TGI 659 - Like Herding Calicorns

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 Ryan. Hello, Ryan. Hello. We're back, and all it took was taking a week off. for Silksong to finally get a release date. We did it. You're welcome. Right? Yeah, you're welcome, everyone. So just a little tease for like the biggest news story. that's happened in the last two weeks. Yeah, 100%. It's literally out in two days.

Ryan, you're spoiling the whole news. I mean, yeah, that's true. Well, half the news. Half the news. There's one other story we've got in here. We trimmed it down to the best of the best of the last two weeks. And by best, the best, I mean best and the not so great. So, yeah, we've been we've been away for two weeks. It was a good summer vacation. I know, Ryan, you've been crazy busy, but you did.

Actually get a chance to do some stuff video game related. I did. Yeah, I went to a thing in person that was video game related. I did a trip. i would say a whirlwind trip but like we did we literally added an extra day to our we went to niagara falls which i like to call canadian las vegas because it is clifton hill is such a

It is, yep. It's just a lot. And I've been to Niagara Falls three times, or maybe more than that. Once when I was a kid, and then maybe a couple times when I was a kid, and then we went once as a group.

uh me ashley matt and jim we all met there and we we did the niagara falls for right a weekend and then we took the kids for the first time and like there's just if there's a lot and there's a lot going on and and i did um we did get like the fun pass which there's as as weird as it is how expensive it is there is some stuff you can do that is like

cuts down a little bit on the price so the fun pass gets you like six things you can do on clifton hill and a couple of those were like video game related um you know they have these like 40 rides and it's It's kind of weird where like, it's kind of like a video game. And I was thinking a little bit of like, there's this like industry of the game, part of the games industry where they're making games specific for these like attractions and like.

arcades and it's kind of weird it's the stuff you don't hear about it just kind of exists in the periphery of video games. Like we always talk about PC games and console stuff, but then no one talks about like zombie attack at Niagara Falls, you know? makes you think that it does it not really it was okay uh uh it's uh I did it twice because the kids were too afraid. Caden was the only one who wanted to do it. So I got to do that one twice.

But no, the main thing I wanted to talk about it from a video game in person perspective was the Minecraft experience Villager Rescue, which I did it in. I'm going to say Toronto just for like. Cause the website says it's Toronto. Yeah. The website says, Oh, you know, Minecraft experienced Toronto, but it's actually Mississauga. Like, I don't know how Mississauga feels about that, but like to the rest of the world, like that whole.

Greater Toronto area is just Toronto, even though it is like a bunch of different cities, I guess. Yeah, technically, it's a bunch of different cities, but you literally can't tell anymore. They used to be separated by, you know, like.

forests and farms and green space and now it is just all subdivisions and roads and pavement and awfulness so yeah yeah the cities all bleed together now there's no way you can tell when you're leaving one and entering the other other than the big sign that says like welcome to Mississauga like okay yeah peel and um yeah uh york york burling is burlington is that one anyways uh burlington's down past hamilton yeah okay yeah it all kind of like

you know melts together because we did we did the trip so we went up to toronto and then we went back home and then we went on the same highway back to to uh to niagara falls and i i kind of thought to myself like oh i kind of i kind of wish we had found a way to like do this all in one go, but that would have probably made it more expensive and more of a hassle. So, but this is kind of the cool thing that like, when you think of Canada,

And these type of experiences that are rare across the world, like the Minecraft experience, I think, is in it's like a worldwide thing, but it's in major cities. And when you think of Canada, if if you're hitting one spot, it's Toronto. you know, it's that Toronto area. If you're hitting three spots, it's Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. So, like, we're lucky enough that, you know, we live...

Not in Toronto, but close enough that you can make the track. It was kind of like when that Nintendo Switch 2 experience was happening. It's like, Canada, guess what? Toronto. And we're like, oh, well, we're about an hour and a half. That's not too bad. We can make the trek. And we only have to stay there for half a day. It's win-win. But this this experience was very cool because like it's super interactive. The technology behind it is.

You know, top notch. This is not like a hole in the wall, Niagara Falls, like haunted house, imported roller coaster on top of a roof that that. definitely feels like it was inherited from a, from a closed down midway. This was like top notch stuff. And the way it works is, um, The whole family, the five of us were in there. You come in, you buy tickets for a set window of time. You're with a team and you first thing you're handed is this like orb this. Well, they call it an orb.

But it's a cube. It's Minecraft. You just kind of have to roll. Right. Okay. Okay. You know, they say orb of interaction. So they call it a circle, but it's a square. I hate it. Oh, right. It's Minecraft. Okay. Exactly. Somewhat kind of forgiven, I guess. But also I still kind of hate it. Although I think the potions have some like rounded corners to them. So I don't know what.

what they're doing here i think maybe it's part of the joke but um it's this cube and they they maybe they called it the cube of interaction now i'm having issues like kind of remembering but i'm pretty sure they said orb of interaction and they give you this this This cube, and they say, this is your tool to interact with the whole experience. It uses near field communication. It uses like gyroscopes in the cube.

And it's all connected through all of these different interactive experiences. And the first thing they do is they say to the team, they say to your group of people, it's okay. you know, what's your team name going to be? And Caden yells out team Minecraft. And they're like, perfect team Minecraft. It was like simple, you know,

Team Awesome was behind us, but I still think we had the best team name, which was Team Minecraft. And then they kind of unleash you into this open area to kind of get you used to sort of using, you know, your interaction. Does everyone get... their own orb or was there one for the team? Because I feel like that would get really sketchy really fast.

Everyone got an orb of interaction. Everyone gets one, even the adults. Like there's no, there's no like, oh, this is for the kids and we're just there to make sure they don't tear the place apart. I mean, we're definitely there to make sure they don't tear the place apart because like you got the sense that it's. It's a very...

High tech, like a lot of projection screens, a lot of, you know, interactive, you know, objects. And, you know, the first room was really cool because they say, OK, you're going to have an opportunity to test collecting materials by setting the order. on top of these real-life structures that they've built to look like. you know, a creeper, a woodblock, a chicken, a pig, and all the different Minecraft mobs and entities and stuff that...

that you can pose with and take pictures. It really did feel like sort of a Disney world of vacation of Minecraft. And that in itself was. really cool and the kids it was a surprise to them and they were kind of just blown away by the whole thing um but that first room they're like saying okay just you know Get your feet wet, have fun, learn how to interact with things. They had like a forest where you go in and you have to stand on a specific.

you know, uh, spot in the area. And then you get to like mimic chopping down the trees with your orb of interaction just by like literally, you know, shaking it back and forth. Like you're, like you're wielding an ax and. From there, you kind of move through the experience and it's like you get like maybe 10 or 15 minutes in each area. The second area was like a crafting minigame where you had to like take your orb, put it on a specific, you know.

area that's like okay this is cobblestone this is wood and then once you've collected it you take it to the crafting table oh i see okay and then there's like 25 of us so like we're all coordinating with not only family members but like random random strangers and you're and i'm trying to like stay out of the way of the kids who are like

you know it's for them and but i'm like no no no we need i can see ryan like throwing elbows like i need six cobblestones yeah like i'm i'm i i at one point i thought i was I was talking to one of my kids. He's like, no, no, no, you got the wrong one. You're trying to put cobblestone and we need steel or something. And it was somebody else's kid. I'm like, oh, sorry.

It's okay. I'm going to go over here and tell him what to do now. Wow. I mean, he was, he was clearly not paying attention, you know, but it's fine for the kids. And then, you know, you do that little experience and, and, you know, they. Each room has an employee that's kind of talking it up and being like, OK, and here we're going to do this. And it there's no fail state. Like, it's not like, oh, you failed. You have to leave immediately. Like the experience just kind of keeps going.

There was like an area where there was like a huge table, like a Microsoft Surface sort of touchscreen area where you're building out the village and you're basically just tapping on stuff as it pops up. And again, it's big enough. It's like this huge table where like everybody on the team, 30 of us can interact at the same time. And yeah, you just kind of keep moving through and there's like different.

sort of mini games like collecting and crafting and it all culminates in this like huge snowball fight where you like set down your orbs of interaction which was critical to the experience because if you if you if you had it in your hand you would a hundred percent throw it i was just gonna say a hundred percent again they thought of everything like they're like

We need to make sure that the employees say, okay, now we need to set these orb of interactions down and then you can all come over here and pick up these, you know, faux snowballs that are just like really soft styrofoam that you're throwing against.

um a wall to like uh take out these like fire enemies but you can imagine like from a kid's perspective it's like oh man we just get to throw like these styrofoam balls at a at a mat and see those orbs interact with a mob from our favorite video game like i just kept thinking like this this would be this has got to be mind-blowing for these kids because i can just picture myself as a kid like i don't know interacting with like a like a mario style experience like this and just being

Well, it was also different times, right? Like, I mean, I'm sure I'm not to take anything away from this. I'm sure this is really, really cool for the kids. I'm sure that they loved it, but also... Like, yeah, we just didn't have access to anything like this because this detective didn't exist. Like, yeah. Oh, for sure. I remember being a kid and like you're going on like the coaster coaster and then there was like.

things that like cardboard cutouts that would like pop out and i thought that was amazing so yeah but it's like tech of the time right yeah yeah for sure and and i and i think that's where like sometimes you hear about these experiences and you do some of them and it's like oh man that was like overpriced and was not was not great but in this in this experience i think for the for the five of us it was about 220 bucks

which is pricey. Don't get me wrong. But like, it's a once in a blue moon experience. Like it's in one city in the country we live in and it's Minecraft related, which all the kids are into to a certain degree. And it is very cool. It took about an hour and a bit to go through. And I was very, you know. Proud of the kids because obviously it exits through the gift shop and they say, oh, we're going to exit through the trading post and everything in there costs like $30 more than it should.

Well, yeah, everything at Disney is the same too, right? Like you do a ride and then every single ride has its own freaking gift shop and it's just like, oh my God. Okay. Well, yeah. That's not like a Minecraft specific thing.

Like that is, yeah. It's the business amusement park now. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, we made it through and, and, uh, the, the final little moment there as we're exiting is, is Caden's like, he sees all these people and he's like Minecraft shirts. And he says like, do you think do you think they work for mojang and i'm like i don't think so buddy they work for a company that was like licensed like trying to explain it to me they work for a company yeah that was like hired by

not even mojang but like a licensee company and he's like i don't know are you sure and i'm like okay well let's go ask and we like go up to the the lady who's working the the gift shop and i'm like we don't have we're not gonna buy anything but i have my son had a question he wanted to know if

you work for mojang and her response was perfect she's like i wish i worked for mojang i'm like awesome good job it was very it was a very good response but like it was like the last week it was running i think i think it's done now um But yeah, it was really, it was really cool. Like, I was impressed with, you know, the type of technology they were using and how it was like that immersive.

It's the same stuff they have at like the Super Mario World stuff that you see in the videos. It's like this immersive projected experience that combines like, you know, sensors and NFC chips and stuff. And yeah. It was very neat. Kids really loved it. And yeah, they were, they were very.

They're very happy that when we got there, because like as we're walking from our parking lot over, they like had no idea. And then as we were turning the corner, it's like, OK, they're going to know eventually because there's a giant like Minecraft. There's going to be signs everywhere. Yeah.

yeah uh it was funny because as we were walking they had another like sort of live experience sort of theater that was that was on the way and it was like a dungeons and dragons one and they were like oh man are we doing dungeons and dragons i'm like no no that's not for kids like that it was very clearly like aimed at a, at a higher age group and like, Oh, but could we do it? And I'm like, I mean, like maybe, but like, we're not doing that like today. That's not what we're doing.

Sorry to disappoint you. Yeah. And I was like, don't worry. Like we might not be doing that really cool, like fantasy experience with dungeons and dragons, but. Just wait. It's right around the corner here. We're going to see it. It's going to be so cool. I promise. Yeah. And not like lame dad cool, but like actually kid cool. No, this isn't like tricked you. We're going shoe shopping. Which we did do when we were in the mall. We did do a bit of shoe shopping. However, that was not the trick.

Yeah, we did the Minecraft experience, Villager Rescue. I think like they did like a summer tour across the world. And yeah, I hope they it would be really interesting to see if like. they bring it back considering it is called the minecraft experience like you know and then it has a subtitle like i wonder if they'll do like a different experience or maybe they'll bring it back and kind of bring it to other cities

Cause I really do think like it's, it is unfortunate that is like stuck in this, in the, in the GTA and like, it would be good to see it kind of like spread out a little bit. So, cause I know not everybody wants to, wants to, like, I don't think anybody should. hop on a plane to do this like I don't think it's quite that this is not Disney World but it's cool don't get me wrong it's cool oh it says it's in London as well London London Ontario

Trying to figure that out. Because I thought I thought maybe I didn't look close enough. I thought it was only in Toronto. Oh, yeah. No, the prices are in pounds. So it's definitely. london london well okay because it says the location corner canada water maritime street london that sounds like a like a london address though

It is hard to tell. It's very geolocated. As soon as you open the website, it defaults to the closest, which would be Toronto. Yeah. Even if I try to take the Toronto tag out, it... anyways it like it was very it was the first one of these that we've kind of done that didn't feel like a like sort of a cheap cash in like this you know you were getting your money's worth doing this thing so that was the coolest that was the coolest part to me like you know the

the dad's like getting your money's worth well yeah it wasn't the coolest thing but it's like it's always good when such a dad now man everything comes together like i i don't like spending a bunch of money to be kind of disappointed like oh that didn't and that happened a lot in it didn't happen a lot in niagara falls but it happened on occasion we did one restaurant and i was like oof that was expensive

you know whereas one night we ordered from like a like a mom pop shop that was like off off the off the touristy track and it was like it was good and it was moderately priced so i don't know I don't like, I don't like, you know, I like it when the amount matches the experience. That's it. That's fair.

Well, speaking of the amount matching the experience, I kind of feel bad because we didn't record last week. And the game that I played was on sale for like 95% off. And I am so glad that I actually... waited on this one because I almost bought it like.

i think probably like a month and a half ago like very recently i almost bought it because this game has been recommended to me and i honestly do not know why i haven't tried it until now but it's been recommended to me like in my steam like queue and all kinds of stuff for so long. And there's like the definitive edition of it is 170 bucks. And I was like, I had it in my cart. I almost completed the transaction. And then I was like, no, you know what? Like, I just...

I don't know if I'm going to like it. I like, yeah, I can't spend that kind of money. This is crazy. And then it went on this huge sale is either 90 or 95% off. Anyways, that $170 bundle was like 30 bucks.

So I picked up Anno 1800, which is a, like... real-time strategy city builder where you have to like build up your city and it's in like the 1800s so it's like that kind of like industrial revolution kind of era and so you have to like build up your city and make your trade routes and all that kind of stuff there's like a campaign which is what i've been playing through but then there's also like a sandbox mode which i

believe is more like uh traditional like sieve like you spawn into a map and then you have competing um like either ai or other players trying to build in the same spot and uh yeah so Like I say, I've just been playing through the campaign, but I have literally never played this franchise and I have no idea why. It's really good. The controls were kind of clunky and I found that like...

it was hard to navigate the UI. But then once I got used to it, then I was fine. But it was like, it did have quite just a UI learning curve. But there's like... I think eight other titles in this series or seven other titles in the series and a new one coming out this year. So the one coming out this year is called Anno 117 and it's Ancient Rome.

So yeah, like they all have different like, well, same as like Civ really, like they have a different like hook for each one. So I guess this one was like... you had to manage like the impact of your industry on your population so i can't remember what what it was called like appearance or something maybe i can attractiveness attractiveness

And then if it got too low, that was like really, really bad. And yeah, I'm having fun so far. Again, playing through the campaign. So like I've just started doing like trade routes and stuff. There's like an evil uncle character. And like, it's really cool. I'm really liking it. And I cannot believe that I didn't. Maybe it's because it.

is real time like it's a real time strategy game so maybe that's why I stayed away from it I don't know but it came out in 2019 and it has so much DLC that yeah it's uh yeah it's really really good i'm really enjoying it and again it came out in 2019 so this is probably like shocking no one i think it was it was nominated at the game awards and everything but i don't know this i totally missed this entire franchise it's a it's by ubisoft

And yeah, I just totally missed it. I think I remember playing some of the Anno franchise when I subscribed to Ubisoft Plus years ago. um i think i might have played some of 2070 which as you said was like one of their future ones uh but yeah it's like i guess it's a beloved sort of as you said like a 4x sort of strategy game similar to sieve but real time like there's no there's no turns like it's all real time yeah yeah um so yeah that's the thing is like um

every everything and everyone is happening around you all the time so you know it is a little bit more like i mean stressful i guess because like there is a time component to it um But yeah, I don't know. I mean, like everything that you do takes a certain amount of time to finish. And because again, real time. But yeah, I'm really enjoying it. And I really encourage the sales not on anymore, unfortunately. But I do think that you can get it through like the.

I think you just said it, Ryan. Whatever Ubisoft subscription thing is. Well, they're all Plus, right? I think it's Ubisoft Plus. I often wonder, man, the first company that did the Plus. Like, could they not? I guess it's probably trademarked it or something. Yeah. It would be impossible to do it. But yeah, like everything's a plus. Ubisoft Plus gives you access to... The cool thing about Ubisoft Plus is that...

They give you access to not only just the base game, but they give you access to what they call the gold edition. So like all the DLC. And I think that they're the only subscription that does that. Like Game Pass makes you buy the DLC. Pretty sure EA Play makes you buy the DLC as well. I'm pretty sure Ubisoft Plus is the only one that says like, hey, you get day one, you get the gold edition of whatever game you're installing as part of the subscription, which is a...

I think a really, uh, a really cool way of doing it. I get it. Like, you know, they want to make extra money off the DLC, but the fact that Ubisoft is just like, Hey, you subscribe to, and it's their one tier. Like, I think they have. a console pc and then maybe like a joint sort of like pc plus console i like but they don't limit you they don't say like oh but if you buy

Ubisoft plus core, you only get the standard games that we throw in. Right. Yeah. You know, it's not as confusing as Microsoft's unless they've changed it.

I don't know. Like I say, I did pick it up on the Steam sale, but I would say just keep an eye out for another sale because they do have... their new title coming out this year i don't know if it i know it's 2025 i don't know if it has an actual okay uh scheduled to be released on 13 november so um yeah coming coming soon ish like oh my god two months yeah two months from now yeah so um

Keep an eye out for more sales because as the new title comes out, then the old one will probably go on sale. And I mean, it's from 2019, but like. The graphics are great, like it holds up really well. I never once felt like I was playing something dated, if that makes sense. Like it's. Yeah, the graphics look great. Like you can it's a city builder, which you guys know that I love. So I mean, yeah, it was really, really cool. And yeah, I like it a lot. So I'm probably going to play.

A lot more of this. And then up until the new one comes out, I think I will definitely play the Ancient Rome one as well in November. So you guys know I love a good strategy game. So this one seems like. a lot of fun and had a lot of complexity and yeah i love a campaign too because i it's like an extended tutorial with some story right so it kind of eases you into everything way more so than just jumping into like sandbox mode so yeah

I'm enjoying it. I'll let you guys know once I've finished the campaign how it actually turned out. yeah i'm looking forward to the new one as well which again is bonkers because this thing has been at like the first the first one came out in 1998 and like i just like Yeah, never interacted with this franchise at all, but it's wonderful. So yeah, go check it out. Anno 1800. Did you get up to anything else while you were on your vacation?

Yeah, I was lucky enough to get a review code for Hurdling, which is from the devs behind the FAR series, which we talked about before. I think we before we went on vacation, we talked about. There was a Nintendo Indie experience and this game was part of it. Oh, I remember this one. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Like the, the far series is like a side scrolling sort of puzzle adventure game, but it's like kind of, it's very atmospheric and all that. Uh, but, but hurdling.

is sort of like a 3D expansion of that idea, but also even more laid back and more atmospheric and less about the puzzles. There's very light puzzles in it, but... I like, like, I almost want to say like, this is, this could be more labeled as an experience than like a, like, it's still a game of course, but it's the puzzles are so light that it's like, it's more about.

you know, you know, going through the game and experiencing it similar to how, like, I think journey was about, you know, the journey. So hurdling is. Is about the journey where you are, you know, you're this character that is shepherding these animals that you find along the way. And I should have had the name of the animal because it's a made up animal. Of course, it's not a it's not a.

It's not a real thing. What are these things called? I should have I should have had this in front of me. Like they kind of look like like sort of bison type characters, but they're also kind of cat like or like dog like, you know, they're kind of domesticated. a little bit but yeah they're like sort of a like an oxen or bison style and um it's weird you'd think it'd be like first thing right right in their marketing oh here it is calicorns

They're called Calicorns. Like I said, made up. And like the whole point of the game is you are trying to bring these Calicorns to like this mountain area. And the game starts in this like abandoned city and you're just trying to get the, you find a couple in the city and you're just like, okay, let's, let's get these things home. And then along the, along the way you're discovering more and.

And you like you tame them and you're able to like, you know, of course you can pet them. You have to kind of take care of them. Like if they get hurt, you kind of like. You know, you want to feed them so that they get better. You let them get hurt? It happens. I think like they bash into things sometimes, you know, like I'm not the greatest shepherd out there. Like if you're looking for someone to bring the sheep home.

Maybe, maybe it's not me, but I'll say I did finish the game and I did not lose a single, a single Calicorn. Like they all made it. So I think that's got to say something.

there are moments in the game where your calicorns are put in danger and there are moments where they can be hurt. Um, and, and they can fall like sort of, sometimes there's like these rickety, you know, pathways and if you're not careful enough like they can they can fall off so you have to sort of manage that and and take care of them uh but like i said the puzzle solving is very is very light i i found like

is more platform puzzle solving where you're trying to put pieces in place so that your character can navigate to a button press or an activation point to sort of keep the... keep the adventure moving but there's there's no spoken dialogue it's all like like far it's all very atmospheric like the music is very you know orchestral and sort of moving to kind of like fit the moments and like a majority of the game you're just kind of

running guiding your your herd through various environments like there's a forest environment there's like a snowy mountaintop and some caverns and stuff and And the game does throw in some gameplay hurdles where closer to the end, you'd be traversing across this snowy landscape and there'd be icy holes that would form if you weren't.

And you had to kind of guide them through so they wouldn't fall through like stuff like that that pops up. It's very like landscape puzzle oriented. Like it's not a far had more. puzzles based on like finding upgrades for your ship and micromanaging sort of the resources of your ship and repairing it. And it had a really cool flow there. So if you're thinking you want more of that, like this is not.

sort of an evolution of that formula this is sort of like taking a step back creating a more an even more atmospheric experience a more sort of like um like sort of journey style cozy yes cozy is a great word i would say like you know as long as as long as you're you know good at uh at navigating and and stuff but i i really did feel like as i was playing through this game

you did get that cozy vibe and not a lot of stress. Like the game is very forgiving. Like I said, there was only a couple of incidents where my, my, my Calicorns were.

in any sort of danger like i feel like the controls once you kind of get used to them um it's it's like a herding mechanic so you have to be behind the herd and you push a button to just kind of like guide them and there's a little cursor that's further ahead and it kind of shows you where you've kind of you know encouraged your your calicorns to go and and you have some modifications of like you can slow things down

Like you can ask the Calicorns to step slowly. You can do a constant guide by holding the button down, which will like constantly be updating their sort of trajectory. And then there's like a... I think they call it a stampede button where basically you get, you power up your calicorns.

And then you can like initiate a stampede, which is like this burst of speed. So these moments where it's like very like calm, cool and collected where you're slowly maneuvering through the environment and then it kind of opens up and the music swells and like the visuals. like this big open landscape as you're just you know just booking it through the environment and it's uh

It's very cool and very, very rewarding. And like, it's not a long game. It is short. It's about five hours, I would say. But the experience is like... I always love these experiences where, like, you finish this 100-hour RPG or you've just been destroying things in Donkey Kong Bonanza and you want, like, this focused, tight experience of, like...

Give me this experience. Give me this quick journey and let me experience something different. I don't think I've played a game where you're hurting, you know. animals through an environment and experiencing something quite like this. So I do love those experiences that are completely different from anything else we've discussed this year. The many years on the show, like this feels very unique.

Well, let me tell you about a unique and cozy game that I played this last couple of weeks. So I'm probably going to butcher this name, but stay with me, guys. It's Kama Eiru. And a frog refuge is like the subtitle. And it is the it is so cozy. And actually, Matt found it for me. It was free on the Epic Store. But I am. A sucker for frogs. I love frogs. And so the whole like premise of the game is that you come back to your hometown and your friend is trying to save the wetland.

So there's kind of two different places that you go. It's kind of like farming sim adjacent-ish. There's a spot. Which is your frog refuge. And you basically get to decorate that. Like a big. Like. In game player housing sort of thing. So there's all kinds of things. Like there's like. little like logs and then like eventually it gets a little more whimsical and you can do things like there's little like inflatable kiddie pools and slides and stuff and

you know, all kinds of different furniture and aesthetics and things to build your frog refuge. And you're trying to attract frogs to come to your refuge. And then when they get there, then you have to like take a picture of them and then you have to feed them bugs. And then if you feed them the right bugs, because different frogs have different diets, then if you feed them the right bugs, then like they become.

Kind of like your pets, I guess, in that they still come and go from the refuge in the wetland. um so they're not kind of like there all the time because there's i don't know how many there are in total different like um breeds or combinations of frogs but there's probably like at least a hundred um and so it's kind of like gotta catch them all pokemon ish where like you're trying to get all of the different like

stripe patterns and color combinations that you can. So once you've befriended the frog, then they become available for breeding. And there's this kind of little like mini game where you play like tic-tac-toe against quote unquote nature. So like. When you're breeding two frogs, you aren't guaranteed a certain outcome. So, like, if there's one thing that you're really trying to get, like, you really need a blue...

like you really need to make sure that the frog that comes out is blue, then like you would choose that as like your tic-tac-toe thing. And then if you win the game of tic-tac-toe, then that trait is more likely to happen, but still not guaranteed. So there's this whole like breeding thing that you have to do to try to like unlock some of the like frog variants, I guess.

So that's kind of like one part of the game is like the refuge decorating and the frog breeding and trying to like fill out your catalog. And then the other side of it is like, I guess, more of like the farming sim thing where you are creating your wetland. And so you have to put ponds down. You have to put down different kinds of vegetation. You gather berries. You collect bugs. So that's where you get your bugs to feed your frogs. And then you create products to sell to fund the refuge.

As you're gathering berries, you can go and make jam. When you're gathering reeds, you can kind of think of what the other thing is. There's a few different products you can make to sell in the store. And then that helps to fund you buying all of the cool decorations and stuff for the refuge side of things.

It's this like you're constantly kind of going back and forth between the two and frogs can show up in either spot. So you kind of go and like collect materials in one place and then decorate another place and then collect materials and kind of go back and forth. And it is so relaxing, Ryan. Oh my God. All the colors are like, it's very pretty, but it's very like muted. Like there's nothing that's like crazy in your face. It is just very much like.

sit back relax make a thing look pretty click on some flies and make some frogs happy and they're all just so cute oh yeah i'm looking at the visuals like it's got this like pastel-y yeah it's very pastel yeah yeah i love the look of it and and i mean i would not just based on some of the screenshots i'm seeing i would not be surprised if this is also um a mobile game just based on how they've laid out

sort of the buttons and stuff and and there's nothing wrong with that you know like i think that's great um well like i'm pretty sure it's available on switch yeah um and yeah i could definitely see this is like a they almost look like stickers like all the stuff almost looks like it looks like a sticker book yeah um yeah that's kind of the the style

I guess. And, yeah, I could see myself just laying on the couch with a Switch and playing this game. I have it, like I say, it was free on the Epic Store, but, yeah, like, the frogs are just so cute! and then like they'll show up and then they get these like happy faces and they're in their ponds or like they'll like sleep in on the logs or in the hammocks and stuff and it's just it's so cute

And so like the basically the frogs like show up for a set amount of time and then they'll leave. And like I said, there are tons and tons and tons of them of the different colors and variants and whatever. So you have to like. find them take the picture of them that puts them in your in your like index and then you have to look and see what kind of food they like and then wait until they show up again um so that's where the

The more wetland you build, the more things you put in your refuge, the more spots there are for frogs to show up. So then the higher chance there is to attract more and more. And then some of them are rare. Some of them can only be bred. um so yeah it just becomes like a you know completionist thing to to try to like the objective is get all the frogs and there is there is a cute little story going along with it too but um yeah

It's so cozy and so relaxing. It's quite cute and quite good. If you're looking for a cozy farming type sim with a little bit of a twist that isn't just like... This isn't like Stardew Valley. This isn't like Graveyard Keeper or anything like that. It's very like... contained and simple and there there's no like um additional relationship stuff to do or anything like that doesn't have any of those mechanics but it is very like cozy farming collect and and make

Like collecting craft, I guess. Yeah. No, it sounds really cool. And I almost look at this and I'm like, oh, this is a perfectly. Good reason for you to look at a Steam Deck. I know you've sworn off the ROG allies and stuff, but... Yes, the update. Microsoft is still dead to me. Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. But I mean, these these are games I know, like, you know, they are free on Epic and there are ways to load them up on your Steam Deck with with a little bit of.

You know, workarounds and stuff. Yeah. And, you know, no one likes to do that. But, you know, if you're a PC gamer, you're used to sort of doing that. But, yeah, I think little games like this are. perfect for the steam deck and and i that's why i love i love the steam deck i mean unfortunately it was um i didn't mention it when we were talking about hurdling but i mean hurdling is steam deck verified but it it uh because it's a 3d game a little more taxing

I didn't, it wasn't a huge fan of the performance. So I did end up playing it on, on PC, but, but I find like for a lot of these 2d games, like it just, it always just works.

and works flawlessly well that's the thing like there's there's very little uh movement they kind of like they'll show up and then the animation is like very simplistic and like almost like it just bounces so yeah they're like there's very very and even then i don't think that the frogs move i think that's just like because you have to like click on the bugs

They're like time limited, too. And it's like, hey, there's a fly here. Bounce, bounce, bounce. Click the fly. Otherwise, it goes away. But yeah, I think everything else is pretty, very, very simplistic. I can't imagine it would be very taxing on any system. Including your own mental system. Yeah, because it's cozy. That's the whole point. It is. It's cute and cozy. And yeah, exactly. It's just it is very, very relaxing. Awesome. Well, you know, it's always good that.

The Epic Games I've I used to be really good at like getting them every every week, but it's like two games a week and it's just a crazy amount.

of yeah i'm pretty sure like matt is just like i'm pretty sure he sets like a reminder or something to check the epic store because i think he has hundreds now because he just like gets i don't even know i don't think he even tries them he just like this is free obviously i'm gonna get it and download it why would i not so yeah this one came up and he was like

hello wife who likes frogs have you seen this so yeah it's it's super cute and super fun so go and check it out uh it's i'm gonna spell it out although i'm sure if you search for frog refuge You'd probably find it, but it's K-A-M-A-E-R-U. Kamaeru. Kamaeru.

yeah yeah that the frog frog refuge game yeah exactly yeah just go with the subtitle yeah yeah so yeah go and check it out uh like i said it was free on epic i don't know if it still is um this is the problem with recording or missing a week of recording is that yeah sales and stuff may not still be active but uh yeah

Keep an eye out for it because it was it was really, really fun. And even then, even not on sale, I think it's about a 20 ish dollar game. So not breaking the bank and lots of fun to be had.

Wanted to take a moment and tell everyone to head on over to patreon.com slash the gamers in like racer did. Thank you so much for supporting us as our September patron. September. It is. It is now September, which means. Yeah, the heat is on for me to get my special written and recorded. I know what I'm doing. It's just like, it's one of those, if I had a cork board, there would be a lot of red string on it.

So I am doing my best to, like... wrap it up in a in a nice bow but uh yeah it's it's definitely one of the more like difficult ones that i've written so like We're getting there, but it will be done. I promise it'll be up sometime in the next couple of weeks. I will not let you down. I'm very excited about it. So yeah, that host special is coming this month for patrons and patrons only.

So head on over again to patreon.com slash the gamers in for that. We also have our monthly game night. It's going to be September 19th. And so we are only taking patron submissions. for the poll this month so um yeah go head on over to patreon and you can vote on what we play i'm looking forward to it uh i i can't wait to see what you guys want to see us play and a reminder for game night as well

Even if you don't want to play, just come hang out. We basically just hang out in the Gamers Inn Discord and I stream my view of the game. So it's kind of like a private Twitch stream. if you want to think of it that way. So yeah, come and hang out. It's a lot of fun. It's been a lot of fun. Again, patreon.com slash thegamersin for all of that. That brings us to the news this week.

um we almost we almost got perfect dark and i know that like i think we've said that probably eight times since like oh gee perfect dark but um yeah Take two was reportedly not confirmed. Reportedly were in talks to basically take over the Perfect Dark reboot, but everything fell through. And that's why we ended up getting all of those layoffs at Crystal Dynamics last month when the project was actually canceled.

Yeah. No, these were recently off. I think this is, uh, yeah, these are the ones that you get. This is the one, um, that was like, I think the cancellation was we heard about it at the beginning of the summer and then the layoffs were like shortly afterwards. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, Crystal Dynamics had. layoffs recently and they were helping with take two. So they weren't, or sorry, they were helping with perfect dark. But this is an interesting situation in that. Yes, we almost.

had perfect dark saved and it kind of goes to show that there was enough there that was worth it was worth saving yeah and i think that's the critical piece of this news is that You know, when Microsoft sort of canceled a bunch of stuff and decided like, you know, this was no longer worth it. I think this is an indication that, you know, what they may have had if they just, you know, kept with it.

it might have been able to come out and be a be a a good profitable you know game and i think that's the unfortunate part like you have all these job losses and then you have an ip that's beloved that's now going back into the vault The critical thing here is that the reason the deal fell through, according to this reporting from Bloomberg, is that they couldn't agree on the long-term ownership of the Perfect Dark franchise.

i should remind folks like microsoft's not doing shit with perfect dark right like you know that's like that pisses me off so much because it's just like you're not gonna do you're not gonna keep this game in development you're canceling in any way you're not gonna start a new project from scratch like you're just going to like you say put the perfect dark IP in the vault and that really really sucks like it just again

fucking microsoft it just it's so frustrating to see a franchise that like i remember just playing the crap out of when i was a kid and it was so cool for me because you know like it came out right around the same time as like goldeneye and like just it seemed like all the games i was playing it's a representation thing right like all the games i was playing were like

just guys doing guy stuff and all of a sudden here is this like super ultra cool mega super spy and you know like she's doing all the cool things that bond is doing and her story was really cool and her game was really fun and You know, it just I loved perfect art growing up. And so to see it get shelved is so frustrating. And to see Microsoft do nothing with it is so frustrating. And to see all these layoffs is so frustrating.

And to figure out that, like, what it comes down to is Microsoft didn't want to let go of the IP. Like, come on, guys, you're not doing anything with it anyway. Like, they just want to keep it in their back pocket in case they want to revisit it. five ten years from now but like what are the chances of that actually happening i don't know i probably not great like i yeah i think that the perfect dark reboot was not like uh

It was not a situation of right place, right time. It was literally Microsoft being like, what are IPs? What can we mine? And they went to build like a AAA. you know, video game experience with the Perfect Dark IP, and they just couldn't get it across the finish line, whether they weren't patient enough or they sunk too much money and they wanted to cut their losses.

Like we'll never know the true reason behind it outside of just like the inability to make video games, I guess. Like Microsoft has been really struggling with this, you know, the notion that video games are. the most expensive they've ever been to develop the longest development cycles we've had in a long time. And, and every company has like an opinion on how to address that. I think that, you know,

Every company sort of has a way to address it. But Microsoft has, I think, struggled the most and has really struggled to stick with a path to figure it out.

like i don't like they try just throwing money at it that hasn't worked in their books you know according to them they've tried buying their way out of it like by buying studios that's been hit and miss you know they've had more misses than hits i think with with their strategies and um i i was really bond when they announced they were they had canceled it because i am also a huge fan of perfect dark

uh you know the original there on n64 was a was a big deal and and uh what they showed at last year's showcase was like really cool and i'm like okay this looks great we're gonna get this thing perfect dark's back and To see it canceled and then like to see this story, it's kind of a double whammy of like, oh man, like not only was it canceled, like it felt like they were going to revive it and it came down to.

the business you know it's like oh man that's and not even the business in like a money kind of way right like it's not like take two is like just give it to us for free and microsoft was like no it's like you know whatever whatever the rest of the deal was it just came down to to ownership in the end and it's just like man oh man like i looked it up and it came out in 2000 so we're literally 25 years from the original like

Let somebody else take the reins, Microsoft. Like, come on. It was a cool world with a cool idea and an excellent heroine. And I look back on it with probably nostalgia glasses, but whatever. It was good. I liked it. Give me more. And now they won't. Laptop gun, man. Can't go wrong. Yeah, right? So yeah, get out of here, Microsoft. You're the worst. Yeah.

Yeah, so we do have good news. I flipped them around so that we'd end on good news instead of... Yeah, so Silksong did get a release date. It's coming out in two days on September 4th for 20 bucks.

Yeah, that's pretty good. $20 US, $25 Canadian. Yes, yeah. And I mean, when you think about it, a lot of people are like, oh man, that's... that's a that's a crazy low amount i mean i i think that the game has been in development for so long there was concern that it would they would try to match they would have a price that would match sort of the

The development time, but I think they said they just wanted it to be sort of available to as many people as possible. And I think they just increased the price. Like Hollow Knight was 15 bucks.

And they just wanted to increase the price to match inflation, I guess. I don't know. It is wild. $20 seems... It does seem low in consideration. Yeah, it really does. $40 seems to be the new... sort of indie price for like smaller games which is fine like you know sometimes they land and you get your money's worth but I think a lot of people were sort of thinking, oh, Silksong is the GTA of Indies, so it's going to have that.

you know, who knows what it'll cost, you know, but, uh, yeah, I mean, yeah, I, I probably wouldn't have blinked at 40, 50 bucks, right? Like, yeah, that seems to be like the new trend for, for this style of release, but. um they've announced uh they've actually announced a bunch of stuff like you know since since confirming

Its release date, they have the timings down of when you'll be able to play it. They're not doing pre-orders, so you'll basically just buy it as soon as it's released on the store of your choice. I was going to say, yeah, I just I just went to Steam. And yeah, it says planned release date in approximately one day and 11 hours. But you cannot preorder it, which like, yeah.

is fine, but it's weird. It is. And it's like, it's outside of the sort of industry norm, you know, like, and another thing they, they announced, I think today was that. the Switch 2 version will have, you know, Switch 2 improvements and it'll be a free upgrade, you know, which is... Thanks.

honestly should be the case for a lot of games sort of launching simultaneously uh across both platforms that seems to be the norm that i think microsoft has certainly set like you buy one version and it's it is just you know the optimizations are just there yeah so that's i think a really good way of approaching it and and i want to i want to see more of this i do plan on picking this one up i do want to play it i did play hollow knight

at the, I don't want to say behest, but like the discord had said like, you got to play it. It's so good. If you like Metroidvanias and I did really enjoy it. I have a couple of friends that absolutely loved it. And I've watched them play. And I'm just like, I don't. It's probably not for me, but I am so excited for everyone who is excited for this and like excited for this finally getting a release date.

excited for the price point like and yeah just wanting to get their hands on it i am so very happy for you guys i don't i don't know if i'll pick it up i probably won't but yeah I'm glad it's available now. Soon. Hopefully. It'd be really funny if sometime in the next one day, 11 hours, it gets bumped again.

Well, I think it's coming out. It's happening. I think we could say that without having to, you know, hope for like knock on wood or something. But I think that I think, yeah, Matt will probably play this for sure. Oh, yeah. It'll be played in the household. I can imagine. Yeah. And what's the next one? Like the next one we like it. When is it ever going to come out? I mean, you're also getting the vampire game this year. That's great. Yes. Bloodlines 2.

Is it just a Bloodborne remaster? But I think the game has to actually have been announced and exist for it to fit that silksong vampire masquerade to sort of, you know. gap so i don't know what else yeah what else what else is it is it i don't know is it gta 6 like is it just gonna keep getting maybe yeah i don't know

Yeah, I'm going to have to find something else for my most anticipated slot this year. Yeah. Silksong and Vampire 2. I was going to say, I'm pretty sure that Bloodlines 2. has been delayed like as as close to its release date as like a month a month out so like even though technically it has a release date of october that doesn't mean that it's coming in october there's still time to delay it yeah

I think there is time. I don't think they will, though. I think they want to get that one. I think they want to get it out. Yeah, I think they do. It actually has a price on Steam, which it did not have forever. Like, you could not pre-order it. You could not pay them for it. it uh and yeah now it actually has a price on my wish list so which i realized i said this in the discord today

that Vampire Masquerade Bloodlines 2 has been on the Steam store long enough for me to have added it to my wishlist March 29th of 2019. Ooh.

that's how long this game has been like not even just like teased and announced and stuff but like in steam able to be wishlisted which is bonkers so yeah it's gonna be like six and a half years sitting on my steam wait list by the time it comes out why yeah i did watch a trailer for that vampire one and like i thought that uh it has it has potential it looks it looks like it could be good you know i don't want to yeah

You know, I think I might, there was some discord chatter about like September and October games. And, and I mean, there's obviously going to be some, some really heavy hitters coming out, but I am curious. I think Silksong will review really, really well, but I'm really curious to see what Vampire 2 gets in terms of reception, because as you said, it's been a long time coming.

it's been a very very long time so i will definitely let you know because i will be picking up bloodlines too like i'm going to play it sweet that's happening but yeah i'll let you know how it is but uh yeah not until october Yeah, I'm excited. So yeah, I think that's it. That's it. We're done. If you guys want to continue the conversation, 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 jossplays.com. Ryan is at ryanmurphy.ca. And be sure to check out our TGI Community Starter Pack at tiny.cc. slash pgi starter pack thanks for staying at the gamers and remember tune in next week bye everybody bye everyone