TGI 689 - A Blast of a Bullet Hell

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! Jocelyn, I have a question. Uh gonna start the show right off the bat. Okay. Diving right in. Yeah, yeah, we're gonna do this. Do you have uh you have Discord Nitro, right?

I do. I do have Discord Nitro. I I didn't for a while and then I found um particularly when uh recording and editing editing the the patron specials, they were often bigger files than I was able to easily. send through d well discord flat out told me no and then I was like oh man how am I gonna do this and anyway so I was like you know what everyone I want to talk to and show this to and get feedback from are on Discord so I upgraded to Nitro so I could send the bigger files.

So yes, I do have nitro. Hasn't been very long, but I do have nitro. So you realize the news this week. Means you are now you are now once again a Game Pass subscriber. They can't make me. They cannot make me. They cannot make me download the software. They cannot make me connect my accounts. Xbox can eat a dick. Yeah.

Well, I mean, yes, you're right. They probably can't force you. I think you would have had to like uh do some sort of connection between your Xbox and Discord, so Sounds like you're safe for now. Can't make me I just saw this news and I'm like, oh man, Jocelyn can't can't escape it. She's she's cursed. Oh man, yeah, I, uh...

There's so much and we're gonna talk about it later on in the news, but like there's so many announcements coming out of Xbox right now. And every single time I see something, even if it's something that I think is is a good thing, I'm like Still screw you. Like, no, I'm not coming back. I'm not coming back until you make Game Pass like ten dollars a month. And apparently, even when they give me Game Pass for free, I'm still like, nope. Forget it. Nope. that's fair yeah

I am just in such an anti Microsoft place right now that like, yeah. I don't I I literally don't know what they could do to win me back at this point, outside of like rehiring 10,000 people. Yeah. Well I th I really do think this next generation is gonna be interesting for them as they try to you know, make amends and and it'll be interesting to see what that is. But I mean ultimately I don't think it is going to be rehiring ten thousand people and reinstating Perfect Dark, uh the re Yeah.

Did like there's there's a lot of concerns and I mean heck like I installed Linux on one of my computers. I I think that I think that shows a sign that we are willing to try different things to access our games and uh look I've I've been

I I have uh I have like a Game Pass code uh that I got from from a friend and I'm like, oh I'll I'll use this no problem. Like and I just I've yet to activate it and I I think uh It what it comes down to is Game Pass is just as a subscription, as all subscriptions go. It's just daunting'cause as soon as you activate it, it's like you have hundreds of games and it's like, but but really I have one game I wanna play right now, not have access, limited access for thirty days to

10 games that that I've kept on a list of like, well, when I get Game Pass, I can try these. And I'm like, no, who has the time for that? Just gonna play this. Yeah, I think that it came down to something like that for me too, is I was just like, you know what? when I'm looking at how much I'm spending on Game Pass and even if I pay or play a few games a month on Game Pass, which for a while, to be fair, I was because it was like introducing me to a lot of things I wouldn't have tried otherwise.

I'm like looking at a lot of these, they're indies. If I just go buy them, like it's probably better for the developer and it's gonna work out the same for my wallet. Exactly. Like I think oh well Indies for sure, like you not only are you you're purchasing directly not directly, but you're purchasing in a way that they see some of that. Or directly. Yeah. Yeah. And uh I would imagine they get more money from a purchase than whatever deal they set up with Game Pass. They must, right? They must.

Yeah. Oh yeah. Nowadays I don't think Game Pass deals are as lucrative as they might have been in the the height of the subscription. Yeah. But uh yeah, there's now I think we were doing talking in the Discord there's four different tiers of game pass. Five if you count like a like a defunct console plan that that people are maybe still grandfathered into. So even more complicated than PlayStation Plus, PlayStation Plus Plus, and PlayStation Plus.

Yeah. I mean that I know that they're trying to figure out a way to get the most money that they possibly can. And they are it feels like they're nick nickel and diming in terms of like access access and what you get and everything else for all of the different these different tiers. When I almost feel like if they could just make like one pass per platform even like if they could say there's like a PC version, an Xbox version, and then both.

Like that's all that they need. If even that, if they could just make it one. I feel like people would probably be more open to it, you know, like just to get rid of all of the confusion. I don't know. Whatever, I'm not subbing to Game Pass again. Is what it what it boils down to. So yeah, you can't even trick me through Discord, which is also a company I'm not a big fan of, and yet am playing their subscription thing again.

Like, ugh, but whatever. Oh, I know what else it was. And actually I can probably cancel it now because the other reason that I got Discord Nitro was because we were streaming uh our game nights once a month. Right. Discord and we're not doing that anymore because we're using Patreon service. So um I can actually probably cancel my nitro and uh yeah, just get your feedback through like Google Drive or something. Yeah. That works.

Yeah. So yeah. Get out get out of here completely, Nitro. You know what? If you hadn't partnered with Game Pass, I wouldn't even have noticed. You wouldn't have pissed me off and you would have kept getting my money. But now because you partnered with Game Pass, you're out of here. Oh man. Some people cancel Nitro, other people install a whole new operating system, so I'm literally canceling it right now. Right now. It might kick me out of the call. I don't know, but

May no, I don't think so. It would be funny though if you just were like, uh uh uh oh, cancel you know, you're done. I'm canceling it right now. I don't have nitros, so I highly doubt. I found a better app. Take that Discord. Yeah. Yeah, who would know that uh Patreon would would uh You're gonna have to you're gonna have to post a quip about that. I don't know if you saw Patreon has a social media thing now, so Yeah. You want to get angry about that? You could do that.

You know, you make it sound like I'm angry about everything all of the time and it's not too far off. But

Are you angry about any of the video games you played this week or over the past couple weeks? No. Oh perfect. You had to think about it though. I did have to think about it just in case. But no. Nothing that I've played has pissed me off this week. Um so I did uh I gave vampire crawlers

The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors game shot, which is a ridiculous title. Um and kind of for a ridiculous game, honestly. Um I mean it's it like it's not too ridiculous. It's just like I can see how it is so addictive because there are so many things to unlock and there's kind of like Really satisfying sounds going on all the time and more effects than I would have thought you could almost do with pixel art.

It it was like, yeah, definitely impressive and challenging. I got up to the third world, which is like the bridge, which was very, very challenging. But I kind of went like yeah, I did like forest and then library and then bridge. Like kind of back to back to back. And uh yeah, I was like, oh man. Ouch my face. So I think I probably should have done like each biome a few times and like leveled up and unlocked some stuff, but I thought I did impressively well.

The bridge, uh, if I recall correctly, was the first time where I s I I did start to like hit a wall. Uh that one was particularly tough. Each biome, especially early on, has multiple levels. Uh like you it you can kind of Scroll through. them and I found that uh and they all have levels associated like recommended levels of difficulty And I think that bridge might be like higher than a good portion of the secondary levels of the other biomes. So It's kinda meant as like a later on.

Yeah, I definitely jumped into like mid game. Yeah, but it's it's a game that's meant to be just like kinda It you know, progress as you go and uh unlock new classes and you know, power ups and and all that and you'll eventually get to the bridge for Yeah, but I did and it you know, it's really funny because when I first uh got this'cause this was a gift Some shatter? Yes, yep, that's correct.

I think. Yes. Okay. Um thank you so much for for gifting me a copy. Uh sometimes I don't know if people are trolling me or not. So I was literally like it's a deck building pixel art roguelike. What? I was like, is this something that they legitimately think I will enjoy? Or are they trying to hit all the things that I hate in one game? Well, it's it's all things you love now. Cards.

Now, now that I not so much the pixel art, but cards and roguelikes. I don't like the movement. I do not like the movement. Yeah, that's the dungeon crawler side of it. Yeah, I don't like that part, but um yeah, I will say deck buildy stuff, growing on me, slay the spire, thumbs up roguelikes growing on me, Hades is the other thing I played this week.

And like Hades the OG. I played it on the Switch too because I was looking for something to play in a in a mobile environment uh on the switch to and you know trying to justify the purchase of my switch too and I was like oh hey I forgot that like way back in the day I bought Hades on Switch. And that is one of the perks of the Switch too is that there's a lot of stuff that I

had on the Switch that I may not even have ended up playing that is just available now on my Switch too. So Hades was one of the things that I had installed and I was like, hey, I'm just I don't just don't even need to install it. I'm just gonna pop in and play. Oh my God, so much fun. And coming to me so naturally because I spent so much time in Hades too, to the point that like I don't even notice that I'm not on the the computer. Like I had a really good

uh good chan they're like good time playing in the the mobile space is in the handheld mode. So yeah. Unsurprisingly, Hades is really good. Hat is gonna be so excited. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean he he did a podcast about that specific title. Not Hades Two, but Hades One. So you have a whole back catalog of podcasts you can enjoy now.

It's true. Oh, I c and I love me a hat podcast. So yeah, I probably will. I'll go back and try to try to figure out what that is.'Cause it's been a few years now, so it might be hidden, but I'll find it. He m he would likely he would send you I mean, you don't have Nitro anymore, so he can't send you the files through Discord. Stop. But he can send you a Google Drive link. Of the archive. Here you go.

All of it. Yep. Uh and then also this last uh couple of weeks I played uh two point museum because they put and I was actually really, really excited about this. I got an email like a week before the DLC was supposed to launch. And then I just kept checking and I was literally like, is it May 8th yet? Is it May 8th yet? Can I play this May 8th yet? And then it came out and it was the it was like Thursday night last week.

And uh I was like, Man, the DLC came out today, my mom is here, so I'm not gonna be able to actually play. That's like, can't play video games'cause my mom is here to watch my child. I have to be social. Aw Mom but yeah, I did end up getting to play it over the weekend.

I'm not gonna say too much because it's basically like if you like two-point museum, it's more DLC, it's a different theme, there's a couple of different mechanics, it's really good. If you don't like two-point museum, don't get the DLC. There's my whole review. Yeah, you did it. That's a good review. Put it on the box.

Easy peasy. Yeah. But I mean, I don't necessarily want to feel like I'm like rushing through what I did, but I know you have spent some time in something that people are going to be really interested in hearing about. And that is, is it Saros?

Soros. Saros. I've been calling it Saros. I don't know. Okay. Ah, do they say the name of the game? I don't know if they say the name of the game. What does it mean? Hmm. Maybe that's part of the story that I They haven't gotten to yet. about it. Huh?

Because like so this is a follow up to House Mark's original uh Playstation launch title Returnal. It's it's it's a spiritual sequel. It is as far as I know, not connected. I have not finished it. So you know, I'm Uh, I keep expecting, you know, like the video game thing where, you know, you get like forty hours in, you're at the end and then like

One of the characters like takes their helmet off. It's like, oh my god, it's the main character from the first one and it's a sequel. It's like, I I don't think that's gonna happen. That that's a bit Or a prequel. Oh, could be a prequel. Yeah, at the end you you uh what do you do? You uh you take your helmet off and you pass it along and then it shows up and it's the returnal helmet the whole time. Yeah, there you go.

Don't do that. It's super cheesy. This is separate. This is a um this is a spiritual sequel. It's by the same developers. It's their follow up to Returnal. And I know both Jocelyn and I and I won't take I won't take t top billing for this. Jocelyn's much more of a fan of Raoul Kool Coley than I am. But uh but I

You were gonna say like a fan of Returnal or played I was like, I didn't even play Returnal. Where's Ryan going with this? Oh, that's where he's going. Yes, I'd like to go there too, please. Well he is uh he's the star of the game. He is the main actor, uh portraying the uh the main character. Uh he's the enforcer in the title, the one with the gun. He's on the box art. Uh Okay. Yeah. And he he has look, it it it is

It is Raul Coley to uh he he's in there and it's like, Yes, we got him. He's he's in a video game and he's been in other video games too. I think he was in Gears Four. And and I think I heard he was voicing the warlock in Diablo Four, or maybe it was Diablo Two, the remake. Anyways, he's he's no stranger to video games, but this is the first time that he's starring in a in a main So it's very Well yeah, I was gonna say in a way that like they've made the character look like him, right? Yes.

Yeah. This is uh this is him in uh like this isn't Expedition thirty three where you have a Robert Patsen lookalike voiced by, you know, uh Mm Matt Burdock, the guy who plays Daredevil. I can't remember his name. I don't know why I can't remember his name, but anyways, it's not like a You know, and make sure it's it's all him, which is great because he does a fantastic job.

So Wikib Wikipedia says he's done Rage Two, Gears Five, Fortnite, uh, Ghostbusters, Spirit Unleashed, uh Warhammer 40k Bolt Gun. Which I mean, like Warhammer 40k, there's a billion of them. Uh Stray God's the role playing musical. No. Uh Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 3, Diablo 2 Resurrected, Reign of the Warlock. So you were right, he does voice the Warlock there, and then uh Saros.

Yeah. So i he's he's a big and he's a huge video game fan and a as well as a huge Warhammer fan. So it's it's no surprise that he was uh he was in bull gun. And I I think there's a campaign in the Discord to try to get you to play uh Bol Gun specifically because it stars him. But it's got pixel art, so I don't know. You might hate it. You might you might not get it. I probably will. But oh man, I'm gonna be so torn. What what are they you'll you'll hate play it, but you'll hate love play it?

Hate love it. Love hate it. I'll have a love hate relationship with bullet gun. Yeah. Although it doesn't like To be fair, I'm not playing Seros either because I know that I won't like that gameplay. So I'm just like living vicariously through everyone else who is playing it and enjoying it. Which it seems to be a lot of people. Like it's getting good reviews, I think. So far as I've seen, a lot of positive stuff.

Yeah, it's getting good reviews. I would say that the reviews are Sort of landing where I expected them to and I think this was a game I had decided to pick up without Without looking. IGN gave it a seven. IGN doesn't give anything a seven. What is wrong with IGN? Everyone else is like nine out of ten and IGN is like, screw that, seven. So that's really good.

And you know, reviews are uh as much as we joke about IGN, reviews are made up of of the of the individual that reviews it, right? And maybe that person just It didn't click with them. And I I think Saros just by its nature is a game Similar to other like, if you aren't a fan of first person shooters, specifically Call of Duty, and you're asked to review Call of Duty, you're not gonna give it a review in the same vein of as the most folks who would buy that game, which are fans of Call of Duty.

And I think Saros falls into a similar category where if you aren't a fan of arcade third person shooters where, you know, it is a roguelike and you are doing one more run and it's it's the d difficulty is there. However, it's more about ha the ability to use your tools at your disposal to survive and to dodge bullets and to absorb bullets when you need to and to just, you know, stay alive, uh, is is kind of the

core mechanic. So very similar to Hades two and and other roguelikes that have come before from an action focused combat scenario where If you're not a fan of that style of gameplay, like yeah, the reviews Aren't gonna land as high as someone who is and

I'm not necessarily a person who like considers themselves like oh man, I'm so good at video games. It's like I'm not. I'm actually pretty bad at video games. But sometimes you get a game like Hades 2 or Saros where you play enough of it and you get in in a in a groove and you're like, oh man, I I've I've not mastered this, but I'm able to get like in a pace where I'm able to progress. It has a lot of things built in that are kind of like lessons learned from other roguelikes, right? Because

it's got things like allowing you to jump to other places. And it's got that permanent skill thing, right? Where like your character No matter how many times you fail, you're at least making progress, which, you know, not all roguelikes have always had. And is one of the things that often put me off is I was like, if the only thing is my like muscle memory, then you know, like if I'm being bumped down to zero.

at the start of every run, then I'm eventually just gonna hit a wall of a thing that I can't do, that I my hands physically will not push the buttons in the right order fast enough or whatever. Like I don't have the brain processing power anymore. Who knows? Point is, like eventually I'll hit that.

point where I just can't go any further. But with, you know, some of these more recent roguelike games, they're like, okay, here's, you know, like you're going to unlock. Like with Hades, it was like the cards. here like they've got the skill tree and you're you're earning points towards those things as you fail. So it's like you're failing but for a reason.

And so I think that's really helping a lot of at least what I'm noticing is helping me enjoy this genre and I haven't really gotten into it previously.

Yeah, and the difference between I think Hades and Saros in terms of like a combat style, this isn't by no means like a Dark Souls get the peri window right or or you die a horrible death, but Whereas Hades is this like action RPG, Saros is a third person shooter, and and very close to like a It's like a it's it's a mixture of bullet hell as well as like a twitch shooter where you are doing your best to avoid Literally these glowing dots and bullets that will come at you.

I've seen the screenshots and I'm like, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Yeah. I mean the screenshots probably look. I I wonder sometimes I'll be playing and I wonder like what does Ashley think when she walks in and just sees like Ha ha. Literally a thousand bullets on the screen, like Exactly. Exactly. No pixels spared. It's just blue, yellow and red all over the place. Very bright. And it's the reason every video game has that warning at the front, like, hey, if you Yeah. You may have epileptic.

If you are epileptic, maybe don't play this. Yeah, this one especially, like you know, this is uh there's a lot going on and but that being said, the mechanics are doled out to you very slowly, like uh like a lot of roguelikes where it's like at the beginning, it's like okay, hey, you have a dash move The dash basically allows you to move through

all bullet types except for one, which is introduced later on. So at the start it's like, don't worry, you can dash through all the bullets you're seeing here. And then you also have a shield, and that shield will absorb uh blue bullets. And absorbing with your with your shield will power up your your mega power weapon. And then you have a w you have a normal weapon that you can fire and there's an alt fire for each weapon, which which, you know

makes he mixes things up and and then the game kind of snowballs. It's like, okay, let's add Uh an additional bullet that you have to avoid, which is yellow, which will cause corruption. And you can dash through it, but if you get hit with it or you try to shield from it, it will it will it will cause damage.

Uh and then there's a red bullet that eventually they introduce and that's like, no, just avoid at all costs. And then even then later on they find ways to be like, okay, you know how we said avoid at all costs? Like, well, guess what? You've got another little tool here, you can deal with it. And this is all sort of layered on alongside new weapons you're finding and new variations on weapons. And all the little upgrades you pick up along the way.

similar to Hades 2, it's it's layering in new things every half hour to 45 minutes of gameplay to be like, okay, you've got that. Now let's introduce this. And sometimes it's a mix that is

benefiting the enemies. Sometimes it's a mix that's benefiting you. And eventually you do unlock the uh they call the the modifiers uh sort of ability where you can You have this like window of minus three to plus three and it's and there's these things you can activate and they're either perks or they're trials and the perks will make it easier for you and the trials will make it harder for you.

Um they you can activate them. They don't I d as far as I know, they the only effect they have is what's on the box. Like you're not you're not by activating these modifiers, you're not decreasing your it you're not getting a penalty or or the penalty or the bonus is is there. It's i it's in the writing. Um I initially avoided it'cause I thought like, oh, like I I don't feel like I need to affect the gameplay right now. But then we were we have a game discussion in our in our Discord.

And I was asking about them and like, oh yeah, you should actually activate them. Like there's no penalty and there's a trophy associated with doing thirty three runs with them active and you can just activate one. I think the one I activated was It only was a minus one, so I didn't have to activate any trials. And basically it made it so all the

power stuff that drops when you take down an enemy, it's called Lucenite. You can it has like a a higher radius to absorb it. So you just it's just basically you walk up to it and it instantly you don't have to like pick it up. It just kinda comes uh from a distance. So that was super handy and no impact besides the positive, which was really nice.

Uh and there's little th other things like, you know, increased damage that you can do to enemies and and then the trials are like can make it more difficult, like your shield is less powerful or Um and it's a balancing act. So why would you impact the trials? Well, you do that because maybe you put too many perks in. Like one of the perks was like minus ten. So you kind of have to bring that back into the range of minus three to three in this like sort of

dial thing. So um I haven't played much with that out outside of just activating the one, but that's sort of a layer they add later on and uh it's a neat it's a neat way to make your runs more different. Um kind of similar to I think in Hades Two they had the I can't remember. There was like that thing right before you went for a run that you could activate trials and I think that was more just to add challenge though, I think. Can't remember what it was called though.

It's like the death trials or something? The death trials? I don't know, I can't remember. Ha ha ha. It was like right a right before you go in. But anyways, like a lot of these robots. Sounds like super generic. Super generic. Which like I should give Hades two more credit. Like I don't think any of their stuff was generic. Uh, I can't remember. Maybe it was like a Nemesis something or no, it wasn't the Nemesis system. They'd get sued for that. Um I can't remember.

It doesn't matter. Uh but yeah, it like uh the other thing Saros has going forward is I think the story is is much more interesting than like Returnals was very mysterious. Like you land on the planet, you're stranded. Oh my gosh, I found a body. Oh it's me and now I returnal. So Uh that's not a spoiler, that's like in the trailer for No, it's it's so funny to hear you like recap like, Oh, I found a body, it's me. Oh Well obviously they had a stronger reaction than that, but you know.

Uh the Saros is Ceros is much more it's much m well, Returnal was science fiction, but I think Ceros is is is even more so in that um the Okay, I was like, Are you about to tell me Saros is not science fiction? No, it is very much so. It's very science fiction. More. Yeah. Okay. It just feels more but it's also they just they lay on the story a a little more off the off the bat.

Sorry. Returnal, weren't you like the only character versus in Saros it it's there's more characters, like you're in like a settlement, aren't you? Yes. Like you're like explorers, right? So I mean that right there is just gonna give you more to work with in terms of a story, I would think. Yeah, it's funny because in Returnal I was uh we were we were there's a lot of comparisons that come up and I was saying like yeah I didn't really like

Returnal because you were like it was just you. And even the audio logs were you were finding were were you. Talking. Um there's interesting mystery there and I never did finish it. I you know, so maybe this maybe I just didn't get far enough. But in Saros the story right off the bat, um you know, sci fi, you know, company called Soltari and they are like

You know, like y you see in aliens, I think, where um that you have these big companies that just like run the world. This is a similar thing where y Soltari sends out these expeditions to planets to find resources. And in this case they've sent three versions of the expedition and they've lost contact, so then they send Echelon Four in, which is our main characters here, and they're sent in as this sort of the rescue team to figure out what's going on.

And you know, spoiler alert, there's things going on and that then kicks off the There are events and things happening. Well it's true. Wow. And I don't wanna like go into super detail because like I think the story and the way it unravels is one of the more one of the most interesting parts about the game. I mean, the story is really interesting and

I was getting to the point where I was like saying in Discord it's like, Oh man, I I feel like it's wrapping up and I'm not ready to be done and and they're like, Oh, you've got a while to go and I'm like, Oh, really? Like it just really feels like they're I'm getting to this to the the goal that this character has had and then I get the achievement pops like end of act one. I'm like, what? Okay. I'm gonna keep going here. This is great.

So it like it's interesting. You do each run and then similar to Hades, you come back to the the main area and you get to talk with all these characters and as you progress through the game, the story back home is evolving as well. And and even the story out in the biomes is is evolving as well, as you're finding new people to talk to and audio logs and stuff like that to listen to. So it's Yes. Every run's new. You're talking me into this thing. Yeah.

It's the year of trying new things, isn't it? Or I guess the continuous I mean I really think that was kind of last year, but I mean we can carry it through, I think, because I just like okay, obviously Raul Cooley. Love, love, love, love. In the game. I mean, you you're telling me like the story is interesting, the story is evolving, there are a lot of quality of life things that are gonna like smooth over some of the stuff about like the genre or the mechanics that I may not necessarily love.

At first glance. But it's worth it to see the story and like, I mean, this is even giving me like Expedition 33 vibes because I pushed back on that for so long because it was turn-based combat and I was like, I really don't like that part. But the like the visuals, the exploration, the story, blah, blah, all worth it. I'm like, ah, maybe I need to try Saros. Yeah, I mean look, I would say that there the combat You have like you'd have to like really be

I mean I can do a shooter. I love Fortnite. That's what Fortnite is, is the shooter. But it's Fortnite with a controller and I know some folks like aren't you know, th they they're not as they're not as keen to play a game like that on a controller, right? So I I'm not s I'm just cautioning, but I I do think you you would love it. Like I think that if you gave it a shot, you would find it very interesting. I think the story

is um it's it's a little slow. It's it's faster than returnal. They set it up pretty quick. But then there is some sort of weight as as the pieces fall into place. Um, but I think where I'm at right now, I'm like invested to see what happened. There's definitely history with what happened at the planet, um, what happened to, you know, the other echelon expeditions because you you have no idea what's what's happened.

And then the idea of like why you're on why these biomes are constantly shifting, cause all of every run is different. It's all generated like randomly with these different rooms. And um it like every biome is different. It'll it'll it looks different but has a theme to it. Like if you were to see all six or w however many of them are, you'd say like, oh, that's Seros, but that's like

The Shattered Rise, that's the underground. That's you know, i it has a theme, but it's all it's all unique in that it it feels uh different enough. So I really appreciate that. But yeah, the story is I would say it's really interesting. It took a bit to get going, but I think now that I'm in it.

Um, it there's a bit of like a an an event horizon type stuff in there too, where you have characters that are being impacted by the events and and an unseen force and you're like, you know, they're going a little you know, a little crazy and and Talking talking weird and you're like, Oh, what's going on here? So Oh man, I love an unseen force. Yeah. Who doesn't like a good unseen force? Yeah. And I'm gonna have to play this game. I think you'd like to talk about it. Uh

And you can you know, th we talk about quality of life. Like the whole we talked about the you mentioned that there's that tree that you can build out so every time you do a run, you bring your resources back, you can put them into this uh into this tech tree and increase your stats. So you're constantly getting stronger. And you can see that in the numbers. But also eventually you unlock the ability to uh for warp points. So when you finish a biome

before the boss, uh or or sorry, after a boss, there's a warp point. And then that allows you to warp past a biome if you so choose. I will say that as I got farther in the game I struggled trying to go straight into the new biome. And I think it was that muscle memory wasn't built up. Like I was starting at a harder level. Yeah. Because I was jumping to the

What I don't know. I dunno the to number the biomes is weird. There are multiple biomes, but there are also multiple warp points that change over the course of the story depending on what milestones you unlock. Yeah. Yeah, I found actually I had more fun

starting like it's funny because when I bought the games I I can't wait, I get to warp to biomes. This is gonna be perfect. I don't I won't have to do it from the start every time. But I've had the most fun starting from the beginning, building up my power. And then by the time I get to that like fifth or sixth area, I'm just so kitted out with with like the my weapon of choice, my preferred power weapon.

And I've got that muscle memory down from doing like a twenty to thirty minute run as opposed to like jumping in at the end and, you know, being a minute in and I d I get like four minute runs or five minute runs and and die instantly. And they have a second chance option by default. You die, you come back. Raoul cooley does a little like and then he just he hits the ground and Yeah.

And i in a sense where he's like really angry and he just he's he's you know, he's just like I'm back. He doesn't say that. It's a it's a death defy, basically. Like Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, what's not to love? There's just it's got it's those three things I think that

really help. I think when you're having a good run, it can feel unfortunate when you die and you know you it's like, oh, I gotta start over. But if you have that second chance, You you know like, okay, at least I can come back at least once and try to finish and bounce back. And there's there are ways to replenish that uh that second chance um later on in the game. And anytime I kind of came across like, oh man, like

There was even m even moments in the Discord I'm like I'm saying in the Saros game discussion, I'm like, Oh, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do this thing that I eventually found. It feels optional and it was optional.

But then I started doing them and I'm like, oh, actually I I can't handle this. And there's auto hit on weapons, so you can pick up weapons that like auto-target. The my favorite weapon is the I think it's like a smart switch rifle and essentially you just hold down the shoot button and the bullets just kinda do

their own thing and they just they target automatically go to the enemy and they explode and you're like, Oh perfect. So you combine that with like a homing missile and you don't even have I wan I wanna do that. I exact yeah, the the less I have to aim, the better I'm gonna be at the game and the more I'm gonna enjoy it. Yeah. So you can like build your kit based on like how you wanna play and

You know, there's uh there's a reload mechanic. So like when you shoot all your bullets, like there's like a a timing so you can like you can wait for it to reload or if you hit it in the right moment. You reload faster. Um there are re rolls for weapons that you can unlock. So like if you don't like the shotgun. because it's not you don't want to be close to enemies, uh, you can re roll those and and find something that suits your needs. So

Uh there's a lot I think to be said about the game. I haven't finished it yet. As I said, I'm in act two right now. Um, I'm actually in the middle of a run that I started from scratch and the other bonus of starting from scratch is that you can find all the little collectibles like the audio logs.

And they put them on the map by default, which I love. Like you don't have to hunt for them. They're just like, oh, I see an audio log uh on my mini map, I'm gonna go pick that up. Like don't make me pixel hunt, just Show it w show me where it is. It's perfect. So, like, I don't really have a lot of negative things to say about it. I I Yeah, I'm really enjoying it. I'm curious to see like if if you have anything negative to say about it once you're done.

Like with the you know, whether it's story or if things get repetitive or too hard or what like I'm I'm curious to see when when you make it all the way to the end and yeah. Maybe I'll go buy it and then beat you to the end. Maybe. Yeah, if the uh what if I tell you the end is is uh Raoul Coley takes his helmet off. And well he doesn't actually wear a helmet. It's very unsafe. So like he doesn't have a helmet.

Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna say, I would be really disappointed if I buy this game and he's wearing a helmet the whole time and I never actually see him, I'd be like Ryan. Uh You hear him, it's just his voice is buffled the whole time, which would also impact your enjoyment. His voice is muffled and he's wearing a helmet. God damn it, Ryan. No, he doesn't wear a helmet and he's very vocal. Good. Lots to love there and I'm gonna say something and I'm I'm just gonna keep it to myself. It's fine. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I think uh yeah. You've really sold me on this, so I'm I'm gonna go and give it a try. And I and I am glad I waited until after you tried it because I mean I trust your opinion and I trust you to tell me if I would absolutely hate it or not. I mean, we've been doing this for like 15 years now. I feel like

you should know what I can and can't do and what I will and won't enjoy. So if you think this is a good idea, then I'll pick it up and play it sometime in the next couple of weeks. So Yeah, that's gonna be a lot of fun. So tune into our future episodes for that. Uh you can also tune into patreon.com slash the gamers in uh next Friday, May twenty second, not this upcoming Friday, the 15th. Uh sorry guys, this is totally my bad.

Uh, we're gonna have to push game night for a week because I didn't realize that May fifteenth was also the start of our long weekend up here for Victoria Day. So um it's called the May 24 or May twenty-fourth long weekend, except for It's always falls on the third Monday of the month and so this time it's super early. So

Yeah, um I didn't realize that the 15th was actually the start of the long weekend. So uh May 22nd is actually when we're going to be playing some played up. And uh again, that's gonna be at patreon.com slash the gamers in. We're gonna go live over there. We also have a monthly host special. Uh Ryan is working on his for April, and mine should be up near the end of May because we're not going to put them up back to back to back. But yeah, we have two host specials due to you guys.

before the end of the month. So uh tune in for that. And then yeah, if you want to continue the conversation, head on over to tiny.cc slash TGI Discord. Which brings us to the news this week. Ryan, are you excited by the new Resident Evil trailer? Most of the internet, at least what I've seen, is not. Oh really? Oh. Yeah. Why not? Well, because so I've seen a lot of people making content and videos and now content and videos obviously is

You know, the more antagonistic they can be, the more clicks and views and whatever. But I've seen a lot of people saying that like it Or I guess the original expectation was that it was going to be like canon canon, like mainline canon, not what it turned out to be, which seems to be a character that we don't know that's like in

the universe, but not actually tied to the characters that we're familiar with from the games and the I guess the director said that he either never played the game or wasn't familiar with the game, didn't know the story. And it really put a lot of people off. So they're like, how can you tie into canon or how can this be canon if you don't know the canon?

That being said, to me as not a Resident Evil person, I thought that trailer looked super cool and the guy that did the um weapons and barbarian, both amazing movies. So I'm like, this actually looks really good to me. Yeah. As a non-Resident Evil person, like as that like arm's length, just as an objective zombie horror thing. That look it looked really good. The arms at the door. I was like, what is happening? Yeah. Well uh this is so a couple things. Um this is a two minute teaser.

There's a ten minute version where the director it's for IGN, where the director basically spends ten minutes breaking down the teaser and talking about how such a huge fan of Resident Evil it is and he's played a majority of the games The director, maybe it was the writer then or something. Maybe somebody tied somebody tied to this movie knows nothing about the games because my TikTok was full of it. Yeah. Well, I I don't I don't know. I don't know specifically that. I just I know that um

Seven, seven, maybe seven Resident Evil movies. And they've all to a certain degree Uh well at least the early ones uh pulled from the canon, and then the most recent one was straight up a a s a telling of Resident Evil, the the first game. And didn't do well. A lot of people didn't like that. Yeah. That's just it. It it it didn't do well. It had its problems. Uh I enjoyed it for what it was, but it was like

It didn't make a great movie. It made a really great Resident Evil adaptation of a video game, uh, like the others did, uh, although those were Those are weird adaptations. But what they're going for here is they're they're making a movie in the Resident Evil universe that is a movie. Like they're they're trying to make a good movie. And I think No offense to the other the other movies. I think f I think this is the first time they're trying to make a good Risen Evil movie, you know? Like

Well, they're doing the fallout thing, right? Yeah. They're doing the thing where they're adapting the world, they're not adapting the story. Exactly. And they have said it's it's canon. It takes place sorry, the director has said that he he sees the movie as canon. It's within the canon. It takes place around the time of Resident Evil Two. And of course there's some like

Complaints going around like, well, it doesn't snow in Resident Evil Two. It's September. And it's like, I mean, snow's cool. Just like let him have his snow. Yeah. It doesn't change. things and and actually Lou and I talked about this because the trailer was out a week ago. Uh we talked about it on Zombies Ate My Podcast. And we're we're we're both pretty excited in the sense that we're gonna get Something that feels very resident, but is an original story told.

um within that universe. And I and I think if we hadn't had eight films prior to this over the last twenty years, twenty-five years Then we would be like, oh man, I really wish they'd just make a Resident Evil adaptation of the games. We got that. several times and yeah. It it was it was it was what it was. And this is something new and I think it's worth giving it a shot. Um I it it looks really creepy.

And it's set around Resident Evil Two and it's about, you know, not necessarily zombies, but about uh as you know, if you're played a lot of Resident Evil, like the T virus is all about mutations. It's not just about zombies. Zombies was like the first game, the second game, and then it kind of like went crazy from there. So I think what the director's trying to do is basically look at like, hey, I want to do a horror film set in the Resident Evil universe.

And I wanna have all the weird monsters that the T virus makes. Not just just zombies and honestly like There's something because uh weapons specifically was almost like a horror comedy, but there one thing that that movie did was it had so many moments that were just like Off? where there wasn't necessarily even anything dangerous happening, but it was just off putting and it would just like made your skin crawl and there was a lot of like suspense and stuff in that movie.

And so taking that style and applying it to the Resident Evil franchise and canon, I think is really interesting. And like you say, I think it's gonna be it looks like a good movie. Whether it's a good Resident Evil movie, people more familiar with that canon and those stories can can, you know debate that to the end of time, but I think it's gonna be a good horror movie. And even just from the trailer.

The thing that was like the most off-putting for me was like him rolling up on a house and like knocking and then nobody being there and then him just going into the house and using the phone. I was like, ugh, my privacy. Wow. Better not be long distance. You get there's just something so off putting about that like

pseudo home invasion, I guess. I was just like, man, it's just it this is putting me off right from the start, which is great for a horror. And it that kind of tension is something I think that that director does really well. So if you guys haven't watched Weapons, it's really good. I haven't seen any of his work, but I've heard really good things like weapons and barbarians and um

the the closest I've gotten to watching weapons is the intro to the Oscars that uh Colin O'Brien did this this uh I encourage people to check it out. He did an intro for the Oscars this year and he He did the makeup of is it like Aunt Gladys in Weapons? Yes, yeah. Yeah. So there's a whole bit of that. So if you watch five minutes of the Oscars, that's the five minutes to watch. Uh and then watch weapons, of course. So I'll get to that.

Yeah, I think uh uh weapons I can recommend. Barbarian, I don't know, but that's uh that's a tougher recommend, but the weapons definitely. Yeah. Okay. Cool. I will check it out. So yeah, this is out in September. Um, I think it looks really good. I'm willing to give them a shot at making something that is set in the universe but not necessarily like

An adaptation. There's supposed to be a lot of Easter eggs, but I don't think we're gonna get like Leon walking around in the background. That's not the movie they're making. This is not a Marvel movie. This is its own thing. It's not gonna have Post credits, I assume. I think this is very much like Sony and Capcom are like, hey, you want to make this?

He basically said like I had creative freedom to do what I wanted and and we're getting that and I think that's what you do when you have a director like the guy behind Weapons and Barbarians, you you let him cook and I think he's done it. Yeah. And so when is this actually coming out? It is. Is yeah, September I think the date is in the trail or on the trailer. Um I think it's September mid September. Oh my gosh, if it would Yeah.

September eighteenth, in theaters. Okay. I was like the twenty sixth rings of Val and I was like, that's cause we're in twenty twenty six because it's twenty twenty six already. Oh man. Uh yeah. Speaking of it being 2026, it's the time of AI, except not for Xbox anymore. Uh Copilot is out, which I mean

Again, kinda to throw back to the start of the show, even when they make decisions that I think are good decisions, they're not winning me back. But I do think getting co pilot out of Xbox is a good thing. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I I wonder like when they announced it, we were like, do do people want this? Do we need it? And the whole point of a console is just hit the button, play the game, have fun.

And everything else we have around us, like our phone and our computer, it has these AI things that you can engage with. And I don't know if they were just so keen on like well we don't want you to reach for your phone, we want you to engage with the Xbox. They wanted you to s I I think they wanted you to stay on the platform. Sure. But this I think has almost always been Xbox's problem, right? Is that they just want you to interact with the console. They just want you on the Xbox.

And that means that they're trying to make it be so much more than it is or can be. It's like, yeah, you could put an AI assistant onto a console, but it's gonna be so much easier for me to look things up on my phone. that why would you bog down your console with that added functionality that n is not easy to use on that platform?

Right. Like for so long they were like, We're your entertainment box and we're everything that you need. And then here's a whole bunch of like motion things and VR thing and like all of the other things of whatever the hot the new hotness is in tech. Your Xbox is gonna have it. It's like, but all of my other devices do these things better. I just want my Xbox to be good at playing games. So I think again, stripping things out of it, good thing. Just make it play the games.

Yeah. Well this feels very similar, as you said, with when they were like going, Oh, the Xbox is the center of your entertainment with T V and movies and and I think consoles are it's Nintendo Is just games. They don't have Netflix, they don't have Amazon Prime, but like the PlayStation and Xbox have those apps and that's fine.

And that's what we use the Xbox for the most right now, honestly, is it's literally sitting upstairs in our living room and it's easier to use the Xbox interface than it is to try to make our like twenty year old smart TV work well. So We use it for, it's literally for YouTube and Netflix and Disney Plus. Like it's a media machine because I don't play.

games on Xbox right now. So yeah, like that's literally what it's being used for. But yeah, not what I want my console to be used for, if that makes sense. Yeah. But it always seems like Xbox goes down these avenues and doesn't course correct until the damage is done. And then they're like, Oh, we we heard you. Uh you know, don't worry about it. Don't you don't need to plug your T V receiver into the Xbox. You can throw and connect. You know, like now no co pilot. It's just

They need to be th they need to read the room before they commit with all this stuff that no one's asked for. And I get it. Part of innovation is like predicting what people want. Like that's the whole Apple thing. It's like I'm not making

what people need, um uh or or sorry, I'm not making what people want, I'm making what people are are gonna need and they just don't know it yet. And I think there's an arrogance to that and Sometimes it works and you get the iPod or the iPhone and sometimes it it doesn't and you get I'm sure there's another one. Pilot.

I was trying I wasn't trying to like glow up Apple too much. I'm sure there's like I don't know what what's a a failed product? The Newton. I don't know. That's that's a bit far off uh a bit back there, but Uh yeah, though I think that this is a good move, but whether or not Again, all these decisions are interesting, but it really comes down to is Project Helix going to be the thing that that keeps Xbox in the game? No, I still haven't seen enough. This isn't enough. You know, it's a start.

I mean... She's definitely shaking things up, which I think is a good thing. But then also she brought like most of her executive team over as well from AI. So I don't think that this is signaling that like

Xbox is done with AI. I think Xbox is done with this co-pilot experiment, but I would expect they're probably going to be implementing a lot of things on the back end, which then also K like kind of frustrates me as a consumer because the more things that you build into like the back end of your systems.

that make use of AI, the harder it is to opt out of, right? And and again, this is the I'm not saying that they've announced any of this. Like this is probably just me conspiracy theory theoring, theorizing a little bit. But like when you bring over like four executives from the Microsoft AI team you used to work for and put them in all of your like major positions. Then that to me is signaling that you're not done with AI, even if you cancel this co-pilot initiative, right? Like that tells me.

You're gonna put a lot of AI into my Xbox and it's probably not going to be at the forefront. It's not gonna be a little clippy pop-up that says, hi, I'm Copilot. You seem like you need help with your quest. Like it's gonna be hidden and that's gonna make it harder to avoid and

Therefore, I'm just gonna avoid the whole Xbox. Like, and I'm not saying all AI is is horrible, awful, terrible, but I think the big push right now, there's like a huge bubble. Obviously, there are so many environmental impacts, it's everywhere. Like you just you can't get away from it. And the more it gets like put into systems, the more pressures there's gonna be on creating things like data centers and, you know, using up all our water and all these kind of concerns with AI.

that like I if I can't turn it off on my system, like it you would have been able to opt out of like copilot. If I can't turn it off, if it's just built into like your operating system, then I'm just gonna avoid your platform completely. So uh that's my big concern is that like The announcements are saying we're we're rolling AI back, but the hiring actions are saying uh telling me a totally different story. So we'll see how this plays out, but like I

I will be very surprised if when the next Xbox, the Project Helix, when that comes out, if I actually purchase one, I would be shocked. Much like Game Pass. I'm not sure what they can do at this point to bring me back into their ecosystem. Yeah. And I and I think that we're an interesting case in that we do purchase

Every platform for the most part that is required to play uh titles that are exclusive. Like I think that when Xbox made the shift to we're gonna eventually release these on PlayStation, we're gonna put them PC day and date. And I think that opens up like this idea of like, oh well then as someone who purchases a PlayStation, a Switch, and has a PC that is capable Why do I need to You don't need an Xbox, yeah.

Yeah. And it's not like look, you could say like there is we have things against Xbox, but at the end of the day, like you could also say like nothing against Xbox but why shell out an additional thousand dollars

when I already have the box at home that can play it. Um if you can save some money. And I and I think that's That's always been the argument for these exclusive titles and I know there's been news or headlines where the CEO is saying we're gonna reevaluate how we do exclusive titles and

And I and I think that's to me, like that's the big thing. Like if you want it's gonna feel like forcing people, but if you want to force people to look at the Project Helix a little more closely You kinda have to have that incentive. Well and I think the incentive has to be either your tech, yeah, like a Nintendo Switch, or like you're gonna somehow have to blow Sony out of the water for performance, which I don't know how you do because

you know, the more console generations that we get, the closer in performance they seem to be. And that like the gap just isn't there to justify one over the other in terms of like straight up technological power. And then so yeah, you're right. The the other distinguishing factor has been the exclusives and, you know, the deciding specifically to put them over on windows. Which still technically is under that Xbox umbrella or that Microsoft umbrella. Like

opened it up to a whole bunch of people who had existing hardware, right? Even if you don't look at putting them over onto PlayStation eventually, right? Like even if you're just talking about P about PC, that's a lot of people who might have previously bought your product.

that now don't have a reason to. So you gotta kind of amp it up one way or the other. Either give us tech we've never seen or give us things that we can't get anywhere else. And right now Xbox isn't doing either one of those things. Yeah. Well I I I think the whole Playstation having Xbox games on Playstation And and the idea that that will happen at some point in the six to one year mark, uh six months to one year mark after release.

i is the killer for for a console. It'd be like saying like for Nintendo, like, well if I know the next Zelda is gonna come to PC or Playstation, um in in the next six months, like oh I'll wait and I'll play it there I rather than purchase an additional console. But as you said, the switch has its own tech behind it. It's a it's a handheld and it works well in docked mode. So like it's got that going for it. But um and I will say that PC is uh in my mind it's not as

It's it's still a big platform, but I think the big competitor is is the other consoles. So the fact that you're feeding the PlayStation console with your what would normally be Xbox, you know, games is is probably what's it's probably gonna go away. I wouldn't be surprised if with these shifts what comes next is We'll be day and day with PC, but we will probably not bring all of our major, you know, uh players to PlayStation. Like I think I it'll be interesting.

When they announced that, um, you know, the the all these titles going over to to Playstation. I at the time literally thought that meant that they were done with hardware. Because uh like we've already said, you know, there's the the hardware or the exclusives or both. if you're Nintendo that bring people over to your platform. And if Xbox doesn't have significantly better hardware than than Sony or significantly innovative hardware like Nintendo.

Then you've only got exclusives and now you've given that up too. So I'm like, they must not be doing hardware anymore and they're just gonna be Not just because that I don't want to diminish anybody's contributions to the industry, but like they're gonna go from a hardware manufacturer and a game developer to to be only a game developer and give up the hardware side of the business. And then now they haven't done that.

So I'm just like, I don't understand like how you thought that that was a good idea if you're trying to sell consoles. The only way That that was a good idea is if you don't give a shit about selling consoles anymore and you're moving strictly to software, and that doesn't seem to be what the plan was. Or maybe that was the plan.

And it's now shifted now that somebody else is in charge. I do not know, but uh yeah, the lots of it seems like uh U turns and direction changes from the Xbox team under new leadership. So we'll see what happens going forward. Uh we're also getting uh speak speaking a lot about Nintendo in our Xbox news, but we do have more two more Nintendo stories. Uh Star Fox uh remake has been announced. Are are you excited about this? I I am not, but you might be

There was so there's a lot of weirdness surrounding this and and I've had time to process it. But this all started with um there was a leak, you know, a couple months ago, the report being Yeah, that was the one with with Zelda, right? The Ocarina of Time remake. That was that. leak or that that report at that time. Yes. So part of it was the Ocarina of Time remake. Alongside that was we would be getting a Star Fox game uh on Switch Two in the summer.

And so this is sort of our first look at like, okay, maybe that report is somewhat accurate because Nintendo announced five minutes before the direct happened that there would be a Star Fox direct. And then it started. And it started with basically, hey Star Fox, he was in the Mario movie, and now he's got a brand new game. Uh and it's a it's a remake of Star Fox sixty four.

Which I I've seen the rumblings going around that this is a Star Fox game that's been remade a few times, but you know, it's a beloved game. Um, but what they've done here is they've I don't know if you've seen the uh if you watched the trailer or saw the screenshots, but they've made the characters super realistic. And it's to me Pretty pretty jarring. Um I watched I watched it with uh

with Caden and he's like, Why d why do those characters look like AI? Is that AI? And I'm like, No, it's it's it's real. It's like three D models, but they've gone with this realistic look. It's like it's like a three D model. Sure. realistic fur texture over top or something? Like I don't it's really hard to describe. It's it's very weird. It's like I didn't know until now that you could have uncanny valley on animals.

Yeah. Well i it's I think that's what's happening'cause you're you're seeing these Anthropomorphic animals that are walking and talking. And you've had that before. Star Fox has been around since the Super NES. But where before you had limitations of hardware and a more cartoony style to it.

This is a this is a take by Nintendo to be like, okay, let's let's make this as realistic as possible. And where that's a good thing, you see in the combat and the environments and the effects, like that looks Superb. Like it it it looks amaz almost to the point where it's like is is that even like it look it looks really good. Like there's some textures, like I'm looking at a screenshot, like the grass textures, like okay, that's that's not as great. But like some of the space stuff

And all of the other, you know, animations, like, it looks really good. I think they've done a great job there. Um but there was some some other weirdness. Like there was weirdness of the fact that they've um I don't know what what you call it with the there's like a specific tool in Steam you can get like

where uh it's VTubing where you basically like mimic your face is mimicked to the model. And they've added that in here with st the Star Fox characters where if you're in game chat, your character Instead of your face, it's your character and your You know, eyebrow movements and mouth movements and eye movements are mimicked by the 3D model, and that was an additional layer of weird. Yeah.

So th it was it was just a lot to take in. And then as things sort of progressed, you quickly realized like, okay, like this is this is it's neat. Like it's another Star Fox game. We very rarely get these. There's um as far as I I'm willing to go as far to say like there's no bullshit in this one. Every other Star Fox game that has kind of come out has had something weighing it down like Star Fox Zero was exclusive to the Wii U tablet pad thing.

And Star Fox Adventures was more a Zelda game than a Star Fox game. And they just there's always some weird quirk like holding it down. And this appears to be a legit Star Fox experience in the vein of Star Fox sixty four to the point that it is a a remake. Um and it is uh it's out in June and it's priced as far as I can tell, like I think this one is slightly discounted, probably not to the point that um

folks were hoping. But it's out June twenty fifth. And I think it's uh it's also benefiting from Nintendo's like buy it digitally and it's less expensive than the physical version. I think it's fifty American I think I I'm trying to remember what they announced the prices at. Um let's see if I can pull it up here. So on digital in the US. If it decides to load is fifty dollars. You're having all kinds of issues tonight.

I think it's just trying to like do heavy lifting stuff like l like the Nintendo shop is not the most optimized. But it's uh sixty dollars physical and then ten dollars uh digital or sorry, ten dollars, fifty dollars. I'm like, wait, what? I'm also lagging. Uh so you know, you get a bit of a discount there and and um I think fifty is is

is is discount in comparison to like I think what Nintendo's selling their their full of price games at is like eighty dollars. So um it doesn't come in at the at the top tier pricing of Nintendo games. So folks are happy about that. But yeah, like it's it's just wild to kind of come out of nowhere and then to have this like weird jarring moment of like, oh, that's the art style they went with. Like the it's kind of Yeah. It's creepy. It's a little creepy. Yeah, it's weird.

It almost has the sonic issue in a couple of like the screenshots where it's like they've taken an animal body and shoved human teeth in it. Yes, fair. Like I think that's definitely uh what's happening there. And um I think combined with the fact that they've kept the cartoony voices that sort of Nintendo goes through for with their characters. Like they haven't look, I don't know what what kind of voice needs to

It's just I don't know, the voice the voices are still like old school Star Fox and it's not matching in my mind. Like it's like, oh I mean Slippy Toad is always gonna sound like a goofball. That's fine. But um there's just some weird disconnect. Like, I don't know. But maybe, maybe when we get closer to release, we'll have some time to adjust and it'll be fine. But I think this is we would have the same reaction if they said, hey, let's make Mario realistic. You know. Yeah. Weird, you know.

I don't know. We'll see. I'm not like opposed to it. I don't know if I'm gonna pick this one up. Uh day one. Unless the reviews are like, oh my gosh, you have to play it. It's like Star Fox is back. So we'll see. This is one where I will definitely wait for. And I will not try. Oh you never know. Saros could be Yeah, oh, yeah, I know. That's it. You have to have Raul Cooley voice Star Fox. We figured it out. What is the voice that would fix the fox?

Perfect. Uh and finally tonight Nintendo has announced that Switch Two prices are going up. Um, so we got the actual numbers and when it's happening. So September first, uh, US is going up by fifty. Um, which I think Canada is the same, right? And we're also going up fifty bucks. So we kind of win because the Canadian dollar's not as strong as the US dollar. So the fact that we got the same price rise, I was expecting it to be like seventy five dollars in Canada or something.

Um, so I I think we kind of won here. Yeah, we definitely are not feeling it as bad as we normally would. I usually when these pricey increases hit we we do see like a you know, a a twenty five percent increase on top of what is already there, just so the dollars match up. So But it's still weird that we have these conversations about consoles going up in price after their launch as opposed to decreasing.

Oh yeah, it's still wild. Like it just shows how volatile the economy is right now because this is not how things should go. No, a hundred percent. So I'm I'm Nintendo I would say Nintendo held off as long as they could, but like the Switch hasn't even been out for a year, so um they Clearly, uh that was not a long wait. Like um Sony and Xbox where they have sort of had their time in the sun of like launching at it at at a single price and keeping it for a while.

Um, and then having to increase recently feels a little different than what Nintendo's doing where they've they they they have to increase the prices just with everything going on. The real question will be when this stabilizes, will it go back down? And as much as I've been accused of being an in a Nintendo apologist, I really think Nintendo will be the one company to say, okay

We can now manufacture this thing at a decent price, we'll bring it back down. Uh I don't know if that'll happen for sure, but if if there's anybody in the group of three. There's anyone that would do it. Yeah. It'd be Nintendo. The fact that they've

They've done something similar before with the three DS Ambassador program and and uh reduced the price of the console. They've even been out there saying that this increase doesn't even cover all the costs of the of of their increase they're seeing. So it um it might not be the last time. Yeah, yeah. And they also alongside this announced um new bundles, right? So you can get um the switch two. Not just with um like Mario Kart, that bundle, but you can it's basically like

Switch to pick your game, which is kind of cool. It's like build your own Nintendo bundle. Yeah, so you can choose between Mario Kart World, uh Donkey Kong Bonanza. Yeah. Pokemon, yeah. Book a Pedia, I think it's called. The Animal Crossing Pokemon. po-po-po-po-po-po-pia? po-po-po-po-po-pia? Yes. I'm trying to like picture it in the word in my head and I'm like, oh, there's there's some poke and some opias, and I don't know how they go together. Careful.

No, but it's it's a good offer. Like, look, I think that and we've talked about this before. Um, this is a this is a uh a very generous runway. You you can give them credit and be like, oh, they gave us three months.

before the increase kicks in. Or you can be like oh you can be cynical and be like, Oh man, they're just doing this so that uh everybody buys in the three month period and look, they're using it to sell Splatoon Raiders and all that fun stuff. But I think that if we learn anything with what's happened with PlayStation 5s and Xbox Series X's, that if you're gonna buy a Switch 2,

you you sh you definitely should buy it before September first. Like I don't think there's a reason to wait um if you know you like Nintendo games. Like I know there might not be Whatever threshold you need, the three or four top-tier titles to to buy the system. But I think it's I if you if you think you're gonna want to switch two, now's the time to look at that bundle between Mario Kart, Donkey Kong Bonanza, and Poke...Pokepedia Yeah.

We'll just say it different every time. Like I think I think that's a really good offer and um Uh like I I mean you can you can wait, but you know, we're gonna have the same conversation next year where it's like now's the time. If you didn't buy it before, now's the time to buy because there's there's likely another increase because everything I'm hearing

is that things aren't gonna snap back to normal. It's gonna take years. Uh so that's there's a reason the steam machine still hasn't even been we don't even know a price for that thing. Yeah. And I think like that was a a big part of like it why I ended up buying the switch to when I did is because we didn't know

what the price increase was gonna be. We didn't know when the price increase was coming, but we knew that it was coming. It had to. So I was just like, okay, if we get it now, then it's not and I wasn't necessarily expecting Nintendo to You know, be like, hey, guess what? It's Monday and by Friday of this week it's gonna jump up to blah de blah, whatever. But

You never know like when these things are gonna like kick in. So I mean, yeah, I just didn't want to be caught on guard and then found that bundle. So yeah, it's uh I guess worked out in the end because basically the the upper end of the or I guess what the new price in September is what I paid for my whole thing. So Yeah. In the end, I came out on top. So hooray. Thank you, Costco.

But yeah, there that was definitely this incoming price increase is definitely what I was um anticipating when I made the the purchase.'Cause there isn't anything super crazy that I'm playing on the Switch to right now other than it's really nice to have a mobile console. Um, and to be able to play in some of that downtime at work and stuff. So yeah, it was a in the end a good purchase, but Yeah. There will be more titles. I I think like

There will be. There will be. But it it is it is still kind of a hard sell considering we're coming up on a year. And they're increasing the price and there hasn't really been like that Mario or the Zelda, like the the big huge franchise. And I know like you really enjoyed Donkey Kong. I couldn't really get into it. But um yeah. They're they're still missing the library.

They're missing They're they're missing that that big I'll agree, they're m they're missing that big tent pole Nintendo expected game and we're not gonna get it this year. I think if we do get an Ocarino time remake, that will be Um depending on what what it how big of a remake it is, I still think it'll be like, okay, but but this is to hold us over till the next new unique exclusive thing. We saw that with Mario Odyssey and

I think Breath of the Wild was just due to lengthy development times that it launched and was suc so successful on the Switch, but I agree with you. We're still waiting for Uh, we even saw it with the PlayStation. I think Playstation five had like a really solid launch window and um but you were still waiting for that horizon, which was a year later, right? That that Horizon Spider Man two combo.

Um and the Switch hasn't gotten there yet, but I think they still have time. Like the Switch one was what, like an eight year development sort of It was around for a while, so Yeah. We'll we'll see what happens. There's talk that Mario is next year and and I think I think that will I think that will be what what folks are waiting for, that one game that they just cannot miss out on.

Yeah. And I mean Mario Kart World is really fun and I know um the po po Poeopia um also had some really good reviews and stuff, so I mean there is stuff to play on the Switch too and that backwards compatibility is also really good. So if you're already in the Nintendo ecosystem, then I would I would suggest picking it up before the price goes up because like you say,

We know we're getting a price increase in September. I would be very shocked if it was the last one. So there's a possibility that, you know, in the next six months we're gonna see another price increase. So If you're ever thinking you might want to switch two, it would kinda be a get it now or wait four or five years for when they start coming down in price again, I think. So

But yeah, uh that's that's it. That's gonna do it for us tonight. If you wanna join the conversation, head on over to tiny.cc slash TGI Discord, or you can visit us on the web at gamersimpodcast.com. You can also follow us over on Blue Sky. You can find me Jocelyn at josplace.com and Ryan is at Ryan Murphy.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.