TGI 674 - Mandatory Cozy Quiet Time

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. We're here a little late. technical difficulties yesterday where my computer refused to cooperate but uh you know what microsoft might have some company from logitech who knows

Let's see how this goes. We'll see how it goes. Yeah. I mean, I don't even think we put it down in the news, but there definitely are some rumors that they're vying for the worst company ever of life. and all time so yeah we'll have to see if anything comes of the rumors next week but

Yeah, we won't be here next week. So you won't hear it from us. You'll hear it from the Discord. So make sure you're over there at tiny.cc slash TGI Discord because they are on top of the news. But yeah, we are off next week. Yes. Yeah, we'll be off. I've got some family stuff. But in place of a normal episode, we will have a poll for patrons.

And we're going to be looking at releasing one of Jocelyn's host specials onto the main feed to give people an idea of what we've been doing with our host specials. Starting off with like the... wonderfully scripted episodes that Jocelyn's been producing since June, July.

definitely summer of last year yeah there's three of them yeah and we do them every other month so we've been doing six months of host specials so yeah i'm pretty sure it started in july yeah yeah and we'll uh we'll definitely be continuing that into the new year i know

Jocelyn, I don't know if you have plans for January yet. I haven't written the script yet. But yes, the idea is there because I wanted a like... feel-good story and i've had a feel-good story idea for a few months now so it just got bumped uh for my my previous topic which was about ea

um and why they're the worst company in gaming or why we think they're the worst company in gaming so uh yeah kind of exploring the memes there but uh yeah i do have uh i do have an idea for this month and i'm i'm pretty excited to cover it so And it's going to be good. It's going to make people be like, yay! Because the EA one made people be like, oh. Not that it was a bad episode. Just, oh.

EA is not responsible for, but definitely emblematic of a lot of what's wrong with the industry these days. So yeah, I wanted a feel good one. So I got a feel good one coming up. Yeah.

Well, I mean, EA did, I think EA lives a bad taste in everyone's... gaming mouth i guess but uh microsoft it's gonna be at least not at least yeah microsoft don't do a special on microsoft give yourself a couple i will not ever yeah no unless they somehow totally collapse and um close the entire xbox division and just be like we don't do gaming anymore well anything is possible then it might be a rise and fall of xbox

episode i feel like i'd have to do that but anyways that's not in the cards at the moment we have a feel-good story for this month but yes We are looking for your opinions on putting something out there on a week when we know we're going to be off. A lot of the times when we're off on different weeks, it's like last minute emergency stuff.

Yeah, since we have a little bit of a heads up this time, we want to know what you guys think we should do in an off week. So if you are a patron, head on over to patreon.com slash the gamers in. And you can give us your comments. You can vote in the poll. And yeah, let us know what, if anything, you would like to hear next week. So what have you been up to? What have you been playing? I feel like we had like...

just Christmas game of the year blur and haven't really been talking too much about what we've actually been playing. So yeah. What did, what did you get up to over the holidays? Yeah. Usually our first episode back, we have a conversation about You know, what we picked up over the holidays, what we, you know, opened as a gift, perhaps. And this year was a little different for me. Usually for Christmas, I'll put like.

you know, three or four games on the list that's like, oh, you know, this will be on sale. It's been out for six months. It's going to have, you know, Black Friday slash Boxing Day deals. But usually when I do that, you know, it goes... into a list a backlog list if you will and i don't play it i'm like two christmases of like games that i haven't managed to finish yet or even start

So this year I was a little different. I said, you know what? Like, I feel bad. Wait, you have Christmas list games that you haven't finished? Yes. Yes, I do. Yeah. Wow. I was like, I can, I can totally understand. Okay. So like on the steam sale this year, I picked up more this year than I think I have in, I mean, years and years and years, like probably. since 2017 2018 something like that I think I must have picked up 10 or 12 titles

Because again, like 2025 was an insane year. There were so many things. There were so many things even that I missed and didn't even realize when we were having the games that we missed conversation. um just so many things came out in 2025 2025 so yeah i think i bought 10 or 12 different games and i expect it'll take me a long time to to get through those but they weren't like

I guess, present enough in my mind for me to put them on a Christmas list. The fact that you put things on a Christmas list that you still haven't touched blows my mind because the stuff that I would ask as gifts is stuff I'm super excited about. and would want to do right away. So, it blows my mind that you asked for things for Christmas years ago that you haven't played yet. Ryan, what? Look, it, like, first of all, I did a whole...

Patreon host special, 30 minutes of me talking about having games in a backlog list. So this shouldn't be a huge shock. But I do understand the concern. I do. It's not that you have a backlog list. This is a very well-known Ryan fact. Yes, of course. The fact that your backlog list includes Christmas presents is what... getting to me is that it was important enough for you to go to your family and be like, guys, I know you don't understand why I'm 40 and playing video games. However...

I know you're not 40 yet. I know you're not 40 yet, but why I'm an adult with children playing video games. However, I am going to ask you for these two titles. You get those two titles. And then you don't play them. What the fuck? They're on a list. But they should be like top of the list. If you're asking for them for Christmas, you should be so excited about them. And then you get these Christmas presents. You're like, oh my God, this is amazing. And then you just...

Peter out? Like what? For those wondering at home, we are getting to the point, but I don't want to lose this thread because you've set up something very interesting. people ask me, what would you like for Christmas? And I put together a list and like, sometimes it's hard to determine what it is I should put on this list. Cause we're adults. We have disposable income here and there.

Yes. Less than we usually do. So we usually buy what we want to play right away. We don't say like, I'm not a responsible adult that goes, I'm not going to buy this video game that I really want to play right now. I'm going to put it on a Christmas list and then I'll get it for Christmas.

Like you did when you were a kid, right? Okay, so your Christmas list, you're saying, is like scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas. Okay, now you're heading to the other. No. I mean, it's one or the other. No, it's not. it is not scraping the bottom of the barrel. I would never do that to trails in the sky. First chapter. Okay. We're talking like games I'd love to play, but haven't had the time.

or the drive to purchase day one and would likely wait for a sale or for a gift perfect christmas list stuff for me that's usually what i'll do is i'll have games of like i'm not going to play this right away i'll put it on the christmas list And like, look, I think that I started some of these games. None of them are left in the shrink wrap.

I will I'm I don't do I don't go that far. I'm not I'm not a monster here. But most of these games. Yeah, I haven't ever means to be seen. I haven't had a chance to finish. So I said to Ashley, I said, look, like for Christmas. I get these games, I buy games and then I either play them for a little bit and then I fall off and I'm at a stage where I've got like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, which we're going to talk a little bit about later.

And then I have Metroid Prime 4. So I think I'm good. You know, birthday's in March. Like, let's not put video games at the top of the list. Let's move them all the way down. Like, if you got to dip into the video games.

Add another onto the backlog. Fine. So I put it at the top of the list. I said, give me something that I can have fun doing. And then it's done. Put it up on a shelf. And I love Lego. I got Lego all the time as a. kid for christmas ashley also did and i've we've talked a lot about the nintendo sets uh you know the what they call the mature lego sets from nintendo all of them super expensive

However, there are a couple that have the functionality that I'm looking for, which is a cool set that looks cool on a shelf. Isn't like too gimmicky. Like the Super Mario World one is a little. Too gimmicky. The NES with the TV, it's pricey and gimmicky as well, which adds to the cost. But the Lego Game Boy... was one that always stood out to me as like, that actually looks like it could be really cool. So I put that top of my Christmas list this year. Uh, and I did get it and I ended up.

Building it one day, funny enough, I built it with Isabel. She wanted to build it with me. And right in the box, it says 18 plus. And I'm like, okay, if anyone asks, we're going to build this Lego set. It's not for five-year-olds. All right. So you just if anyone like if anyone tries to ID you. She must have loved that. Yes, she did. She ended up building the whole thing practically by herself because like she wanted to do every step.

Yes. It's Lego. You know, I wasn't about to say like, no, no, this is daddy's gift and I'm going to build this Game Boy and you're going to watch, right? No. So like, do the buttons work?

that is the very cool part about it they do work like the way it's built that is very cool is and i have it here i'm holding in my hand um the way it's built is like the buttons you can push them in so if you hold it it's the exact same size as the original game boy and it's got the d-pad and when you push it in it's got like the same or similar give to what clickiness yeah the d-pad had the start and select buttons are actually the

uh rubber wheels that you can see in some lego sets and when you push them oh yeah you have that sort of give and then there's the a and b button when you push them in they have the squish that you remember you can kind of hear that

Yeah, I can I can hear it clicking a little. Yeah, this is the best part. One of the best parts is that the on off switch has this has like, it's got the same sort of like feel it doesn't. So you know what the Game Boy when you slide the on off switch when you turn it on.

It slides a little guard in to hold the cart. It doesn't have that slide, but it does have the sound. So when you, when you like, would you, would you turn it from off to on? Turn it on. Yeah. Click. Air quotes. On. i did yeah it's good so satisfying so satisfying and then the volume and the contrast you can you can move those up and down and then

In the back, you can add these little like, I don't know what they're called, but they're these screens that when you move them, they kind of like appear to be animating. Just specific. Oh, yeah. Okay. I know what you mean. Yeah. Yeah, a specific name for them. It comes with the Game Boy Nintendo boot sequence and then one for each of the carts that you build. And you build these carts.

uh from lego and you can slide them into the back of the game boy so you actually like put them in the back there which is super cool that is super cool uh and the attention to detail is kind of crazy like When you're building it, you're doing things with Lego that you've never probably really done. Like you're building, like, you know, with regular sets, you're like, you're building the Lego pieces one on top of the other.

But in this Lego set, you're kind of like building them on their side and then like upside down. And then and you're like, how is this all going to come together? But then when it's done, like it. It all comes together and it looks like a Game Boy and it's really cool. The the carts that you build, you build Super Mario Land and the Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening.

The cool part about Link's Awakening is that it has the battery chip in it that was used to make sure you could make your saves. That is a lot of attention to detail. Yeah, they kind of went.

all out and the cool part about this is like you know usually you get these sets they're like diorama style in this case you do have the game boy and the cart but you build stands for them as well so it all kind of like it's a perfect sort of shelf kit but it is also very satisfying to kind of like pick it up and just kind of hold it and push buttons and i don't know it it brings me back because i mean i loved my original game boy i played it

to death and yeah this thing's really i was always jealous of everyone who had game boys yeah i had a friend that would let me play on the bus and it was amazing nice yeah i mean it it's kind of weird like i would have it would have been really cool if they maybe had like, maybe you could buy additional carts. Like I would love to build a Pokemon blue cart. Cause that's like, that's my game boy game when I played the most of, of that system. But, uh,

Link's Awakening is also a big one for me. So it is really neat. Like, again, if you're looking for one of these shelf style Nintendo kits, that's not going to break the bank. but not, and also not going to be super gimmicky and weird and kind of fits in the middle there. I think this one's a good one. I've also looked at the piranha plant.

That was the one I was going to say is I remember talking to the piranha plant and that one looked really cool. Because again, not too gimmicky. Looks cool on a shelf. It's around the same price, I think. I don't know what the piece difference is between them.

That's one that I think I could maybe get behind is the piranha plant. Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely one that looks really cool and looks like a fun... a fun build and like this thing's not like super huge but it's to scale sort of game boy and game boy cart uh and and yeah not too pricey i think i think it retails for about 80 dollars uh canadian Which for Lego, I mean, Lego is so expensive now. Yes. It's just ridiculous for a lot of their stuff. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So...

Again, if you're looking for something, we always talk about this Nintendo Lego. We're looking for something under a hundred bucks that, you know, isn't too weird. And I think this one really fit. And as soon as they announced it, I was like, okay, this is.

kind of what i'm looking for like i don't need like a bunch of game boys i think the original game boy is kind of the one that i would uh i would want to build i don't think i want to build like a ds yeah something uh but i would love to see more carts that would be really neat if they yeah you know but the carts are just it's weird because like they're they're a very similar build and then it's just a different sticker on the front

But like I said, inside of the cart, which you would not normally see unless you were to take off the face plate, you know, it's the Zelda one has, as I said, the battery chip in it. And then again, you can swap out these like little screens and put them in and you can like, you know, you can pretend to be playing. It's got a scene from Super Mario Land and Link Awakening and.

The holder for the cart has a little slot that you can place your extra screens in. So they've kind of built the whole set. Yeah, it's nice that they thought of ways to store these extra pieces and it's not just.

like an afterthought i guess or you know something that you'll you'll probably lose yeah yeah you don't have to have like a little like they've thought of how to keep it together yeah exactly yeah you know which is what i do every time i build a a lego set i've always okay let me go to get a baggie i'm gonna put these little extra pieces in here and never touch them again

Yeah, but you have to make sure you don't lose them, even though you will never touch them again. They still have to have a place. I've probably got so many sitting around here in the office just from the kids' sets. And whatnot, but no, I, I loved building this. It was a lot of fun. Um, I think Isabel got a kick of it cause she's built like some of the, you know, the, I think they're called like the friends set, which is like.

Not Duplo, but not Lego. It's kind of a step in between. Oh, yeah. In between. Yeah. Yeah. So this was like her first sort of. And then I guess the Animal Crossing set that she built was regular Lego. And then this was. a lot more advanced and she was getting a, getting a kick out of it. We were both kind of looking at it as we were building. I was like, how is this going to become that? Uh, it's very intricate and weird how it all came together, but at the end it does. And it's.

It's very cool. So I highly recommend the Lego Game Boy, especially if you're not looking to be a monster and get video games for Christmas and then not play them.

Well, I did play some video games over Christmas. One of them we talked about on our last episode, our Game of the Year episode, because... It was a really, really, really good experience, and it ended up on my honorable mentions list, even though I hadn't talked about it on the show yet. So I did talk about it a little bit last week, but... I have now finished it. And so it was Strange Antiquities that was actually a follow-up to Strange Horticulture.

which I did not realize that there were two different games. So I already owned Strange Horticulture. I thought that I had bought it. And then I was like, I saw Strange Antiquities come up on the Steam sale. And I was like... Wait, I thought I already owned this. Why isn't it in my library? Well, I better buy it again because I know I wanted to play it and then realized it was an entirely different game. So I did play Strange Antiquities.

and it took about um i think eight hours to play all the way start to finish um i do have a couple of achievements that i don't have yet but you have to do multiple playthroughs to get them but overall it was really good like it wasn't

It wasn't an overly complex story, really. You kind of get a certain number of customers or people coming to you every day, and depending on the... I guess main main story characters will give you different choices of like what items to give them and the different items.

make the event resolve differently which then feeds into your greater story so it's not nearly as complex as what we would normally think of when we think of like a narrative driven game but The complexity of figuring out which artifact was which really is where the main... piece of gameplay comes in so i i had a really good time i i never really got to the point where i was super frustrated there is a mechanic in the game that won't let you just

guess and guess and guess over and over and over again um you kind of like the more times you guess wrong you build up this like insanity meter and then if you hit the top then you have to go play a dice game that you can fail so um yeah like i think overall it was a really fun experience it was a cool little story the artwork is really awesome and they've clearly put a lot of

thought and detail into creating the artifacts so i really highly recommend it if you're looking for a kind of like cozy puzzler with like occult themes this is definitely the game for you. It was really, really well done. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Yeah, and this is a sequel. I apologize if you already mentioned it. Did you play the first one? I didn't. Yeah. So I picked up the first one a few months ago and then probably on like, I don't know, maybe even the summer sale.

when i saw this antiquities come up in the winter sale i was like i thought i already owned this well i better buy it while it's on sale because i know i want to play it and then even to the point where I was like in the map and there's like one of the very first clues that you get is like the previous store owner.

your mentor kind of person leaves you a note and is like, oh, I left this thing in the wine cellar in the house across the road. And so I literally found because it takes place in the same town. And so the strange horticulture is like the. like the flower shop basically and you're strange antiquities so you've got a whole bunch of different like statues and amulets and all that kind of occult-y stuff and so

I was looking at the map trying to find like the house next door. And I kept clicking on the houses next to strange horticulture being like, there are no other houses next door. And then I was like, oh, wait, wait, it's because I own strange antiquities. Oh, that house. Oh, that was so much easier. That's where my thing. So I basically like.

with the in-game mechanic, drove myself crazy trying to click on all the houses around the strange horticulture shop, even though that was not my shop. So, yeah. I... thoroughly confuse the two games but they are like you know original and sequel though i don't think that the uh like the stories the narratives are tied together it's just kind of like two little shops in the same little town okay

Like a similar vibe. Yeah, exactly. Similar vibe, similar characters. Like some of the characters I think from the first game are in the second game as well. Just like based on the art. So, yeah, but it's really well done. And they obviously, like I say, put a lot of thought into the items and how like their history and how they would all tie together.

making it so that it's not immediately obvious all the time. So yeah, I, I really, really enjoyed it. Very cool. When I looked, when I, when I took a look at this team page, it was like, okay, this. This is definitely like one that Jocelyn would enjoy. Like, did you play? I think it was called like Potion Craft or Potion Crafter. That's on my list. Yeah, I just picked that up recently as well. But it's all in the same kind of vein, like you're an occultist kind of shop owner and you need to...

you know, find different things and solve different puzzles. And yeah, it's all in the same sort of vein. And it was a really great experience over the holidays. I could see how this would be the perfect like... on the go steam deck switch i'm assuming this is giving me very much switch vibes um i don't actually know if it's available over there but i can see playing this on something portable like it's not not that i'm saying it's like

mobile adjacent. It's cozy. It's cozy. It's short. It was good over the holidays. That's good. No, it sounds like a perfect holiday video game. Yeah, it really, really was. And so in that same cozy vein, I think I did talk about this last week as one of my games of last year that I missed that I had wanted to play that I missed.

I started Wanderstop and I'm about four hours into that one now. I have no idea when I will finish. It is the most infuriating game ever because I've never been so called out by a video game in my life. Is this the whole coffee thing again from Coral Island? No. Okay. It's basically self-care the video game, and the main character is me. Just is me.

Like every single thing that she says and does, I'm like, oh, I've definitely said that. Oh, I've definitely done that. Oh, no. Oh, no. It's basically like the concept. So I thought that she like got injured.

or something and that's why she was no longer a warrior could no longer be a warrior but the concept is actually that you are an undefeated champion who then is defeated and feels like a complete and utter failure even though you've been undefeated for like eight years you lose one fight you feel like a complete and utter failure and i feel so called out by this and basically she

retreats to the woods trying to find the ultimate fighter trainer person. And she's like, basically runs herself into the ground literally and wakes up in this clearing that she then can't leave. Because she is too exhausted and her sword is too heavy and she cannot leave the clearing. And so the very nice tea shop owner is like, hey, how about you just take a load off and rest for a while?

Because it seems like you're exhausted and you're like, no, I have to keep going. Then you go running in the woods and then you can't like leave and you collapse in the woods again. And then. The kind old T-Man comes and picks you out of the woods again and puts you on the bench and says, hey, you should probably just really rest. And you're like, I don't understand what's wrong. I don't know what's wrong with my body. And like, I should be able to run. I should be able to.

And then he's like, almost like you're exhausted. You should just rest. Maybe take a break. Yeah. The whole game is literally like. You can go and talk to the tea guy when you run out of like objectives and stuff. And he's like, sometimes there's just nothing to do. How about you pour yourself a cup of tea and go sit by the fire? And I'm like, no, this is a video game. I need objectives. I need things to do. I need to move the story along. But like the whole entire thing is like, maybe just sit.

and rest and relax and i'm like but i can't there's shit to do and so yeah it's literally self-care the video game and i am so bad at it Uh, it's interesting cause I'm looking at it, I guess it's from the creator of the Stanley parable and, uh, the beginner's guide. I don't know what that one is, but maybe that's the same, same person. I don't know what the beginner's guide is.

Oh, it's the same. It's just the creator. He made the Stanley Parable and the Beginner's Guide. It's Davey Redden. So that's cool. I didn't realize he had made Wonderstop. I thought I know he had done like a redo of Stanley Parable. There was like a definitive edition or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. This is cool. Yeah. I mean, it definitely is cool. And there are some things that you can do.

But it's very minimalistic. It's like you can go and garden and, you know, you can make these different hybrid plants that give you different fruits to make different teas. But there's like four. I'm like, OK, I've made all four. I've drank all four. What do I do now? Why is the game not progressing?

And then you go talk to the guy and he's like, just chill. And I'm like... oh okay fine and then like sometimes like you talk to yourself you have like an inner monologue and stuff and like the things that my inner monologue says i'm like i know that i have said these things to myself and now i'm hearing them being said by a video game character to herself and i'm thinking about how toxic all of the things are that she's saying and i'm like oh this game is calling me out and i don't like it

It's just it's like an age old thing. It is so much easier to see like problematic thinking and behaviors in other people than it is to identify it in yourself and do something about it. It's like, oh, that doesn't sound too healthy. Oh, I don't like that she's saying that to herself. And I'm like, these could be ripped from my own inner monologue.

man oh man it's like and no shade to the game the only thing that i haven't really liked about the game is like the tea making mechanic Because like there's this like ladder you have to climb up and then you have to and I should mention there's basically no scarcity of resources. There are no timers. People can ask you for a type of tea and you can come back to them two hours later and they're like, hey, how's it going?

Like nobody gets it. It's not like overcooked where it's like, you have 10 seconds. Make the tea. You fail your restaurants of failure. Yeah, exactly. There's none of that. It's like everyone just happens upon this. with this tea shop. There's these different customers and stuff that come in. And then at one point...

Things change. Everybody disappears. There's no resolution to those characters. And you go and talk to the guy and you're like, did all my friends die? The fuck just happened? And he's like, no, we just can't see them anymore. Their path is different than ours. I'm like, why are you so chill? Oh, man. Is this a game where you wake up and it's like the...

Like you're in limbo or something or everyone's dead. Honestly, that is what it is feeling like is like I must be in a coma or something like this is some weird ass shit. Yeah. But yeah, it's I mean, overall, like it's been.

a good oh sorry yeah i was talking about the thing that i that i didn't like about the tea thing yeah so you have to like go up this ladder and then you have to fill one ginormous bigger than you vial with water then you have to do this like uh heating like fire bellows you know bellows for a fire that you like push on both sides and it shoots out air and it like yes

fans the flames yeah you have to do that until the water boils and then you have to like move the ladder around or like kick a valve and move the ladder around and throw in some more ingredients into another giant thing and then kick another valve and it's like It's very, it's very tedious. It's like this giant chemistry set that's set up in the middle of the house. And I'm like, I just wish that like, it was a big, long.

table or something like there's something about like spinning the ladder around this ginormous tea thing for no reason because that's the other thing you make this ginormous vat of tea to get one fucking cup you go and give it to the person that needed it and then you waste it well you don't waste it because it feeds the tree

Whatever. It goes in a grate in the floor sort of thing. Think about the tree, Jocelyn. Somebody please think of the tree. Why? Why are we making tea on this scale? Like, why do we not just make a kettle?

yeah so i don't know i i don't know but yeah i do find like that Just that mechanic in general, like the moving around of the ladder and moving up and down and interacting with the different parts of this gigantic chemistry set is the best way I can explain it, is... a little bit cumbersome and tedious like it doesn't flow naturally could be that i'm using a controller that's like at this point almost 10 years old and i beat the out of it and you know like

My controller basically is like unresponsive until it's too responsive. So I overshoot things very often. And it could just be that. And that's what's frustrating about the mechanic for me. And maybe I should just switch to mouse and keyboard.

It's another one that Steam tells me that the game is best on controller. So that's the way I've been playing it. But I'm wondering if mouse and keyboard might be better. Because, yeah, I find that part really tedious, which then makes me not want to make the tea, which is already frustrating. enough because i'm like i just want to be able to pick up my sword uh have i not rested enough and at some point like

You do have the option at basically any time to just go back out in the forest and test your strength and you pass out every time. And then you get back to the bench and your character's like... I've already rested. That's what I was supposed to do. How much more resting do you want me to do? I'm like, oh my God, this is me. This is so much me.

I'm literally like, well, drive myself to the point of exhaustion. Get one good night's sleep, air quotes, because I literally cannot go any further. Pass out at 8 p.m. And I'm just like, okay. I'm done. And I have that good sleep. And then I'm like, okay, why is my body not in perfect physical form again? It's like, because you need more than one night, Jocelyn, and I'm being called out by Wanderstop so hard. Yeah.

That's why we're going to finish this episode before midnight and you'll be able to go to sleep at a decent time. Fingers crossed. It's for everybody's sanity. It sounds really interesting.

It is, and the characters are really well done, and the dialogue is well written, and it's definitely worth exploring and spending time in, and I think I am... very slowly learning that that like the game is about taking your time which is not a common theme in our you know passion as gamers normally we are very objective driven and you know like want to rack up the points and that like there's none of that there are achievements i've gotten three so far

I couldn't tell you what I did to get them. It might literally be like hour one, hour two, hour three, because nothing very. noteworthy ever seems to be happening when an achievement pops and the descriptions of those achievements are so vague i'm like like i think the first one that i got was called uh hang on where's let me find it was uh it's called so much time and the description is it will be okay you have so so much time it's like the fuck does that mean

I don't even know how to get the achievements. Yeah. Like, right. I think there's no other explanation for it. Yeah. Like, I just, I really don't know what's happening. I think. In some way, shape, or form, I do think I'm in my own head. I don't know exactly how or what that means, but I do think that the main character is somehow trapped in her own mind.

Who knows? I'm sure I will find out sometime before our next show. Like, I am going to I am going to try and stick with it. I do think that it is a worthwhile experience and I think it will probably. mean more when I have completed the narrative.

i'm hoping there's an end to the narrative i honestly don't know they might just tell me to rest for as long as i play the game until i finally just let the game rest and never go back to it i don't know yeah maybe it's like a lifetime movie where at the end you like you learn a lesson and then everyone's happy yeah they're definitely trying to teach me a lesson

It's like the Christmas Carol. You're poking your head out the window. It's like, you there, sir. Boy, what day is today? Why, it's Tuesday, sir. I mean. Okay, a special day. Is it a special day? It's like, well, it's time to go get your sword and leave. Whatever. What's the city called again? Wonderstop. Oh, I thought that's the shop. Okay.

Well, yeah, it's not. And it's that's the thing. It's not a city. It's literally just a tea shop and a clearing in a forest. That's us. Right. As the kids say. Yeah. Okay, well, it's definitely some sort of message. It's been a bonkers experience. Yeah, it's been kind of a crazy gaming experience for me. That's cool. I'm sure that like, yeah. that there are people that this would not speak to on such a personal level, but it's an interesting concept for a game, for sure.

um and yeah maybe maybe i'll learn something by the end but yeah we'll see um what about you do you have anything else going on before we move into news

Yeah, I keep putting this in the list because I keep thinking I'm going to finish it, but I'm still playing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which was a Christmas game that I got last year.

uh they did get around i mean at least you at least you got to it eventually i did i did um i'm at the part of the game where and i knew i would hit this part uh i'm at the part of the game where i realized like why i didn't pick it up at launch and why i struggled to start playing it because i knew it was a big game it's a game that has a lot of content that you can engage with like there's a lot of these open big open areas with things to do and quests and

They call them proto relic sort of side quests, but they're separate from like the actual side quest mechanics. But anyways, there's just so much to engage with. And there's stuff that I'm. fine not doing but as i realized as i'm playing it like okay like there are tiers of content you've got your main quest you have your side quests which are green

And you have these proto relic things, which do offer some additional sort of story and cinematics and stuff. But that's taking a long time. And I'm getting to the I was getting to the end. I'm around chapter 10 now. And I'm like, okay, we're getting into the story. Like things are starting to heat up. We got to go do a thing that feels very like. this is the end or climactic where I think right now we're like, we're going back to the golden saucer.

uh to basically like we're doing one more thing and then we're going to do the thing and i'm like okay this sounds final to me but then in that moment the game's like but hey uh if there's anything you want to take care of now would be the time Also, we've added side quests to every area and this giant ocean is now available for you to explore. So basically it's like.

the the message you get before the final end boss but also did you realize we doubled the content behind you yeah and and the story like the game the story is like is not urgent this isn't like the world is ending there's a clock ticking down in the background like mass effect 3 like if you don't do this in 20 seconds the reapers are here and all is lost

I feel like we're going to go back to Mass Effect 3 forever. Yes. Like, I will never forget how that game made me feel. Yeah. It was a perfect example. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm glad that like. that's not what final fantasy is going for here with rebirth. No, like there's still stakes. There's things happening. You are trying to, uh, you're trying to chase Sephiroth who is, who is looking for a specific.

you don't know that you don't really realize what they're looking for until like near the end. But even then, like, it's so like elusive and unknown that it's hard to know if like, that's actually what's happening. I imagine the ending could be completely different. It's like, well, this was just in the player's mind and it's actually something completely different, but don't worry. Go, go and do a bunch of these mini games. That's the thing. This game, like every.

corner you turn there's a new mini game for you to do uh completely built up to just be that one side quest like there's a They've rebuilt Mario Kart with Chocobo Racing. There's this weird BattleBot minigame where you're dropping bots into lanes and then having them... And you have to like match them up to their weaknesses to make sure that you're able to like, you know, rock, paper, scissors, like ice beats fire, fire beats lightning and lightning beats ice.

And you're taking out these bosses and there's just a bunch of that. It's crazy. So everywhere you turn, you're experiencing new stuff. And the content varies in terms of like, is this content... Something that, yes, it's different from what I've done, but is it necessary that I experience every part of it? So it just kind of surprises me how much is in the game.

there's just a lot of it do you know how how much you how much time you've spent playing so far uh i think i'm at 60 hours oh geez 60 hours wow yeah yeah I know we've we've talked about this so much, but like that is a daunting amount of hours. Like I know that was one of the reasons that I was like hesitant to get into clear obscure.

is because everyone and in the end because of all the choices that i made in terms of like combat difficulty and everything else i still ended up spending you know 30 plus hours in there but i know i'd seen a lot of people with like 70 80 90 100 hours i was like man If I know the game is that big, then, you know, it's quite daunting. So knowing that there's 60, 70, whatever hours in Rebirth, I'm just like, oof.

I wouldn't start that. Well, that's why I kind of held off on it, and eventually I was like, okay, I think this is a good time. It pains me that Metroid Prime 4 is sitting there waiting to be played. I think that it's... I don't want to say tepid reviews, but the reviews not living up to the franchise, the prime franchise. Yeah, yeah. It's kind of like, okay, I'll let that sit.

I don't need to play it right now when everyone's saying like, oh, 78 Metacritic, which is actually pretty good, but in comparison to the Prime series, it's like, you know, that game had... a troubled development and Nintendo's like, we're going to reboot it, but, uh, uh, retro, you're not allowed to actually reboot it. You just got to kind of work with, with these pieces and do your best. Uh,

But Rebirth is one of those games where the combat is incredibly fun, having a blast with it. So I have been engaging in some of the side... quests and content to be to give myself an opportunity like okay i'm going back to like the first region to do some of these side quests and complete the proto relic stuff which again does give you additional dialogue and cut scenes

I'm going to take this opportunity to play with some of the characters that I didn't really engage with. They've added some additional characters that are... not as fun as the originals and, uh, hadn't like done all their weapons. So I'm like experimenting with that combat style, really enjoying that. I have said to myself, like, okay, at any point, if I feel like.

I want to step away or take a break. I'm just going to go right back to the main quest because I am really enjoying the main story. That's like any JRPG or RPG in general. That's the bread and butter, you know? There are occasionally side quests that get mentioned alongside the main quest as being really special, but at the end of the day, the main quest is the main quest, and that's usually the best part.

And I am leveled up enough to do it. So it's not like I have to do this side content to be able to complete the main story. Like I think I've leveled up enough. I've kept pace with the requirements there. Yeah, that's kind of where I'm at when we get back in two weeks. I feel like I want to say I feel like I'll be done by then. You know, two weeks is a long time. But like I said, if I do hit that wall of like, oh, gosh.

I don't know if I can listen to Chad Lee chime on about some bullshit relic that he needs us to find. Like literally one of the proto relics is like, I don't know if I want to find these proto relics. And then. one of them and the game came out two years ago so i'm like not really worried about these type of spoilers but like i'm like okay maybe i'll try this proto like i go up to it and i it's a fort condor which is the original mini game from the first one

And then I'm like, oh, we're going to get to play Fort Condor. This is kind of cool. And then what it does is it sucks you into the game Jumanji style. And then you're playing Fort Condor, the mini game, like as.

like in in the mini game yeah your cloud barrett and tifa and it's all like old school um graphics and stuff so like there's little neat touches like that where it's like okay that's like i think the proto relax stuff has sort of upgraded itself to side quest material where i'm like i'm cool to to engage with that but you know i'm not like looking to find like

all the Moogle shops and the towers and the combat assignments. I'm not doing all of Chadley's, uh, they have like the combat simulator stuff. Like you could spend over a hundred hours in this game if you wanted to do literally everything. But I'm not signed up for that. I feel like if I hit a wall where I'm like, okay, I want to take a break. I'm just going to go right back to the main quest.

And enjoy that. And the cool part is that when you do finish the game, you do get a chapter select so you can go back in and do stuff if you so choose. But I don't like to do that. I like to do that stuff before.

the game finishes it kind of feels like a weird time machine unless they do the stuff like in horizon uh both right no forbidden west did this where like you finish the main quest and then they had like specific gameplay designs to allow you to go do the extra side stuff after the main quest i really like that approach to the open world i don't like the well here's your save before you changed everything by beating the boss and i'm like

I don't know. I don't like that. It's a Ryan brain thing. It doesn't matter. I feel like it's almost a. I don't necessarily want to say antiquated because we've only had how many years of video games? Is anything antiquated at this point? But it's an older way of thinking in game design, I think, is to say like... Here's your point of no return. I think a lot more developers nowadays do it the way that you like, where they design the game to still be playable after the final boss.

So, I mean, yeah, I think that it is an older way of thinking in game design. And I'm with you. I prefer the, like, let me finish the main story. make the world still playable and let me go back and do side stuff after because like i find generally a lot of side stuff is unrelated right so that's why it's a side quest so

the larger goal of the story doesn't necessarily impact the lives of all of the side characters that need you to help them, right? So you can kind of do those little chores without... worrying about the the impacts of the larger scenario so i prefer that i prefer that you know able to go back to it design for sure yeah and i get that it can be tough and you know you know you might have your side content

You wanted to, you know, impact the main story or have have some consequences to not having done it. But yeah, I get I get both sides of it. But. it just means I want to do it before, before I finish up, but not do everything. Like I'm not, are you like, are you sure, sure that you're at the end? Uh, I feel like from, cause so in our event ads chat, um,

Croft and I are both playing at the same time and Travis and whirlwind have like platinum that to death. Like they've played the game a hundred percent. So. I've said to them, I was like, where am I and what am I coming across next? And like, you got like one, one normal chapter and then you're in the end, you're in the end game now, you know? So, okay. So I feel like I'm.

I feel like if I were to say like, okay, I'm done with the extra stuff. I don't care about, you know, one of the proto relic things is like literally chasing these bandits around. It's the most ridiculous dialogue and cut scenes and everything. And it's like. I'm like, I don't know if this is worth it. And turns out it really wasn't. It was one of the weakest ones.

But some of them are really cool. There was one where... I'm sure there's got to be, like, if you were really interested, and I mean, I was going to say, I'm sure that there are guides, but I'm also sure that your event ads would tell you if there were... things that you absolutely had to see and maybe that's the best way to approach it especially since you have you know guys in discord who have platinumed the entire thing that maybe you could just be like hey

So what's really worth seeing? What can I skip? And I'm sure that they will give you spoiler free opinions and yeah, allow you to maybe move forward with the with the end of the game. Yeah, all I'll say is there was one level. And I had to do it because part of the main quest where there was a chapter where you control one of the newer characters that gets added to your party, which is Kate Sith. Worst chapter of the game by far. And I was complaining about it.

in our event as chat and they're like yeah that is the worst but imagine playing it on hard because i guess to get the platinum you have to replay the entire game in hard mode and i'm like oh wow

barely get through that on normal. No way am I going to play it again right away. I hate when... games tie achievements to to difficulty yes me too it's not my it's an immediate no thank you basically yeah it's well for me it's just immediately like okay i don't care about achievements anymore because i am such a completionist that i'm like

Ugh! Difficulty. Who cares? But I guess some people do. I much prefer when it's not tied to difficulty because I think Halo kind of... ruin that for me because halo used to have achievements that were tied to every difficulty so you kind of felt like well i have to play this on legendary From the get go. So I get the five. So that you get all of the. Yeah. Yeah. That ruined me. So now I'm like, I, yeah, I'm like you, I check out, I think maybe some of the Spider-Man games had, had it tied to.

Maybe it wasn't difficulty. Maybe it was tied to like a different choice. I can't. Maybe it was difficulty. I don't know. But I ended up playing, I think, Miles Morales twice because there was a similar. I would rather play. Yeah, I would rather play.

subsequent um playthroughs in order to see different story outcomes i think that's perfectly valid um whereas like just playing the same game but you know with your bosses able to be bigger bullet sponges like that or you to be weaker like yeah that doesn't do it for me so yeah

but i'm glad that you're that you're getting there that you're almost done i mean i'm sure that when we come back two weeks from now that you will have final fantasy 7 rebirth all done and be into metroid no pressure that's the plan i feel like that's That's been the plan for a couple of weeks, but that's the plan still.

awesome well uh wanted to say a quick thank you to our january patron free rangers thank you so much for supporting us over at patreon.com slash the gamers in like we mentioned there is a poll up there since we will be off next week

Let us know what, if anything, we should release. It is my month up again for a host special, so I will be posting something for you guys probably near the end of January. Let's be honest, we're already... on the 7th somehow and i haven't written my show yet so i gotta get on that but you will have it by the end of the month uh we also have our game night is upcoming on friday january 16th uh that's going to be at 8 30 p

p.m. Eastern as usual. The poll is live and still active, but Deep Rock Galactic is killing it. So if you want to see Ryan and I play Deep Rock Galactic or if you are a patron and you want to join us. Do make sure that you jump into the Discord on Friday, January 16th. Again, that is at 8.30 p.m. Eastern. We stream the gameplay and let everybody come in and hang out in the chat. So yeah, come and have your own little private gamers in stream. It'll be a lot of fun.

I also wanted to thank everyone who donated to Extra Life last year. We actually got two huge last minute donations. And I think everybody but me hit their goal and the team hit the team goal. So yeah. Yeah, overall, it was an amazing campaign. Thank you guys so much for supporting us, for supporting the Children's Miracle Network of hospitals. Yeah, like I say, I think our, was our goal, was it 4,500? It was 4,700. I don't have the page.

4,700. Okay, yeah, 4,700 US dollars. We hit that goal. So again, thank you guys very, very much. Thank you to all of our team members. we will do it again next year as always uh so again thank you so much for supporting us and for supporting extra life that brings us to the news this week uh this is kind of like

Breaking wasn't even going to be if we had been able to record last night. This hadn't even happened because this happened this morning. But Ubisoft has closed its Halifax studio. So Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, where I used to live. And yeah, about 70 people are losing their jobs. And also they unionized about a month ago.

The company is claiming that the decision was made well before the unionization. However, as of 7.40 tonight, so just before we started recording the show, the union did respond and said that it will pursue every legal recourse. to defend the union members that were impacted by the studio closure, and that the timing is very suspect, which is, I think everyone is thinking, right?

And now, so the Halifax studio was responsible for making the Assassin's Creed Rebellion mobile title, which honestly apparently launched in 2018. this i didn't it wasn't even on my radar i did not even know there was a mobile assassin's creed game so i mean yeah it couldn't have been um making all that much money and i'm not defending i am not defending laying off 70 people and closing a studio however

This game in particular does seem to have had declining revenues, declining players. They had already stopped producing new content for the game and had decided to end live operations. That's all fine and dandy. Make the studio make something else. You're freaking Ubisoft. There's nothing for these devs to work on. That's the part that always drives me nuts. It's like, why are you closing down your resources?

and your studios in times when every freaking thing is online, including your game. You're telling me that your devs in Halifax can't help you out with some other project in wherever, like Montreal? France. It doesn't matter. We are in the internet age. Take advantage of remote work. Keep your Halifax studio open and just give them something else to work on. It drives me bonkers.

So, yeah, I'm sure that there will be more to this story given the just the timing and the optics of it. I'm sure we're going to have more statements out of both sides in the coming weeks. But the timing is definitely.

raising eyebrows yeah that's the one thing that's I mean I wonder about a lot with this story but the one thing that sort of pops to the top of my mind is Ubisoft should have saw this coming like you know a studio unionizes and then i'm even though they say that well we've been a month later yeah we've been thinking about this for a while and it's unrelated but at the end of the day like do these companies not care about

the press in general like they don't care about honestly i really don't i really don't think that they do because like if they the thing is because we live in a 24-hour news cycle now and we're always chronically online and Shit in the world right now is crazy. Yes, it is. The fact that Ubisoft closed a studio that just unionized and 70 people lost their jobs is a blip on the radar that...

probably won't last more than a week or two in the news cycle, right? Like something is going to happen. We alluded to off the top of the show. There are rumors that Microsoft is about to lay off. up to 10% of their workforce, including a ton of people at Xbox. So if that actually happens, we could be looking at anywhere from 10 to 20,000 people losing their jobs at Microsoft.

And that will dominate this story and this story will go away. Ubisoft doesn't give a shit because everything is just, there's so much news and so much going on all of the time. They could have literally come out with a statement and said, hell yeah, we fired them. Don't unionize at Ubisoft. And that still would be gone by next week. True. No, that's absolutely true. I mean, even video game news in general, like.

we don't often have a slow news week. And I remember we talked about this a lot, but like, I remember when we started the show, like we would have weeks where just no news. Yeah. You know, even if you went to. You know, scrape the bottom of the barrel of like what's been what was in the news.

Yeah, there were times where we were like, what are we even going to talk about this week? I guess it's Skyrim again. Yeah, exactly. So but now it's like there's always a story. And yeah, we always have three stories to talk about. So you're right.

this will and ubisoft will likely do something stupid again to replace this one you know and yeah like it may not even be yeah somebody else's misstep or somebody else's big headline grabbing news it could just be them doing something else like it could just be them announcing something cool that people are excited about and everyone's gonna forget the people in Halifax and like it's awful and it's horrible and it really really sucks

But I mean, yeah, it's just the way of the world these days, unfortunately. So, I mean, we will still cover it if there are more statements out of Ubisoft, if there are more statements out of the CWA. But yeah, this just really, really, really sucks. And I don't understand. I don't understand everybody. Well, I guess I mean...

Partly I do because they're just going to replace them with AI, which is a whole other conversation. Well, I don't even know. Maybe Ubisoft's getting out of the whole mobile development because this was like a mobile. Yes, it was a mobile title. Yeah. Yeah. So. Although that's weird. Cause again, like mobile games still make bank. I think it's probably a better bet to build a mobile title than to build a MOBA shooter, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe, maybe.

Maybe these companies know best. I have no idea. Probably not. Yeah. But man, I mean, I know we've said it for years now, but I would not want to be in game dev these days. It just feels like. No one and nothing is ever safe.

And we've seen, I mean, yeah, 2026, though I don't expect it to be as bad as it has been in previous years. You know, like Xbox rumors aside, we don't actually know. Xbox is one division that is rumored to be targeted with this next round of layoffs, but we don't actually know. know what those layoffs are going to look like or how much of an impact they will have on the Xbox team but it just really really really really seems like

There is absolutely no stability. And 2026 is going to be another year of, if not big, at least substantial layoffs in the sector. And it just must feel so horrible to be. working as a game dev right now yeah well there's not like Ubisoft is definitely not a safe spot because they they have been

They've been a turbulent place for a while, like rumors of buyouts. Yeah, but I mean, like, what is safe these days? You know, even studios that are experiencing critical and monetary success and having great... launches are being closed down afterwards like it's crazy no for sure it's like you can't you can't do anything right in this industry right now is how it feels like no job is safe in any company ever so

yeah i don't know i just uh i feel really bad for the people who you know put their heart and soul into these games to create entertaining experiences for us and then you know get booted out the door the next day and just man it sucks but Yeah, we will keep covering this if there is more news coming out of Ubisoft, and we will have confirmed news when we're back, not next week, but the week after.

We see if any of these Microsoft rumors are true. If there isn't even anybody left at Xbox to fire, we'll find out. PlayStation has patented an AI assist feature.

They can take over for you if you get stuck, which, I mean, again, this goes back to my whole point about like... wanting ai to do the chores and the tasks that i don't want to do i do not want ai to be playing my video games for me come on what if you get stuck and you want to find that trophy or something i don't know then then i don't know i want to like maybe this is just me being like

old woman with a shotgun get off my lawn. But like, I want to old school look up a hint, a guide. Like, I don't know. I don't want someone to just, I don't want the computer to just play the game for me. Then why, why do we even have video games? I want to Google for a guide and enjoy it, you know, like the good old days. Right? Like, I sound so old. But...

Like, I mean, it's one thing even to have... Didn't Nintendo have... different kind of iterations of help built into their games so it's like you could there was like the the one game that let you stay in the bubble it was the mario the super mario brothers Yeah, they'd show something that let you stay in the bubble. And then, yeah, like the ghost data is like, OK, I don't know. It just like letting AI.

push the buttons for you. Even just to get through a tough spot just makes me feel like it's not what I'm looking for when I'm talking about approachability and accessibility. There's a line there that I don't want people to cross. I want you to come up with more innovative systems. And if you want to use AI in the background, whatever.

But like come up with more innovative systems that maybe like recognize where a player is having difficulty and then adjust accordingly. I don't know. Like I would still I still want to be the person beating.

the game and I know that that can be like that's a very difficult task when you're talking about like something along the lines of traversal platforming like that kind of stuff like how do you make that any easier like if someone can't time a jump like how do you do that versus like a boss fight where you can be like okay Our systems have recognized that this player is having trouble with staying out of the giant lava puddle. So let's try making the giant lava puddle only appear every...

30 seconds instead of every 15 seconds and you know like making adjustments like that in the background I think is much more interesting and innovative than just saying, here, let the AI play this hard thing for you. Yeah, well, and as you said, video games.

The whole draw is that you are in control and there's that sense of achievement of just playing it and having fun. I think that... the technology behind what they're doing here where they're using it's an ai assist and they're training on they say past gameplay clips on youtube yeah on twitch and youtube i don't know how if youtube and twitch are a fan of of

basically being involved with this, uh, like it's weird. So now, now you're going to need to toggle, um, and even saying play data gleaned from PlayStation network. So. Now there's going to be a privacy setting that we're going to have to make sure to enable so that our sweet skills don't get sucked into this AI bullshit.

I see where they're, where they're going with this, but I agree with you. Like I prefer to, even though like, for example, with final fantasy seven rebirth, I did this a lot. It's like, I'm failing at a boss fight or I'm failing at a, one of the mini games. I'm like, okay. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Fort Condor, Proto-Relics.

Okay, first guide, click on it, make sure you have some sort of ad blocker on so that you can actually see the guide. And then it tells you kind of how it basically tells you how to do it. And it's like, okay, yeah, but you're doing it still so that it's still fun, you know? I don't know, like this, this seems like a waste of money. Yeah, often what I tend to do, like you, is like I look up guides and it's usually like.

this little thing in this corner or something that your eye isn't naturally drawn to and you missed it as you were walking by and that's the thing that you need. And most of the time when I have to look stuff up, I'm like, oh man. I should have seen that or whatever. And I don't know. I just like, yeah, I guess it depends on, you know, like.

how easy it is to turn on and off like how how do you let the ai know that you want to take over again and you know ah i don't know it could be i don't know man i i just want to play video games and ai and data centers and everything else is just getting way out of hand i don't want it in my video games i don't want ai help i don't want any of this like Yeah. This just seems like why? Just why? Oh, I agree. I think just having it stapled into everything is actually a deterrent. Yeah.

And actually it's funny. There was a story at CES, which is like sort of connected, but not really like not exactly gaming, but like Dell was out there, which is like one of the.

biggest producers of laptops out there yeah they were saying ai isn't selling hardware it's actually a deterrent like it confuses people and i think that was a nice way of putting it rather than saying like ai is just bullshit like it confuses some people it it outright deters folks i'm like oh it's like a like literally microsoft was getting handed like they had to walk it back but

it was weird. Like they had appeared to announce that office was going to be called like co-pilot app 365. It was like really weird. And yeah, to me it felt like, well, this is. This is fair. I don't want co-pilot in my office like and this is the thing like and I've said it for years and years and years and years. The thing I hate the most about working in office is that it.

thinks that it is smarter than you and it tries to do things for you and it just breaks everything. And that was before AI. So now they've added an AI layer on top of this and AI is full of garbage. It has been taught a bunch. of garbage so like and now ai is putting that garbage out into the internet and it's training more ais on its ai garbage like it's just going to continue to keep getting worse so when i see people be like oh we have ai i'm like oh come on

And I find it even funnier. And now, like, this obviously is AI assistance. It's not the same as AI generation. But, like, taking an award away from Claire Obscurer for having... used AI at some point in their development to generate background placeholder images.

And then you get a story like this out of Sony being like, we'll put AI in everything. It will play your games for you. And I'm like, what is this crazy universe we're living in where like... one one game is being punished for the use of ai and sony is saying it's going to be in everything and we're supposed to be mad at one and applaud the other like no just stop can we just stop with ai

It's not even, it's not even intelligent. It's just a large language model. It's just artificial. Yeah, it is. But, like, it doesn't deserve the intelligence moniker. Oh. If anything, I'd be worried that like a whole bunch of Twitch streamers would try to troll the AI and like just throw themselves off of cliffs. And then I'd go, you know what? I really can't. I really can't defeat this thing. I really can't figure out this traversal.

let the AI take over and the AI throws me off a cliff. Like that's what I've been doing for years. When I play video games, it's like, I'm doing this on purpose. I'm just bad on purpose for like AI training. So. That's why. Yeah, I don't know. I just hate this. I just don't want it. I just hate it. And you guys in the Discord can let me know if I'm way off base.

The Discord will be agreeing with you. The Discord's not a fan of AI either, and I think that's where we are... probably like this is the thing i think we i don't even want to put it out there but like we use specific tools to record our podcasts and support the community and and some of those tools have been

better than others of basically like approaching ai slowly and or haven't gotten around to it yet and i think at the end of the day in like i worry in three years it's just going to be nintendo with no AI stuff because they always wait. You could say you could be nice and say they always wait, or you could be mean and say they just never get around. They're always behind. Yeah. Stuff early. But I, man, like I.

I had to like disable the AI agent on my kid's Android tablets. It's like, I don't want that. Like that's.

i don't know it's just it's not they're they're not there we're not there yet and and the technology isn't there yet the tech isn't there yeah 100 and i just i feel like you say i think that dell is spot on saying that you know ai is not a selling feature if anything it makes me avoid a product and like there are so many things and we talked about this months and months and months ago now um where you know there are so many like you really you can't say

If you exist and use technology in the world, you can't really say you don't use AI because so many companies are putting it in the background of their stuff now. Or in like sometimes not even in the background, but in ways that it can't be turned off. You can't opt out. So, yeah, like it just it's such a.

I'm scared that when I see like, oh, with AI, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, no, thank you. I'm done. My phone keeps bugging me and being like, we have a new AI assistant this. And I'm like, no. i do not want that get out of my phone yeah and apple's no no better they have their own thing and they've they've had they've added the apple intelligence which is like oh it's ai but it's apple oh my god it's

like it's in there like there's no avoiding it and i but i have i have a work my work phone's android and i do find that like you are able to ignore it and leave it to the side and not engage with it And that's fine. Like, but it's still there. But there are from your data. Yeah. Yeah. And I trust Apple way more than I trust Google, but like, it's still not like a, a far away race, right? Like it's.

It's there's still multi trillion dollar companies that don't have our interest at heart. But I think that where where I struggle is like what Microsoft is doing is like it is. front and center and right up in your face and i do worry like i don't want playstation to to join that that race where suddenly like my playstation is just like ai right in my face

Um, whereas Microsoft is, is blatant about it. Like it's, it's everywhere in all of their apps and it's this big giant copilot button and, um, it's hard to ignore, but we're probably going to have another couple of years of. these type of stories and where where these features continue to be developed and utilized and put front and center is when we when we use them whether by accident or not

Like if you look at any search engine out there on the web, the first result is like an AI generated thing. Yeah. Which 90% of the time is wrong. Yes. Or like it's like mixing sources and taking like. one or two of the words that you said and pulling a source about that and one of the two of the words and then putting the information together and it doesn't make any sense. I've noticed that so much when I like have looked for like we're talking about.

video game assistance is like i will look something up and it'll give me information about what to do in the situation that i'm in in the video game and i'm like no no that is that is wrong you have mixed two things that don't go together sometimes even two different games you've mixed them together because they have similar like features or names or locations or whatever i'm like

This is garbage and it's just straight up wrong. Like, get out of my face. Yeah, it's summarizing badly, essentially. Yeah, it's. Which is supposed to be the easiest thing. all you have to do is look at three things and give me a summary and you can't even do that are you kidding me it's not it's not kidding you it's trying to convince you that that's the answer and it's yeah uh it's not so ai still not a fan keep it out of our video games please and thank you

Surprising news to end off on tonight. Surprising good news to end off on tonight. Witcher 3, the 10 plus year old game, is apparently getting a new expansion this year. A new surprise expansion. So again, this is... reportedly rumor, asterisk, blah, blah, blah. But yeah, apparently Witcher 3 is getting new. Now it's paid.

But it's not DLC, right? The rumor is a full expansion. Verified by several independent sources. Yeah, how The Witcher 3 and... CD Projekt Red has approached their expansions, has been like large scale, additional content usually adds like an additional area. Both expansions in The Witcher 3 added like a whole new region to explore and to quest in and to have your story take place in. I mean, this makes sense. I mean, the the scale of these games and developing them.

And the weight between them, like Witcher 3 came out in 2015, maybe earlier. 2015 almost seems not old enough, but it was a... It's a game that has seen multiple remasters over the last few generations of consoles. It has been brought up to the Series X and the PlayStation 5.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I have the PlayStation 4 version. Yeah. So that that work's been done, which is a good portion of like trying to bring something back. But then like adding an expansion to it makes sense because The Witcher 4 is likely another. two years away year at least if not more but to have an expansion come out for an older title that's still very popular doing very well they can support the netflix season maybe it'll be better than Season five of Liam Hemsworth's adventures and.

i never watched season four i don't know if it's any yeah i didn't i didn't watch it i just saw the trailer and was like oh henry cavill that would be a good use of ai Is to just turn Liam Hemsworth back into Henry Cavill. I think their union would have an issue with that. I think that was what they were for. I know. Look, just let Liam Hemsworth be the Witcher.

Yeah, that was the jokiest of all jokes. Please don't come for me. Yeah, because Liam's Hemsworth would be leading that charge, right? He'd be very upset with you. But maybe Henry Cavill would show up. You never know. Maybe this works in your favor. Yeah. But yeah, like you said, Witcher 4 is a little ways out, a few years out probably. Witcher 3 is still super popular. People love that title.

I mean, if you've got some dev time and you want to make some new content and especially like if they are. And I don't know, like I am a Witcher TV show watcher, or I was a Witcher TV show watcher, not a Witcher game player. Like I say, I have Witcher 3 and I definitely started it, got... you know, a couple of acts in, I think, or a couple of areas into Witcher 3. But I don't know how that story ends. I don't know. All I know about Witcher 4 is that...

Geralt's not the main character. Ciri's the main character. So maybe they are doing some like story work to bridge the gap between those. I don't know. Yeah. But yeah, that's I could see.

room for some sort of like bridging content i guess whether you want to make that like a witcher 4 demo kind of like intro piece or what i don't know but like yeah i think adding it as a paid expansion to witcher 3 is perfectly fine too yeah make it like a handoff expansion yeah yeah it gives people basically an excuse to get back into that world right before they're gonna release the next uh the next game in the series right that makes sense to me

Like, hey, guys, get excited. We're still a year out, but here have this. Yeah. Get excited about Witcher again. Yeah, I'm I'm excited. I will play this new expansion.

when it comes out i i really like that game i like the expansion so uh again a nice surprise and um cd project red has a lot of witcher projects all of them years away so if they've been slowly cooking at an expansion for one of their older titles i think that's a neat approach isn't the remake of the original witcher coming soon ish We haven't seen it yet. It's been announced. We know what's coming. I don't know if they attached a date to it. I thought that was coming soon. Yeah, maybe not.

But yeah, I think it's an excuse for me to get back into The Witcher 3 and actually finish it for sure. So I hope they do. I hope that this rumor is correct and we actually get Witcher 3 content this year. That'd be pretty cool. So we will keep you guys updated as more information comes.

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