1 00:00:00,520 --> 00:00:03,800 I turn 44 in a week, by the way. I can't believe that I've hit 2 00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:07,320 this stage in life where like, I've got a little more money 3 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:09,200 than time. And the money thing, it's not a 4 00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:14,000 flex, it's just where I'm at. And I'm not choosing between 5 00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:17,000 paying rent and buying video games anymore. 6 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:20,600 I'm choosing between sleep and entertainment. 7 00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:24,920 So when Tears of the Kingdom, Final Fantasy Tactics, Evilest 8 00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:30,680 Chronicles, Gran Turismo 7 gets plastered with 9 out of 10s and 9 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:33,160 game of the year hype, I want to believe it. 10 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:36,760 I really do. But in a few nights, reality 11 00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:39,560 hits. Tears of the Kingdom wants me to 12 00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:42,600 live in its world again. Final Fantasy Tactics Evilness 13 00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:46,520 Chronicles punishes every bad move with perma death. 14 00:00:46,600 --> 00:00:48,800 Yes, that's right, there is perma death in this game. 15 00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:53,400 And Gran Turismo 7 treats, treats cartooning like a part 16 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:55,840 time job. And look it, it's not about the 17 00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:57,040 70 bucks. I'm 44. 18 00:00:57,040 --> 00:00:59,480 I can afford games. And what I can't afford is 19 00:00:59,480 --> 00:01:01,120 wasting a few hours. I get to play. 20 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:03,320 And that's where the trust breaks. 21 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:06,520 Reviews don't fail because people lie. 22 00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:09,320 They fail because they're written for somebody else, 23 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:13,040 somebody with time, somebody with energy, somebody who 24 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:18,240 doesn't have a kid to tuck in before hitting start and wait. 25 00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:20,240 Like, is time even a thing anymore? 26 00:01:20,240 --> 00:01:22,880 I, I, I don't even know anymore, Jesse. 27 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:27,000 Like most games require an hour tutorial just to get started 28 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:29,440 these days, to learn the controls, to learn the 29 00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:31,040 mechanics. And it. 30 00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:33,840 It seems like all these big games that are getting the high 31 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:36,200 ratings are becoming more and more complicated and more and 32 00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:38,880 more realistic. Like they're trying to one up 33 00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:42,920 each other and it's like we switched fun Press start. 34 00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:48,560 Start going video games for life replacements simulations. 35 00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:50,920 Do you remember when, like, we were kids and we didn't even 36 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:53,000 have to read the manuals on games? 37 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:54,600 Yeah, like we read the manual for fun. 38 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:57,880 Yeah, yeah. To get the game lure, lure to 39 00:01:57,880 --> 00:01:59,440 like, learn who the characters are. 40 00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:01,320 And now we read it just like, what is this control? 41 00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:02,880 What is this shortcut? What does this do? 42 00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:06,080 That's it, the time crunch. Anyway. 43 00:02:06,080 --> 00:02:08,400 Welcome to the Gamer Dad podcast where we talk about all things 44 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:11,000 Magic Gathering and gaming. We strive to keep things fun fit 45 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:14,440 into our busy lives because gaming's worth finding time for. 46 00:02:14,920 --> 00:02:19,880 I'm gamer dad, Bob, RPG gamer, MTG nerd and sub format lover 47 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:22,880 and I just can't trust game reviews these days. 48 00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:26,840 And I am Jesse Hoagy, a gamer since birth, A2 time girl dad, 49 00:02:27,320 --> 00:02:30,240 and a man who has trusted video game reviews as often as I've 50 00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:33,040 trusted a blue player with two open mana saying I don't have a 51 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:35,280 counter style. So do you recall the last game 52 00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:38,360 review that you read Jesse and actually like cared about and it 53 00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:41,200 LED you in the right place? Like I knew I was going to play 54 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:45,280 Expedition 33 like before any reviews came out I was like, I 55 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:50,160 know this game is for me, but I as I was as I was thinking about 56 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:54,040 this, I'm drawing a blank. Expedition 33 was my last one. 57 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:56,720 So you read the review after I hyped it? 58 00:02:57,120 --> 00:03:00,680 Yep, Yep, before that. Holy shit man. 59 00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:03,280 I think it was Tears of the Kingdom actually, ironically. 60 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:05,480 As I'm as I'm crapping on the game. 61 00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:11,560 But I don't Yeah, I mean, I don't really care a whole lot 62 00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:14,920 about them because most of most of most of the time I read them 63 00:03:15,320 --> 00:03:21,960 to like verify my views, verify how I I feel got a better view. 64 00:03:21,960 --> 00:03:22,960 OK, So I'm right. OK. 65 00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:27,160 OK, OK, so that's kind of what we're touching on tonight. 66 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:29,960 But before we dive in, remember this podcast is powered by you, 67 00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:31,840 our listeners. And if you'd like to support 68 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:34,000 what we do, head on over to Patreon. 69 00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:37,000 Most of what's there is free. It's where I post my blogs, 70 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:40,600 essays, deeper thoughts around MTG, the podcast, and production 71 00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:41,760 work. If you want to chip in a few 72 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:45,160 bucks, it helps everything, keeps everything running. 73 00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:47,680 The podcast, the gear, the time it takes to make this stuff, 74 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:50,440 right. It is completely optional, but 75 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:52,920 it's the best place to keep up with everything happening behind 76 00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:55,000 the mic. So let's talk a little bit about 77 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:59,200 reviews and, and what I view as the biggest and first and 78 00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:01,760 foremost problem here. And I'm calling this the 79 00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:06,160 incentive problem, right? And to me, the review systems 80 00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:08,640 broken, modern review systems broken. 81 00:04:09,200 --> 00:04:12,080 It's not out of malice, it's just structure. 82 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:15,760 And when we look at this, from what I can tell, from what I can 83 00:04:15,760 --> 00:04:19,959 glean from what I researched, reviewers usually get access to 84 00:04:19,959 --> 00:04:22,720 games early access. Obviously they have to review 85 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:27,040 them under conditions set by publishers, the game publishers 86 00:04:27,560 --> 00:04:32,000 pre release builds, specific embargoes, hardware that's not 87 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:33,640 always disclosed. We don't know what they're 88 00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:37,600 playing on. So it's not so shady is so much 89 00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:40,440 controlled, right? And you look at Cyberpunk 2077 90 00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:43,000 and Jesse, you started that game before I did. 91 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:47,480 So you were in before patch release, you know Cyberpunk 92 00:04:47,480 --> 00:04:50,520 proved it. Reviewers only got the PC build 93 00:04:50,520 --> 00:04:53,120 where the console players waited until launch day Chaos and and 94 00:04:53,120 --> 00:04:58,400 it was bad. It was so bad so for. 95 00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:01,600 For a console it was bad, for PCI had no issues. 96 00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:06,040 Yeah, which is funny. Well, I remember specifically in 97 00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:09,400 a review that I read that like cars were clipping through the 98 00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:12,600 roads, if you remember, and they were like dropping underneath 99 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:16,040 the map. Like that's crazy buggy. 100 00:05:16,800 --> 00:05:19,320 So like when a game like Cyberpunk wrecks up a nine out 101 00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:23,200 of 1010 out of 10 before release, those numbers make 102 00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:27,640 sense inside that bubble. They don't match the version you 103 00:05:27,640 --> 00:05:29,840 or I download on day one. They just don't. 104 00:05:30,520 --> 00:05:34,760 So we're dealing with massive patches, overloaded servers, 105 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:40,080 quest bugs, even when these outlets mean well like IGN and 106 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:42,640 others. The race to first kind of kills 107 00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:45,800 perspective. IGN posting review and progress 108 00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:47,200 right now. Have you seen those? 109 00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:51,960 Absolutely blows my mind. Like how are you scoring 110 00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:54,560 something before you even finished it and how is that even 111 00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:57,080 fair to anyone? Like the first time I saw review 112 00:05:57,080 --> 00:06:01,280 and progress was Scarlet Violet Pokémon. 113 00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:04,280 I feel like that one and and they were like, well, you know, 114 00:06:04,280 --> 00:06:06,720 until they fix the frame rates, we're not going to give this a a 115 00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:08,000 fair review. Why not? 116 00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:10,440 Then then you never did, at least not until I was at least 117 00:06:10,440 --> 00:06:11,840 on Switch 2 and now the frame rates are fine. 118 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:17,440 But it's like going back to cyberpunk, like thinking the the 119 00:06:17,440 --> 00:06:20,840 nine out of 10's and stuff. I I got to think because the 120 00:06:20,840 --> 00:06:24,000 videos I watch a lot of, I'll watch a lot of video, watch a 121 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:25,800 lot of video reviews. That's hard to say. 122 00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:30,360 And a lot of people get flown out to certain locations to play 123 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:33,000 it, like a lot of the people that play the Nintendo Switch 124 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:35,680 Two were actually flown to a Nintendo event to play it. 125 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:39,120 And it's in a lot of, like you said, controlled environments. 126 00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:43,800 And the hardware is the top tier hardware with stuff that they 127 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:48,600 already have day one patches on and stuff they already have game 128 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:52,520 ready drivers on, like talking PC specifically. 129 00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:56,280 You're talking like beta drivers that are released ahead for the 130 00:06:56,480 --> 00:07:00,000 the devs and everything. Yep, Yep, and you'll see too a 131 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:03,720 lot of like the end game footage that you're seeing on stuff too 132 00:07:04,080 --> 00:07:07,440 says it's you're looking watching APS 5 review of it's. 133 00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:10,160 APS Pro. Well the in game footage will 134 00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:12,560 say in game footage captured on. PC, yeah. 135 00:07:13,280 --> 00:07:18,320 So it's like a lot of the early access crap is just like that's 136 00:07:18,320 --> 00:07:20,880 I see where a lot of like review and progress comes from is early 137 00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:24,320 access or games that are so massive that are like they're 138 00:07:24,320 --> 00:07:28,280 Mmos or they're like massive RPGs, They can't actually give 139 00:07:28,280 --> 00:07:29,960 you a full review of because they didn't finish the game. 140 00:07:29,960 --> 00:07:32,360 I don't think they should be able to put a review out until 141 00:07:32,360 --> 00:07:35,000 they finish the game. Like call the review early 142 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:39,280 impressions or something like 1st 10 hour impressions or 143 00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:41,680 something. Not because like Mr. Maddie 144 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:43,640 plays as a guy I watch and trust a lot. 145 00:07:44,040 --> 00:07:46,600 He does that exact thing and so does Co Carnage. 146 00:07:46,600 --> 00:07:50,800 They'll say early access or early impression review and 147 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:53,080 they'll come out and say I played eight hours of it and 148 00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:55,880 these are my impressions. When I finish the game I will 149 00:07:55,880 --> 00:07:59,880 put a full review out and sometimes, like Maddie doesn't 150 00:07:59,880 --> 00:08:01,800 do it for two weeks because it takes them that long to finish 151 00:08:01,800 --> 00:08:04,360 it. These are creators. 152 00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:05,200 These are. Us. 153 00:08:05,200 --> 00:08:07,320 These are creators. These are US, right? 154 00:08:07,960 --> 00:08:11,080 That's kind of what we want to see, what we want to signal and 155 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:14,120 everything. And when we talk about Game 156 00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:16,560 Informer or whoever else is out, like Kotaku. 157 00:08:16,560 --> 00:08:18,800 Kotaku. Not Kotaku. 158 00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:22,160 I could go for a Taco. That sounds good, Kotaku. 159 00:08:23,080 --> 00:08:25,880 What are the other ones? Is the Verge? 160 00:08:25,880 --> 00:08:27,480 Do they do game reviews? Verge. 161 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:30,440 Does game reviews? Yep, a Game Informer. 162 00:08:30,440 --> 00:08:32,679 GameSpot. We're talking about those when 163 00:08:32,679 --> 00:08:35,039 we talk about, you know, all of that. 164 00:08:35,240 --> 00:08:40,080 And to me and you, the stuff that Co Carnage talks about and 165 00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:44,800 Maddie, the stuff that matters the most to us is how's the game 166 00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:47,840 scale? How grindy is it, how the 167 00:08:47,840 --> 00:08:51,120 sessions flow? None of that even shows up in in 168 00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:56,320 these these big reviews, You know, like I'd be Ghost of Yote 169 00:08:56,320 --> 00:09:01,440 in 55 hours and I flew through it, but it respected my time. 170 00:09:02,040 --> 00:09:04,480 Like I didn't have to grind. I didn't have to min Max. 171 00:09:04,480 --> 00:09:09,680 And to me that's worth a higher score because in that 55 hours I 172 00:09:09,680 --> 00:09:14,600 played that game, not once did I go, man, this is just so, so 173 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:17,320 janky. Oh, I have to go back and I need 174 00:09:17,320 --> 00:09:22,080 to fetch stuff or I, I, I'm under levelled for this area or 175 00:09:22,160 --> 00:09:24,720 anything like that. That kind of scaling is 176 00:09:24,720 --> 00:09:28,160 important to me. You know it respected my time. 177 00:09:28,560 --> 00:09:31,160 It's funny that you mentioned Ghost Yotai because I just 178 00:09:31,160 --> 00:09:35,840 literally last night got the chapter 2 and I put 30 hours 179 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:39,360 into the into the first chapter where you finished the whole 180 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:40,960 thing in 55. Well, did it? 181 00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:44,600 Did it feel like your 30 hours were grindy? 182 00:09:44,640 --> 00:09:46,840 A waste of time. Or not at. 183 00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:48,720 All or or was the adventure part of it? 184 00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:51,280 It respected? It was hours you spent in the 185 00:09:51,280 --> 00:09:55,320 game. I I made a specific choice to do 186 00:09:55,320 --> 00:09:57,000 what I did. I went around and got every 187 00:09:57,000 --> 00:09:59,880 piece of armor that I could possibly get and I get every 188 00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:03,560 sword variation or whatever they call them, like the different 189 00:10:03,560 --> 00:10:06,320 kiss that I could get. And I purposely ignored the 190 00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:09,560 story just because I wanted to do all that and I wanted to get 191 00:10:09,560 --> 00:10:12,200 all my armor the right color. I wanted to get everything like 192 00:10:12,200 --> 00:10:16,360 my fit and then I did the story, but that was my my choice. 193 00:10:16,360 --> 00:10:18,160 Yep. I, it wasn't like I didn't feel 194 00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:20,080 like I wasted my time because I didn't have to do that. 195 00:10:20,200 --> 00:10:24,400 It's not like armor in a in a way affects your gameplay 196 00:10:24,400 --> 00:10:26,720 because it has different. Perks armor is way less 197 00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:29,600 important in this game than than Ghost of Sushima. 198 00:10:30,440 --> 00:10:33,720 Right, so like now I can I feel like I could get a certain piece 199 00:10:33,720 --> 00:10:36,280 of armor and not and really ignore the purse. 200 00:10:36,280 --> 00:10:38,400 It doesn't really matter. Whereas I didn't have to do 201 00:10:38,400 --> 00:10:39,480 that. I could have just flung to the 202 00:10:39,480 --> 00:10:41,720 story. But a game recently that I feel 203 00:10:41,720 --> 00:10:45,000 like is wasting my time, and this is a weird one, is believe 204 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:48,440 it or not, Fallout 4. So that game came out 10 years 205 00:10:48,440 --> 00:10:51,520 ago, but. Was it only only 10 years ago? 206 00:10:51,960 --> 00:10:55,000 10 years ago, but what was released is the anniversary 207 00:10:55,240 --> 00:10:58,600 update where they bundled every like they always do. 208 00:10:58,600 --> 00:11:01,320 They bundled everything, all the deals which I already had and 209 00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:04,040 then it bundled a bunch of creation stuff from the creation 210 00:11:04,040 --> 00:11:09,760 club and it is jank City. It was broken. 211 00:11:10,040 --> 00:11:12,720 It's been broken for over a year because they did like the next 212 00:11:12,720 --> 00:11:15,640 Gen. update on it for like PS-5 and stuff and it's been broken 213 00:11:15,640 --> 00:11:19,280 and hasn't been fixed since. Now it's broken even more and 214 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:23,520 it's used creations that are absolutely a time waster cuz 215 00:11:23,520 --> 00:11:27,360 it's like go here, view this tape, go here, kill this guy, 216 00:11:27,560 --> 00:11:29,680 get weapon that's it. Didn't you say that was the 217 00:11:29,680 --> 00:11:32,560 problem with the 76 also to start? 218 00:11:32,800 --> 00:11:34,280 When it first started, it was that too. 219 00:11:34,560 --> 00:11:37,560 And it's like this game's been out for 10 years and that over 220 00:11:37,560 --> 00:11:39,840 those 10 years all the motors fixed it. 221 00:11:40,080 --> 00:11:43,040 Yep, and now it's broken again and all the motors are fixing it 222 00:11:43,040 --> 00:11:45,560 again. Like it's like they they don't 223 00:11:45,560 --> 00:11:48,000 respect your time at all. All they care about is getting 224 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:51,240 the cash, getting the check in, and they're owned by Microsoft. 225 00:11:51,240 --> 00:11:53,840 They don't need the cash, but it's like all they cared about 226 00:11:53,840 --> 00:11:56,320 is getting us out around the same time. 227 00:11:56,320 --> 00:11:59,320 Fallout season 2 comes out in a couple weeks just to ride the 228 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:01,280 hype on that. So question on that because I'm 229 00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:05,640 not paying attention there. Did IGN or anybody give that 230 00:12:05,640 --> 00:12:09,080 anniversary edition a review? None of them gave it a. 231 00:12:09,080 --> 00:12:10,520 Review. None of them gave it a review. 232 00:12:10,520 --> 00:12:12,520 So that's interesting. That's also telling, right? 233 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:16,600 So certain remasters get reviews and certain ones don't. 234 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:19,280 Did they not review this for a reason? 235 00:12:19,720 --> 00:12:20,240 Because. It was. 236 00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:23,560 So it wasn't a remaster. It was like an anniversary 237 00:12:23,560 --> 00:12:24,640 edition. It's like a rerelease. 238 00:12:24,640 --> 00:12:27,240 Yeah. So I don't think they review 239 00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:30,560 those. Because I, I was going like full 240 00:12:30,560 --> 00:12:33,400 conspiratorial here, right? The game is so bad that it would 241 00:12:33,400 --> 00:12:35,680 be damaging for IGN to review it. 242 00:12:35,760 --> 00:12:36,920 You know what I mean? Like. 243 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:42,080 Right so I am wrong a games radar plus gave it a review OK 244 00:12:42,120 --> 00:12:44,680 or they gave it a story of the steam reviews? 245 00:12:44,840 --> 00:12:47,720 OK. Which are mostly negative, 246 00:12:48,560 --> 00:12:50,640 actually probably overwhelmingly negative right now. 247 00:12:50,640 --> 00:12:53,200 It's all stories on how bad it is. 248 00:12:53,200 --> 00:12:57,080 It's not actual reviews. OK, so it was covered, but not 249 00:12:57,080 --> 00:12:59,960 in an official review sense. That's interesting. 250 00:13:00,200 --> 00:13:02,320 And we've seen plenty of hype launches fail. 251 00:13:02,920 --> 00:13:05,200 You know, we we've seen them fall apart once players get 252 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:07,600 their hands on them. Proof that review bubbles, 253 00:13:07,600 --> 00:13:10,400 right? They don't always match reality. 254 00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:13,280 I can think of countless overhyped games that that have 255 00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:14,760 burned us. Is there anything that comes to 256 00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:16,600 mind for you? Like specifically where you're 257 00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:19,640 like, I was all in on that review and Oh my God, Starfield. 258 00:13:19,720 --> 00:13:24,040 Starfield. 100% Starfield. I was so hyped for that game and 259 00:13:24,040 --> 00:13:28,200 the reviews were incredibly positive and it's like this is 260 00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:31,440 just a shell of a game that has no soul and no purpose. 261 00:13:31,440 --> 00:13:33,680 I didn't even finish it and I don't even play the DLC. 262 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:36,160 Like granted I don't finish games often but I probably put 263 00:13:36,160 --> 00:13:40,200 30 hours into it, didn't even get halfway through the story, 264 00:13:40,640 --> 00:13:43,440 dropped it, the DLC came out which I own because I bought 265 00:13:43,440 --> 00:13:45,680 like the deluxe edition and I didn't even install it and play 266 00:13:45,680 --> 00:13:46,800 it. Oh no. 267 00:13:47,240 --> 00:13:49,440 And I don't plan to. Oh no. 268 00:13:51,320 --> 00:13:54,680 Yeah, and the reviews? Lettuce astray. 269 00:13:55,520 --> 00:13:56,720 Yeah, the reviews are great on it. 270 00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:01,320 What I want from reviews is discourse and information. 271 00:14:01,480 --> 00:14:04,520 So you even touched on this, your reviewers. 272 00:14:04,520 --> 00:14:07,240 I've played for 8 hours so far. This is my review so far. 273 00:14:07,880 --> 00:14:10,680 I want to see in all of these reviews, how long did you play 274 00:14:10,680 --> 00:14:14,880 the game? What, what build, what plot in 275 00:14:14,880 --> 00:14:18,000 the game did you skip? Did you go full story? 276 00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:20,240 Was it stable? Were there bugs? 277 00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:25,320 You know, we, we learned that with Cyberpunk, there were bugs 278 00:14:25,880 --> 00:14:28,360 and reviews feel like so sanctioned. 279 00:14:28,360 --> 00:14:31,680 Now publishers decide when coverage drops, what can be 280 00:14:31,680 --> 00:14:34,560 shown, what's off limits. And it's not even journalism at 281 00:14:34,560 --> 00:14:36,520 this point. It's, you know, PR with 282 00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:40,480 adjectives. So back on Starfield, IGN gave 283 00:14:40,480 --> 00:14:42,160 it A7. GameSpot. 284 00:14:42,800 --> 00:14:43,280 Gave. It. 285 00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:47,360 A GameSpot gave it A7. Games Radar gave it A5 out of 286 00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:50,800 50. Metacritic has a 83. 287 00:14:52,280 --> 00:14:54,800 Those are those are good reviews objectively. 288 00:14:54,960 --> 00:14:58,600 They're not great, they're not amazing, but those are good 289 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:01,080 reviews objectively. So if I'm looking at that and 290 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:04,560 I'm on the fence, right, for Starfield, if it's not below 291 00:15:04,560 --> 00:15:07,960 like a 50% rating or something like that, if I'm on the fence, 292 00:15:07,960 --> 00:15:10,000 I'm probably going to lean toward those reviews and get the 293 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:11,040 game. I just am. 294 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:16,680 Those are a net positive review. So, you know, but like, where's 295 00:15:16,680 --> 00:15:19,600 the pro publica of game reviews? Somebody who doesn't care about 296 00:15:19,600 --> 00:15:24,080 early codes preview perks, like right now, nobody wants to bite 297 00:15:24,080 --> 00:15:28,120 that hand that feeds them. And people are paying the price. 298 00:15:28,520 --> 00:15:31,320 They're paying the actual price for these games and and. 299 00:15:31,880 --> 00:15:35,480 I mean the $80 price. And look at that, the return 300 00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:39,320 window restrictions for games and stuff these days, it's 301 00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:42,120 virtually impossible. There's so much metadata 302 00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:45,600 attached to digital games now. If you buy it and you left it on 303 00:15:45,600 --> 00:15:49,480 accidentally while your kid was having a meltdown and the clock 304 00:15:49,480 --> 00:15:51,800 keeps ticking and you forgot to come back to it and you realize 305 00:15:51,800 --> 00:15:53,880 the game was dog shit, guess what? 306 00:15:54,240 --> 00:15:56,600 You're not getting a refund. Yeah, I can't replace it. 307 00:15:57,560 --> 00:15:59,760 You're not getting a refund. No. 308 00:15:59,760 --> 00:16:04,000 And like you're talking about like pro public and stuff. 309 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:07,360 I've seen it with hardware reviews too, where if certain 310 00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:10,040 people like Jace 2 cents for example, is a hardware guy, I 311 00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:14,040 trust and watch he, I think, I think he still is, is on the 312 00:16:14,040 --> 00:16:16,320 blacklist for NVIDIA because he gave him a better view. 313 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:21,120 So like these people get these games and they feel obligated to 314 00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:24,120 keep to give him a good review to keep getting the stuff in the 315 00:16:24,120 --> 00:16:27,720 future to create more content. So it's like they're scared to 316 00:16:27,720 --> 00:16:30,360 actually speak their mind because they're going to get 317 00:16:30,360 --> 00:16:32,640 blacklisted and then their whole livelihood is gone. 318 00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:35,480 Because like if Jay, I mean, Jay is big enough now where he 319 00:16:35,480 --> 00:16:37,360 doesn't care. But if he was new and he 320 00:16:37,360 --> 00:16:40,440 suddenly got blacklisted for getting tech early, he can't 321 00:16:40,440 --> 00:16:42,880 make these early reviews and he can't be one of the first people 322 00:16:42,880 --> 00:16:45,360 to publish the review. Because like these people that 323 00:16:45,360 --> 00:16:48,920 publish reviews first get all the views and then they get all 324 00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:52,440 the money from the ad revenue from all the YouTube videos and 325 00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:54,160 they're scared because they're not going to get them because 326 00:16:54,160 --> 00:16:55,200 they're going to get blacklisted. 327 00:16:55,200 --> 00:16:57,640 All this person give me a bad review that gave us a bad 328 00:16:57,640 --> 00:16:58,720 review. We're not going to give them a 329 00:16:58,720 --> 00:17:00,960 review. Yeah, I I mean, do you do you 330 00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:04,680 feel like true independence, a true independent pro publica, 331 00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:06,400 right. I keep going back to them 332 00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:08,920 because they're one of my favorite news outlets these days 333 00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:11,920 in the world that we're in. But like, do you think true 334 00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:15,440 independence could survive financially like modern games 335 00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:18,160 and media? Not unless it's someone who is 336 00:17:18,160 --> 00:17:20,760 financially independent already and doesn't need money. 337 00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:25,480 Like if they can just do a review and still get get their 338 00:17:25,480 --> 00:17:28,119 money in their views without having to deal with getting 339 00:17:28,119 --> 00:17:30,800 review codes. So that's the issue is you get 340 00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:32,240 these people that get the review codes early. 341 00:17:32,280 --> 00:17:35,640 Now I guess you could buy like the deluxe edition and get get. 342 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:38,480 You got like 3 days. Three days, yeah. 343 00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:40,640 That's not enough to properly review a game. 344 00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:45,200 So honestly, I don't think they really can unless they're 345 00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:47,960 already independent and already financially stable without 346 00:17:47,960 --> 00:17:52,400 having to worry about that. Would you donate money to let's 347 00:17:52,400 --> 00:17:55,880 say an organization existed that did this, would you donate some 348 00:17:55,880 --> 00:17:59,040 of your money to keep them going if they were giving unbiased 349 00:17:59,040 --> 00:18:02,000 reviews on games and stuff? I would pay for a subscription. 350 00:18:02,120 --> 00:18:05,640 I probably would too, in all seriousness, if they could prove 351 00:18:05,640 --> 00:18:07,560 that their content and stuff is unbiased. 352 00:18:07,760 --> 00:18:09,280 And that's really simple as well. 353 00:18:09,360 --> 00:18:12,680 Full disclosure, like we just talked about, this is the system 354 00:18:12,680 --> 00:18:14,720 I'm playing on, this is the hours, this is the quest lines 355 00:18:14,720 --> 00:18:16,720 that I skipped. This is the content that I did, 356 00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:19,320 blah, blah, blah. I'd pay a subscription to that. 357 00:18:19,320 --> 00:18:21,200 That would feel like a trustworthy source. 358 00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:23,480 Jesse, maybe we should spin up a side company. 359 00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:26,080 I mean, this is this feels untouched here. 360 00:18:26,080 --> 00:18:28,400 I I don't know man. I was just going to say kind of 361 00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:31,680 related, like right now, I went through all my Twitch Subs and I 362 00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:34,640 only subbed to one person other than my Prime, which goes to you 363 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:39,480 and it's it's guest gaming. And I subbed to him because 364 00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:44,920 yeah, he is really high up with Marvel, but everything he does 365 00:18:44,920 --> 00:18:48,720 is honest. So he doesn't care if he gives a 366 00:18:48,720 --> 00:18:50,800 card a better view and has never get to do it again. 367 00:18:51,120 --> 00:18:53,440 He does it because he shout out says I want you to make an 368 00:18:53,440 --> 00:18:56,280 informed decision on what you're going to buy using your money or 369 00:18:56,280 --> 00:18:58,240 Indian currency. I'm going to be honest with you. 370 00:18:58,800 --> 00:19:01,640 Whereas 95% of the people out there are just going to hype the 371 00:19:01,640 --> 00:19:03,760 card because Marvel paid them to do it. 372 00:19:05,360 --> 00:19:08,040 Yeah, but it, it feels very dishonest these days with this 373 00:19:08,040 --> 00:19:09,760 stuff. And look, I'm not saying that 374 00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:13,000 every review is garbage. Like some of them get it right 375 00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:16,240 for about 5 minutes. They, they can tell you how a 376 00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:19,840 game looks, how it feels, you know, swinging a sword. 377 00:19:20,080 --> 00:19:21,760 They can tell you how the soundtrack is. 378 00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:24,920 But what they almost never capture is what it's like to 379 00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:27,200 live with it. The grind, the patch cycles, the 380 00:19:27,200 --> 00:19:29,720 systems that either respect your time or waste it. 381 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:33,920 You know can you? What was a a recent game path 382 00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:37,760 path 2 right? Wasn't the skill tree absolutely 383 00:19:37,760 --> 00:19:40,680 absurd? Path to Exile, Yeah, yeah, it 384 00:19:40,680 --> 00:19:44,320 was absolutely massive. Like does that feel like it 385 00:19:44,320 --> 00:19:48,560 respects your time? It caters to a certain gamer 386 00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:52,320 that wants to do that, whereas if someone wants to just go in 387 00:19:52,320 --> 00:19:54,800 and and play it and try it out, you're not going to have a good 388 00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:55,960 time, right? Right. 389 00:19:55,960 --> 00:19:59,440 So, so that's what I want to hit next is what reviews actually 390 00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:02,080 get right. And when they completely miss. 391 00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:04,320 Yeah. So that's the issue with these 392 00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:07,880 reviews is again, they try to rush them out and get them out 393 00:20:07,880 --> 00:20:10,880 as soon as they can. It's not no matter how much time 394 00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:12,920 you spend with it, you're not going to get an accurate review. 395 00:20:13,360 --> 00:20:16,480 You're just not because how many games these days are designed to 396 00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:19,240 be in 10 to 20 hours? None of them. 397 00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:21,160 None. None of them. 398 00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:25,920 Like how in the hell are you going to get a Ghost of Yotai 399 00:20:25,920 --> 00:20:27,640 review out if you hit the game for three days? 400 00:20:28,120 --> 00:20:29,840 You're not sleeping. You're not sleeping. 401 00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:33,240 You're not sleeping, no. Or you're you are going full 402 00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:36,880 plot skipping side content and other fun stuff that you are 403 00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:38,480 completely. You're not hitting all the 404 00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:41,120 bamboo strikes right, which were fun as hell. 405 00:20:41,120 --> 00:20:43,680 Like have you gotten to the lightning rod one? 406 00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:46,000 Yeah, I just got that today actually. 407 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:47,240 Like a couple hours ago actually. 408 00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:48,760 Did that mess with you for a little bit? 409 00:20:49,040 --> 00:20:51,920 I I, I did it for like 3 times. I'm like, what the hell is going 410 00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:52,720 on? Yeah. 411 00:20:52,800 --> 00:20:54,960 And I look around, I'm like, why can't I pick up these weapons? 412 00:20:54,960 --> 00:20:56,760 I'm like, I picked them up through them and then did it. 413 00:20:57,000 --> 00:20:58,160 Exactly. Exactly. 414 00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:00,720 And and these reviewers, if they're rushing through things, 415 00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:03,000 probably don't have that fun aha moment. 416 00:21:03,360 --> 00:21:06,680 And that's a really nice touch in a game like the lightning rod 417 00:21:06,680 --> 00:21:09,520 stuff. So, you know, are reviewers 418 00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:10,800 missing that? I don't know. 419 00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:14,040 I'm wondering how many of these cuz these you're talking giant 420 00:21:14,040 --> 00:21:16,120 companies that play hundreds of people. 421 00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:19,240 I'm wondering if they have like a bunch of people play a chunk 422 00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:20,320 of the game. Jeez. 423 00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:21,600 And then they just talk to each other. 424 00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:26,120 Just talk to it and kind of mold the review, you know, man. 425 00:21:26,120 --> 00:21:29,000 How can you do it? It's like, it's like a stable of 426 00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:32,320 sitcom writers, you know? Yeah, Shows aren't written by 427 00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:34,920 one person anymore. They're written by like 6. 428 00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:37,440 Just like music, music isn't actually written by the artist, 429 00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:39,240 it's written by a team of 10 people. 430 00:21:40,120 --> 00:21:43,440 It's it's crazy, but I'll give credit where credit's due, you 431 00:21:43,440 --> 00:21:44,840 know, some reviews serve a purpose. 432 00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:47,000 They confirm hype. We touched on that a little bit, 433 00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:48,880 you know, or they just pop the bubble. 434 00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:51,240 Like Expedition 33 is a good side of that. 435 00:21:51,240 --> 00:21:53,800 I hyped it to everyone. Jesse can vouch for this. 436 00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:57,000 Everyone I knew and could talk to about this game, like 437 00:21:57,400 --> 00:22:00,520 Expedition 33 mentioned, Hi, I'm Bob. 438 00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:02,520 You know, I've seen this game. I think it looks awesome. 439 00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:05,280 And then you looked at the reviews and everything and they 440 00:22:05,280 --> 00:22:07,040 backed it up and I was like, oh, thank God. 441 00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:10,160 And not only the reviews, Did you see the Golden Joystick 442 00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:11,160 Awards? No. 443 00:22:11,840 --> 00:22:14,760 It won every single award that it was in. 444 00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:18,120 You're kidding. It swept it good every single 445 00:22:18,120 --> 00:22:20,160 award. Good, good. 446 00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:23,080 It deserved it. And that, my friends, is is when 447 00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:26,360 the system works. And then, and then look at 448 00:22:26,360 --> 00:22:29,680 Pokémon Scarlet and Violet and I, I talked about that a little 449 00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:32,800 earlier. The frame rate disaster of that 450 00:22:32,800 --> 00:22:36,080 game was awful. And reviewers who called that 451 00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:37,840 out, good on you, You did your job. 452 00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:41,000 But others like hesitated. They waited for patches instead 453 00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:43,280 of being honest. And that's when it starts to 454 00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:45,920 feel like pandering to me. And that issue with that 455 00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:47,880 specific one is the patches didn't fix it. 456 00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:49,920 Nope. Like nothing changed. 457 00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:53,120 And you can't really, like with Scarlet and Violet, you can't do 458 00:22:53,120 --> 00:22:56,320 a review in progress because it's just going to sit there and 459 00:22:56,320 --> 00:22:59,760 be waiting and you're at the mercy of Nintendo or Game Freak 460 00:22:59,920 --> 00:23:01,560 actually putting out a patch for it. 461 00:23:01,880 --> 00:23:03,440 Yep. Whereas like I said before, I 462 00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:05,960 didn't see any meaningful because I kept trying it because 463 00:23:05,960 --> 00:23:08,400 my kids love Pokémon. I didn't see any actual 464 00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:10,800 meaningful change with that game until I went to Switch too. 465 00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:13,640 Yeah, I, I powered through it on on the Switch. 466 00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:16,640 I, I mean, I just did bad frame rates and everything and it just 467 00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:20,200 never got better. That, in fact, is probably the 468 00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:22,480 worst Pokémon game I've played, bar none. 469 00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:23,560 You guys haven't played the new one? 470 00:23:24,800 --> 00:23:28,640 Oh no, don't do this to me. Lisa I haven't played it either, 471 00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:31,120 but I I don't have any good reviews that I've seen about it. 472 00:23:31,120 --> 00:23:32,440 Well. We'll have to see if Santa 473 00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:35,040 brings it this year because my kiddo is going to like it too. 474 00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:36,440 Oh. That's right, because you 475 00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:37,480 haven't opened your switch to yet. 476 00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:39,720 Haven't. No, good thing he doesn't listen 477 00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:42,120 to this podcast. He's only 5 1/2 years old, you 478 00:23:42,120 --> 00:23:46,920 know, But yeah, I mean, my switch to is sitting in a closet 479 00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:49,560 right now. We've got what, a month and and 480 00:23:49,560 --> 00:23:52,040 four days so. Oh man, yeah. 481 00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:53,920 What, what we're going to get there soon. 482 00:23:54,400 --> 00:23:57,960 But like, you're right, I, I just powered through the bad 483 00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:01,280 frame rate and if I were giving that game a review, it would 484 00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:03,240 have been bad. It would not have been well, I, 485 00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:05,440 I guess I should pull some punches guys. 486 00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:07,080 It's just it's going to get better. 487 00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:10,680 I, I, I'm so hesitant. Like for me, though, for me, the 488 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:13,320 biggest issue is who sits in the reviewer's chair? 489 00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:16,120 Who, who, and and I sound like an owl. 490 00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:19,040 This sounds so interesting though, and, and I want to cover 491 00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:23,480 this because I think this is an untalked about topic here. 492 00:24:23,840 --> 00:24:27,240 Outlets give the game to genre specialist. 493 00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:30,200 What do I mean by that? These are safe, predictable 494 00:24:30,200 --> 00:24:33,120 people. Imagine pairing every expert 495 00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:38,120 with a casual voice. You'd get perspective and not 496 00:24:38,120 --> 00:24:43,040 just proficiency. So you get, I'm an RPG expert. 497 00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:46,880 I wrote this review, so now let's move into someone who's 498 00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:49,440 not in their comfort zone, Jesse Hoagy. 499 00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:53,320 Jesse, can you review Final Fantasy 16 for me? 500 00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:56,520 What's your take? Without playing it, obviously. 501 00:24:56,520 --> 00:25:00,040 What's what's your take on that game from 2023? 502 00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:04,120 A casual who walks in and may or may not be interested in this 503 00:25:04,120 --> 00:25:06,320 game. What would the casuals take be? 504 00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:08,120 What would the casuals review be? 505 00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:12,520 You're getting an RPG purist reviewing that game, and to an 506 00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:14,640 extent that makes sense. But what if? 507 00:25:15,120 --> 00:25:18,040 What if? So I would like if I looked at 508 00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:22,640 it, I would look at it from does it explain the story and try to 509 00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:25,560 catch you up from someone who's doesn't know the lore of Final 510 00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:28,000 Fantasy. And then I would just go to 511 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:32,400 basically how the mechanics, you know, how is the combat, how is 512 00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:34,200 the story, even though I don't understand it. 513 00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:36,400 So it wouldn't be the same review at. 514 00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:38,760 All right. And the story, I mean to, to 515 00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:41,160 clarify things for you, the story in Final Fantasy is not a 516 00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:44,080 continuous timeline. Almost all the games are are 517 00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:47,680 individual worlds and universes. So that's kind of helpful, 518 00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:48,680 right? It's self-contained. 519 00:25:48,680 --> 00:25:49,920 That would be helpful. Yeah, I would. 520 00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:52,160 I would expect it not to be. I would expect it to be a very 521 00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:54,360 long story. Yeah, that's right. 522 00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:56,160 Except this is the Final Fantasy. 523 00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:58,440 But we have 16 of them. I don't, I don't know. 524 00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:02,160 But like right now, the review crowd, everything leans 525 00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:04,800 hardcore. I am the best Guitar Hero player 526 00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:08,160 in the reviewers. I am the best RPG person. 527 00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:10,160 I am the best fighting game player. 528 00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:14,400 I like, could you imagine being a casual trying out a fighting 529 00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:17,720 game like the newest Tekken game and, and you have to review this 530 00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:20,200 game from someone who's never picked up a Tekken game and you 531 00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:21,920 might be interested in fighting games. 532 00:26:22,520 --> 00:26:25,840 I mean, granted, those kinds of people are kind of unicorns at 533 00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:27,120 this point. If you're in the gaming 534 00:26:27,120 --> 00:26:29,800 industry, if you're writing reviews, you you play games. 535 00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:33,200 But like, what if you don't go into your specialty? 536 00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:35,320 What if, what if you're out of your specialty? 537 00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:40,000 What if me, Bob is being asked to review first person shooters? 538 00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:42,120 I'd give you a different review I think. 539 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:45,720 Yeah, if you could even get through it, motion sickness. 540 00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:50,560 But it it would, I think, at least from what I see of social 541 00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:53,880 media and stuff, if someone came from like a casual angle, they 542 00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:58,080 would probably get like made fun of in the comments and stuff and 543 00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:00,520 nobody would take him seriously because they're not an expert on 544 00:27:00,520 --> 00:27:00,960 it. Yep. 545 00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:04,520 Like all those, all those reviews and videos are not 546 00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:06,360 geared toward the casual newcomer. 547 00:27:06,360 --> 00:27:08,920 They're geared toward people who already know it and want to know 548 00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:10,400 if they're going to spend their time in it. 549 00:27:10,840 --> 00:27:13,400 Yep. And I know this sounds goofy 550 00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:15,880 and, and maybe in the comments, people are going to be like, you 551 00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:17,280 guys are out of your friggin mind. 552 00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:19,480 Like I don't want a casual reviewing a game. 553 00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:22,600 I can't trust that. But what if you're a casual and 554 00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:26,200 you need to trust that, you know, they, there could be two 555 00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:29,080 reviews for every game. I I know I'm asking you guys to 556 00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:31,880 do a lot reviewers, but like there could be two reviews. 557 00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:36,400 And and let's look at I just talked about Final Fantasy, but 558 00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:40,800 let's look at Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and the disconnect 559 00:27:40,800 --> 00:27:43,520 there. I played this game, Jesse, you 560 00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:44,680 didn't. That's OK. 561 00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:48,640 But like that game showed a massive disconnect. 562 00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:52,000 Critics glazed it. I'm using the word that the kids 563 00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:53,200 use. I'm cool, right? 564 00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:56,320 It was like gospel. It was a masterpiece, epic, you 565 00:27:56,320 --> 00:28:00,240 know, pure cinema, the the Scorsese meme, you know, all 566 00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:05,080 these buzzwords. And underneath that game, it was 567 00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:09,440 bloat city. It got the Ubisoft treatment and 568 00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:14,720 somehow, somehow fans were even praising the bloat. 569 00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:18,000 And I'm not going to lie, that's when I check out like, I'll, 570 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:19,760 I'll treat reviews like weather reports. 571 00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:21,360 At that point, they're going to tell me. 572 00:28:21,360 --> 00:28:24,160 They're going to tell me if the air is clear or stormy, not 573 00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:25,400 whether I should buy an umbrella. 574 00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:29,480 Like, how in depth were they? Like the reviews, like these 575 00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:32,920 critics, again, are probably just glazing Ubisoft. 576 00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:36,920 And they're just, yeah, look at their their perspective can't be 577 00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:39,080 trusted. Assassin's Creed Valhalla, that 578 00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:42,360 was another bloated game that was an actual Ubisoft game. 579 00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:45,600 This was Final Fantasy Square Enix, but it got the Ubisoft 580 00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:48,080 treatment. Like your points still valid. 581 00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:51,920 Yeah, like they're, they're glazing it because they want to 582 00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:54,080 get a review copy. They probably didn't do an 583 00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:57,000 actual deep dive of it to expose the bloat. 584 00:28:57,560 --> 00:29:01,000 So, but at the same point, could they even have done that in the 585 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:02,440 short time frame that they had to review it? 586 00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:08,200 I was just going to say, I think I had to spend 80 hours in that 587 00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:12,160 game just to finish it and by hour 50 I was like, what am I 588 00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:15,040 even doing with my life anymore? Yeah. 589 00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:18,800 And then I did 30 more because I had to just I am very different 590 00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:20,320 from you. Jesse is wired differently. 591 00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:22,560 He will put a game down when he doesn't like it. 592 00:29:22,920 --> 00:29:25,040 Oh yeah, I still haven't beaten so many games. 593 00:29:25,040 --> 00:29:27,960 Just haven't beaten Fallout 4 and I've had it for 10 years. 594 00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:31,160 It is insanely rare for me to put a game down that I don't, 595 00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:33,640 that I don't like. The last one I can think of that 596 00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:37,400 I did with that is for Spoken, which I hyped the hell out of. 597 00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:42,000 I was so wrong about the critics killed it too, so I yeah. 598 00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:43,440 Luckily that the critics got that right. 599 00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:46,000 Yeah. But like, I don't, I don't put 600 00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:48,280 games down. So I wasn't going to let Final 601 00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:52,680 Fantasy 7 Rebirth get to me. I powered through those 30 hours 602 00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:56,680 and I'll tell you at that point, man, I am skipping dialogue like 603 00:29:56,680 --> 00:29:58,760 you wouldn't believe. I'm like, this is blow. 604 00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:02,080 Get me to can I, can I continue the story, please? 605 00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:04,440 It was just, it was wrong. You knew the story already, 606 00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:08,120 right? Well, here's the thing. 607 00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:12,640 No, because they completely rebuilt the story for these 608 00:30:12,640 --> 00:30:15,280 games. They, they kind of decided that 609 00:30:15,520 --> 00:30:19,240 the original PlayStation game was not canonized enough. 610 00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:23,240 So they kind of rewrote the Canon and it tied into all of 611 00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:27,800 the other sub sub games like Dirge of Cerberus and, and other 612 00:30:27,800 --> 00:30:30,960 things that had side stories and they kind of rope them into 613 00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:32,800 everything. But oh, by the way, if you 614 00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:34,800 didn't play any of those side games, they got the Kingdom's 615 00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:37,200 Hearts treatment here, right? If you didn't play any of those 616 00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:39,040 games, you had no idea what the hell was going on. 617 00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:42,280 You're like who was this guy? Why is he important? 618 00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:44,400 Why is he in my Final Fantasy 7 game? 619 00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:48,880 He was not in the PlayStation One game like the entire first 620 00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:52,160 Final Fantasy remake. Final Fantasy 7 Remake game 621 00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:56,520 takes place as you're in Midgar, the main city at the beginning 622 00:30:56,520 --> 00:31:02,360 of the game and leaving it. Total gameplay time if you're a 623 00:31:02,360 --> 00:31:05,640 veteran is about 5 hours in Midgar. 624 00:31:06,720 --> 00:31:09,160 Like if you've played RPGs and it's the first time you're 625 00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:11,600 playing it, you're in Midgar for five hours. 626 00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:14,800 They turn that five hours into the first disc. 627 00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:18,680 Jesus. They turn that into 5060 hours 628 00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:21,520 of gameplay for remake and people were like. 629 00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:22,680 They probably this is. Great. 630 00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:25,600 If they want more content, let's give them more content. 631 00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:27,600 Yep. And the reviewers ate it up. 632 00:31:27,720 --> 00:31:29,400 They they thought it was the best thing ever. 633 00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:34,120 And and to me, again, as we say, as we've said, that is not 634 00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:37,040 respectful of my time. I've played the first game, have 635 00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:40,200 some respect. So I mean, that's that's when I 636 00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:43,240 start start to check out, you know, you know, is there value 637 00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:45,320 in deep dive critic perspectives? 638 00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:51,440 It's so hard because by the time you have the top, like actual 639 00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:55,720 experience to do a deep dive, you're talking weeks or months 640 00:31:55,720 --> 00:31:58,360 after the game has been released and nobody cares anymore because 641 00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:01,360 the cycle is just just like magic releases, something comes 642 00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:03,960 out and then a couple weeks later something else is up. 643 00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:06,000 Yep. So nobody cares anymore to do a 644 00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:08,440 deep dive because that time has passed. 645 00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:11,680 Our attention spans are so short that it's like, what's next? 646 00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:13,240 OK, I played it for the weekend. What's next? 647 00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:16,200 Yeah, there's got to be some kind of a tipping point or value 648 00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:19,800 prop on reviews, like on hours spent playing these games and 649 00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:23,160 then cranking a review out because you can't get a deep 650 00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:24,920 dive in. A lot of times when I look at 651 00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:27,560 reviews like on Steam, I'll look at time played because Steam 652 00:32:27,560 --> 00:32:28,760 actually tells you the time played. 653 00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:31,600 Yeah. So that's where I review like 654 00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:34,200 input actual stock in some of those reviews is the way the 655 00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:35,720 time played. Is now are those professional 656 00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:37,480 reviews or user? Reviews. 657 00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:38,560 They're not. They're user reviews. 658 00:32:38,560 --> 00:32:40,080 Yeah, see. We're funny. 659 00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:43,360 I love seeing. I love seeing user reviews that 660 00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:45,240 says 4000 hours. Don't waste your time. 661 00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:46,040 It's terrible game. Yeah. 662 00:32:46,120 --> 00:32:47,720 It's like you have 4000 hours a day, Claire. 663 00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:48,640 It's not true. Yeah. 664 00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:53,360 Yeah, where where reviews could evolve is post launch, you know, 665 00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:55,800 quality of life patches change everything. 666 00:32:56,560 --> 00:32:59,480 But you know, very few of the outlets revisit things. 667 00:32:59,880 --> 00:33:02,920 Cyberpunk 2077, but we're touching on that again, right? 668 00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:07,520 1.5, that patch that saved the game for me. 669 00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:11,280 That was when Jesse said, yeah, it's it's super stable now, Bob, 670 00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:14,800 you're probably safe to try it. And that's when I actually 671 00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:17,640 entered the cyberpunk universe. I didn't get through. 672 00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:19,000 A lot of people didn't like. Right. 673 00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:23,080 A lot of people didn't. And I have no regrets, like we 674 00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:27,800 got the right information there and and if I were reviewing my 675 00:33:27,800 --> 00:33:31,800 checklist checklist, God I cannot talk tonight is simple 676 00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:37,680 playtime, optional content difficulty patch version, 677 00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:41,120 stable. And above all, I've said it 678 00:33:41,760 --> 00:33:44,280 respect for the players time. Because honestly, at this stage 679 00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:47,120 of life that's the only currency that matters. 680 00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:53,600 Respect for my time. I would add what platform it's 681 00:33:53,600 --> 00:33:56,520 meant to be played on because a lot of these games are ported to 682 00:33:56,520 --> 00:34:00,160 other platforms just to get it there and usually the port is 683 00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:02,600 terrible. And I would like to know what 684 00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:05,480 the road map looks like for content down the road. 685 00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:08,639 Like is there DLC planned, you know? 686 00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:12,480 Ghosta Yotek Yeah, we're getting a new Game Plus, but we didn't 687 00:34:12,480 --> 00:34:14,800 know this a month. Ago what? 688 00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:17,560 Expedition 33? Yeah, a whole bunch of new 689 00:34:17,560 --> 00:34:18,920 content coming out soon, right? Yep. 690 00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:22,520 So yeah, Yep. Whereas like Starfield released 691 00:34:22,520 --> 00:34:26,440 the the DLC, the one they did and then I have no idea what's 692 00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:27,760 coming now because they got to fix anything. 693 00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:31,120 I have no idea. It's almost like these studios 694 00:34:31,120 --> 00:34:33,920 sometimes when they succeed, they're like, we have money. 695 00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:37,000 We should probably give the fans something else what they want. 696 00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:39,880 And and that's like now we have a road map. 697 00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:41,920 Jesse. We didn't actually have one a 698 00:34:42,199 --> 00:34:46,280 month ago, but you know. Let's talk about DLC real quick. 699 00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:48,920 Like how many of these games? I can't. 700 00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:51,480 I can't think of the names of the games now, but a bunch of 701 00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:53,960 them were previewed. Like the game's not even out 702 00:34:53,960 --> 00:34:55,360 yet. They previewed the game and then 703 00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:59,240 they previewed the DLC. Just released the damn DLC with 704 00:34:59,240 --> 00:35:01,320 the game. Yep, like you clearly made it 705 00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:03,480 already. Yeah, we're getting. 706 00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:07,000 Like Stranger Things releasing 4 episodes next week, 3 episodes 707 00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:08,640 on Christmas, and the final episode of New Year's Day. 708 00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:11,520 Just release it all at once. We're getting, I know you're not 709 00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:14,560 into the Dynasty Warriors games, but Dynasty Warriors Origins was 710 00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:17,960 actually decent last year last last January. 711 00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:23,520 We're getting DLC January 2026 like a full year. 712 00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:26,120 Maybe it was this Jan, No, maybe. 713 00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:28,800 No, it was it. It's still nonetheless we're 714 00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:33,320 getting DLCA year later. So once you know what kind of 715 00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:36,680 player you are, you can kind of filter reviews through that lens 716 00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:40,960 instead of fighting them. So I want to talk about next is 717 00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:42,840 building your own taste map right? 718 00:35:42,840 --> 00:35:45,120 And how to figure out what actually fits for you. 719 00:35:45,520 --> 00:35:48,360 Now, and that really changes how you're going to read the reviews 720 00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:53,440 too, because what your tastes are, if you're reviewing or 721 00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:55,760 watching a review in a game that you already know isn't your 722 00:35:55,760 --> 00:35:57,000 taste, you're not going to like the review. 723 00:35:57,320 --> 00:35:59,440 Nope. Or if you're you, if, like me, 724 00:35:59,720 --> 00:36:04,200 if I read or watch a review, anything CDPR does, I'm 725 00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:07,080 automatically going to like it because I like the studio. 726 00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:10,960 Or like that Blood of Dawn Walker game that's coming out. 727 00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:13,280 Soon the CDPR studio spin off game. 728 00:36:13,600 --> 00:36:16,000 Yep, I'm obsessed with vampires, so I'm going to love it. 729 00:36:16,280 --> 00:36:17,520 Well, just because they're like vampires. 730 00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:19,960 Do you remember when when we were watching that and we were 731 00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:23,040 like, God, this looks like a CDPR game, What's going? 732 00:36:23,040 --> 00:36:26,080 And then you looked it up and you're like, so this is a spin 733 00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:29,160 off group of people from. It's literally the same people 734 00:36:29,160 --> 00:36:32,560 and it's the music is the same. Yeah, I, I was watching side by 735 00:36:32,560 --> 00:36:34,960 side comparisons of how the lead character looks like a role. 736 00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:36,440 They look almost exactly the same. 737 00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:39,760 It's it's pretty, it's pretty crazy. 738 00:36:39,880 --> 00:36:41,560 Yeah, You can definitely tell it's the same trivia. 739 00:36:42,080 --> 00:36:44,440 So we're going to, we're going to take a quick break for our 740 00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:48,240 game trivia of the evening. So in our game podcast, we do 741 00:36:48,360 --> 00:36:53,160 video game trivia. Mine is review adjacent, so I 742 00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:54,640 tried to kind of theme it in there. 743 00:36:55,440 --> 00:36:57,560 I'm giving you mine. Is also themed on reviews. 744 00:36:57,600 --> 00:37:00,680 Awesome, I'm giving you. Oh God, please tell me we didn't 745 00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:07,480 ask the same question again. I'm giving you multiple choice 746 00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:09,280 because I think that's only fair. 747 00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:12,240 When I thought of this question I got it wrong. 748 00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:15,000 Off the top of my head I was, I was off. 749 00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:18,520 Do you want me to read first or do you want to? 750 00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:21,440 Read first because last time we both had the same question. 751 00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:26,240 I read first. OK, in what year was the first 752 00:37:26,240 --> 00:37:28,440 issue of Nintendo Power published? 753 00:37:30,160 --> 00:37:42,160 A 1987. B 1988 C1989-D199087 through 90 754 00:37:42,160 --> 00:37:44,480 are your choices. So think about that as we keep 755 00:37:44,480 --> 00:37:47,120 going, as we go through. In what year was the first issue 756 00:37:47,120 --> 00:37:51,200 of Nintendo Power published? And I can say I had the first 757 00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:56,320 issue and then I sold it to a video game shop and that was the 758 00:37:56,360 --> 00:37:58,280 end of that. They're worth decent amount of 759 00:37:58,280 --> 00:37:59,760 money if they're in good condition right now. 760 00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:03,760 Not as much as Superman #1. I saw that today. 761 00:38:03,760 --> 00:38:06,880 You saw? The $9.4 million. 762 00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:10,760 I saw just found in an attic in pristine condition. 763 00:38:10,760 --> 00:38:13,840 My mom put it in the attic and it was been there since 1939. 764 00:38:14,600 --> 00:38:17,320 Yeah. So my question, it's not 765 00:38:17,320 --> 00:38:21,320 multiple choice. What is the highest rated PS-5 766 00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:24,640 game on Metacritic as of today and what is the rate? 767 00:38:24,800 --> 00:38:26,880 I'm just going to Google it while we're doing things. 768 00:38:27,040 --> 00:38:27,680 Don't. Google it. 769 00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:30,720 PS-5 game. PS-5 game. 770 00:38:30,720 --> 00:38:34,160 No, I'm I will tell you it is not, it's not PS-5 exclusive, 771 00:38:34,640 --> 00:38:38,560 but I did PS-5. Race, OK, I'm never going to get 772 00:38:38,560 --> 00:38:42,120 this because I guarantee you it's like a shooter or something 773 00:38:42,120 --> 00:38:45,120 that that I don't play. I will tell you that you were 774 00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:46,280 wrong, OK? That's good. 775 00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:49,200 That's good. And my first guest for yours was 776 00:38:49,200 --> 00:38:52,320 1986, so I hope clearly was off. That's not even on there. 777 00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:53,760 That's not even on. There that's why you get 778 00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:56,720 multiple choice for this. I was trying to keep it fair I 779 00:38:56,760 --> 00:38:59,560 mean so that means our first guess was both wrong on on the 780 00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:02,680 Nintendo power as well. So let's talk a little bit about 781 00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:05,880 our, our, our tastes and, and how we, we should be dialing in 782 00:39:05,880 --> 00:39:08,120 these reviews because everybody's going to say, yeah, 783 00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:09,440 take a review with a grain of salt. 784 00:39:09,440 --> 00:39:12,240 But let's talk a little bit about a process that you guys 785 00:39:12,240 --> 00:39:15,600 can, can come up with as you come up with your own review 786 00:39:15,600 --> 00:39:17,400 sort of thing. So my process is 787 00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:20,520 straightforward. Do I trust the brand? 788 00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:24,240 The publishing company? CDPR, Square Enix? 789 00:39:24,240 --> 00:39:25,760 Ubisoft. And Fall Interactive. 790 00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:28,400 Yeah, yeah, Ubisoft has kind of fallen off for me. 791 00:39:28,640 --> 00:39:32,680 Secondly, is the game a sequel? Have I played the first game? 792 00:39:33,080 --> 00:39:35,400 Is it a studio or series that I trust? 793 00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:37,640 Right, they are going to give first crack. 794 00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:44,600 Then is the genre that I like. RPG, fighting game, sports game, 795 00:39:45,480 --> 00:39:49,320 racing game, tactical RPG, stuff like that. 796 00:39:49,880 --> 00:39:54,280 And then the story hooks, right? You can get that from previews, 797 00:39:54,560 --> 00:40:00,200 from PlayStation events, Nintendo Direct, stuff like 798 00:40:00,200 --> 00:40:01,720 that. You can get the story hooks by 799 00:40:01,720 --> 00:40:05,240 watching those previews and then reviews. 800 00:40:05,240 --> 00:40:09,520 That's like #4 on my list. So I'll kind of combine all of 801 00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:12,280 those things that I know and then and then I'll get things 802 00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:14,480 and my red flags for me personally. 803 00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:18,120 Now remember you the the the listeners are curating your own 804 00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:21,520 list. So Bob's red flags are if I see 805 00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:27,040 the word sandbox in the review, if I see the word souls like in 806 00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:31,480 the review, anything bragging about graphics, nothing but the 807 00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:33,520 graphics. The graphics are amazing. 808 00:40:33,840 --> 00:40:37,320 Open world is a yellow flag, Not a red flag for me, not a full 809 00:40:37,320 --> 00:40:40,240 stop, but open world. I have a little bit of a pause 810 00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:42,400 because I need to see what that means. 811 00:40:42,840 --> 00:40:47,240 And the important thing is everyone's list is different and 812 00:40:47,240 --> 00:40:49,960 you need to go into things with that in mind. 813 00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:52,960 That's the point. What about you, Jesse? 814 00:40:53,360 --> 00:40:57,400 What are your red flags? So mine are almost identical to 815 00:40:57,400 --> 00:41:00,920 yours. I personally look at the studio 816 00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:04,920 first only because so many students have burned me in the 817 00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:07,720 past even with genres that I love like Fallout. 818 00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:14,320 Next is the I don't say the brand but the the world. 819 00:41:14,600 --> 00:41:17,320 Like The Witcher, Fallout, that type of thing. 820 00:41:19,240 --> 00:41:22,280 If it's a sequel or not, that doesn't really matter to me too 821 00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:26,000 much because like The Witcher 3 is a good example of, you know, 822 00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:28,400 it's the third installment in the Witcher series, but it's by 823 00:41:28,400 --> 00:41:31,200 far the best. And it doesn't really even play 824 00:41:31,200 --> 00:41:33,520 like the first 2 so. No, it doesn't. 825 00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:35,560 Like if I don't know if you've ever played the first one, I 826 00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:36,720 played the second. It is. 827 00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:39,120 It is. And the first is even worse than 828 00:41:39,120 --> 00:41:40,720 the second, like. Second was. 829 00:41:40,720 --> 00:41:42,120 Bad. I stopped playing that. 830 00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:45,280 Yeah, I played the first one and then I put the second. 831 00:41:45,320 --> 00:41:48,160 I put the first one when the second one came out, and then I 832 00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:49,560 put the second one again and then I put the 3rd. 833 00:41:50,240 --> 00:41:54,000 For me, open world is also a yellow flag because it really 834 00:41:54,000 --> 00:41:55,560 depends on the type of open world. 835 00:41:56,360 --> 00:41:59,520 These checkpoints or these check whatever have changed as I got 836 00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:03,280 older. Yeah, like before an MMO would 837 00:42:03,280 --> 00:42:06,560 not be a hard stop for me. Now it's a hard stop because I 838 00:42:06,560 --> 00:42:10,360 don't have the time. Microtransactions is orange if 839 00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:13,920 you want to get there because I say that when the main game I 840 00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:17,200 play now is Marvel Snap which is microtransactions, but I played 841 00:42:17,200 --> 00:42:18,960 so much to the point where I don't have to spend. 842 00:42:19,240 --> 00:42:23,920 Money, the in game economy for you fixes the microtransactions 843 00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:26,080 and that's why it's not a full on red flag for you. 844 00:42:26,080 --> 00:42:30,240 But, but, but the amount of money I spent to get here, it's 845 00:42:30,240 --> 00:42:34,600 a it's a red flag. But microtransactions almost 99% 846 00:42:34,600 --> 00:42:36,120 of the time is going to be a red flag for me. 847 00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:40,440 Anything with a battle pass is a red flag. 848 00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:44,400 And I say that when Marvel Snap has a battle pass or what they 849 00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:47,160 call. Season pass. 850 00:42:47,640 --> 00:42:49,960 Season pass Season pass there. You go, well, that that's that's 851 00:42:50,040 --> 00:42:53,080 a weird one, right, because it entitles you to free DLC, but 852 00:42:53,080 --> 00:42:56,000 not like for the life of the game, only like for a year. 853 00:42:56,280 --> 00:42:58,520 It's shady. I agree right. 854 00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:01,840 And I've bought so many of those. 855 00:43:02,680 --> 00:43:06,360 It's and games to me it's kind of goes along the MMO route is 856 00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:08,440 something that doesn't have an actual end to it. 857 00:43:09,480 --> 00:43:12,360 Most of the time is going to be red flag unless I specifically 858 00:43:12,360 --> 00:43:15,480 am playing it like Marvel Snap or and I was not going to like 859 00:43:15,480 --> 00:43:16,960 Ghost of Yota is a great example. 860 00:43:16,960 --> 00:43:21,520 There is an end except for DLC, there's no microtransactions at 861 00:43:21,520 --> 00:43:24,000 all. I I think you got a special 862 00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:27,080 armor if you bought so that's another red flag is deluxe 863 00:43:27,080 --> 00:43:29,200 edition, which is almost every game out there. 864 00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:32,600 I'm tired of those man. But the games that give you an 865 00:43:32,640 --> 00:43:36,400 advantage if you spend more money out front, I hate those. 866 00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:38,440 I've done that way too much, admittedly. 867 00:43:38,440 --> 00:43:41,680 Whereas Ghost of Yotai if I remember correctly, it was just 868 00:43:41,680 --> 00:43:44,760 cosmetic, it wasn't actual. The snake armor, it doesn't, it 869 00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:46,840 does stuff, but it's it's so worth. 870 00:43:47,360 --> 00:43:49,560 It's not an archetype that you would even build. 871 00:43:50,400 --> 00:43:55,320 No no, so very similar to yours and and those red and green 872 00:43:55,320 --> 00:43:57,240 flags have 100% changed as I got older. 873 00:43:57,400 --> 00:43:59,680 Yeah, so switching over to green flags, right? 874 00:43:59,680 --> 00:44:04,720 My green flags type pacing, immersive narrative, relatable 875 00:44:04,720 --> 00:44:07,720 characters, relatable characters, relatable 876 00:44:07,720 --> 00:44:10,720 characters. I care more about the story and 877 00:44:10,720 --> 00:44:13,400 respect for my time than technical flexing. 878 00:44:13,520 --> 00:44:18,400 And honestly, a friend who knows your taste beats any algorithm. 879 00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:20,880 Jesse's a really good example here. 880 00:44:21,160 --> 00:44:26,040 He knew Starfield wasn't my jam even before I asked. 881 00:44:26,400 --> 00:44:29,120 He's like Bob, don't even bother, bud. 882 00:44:29,360 --> 00:44:33,480 He was just like, don't even, don't think about it, don't look 883 00:44:33,480 --> 00:44:37,120 at it, don't even bother because he knew that was not my thing 884 00:44:37,120 --> 00:44:39,440 and. And that that came from knowing 885 00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:43,960 a, first Russian shooters aren't your deal and B, it's a sandbox 886 00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:46,440 game, just like Tears to the Kingdom. 887 00:44:46,800 --> 00:44:48,720 I told you not to. Well, I think I maybe tried to 888 00:44:48,720 --> 00:44:51,040 get you to buy it only because I think it's. 889 00:44:51,040 --> 00:44:52,720 I had. I bought Breath of the Wild. 890 00:44:53,440 --> 00:44:54,560 Right. And I remember you hated it 891 00:44:54,560 --> 00:44:58,200 because it was sandbox. But you can, you can kind of 892 00:44:58,200 --> 00:45:01,120 play those games like a sandbox, but you can play them like not a 893 00:45:01,120 --> 00:45:04,200 sandbox if you want. It's a lot harder to do it that 894 00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:06,480 way because they don't really give you like a direction to go. 895 00:45:06,480 --> 00:45:09,040 That's something I need. I need Rails. 896 00:45:09,720 --> 00:45:11,680 Right. Yeah, it's very off rails. 897 00:45:11,960 --> 00:45:14,440 It's very off rails. But like if you same thing with 898 00:45:14,440 --> 00:45:17,280 you like Expedition 33 would not be the type of game I usually 899 00:45:17,280 --> 00:45:22,840 wouldn't play because I'm not a trend based type guy and one of 900 00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:25,960 the best games I've ever played. They just nailed every single 901 00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:28,520 piece of that game to appeal to a broad audience. 902 00:45:28,520 --> 00:45:30,840 Someone who who wouldn't play a turn based game? 903 00:45:31,360 --> 00:45:33,160 Now imagine if Final Fantasy was like that. 904 00:45:33,360 --> 00:45:36,480 They they need to do something Square Enix needs to do. 905 00:45:36,480 --> 00:45:40,040 I honestly Sandfall put them on notice with this game. 906 00:45:40,040 --> 00:45:41,280 I. Hope so, I mean hopefully the 907 00:45:41,360 --> 00:45:43,920 the rewards are the reward shows are are showing that too. 908 00:45:44,520 --> 00:45:46,680 When are the the actual game Awards? 909 00:45:47,520 --> 00:45:49,320 So the actual Game awards have been announced. 910 00:45:49,360 --> 00:45:52,320 I think it's next month. For some reason December 15th is 911 00:45:52,320 --> 00:45:55,600 in my head, but Exhibition 33 was nominated for historically 912 00:45:56,000 --> 00:45:58,400 as the most amount of nominations in history. 913 00:45:59,080 --> 00:46:01,000 Very it. Got more than any game and it 914 00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:02,520 got the most out of any game in history. 915 00:46:02,560 --> 00:46:05,760 Very return and yet it got snubbed on some other rewards 916 00:46:05,760 --> 00:46:08,960 for like sound mixing and other like what? 917 00:46:09,360 --> 00:46:11,200 Really like the sound was amazing in that. 918 00:46:11,200 --> 00:46:12,160 Game. You're not kidding. 919 00:46:12,240 --> 00:46:14,560 You're not. Kidding, it's good to the point 920 00:46:14,560 --> 00:46:16,880 where I might buy it again for PC just to play it on. 921 00:46:16,880 --> 00:46:19,520 PCI was tempted as well, for what it's worth, because. 922 00:46:19,880 --> 00:46:23,760 It's Black Friday and Steam has sales so if it's on sale I 923 00:46:23,760 --> 00:46:26,760 probably will buy it. Oh man, I'm going to pop steam. 924 00:46:26,760 --> 00:46:28,840 No, I need to go to bed after this so. 925 00:46:29,520 --> 00:46:33,000 I'm looking right now. If I wrote a gamer dad taste 926 00:46:33,000 --> 00:46:36,880 card, gamer dad us old folks. For me in particular, Jesse, 927 00:46:36,880 --> 00:46:40,560 can, you know, add or subtract for his taste card? 928 00:46:41,160 --> 00:46:44,720 I need a game that respects my time, is playable on easy, has a 929 00:46:44,720 --> 00:46:48,720 story worth finishing and is fun without grinding, and is stable 930 00:46:48,760 --> 00:46:52,640 day one. Expedition 03 is 20% off. 931 00:46:54,160 --> 00:46:58,520 I've I've cancelled pre-orders mid hype once I realized the 932 00:46:58,520 --> 00:47:04,600 game wasn't for me. Like I forgot that a game was 933 00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:08,520 souls like and I pre-ordered it. And then I kept seeing previews 934 00:47:08,520 --> 00:47:12,600 and, and everything and I was like, this game really looks 935 00:47:12,600 --> 00:47:15,960 like a souls game. And I started Googling it and 936 00:47:15,960 --> 00:47:19,320 Reddit feeds and everything and they're like souls like game 937 00:47:19,320 --> 00:47:21,440 souls like. I'm like, shit, I got to cancel 938 00:47:21,440 --> 00:47:25,640 this pre-order. I mean, I, I have goofed because 939 00:47:25,640 --> 00:47:28,600 things look good, but I wasn't paying attention to my red 940 00:47:28,600 --> 00:47:31,880 flags. And you learn fast when time 941 00:47:31,880 --> 00:47:35,160 matters. Like let's take an example from 942 00:47:35,160 --> 00:47:39,000 from the end of September for me, Final Fantasy Tactics, 943 00:47:39,000 --> 00:47:40,840 Evilness Chronicles. I had a whole plan. 944 00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:42,280 I was like, I'm going to stream this. 945 00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:45,280 It's going to be on my, my Tuesday night retro RPG turn 946 00:47:45,280 --> 00:47:49,320 based Tuesdays. And I played one stream of that 947 00:47:49,320 --> 00:47:51,920 game and the game looks so good on paper. 948 00:47:51,920 --> 00:47:55,600 It was like, this is the remake. It makes the game friendly. 949 00:47:55,600 --> 00:47:58,880 And guess what? It still wasn't for me. 950 00:47:58,880 --> 00:48:01,360 I missed the game back in the 90s when it came out. 951 00:48:01,640 --> 00:48:04,360 The remake didn't change things enough. 952 00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:06,880 I didn't have institutional knowledge that everybody coming 953 00:48:06,880 --> 00:48:09,960 back to the game had. You can do a lot of busted min 954 00:48:09,960 --> 00:48:12,160 maxing I guess. And I don't know, I didn't know 955 00:48:12,160 --> 00:48:14,720 anything about it. I was playing it from a complete 956 00:48:14,720 --> 00:48:17,040 blank slate, no knowledge or anything. 957 00:48:17,560 --> 00:48:21,840 And that's OK. Once you know your taste, you 958 00:48:21,840 --> 00:48:27,040 stop chasing meta scores and you start chasing experiences, 959 00:48:27,040 --> 00:48:30,480 experiences that matter, stories that move you. 960 00:48:30,480 --> 00:48:32,480 Horizon 0, Dawn, Ghost of Sushima. 961 00:48:33,000 --> 00:48:36,360 I mean, who who struggled to to keep it together at the end of 962 00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:37,600 Ghost of Sushima? Yeah. 963 00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:43,560 I mean Expedition 33 who struggled. 964 00:48:43,600 --> 00:48:46,760 Oh my God, you know I. 10 minutes into Expedition 33, I 965 00:48:46,760 --> 00:48:47,200 was tearing. Up. 966 00:48:47,200 --> 00:48:49,600 I warned poor Jesse on that one. I was like, this is the best 967 00:48:49,600 --> 00:48:51,360 game I ever played, but be warned. 968 00:48:51,720 --> 00:48:56,600 So like for me, the most recent, I didn't actually pre-order it 969 00:48:56,680 --> 00:48:59,120 because I don't really pre-order games anymore, was the new 970 00:48:59,120 --> 00:49:02,520 Pokémon because it was Pokémon Legends. 971 00:49:02,880 --> 00:49:05,360 And looking back at Legends of Curious, however you say it, 972 00:49:05,360 --> 00:49:08,400 yeah, yeah, was a great game. It was fantastic. 973 00:49:09,440 --> 00:49:12,280 And I'm like OK, it's going to be, it's open world just like 974 00:49:12,680 --> 00:49:14,440 the other Pokémon legends. It's going to be amazing. 975 00:49:14,440 --> 00:49:16,680 I can't wait. And I'm like OK, I don't 976 00:49:16,680 --> 00:49:18,520 pre-order games anymore so I'm going to wait. 977 00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:19,880 And then the reviews started coming out. 978 00:49:19,880 --> 00:49:22,720 I'm like, oh God. It's literally just like Scarlet 979 00:49:22,720 --> 00:49:26,520 Violet, except it takes place just in a tiny city instead of a 980 00:49:26,520 --> 00:49:28,400 giant world. Except I think they like made 981 00:49:28,640 --> 00:49:31,480 the city bigger for the purposes of the, you know what I mean? 982 00:49:31,520 --> 00:49:34,120 Got more? Verticality to it, I think, but 983 00:49:34,120 --> 00:49:37,960 it's like, oh God, this is just like, yeah, I'm not going to buy 984 00:49:37,960 --> 00:49:40,120 another one. I almost pre-ordered because I 985 00:49:40,120 --> 00:49:41,880 don't think you played in was the outer worlds. 986 00:49:41,960 --> 00:49:43,520 No, this is the first person shooter. 987 00:49:43,640 --> 00:49:46,840 It's from the same studio that made Fallout New Vegas 988 00:49:46,880 --> 00:49:49,080 subsidium. Now I like the outer worlds, but 989 00:49:49,080 --> 00:49:52,120 it it was kind of janky and I'm like, OK, you know, the outer 990 00:49:52,120 --> 00:49:54,320 worlds should be a lot better. You know, it's, you know, a 991 00:49:54,320 --> 00:49:56,080 continuation of it. They improved stuff. 992 00:49:56,080 --> 00:49:59,760 Well, they have improved stuff. It's not enough where I'm going 993 00:49:59,760 --> 00:50:04,120 to spend 70 bucks on it. So that like I was going to 994 00:50:04,120 --> 00:50:05,840 pre-order it and then I saw the price. 995 00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:07,320 I'm like, oh God no, I'm not doing it. 996 00:50:08,480 --> 00:50:10,880 So that's another one of those. I'm going to wait until it's on 997 00:50:10,880 --> 00:50:14,480 sale and then I'll wait. Jesse inadvertently transitioned 998 00:50:14,480 --> 00:50:16,320 us to the next topic, which is perfect. 999 00:50:16,320 --> 00:50:19,800 So Speaking of experiences that matter, let's talk about buying 1000 00:50:19,800 --> 00:50:21,200 smart. And I'm not talking about like 1001 00:50:21,520 --> 00:50:24,240 cheap smart. I'm talking about smart. 1002 00:50:24,280 --> 00:50:28,120 I'm talking about practice, money, and time, two things that 1003 00:50:28,120 --> 00:50:31,880 reviewers never account for. Do you ever see the cost of a 1004 00:50:31,880 --> 00:50:36,400 game mentioned in an IGN review? Not a single time and they never 1005 00:50:36,400 --> 00:50:38,920 will because they get paid to review it and not mention the 1006 00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:41,000 price. That's right, so I still 1007 00:50:41,000 --> 00:50:44,480 pre-order games, but only when they pass the vibe check, you 1008 00:50:44,480 --> 00:50:46,440 know what I mean? Like the stuff that Jesse and I 1009 00:50:46,440 --> 00:50:48,240 just talked about are green flags. 1010 00:50:48,440 --> 00:50:52,280 Are there a ton of red flags? Trusted publishers, good track 1011 00:50:52,280 --> 00:50:55,440 record. Ubisoft used to be automatic for 1012 00:50:55,440 --> 00:50:58,120 me. Now it's a question mark like 1013 00:50:58,600 --> 00:51:02,720 Valhalla bloat. I just like Final Fantasy 1014 00:51:02,720 --> 00:51:05,560 reboot. I was skipping dialogue so much 1015 00:51:05,560 --> 00:51:08,120 toward the end of the game because I'm like does this game 1016 00:51:08,320 --> 00:51:12,520 end? Assassin's Creed, Shadows Mirage 1017 00:51:12,520 --> 00:51:15,640 all misses for me. Like the last good Assassin's 1018 00:51:15,640 --> 00:51:18,160 Creed game that I played was Odyssey, the Greek one. 1019 00:51:18,240 --> 00:51:21,040 Publishers earn and lose trust, one launch at a time. 1020 00:51:21,480 --> 00:51:25,600 For me, I mean, I, you could probably already hint that it's 1021 00:51:26,480 --> 00:51:30,320 Bethesda. Like I, I was automatic with 1022 00:51:30,320 --> 00:51:32,960 Bethesda. Like Fallout 3 came out in 2008, 1023 00:51:33,840 --> 00:51:36,080 absolutely loved it. Fallout New Vegas in 2010, 1024 00:51:36,080 --> 00:51:38,680 absolutely loved it. Skyrim in 2011, absolutely loved 1025 00:51:39,440 --> 00:51:42,200 it. Then Fallout 4 in 2015 and it's 1026 00:51:42,200 --> 00:51:46,880 like, OK, it's OK. But they're they're leaning too 1027 00:51:46,880 --> 00:51:49,240 much into the action and not into the story. 1028 00:51:50,120 --> 00:51:53,600 Whereas like that, like the Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, 1029 00:51:53,680 --> 00:51:57,840 New Vegas specifically the action and stuff isn't really 1030 00:51:57,840 --> 00:52:01,680 that good, but the story more than makes up for it. 1031 00:52:01,680 --> 00:52:05,800 And then Fallout 4 comes out and it's like, OK, it's the action 1032 00:52:05,800 --> 00:52:08,520 is great, the graphics are great, but now the RPG elements 1033 00:52:08,520 --> 00:52:12,200 are missing. Like the dialogue is yes or no 1034 00:52:12,200 --> 00:52:13,440 answers. It's not really in depth. 1035 00:52:13,440 --> 00:52:16,000 And it doesn't have like the same impact like Witcher does, 1036 00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:17,520 right? You, you, you choose the wrong 1037 00:52:17,520 --> 00:52:19,440 dialogue. We talked about this in a 1038 00:52:19,440 --> 00:52:21,840 review, right? And it and it has it doesn't 1039 00:52:21,840 --> 00:52:23,480 matter. Yeah, it doesn't matter. 1040 00:52:23,480 --> 00:52:25,280 It didn't matter at all in Fallout 4. 1041 00:52:25,920 --> 00:52:30,000 And then, you know, I, I mentioned Skyrim came out in 1042 00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:35,760 2011, 2018 they say Ellis Scrolls 6. 1043 00:52:36,560 --> 00:52:38,040 So begin to work in Ellis Scrolls 6. 1044 00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:39,520 What fucking year is it right now? 1045 00:52:39,560 --> 00:52:45,280 Yeah, I know man. It's it's 20252026 is around the 1046 00:52:45,280 --> 00:52:47,400 corner. Not out yet. 1047 00:52:47,600 --> 00:52:53,320 Yeah, and it has been 2011 is when those trolls 5 came out. 1048 00:52:53,720 --> 00:52:56,640 So in between that there was Fallout 76. 1049 00:52:57,240 --> 00:52:59,880 So it's like, OK, Fallout 4, you'd think the next one would 1050 00:52:59,880 --> 00:53:03,920 be Fallout 5, but they went to Fallout 76 and it went 1051 00:53:03,920 --> 00:53:06,200 completely in a completely different direction in a live 1052 00:53:06,200 --> 00:53:08,240 service game. Yep, that's another one of my 1053 00:53:08,240 --> 00:53:09,080 red flags. I was just. 1054 00:53:09,080 --> 00:53:11,520 Going to say that's, that's turning into a red flag for me 1055 00:53:11,520 --> 00:53:14,960 too, Jesse. That's, that's a scary, scary 1056 00:53:14,960 --> 00:53:18,000 slope that that game companies are really starting to get knee 1057 00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:20,280 deep into at this point. They're no longer dipping their 1058 00:53:20,280 --> 00:53:22,080 toes in. I don't like it. 1059 00:53:22,920 --> 00:53:26,640 And then Bethesda comes out with Starfield and it's a complete 1060 00:53:26,640 --> 00:53:29,480 mess. It's like it's like Fallout 4 1061 00:53:29,480 --> 00:53:31,840 got bad and then Starfield got even worse. 1062 00:53:32,840 --> 00:53:35,760 So it's the point now it's like, I don't know if I ever want to 1063 00:53:35,760 --> 00:53:37,720 play Elder Scrolls 6 when it comes out when I'm 50. 1064 00:53:38,440 --> 00:53:40,920 Like it's going to be another eight years, but by the how long 1065 00:53:40,920 --> 00:53:44,600 they're going, like, do I even want to attempt to try that 1066 00:53:44,800 --> 00:53:46,520 because it's going to be terrible. 1067 00:53:46,680 --> 00:53:48,880 Who do you still trust in the gaming space? 1068 00:53:48,880 --> 00:53:52,400 Who's the publisher that today you would just buy a game 1069 00:53:52,400 --> 00:53:54,440 without reviews, sight unseen or anything? 1070 00:53:54,440 --> 00:53:56,360 I think I know the answer because I think mine is the 1071 00:53:56,400 --> 00:53:59,400 same. Yeah, not even a question even. 1072 00:54:00,840 --> 00:54:05,400 God, what was throne breaker is that like the one that was the 1073 00:54:05,400 --> 00:54:07,600 Gwent? Yeah, yeah, like there was Gwent 1074 00:54:07,600 --> 00:54:09,760 and then there's Storm break of those kind of Gwent with an RPG 1075 00:54:09,760 --> 00:54:11,520 element. Even that I tried that, it 1076 00:54:11,520 --> 00:54:14,440 wasn't bad, but I even. For it. 1077 00:54:14,880 --> 00:54:21,440 Yeah, but even even with how bad Cyberpunk launched, it was still 1078 00:54:21,440 --> 00:54:25,440 the story was still there. Like yes, the game was jank, yes 1079 00:54:25,440 --> 00:54:29,400 there was graphical issues, but the story was absolutely 1080 00:54:29,400 --> 00:54:32,600 phenomenal. Like you could tell they cared 1081 00:54:32,800 --> 00:54:37,800 absolutely immensely about that game and that store and that is 1082 00:54:37,800 --> 00:54:39,920 100% going to carry around everything else that they do. 1083 00:54:40,080 --> 00:54:42,880 There's no question in my mind that Witcher 4 is going to be 1084 00:54:43,240 --> 00:54:44,920 Witcher 4 is going to be absolutely phenomenal. 1085 00:54:45,560 --> 00:54:47,960 Cyberpunk 2 is going to be absolutely phenomenal. 1086 00:54:49,120 --> 00:54:53,560 And I will 100% as soon as you can, I will pre-order those. 1087 00:54:54,120 --> 00:54:57,200 Those are games that we that's a studio that's built trust over 1088 00:54:57,200 --> 00:55:00,400 years yes you know and they haven't broken that trust yet 1089 00:55:00,440 --> 00:55:04,120 maybe the next name they but. Sandfall Interactive is probably 1090 00:55:04,120 --> 00:55:06,200 going to be on that list too. Yeah, their next game I'm 1091 00:55:06,200 --> 00:55:08,600 probably buying sight unseen. Unless it's a first person 1092 00:55:08,600 --> 00:55:12,000 shooter, then I'm screwed. You know, like, you know, maybe 1093 00:55:12,120 --> 00:55:15,240 it's just. 33 Battle battle, what do they call them? 1094 00:55:15,560 --> 00:55:20,200 Battlegrounds or whatever, like it's going to be like Fortnite 1095 00:55:20,200 --> 00:55:21,640 but battle Royale. There you go. 1096 00:55:22,400 --> 00:55:23,840 I mean. That's another one of my red 1097 00:55:23,840 --> 00:55:26,640 flags, Battle Royale. Sometimes I have I have skipped 1098 00:55:26,640 --> 00:55:28,840 games and Jesse's like Bob, you missed this one. 1099 00:55:29,760 --> 00:55:31,760 You definitely missed this one and. 1100 00:55:31,760 --> 00:55:32,760 Like which? Which one? 1101 00:55:33,040 --> 00:55:35,880 What just had the sequel? Why can't I think of the game? 1102 00:55:36,440 --> 00:55:43,720 It came out last year the IT was action RPG Dragon's Dogma 2. 1103 00:55:44,280 --> 00:55:47,480 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So about that game, it's it was 1104 00:55:47,480 --> 00:55:49,840 very janky. I'll just say it's very janky. 1105 00:55:50,520 --> 00:55:53,680 But I think it's something I probably would have enjoyed. 1106 00:55:54,080 --> 00:55:55,680 Janky. You would 100% would have joined 1107 00:55:55,680 --> 00:55:58,360 it and Hades. I like Hades, I haven't played 1108 00:55:58,360 --> 00:56:00,240 the new one. Yeah, Hades too. 1109 00:56:00,240 --> 00:56:01,120 You would, absolutely. Love. 1110 00:56:01,160 --> 00:56:02,080 Yeah. And that because? 1111 00:56:02,080 --> 00:56:04,880 It takes Hades 1 and improves it on every single. 1112 00:56:04,880 --> 00:56:07,120 Part that'll be in my short list after Santa. 1113 00:56:07,120 --> 00:56:10,000 It's a $30 game. After Santa dogs I'll be getting 1114 00:56:10,000 --> 00:56:12,240 it for the switch. I feel like the switch is going 1115 00:56:12,240 --> 00:56:13,880 to be is the best way to play Hades. 1116 00:56:13,880 --> 00:56:15,640 I don't know why. Like I did not enjoy I. 1117 00:56:15,640 --> 00:56:19,040 Haven't tried it on PC. I didn't enjoy playing it on PC 1118 00:56:19,040 --> 00:56:22,640 in particular or play state. I have Hades in like 3 places by 1119 00:56:22,640 --> 00:56:24,960 the way. I mean it's cheap game. 1120 00:56:25,080 --> 00:56:28,440 Yeah exactly. So like to me the rule is 1121 00:56:28,440 --> 00:56:33,840 simple, buy what you like but buy it for you not because 1122 00:56:33,840 --> 00:56:36,520 marketing told you to. pre-order bonuses. 1123 00:56:36,720 --> 00:56:38,040 Here it is. Total scam. 1124 00:56:38,800 --> 00:56:42,040 I agree with you, Jesse. And yet sometimes I grab them 1125 00:56:42,040 --> 00:56:44,280 just to support the studios I like. 1126 00:56:44,480 --> 00:56:46,080 Yeah. I mean, the difference is like 1127 00:56:46,080 --> 00:56:49,440 I'm honest about it. Not that CDPR needs our support, 1128 00:56:49,960 --> 00:56:51,760 but I'm 100% going to support them. 1129 00:56:51,960 --> 00:56:55,240 Yeah, I'm going to do a pre-order bonus on a game to 1130 00:56:55,240 --> 00:56:57,600 support a studio like Sucker Punch, for example. 1131 00:56:57,600 --> 00:56:59,760 Now Ghost of Sushima, Ghost of Yote. 1132 00:57:00,440 --> 00:57:03,680 Yeah, I'm, I'm probably going to pre-order and, and do the bonus 1133 00:57:03,680 --> 00:57:05,600 and, and the Ultimate edition and other stuff. 1134 00:57:06,440 --> 00:57:08,680 What about the Ghost of Yote multiplayer when it comes out? 1135 00:57:09,120 --> 00:57:12,040 I don't like those. I didn't like the other one 1136 00:57:12,080 --> 00:57:14,280 either. Yeah, I probably won't do it 1137 00:57:14,280 --> 00:57:16,160 either. If it involves interacting with 1138 00:57:16,160 --> 00:57:19,840 other humans these days, at 4:00, almost 44 years old, it's 1139 00:57:19,840 --> 00:57:22,600 just not. That ain't it for me. 1140 00:57:22,600 --> 00:57:24,800 AAA games, by the way, don't mean too much anymore. 1141 00:57:24,800 --> 00:57:27,360 We've we've seen this. Sandfall Interactive is 1142 00:57:27,360 --> 00:57:29,800 definitely an example like that badge. 1143 00:57:29,800 --> 00:57:33,640 That AAA badge doesn't carry that much weight anymore. 1144 00:57:34,160 --> 00:57:37,960 Delivery of a game does. When was the last time a AAA 1145 00:57:37,960 --> 00:57:42,760 company actually released a unique original game and not a 1146 00:57:42,760 --> 00:57:47,120 spin off or a sequel? I I'm sure we could find one but 1147 00:57:47,400 --> 00:57:49,840 I can't think of anything off the top of my head. 1148 00:57:50,440 --> 00:57:52,960 Like look at Concorde. Oh my God. 1149 00:57:53,120 --> 00:57:54,200 Oh, there you go. There you go. 1150 00:57:54,560 --> 00:57:56,400 Like. How did how did Concorde do 1151 00:57:56,400 --> 00:57:58,880 guys? It was dead within a week. 1152 00:58:00,880 --> 00:58:04,360 AAA studio, unique game, live service. 1153 00:58:04,560 --> 00:58:07,440 There's people who who made Bioshock. 1154 00:58:08,840 --> 00:58:11,200 Is that BioWare? BioWare. 1155 00:58:11,520 --> 00:58:14,640 There is one by BioWare game that I actually played it for a 1156 00:58:14,640 --> 00:58:17,720 bit. God, what was it called? 1157 00:58:18,480 --> 00:58:21,000 Was it BioWare? It was by Anthem. 1158 00:58:21,720 --> 00:58:24,760 Anthem was a new original game and it actually had a really 1159 00:58:24,760 --> 00:58:26,440 cool premise on it. You were like kind of like an 1160 00:58:26,440 --> 00:58:29,840 Iron Man type thing and you would fly around in these suits 1161 00:58:29,840 --> 00:58:33,560 and do battle in these suits, but it just, it did not come 1162 00:58:33,560 --> 00:58:35,200 across very well at all and it died. 1163 00:58:35,440 --> 00:58:38,160 It's like it's been shut down. I did play it when it first was 1164 00:58:38,160 --> 00:58:40,680 released. I did try it, but all these 1165 00:58:40,680 --> 00:58:43,360 games that are original stories are just dying. 1166 00:58:43,840 --> 00:58:45,160 Well, that and they're. Just not. 1167 00:58:45,680 --> 00:58:47,640 They're not hitting. Let's talk about Concorde for a 1168 00:58:47,640 --> 00:58:48,880 second. Even though this isn't in the 1169 00:58:48,880 --> 00:58:53,440 script, but like that looked like it had a story in the pre. 1170 00:58:53,440 --> 00:58:56,840 It looked like it was like a spin off kind of janky Guardians 1171 00:58:56,840 --> 00:58:58,720 of the Galaxy. And it had a story and it was 1172 00:58:58,720 --> 00:59:01,440 fun and everything. And it's like battle Royale. 1173 00:59:01,440 --> 00:59:03,360 And I was like, Nope, we're done. 1174 00:59:03,480 --> 00:59:06,400 We're done here. And, and I guarantee you that's 1175 00:59:06,400 --> 00:59:09,160 what hurt it. They marketed it completely 1176 00:59:09,160 --> 00:59:12,480 wrong. Yeah, so and it, it died I think 1177 00:59:12,480 --> 00:59:14,160 within two weeks. I think it was 2 weeks. 1178 00:59:14,560 --> 00:59:16,800 Yep, two weeks after his launch, it died. 1179 00:59:17,320 --> 00:59:19,040 That's. Funny, I can see the reflection. 1180 00:59:19,040 --> 00:59:22,080 Also, copy is being refunded. I can see the reflection of 1181 00:59:22,080 --> 00:59:24,200 Jesse pulling the article up in his glasses here. 1182 00:59:24,720 --> 00:59:25,920 That's hilarious. What? 1183 00:59:25,920 --> 00:59:27,920 What makes the game worth it? Again? 1184 00:59:28,160 --> 00:59:30,440 I've said this a billion times, respects my time. 1185 00:59:30,440 --> 00:59:33,920 Gosiote did that. 55 hours, Tight scaling, strong story, 1186 00:59:34,480 --> 00:59:38,600 perfect sequel formula. I waited on Cyberpunk 2077. 1187 00:59:39,080 --> 00:59:41,080 How many hours do you think I have in that, Jesse? 1188 00:59:41,760 --> 00:59:46,320 I mean it says in the script how many Bob a. 100 hours plus, 1189 00:59:47,120 --> 00:59:50,040 worth every minute, right? My buying tears are easy. 1190 00:59:50,040 --> 00:59:51,280 Instant buy. I know it'll hit. 1191 00:59:51,360 --> 00:59:53,200 Wait for patch, let the community shake it out. 1192 00:59:53,400 --> 00:59:56,240 Wait for sale. Curious titles outside my lane, 1193 00:59:56,640 --> 00:59:58,560 right? So if there's something that I'm 1194 00:59:58,560 --> 01:00:02,520 kind of leaning toward getting, I'm going to wait for a heavy 1195 01:00:02,520 --> 01:00:06,440 sale and I still keep up. I buy what I know I like. 1196 01:00:06,440 --> 01:00:09,680 I stretched down then and I miss maybe still about 1/3 of the 1197 01:00:09,680 --> 01:00:11,040 time. Final Fantasy Evil is 1198 01:00:11,040 --> 01:00:13,920 Chronicles. I'm looking at you and that's 1199 01:00:13,920 --> 01:00:17,360 fine. I, I think if 44, like batting 1200 01:00:17,360 --> 01:00:21,080 600 is pretty good. You know, I don't need to play 1201 01:00:21,080 --> 01:00:24,240 everything anymore. I just need to play something 1202 01:00:24,240 --> 01:00:27,920 that sticks. Now the one of the positives 1203 01:00:27,920 --> 01:00:30,720 about like PlayStation Plus and all those other things that you 1204 01:00:30,720 --> 01:00:32,240 can actually try these games without buying. 1205 01:00:32,840 --> 01:00:34,280 Yeah, but you're streaming them, aren't you? 1206 01:00:34,800 --> 01:00:36,960 You're but I mean, you're still, you're still paying for them, I 1207 01:00:36,960 --> 01:00:39,360 guess. And to hit on your cyber funk 1208 01:00:40,200 --> 01:00:43,040 thing that is one of the I can't think of another game other than 1209 01:00:43,040 --> 01:00:45,960 Breath of the Wild. Or I could turn that game on and 1210 01:00:45,960 --> 01:00:50,280 just walk around in the game and not do anything I've. 1211 01:00:50,280 --> 01:00:52,520 Done that in Cyberpunk. I've just walked around and 1212 01:00:52,520 --> 01:00:55,000 watched people. Or just drove around and just 1213 01:00:55,080 --> 01:00:58,440 just like act like there's times where I actually drive and try 1214 01:00:58,440 --> 01:01:00,760 to be pretend like I'm actually driving and try to obey the 1215 01:01:00,760 --> 01:01:02,680 rules and not like trying to gun it. 1216 01:01:02,680 --> 01:01:05,040 I actually drive and go with the traffic and just because the 1217 01:01:05,040 --> 01:01:08,400 world is so good. It is so good. 1218 01:01:08,400 --> 01:01:11,840 Every detail. Now for me, like I'm trying to 1219 01:01:11,840 --> 01:01:15,080 think of games that I have bought because so many of the 1220 01:01:15,080 --> 01:01:18,720 games I get on like a Game Pass nowadays, I cannot think of the 1221 01:01:18,720 --> 01:01:21,440 last game I regret buying. Fallout 4. 1222 01:01:21,440 --> 01:01:23,040 Starfield. There you go. 1223 01:01:23,040 --> 01:01:25,760 It was Starfield, yeah. Man, I but Fallout, we are 1224 01:01:25,800 --> 01:01:27,960 dragging Starfield tonight, let me tell you. 1225 01:01:28,720 --> 01:01:32,400 Fallout 4 was the creator stuff that I bought that was 20 bucks 1226 01:01:32,400 --> 01:01:34,400 for all the creator stuff so it's not really a game. 1227 01:01:35,280 --> 01:01:37,880 Avowed. I haven't mentioned Avowed. 1228 01:01:38,520 --> 01:01:43,080 A lot of people absolutely despised Avowed because it was 1229 01:01:43,400 --> 01:01:45,120 like. Wasn't it short? 1230 01:01:45,960 --> 01:01:50,160 It wasn't, it was 30 hours. It was written by Obsidian, but 1231 01:01:50,160 --> 01:01:55,360 it was very tongue in cheek and very like PC, very woke type 1232 01:01:55,360 --> 01:01:58,440 stuff. Like the way the rest of it, I 1233 01:01:58,440 --> 01:02:01,160 don't know if you ever watched or were big into Buffy, how they 1234 01:02:01,160 --> 01:02:06,000 kind of their whole thing was like it kind of defined that era 1235 01:02:06,000 --> 01:02:08,320 of how people acted and they talked and stuff like that. 1236 01:02:09,280 --> 01:02:13,080 They kind of tried to do that and try to be hip and cool and 1237 01:02:13,080 --> 01:02:14,880 it didn't come across very well for people. 1238 01:02:14,880 --> 01:02:17,400 I personally ignored that and I love the game plan, I love the 1239 01:02:17,400 --> 01:02:23,000 story, but 100% start for it was the last time I regret actually 1240 01:02:23,000 --> 01:02:24,920 buying something. Everything else you know, that 1241 01:02:24,920 --> 01:02:28,920 I've bought has been like, Osteotype was a sequel. 1242 01:02:28,960 --> 01:02:31,560 God, before that I don't think of the other games I bought 1243 01:02:31,640 --> 01:02:33,800 because they were all battle pass stuff From Hades was a 1244 01:02:33,800 --> 01:02:35,560 sequel. I did buy that, Yep. 1245 01:02:36,960 --> 01:02:40,480 So would you say that the battle pass or, or the the game pass or 1246 01:02:40,480 --> 01:02:43,840 whatever you have, would you say that you're getting your money's 1247 01:02:43,840 --> 01:02:46,360 worth out of that though, right? So you're paying for that no 1248 01:02:46,360 --> 01:02:50,080 matter what, which means you're skipping games that you probably 1249 01:02:50,080 --> 01:02:53,760 don't want. And it's not really costing you 1250 01:02:53,760 --> 01:02:55,600 to buy games that there might be misses on. 1251 01:02:55,600 --> 01:02:59,520 But what's the ROI on that? I'm thinking of a way to spin it 1252 01:02:59,520 --> 01:03:02,200 to because your point is really good here in the sense that I 1253 01:03:02,200 --> 01:03:05,080 don't spend money on game. I mean, you do, but like I do. 1254 01:03:05,080 --> 01:03:08,240 What's your ROI? Really it's funny because if you 1255 01:03:08,240 --> 01:03:13,720 take out my kids the ROI is not worth it because honestly the 1256 01:03:13,720 --> 01:03:16,400 games in the battle pass I end up buying and actually continue 1257 01:03:16,400 --> 01:03:19,280 to play throughout. Like say a year is 1. 1258 01:03:19,760 --> 01:03:24,720 My kids on the other hand is like 10 because they see a game 1259 01:03:24,960 --> 01:03:28,000 like I literally will show them what is on there and say 1260 01:03:28,000 --> 01:03:30,920 anything on here you guys want to try and they'll buy it. 1261 01:03:30,920 --> 01:03:32,960 They'll try it for like 20 hours like Stray. 1262 01:03:32,960 --> 01:03:36,880 The game Stray was on on there for a while and then I ended up 1263 01:03:36,880 --> 01:03:40,480 buying it because I wanted it because it left both Spider Man 1264 01:03:40,480 --> 01:03:45,040 games 100% were on there. And guess who beat it before I 1265 01:03:45,040 --> 01:03:46,320 did? My kids. 1266 01:03:46,640 --> 01:03:48,880 Wow, they beat it both of them before I did. 1267 01:03:49,440 --> 01:03:52,600 So kids. They're the reason why the ROI 1268 01:03:52,600 --> 01:03:55,640 is there for me anyway. I'm trying to think like on the 1269 01:03:55,640 --> 01:03:58,680 Switch because I said PC, you know, steam and stuff. 1270 01:03:58,680 --> 01:04:00,560 On the Switch, again, it's the kids. 1271 01:04:00,960 --> 01:04:03,240 Like everything I bought is mostly because of them except 1272 01:04:03,240 --> 01:04:05,240 for Hades. Animal Crossing was me to begin 1273 01:04:05,240 --> 01:04:08,560 with and now my my daughter Cordea puts at least an hour 1274 01:04:08,560 --> 01:04:11,920 into Animal Crossing every day. OK, making cut our own customs 1275 01:04:11,920 --> 01:04:14,280 designs and stuff like that, but that's not a battle pass. 1276 01:04:14,280 --> 01:04:16,680 But for Battle Pass, why it's it's without my kids, it 1277 01:04:16,680 --> 01:04:18,200 wouldn't be worth it, but it's definitely worth. 1278 01:04:18,200 --> 01:04:20,760 That so that that's kind of something that to keep in mind, 1279 01:04:20,760 --> 01:04:23,480 right. So what Jesse is saying makes 1280 01:04:23,480 --> 01:04:27,520 sense, but then when you boil it down to if I was only paying for 1281 01:04:27,520 --> 01:04:32,120 battle pass just to have, well, I'd only buy one game a year off 1282 01:04:32,120 --> 01:04:34,400 of it. And that that may not be a good 1283 01:04:34,440 --> 01:04:37,000 batting average because. Yeah, like last year. 1284 01:04:37,000 --> 01:04:40,000 I'm trying to think in the last year I have played two games on 1285 01:04:40,000 --> 01:04:46,320 Battle Pass, WWE24 and NHL 25. Yep, that's it. 1286 01:04:46,800 --> 01:04:47,920 Everything else has been my case. 1287 01:04:48,840 --> 01:04:50,320 Like I've claimed them like in P. 1288 01:04:50,320 --> 01:04:52,160 You can claim them in PlayStation and put them in your 1289 01:04:52,160 --> 01:04:54,880 library. I I claim almost everyone just 1290 01:04:54,880 --> 01:04:55,680 to have it. Yep. 1291 01:04:56,200 --> 01:04:59,040 But actual ones I've installed and played myself are just those 1292 01:04:59,040 --> 01:05:02,120 two. OK, All right, let's let's get 1293 01:05:02,120 --> 01:05:06,560 back to the trivia. Jesse, in what year was the 1294 01:05:06,560 --> 01:05:08,400 first issue of Nintendo Power published? 1295 01:05:08,680 --> 01:05:16,880 A1987-B1988-C1989-D1990. 88. That is correct. 1296 01:05:18,800 --> 01:05:21,840 Nice. My first instinct when I was I 1297 01:05:21,840 --> 01:05:24,360 was creating the question and I had to look up the answer was 1298 01:05:24,360 --> 01:05:26,600 89. The first issue was the Super 1299 01:05:26,600 --> 01:05:28,960 Mario 2 issue with the claymation on on the front. 1300 01:05:28,960 --> 01:05:30,960 Mario's on the mushroom grabbing the star, right? 1301 01:05:31,360 --> 01:05:35,720 Yep, that came out in July August 1988. 1302 01:05:36,160 --> 01:05:39,240 See, I knew it was Mario 2 and I was thinking, I'm like, I think 1303 01:05:39,240 --> 01:05:42,720 it was 88 when Mario 2 came out. I thought it was 89. 1304 01:05:42,920 --> 01:05:45,520 That's where I goofed up. Mario 3 was 89, right? 1305 01:05:45,520 --> 01:05:48,960 Or was that 90? 9 I don't remember. 1306 01:05:48,960 --> 01:05:50,960 Yes, one of those years you named. 1307 01:05:50,960 --> 01:05:52,800 Isn't it? All right. 1308 01:05:52,800 --> 01:05:56,120 PlayStation 5 top Metacritic score today. 1309 01:05:57,280 --> 01:06:00,160 Am I gonna get him? I'll give you a hint, it is tied 1310 01:06:00,160 --> 01:06:04,000 between two games and they are not PlayStation 5. 1311 01:06:04,960 --> 01:06:07,560 Am I just going to get in my own head on this or should I just 1312 01:06:07,560 --> 01:06:10,040 say like what? What I feel like the obvious is, 1313 01:06:10,040 --> 01:06:12,720 is it? One of them is incredibly 1314 01:06:12,720 --> 01:06:15,800 obvious and the other is something you 100% would never 1315 01:06:15,800 --> 01:06:17,600 play. I feel like the first one's 1316 01:06:17,600 --> 01:06:21,280 Expedition 33 no credibly obvious. 1317 01:06:21,640 --> 01:06:24,800 Think before Expedition 33. Fantasy Rebirth. 1318 01:06:25,320 --> 01:06:28,920 No, we, we streamed it together, Bob. 1319 01:06:29,720 --> 01:06:33,040 Jesus Christ, Bob, really? That's still scored really high, 1320 01:06:33,040 --> 01:06:35,760 Balder. 'S Skate 3 and the other is 1321 01:06:35,760 --> 01:06:37,760 something you would never play because that's souls like. 1322 01:06:39,160 --> 01:06:40,720 It's got to be Elden Ring then, right? 1323 01:06:40,760 --> 01:06:42,840 Yep. Yeah, and can you guess what the 1324 01:06:42,840 --> 01:06:45,080 Metacritic scores were? 98. 1325 01:06:45,480 --> 01:06:48,760 Close. 96 is the highest rated one. 1326 01:06:48,760 --> 01:06:50,880 It's 96. There's nothing higher than 97. 1327 01:06:51,600 --> 01:06:53,680 Interesting, that's a really good score. 1328 01:06:53,840 --> 01:06:56,080 Baldersgate deserves it. I've never played Elden Ring 1329 01:06:56,080 --> 01:06:59,240 because souls like obviously is one of my red flags but 1330 01:06:59,320 --> 01:07:01,320 everybody I've talked to loved Eldon Ring. 1331 01:07:01,840 --> 01:07:02,640 Yeah. Same here. 1332 01:07:02,800 --> 01:07:06,520 Same here, I did play it for a bit, it is very high fantasy 1333 01:07:06,520 --> 01:07:11,320 type stuff but I cannot play games where I get hit once and I 1334 01:07:11,320 --> 01:07:13,400 die. I just does not do it for me. 1335 01:07:13,840 --> 01:07:16,640 Man, we we got traumatized by that when we were kids playing 1336 01:07:16,640 --> 01:07:17,680 Mario. That one I. 1337 01:07:18,040 --> 01:07:21,320 Mean or like the Ninja Turtles, the stage where you're in the 1338 01:07:21,320 --> 01:07:23,920 water and you have like the tentacles in the water and if 1339 01:07:23,920 --> 01:07:26,920 you touch them, you die. That first Ninja Ninja Turtles 1340 01:07:26,920 --> 01:07:32,040 game was horrible and punishing. Or go back all the way back to 1341 01:07:32,040 --> 01:07:36,440 You probably don't remember, but ET on Atari, it was an absolute 1342 01:07:36,600 --> 01:07:39,560 terrible game to the point where they they buried a whole bunch 1343 01:07:39,560 --> 01:07:40,840 of. That's the one that they put in 1344 01:07:40,840 --> 01:07:44,560 the landfills. All right, so let's bring this 1345 01:07:44,560 --> 01:07:47,280 home. At the end of the day, it's not 1346 01:07:47,280 --> 01:07:50,840 about reviews. It's about what you want out of 1347 01:07:50,840 --> 01:07:55,320 a game, not expectations. What's the reality of what you 1348 01:07:55,320 --> 01:07:57,720 want out of the game? For me, my gut still wins. 1349 01:07:57,880 --> 01:08:01,640 I'm batting around like, like I said, 607 hundred and that's 1350 01:08:01,640 --> 01:08:04,800 fine. I know what I like, I know what 1351 01:08:04,800 --> 01:08:10,000 I don't, and I don't let FOMO make my choices for me. 1352 01:08:10,360 --> 01:08:15,600 Case in point, I have two two Switch twos sitting in a closet 1353 01:08:15,600 --> 01:08:18,080 right now waiting for Santa. I believe you've done that. 1354 01:08:18,080 --> 01:08:19,880 Honestly, that's very impressive. 1355 01:08:20,479 --> 01:08:23,439 And like when I was a kid, Nintendo Power was Canon. 1356 01:08:24,000 --> 01:08:28,399 They had game reviews in there. I I remember distinctly that 1357 01:08:28,399 --> 01:08:32,000 and, and it balanced hype with gameplay and imagination. 1358 01:08:32,600 --> 01:08:34,760 And now things like that are clicks in revenue. 1359 01:08:35,399 --> 01:08:37,920 They're. Now those but think too those 1360 01:08:38,040 --> 01:08:40,760 those antenna power games or reviews. 1361 01:08:40,960 --> 01:08:43,960 How much after the game released would you get it? 1362 01:08:44,560 --> 01:08:46,279 It wouldn't be instant. It'd be like the month after. 1363 01:08:46,279 --> 01:08:48,600 It would be either. Well, sometimes it was the month 1364 01:08:48,600 --> 01:08:52,680 before, OK, And other times it was the month after. 1365 01:08:52,680 --> 01:08:56,200 Like I remember distinctly getting the Final Fantasy 1 1366 01:08:56,200 --> 01:09:00,640 strategy guide, Nintendo Power before the game was on sale. 1367 01:09:01,399 --> 01:09:04,640 Like I specifically remember I got that game for Christmas and 1368 01:09:04,640 --> 01:09:06,880 I was like, wait a minute, I've seen a strategy guide for this 1369 01:09:06,880 --> 01:09:09,840 and I'm like digging through the Nintendo Powers in my closet and 1370 01:09:09,840 --> 01:09:12,080 I'm like, aha. And I was able to follow that. 1371 01:09:12,760 --> 01:09:15,720 But it, it was just, it was a different time, right? 1372 01:09:15,720 --> 01:09:19,040 Their revenue generation was on subscriptions, not clicks, not 1373 01:09:19,040 --> 01:09:20,760 ad revenue. And don't get me wrong, they're 1374 01:09:20,760 --> 01:09:23,520 still good writers for these things, but it's really hard not 1375 01:09:23,520 --> 01:09:26,479 to be cynical. So fun fact, I never actually 1376 01:09:27,240 --> 01:09:30,319 bought those type of magazines. Oh no. 1377 01:09:30,399 --> 01:09:32,439 No, Game informers. No. 1378 01:09:32,600 --> 01:09:35,200 I bought some game informers, but most of the stuff I got was 1379 01:09:35,200 --> 01:09:39,840 strategy guides, and it wasn't really for strategy, it was just 1380 01:09:39,840 --> 01:09:46,279 for more game lore. So back when we were kids, games 1381 01:09:46,279 --> 01:09:50,200 came with instruction manuals. Yeah, I would read those. 1382 01:09:50,359 --> 01:09:52,680 Yeah, they had the character BIOS in them, by the way. 1383 01:09:53,399 --> 01:09:55,560 Yeah, and they had pages for notes that I would fill out. 1384 01:09:55,560 --> 01:09:59,320 Like I still remember having a instruction manual for Mortal 1385 01:09:59,320 --> 01:10:03,560 Kombat where I wrote down all the finishers, then the 1386 01:10:03,640 --> 01:10:05,040 fatalities. Oh, I had that on like a 1387 01:10:05,040 --> 01:10:07,800 notepad. Yeah, I wrote it in like I had 1388 01:10:07,800 --> 01:10:09,440 like a page for notes and I wrote it in there. 1389 01:10:10,080 --> 01:10:14,040 So review wise for me it was it's more word of mouth than 1390 01:10:14,040 --> 01:10:16,360 anything. So I was like super poor as a 1391 01:10:16,360 --> 01:10:18,960 kid and all my friends would get stuff before I would. 1392 01:10:19,920 --> 01:10:23,640 So a lot of my games were hand me downs where they would beat 1393 01:10:23,640 --> 01:10:24,800 it and they would give me the games. 1394 01:10:24,800 --> 01:10:29,120 Yep. And then as I got older, I never 1395 01:10:29,120 --> 01:10:31,400 really read reviews. It was all word of mouth. 1396 01:10:31,400 --> 01:10:34,600 Still, even as I got older, I still remember in college I kind 1397 01:10:34,600 --> 01:10:37,480 of played Warcraft 2A bit, but not enough to really know what I 1398 01:10:37,480 --> 01:10:38,760 was doing. And then a friend of mine, 1399 01:10:38,760 --> 01:10:41,640 actually my roommate, had work of three, was obsessed with it, 1400 01:10:41,640 --> 01:10:43,960 and I got into work of three. And same thing with Counter 1401 01:10:43,960 --> 01:10:46,600 Strike. I never actually played Counter 1402 01:10:46,600 --> 01:10:49,600 Strike before and then a bunch of friends of mine were doing it 1403 01:10:49,600 --> 01:10:50,320 and then I got. Into it. 1404 01:10:50,320 --> 01:10:53,920 My God my roommate played Counter Strike and it was so fun 1405 01:10:53,920 --> 01:10:55,880 to watch him rage playing that game. 1406 01:10:55,880 --> 01:10:58,280 Yeah, yeah. And then it got into World of 1407 01:10:58,280 --> 01:10:58,920 Warcraft. But. 1408 01:11:00,120 --> 01:11:03,440 For me, my metric's simple, right after the kids asleep and 1409 01:11:03,440 --> 01:11:05,760 I've got maybe 90 minutes to play. 1410 01:11:06,160 --> 01:11:07,760 Can I pick? Up fall asleep on the couch. 1411 01:11:07,880 --> 01:11:11,120 Right, can I pick up where I left off and stop when I I need 1412 01:11:11,120 --> 01:11:12,600 to without punishment? That's the test. 1413 01:11:12,600 --> 01:11:15,000 It's it's that simple these days at 44 years old. 1414 01:11:15,000 --> 01:11:17,000 Right? If I could tell younger gamers 1415 01:11:17,000 --> 01:11:20,560 one thing if any of you are listening, FOMO is fleeting. 1416 01:11:21,320 --> 01:11:25,960 Graphics only shine when the game is good and you vote with 1417 01:11:25,960 --> 01:11:29,720 your wallet. Trust patterns, not promises, 1418 01:11:29,720 --> 01:11:32,880 and trust yourself more than any review. 1419 01:11:33,320 --> 01:11:36,200 It's funny that you mentioned pick it up and stop whenever you 1420 01:11:36,200 --> 01:11:38,040 want. The the one of the main things 1421 01:11:38,040 --> 01:11:39,680 to look at now with games is can I pause it? 1422 01:11:40,200 --> 01:11:43,120 No kidding. And that came about with World 1423 01:11:43,120 --> 01:11:45,800 of Warcraft and my wife because she would be upset that I 1424 01:11:45,800 --> 01:11:48,120 couldn't pause it to ask me something or want to do 1425 01:11:48,120 --> 01:11:50,480 something. So it's it's quite funny. 1426 01:11:51,040 --> 01:11:54,440 So if you're looking for other our other content, a gamer dad 1427 01:11:54,440 --> 01:11:57,600 Bob and myself, you can catch gamer dad Bob on twitch and 1428 01:11:57,600 --> 01:12:02,320 YouTube under the same name posting gamer dad rule shorts 1429 01:12:02,440 --> 01:12:05,000 gamer rules of thumb. Some Pendragon content, which is 1430 01:12:05,000 --> 01:12:09,920 a magic the gathering format on that uses a commander, which is 1431 01:12:10,240 --> 01:12:14,360 a common and a legendary equipment, which is a could be a 1432 01:12:14,360 --> 01:12:16,400 rare doesn't have to be rare. And then everything else is. 1433 01:12:17,680 --> 01:12:20,080 And you can catch myself, Jesse Hoagie also on twitch and 1434 01:12:20,080 --> 01:12:22,800 YouTube under the same name where I mostly play Marvel snap 1435 01:12:22,800 --> 01:12:24,440 these days. And sometimes if I imagine the 1436 01:12:24,440 --> 01:12:26,640 gathering, Bob and I will do our sealed Fridays. 1437 01:12:27,920 --> 01:12:31,200 And I have done a couple shorts on YouTube, but I haven't really 1438 01:12:31,200 --> 01:12:33,400 gotten into the swing of it like Bob has. 1439 01:12:34,080 --> 01:12:36,720 Yeah, I just, I have my Pendragon deck of the week. 1440 01:12:36,720 --> 01:12:39,120 Just dropped it. It's a poison dart frog and 1441 01:12:39,120 --> 01:12:41,840 grasp grasp mask of Grizzle brand. 1442 01:12:43,400 --> 01:12:45,000 I love Mask of grizzle. Brand I do too. 1443 01:12:45,080 --> 01:12:46,640 It's so good. It's a fun one. 1444 01:12:47,080 --> 01:12:49,400 So, Jesse, any words of wisdom this week? 1445 01:12:49,760 --> 01:12:53,480 I do remember in a world full of game reviews, sometimes the 1446 01:12:53,480 --> 01:12:56,200 truest wisdom comes from ignoring them completely. 1447 01:12:57,000 --> 01:12:59,680 Play what you want, love what you love, and don't let a 1448 01:12:59,680 --> 01:13:04,200 stranger with a username like XX salty critic 420 XX decide your 1449 01:13:04,200 --> 01:13:08,240 happiness. Those are good words to live by. 1450 01:13:08,800 --> 01:13:11,560 Hey, be awesome out there and we'll see you next time.