: I think the games I was most looking forward to at the beginning of this year, some of them haven't come out like, uh, Black Myth and Star Wars Outlaws, which are do later this year.
Obviously Elden Ring, that was a big, big, big one, and it is spectacular right now, right in the middle of that, as you already heard. Not gonna spend any time talking about that, but Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, they announced an update to that, which I think might be September, I don't remember exactly, but there's a DLC for Prince of Persia.
That game is, it felt kind of flawless. I haven't played it probably in like months and I didn't finish it, but whenever I do get back to that game, I think it's going to be great. It's super polished, felt really good. Platforming, I think is on point. The combat is fun and I think it's surprisingly more complex than I thought it could be, how you can change combinations together, like during those fights and stuff, so that game and the game I didn't play, which I still am going to purchase and play is Tales of Kenzera, and I know you played that game, Willie.
Uh, you finished it, right?
Willie: Yeah, I did. I finished it and like, got all the achievements and everything.
Joseph: Nice.
Willie: So I think The Lost Crown is one I wanted to play, but regretfully have not done so yet. I think I've watched a little bit of gameplay, but not more than a 10 minute chunk at a time, you know? So I don't really know much more about the combat or the traversal system than I knew when we were just speculating.
But it sounds, sounds good, sounds cool. It also, I would say, with the ability to like, link stuff together that you sort of described, I feel like Tales of Kenzera does a really good job in its combat. I think they put a really cool move set and traversal system together. Like I like the powers that you have in Tales of Kenzera, but overall that game felt, I was very glad I finished it, but there were sections in the middle that felt almost like I was having to force myself to play it for like a couple of reasons.
Joseph: Mm.
Willie: Like I think the world they built is beautiful. I think the music is fucking amazing. The world itself though feels sort of empty sometimes, and maybe this is just like a product of recent metroidvania style games or even some souls like tendencies that have creeped into metroidvania type games where you clear a section of enemies and then you go rest at a fire or a grace or whatever, and then those enemies repopulate.
I don't know how often that happens in metroidvania style games. Five years ago versus now, but like Tales of Kenzera, that does not happen.
Joseph: Mm.
Willie: There's large amounts of times where you'll clear an area, but have to traverse through that area back and forth because you need a pickup or because you finally unlocked a door on the other side or because something like that and there's not enemies anymore and it feels like there's just a lot of running.
Joseph: Interesting.
Willie: And sometimes it's not even getting to like use the cool traversal moves. I mean, you can, you can sprint or dash or like jump and like whatever, but there's no point. You're just like running across a big open area and you get to see a beautiful backdrop while you do it. Get to listen to some nice music.
But the amount of times that you like have to go open a shortcut or go trigger a door to open by hitting a lever somewhere else and then run back across the map, even to get back to the fast travel points, which aren't the like, I'm pretty sure, like, aren't the same rest stops, but maybe they, I guess they are the same rest stops, but that's not where you change your talismans or like upgrade your points or anything like that.
Like, that's not... those things are all separate entities. And there's a lot of running back and forth. I feel like that's kind of sometimes feels unnecessary or like unrewarded. And it's funny because we talked about Another Crab's Treasure, and that was sort of one of my complaints about that. And I was playing these two games at the same time.
So I think I might've misremembered the way I was thinking about one game versus the other, because Another Crab's Treasure isn't empty in the same way that I'm talking about that this game is, in the terms of like, you clear a spot and then like there's just nothing to do. And I think it is the same difficulty spike.
The game's really, really kind of easy. Like the combat is very fluid. So it's pretty easy to dispatch enemies until it's not suddenly you're in a room with lots of enemies, multiple waves of enemies, and then you just have to be on point with your combat or you'll die pretty quickly. And that's okay.
Like that makes it fun. But it is interesting that there's huge swaths of ground between really hard fights. And like, the next difficult fight.
Joseph: So that's true about both games then. Because we said that about Another Crab's Treasure.
Willie: And I, and what I'm saying is I don't remember if I like-
Joseph: I think that is true.
Willie: -if I actually felt that way about Another Crab's Treasure, as far as the emptiness goes between.
Joseph: Oh yeah.
Willie: I know the difficulty spike is definitely there.
Joseph: Right, right. Yeah, that's the part I was, I was talking about.
Willie: Yeah, yeah, the difficulty spike is definitely the same in that way. I will say that the bosses in Tales of Kenzera, the enemy design is cool, oh I'm crashing so I'm gonna have to come back, and I'll have to remember.
Joseph: Crash break.
Taylor: Ha, crashing.
Joseph: Crash break.
Taylor: Alright, I'm gonna grab another drink, perfect.
00:16:40
Willie: The bosses in that game are interesting because I think they're really well designed but they're also pretty easy. Again, I think because the combat is so well done, as far as how many powers you have and what you can do, I don't think it took more than, like, a couple of tries for any particular boss. I think maybe at most, five tries was, like, the most.
And there aren't that many bosses, though, either, but I think most of them were one shots. And then one of them might have taken like three tries and that was because I made really simple mistakes that should have easily been avoided. I just didn't know, I didn't know what the attack was because it was the first time I had seen it and I just wasn't sure like I didn't know my power could do the thing it could do.
Joseph: So in other words, if you are playing the Elden Ring DLC and struggling, and you think the game is too hard, give Tales of Kenzera: Zau a shot. [Joseph and Willie chuckle]
Willie: Yeah, it'd definitely be easier. You know, I liked the game by the time I was done, like I said, but it was, I had to sort of push myself to go through it. I think there's a couple reasons why.
Especially in the end game, there are some chase sequences. And while they built really cool combat and a really cool traversal system, like there's a like hookshot sort of thing that you have, I forgot what all the stuff is called because it's been months since I played the game. You like have this thing you shoot out and it latches onto these specific anchor points in the world and like slingshots you across the room.
Or like you have this dash that will break through certain blocks, or you have this one power that will build or deconstruct certain power blocks in the world. If you're in a chase sequence, you might have to break down this wall with your dash, or you might have to construct a platform with this other power, or you might like, like, have to, um, use the hook shot to slingshot yourself into a way where you can use the dash to break through a wall.
That traversal system is really good, but sometimes it just doesn't work, and that's, it's frustrating in the chase sequences. And also in the way the chase sequences are built, that like, you can get really far ahead of the thing that's chasing you, like in one instance it's lava, but it doesn't matter how far ahead you get, you'll get to another point where there's a checkpoint, where the lava immediately catches back up to you again, and you're a certain distance from it always, so you just have to stay right ahead, and sometimes the buttons don't react in the way that you think.
There's one thing, I think, where you hold the trigger and then dash to, like, break through bricks or whatever. And sometimes holding the trigger and hitting the dash button doesn't do that for some reason. For some reason, it just doesn't respond. Even though your character freezes in air, the dash doesn't work.
Or sometimes you just don't freeze your character in the air when you hold the trigger. I don't know, it's hard to describe without you actually seeing it. But it also felt like sometimes the hitbox for things was just off. You know how in most games, if there's like a pit of lava below you and you're just standing on a ledge, you could probably walk up to the edge of the ledge and like, hang a foot over the edge.
Like if you're trying to time a jump, you want to get all the way to the edge of the ledge first. But sometimes, you would like, walk over to the ledge, and your foot would start to hang over the edge, and then you'd die. It's like the hitbox for the lava was taking up that space even though you weren't touching it or something.
And it was like, very weird in that way.
Joseph: Right.
Willie: Overall, the story is good. I think it, the story is a little, paced a little weird for me, but by the end it's like, oh shit, this is like, I like the story it's telling. And overall, I'm excited to see if they do more. If they do more, I'm gonna, I'm gonna check it out and hope that they just improve on an already sort of good formula.
I think they have the base of what could be a really good game. It's just kind of middle of the pack.
Joseph: It'll be interesting to see what happens in a future game, their next game, just to see how, you know, they improve and. How they can make a better game.
Willie: And I'm wondering if it'll be the same style.
Joseph: Yeah, who knows?
Willie: Because it's, it's a new studio started by a person who wanted to make this game for his father, you know, and I think, I think that's just a cool creation of this sort of project.
Joseph: Mm-hmm.
Willie: But I also wonder if it started as a platformer because it was easiest for a small team to make, or if, because this is just really the style of game they played together, or the style that he loves most.
So I just wonder, what's next? Is it another platformer? Is it a, somehow, a continuation of the story that's told? Or is it something completely different? Because they can make whatever they want.
00:20:59
Joseph: [chuckles] Yeah. Uh, Taylor, I have a question for you. I know these are two very different types of games, but you have expressed interest in both. So, which game are you looking forward to more? Star Wars Outlaws or Black Myth Wukong?
Taylor: Ooh, that's a tough question to answer because I do love open world games. I would say probably Wukong simply because I'm such a big fan of souls like games in general. It really is a Venn diagram of stuff that I like: the souls like game, the open world, the weirdness, you know, I like weird stuff and the moment I saw him pull a weapon out of his ear.
I was like, okay, this is immediately. I'm super interested. Show me everything you've [chuckles] got and-
Joseph: Yeah, where else can you pull a weapon out of?
Taylor: [laughing] Yeah, dude, did the greatswords come out of the ass? Like what's gonna happen here? And, but I think that's the only reason that that one takes precedent here because Outlaws looks really cool too.
I think that just the delve back into Elden Ring has really relit that fire for me, that I'm ready for a new, just turn on the game, start screen into a new souls like adventure. I'm open to that. And while, we did try that with Lords of the Fallen. That one I think had too many flaws in it. While it was still good at its core, still a pretty cool engine, had too many flaws for me.
Mainly the inability to find other people to play the game, or you didn't have a mimic tear, or rather ashes to call in or summon or anything to help if you couldn't. So there's definitely a void right there that could be easily filled by Wukong, and I'm really looking forward to it. That last demo we saw was incredible and it, it got me super interested, but I will play Outlaw as well, without a doubt.
Joseph: Wukong could be the perfect filler game in between the Elden Ring DLC and Lies of P DLC.
Taylor: Yeah, they, and nowadays you really have to have your marketing on point like that and your release windows and all of that is super important to get out there whenever you can fill a void and suddenly sell a ton of copies. Because there's nothing else like it out there, especially right when people come off of the back of DLC on Elden Ring and are suddenly looking for something else to play.
Boom, Wukong comes out. I think that one's going to have a really strong, uh, reception. And stylistically, the weapons, everything I've seen about it looks great.
Joseph: The combat looks good. I really hope no one fucked around and try to release any type of sword play combat real time action game during the Elden Ring DLC because yeah, that ain't gonna get played.
Taylor: Well, when we saw Rise of the Ronin, I'll say that was one that I was excited for, but for me to buy one on PS5, which is not my primary place to play anyways, it has got to be super solid. And from what I remember, the reviews for that one came out a little late, like they fell on their face a little bit.
It's been a few months now, three months since it came out. But um, I was really excited about that one, but seeing the reviews immediately made me hold off and think well, whenever you put it on the, whatever the PlayStation Game Pass is called, or bring it to Xbox, like that may be a perfect kind of title to bring to Xbox and put on the Game Pass.
Something to that effect. Get a lot more players in there who don't have to pay a premium 70, 70 price. I think that one was.
Joseph: I don't know. Maybe.
Taylor: That's just, it's not something I can do right now for a middle of the road game.
Joseph: Yeah.
Taylor: And that's unfortunate because that one looked like it had really cool, almost Yakuza level storytelling going on in there and moments of it from the videos I saw definitely had a feel of a Ghost of Tsushima, but evidently it just didn't, didn't do the same things or, or didn't hit people the same way that that one did.
Joseph: Yeah, that's a game I really wanted to play. I just don't have a PS5, so.
Willie: Yeah.
Taylor: Well that too. Yeah, that was only PS5. It wasn't a multi. Yeah, that's yeah I hope that that one they fix a lot of things if that was what was wrong with it and also make it a little more widely available to people because I would like to check it out. But I'm not gonna pay 70 or probably even 30 to check it out.
Joseph: I would like to check it out, but I'm not going to pay 600-
[Joseph and Willie laugh]
Willie: Yeah.
Joseph: -to buy the game and a PS5.
Taylor: [laughs] Yeah, the ultimate price, some might say.
Joseph: At least not right now, so I think that one for me is going on the, it's really on the back burner. Like I'm not going to watch anybody play it. I'm not going to watch any gameplay footage. If I get a-
Taylor: Same.
Joseph: -PS5 in the future or somehow it makes it onto Xbox, then, then I'll play it. But for now, it's just kind of on the back burner since there are other good things coming out.
00:25:48
Joseph: And honestly, what, what could fill that gap for me is the new Assassin's Creed game, which is-
Taylor: Oh yeah.
Joseph: -probably the first Assassin's Creed that I've ever felt any excitement for.
Taylor: What's the name of that one?
Joseph: Something Shadow, I think.
Willie: Assassin's Creed Shadows, right?
Joseph: Is that it? Is it just Shadows?
Willie: I think that's it, yeah.
Taylor: That one looked good. And it, it makes so much sense because to... just the original Assassin's Creed games, if you think about them, I'm sure there were assassins back in those days, but were they jumping off of buildings and stabbing people or where they more putting poison in their drink and all that kind of bullshit and then stabbing them, you know, actually in the Shadows.
Is that one Edo Japan? Is that where that takes place or pre Edo-
Joseph: I don't know.
Taylor: -or something? I just feel like it's ripe for that kind of action for, you know, and, uh, just badass assassin to come out of a clan of crazy ninja or, or whatever the story may be. I'm excited about that one too. And I, I like Assassin's Creed games in general, and that one is the most excited I've ever been for one.
Joseph: At least from the, um, the showcase, Ubisoft Forward, they had some, it was like an extended gameplay segment where they were showing a little bit of the story and it had some combat and they were showing some of the combat mechanics.
I kind of got the feeling already that they're going to overuse slow motion in the combat scenes, like embedded within the action itself. I think they might overuse that almost like in a 300 kind of way.
Taylor: Oh, I hope they don't.
Willie: I wonder if it's a Batman style thing though, where it's like gives you time to like reposition the camera so you're ready for the next hit sort of thing.
Joseph: Maybe, they didn't present it that way because it wasn't free flow combat, it was a one on one battle, and it seemed like they were trying to use it to enhance the combat scene, but I kind of feel like it could disrupt the fluidity of the combat for me, but it could still be really cool, and I think it's a slightly different take on not doing that.
I think my perception of it is that I think I'd have to go in it expecting the combat to not be as good as Ghost of Tsushima, you know, since we're talking about like a samurai style game. Like, I'm just going in knowing that, like, this isn't going to be as good as Ghost of Tsushima, so now I can play it and not be too let down because the combat isn't going to be as polished as Ghost of Tsushima, and I kind of feel that way about Star Wars Outlaws. Like, I feel like when comparing Black Myth to Star Wars Outlaws,
I think Black Myth will be a more polished game because one is action combat oriented and the other is more of like a shooter and, you know, shooter, stealth, open world, drive around on a speeder.
Taylor: Space combat.
Joseph: I feel like Wukong will have a much higher level of polish because it, it's necessary for that style of game, you know, for a souls like game.
Taylor: Like they're trying to keep that frame rate just perfect-
Joseph: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Taylor: -and as good as can be, things like that whereas with something like Outlaw, you're talking about getting in a ship and flying into space. There's probably going to be some frame rate issues behind that if I had to guess, some things that are going to pop up that you're going to forgive because it's such a cool adventure to begin with.
Willie: Yeah.
Taylor: Like you just want to have the adventure.
Willie: I'm really curious about that game. Like if I, if I had been asked that same question, my answer is Star Wars Outlaws.
Taylor: I would have assumed that.
Willie: As much as I love. You know, playing souls likes lately, and I love what for the same things that Taylor said, Wukong just looks interesting. Like Black Myth Wukong looks like a really interesting world based on a story that's like on some mythology that seems cool. I don't know enough about to actually comment on it, but the world looks amazing in, in just the trailers we've seen so far.
But, uh, I'm a Star Wars nerd and they've had some missteps obviously, but I also, I still enjoy all of it in some way, shape, or form. I'm curious to play this game. I'm worried about it only because I honestly never finished, uh, Jedi.
Joseph: Oh, really?
Willie: Fallen Order?
Joseph: No, no, Survivor.
Willie: And I didn't finish it. Survivor?
Taylor: Yeah, Survivor. The last one.
Willie: Jedi Survivor, I never finished because I had to uninstall it because my computer just wouldn't do it well.
Taylor: Oh, that's a bummer.
Joseph: Console greater than PC, dawg.
Willie: The thing is, I think it's-
Taylor: Get outta here.
Willie: -it's not even just my, my computer, like, it just wasn't running well on anyone's computer.
Taylor: Sounds like it's not optimized.
Joseph: Mm hmm.
Willie: There's just so many, there's so many frame rate issues that it just, like, in something where you have to be precise with button presses in fighting style, like, it doesn't, it's not good.
00:30:15
Taylor: I have a question for you. So, as a Star Wars fan, and a lot of Star Wars games fan as well, would you be cool with it if at the end of that one you find out that the main character is a Jedi? Or like, what would your preference be for an-
Willie: Sure.
Taylor: -ending on something like that?
Willie: That would be, that would be disappointing, I think.
Taylor: [laughs] That's the general consensus I saw-
Joseph: Yeah, I'd be disappointed too.
Taylor: And I, I didn't have anything to base it on or anything or like counter with so I was curious what your thoughts would be on that too.
Willie: It's both cool and a problem that this world is so big and there's so much lore over the years to pull from and to tell stories in like, there's a universe that exists that has so much potential for stories to tell. And sometimes, obviously the biggest gripe about things is that we continue pulling from the same family line to tell the same stories in like different ways.
That's like a huge complaint about it. I don't necessarily mind that, but I do think on the other end, like why not tell a story that is completely disconnected from that, that doesn't have to touch on anything else that you don't have to see characters that we've seen before, but you could still give more backstory that does like influence everything else.
Taylor: True.
Willie: Do more world building with these other stories so that the next time there's a movie that it's more enhanced or going back to rewatch a movie or like, oh, I understand this culture more or this like planet that we'd never seen. Like that's where that alien came from. I know that that whole planet is all about this one particular thing that they do.
Like it's more world building, but like sometimes they just don't capitalize on that world building. And then there's the whole, you know, as a Star Wars fan, like what's canon versus what not, what got taken out of canon. And then why did they try to put back in stuff, but not do it in the same, similar way or like, water it down or like whatever.
Taylor: We've seen them be successful too sometimes with the more gritty, non Jedi side of things too, Andor, and, um, one of the movies that's escaping me right now that a lot of people liked, it was
Willie: the-
Rogue One, yeah.
Taylor: -Rogue One. Yeah, exactly. So I wouldn't mind at all. And it's also cool being a normal person in that world and meeting Jedi and things like that. You know-
Willie: Yeah.
Taylor: -you're not one, but they are and it opens up a whole world of possibility. Where those people can help you or hurt you or whatever it might be.
Joseph: I would say for this game, Outlaws, since it is obviously you're Kay Vess, you are someone who is not force sensitive. You're someone who's not connected to the Jedi in any way, at least, going into the game. It's all about the criminal underworld, right? It's about the different factions that run the galaxy.
I think if you're setting the stage for the story in this way, you can't finish the game off with like the moment at the end of Fallen Order, you know? Like, you can't do this criminal underworld game with [Taylor chuckles] nobodies and then at the very end fucking-
Taylor: Yeah.
Joseph: -swoop the Jedi in. Like, they better not do something like that.
Taylor: The end is her hand and it's like, [Willie chuckles] it pulls the, [laughing] it pulls the-
Joseph: Right. [chuckles]
Taylor: -fucking lightsaber or something.
Willie: Okay. So similarly related then, another hypothetical. Boba Fett shows up at the end.
Joseph: Well, if you have Mandalorians in the game that fits like in the-
Taylor: Hell yeah.
Joseph: -timeline, that fits-
Taylor: Hell yeah.
Joseph: -between Empire and Return of The Jedi. So there really should be Mandalorians in this game because they were at the height of their odds with the fucking Empire. Like, this is the time where they're really fighting back against the Empire. So if there were Mandalorians, that would be fucking legit.
Taylor: And the show, showed that it can be done. That show was amazing. That's my favorite piece of Star Wars ever.
Willie: Is that true though? Most of the Mandalorians are scattered at this point.
00:33:52
Joseph: I think this is right before that. This is when they're, well, obviously they're fighting each other for Mandalore, but at the same or maybe it's right... yeah, you could be right. It's right after they scattered, but you would come into contact with Mandalorians throughout these different systems, right?
Like you might run across them. Some of them might be bounty hunters or had taken those types of jobs and roles because they have been scattered because of what... everything that's going on on Mandalore and fighting with the empire.
Taylor: People are more familiar with the Mandalorians than ever now. Um, who have been in that universe and watch the show and just how good they did with those. And also the Boba Fett show. Like both of those were, was that a show? Did I just make that up?
[Willie laughing]
Joseph: Yeah, Book of Boba-
Willie: There was.
Joseph: -Book of Boba Fett.
Taylor: Was there also a Boba Fett show? [Josepha and Taylor laugh] Okay. For a second, I thought I totally made up a new show, but both of those, like I knew very little about the Mandalorians other than I knew I loved Boba Fett.
And just that story and the story of a father and a son, you know, and in a huge galaxy, I think it's ripe to right now to do something like that and have Mandalorians in it, even if just one, it would seem crazy not to have that in there.
Joseph: Bro. You want to make this game great, put some fucking Tusken Raiders in this, on Tatooine.
Taylor: Hey, yeah, dude. I... that's gotta be right. Have they talked about how open world it will be? Like, will you be able to cruise out in space and go find...
Joseph: Well there's dog fights and stuff like that and missions that you can stumble across and help people with.
Taylor: But did they show any intergalactic travel or like map travel or anything like that?
Joseph: Not really.
Taylor: I haven't watched the...
Joseph: So at Summer Games Fest, I think they had, they had a demo that people could play and it was like three missions and each mission was limited to, I think, about 20 minutes a piece.
Taylor: Hmm.
Joseph: And I eventually came across an art... and there were a lot of people reporting on this, you know, people from the press that had access to the game and they all had these restrictions placed on them to play that much.
And so there were a lot of people kind of reporting on the same thing, right? Like, man, it looks great. And they've done a real good job of creating the world. And especially like on Tatooine and it looks like it should look like, but we didn't really get to ride around on the speeder very much and we couldn't really play the open world parts of the game in the demo.
They basically shut it down to just those three missions, because I think they were primarily trying to illustrate and demonstrate the things that Kay Vess can do, the base mechanics of the game. The stealthiness components, like the shooting, and then introduce some of like the cutscenes and dialogue. But for the most part, people were disappointed in that experience because they didn't get to do more.
And I don't know if that's-
Taylor: Of course.
Joseph: Yeah, yeah. yeah.
Taylor: In the world of-
Joseph: Exactly.
Taylor: -obvious news.
Joseph: I don't know if that was more of Ubisoft trying to not showcase the open world because that shit isn't polished or they're just not trying to reveal too much, too early. And put those restrictions in place, you know, in that way.
Taylor: That's a real tough call because you know that they sit tight on the story, the lore, the spoilers, things like that. They do not want that out in the wild at all. And the way that people break into Star Wars IP in general, whenever that stuff comes out.
You could also see them just being super closed up about it. This is all you can play. This is all you get. Even if it's perfect and polished.
Joseph: Yeah. Yeah. I don't mind it at all, man. Like, I think they should control the narrative because especially today, right? Where we have content creators, you know, on YouTube, TikTok that are reporting on every little fucking bit of news that you can come across. The narrative can be written before the game even comes out.
People can fucking bash it. People can praise it. People can change the way other people feel about a game before it even hits the shelf. So I don't mind at all, especially such a big IP that they're trying to control the narrative and keep it on, you know, a bit of a lockdown so that the world doesn't get too wild with speculation and theories and stuff like that before we even get a chance to play the game.
Taylor: Even on top of that, Disney. Disney has like so much, so much like a turmoil, I guess would be the word right now, just in so many different places and so many different things. I could see them not even messing around at all with allowing people to speculate. Or giving them anything, any fuel for the fire, if you will.
Willie: Just so you know, while I was listening to all that, I also had to be looking up [Taylor laughs] what the timeline was for, uh, the Purge of Mandalore and when they would have scattered.
Joseph: What'd you find out?
Willie: Uh, and that doesn't take place until sometime between 4 ABY and 5 ABY.
Joseph: Okay. And I think the game is 2, 3 ABY.
Willie: 2 to 3. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Cause, well, I think Return of the Jedi takes place in four and Empire Strikes Back takes place in three. The Mandalorians are still around for sure, like in full force on Mandalore at that point.
Taylor: What is ABY again?
Joseph: After the Battle of Yavin, I think.
Willie: Yeah, the Battle of Yavin is what happens at the end of Episode IV, Star Wars. Like the first Star Wars film. That's considered-
Taylor: Okay.
Willie: -year zero, basically. is ABY. Zero ABY is the Battle of Yavin, right? Uh, which-
Taylor: I'll look it up.
Willie: -is Star Wars [Taylor chuckles] Episode IV.
Joseph: I'll ask AI.
Willie: It's the first, uh, it's the first [Joseph and Taylor laughing] destruction of the Death Star.
Taylor: It'll tell me wrong.
Joseph: How did they build the Death Star?
Taylor: Oh, okay. [laughs]
Joseph: Death Star number one.
Taylor: Well, it was done with, uh, paperclips and-
Joseph: Storm guys and, uh, you know, a black ball. [Taylor chuckles]
Willie: The first assault and destruction of the Death Star is like considered the year zero sort of thing.
Taylor: Okay. That makes sense.
00:39:07
Joseph: Oh, actually, before we move away from Star Wars Outlaws and Black Myth, I did want to mention if there are any Black Myth Wukong enthusiasts out there that GameScience, who is the team behind Black Myth, announced recently that they have delayed the game on Xbox for optimizations.
And it won't release on August 20th with the release on PC and PS5.
Taylor: Hmm.
Joseph: That's the latest news I heard about Black Myth. But moving on-
Taylor: Did they say how long it'll be or it's like...?
Joseph: No, it's indefinite at the moment, so who knows.
Taylor: Oh wow, it must've been some pretty glaring issues then if that was the case.
Joseph: There's some back and forth between like Microsoft and Game Science and whether or not a deal with PlayStation was involved and that kind of slow things down.
Willie: Yeah.
Taylor: That would be the first thing that people assume for sure.
Willie: Before I even saw that announcement, I was under the impression it was another one of those games that I wasn't even going to get to play-
Joseph: Me too.
Willie: -cause it wasn't even going to be on Xbox.
Taylor: Yeah, me too.
Joseph: I had the thought it was a PS5 exclusive.
Willie: Yeah. So it's cool that they said that, or they, or at least saying like, hey it's going to be a little bit, but that is coming to XBox cause I do think it is another one like, I would play it for sure.
Joseph: Mm-hmm. But, uh, yeah, moving past those two games. Willie, I was going to ask you, did you watch like the 20 minute extended gameplay for Dragon Age: The Veilguard?
Willie: Uh, I watched like the first 10 minutes of it, I think.
Joseph: Okay.
Willie: I put it on one day when Barbara and I were like sitting down to like eat dinner, but we didn't, we didn't finish.
Joseph: Oh dude, you gotta finish that. That shit's pretty epic, dude.
Willie: We watched like the first combat and stuff, but we didn't watch past, it was like literally like 10 and a half minutes of the 20 minute stuff.
Joseph: You should finish it, man. In that trailer, that gameplay, it's the beginning of the game, I think. They made the beginning of this game like the ending of a game.
Taylor: Hmm.
Joseph: It's pretty fucking epic, and it's dramatic, and I'm like, okay, you got my attention. Well, the combat too, like, it's more of like a real time action combat, so, it got my attention for that immediately, but then I watched all of that 20 minutes, and by the end of it, I was like, damn, this shit starts with the bang.
Willie: I think what I started to wonder about that immediately, there's two big things. One, there's one part of the reason that we stopped watching that I'll explain. And two, the other thing that I'm worrying about the combat is, I wonder if you, if it's like Inquisition and that you can switch between the modes of being more real time versus doing the, what the fuck's it called?
Command or something like that where you're like move the camera and you can slow down things so you can like do one attack at a time.
Do you remember Taylor what that's called?
Taylor: Yeah, yeah, they, I don't know. I don't remember the name, but I do remember that they turned it into more of an RPG based system where you could, you can have it more action oriented or you could straight up be the commander and it's almost a real time strategy.
I totally forgot about that until you just brought it up.
Joseph: This game is less of that, for sure. I think you could play the game only in real time action and not ever pull up the pause menu.
Willie: Yeah, but you could do that, that's what I'm saying, you could do that in the other one. You didn't have to do that.
Joseph: Right, right, like in Inquisition, right.
Willie: Right, so that's what I'm wondering, if like, you can still do that. I wonder if they didn't move away.
Joseph: Yeah, you can do it.
Taylor: Hmm.
Joseph: You can still do it in, in The Veilguard. But I don't know the combat, it seems more fluid and maybe there is something that is actually a differentiator between what happened in Inquisition and what's happening in The Veilguard.
I don't remember exactly what it is, but it seems like it's slightly more heavy in the real time combat than in the ability to either look at the battlefield overhead and more of a strategy sense or in the Inquisition side where you can like pause the game for just, it's kind of like Mass Effect. It seems like it's Mass Effect.
Taylor: Yeah.
Willie: I mean, it's exactly that. That's the system that had existed before.
Joseph: Well, you know, which makes sense coming out of Bioware.
Taylor: They probably based that on user data. Like that's probably an obvious statement, but I'm wondering if they saw that not many people maybe use that. Whenever I played through Inquisition I almost never use that unless a situation was so difficult that I couldn't handle it in more of an action type gameplay mode.
Then I would kind of use it. But even when I did, I didn't feel great about it. And that's just because I'm not into real time strategy unless it's a real time strategy that really speaks to me and it's perfect for me. I don't want to play anything that way.
Joseph: There's a better name for what we're talking about, you know, than real time strategy. There's a better phrase for it.
Taylor: Yeah, commander something, or...
Joseph: I don't know what that is, but when you say real time strategy, we're now, we're just talking about a totally different genre.
Taylor: Yeah, but that's the feel it had to me.
Willie: So what you're talking about is turn based, right? More turn based than anything else-
Joseph: And it's not even that.
Willie: -but it's not even turn based.
Joseph: It's a blend of like-
Willie: Yeah.
Joseph: -being able to slow down time, pick your shot, and then resume fluid combat.
Willie: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's what's existed in all of Bioware games, right?
Joseph: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Willie: That's the other thing I was going to say, like, you were talking about if a Jedi shows up, you're going to be upset at the end of Outlaws. Yes. But if they fucking released a Knights of the Old Republic fucking remaster [Joseph chuckles] next week, I'd be all over that shit.
Joseph: Yeah, yeah..
Willie: I would spend hundreds of hours playing that, and that, that combat is that. That's the-
Joseph: Oh yeah, yeah.
Willie: -same style as Mass Effect where you pick your targets, you do. The old school shit was based on a D20 system, like it was Dungeons and Dragons, except with the Star Wars skin.
Taylor: That's true.
Joseph: To backpedal a little bit, the Star Wars Outlaw, Jedi thing, I think it, it would kind of suck that they had to resort to doing that. You know, like some Jedi shit at the end of the game, but if they still executed it well-
Willie: Yeah.
Joseph: -I could still be happy with the outcome.
Willie: Yeah, for sure.
00:44:31
Joseph: But um, Dragon Age I think was the biggest surprise of the showcases. That's the game that I'm looking forward to, and it's the most surprising to look forward to that game. I'm a little hesitant about the art direction. I think I preferred more of the Inquisition style, more realistic approach to like the world and the characters, less illustrative and stylized.
But if the combat is nice, and I think the story I mean, most people go to Dragon Age games for the storytelling to begin with, and not the combat. I think if the combat's a little bit better, and a little bit more in line with what I enjoy, then I think I could totally play that game.
Willie: Slightly related to that, I do think the art style is weird. I think the art style of the trailer was like, definitely didn't do anything for me. The way that it almost felt like they were showing off a Borderlands game versus a Dragon Age game, with the pause on the screen name flashing up sort of stuff-
Joseph: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Willie: -felt weird to me.
Taylor: Mm-hmm.
Willie: I like the city, the environment that they built, but the, some of the visuals look weird. But the other reason that we stopped watching that trailer, and maybe shouldn't even say this till we paused it, But Barbara with Dragon Age Inquisition never finished it because just the way the game looks like hurts her eyes and gives her a headache-
Joseph: Hmm.
Willie: -something about the resolution makes her not feel well.
Joseph: I remember it being very busy.
Willie: And that's the same way with the trailer.
Joseph: Mm.
Willie: We were watching that gameplay and I don't remember if it was when I paused it or the reason I even paused it or anything, but like she brought it up again that like, yeah, the, it still makes her feel weird looking at it. Makes her feel like she's gonna get a headache or like her eyes hurt immediately or...
And it's like I don't know what it is about the resolution or the like animations or maybe it's what you're saying Joey that, I think she did mention that exactly that there's too much shit to look at on the screen and not sure where your attention should go. Yeah, it's just too much, and so she never finished.
Taylor: For me, it looked too much like a mobile game. It looked like a mobile game where they were trying to fit a million different mechanics and systems onto a little bitty phone screen. And then they were trying to portray it as Ocean's Eleven. None of it clicked with [Joseph chuckles] me at all.
And I played Dragon Age 3. I played that all the way through. I played Inquisition all the way through. And looking at that, the presentation, the way that they put it out there, all of that, it did not click with me whatsoever. And like, I saw that gameplay afterwards convince people that, okay, well, maybe it is actually fun, they just presented it in a bad way.
That's totally possible. Whoever made that trailer or put it together was sipping that Kool Aid of, you know, this is how marketing should look and didn't really think about what the game was, what the actual fans were, what they were interested in, that kind of stuff. And they just slapped it together as this like viral marketing fucking mess, that it was.
And that threw a lot of people off. I was the same way. It wasn't, it wasn't the, um, so much that it gave me a headache from the way it looked or anything. I just looked at it and I was like, I'm looking at a mobile game. I'm looking at something that I expect to come out on iPhone in two months.
And no, it was the next big Dragon Age. So, I don't blame anybody for really being thrown off for anything on that trailer.
Willie: I'm curious about it. We'll probably check it out, I think.
Joseph: Mm-Hmm.
Taylor: I probably will too. Especially if it's Game Pass or something, but, or on their pass, whatever that might be. Ubisoft Pass or...
Willie: They're EA. That's the EA, whatever it's called.
Taylor: Oh, EA Pass. That's it. Yeah.
Willie: It's called EA Play. I don't remember what it's called.
Taylor: There we go. Yep. Yeah, if it was out on that, hell yeah. I'd pay $5 or whatever it is that you gotta pay to play it. But as a full price game, I'm gonna have to watch some reviews and see people really going nuts about it to pick that up.
00:48:15
Willie: So this was sort of a surprise to you that it caught your attention, Joey, is there, are there any surprises that you've seen over the last few months, Taylor, that came as a surprise to you, whether just announcements or something you've been playing lately that's caught your attention lately that's not Elden Ring?
Taylor: Not really, man. I mean, I am at a point in my life that something has to be over the top incredible for me to put a decent amount of time into it. Which, obviously, the Elden Ring DLC is falling right into that category. But, that's honestly the reason that I've been looking forward to something good coming out soon.
And sadly, what does make me a little bit sad about Wukong getting pushed back is there's not a lot out there right now that's blowing my mind. I mean, Another Crab's Treasure was a really good one, but by the time I put 30 or 40 hours into that, I was running into repeated issues and mechanics that just pissed me off more than made the game quirky or kind of challenging.
It was more, I don't like that it does this, and I really wish that they would change it. And similar with Lords of the Fallen, it was a very similar thing. Now, I will say I've downloaded a couple new games on Game Pass. I want to say there are things that they announced, maybe, at the Summer of Gaming when they were talking about.
One is a horror game. One is-
Willie: Oh!
Taylor: -uh, it's almost like a Firewatch kind of, uh, walking adventure, but it has horror elements to it. I can't remember the name of it-
Willie: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Taylor: -but I have downloaded some to try out.
Willie: I've seen a lot of people playing that one. And I'm curious for sure. I'm going to think of the name in a second. I'm going to look it up.
Taylor: What has been the general consensus? What, how do they feel?
Willie: People like it. I've seen a lot of, I've seen a lot of people playing, uh, are you talking about Still Wakes The Deep?
Taylor: Yes, that's it. Exactly.
Willie: Yeah. I've seen a lot of people playing that and enjoying it.
Taylor: Maybe I'll go ahead and boot it up.
Willie: Of the, like, 20 streamers that I watch with some regularity, I've seen, like, four or five of them playing and being like, Yeah, dig it. And, like, just playing through it.
Taylor: Well, on Game Pass, that's worth picking it up. If two people that I appreciate [chuckles] play something and say that they like it, chances are, if it's on the Game Pass, I will check that out.
Willie: I think the thing is, it's also relatively short, so I think, you know-
Taylor: Nice.
Willie: -it's good for a short five hour game or whatever.
Taylor: Oh, that's even better. That really hits that chord. I'm going to have to check it out then.
Willie: Yeah. I want to play it.
Taylor: The horror elements do look pretty scary.
00:50:39
Willie: I think I want to check out that game. Haven't done it yet. For me, I will say that there's a couple of, um, there's some co op stuff that I want us to check out that I've only recently learned about. I think, we have to check out one of them we absolutely have to check out just because it's four bucks on Steam. [chuckles]
Taylor: Oh, wow.
Willie: And I think it would be fun and frustrating to play together. It's a game called Chained Together. Have y'all seen anything about that?
Joseph: Nope.
Taylor: Mm-uh.
Willie: Do you remember the game Only Up that was like popular, like six months ago, a year ago? I don't remember when it was.
Joseph: Don't think so.
Willie: It's a weird platforming game where it's just a bunch of random objects stacked on top of each other and you have to go up. Point is, get your little character and traverse this map going up as far as you can. Sometimes it's like a little bridge. Sometimes it's a wooden plank leading to a big building. Sometimes it's a bunch of bikes stacked on top of each other to, like, jump on. But Chained-
Taylor: Hmm.
Willie: -Together is a co op version of that game where you can play with up to four players and all of you have a chain around your waist.
So [Taylor chuckles] you have to do it together. You have to platform up this thing together and you can use that chain to your advantage. Like one of you can jump ahead and maybe get to the next platform and help pull the others up to you as you jump up. Or you can try to jump ahead, but maybe the chain isn't, isn't long enough.
So you don't quite make it and just like sort of fall down and you're dangling from this platform you're on.
Joseph: Hmm.
Willie: But, uh, is a very simple concept. It's a cheap $4 game that, uh, I've watched some people play. It seems fun and just like, it would be fun to waste some time with. Maybe not while we're like trying to play Elden Ring or anything, but it seems like cheap, easy fun.
Joseph: Well, definitely cheap for sure.
Willie: Yeah. [chuckles]
Taylor: The world looks like Dark Souls. [Willie chuckles] It looks like Dark Souls-
Joseph: [chuckles] Really?
Taylor: *-*is happening underneath it. [Willie chuckles] I'm watching Markiplier right now. And, uh, it absolutely looks like it was done with Dark Souls in mind. It's all the designs and even the character designs, but mainly the background. It's like you're over Caelid. [Taylor and Willie chuckle]
I'd be down to check that out. It's really interesting.
Willie: The other thing that came out of Game Fest that I really want us to check out in October, when it comes out, that I'm looking forward to, and even if y'all don't play, I'm going to play, but I think it's better co op cause it's an eight player co op game, that is a zombie survival sort of thing called No More Room In Hell 2.
It looks like it's basically first person Project Zomboid is like what I've heard it as like the way people talk about it. And if that's [Taylor chuckles] true, I've been looking for something like that for a while now. Cause I really like Project Zomboid.
That's been one of the games that I like revisited this year and have been playing, had been playing a lot of for a little bit, and I still really like that concept. I think it's awesome. I think that the gameplay in that is pretty cool, but it's not for everybody because it's a top down isometric sort of view and the graphics are just like pretty simple.
It's not like everybody's cup of tea, but I think the gameplay itself and the, like the ability to like it's survival truly in the sense that like, I don't know, you need to go find a hammer for a weapon or go find some, go break down a building in the fencing to build your own fence or whatever in Project Zomboid-
Taylor: Hmm*.*
Willie: *-*you know, like it's truly survival game.
Taylor: That's interesting.
Willie: I like that game a lot.
Taylor: I really liked, um, that ghost game that we played. What was the ghost hunter game that we played that was co op?
Willie: Oh, Phasmophobia? Yeah, yeah.
Taylor: Phasmophobia. I'm so ready for something like that to come out that is...
Joseph: That looks spectacular.
Taylor: Yeah, yeah, that looks good and also employs some really cool, like, uh, enemy AI, enemy algos, whatever it is that does it. I really want to see that because that seemed like a ripe foundation for a lot of fun. That game was scary as shit and it was, it didn't even look great. It was like a step above.
Willie: You also played in VR though too, right?
Taylor: Yeah, [Joseph and Willie chuckle] I played in VR and that was a nightmare because not only because it was scary, but because it made me feel like absolute dog shit. [Willie laughs] It was one of those games where you could tell they just ported it to VR. They didn't put a lot of care into making it smooth and seamless and not make you sick. I'm not even a person that really gets sick in VR, but after 30 minutes or an hour, I felt like I needed to vomit. It was unfortunate because that is a really fun game.
If they could take all of those elements that they had there, combine them together, add more ghosts, add more everything, and then add VR to it, buddy I would be in there for hours and hours and hours. I'm ready for whatever that is. You know they're developing. You know it's out there. I want to see something like that soon.
Willie: Yeah.
Taylor: Because I would play the hell out of it.
Willie: I do hope there is a better version of that, too.
Taylor: Even if it's Phasmophobia 3, that's cool, [Willie chuckles] you know, with just little added graphics, because that was such a cool concept. And it was scary to people that it's not, you know, you don't ever want to be in a situation where there's an actual ghost or something.
That was a really good job of doing that and giving you a reason to go into that house. I wouldn't have done it by myself, but with my friends. Oh yeah, we're gonna go in there and laugh at each other and-
Willie: Yeah, yeah.
Taylor: -probably get murdered. Yes, I want more of that.
Willie: I think for me, to go back to that other thing, I would like to play a good survival game with y'all because we haven't really done that, all three of us. And uh, I like the crafting sort of survival stuff, but I also like the survival where there is a threat that you're also like trying to stay safe from.
And I had been looking for a first person Project Zomboid for a while. So if this gets close to that, I'm in, but that's, uh, that's around a Halloween launch time.
Taylor: Oh, that's perfect. That's perfect. Everybody's looking for a scare right then. That'd be excellent. And that'd be great for streamers. They're smart for doing that.
00:56:20
Willie: I think I want to close this out with just asking like, yeah, if there's anything else you're looking forward to, or something you want to sort of dedicate yourself to, to finish this year, something you want to make sure you play before the year's over.
Joseph: Well, I definitely need to finish Alan Wake 2, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Need to play Tales of Kenzera: Zau. One thing that I didn't get to, which we can get to later, is the announcement of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, which is, uh, September 26th. And finally get to play as Princess Zelda, which is a pretty, pretty, pretty big thing in that series and franchise.
I think those are the biggest things. And then just to kind of recap the games I talked about earlier. Black Myth, that is, it was originally August 20. It still is for PC and PS5, but not for Xbox. That's obviously been delayed indefinitely for now. Star Wars Outlaw is, that's an August 30 release. I already mentioned that The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is September 26th, and then Assassin's Creed Shadows is November 15th, and then, as of now, Dragon Age The Veilguard is slated for Fall 2024.
Taylor: For me, it's all about Elden Ring right now. I will pick up games periodically and check them out and play them, but we're in a weird time where there's not People can choose their platforms, Xbox, Playstation, whatever, but I haven't seen much yet that is, that I'm sitting here pining for. I want that, I'm totally open to it, but until something comes out that, that uh, looks incredible and starts getting amazing reviews, I think I'm just gonna play what I've got.
And try to finish that stuff up and really go hard into Elden Ring. I mean, I didn't go hard enough, I don't think, in the first 280 hours or whatever, [Taylor and Willie laugh] so... maybe 300 hours, I don't remember, but luckily that came out and really filled that gap for me because I was kind of running out of things that I wanted to get into and play.
Willie: I think I would echo basically everything Joey said, I'm looking forward to. I need to play Prince of Persia. I would still like to play Rise of the Ronin. That'd be great. I am looking forward to Black Myth Wukong. I'd like to play Alan Wake, haven't done that yet. I want to still play the original, or the remaster, and I haven't done that.
Clearly sinking a lot of time into Elden Ring right now, and will be sinking a lot of time into Star Wars Outlaws, I'm pretty sure. The Echoes of Wisdom looks fucking great, the gameplay, the mechanics look very cool, so I'm looking forward to that. But yeah, I, I feel, I think, slightly differently than, uh, Taylor in that, like, I, if I can, am finding a lot more indie stuff to play that is not just stuff on Game Pass, but there are things I'm also waiting for that's on my Steam wishlist that are indie sort of style games that I just like can't wait to check out and try that aren't big titles that they're not going to receive a lot of press, just like fun things to spend my time doing.
One of the things that came up in the showcase that I'm going to bring up that we didn't talk about, we don't have to, but, uh, I am interested in the, uh, Mighty Morphin's Power Ranger game. I will probably play it.
Joseph: Oh shit.
Willie: [chuckles] Just because it looks like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles beat em up style game, but it's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. So whatever, I'll play it for sure.
Taylor: The format looks great. Will Reena pop up in multiple boss battles and go, Ah ha ha ha, yes! I'm in. I'll check it out.
Willie: I'll probably check that out. Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater, whenever that comes out. I don't know if that's this year or not, but I, I want that.
Taylor: I wonder how many new people will get into that series just from that one.
Joseph: I would play that game.
Taylor: Oh, that was a solid one, too.
Willie: It's so good. I can't wait to experience that story again. It's just so good. That world is also kind of as convoluted as Elden Ring lore.
Taylor: True.
Joseph: I liked what I saw. The visuals I thought were good.
Willie: Visuals look great. The gameplay has always been fun to me. The boss encounters are super fucking cool in the ways that they can, in that game in particular, the ways they can be changed. But, uh, I think there's still plenty of good things to play and there's plenty of us to talk about.
[Outro theme begins to fade in - Caribbean Arcade by Christian Nanzell
And, uh, I'm looking forward to more podcasts. And, you know, any other ways we might be bringing more of our gameplay to you, either that's through streams or something else.
But we appreciate you listening or watching along with us. And, uh, yeah, thanks for being here.
Joseph: Peace, y'all.
Taylor: Peace. Keep on gaming.
Joseph: Thank you. Keep on gaming.
Taylor: Keep on gaming. Keep on shaming. No, don't. Don't do that. Don't do that part.
[Outro theme continues - Caribbean Arcade by Christian Nanzell]
01:00:52
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: Yeah, we dropped the fuck out of him, dude. Like, homie would get up, he was like, oh, fuck, brush himself [Joseph chuckles] off, y'all really Pfft, pfft, pfft, [Joseph and Willie laughing] knock him back down again. He had to call in a fucking invader [Joseph laughs] to, to like, save his ass. [Joseph and Willie laugh] That was the only hope he had.