TGI 681 - Zombie Light Switch Manager

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, hello. We're back on our normal evening, ready to record. We are and we got uh we got a lot of cool news well I wasn't gonna say cool news, no we got a lot of

We got a lot of news to talk about. We have cool new news? Well yeah, we we did just look at the Pokemon stuff, which is why I was like, oh yeah, there's actually some kind of cool stuff to talk about. And then I look at every other story and it's shit. Never mind. Things are fine. One could be like uh, you know, maybe Maybe not shit, but we'll see. We'll see. We'll see. Starts out a little rocky. Yeah, the news in general across everywhere is a little a little rocky. Yeah. Lately.

And we'll get into that in just a little bit, because uh man, I have a confession. Maybe we should just should we just start with my confession? Should we just get it out of the way? Yes, I guess so. Okay. I was trying to think of like ways to segue into like what we were playing and stuff and honestly, um guys, I'm so sorry. Please don't hate me. Um hat in particular.

I love you, man. Um, so I've been very, very not that any of this is excuses, but I've been very, very, very, very stressed at work. And the world is a very dis just depressing place. And a friend of mine, Manny, Who has been on the show, who is an avid fan of World of Warcraft. And I think you guys can probably see where this is going. showed me the new housing system.

And between the new housing system being way more robust than I originally thought it was going to be, I thought it was gonna be like a lot of other MMO housing where it's like cookie cutter houses and then you just like put your kind of like accolades or whatever. on preset like shelves and nobody's is, you know, particularly unique. Um, that's what I thought housing was going to be. It's not that I can talk about it a little bit more in a bit. Um, but it is very much more like

if the Sims let you run wild, but in World of Warcraft. So I was intrigued by that. And then on top of that, the theme of this expansion is horde focused. The theme is Blood Elves, which was my very first uh wow character was a Blood Elf hunter. They completely redid Silver Moon City. They completely redid um Eversong, which is like the the area surrounding Silver Moon and was the Blood Elf starting zone.

So like the nostalgia factor for WoW was really, really, really big. And I was like, you know what? I just need Some comfort gaming. I need like a giant warm comfy blanket to wrap around myself and just love the red and gold and beautifulness that is blood elves and I need to surround myself with that right now. So

I'm really, really sorry. I know Microsoft owns them right now. I know Blizzard is a shit company. I know I still hate Microsoft and I'm so angry that I'm giving them my money right now, but I needed it guys. I'm sorry, don't hate me. I'm playing well midnight. Yeah, see, I was worried that this confession would be that you rolled a lion. So this isn't that No, no, no. This could have been way worse. So I think everybody listening can be like Whew, breathe a sigh of relief.

Look, WoW is uh is its own beast. I I feel like when you look at everything that's happened with Microsoft and Blizzard and all of their all of their stuff, you know, Game Pass, Call of Duty, W World of Warcraft, Diablo Four, like I just I really feel like wow is its own is its own beast. I I I don't know what it is about about it all, but it just feels

Different and separate and like separate. Yeah. I know. And I like part of part of me feels like that's like trying to rationalize a bad decision. Like I am not telling anyone else to do this. I am not gonna like rave about midnight and be like, everyone should go give all their money to blah blah blah. Like I wrestled with this decision a lot. I know like my description was a little tongue-in-cheek.

For entertainment purposes, I really and truly wrestled with this decision a lot. Um, like there's just cost factor because it's like it is a a monthly recurring subscription thing, right? And I've been trying to cut back on those. But um, you know, like there was the monetary cost, there was the who I was giving my money to, and all of the horrible things that

you know, Microsoft and Xbox and Blizzard and everybody have done in the last couple of years. Like I I wrestled with this decision a lot and then I just decided that I needed some joy. And I really hate that something I enjoy as much as World of Warcraft. Especially with some of the changes that they've made over the past couple of expansions, which I haven't really played. Um

Like it's really made the world conducive to a single player experience. Like I can go in and, you know, be challenged and do like delves or basically like solo dungeons. Um, and they reward the same way that like raiding does, and they, you know, scale up like mythic dungeons do. Like, there's all kinds of things that are made for solo players now. I'm not raiding, so I can just kind of go at my own pace. And yeah, I hate that something I enjoy as much as World of Warcraft.

has been like made by companies that are as shitty as Microsoft and Blizzard. Like I yeah. But, you know, like it you know, as soon as I say but, I feel like I'm invalidating everything I've said before and I don't wanna do that. So Yeah, I'm not even gonna bring up any of the what was gonna come after the butts. I made a I made a decision. I needed to find some joy and I'm mad at myself about it. I hope you guys keep listening.

I don't think look, I don't think people are gonna stop listening. Look, WoW has been around for I feel very h hypocritical. I think that's the thing, right? Like I I feel very hypocritical. I've been very like anti-Microsoft and fuck Blizzard and fuck Microsoft for at least a like a year now. And I just uh like, yeah, this is not

A gateway drug back to Game Pass, guys. Don't worry. But Well, that's the other thing too, is it's not part of Game Pass, which I think makes it seem like the one outlier of like resisting that Paul. There's a layer between me and Xbox still. And that layer is Blizzard, for better or worse. Um, obviously I still have a lot of very strong feelings about Blizzard, Blizzard as a company, the things that they have done, the way that they have treated employees.

Not the least of which obviously is a very good friend of mine. So, like, yeah, I I have a lot of anti Blizzard feelings as well as, you know, anti Microsoft feelings, but Yeah. I needed some joy. I'm sorry, guys. Um, yeah. To balance it out, you'll have to install Linux and get while working on it. That's the only way that's my punishment. Punishment. No, no, no, no, no. My penance. Your enhancement. That or you buy a Mac, I don't know.

I do want to talk about the player housing a little bit because that is the the big new midnight thing. And again, I have been So far removed from WoW for the most part for the last couple of expansions that I'm honestly not sure like what was introduced when. Um, so if there are big WoW fans out there listening to me right now and you're like, No, that's not when that happened. That's not new in midnight. The one thing I know is new in midnight for Shirseys is the housing stuff. So um

It was actually really, really cool. Um, and again, I haven't actually like bought my own stuff and like made my own house. Um, Manny showed me around his like guild neighborhood. So I guess you like as a community by your neighborhood or something. Again, I don't know the mechanics exactly of how it works, but um it's this like guild and friends only zone?

So like you have to either be in the guild or get invited in, I guess. Like so if you're part of a party of somebody, then you can go into the houses and you can also like set your house to like public or private. So you can basically like lock your doors. And uh the zone, there's like one, I think like horde zone and one alliance zone, but within that one housing zone, it had like

most, if not all, of the biomes that are available in Warcraft. So it was like there was like a foresty kind of area and then like mountains. There was like a desert and then like an islandy beach place. And like so

all of those locations, all those biomes had a whole bunch of plots where people in your guild could build houses. So what I was kind of picturing was very much like garrisons from Warlords of Draenor. And I was like, that was terrible. Like Again, like cookie cutter things that, you know, didn't have a whole lot of uniqueness to them and, you know, weren't

the social hub. It was like you would just go into your garrison and then the world would disappear. And that never that just felt like empty and lonely and bad. So that's what I was picturing when they were like, we're doing housing. But uh the neighborhood was actually really, really cool. And then you even have this little um like uh like little hub with like vendors and like almost like a little town right in the middle of it. It was really, really cool.

And the other thing about the housing that I think is awesome and I have seen so many videos on TikTok uh which again, like, obviously So much data sharing, so much like advertising money behind these algorithms'cause like I never searched for it, but it was fed to me as soon as it knew I was playing Warcraft again. However whoever sold my data to whoever. It ended up on TikTok. Um I've seen so, so many TikToks of people who are like

building these absolutely incredible like interior rooms. And the way that they do it is because Blizzard has basically like unlocked objects in housing. So you can like

slip things in any kind of on any axis on any axis in any direction. There's no like physics that you have to necessarily obey. So like you don't have to worry that I mean there are some physics, but for the most part You can take objects and like you know, like move them up a wall and move them into the wall so you can like clip things into other things. And like people have built like Cure egg coffee makers using like just the corner of this chair and then like

If you flip a light bulb upside down and backwards, then it makes a little red button or whatever. Like the amount of creativity is insane. Of course, what comes with that creative sandbox is also, you know, on the one hand, some very, very beautiful interiors, so much creativity. It's very sim-like. And then there's the sex dungeons. And I have also seen a lot of those on my TikTok feed. Um, but yeah, I am

I am very impressed and probably will end up by the end. Um, like right now I'm just kind of leveling through the story and stuff and experiencing, um the zones, but uh I think in the end I will end up spending a lot of time in housing. And uh yeah. There's there's a lot of space to be creative. You're not just kind of like stuck with whatever objects they create for you and then like following like this is a bookshelf so it has to go on the floor and next to a wall or, you know, like

There's a lot of room to be creative here and I think um it definitely exceeded my expectations. Again, not telling anyone to go give Blizzard or Microsoft your money. I'm not telling anyone to go play Midnight, but I was pleasantly surprised with the implementation of housing. It's pretty crazy.

In a good way. Cool. Oh, that's good. I mean I know Blizzard wanted to do like they wanted to make something that was unique and it sounds like they kind of went above and beyond with how how you can handle housing and c customization. And all that. So, uh I mean if you can build sex dungeons, I mean, you know they've made it. The opportunities are endless, really. Yeah. I I saw the video you sent me and I was just like, Yep. I mean that's

Oh ridiculous. Sometimes you just accidentally stumble into one of those and you're like, oh. What's behind here? I think there was uh even Animal Crossing had that, you know. Uh I believe there was some scary scary rooms in uh They didn't they weren't sex dungeons in Animal Crossing, they were they were scary rooms.

is I think what they want. Yeah, no, I made I made like a a scary summoning weird room off the back of my house. Yeah. Like a like a mannequin standing facing the corner all Blair Witch style with a With a summoning circle of candles in the middle and yeah. It's true. There's a reason Nintendo doesn't put beaded uh curtains in in Animal Crossing. I was gonna say, I think I used the wasn't there like an anatomical like model or something, like dummy?

Yeah, yeah, that's what it was.'Cause it was like this skin was peeled away. I thought that was hilarious. Yeah. I'm looking forward to getting into the housing system. Well, there you go. Well you've got a you got a lot of ideas served to you by yes, by TikTok, so Yeah, like I say, lots of really cool and creative solutions to make objects that essentially don't exist. So I've seen like things like infinity tubs and like people recreating like waterfalls inside using like

ten different fountains at different angles and things. Like there's there's a lot of like crazy cool stuff because When you go outside, like all the stuff that you've like click clipped through the walls, it's like instant. So like when you're inside you can see all the cool stuff. And when you're outside, it just looks like whatever housing exterior you've chosen. So you don't have to worry about like things like the inside or the outside of your house looking funny.

It's like a different instance. So you don't see any of the clippings. So it's it's it's a really, really well thought out system, I think. But yeah. I feel bad enough about it, so we're not gonna talk about it anymore. Okay. So but yes, that is where my gaming time has been going uh since early access started uh a few days ago. So um it is now out and available. I think it launched yesterday officially. So it's out and available for everybody now. The early access period is over.

And uh yeah, I'm sure people will be starting up raiding and everything else soon. But the only other thing that I did was uh I got back into date everything'cause you were playing it and I was like, I should finish up the story. And yeah. Um

I have a little I have a little story. I won't go too too crazy into it, but It made me rage quit and uninstall. So after over forty hours of gameplay, um I think we've both mentioned that there are like basically five different categories of stats within the game, um, for like your I can't remember what all they stand for, but it's basically like how funny you are, how smart you are, how empathetic you are. And anyways.

I had completely maxed out those stats because I had gotten to the very end of all of the stories for all 102 objects. I had only one hate ending. Uh, you cannot realize objects that hate you. Like you can't bring objects that hate you into the real world as real people. So I had the opportunity to realize 101 objects.

But you can still only talk to five objects a day. And I hadn't been realizing objects throughout my playthrough because most of the objects require you to have a very high score in at least one Of those like player stats. And so I was like, you know what? I was finding all the time like I would have like ninety in one that I needed and then then another stat would require eighty and I'd only have fifty or something. And I was just like, oh my God, this system is

Like this UI is way too hard to navigate for this system to be effective. I'm just gonna get all the stats that I possibly can, finish out all the stories, and then I'll realize all the objects. And it was so tedious. And then I got there's like um an app on your phone for your glasses. That's how you talk to her. And there was and this is my own thing, whenever I have little notification icons on my app.

I need to dismiss them. It's in games. It's in real life. It's in Discord. Like I cannot have like the like a little red number. It drives me nuts. So I was trying to figure out how to clear that notification. I went through all of the glasses menus. I talked to her. I did all of the conversation options. I had already hit the end of her story. We she was already in love with me.

And there was this section that talked about basically um making sure or like shortcuts to make the end game not tedious. So I was like, okay. I'm gonna play around and try to figure out what's going on. And I'm like, she I thought she had said something about like realization. And I'm like, okay, so. When you first talk to her and you ask her about if you can make her a real girl, then she says, um, not until you've realized all the other objects. So it's like cool.

I have the stats to realize all the other options all the other objects. I've got fifty objects out of a hundred left to go. Let's let's do this. Like this this must be a a quick menu to just realize everybody. So I picked the option where she's like, have you realized everybody? And I'm like, well, I have a couple of hate endings, but other than that. Realize everybody, thinking that it would realize all the other objects in the house that I hadn't yet.

And instead of doing that, it realized my glasses and shut me out of the rest of the game. And then I was like, oh no, this is a horrible, awful outcome. I still had like 50 more things to do, and probably like at least one achievement, if not more, for like realizing a hundred objects in a game, because there was an achievement for realizing fifty objects in one playthrough. So I was like, okay, no problem. I'll just reload my autosave. It autosaves after every conversation. This'll be fine.

I went into my autosave. And even though in my autosaves, there were, I don't even know how many, like tons and tons of autosaves. I've never messed with the saves before. So they must have at some point like patched something to change this. But the autosave started saving over the like most recent autosave. So I literally my only options were The current save where the glasses were no longer available to me, or a save from when I had only realized two objects.

and was from like a week ago. And I had put like ten to fifteen hours of gameplay in between those two saves. And I'm like, oh my God. I literally Exited out of the game and I'm like, this can't be real. I did a bunch of Googling. I'm like How is this the way that it works? Like I had no manual saves or anything else because I had looked into autosaves at other points in time and saw there was a whole bunch of them. So I just assumed it kept making new auto like autosaves and then like deleting

the older ones. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. No, apparently no. It just kept saving over itself for the most recent auto save. And I was like, whoever made that decision. That is awful. So Yeah, I was so angry. So I just I exited out. I went in and played the next day just to walk out the front door so I could get like the you reach the end of the game achievement. And then I uninstalled. I was so mad. I was like full on rage.

Because I was like, you literally just had a dialogue option telling me that you don't want the end game of to be tedious. And then instead of giving me an option for just realizing everybody in one shot, you shut me out of the game.

Oh my god. So yeah. I dated everything again, but I will never date everything ever again. I am so done with that game. I am out. Oh, that's too bad. I mean, like Did it did it f i it's weird because usually we we talk a lot about point of no returns in video games and like that's a common

Google search to be like, okay, I'm playing, you know, the latest horizon. When what is the point of no return? Will I know it? And for the most part, I think lately video games have been really good at clearly stating, hey, yeah, if you progress you will be you will not be able to return There was nothing like that. It was very much like like there was no additional pop-up. Like it was all done as if it was an in-game conversation.

Which it's really, really hard. And we've talked about this not just with Data Everything, but with a lot of other of these kind of dialogue tree based games. Where sometimes like the text that you click on doesn't necessarily reflect your meaning as a player and like the sometimes the disconnect that happens there between player intention and, you know, like um the coding that's done on the back end.

Um, and that's happened a few times in this game. Uh, and but never with the consequences like this. And I'm just like, if you're going to have a point. where I no longer have any options to interact with your game. Just give me a pop-up. Give me a dialogue box that's like, hey, are you sure she's not fucking around right now when she says like if you realize me? Because I also thought realizing all the other op all the other objects. was a criteria to realize the g the glasses. Like I thought

If I hadn't realized everything and if there was no like no shortcut in her menus to realize everything, that then I'd get like an error. She'd be like, oh no, sorry. Like you haven't done everything that you possibly can, so you can't realize me yet. Like that's what I was expecting and it didn't. It just automatically made her a real girl and then shut me out of the game. And I was like, this is really dumb. So

Should I have say it manually saved at different points in time? Probably. But I'm also not like a I'm gonna save now, try out all my options, reload my save, pick the right one, the right air quotes one. You know, like I don't play these kind of games like that. So it never even occurred to me that I should, you know, manually save before going to try something. So yeah. I assumed there would be some guardrails. There were no guardrails and I bricked my save basically. So

Never again. Uh, that's too bad. I mean, I'm still playing the game. I'm I haven't I haven't got as far as to realizing characters. I'm still working my way through like sort of the main gameplay loop, but uh Yeah. Yeah. It did get very tedious, I will say, because I was also trying to realize, and this is the other thing that really pissed me off.

Is that the characters I really liked, I was saving for the end because like once you realize them, you can't interact with them anymore. Like they're gone. They've become a real boy and they're out in the world now. So they no longer exist in your house. So some of my favorite characters, I kept them around and I was gonna do them last. Yeah, I ended up not seeing

like the end of the story for some of my very favorite characters in the house. So like that was even like an added because of the way I chose to play the game, leaving them to the end instead of doing them right away. Um yeah, just really soured me on the on the game and the whole experience. So and like, yes, was I a little cavalier? Was I not careful enough with my dialogue choices? Probably.

But I was literally looking for a shortcut of how to very quickly realize like forty characters'cause it I didn't like literally go around talk to them. click through whatever story it is that the game wants to tell you. And again, if you didn't care much about the character, then It's a lot of clicking. Well, there's a lot a hundred characters. You're you're not gonna love them all. Yeah, exactly. And then so then you're like

tied to this like five a day. So it's like run around the house, realize five things, click through all their dialogue, go back to bed. Wake up again, run around the house, talk to five things you don't care about. Click, click, click, click, click, click, click, go back to bed. Wake up again, like over and over and over and over, literally like 20 plus times.

So yeah. It uh it just got to the point where I was like, I don't wanna do this anymore. There's gotta be a shortcut since Skylar told me that there were ways to make the end game not as tedious. So Yeah. Anyways, basically she was just offering to help me find objects in the house that I was missing. I'm like, how are you even offering me that help when you know that not only have I found them all, but I've completed their stories? Like.

Come on, game. So, anyways, I've already talked about this much, much longer than I wanted to. Just ugh. Frustrating. I'm never dating anything again. Which is probably good news for Matt. Yes. Yeah, for sure. I mean, now that you've dated the hundred objects in that video game. You've had your fill. I I understand. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Well, uh yeah. Uh that uh it it's funny enough, for a game that is uh with the content aware system that they built in and and is so uh very

It explains it very well of like, this is what you're gonna hear. Is that okay? A and the fact that they have this very like weird Hey I can make this go quick and for you, uh, and then it's it's not what you were looking for. It basically locks you out. It's basically saying like, look, you have to realize everybody in order to beat the game. But if you don't want to do that, you can just pick this option and it's it's it's weird.

It's like, wait, what? So yeah, anyways, um that's that's the thing I did, but I don't want to talk about name who cares. So Ryan Tell me about Resident Evil because I am very, very interested.

The streamer who I watched their playthrough of Village, uh hybrid panda, if you guys are interested, one of my absolute very favorite streamers. He usually does DVD content, but when single player stuff like this comes out, he tends to play that too. Um, yeah. I watched his player uh his playthrough of village. So he just finished Requiem um I think like Monday maybe. So I was gonna go watch his playthrough. Uh yeah. Um

It looks so scary. I've only seen like little itty bitty bits, but it looks so scary. How have you actually been faring and making it through the game? Are you being a scaredy cat and like peering around corners and not moving like I would? Uh a little bit. It it's interesting. Um, so Resident Evil Requiem is this combination of everything that has come before. And and if you wanted to be more specific, it it's very much a combination of the remakes that they've done with two, three, and four.

with their sort of follow-up series of uh Biohazard Village and and now Requiem. So it's a combination of the two where you have these two characters that have very different playstyles. uh with Grace being the main character, um if some of the marketing made it seem like this was going to be a fifty fifty experience that is not the case. You are pretty much graced the entire

time and then there are these little interstitials where Leon uh gets to be the main character for a bit and um it's a completely different playstyle. But yes, the the gray stuff is is is scary. Like it's this is scarier than village. But I don't feel as it's as scary as Biohazard. Um that first sort of first person game that they did was set in a much more I would say a a scarier location that had more opportunity for uh less lighting and just like uh monster monsters popping out.

I think that um what Requiem does with its first area, I'm not very far. Like I'm about Maybe five hours in or so. Uh I've I've done like two sections with Grace and then like two sections with with Leon and the first area you you are in is this like um old research hospital. And the the idea behind the gameplay is like you're Grace and you're trying to escape from this hospital and you're doing these resident evil puzzles where you're

collecting things and finding letters and using the clues to like work your way through the the game. And that aspect has always been some of my favorite stuff with Resident Evil. So that is present and it it is very good. Um, but what what is scary is that you have not only do you have zombies to deal with, but you also have the uh pursuit monsters, which are basically immune to

whatever weapons you have and you have to basically run away and just run, yeah. Yeah. So but I would say that the pursuit monsters aren't um they aren't one hit kills. uh uh uh at least the first monster isn't definitely got attacked by that first monster and lived to tell the tale. Um but no, like Grace just seems to have more Tools at her disposal to deal with zombies? Um, you don't have to you're not completely powerless. You do have a weapon. You can take out the zombies.

Um, you do have the ability to completely take them off the board with uh a special um injector that you can build with uh you find infected blood around and you can use that to synthesize like um a protein that'll like Make them explode basically. Oh, so not like cure them. No. No, no, no. No, no, no. This is resident evil. Depends on your definition of cure, I guess. I mean if you're You know

They're not walking away from this. They're everywhere. Basically replaced But they are released. Sure. They are off to the Yeah, their souls can rest. The the the really interesting part is once you get through the first few areas And you sort of settle into the gameplay loop. it it is this environment where as Grace you are

uh you know, going around this sort of hospital and there are different tiers of zombies. Like a lot of the zombies are there are infected people who have um turned to zombies, but they they retain some of their humanity. So and this example comes up a lot and I I I think it is a really good example that doesn't spoil some of the zombies that have uh special traits, um, but the one is like this guy, the zombie that is obsessed with a with lights.

And he is like against the wall and he's just flicking the lights. He's like, he's like, lights out. And I I was joking that he's like a zombie dad and he's like he's always turning the lights off, like you damn kids leaving these go back to bed lights out. Exactly. It's like oh my gosh, it's like a part time job turning all these lights off'cause you dang kids won't turn the lights off when you leave the room. Look.

It happens. You know, you become a dad and it's suddenly you're like, Oh my gosh, these lights, what are they doing on? I find it absolutely hilarious that you are identifying with a zombie playing with a light switch. Yeah. I mean he's He's a he's he wants the lights off, and I can appreciate that. Do you know how expensive hydro is these days, Jocelyn? Yes, yes, I do. So turn your dang lights off.

Um but i that's just one example. There uh and they're like I said, there are tiers. So you have these zombies that are just your regular zombies that are, you know, you can kind of avoid them. You can uh you you can take them out with your weapons.

Or you can, as I said, use the injector to completely take them off the board. And what I mean by that is take them off the board means like they are not coming back. But if you don't do that and you just, you know, shoot them, take them down, and they fall over. they will eventually come back. So they've they've they've brought forward this mechanic from the Resident Evil One remake. where if you kill a zombie and you don't destroy the body

It will come back as a stronger zombie. And that is that mechanic is back in Requiem. So and you are limited in the amount of these injectors that you can make. Uh and you wanna save them because you wanna save them for there are the second tier of zombies which are like a little more stronger. You're not going to be able to take them out with your weapons. You have to sneak up on them or incapacitate them and then use the injector to um to deal with them.

And an example of that is there's this chef zombie that is uh very big and very strong, and he will chase you around the map if you aren't careful. Uh and you you have to basically take him out. And when you take him out, there's a there's more than just like, oh, he dropped some resources. He has a key that he drops and you can use that to unlock. A little side room and get get some additional um uh weapons and upgrades and stuff. So there's this

reason to push Grace to not only just try to survive and escape, but also to deal with some of the zombies around to unlock additional runes. So again, like going into that like Resident Evil sort of puzzle mechanic of of trying to collect all the stuff, which which again I really appreciate. I'm not in it for being scared. I don't want to be scared.

I just wanna I just wanna uh get in there, find some cool stuff, solve some puzzles, and maybe see what wild and wacky stuff Umbrella is up to these days, but Uh look it's always an apocalypse is a wild and wacky Sunday. You know, it's uh it's just what umbrella. Does. And um I will say this, like the main character, I'd always thought Ethan was a little like

plain, just kinda like uh he wasn't a very interesting character. Like you you go from having you know, Jill and r uh you know, Claire and Leon and Chris and look, w when those characters were first introduced, like maybe they weren't all like top tier characters, but over over the years that and especially They got there? They got there. Especially Leon, like he's he's had a really

strong history throughout his arc in in the video games. Um and I just didn't think Ethan did that, but Grace, right off the bat, lands as a really interesting character. She is very scared, and whoever is playing this character is doing a fantastic job of portraying a very scared person. Um Like I f I feel when I'm playing the game like it's like, Oh my gosh, like

She's about to she's about to have a heart attack. She is so scared of what's going on. And but but she's formidable too. Like she is willing to fight back against these monsters, um, deal with her situation and uh and she is she is as you see in the trailers, she is put through quite a bit of hardship. Um but you know, like uh she I'm about five hours in and she's already started to be like

You know, like, well we're in it. Let's let she's uh she's turning into a resident evil character where she like starts off like you know, r really struggling and and now she's like, Let's go kick some zombie butt, you know, and and it's uh it's working. Um, it's where it's it's a really it's just a much more interesting character. So like that's Grace's side. It's very like sneak around, more puzzle based, like building out your weapons to be able to take on

the zombies and and again a lot of puzzles. But then for Leon it completely switches and it's like a John Wick movie and it's just all action and he's got quirky one liners like like you wouldn't believe. Um he there's a one line that I just came across where he's uh he's been captured by the bad guy And the bad guy like leans in and he's he's pretty gnarly looking and and Leon's you know, he's the bad guy's being all serious doing his like bad guy monologue stuff and and Leon's like

I have one question and the guy's like, Oh, what is it? It's like, When was the last time you brushed your teeth? And I'm like, Yes, we did it So It's pretty great. It's it's more dad stuff. I know. I mean Turn the lights off, brush your teeth. These are the things that really resonate with Ryan now. I know. I mean it's basically just the bedtime routine.

You know, but but Leon's it when I say it's like action-packed, it is like night and day to Grace's sections because uh like I said, you do have weapons as Grace. You have the you do feel empowered and you have the ability to take on the monsters. But Leon is a different beast. Like, he is got multiple weapons. He is able to like You know, uh Grace when you stagger an enemy you can kinda push the zombie over and it's all about mechanics to like, you know, getting away, conserving resources.

But for Leon it's like, don't worry, all those bullets that you were looking for as Grace, they're in this specific area of the map where only Leon can access, and he's got now like 30 of d you know, thirty ammo for both of his weapons and he's good to go. And he's able to like kick zombies over and like smash their heads in and And i i it's just who needs guns when you've got these guns flexes feet.

feet and boots and stuff. He's and he's got a hatchet. So like and I thought like, oh man, my uh you have this axe and you can use it to do finishers and stuff and I its durability was going down. And I was like, man, I'm gonna be really upset when this Axe breaks, I wonder where I find

new axes and it turns out like you can just hit a button to sharpen it whenever you want. I'm like, man, this guy came prepared. He's got an axe, he's got a sharpening stone. Uh he's got boots. So like He's ready and and and he's got one liners, so it's Honestly it's perfect. But they're so short. It is comical. Like you spend three hours

Being scared, shitless as Grace, and you're like, Oh my gosh, I finally made it to the next area. And then Leon pops in, he's like, It's like a thirty minute action movie of you just like tearing shit up and I'm like, Okay. So this is the roller coaster we're on. I was gonna say it sounds like a palate cleanser, basically. It's like they don't wanna overwhelm you too much with the terror of grace, so they have to give you some ass kicking moments as Leon.

Yeah. But okay, so I don't know very much about Requiem at all. I've basically just seen the trailers. Is there a point where like Leon and Grace come together and you can then choose who to play as, or is it just like are they basically separate through the whole game? They they are separate, but they come together. Like very o early on in the game, you know, Grace is is kidnapped by the

The main bad Doctor Victor something and um I can't remember Doctor Victor. It's Doctor Victor, Doctor Gideon or Victor Gideon, uh anyways. He's the gnarly guy looking guy with like the weird um uh head piece glasses thing. Uh y it'll make sense when you see it. But um it's not important. The important part is Leon and Grace. But uh yeah, they uh He he Leon is like trying to sort something out early on, like he's he's uh investigating, and then he comes across.

you know, this uh the bad guy kidnapping Grace and he f he follows them and he and then he he quickly reali puts it together and connects that like, oh, it's all connected, like what he's searching for and what Grace has gotten involved with. And um there's some history with Grace as well. Like this hotel that she goes to was the hotel where it's very weird. It's a weird setup because Grace works for the FBI. And Her mother died eight years ago in this hotel room.

You don't know what it is, but you get the sense that she it's very traumatic for her. Scene like th those kind of scenes or at least snippets of that event were in the trailers, right? Yes. Yes. I remember like her with her mom and like in what I thought was an apartment building but must have been the hotel. So it's all making sense. Yeah. So the boss calls her in and says, Like, I need you to go to this hotel and investigate this murder. And and it's like

Wait, you're you're sending her to the hotel? Like it's obviously a setup, like He's he's he's he's in it in on it with the bad guys. He must be because what boss is like Yeah, like what boss is like, Hey, I know your mother died. Your mom died? Yeah. And the way he says it's like it'll be good to confront your trauma. And I'm like, Oh that's

He's evil. Don't think that's how that works. Yeah. He's either evil or he's just a bad boss. Or incompetent. Yeah. Or incompetent. Yeah. It was it was very weird. But it's like it's it's a It's like a B movie setup. It's like, all right, I guess we're going here. And and that's that sets up like the idea that like not only is is Grace under prepared in what she's s heading into, but she's also dealing with the fact that this is all connected to her mother and what happened eight years ago.

So she's dealing with that on top of being thrust into this like very very uncomfortable uh uh place with zombies and monsters and um all that stuff. So it's it's not great. Uh but this is like a Saturday for Leon. Like this is normal for him. uh after all of his adventures. So he's he's in his element making dad jokes and all that. Uh but yeah, I I would say that um and then they kinda intertwine. They do get

S they do come together and then they get separated. Like there's literally a moment where like you're progressing with grace and then you make it through this gate that you finally open by finding the item. And then as you open the gate Leon

swap spots with you and then you're like, Oh, this is where we're gonna, you know, come together and work together to escape and no, the gate comes down again and then you're separated and then he hands you like the big here's here's this here he hands you your a weapon.

So like they do they know of each other, they're in the same sort of adventure, so they but they they ki they keep them separate for the most part, um, so far at least. And I and I think that's you know, through just sheer coincidence sometimes, but now that I'm a bit further it's also because like

bo both characters are after different things. Like their their their motivations are different at this point, where Leon is trying to uncover you know, uh he's trying to uncover an investigation, whereas Grace is just trying to escape, but then she she ends up, you know, finding something that she's uh she wants to protect and

We go from there. But it it is um I'm surprised. I thought I started playing. It's like, oh man, I think this is gonna be too scary for me. But I've really felt that as the more tools are are granted to you and you get used to the environment, just like a Metroidvania, you get used to the map and you're like, okay, I kinda understand The layout and what this game is throwing at me. And the pursuit monsters have really not been that bad. Like for the most part, you can just kind of

run away from them and and hide and they'll kind of they're very forgiving. Uh and I'm playing on normal. Like you kind of hide for a bit and then they kind of wander off and go back to their path. So Look, it's I'm not gonna say it's a walk in the park, but it's It's not as bad as like uh uh The roulette monster in in oh cra repo. Yeah, no no no. It's not like repo. Like i i it these monsters, um

Look, they get bored pretty quick. They go back to their it's like, oh, I'm just gonna walk over this way and maybe maybe you'll come back. Are they are they as bad as like

guards in Assassin's Creed where like you just run into some bushes and they're like, Huh? How did that just walk back to their post? Okay. No. They're they're um Like the the first pursuit monster doesn't like light, so if you go if you go to a room that has light, um it it won't come in the room and we'll we'll we'll just go back to its path. Uh the second monster is this like big giant sort of

overgrown human thing, but so big that like it can't fit through all the doors. It will smash through some of the door frames, but but it will it has its limits as to how far it'll go. Um but yeah, for the most part I didn't I didn't feel it's very well balanced. I didn't feel as though I was being punished for running.

or or even punished for engaging with the enemies and using my resources. Like I didn't didn't feel like I was like, Oh shit, I used all those clips and now I'm gonna be screwed, right? I I I that did not happens. So like it's really well balanced. And um it rewards you sort of Taking out zombies. Like I thought maybe that would be an issue. Like if I used all my uh injector things to take out zombies that might cause issues.

Although I think because I like used my resources properly when I did the Leon section, which technic technically runs through the Grace section, there was not a lot of zombies left. It's a very empty map. I don't know if that was by design, like if they just get cleared, uh, no matter what, but um you do you do double up and you run through the environment as as Leon, which was uh

was was interesting. Cause there was like some things I couldn't open as Grace. There was like these cabinets that were like smashed and I'm like, I can't get into any of these. And then sure enough, it when Leon runs through the environment, it's just it's just him using his axe to like pry them open. So there's some overlap there, which was really interesting.

Uh so by the time you get to play as Leon you're like, Oh I know this map uh, you know, so well that I just I can like beeline it to where I need to go. So Uh, but it's been fun, which is is surprising. I thought it would be really scary, and it is scary. Look, it's scarier than village. Village felt

comical in comparison to Requiem because that one's pretty silly. For the most part, Village is very kind of open. I I from again I didn't play. I I watched a stream, so there's that kind of like disconnect, but Um, I I feel like village was just a lot more It felt a lot more safe. Felt like there was a lot more space. So yeah, this seemed like, especially the scenes in the trailers.

in the hotel, very claustrophobic. Very things jumping out of you out at you from everywhere. Yeah. And you don't have the resources you had in village. Like Grace has a pistol. She has a very limited use, sort of I would call more closer to like the magnum pistol that you get like later on in Resident Evil games. It's like this super weapon that takes very specific bullets that you can sometimes find, but sometimes craft.

I think you usually have like two or three bullets at any given time. So they are like you know, break glass in case of emergency type stuff that specific weapon. So you have like your pistol, your super weapon, and then you do have these injectors that you can use When you sneak up on an enemy a or when you stagger them, um so you're you're You don't have an arsenal. You you are limited. You are encouraged to use your resources wisely.

But where the arsenal comes in is when you play as Leon, you you always have weapons at your disposal there. So when you do get to those Leon sections, you kinda have to like flip a switch in your brain to be like, no, this isn't survival horror anymore, this is third person action game. Uh and that's the thing. I've also been playing with the recommended settings, which is Grace in first person and Leon in third person. I was pretty

Clear as like I'm only gonna play third person for both these'cause I don't want to be scared. But I was like, you know what? Yes. You just leaned into it. Oh man. Yeah. Do the developers' vision. I know. I was I was like, I'm gonna s end up switching this like a chicken, but it's uh it's been good. It's you're stuck with it. That's good. The atmosphere is is just too Too hard to pass up and and the first the first person stuff is has been better because again, like all the zombies

because they have like some sort of personality to them. Um always announce themselves. Like whether they're grunting or talking or turning lights out, uh, they're very clear that they're there. Um Look, there are moments that are are jump scares. I'm not gonna do the classic Ryan thing. There's no jump scare. There are jump scares, Jocelyn. Okay. They're there. But when you're walking around the halls, like you know when there's a zombie.

uh present. So It's good. It's good telegraphing of uh upcoming zombie encounters. Well, I look forward to uh hearing about a more kind of in depth deep dive as you as you get further on in the game. I don't know I know you said you'd done a couple of uh Grace and a couple of Leon sections. I don't know how long the game is, but I'm sure you've still got a lot of a lot of ways to go. So yeah, look forward to hearing from that, uh hearing about that uh next week.

Uh, if you guys would like to support what we're doing over here, head on to Patreon. Head on over to Patreon.com slash the gamers in. Man, I'm I'm hitting a wall. Uh we have our monthly host special. Ryan has just put that up. That was the uh romance in video games episode.

for February. That is up and available. Again, patreon.com slash thegamers in. I am up for March. Uh thank you to everyone who voted in the poll. We've got a couple of really good episodes coming up. So I will be posting that in the next couple of weeks. Uh, we also have our next game night, which is Friday, March twentieth at 830 PM Eastern. I think uh the whole Patreon thing seemed to work really well, so

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At patreon.com/slash the gamers in. That brings us to the news this week. We got our first look at Kratos and Atreus, uh, if for Amazon's uh God of War TV show, and um I was surprised and not pleasantly. It was uh yeah. I had to look up who is playing Kratos because It th it's like, oh, he was from Walking Dead. And I was like, he was from Walking Dead. Who the heck was he in Walking Dead?

And then he was beta in Walking Dead. And I think my biggest problem with this, like, and and this is not like a leak. This Amazon put this out as like a promo. Um, he's he just seems too small. And especially when you find out he played beta, I'm do who was a huge monstrous man. Um, I don't understand. Um

Well, maybe it's because he's kind of like kneeling down a little bit or like hunching over to watch what Atreus is shooting at. And also Atreus looks like a four year old. I know. He's supposed to be like ten. Like why is everyone so small? Um I had a I had a very similar reaction when I saw this image. I thought it was AI. I thought it was fake. I was like, this is fake this can't be real. Because you know what it looks like? It looks like they said, let's

Show me you know, God of War in live action and then and then they and they prompted it and then this was like it's not a compliment. This doesn't look Right. It just kinda there's something off about it. And I feel really bad because Ryan Hearst, who plays Kratos, actually like posted uh Over on Instagram and was like

um don't believe everything you see on the internet or something. And I'm like, okay, but dude, this is official. Amazon Amazon officially put this out as a teaser promo for the project you're involved in. Like I know we should be skeptical of the internet, especially these days, obviously, but like This was official and it doesn't look great. It's really disappointing. And maybe it's just like,

a promo shot, like without all like the after effects and everything. Like for all we know, this was taken by some like social media person as they were filming. Like, who knows? Who knows? Cause like it looks very Set like

Like you can almost see the line between like the real prop rock and the green screened forest behind, or like Not even green screen, like the you know when you'd get your photo taken in elementary school and they have like the different backgrounds you could choose from on those like rollers?

Yeah. Or how about a library? Oh my god, the library It's all green screen now. I mean it's it's but that's what it wrote that's what it looks like to me is that like someone like Pulled down a forest scene behind some fake rocks and a fake tree and went

Yep, that's done. Nailed it. I uh the other thing I'm looking I'm looking at the image now and I've heard a lot of things. I've heard like, you know, why does this image look like Kratos is taking a shit in the wood And then the other thing I look at this and I'm like as you said, like the kid looks Super young. And now I feel bad that he's gonna be yelled at this entire series by you know Timu God of War Kratos guy over here. But I mean look.

I think when we saw the Zelda stills, they did a really they did a really good job of of portraying those are actors in Zelda costumes. Very good. You passed the first test. This this is the opposite. This is not passing the first test, but with both those examples. Seeing it in motion is gonna make or break it. And yes, yeah. That that could allow this to because again, like they're making this, it's happening. This is not like

Sonic with human teeth bad. This is true. It could be so much worse. It could be. I think that this is salvageable because like if you look at everything else it does look like hey if you were to like okay what is Kratos gonna look like in in live action? I think they've done most of what they could to make it look like that's Kratos in live action. But there's just something off about it. And I really feel like when we see it in motion, that might address some of the concerns.

But that is a very young Atreus. Uh Which okay, so this is kinda cra like I was so curious of like how old this actor actually is. He was born in twenty fourteen, so he's actually old he's twelve for or eleven or twelve, depending on when exactly his birthday is. But um yeah, born in twenty fourteen. So he is older than Atreus, because Atreus is supposed to be ten, right? So But like I don't know. He just he looks like you say, like he looks

young. Like he I would put him at six. So like if the if that's the case, why did you pick such a young looking actor unless they're what they're thinking is. that they're going to get a second season. It's gonna take so long to film between like one and two. Kids grow up so fast, we saw the the Stranger Things problem.

Um, so like maybe they intentionally chose a very young looking actor who technically is the the correct age, if not a little older, but picked a really young looking one so that when season two, if it gets to season two, uh, starts filming, then he's still going to look age appropriate for um for Atreus, right? That's the only thing I can think of because he looks way too too small, too young.

for the the video game character as we know him. Yeah. So well Ragnarok has a bit of a time jump, so if he does sort of age up between seasons that will work i in their favor. Uh But yeah, I I mean but the other thing too is like to give it a bit of a uh benefit here, seeing the still, immediately I knew the scene from the video game, very early on sequence where where Kratos is teaching his

son to hunt or or not teaching, but like working with him to hunt. And I thought that was like, okay, that that's a good touch. Like the fact that you can you know, see that and know immediately where it is from the video game. I think all the other casting announcements are really good. So

It's just not a very good first impression, which is unfortunate,'cause I was really looking forward to this and I'll wait for a trailer, just like the Zelda thing. Yes. Yeah. This didn't quite nail it like Zelda did, I felt like, but uh the trailer's gonna be the main Test and Kratos and God of War is so over the top. that it's not impossible to do live action adaptation, but man, is it so many ways you could you could you could trip on that one. So I'm

Same with Zelda. Like I feel like seeing it in motion, you i it's possible to make a live action adaptation, but it is is probably super easy to like fall into a into a pit of despair and and and have like a awkward product at the end. So um fingers crossed. Yeah, we'll see how it goes. I mean it is Amazon. They did well with Fallout, so we'll see. We'll see how it goes. Uh we also had a Pokemon Presents um event and so they announced the next like main series, uh Winds and Waves.

Which it looks looks pretty and I recognized some, definitely not all, I recognized some Pokemon in the kind of images from the trailer. And it looks pretty decent. Like that that kind of like main giant um Spa looking hub building looks really cool. I'm assuming that's like the main City. Again, I don't know a lot about Pokemon. I don't really follow Pokemon. But um yeah, overall, like I think it it looked really good and uh yeah, the Pokemon I mean Pokemon are always adorable.

Yeah. I think the starters they did a really good job. I I think they all look Look uh look great. So I mean we don't know their evolutions or what they'll look like in their awkward mid evil uh mid evolution sort of teenage years, but then what they'll look like when they become the

the third evolution, but uh but yeah, I think I think they've nailed the starters. They look great. And um In terms of the trailer, I thought the performance, you know, I didn't see any issues there, although it's a it's a it's not out till twenty s twenty twenty seven, so we got another year to wait. But um but man, they're still using those shitty modem sounds for all the Pokemon. Yeah, I that is that is honestly my biggest complaint with Pokemon. I can't remember even which one it was that

we played a few years back. Um Sword and Shield, I think. Sword and Shield, yeah, that's what it was. It was. Uh and I mean, I really liked the game, but those sounds were just so off putting. It's 2026 now, guys. Like just update your sound bites. Like we're not that nostalgic. I I can't imagine like and I mean like I'm not a huge Pokemon fan. Maybe there are huge Pokemon fans out there that are like, absolutely not. Do not change my sound. I grew up with that sound. But

I I don't think those people exist. Uh you know, I complained about it. Everyone exists on the internet. I mean there yeah, there's definitely gonna be some people, but I think the vast majority of people that play Pokemon, like you guys You gotta want a sound update, right? Right? I mean even just with the ones from the show. The show is so good. I remember when obviously the games came out first and then the show came out and I I It was just

It made no sense to me. It's like, oh man, I can't wait until Technology catches up so that we can have these Pokemon say their names like in the show and then they never did it. And that is such a Pokemon thing, because for the longest time Pokemon was like, No. We only make portable games. It's pocket monsters, not

living room monsters or console monsters. Um, and then for the longest time they refused to make Pokemon games for uh the the home consoles where they would make like Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Coliseum and then they would make like weird spin-offs where it's like You know, well I guess yeah, it's a little bit like a Pokemon adventure, but like you know, but you can't capture Pokemon. It's all about like I don't know.

uh I I can't remember, it was like uh XD Pokemon XD, which is coming to the Nintendo Switch 2 through the online service that was also announced. But like they refused to make these games. So it's a very Pokemon thing. to be like, it took Nintendo killing the two like not killing, but like merging their handheld and console into the Switch for that for us to get proper Pokemon games on the console, uh the home console, because it was also a handheld.

So it does not surprise me that Pokemon's like, no. These modem sounds are for the video games. Only the show gets the Pokemon saying their names. And I betcha any money that is like they have meetings about it and they're adamant. It's like part of their charter of company rules or something. I just I wish that like even if they weren't gonna make the Pokemon say their names Even if they just gave them

like their closest approximation of real animal sounds. Like the ones that look like big cats, like give them a roar. The ones that look like little rodents, like give'em a squeak, like Use a real animal sound instead of that. Monstrosity. Technology dying in the corner. Like I can I can understand that there, you know, maybe potentially, you know, some issues with doing things exactly the same as the show or whatever. Like who knows?

Who knows what the reasoning is on the back end? But could we not just update to normal animal sounds? Like real, actual animal sounds, please. Yeah. That would be nice, but it doesn't even look like we're getting proper voice acting for the characters as well, which I am Again, I would go without voice acting for the characters if all they did was update those sounds'cause it just To me, they're very out of place. Right. Like th it just doesn't match

all of the other changes that they've made to, you know, like size of the game, gameplay, graphics, like everything else has gotten bigger and better over the years. And then you have this sound effect that gets more and more grading over time, right? Because they should be able to fix it. And so it's a stylistic choice that doesn't match all of their other stylistic choices.

Yeah. I agree. So hopefully, hey, maybe Nintendo Switch three, they're just waiting for the technology to catch up to have voice lines. So God. But I mean these these starters are great. You got uh the bird, the uh It says it's a bean chick Pokemon Brout and then the puppy Pokemon which is Pombon and then uh this water gecko gecwa or something. So Yeah, I really honestly I don't know how to say that. And I also don't know how to like segue into the joke that I made before.

'Cause I'm like, I'm so tired I don't even remember how this conversation went, but like I do not know how to say this and all I could think was je ne guécwa. Yeah, it does sound kind of French and I don't know like how you're actually supposed to say it, but Um yeah. I think he's my favorite.

The l the little gecko guy in the little water Pokemon. He's so cute. And like there's one shot of him like sitting next to the pool and you can kind of see like his little smirky smile. And I'm like, I kinda like that you can look like angry but like smirky smile cute at the same time. So I think he's probably my favorite. I tend to like the water Pokemon starters the most anyway. But uh yeah, he he is a a really big hit for me.

I can't I can't unthink this anymore, so I'm gonna make everybody think that and maybe this is already happening. But the bird looks like an angry an angry bird. It just it looks like an an escape from a Robio game. Yeah. It totally does. Um and then the dog is just a big thing. The pom bomb is looks like a Pomeranian. Like it's just yeah. Like let's print merch money, basically, is what that is.

I mean he's super cute. He's almost got a corgi butt. A Pomeranian face on a with a corgi butt and probably barks fire or something, I don't know, but No, he barks modem sounds. Oh God. I do think all three of them, like again, stylistically designed, they're they're super cute. They've uh yeah. Normally there's like at least one of the starter Pokemon that I'm like, hmm. Designed you and who picks grass? Well, not since Bulbasaur has it been cool to pick a grass type starter.

But yeah, I do think that this uh brout might um which is like just a smooshing together of brow and Sprout, I'm guessing. Well he's a he's a bean chick Pokemon, so yeah, I guess so. Could be. Uh but yeah, I do think uh yeah, they've done a they've done a good job with these designs. I think they're super cute. But Yeah, I will shake my fist to the grave about those sound bites.

Uh speaking of the grave, Highgard is dead. They have officially shut down, uh well, I guess they are shutting down as of March 12th, which will be their forty-fifth day since launch. So we're I think at like what six days or sorry, thirty six days now and yeah, so just over a week from now. But then they also announced that they were putting out a patch and like adding a new character and weapon or something.

Like why I I get like maybe the work is done and they just wanna show what existed, but I mean at the same time, why would you bother for the sake of a week? I don't know. But yeah, so they're they're shutting everything down. On March twelfth, which is uh just forty five days of availability.

Yeah, I mean uh I know a lot of people will say like, Oh, we we saw this coming and there was certainly a lot of writing on the wall for this. Yeah, we yeah, we talked about this last week or the week before when they had the layoffs and I actually saw right before this announcement

I saw an article come out that said um ha the uh developers, there's only twenty people left working at the studio. Like which you can build a good game with twenty or less people. I'm not saying that you have to have a giant team, but Uh yeah, for a for a live service game like this that had layoffs the size that they did, only twenty people left must have felt a little bit like rattling around an empty building.

Yeah. Well it's just wild because I mean obviously it's sad because you have this like big game that they've built out over the last three to four years and then for it to exist in a playable fashion for forty five days.

Yeah. I it just feels worse when it's a a live service game. Like if it's a game that they publish uh on consoles or PC and it's like a single player experience, it doesn't Doesn't feel as like as big a a big a miss, right?'Cause, you know, games can come out, they don't sell so well and then they kinda like

you know, move into the background and they're not really thought of as massive failures. But with live service games, it y it really does feel like a colossal miss when you put all this money into it, you are on the game awards, you launch with two million players, and then yeah, we're shutting down and forty five days is nothing when it comes to what they're chasing, which is a a live service game that never ceases to exist. So Yeah.

I think honestly, it has a lot to do or I think like the writing was on the wall so much is because it was free to play, right? Like if you have a free to play title and you can't convince more than six hundred people to keep playing your game, like that's That's pretty insane. Like there there isn't even that monetary barrier to entry that you would have with, you know, other titles of any kind. You're literally saying, please just come in and try our title. And people are like, nah. Yeah.

So I think like it would be one thing if it came out as like a a$40,$60 or something title, uh, and people were kind of gun shy. Then you could try other tactics. Like you could try a sale. You could try, you know, a going free to play. Like there there's more avenues available to you if you start with that monetary barrier to entry. But where they didn't have that, they they had a free to play title. There was nothing between

their game and their players and yet they couldn't entice people through the door. Like again, like you say, writing was on the wall. there really wasn't anything else for them to do. They had the giant advertisement. It's not like people didn't know who they were. And I do think that there was an element of people rooting for them to fail, but That's not going to keep like people root for things to fail all the time. That's not going to keep the majority of players away. Like I think they just.

their game wasn't as robust or as entertaining as players wanted. They tried it and didn't like it and they, you know, you you just can't pivot. fast enough, right? So yeah. They tried. I mean, they they did the um they envisioned the three V three. That's what they launched as, and they changed to five V five like That's not nothing. Like they did try things but it just yeah, just didn't work out. So Officially forty five days. That's it. No more no more high guard.

The game that, you know, closed out the game awards doesn't even exist as of March. Those bonkers. It's just so painful to go like imagine launching and having a successful launch with two million two million players. And how ecstatic they must have been only to see it, you know, slip through their fingers is just I I feel I feel I never played it, so I'm part of the problem I guess, but

I I do feel Well it's not your job to make sure every video game succeeds. No, it's not. You can't play everything, Ryan. I d nor do I want to. Look and and these games are not made for me. I I

I uh Marathon had a stress test the other weekend. Like I I have no interest in that. But I'm not rooting for them and and neither of us are rooting for these games to fail. But like they're not No Th they they're not for me and uh I do hope they find an audience, but like this is this has gotta be the one that people point to and be like, okay, maybe we don't just try to make a bunch of live service games. And I know Sony has some still in the pipeline and They're

crossing their fingers that marathon is marathon next? Like, you know, the the meme of the the Grim Reaper going to knocking on each door and and there's like an image of of each game that's failed and then is the next one Marathon? Is that what we're looking at? in the next month or so. Like I know it had a successful stress test, but like that means nothing because that's people being able to play over the course of three days only.

Well yeah, you super concentrate your your player base, right? And you also get a whole bunch of people. who are going to try the game and then maybe go, Oh yeah, that really wasn't for me and then not return for your launch. So I mean, yeah, I don't think, you know, high, low stress tests or whatever like not indicative of how the launch is gonna go, but uh yeah, that's definitely gonna be

It's the one everyone's talking about now and it's gonna be the one to to watch when it actually launches and we'll see what happens. But yeah, I hope that what they learn from the successes Particularly last year. Is that what a lot of people want to play are things like Expedition 33, you know, Hades Two, Silk Song, like the really, really, really solid single player offerings. Like that's what people are getting super hyped behind. And yeah.

their single player offerings so they have kind of a start and finish. But like you got out of each of those games probably a solid four to six weeks of like really high player counts, lots and lots of hype, lots of people trying them that maybe wouldn't have otherwise. And uh yeah.

I think there's uh a lot to be said for those kind of experiences. And I hope going forward the studios that remain learn those lessons and start to move away from live service and go towards more single player things. Horizon, let's go! Uh and speaking of Horizon, IGN didn't even mention Horizon in their stupid article, but uh Sony is pulling away from uh porting things over to PC for their single player titles. And um I think like

That's fine. They didn't necessarily see the return that they were hoping for. They didn't see, you know, really big player counts coming out of their PC port. I still really hope that once the third horizon comes out, uh or anything else, what else have they ported over to PC? Um God of War went over to PC, right? God of War, Yo Tsushima, uh Last of Us, both Last of Us games.

Well yeah, but last like Last of Us is done. Same with like Days Gone, Days Gone is done, but like where they have ported over these franchises that have like trilogies or continuations or whatever, like Ghost of Toshima, uh, cause Ghost of Yotai was the follow-up to that, right? So like I hope Ghost of Yotai gets a a port just so people who have started to play Especially with all of the news around like the AI stuff and the delaying of the next PlayStation and everything else, like where

It seems to be gamers have the hardware that they have now. I hope that, you know, they may not bring new franchises to the PC, but I hope they finish out like the God of Wars if there's another one. the Ghost series, the Horizon series, like finish those out for those those PC players and those PC fans because they may not be able to purchase a PlayStation.

PlayStation may not have stock like we saw happen to to Steam Deck, right? Like the hardware industry is very volatile right now, so I hope that they somehow take that into consideration. They don't have to shift everything to PC, but just kind of like

Finish what they started. You know? Yeah. I I I I mean that's a good argument. I I really do feel like look, when PlayStation was moving and putting their games on PC as For their strategy, it didn't didn't make a lot of sense, but like I appreciated it'cause I want more people to play these games and and you know, to cut them not to cut them too much slack, but they were releasing titles years after they were they were released on console.

Oh yeah, yeah. It definitely wasn't day and date or anything like that. I think that they were maybe hoping that by showing some like a basically like a new category of gamers what their first party titles look like and what they're all about that they were hoping that all of those PC players would then go and buy PlayStation.

And I think what ended up happening is they were like, Well, I'm years behind anyways, like I'll just wait for the next one. There's no r like I don't need to go by a PlayStation to play, you know, God of War Horizon, whatever. Ghosts of Yo tie day one, I'll just wait for the PC port. So I don't think that they were necessarily seeing

people go from that PC ecosystem over to the PlayStation ecosystem. I think there just wasn't that kind of player transfer that they were looking for. So It's probably uh probably not worth, I would say. the uh the developer time that they've been putting into those ports. It's too bad because, you know, it was it was great to see. And we had been kind of seeing the opposite trend from Microsoft in that

Xbox seemed to be saying, like, play all of our first-party games in all of the places, even on PlayStation. Why the hell not? Like Totally different attitudes, although we'll we'll see what actually ends up happening um after all the Xbox shakeup that we heard about. Was that last week or the week before? Last week. Oh, it was last week. Oh my god.

Yep. This last this last few weeks has honestly felt like the longest of my life, but also like where did it even go? Like I just have no concept of time. I've been so busy and stressed at work. Like I just I got nothing for you guys. But yeah, so given the Phil Spencer shakeup that happened, we don't know if

the attitude or the strategy over at Xbox is gonna remain the same or if they're gonna start pulling back into their hardware universe again. But yeah, it's definitely I'm it's an interesting shift. Like I say, I hope that Sony just um finishes off the um franchises that they've already started to port.

When it comes to Playstation, like they they I think they always saw PC as an experiment. And I I mean, I also wonder if they struggled with being a single to dual SKU hardware uh target with the PlayStation and the Pro version and being so used to that development cycle and then shifting to having to uh build uh build games to run on a wide variety of PC hardware if the

I remember the headlines, any time a a Sony game would launch, there'd be some headlines about like how bad it's optimized or how poorly it's running on certain hardware. So I just You have these three companies, you have Xbox that's like, let's put it everywhere. You have Sony like dipping their toes in and not liking the feel of the water, and then you have Nintendo being like, What's a PC?

So uh other than uh a a a device they use to make games, not play games. So it's it's just an interesting approach. Computers are for work, Ryan. Yeah. Come on. video games on a PC. Uh but I I I see why I s I totally understand. I know a lot of people who love to play their games on their PC. They don't like stuff being taken away and I totally understand that because not a lot of people want to buy a console.

But I actually think going forward it's gonna be easier to buy a console than it will be to build the PC that you're used to being able to build. So, um While we probably won't see a leap in hardware anytime soon, I do feel as though uh th this I feel like this news was inevitable. Like unless it was printing money.

They would keep doing it, but the fact that they are the the news is saying they're pulling back from putting their games on PC, that means to me that they just weren't, as you said, they weren't seeing a return on investment. So they're like, Well, we tried it. We're good. Didn't work out. Yeah. Experiments done. Yeah.

So yeah, we'll uh we'll keep you guys updated if we get any news about PlayStation putting anything else over onto PC, but doesn't look very likely at the moment. If you'd like to join in 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 josplays.com and Ryan is at ryanmurphy.ca.

Also be sure to check out the TGI Community Starter Pack at tiny.cc slash TGI Starter Pack. Thanks for staying at the Gamers Inn and remember, tune in next week. Bye everybody. Bye everyone.