TGI 682 - Nostalgia Road Trip

Hello and welcome to the Gamers Inn. Come on in, pull up a chair next to the looks like you've had a long journey. I'm your host Ryan and joining me this week is my co-host Hmm, how's it going, John?

Hello uh it's going well. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be back. Yes, you're guesting this week. Uh Jocelyn is out, uh she's she's got some stuff going on with work, so She is out this week, but I figured this was a great time to bring John on because I know Cor is likely to celebrate because it's a big week. for core fans, it is Mario Day, and I really do appreciate you.

uh setting aside the uh normal established stuff you should be doing on Mario Day, playing Mario games, and coming on the show to talk about Resident Evil Requiem. Abs absolutely, yes. We're gonna celebrate it as uh as only we know how, um, talking about a completely different franchise. Yes, yes, of course. And w uh neither of us played this on the Nintendo Switch too. So I think we're doing a really good job of uh

uh satisfying the Nintendo marketing overlords. So Yeah, well I hear it plays great on the Switch. So compli compliments to Mario for all the hard work he's done over there to Optimize this game. Yeah. Yeah. We really appreciate all his work. So Mario, take today off, hang up the tennis racket, the the doctor stuff. Yeah, put up your doctor stuff and Yeah. What else does he do? Oh he's a plumber. Take off your your golf

Uh shoes and he had a basketball game once, so put put the basketball away, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. It's like Final Fantasy characters in it too. That was weird, right? Yeah, that was weird. Well, Mario's taking the day off. He doesn't have to worry about any of that. Think about that. That one will break your brain. There's a Mario basketball game that has Final Fantasy characters in it. W how did this happen?

And then wasn't there like there was an NBA like jam follow up three D game, I think it was like Hoops, and they had Mario characters in it, but they were like sort of how like Fortnite applies a standard size to all her characters and it makes some smaller adaptations look a little wonky, like the repo bots look weird'cause they have to be like full size humans. I think that was an issue with the Mario. Yeah. They were just they were like normal model sized basketball players, but they

Yeah. So anyways, if if you want to break your brain further, you can look into that. But uh John is here because he has played a lot of Resident Resident Evil Requiem. I have played a good chunk of it as well. We are going to keep things spoiler free, although we've decided that uh we're gonna look at the marketing as our sort of idea of what we'll talk about story-wise. So everything established in the trailers.

We were joking that uh the return to Raccoon City is literally on the box art, so that is not a spoiler. Uh but we'll be talking about all that. with uh our Resident Evil Requiem chat. And let's not delay much further here because we've probably got a lot to say on the topic. Considering you've beat it four times, uh, do you want to talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, I don't know what happened with this game. Uh it's really weird. I kinda always go through this pattern with Resident Evil games as I finish them and I go, Oh, that was so fun and they have this thing where usually you beat it and it's it's kind of been a trend since Uh, I can't remember uh if RE2 remake was before village or not. I think it was before. So maybe from RE2 remake where it's like, oh, you got these challenge points.

Um, maybe it was even in seven. And you can use that to unlock cool stuff for the next time that you play through the game. And you can you can go in with, you know, here's this and it doesn't break, or here's a better version of a of a pistol, or stuff like that. And i I go through the same pattern every time I get done, it's like, oh, I got cool stuff. I should play that game again. And then usually on playthrough two, I lose interest and I fall off.

And for some reason in this, uh, two things happened. One, uh, beating the game unlocks uh insanity mode is what they've called it. And I wanted to see what it was like because I did get done with it and think, that could have been a little harder. And I I I thought, okay, so if middle of the road is too easy, how tough is insanity going to be? Turns out pretty tough. Uh turns out they it's not a misnomer. There's some crazy things. Um you know the the big

Pursuer enemies of the game are much faster than you, so you have to have good head starts if you wanna get away from them. Uh most enemies, including basic enemies, have attacks that will kill you in one hit.

Grace in her sections of the games basically can only take a hit, if at all. And there's a lot of extra hurdles thrown in. The game subverts a lot of things too. Um There's a There's a part in the game, I don't know if you'll remember this, but they kind of teach you when you're playing as Leon that like, hey, if you sneak up on an enemy, you can, you know, get kind of a stealth takedown sort of deal.

And then shortly after they give you the first one, there's one that's standing in a big pool of water. And it's like, ooh, you know, here's a tempting target. And when I went through that part of the game, I was a hundred percent certain there's no way they're gonna let me get this kill. Like there's gonna be something in the water that gets up out of the water and attacks you.

Um, and no, you just you sneak over there, you get them, no big deal. Well, that's because what I thought would happen was saved for insanity difficulty. That's where they put that sort of stuff. And so uh it really ups the ups the game in a lot of ways and and throws a lot of things at you that maybe you didn't expect. Sometimes even by taking things away. Like you think to yourself, Oh, I know something is here and then this time, oh, it's not here.

So it changed the way the game played in a in a really big way. And after having to restart the game Like five or six times just on the first switch to Leon, I I thought, this is really tough. I should play through this game again. And see if I can, you know, unlock some stuff that I can potentially take a little bit of the the challenge away. I don't want it to be too easy, but like Even something as simple as, you know, like if I can trivialize saving, if I can have like a infinite

ink ribbon, although I think that might be a reward for beating it on insanity. I don't remember now. But like if I can do something like that, that's something small, I can save my crafting to not have to craft ink ribbons for saving. And that's just that much more utility I can use in other places of the game. So I played through again with an eye towards, you know, kind of unlocking some stuff.

Um and there was uh there was another achievement in the game, and this was a big news story for a while called the Final Puzzle, which was this. kind of hidden, really obscure series of things you had to do to solve a big puzzle in the game. And it got solved. And it turns out you unlock a lot of challenge points for doing it. But it does require that you play through the game.

minimum I think two and a half times or two and a quarter times something like that to even be able to unlock it. And I thought, well I can I can do that. Let me work towards this final puzzle thing and work on unlocking a couple other things. And uh ended up beating the game again. And then I went back in to kind of uh once again finish everything up, and I just I got this weird idea of I wonder if I can do a bunch of the hardest achievements in one run. And I decided for my third run

To do don't use the um the blood collector at all. There's an a there's an achievement for that. For just I didn't even pick it up. Uh never use a healing item and beat the game in under four hours. And I went, okay, I'm gonna just try and do all three of those at the same time. And on insanity or for your third playthrough? No, no. This was on I set I set it to casual for this of course.

Uh and certainly not one I wanted to challenge myself on too too much. So I set it to casual and I was like, let's just see how I do. Um and I did it. I beat it in three hours, eighteen minutes, I think was my final time on it. And I thought this is swell. And all of a sudden, because I had unlocked so much. I went I really have the the run of whatever I wanna do. I can the I think the only thing I hadn't unlocked was infinite rocket launcher going into the

uh into the final playthrough. I was like, I can have infinite ammo if I want. I have all the weapons unlocked. I can do whatever I want. And so uh I I ended up playing on Insanity. Um it wasn't as difficult as a result, I'll tell you that much. Um, but it gave me an appreciation for what that mode is and how to get through it. That was the last achievement I needed. Uh so I once that was done, I've unlocked everything. And now, you know, if I play again.

There's a couple I there's a couple crazy things I'm planning on doing with the game as well as guiding Scott through it, which is I know was something that our listeners at least always look forward to with Scott going through these games because he's the most entertaining person in the world to watch play a horror game.

So I'm gonna guide him through it. I've got a couple other things I wanna do. I would like to try an actual like you don't have any Uh cool abilities unlocked version of insanity at some point.

But it turns out it's just a really fun game to play. It's a really fun game to kind of figure a route through, to kind of learn, because there's almost a puzzle element to it, especially in Grace's sections, of like You know, if I turn this light on, it'll bring this zombie here, which clears me a path to here, so I can access this like

It stops being after that initial thing when you kind of get over the tense moments and what's going on and what's going on here, it it suddenly just becomes this like little intricate puzzled dance. Uh I do this, this makes this happen, which allows me to do this, which allows me to get to here. And it just kind of becomes this flow state that you go through in the game.

And because it's something that can be done in about four hours, you're not carrying around with you uh such an insane amount of information. that how does a human being keep all of this contained? Like it actually flows very well together and it's like, oh, this is super doable and and not that difficult. And I had a really good time with it.

Yeah. I felt like my first playthrough it was very I don't want to say Bumbling, but I you kind of take your time with it and you go through and you're doing the puzzles and you and you're able to just Like any game you play for the first time, you're you're able to just kind of like hang back, look at where you need to go next, and there is that tension because it is the first time you're playing through as these characters.

Um, I had just I I finished the game. I just started my second playthrough. I funny enough, I'm I I attempted to do the same thing that you were doing, which was to do the no healing, no blood collecting and the speed run. But I I didn't prepare for the the initial grace segment, which is very puzzle focused, and I kinda got sidetracked and inventory management made me leave not one but two of like the critical pieces behind and I'm like, Oh, I'll just go back and get it. Which is

You can you tell that I've never speedrun anything? That's like famous never say uh things for uh for a speedrunner. I'll leave it and come back. I'll go back. Yeah. Come on. Although I will say I had that same thing happen to me to a degree. Uh you know, speaking somewhat vaguely about it, because again, we don't want to get into like big spoilers here, but that initial place you're in, you're collecting three MacGuffins, right? Uh to get through to get through the door.

And I I I was doing that and then it's during getting the third MacGuffin. that you go on kind of a little side quest uh under underground, right? And it it's actually probably my least favorite part of the game. I People are like, John, how do you not get scared at these games? I don't get scared, but I do get tense and anxious. And that part of the game, um Was d i it definitely grates on my anxiety. It's very dark, it's very loud, there's a lot of

Oh no, I gotta deal with this. Although I think the puzzle is very cool. Like the element of like I'm putting power in certain places as as I go through like that part I think is nice. Do all of that, get back up, got my MacGuffin, go to the door, put it in the door, and realize I only ever picked up one of the other MacGuffins. I completely missed one of them. And I had gone on to the third before I collected the second.

And I went, Whoops. I gotta go back and get it. I didn't even know that was a thing you could do. And I ended up having to wind my way back through and and do something real quick thinking I had been done. Um but even with that little oops, you know, still you you can recover. Um I still did pretty good.

And I think that the pacing of it is actually pretty fair. I feel like you can hit four hours with a good idea of how the game is played and playing it on casual and like kind of keeping track of things. Four hours is not gonna be so tight, although I have seen screenshots posted on social media of people that are like

four hours, ten seconds, right? And it's like your heart goes out to these people that were off by such a small margin. But I think that at least with a pretty decent idea of what you're doing, I think it is an achievable number to where most people on their second or third playthrough could probably put it together and and do it and and not go

Oh my gosh, it was so close. I do wish the game would tell you how far into it you are, though, because that is one thing the game does not do is give you a timer on how long you've been playing. Uh it it does if you go into the challenges and you go to the Oh, does it? Yeah. Oh, okay. That's hey, you know what? That's really nice of it. I didn't know that. So I was just I got to the end of the game and was like, How'd I do? I hope well.

Yeah, I was looking at so I was looking at the challenges and they do state like, oh, have you used any health? Have you used any blood collecting? And you and you can Um, you as you said, you can opt to just not even pick up the blood collector, which allows you to do uh a majority, probably ninety percent of the crafting for grace. uh how she summons bullets from Scrap and blood is uh up to anyone's guess, but

Um yeah, you can ignore that stuff. And but yeah, there's a counter in the challenges. I I I really have felt like usually I'm not one to play a game twice. And Let's let let's be honest, I'm not playing it twice for the story. Not that the story was bad. I I did really enjoy the story. I'm look, I'm a Nintendo fan. Nostalgia is uh fifty percent of of what powers my gaming. So uh Requiem was like, yeah.

That's great. Uh, I would say. Very nostalgia driven. That's kind of the biggest issue I had with Biohazard and Village is that it was too disconnected from the other Resident Evil stuff, uh, although it has connections, but this is very much like a sequel to the first six, uh with with small connections I I would say to seven and eight.

Yeah, it really this really feels like you could almost play Resident Evil two, four, look up a video summary of six and then go on to this and you would be you'd be fine for what is discussed and shown. Maybe one. You should probably play one. Yeah, yeah, I I it's been so long since I've played one. I know you had recently replayed it on the the Steam version. I I don't know where that's at, but I just remember that original GameCube remake being

Kind of the thing that started it all for me in terms of like really being into the franchise. Does that Steam version hold up? Like is it worth checking out? Yeah, it's awesome. Um, I had never played the original PlayStation version. And so I went and played uh I got on good old games, I got the trilogy and I played the original original and I I thought it would be like an experiment of a relic in time, right? You know, like

This is the game that launched it all. It was popular because nobody had really seen anything like it, but RE2 is what perfected it. And I still think kind of that's true. But I was not prepared for how much I liked original RE1. I thought it was like actually kind of incredible how much I enjoyed it. And it it really spoke to me about the pacing of that game. Like there was a really strong pace to that game at the speed at which you went through.

And then going to the PC version of the remake, which is the the kind of GameCube version that's on PC now, um That game, I mean, is a damn near perfect remake. Everything that is in the original is in there, and then more. And that's I don't think any of the other remakes can claim that. I think every something it gets cut from every single version of it and yet That GameCube remake has

everything in it. The the entire game and then the additions are really good. Um so it's a it's a phenomenal remake, but I actually found that the pacing of it and like kind of the cycle of it isn't a wasn't as strong. And I actually had more fun with the original than I did that. That said. It's a phenomenal way to experience that game. Um and I highly recommend it. Don't

Don't let me being an old man about the original was better um deter you from from trying it. It's very, very good. And amazingly graphically still holds up incredibly well. It's a little muted in the color palette, but I think it it plays to the game's strength. And But like it really doesn't miss a step and especially considering

how far back you're going. I mean it looks better than re4 uh original re4 does and like that's saying something like it's it's crazy how well that game has has held up. Awesome. Yeah, no, I I it It's been on my mind to play again and I I did play Village just before this one came out. I I had watched your playthrough with Scott.

And was like, okay, that might be enough'cause I found seven to be too scary for me. Um and then when they added uh the third person mode with the DLC and Village, I was like, Okay, I think I can do this now. Still got scared at some critical moments.

But with Requiem I I I was like, Okay, third person from the get go, it's not like a I'm not gonna say the DLC third person mode was like a like a mod or a hack, but it like it didn't they did some work there, but it didn't feel as though it was like This is definitely added on top of a game that was designed with first person in mind. And I really did feel like Requiem did a very good job of

Truly offering both Grace and Leon gameplay in first and third person. I did Grace in first person as recommended, and then Leon in third, and then I swapped it for my second playthrough. And I thought I would hate sort of Leon gameplay in first person, but it actually has been a lot of fun, especially playing on casual, because the zombies are it's like Mortal Kombat. They just kinda line up, do one on one.

And then you take them out. So it's fine. But I really man, Grace it the Grace stuff in first person. Are you gonna make Scott do that? Because like honestly that might ratchet up the the horror for him,'cause I really did feel like it really made it a lot scarier. That stuff for sure. Uh yeah, I think I'm gonna make Scott do that. I think I should. I always think back, there's that clip of him playing Outlast. where he looks like he legitimately has a heart attack on camera and I always worry

Yeah, yeah. I was worried that I'm gonna be there for the end making some joke and I don't I don't like the idea of that. But y I mean, yeah, I think they recommend it in first person. They do. Personally, so I did first person for a little bit. I'm uh I'm real again, just old man about Resident Evil, and I'm like, Resident Evil's a third person experience. And

So I ended up switching it. I really like both campaigns in third person. I think seeing Grace uh stumble when she runs. I think seeing a lot of the animations that get put in Um, there's a there's a part where she's carrying somebody and it feels more um personal where I think, you know, one of the criticisms I would have of the storytelling is like A lot of time with the characters doesn't get you don't get as much time with the characters. Um

to really feel super strongly about them, especially when some of those moments should be taken stronger'cause the characters are treating them as stronger. And just for some reason the third person version just made me feel it a little bit more, like that there's a connection there. And

So I I'm kind of a third person purist, so if Scott pushes back and he's like, Well, I want to play it in third person, I would probably let him, but I think I might just say, Hey, you know, what do you th what do you think? Let's keep you in first person for this for a little bit. I mean he liked seven and he liked eight and those were both played in first person, so he might enjoy it.

Yeah. I I think that for I mean honestly like if if i the the tripping stuff for Grace in third person versus first person not having that tripping mechanic just reminds me of was it Smash Brothers Melee that had the tripping or no it was Brawl. Brawl had the tripping, so they added tripping just to you know, make it more fun or make it more wild. You know? So it's like rubber banding in Mario Kart. They just added tripping for some reason. But I I do appreciate that they

they do add some additional changes depending on the perspective. I really felt like the um the the first person mode with the either the lighter or the flashlight really added to the tension and I can just there were there's there are many moments. There's a lot of jump scares. I've I've been criticized before saying there's no jump scares. There's definitely jump scares in this game.

And if you're playing in first person, those jump scares are designed to take full advantage of the fact that you are your character screen is right up in front of whatever is jumping out of you. So Take that for what you will at home, folks, that if you're if you're really not into jump scares, the third person mode

does help with that. Yeah. I think you're I think you're right though when you say that this game feels like a game that both modes have been kind of lovingly crafted. Like Whether it is things like Grace tripping or the animations you see when she's, you know, moving around the stuff that you you wouldn't normally see, that it's still implemented um very well.

That like that exists for the third person. For the first person, there are there are visual bits that so like in in the beginning there's a there's a door that's cracked. And if you peek into the door, um, there's like a standey or cardboard cutout inside the room. In third person, you won't see this. You're too far back. Um, you would have to be at a very weird angle to see that scare at all.

Um, or even that that thing exists. You're just not in a position to notice it. Maybe you notice it if you're trying really hard, but It would it be it would surprise me if someone was like, Oh, that scared me. That's something that's in there for first person players and first person players only.

And as a result, I feel like this is a game where if somebody says, I really love the experience in first person, I go, Yeah. And if they say, I really love this experience as in third person, I go, Yeah. I think they I think they crafted an experience that works in both and it really does feel like you can just pick what you want.

Yeah, for sure. A and I I think mixing it up on your second playthrough does offer additional layers of experience for when you go through again, in addition to those challenges you can do and Um, it has been it has been a lot of fun going through the second time. It really does feel like. it becomes more of like a Metroidvania focus as you're like just trying to find the puzzles and the pieces and going through the route. And it really did

emphasize the the puzzle mechanics of Resident Evil, which I I really love. It's one of my favorite parts of Resident Evil because y it's not just about taking out zombies, although the Leon action segments are a lot of fun and I found that even in the second playthrough I was Enjoying the combat for grace as I'm sort of zipping around the halls and around enemies and stuff.

It's uh it's it's just it's been a lot of fun playing the game and I I feel like because I d I don't often buy a lot of games like day one full price, um I'm more inclined to be like, you know what, let's let's go through again. I've been skipping like

Uh because I just finished it, I have been skipping the cutscenes. Uh outside of a few that I that that I found to be like, Oh, I remember this one. This was this was pretty epic. I'll likely watch those, but I have been skipping cutscenes just to kind of get through to the gameplay and just focusing on the action and the puzzle solving. has been really cool. And it is kinda odd when you boil down like a ten hour experience into a sub four hour experience, but This is your second, third

fourth maybe playthrough. The first playthrough w I was all about like soaking it all in, taking my time with the puzzles. uh approaching combat in a way that was, you know, thoughtful and like resource management, unless you're Leon, in which it's like, who cares? Just um Yeah, just shoot. That's fine. Just go nuts. I I really did love the return like the return to Raccoon City.

This is in the trailers. We won't go into more detail than like that, but you do go to the RPD, uh the the Raccoon Police Department. And just the nostalgia of returning to Raccoon City and going to that specific, you know, uh Area.

It's just it's kinda wild because like it is this nostalgia return and they've kind of well, they shied away from Raccoon City after they I thought they nuked it, but I guess it was just a missile uh Maybe just the mushroom cloud they used in the original R E two that throws throws me off, but I guess it was just a big missile.

I think there's a level of retcon regardless. You know, there's certainly cutscenes that show things getting completely decimated. There wouldn't be anything standing. Um, it does look like a nuke the you know, in the originals when it goes off, but Yeah, they they do say that it's uh it's a missile strike. Um is how they tend to refer to it. And I heard some people say that like

Oh, this game like a criticism of this game is like it falls on member berries and stuff like that. And I gotta say, I don't think it was that bad. Like, if you look at Resident Evil We've never gone back to Raccoon City. Like that has never happened before. games taking place in there, at least in the main line,'cause I I mean offshoots I feel like kinda like that is where you tend to put your

Hey, remember, you know, like we're gonna do a light gun game. How are we gonna sell that? Well, we're gonna base it on Resident Evil Two. Um, but in in mainline games, we haven't seen Raccoon City since uh Resident Evil three. Um, and if you wanna count the remakes, which were obviously going to take place there, you know, Resident Evil 3 remake was still a pretty long time ago, and even then it's not a return to it. I doesn't feel

Over the top to me. Um, and I and maybe this is because I think it was maybe a month, maybe even less. uh than before the the trailer and the announcement hit. I was sitting there and I was thinking, I was like, man.

Wonder why we've never gone back to Raccoon City. Like I was just thinking about Resident Evil and like there were rumors that a new game was gonna come out, but nobody knew what it was gonna be. And I was like Man, they never they never went back to Raccoon City, and I'm so shocked that nobody ever went. What happens when you combine Fallout and biological monsters? It just feels like it would be so so rife.

with potential. And then I feel like it was a couple weeks later all of a sudden it's like, hey, if here's a trailer for the new Resident Evil and guess where we're going. And I was like, oh my gosh, I manifested it. Um, I think, you know, i uh it's called fan service because it services the fans and uh

Thank you. I've been serviced. Like I think this was I think this was really good. I was really excited to to go back there. I it's not like they pull this out every single time they make a new video game. And uh I'm more than happy allowing them to have an entry that just goes, Hey, we're gonna go kinda hog wild with it and Uh, I still feel like it was restrained. I still sit back and go, they could have done more. Yeah. And it would have been fine.

Yeah. I I felt the same way in terms of uh I was just gonna say that I f I feel like they were very restrained in how they Look, Resident Evil is this very connected franchise. It has beloved characters that through uh like Ha I think the last direct to video they did it was like uh I think it was Resident Evil Dead Island, maybe? Yeah, that sounds right. Yeah, they bring everybody back. And it's it's basically an Avengers Resident Evil

Direct video. It's c that's fan service. That's like everybody in the same room. You know, they're they're at they all work at the same office. They're having a a casual conversation as they're making their coffee in the morning. They all

fight a monster at the end. That to me was like, okay, that's not holding back fan service. But Requiem It it has its name drops, it has its characters that show up, it has resolution to they do say that Requiem is the culmination of everything that had come before, and they set out to do that. But I uh as you said, like this isn't this isn't like a Marvel cinematic universe post credit like, oh, who's that or what's this and

A person I think your story on Corps about like, you know, Claire Redfield showing up to just just be like, hey, you did it, or like saving them at the last minute, there's none of that weirdness. It's still got the same like Charm of Resident Evil, where like over-the-top stuff is happening and uh they don't hold back there, but there isn't this like. Oh, like so-and-so has showed up or man, we haven't seen Rebecca Chambers in twenty years, and here she is, you know.

it it plays to the characters that has have been established. Uh in the marketing and and they kind of focus in on that and they don't really get into the weeds of like, what is everybody else doing? Even though you could say that this specific incident feels like would be an opportunity to be like, Bring everybody in. They don't do that though.

Yeah, it actually could have. And like that's the that's the crazy bit is I do feel like there's a version of this story um that is uh Resident Evil endgame, you know, like that really is like There's never been a facility quite quite like this. We gotta all come together. Um we all we all have to play to our own strengths and do our own things.

Like it it it absolutely could have existed. They kept it focused on the characters they wanted it focused on, and I think it's strong. And yeah, there is a part that is uh a little reminiscing. It is such a small part of the game though. It is so tiny. Um in in fact If you play through this game without an eye for I need to explore and do everything, the part of this game that is the nostalgia bait, like, oh my gosh, it's that thing from the game I played.

is maybe five minutes of the game. Like, it is such a small amount of time, especially if you skip cutscenes. And it is it is such a tiny, tiny part. It might seem longer to a lot of people, but if it seems longer to you, it's because it worked and you spent a lot of time exploring that space. But in terms of what you actually are there and need to do.

Most of it is skippable and m like you know, you you go, you grab an item and then you go through a door and you're done. Like that's all you really need to do. So It's it's kind of crazy. I don't think it relied too much on fan service. I think the stuff that it it put in there.

is exactly what you want to see. And I think it also um it also served a purpose uh which was kind of showing the growth of Leon because we are in a unique We're in a unique spot with his character specifically, where we've had You know, two remade. Then we had four remade. And now we have this. And you have this natural arc from him being I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what's going on. To now being this like hardened badass, you know, he kinda is Resident Evil's John Wick.

Um, to a degree. Uh I don't know what that would make Chris. Uh Leon's John Wick, Chris is Rambo, I guess. Yeah. Uh You get to see it. And I it's like this is the opportunity to do that. You can you can show footage from Resident Evil to uh and and four and this game back to back and you can see the growth of that character as they've aged. You have the same voice actor performing it in those games. Uh

Also doing a hell of a job when you think about it. When you think about you go back and play two or even four and compare the vocal performance to what he's doing in Requiem and it's like, man. really he really is putting on a big performance here. Um so, you know, kudos there and and also that's just true in general.

Like I just have to say the performances in this game were stellar. In fact, there is a uh there is a cutscene when you kind of find out about Grace's past and and what she's gone through. that I don't know if I will ever watch when I play again because the performance is so good it genuinely makes me feel bad. Yeah. Um she does a phenomenal job uh across the board on on all the performances here. And uh even the the villain that we've seen in the trailers, Victor Gideon.

stands out as a very unique performance, like very well played to where I watched the Carbot animation for Resident Evil and just the fact that in the Carbot animation

He does the nobody cares about you and draws it out really long in that weird way. And then of course the grass and he just yells. Like it's a performance that it immediately sticks with you, like the things that he says and the way that he says them, uh, because it's just done so well and I can see him being You know, in a couple of years time so many people have played that game and that performance stands out so much.

I I think we're gonna see it clipped into YouTube videos, uh little lines here and there that he performs of like imitation and stuff like that. uh I see that that stuff standing out to me. So I think across the board performances were incredible. Yeah, I agree. I think th there was really like even Like there there are some characters later on that it's like, Oh gosh, it's it's this resident evil archetype, but even then it was fine and I I think Grace's performance specifically

really elevated her as a as a new character for Resident Evil. I think Ethan Winters I always struggled with him because I I think they had this weird thought that like, oh, it's first person, so we need to put the character You know, the we need to put the player in the character's shoes. We don't want to show his face. We wanna make him as plain as possible.

And then in eight they did try to walk some of that back, but still keep the s you know jokey you can't see his face, and then eventually they relented and gave him a face. Uh I I thought that, you know, didn't play well to make like a great Resident Evil character. I don't think Ethan Winters is gonna stand

alongside like he'll probably be, you know, in the lobby with Billy from Resident Evil Zero, you know, like I don't he might get a little farther than the lobby. I don't know. But He's not gonna be like the Leons, the Chris's, the Jills of of the franchise. Ethan is a terrible character that has a really great story. Yes. And like I think that's kind of the tragedy of him is that when you look at at Ethan's story over the course of seven and eight, It's really good.

And then it's attached to a guy that most people are like, Well, what does he look like? I don't know. No beats me. Uh there's always something hidden hiding his face. And I think as a result it is I think he's been kind of done wrong by some decisions early on because I feel like if If Ethan had been given a chance to maybe have a little more personality.

and and look like something besides the jokey shadow over his face all the time. Um I think he I think he would be in that pantheon of characters because his story is so good. but their decision to make him dude McMahon, um, it's like, okay. I he I he's not he's not memorable, but the things he did are incredible. So

I I fe I feel for Ethan. He's n not gonna be on the Mount Rushmore of Resident Evil characters, but his story was really compelling. Yeah. Did you end up playing the DLC for Village at all or? I did. Okay. Um Yeah, the the something of Rose or something like that. The Yeah. Shadows of Rose.

Shadows of Rose. The the shadows of Rose and Thorns or something. Yeah. Uh yeah, it was it was good. And, you know, technically the furthest we've ever gone in the Resident Evil timeline. You know, that's still in the future. Yeah, I thought that was a little weird, but I I figure with whatever they do next.

It doesn't i like whatever they do next, they can kind of, you know, leap ahead of that and and incorporate it. But but it is a a very interesting sort of bookend to village without impacting the the franchise overall and and yeah, Requiem uh I sounds like we both really enjoyed it. Uh it's a great entry in the franchise, selling like crazy five million plus copies. And we did get uh before we jump into the news, we might as well just talk about this Resident Evil news.

Uh the director of the game has sort of laid out the post-launch updates, including a photo mode coming very soon. bug fixes and all that, then teasing that there will be a surprise in May with a mini game. I'm really hoping it's mercenaries mode just based on the fact that the combat in this game is phenomenal, but I feel like they would have just said that, right?

Uh maybe uh maybe they're involving it in some way. I if it's not more combat, I will be sad because I I will tell you m apparently there is already a mod that is very popular. that puts more zombies in the game. Um, it is something I think a lot of people feel, which is like the Leon sections. Are just super fun, but way too short and not nearly enough enemies. I genuinely feel like

Not that I want like a ton of the like crazy super difficult enemies necessarily, but like you could double the amount of enemies in Leon's campaign. Double. And I'd be like Alright, that's a we're getting there. We're we're almost where I need it to be. Like it's just Uh this is easily the most fun I've ever had with Resident Evil's combat. You know, gun parries and the melee kicks and the way you can strategize where you shoot'em and even like the crazy powerful enemies.

um, you know, the more evolved versions of your typical zombie, like it you learn very quickly that if they get knocked against something, they get an instant melee kill. Or characters that carry something, and when they go down, you can throw or swing something, and you so you start chaining these kills together. It feels Awesome, but then it's like, all right, here's four guys, and you're like, Man, I was so cool for two seconds, now it's over.

Yeah. I will say insanity mode does add a lot more zombies. Like you do get more. Uh, but it it also comes at the expense that they're They will beat the shit out of you two at the same time. So it's like, oh no, it's really rough. Um but yeah, I I could use more combat. So mercenaries would be really good. Um there's a certain character in this game this we can't talk about. that I think there's I think there's more potential content they could have shown. Um

Despite the fact that that character seems to be dead. But are they? Hmm. Is anybody really dead? Really? No, but this ca this character's especially not dead. This character s seems to die. But if you go back to look for a body later, they're gone. Ooh. Could just be video game stuff shenanigans happening, like Yeah, except they don't do that with the other bodies. No, they don't. Very clearly they don't. Oh well, maybe.

We'll have to see. I'm just I'm just telling you, I don't want to say too much because it would be a spoiler to tell you which character I'm talking about. But You know what I'll do? I'll just type it. Yeah. Just type it to you. I I think I know the character you're talking about, but it would be good to confirm because it it was Oh uh oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I was thinking of another uh character. Uh the the other character was was spoiled for me. Uh I think it popped up

uh in like a TikTok video or something. But yeah, that moment was really, really cool. I do wonder like when you think of a minigame And it's related to like what was happening. Mercenaries Mode does does come up first and and I think that uh what what is really cool about Mercenaries Mode is that not only do you get your base characters, but they do add in like additional characters. I remember that was a big deal with uh the uh four mercenaries mode is you could play as additional

Characters that weren't playable in the main game. So not just Leon, but I think you could be they had Luis. Like I'm pretty sure I played as Wesker at some point, but yeah, like Louise, Leon, Ada, Hunk, like all these characters are are very synonymous with mercenaries mode. Um And I mean that's another mode. I mean, my favorite my favorite song from Resident Evil Two remake is that um

Oh, what's the name of the mode where you have to do is it just called Fourth Survivor? Uh the story of Hunk and him getting out. But anyway, that mode was super cool. I don't know if I would want that though, because while that would be a lot of combat I get stressed out by the timer, man. That mode is tough. Uh but I'm excited no matter what it is. I I want more Requiem. Oh and before we get

Too far away from this, they also did confirm there is story DLC coming as well. So not just the mini game, but also eventually they said we are we're developing story DLC. Uh yeah, focused on diving deeper into the world of Requiem and that I'm assuming that will be post or uh sorry, paid DLC, uh whereas they think they made reference to the minigame being a free up. I think how they've approached it, but

Um May it's funny'cause May seems so far away, but it is it is only two months. So we'll we'll likely have it in our hands before we know it. uh and the story DLC sounds like it'll be later this year. Maybe a trailer in the summer. Seems like a really good way to like keep the game fresh in people's minds uh in the summer and I think people were

You know, to circle back to Nintendo, they were looking at the release date for the amiibos and being like, Huh, July. That seems like a rather suspect time to release I mean you could say it's like hardware related You know, we need time to manufacture, but at the end of the day, if they tie that to the DLC coming out.

Timing kind of makes sense. So Yeah. All right. Well, you know what? I think that is a good chunk of Resident Evil Requiem for today. Uh I want to thank our patrons at patreon.com slash the gamers in.

If you want to support the show, that's the best place to do it. Uh we have our monthly host special coming up soon. Jocelyn's going to be recording for March. We have our game night on Friday, March 20th. It does look like our Nintendo Switch Online Virtual Console games are going to be uh what we're playing this month. And of course, if you can't make it live, uh VODs will be available for patrons on patreon.com slash thegamers in.

Now let's jump into the news because uh we've got we've got some recent stuff and then we've got some uh some stuff that sort of you know uh came out late last week. Uh kicking things off with some some weird back and forth that happened. We've talked about these valve steam machines and the other hardware they're looking to launch this year. For like an hour, there was an update on their community forum thing say stating that the hardware might not launch in twenty twenty six.

It it was very weirdly worded as if like, hey, this might not happen. Uh I guess someone reached out and was like, uh no, uh we are actually launching in twenty twenty six. So they kind of bounced back and forth. There's still Very concerned about the memory and storage shortages. It's still gonna be challenging, but they still want to launch in 2020. I I think this means that those are e gonna be expensive and hard to buy in twenty twenty six, but yeah.

Uh that seems seems likely. I mean I do I got the impression when it was first announced that this was scheduled to be something early twenty twenty six. Yeah. And it wouldn't surprise me if this is gonna wind up being something that's late twenty twenty six now or at least later twenty twenty six. So I I believe there will probably be a delay. Uh, but the fact that they're still targeting this year, um, I mean we already kind of were

They were getting ahead of it. They were like, Hey, this is this is not gonna be a loss leader machine. You're gonna be paying for it. Um, but they're they're still planning on it coming out. Um I d kinda have the same feelings about it that I did. I'm not exactly sure who this is going to be for if it ends up launching at a very high price. Um but I mean it doesn't mean I'm not interested in it. Those are two very different things. I'm interested in a lot of things.

To go back to Resident Evil, Leon looked at his nice uh Hamilton watch and I went, wow, that's a that's a nice watch. I'll never own that. That's not it that's not in the cards financially or realistically. I never wear a watch. Why would I need that? But I liked it and I kind of feel the same way about the Steam Machine. I think it's gonna be more than I'm willing to spend on something that I'm

Not a hundred percent sure what my use case would be for it. Uh, but I do think they look nice and I do think they're intriguing. And maybe I'll just settle for a new controller because I'll always try a new controller. Yeah. I think

We've talked about the Steam Machine on the show before and and I I know if I don't mention this, uh the Discord would be like, But Ryan, you said this was for you and and I and I think the Steam Machine fits nicely with um a s a specific, you know Type of gamer that probably did a lot of PC gaming in the past and is not necessarily tied to the PC ecosystem like I'm good getting out of PCs. I understand that PCs are still very popular. And um I know listening to Core, yourself, Bo, Scott.

have very uh well put together rigs and you can run stuff uh at you know, you you do a little bit of tweaking, you ratchet the settings up, you're good to go. I don't think the Steam Machine is specifically for folks who have a current and suitable uh computer. My computers are on their way out. I have an opportunity to kind of like console

a fy the experience. I do love my consoles. And I think that's sort of where they're targeting or where they're gonna see their best pickup. But what you said there with price, price is certainly an issue. Like I've I think I've kind of like bounced back and forth and from a Canadian dollar perspective, I feel like if this thing costs more than a thousand, the more it goes away from a thousand dollars

it it gets harder and harder to justify. Because I do have consoles and I like that experience and I can play my games there. I do still have my computers that can can run stuff well enough. But yeah, that's the struggle. Is that it's it's it's I don't know the price, so it's very hard to say. And I I think if you do get into a point of like, okay, it's gonna cost you fifteen hundred dollars, it's like, well then maybe

Maybe you just if you really do want that PC experience, you just buy a computer. Uh It's tough. It's uh like if you're spending more on the steam machine than you would on a PC. Then you might as well just buy a PC, right? That that's where my brain goes. Or pay less and get a console. You know, the stuff that's coming out right now, by all accounts, looks

Stellar on the the higher end PlayStation. You've got Xbox announcing, you know, whether or not you wanna have faith in'em. I'm not telling anybody to do anything. Uh, but you know, they're promising that this project Helix is gonna be, you know, uh ultra powerful and function as a PC. Um, you know, who knows what that's gonna cost. But there's a decent chance that, you know, for console prices.

You can you can be doing just fine. I mean the biggest appeal of this is just like with the Steam Deck, you buy the hardware and oh look, I have an amazing library of games that I have access to. Um, and that is incredible, but you can't just drop fifteen hundred dollars on a hey, this is neat. That's that is a huge ask and um you know, I think that once the pri once the price crosses a certain threshold, I think there is a lot of like, how badly does that novelty

Uh how how much weight does that carry versus like, yeah, I'll spend less and I'll get the games here and there that I want? And, you know, yeah, it doesn't come with a big library, but I'll get to play Wolverine when it comes out, you know, like it's it's tough to say. Yeah. You know I I And and Steam as the the ecosystem, I think, really sells the Steam machine. I do recognize that if you have a Windows PC

you do have access to all those games and those platforms on Steam, Blizzard, whatever. Uh but right now there is this there's this w weirdness going on with Microsoft and Windows and Xbox of like, hey Do I really want to use those systems? Uh you know, uh is it it is a is it is it offering a suitable experience? Most of the time my experience with Windows I I primarily engage with it uh on

for work related purposes and then I have my gaming PC. And and the gaming PC has been fine. It it's worked. I haven't had Outside of the inability to upgrade to Windows eleven and having like a reminder constantly that, hey, you know, your extended support ends in in October. Better figure it out. Don't Google Linux, please. Uh Yeah. I know we supported all our other operating systems for a lot longer, but for some reason we're not doing it anymore. Uh

And sorry, your computer just won't won't run it. So Yeah. It's a it's it it'll be really interesting to see what happens. in October when we get there and and whatever, if they blink or if they just say, Nope, that's it. It's done. We'll have to see. But you mentioned Project Helix, and I think this is a good time to talk about it. Because it is the Steam machine, essentially, but it's the Microsoft machine. It's the it's the Xbox machine. It's going to be an Xbox.

that is a PC that will likely emulate what Ste uh Steam Deck did with game mode being the more Xbox experience and then desktop mode being Windows. And I think that's The toss up here is like if you and you're gonna spend more money on the Project Helix, it is likely not going to be console priced. I th I think if you are looking at the console side of things

PlayStation is gonna have a really interesting opportunity to price their system, which will be a console. We had the story last week about them, you know, backing away from PC. I I really do think the next console from PlayStation will be a console priced machine. and then put up against the Xbox or whatever it does next with Project Helix. the price will be probably vastly different. And you'll have these, you know, sort of hybrid systems costing more but offering more functionality.

But then when it comes down to it, it's like, okay, does does the average gamer want that functionality? Or do they just want to put the disk in and have it download and have it run? Uh like I think it's the latter for console. gamers specifically. Yeah, I mean Project Helix is gonna run into the same problem that the Steam Machine is. It's gonna come down to price. And I'll tell you, like Let's say they both cost, you know, fifteen hundred dollars. Let's go big.

Uh that makes it easy if you're if you're getting one of the two to go, all right, Steam Machine. That's where already where I own all my games. And there will be other people out there who go, Okay, well Project Helix, because you know, I had a three sixty and I had a

you know, Xbox Series X and that's where my games are. Like people just go where the games are. Um but I think that the hardest thing that they're going to have when it comes to PC games is that when you try and say, Okay, I'm gonna compete in the PC games market PC gaming has uh become synonymous with Steam. And if your console's big thing is you can play PC games, well it's not gonna I shouldn't say not gonna, we don't know.

But I would bet that it is not going to import your Steam library and let you play all your Steam games. I don't think that's gonna happen. Um, maybe if it runs like a base level PC and it's just got Windows installed and you can install whatever you want. Then maybe, maybe you can put steam on there and and maybe it becomes worth it to some degree. But if you're spending the same amount of money, you might as well just get a steam machine at that point. So I'm a little bit like

Good on them for not just folding and being like our next thing is the Xbox AI. It's gonna be uh fifty dollars and it's all gonna be generative AI making all your games for you. Here we go. Woo! Um, you know, it's not it sounds like they are still trying to compete, good on them, but uh right now everybody's strategy seems shaky. You know, I feel like when we came into this console generation it was like okay, Microsoft's going all in on Game Pass.

Sony's doing what it always does. It's going all in on big, you know, triple A exclusives. Nintendo is as usual doing its own thing and somehow succeeding in spite of itself. Um Like that seems to be the path that everybody's walking. And you look at like, okay, what's next? I don't know what anybody's doing. Nintendo will still be doing Nintendo.

They're they're always gonna be running on uh years ago hardware but making crazy games for it that people just wanna buy and it's gonna work out just fine for them. What Microsoft and Sony do next, I have no idea. Can they weather the storm of whatever that is? I don't know that either. I I

I don't know. I think Valve will be fine if the steam machine doesn't sell well. I think this is a fine experiment for them and they'll put it out, see what happens and either move on or go, Hey, we got another hit, you know. Well I think everybody of everything mentioned tonight, I feel like Xbox has the most to walk away from. They they are like if Project Helix

It's a gamble to put out a system that is like overpowered, you know, it's got the functionality of a PC and a console. It's likely to be priced higher than traditional console prices. The Switch two, when it launched, like there was sticker shock there for that price. And If a console that isn't a launch pro version, like I think the PS5 Pro is like 900 bucks here in Canada. I could see if Project Helix pushes above a thousand as you said, goes or closer to fifteen hundred.

it I I feel like it it might not sell very well. And I could see Xbox or Microsoft rather being like, yeah, like we just we just make games now and they're on everything and we don't have a box. Um, and maybe Microsoft gets out of the hardware business. They I think Xbox has really been Microsoft's like longest running hardware. Like they don't really

do a whole lot else. Like they had the Zune and they had a couple of VR headsets, but Xbox has kind of been They're long it would be sad to see it go, but also it hasn't had the most coherent years lately, and it wouldn't be surprising, but it would be odd for it to dreamcast its way out of here. So I don't know. I I we'll see. But yeah, it comes down to price.

Yeah, we'll see what that uh that brings when we get additional details later this year, I'm assuming probably uh this summer, when Jeff Keeley gets up and hypes us about the next thing. Uh you know what, let's throw Nintendo a bone here. Let's talk about the final trailer for the Super Mario Galaxy movie, which uh reveals uh it was actually part of a direct, but they revealed the voice actor for Yoshi. And

You would probably be alongside many other folks if you didn't realize that, oh, I thought it was just Yo Yoshi noises. Like he does speak a little bit in the trailer. But he's gonna be voiced by Donald Glover. Which look awesome. Yeah. Yeah yes.

Yeah. You can't tell from the trailer. I don't know if they're like saving And I don't think you're gonna be able to tell in the movie unless they do some joke and look, Illumination not above it, where he gets zapped by a ray or something and all of a sudden starts talking. Yeah. Just like Donald Glover for a couple of minutes and then goes back to being and all that. I hope that happens. I hope you're manifesting that like you did Raccoon City.

Oh my gosh, no. No. Come on. Oh my gosh. I get here's the problem. Uh-huh. Okay. I don't want to get us on a major soapbox about the Mario movie because it's fine. It it makes me laugh. When it's on, I don't get that upset about it. It's a fine mood. Sounds like you should be able to do it. It should have been a phenomenal movie. Okay. It should have been great. Instead, it's fine. And it's fine that it's fine. It doesn't need to be great.

Just because it could have been, it doesn't need to be. But this I knew going in, you know the stupid star bit in the first movie that's like just so over the top and over dramatic. I'm embracing death and all of that. I was like I was like, oh god, people laughed at that. And now, because like a toddler who got his parents to laugh. It's g that's who writes these movies is children. And because someone laughs He's gonna be featured.

far more prevalently in the next movie. I guarantee it. And I was like, I watched the trailer and I was like, they're not doing it. I'm I'm impressed. They're putting all these little star bits in there. And no n that one's nowhere to be seen. I was like, maybe they just saved him for the in credits and they actually learned how to how to rein things in. But nope, there was a there was a Marvel

teaser at the end that we're gonna d focus more on that stupid star bit. I was like, they haven't learned anything. This is this is written by children. Um And I love Donald Glover. Happy's getting work. As Yoshi. I don't think that's a problem for him. Um But this is also like He didn't need this. Yoshi didn't need a big name attached to it. What are you doing?

Why are you making this movie ridiculously more expensive to make than it needs to be? Have him voice an actual character in the movie. What is with this weird stunt casting that you're doing? Like, what are you doing?

I I don't understand it and it it flies in the face of everything that I believe and it it just confirms biases I have towards um like how the movie industry works and stuff like that where it's like surely nobody will go see this film unless an actual voice is Yoshi, what are you doing? He doesn't you anybody could voice Yoshi. It would be fine. Nobody would be upset. And I just why did you have to do this? I it baffles me. It absolutely baffles me. And you know what?

I'm sure the Super Mario Galaxy movie will also be fine. It could also have been great, but I'm sure it will be at least fine. Yeah, no, I I I I think that uh it it is very movie animated movie expectations of like, well, we need to have a top tier actor voice everything. Um and and maybe not even top tier, but we just need like, you know, recognizable names to voice everything. And some of the others that were uh announced were

Issa Ray as Honey Queen, which was not featured in any of the trailers. Maybe she's on the poster, but also uh uh Luis Guzman as Wart. From Super Mario Bros. to fame. So Wart's back. That seems like a deep cut. I was excited to see all the Mario Bros. 2 stuff. I do I do like Mario Bros. 2. American Mario Brothers 2. I think it's great. I think the art in a lot of that stuff is phenomenal. I just

It's like this is why we had Chris Pratt as Mario. Oh yeah, a hundred percent. He did a fine job. He wasn't awful, like the movie, it could have been better. But he didn't detract it. Honestly, there's only one vocal performance in the first Mario movie that I don't like. Um and that's Fred Armison as Cranky Cup. And I like Fred Armison. I think he's a funny guy. I laugh at everything he is in except the Mario movie. Um I think everything uh vocal casting in that movie is fine.

But Cranky Kong was bad. And that's not stunt casting. Nobody's like, we gotta get Fred Armison for this role. So like the one role they didn't do that for was the worst one. Bye. I just I see it and I'm like, there's not another character Donald Glover could have voiced. Yoshi is what we're having him do. I mean, that's like the joke from South Park when George Clooney came in and they had him voice Stan's dog. Like, it's a thing that's done for jokes.

Yeah. I would have liked to see Donald Glover like get a Like I don't know, like I just assumed Yoshi was going to be Yoshi sounds, and that's what we got in the trailer. And and it's not even on the same level as like uh Toad, where it's it's kinda hard to p to hear the voice actor, but like you do you do get a sense of it. It is heavily modified in post, but this Yoshi one is it's

I mean Yoshi's had lines in the other trailers and you just assume like, Oh, that's just a that's just someone doing the lines and then they're running it through a Yoshi filter. You know, it's you can't tell who it is, but uh now we know. It's Donald Glover. I wonder how he feels about it. He wasn't in the direct, so he d he couldn't tell us whether he was excited to be Yoshi or not.

I mean maybe he's excited. Look, I as somebody who always picked Yoshi and Mario Kart, I would be thrilled to voice Yoshi. Sure. Um and maybe this is just sour graves. But really it's more about the fact that it couldn't have been cheap to get Donald Glover. Like why and I'm

I'm getting on a soapbox about this movie that doesn't need to I don't need to be. Everybody knows what those movies are, and again, they're fine. I do think the first movie peaks at the scene where they go to do the plumbing and they have to deal with the dog. I think the movie is all downhill after that. That's the start of the movie. It that is the start of the movie. Is the best part of the movie. The best part of the Mario Brothers movie is from the start.

To they get home from that plumbing job gone awry. That's the best chunk of the movie. Yeah. After that, it's not as good, but it's okay. Yeah. It's a fine it's a fine movie. It look, it could have been a lot worse. So uh Uh it could have been. You're right. It could have been worse. I tend to say it could have been a lot better. Oh yeah. Yeah. You know maybe this is a glasses half empty, glasses half full kind of thing. I think it could have been a much better movie.

But I think it's fine. My son likes it. You know, he's a good He's a good meter for this sort of thing. But look, I used to say that Cars was the worst Pixar movie ever. And through the lens of having a son and watching that movie because he loved it. And seeing that movie so many times, Cars is now like a comfort film for me. Like if I'm feeling stressed, I'll put on cars and it'll just chill me out and I'll just be happy.

I don't feel that way about Mario, so it didn't make it through the kid filter that much. So I don't know. I still get a little bit like uh Guys, come on. Try a little harder. Yeah. I and you know, maybe maybe this will be them I feel like they're throwing a lot at this film. Like they're, hey, the first one worked. We made a billion dollars. Let's do Super Mario Bros. Two, Super Mario Brothers three, Super Mario Galaxy.

uh, you know, Galaxy Two, we got Yoshi in there. Super Mario World, yeah, let's get Yoshi. It's just a lot and I uh it wouldn't surprise me if they end up throwing like Egad in there so they can get Little Luigi's Mansion stuff in and I feel like they're trying to do it all with this movie. Don't forget, we gotta devote a lot of runtime to the stupid star because people laughed one time at his joke.

Yeah, that's true. So let's make let's make him a police officer now because now that will be funnier. Yeah, well. He got the gig because of I think I Hard stance. I don't like illumination. I think they're the problem. I I'm not a huge fan of Illumination. I would say before the Mario movie came out, my favorite of their films would have been The Grinch they they did. I thought that was that was good. Look, it's not like

It's not like I guess it's not the best version of the Grinch movie out there. But then again everything you talk about with them comes with like such a big caveat it's like It's like look, we we're gonna s let me set the bar and then explain how they cleared it. I don't like the Despicable Me movies. I don't like the minions. I've watched them. The kids seem to enjoy them. But I like their Grinch movie. You know, it's good.

Uh but it's n look, it's it's it's even Pixar these days isn't Pixar. Uh I feel. So look, this all just goes to show like it was better when we were kids. That's just the way it is. Exactly. They're ruining our childhood. When they do Transformers one, nobody goes and sees it because it had a bad trailer, and then good animation continues to be put on the back burner. Yeah, yeah. Um, well, you know what? I i it's funny, I feel like we can

I feel like uh hopefully your soapbox is is still standing because I th I feel like there's more to be said here with this uh final story. This just broke today and I don't know if you know this, John, but Fortnite costs a lot. And Epic's hurtin' and they are I didn't They're hurting. This this was so surprising. I saw this like, hey, we're making V Bucks more expensive and I'm like, you're making your virtual currency more expensive.

Uh I d like in the back of my mind, shouldn't they have just made the items more expensive? Well they are. They're doing it in a they're doing it in a reverse way. Yeah. So if you read their changes, everything's going down. The cost of the battle pass is going down. Um So uh so like battle passes are gonna be cheaper to buy now. Um but along with changes like that, um the amount of V-Bucks that you get for your money is going down a little bit too. That's probably the most Clear change.

Um, I believe that's the case. I don't have it in front of me right now, but I'm pretty sure that's the case. The big thing is is so back in the day, uh y like yesterday, before they announced changes. Uh the way it worked is if you got the battle passes, um You would be able to earn enough V-Bucks over the course of the battle pass and more importantly the bonus pass.

to not only buy next season's battle pass, but you would also have some additional V-Bucks left over. So you'd actually earn a little sum on like the bonus pages and stuff like that. They are now changing it, the battle pass costs less. You will earn less V-Bucks, you will still earn enough to pay for the battle pass at its new lower rate, but you will not earn any additional extra. So if the basic battle pass, and I'm going off memory with numbers and that's a terrible idea, is 800 V Bucks.

You will earn over the course of your your battle pass exactly 800. Not a V-buck extra. In addition to that, the cost of things in the store is not going down. So it's sort of like reverse inflation. You're earning less. For roughly less and things are still gonna cost the same. And so the net result of all of this is a really backhanded way of saying everything's gonna technically be more expensive. Weird. Yeah. Uh and then they do talk about like the 20% epic rewards, but I think that's

Just when you're buying on PC and web. Uh and mobile if you are using the Epic Game Store, I guess. It's weird because it smacks of like we know Fortnite to be one of the most popular and successful platforms out there and to say, hey Look, I get it. I I understand that Fortnite is expensive to run, but it's also making

a lot of money. So to say like, hey, like we you know, we need to we need to raise prices to help literally the top line, the cost of running Fortnite has gone up a lot and we're raising prices to help pay the bill. I don't know how that made it through anybody uh in comms. Like did no one say, like, hey, this might like look.

Raise your prices. Uh everyone's doing it. Um, everyone points to the cost of operations. Yes. But there's a reason people don't word it like this because it's very tone deaf and it's very like Speaking as if we don't know they make billions of dollars. Let me be controversial for a moment here. No, go ahead. finger on the trigger with that one. But here here's the thing. Like maybe It's the case that the last thing I got up in arms about was the Game Pass price increase.

where they came out and they said, Hey guys, uh hey gamers, what's up? Uh it's your friend Microsoft here. Uh Game Pass is gonna cost fifty percent more now. But it's awesome. Uh, and you're gonna love it because we're doing it for you, because we care about you, and we want you to get more. For your money, so you're gonna spend more money and get more because we hear you and you demanded to give us more cash. Um peace and love, gamers. Keep on gaming on, your friends Microsoft.

Maybe that's living a little rent-free in my head. I appreciate, to a degree, a company going It's exp stuff's expensive and we want more money. So we're raising prices. We're gonna try and hide it as best we can. Uh but yeah, we're raising prices and um It hey, it is what it is. And Maybe the bar is just so low in twenty twenty six.

Maybe we have hit such a floor of where that bar is that that almost clears for me. Almost clears for me. I'm like, well, at least they're being honest. At least they're telling us the truth. Where I don't think they're exactly being honest, uh, I do think it's more expensive now, but I think there's a very logical follow-up to that, which is how much are you guys making though? Shouldn't you guys be the ones to flip the bill on this additional cost? Why is it on us?

'Cause I don't think it should be on us necessarily to pay that. Uh you know, that that bill that is coming in a little higher now. Um, and that's where it does fall apart for me because I think it's undeniable that Epic is making a ton of money. Fortnite specifically is making a ton of money. They are constantly finding ways to uh to to charge for um new skins, put new stuff in the game, all of that.

I 100% believe there are the like guess what I live uh I live in the world in 2026. I understand everything is more expensive. I'm not gonna have any doubt. But it's also getting more expensive for everybody. You're not the only ones epic, and you've got a lot deeper pockets than me. So if anybody should kind of suck it up, Buttercup. And foot the more expensive bill, I really think it should be you and not

That's kind of where I land on it. But I do appreciate the transparency. I'm glad they aren't trying to tell me that this is some bold attempt to give me more value for my V-Bucks or something like that. I appreciate a Yeah, we want more of your money. Yeah. I mean they're more they're being more direct than Microsoft what I think what you're right, what Microsoft did with Game Pass was like, hey

Uh we're gonna throw a couple extra things in here, but really the service isn't changing. We just need to charge you a button more and I think Not to give Epic a pass. It's unfortunate because I find that maybe not recently, but definitely over the last year or two, I would yet an email every couple of months like, Hey

we have to raise prices because of cost of operating and this and that. And there's only so many of those you can withstand. I'm not that I'm buying a lot of V Bucks. I I've purchased V Bucks before. But I I don't know. Like I guess, you know, after hearing your thoughts, uh you know, the alternative here would have been Yeah, like you can buy V Bucks for the same price, but everything in the store just costs more. Maybe they don't change the price of the passes, but they

they increase the price of the items in the store. You know, uh like there's ways to do it where they can kind of hide the impact a lot more. What they're doing here, like like look. Top line. out of the way. I think the way they lay this out and the changes, like there is that initial like slap of like, oh man, it's getting more expensive. But they do As you said, go through how this affects the battle pass, what changes are happening there, what's happening with Fortnite crew.

Uh, I think these days we have to assume like everything will get more expensive at some point. Uh I don't remember there being like any Like is this the first time that Fortnite's sort of increased their prices or increased sort of the amount of money they're asking for? I don't know if if it's the first time. It's the first time since I got into it, um, that I can think of. Um, but it might have done it before.

claim that I know its history very much and and yeah, I I too wanna also underline I don't think this is a good thing. Like, I know I'm kind of sounding like I'm going to bat for them a little bit because I'm like, well, I appreciate the honesty and I appreciate the methodology. Um, because I will say It is not hard to imagine a world where they make it to where you can't pay for the battle pass with the V-Bucks you earn, right? Like most battle passes nowadays don't do that.

You know, if you've played Overwatch, the Overwatch Battle Pass does not pay for itself. You still have to put money out every time you play it. I'm pretty sure it's the same way with Diablo. Um it's not a common thing for the battle pass pays for itself season to season if that's all you use, the V-Bucks you earn port. Um, obviously there is some generosity being still pulled away from that. And the fact that they didn't remove it completely.

doesn't absolve them of criticism, but I think when something is still doing something that others aren't doing, it's worth looking at the good and the bad. Um and I think overall Most people will hear Epic is, you know, footing the bill over to the players and go, well, that's a negative decision. Um, and it is. But I that doesn't mean every part of it is bad. Yeah. Ah that's fair. I Uh just like the Mario movie, it could have been a lot.

Uh it's still not great. I wouldn't call this fine. You know. This is like maybe one of Illuminations less lesser uh loved. Maybe it's a minions situation. This is a minions one. This is minions level. It's not Mario level. No. It's Minions level. Yeah. It's it's

bad, but there are probably people you can put it in front of that will be like, okay. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's not like I I think pets. Pets was the good one, right? Everyone liked pets. That was pretty popular. I don't know if I ever saw pets. Yeah. Hm. The second one has Harrison for it as a dog, so

I was about to say at least they didn't make a sequel to it. I guess they did. They did and they had to recast the the main dog. Look, I know way too much about ill illumination films. I'm learning that now as we try to

piece every news story towards uh uh you know, which illumination film levels of bad is this? And they're like, Yeah, this is uh this is Minions, the first one. They made a sequel to that too. I think they've I think they have a few The problem with the illumination scale is there's no way to complement anything. Maybe there's a short that's good. You know? We just don't haven't seen. I like the illumination scale, but the problem is the best you can do is like, okay.

Was Despicable Me like good? Like it's just gotta I g there's no Pixar level illumination film. So I guess you're right. You can't do that. Do I wanna use the word good? Is good too strong of a word for despicable me? I was gonna say it's fine. Despicable me is fine.

The problem is when it existed on its own, I think I could have probably said good on its own, but now it's it's been run into the ground so much that I feel like you have to You have to try to forget that a bunch of other spin-offs and BS launched along with this thing. Um it's hard to forget. It's hard to like it's hard to see the minions a Despicable Me and laugh as a one off joke and pretend you don't know that it's full of characters that the jokes have run so stale.

Yeah. And they're making a third uh pet. So you've got that to look you got a couple to catch up on to understand. The story. My my son has decided he's no longer interested in children's things. He keeps sneaking in to try to watch Resident Evil, so He's grown up immediately and he no longer cares for these these basic level things. 'Cause he now knows that dad uh has stuff he would rather him not see and that's all he's interested in now. So I might not ever have to watch pet.

Yeah, well there you go. Uh Caden's the same way. He he he he it's like is this an is this an adult game? And I'm like, Yes, it's not for kids. But uh let's we're gonna pause it here and we're gonna go upstairs and but yeah, he's got this uh Th there's this fascination with like, ooh, what's what's on what's what's around the next corner? Like what do I get to watch when I'm this age, when I'm able to handle this level of uh you know, maturity in my media, so

Um, they're always looking to to to stretch it. And I think if if your kid doesn't get nightmares, like Hayden doesn't get nightmares. So he's able to withstand a little bit more above his his age level. Um But my other two d do get nightmares. So they uh they struggle to to punch above their their age when it comes to watching movies and video games and stuff, but um Yeah. Uh but illumination films work across the board, so in that regard. They're willing to disappoint regardless of your age.

Alex, I'll tell you one funny story about Alexander and Resident Evil real quick though. Sure. Um, his mom is not happy at all that he has seen any of the game, let alone how much of the game he has managed to sneak.'Cause he sneaks into my office. He's like a little ninja. Um, and he sneaks into my office and he watches and he can stay pretty quiet and then he sees something that gets him like pumped and then he just squeals in delight.

And she's not thrilled about this, especially because he's leaned into it. And I yelled at him today. I was like, You are not supposed to be watching this. And he just goes, I just like Resident Evil. I was like, You're gonna get me in trouble with your mom because you're seeing stuff you're not supposed to see. And he proceeded to run through the house in a sing song voice, going blood, blood, blood, bloody, blood, blood, blood, blood, blood, blood. But he tried

He tried to fix it. He tried to fix the situation with my wife. and he did not do a good job. I want to stress, I in no way told him to fix things, and I definitely did not tell him to say this. He went in and I said, Yeah, he was trying to see the game again. And she went, You can't be watching that buddy. And he goes, Mom I just like Resident Evil and I know it's pretend and it doesn't scare me. And I was like, he got that far. And I was like, whoa, nice.

Like very maturely stated, look, the most mature five year old in the whole world. And then he turns around and he goes, Is that what I'm supposed to say, Dad? My mouth fell open and the glare that Amanda gave me, I was like, oh my gosh. I felt my spirit leave my body. And I went, I did not tell him to say this to you. He is saying this on his own. Oh man. That's great. He is making he is he's stirring the pot every chance he gets.

Yeah, I mean look, uh kids will uh they'll always surprise you with with what uh what they say and I and I think um For right now what we're going through is Caden w is watching Stranger Things and he is really enjoying it. And he wants to talk about it and he's very excited and I I I have to remind him's like we just can't talk about stranger things in front of your sisters because it just the thought of it.

Well, the issue that happened is we were watching it and they came into the room and they just happened to watch and it's like it look, Stranger Things has a lot of like younger characters, uh some even their age, uh, but they just happened to be watching and it was the scene where the uh n necromorph like

Isn't no, that's not right. But uh Demi Gorgon, Dagomorph is something else. Uh is that is that aliens? No. That's Dead Space, right? Yeah, yeah, you're right. Dead Space. Sorry, I'm getting all my Uh franchise mixed up. But anyways, when the the demigorgan comes through the wall and like does the uh uh nightmare on Elm Street thing where that stretches the wallpaper.

Anyways, now anytime he talks about Stranger Things, he can't talk about it at all in front of his sisters because they their their brains immediately s switch back to that scene that they did watch by accident. So uh it's it's just a matter of like and and sometimes like he's just like, I just want to talk about stranger things and I'm like, I get it.

But like you you can't because it gives it gives people nightmares. So uh you gotta be careful and um but yeah, Resident Evil uh I think he did he did walk in when I was playing it. And the one thing about Resident Evil is that Like look, of course there's zombies and there's there's shooting and there's action and stuff, but like they we didn't talk about this in in the the main topic, but like they've really ratcheted up the blood.

Uh to the point where I was playing and I had headphones on and Ashley was studying and she was just watching what was happening on the screen. And when you're playing as Leon, he has a hatchet. So like when he

you know, is able to do a finishing move, there's always this like gush of blood that just is like a fountain coming out of every zombie, and she just says, like, what are you playing? And I'm like, well Resident Evil, but it's also a nineties horror movie where they have one setting for when s if something happens to the bad guys, so It i it is. It's been fun to navigate. I'm

I'm like, oh, it'll probably be good when this is off my computer, but it doesn't matter. He always hones in on whatever it is he's not supposed to be seeing. Like when it wasn't this, it was Cyberpunk and

When it wasn't Cyberpunk. To be fair, I didn't mind Cyberpunk as much'cause I was like, Well, it's got cars in it and I'll just drive around in cars but then when he realized I could get out and get in fights, he was like, Oh, get out and get in some fights and I was like, No We're just this is gonna be a driving game when you're watching dad play cyberpunk, but it's just a game about cars.

Yep. It's just driving around and and seeing the sights. So yeah. Yep. Sometimes you have to there's a bit of self sensor when you was like, Oh, I hear footsteps, I better find a quiet area to explore. So it it it it is the common thread of of playing video games when You have a household of all kinds of ages and uh yeah. Resident Evil Requiem, it's good you beat it four times, you can kind of, you know, uh

Hang it up for a little bit until we have those new patches and whatnot. But that is gonna do it for our episode this week. If you want to join our Discord, tiny.cc slash TGI Discord, it's the best place to dis to discuss your ranking of the Illumination films and whether how they rank from bad to fine. Uh, so you can do that over in the Discord. And uh before we head out, John, where can folks find you?

Uh yeah, if you wanna hear more from me, uh I do a uh it's not short at all, uh video game podcast called Core. Um you can find everything about that at core.show. Uh is where you can find information about that. And uh yeah, that's the that's the best place for now. Let's keep it simple. Core dot show is where you can find more from me. Yeah. Don't try to tell'em the email because then it won't be simple anymore.

I mean that's it depends on who you ask. Show at core dot show. I can I can tell you the email. Scott can't tell you the email, but I can do it. Yeah, yeah. Well, there you go. Core. And uh definitely check it out. Uh core comes up a lot. On this podcast, we talk about it here. Uh we have a lot of guests pop in from the core show. And of course, uh on Dungeons and Diapers core comes up for different reasons, although I think there's been more of a truce lately. Uh so it's been it's been fun.

It's been fine. Everyone's getting along. Everyone's doing their best to keep the peace. amongst the uh the podcasts. Um if you want more gamers in, you can go to our website, gamersinpodcast dot com, find all of our previous episodes there. You can follow us on Blue Sky. You can find Jocelyn at jossplays.com. and myself at ryanmurphy.ca. And also be sure to check out our TGI Community Starter Pack over at tiny.cc slash TGI Starter Pack. Thanks for staying at the Gamers Inn. Tune in next week.

I don't know if I usually say goodbye or I don't know. Just uh just let it in let it in there. Yeah, the musical do the heavy lifting, it's fine. Yeah, they'll figure it out. They'll be like, Oh music's playing, show's over. I understand.