TGI 653 - Completing the Expedition

Welcome to the Gamers Inn. Come on in, pull up a chair next to the fire. It looks like you've had a long journey. I'm your host, Jocelyn, and joining me, as always, is my co-host, Ryan. Hello, Ryan. Hello. How's it going? I have approximately 50% less salt this week, I think. I'm in a much better mood. Still fuck Microsoft, but I promised.

I promise the whole entire show will not be raged. So apologies for last week. I was going to make a joke that maybe Apple won't flag this episode as as explicit this week, but. No, no. I messed it up in the first minute. It's all good. I don't think it actually does anything. It just puts a little E beside it. I don't think anyone's not listening because there's an E there, but I do find it.

Kind of interesting. The age of AI and transcripts. So I think they have like a list of words that gets the whole episode. um flagged sounds like such a strong word but like just just basically says explicit but tagged tagged that's much better tagged is explicit but you know i wouldn't necessarily say like between clean and explicit like there's no like middle ground like

You know, we talk about mature games here. I'm pretty sure that, you know, nine times out of ten, we might have one swear in an episode. Sure. Rare for the rage to build to the point that I record an episode like I did last week. Yeah. But it worked out. It was fine. I thought it was a great episode. You know, if Microsoft isn't going to use Perfect Dark, we certainly will for our episode artwork. I think it was perfect. Joanna Dark was not impressed with what's happening. But we don't...

We don't have to spend another episode talking about that. We'll have an opportunity in the news to poke at it a little bit. Yeah, but I'm excited about video games. That's what I'm excited about. Well, why are you excited about video games? What have you been playing? Well, I'm glad you asked. I have been playing, uh, sort of revisiting some games that I had sort of left by the wayside and first up, and I apologize to the discord because I have not jumped into the game discussion.

in a while because i've just been like head down trying to finish it i have completed claire obscure expedition 33 um i i switched to story mode i googled a good build and i'm like Take me home, Google. It's just not like, I don't want to say get me through it, but like I wanted to experience the story.

It seems like it has a really interesting story, and I do want to play it before the Game of the Year conversations, because I have it. It's installed. I just haven't actually gotten a chance to sit down and play it.

uh probably because i played tainted grail so like i just need to now that i've finished up with that i need to go and and like this is my next story game basically so and i don't blame you for for switching to story mode at all like we were chatting a little bit before um the show and i play almost everything that is single player on story mode now i know that there are some times when combat can be really satisfying when you get it right but i just find like when you have 15 20 25 hours

of story you want to tell me like i'd rather just kind of play through explore talk to people that kind of stuff And I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I do play so much of like Fortnite right now. And I've, you know, swapped back, started playing a lot of Smite too. So it's like when... games that i play i mean even hearthstone for that matter like it's not necessarily like combat combat but like when you play a lot of pvp content

I think your appetite for really challenging combat may not be as much as somebody who plays only like PvE content, right? Like, because then you're looking for... kind of a curated combat experience to challenge you versus the absolute chaos that can be pvp so i think i get enough of my like difficult gameplay fix through my pvp titles so yeah when i get to single player stuff i'm like story mode me yes please

I want to feel ridiculously powerful and have people fall over in one hit. I'm fine with that. Yeah. Yeah, no, I think story mode in Claire Obscure.

it really opens up the the parry window so that was a very specific thing with the combat being turn-based it allows you to either dodge or parry depending on uh what kind of window you want to work with but in story mode i found like it basically made the parry window for normal into the dodge window and dodge just to be ridiculously op to basically not get hit by anything by pushing the button at any

given moment during an enemy attack but uh it just it made the game more fun and actually reminded me a lot more of my experiences with um turn-based action rpgs where you're hitting the buttons like super mario rpg i kind of nintendo'd it and i and i it just made it more more fun i was struggling with um the act two final boss And I was like, you know what? I'm going to put it into story mode. And I did. And I finished it. And I got to the next part of the story. And I was like.

I'm not going to turn it back on. I'll just keep playing, see how it goes. And I just, I was having fun. I had a... Well, then you had fun and that's the whole point, right? Again, it's a single player... experience. So as long as you're having fun, that's all that matters. Like, yeah. Yeah, there's probably someone out there who can beat it on brutal mode where they just remove dodge and parry entirely. Congratulations to that person. But you're not that person. Find your fun.

supposed to be fun yeah you're not competing against some invisible random internet person for how hard you can beat the game on like or what difficulty you could beat the game on that's just not not a thing Yeah, I'll say I was having fun playing on Normal in Act 1 and into Act 2, but there were frustrations, I'm not going to lie. But I think once I switched it over, I was having...

I was having, you know, the fun was continuing, let's say. And it is a very story driven game to the point where I feel like the story. You know how some games like they have like what they call like acts or chapters and it's like you just you just wanted to chunk your game up, you know, into into these weird.

story beats that didn't didn't connect but i really feel like claire obscure takes like the three act arc and like actually builds it in a way that is like narratively structured and it pays off and And at the end of each arc, it's like they've thrown a new loop into it of like, you thought this was happening? Well, guess what? This is happening. I love that. And then the end of Act 2 just kind of... upends it and i i spent a majority of act three um not necessarily like discovering what

had happened and we're not going to do spoilers, but I think I spent the majority of act three kind of like understanding what had just happened and kind of processing it. Uh, and then, and then you, you go to finish the game and you're like, Oh, OK, it just keeps keeps moving in that direction, you know, with with different themes. Again, I don't want to spoil it because I feel like it is a game that folks.

If they have an interest in it, should experience it for themselves. Yeah, don't spoil it for me, man. I'm not going to spoil it. But you should go into the Discord once you start playing, get a little further. There is a game discussion in the Discord where people... are still tagging their spoilers and, uh, having a great time discussing it. I will definitely be jumping in there now that I've, uh, finished it. And, uh, yeah, I had a, had a great time. I wonder.

I did jump back in after the credits. I did have to do a little bit of YouTube. uh research just to kind of see some other stuff that i missed but i'm back in there sort of doing some optional bosses and there's a bunch of like act three is interesting because if you want you can just go to finish the act and you can roll credits uh but act three is kind of like this point of which you open up a lot of like open area stuff like dungeons and other places to explore

And act three can really be just like the longest act where you're like exploring all these things you couldn't access before and doing all the optional side content and building relationships with your fellow party members. Or you can just go right to the end and finish the game, if you so choose. Do you have to have high relationships or they die? I didn't get the sense that relationships were based... affected gameplay other than you unlock some abilities by maxing out relationships.

with your fellow characters. Okay, but they're not, like, in the final mission, they're not gonna go all Mass Effect and be like, I don't trust you! Ah, my face exploded! No, I think that certain characters will react differently depending on how far you took, you know, you built that relationship. And that'll affect like the story aspect of it. But no one's face explodes. Well, no one. No, no, I don't think so. No, you're good. There's it's it's a very.

special game like i don't think i've played like this one's gonna be one to watch at game of the year you know i feel like it has oh yeah i've heard so many people have say have said like this is In the conversation, if not the clear winner. Yeah, it is amazing what they've done with this. When I say small team, like under 50 people plus contractors.

They've done a really good job building out this very beautiful, well-written, well-scored, well-acted video game. I don't think there's anything here that's sort of... has a rough sort of edge to it like I think that they've really you know they've got a really great game I think like the only thing that might turn people away is if they

if they are absolutely against turn-based combat which i understand like you know every gameplay mechanic isn't for everybody and i think that's where if you do want to still experience the story While engaging in what I feel is some of the best turn-based combat gaming out there, you can turn it to story mode and it, and it does feel good. And there's no shame in Googling a build. Like that's what I did. I, I hate min maxing, but like.

If I find it, I found a build that was basically like, here's the things for these three characters, go get the stuff. So I spent like a couple hours, just basically open a new tab. Copy, paste to go find the specific, they call them Pictos, which are these little abilities you can, these little enhancements you can equip and then unlock to equip for all characters.

So I just basically did that for a couple hours, found them all, and got my build all sorted. And now I've got a really good structure for basically doing post-game. dungeons not they aren't post-game dungeons there are dungeons you can do during act three but i just didn't didn't do them before i finished the game but the game does do the whole like uh jump back in and play you know

It hand waves away some lore story stuff to do that, but I'm honestly fine with that. I'm like, that's cool. I appreciate that the game has that option, even if from a story perspective, it's... It doesn't do the thing where it's like you're existing in the world post-game narratively, but it also doesn't do the thing where it rewinds to your last save. It kind of does an in-between where the final boss is done.

But it's not clearly not after the game finishes, but it's clearly not before the boss fight. But it fits. It's weird. It's a different way of doing it. And honestly, I'm fine. I don't care that they kind of break the... the narrative glass with that one. They just kind of like, this is the best option for the players to just preserve gameplay. And I really, I appreciate that. So yeah, I'll be back in there doing a little bit more over the next.

week or so and uh yeah i had a blast with it and it is very french there i think the whole like last bit there i think the whole song that they played was was all in French and it was beautiful. It was amazing. And I understood like 33% of it. So, but it was great. Yeah. I've started telling people that I know I understand what the.

dog who speaks french in bluey says and that's about it so sure i think he's what six yeah i mean there are levels right you're like i can speak fluent french kindergarten fluent french bluey fluent French expedition 33. Like I know all the swear words that they use in that. So it's good. It's there are levels and we'll work, we'll work our way up to what would be after expedition 33. It'd probably be like.

a marvel movie dubbed i guess in french i don't know probably yes some sort of like prolonged french speaking like i don't even know if i go to a movie maybe a tv episode but anyway doesn't matter So, yeah, what I was going to say is that, like, I know you said that you really like the story of Expedition 33 and seems like once you...

changed the difficulty that the combat got more uh appealing to you specifically put it that way um but yeah it's like 2025 is a really good year for games i think um Like all, I mean, it's so disappointing that Civ 7 wasn't better, but like we had, there was like Civ 7, there was the new Assassin's Creed. There was that split fiction that I didn't love, but did get very highly praised elsewhere.

The blueprints, obviously. This clear obscure came out. Death Stranding 2, which is people are enjoying that, I guess. Good for them. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. What else? I feel like there's been a ton of stuff that's come out so far this year. I feel like we've had conversations when we're like, oh, this is definitely a game of the year contender. Definitely a game of the year contender. Like, I'm sure Donkey Kong is probably going to be in the conversation once that actually releases.

yeah i just feel like yeah exactly yeah it's coming very soon and then like that's not even talking about the stuff that's coming out like in the sweet spot in the fall so i i just feel like there's so much stuff going on right now um this year specifically when we're talking about like game of the year conversations and the really cool thing is they're all very very different so yeah I'm looking forward to our

Game of the Year episode at the end of the year because 2025 feels amazing so far. Yeah, there's been a lot of big releases and I feel like there's still a good chunk.

to to come this fall and i and i think the biggest unknown is probably uh what nintendo has for their fall release schedule like we don't know when metroid prime 4 is coming out like that's going to be a fall title And PlayStation obviously will have likely a few surprises up their sleeve after Ghost of Yotai like they did with Astro Bot last was it last year?

Astro Bot was sort of an unknown until it was like, hey, here's the announcement. It's coming out in a month. So there's still an opportunity for that. So we'll definitely see what the rest of the year brings. yeah i feel like i'm missing even in this conversation i feel like i'm missing like two or three titles that people are gonna be like ah You forgot about blah. And I'm like, yes, I did. I'm sorry. Blah. There's a vow. Oh, man.

I completely forgot about Doom, but I didn't play Doom. But yeah, I forgot about even came out this year. Like, how is it already July? I feel you there. Yeah, it is wild how many games have released this year so far. And I think that the age of fall being when video games come out is completely, you know.

I wouldn't say dead. It's just, it's shifted. Like it's now all year round because there's so many video games coming out that everyone's like, well, I guess we got a release in July to have our corner of the market. Yeah. So which is good. I like that they're spreading it out because I remember even early days of doing the show, it'd be like there are two big games coming out this quarter on the same day. Wow.

Which one am I devoting my time to? Which still happens on occasion, but I think companies are really good at getting out of... They play chicken and then someone gets out of the way.

you know usually unless it's sonic and mario in which you just do unless it's horizon then you know it's it's gonna release within a week or two of the game of the year you know that well then there won't be a game of the year this year there hasn't been a new horizon so yeah oh i want new horizon yesterday but anyways let's not go down that rabbit hole yeah soon soon tm yeah

um i've been playing a little bit uh not very much a little bit and that's probably going to come up in a couple minutes but played a little bit of after ink revival so this game just went into early access there was a demo that was available but it's been out now in early access for a couple weeks and it's from the people who made plague inc um but it is a like

mini civilization building forex strategy type experience but it's like i'm gonna say simplified i was gonna say dumbed down and i'm like it's not dumbed down but it's like simplified They are in very active development. It came out a couple of weeks ago and they've already put in two updates with like, I guess, highly requested features and they've got quite a very detailed roadmap.

um it's fun uh it's basically like trying to answer the question of what happens after plague ink and you have to go in and like build your settlements and save your people and try to rebuild civilization and there is like a

narrative kind of story mode and different challenges in different places and a campaign, I guess. So it's like... I think I've played about an hour and I played a couple of maps and the experiences, and this is why I say the length of time I've put into it is going to come up in my review, is because... The negative reviews are mostly like not necessarily about like the controls or the graphics or the setting or whatever. It's just that like.

Once you've played it for 15 or 20 hours, it's extraordinarily repetitive. So like, I think that comes down to, again, the fact that it's in early access, the fact that it doesn't have all the tech trees and all the features and stuff.

that they maybe want to build into it however like i said they have a very detailed roadmap and they have um you know a lot of big plans for the game so I think the demo is still available if you want to play it on Steam, but the game itself in early access is, I think it was like 15 or 17 bucks Canadian.

really affordable for for the experience you get and and it is kind of constantly changing so yeah i i've really enjoyed it i thought like it's simplistic enough that i feel like i can like sit down and pick it up and and work through a scenario pretty quickly the one thing i will say is like so it's a zombie game there are some like that is because in plague inc you could kind of combine a whole bunch of different things they were like

uh bacteria viruses i can't remember all the different things but um you could combine different like um evolutions there we go and like you could evolve different like symptoms and stuff And so this is like making canon that the virus that wiped out the world was the zombie-creating virus, basically. So the world around the survivors is zombie-infested. So far, that has not been an issue for me at all. The zombie infestation areas have been super easy to clear with like one.

unit like one fighter unit but um again i've only played a very small amount so it's possible that that gets more difficult later uh they also have a really cool kind of um I guess, mechanic is that you get to choose your leader of your settlement and each leader will give you different bonuses. So there's a little bit of like potential for replayability there, but.

It's a really simple concept. It's like you find a spot and build your settlement. You explore the land around you. You have to make sure you have enough resources for your people and that the zombies don't murder you. And then every once in a while, there's like little decision points, little events that take place. But yeah, you get to choose your difficulty at the start of every scenario and you get to choose your leader.

then you go and it's uh it's pretty cool i've really enjoyed it again i've only played a little bit of it but i think it's really exciting to see all of the plans that they have for the game very cool yeah i never i always meant to play plague inc I think I own it or it goes on sale all the time. It was like a joke, like 99 cents. Yeah, it's been out for to come out. It came out almost right when we started the show.

It was like somewhere in the 2010, 2012-ish range, I think. And yeah, it was a really good game. Apparently, according to the marketing for After Ink, they had... 190 million players over the years of Plague, Inc., which is just a ton. it was a good game it is a good game i enjoyed it for quite a while it was good as a mobile title too like and that's the thing because i'm pretty sure you can get after ink as well on mobile um and

So they are very simplistic in their visual design and their controls because they're designed to be played on mobile or PC. I'm playing on PC, but... um there is the potential for mobile there so it is quite um simple you don't have to like get down into like exact building placement or anything like that like you have tiles and then Once the tile is revealed and you've claimed it, then it's like, hey, guess what? There's like grain here. So you say build a grain field and then that tile just.

gets the grain field like overlay over top of it basically so it is very simplistic but um definitely designed to be played on mobile And so I think because they opened it up on mobile, then that opens you up to a huge audience, right? So Plague Inc. i think for me i i played it a couple times like in the kind of mid 2010s and then like the actual legit irl pandemic happened and then i like

didn't really want to play a game where I was trying to design an illness or virus, bacteria, whatever, to take over the world and kill everybody. So it kind of lost its appeal for me for a few years. I did revisit Plague Inc. um after i had finished the demo for after ink because i was like man it's been so long since i played it i'm gonna go back and play and and see you know what they've added there because there were a lot of updates to plague ink as well

And yeah, it was like, again, you're trying to kill everyone in the world, but it was super fun. Is that what it was with Plague Inc.? It was basically designing. You're trying to design a pathogen. To take over and kill everything in the world. Oh, okay. And then didn't they like turn into a board game as well or something? There, yeah, there is a board game. I'm...

Not 100%. Or no, the board game is called Pandemic, I think. Oh, right, right. Different thing. Yeah. Yeah. In that case, you're trying to stop the crazy virus that's killing everyone in the world. Okay. But yeah, so plague ink is like trying to give your pathogen enough like transmissibility to infect people. But then also you have to basically like spread enough, but stay under the radar and then become deadly and kill everybody before they can make a cure. Okay. Interesting. Yeah.

is dark yeah yeah for sure especially again after living through covid it's just like man and like you just you see like when you lose in plague inc you're just like that is not how that happens and i now know from irl experience that that's not how that happens it's like oh greenland has closed all their shipping lanes so no virus can get through i'm like bullshit people will find a way yeah Yeah, I wonder if they updated it, you know, after... Post-pandemic, post-real-life experiment.

uh yeah so but anyways yes plague ink very good game very widely played after ink so far i think um very interesting i've enjoyed the time i've played so far it is simplistic but i think it will um become more difficult and have more, um, variety over time. Okay. I did notice also that, uh, when I was looking into it, I guess there's after ink because plague ink was also.

mobile and and steam after ink is also mobile and steam um the mobile version because i was looking at it i don't know why i brought it up on um um on my phone uh i was thinking oh this would be a really interesting like tablet app and and not just because it has Sort of that look and feel of a tablet game. But yeah, it's like $3 on iOS. And then there's an expansion called Beyond the Bunkers, which is $10.

And I guess it's expeditions. So I do wonder, like, is this revival version, like, like taking the iOS game and making it just continuing it? Or is it the same product? It'd be really interesting. To hear about that, I guess I guess this. Yeah, I don't know. This one on iOS is is basically stated to be like a mini 4X. Yeah.

But it sounds like they're still developing both, so I don't know. It's interesting. I would be curious to hear the differences between the two. It sounds like they're different titles, but it sounds like they are similar. Sorry, they're different. different subtitles but it sounds like they've they're the same base game yeah and but it's interesting that i guess you can't have early access on ios there's no like game preview thing there so they just it's a game

And they're going to update it. So, yeah, I am interested in this one. I mean, I do like a good sort of survival management game. I think that was one of the things of the alters that. that really, uh, I really latched onto is, is like managing the SIM. It sounds like this one's more SIM based, but managing sort of the resources and stuff. I like having a good. sort of resource chain going so uh this one's definitely uh when you mentioned it is on my radar now so

Yeah, you should you should definitely go check it out because, yeah, it's it's been fun so far and I look forward to seeing what more they do with it. Yeah, I see it like on Steam. They have After Ink, the original soundtrack. But then in the text, when you hover over, it says the original After Ink revival soundtrack. So yeah, I don't know. There's no other thing to buy. There's Plague Ink Evolved and Rebel Ink Escalation.

then after rank is the, is their most recent option. So yeah, I don't know. Yeah. I mean, I think that I, I mean, I'm not like super keen on playing PC games these days. So like I would be for $3 like on iOS. Oh yeah. For $3, I'd give it a shot. Yeah.

I will check this out and we'll compare notes to see the differences between the two. Because I did quickly look into it. I couldn't really find... any noticeable difference outside of the subtitle so but again like i i apple does not have and i i believe google may not have like a sort of early access game preview sort of program so um it might just be that but but it is weird that they have different subtitles so more investigation is warranted i think

Yeah, but lots of fun. Go and check it out. Like I said, the demo is still available on Steam if you do want to. Give it a try for free and see if you enjoy it. Yeah, that is available for free over on Steam. Speaking of Steam, you've got some summer sale recommendations.

Yeah. Summer sale is, uh, is ending, I think this Thursday. So if you, if you don't, uh, listen to the gamers and as soon as it's posted, you might, you might miss this. Although I find steam like ratchets up the. wish list notifications during the Steam sale. They usually hit you up once or twice.

Depending on the size of your wish list, maybe. Sometimes it sends you an email right at the beginning and then saves a couple of deals for the halfway point, which I'm fine with because honestly, it's been a busy couple of weeks.

But I did pick up two titles and I just wanted to quickly touch on them. So one, Mini Motorways. We've talked about it on the show before. My sole reason for resubscribing to Apple Arcade for... nine ten dollars a month here and there just as like i really want to play some mini motorways i bought it for 10 bucks on the steam sale so now apple doesn't need any more of my money and the developer gets uh

uh i guess i guess a fair chunk from me just buying it on steam so uh this is like sort of a laid-back um casual traffic simulation game it's got a lot of like calm vibes to it even though there's even though it does get hectic near the end um as you have like so many different shops and and and highways and

It's all color based. So like what they do is they basically have buildings pop up. So you've got like a yellow mall and then a bunch of yellow houses and then you make sure they're all connected via roadways.

And as long as you can keep people moving to their destination and you don't have sort of a queue, a bottleneck forming, you just keep moving. And it's all sort of automated as long as you keep everything connected and you don't have a... as i said like traffic jam then you're all set so uh i i really like this one it's it's ten dollars canadian uh it's a lot of fun and it's again very laid back if you're looking for a casual game and i play with a controller works great on steam deck

So I have it in docked mode and I'm just playing with a controller. But it would work very well with PC mouse and keyboard control as well. So check that one out. It's a lot of fun. I picked up UFO 50, which was a game that released last year. And this one is is interesting because what it does is it's a collection of fake. 8-bit era style video games done in a way that's like the narrative of the game is that a preservationist group found like an old computer.

They restored it, and then the game you're playing is basically this restored collection of old video games from this one company. And they're all new games, but they're done in the style of late 80s, early 90s 8-bit style. And I'm still discovering... The games, as the name implies, there are 50 titles to check out within this collection. So I'm working my way through it. I've done about five or six.

you know, there are going to be ones that are like fun and you'll want to come back to, and there are going to be ones that's like, this is a really interesting throwback to games of that era, but. uh just like that not my jam stuff you don't want to go back to but it but i i do applaud the the um sort of attention to detail and like building like a specific type of a game you might have remembered

From from the 90s. So UFO 50 is definitely more niche than many motorways. I feel like UFO 50, you have to have a specific enjoyment of retro. style video games certain amounts of nostalgia oh yes yeah there's is very retro even though these are all new games they are done in the style of sort of that i would say I would say like NES era, like arcade style, but they kind of like...

So if you were born in the 2000s, get the hell out. Or if you just want to revisit like the old style. I think like, you know how sometimes a good remaster is like, this is how I remember playing. I remember this game looking and playing like, even though clearly there was work done to, to bump it up. It's the same here where like they are inspired by the, you know, eight bit era, but.

they don't bring everything that was in that era, like screen flickering and, uh, like there's homage to it, but it doesn't punish you for wanting to like play these, like, retro style games i i really like that about like throwback games that are like clearly paying homage to what came before without bringing the punishment along with it Yeah, inspired by not replicating. 100%. And they do a really good job of, I think, striking that balance with UFO 50. And again, a great Steam Deck game.

runs amazingly uh you can jump in play a quick game jump out it's it's perfect for the steam deck so two uh really great on sale summer steam sale games so check out mini motorways and ufo 50 add them to your to your list of i will play these eventually so there you go

And if you're looking for more things to check out, head on over to patreon.com slash thegamersin like our July patron Night Vale did. Thank you so much for supporting the show. We have revamped the Patreon in recent months. And that has included a monthly host special. So Ryan's host special is up for June. The July special from me is going to be coming soon. I am really excited about it. I recorded a solo.

like storytelling scripted thing which I've never done before I think it was really good and it was really fun to make so yeah I hope you guys enjoy it I'm really excited about it so um that will be going up sometime in the next uh about a week or 10 days i don't want to like i want to give ryan's host special a little bit of time to breathe but yeah mine's been done for like ever It's good. I listened to it. So folks look forward to it. I will post it.

Well, next week at some point. Yeah, next week. Yep. We also have monthly game nights. Summer schedules have kind of messed up our game nights already, but we are planning to do a game night on Friday, July 25th. Look forward to that as well. Our last game night was a ton of fun. So yeah, come and join us for that. We'll be putting up a post over on patreon.com slash the gamers in to see what you guys want to hang out and play.

And speaking of hanging out and playing Game Club, we are open to suggestions. We need to figure out what's next. So if you want to join those conversations, then head on over to our Discord. You have any ideas, Ryan? Anything you think that maybe would make a good game club? You know what? I've been itching to play Titanfall 2 again, and I know that's been...

on our polls, uh, in, in previous sort of, you know, ask the discord what we should play. So, um, nothing, I feel like if we were to do something, it would be like fall timeframe. I feel like summer's. Well, yeah, but we need to figure out like. We do need to figure it out. Who's going to lead it and what we're going to play and who's going to lead it. Because if we're going to start in September, it's already July 8th, dude. We know how long it takes.

For me to put polls up. Yes, exactly. What we'll do is we will have a poll. I feel like we do need to do a new poll based on, I think last time.

Obviously, we could pick a runner up from what our last poll was, but we'll gauge interest for the fall. I think there was a few. I mean, Space Marine came up. That's a really interesting one because they just... uh released another remaster for for that original space marine game um titanfall 2 as i said is something that that i've thought of as well there was uh

Oh, what was it? It was the Supergiant Games, Bastion and Transistor that was also on the list. So lots of great contenders. And I feel like after the... What was it? How many weeks? The 12, 15-week marathon that was Twilight Princess? Maybe a smaller one. Yeah, I think it ended up being 10 weeks, I think. Okay, that's not too bad.

Possibly 11. I can't remember if I counted the first week as an actual week or not, or if that was just the get your shit together and get through the kind of tutorial stuff before you get into the world.

I can't remember if I counted that as a week or not. But anyways, yeah, it was about 10 weeks. But there were some times where we had like stuff come up and... had to push a week which is why it probably felt longer i think it did end up taking about four months maybe four and a half months to get through it yeah so i mean couldn't have been that much couldn't have been that much but it was fun though it was a good revisit

it was fun i had a blast going back and like honestly i think like that's one of the big awesome things about game club is like going back to those things that either like you played so long ago or you didn't get a chance to play it when it came out because there's so much stuff coming out these days so

yeah being able to like experience the hype of playing stuff with other people at the same time is uh yeah it was just great it was also my first game club not only experience but first time leading and yeah i had a great great time so I'm looking forward to whatever the next game club is and chatting up people again about games. So yeah. Anyways, all of that stuff is what is going on.

in the world of our Patreon and our Discord. So go and check those out. Again, that is patreon.com slash thegamersin and you can go to tiny.cc slash TGI Discord in order to join the community over there. That brings us to the news this week. This actually happened last week, but with everything that we were talking about, I was like, I can't do another one of these.

It's not a layoff, but Neil Druckmann has left HBO's Last of Us, and this is before season three. So I can't decide how I feel about this, Ryan, because... As we know, we talked about it a few weeks ago. I wasn't the biggest fan of season two. I didn't like the focus being solely on Ellie. I thought that there were a lot of ways they could have like.

changed the way they told that story to make it more interesting um i thought they could have held some stuff back but because of the stuff i knew from season two I did want to see Abby's side of the story. So like I was more excited about season three than season two. But having Neil Druckmann walk away. It's like, why did this happen? It's weird. Yeah, I didn't actually.

anticipate that angle i mean this is the thing like hollywood there's always a scandal right like any any uh large departure uh from a creative side and naughty dog is not you know immune to this stuff it's happened a couple times where you know folks will leave and then there's drama so it's it is interesting that it's continuing to happen but when i read this news i in my mind i was always thinking like

How is this guy running a show while running a studio that has multiple game projects? I'm pretty sure he's game director for Intergalactic, if I'm not mistaken. So I always in the back of my mind, I was always like, how is his team like video games is a is a is a daily function when you're building a video game. Like if you watch any of those behind the scenes stuff like.

you are, you are working every day on that game. And I could not imagine having what would be like the studio manager, like in Alberta for six months filming the last of us. While they're in, where is Naughty Dog based? Somewhere, well, somewhere in the States, a completely different country. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Not Alberta. Not Alberta. No, they are not Bioware. They are Naughty Dog.

And, uh, that, that was always in the back of my brain of like, you know, he, he finished doing this. How is he doing it? And I think the last of us season one made sense. He had just wrapped part two. Uh, and. There has, you know, they're in between projects and season two is a big undertaking. And I, and I do think when I read the story, I saw it for a more positive light of like, okay, he is.

He has adapted season one, started the adaptation of season two. Really where the story goes from here is kind of set, at least for season three, is kind of set in a specific motion. in terms of how they've adapted the game previously. So, like, him stepping away, this makes sense, just with Intergalactic. It makes sense for him for sure. Just from like a workload perspective. Sure. Because yeah, he says in his statement, he said, now's the right time for me to transition.

my complete focus to Naughty Dog and its future projects, including writing and directing our exciting new game Intergalactic, along with my responsibilities as studio head and head of creative. So yeah, he had a lot of stuff on his plate for sure. I get like and he's the one who made the decision to step away. And obviously there's drama and speculation about like how season two went and that maybe there was creative differences between him.

And the other writer, director, what's his name? Frank Mazin. yeah there you go thank you um so yeah like there's you know rumors of that but he hasn't said anything about that and i think you're right that it probably is just as straightforward as the statement says like that's a lot of shit to be in charge of like

Even just if you look at like his work at Naughty Dog and saying, you know, studio head, head of creative, working on this new, exciting new IP and game and everything else. Like this is a lot in and of itself.

totally outside of creating the last of us tv show right so i get it i'm just like worried about i guess the the impacts it's going to have on the show and i hope that they're able to recapture some of the magic and interest and good storytelling they had in season one and kind of carrying it over to what I think will be a more interesting season in season three.

Because I thought season two was very much a low point. And so it just remains to be seen if it's a... low point that's going to continue into a free fall or if it's going to be like the bottom in between two highs. Yeah, I mean, we'll see. I really do think that you will enjoy season three and possibly hate season four. So.

We'll see how that goes. So they have confirmed that there's going to be a season four then? No, it's just not yet. But the way The Last of Us Part II works, like in terms of, you know.

just the game the story in the game yeah like in terms of chunking out the story like you could very easily do you've got season two and the way they adapted it moving into season three season four it would make sense for okay i see so it would make sense for season three to kind of end at the same kind of moment in time as season two did with that cliffhanger and then

have season four be the what happens now after. So we've basically got season two and season three happening concurrently in time. And then season four wraps up everybody's stories. Is that right? That's fair. Okay. Yeah. And yeah, I think that's, that's fair. And I know they've said like, look, they don't want to be doing this show forever.

Uh, so they have stated like they will likely need four seasons. They've only been greenlit for three so far, but I think it's, uh, I've, I've had conversations with, with other folks who, who feel like HBO, uh, doesn't have the greatest track record lately with canceling things but i think the last of us is is safe you know it's probably safe i would say fine so unless season three falls off horribly but

even then i don't think it will and and because it's like an already a story that's already out there even if they only give it an extra like four episodes or something like that i'm sure that they will um like wrap up and and finish off Yeah. The story, I would hope anyway. The biggest struggle is you always do, if you have a really good show, you always do really well.

right out of the gate like season one always is the best and then and then it will always kind of fall off like i think there's diminishing returns with television again there's so much choice out there you see it with other prestige shows. Like the bear is a great example. Like everyone thought like, Oh, season one, a hundred percent. And then as the show seasons continued, I personally didn't feel like the quality dipped. It's just people.

like it's get used to it yeah they get used to it's the second version of the thing they've just watched you know it's well it's like Witcher I feel like Witcher is another really good example like even when henry cavill was still involved it was like season one everyone's like oh my god this is so good and then season two came out they were like okay this is still pretty pretty good yeah we're which we're all bored season three came out nobody watched it and then they announced it

Cavill was leaving and everyone was like, well, this is dead to us. Like, I couldn't even tell you when the next season is coming out. I was just going to ask. It must be soon. Is that fourth season out? No. Okay. Although I guess the third season came out like right after we had Olivia. So that was 2023 because I remember us in our...

like newborn infant, not sleeping days, trying to watch the first episode of the third season and just looking at each other going, we have to rewatch the second season. We have no idea who the hell any of these characters. are it's supposedly out 2025 so oh really there's still like we said at the top of the show there's still plenty a year to go

Yes. Still time for Liam Hemsworth. Yeah. But anyways, yes, I think you're right that there is definitely some amount of diminishing returns over the course of a TV show. It's really hard to... keep your audience engaged and happy because you can't give them the same thing over and over and over again because they'll get bored but if you change it too much then they're going to be like this isn't the show i signed up for so

Yeah, it's definitely a delicate balance and I think really difficult to keep people engaged over long periods of time. Don't ask me how Grey's Anatomy has like 22 seasons. I don't even know. But yeah. I don't know. So, yeah, speaking of Last of Us, there's now another way to experience The Last of Us Part 2's campaign. Yeah, this is so there's the joke going around like, oh, my gosh, Sony is doing another thing with The Last of Us video game.

This is a free update to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Naughty Dog. And I will say Naughty Dog. For half a second, I thought you were going to say the 40th anniversary of Last of Us because I've been feeling really, really old lately. Like I was going through some stuff at work and I was like, how is our record retention so bad? This just happened in like 1992. And that was only like 15, 20. 25, 30, oh Jesus, years ago.

So, yeah, like for a split second, my brain was like, yes, you are that old. The Last of Us is 40. No, no, it can't be. Sorry. Continue. Yeah. Naughty Dog, the company that.

makes it as 4d continue yeah so this is an interesting free update uh what they're doing is they are the update will allow you to play the last of us part two chronologically so This is addressing specifically the issue you had with the show, which is equivalent in the video game where instead of having Ellie's portion, then Abby's portion, you will play. My understanding, you'll play in chronological, so you will jump between the two characters in sequence. Like much more often, yeah.

It's really interesting, and I've been thinking about replaying Part 2 just after watching the show and possibly upgrading my version of the game to play the remastered version on PS5. And this might be... an interesting way to have a different experience and, and. I think in my defense, my biggest criticism of season two was giving us Abby's motivation right out the gate. I think if they hadn't told us that at all, then the season would have been much more interesting.

Which apparently is what they do in the game, and it was just a decision they made in the show that I did not agree with and thought made the show really bad. But anyways, yeah, being able to see things in chronological order. I think makes it more interesting and digestible on the show, again, because you already had that giant motivation piece given to you at the beginning.

that I think then chronological makes sense. If you're trying to hide that from your audience, then I can absolutely see playing through Ellie's stuff, then playing through Abby's stuff as the, like, mystery, almost. Anyways, I don't want to retread all that Last of Us Part 2 conversation. You guys can go back a few episodes and find that if you somehow missed it. yeah i think it's it's an interesting because obviously playing the like non-linear way that it was originally meant to be played

It's really interesting that they're taking that creative decision and being like, nah, let's just do it chronologically. It's fine. Because it was a stylistic narrative choice, right? So it's funny that they've found a way to kind of reorder it into a chronological narrative.

yeah it'll be really wonder how much they had to massage it and yeah i would be interested to see how they did it i hope you do like not to put too much on your plate but i hope you do and i'd like oh maybe that can be your next patron special is comparing chronological mode to OG narrative mode. Maybe. Yeah, no, I'm, I just, I just write this stuff for you, Ryan. Don't worry. It is interesting. I, it is. It's funny because like I, my brain will sort of.

I don't know, maybe in the background work on this stuff. And if I don't write it down, I'll forget it. And I think there was a day where I just like had the next four specials sort of.

mapped out just with with ideas that kept popping into my head but but i really do i really do want to um i have been thinking about playing part two again in anticipation of of this you know season two three four whatever they end up doing uh and chronological mode i'll admit i scoffed at when i first saw it thinking like this sounds silly But, but yeah, it, it, it, it could be interesting. It could be played up for, like, I do worry, like.

It's almost, it almost seems like an April fool's joke. We heard you gamers and we now have a chronological mode. We understand you didn't like our creative vision. So we have totally remodeled it into your creative. vision you're welcome yeah the internet would have loved that but uh they also don't love when they when they announce they're working on stuff related to the last of us existing games so

Maybe they knew that this would play as a bit of a laugh as well. And I think they did follow up saying like, don't worry, this isn't the only thing we're doing this year for our 40th anniversary. I imagine I'll have another trailer for... intergalactic uh uh at some point this year so i'm uh i i love naughty dog games i i think they're all really great and um i'm excited to see what they do next and uh

hopefully they can free up whoever's continuing to find new ways to, to get the last of us part two or part one into headlines out there and, you know, get them working on some new stuff. Well, someone's working on some new stuff, but no one wants to publish it. John Romero, who created Doom. So this was part of the fallout from all of the Microsoft stuff last week. The publishing deal, so the studio hasn't closed, but the publishing deal for an almost finished game has been canceled.

So they're basically shopping it around for a new publishing deal, if I understand correctly. So the game's almost done. And that's like, I mean, not to give Microsoft any credit whatsoever.

but and i know everything you say before the but doesn't matter i'm trying to find a way to like shit on microsoft while also being like this does raise some red flags about a game like if you have a game that you have a publishing deal for and it's almost finished and it depends on i guess the developer's definition of almost like are they ready to release next month or do they still have a year and a half like

How close is close, I guess. But if Microsoft had something that they could potentially release soon and they chose not to, but also didn't like.

close the studio itself like i don't know it's like is the game really bad yeah i think and there's been other instances where microsoft's done this uh it happened with scalebound which was a platinum games uh game that was being it had a publishing deal with microsoft and microsoft pulled right i remember that one yeah that was the one where you got to like was it fight dragons and then like ride them and yeah

Yeah, I remember the trailer being very impressive. Yes. Yeah. And I don't think we've seen anything on this Romero games first person shooter. So it's. It's hard to sort of understand what happened here, but clearly Microsoft is focusing on their internal studios that they've kept running. and they've canceled several publishing deals. Romero Games didn't confirm it's Microsoft, but they basically wink, wink, nod, nod. If you read the news, you could probably figure out.

who did this yeah but it like it's it's it is good that you know they're keeping they're keeping things positive they're saying like you know We're addressing the news stories. We are not closing down. We have interested publishers that we're in discussion with. Just because Microsoft has walked away doesn't mean that Romero Games doesn't have a product.

sell right and they did say that they they have many um or they sorry several other publishers that are interested in finishing up the game and helping them get it out there so they're in talks with other people. It's not the end of whatever they have. It's just like, if what you've got is so close to finish, then why would your publisher drop you?

Like, we're, again, speculating it's Microsoft, fairly sure that it's Microsoft, but like... if it wasn't you know why why would somebody drop you i guess is all is always the question when you see news like this it's like okay you've got a product why did somebody drop you so is your game good or not Because if it was good, you would assume that the publisher would want to publish it, right? So that's my only point. Again, not giving any credit or kudos or anything to fucking Microsoft.

i said it off the top we'll say it again fuck microsoft i'm still mad yeah yeah man last week was that was a tough one uh and and honestly like i i feel like the follow will will continue um Again, I do wonder how long before we get the... you know, Phil Spencer in a fancy blazer, but a well-hidden gaming t-shirt underneath saying like, Xbox, we hear you. Air at Xbox, we do this. Like...

It won't be long before they try to revert, and I just hope that folks, when they see that happen, you know... call shenanigans if if it's due which it is like honestly i i feel like even waiting until the game awards is is too soon to to start being like we're in the games anything where they're like yay gaming is our life or any kind of pro marketing anything i think people are gonna call bullshit on them for a long time to come so

yeah yeah anyways let's let's finish things up with a positive happy light fluffy animal crossing story so i don't know if you have them ryan but um i can i can see you Buying these. Animal Crossing is doing a crossover with Crocs. They're doing a collaboration. You can get Animal Crossing Crocs. Okay, so two kids at Olivia's daycare have Crocs with all of these little...

I don't know what you call them. Jewelry? They're called gibbets. Like, accessories? They're called what? Is it just giblets? No, no, no. They're called gibbets. That's not better. No, I know. It's yeah, they're called they're called gibbets. And they're for Crocs. Okay. And every time we go to the park. I don't know what to do with this information. Yeah. Every time we go to the park, Isabel will find one because they constantly fall off of Crocs. So she doesn't have. Okay. like a collection.

of on on her crocs but she will like pick them up at the park and be like here hold on to this and bring it home and i'm like what is this random sometimes i think we found like a glowing pizza slice uh like a happy face a sock ball wow yeah it's a whole thing uh yeah so i was gonna say yeah olivia has a couple kids at her daycare that have crocs with all of these little charms on them

And I refuse to call them what they're called. I'm just calling them charms. That's fair. I don't like saying it either. She's obsessed with them. Obsessed. She loves them. She loves putting them on. She'll like steal them from her little daycare buddies and run around. in their shoes and she just she loves the crocs she loves the little things on them i'm like oh am i gonna have to get into this and

Yeah. The fact that they're called gibbets means this is never happening. This is the first thing I'm going to say no to my kid. Yeah. I understand my parents so much more now. I know. For the first two years of Olivia. his life i've been like yes you can have everything yes here here here and now i'm like nope i have found the line and it's gibbets and it's funny because like they it's spelt

It's spelled differently in this article. Still pronounced the same way, but there's a Z in there. I don't know if that makes it any better. No. But yeah, I saw the story and I thought, you know what? We need a light and fluffy story to discuss this. Yeah, we needed some fluff for sure. I will say I was at my parents over the weekend and my dad has like a set of Crocs that he will put on to like.

just go out of the house to do something quickly. Like I use sandals like a sane person, but he has these Crocs and then I put them on and I'm like, okay, I kind of get it. I do have one pair that I bought for when I was going. to have olivia like to take with me to the hospital because they said bring a pair of comfy shoes so i was like okay all the nurses wear these things so they've got to be comfy anyways so i do have a pair but like

I use them for a day and then I don't think I've used them since. They exist in my house somewhere. I couldn't even tell you where they are. I didn't realize that there's like a Crocs jewelry craze.

Yeah, I'm looking it up right now for you. So Horizon Zero Dawn. Let's see. No. oh no no sony no sony collaboration yet oh too bad but yeah so the crocs themselves have like an animal crossing uh like island pattern on them they're like green with the animal crossing trees on them and then i guess the point is that you buy these collections

of there's a few different villagers there's like a shell and a fossil and a backpack and uh yeah you can then decorate your animal crossing island crocs As you see fit, because there's also there's a little house and there's like the little money bag. um that are shown like on the crocs themselves as part of the promo images so i'm sure that there's going to be more than just the the kind of two sets that they've shown already but um Yeah. Oh, you can buy individual charms as well for $5 each.

okay that's how they get you it's like in-app purchases for shoes it's crazy exactly even then oh my god okay so the animal crossing clogs cost 70 dollars clogs oh they're a different type of croc well i don't know i think this is i think that's just what they're called like oh there's a plat platform clog and then there's a classic clog for children oh

Look, remember when you were saying that you were surprised to discover you felt old and you were 40? This is that conversation in real time happening now. People at home are like, yeah. You are old. You're complaining about shoes and how kids accessorize. Oh my god. Maybe this wasn't a lighthearted story like we thought.

Look, I think the Crocs look cool. I'm sprinting towards the grave. That's what this conversation is. I don't know. You need to have like, you need to like, you know, we'll, we'll stay young. We'll buy these Crocs. Oh, okay. Yes, that's key. Okay, Ryan. Yes, I'm in. Let's do it. Oh, $70 for like plastic shoes. Sounds steep. Right? Ridiculous. I love how we're talking ourselves in and out. Although, like, it's $70 for the adult shoes and then $17 for these packs of these.

charms let's not go too far the individual ones okay ryan are you telling me that you're literally going to wear these crocs with no people on them that is not the point of the animal crossing crocs No, I wasn't going to wear them at all. You have to wear them and you have to have gibbets. We have to get with the kids in the lingo. I hate everything I just said in the last 45 seconds.

Oh my gosh. Like there's one of the, one of the charms is like a house. Yeah. You could build your Island and have all of your. Of all of your villagers. This is why Izzy finds them. She finds them all over the park. She just has like, you know, secondhand charms that she's finding on the ground. And I'm like, you know, it'll fix that. Some hot glue. Yeah. Well, no, you're supposed to be like, you know, you're supposed to mix it up like.

You know, I'm feeling Sonic today and I'm feeling... I am not that loosey-goosey, okay? Like, once I commit to a charm, I'm committing to a charm. Oh, wow. You're like the... What was the plot of the Lego movie? The guy who uses the glue? on all the lego you know the old guy in the lego movie oh my god well if you're super gluing your fun things so you can't change them and be super cool and creative i don't know

Oh, I don't lose them. Oh, I see. I'm also the one that has like the charm bracelet that just keeps adding more and more charms, even though it's really heavy and I can't type with it anymore because it gets in the way. I won't actually remove any charms. I like them all. You just get a second bracelet, right? Yeah, so maybe I just need multiple pairs of Crocs. And this is how they get you.

This is definitely how they get you. It's a glue conspiracy. Yeah. Big glue. Yeah. This is lighthearted and fun. Sure, sure, sure. i like it's funny because like there are collaborations with crocs like they i think they're like the lego of shoes they like license a lot of things there's like the marvel and the star wars yeah um

One of Caden's friends came over and he had Crocs and I'm like, oh yeah, you're wearing your Sonic, you know, Crocs today. And he's like, he's like, yeah. And I've got superheroes and all that fun stuff. And I'm like, okay, cool. Like, you know. When I was a kid, it was Pogs. Now it's Crocs. Apparently. They have glitter ones. Of course they do. Jocelyn, close the tab. What are you doing?

Did you go to the Crocs website? I did! This is a whole world I did not know existed. You know what? Oh man, they have jeweled ones? Damn. Yeah, maybe. Oh, crocs.com. They have one that says cat mom. I just can't even with this shit, man. oh what does the world come to what a ridiculous waste of money but i'm sure if you love animal crossing you're probably stoked about this

Yeah, there's like sports and there's all kinds of stuff you can get. Yeah. It's like all these things. It's like accessorizing is... It's big right now. Yeah, it's big. It's big. And I think that, look, I mean, now I'm just wondering when is there going to be a Magic the Gathering collaboration with Crocs? That's the next question. Yeah, that's what'll get you in. No, I just, I find it hilarious. Like every, every time.

I open up Eurogamer or something, there's like every other week there's a new article on some crossover Magic the Gathering is doing. Oh, yeah. And they're just, they have these special... sort of event packs that they do. And I think right now the big one is final fantasy. And there was like previously there was like walking dead and, and, uh, other.

other weird things you wouldn't think of when it came to a trading card game. So yeah, it's interesting. It's, it's, it's, I do like that sort of stuff like these collaborations that pop up. You know, when we were kids, it felt like it was just like McDonald's Happy Meal toys was the big thing for collaborations. And now it's like everyone's looking for a marketing deal. So it's cool.

All right. Well, on that note, if you guys want to join the conversation and maybe share pictures of your Crocs, head on over to tiny.cc slash TGI Discord. You can also visit us on the web at gamersinpodcast.com or follow us over on Blue Sky. You can find me. Jocelyn at justplays.com and Ryan is at ryanmurphy.ca. Also be sure to check out our TGI community starter pack, which is at tiny.cc slash TGI starter pack. Thanks for staying at the Gamers Inn. And remember, tune in next week.

Bye, everybody. Bye, everyone.