Welcome back to the Game Informer Show, a weekly podcast covering the video game industry. Join us every Friday for a discussion about the latest gaming news, reviews, and exclusive reveals, alongside Game Informer staff and special guests from around the industry. I'm one of your hosts today, Alex van Aiken. Today I'm joined by Charles Hart. How you doing, Charles, Hello, I'm good. I just got my head shaved for charity. Yeah, you guys raised what one hundred thousand dollars one hundred
and one thousand dollars. Ever at min max, it's.
Actually one hundred and two thousand dollars. If you can play.
Wow, it just keeps going up.
It was, Yeah, it was pretty It was pretty crazy. It was pretty crazy. And at the end someone donated two thousand dollars for me to shave my head to look like a monkey mask that we had named Butterman.
Got it. That's a lot of that's a lot of stuff it was.
There's a lot of stream lore. You had to be watching the whole time to understand. But it was a really good bit. And then afterwards I got to shave my head all the way so I didn't have to look like this weird mask the whole time, which was cool.
Well, I'm glad to have you here, Charles, even if you have no hair anymore. We're also joined by Marcus Stewart. How you doing, Marcus?
I'm glad I still have my hair so that you still like me.
Yeah.
I didn't realize it's how you judged people, It's how you picked your friends.
But you know, no, I am known to judge. Why do you think I wear a hat every week on this video call?
Okay, I thought it was like an Ello cool J kind of thing you always work.
It's actually not that bad. But you know I do. I do. I'm a hat wearer. I collect them. I like them. Hey, fellow hat gang, Wesley LeBlanc, how you doing?
Wes doing pretty good? Got a hat and a lot of hair, A hat.
Best of both worlds.
There, You're not a hatfish.
No, no, hatfish.
That's what they're calling it, and I don't like it. I just want to say, let's get into the show proper. We got weird energy this week. This is the third time we've recorded this intro because I'm I think we're all on one. But yeah, it's gonna be a great episode. We're gonna be talking about the outer worlds too. West's gonna be getting into his review of that. Charles's gonna be talking about the first couple of episodes of Dispatch, which is a very cool game featuring Aaron Paul and
a lot of other great talent. Ninja Guiding four Marcus is gonna be diving into, and then towards the end, I will get into some of my impressions from the first season of Battlefield six. I got a preview event that I went to last night actually and played two new maps that I really enjoyed, and got some hands on with a new weapon. And then after that, after all of that, we're gonna be wrapping up the show. Charles interviewed Samantha bay Art and they play Carlock from
Balder's Gate three, so you should definitely stay tuned. They also play a character and Dispatch, is that correct?
You know they play Cider in Absolum, so they play one absolute character.
I apologize.
I apologize, honestly, no one knowing them, knowing how these voice actors get around, I wouldn't be surprised if they also have some kind of role of Dispatch or.
Yeah, yeah, I feel like, you know, when you get to the caliber of Samantha bay Art and like the ben Stars and all those folks, I'm like, oh, I just expect you to be in every new game that we're talking about on the show this week. So my my mistake. But Absolum, that's a that's a game I still need to get to before an inter of your talks.
Freaking It's freaking good. That's my review out of ten freak.
Fan. If you're a fan of Absolom or Balder's Gate three, I think you'll really enjoy this conversation with Samantha bay Art. That car that Charles had, it's called you Carl's Heart.
WHOA No, I like that?
Yeah yeah, the shaved head version of Yes this is.
My new yeah uh.
And before we dive into the show proper, I just did want to give a shout out to a good friend of ours and former graphic designer Jen She runs a handmade dice jewelry company called Yannier Uh, and she just launched a modular RPG dice jewelry set on Kickstarter. It's called the Monolith Collection. The whole idea is that you know her jewelry for a long time, has had a lot of demand, just kind of really ramping up to be able to meet demand finally in a like
really big way. And then also, uh, there's like really cool earrings and dice chain necklaces. Actually have in my my drawer. I have an older set. This isn't what's on Kickstarter, but just to say show you that I am a fan. She makes these beautiful Oh yeah, that's it.
Yeah for audio listeners, like a gold chain with was like green green dice.
Yeah, pinky green greens. Yeah, like kind of a lavender at green. Anyways, I've been a fan for a while. We're friends. Big disclaimer, she used to work here. Big disclaimer. But if you're interested in modular dice jewelry should go check out the kickstarter. She blew through her goal. I think she's at like sixteen hundred percent over over her her starting goal, and there's a bunch of really cool stretch goals, so like it's a very popular and you know six I also, do.
You mean sixteen hundred percent? That's the right number? Yeah, sixteen times that that's crazy. Shout out.
That's so much.
I actually worked on this Kickstarter. I've been working with jen for a few months now on photography and videography that you see as part of like the big rollout, So yeah, go check it out. If anything, if you maybe you know RPG, dice jewelry, don't your thing, should go check it out, look at my cool photos and then share it with a friend who might be interested. But yeah, check it out. The Monolith collection on Kickstarter by Yanier. That's why a ni are really cool stuff.
There's earrings, eyeglass jewelry like glasses, chains and necklaces, and they're all swappable so you don't have to keep rebuying different chains and stuff. You can actually just change out the pendent, which is really cool. So yeah, go check that out. I wanted to shout that out. There'll be a link in the in the podcast description if you want to quick an easy way to go do that. But all that out of the way, let's get into the show proper. Wes gonna kick it off with you
diving into the outer worlds too. I have played probably five hours and I'm really enjoying it. You have beaten the game, however, yes, what did you think I gave?
I'll just do my score right off the top, I gave it an eight point seventy five out of ten, which is a very good score, one of my highest scores of the year. I'm gonna read the first paragraph of my review because there's a lot to talk about in this game. It's a you know, it's a traditional Western RPG, but I feel like my first paragraph kind of sets the tone for where I'm going when I talk about this game.
Yeah, he thought he thought he cooked on that intro.
Actually, that was the editing note that I left him.
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Uh.
The Outer World's two doesn't drastically change the already great formula developer Obsidian Entertainment created with The Outer Worlds more than half a decade ago. Instead, this expansive sequel follows in the footsteps of many other great RPG follow ups, with more places to explore, more loot defined, and crucially, plenty of new ways to directly influence and shape your own adventure in space that its main narrative is anti climactic.
I'm left amazed by how much Obsidian was able to cram into this thirty hour odyssey with side content that we've seamlessly in and out of the Golden Path in a level of reflexivity other RPGs often try and fail to achieve. So yeah, basically, this is not an RPG that breaks the mold of Western RPGs. Like, if you know the type of RPGs that studios like Bethesda and BioWare and even Obsidian have been making for decades, now,
that's what this is. But all that said, they attacked this sequel to the twenty nineteen Outer Worlds very smartly. They pretty much improved on every single aspect. I don't think there's anything left untouched here other than maybe the main narrative. I think I wasn't super high on the finale and like how it wraps up the entire narrative, Like I really enjoyed the main story throughout my adventure, but then when I finished it, I was kind of just like, oh, Okay, yeah, I guess that's I guess
we're done with that now. But that's okay because the side content that I played along the way felt it was so good and well crafted and felt so seamless that it kind of felt like the main narrative, which kind of boosts the entire package up. I am that's thoroughly impressed with how Obsidian handled the side quests and the companion quest in this game. I think that they feel quite integral to the main story, especially in the
sense that it's an Obsidian game. What you learn and what you do is going to impact a lot of your story, and that goes for the side content. I was learning a lot of things, getting key information, key items, key objects, meeting key people that actually directly affected the main quest that I would do after. And I think Obsidian very smartly introduces the side quests at the perfect time.
So if you're a very diligent player and you receive a side quest, I highly recommend going and doing that side quest because there's a good chance it will influence and effect the main part of your mission coming up next.
That's awesome.
Outside of narrative, it feels a million times better. I think anbody that's played the Outer Worlds One knows that, Like it wasn't the best feeling RPG, it's it's strength words, storytelling, and the fun world. Gunplay kind of sucked. Every gun felt the same. This is like a proper first person shooter feeling game. Every gun feels different. It feels really
really good. You know, It's not like a. I'm not saying this is like a call do You're a Destiny type of feel, but like, as far as first person shooting RPGs go, I think it's probably one of my favorite blow Starfield out of the water. That's not that this is like needs to be compared to Starfield.
But I mean there's there's some natural you know, yeah yeah, dna ye.
A game like this where people are like the gun play is actually good. Though, I feel like that's always the caveat of like I like Fallout but or I like the Outer Worlds one. But so it's really cool that that's a thing of like you'll just like you won't, you won't feel the need to rely on like the time dilation stuff.
Yeah, Fallout has that because of they know that the shooting sucks, and they did the time dilation because a similar I think through line from New Vegas is like, yeah, our shooting is not the best. Let's let players slow it down so they can get the key week spots they need to hit. To that end, I honestly didn't really use time dilation that much. I think it has barely.
So far.
It has its use.
I guess if you want to slow down combat if you feel the need to. There's a couple like puzzle instances, like trying to get through a spinning blade, for example, but I rarely used it in combat. I don't know. I just didn't feel the need to that the gum play it felt good enough where I was like confident in using my weapons in my arsenal.
I do like to hear that they integrate it into environmental puzzles. That's cool, don't It gives it another reason to use it.
Don't get too excited. It's like a handful of times I did it pretty late in the game and I was like, oh, yeah, that's I forgot that. The time dilation slows things down and you can use it this way. There's not really many puzzles happening in this game or anything. The points where there are puzzles is where you're going to use your gadgets. Most okay, gadgets I didn't really touch out on my review because it's like kind of nitpicky,
I guess, but like they're fine. I didn't really feel the need to use them too often.
Are you talking gadgets like grenades and that's.
No like the on your weapon. Also, time dilations of gadgets.
Yeah, there's one that melts bodies discovery.
Yeah, I have those. I didn't realize that's what those are called.
Yeah, No, I use grenades a bunch. I actually really like there's a large amount of grenades. I want to say, like a dozen different types, and I really enjoyed using all of those.
Something else that your kind of character build by the way, Oh.
Yeah, goodoint. She probably jumped into that. So everybody starts as an Earth Directorate, which you're basically is is a space cop a more humorous like buzz light your type of space cop. You can change your background into, like how you became an Earth Directorate agent. Mine was more of just like a gambler who was using it to
find another way to get more money. But I know that you can be like a reformed prisoner who is like making up time sentence for crimes by being an Earth Director and you can be.
So I was an archaeologist and yeah when we did the cover story build, yeah.
I was rusted about. So I'm just like ended up here.
That's what I chose in the cover story. Trip was just like I have no idea how I got here, But we're gonna roll with it, and yeah, there's a you get to pick some perks and stuff like that. I kind of played it as a I don't want to call it straight shooter, Like mechanically I was not a straight shooter, but I was kind of like a cool guy who would do anything for money and wasn't really concerned with morals too much if somebody was paying me.
And I actually thought the game like really responded to that in an interesting way, and I get the sense that it would respond to you in a lot of interesting ways. For the cover story, I did played very dumb, like there's an actual dumb trait or perk or whatever.
That's what I'm playing right now. And I don't know if I was really hot on it the first few hours, and now I'm like, maybe I wanted to play like a real character. Yeah, I'm kind of playing like a Tim Robinson esque character. Like one of my companions gets their arm blown off early in the game, and my guys like typical rookie can't like you know that kind of thing. Like, yeah, but I don't know how. I mean, I'm getting a lot of dialogue options for dumb that
are like really funny. Yeah, yeah, me laugh.
You can just treat the game like a comedy, I mean, even more so than it kind of already is.
But yeah, I think Marcus am I remembering wrong was dumb one of the ones where they were like, it's very funny, but it might be better for a different play like a second play through.
Yeah, like that in one with like some of the perks and flaws, or the flaw specifically like not that you know, you play however you want. But they kind of looked at it the way I always looked at the dumb tray of like this is a second play through, Like my first play through will be like a little closer to serious, and then next time just who cares?
Yeah, yeah, I'm thinking about rerolling honestly and kind of playing a more straight laced character or or either a renegade or like a smart person like yeah there are not just like somebody that's dumb.
Something I like that the dialogue does, is which I talk about in my review, is it kind of teases out the other ways that something could have gone. So like I might not have an option available, but I can still look and see what's required for that option. So often I'm like, oh, this this plotline, I would have been coasting if I was a reformed prisoner or whatever.
Or I actually didn't see anything for dumb, which is kind of funny because that means dumb is not going to help you at all throughout the game, but there's plenty.
Of it actively hurts you. I think, Yeah, select, I had to select like five different skills that I'm completely locked out of. I but then I chose brilliant as one of my positives, so then I could I couldn't maximize. I think I could pick three traits to like specialize in at the start and get ahead start on, but I was locked out of five because I was dumb. So I'm just like really into a couple of topics. I think they described.
That during the cover story West as like you would be a brilliant like a savant basically of like you're you're overall like an idiot, but like in very specific ways you are just like a genius.
Uh yeah, yeah, I'm gonna enjoying. I do enjoy that part because like, my guy's really good at engineering.
He's like, I don't ask me, like, don't ask me to talk, but I can I can solve your he's really.
Good at engineering and medical, but anything else is like it's.
Like you gave Albert Einstein a gun and you're like, go see in the world, and he's like, well, if anyone knows any questions about relativity, I can answer that, but I don't know how this thing works at all.
Yeah, yeah, you mentioned flaws. Flaws is probably the thing I'm most hot on coming out of this review. I adore the flaws system. I know it was in the first game, but I think the flaws here and two are so much fun and funny enough. During our cover story they were like, flaws are really good for other playthroughs because they can harm you. But I ended the game with I think nine flaws, which is kind of
a lot. But I just really enjoyed the way it was like shaping my character, and it made me feel really seen in a way I've never really felt in an RPG. I feel like typically RPGs react based on your dialogue choices, or like in Balder's Gate, like, oh, I'm blowing up this person, so now they're not gonna be able to join my party because I blew them up with barrels of fire, and it's like that's really cool,
but that's how a lot of RPGs react. I think Flaws feels very meta in the sense that it's almost like someone at Obsidian is watching me, because I'm the type of person in any game I play where when I'm out of combat or even mid combat, I reload like I'm always loading. I never reached the bottom of a clip. I like to top off all of my clips, and pretty soon into the game it was like, hey,
here's a flaw that you can accept. We notice you really like reloading, so we're going to give you this flaw and it will increase the magazine size of every weapon you ever get. But if you ever let a clip reach zero, you're gonna have an eight second of an extreme damage nerve, which I really liked because sometimes I was nerved and I was like, ah, dang it. But other times, often I'm just having these extra large clips, and I really like that the game is constantly watching
how I'm playing and reacting to it. And sometimes it feels almost like I'm being called out. And those are the flaws where I would deny them, and I'd be like, no, I decline this flaw. I do not want this get out of my face, Obsidian, but I think you would have declined as an example kleptomaniac. So this is a very This is a very BioShock esque game. I know games did it before BioShock, but it reminds me of BioShock.
Where you enter a room, you kill the enemy. There are eight hundred items to pick up in the room. You can pick up bottles of alcohol, you can pick up medicine, you can pick up food, ammo grenades, there's drawers just search, there's cabinets to search everything like I have, I would defeat enemies in a room. And then if you watch my screen, it's like my guy just looking down and me just bashing square to open everything. I'm like square square, square, square square to take it all,
take it all. And eventually it was like you're a kleptomaniac, you get like if you sell things to vendors, you get a lot more money and their prices are lowered. But the flaw part of it was if you see something, you have to take it, which is not good when you go to places where you don't. I'm trying not to spoil because there's certain locations I can't talk about but like you go to places where you don't want enemies,
and if you steal, you will have enemies. And if you like literally, if you look at an item and it pops up on your screen and it'll say like steal, the game will do it for you. And I was like, I'm not. I know that I like to take things.
I will take things on my own time Obsidian, And there's a ton of flaws, even like, literally in the last five minutes of the game, I received a flaw, which was hilarious because the game's over, but I was like, oh, wow, you really are watching me all the way up into the final moments, and I really appreciated that. It was the most It's why I talk so much about reactivity in the review, because it just felt so reactive to what I was doing. Because it's it's doing all the
usual RPG things. The dialogue choices to shape how you're doing things. Oh do you want to sneak through this place or do you want to go guns blazing? Did you find the item to open this door or do you need to go through a shaft? Like none of that felt particularly new, though I do like having those options in combat. It was the flaws that felt different and felt like my playthrough will be wildly different from any of your guys's playthroughs, especially as someone who took
nine flaws I probably received. I probably saw fifteen to twenty total and took nine of them. And it's funny because you'll get flaws where the game is like, we really do not it straight up says we do not recommend this on your first playthrough because they're just that drastic. And I think that's something that's super exciting as someone who doesn't typically replay games, just because with our jobs, you know, it's kind of hard to take the time
to replay stuff. But this was one where I was like, I could see just how different I can make a playthrough between flaws, between my background and skills and perk selected, and I think that's really really cool.
You know, I've decided I'm going to stick it out with my dumb character. Yeah, and not only that, I'm going to accept every flaw that it's given to me.
That is that is the play That's the exact playthrough I had in mind when I beat the game. I was like, if I do another one, I'm taking every flaw And I think dumb is the way to go. I think that would be a legitimate blast. And there's there's a lot of dialogue where the game kind of
warns you ahead of time. I skipped pretty much every boss in the game because I dialogued my way through it, which the bosses are fun, but I really liked the idea of trying to like use my speech and my I kind of focused my skills on speech and and being a leader and non mechanical stuff stuff that works in dialogue. So it was fun trying to see how far I could take the game, where I even didn't like the final boss. I almost stopped like the fight.
Eventually I did not, and I kind of wanted to actually like have combat for the final fight, but I saw the way forward where I could have skipped the final boss fight, which I think is really cool. But it's cool because the game will say, it'll kind of tee you up. Maybe one of your companions or someone else you're talking to will say, you might be able to talk this person down, but if not, just know that we're going to have to kill them type of thing.
And you have companions like Asa, who's part of a cult she loves killing like everything, she just wants to murder people. Every time a dialogue choice pops up, she's right there and she's like, well, we could just kill them and skip all this. And then you have someone like Niles, who is very he's an Earth director and agent too, and he really like respects you and the ideals of the Earth Director, and he's like, we should talk them out. We shouldn't kill them. We need to
bring them justice, give them a proper trial. And so like, going into dialogue, I was aware whether or not I could come out on top without shooting, and often I was able to. And you, really, I'm doing like ten to twelve dialogue choices and like having an actual discussion with this person on the ethics of what they're doing and why I think they should stop. And it was just really cool to see how responsive the game was. I was very surprised that, I think, other than the
last fight, I only fought one boss. All the other ones I talked down out of their position. And it even goes beyond that, like you if you kill a boss, that comes up later. If I didn't kill a boss, they wouldn't necessarily appear later, But like me choosing not to kill them would have an effect later. The game was often reacting and bringing back past decisions and stuff that I made, which I think is really cool.
It's awesome.
Yeah, And I know Obsidian's known for that. That's kind of like their bread and butter. That's why people love New Vegas so much. And I know Outer Worlds one did a lot of that. I just think that this is probably the most in depth and the farthest they've taken that system without breaking out of the mold of
Western RPG. I think maybe their next game, like they could take their work they've done here and create like a new RPG type that doesn't feel so typical Obsidian, I guess, but this really feels like they've taken that Western RPG formula that's so popular here and stretched it to like the maximum limits and the best way.
Yeah. Yeah, random question, did you do you like this game more than a vow? Did you play about?
I have played some avowed, and I guess that gives my answer because I mean, I had to play this game for work, but this was a work game that I wanted to play, Like when I was working, I was playing it. When I would get off work, I'd be like, talk to my wife, we would, you know, hang out with our kid. Kid goes down and I'm like, hey, I'm going to play Out of Worlds two for five hours tonight.
Is that okay?
And She's like, yes, I will read a book next to you. Whereas sometimes I'm reviewing a game and I'm like, I'm only doing this during work hours. Yeah, I do not, this is work, whereas avowed I did not. I have not gone back to finish I liked about, but I do think Outer World's two is probably the Obsidian game of the year for me, which is wild to say they've.
We should we should have had as our category for go to the best OFSIDI the best Obsidian game.
That reminds me. At the end of your cover story, Marcus, you said, and I'm curious. I know Marcus wrote this, but Wes, I'm curious if you how you think it resolves it. He says, quote I enjoyed roaming the game's opening hours, and I'm eager to see how my actions, good, baden everything in between shape this role playing adventure. Obsidian has enjoyed a twenty twenty five. Few studios can boast from the well received avowed in February to the strong
early access launch of Grounded two in July. If the Outer World's two sticks to the landing, it will have accomplished one hell of a hat trick. West. Do you feel like they have kind of done that?
Oh?
Absolutely, I think. I mean it's it's unheard of, right. I don't know if any studio that has released three games at least in triple A.
I know.
Thelavier Studio releases, Uh, Lavier and Nelson releases like one hundred games.
A year.
One as we were talking, Actually.
Yeah, right, But to release three baseline good games like About and Outer World's two great Grounded is not really my style. So I know people like Grounded to what its early acxis, and that's I'm not big into survival games. Like, to release three games on this caliber is a is a feat for them to be at least good, I think is pretty unheard of. I think the closest I can think of is like maybe Insomniac over at PlayStation,
but they don't do multi release years. I just feel like they have a kidence that's very commendable and uh, kind of unheard of.
Yeah, And granted this is sort of like accidental, like because the Valve was supposed to come out last year and got delayed, so they didn't plan to release three games in one year. But you know, yeah, the point still stands that it's remarkable that all three of them seem to have stuck the landing.
I bet if there was a studio that would contest it. I feel like there's like a twenty thirteen or twenty fourteen that maybe Ubisoft could say, like if we get like a like a Black Flag and a Far Cry, Raymon Legends Raymond, that's only that's the only one I can think of, And that's also like, yeah, it's a long it's been a long time since.
Yeah, I think twenty thirteen they would have just had Raymn Legend and Assassin's Creed. Yeah, black Flag was that year. I think Far Cry it would have been four, and I think that was a year after.
I think you're right, yeah, because it was on.
Yeah, but the year after it was also Unity and Rogue in the same week because of the next Gen, so that's a three year game too. But even then you'd be.
Those two games and then yeah, Assassin's Creed games in my opinion, but and.
Plus we learned with Obsidian, like they're very sequestered in their teams. Like the Outer World's two team has been working on out of World two for years. It wasn't like, uh, they were all working on a vowed or grounded that game dropped and now they all.
Switched all separate yeah, separate game directors.
Yeah. I don't know how many people work at Obsidian. We we asked studios and yeah, it's become like a thing to like hide for some reason lately.
My theory is that studios that do that don't want the pup then number to be public because it's easier to track likes and I don't know, layoffs and that kind of thing. I don't know. Maybe that's cynical. Take it's because that they have a lot of They also have like a lot of contractors, I bet so maybe they want to make sure that they're including them when they when they quote that and they don't have the number. You know, there's a lot of reasons. I think neither here nor there.
Yeah, but I don't think it's like an Obsidian thing they're trying to it's probably no.
I've noticed it's a trend. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've noticed it elsewhere in the last couple of years, several other places for sure. But yeah, man, I can't wait to play more of this game. Hearing that you can do so much with speech as well.
Is really cool.
Yeah, you can. It goes pretty far. I think, honestly, if the if the main narrative had wrapped up, it's a shame because I was really all in on that main storyline up until basically kind of like the finale,
and the finale is bad. It just feels so here or there in a game where there's so much density and everything you do, and then all of a sudden you get to the end and it's like A or B type of thing, and it's not like that black or white, but it just felt very like this game is so wide and you can do so much in between, and then all of a sudden, the finale it's just like, all right, a little binary kind of Yeah. I don't want to say it's like an A or B decision,
but it did. It did just feel kind of and I guess this is something games always struggle with, like they have to reach the same ending essentially, Like I mean, not every game can be a Balder's Gate three although I wish a lot of games were, but like they have an ending in mind, and it can go a couple different ways, but like, ultimately you're gonna go to this final location, for example, and watch the events play out there, And I kind of just wish that it
had some more reactivity and flexibility that the rest of the game had it If they had nailed the yeah, this would have been like probably the RPG of the year for me, which is crazy because it's a fantastic year for RPGs. I think there's a couple other things I should touch on real quick that were kind of hit or missed. Companion quests. I think people still might like Outer World's one companions more. I think Out of
Worlds to have some strong companions. But what you're saying, yes, yeah, exactly, some of these some of these companions don't really open up until, like you get them all pretty early, and they each have like a couple companion quests to round
out their story and fully upgrade them. I didn't like two of them didn't get any companion quest until I was on the Final Planet basically, and I was at that point, you're kind of locked in on who you like to take with you, and I did their quest just to see where they went, but I had no interest in like actually learning about them because I'm barreling towards the finale and oh, now you bring this up. Now we got to go do this stuff, like do
you not understand what we're doing here? Still cool though, and I think that they are very useful in combat. I died a lot in combat because I wasn't using my companion abilities, which uh, I guess I didn't expect it. But they play a pretty heavy role in combat and survival. They can really, for lack of something that's not a cliche, like change the tides of combat for you. And then there's a few bugs that I had. Reviewing games in twenty twenty five is always weird because like there's always
a day one patch. Sometimes you don't even want to mention bugs because they're going to be fixed, but I'm going to mention them here just because they kind of were pretty persistent for me. I could never use up on the dpad in the menus the first time I opened a menu, so I'd have to like open a menu, close it, open it, and then use up. Not a big deal, but PS five PS five.
Pro I haven't had that. Yeah, yeah, it was a small.
Yeah, it was a small bug. And I was like, I don't think this is a big deal, but just mentioning it, and then I had to reload to save a couple of times. Funny enough, the ending, I had a bug where I couldn't get the ending I wanted to because the prompt would not appear, like it was telling me do this, and the prompt wouldn't appear, And so to fix it, I had to go pick an ending I didn't want and then kind of follow this like just kidding route to get to where I wanted
to go. It was very weird and it was like the It kind of rubbed me a little sour because it was right at the end, and I'm like, no, I thought this was a bug that was going to end the game for me. Shout out to Obsidian for helping me get to the ending I wanted. But yeah, there's just a couple of things you might run into. I think it's the least jinky Western rpg from Xbox
I've played. Like Obsidian during our cover story was very open about like jink, like it's part of their DNA and if you know Bethesda Games, if you know Obsidian Games, like, it's kind of just par for the course. Not much of that here at all. Really, this feels like a very polished product on PS five pro It's I there was a mode I used that was a smooth sixty f yes with an upbres resolution, gorgeous. Game did not feel jinky at all, and yeah, felt great, played great,
looks great. I know some people don't like the art style as much, which is something I'm learning as we post coverage from our cover story trip. I guess people don't really love the art style too much. It is pretty outlandish, but I like it. Not a reason to not play the game, though. If you don't like the art style, There's so much happening here that I think
anybody who likes RPG should check it out. But yeah, eight point seventy five out of ten Obsidians my favorite Obsidian game yet easily love it.
I will say, not the best steam Deck game, some of the anteriors. I did the tutorial area on steam Deck, and then I did some open world on steam Deck, and once you get to the open world stuff, steam Deck kind of falls apart, unfortunately. Verified It's like.
We noticed you like playing speed that games, so.
Yeah, bummer. But it's definitely one of those things that I'm like, maybe maybe I think about getting one of those Xbox Allies.
A little bit better.
I mean, I could also play a lot of things with windows, so I'm like, oh man, yeah, yeah, well cool. That is our discussion on the outer worlds too, Charles. Speaking of kind of narrative games and choices, You've been playing Dispatch, which is a game about you playing a dispatcher who sends heroes, rehabilitated heroes to crime scenes to like help people. Is that correct?
Yes, Yeah, so Dispatch is it's from ad Hoc Studio, which is some people that used to work at Telltale and they have basically they've basically made a new Telltale game. I don't know what Telltale they like left and came back. I honestly didn't really keep track of all the.
Ins and out they're making The Wolf among Us two somewhere anyways.
Yeah, so this is this is like the first first one of these types of games that we've had in a really long time. And yeah, I've done I've done the first four episodes and it's very good. It's like the acting is very good, the script is very good, the animation is gorgeous. It's the way it works is you're essentially watching an animated, an adult animated superhero show. So I think like an Invincible or like an animated The Boys or something, right.
Which is how this game started originally, right like it was gonna be like a animated show.
They wouldn't They wouldn't tell me what streaming that I did. I did a feature on them a couple issues back. They wouldn't tell me what streaming service it was. My guess is it was Netflix, because Netflix had a bunch of like choice based narrative of stuff on there for a minute. But they were just making a superhero workplace comedy where you could like pick different dialogue options and
it's going to be interactive. And then when that fell through because of COVID, I think they had to just pivoted. They're like, we'll just make another game, and yeah, you're essentially watching the show. And then as moments where dialogue choices come up, you'll see them pop up on screen, and then there's a little timer that's counting down and
you'll get to press whatever dialogue option. But it's extremely seamless, to the point where my partner was she was sitting on the couch next to me and she's playing Haiti's two I think on switch to and wasn't looking up at the screen and didn't understand that I She was like, this is a really long cut scene. It's weird that you haven't gotten to play the game yet, but it's so smooth and seamless that like you just wouldn't even know that you're playing a game, and all the dialogue
options are very natural. It comes very easily. Also, I said, I said Invincible in the Boys it is adult. There's like, uh, this is two for two in games. I wasn't expecting to have nudity that have more nudity than you'd think they have, the first one being Baby Steps. Of course, this one's not as extreme as Baby Steps, but like one of the opening sequences, there's like a super villain who's like kind of naked and there's a lot of swearing and there's blood and it's I I don't know,
I like it. I think it's a it's kind of.
Like Charles likes nudity.
Yeah, Nudity Games twenty five.
In terms of the violence does any does it even approach invincible, because I feel like that's kind of in its own class.
No, it's it's not. It's not gory. It's just as okay, I would say. I also, the parts I've seen so far haven't been extremely combat heavy. I was just also due to the nature of the game. But it's it's very much I don't know, yeah, yeah, uh the So that's part of the game is you're watching these things, you're interacting. A main character is Robert Robertson. He was a hero named Meccha Man and just kind of like
an Ironman type guy. But his suit gets destroyed and he like, he's not a billionaire like Tony Stark would be. He doesn't like run a company. He's just is Mecamn like full time. So when his suit gets fully destroyed, he's like, I don't have any money. I can't remake the suit. And he gets contacted by SDM, which is a superhero dispatch network, and they're like, hey, if you come work for us, we have a bunch of like former heroes that like can't do work anymore. They work
in our office. We might be able to fund a new Meca Man suit because you're like good for the world or whatever, And so then part of the game plays that interact the story element. The other part is this like interesting kind of strategy game. So you have like a map of your like section of the city, and you'll see little events pop up around the map.
And you have a roster of different super villains turned heroes that are basically getting like rehabilitated in society and this is like their chance to like have a stable job and maybe do hero work at some point. And they each have like different stats, so you can and be like, well, this person's really good at speech, but
this person's really good fighting. And the instances that come up are very varied, so it'll be like, you know, there's a robbery, and it'll give you little keywords of like the bandage is fast, so you're like, okay, I'm gonna do someone has high mobility, but also be stupid things of like there's a cat stuck in a tree, someone needs to coax it down. I'm like, all right, that would be a speech thing. Or someone needs to figure out how to get these cars at a gridlock. Okay,
that would be like an intelligence thing. And each have different like modifiers and abilities like one of them Sonar's he's he's a literal batman. He's like got like a human body with like the head of a bat and he has like a normal form and like a feral form. So every time you send him out, his charisma and intelligent swap with his like combat and health. So it
goes back and forth depending on what it is. So when you're leveling him up, you can just put all his points into one of those stats and then if the relevant thing comes up, you're like, well, he's really good at this stuff. Just you have to hope he's in the right form. And Yeah, so that that part of the game, I was like, I was in it for the story, isn't it for the acting performances. I was like surprised by how fun. I also thought the game was in just like strategy element.
That's cool.
Yeah, it's very seamless. I played the demo Steam Next Fester this year. Something that I really enjoyed that you've kind of touched on is how seamless it is. It's not like a Telltale game where they'd be like, what should we do and then they give you time and everyone's just kind of paused. Like I don't know how they did it, but like when you pick the dialogue option, you can't see the seams of oh they're swapping in this cut scene or this vo like it seems it's
really really impressive. I you mentioned Invincibler. I wish I wish Invincible looked as good as this game. This game the animation is so pretty, it's awesome.
Like we talk about games with good writing, and there's uh as as people who play a lot of games, we do have a sense of of like this game has good writing, and that's often like for a game, like we're thinking of writing in terms of how you're interacting with stuff or I don't know, there's all these
like caveats you have to have. Dispatch is a very well written thing, Like it's it's as good as a good TV show would be, Like this should be if this was a show, I would be like this should be nominated for Emmy's Like it's just really really good writing. And then when you when you're selecting stuff, also I should mention it it's you feel your choices really have consequences.
They have I have like really tangible effects that I've done and I can't talk about all the things, especially in like chapters three and four, which I can say I've played but they don't want to spoil it all obviously, But there's stuff where like I'm making the decision here and it's it's not like I wasn't on the podcast last week talk about blood Lines Too, but I reviewed that and that was a game that, like for everything Wes was saying about Outer Worlds two's reactivity, I was like,
there's not there's a very non reactive game in blood Lines Too. Dispatch is very react and stuff comes back in ways that you're not expecting. When you make these big decisions, they're treated as big decisions, they're built up appropriately, and then when you make the choice, I will say, it does slow down with like bigger stuff where it's like, all right, it's your call, man, and then you'll have a longer timer when it's like, you know, there's gonna
be a thing that has a lot of consequences. Yeah, but yeah, I'm already like four episodes in already thinking like wow, I kind of already want to start a new save file and just do the opposite choices of a lot of the stuff I made because it's not.
It's not necessarily like and there is stuff where like I can be a nice person or a bad person, or like I can be a jerk or whatever, but there's a lot of other stuff where it's like I'm kind of just making an arbitrary decision of like which person I like here, which decision I want to make here? And I could have easily gone the other way.
How many episodes in total? Is it five? Six?
There'll be eight episodes total, eight, and it'll be we're getting two every week. So two came out day of recording on Wednesday, the twenty second, and then there's two more on the twenty ninth, two more the week after that, and then the last two episodes come out on November twelfth.
How how long is an episode?
Like?
Is it like TV length? Like an hour?
Uh?
Yeah, it's probably about an hour. I think it's it could be a little bit longer depending on how long you're like pausing in menus during like the strategy stuff.
But yeah, it's about now, so pretty similar to like an older Telltale game, you know, yeah, like those are about the same, you know, one to two hours.
Yeah.
How do you feel about the episodic because I feel like a lot of devs that did that kind of we still get episodic, but it's like you can have all the episodes at once, so you get the structure, but you don't have to wait. They are very purposefully being like, no, we want you to wait every week. How do you feel about that?
I I generally I don't really like it. I think I think the way they structure in episodes is really good and smart, like I like I especially like being like at the end of the episode, you kind of get a recap of all the choices you've made and how they are relative to other people's choices. I do like that, and I like that there's clean spots where you can just be like I'm gonna be done for a day, or I'll just play an episode today, but I'm not. It's it's also hard for us because we
play a lot of games, like for work. It's really hard for me to play a little bit of something and then be told to come back every week for a month or so. But I think it's to each their own. That's kind of how I feel about a lot of TV these days. Of like if a show comes out and it's just the first episode, I'll usually watch the first episode and then kind of forget about it because I'm getting into other routines of stuff.
But yeah, it sounds like Dispatches. If you weren't reviewing it for work, you'd still probably return each week.
You think, Oh yeah, I think quality wise, it's definitely worth returning for. But I did get to the end of episode four and I was like, dang it.
What's like to do the whole thing?
What's the I guess without spoiling much, like, what's the overarching like what is the narrative building towards because in the demo I didn't get a sense of that. It was just guy down on his luck. Here's your new job, Like where where are they? What are what are they? Where are they going with that?
So it's uh, the main thing I would say is there wait, sorry, I'll pause for a second. Are you guys still there? It's like really freezing up on my end.
Yeah, yeah, weird.
Clapping for It's like it's weird.
It doesn't like it's either any individual person. It's like it's just discord.
Yeah you guys, discord. Yeah, everybody keep recording. Yeah, mm hmmm, let's keep recording and everybody disconnect and reconnect.
Disconnect now.
Yep, h okay, that seems to have worked.
Yep. Everybody's still recording.
Yep, yes, okay, cook much better.
Yeah that's weird.
Okay. Yeah, So, uh what is it building towards? I would say there's there's a few.
One do you think I need to reask that? Do you know if that park got fucked up?
I think I think it because it's our individual recordings. It's probably fine because you I think you finished it properly. I was just waiting for everything above.
Yep.
Sorry, yeah, no, you're fine.
Uh yeah. So so there's there's a few thread lines that's building up. One is there's like, uh, depending on how you want to play it, there is kind of like a romance thing that's kind of foreshadowed in the very beginning. There's some options there, like it's not necessarily like you're locked into one person. And then there's obviously the overarching thing of you're trying to get your suit back.
So there is like progressive stuff of like he's trying out new stuff, he's got a guy that's helping him with things, and you're seeing like the progress of that and they haven't said it, and this is not a spoiler from a later episode that we haven't gotten because I haven't seen it yet. But Shroud is like the guy. Uh, he's like the big bad essentially. I imagine we're fate we're
ending up towards some confrontation with him. Also, because I don't think i've heard him talk yet, and I know he's voiced by Matt Mercer, and I'm like, we're not gonna have Matt Mercer voice this guy and not give him any lines.
I thought you meant Shroud, uh Streamer or whatever. I don't know. I know that name because this game does have like names like that in thescast, and I was like, Oh, that's cool that that guy is gonna be the big bad I guess, but Matt Mercer makes a lot more sense.
Yeah, I will say to that. To that extent, I did interview a bunch of people from the cast. We'll have clips going up this week. I have a piece that went up. I interviewed Aaron Paul about the game that was really interesting. But it's yeah, it's weird, Like you've got like your class like Laura Bailey's in the game. You're like, yeah, of course, Laura Bailey will be in the game. Travis Willingham, who's married to Laura Bailey, also
in the game. Matt Mercer. Of course, these are all critical role of people that do like every voice acting gig you'd imagine. And then there's like Jack Septic guy is just one of the guys. Uh, moist critical is just one of the guys. Thought squad on a musician? What was that?
A lot of peers, fan of games, A lot of peers.
Yes, uh, and yes, it's just just a lot of a lot of people. And Uh, it's a thing I think when I saw the lineup of the credits, Uh, kind of kind of feels like stunt casting to an extent, where which is to say, like we're casting someone for the name or their persona rather than like their performance. But there's not like I know who Jack Sceptic guy plays, because the guy is like very irish. There's not a moment in this where it's like that's just Jack Septic
guy humor. They're just they just wanted to make references to his stuff. It's like, no, he's just one of the casts. And they all do really good jobs. And it's also very natural sounding dialogue. So it's I think it's very easy for someone that's like maybe not had a ton of voice acting experience to come in read the lines and make it sound natural.
Yeah. Yeah, And I remember you asked them about the like stunt casting and a specifically Jack Septic guy and it wasn't wasn't somebody like during COVID. I just put him on background a lot while I was working and I was like writing this character, and sure enough I needed an Irish voice and Jack Septic work.
It was that was that was her mooice critical where they like hit his streams on a lot and they're like, I just feel like his voice would fit for this character. They did, also, to their credit, say that like they didn't just cast everyone they reached out to. I think they reached out to people that probably didn't give good auditions or they didn't they didn't like the vibe.
For Yeah, they didn't call me back, so they watched.
A lot of super replay.
No.
The Another one was a thought Squad who's like a musician I hadn't heard of. She's the rapper and they found some more videos and like it, and in the my interview with her, something I really liked is. I asked people, I was like, what is there anything about dispatch or ad hocs, recording process the You're like, I wish more games were like this, and thought Squad was like, yeah, honestly, it's really cool that they like reached out to us
and they like genuinely gave us a chance. There's not a reason they wouldn't they they could have just casted it normally, and instead they're like, we think this person would be a good fit for the role, and then gave them like a really good chance. And now they're like I thought Squad's like, yeah, I had never done a video game before. I'm not a huge gamer. I'm in this space now, and that's just like cool. And it's cool that it worked out too that it's not like, oh,
they're giving them a try. It's like, no, that's a that's a real character. They're doing good, they're earnest good performance.
So yeah, that's awesome.
Awesome. Uh well, Marcus, we're gonna send it over to you. You reviewed Ninja Guide in four for us, and I'm really curious. I mean, we've had a lot of previews for this game, you know, we've of course it was on our cover story. Shay's talked about it a fair amount on the show with us uh and that as of you. But like you have beaten the game, now you've reviewed it, I'm very curious what what your thoughts are.
Hey, were you Hyabusa's back baby? Sort of, he's there, he's in the background. He's not he's not the star of this game. They got a new guy at the Helm. His name's Yakimo. He's a really, uh cool looking ninja kid. He speaks like this a lot, like he's got a little bit of like a teenage Christian Bale batman kind of performance going on. Yeah, and uh, and he's kind of a he kind of is a representation of sort of like the different direction of the game in general,
because one, this is not developed by Team Ninja. This is Platinum Games Latin, hen you might know from other great action series like ban Ata and Metal Gear Rising and whatnot. Vanquish, I'm glad that you said, Vanquish. We're gonna ignore wood West said, but yes, this game is
a lot of fun. I'm a Ninja Guiden fan, especially to three D Ninja Guiden games that started in the two thousands, and I'm also a big Platinum Games fan, so this was like a like hearing this collaboration between Team Ninja Platinum Games, this was like, Oh, this is video game Christmas for style of actions sikos like myself, And I'm happy to report that it has worked out because this game is so much fun and it's also a little wild that maybe the best compliment I can
give is that if you're a die hard three D Ninja Guiden fan, I would bet you wouldn't tell that this was a different developer at the helm because Platinum and granted had guidance from Team Ninja. But this feels like a proper Ninja guiding game like that doesn't feel necessarily like a Platinum game pretending to be Ninja Guiden.
Like the physics and just like the tight control that made the three D Ninja Guy game so good, like all of that is here, as well as the brutal difficulty that the series is rather infamous for, like the three D Ninja guid in Games into two thousand, Like those were the souls likes before souls likes became a thing, Like those were if you wanted to have gamer creds, so to speak, you talked about like, oh I beat Ninja guy in one and two or and I like
one hundred percent of it in whatever, and yeah, no problem, Like that was like legit impressive at the time, and this game is challenging. It's tough. It's like, you know, the average grunt enemy can tear you to pieces unless you're on your game, and that's what makes it so
much fun. So it's sort of like the general like plot premise is that you're playing this new ninja Yakama who's part of the Raven Clan, which is like an it's part of the Higabusa clan, but it's sort of like a like a more secretive kind yeah, like kind of like they're like the Black Ops branch of the high Abusa Clan, where like nobody knows about them that and they kind of just do sort of like shady wetwork kind of missions, like the stuff that, yeah, the
proper Hyabusa clan would never kind of touch. They're like, yeah, you know, we'll do some like political assassinations or whatnot if you pay us enough. Basically, you know, regardless of
whether or not it's morally ethical or not. And so Yakimo's sort of like seen as like the rising star in this clan, and he's on a mission to kill this priestess who is housing the dormant spirit of the Dark Dragon, which is the recurring antagonist in the Ninja Guiding games that Reuhyabusa has defeated countless times but has never truly killed. He's kind of like Dracula in Castlevania,
where like sooner or later he's gonna come back. So Yakimo following sort of this prophecy of the Raven clan, like, oh, you got to kill the priestess and that'll take care of it. And you get to the priestess who winds up being this very very surprisingly kind of like bubbly and charismatic and very like like flirty and teased like teases. Yakamo kind of says like, hey, you know that prophecy, it's actually not really what you think it is. What
you should really do is let me go. And also we need to release the dragon because then you can purify it and that will end it for good because killing me, he's just gonna come back again, and like another priestess, so why why even keep doing that? And their relationship and kind of one of my biggest criticism of the game is the story Ninja got In games. I've never had good stories in my opinion, they're just they are just like anime action bs and I.
Like smashing you know, action figures together. Yeah, it's kind of the storyline.
It's like, Oh, I got my cool, hot ninja boy and my hot priestest girl and they're gonna go on an adventure to kill a dragon. And that's my excuse for why I'm gonna like murder like twelve hundred other people basically, and that's pretty much all it needs to be, honestly, Like the fact that like there's there's no chemistry between these two, like they kind of almost have like like a cloud Earth kind of relationship of like, oh, the gruff guy with the really kind of like nice flirty
girl that's kind of trying to penetrate his shell. But it's even like it's nowhere near as explored because one you almost spend most of your time communicating with her over your comms, like she's not physically with Yakimo for most of the adventure, but there's moments where there is like there is a hilariously just like unearned sense of like ore tease of a romance between the two where
you're like, why are we doing this? Like they haven't even come close to like they merely know each other, but it feels like obligatory, like whoa, these guys have to kind of have something, and it's like no, no, they don't.
Oh, Marcus, I just want to let you know what you have brought on yourself. You said the words, there's not much chemistry between the two of them, like Cloud and Earth. There is a lot of people on the internet that would.
Disagree with you.
Chemistry.
You're correct, they don't. It's it's all about on TIFA. But I just wanted to warn you for the comments that was surely becoming.
Okay, this is just excuse for West to come out as a TIFA stand.
It depends on you who you took on that date during the Golden Saucer. You know, maybe you can disagree there, but but yes, all of that is irrelevant almost because the action in this game is so damn good. So Yakimo's got four different weapons that you gain. They're all kind of like demonic arms. He's got like his starting
kind of dual katanas you get the staff. He has these like this sort of like a rapier that transforms into a drill when you use these Blood Raven attacks, which is like a new mechanic for Ninja Guide, and where if you hold the left trigger while you are attacking, and as long as you have enough of a meter field, you'll basically do like stronger variations of your normal attack, Like they're a little slower, but they transformed the weapon into a sort of like almost a demonic version of
yourself to where like, oh, a Blood Raven attack with your swords makes the sword like extra long and like crimson red, and you'll just like deal a ton of damage to more enemies at once. I mentioned like the the rapier can turn into this drill that you can just like toss guys in the air and then just
drill them apart. Like the staff turns into a big hammer that you can smash dudes apart with, and like there's a the enemies have certain attacks and defenses that can only be broken by using the Blood Raven attacks.
So like the gameplay is already pretty fast paced and a lot about like within like nanoseconds trying to react to all these attacks coming after you, but the blood Raven attacks kind of make you study the enemies even more because now you're trying to watch, like, Okay, this guy's eyes are glowing red and he's got like a
little glow. I can only break through that by using my blood Raven attack that I have to weave into this combo string that I'm already doing right now to like stun him, and then you can go in there and deal with with more damage and it feels awesome like this game, Like the best thing about this style is action genre when it's done right, is that it makes you feel like the coolest guy that has ever picked up a controller. Like everything you do, you're just like, man,
no one looks as cool as me. Did you see that like ten hit combo that I popped the guy in the air, juggled them, then did a Zuma drop where it's just like a spinning pile driver basically like no one else could have done that, And like all the moves are easy to execute but also still have enough like kind of like technical aspect to them, because it's kind of like fighting game inputs, but it's all like simple fighting game inputs, So just like, oh up,
doown X does this one attack or quarter like they have quarter circles like you do, Like quarter circle, X will do like this spinning move that just like he'll like spin around and hit like a bunch of enemies within a radius, and then like your standard like you know, like XX triangle whatever. They have like a nice challenge room that they present you constantly when you buy new moves, so you can kind of try out everything. But I also recommend not feeling obligated to unlock every new move
every time you have the opportunity to do so. I think it is smart to sort of like acclimate yourself with what you have, because you have a lot to work with at the start, and they throw a lot at you very quickly to where I think our video game mind's kind of like, oh, I should have this now, But then that's like another new input you need to use, and it's easy to just unlock a bunch of stuff in succession and forget that you even have it at
your disposal. So I could if I could offer a pro tip to players, like just leave stuff available until you think you're ready to start adding to your arsenal, and I think you will have a better time, and will also find yourself using the different maneuvers because the game rewards kind of like smart implementation of your combos and different maneuvers. Because like I said, the game's hard, and they throw a lot of enemies at you. The enemy variety I think is a little I say, say
a week, but it could be better. Like I think a lot of the encounters kind of as you move throughout the different worlds though, throw like a decent selection, but then it kind of remains that selection until you reach the next brand new area and y. And because the encounters can drag sometimes, which is with my other kind of criticism, like as fun as the combat is, like you, you will be tired playing this game, Like
your hands will hurt. And I'm speaking from experience, and it's one of those times where I almost felt old of like, oh my god, please tell them I'm not
aging out of this genre. But there were plenty of combat encounters where I've like, you know, playing ten fights straight, and because of how like on on the ball you need to be and how quickly you need to get these inputs in to keep up with everything around you, you will put the controller down and be like, oh my kind of almost achy, like if it was a cartoon character. I feel like smoke what coming out of my hands when I finished playing like a really long
combat encounter. But like I mentioned before, like it all feels super good and it's so fun to play outside of battles. This is a very it's a throwbacky in the sense of like I think like Soul's likes have almost become the de facto action game at this point to and where players expect kind of like maybe medior exploration outside of battles, whereas this is very much like old school in Ninja Guided and kind of what stylish
action games used to be of. You're just moving straight down largely linear corridors, and then occasionally you'll find like an alternate path that'll lead you to like a secret or a challenge room, or one of the very very boilerplate simple side quests that you can do, which it all boil down to, hey, can you kill like five of these enemies over here? And so it's like refreshing
in that sense. But I think if you're looking for maybe something a little bit more robust, that could be maybe a little bit of a disappointment, And I think it just comes into like maybe your many your age, even like depending on when you got into action games. They don't really make action games like this anymore. Yeah, and but I like I enjoyed it as an as an old person.
Like it's been what like fifteen years since the last one or something.
Since Ninja Guiden three. Yes, not since the last Ninja Guiding games. I mean we got Rage Bound this year and then The Black Remastered, but this is the first like mainline number game since three, which was twenty twelve.
Does it feel kind of like an old Ninja Guiden but like for twenty twenty five or do you think that it feels more in line with like it could have come out a couple of years after three, uh and fit right in.
Hmmm, that's an interesting question. I I don't know if this game is doing anything that I mean, if we're talking strictly technology, I mean, this game runs it like I think one if you have the display to do it, which is you know, insane. I mean it runs out of Smooth sixty on Xbox Series X, which is where
I reviewed it. So like maybe in terms of the performance, I don't think you could get like this is good looking game I don't know if that's I feel like that might be lost in some of the discussions too, is how good this game looks Like the environments look good, the like it never stutters or like they're throwing so much at you, and it maintains that silky smooth just like fast paces. So and I think that does help
with kind of selling the action. So I don't I think that aspect you couldn't have achieved, you know, into twenty tens. But in terms of the mechanics, I mean, there's nothing crazy about the mechanics, even though there's new stuff that couldn't have been done before. But I also don't think that's like a knock against it. I think that's sort of like something that maybe like I don't know who brought like the new ideas, like if it was all Platinum or if it was Team Ninja and
Platinum together. So I don't want to pin it on like, oh, this would have happened if Platinum had stepped in, you know, because I don't. I don't really know. But it is like it's something that feels like it could come out today, but in the ways that I kind of mentioned earlier, like it also feels like a throwback to like the
stylist action Heyday in a good way. Yeah, Like it's fun the other the thing that disappoints me most about it, though, and it's funny because it's almost sort of like there's something serendipitous about this. So this is the fourth numbered Ninja Guiden game that is headed by Platinum. Platinum has lineage to Devil May Cry because you know, there was developers that left Platinum that worked on the Devil mc
Cry games. The fourth Devil May Cry game also started to do protagonists, but also had Dante playable, but they it's funny how both Ninja Gayden For and Dil May Cry for handle the returning staple protagonists in the same bad way. Because Ninja Guiden four you play is for you eventually, but it's only for a handful of missions. In the latter have and all of his missions are just him going through the same stages you played through
as Yakimo. They're like shorter variations of It sucks, but it is like the same content and you even refight the same bosses. And even though there is a narrative explanation for it that like makes sense, but it still doesn't make it, you know, any more exciting that like, oh that I already killed this admittedly really cool boss, but like you're just doing it again as Rio Hyabusa,
who does play differently than Yakimo. And yeah, I've gotten flat for saying this, but Ryu is fun to use in this game, but I think Yaka is the most more fun, just because Yakomo has like the four different weapons you can cycle through, whereas Reu just has the Dragon sword and his Nimpo magic fun in his own way. But I just liked having the options of cycling through so many different weapons and creating these crazy combo strings with Yakimo actually can't really do with Reu, but yeah,
it was. It was crazy how much this reminded me of Double Bay Cry for in the second half of Like, oh, you're running through this again as the series fab protagonist, but in the most boring way possible.
Also, like who cares if there's narrative reason for it? If the narrative isn't good.
That's like, oh, I understand why this is happening, but I still wish it wasn't happening. Yeah, So yeah, that's I think maybe that's probably the biggest bummer is just the reuse stuff, because like hearing that he was also playable was really exciting. And I think the fights against Reu, because you fight him a couple of times, like those are fun because it's like the you know, like, oh, I'm fighting the guy that I've been in the last
three games. I know what he can do, but also I get to know what it feels like to be on the other side of his sword because oh my god, he's super hard because he should be because he's the super ninja. So like the fights against him are more fun than actually playing through him, which is a bummer,
but overall fun game. I love Ninja Gayding four. I think it's you know, it's a nice return to form after a Ninja guydon three you know famously was not very good and even with the Razor's Edge sort of like band aid that they did, it was still the worst of the three or at the time three ninja guy in games. Yeah, but you know, it's nice that, you know, or finally the series is back and it's finally kind of like back on a on better footing.
And I hope we get like more games with Yakomo because it certainly seems like they have kind of laid the runway for a series starring him.
Yeah, well, thanks for kind of running that down. I think I don't know if I don't know if this is I'm also not a character action guy, so I don't know if I'm gonna if I'm gonna swing this one. I don't know.
Do you feel like you've gotten what you needed out of it just watching the footage, Like, do you feel like you need to play it because of how hard it is and it's it's pretty demanding, Like you're like, it's fun to just look at it and admire, But I don't know if I need to be the person doing that.
Yeah, it definitely strikes me as like one of those games that I could pull up on Twitch and just like enjoying the background and like, oh, dang, that's a cool fight, you know that kind of thing. But I don't necessarily need to need to check it out myself. But I am happy for the Ninja Giden fans out there that there's like, finally, you know, a good one of those again to go and play. Yeah, and kind of there's you know, flaws.
And like the last I'm pretty sure this is the last year of the Ninja game, right, I don't think.
There's anything else after this, and yeah.
So I think it kind of compleats like the streak of Like all of them are good. I think we can all agree.
Yeah, yeah, I think my favorite one has been Schanobi Art of Vengeance out of out of what's come out or actually no, probably rage Bound, Ninja Guiden, rage Bound, It's probably is really good. Yeah, if you're gonna play one Ninja guiding game, I feel like, what do you think? I feel like.
There's so much it's hard because they're so.
They are so different. Yeah, they are, I think.
I mean, if you're a Ninja Guyden fan, you should play both because you're you're eating real good this year, and even the Ninja Guy in two Black from January if you have a great remaster of a very good Ninja Guy in game. I don't know, Wes, I feel like we're gonna have to have that conversation. I mean I have.
I think it's I.
Feel like playing Ninja God in four and then you decide either Rage Bound or Shanoby, because Shanoby and Rage Bound are kind of doing the same thing in the sense that they're like two D action games, whereas yeah, rage Bound is so different from four other than like the fact that you're going to hear similar names and it's demons and.
You also fight Reu Hai Busa at different points in both ka.
Well, I think that's gonna do it for that topic. Going to transition to our last topic before the interview with Samantha bay Art, I got a chance to go hands on with the season one content for Battlefield six. Uh So I got to check out like I got to check out a new sniper, which was really cool, but like the main I think the main draw for me, at least with two new maps. One is Blackwell Fields
and one is Golden State. And Blackwell Fields is like very battlefield map, like you know, you're driving over and like if you hit like oil rigs, they'll like shoot oil into the air and like there's a lot of stuff on fire, and you know, it's very very battlefield. And then Golden State is in this like idyllic you know, California neighborhood that's like really green and lush and like suburban.
Yeah, they also both sound like Pearl Jam songs to me for some reason.
That's funny. Yeah, they do, and I'm I really enjoy both maps. Actually, you know, sometimes DLC maps in in shooter games, they can be hit or missed. You know. It's like, especially when they launched so closely after after the main game, is like, oh, these weren't included in you know, it was a choice to include these later on rather than with like the base the base launch maps, and that could be good or bad sometimes depending on
like confidence levels. But I think that this one, this drop of maps is really solid and is going to serve as like incentive to keep playing Battlefield six. I think these maps and stuff are dropping. It's at the twenty six the twenty eighth of October, so it's next week. I think it's the twenty eighth on Tuesday. And yeah, but I'm really enjoying them. I think, you know, I have realized, like, as I've played Battlefield six more and more,
I think I'm a tank guy. I I you know, I in the past, she always was like kind of infantry. I was sniper, you know, And now that I'm like playing Battlefield six, I'm realizing that, like, man, maybe I'm the vehicle guy, but not not the choppers, not the jets. Maybe I'm just like, you know, oh.
I'm a chopper guy, even though I have no right to be. I I crash it every time I've ever gotten into one.
But I still, yeah, and that's why I'm not a chopper. What's really funny is the Golden State map. You can drive golf carts around and so you'll just see like helicopters crash into golf carts and it's really good. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, the flow of the maps are really really great too. Yeah. I'm really just enjoying Battlefield six. It's it's for sure gonna be on my top ten somewhere. It's really kind
of doing it for me. And you know, as they continue to roll out, there's also more modes coming that I actually didn't get a chance to check out yet.
Can you do private like matches like team on team stuff?
Maybe through portal Battlefield Portal, but uh, there isn't like a easy like custom game straight from the menu or it's just you and your friends.
I was gonna say, like we should do like team GI against another outlet, like our squad, another squad.
Yeah, we would have to have like.
H I don't know if I don't know if the game allowed that, but it's just it's just.
We have to have like thirty two verse thirty two.
You can't like four or five on five or does it have to be.
The maps are I mean, we can do the infantry only maps, but if you're playing battle you want to do like.
Yeah, we'll get a bunch of XGI thirty two for game and four place like it's thirty two other people from a different outlet and it's easy.
Uh.
Well, be sure to follow the guys here. Follow Charles at Chuck Duck three six five, Follow Marcus at Marcus Stewart seven. Wesley you can follow him at West of LeBlanc on Blue Sky or at a Underscore am Underscore Wesley on other places like Instagram, and you can follow me at It's van Aken. You'll find me on all the places that you can find me with that name. If you can't find me there, it's because I chose
not to be there. Yeah, yeah, free. Will be sure to share the show with a friend if you don't mind, and of course pick up a game Informer magazine subscription. We just announced that Dragon Quest seven Reimagined is our next cover story, and it's fans are good. It was fucking cool. Yeah. Wes and I were walking around Japan. Yeah,
I don't know why. Yeah, yeah, I've learned Wes is really good at them, and I was like, you know, trying to be considerate in public places in Tokyo, where like Americans are very annoying in places like that, and I'm just like cracking up because Wes is whispering sayous way and it's just than me.
That's why they love us tourists over there.
Yeah. Yeah, all right, We'll enjoy the interview everybody, and thank you Samantha Bayart for joining the show as well. All right, we'll see you next week. Enjoy the interview.
Bye bye, Welcome back to the Game of Former show. I am your host right now, Charles Hart, and I'm joined by the one, the only, Samantha bay Art. How is it going, Samantha, I'm good.
How are you?
I'm great.
Well, our audience is probably familiar with you, but I thought it'd be fun to do a little trivia icebreaker where I'm gonna set up some questions. They'll get a minute to answer in their heads, and then you'll tell me what the actual answer is, assuming you remember the role.
So you say the best of my ability.
Yes, yes, in this little segment I've been Soft launching called g I auDA No, okay great. Uh so this breakthrough role also earned them a Breakthrough BAFT Award in twenty twenty three.
What game was that, four Samantha.
It wasn't an award, It's like an honorary thing. I want to be very clear.
That's fair. That's fair, that's fair.
It was for a game called The Excavation of Hobbes.
Barrow Beautiful Smith is also the and correct me if I'm wrong on any of these. By the way, this is all Internet source stuff. You're that you're the first hands.
Yes, Google A.
Smytha is the voice of a player character in a from Soft game. Which one is it? I'll give you a hint. It is not secure. Nothing not. I don't think anyone's going to guess it was just like.
I don't think I'm going to guess it either. I have no idea.
Oh, Demon Souls is that from Soft?
Yeah, I've got on my CV, I've got Sony and Blue Point.
I guess it's a remaster.
So it was localization, all right, So I didn't get from software on my contract sorry.
So far, of the of the five questions, I, as the trivia writer, have gotten two of them wrong. Let's see if I can go five for five.
But you can write this wrong. I believe in you, Charles.
Well, we'll see. Gina Lestrade a scrappy street orphan is another Cemantha Barrick performance. Which visual courtroom no Which courtroom visual novel? Does she appear in?
Me?
And I messed up my own question. Dang it again?
Do it again?
Say what it is.
I'll give up on that one. The next one would be good.
That is the Attorney Chronicles, Yes, which I went, He's guilty, you ana, And that was kind of it.
But yeah, I was going to add.
Something to people, so I'll take it.
Have you played the game I have?
But I haven't got to my bit yet?
Okay, yeah, yeah, which makes sense, super.
Chill, and I need to have the time to just sit and read a lot. But yeah, it's really entertaining. It's not normally sort of game I play, so I actually really enjoyed what I've played so far.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
Question four. They are also appear as in Absalom, which is a beat them up roguelike that came out recently.
What characters do they play there?
TikTok TikTok, TikTok in absolom, I play cider. Cider wonderful has a telescopic arm, and that is one of the best things ever.
Cider is like, well, we'll talk, we'll talk about before I got a And then finally, which beloved Samantha Barrett character got them nominated for a Bathta and later appeared in a game in former packing poster.
Samantha, I assume that's Karlac. Oh good, I got that right. I haven't seen the poster before. Now, very cool.
I think it's a It might also be on the inside spread of that issue. I'd have to double check.
We're very excited about that.
So okay, thank you, thank you for thank you for joining Bingham Sitting through that.
That was I remember some of these roles.
Yeah, and apparently it's g I I Charles ont to know better.
Uh, it's great. I was being picky, thank you.
Oh no, you should and you should be picky. You should be picky because then someone someone takes a random podcast clip and they're like, well this.
Is that's actually very true, that's fair them after apparently for that's that didn't happen.
All right, Well, just like chilling, what games, if anything have you been playing lately?
Is anything?
Absolutely?
Because I like to see what the work, how the work I've done fits into the larger efforts of everybody that's contributed. So absolute, good fun, very addictive because you know, it's like that Roaguelike Arcade kind of beat them up thing going on and fading Echo as well, has just come out of alpha play testing.
We'll talk about that, don't you worry.
But they've got no nd A policy so I can talk about In fact, it's the little character here she turns into water now and it's a little fiery character and a watery character.
So that's fun. I'm going to work on the other two elements in time. It's a whole thing.
It's like a concept album. Yeah, really cool French studio called New Tales, and we're hoping it'll be out early next year. It should be out before GTA six, otherwise we're going to be in trouble, so let's hope. But we've also got Laura Bailey and Matt Mercer in it is supporting Roles and Jasmine bulla if you know your TTRPGs is writing it and acting in it too, So it's based on a TTRPG actually before it was a
video game. So unpublished so far, but I guess if it does well, we'll actually get to see it because apparently in this game you can see about five percent of echo.
There's much more to be discovered.
Well that's so exciting. Well, now I'm excited about this game. I don't even know about how how long have you been working on that project? Like how long?
I know.
It's a weird thing when you work on a game, because you'll like record your stuff and then some amount of time might pass and then there'll be.
Yeah, what actors love to do is count it from the day they signed the contract, and then it sounds like they work solidly for years on it, and that's not the truth, right, it will be unless like it's it will be quite obvious if they have, but it's unusual.
Yeah, you're right. It is a sort of on and off thing.
So I think it was about six months ago we signed contracts, but he only started doing the recordings like last month because we wanted to get them out for this play test. And I've got a couple more sessions coming up as well, So yeah, I did two sessions. Essentially is the answer a bit a session being four hours long, so you can have lots of fun trying to work out lengths of time on things.
I don't like this whole.
Yeah, I spent two years on the project because it insinuates that you were on some sort of salary. I wish that was a thing we got in games.
But it's not.
Yeah, what kind of role does your character play in this game?
So she's the main player character. It's action adventure, very bright anime style. They're calling it a desert pun and she lives in a place that's very short on resources, and very quickly it becomes multiverse, and every different universe looks completely different.
So as she steps in, everything changes around her. She changes.
She can change into water, and what's lovely about the gameplay is it's elemental and it's really fluid and responsive.
So if the water.
Blob comes into contact with lava, then she turns into steam if she come and she can use that to petrify enemies and you know, weaken them with different substances. So she might run into what we call waste in the game, she can jump higher and it's puzzle solving as well. It's really pretty, it's really dynamic and fun. Trailers pretty informative, and the what's their Instagram handle is Fading Echo Game and they post loads of behind the scenes staff as I have been.
As well as well as gameplay and all that. You can check it out.
It's really cool, awesome with this character compared to like, there's always the thing I'm curious about actors. Do you feel like you have there's a type of character or a personality or something about it where you're like, that's a character I want to play, or do you like doing a lot of very different stuff.
Yeah, I've been saying to folks that I'm in my nineteen nineties Gary Oldman era, which is a very cool era to be.
It's my favorite Gary Oldman era.
It's kind of why I got into acting, because he just got to do everything back then and that's what he got to transform as a more character actor.
But he was playing leading roles.
And that's kind of what's happening because if I were to be typecast, like if you look at my whole career theater and audio as.
Well, it would not be Karlak, right, that'd be the last thing.
So that's quite interesting when that does happen, people think that's what I want to play, but maybe badasses, you know. I grew up on Sarah Connor and Ellen Ripley and Shep you know, and those are those sort of roles, and particularly in video games, because the main player characters are going to be action based most of the time, not always, but most of the time, then it lends itself to that.
So it's it's an arena.
I really enjoy it the sort of roles I've appreciated growing up and as an adult as well, and it's just a joy to play them.
But they're all very different from each other. Yeah, that's for sure.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well I want to talk about Absolom real quick. I've also been playing it obviously, like a lot. I've been playing it with I was playing it and I liked it. I said this just before this's on podcast listeners to to those, but I was playing it. I liked it, and then I played it with my brother. We did like co Op for the first time, and I loved it. I was like, oh, this is like it like scratched an itch and my brother. He's two
years younger than me. I live in Ohio. He just moved to New York, so I like don't get to see him very often. But it's like it was a nice thing of like we see each other and we're like, oh, this is our this is our jam, this is our type of thing. So I'm excited to see him for Thanksgiving and play more. When you record a game like this,
it has like an interesting kind of narrative structure. It's kind of it reacts to what you choose, and it's I mean a lot of games do that, but when you're recording this, like, do you remember how long the sessions took? Was it hard to keep track of because they're very very segmented chunks as opposed to like doing like a long cut scene at multiple times.
Yeah, So I think all in all it was two sessions, and I think it was under a.
Te Wow fast, what we do?
You know, I've been saying to folks like, if you can you understand what session musician does, right, They train outside of the studio, They do all their work outside the studio, coming and they knock it out in two takes.
That is exactly what we do.
And particularly if mo caaps involved, it becomes a lot longer of a process because that's a different beast. But for voice only and particularly for you know, a game that's going to be mainly barks. Let's be honest, this has more narrative than I'm used to do in that genre, which is really cool because I think people enjoy it and that's become a thing. I think the borders gate they might have something to do with that as well. Then Claire obscure and people just really want that storyline.
So it's probably a longer amount of time I spent on it than I would have done a few years ago, if that makes sense.
It might have been just one session a few.
Years ago, so you know, I make an effort to try and remember because I have to recall six months later a year later for interviews.
But otherwise it's in one ear out the other.
But luckily most of the time, by the time you're coming in, they've got the animation down, which obviously helps with the characterization of vocalizations, so I could see how cool Cider was, and you know, with either hitting people or being hit or you know, then we've got like their general attitude and they're very you know, laid back and sarcastic and all the cool stuff you get in trouble with in real life. Yeah, I just I thought they were fantastic. And then yeah, Carl, I love Carl.
I met the act who plays Carl, Trev Fleming, not so long ago, lovely northern Irish guy, and I haven't met the other two actors yet, but that's the nature of it. It may well be like bumped into each other and not realized it. It's probably one of those.
But yeah, really cool and one of those. You know, I've got a lot of things going on so and projects I can't talk about right now, but you know, you knock these indies out and then one of them just lands like absolutely, you know, just overnight there was some interest in me talking about that. So that's been awesome because I'm obviously proud of all the work I do.
I think it's all very well written. So it's just really cool when something of a genre that you're not expected to be and maybe pops up.
Yeah.
Yeah, I just talked to some of the actors that were in Dispatch last week and I was asking them. I was like, you finally every hands on the game's belongs time recording it. Are you like looking for paths to see like certain lines that you said, and they were like, no, shade of the writing, it's really good. I don't remember saying any of this because they're so long ago.
Yeah, because we'll say it twice in the room and then it's done. Yeah, you don't learn it.
If you're lucky, you get the whole script beforehand, but it will be out of order, and it's only when you're in the room with the team that you can ascertain context and motivation and that's what will stick that would stick it in your brain. But again, you're just doing it very quickly in the studio, so totally understand when actives don't remember what they've said.
Yeah, well, when you're when you're playing it, well, first of all, are you playing as Cider? Are you playing as your own?
I've played the demo so far, so I have. Yeah, of course, I mean that's the first thing I did. I do okay, I did okay, But of course you've got a fine sider. So I was playing with Carl and I was like, bye, I'm here now.
It's all good. I like it. I like a little fast skippy character.
Actually, so I please, I would love to play yeah with someone else playing Carl because I think they compliment each other really well.
So should just picking people up chucking.
That was That was me and my brother.
That was our combo.
Very good, sweet.
Yeah.
Do you as you're playing it, is it jogging any memory for you of like, oh I remember saying It's.
Not there's nothing that's come up. Did I say that or anything like that? Because that happens in Border's Gate. Sometimes people are still discovering lines that, you know, maybe on slightly unpopular pars like an Evil Karlac, Like I can't remember a lot of that because people choose not to play a lot like that.
But I think something like this that was done in two sessions.
Yeah, it's not gonna maybe a year or two down the line when it's really gone.
Well, that's exciting, it's great.
And yeah, I guess the other thing, so you you're you're playing as yourself and that's not weird. You're like, I want to do that.
That's the only way I'll play a video.
The first time I did that was because I did localization on Demon Souls.
I'm the main character in a video.
Game. So that was that was something else, but of course, it being a soul's game, it was incredibly punishing. I think I did the first area just as a point of pride. Yeah, I decided to move on with my life. But no, that was it was it was, It was wild. It's a lot easier than watching myself on film, that's for sure. This is okay, another layer detached. Yeah, I could just about bear to listen to myself.
Now.
It's taken decades, but watching myself is still a hurdle for me.
Yeah, I'm not the podcast editor, and I'm really happy. I'm really happy that I don't have to do that.
Yeah, yeah, that's what not editing my in show as well.
Yeah, definitely okay, And then I do want to talk about Karlac a little bit and you so this is actually a thing you mentioned, like the evil path of Carlac. This is my big this is my big theory specific to video acing question that I have. So, Carlac is a character, but when you have someone that is influenced by so many choices for her story, uh, there's like a bunch of different like infinite versions of Karlac basically
that can exist in Balderskate. I just wanted to ask you about your You had a version of Karlac in your head before people saw her, like when you were performing as her. But then also anyone that plays the game has a version of Karlac that they play through. And then there's also like a third version that is like the fandom kind of aggregated version of Karlac that we're like, this is the kind of like Sarah Carlac.
Do you have a version in your head that's like if I think of Carlac as a character, this is kind of how she is, and this is how she'd behave in These are her traits or are you like carlak is is the matrix? Is all of these things at once?
How do you think of karlak Is absolutely the matrix the way I see it is again, it's like doing a new piece of writing for theater in that when it's still being set, you have infinite possibilities and something that came out of rehearsal may end in may end up in the play, and you know, every night technically is the same, but your partner is always going to do something slightly different that then you have to respond.
To and truthfully, so it's that sort of it's that layer.
But then you've got the live D and D games that we played with Wizards of the Coast.
There is a version of Karlak that I play that.
Is for sure opportunistic, wants a pint, wants to smash things, just pure barbar like Viking barbarian kind of thing going on. That's the idea behind it. And that's like just the most you know, a joyful idiot. That's the most fun way to play her. She's not, I guess she can be very moralistic in the game dependent, you know, early on, Yeah, I think if if you're a dark urge and you romance her, there's a bit later on where you can
really like tell her what you've done. And earlier on in the game she'd leave, she'd be like, I didn't sign up for this, this is evil, But like later on she goes full on ride or die.
She's like, we've all.
Done things we regret. It's fine, don't worry. It really is something else.
And that's in every that is in everyone's darker romance Carlac playthrough. So I think, you know, I'm obsessed with cults. I'm really interested because it's the idea that in the way that people are about true crime, because I think people have says the true crime are like, oh, this is how I behave, this is how I wouldn't get murdered. So I think my obsession is like, this is how
I wouldn't get indoctrinated. And I think that's very much Strue Baldos gay as if you had the wrong influences around you, maybe you'd make different choices, or if you never had the opportunity to redeem yourself, maybe you'd make other choices. So that's how I justify the matrix version of It's very high stakes. They could die them or they got tadpoles in their heads, so it's all very you know, it could go either way, I feel, So that's how I justify it.
Yeah, No, I love that.
That makes a lot of sense. I I I'm not an actor, so a lot of a lot of my questions for actors are either I feel like you you had a full understanding of that, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around playing like nine characters all the same, not nine, but just a bunch of versions of them, which I appreciate.
I think that's cool.
Do you as an actor, I think is it safe to say Karlak is like your most famous character that you've played.
Absolutely?
Yeah, I would assume. Do you have instances where I don't know parasocial is the right word, but where people people come to you and they expect Carlac and you're like, I'm a separate person from that.
Mainly streaming, if I appear on the string Lak, it's not.
Sorry. My lot a pretty cool about it, at least to my face. Maybe that's what it is. To my face. Most people are cool, and you've got to remember that.
To the wider world out there, I am anonymous, which is wonderful.
In the con spaces, they're going to know me.
And I had the loveliest time walking around Pax East earlier this year because people.
Would go are you and Okay, yeah, yeah, do you want a selfie?
Yeah?
And then they move on and it's great, and that's really nice. They just leave me to it.
You know.
I'm just walking around in my thing, playing my games, and I feel part of the community that I've I've always wanted to be part of because I've always played games, but I could never afford to go to expos, certainly not ones in other countries, so it's real life. I'm doing a lot of catching up at the moment with that, and people are really cool and they have welcomed me into that community, so I'm very grateful for that.
Yeah, yeah, that's wonderful.
And I've also I've seen some of your actual place stuff, which I also think is very fine in.
Those kind of Carlac places Karlak.
Yeah, I did that as a memory job because in my head it's all very fragmented, as you can imagine, and then to actually see it in some sort of order, it sort of helped me remember what I actually did on the game.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay, I do want to double back to fitting Echo because I'm just curious about this project as the concept. How did you initially get acquainted with it?
Who approached you first?
They just emailed my agent with an offer, which doesn't happen. Would you like to play lead role in this cool indie game that looks like this. It's got some actors from a critical role in it, you know, if you're interested. And I was waiting for someone to say psych it's a joke.
Of course, we're not kidding. So yeah, it was a straight up.
Offer to my agent, and then the creative directors, Sylvan and Manu from from Newtails, took us out for lunch and pitched and it was like Bybo was there and he said, do you want to be the lead role in an indie game? And New Tales are former Blizzard devs. They're based out in Leon, so I know they can make a game, and they seem to have this very open door policy. It's very transparent, there's no nda. I
can talk anything you want to know. I can talk about I just personally would avoid spoilers as a storyteller, just not going to tell you like that. But a lot of what I know is now public information because you know they've they've put that right out there. Yeah, they're just they're just really lovely people and they've you know, they showed me your own roadmap. If it does well, what's what we're going to do next in that? And I'm not used to that.
I got.
I got a one hour briefing before we went into the studio, which is just as well because again, if you're just seeing little peep Pole at the word of the World of Echo, I kind of need to know most of it before I go in otherwise I'm going to spend time and money in the studio asking about it.
But that is that is the reality for nineteen nine percent of games, particularly as you start heading into Triple A's, they give you less and less information, which is a shame because we can't do our best work when we don't know what genre is that really helps, you know, Yeah, So I've really the part of the reason I'm talking about the first for that's what I want more of
in the industry. But second of all, Yeah, if there's someone on the edge of like asking a boss, can we just be a bit more open about this, then yes, please. All I really said is what's out there, who's involved in what it looks like in the genre and all of that, and that's it really.
Yeah, And it's fresh in your mind right now too, because you're like mid st Yeah.
I think we did a live stream yesterday with the Irish Video Game Orchestra I've presented with before and they had a little playthrough and we talked through it and some of the Fading Echo team turned up to have a chat. And I mean, again, I don't know that I had a chat with Anna Sorrento, who's the head of animation, showing me this character long before I went in, so you know, the idea of how I was going to voice her is just percolating through my brain for
a couple of weeks before we actually record it. So again, when I go in the studio, I've got all these strong choices that have been made, and we save a lot of time and we can have more fun experimenting than just finding that character.
Yeah, wonderful, awesome.
Uh well, I think that's a more or less wrap up what I had planned. Was there anything else you want to talk about? Anything recent you're excited about. This could be some of your planing, some you're watching some on the horizon.
So there's a demo for a game called War of the Western Deep. It's a point and click adventure game. It's stunning. Imagine Don Bluth traveled back from the nineteen eighties and made a video game.
It's hand animated.
I played, The main character is stun it honestly like, have check it out later.
The it's like whoa yeah demo, whoa yeah yeah.
And there's a lot more to be recorded. But because it's hand animated, it's going to take some times. We're thinking twenty seven if I'm still alive.
That's a real yeah, it's a real.
Yeah. I'm just I can't think past this one. So yeah, that's something else, so that's playable. And then there's my own series that takes a Village, which should be coming to you November through December.
So we've got our first few guests on that.
I don't know if you know it, but it's a lie what used to be a live twitch chat show. And the reason I put it that it's not a podcast because it's not audio only, but the whole point is to shine a spotlight on people who make our games. So obviously there's going to be a lot of actors because I know the actors, but we've also got other roles like producers, directors, lead artists, composers, all these people that you don't normally see apart.
From their name in the credits.
I mean, for some of them, really prolific people, is their first interview in their career. That's all on YouTube if you want to take if you want to check it out, And there's a second series coming with some production values, not just me crying in my room because I'm operating everything myself, which was you know, you know good. It's good to have ambition, but it wasn't the easiest time. So that's now been done in the studio. We still
take audience questions, but it's not live. But I'm really looking forward to that coming out because we've got some caukers.
Sorry what was that last word.
Caukers, Absolute caukers of guests.
So we've got Abby Baker Sealine and if you know him, but he was tell Ye studio head and played to.
The main role in that.
And by accident I managed to get to other people who'd worked and it's a Corey Brothers and who wrote on.
It and JJ Merrill in the Village.
So their long form interviews at about an hour long, in which you get to know about the whole careers as well as some of the game starle how they came to be in games, and then a bit more on the career, and then we have some real deep cut questions from the audience because they'll know them in a different way than I do.
Yeah, that's awesome. I yeah, I know you're pitching to the audience. You've saw you sold me personally completely I'm like, wow, this is so cool.
Yeah, it's it's great, and it's it's got themes of you know, coadvocacy and community collaboration, all the good stuff which you can take into your own industries. The messages have the real people around you. You're going to need them as much as it is about like this industry can be hostile on the on the business side, on the money side, in terms of the devs, the creatives you make it it's it's.
Really lovely space to be in.
Yeah, and it's a celebration of that as well as the individual Yes.
Great, Well, thank you so much for joining us.
And I'll say it.
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