Game Scoop! 791: Elden Ring Goes Rogue

Summary

IGN's Game Scoop! Episode 791: Elden Ring Goes Rogue – December 14, 2024

In the season finale of Game Scoop!, IGN’s gaming experts delve deep into the latest gaming news, focusing primarily on the highly anticipated sequel to Elden Ring—Elden Ring Night Rain. The episode is packed with insightful discussions, expert opinions, and exciting revelations about upcoming titles that are set to shape the gaming landscape in 2025.

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Elden Ring Night Rain: A Rogue-Like Turn

The episode kicks off with an extensive discussion about Elden Ring Night Rain, the forthcoming entry in the Elden Ring series. Hosted by Damon Hadfield, and joined by Sam Claiborne, Justin Davis, and Mark Medina, the team explores what makes this new installment a significant departure from its predecessor.

Gameplay Innovations and Structure

Mark Medina opens the conversation highlighting the game's unique structure:

Mark Medina [03:31]: "Every game takes place over three days. Each day is about 15 minutes each. During a day, you have that 15 minutes to run around Limgrave and grab as many items and equipment as you can and level up as much as you can."

Justin Davis adds excitement about the quick turnaround and standalone nature of the game:

Justin Davis [02:55]: "What's nuts is people are going to be able to play this super soon. The tech test for it is in February. That's wild."

Multiplayer and Roguelike Elements

The multiplayer aspect is a hot topic, with the game supporting up to three players in a cooperative experience. However, Sam Claiborne raises concerns about the necessity of a third player:

Sam Claiborne [03:45]: "Is it true you were making jokes about this, but you can't do it as two. You have to be one or three."

Mark Medina explains the design choice:

Mark Medina [03:45]: "Yes, you could play three people total or you could play by yourself, but you can't do two."

Community Reception and Expectations

The team debates the potential impact of Night Rain on Elden Ring’s legacy, with Mark dreaming of another Game of the Year nomination:

Mark Medina [02:40]: "Elden Ring could be again nominated for Game of the Year again next year in 2025, depending on how this one turns out."

Damon Hadfield provides personal insights into the trailer’s tone, contrasting it with the original game's atmosphere:

Damon Hadfield [05:31]: "Even the vibe in the trailer, it's clear that you're meant to be empowered and you have mastery over this world... running around this world with friends."

However, doubts remain about the game’s alignment with FromSoftware’s traditional style, as Justin Davis expresses:

Justin Davis [04:31]: "I need to see more before I'm super jazzed on this."

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Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic the Heretic Prophet

Transitioning from the Elden Ring saga, the discussion shifts to Naughty Dog’s latest announcement, Intergalactic the Heretic Prophet. Despite its unconventional title, the team is optimistic about the studio’s return to action-adventure roots.

Plot and Development

Mark Medina breaks down the game’s premise:

Mark Medina [14:36]: "Intergalactic the Heretic Prophet follows Jordan, a dangerous bounty hunter stranded on Symperia, a planet cut off from the universe for over 600 years."

Artistic Direction and Expectations

Damon Hadfield reflects on Naughty Dog’s legacy and the fresh palette cleanser this new title represents:

Damon Hadfield [14:56]: "Seeing them go back to making a swashbuckling action adventure game feels like a perfect palate cleanser after the Last of Us series."

The soundtrack collaboration with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross adds another layer of anticipation:

Mark Medina [23:09]: "Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross will be doing the soundtrack, which means it's going to be great."

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The Witcher 4: Continuing Ciri’s Saga

The team delves into the much-anticipated Witcher 4, discussing its narrative direction and gameplay elements.

Narrative and Character Development

Sam Claiborne highlights the focus on Ciri as the new protagonist:

Sam Claiborne [26:07]: "Ciri’s story is not like, you know, got a lot of interesting kind of stuff to work through. She’s breaking the mold in a lot of different ways."

Gameplay Mechanics and Themes

There’s a consensus on the game’s potential to blend RPG elements with meaningful storytelling:

Sam Claiborne [27:23]: "She clearly is doing like, look, I'm really powerful and I can solve these problems, but like, there's a bigger problem in the world."

Technical and Development Insights

Mark Medina sheds light on the game’s development timeline and the influence of hardware advancements:

Mark Medina [32:01]: "It was like, if space travel was a lot more advanced back in 1986, which they mentioned, but the game is in development since 2020."

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Reviving Classics: Okami 2 and Borderlands 4

Okami 2: A Return to Artistic Brilliance

The announcement of Okami 2 by Clover Studio excites the team, given the original's cult classic status.

Damon Hadfield [35:01]: "It really made me happy in my heart to see that this is coming. It's one of the most deserving of a sequel but least likely to get one."

Mark Medina reminisces about the original's impact:

Mark Medina [37:35]: "Okami was a PS2 game that won IGN's Game of the Year, but it wasn’t a huge hit. So, a sequel is both surprising and exciting."

Borderlands 4: Expanding the Loot-Filled Universe

The conversation then shifts to Borderlands 4, focusing on its art style and co-op features.

Mark Medina [39:30]: "It looks like more Borderlands, which could be a good thing for fans. The first half of this trailer shows off some really cool stuff."

Justin Davis shares his enthusiasm for the gunplay and cooperative elements:

Justin Davis [41:09]: "I am very excited for Borderlands 4. It feels like a single-player hero shooter where you feel compelled to play more than once because you can make different builds."

Sam Claiborne expresses mixed feelings about the looter aspect:

Sam Claiborne [41:36]: "I didn't like it when it became like there's actually a billion combinations of weapons. It just doesn't sound super interesting to me."

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Indie Gems and Future Titles

Ninja Gaiden Ragebound: Pixel Art Evolution

Mark Medina introduces Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, developed by the team behind Blasphemous.

Mark Medina [48:15]: "It's from the team behind Blasphemous, which already has great pixel art. They’re pushing the boundaries of modern pixel art, making every battle a feast for the eyes."

The game’s hand-animated 2D pixel art receives acclaim:

Sam Claiborne [48:45]: "It just looks fantastic. I love that it's not like the NES games, but it's a modernized fun shovel 90 type game."

Split Fiction: Hazel Studios’ Cooperative Venture

The team discusses Split Fiction from Hazel Studios, drawing parallels to It Takes Two.

Sam Claiborne [51:08]: "It’s like how player-friendly they are. You can just invite anyone to play it and they can play for free."

Damon Hadfield notes the game’s clever mechanics and cooperative gameplay:

Damon Hadfield [53:40]: "The asymmetrical co-op is just always such a cool idea... It forces both people to participate."

Infinity Nikki: A Unique Free-to-Play Experience

Justin Davis introduces Infinity Nikki, highlighting its open-world exploration and dress-up mechanics.

Justin Davis [67:43]: "It's about dressing up your girl Nikki. It's an open world with some combat, but mostly collecting outfits and solving puzzles."

Sam Claiborne comments on the game’s depth beyond its surface elements:

Sam Claiborne [69:36]: "It's got puzzles, platforming challenges, mysteries... It's quite satisfying figuring out how to go around and discover all the whim stars."

Despite concerns about monetization, the team acknowledges the game’s enjoyable gameplay:

Damon Hadfield [72:46]: "The gameplay is legitimate and the puzzles are legitimate and it’s really satisfying."

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Interactive Segment: Video Game 20 Questions

In the interactive portion of the episode, the hosts engage in a spirited game of Video Game 20 Questions, where a viewer named Kale suggests that Wind Waker is humanity's favorite punk video game series.

Mark Medina leads the questioning, quickly narrowing down the possibilities:

Mark Medina [75:13]: "Does this game belong to the Mario or Zelda universe?"

Upon confirming it’s a Zelda title, Mark correctly identifies it as Wind Waker:

Mark Medina [80:34]: "Yes, it is. 12 questions."

The team praises Wind Waker for its enduring charm and artistic design:

Sam Claiborne [80:58]: "It is widescreen... What a game."

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Looking Ahead: Upcoming Episodes and Special Segments

As the episode wraps up, Damon Hadfield previews upcoming special episodes, including the unveiling of Game of the Year awards and celebrations of the team's contributions.

Damon Hadfield [83:25]: "Next year is kind of a special episode where we're going to be unveiling our Game of the Year awards live on the show."

The hosts express enthusiasm for future content, promising more in-depth analyses and celebratory segments.

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Conclusion

Game Scoop! 791 provides a comprehensive look at the evolving gaming scene, from the innovative twists in Elden Ring Night Rain to the revival of beloved classics like Okami 2. With insights into upcoming titles and interactive segments that engage the audience, IGN ensures that listeners are well-informed and excited for what’s next in the gaming world. As the team wraps up, they leave fans eagerly anticipating the upcoming episodes and the grand reveal of their Game of the Year awards.

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Notable Quotes:

• Mark Medina [03:31]: "Every game takes place over three days. Each day is about 15 minutes each."

• Justin Davis [02:55]: "What's nuts is people are going to be able to play this super soon. The tech test for it is in February. That's wild."

• Damon Hadfield [05:31]: "Even the vibe in the trailer, it's clear that you're meant to be empowered and you have mastery over this world."

• Sam Claiborne [27:23]: "She clearly is doing like, look, I'm really powerful and I can solve these problems, but like, there's a bigger problem in the world."

• Mark Medina [35:01]: "It really made me happy in my heart to see that this is coming. It's one of the most deserving of a sequel but least likely to get one."

• Sam Claiborne [51:08]: "It’s like how player-friendly they are. You can just invite anyone to play it and they can play for free."

• Justin Davis [67:43]: "It's about dressing up your girl Nikki. It's an open world with some combat, but mostly collecting outfits and solving puzzles."

• Mark Medina [80:34]: "Yes, it is. 12 questions."

---

For those eager to stay updated on the latest in gaming, this episode is a must-listen, offering a blend of expert analysis, passionate discussions, and a glimpse into the future of gaming.

Transcript

[Damon Hadfield]

This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime. There's nothing sweeter than baking cookies during the holidays. With Prime, I get all my ingredients delivered right to my door, fast and free. No last minute store trips needed. And of course, I blast my favorite holiday playlist on Amazon Music. It's the ultimate soundtrack for creating unforgettable memories. From streaming to shopping, it's on Prime. Visit Amazon.comprime to get more out of whatever you're into.

[Sam Claiborne]

Streaming now on Peacock.

[Damon Hadfield]

Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie are back. That's hot. Loves it.

[Sam Claiborne]

For a show stopping reunion that will prove putting on an opera is anything but simple.

[Justin Davis]

Sana, Sana, Sansa, Sana.

[Sam Claiborne]

We're really good at this. One thing's for sure, they won't be upstaged.

[Damon Hadfield]

Good to have you back.

[Sam Claiborne]

Come on, we've got a show to do. Paris and Nicole, the encore, a three part reunion special. Streaming now only on Peacock.

[Mark Medina]

What's up, everybody? Welcome to IGN Game Scoop. I'm your host Damon Hadfield and joining me this week are Sam Claiborne.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hey, it's great to be here.

[Mark Medina]

Justin Davis.

[Damon Hadfield]

Scoop.

[Mark Medina]

And Mark Medina.

[Justin Davis]

Last scoop of 2024. I forgot what year it was. I'm here, Damon. Let's do it.

[Mark Medina]

It's not. Not the last.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's not the last scoop.

[Justin Davis]

Sorry. Marks. Last sparks.

[Mark Medina]

Yes. Yes. Mark's last scoop. Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, probably. Probably forever after that flub.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, let's go. Just keep it up, Mark.

[Justin Davis]

No, that's what I'm here for.

[Mark Medina]

Well, we got a great show for this week. So much to talk about. So many game reveals and trailers released yesterday. I don't know why every game company decided to make all their announcements on the same day. It's quite a coincidence. But they did. There's tons to talk about, like the new game from Naughty Dog and Witcher 4. But first, let's begin with the next Elden Ring. The next Elder Elden Ring Night Rain. And it's pretty different. But Mark, it sounds like you're into it.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I mean it looks like it's. It's like very clear from the trailer. The first thing they did, they were like here's the lands between. But it's not that like they get rid of like the bonfire and all that stuff. They're kind of like showing you it's a little different. But yeah, it appears to be some sort of like round based, like almost like matchmaking roguelike boss Rush co op Elden Ring experience, which is like cool. And it's standalone. So that's Cool too. You don't. You know, the big thing, we talked about it a few weeks ago with Shadow of the Erdtree is you had to play a lot of Elden Ring to be able to play Shadow of the Erdtree. And now you're going to be able to just like pick up this game and play it.

[Mark Medina]

I mean, it's feasible. Elden Ring could be again nominated for Game of the Year again next year in 2025, depending on how this one turns out.

[Justin Davis]

What's nuts is people are going to be able to play this super soon. The tech test for it is in February.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

That's wild.

[Mark Medina]

Yep. So Tristan, our man in Australia, he played like six hours of this game already, so. Yeah, it's the way he described it. Let's see, it takes the cautious dungeon crawls of Elden Ring and turbo charges them into propulsive slash and dash speed runs. So basically every game takes place over three days. Each day is about 15 minutes each. And during a day you have that 15 minutes to run around Limgrave and just try to grab as many items and equipment as you can and level up as much as you can. And the map is shrinking like it does in Fortnite.

[Justin Davis]

Battle royale.

[Mark Medina]

Battle royale style. And when the area gets small enough, you have to fight a boss. And if you defeat the boss, you get to go to the next day and do all that again. And you're doing that with up to two friends, basically. So it's meant to be like a three player cooperative experience.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is it true you were making jokes about this, but you can't do it as two. You have to be one or three.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know why that. Yeah, that was the detail in our preview. You can play with three. You could play three people total or you could play by yourself, but you can't do two.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's so strange.

[Mark Medina]

I know.

[Justin Davis]

That's who.

[Damon Hadfield]

Everybody wants to invite a third into their, you know, into their duo sometimes. Right. But like it's. It's still a strange call for a game like this.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

So I don't know as much. I've talked at great length about how much I love Elden Ring over the past couple years, but also about how I'm not really a multiplayer gamer at all. So I don't know, Mark, why do you think it just sounds so different to what the Elden Ring experience is?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, well, I don't want to sound down on it, but I'm with you, Damon, where it's like it's Kind of, I like Elden Ring for the exploration of it all, for killing little dudes and kind of just like making your way through a dungeon, exploring it and leveling up your character. And so I'm not, I'm not going to say I'm down on this. It's really hard because we didn't get to, we, we have a real long preview up, but we didn't get any new like B roll or anything. So like we're see what we've seen is what you've seen, except for Tristan who went and played it. So it's kind of like, it's very hard to get a feel on, on like the moment to moment gameplay for this. So I, I, I'm going to be like, I need to see more before I'm super jazzed on this. Also, February is just so busy and I know this doesn't come out in February, but to play the tech test, it's hard to say that I'm completely stoked for this, but I'm very curious for it and I will definitely try it out.

[Damon Hadfield]

It is interesting. I mean, even the vibe in the trailer, it's clear that you're meant to be empowered and you have mastery over this world. And the trailer is character, characters running around and just slaughtering enemies. And like, that's obviously not the vibe of like souls, like games at all. Like very cautious, very, like they're there to beat you down and that's part of the fun. And then, you know, eventually you triumph and work your way through. And so, you know, to flip that into a little bit more of like a traditional video game power fantasy and you know, running around this world with friends and you know, like hopping around the environment is, is interesting to me. Like, I don't have any kind of deeper point to make to that. But that's, that was kind of my takeaway from the trailer and I have.

[Mark Medina]

Questions about the roguelike nature of it. Like, is there any sort of, you know, permanent progression, like from round around, are you, are you getting stronger over time the more that you play or, you know, what's, we know there's not a half.

[Sam Claiborne]

Right.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, the most popular ones do.

[Justin Davis]

I can't imagine finishing around if it didn't have that. Yeah, I can't imagine finishing around and feeling jazzed to like spend an evening just constantly queuing back up to kind of just do the same thing over and over unless I'm like headed towards something. Right. And fromsoftware games are famously like, they have no live service Stuff. They don't battle passes and stuff. But that is what gets people queuing up, right, Is I'm playing a lot of Marvel Rivals right now, and you just. You see the battle pass ticking up and you're like, all right, a few more games. And so it's like, this has to have something. I don't want it to have a battle pass, but it's got to have some sort of, like, progression.

[Sam Claiborne]

We don't know the pricing structure, right. We don't know if it's free to play.

[Mark Medina]

Well, it's. We know that it's not a live service game, so it's not going to be free to play. But it might not be a $70 game, right?

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean, this is the. This is the state of gaming in 2024, 2025. Is that, yes, there does have to be some sort of meta progression system. But what you're describing Mark of, like, sit down and queue up and play games all night, and then you don't get anything or unlock anything. That used to be every video game. That was the 5,000 matches of Halo 2 and Halo 3 that I played all throughout my life growing up, right? And like, the reward was like sticking a sticky grenade to someone's face, you know, and then. And then getting the kill. But now, no, no, no. Now we got to see bars fill. Otherwise it's like, well, why am I. Why am I spending any time on this?

[Sam Claiborne]

But the roguelike specifically has brought that on because there are things that you can't accomplish in a rogue. Like, so if this is not that, if this is just shuffle, which is what we know, that's what Tristan said in his review. It shuffles positions of large castles and enemy positions each time. If it's just a shuffle, it's just. It's. That's. That's the purpose of it. It's like you play an arcade game and you're putting a quarter in and playing and then shuffling. I just don't know which one it is yet. We should ask Tristan. He probably knows.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean, it is cool. Like, it's, you know, Elden Ring remix, right? Like, what a neat idea.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, I don't. You know, maybe people like this game, maybe they won't. To me, this looks like the Legend of Elden Rings Three Swords adventures. It's like, nobody asked for it. I don't know if it'll be good or not, but it concerns me when it's like the spin off of this thing. You, like, abandoned all the things that you, like And I always thought that was strange about Four Swords Adventures, the Zelda game I was making a joke about because. Or God forbid, the Metroid Prime Federation Force.

[Mark Medina]

Federation Force?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah. Like, you add multiplayer, you remove exploration, you remove, you know, RPG stuff. Like, I don't know, like, try it. I don't, I don't have any problem with that. But it always, it always seems like, what are we going to put out from, you know, this IP this year, which is, you know, an intellectual property. And maybe it's. Maybe it's the game the team always wanted to make. I don't want to be that cynical, but it also feels like it could be a kind of popcorn game. The reason which we just need an Elden Ring game out every year. Who knows?

[Damon Hadfield]

We'll see.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, that was exactly my thought too. Is this someone's passion project? Did someone have this idea that. That they came to the bosses at Fromsoft and Bandai Namco be like, I've, you know, this would really work.

[Sam Claiborne]

We've been burned. You know, like Metal Gear and Resident both had like real stupid multiplayer games, so they looked pretty cool in preview form. This team is so talented though, that like, again, like, there's no way. No, Tristan says it's fun.

[Mark Medina]

Like, yeah, it's true.

[Justin Davis]

It's like you. You can't imagine that. That Bandai and Miyazaki are going to let something with the Elden Ring go out, with the Elder Ring name go out. That's like not gonna be good. It's just one of those instances where it's like, I trust the developer on.

[Sam Claiborne]

This one, so don't mean I trusted Aonuma and Miyamoto. Right. Like that. It doesn't mean anything. It could be a completely different team working on the properties that they have internally to get this game out. Like, it's just. It's really tough. Like Nintendo has a seal of quality, you know. See what. See where that got us?

[Mark Medina]

Also has a seal of quantity.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, they do.

[Mark Medina]

Sam, does this interest you at all from a game help standpoint or is it just a roguelike tough one?

[Sam Claiborne]

I'm a little worried that, like that the. So I love strategy guides for in depth games. If this is too arcade, then it won't be fun to make a strategy guide for because like everything's random each time and there's only eight types of permutation of each character. And like, you know, you just. Yeah, I guess you need to know what the boss moves are. But that's basically like, I don't Know, like, that doesn't sound super interesting to me.

[Justin Davis]

Mm.

[Sam Claiborne]

From. And again, that was not from a. Is this game gonna be good Perspective. That was from. Would it be fun to write a strategy guide about this game? Because we, all the people on the guides team really do like writing strategy guides. And some. Some of them are not as fun because of that. Like, Call of Duty wouldn't be fun except it has the coolest, craziest Easter eggs ever and Mark has been breaking his butt to get them up. And the recent one is totally nuts. Four swords in it. Speaking of four swords.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. I'm seven pages into a 14 page script. I just can't. I keep having to just. I'm just reading the VO until I get tired and I'm like, that's enough for now. And then I just like cut it and I'm like, edit activity.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's guide writing.

[Damon Hadfield]

I love it.

[Justin Davis]

But it's great because what Sam's saying is true, is like, there's just this way to know how to do stuff and then you get to figure it out and then share it. And so. I agree. Roguelites are speaking from a guide's perspective. Very tough to guide because you could do tips and you could do like, things to look out for, but you can't be like, get this sword.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hopefully there's unlockables like vampire survivors, right? Like, that makes them fun because you're like, whoa, this is a really interesting lock sequence. One of which Damon shared with me this week. It's like, there's just really neat visualizations of that stuff.

[Justin Davis]

Well, I'm thinking of dead cells right at the beginning. Every time you. You fail around in dead cells, you start over and you see all those like, hanging glass jars and it's. They just fill up as you collect things. And like, that's kind of what it is. Like, is there like a starting room that eventually fills up with things that make it where you can run around the map faster, you can fly? Like that dude's flying. How does he get that? Like, that's. That's the kind of stuff I'm interested in seeing.

[Sam Claiborne]

Apparently the reaction, like, I haven't seen negative reactions to this. It's been only positive. So that's really great. For people that are really into Elden Ring that also play multiplayer games, like, this is like the match made in heaven for them. They're so excited.

[Mark Medina]

There are people that are really into Elden Ring lore, which I find amusing since I played that game and I couldn't tell you anything. About the lore, the world or the characters. Anything at all.

[Sam Claiborne]

We'll have Nick Limone on. He'll explain it all. Because he was saying on your post show that there was even like a Dark Souls looking enemy.

[Mark Medina]

I think they've confirmed now, confirmed that there are some bosses from. From Dark Souls games.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

It is like remixing, you know, it's pulling in other stuff from their, you know, from their library and back catalog, which is interesting.

[Sam Claiborne]

So maybe the canon doesn't really exist.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, that's. Everything's a multiverse now.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Yeah, totally.

[Mark Medina]

Well, Elden Ring Night Rain is coming in 2025, just like almost every game that was shown off last night. Man, What a year 2025 is shaping up to be. There will inevitably be some delays, but as of right now, next year is.

[Sam Claiborne]

Just completely packed and those delays will just be filled in by Nintendo.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, that's true. Nothing from Nintendo last night, was it?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, they showed echoes of wisdom. Commercial.

[Damon Hadfield]

Please be excited for Mario and Luigi Brothers ship.

[Mark Medina]

One game that was shown off that wasn't given any sort of a release window is the next game from Naughty Dog. It's called Intergalactic the Heretic Prophet. Which I want to say right off the bat, I think this is a cool trailer and Naughty Dog does great work. So I'm excited for this game. That is a terrible title.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep. Very bad name for a video game or anything. Right.

[Mark Medina]

Also, like, I know Neil Druckmann listens to the show and he knows a few episodes back we covered this every. The NES library contains all the words you need to make video game titles. You don't need to go past the NES library.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, I do. I love that this game, I mean, silly title aside. And maybe it's one of those things where in a year, after we've heard it a thousand times, we'll get used to it. Right.

[Sam Claiborne]

I actually like that when that happens. I think it's cool. I like the challenge.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. You know, this really reminded me like I so closely associate Naughty Dog with the Last of us now that I was like, oh, yeah. No, for like most of the time that this company was around, they made very fun, very silly and like silly in a good way. Like deliberately silly games like, you know, Jak and Baxter and even Uncharted was like popcorny. Right. And like Crash Bandicoot and they were making very silly, irreverent stuff. Even back in the 16 bit era, the company's that old. And so to see them kind of go back to. I mean, this game doesn't look silly in that way, but, like, you know, this is the studio that made Uncharted. They know how to make a good time. They know how to do, like, a swashbuckling action adventure game. And so I, like. I was immediately like, oh, yeah. Because, like, for the first minute of this trailer, I'm like, oh, this is weird coming from Naughty Dog. And I'm like, no, this is absolutely, like, down their strike plate. And, like, I can imagine as a studio that, like, it's a nice sort of palette cleanser after being in kind of like, Last of Us Land for the last decade. It looks great.

[Mark Medina]

Do you guys know who fans think is in this game from that big photo that was just on the wall?

[Damon Hadfield]

Nanjiani. And who's the other one?

[Justin Davis]

The guy who plays Lalo from Better Call. Sai. I forget his name.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes.

[Mark Medina]

Tony Dalton. Tony.

[Damon Hadfield]

Tony Dalton.

[Sam Claiborne]

This is not confirmed, but in a.

[Mark Medina]

Photo on the ship. Yeah, on the photo on the ship, a character looks very, very much like Tony Dalton is like, oh, my God.

[Justin Davis]

Even the mustache. He's like, right in the center of his lip, he's got a little. It's like, a little thinner. And even in the game, it's. It's like. It's definitely him. No.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

No prayer that it's not. Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

It looks like I is so good in Better Call Saul.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

I've never seen him in anything else, so that'd be great.

[Sam Claiborne]

So there's like a. You know, I saw jokes about this, but I want to put up an interesting theory here. So there's the soda can here, the Sony CD player, the Adidas, and the Porsche ship, among other things. There's a lot of corpo branding in this. So two things. One is that they're trying to make it like a 90s future. Like, what it was, you know, what was the future that looked like in anime in the 90s, right. Like, that's fine. I think that's neat. That's. You know, the CD futurism is cool now. I think that's neat. It's a little off. It doesn't really, you know, it's not nailing that aesthetic, in my opinion, but it's attempting it. I have respect for that. The other thing is that there is really cool sci fi precedent, including in cyberpunk for corporate space exploration, and, of course, an alien. Right. So I like that idea of this, the dark future. And this doesn't look too dark, in which everything's corporate and everything's corporation, and everything is taken to the extreme of 90s corporate culture. That's cool as a theme. I can see that working. And see, I have no idea what this game is. It would be a cool show or it'd be like a cool, you know, like, you know, just thematically it works for me. I like that whole idea. We'll just have to see. I can't tell what the F this thing is in any way.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean the rumor. Rumor is it's a souls. Like I mean in terms of its gameplay, like maybe not necessarily that hardcore but like the way your character moves, moves and interacts with enemies and stuff like that.

[Sam Claiborne]

I'm just going to go with puzzle platformer side side scrolling.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, why not?

[Justin Davis]

I'm getting weird. Like this is Neil Druckmann's like Kojima game because like because of the corporate branding that's very Kojima to like toss like monster Energy and. And sunglasses brands and jackets and stuff like that. Like they're going to sell the shoes and they're going to sell.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh yeah.

[Justin Davis]

But then it's like music is very much like her sword is like an equalizer like pattern like from like the old like Windows Media Player equalizers. That's like an eq.

[Mark Medina]

Like eq.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And it's like. Or a visualizer I think is visualizers. Yeah, exactly what I'm thinking of. And so it's like it's very much like music brands that kind of deal. And I'm not saying they're doing it so they can sell real life stuff, but it kind of just. I'm getting destroy ending vibes.

[Sam Claiborne]

So then also, also 90s, right, what you just mentioned. And then the. I forgot to mention this too. There's like there it's. This doesn't come across perfectly but they're showing CRT televisions everywhere. Old school televisions. And so that's why they look a little bit blurry. And then in the end they show an ancient Naughty Dog logo and an ancient PlayStation 90s logo. So it's like 90s 90s. 90s. 90s 90s, yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. I mean yes, I consider it slightly more 80s I think but I think.

[Justin Davis]

They confirmed that it's 1986 and that basically in 1986 trends stopped progressing.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well they said that it's, it's if space travel was a lot more. Had advanced a lot more from 1986. But I don't know that that's mean. There's like that's what year this necessarily takes place. But like that's vibe, right?

[Justin Davis]

I just think that. That's when it's.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, it's very cowboy bebop, which the. Which Neil Druckmann said in an interview with, I think, the New York Times. Like, that's one of his influen, which is rad. Right. It's like, that's so cool. Like, I. I'm here for it. Like, I've seen some people feel like the trailer is kind of like trying a little bit too hard or like impressions online are a little bit mixed. But, like, that aesthetic, that kind of retro future. Like, I like that art builds on itself. You know, it's not like we're getting that many things that have, like, this retro future vibe. Like, yes, it's been done before. Like Alien Isolation did it. You know, obviously, because it's aping the aesthetic of the movie, but, you know, like, it's carving out a unique identity for itself. Like, I'm. I. It shot to the top of my, like, most anticipated list.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Have you. Have you all seen the actual, like, description of what the plot here is in the game from the PlayStation Blog? I can share it here if no one is a little bit.

[Justin Davis]

So. Not really.

[Sam Claiborne]

So basically, I heard it on the post show yesterday.

[Mark Medina]

Gotcha. Basically, this. This trailer is like a.

[Justin Davis]

That.

[Mark Medina]

It's like a mood piece or an aesthetic piece. This is basically the. It seems like this is the setup for the game. So this is the official log line. Intergalactic stars our newest protagonist, Jordan, a mun, a dangerous bounty hunter who ends up stranded on Symperia, a distant planet whose communication with the outside universe went dark hundreds of years ago. In fact, anyone who's flown to it hoping to unravel its mysterious past was never heard from again. Jordan will have to use all her skills and wits if she hopes to be the first person in over 600 years to leave its orbit. So she's a bounty hunter. She's looking for Kamal Nanjiani's character, finds out he's on this planet Sympyria and is going there at the end of this trailer. She'll end up being, you know, marooned there. And that's. That's the game trying to survive and figuring out a way to get off and hopefully with her bounty. Right.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, I like it.

[Mark Medina]

That's the game. Sounds good.

[Justin Davis]

It does. It sounds a little too close to Returnal. Like that whole, like, you know, idea of being trapped somewhere. And I. I really hope there's nothing like procedural generated. I just want this to be a handcrafted Naughty Dog game. Is that a little too Close to Returnal. When you were describing it, I'm like, oh, no, I love Returnal, but that's not what I want from this.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I totally get that.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's been the game again.

[Mark Medina]

Intergalactic, the Heretic Prophet.

[Justin Davis]

You can ask me again in five minutes. I'll remember the Intergalactic part.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. They could have just called Intergalactic. Right? That's fine.

[Damon Hadfield]

They did. I've seen it described. I don't know if it's in the official blog, but the new franchise from Naughty Dog, they didn't say new game. And so it was like, oh, that's also kind of interesting.

[Mark Medina]

In development since 2020, which makes sense since they started after they released Last of us part two in 2020. So I would hope this is a PlayStation 5 game, not a PlayStation 6 game.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

And if you're all worried that there won't be any more Last of Us, there's a Last of Us game out in two months.

[Justin Davis]

There really is.

[Mark Medina]

What? What. What game? What Last of Us game?

[Sam Claiborne]

They're doing like a. What is it? A port of Last of Us two to. They had.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, for PC.

[Justin Davis]

The PC version.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Still more places to put Last of Us two. They're not out yet.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, we know. I think Druckmann has also said recently they now he has, like, a path forward for the Last of us part 3. Also something else to say with that franchise. The other cool note about this is that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross will be doing the soundtrack, which means it's going to be great. All this stuff is great.

[Sam Claiborne]

And again, I think everybody here is right that they could be going for an 80s thing. But that visualizations, some of the other things I mentioned, the PlayStation logo, those are all 90s things. So it's getting a little muddled here.

[Justin Davis]

Mm.

[Mark Medina]

Sure.

[Sam Claiborne]

Pet Shop Boys track was from the late 80s. And honestly, let's. Let's get this out of the way, too. CDs. They were in the 80s. Nobody had them. The richest people on Earth had CDs in the 80s. No, they had the ones that showed in there.

[Mark Medina]

When did you plan? My dad got one very early 80s, and then I got one probably closer to closer to 1990.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I think the Sega CD was my first one.

[Mark Medina]

Mm. Let's move on to the Witcher 4.

[Justin Davis]

Hell, yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, you know, I've talked before on, like, mood piece trailers and cinematic trailers. Like, there's only so much that I can get excited for them. It's like, I just want to see the video game. But, like, you know, as far as mood piece, cinematic trailers goes, like, man, what a banger.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah, A very entertaining, very entertaining trailer. Didn't provide much information out, you know, because we fully expected it to star Siri.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

We like people. Like, I. Like I did, but, like, I feel like I've seen a lot of people online.

[Justin Davis]

Apparently that was a big surprise to people.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Nobody should have been. If you've been paying attention, no one should have been surprised by that.

[Damon Hadfield]

It is a little bit. It's a little bit like that might be coming from some fake fans, I think. I hate to say it because it's like, did you play the games? This is, you know. Do you know anything about the books?

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, ending of 3 just completely points you in this direction, right?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

And the books only do. I mean, the books. The Witcher is basically the title of the book. The Witcher could mean Ciri easily in the books.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, that was my biggest thing. It's like the game series, the books. It's called the Witcher, not the Geralt. Like, I don't get where people think that it just has to be Geralt every time.

[Damon Hadfield]

And I don't like. Yeah, he's a great character. I think they've already confirmed he's still actually gonna have a partner to play in this story, you know, and like, you know, he got us three games and his story is kind of over now. Right. And like, Siri's story is not like, you know, got a lot of interesting kind of stuff to work through. I think so, yeah. And I mean, even the gameplay implications that are shown off in this trailer, kind of her mix of, like, magic powers and going through the. See, now I'm the one that's going to sound like a fake fan. The Witcher trial stuff, whatever it is.

[Sam Claiborne]

But like, trial of the graphics.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, like, I feel like this is one of those things that's going to be dissected over the next week or two as people sort of uncover a little bit more about the hints of where it's taking the storyline and her powers.

[Sam Claiborne]

And it's a great. I mean, it's already showing you that, like, my favorite part of the Witcher games, you can just go to a place and solve the monster problem. Right. Like, that's. That's what it's showing here. You know, a lot of Witcher storytelling gets away from that. Not necessarily games as much as books, but that's. That's like the core of it, it's just like fun for video games. So it works here. And then there's like always a moral problem. And this one, it's like they're doing human sacrifice because they think that's going to solve the problem. And then the stupid people of the village are the real monsters. Like, it's all a little on the nose, but it's also like perfect for telling a cool action RPG story with Ciri at the center of it. It's great. She's kind of an iconoclastic witcher. Right. She's like breaking the mold in a lot of different ways.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

And so it's important for her to question. Usually the witchers are like, give me money and I'll do whatever you want. I'll take care of this monster. Like that they're transactional. That's a fun, interesting thing about them. But she clearly is doing like a little bit more wrestling with like, look, I'm really powerful and I can solve these problems, but like, there's a bigger problem in the world. Like, that's so cool. It's great.

[Justin Davis]

I hate to say it though, but this, this might be a PS6 game. Like, I don't, I don't know.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't know, seven or eight, maybe.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Well, it's like they've been working on Polaris for a while. We knew that. But they've also still been working on Cyberpunk very heavily, I will say. Like when Cyberpunk was unveiled in 2013, like it was like a very nothing trailer. Right. It was just like a girl. And they were like, this game's coming when it's ready. This seems a lot more like they, they know where they're going. I know it's just a CG trailer, but it's like, it seems like they know where they're going a little bit more. But it's still, you have to assume that. I think they said full development on Polaris, which is, which we now know is Witcher 4 just recently was like maybe a year ago. So like, I think they've kind of been working on it since 2020, but I have to assume that this is, you know, 28, 20, maybe 27, but it's going to be a while.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean, you reminded me that in that CD Projekt pipeline, they're also just very upfront about like they are doing a full on remake of the Witcher one. And not like, not a remaster or whatever, but a remake in the way that the Resident Evil games get Remade. Right. Like it's going to feel new. And so I do. Like, look, if you love Geralt and you're bummed that you're not going to play as him anymore, you still definitely have something to look forward to. Right? Because the Witcher 1 remake, like I've played the Witcher 1 and that's a game that's very much in need of a remake now. So I think that it's a really perfect candidate for it.

[Mark Medina]

There's also a multiplayer witch or something that they're working on. And then the other thing is Cyberpunk 2.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think this Elder Scrolls and GTA are the three biggest games of the next, you know, 10 years. Like it's just there couldn't be bigger things that have not been, that have been announced here. Nintendo won't tell us anything, so you can't, can't include those anymore.

[Mark Medina]

And I mean the only thing Nintendo have that would be this, on this level is like Mario Kart 9, you know.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah. Well, in terms of sales, but in terms of like cultural impact and like hype, you know, like there'll be another Mario, there'll be another Zelda, but you know, Witcher's. Yeah, I think you're right, Sam. I think Witch has definitely pumped itself up into that upper, upper echelon.

[Justin Davis]

I think what's tough, especially with how long dev cycles are now. This isn't to be cynical about development. I know they work very hard. But it's like what Sam just said. It's like we Witcher, Elder Scrolls and. Sorry, what was the third one you said? GTA and gta. Right. And so that means if you are a Red Dead, Fallout or Cyberpunk fan, you got to wait ahead of you because like these all have to be done before the next thing is, is starts being worked on.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, it's rough.

[Damon Hadfield]

Did you hear the thing here? See the thing about the CD Projekt developers that were at the game awards?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

No, I didn't.

[Damon Hadfield]

They were wearing, they were wearing jackets, like the, you know, track jackets, similar ish to the Cyberpunk ones. And then when this trailer aired, they all took off their jackets and turns out they were reversible. And then on the back of the jackets was like the Witcher 4 logo.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. There's videos of it online. It's really cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

And it wasn't like. It wasn't like an on stage stunt. They were just doing it from their seats in the.

[Sam Claiborne]

Not their first reversible Cyberpunk jacket either. They gave Those out at E3 many years ago. Yeah, we're going to get to the point very soon, and I'm just joking about the very soon part, but at some point, we're going to be like, am I going to be alive when this game comes out? When we're like 90 and games take 10 years to make, that's what you.

[Damon Hadfield]

We are. None of us are going to be alive to see the final Star wars movie or Marvel movie, the final Final.

[Mark Medina]

Fantasy or Half Life 3, which for some reason people had actually worked themselves up to believe would be announced.

[Justin Davis]

Last night I watched the documentary.

[Sam Claiborne]

It was great. And I was worked up about it after that. That's why that doc was awesome.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I still need to watch that. The other hint that Witcher 4 is very, very far away is at the bottom. It says that this is captured on an unannounced Nvidia GeForce graphics cards.

[Justin Davis]

The 7090.

[Damon Hadfield]

But that doesn't mean that just like, look like CES is like, Nvidia is doing a big hullabaloo there next month. So, you know.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, well, technically, even the 5090 is not announced yet, but it will be in like a month, so.

[Damon Hadfield]

Funny.

[Sam Claiborne]

4090S ain't cheap either. They're still extremely expensive.

[Justin Davis]

Did you see that? The new. I'm sure no one. The new graphics, the 5090, like, it has its own plug. Like you plug your computer in and.

[Mark Medina]

Separate to your computer.

[Justin Davis]

Right. So it's like it. You. You plug your power, you know, brick in, but then you plug one into the graphics card itself. It's nuts.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, cool.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Not cool.

[Mark Medina]

Last little observation. I was a little surprised that they ended up calling it the Witcher 4.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Just because it was codenamed Polaris. And then we knew it was, you know, we knew it was coming, but we knew that Geralt's story was over and was going to focus on new protagonist. So I just thought maybe they'd call it, you know, the Witcher Colon Series. Big day out or something like that.

[Justin Davis]

It felt like. It felt like time to drop the numbers. And they're like, no, Witcher 4 working. We're moving on.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wouldn't have been awkward if it was Witcher Heretic Prophet.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, they're like, oh, man. I mean, it's one of those things where, like, you know, narratively and like, some of the people, like, even though I was teasing a little bit about people upset about it not being Geralt, like, you know, that's part of where that comes from is like, this is Witcher 4 and that's his franchise. Right. Like, so I do understand that perspective, but, like, it's one of those things where, like, they know, like, they have marketing people and, like, you know, we will sell a million more copies if we call it Witcher 4 than if we call it Witcher colon, subtitle.

[Justin Davis]

Right.

[Damon Hadfield]

Like, they just. They know that so.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Because people will go, well, I'll play series Big Adventure, but I can't wait for Witcher 4.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep. So there's a statement, you know, sort of implied in there as well.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. They don't do that with Zelda, though. They start it, but ever since Zelda 2, no more numbers. Here's the footage of the CD project.

[Justin Davis]

There it is. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

They just had to. They'd be like, dude, it's Zelda 2 the Adventures of Link. Okay. Get it, get it. Jesus. Stop calling him Zelda.

[Justin Davis]

Look at him go. That's great. I love that.

[Mark Medina]

Okay, moving on. So many more announcements from yesterday. Yesterday we got a game announced that I never expected to hear. Do you know which one I'm referring to?

[Sam Claiborne]

Either on Ninja Gaiden or Ninja Gaiden.

[Mark Medina]

No, it was Okami 2.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's a good one too.

[Mark Medina]

Which is like, okay, cool. Yeah, bring okay back. But, man, like, I just. Who out there was sitting, waiting for Okami too?

[Justin Davis]

Dude, I love Okami. I wrote New Dev Studio.

[Damon Hadfield]

Right.

[Justin Davis]

We had Okami, Turok, Virtua Fighter, Onimusha, and the new Ueda game where it's like, you think. I mean, that's not technically a franchise, but it's like all these, like, dead franchises. They're like, we're back. We're making a sequel, and Kami is making Okami too.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

So there was Clover Studio that made Okami, and then a lot of that talent went over to platinum, and some of them dispersed to the wind. And now this game is being made by Clover's studio. And I'm like, are you allowed to do that? Can you just. So. No, but I think it's rad. It's one of those. I mean, Damon, you put it the exact right way of, like, you know, if you were to rank the top 500 games that, like, here's a better way to put it. What's most deserving of a sequel but least likely to get a sequel? It's like, this one's way up there. Right? So, no, it really made me happy in my heart to see that this is coming.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hell, yeah. Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

It's just.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's kind of like how they establish like a little bit of a different graphic style right from the get go. It's like supposed to be painterly still, but like so much more detailed. And it has a little bit of that cool chop to it and it just looks fantastic. I like contrast that with like Borderlands 4, which, like, whatever. It looks like more Borderlands. It's great if everybody's excited. But it looks like Borderlands 3 and 2 and 1.

[Damon Hadfield]

Right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Because that's the risk with this type of art style is like, oh, is it going to look the same? Like, is going to look retro and cool, or is it going to look like the same and old? And this just looks different and cool. I love it.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

My wife, we were sitting on the couch watching it together and she like interrupted herself during the Borderlands 4 trailer. We get like halfway through and she's like, this has like a very Borderlands art style. Oh, my God. I'm an idiot. Yeah, I was like, it sure does.

[Mark Medina]

Well, we can talk about Borderlands in a second, but since we still got this Okami B roll up, let's dig into this a little bit more. Mark, have you played Okami?

[Justin Davis]

No, I haven't.

[Mark Medina]

Well, it's great. First of all.

[Justin Davis]

Okay.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's on sale for $5 right now.

[Mark Medina]

And there's a bundle. You can get Okami and their. Their. Their like, tactics game from last year. Or maybe it was this year. It has a Japanese name, Kunitsugami. Yep, that one. You get a bundle of that one in Okami.

[Justin Davis]

I played that one.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, it's like it's a Zelda, like where you play as a wolf.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's a very skyward Zelda. Like, like there's like an era of Zelda that it's like. And it was really like Twilight Princess, which was the same year. And the Game of the Year discussion that year was between Okami and Twilight Princess.

[Mark Medina]

Except Okami was out months earlier, before.

[Sam Claiborne]

Twilight Princess, and it won IGN's game of the year. It was a PS2 game. Yes.

[Mark Medina]

So a cult classic beloved by many. But I don't think it was a huge hit. So that's why it's surprising. And that's why we would say we weren't really expecting to get a sequel. It poses a challenge to Capcom. They have to hope that there's enough fans out there that will buy Okami 2 and that they will do some of the heavy lifting for Capcom and sort of evangelizing it and spreading the word and getting people who haven't played the original. Excited for it.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep.

[Mark Medina]

It's kind of a Beyond Good and Evil two problem. Right.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, we see both happen, right? Like sometimes games are gone for decades and they come back and then like they get this second chance to sort of be the commercial darling or sometimes something didn't sell and everybody loved it, and then they make a sequel 20 years later, and then that also doesn't sell and then it's like, oh, like so, you know, I'm curious to see which it is that might happen with.

[Justin Davis]

Beyond Good and Evil too. Sorry.

[Damon Hadfield]

This also poses a challenge for Capcom to make a box art that does not have an IGN watermark in it.

[Mark Medina]

That's true. That's a real thing that happened on planet Earth and I love it. It's one of my favorite IGN fun facts. Yes, Mark. When they ported Okami to the Wii, the box art had a faded IGN watermark on it because they'd grabbed assets from our site.

[Justin Davis]

So they just grabbed a screenshot and they're like, send it to the pr.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep, it's great.

[Justin Davis]

That's awesome.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep. Rare version of the game too. They've reissued it without that.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Speaking of Borderlands 4, I totally agree. It looks like more Borderlands, which could be a good thing for fans, you know, a Borderlands. So I loved Borderlands 2. I got bored pretty quickly with Borderlands 3. However, it's the best selling game in the series. So, you know, I don't.

[Justin Davis]

It.

[Mark Medina]

It was very successful. Mark, where do you come down? Are you like, you excited for more Borderlines or.

[Justin Davis]

I do. I. I love two and I, I think, I mean, I love three. I. I have really good memories of it. Me and my wife played the entire thing, start to finish co op. Like we, we would. We didn't play without each other and so I'm just excited to do that again. I. I find the game super fun. I remember making like a really. I. I was like farming forever to get like a really good movie. And I remember thinking like, man, I haven't done something like this in a while where I'm just killing a boss over and over and over. But then they. And I hate this because they're doing it with path of exile 2 right now as well. They just went through and nerfed all the builds. And I never played Borderlands 3 again after that because I had worked so hard to get like, why are you doing that for a single player game? But other than that, I loved Borderlands 3 and, and the Moxie DLC specifically. And I am very excited for Borderlands 4. Yes.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean, they showed off some really cool looking. Like everyone talks about Borderlands. They talk about the art and the irreverence and the writing and Handsome Jack. But like, you know, kind of lost in that is like, you know, the shooting and gunplay and some of the first person, you know, gunplay combat in that game is. I mean, I won't describe it as like best of breed. Like there's games that do do it better, but it's still like pretty top tier. And like the first half of this trailer, I was like, man. But then it's like, well, they started showing off some cooler stuff in the actual gameplay where like I just, I don't want it to be overshadowed that like, you know, co op, FPS campaign, open world. Like this is one of the better games to do it for sure. And like it feels like that part of the game is on point.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. I mean it's like a single player hero shooter, right. You play Overwatch and all these games and you think like, I want to be able to go through a game with this character. And like that's what this is, right, is you feel compelled to play it more than once because you can make different builds and the four characters all play like pretty differently other than just the, you know, shooting. And so yeah, no, I, I am pretty excited for this game also 2025. So yeah, bring it on.

[Sam Claiborne]

That they lost me on with this was emphasizing the looter part of the shooter. And I didn't, I didn't like it when it became like there's actually a billion combinations of weapons. Like, I just don't think that's that very cool. I like having legendary weapons with names and like a little bit of unlocking story to them. And then it's like I took. That was a pain in the butt for me to get and it's just interesting and cool and it was designed by somebody not dice rolled. Like I like that stuff and like I like that in Fallout how there's, you know, the, the legendary weapons that you find and most the weapons are generic and they get more powerful. But getting legendary is like a little bit better. Like they have all that this, but it's like it's a dice roll weapon. I don't know, I just, I never. It's just not for me. Like I understand why people like it. I also understand that it has like pretty, you know, gambling qualities, which I'm not super a huge fan of either. So. Yeah, that's Just what the series is now though.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, well, I purple good. I like the different kinds of guns they come up with. Like in Borderlands 3 they came up with a gun where it's like you shoot the enemy and they just don't take any damage until you reload and then you get to see the like and it's like, it's so satisfying. So I'm interested to see the different things they come up with this time around.

[Mark Medina]

And to be fair, just thinking about Borderlands 2, which I haven't played in forever, I'm thinking maybe it's time to play Borderlands 2 again. And the nice thing about the art style that bring it back around again is that Borderlands 2 doesn't look bad.

[Justin Davis]

Today.

[Mark Medina]

Because it's got the art style that just always kind of looks the same.

[Justin Davis]

Well, any of those games because one and two they. Well two they're in the handsome collection. One got like a remaster. They all look great.

[Mark Medina]

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[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, I was actually very skeptical about Mint, I have to be honest.

[Mark Medina]

But I have been using it for.

[Damon Hadfield]

Actually forgotten how many months now.

[Sam Claiborne]

But whatever. I am a True Believer.

[Damon Hadfield]

Now, initially I was skeptical because as you know, I live in the middle of nowhere and basically America's hinterlands. I'm actually closer to parts of Canada than I am to most of the rest of the United States. So naturally I just figured that with all the moose and bears and whatnot, a service like Mint was pretty much not going to serve my specific mountain man needs. However, I'm here to say I was.

[Mark Medina]

Pleasantly surprised because it works everywhere my.

[Damon Hadfield]

Old provider works, except for it doesn't have me locked into a contract, which is pretty nice. And it's so much cheaper, which I like. On top of that, Ryan Reynolds actually sent a Christmas card to my house.

[Sam Claiborne]

It was a bulk.

[Damon Hadfield]

It was a bulk mailer, but I'm pretty sure all Mint subscribers got one.

[Sam Claiborne]

But honestly, it's the thought that counts. So thank you, Mr. Mr. Ryan Reynolds.

[Damon Hadfield]

So, yeah, I can say authoritatively, Mint is pretty rad.

[Mark Medina]

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[Sam Claiborne]

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[Mark Medina]

Okay, Sam had mentioned Ninja Gaiden. Yeah, a new Ninja Gaiden game in the classic 2D style. Ninja Gaiden Ragebound. And the cool thing is it's from the team behind Blasphemous, which already has great pixel art. So yeah, they're trying to, they're trying to, quote, push the boundaries of modern pixel art, making every battle a feast for the eyes. And from what we've seen so far, I know this opens up with an animation, which is cool, but then when you actually get into gameplay, this is looking really good.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's the animation straight from the first game. Cutscenes?

[Mark Medina]

Well, yeah, an animated version of the 8 bit NES cutscene. Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

So I like how you can see a little bit of the platforming, which is like kill an enemy to get higher, like stuff like that. There's some cool pixel shreds and bloods and stuff like that.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

What's not to like?

[Mark Medina]

Did you catch it? We're not playing as Ryu. Yeah, we're playing as someone else from the village. Ryu has left. He went off to America. And now we are Kenji Mozu, a young ninja from the Hayabusa Village.

[Sam Claiborne]

Cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

It is. I mean, we've talked on Scoop before that there's a real theme that's developed over the last. I don't know how many years of developers are getting a lot smarter about matching their IP with smaller indie studios that can really do it justice. And like, you know, these matches made in heaven that used to be, you know, they're just becoming more and more common and like that blasphemous team making a Ninja Gaiden game, you know, doing, you know, hand animated 2D pixel art. Like, it's perfect, perfect fit. It's one of those things where like, I didn't know that I wanted. And then I saw it and I'm like, of course, of course. This is the exact right project.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. I saw some people disappointed that it's not a 3D Ninja Gaiden game because those, yeah, sure, those are the series that they just happen to grow up with, you know, So I think a younger gamer maybe would have. Would have grown up with those, whereas we grow up with the eight bit games.

[Sam Claiborne]

But this doesn't even look like the eight bit games. I mean, the eight bit games are really difficult left to right platformers that barely. You have to memorize everything. Like, it's so difficult. This is, this is a much more like, you know, it just looks like a modernized fun shovel 90 type game.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Yeah, it's good. Is this a game Mark will play?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, no, totally. I, like, I played Prince of Persia. I didn't play like a ton of it, but I thought it was fun. And like, that's kind of the vibes this gives me is the whole like, yeah, we did a bunch of 3D stuff and now we're going to make a 2D game and. Exactly what Sam said. Like, it's not, it's not like the NES games, but it's 2D games. You feel like they have to be, I don't want to say easier to make as in like than 3D games, but like, you have to assume that they can. It's a bit more manageable. And so, I mean, also the game looks awesome. Like, look at it.

[Damon Hadfield]

It looks so cool.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, that was a really nice surprise. I'm excited for that one. And then what about Split Fiction?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

From Hazel Studios? Yeah, I actually never played It Takes Two. Even though it's supposed to be wonderful.

[Justin Davis]

It's great. It's. I thought the story was a little meh, but like, the gameplay is fun. And so this switching between the, like, one of them's like a sci fi person. The other one's a fantasy person. So you're going to kind of constantly switch between the two. I have no doubt that this, that's what Hazel does. The brand new gameplay, every level is what he said. And that's how It Takes Two was, was. It was just like it's always different and it never gets stale and, and that's what I expect from this one as well. Just grab a friend also like it's, it's like how player friendly they are to be. Like if I buy the game I can just invite anyone to play it and they can just play it for free. That's so cool. Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

With the friends.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes. Yeah, I think this looks great. Like I, I kind of like, I can't sanction Joseph Ferris antics that he gets up to.

[Mark Medina]

What, is it too much for you or what?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, I mean I'm mostly joking but like it does legitimately kind of like turn me off the games a little bit. No, I never played It Takes Two either. Even though it's very much a Justin game because who I would play it with is my daughter.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

And like the meta storyline of like this couple that's like not getting along and fighting. I'm just like, it does not strike me as like, you know, a parent child kind of game. Even though the gameplay would have been fun. And so this one is, I mean we'll see what the ESIB rating is. I'm sure it's not rated M but like, you know, like this one is like it feels like a lot more kind of slightly lighter, family friendly affair and you know, Hazelight, you know, their gameplay chops are kind of unimpeachable. They're among the best that are doing it right now. So you know. Yeah, like I'm instantly much more interested in this than I was in It Takes Two.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, It Takes Two had a really unappealing graphical style and I really couldn't stand it. I played a lot of it, but I didn't, it didn't leave me wanting more. And so I mean I just don't. This is just not for me. And like I, you know, I respect. There needs to be cool couch and online co op games out there for people to play. So go for it.

[Damon Hadfield]

People that like this stuff, the asymmetrical co op is just always such a cool idea. Like again, It Takes Two. Maybe I should talk my wife into playing it or something just because like it's just so clever. All because I've watched a lot of it on YouTube through the years of like, one player is doing a 2D segment and another player is doing a 3D segment and one player shooting a gun and another person's platforming. Like, that's just so cool.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, that sounds.

[Sam Claiborne]

It sounds great. But, like, I didn't think it was as clever as your description just was. It's more like Mario party games where you're like, well, we're both doing two different things. They hot dogs and the hot dog got fried.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, but. But like, yeah, I will say to Justin's point, like, there does, like, I'm the bigger gamer out of, like, me and my wife. Right. And so it's like, it does kind of be this thing. Like, we played Space Marine 2 together, right. And like, it's me doing the objectives. She's just shooting zombie or. Yeah, aliens. Right. It's. It's like that. I. I like this style of game because it does kind of force both people to kind of, like, participate other than just like, we're just getting through this together. But, like, you're my bodyguard and I'll do all the things. Like, I'm playing a lot of zombies right now, and I'm playing so much that when I play with my friends, I'm just like, just keep them off of me. I gotta go run around and do everything. Like, there's not very. It only takes one person to make it. It only takes one person to do all that stuff. And so I bet this game will.

[Sam Claiborne]

Be fun than that. Yeah. Yeah. I also think this premise is really stupid. It's like two writers get sucked into a simulation that's just. Come on.

[Damon Hadfield]

It does feel very hokey, but for some reason.

[Sam Claiborne]

Don't do this.

[Damon Hadfield]

It goes over with me. I don't know. Sometimes something can be hokey and cheesy and it either goes over or it doesn't. And this one does, but it's completely arbitrary. While I feel it does, I think just because it looks fun.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it does.

[Mark Medina]

All right. Split fiction is out March 6th. I'll have to wait too long for that. We're kind of running long on time. Any other games that people want to shout out? Anyone want to talk about the untitled game from Eco and Shadow of the Colossus creator?

[Justin Davis]

I have a list real quick of my biggest surprises and I'll just really quick. Mark's biggest surprises out of Worlds two day and date on PS5 after previously saying it was an Xbox only game. Whole slate. No red line. Intergalactic, obviously. That was a big one. No death stranding given Kojima's presence, not even a mention that. Not that I could worries me that.

[Sam Claiborne]

It might not be out next year. And I really want to play that game.

[Justin Davis]

I want to play it so bad. And then top three game for me, I love it. I think it is a perfect video game. But man, I did not expect Astrobot to win their game of the year.

[Mark Medina]

I was very surprised. I was super surprised. I was pleasantly surprised.

[Sam Claiborne]

People were voting.

[Justin Davis]

I was like, hey, you know what? This game is great. Some would like. I would say it's almost perfect. I played the Christmas level last night that came out during the game awards and it's fantastic. It's another like fan servicey, like, let's just celebrate everything. But like, I love this game. Did not expect for it to win game of the year at all. So I was very shocked.

[Mark Medina]

I thought for sure Elden Ring Shadow of their Tree would win. Even though there's all this talk about how I think most people did not think it should be nominated, but since it's there, I thought it would win.

[Justin Davis]

Got nominated, didn't even win.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. All right.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, there's an interesting kind of like meta, Meta analysis aspect of like, you know, because people vote on the game of the year and it's like, well, so, you know, that's why I kind of half expected Balatro to win because I kind of thought Elden Ring and you know, the other kind of more traditional video games would split votes.

[Mark Medina]

Right.

[Damon Hadfield]

And then people could coalesce around a single winner. So no. Excellent to see Astrobot get it. You know, there, it's. It's hard to make Nintendo caliber platformers and almost no one on earth does it except Nintendo. And now we have Team Asobi up there too.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Sam, anything you want to shout out?

[Sam Claiborne]

Are we talking about what we're playing?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, go for it. If we're done talking about announcements from yesterday.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, well, the last game awards thing I want to shout out is the soccer game from the seafood developer.

[Mark Medina]

Rematch.

[Justin Davis]

My face. My face was like. It was like, from the developers of Sifu. And I was like, okay. And then it was like soccer. And I was like. And then I watched the trailer and I'm like, wait, hold on. I might be in.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, you're like, it's so over. Wait, we're so back. No, it looks really cool. Like, and it's one of those things where like every. Not every, almost every other sports game is, you know, from the perspective of the team. And it's like, what about a sports game where you are a player on that team. Right. And it just instantly, like, you know, reconceptualizes what it might look like or feel like to play that game. And you can just tell, obviously from the SIFU team, they're putting so much thought into the movement and ball handling that, like, you know, like, I have some concerns about this game's kind of commercial appeal, but I don't know, you know, it's like there's like no bigger.

[Mark Medina]

Sport than football, Right, So.

[Justin Davis]

That's true.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. But it's. This is very Rocket League, right? So it's like a Rocket League. It's just such a weird full circle. Like, Rocket League is soccer with cars. And now this is. This is like Rocket League, but without. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. I'm into it.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. No, I thought it looks great.

[Mark Medina]

Okay. Sam, what do you want to share that you're playing?

[Sam Claiborne]

Y'all playing Indiana Jones?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Still love it. I'm in Egypt now.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay. So I'm in Egypt as well. I never want to leave. I think Egypt might be one of the best levels ever made in any video game ever. It is unbelievable. You get there, you know, you established how the game works and, like how things work. Rome's or not Rome, I guess Vatican City is a little bit confusing and vertical and, you know, I kind of was like, well, I'm not gonna. Sure. I don't really care about 100% in this. Egypt is like this really amazing layout of this architectural site around real places and has all the Nazi infiltration and camps and trucks and you can do Metal Gear type stuff there. You can do tomb raiding. You can do all this stuff in this open world. And it looks unbelievable. Everything just looks so good. And everything I want to do there is fun and everything's different. I'm just in awe. I have. It's so cool. It's like Astrobot. When you went from level to level, you're like, oh, this really shakes things up. Like this level shook things up that much. And then it just like showed me like. I don't know if this game was just this. It just. It's just mind blowing. It's so much more than just this level. But I don't know. That's a weird way to frame how I like this game. But like, you got to get to this part of it and try it out. It's really, really cool.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. I'm still loving it. And that was actually a really cool moment last night to have Harrison Ford on stage with Troy Baker.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

To acknowledge Troy Baker's work, which is still. I'm still just stunned at how good it is and how much it sounds like Harrison Ford. So much so that now I demand a Han Solo video game.

[Damon Hadfield]

Whoa.

[Mark Medina]

I demand it.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, okay.

[Justin Davis]

I also love that Harrison Ford did not want to read the teleprompter. He was just like, no, no, get. Nope. It's a very Harrison Ford moment.

[Damon Hadfield]

I wonder. I don't think this is true. I think there's a 10% chance that Harrison Ford is not aware there's an Indiana Jones video game and doesn't know who Troy Baker is. So they, they sent him out there as a sign of like, look, there's no bad blood that like he's doing this sound alike.

[Sam Claiborne]

But it's like he's so convergent with his shrinking character that I'm not sure if they based the character on him or if he's just, you know, method acting that character for the rest of his life at this point.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah, we. I. Indiana Jones is, you know, the mark. I have about an hour after my kids leave to go to school before I need to start work. And if it's a busy time of year or whatever, I just start work early or whatever.

[Justin Davis]

Right.

[Damon Hadfield]

But like, you know, I have a little bit of free time in the morning. And the mark that I know that a game is a great video game where like, I say bye to the kids and they go to school and I'm like, oh my God, I got it. I got to go. So it's like I'm trying to like, get as much Indiana Jones time in as I can. And then it's incredibly hard to pry myself away and actually sit down and start working. It's. It's. I like, I. It's absolutely my game of the year. Just to be explicit. Like, it have to. Have to really fall apart in like the final act to kind of. To kind of change my mind on that. Then even for me, even the ways in which the game is not that good almost increase my enjoyment of it more. Like the hand to hand combat can be like a little bit jank sometimes, but it just, it feels like endearing in this instance or it does the video game stealth thing of like a character is just staring at a corner. I'm like, why are they doing that? But it's like I don't care. Like, you know, it's such a. It's such an Indiana Jones power fantasy that I'm like willing to kind of overlook that stuff just because I'm having such a It's just a good time.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it's a good time. That's exactly it.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Have you. What did you guys think of the intro?

[Damon Hadfield]

Loved it.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wasn't that cool? Wasn't that cool?

[Mark Medina]

Just, in fact.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, we're gonna see some other angles of this thing you've seen a million times. Just teach you what this game is and what is Indiana Jones about it. And then it breaks away from that.

[Damon Hadfield]

I love it. And there's something about like, this isn't the best looking video game ever from a technical standpoint, but like, but there's like, I'm just staring at textures all the time. Like it's taking me forever to get through everything.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. There's also some great lighting effects, like in the crypts, because it uses ray tracing throughout the whole game. And it looks really nice.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, the pyramids and the Sphinx are like incredible and they're infested with Nazis. It's so crazy. And I just like, just stare at these, like, you know, scenes that look out of a Spielberg movie, you know, and it's my framing. Like, they didn't set up a cutscene there. I'm like walking around just doing stuff in the desert and all of a sudden I just look over, I'm like, oh, my God, this team, this vaults them. We just were saying this about another team, but this team knows how to make video games. And I'm really excited for the future of games. Having machine doing stuff, it's impressive.

[Damon Hadfield]

I've played maybe I don't know how many hours of it. Twelve probably. And I kind of forgot for many, many hours that I had a gun. And like, I got interested.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't know how.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, like, it's. It's what? Right on your deep.

[Justin Davis]

It's when you're. You have to be in Indy's outfit.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. And I was.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Damon Hadfield]

I was in like a sticky situation of like. And I thought, I'm like, okay, I'll just let these guys, you know, beat me up and then I'll reload my save because I accidentally alerted like five guns and then, no, I just pulled out my revolver and murked them all. And like, it was great. And like another way in which the game is a little bit janky, but I think it works is that like the reactivity, like, you know, you can. You can throw a, you know, a shovel at a guard's face and like hit him in the face with it and he really only looks for you for like 10 seconds and he's like, oh, okay.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, here's my.

[Damon Hadfield]

And, like, go ahead. Yeah, no, like, that's basically it. Or like, the. The lot. The cone of vision that the guards have is, like, hilariously bad. And, like, you're in a dark crypt.

[Justin Davis]

With a torch, and they're just, like. They just don't sue you.

[Damon Hadfield]

And, like, it's. You. You could. If it were a worse game or if it. If it wasn't going over with me so well, like, I'd probably make fun of that stuff. It reduce my enjoyment, but for whatever reason, it just makes me like it.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

So last night I went full gta and I just started taking some of the guns from the Nazis in the desert in this area, actually, and started to, like, the. One of the guns, like a rifle that you can kind of snipe with. And I was, like, taking out barrels and blowing up stuff and just seeing what kind of attention I could attract. And, like, it didn't go the GTA route where it got overwhelming. Eventually, I basically cleared out the camp, and then I was like, well, now that I'm here. And then I stayed up, like, two hours later because I just. I just went in, got all the mystery notes and everything out of the camp, and I, like. I was like, well, I'm not gonna waste this opportunity. It's completely quiet and empty now. And it was like, I. I ended up, like, just. I was, like, clowning around, and then I was like, hmm, this worked out for me. And then I just had to double down on my investment. It was awesome. Such good gameplay.

[Damon Hadfield]

This game signals as a stealth gamer. Like, you failed if you alert the guards, but it's not that at all. You're absolutely empowered and can win and can overpower them.

[Mark Medina]

I'm going to request some live game help. In Egypt, I got a worker's outfit that I think is supposed to be a disguise. Will Indy put that on automatically in the right situation? Because I couldn't figure out a way to, like, equip right.

[Sam Claiborne]

And then you press up or down, and then there's, like. You can go switch between your outfits at any time. And they hint pretty early in that level that there's. Well, another level. There's a brown shirt outfit.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, there's a. There's a Nazi.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think there's a Nazi one. Because that's.

[Damon Hadfield]

Because there's. And that was a second boxing ring.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's. That's how. You know, that's how I'll do it.

[Mark Medina]

Because I keep getting noticed constantly in Egypt.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. And it'll and now that you have that, that's really helpful. It'll be great. But it's, you know, you can still get noticed by high level guards, right? That's. That's easier to tell in the Nazi area because they have red on them and they have like, they're just easier to tell what they are. Have you had to deal with the dogs yet? There's kind of a mean thing where you can.

[Mark Medina]

If they bite, your whip will scare them away.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, but you can scare them away. And then I found like wild dogs in the desert and you just go, crack, crack, crack, crack, crack. And he's like, I could do this all day.

[Justin Davis]

The dogs just.

[Sam Claiborne]

All the dogs all lie down.

[Mark Medina]

It's really funny.

[Sam Claiborne]

That was just like a, you know, that's not a scripted moment. That's just a thing that happened, you know?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Indiana Jones in the great circle. Very good video game.

[Justin Davis]

Can I talk about the game I've been playing?

[Mark Medina]

Yes, please.

[Justin Davis]

I have played 25, maybe 30 hours of infinity, Nikki.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. It's so good.

[Damon Hadfield]

I'm playing too.

[Mark Medina]

A lot of people are talking about this game. I've not played it, so lay it on. What is this game all about?

[Justin Davis]

It's hard to describe to three other dudes. It's about dresses.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, it's a dress up game.

[Justin Davis]

It's about dressing up your girl Nikki. You just. It's like an open world. If you played like Genshin Impact, you'll withering waves. It's a gotcha open world game where there is just like so many things to do. But in this game there is some combat. You like shoot a bubble and that's kind of all there is to it. For the most part. You're just collecting outfits and you know, so there's like socks, shoes, dresses, hair, earrings, all those.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, you're collecting types of currency too, right?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, that's the collection. Like all of that drives you to just getting more outfits.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's almost like a breath of the wild mix with Crackdown. Like you're trying to get these areas and just get as many of these like little doodads as possible.

[Justin Davis]

Well, and it's like there's so much like you'll walk into an area and it's like, like you'll open the map and it's like there's 84 wind stars here. And so then you're like, okay. And it becomes this like kind of Mario 64. Well, probably more closer to like Odyssey where it's like you're just performing these little tasks and you get a wind star. But it's like the, the cool. The, the. The. What you're doing is you're creating outfits that have stats and the stats are like sexy, popular, blah, whatever, all this different stuff. And then you'll battle somebody. And most of the time it's not a battle, it's just you just wearing it out. So basically what it is, it's a stylist battle. It's a stylist battle. And so you'll put on an outfit and then you're stuck in this. Like, you're like, do I want to look hideous and just put on everything for stats or do I want to try to match or whatever. And then after you get done, it does this like, cut scene where it judges how well you put together your outfit. That depends.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, it's great. Really.

[Justin Davis]

I like it.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean, until Indiana Jones came out, I was also playing Infinity Nikki every single day. I was playing it half almost as a cultural anthropologist of like, you know, what is it that mostly, mostly women, you know, see about this game? But I can't pretend that it was all like, just irony or like curiosity. Like, it's a legitimately great video game. You know, it's. It really showed me that like the primary verb in almost every single video game is combat and fighting. And like, you die. Like, even in like a rated E for everyone game. Even in a Mario game, like, Mario dies. Right. Like, you know, whereas Infinity Nikki, even though there is combat in the game, it's been really eye opening to me that like, no, like, the gameplay in this game is legitimately interesting. Like, you're solving little puzzles, little platforming challenges, you know, mysteries, you know, kind of like time to like collect these 10 things in 10 seconds. It's got basically an equivalent of like Zelda shrines. Like, you go inside little doors and solve puzzles that some of them are like, legitimately. Like, I have to think about this for a minute.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it's like get the ball from one area to another. And so you're distributing weights, you're changing ramps, you're doing all sorts of stuff to like, to then watch it and make it happen. It's. It's super fun.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's really great. It's really. It's got this sort of, you know, it's made in Unreal Engine 5 and it has that kind of Unreal Engine 5 kind of jank to the movement and platforming sometimes though, of like, it's a little bit like how you could jank Your way up a hill in Skyrim. Except here. That's like the entire game.

[Justin Davis]

Oh yeah. You can get on any house if you just like jump at it.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hey, it's a climb everything.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, it is. I mean, Mark, I don't know what you think about the storyline. I think it's kind of nonsense.

[Justin Davis]

Oh sure. 100%. Well, because it's like, yeah, you're not killing stuff, you're purifying them. And so then it. I actually don't even really know where it's going. It's like these dudes wished and then they. If you wish for a certain thing, you. They go unconscious. And so you're trying to figure out why that's happening. And the main story is, I guarantee.

[Sam Claiborne]

You that's what Metal Gear sounds like when you explain it to anybody else.

[Damon Hadfield]

You ride. You ride this really delightful bike around which we're seeing in the B roll.

[Justin Davis]

Now, and you can't fall off of it. So you could just. You could just go off a cliff. It's awesome.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

So there's three characters named boss, right? Here's the difference.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, and the important thing is that the game is free, right? So it has incredibly egregious monetization. Like this gotcha system. It's. It's really, really like transparent about trying to like, if you want to get all the outfits, like you are going to spend thousands of dollars in this game. But like, you don't need to. Like, I kept having to remind myself like, this is free. This is free. Like the gameplay is legitimate and the puzzles are legitimate and like it's really satisfying figuring out how to go around and discover all the whim stars in each area. Like, I absolutely think, even if you don't want to engage with the dress up aspects of it at all, like it's. If you like exploring game worlds and solving puzzles, like it's totally worthwhile without what kind of asterisks or caveats.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I. I had to talk my wife off a ledge because she. She's never played a gacha game like Genshin. I played like Zen LA0 getch and all that. And. And so she kind of was going at it with this, you know, get. I gotta get every outfit. And so she's already spent like 60 something, $70. And I was like, oh no, Mark.

[Damon Hadfield]

Mark, you gotta get. You gotta put a lid on.

[Justin Davis]

I was like. I was like, look, I was like, this isn't like stop spending money type of deal. It's. You have to understand what kind of game this is. You'll never get everything. You'll log in tomorrow and there will be hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars more to spend. And that is the goal here. They've already talked about collabs. They, you know, there's going to be Easter dresses. Like, it'll never stop. So you, you have to, like, you have to really want the thing you're buying because you can't.

[Mark Medina]

Well, now.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, this looks cool now, Mark.

[Mark Medina]

Now you know what to get her for Christmas, Nikki. Yeah, whatever the currency is in Infinity Nikki.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, dude, there's so many currencies.

[Justin Davis]

There's a lot. There's a lot. When I first started playing, I was like, I will never learn what all of this is. And then you do eventually get there.

[Sam Claiborne]

We made the currencies.

[Justin Davis]

Everything is used to buy something else. Right? Resonate wishes. Resonite crystals are roll on the event banners. Diamonds buy resonite crystals. You're like, okay, I'm getting there. I'm learning.

[Sam Claiborne]

Am I wrong about that, Mark? That we had to make a video just about currency?

[Justin Davis]

Oh, no, 100%.

[Damon Hadfield]

Because there's literally. I can. I think there's literally over 10 currencies in the game. Just different diamonds and crystals and threads and Billy and just bling. Bling. Yeah, yeah, there's bling.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot of stuff. But it's great. I think it's quite fun. And it's been fun on, like, Blue sky, just sharing outfits and people are sharing outfits back and all that stuff. It's a good time. It's a cozy open world game.

[Mark Medina]

All right, Infinity Nikki. I do have a meeting in 15 minutes. So that brings us to video game 20 questions. Our suggestion this week comes from. I apologize, it's. It's spelled kale. I don't know if it's pronounced like kale or something, but that's. That's the name. K A L E. And this individual says, I was watching game scoop number 771 recently and you spoke about games that fit the punk genre. Remember we were having this conversation earlier this year?

[Damon Hadfield]

Nope.

[Justin Davis]

I do.

[Mark Medina]

Kale said you spoke about punk. Pinball, Tony Hawk's Pro skater Skater, Die TMC Surf Designs, California Games, Star Trek 4, Crocodile Dundee, Double Dragon, Final Fight Warriors, Narc Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Sunset Overdrive, hi Fi Rush, Ghoul School, Cyberpunk 2077, Shadow Run, Toejam and Earl. A Night in the Woods, Brutal Legend, Bill and Ted Ant Gone Home. It's A very exhaustive recap of everything we discussed. He says. I can't believe Splatoon didn't come out. It's probably my favorite punk video game series ever. What do you think? Is Splatoon a Nintendo representative of video game punk? Having never played.

[Sam Claiborne]

I've never. I never played it.

[Mark Medina]

I was gonna say, having never played Splatoon, I couldn't. I couldn't say.

[Sam Claiborne]

I've only seen that there's, like, pop teen idol stars. Two teen idol stars. So, like, I don't know if they're like, pop punk teen idol stars. I didn't think they were there. I've heard the music from it.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's a little. I don't know Splatoon super well, but it kind of like, you know, graffiti, street art kind of vibes, but in a very, like, Nintendo. Yeah, they're not. It's like Nintendo's version of whatever that is.

[Sam Claiborne]

I'm fine with it, though. Everything is within the realm of punk rock. I love that. I love that. I'll look into it. Sounds fun.

[Mark Medina]

And for a suggestion this week, Kale says, so far, I recommended Zoop, Resident Evil, Umbrella Chronicles, and Pokemon Violet. For video game 20 Questions, Zoop, I would never pick. But the other two, I would pick. This time, I would like to recommend my favorite video game ever. Redacted.

[Justin Davis]

All right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Zoop was on nes, so I might have got to. I might have gotten that one.

[Mark Medina]

Are you sure it's not Super Nintendo or was it on both?

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe it was on both. I can picture the logo I got in my Mind palace right now.

[Mark Medina]

And with that, let the questioning begin.

[Damon Hadfield]

Favorite blank ever game ever?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is that what. Okay. Favorite, favorite terrible game ever?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, could be. No. Okay. Did this game come out in the 70s, 80s, or 90s?

[Mark Medina]

No.

[Justin Davis]

All right, 24 years ago.

[Sam Claiborne]

Does this come out on a compact disc?

[Damon Hadfield]

Medium.

[Mark Medina]

Do you want to rephrase your question?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Because it could mean Blu Rays. And Blu Rays are not a compact disc.

[Damon Hadfield]

They're compact discs.

[Justin Davis]

Are they? Okay, they're just not CDs. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did this come out on a disc that a laser reads?

[Mark Medina]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Wait, what is CD short for?

[Damon Hadfield]

Compact disc.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, my gosh.

[Damon Hadfield]

No, look, like a Blu ray is a lowercase cd. Compact disc.

[Justin Davis]

God.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's a small disc, but it's not a compact disc.

[Justin Davis]

Got it.

[Damon Hadfield]

You get it.

[Justin Davis]

Sorry, what was the last question?

[Sam Claiborne]

It's not a huge disc in hd.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's compact, huge disk. That's why Blu Rays. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

I didn't catch the last question.

[Damon Hadfield]

The Answer was yes. It came out on a disc.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Can you play this game on the PlayStation? On a PlayStation console?

[Mark Medina]

No.

[Justin Davis]

No. Oh, but that's every game. Let's see.

[Damon Hadfield]

Can you play this game on a Nintendo console?

[Mark Medina]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

All right, so compact disk, so no switch. So Wii u. Wii.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep.

[Justin Davis]

GameCube.

[Damon Hadfield]

GameCube. Could be a GameCube, and then it really is a compact disc.

[Justin Davis]

Compact compact disc.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, that's right.

[Justin Davis]

Ccd.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's a compact. Compact, squared. Did it come out on a tiny disk?

[Mark Medina]

Yes. That's five.

[Justin Davis]

GameCube.

[Damon Hadfield]

GameCube game. Was this game developed or published by Nintendo?

[Mark Medina]

Yes.

[Damon Hadfield]

Hey, does the star of this game.

[Justin Davis]

Like, would they appear on the Smash Roster?

[Mark Medina]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

I was just walking a gamecube around the house by the handle, and it blew my wife's mind. Oh, yeah, it's got a little handle.

[Mark Medina]

Did you add a handle to it?

[Sam Claiborne]

No, I didn't add a handle to it, no. All gamecubes have a handle.

[Mark Medina]

I know.

[Damon Hadfield]

Is this game in the. In the Mario or Zelda universe?

[Sam Claiborne]

Damon's doing a funny joke.

[Justin Davis]

What?

[Mark Medina]

Sorry, what was that again?

[Damon Hadfield]

Justin, Is this game in the Mario or Zelda universe?

[Mark Medina]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Wow. Okay.

[Damon Hadfield]

I asked that because I assumed it was going to be like, Pikmin or something like that.

[Justin Davis]

Got Captain Olimar, so Sunshine, Two Zeldas.

[Damon Hadfield]

Twilight Princess, Wind Waker, and Wind Waker.

[Sam Claiborne]

And Four Swords Adventures.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, and I did technically say universe, so it could be. I mean, I don't know, it could be Wario World or, you know, something.

[Sam Claiborne]

Have we named this game yet?

[Mark Medina]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, my gosh. Okay, so we need to narrow down either Mario or Zelda. Let's go. Is this a Mario game?

[Mark Medina]

No. And that's 10.

[Justin Davis]

All right, so it's either Wind Waker or. Well, a few.

[Damon Hadfield]

But does this game have a cute, cartoony art style?

[Mark Medina]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Wind Waker.

[Damon Hadfield]

Is it Wind Waker?

[Mark Medina]

Yes, it is. 12 questions.

[Damon Hadfield]

Whoa.

[Mark Medina]

Legends of the Wind Waker. Kale's favorite video game ever.

[Justin Davis]

Nice.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's a good one. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, look how good this looks. Look at the shadow. Why does the shadow look so good?

[Justin Davis]

Just like Borderlands.

[Mark Medina]

I mean, maybe this is the Wii U version, but still.

[Sam Claiborne]

Still, it is widescreen.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Gamers were so wrong.

[Sam Claiborne]

Gamers are so wrong.

[Justin Davis]

I always love this as they are.

[Mark Medina]

I loved it on GameCube.

[Sam Claiborne]

The streamlining of this on the Wii U was so smart. They did. I mean, the intro still takes a little while to get going, but, like, the fact that they put in a sailboat upgrade the speed sale so you're faster is so cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

What a game.

[Damon Hadfield]

What a what? I was just gonna say that. What a game. It is a little bit hard for me to go back to these 3D Zeldas after breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Especially, like, I keep thinking, like, oh, maybe I'd play Twilight Princess again. Then I remember that six hours of that game are scripted kind of shenanigans before the actual game starts.

[Justin Davis]

It's like every Zelda is open world until Breath of the Wild came out. And then you're like, oh, maybe they're kind of linear.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. This one has an interesting open world because it is really fun to go explore. But what you discover when you explore is that you can't get onto the island because you don't have a grappling hook yet. Or you can't get onto the island because it has. So it's like, it's. Yes, there's an open world, but so much of it is cut off from you. I just love that that's changed now. But it was the style at the time.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. I was thinking, in recent years, I've thought they should take the framework of this game, what this game is, and make a Moana game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, that'd be really cool.

[Mark Medina]

Just, it would be perfect for a Moana game. Sailing around from Island. Island.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's a new Moana movie out, which I probably wants in the theater. There's a new Lord of the Rings movie out, y'all.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. But apparently not great.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, that's what I heard.

[Sam Claiborne]

I'm okay with that.

[Mark Medina]

It's too bad. I was actually. I wanted both of those movies to be good. I haven't seen Moana 2. I'll watch Moana 2 on Disney Plus. Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Well, nicely job. Thank you for the suggestion, Kale. Or Kale. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address gamescoopin.com and that is all the scoops that we have for you this week. There are two more scoops coming for you this year, though. Next year is kind of a special episode where we're going to be unveiling our Game of the Year awards live on the show. Please be excited for that. I'll be joined by members of our other podcasts discussing and reacting to everything on the fly. So that's going to be good. And then the week after that, that we'll all celebrate the Damiens together. So. But apparently Mark won't be here for that because he's.

[Justin Davis]

Well, I did not know about the Damien's. I'll be here.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. You know, Mark, we're all working next week, buddy.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, now, Mark, I might. I might be done with work, but work is not done with me.

[Mark Medina]

So true. So true. All right, well, thank you, Sam. Thank you, Justin. Thank you, Mark. Thank you to Jobra and Marion and I think I heard Dave's voice back there. And everyone else working behind the scenes in our LA office to make this episode possible. My name is Damon, this is IJ in GameScope. And we're out. I said I would run away as far as I could go? Teach the dogs to pull a sleigh? Through the white and drifting snow? You brought home a magic box? In time for Christmas day? I chased stars and busted blocks? Till the feeling went away? Needles in the carpet? Ice behind your eyes? On my bus behavior? Till Santa Claus arrives in another castle? Trying to survive the storm that took us all in 1985? You walked out into the wind? To warm up grandma's car? But you never came back in Lost beyond the fog of war? Scrolls unfold in front of me? And I am in control? Wires from the old TV through my hands and to my soul? Needles in a vacuum? Ice behind your eyes? On my best behavior? Til Santa Claus arrives in another castle? Trying to survive the storm that took us all? In 1985? In a 1985? In 1985? In 1985, in 1980?

[Sam Claiborne]

Realms of peril and glory.

[Justin Davis]

From one shots to campaigns, indie games to established titles.

[Sam Claiborne]

Join Liz, Laura, Zach, James, Maddie, Naomi, and Pip.

[Damon Hadfield]

I wrote the natural 20. Yes. And a rotating cast of incredible guests. I am Johnny Chiadini.

[Mark Medina]

Jasper William Cartwright.

[Sam Claiborne]

Grant Howitt, Harmony Bundle.

[Mark Medina]

As we weave thrilling new stories with gorgeous sound design and beautiful original music.

[Damon Hadfield]

Search realms of peril and glory wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Mark Medina]

What's up, everyone? It's Noah Daniels.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hey, y'all, I'm jj.

[Mark Medina]

Hey, guys, it's Kat. And we're your host of the Real Hauntings podcast, where we bring on guests to share their firsthand encounter, ghost stories and supernatural experiences. Now, on to the trailer.

[Damon Hadfield]

I've been warned to not tell this story, but I think because of the.

[Mark Medina]

Way it ends, it's okay to tell this story because some people say that with certain entities, to, like, speak of.

[Damon Hadfield]

Them or talk about them or in any way, like portray them as powerful will attract them to other people.

[Justin Davis]

The creepiest thing about it to me.

[Damon Hadfield]

Is a lot of times it would wait for me to notice it. Like, it would just lay its arm.

[Mark Medina]

Out like this, and then I'd be like, where is it?

[Sam Claiborne]

Where is it?

[Damon Hadfield]

And then I'd see it, and then.

[Justin Davis]

It would just slither back.

[Mark Medina]

For more information on the Real Haunting Drill Ghost Stories podcast, make sure you check out Real FM to learn more about our podcast and many other amazing podcasts.