Your Friendly Neighborhood Gamers
Excitement over Marvel's Midnight Suns, Diablo IV: Loot Reborn and More - Neighborhood Watch
Caught in the backlog trap with titles like Midnight Suns and Baldur's Gate 3? We've been there too. We explore the reasons behind our unfinished games and the psychological hurdles that keep them in our libraries. From personal anecdotes of games left on pause to the constant allure of new adventures, we reveal our gaming habits and the emotional rollercoaster of returning to complex titles after a break.
Balancing gaming with life’s responsibilities can be a tightrope walk. We discuss the joy and frustration of revisiting classics like Dark Souls and The Witcher, and the daunting task of starting "new to us" games like Ghost of Tsushima amidst an avalanche of upcoming releases. Plus, we unpack the intricacies of Marvel's Midnight Suns and the evolution of Diablo 4, sharing our excitement for updates and new content. Tune in for a deep dive into our gaming worlds and the strategies we use to manage our ever-growing libraries.
- WEBSITE
- DISCORD
- YOUTUBE
- FANTASY CRITIC LEAGUE
Caught in the backlog trap with titles like Midnight Suns and Baldur's Gate 3? We've been there too. We explore the reasons behind our unfinished games and the psychological hurdles that keep them in our libraries. From personal anecdotes of games left on pause to the constant allure of new adventures, we reveal our gaming habits and the emotional rollercoaster of returning to complex titles after a break.
Balancing gaming with life’s responsibilities can be a tightrope walk. We discuss the joy and frustration of revisiting classics like Dark Souls and The Witcher, and the daunting task of starting "new to us" games like Ghost of Tsushima amidst an avalanche of upcoming releases. Plus, we unpack the intricacies of Marvel's Midnight Suns and the evolution of Diablo 4, sharing our excitement for updates and new content. Tune in for a deep dive into our gaming worlds and the strategies we use to manage our ever-growing libraries.
- WEBSITE
- DISCORD
- YOUTUBE
- FANTASY CRITIC LEAGUE
What's up, welcome back to the Neighborhood and thanks for spending part of your day with us today. This episode is something we call the Neighborhood Watch. Welcome to the podcast where two longtime friends, and sometimes a guest, talk about their favorite games from the perspective of an average player. My name is Andrew Kimball.
Speaker 2:And I'm Dylan Wren, and we are your friendly neighborhood gamers.
Speaker 1:If this is your first time listening. The Neighborhood Watch is an episode format we do once a month where we can talk about all the games we're playing. That probably won't get their own dedicated deep dive, but we still want to give them some time in the spotlight. So I'm back, welcome back, spotlight. So I'm back, welcome back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was missing from the previous episode that we still don't know how long it's going to actually end up being. But yeah, yes, you were able to break out of sony's holding cells oh right, that's what you said at the yeah, I probably said some other stuff, but that's the. That's the one I went with, because you were, I think, playing a bunch of Final Fantasy at the time and they were trying desperately to keep their hooks in you, where you swapped back to a superior console.
Speaker 1:Which will be happening soon, with Hellblade just coming out and Shadows of the Erd Tree.
Speaker 1:Shadows of the Erd Tree are on the corner and Lords of the earth tree. Shadows of the earth tree around the corner and lords of the fallen. Coming to game pass, which is a game that I've been waiting to play since it came out, and I've managed to hold off on actually buying it because of the like technical, yeah things that were going on since launch yeah, like when I saw it came, it was coming to game pass, I think I texted you immediately like did you just buy?
Speaker 2:yeah, right, uh, because I think that's happened the past few times for you.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I mean, I bought eva west and it came to playstation plus and game pass. We bought remnant 2 and they dropped the rem like just shadow drop the remnant games with no announcement or anything like the next day. Yep, it was like solid solid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, love that thank you xbox.
Speaker 1:So I see lords of the fallen on sale right now at time of recording and I'm like, yeah, I, I'm starting to see the pattern. It took me a minute, it took me a while yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:It's gotten to the point where I start like looking at the sales in an attempt to like predict, all right, what's probably coming to game pass in the next couple months, you know right because, like control I think I saw was on sale and was like, oh, that's a really good deal for the like ultimate edition.
Speaker 1:I already had it, but I was still thinking about like maybe posting it to discord, being like, hey, if you don't have control, yeah. And then I think it was like a week later it was on game pass and it's like, yeah, I'm starting to see trying to recoup some like or capitalize on the sales as much as you can before yeah, it goes to game pass yeah, well, it's one of those two where it is kind of like that weird in between, where a game like control I did already own it from like way back in it, like when it first came out yeah but it is one that I'm like.
Speaker 2:I you know, if I hadn't picked that up already, it would be one that I'd be like yeah, you know I could.
Speaker 1:I could see myself spending like the 15 on the ultimate edition or whatever, just to have it, you know yeah, that's what I did, because I bought control physical the first time around and like traded it in or sold it or something. So then it was like, well, I wouldn't mind having, yeah, the ultimate edition, just having it, even though I've already played through it yeah, like there is.
Speaker 2:There's definitely like a level of like okay, I do want this game and I probably will still want it after it leaves game pass, like Lords of the fallen is not a game that's going to stay on game pass forever, you know it's. It definitely seems like one that's going to be on there for like six months or something like that and then they'll pull it off game pass and, uh, probably right in time for like end of year sales, uh, so right, so it's one that I'm like okay, well, that's not one that I've like felt the urge to like go out and and get like persona 5. Uh, I do own on playstation, but there was a part of me that was like, maybe I do want to buy persona 5 on xbox because I prefer xbox, and yeah, they're gonna pull it off game pass. So I think they yeah that one has gone off.
Speaker 2:It went off around the time. Persona three went on to game pass.
Speaker 1:So it's like how they pulled plague till innocence right before Requiem came out and I was like that makes no sense. I mean I guess maybe you're thinking people go back and buy the first one if they like the second one but that's a series where you need to play them in order.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well. And that's another one where it's like I look at that game and I'm like, yeah, I probably should buy that game because it is very good.
Speaker 1:I want to support that studio and it's not on game pass anymore, so yeah I saw that they had like a double pack sale for those games recently and I was like yeah I do kind of want to own them, but it's still like I guess the price probably wasn't quite low enough for me to pull the trigger and I have innocence on playstation, yeah, I think, at least as long as I'm subscribed or whatever yeah, well, it's one of those things too.
Speaker 2:Where's like, how often am I going back and like replaying stuff? Like the like theoretical side of me is like I would love to go back and replay Plague Tale Innocence and Plague Tale Requiem because I thought those were excellent games. I thought they were really cool. The story was really cool. It's been a bit since I've played them, so it's like I could see myself going back and replaying them, but then it's like I could see myself going back and replaying them.
Speaker 2:But then it's like, well, shadow of the earth tree's coming out and all these other things, and it's like, well, do I want to spend the time that I have to game going back and playing a game I already have played? And so am I going to spend 30 on the two pack of of Plague Tale, innocence and Requiem, knowing that if I knew for a fact I was going to sit down and start those games and replay them. It would be a lot easier to pull the trigger.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, just buying them to add them to your library.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just buying them to have them, in case I want to go back and replay them, is a whole lot different. And it's similar with movies. Something comes on Netflix or HBO and it's similar, you know, like with movies. Like something comes on netflix or hbo and it's like okay, do I want to buy the physical version of this movie because eventually it will leave netflix, or do I just like I'm just gonna watch it the one time on netflix and then never again?
Speaker 1:you know right yeah, yeah, for there's definitely games that I want to have for replay, like the witcher bloodborne. You know that I'm I know I will replay, yeah, but then, yeah, a lot of them is just like I have a bunch of games that are in my library I've never touched. I have a bunch of games in my wish list that I want to play, like lords of the fallen. Yep, it's like I'm gonna, if I'm gonna spend money probably makes sense to spend money on something I haven't played yet. Sometimes, though, I am like in the mood to go back and, yeah, you get an itch to be like I kind of want to go back and play red dead 2 or something. But, yeah, or when, like, new games are sparse or just not hitting or whatever, it's like maybe I'll go back to an old comfort, but, yeah, nice.
Speaker 1:Well, I didn't have any opening questions prepped for this episode, so I threw it to you and you came up with a few interesting ones, and the one that kind of jumped out to me was kind of, in this realm of talking about games and libraries and things like that, you put down. What games like that you put down? What games have you recently put down? Slash not started, and why so? Why don't you kind of set that up?
Speaker 2:yeah. So I figured you know a lot of this episode is going to be us talking about sort of what we've been playing recently and then you know sometimes what that turns into is like, okay, I'm going to talk about this game that I've been playing recently and then we don't end up finishing it and we never kind of revisit why we put that game down and never finished it. The like the one snapshot moment is the like once a month that we get together and we chit chat about what we are playing right now.
Speaker 2:And so I thought it might be interesting to kind of take a look at that other side of it where it's like hey, here's what I have put down you know, that could almost be a whole like topic episode too.
Speaker 2:Yeah it definitely could, or you know, the other side of it is. I know that there's definitely like games that I have and intend to play, yeah, but keep looking at and haven't started, for whatever reason, and I thought it'd be interesting to you know talk about some of those as well. Um, just as to to kind of give us the other side of the coin, almost for yeah, like the flip side of the yeah of what?
Speaker 2:we've been playing lately versus maybe what we haven't started yet but really want to get to did you have like a game in mind that made you come up with this question?
Speaker 1:when you were writing this question? Was there like some a game specifically in your head that you're thinking of?
Speaker 2:there were a couple that it was just kind of like ones that, uh, you know for, uh, you know, I looked at your list and I was like, okay, midnight suns, you know, that's one that I had been playing last year put down, haven't made it back to right, um, and so I'm like, oh, okay, like that's, you know why did I put that game down? Why haven't I picked it back up, you know, is it? Is it one of those things where I just need to admit to myself I'm never getting back to it? Or is it one of those things where it's like, okay, I do actually want to finish that game out? I don't know if you, listener, or you, andrew, are like me where I have my list of here's, the backlog of my games, and realistically, the backlog is games that will never be touched again for the most part. I just don't want to ever actually take them off of the backlog because I think maybe I will get back to it.
Speaker 2:So that was one that was kind of like on my mind. The uh, one of the games that I guess last episode when this comes out right was about was about Baldur's Gate 3. We didn't talk about it in that episode, but Baldur's Gate 3 is a game that I played so much in December and January and February and then like put down for March and April pretty much and like finished, like came back to a couple months later and it was kind of like huh, why did I put that game down? Why did you know pause on it?
Speaker 1:so that's a game for me that I put down. I got to basically like where I could, where I could go into act two if I wanted to, but the game warned me. It was like you should probably level up a little bit more, yeah, uh, and I just I don't remember something else came out or whatever. I just put it down, started playing something else and for me, like the thought of getting back into that game feels like like getting back into it is the hurdle yeah and I feel like once I'm back into it I'll build momentum and like start enjoying myself again.
Speaker 2:But balder's gate 3 especially is just so dense yeah, there's a lot of systems and stuff to that game and figuring out like where I'm even going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and just like remembering the controls, for, like you know, how do I go to my character sheet again and how do I like find all this stuff and where was I with this quest? And and it's just, and it's also just a very particular style of game that I'm not always in the mood for. Style of game, yeah, that I'm not always in the mood for. You know, like sometimes I don't want to be in a turn-based style combat system. That's going to take me an hour and a half to get through this combat scenario, but sometimes I do, yeah, and so I feel like whenever that itch hits, like it's still installed on my playstation. I haven't uninstalled it because I'm like I know at some point I'm going to feel the urge to get back into it. Yeah, I just haven't. Yet I think about, like you mentioned, persona earlier. A game I was really into was Tales of Arise, oh yeah, and that recently came to Game Pass too. It did.
Speaker 2:I saw that too. I think in like a similar announcement, where I was like yeah, Andrew bought that. Thank you, Andrew.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, to be fair, I bought it like a year and a half or something before it came to Game Pass.
Speaker 1:I don't feel as bad about that one. Yeah, it's not like it was a week later, but that one was just a game that just kept on going, kind of like I assume, like Persona does where I was like I think a lot of JRPGs do this where, like you hit arcs. Yeah, similar thing kind of happened with Dragon Ball Z Kakarot, where it was like I finished an arc and it was like kind of a down point, like the climax had ended for that chapter, and then it was like here's a new zone, here's the new side quest popping up, and it's like, eh, I just, eh, I just did this. I think I want to take a little bit of a break. And then I haven't gone back to tales of arise.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I ever will. I do plan on going back to dragon ball at some point. Yeah, that's another one that's like a junk food game. So it's like whenever I kind of feel the the urge for that like junk food, I'll hop back into it. Definitely not when something like shadow of the urge tree is available, I'm gonna play that first, you know yeah and and like that's, that's.
Speaker 2:I think the other side of it for me too is like there are several games that like I've recently been like okay, I want to start that. Like ghosts of tsushima, yeah, like I've looked at especially after that assassin's creed, shadow trailer right, and I've been like I hear so many good things about that game. I don't know that I've actually ever really even heard a bad thing about Ghost of Tsushima.
Speaker 1:The only complaint is that it's like, oh, this is kind of like Assassin's Creed from back in the day, but open world and yeah. So if you don't like that, yeah. But it's like they did it really well and they put their own spin on it and the combat with the stances and stuff is a lot more in depth and enjoyable than old school assassin's creed, and maybe even like modern assassin's creed, depending on what you like. But yeah that there are some complaints, but they're very like lukewarm compared to some games where it's like, you know, yeah, very divisive yeah.
Speaker 2:So like that's one that I keep looking at and I'm like I really do want to play that game. I should. I kind of want to start it, but knowing that, like the new expansion for Destiny 2 and knowing that Shadows of the Erd Tree it's like you know, Destiny 2's expansion comes out the very beginning of June, Shadows of the Erd Tree comes out mid-june, I'm like do I have the time? Like am I going to finish this game in that amount of time before those two come out? Because once those two come out, I'm going to start playing them and then I don't want to just like be, you know, 50 hours into this one other game and have put it down, and then it sometimes is like so much more daunting to try to come back to it, you know.
Speaker 1:Then it becomes one of the games we're talking about here, of like yeah something pulled me away from that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I never went back yeah, it like, uh, persona 5 royal I have on playstation. I got like three or four arcs into that game and put it down to play something else, uh, for a little bit. Uh, and also you know that game definitely requires so much attention. Uh, a lot of these games require attention, which is the other reason I haven't picked some of them up is because I'm just busy right now and so it's just like I don't have the attention to give them like I would like to, and so I put that, that one down and now, looking back at it, I'm like like I really want to get back to persona 5 because it was so good, I was really enjoying everything. But picking it back up in, like the after, I don't even know how far into that game I am. Like, realistically, I don't know if I'm like a third of the way through or halfway through yeah, it's got to be somewhere around that.
Speaker 2:You have royal, so royal added content to the end of it Exactly, but it's one of those where it's just like jumping back into. Especially that game halfway through is very daunting. So yeah, it is. I don't know know like it is one that I'm just like. Okay, I I could see myself just restarting that eventually down the road when something else is like we have a lull in right in the thing yeah, I was, I mean there's, there's like I there's.
Speaker 1:Immortals of avium just came to game pass and it came to playstation free games or whatever, and it's like that's. Immortals of avium just came to game pass and it came to playstation free games or whatever, and it's like that's one that seems like good dumb fun that I'll play at some point. Same exact thing like you're saying, not going to start it with some of these big things right around the corner. Yeah, did start hellblade because it's apparently short, so I feel like I can knock it out before the big things come out.
Speaker 2:Well, because that was another part of what kind of spawned this question is like. I was looking at you know what's happened over the past month and one of the big things was starfield got a like big new update that retooled a lot.
Speaker 2:It came out and also one of the games that we probably will talk about. Diablo 4 got a big new update that retooled basically everything about it interesting, and so it's one of those where it's like I went back to diablo 4. I was kind of part. Part of me was like, okay, you put down diablo 4, what would it take for you to go back to it, or would you ever go back to it? Same, similar to like starfield um, which is one that both of us put down, which also is like okay, well, why did we put that down? It's just like I didn't hook me in the same way that it seems like it hooks its target audience where they're just like.
Speaker 1:This is the perfect activity for me to just kind of. I love watching the numbers go up and the hordes die and all that and for me it was like, yeah, this is pretty fun, but I may actually download that and check it out when we get into, like our main list. That's what I want to hear you talk about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh, recently, with final fantasy 7 rebirth being so long and such an up and down experience that I'll get into on like a dedicated episode, yeah I would get to a point where I'd take a break from that game and I, in that span, I started midnight suns and I started forespoken and I started, uh, started. I had hellblade going but that was mostly because for our episode, yeah, but I just like I had that itch and I couldn't find the right thing to scratch it and then, before I knew it, I had like four or five games that I was playing, yeah, and that was when I decided, you know what, I'm going to buckle down and finish rebirth before I get any, because I'm barely into Forspoken. So I was like, before I actually get into this game in a meaningful way, I want to try to finish the ones that I plan on finishing. And Midnight Suns was a good one to play with the kids awake because it's like comic book characters.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like t-rated yeah, it's not you're not gonna see any like stuff they can't really see on the tv right, yeah, so it's like, it's like cartoon violence kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:For the most part I did, you know, turn the volume down when deadpool is on screen, just that's true, just to be safe. But that's mostly because I don't know what's coming and so far there hasn't really been anything like he hasn't. He's pretty mild, yeah, compared to the r-rated ryan reynolds, obviously, exactly. But yeah, I just I had so many things going that like, and also with dark souls month I was back into elden ring. Yeah, I played through dark souls one, dark souls three started bloodborne.
Speaker 2:I fell off bloodborne, which yeah, I also put down Bloodborne, because I got to the Shadows of Yharnam and I was like that I'm not playing this game, not beating them again.
Speaker 1:I could pick that up at any time, be right back into it, Like I don't really count that as like falling off it when I have the platinum.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is one of those things too. Yeah, where it's like did I, did I fall off of destiny 2 when I like put it down for like a month and a half, or did I just like I'm gonna come back to?
Speaker 1:yeah, just taking a break, just take a break, like so yeah that's interesting question and maybe maybe we'll kind of blow it out and do I don't know, like a quarterly episode or something on. Like here's our dnf, like we just didn't finish these. Yeah, like a like a post episode or something on.
Speaker 2:Like here's our DNF.
Speaker 1:Like we just didn't finish these games, yeah like a post-mortem on some of the games that we didn't finish or, like you know, I brought up. If you go back and listen to my Neighborhood Watch, where I talked about Tales of Arise originally, like I was enjoying it, I was having a good time I'm pretty sure you probably asked me do you think you're gonna finish it? You think it'll be on your game of the year list kind of stuff, and I was probably like yeah, no, it's, it's pretty good and yeah, you know just you hit that point with games and, yeah, almost like you need to go in and like clean out, your your closet sometimes right, it's like spring cleaning, yeah it's like, okay here, here's my list of like all the games that I'm playing or want to play.
Speaker 2:Let me go back and look at that every you know quarter, every you know six months, and just be like am I honestly gonna actually finish this game? I played 40 hours of it and I didn't finish it am I actually gonna go back and play it? I don't know, because, that's you know, you mentioned red dead redemption 2 on there as like a comfort game you go back to. That's one of the ones on my list where it's like I should go back and play that game. I put it down two years ago, three years ago, uh, or more. At this point, I guess it came out in what? 2019, 2018, yeah, and it's one that I played for probably a solid like 40 or 60 hours.
Speaker 2:Didn't beat because that game is very long, oh yeah and meandering yeah, and meandering, uh, and it's one that I know that I want to play, but sometimes I'm like, do I have to be honest with myself? Am I actually gonna like go back and play that game to completion? I don't know. So maybe I need to bump it to the like. I think this game is good. I didn't beat it, though, which you know the internet can't stand.
Speaker 1:But who cares that's why I just avoid them yeah yeah, I think part of it too is like gaming time is so precious, like I just have so much going on outside of I mean, even with this. It's like if I'm playing a video game I can't be writing a script about a video game or you know recording about it, like just having everything that is going on with life. It's like, well, my gaming time is so limited and precious. It's rare when I have like a stormy weekend where I can just veg out for like the whole weekend yeah and so it's like do I really want to spend it on?
Speaker 1:like I I'm more particular, I guess, about what I want to spend it on. It's like I don't want to be yeah just sitting there playing something. That's like man. That's why a lot of times it's like if stuff's not hitting, I'll be like you know what. Maybe I'll just replay the Witcher. I know I'm going to have a good time doing that.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, and you know we've talked about it a bunch before, but like we're not kids in high school anymore, or, you know, kids in our early, like late, teens- early twenties where it's like, oh okay, I can, I have no responsibilities, I have nothing to you know, do like I don't have any.
Speaker 2:You know I'm not stay up till 3 am playing wow, exactly. You know, um, and it's just like, oh, even if this game isn't the best a, I spent a significant. I spent like four, three or four weeks of you know lawn mowing money to buy this game. So I'm gonna enjoy it, damn it. But also like it's, you have so much more time and it's like, yeah, I'm gonna like just play this, like I don't.
Speaker 1:I'm not weighing it against like okay, I have so many more options of what to play now, but way less time to do it it's that conundrum, that kind of classic like gamer quote or whatever, where it's like, yeah, when you're young you have no money and all the time, so you just play zelda over and over and over, yeah, but when you're older you have all the like.
Speaker 1:I have all three consoles and a bunch of games for them. And there are games I picked up bayonetta and bayonetta 2 on the switch when we were going on a trip, like last year, and I was like and I played it and I was having fun, but it's been a hot minute since I've touched that game. Yep, it's like it just too many games, not enough time, and a lot of times like I'll be in moods like dark souls month that didn't, that did not even put a dent in like I'm ready for shout of the earth, I'm ready for lords of the fallen, so like that's why the thought of going back to balder's gate and playing that combat system and like that traversal and stuff is like yeah, I'm just not really in that mood. And so, even though a game is good or whatever, it's like I'm not enjoying it right now. So I'll spend my precious time playing something that I will enjoy. Yeah for sure.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think we should maybe workshop this idea, revisit it and see where it goes from here, but for now let's go ahead and roll into the main portion of this episode. So the games we've been playing. We've already kind of dabbled in midnight suns, so why don't we start there? Yeah I picked up midnight suns. I I think like medium edition Because there's like three.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:There's like standard and then like deluxe and then like ultra or special or whatever. Yeah, and I think I got the like mid-tier one.
Speaker 2:You got the one that came with the DLC right or the season pass.
Speaker 1:Yes, I think it came with the season pass. Okay, so it comes with with like a couple extra characters, right, and their little campaigns I think it comes with like, because it comes with deadpool storm. Yeah, uh I got that one because I have deadpool. Yeah, I think venom and morbius, yeah, morbius I have.
Speaker 1:I like saw the morbius mission. I have the morbius mission that I could go play, yeah, and then I have a storm mission on my map. But I have to like do some other things before it'll unlock and I'm like more do I want. Do I actually want to go? Get, yeah, I mean, I know it's not well, it's jared leto, yeah sony pictures, morbius, but it's like it's been so.
Speaker 2:Tainted, yeah, and memefied at this point, yeah, I'm like yeah, so I I don't remember what that might be like the big ultimate edition, because there were also like that game in particular was weird because they also didn't have like most games you buy on xbox anyway. I don't know how this is for other consoles. Most games on Xbox it's like if it's the Series X versus X or Series S.
Speaker 1:X version Right. Like optimized version.
Speaker 2:Like it's got that, but then it's also like it'll, if it is cross platform, cross generation or whatever. Yeah like you buy it and it knows which one to do. Well, this one they they sold one that was like specifically the xbox one version oh yeah and they sold one that was like the series x version and I don't know. It was very confusing, like looking at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think like the base version or like standard version, was on sale for like 17 or something, and then the next bump up from that or something, and then the next bump up from that was like 20 or 21 and I was like, well, I might as well splurge on the extra four dollars exactly get the the beefy version.
Speaker 1:But uh, I guess a little explanation about this game. It's the marvel game based on the midnight sun's group of characters made by the team who made the x-com games. Yes, so it's like that kind of turn-based gameplay, but they made it yeah it's, it's a tactical.
Speaker 2:It's got the bones kind of of like x-com but it's also not like XCOM at all. No, it's it's not a superhero XCOM. It is like you are still moving your characters around in like the tactics mode, but then you're using like it's like a card card game almost, where you're playing all of these cards to do the, do the attacks and damage and stuff, so which initially sounded like more complicated than x-com.
Speaker 1:Like on paper, yeah, it's like, wow, it sounds like they're doing a lot, but once you get into a few matches it's like, oh no, this is pretty straightforward and and simple and easy to grasp. And then the actual like character movement and impact and stuff was so well done. When Captain Marvel or somebody just like punches this grunt up against a truck, yeah, just like the effects and the thuds and everything. It's like it's really well done. The flip side of that is when you can control your player character, the hunter, in the like abby section of the game where, like, all the superheroes hang out and they do. This is where you can upgrade your stuff like you would in like an x-com game. But it's also where you can like upgrade your relationships and things which lead to synergies in the the battle. So it's like, yeah, two sides of the coin for gameplay and the abby stuff was kind of what like it's.
Speaker 2:It's similar, the abby stuff is. It reminded me a lot of like fire emblem three houses.
Speaker 2:It's like fire emblem three houses, yeah like I think, I think the comparison to fire emblem three houses is almost better than x-com because it, yeah, like it's, it's got the sort of tactical mode that, like fire emblem has. Although it's, it plays way more just like a card game that also has like a 3d representation of it uh versus uh and then like after that it's like okay, well, now go back and now like talk to all your friends it's a card game, but you also like so magic has the ability to create portals, yeah, and then she can yeet guys through the portals.
Speaker 1:And then there's there's stuff on the battlefield that is interactable, so like, yeah, exploding barrels and guys with shields that you have to, like, take down their shields and stuff. So it's like the cards are how you control the actions, but you're still moving, yeah, like pieces on the like board. Yeah, so it's it's a cool blend of like yeah, strategy game. It's like the strategy gameplay is lighter and more more just about positioning positioning it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really is like because there's a lot of interactable things on the board and then also some stuff that your characters can do to move. It's about, yeah, moving enemies around to optimize how much damage you can do, which is pretty cool. The part that, like universally, people who have played this game love the tactic side of it. Yeah, the hanging out by the pool with blade yeah, the vampire hunter was a little more mixed yeah, where did you fall? Down on that, like where did you come?
Speaker 2:I thought that part was fine, like I didn't mind, like I because number one, you can engage with it as much or as little as you feel. Like there's nothing forcing you to build up your relationships with other members of the team or whatever, like it really is just kind of like. I think the the amount of times where it wants you to actually like, do something, uh, with another character are pretty sparse, and it clearly flags those of like you need to go talk to magic to find out.
Speaker 1:Like the story thing that is happening a lot of it is kind of like dressing up the menus. It's like go talk to tony so that he can open up the thing you unlocked, so that you can like up, you know, upgrade your gear or whatever, and so it's essentially the upgrade menu, but they wrapped it in like the marvel banter, exactly but yeah, like for me, I enjoyed exploring around the abbey and like finding all the secrets and solving the puzzles and yeah, I thought that part was actually like that was way more involved than I thought it was yeah, it was a whole lot bigger than
Speaker 2:I was expecting at first and it's one of those things where, like, at first it is decently compact and then the further you progress in the game, the more sections of the Abbey kind of open up. Yeah, and I didn't mind like getting to know like the other characters, like I thought the other characters were decently well-written and even though it is a little jarrings because of how ingrained the mcu is and and going up and it's like that's not benedict cumberbatch as dr strange right. That's not brie larson as captain marvel, although captain marvel is like very clearly like brie larson inspired. But yeah, there was a lot where it was just kind of like okay, that's not like there's a little bit of like disjointedness there. But you know, I there were a lot of characters I wasn't super familiar with from you know, like basically most of the initial starting group.
Speaker 1:it's like magic and nico and I think blade is there, and then there's and captain marvel yeah, and dr strange and iron man yeah, because it's like a, it's like a segment of the avengers is teaming up with the midnight suns, who are kind of like the witchy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, marvel group yeah, was it just nico and nico magic blade, blade.
Speaker 1:There's also the like their leader, who's not really playable which is like on the comms and then wanda. Wanda is like captured in the beginning and that's kind of like the crux of some of the like disagreement and stuff and then you eventually you get spider you get spider-man pretty early on. I've got him and deadpool. I think that might be wolverine shows up at some yeah, wolverine's on the cover.
Speaker 1:I'm looking forward to to getting him. I don't have him yet. Like you said, it's kind of like a um, it's like a comic book story comes to life. If you imagine it as that, or if you imagine it as a Marvel game that you played on the 360 or something before the MCU was so big, it has much more of those vibes than your Marvel's Spider-Man or Marvel's Avengers even. It feels like they were way more comic book inspired than MCU inspired. And if not for some of the like Marvel TV shows and Marvel snap, there's a bunch of characters in this game that would be completely new to me. Like Agatha is a central character other than the show WandaVision. Like I would have no idea who agatha is, yeah, other than seeing the cards and marvel snap like magic and nico menoru, I'm like it's cool to actually see them have personality. Yeah, talk other than just be like on the card.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I I think that some of the dialogue is cheesy, yeah, and, but it's comic booky yeah, it's exactly what I would expect from a comic book, and so it's like yeah, it's I, it doesn't bother me at all.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I thought I thought the abby part is fine and, like you said, a lot of it is like I know which three like menus I need to go to between each match to like optimize yeah, because, like you have your, it's like a deck builder, if you're familiar with like board game terms, where it's like okay, you've got your starter deck of cards, but then throughout, in between the missions, you're earning like better cards that you can replace they like normally, they do better things or more things, and so and you can kind of like cards, which is a cool mechanic that I liked in this game.
Speaker 1:It's like oh you have two or three of the same card. Combine them and they'll be stronger.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like the upgraded effect with it and stuff, and so like in between the matches you'll go and you'll be like, okay, let me get rid of like these cards that have like a downside and just replace them with better versions of them, and so throughout the game, like your stuff is getting better, and then getting to figure out like the different heroes that synergize well with each other is pretty like cool.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, the synergy stuff is cool. The cards like and and the cards are upgraded and things you outside of the cards, things you can unlock, like abilities and stuff for the abbey or like, yeah, there's a lot of customization in the abbey and for the characters, like, all the characters have different suits. The hunter is customizable, so it's like depending on what your carrot on the stick is that you're trying to chase, that will determine, like, what mission do I?
Speaker 1:want to do next because it's the cycle is Abbey portion at night, mission at day, yeah, and so you can't just go on like a string of missions and collect stuff you have to like. All right, so what mission should I do now? It's like, well, I need some of these like purple gems to be able to combine these cards for a character I like playing. So this mission offers those. I'll do that one, or I want to progress the story. Let me focus on the story missions and so it kind of ghost writer.
Speaker 2:That's the other one oh yeah, ghost writers there, that's right, it's the, but it's not. He's like a newer the nick cage ghost writer.
Speaker 1:It's the other ghost right the nick cage one is in like the opening credits. Yeah, the like old cowboy kind of one, at least I. It's been a long time since I've seen that movie, but I assume that, yeah, it's the original ghost writer but yeah, it's a really fun game and if, if I stick with it and it doesn't end up in our like pile of shame episode, then it might be one we do like a full, deep dive on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's one where, if you, told me you were finishing it, I would boot it back up and like finish it, because I'm pretty sure I'm I don't know where exactly in the story I am, but I think I have all the characters and so I'm like, ok, I've got to be getting close to wrapping this up.
Speaker 1:Uh, because I have everybody now, I would also probably buy the season pass and get the four other characters I don't have. But right, yeah, yeah, I'm excited to get storm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she seems like she'd be pretty cool well, and I think it'd be cool to see the interaction she has with, like Wolverine, because I don't think there are other X-Men.
Speaker 1:No, I think.
Speaker 2:I don't know if, like Magic or Nico, was ever an X-Man.
Speaker 1:I don't. I think Magic was involved in the X-Men. I mean, I think everybody has been an X-Man at some point.
Speaker 2:That's fair, just like everybody's been an Avenger at some point. But yeah, like in this timeline continuity, like I don't know, because obviously brother is an x-man I think yeah, and was wanda technically like an x-man at some point probably yeah, but obviously storm and wolverine are like the only og, yeah, like gen one, yeah, x-men that were that are on the roster.
Speaker 1:So yeah, like you said, it'd be kind of cool to see what kind of interactions they have. Yeah, yeah, there's just.
Speaker 1:I was just kind of surprised by how much game there is in that game like yeah the, both the abbey side and like just how it's not super over complicated or overwhelming, but there's just a lot of little nuanced stuff in the combat side. Yeah, and you can only take like three characters on a mission. So there's a lot of variety in how you play out that mission, depending on the deck you built with the characters you have, depending on, like, their abilities. Like, do you want to just be launching people? Do you want to be like some of them are better for support you? Know, yeah, different things like that.
Speaker 2:So well, and all the missions too, like that you're taking them on. They're not just like kill all these people like there's normally like an objective that you're trying to complete, which adds to like the because it's time.
Speaker 1:Usually it's like stop this truck in so many turns yeah, and to stop that truck. You have to move the guy with the shield because he's defending the truck. But you can also like defeat this enemy to get a card that will let you disable the truck. Yeah and like yeah. So there's a lot of layers in that too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's there's a lot of that which I think is cool, because it prevents it from just being like beat the crap out of these guys right and then also like if one of your characters, like, takes enough damage, they'll go down, which doesn't kill them like an XCOM or anything, but it means that the next time you're ready to go out they're resting up, and so that kind of encourages you to keep changing up your team, and I think you'll also get bonuses.
Speaker 2:At some point. You unlock the ability to send, yeah, people on missions, and some of the missions like without you, some of those missions require certain heroes, so like that helps you kind of cycle everybody through yeah as well. So it I don't know it's really. I went into the game. I don't know what i's really. I went into the game. I don't know what I was expecting, but it exceeded my expectations.
Speaker 1:That's how I felt. Like I had heard people talk and people who play it are like the gameplay is great. Yeah, the Abby stuff might be kind of cringy to you, and so I was like, okay, that's like basically all I knew. And then hearing like deck builder XCOM game always just sounded like so intimidating. But when I I'm here to tell you that it's not, yeah, like it's mark, they knew they were making a marvel game and so they wanted more like a wider audience to be able to play this game, and so I think I think they achieved that. I think that the combat system and the card system is really fun and pretty intuitive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there's definitely a skill ceiling that you can get up to where it's just kind of like, okay, I'm going to play this card and then I'm going to play this card, and then it's like comboing off basically.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, for sure, a lot of those objective-based ones. I'm getting like one star on them. Yeah, I'm accomplishing them, yeah, I'm progressing, but I could definitely be doing a lot better like synergy with my team, or like efficient use of the terrain or whatever. Like, yeah, there's definitely, like you said, a skill ceiling there, but it's easy to get into exactly like it's.
Speaker 2:It's got a low floor so that you can have fun playing it. But there it also is cool because there's a lot that you can kind of be like oh, if I do this differently, like I can do better on this.
Speaker 1:Right, so nice. Yeah, that's Midnight Suns. Another one you've already mentioned a little bit that I'm curious to hear the changes is Diablo yes, so diablo?
Speaker 2:uh, the internet has decided that diablo is good now. So yeah yeah, which I mean to be fair. What was the problem with it before it was popular? Uh, that's the. The gamers tm did not enjoy it. They played it for 200 hours and then were like I'm out of content.
Speaker 1:Was that?
Speaker 2:the problem Was that, like the end game was light, yeah they did not care for the end game, and the end game slowed down a whole lot.
Speaker 1:Gotcha.
Speaker 2:And like some of the drop rates for things were a bit weird and the loot system was a bit weird and and all of that. And so I played diablo 4 when it first came out. I enjoyed it. I didn't have any problems with it, and some of that was because I am a huge fan of diablo 3 and I played diablo 3 at launch and I continue to play diablo 3 throughout the years, and so I knew that how diablo works is it comes out and it's got this. You know this is, this is the game. And then they continue to add things to it every season, every year, whatever you want to call it, and it just keeps growing, growing, growing and getting better and more refined. And so I looked at it and I was like cool, like I enjoy the game as it is.
Speaker 2:It's got a good foundation and it will only get better from here so when you say they've like tweaked everything, is it like?
Speaker 2:loot stuff or have they, yes, gameplay stuff so they have completely redone the loot system worked, was you like? Every piece of legendary quality gear or whatever had an aspect on it, and so when you were doing your build, you had to put all the aspects on your gear or whatever, and so it was just a headache because some of the aspects you could get out of dungeons like you could complete a dungeon and then you would have access to it forever. Others, you had to get a piece of gear to drop with that aspect on it and then you had to pull the aspect off of it and put it onto a different piece of gear and blah, blah, blah and it was just a headache.
Speaker 1:A lot of steps.
Speaker 2:A lot of steps. It was kind of confusing. There wasn't a good way that it was sorted. You just had to kind of keep your bank full of these random pieces of gear If you wanted to always have one of every aspect available to you. It was a hassle Trying to find where that gear was.
Speaker 2:There was no good way to find it because the aspects could drop on a bunch of different pieces. So it was like it could be on your boots, but it could also be on your helmet, and so it's like, oh okay, well, I don't know where to look to find this. Even so, they have completely redone that. They've done away with like it's still, you still get stuff that drops with aspects and everything, but now they've just put it all into the same system that unlocking the stuff through the dungeons had. So once you get a piece of gear that has a certain aspect on it, if you use that gear or like salvage that gear at the blacksmith, you just always have access to that aspect from now on okay so you don't have to go find it.
Speaker 2:It's sorted nicely in a nice like little book menu thing and so if you want to put that aspect onto a different piece of gear, you can just easily find it and easily do that. So they've fixed that hassle a whole lot. To me it also feels like they really ramped up how much gear is dropping. I do remember like playing it at first it did feel like you didn't get a whole lot figure them out. They weren't dropping super often, so right. So I think they've upped the drop rate. They've also upped, or like fixed, how making a build works. Um, they've also gone in and they basically were like, okay, um, we're not really nerfing stuff anymore, at least right now. So they were like, okay, this barbarian build is like the best in the game. Uh, we're just gonna take all of the other builds and like level them up to that same level, gotcha and so diablo is about a power fantasy exactly exactly because that was another thing that the internet and gamers did not like is they would play the game for 200 hours.
Speaker 2:They would find some broken build that was not functioning as intended and then blizzard would fix it and they would be like, how dare you? Uh, so that has been fixed. It feels like they've fixed the leveling up, like it felt like it went a whole lot faster than it used to like. I got to level 50 in just like a day of playing it.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:An evening or two of just like playing that game. So, whereas previously it took me like a week or two to to get up to 50 at the initial launch, and that was playing story mode, I think after story mode, like, if you just do the regular adventure, it goes a little bit faster because story mode is limiting you a little bit, just because of, like, you're doing the story.
Speaker 1:Wants you to see the story, yeah.
Speaker 2:And they've continued to add stuff every season. So there have been like three. I've played each season just a little bit, but this is like the first season that I've like gotten super back into and they've taken. So each season they would add like a new, like big uber boss, I think they call them where it's just like OK, they're adding some more bosses to the end game that you can go in, that you can fight, and they're adding, like you know, here's a normal mode and here's a hard mode, so they've continued to add those to the game, providing enough of a challenge, uh, that people who play the game for 200 hours and then are not suddenly like I don't know what to do anymore.
Speaker 2:You know they've given you things that you can continue to chase with this loot system that they've redone. They've also added like master working your gear. So you know, once you hit sort of the end game, you can then do this other new dungeon that gives you stuff that you can master work your gear with. So you know, and I think fully master working your gear takes it to like 20 master works or something like that. So they've given you incrementally, like more things that you can do to keep boosting your numbers up, because that's really honestly, all diablo is is like oh okay, like I leveled up, I got some new moves, I got some new gear, now I can do this dungeon. That's slightly harder.
Speaker 2:And you know and then that drops slightly better gear so that I can do a slightly better dungeon, and that's really all that the loop is, and I enjoy that loop. I don't mind that loop. It's a great podcast game. I've been getting back into listening to podcasts while I've, you know, since I've been playing diablo a lot more. It's fantastic to just pop on a podcast and like run through dungeons as a, as a character, just annihilating the room, you know.
Speaker 2:So they've added more to the end game, um, they've added some new activities. They've added, uh, they've like boosted up the classes. Necromancer was kind of the big one, um, it used to be impossible to have a good like a minion build with necromancers. Pretty much like, once you got to the end game you had to kind of get rid of all your minions and swap into like something else to make it viable. Now you can kind of it. Basically, they've been like now there's not just a single thing that you spec into. You can kind of pick and choose like your play style with each class, um, which I think a lot of people are pretty excited for.
Speaker 2:So yeah but yeah, so it it definitely feels. I mean, it's still diablo 4, so like, if you played like you, you're still getting the diablo 4 experience. They've just streamlined and uncomplicated a lot of the systems that were just a little bit finicky, a little bit annoying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they polished out some of the rough edges yeah, like basically, at this point the only thing I'm looking for is, like I'd love there to be a loadout system in the game so that if I want to like spec into a different build you can like, I can just hit it. Yeah, I can save it and hit a button and you know, like right now I have to do it all manually. Uh, which is fine, but just for ease of access and and I'm sure that's coming- you know like it's not something I'm super worried about.
Speaker 2:So, especially if you have game pass, oh yeah, because then you've been, because it's on game pass now if you've been holding something I'm super worried about so especially if you have game pass, oh yeah, because then you've been, because it's on game pass now if you've been holding off on playing diablo 4 because of the hate that it got when it first came out, the internet has decided. You know what? This is actually pretty good now nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe I'll check it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to say. Does that sound like enough to pull you back in, or do you have a sense of what kind of made you fall off?
Speaker 1:I mean, for me a lot of it is just the style of game. It is Ultimately the top-down looking at the top of characters' heads while they speak, kind of like story presentation wasn't super working for me. I liked the style and the customization. Yeah, I enjoyed my build. I never fully grasped like a lot of the gear and stuff, so maybe them kind of easing some of this would help me, yeah, be able to kind of play around with that side of the game a little bit easier and that would maybe unlock some of the fun of the loop. So it's, it's one that I could definitely see like giving another try and and maybe some of the polishing of the rough edges, like getting me into the loop to where I understand it more, like the core fan base does. But ultimately I feel like I'll probably jump back in and maybe even beat the story at this point. But it's not.
Speaker 1:I'm not an end game person, just in general anyways, usually. So for me it's not. I don't see it being my forever game, like it is for you, where you're like always hopping back in and it's kind of that like comfort junk food, like that's assassin's creed for me. You know, I have those kind of like games where, like my podcast game is checking things off in an open world and so that's just kind of my vibe. So but I do it is one that I've seen like because I bought it when it came out and now, with it being back being on game. Seen like because I bought it when it came out and now with it being back being on Game Pass and like Xbox pushing it and stuff, I'm like you know I could get back into that. Yeah, like it's not a game I dislike. It just never grabbed me as intensely as other games.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think a lot of it's just the genre, the perspective, like yeah, and I think a lot of it's just the genre, the perspective, yeah, like as a sort of isometric action RPG. It is not necessarily your style.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, I much prefer the like third person style of game, and probably because I like the customization angle and so being able to actually see my hard work a little bit closer, basically, if they let you play it instead of like my hard work, basically if they let you play it instead of like a top down, if they let you play it from a third person perspective, just kind of following it around. This would probably be your jam, it probably would lean into like it probably would fit that.
Speaker 1:I mean like I zoom in a lot in balder's gate but still, like you know, the thing about from soft game is feeling like you have agency over like such meticulous parts of combat, that it's like I have control over this fight and like how it plays out, whereas in like Diablo is much more like I'm pushing the buttons and the things are happening, happening and it's like, as long as my things are doing more damage to them and keeping me healed, it's yeah, it's more like that attrition of like which meter goes down first, as opposed to like feeling like you're actually in a fight, yeah, with your character, and so it's just those. Those granular type of preferences are kind of like what get me in the game. Yeah, but but it's a good game and it's one that I like and I do think that this is probably enough to get me to dip my toes back in and see.
Speaker 2:You know, just see how the water is yeah, especially when you're like okay, I've got another week and a half until lords of the fallen comes out. I've got, you know, a month until shadows of the air tree or whatever it is.
Speaker 1:It's like yeah I just finished final fantasy 7 rebirth, so that's off my plate. Yeah, I feel like yeah, so it's accomplished.
Speaker 2:So so I know we'll get into rebirth a whole lot more in like a full episode probably. Uh well, we you yeah we'll get into rebirth sony's intent on keeping that locked in their walled garden there but uh, do you want to talk any about rebirth or the experience of finishing it, or do you want to save all that for the?
Speaker 1:I mean I'll save most of it.
Speaker 1:I'm still kind of it did what I thought it would do, where, like once I got into the final chapters and it was basically just like story stuff propelling me forward and whatnot, it was like, yeah, this is what I liked about the game.
Speaker 1:It got to the point where I finally just there are some essential I say essential Well, they are kind of essential side activities where it's like do this mission for, like, the chocobo farm for this region to unlock the chocobos that you can ride around the region which helps get around.
Speaker 1:So it's like you kind of want to do that, yeah, and do like early on, especially I don't I'm pretty sure each region had this but it's like if you want to fast travel from region to region, you have to have done the quest that like will get you that, and so there's like some stuff you have to do and I would do that stuff. And then I was trying to do a lot of the like story or like character side missions. But even I'm pretty sure I still have some of those that are undone, because it just got to the point where I was like there is so much yeah to do and my main problem with final fantasy Rebirth is that every single thing you do feels like there's one to too many steps of tedium. To unlock the chocobo fast travel.
Speaker 1:You have to go like find them and do this janky like stealth kind of mini game to capture them it just feels like if they would have taken one or two of the steps out of every like every process in the game, it would have felt a lot smoother. But it was like every time I would go to like, okay, I need to go do this thing, the game would hit me with like ah, before you do that, you have to do this yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's just it got annoying in in that aspect of like the side stuff and the and the open world story stuff. It also had its up and downs. I've already watched one like ending explained yeah video because like, of course, the ending just turns everything up to like 11 is crazy anime nonsense. There are the, with the cast of characters growing to what it did in this part of the game. There are characters that I don't like. There are some like weird. A lot of it probably stems from the fact that this is like a 90s game with like zany characters that now they've brought into high res. There's like this you go to a carnival at one point and the owner is like this giant muscle headed dude who just wears like underwear and a cape and he has like a mustache, yeah, and it's like I can see this. I can picture what this guy must've looked like as polygons, yeah, in like a playstation 1 rpg. But looking at him now on my like 65 inch tv in high def, I'm like I'm kind of uncomfortable.
Speaker 2:He's like constantly flexing his bicep yeah, one, and I have not played a ton of Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Speaker 1:Yeah, remake was the first one, okay.
Speaker 2:And I've only seen like previews of Final Fantasy Rebirth, but it does. It looks like two separate games Like it looks like the vibes of like Final Fantasy Remake are very much sort of like dark fantasy, cyber or not cyberpunk but, steampunk sort of situation in a city where there's like all this intrigue and stuff going on, with occasional like flashes of like goofy zaniness.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then almost every preview I've seen of Rebirth has been we're on like this is our beach episode, and this is our beach episode and this is our and it's just kind of like all the craziness and then it's like but Cloud's still like an emo, like edgy character, don't worry yeah that's very accurate.
Speaker 1:People have compared Rebirth to the Yakuza games.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because that makes sense.
Speaker 1:It's wild, weird and you're doing many games constantly. It's like basically part one because it was just part one, but I mean, even if it was like this, I think it was like this in the original game, but it's like part one is all about like your core cast, yeah, and their struggles living in midgar, and then like the corporation that owns midgar and then like them thinking that it's a better, like a better option to just drop the plate on a community of people yeah then you know like whatever, and it's it is like you know this, this war between two, like the shinra and wu-tai and all this stuff that's going on in the background.
Speaker 1:And then, yeah, you like step out of midgar, that. And then all of a sudden it's just like welcome to a Saturday morning cartoon. Like it's just nonsense, and a lot of the nonsense is fun. Like there's a moment where Cloud is aided by a dolphin in a fight and it's like this is the kind of fun nonsense, yeah. And then there is some of it that's just like eye rolly. And then there's some chapters I think it was like chapter 12 which focused a lot on, like the characters and in like kind of a goofy way, like you, essentially the characters take part in like a play yeah but that that was like really well done and really cool and entertaining and fun, and so it's just, it's just like high highs and low lows for me and it's just.
Speaker 1:I got to the point where I was like I just need, I'm just gonna finish this, and that's what I did, and so I'm gonna have caleb come back on the show and we'll pick apart, like all the story stuff.
Speaker 1:He loves the game. It's like his favorite game in a long time. So, oh, the structure worked for him, yeah, which is cool it it didn't a hundred percent work for me, so we'll see where, like, my verdict ends up landing for this one, cause I'm still kind of like processing it, cause I just beat it yesterday, yesterday afternoon, so nice, cool. Well, uh, I want to know about one more game on your list before we wrap things up. Sure, it's a game that I recognize the name of, but I'm not really sure like what it is. What?
Speaker 2:tribes of midgard so, uh, tribes of midgard, which, if you have playstation plus, I think you might actually have, I think they may have given it away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like I can kind of picture the cover art like I have it in a library somewhere and I feel like I remember people talking about it when it came out.
Speaker 2:So it's like a cooperative sort of like base defense survival game.
Speaker 1:Doesn't it have kind of like a cartoony art style?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it has it kind of has like a Borderlands-y kind of art style, but it has sort of the Diablo perspective like top-down isometric sort of situation. So there are two modes to it. It was on sale a couple weeks ago which is why I picked it up because I had a game pass uh, yeah, it probably is kind of game pass especially since they put it on playstation plus for free.
Speaker 2:So there are two modes. So there's a like survival, like unlimited mode, where it is kind of like your traditional, like almost survival game, where it's like you start in you pick up some rocks and sticks and you put them together and then you go chop down some trees and hit some bigger rocks to get more resources and you sort of build up your base and then as you kind of progress through that story, so like it's got sort of like objectives and stories that it's kind of trying to get you to do throughout it. Right, you explore the world, you maybe build a ship and you go to like some of the other islands around the area and you're you're finding these jotans that are like sort of the bosses of their little zone, um, and so it's like you defeat the jotan and you get like some resources that then allow you to unlock different buildings and stuff to do more stuff. So that's like one of the modes. And then the other mode is this really cool?
Speaker 2:Like it's called I'm blaming on the name of it Saga mode, and so it it's kind of like a roguelite mode and so it, uh, it's kind of like a roguelite, you load into it. You have a pre-built town um that you don't like expand or upgrade at all. Or well, you, you can upgrade, like the, the services within it, but you're not like adding no new buildings really to it yeah and so you spawn in, you start, you go, you know pick up your sticks and rocks and you know build stuff.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Like build a pick and a shovel or whatever an axe, but then every night it spawns all of these like shadow creatures from hell and they attack your base.
Speaker 1:That's where, like the defense part, comes in.
Speaker 2:And so during the day you're running out trying to find resources and do sort of the missions, and then at night you're trying to defend your base, and so, as you're doing all of this, you can get resources to get better weapons, better armor.
Speaker 2:You can also pick up perks or runes or something that like enhance your abilities. And then, I think usually about like day two or three, uh, a yoden will spawn and start slowly kind of walking towards your base and so, uh, you can either go out into the world and like find where it is in the world and kill it before it gets to your base, or you can try to defend it, like defend your base when it eventually reaches there. You can build some like arrow towers, or upgrade some arrow towers and upgrade your walls and your gates to be a little bit stronger, and stuff you can upgrade like your blacksmith, so that he helps you. Like, if they get into your base he'll go help you fight the enemies off and that sort of thing. And so, as you're doing all of this, you have these different missions that you can also be kind of working your way towards. And so the first one is literally just like defeat one Jotun.
Speaker 2:So as long as you do that, you'll get some, get some of the like resources that'll let you unlock permanent buffs and stuff to to your game, but then, like as you do, the further stuff you're basically going through, like ragnarok, and so the the first like saga is to go defeat fenrir, and then the next saga is to probably get like uh, whoever the fire giant guy is, I'm blanking on his name suitor and just kind of do some of like those objectives and so, like you're, you're running around the map.
Speaker 2:They have like enemy strongholds and stuff that you can go raid. They have like different biomes, I guess, that have like some different resources, different enemies within them, and so it's all about kind of balancing sort of that. Like, oh, I'm going out and collecting this stuff, but I need to make sure that my base doesn't get destroyed. So usually your base can like last an evening or two without you there defending it. So like you can kind of get away with not going back every single night, but every few nights there will be a blood moon where they spawn a bunch more enemies, and so you do have to go back defend it there and you do have to defend it from the yoten. The other kicker is it has like a day-night cycle, 14 days in the endless winter starts and it becomes night forever until you lose, basically.
Speaker 2:And so, as you're going through, the nights are slowly becoming longer and longer as you're playing and you're kind of on that time crunch of like whatever the thing is that you're trying to do, you're trying to get it done before day 14 starts, because at that point it's only a matter of time before you eventually do lose the game, because the the attacks never stop coming. Um, so that sounds interesting, yeah, so basically, a a quote-unquote run of it can last anywhere from like 30 minutes to just defeat like the just a single Yoten. You're probably getting in there collecting resources, going to kill it in like 30 minutes. So it can be a quick little like in and out situation, or day 14 and your eventual death will start on like maybe about two hours in. So, depending on how long you want to do it, you can peace out at any time, like you can take the bridge back to valhalla or whatever, like just whenever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so, based on how much stuff you did while you were there, how gives you like how many rewards, I think, or currency, that you can then go and spend on like different starting gear, um, or you can unlock different like runes to enhance your stuff. Uh, you can unlock cosmetics, so it's all. It's got a bunch of different options of you know, like letting you kind of pick how you play and then, as you're leveling up in the game too, there are like eight different classes that you can sort of pick from. Oh, okay, uh, and so you start with like two unlocked and then, as you complete objectives, you unlock more and more, and so, um, picking those kind of gives you a little bit of a different experience too. So it's a, it's a cool game it sounds pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Does it play well on console?
Speaker 2:yeah, so I I thought it played pretty well on console. The the like base building part, like in the survival mode, definitely would play better on like a pc because the console mode you're just kind of like base building on any survival game on console usually feels a little janky yeah um, just because of what they're working with.
Speaker 2:But it felt, it felt decent, it felt passable. But the saga mode, I think, is really kind of where a lot of the like the survival mode is basically just like what, if you didn't have like a time limit on saga mode, um, and you kind of just yeah, like a creator mode, creative mode or whatever. Yeah, yeah so because eventually you do get into like okay, now go defeat fenrir in the exact same way that you're doing it in the other mode. So cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that sounds interesting.
Speaker 2:I may have to look and see if I have that somewhere yeah, I was gonna say I know I had it on playstation, but I also stopped playing for playstation or stopped paying for playstation plus because, right, I did not utilize it at all. So, uh, but that did take away final fantasy remake and it did take away all the other. I still have them in my library, but it's like you can't pay, you can't play this unless you pay us again.
Speaker 1:So at least they don't go away if you ever decide to subscribe again like yeah, you could pick them back up exactly cool. Well, that was a fun episode, I think, a good episode of the Neighborhood Watch. It's fun discussions. What do we got going housekeeping wise? I know at time of recording Aubrey's video just went live hellblade and kind of mental health portrayal in hellblade.
Speaker 2:And why aubrey thinks that even, like basically everybody should play hellblade uh, even casual gamers just because of the experience and the lessons and the you know the, the art that is that game. So if you want to check that out, that'd be cool.
Speaker 1:A little bit of a different style for our channel yeah, I know, when I pulled it up this morning to watch it and it was like 17 minutes or whatever I was like wow yeah, um.
Speaker 2:So if you're interested in a little bit of a longer form content, watch it, engage with it. Let us know that, because then maybe we will do more of that kind of a thing yeah, I thought she did a good job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a a good, like you said, video essay kind of style of she kept calling it an action rpg, which I feel like if it gets picked up by a lot of people she'll get called out on in the comments. But yeah maybe that's a good thing, you know, get that well, thank goodness thank goodness, none of the people who commented on our uh rating of the FromSoft games.
Speaker 2:Subscribe to us. Yeah no, but yeah, yeah. So that's up there. I think when this goes live, there will probably for those of you that care about Destiny 2, or if you've ever thought about getting into Destiny 2, but are like I don't understand how to buy or play this- game there will be an updated like a 2024 version of my buyer's guide video.
Speaker 2:That'll be out, probably I it may come out a little bit different than our normal release schedule, just because it'll drop basically as soon as bungie lets me know what they're doing or not, that they're telling me, but um, come on, you sounded so cool, right but it'll probably come out like the day that the new expansion for destiny comes out, right, like once I know.
Speaker 2:Basically, there's like one part that I'm waiting on to see whether or not they're going to update their legacy pack, uh, like they did last time, um, and once I know whether or not they're going to update their legacy pack, like they did last time, and once I know whether or not they're updating that, then that video will be ready to go.
Speaker 2:But if you're interested in Destiny 2, but you don't know how to buy it, or you want to know what I think is worth buying and what I think is worth getting on sale or what I think is worth just avoiding altogether, maybe check that out and then there will be more things coming out eventually yeah you've mentioned the game coming to game pass on the 30th uh lords of the fallen you've mentioned lords of the fallen.
Speaker 2:I would not be shocked if there ended up being andrew's thoughts on lords of the fallen on there at some point yeah, I started that like souls, like series.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so far it's just eliza p review.
Speaker 2:So to make it a series we need a few more videos yeah, sometime this summer I don't know if it'll be before or after e3 or summer games fest- updates. Announcement season yeah, we'll probably have like a little update smack talk situation of the uh the draft the fantasy league. Yeah, that'd be fun we'll see kind of what's up there so cool.
Speaker 1:And then, uh, on the podcast front, same old, same old. If you enjoy the show, let us know. Leave a review on your platform of choice. Leave a five-star rating. If you want to come hang out with us, tell us us what you've been playing. Hop in our Discord. There's a link in every podcast description.
Speaker 1:Great place to come hang out with some fellow gamers, talk about what you've been playing. Or we have a music channel that you can talk about music in there. If there's something you want to talk about and there's not a channel, let me know, we can make it. But, yeah, it's just a cool place to come hang out. Uh, it's where we are much more engaged in conversation with the community, as opposed to like social media, which usually kind of boils down to promotional stuff. But if you want to follow us there, sometimes there are some cool things we post there or some some conversations we have.
Speaker 1:We're on instagram and tikt and X, but Discord is definitely the best place to come hang out with us, so we'd love to have you. With all that being said, thank you so much for listening to this edition of the Neighborhood Watch and we'll catch you on the next episode. We hope you enjoyed listening to this episode of the Friendly Neighborhood Gamers podcast. If so, we would greatly appreciate your help in growing the show and the community by giving us a 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, spotify and any other podcasting app that allows it.
Speaker 2:We also have some great videos on our YouTube channel, including reviews, rankings and other topics. We would really appreciate you checking it out and, if you want to keep up with everything going on in the neighborhood, follow us on Instagram and Twitter and feel free to jump in our Discord server. We hope to see you there.
Speaker 1:Links for everything are in the podcast description. Thanks again for listening and remember stay friendly gamers.