Game Scoop! 798: Ghosted By Yotei

Summary

Game Scoop! Episode 798: "Ghosted By Yotei" Summary

Release Date: February 14, 2025

Hosts: Damon Hatfield
Guests: Sam Claiborne, Justin Davis, Mark Medina
Produced by: IGN & Geek Media

---

Introduction [01:48 - 02:11]

In Episode 798 of Game Scoop!, veteran hosts Damon Hatfield, Sam Claiborne, Justin Davis, and Mark Medina reunite to dissect the latest happenings in the gaming world. The episode kicks off with a brief overview of their recent engagements, setting the stage for an in-depth discussion on the latest PlayStation State of Play, game reviews, and a lively 20 Questions segment.

---

PlayStation State of Play Analysis [02:11 - 09:39]

Overview of the Event
The hosts delve into Sony's recent State of Play presentation, noting the impressive showcase of 27 games. However, a significant point of contention arises as "Ghost of Yotei"—highly anticipated by the community—is conspicuously absent. Damon remarks at [02:18], "Did get a bunch of release dates. We saw two games from 2026. There's some interesting stuff in here." The general sentiment among the panel suggests a mixed reception, with some feeling underwhelmed by the breadth of announcements.

Highlighting Key Titles
Mark Medina expresses particular enthusiasm for "Tides of Annihilation", highlighting its stunning visuals and star power: "It stars Jennifer English who played Shadow Heart and Baldur's Gate 3. Yeah, we're supposed to see more gameplay for that. It looks incredible." The discussion also covers "Darwin's Paradox", a new indie title from Konami that features an octopus protagonist navigating a visually captivating, puzzle-oriented gameplay experience.

Absence of Major Titles
A prevailing disappointment is the absence of "Ghost of Yotei" and the lack of updates on Death Stranding 2. Damon laments at [06:20], "Now midway through February... Did get a bunch of release dates. But there are zero Ghosts of Yotei shown in this state of play." The panel speculates on possible reasons, including Sony's strategic focus on showcasing a diverse array of genres.

---

Spotlight on "Saros" and Gaming Trends [09:39 - 21:33]

Introducing "Saros"
Mark Medina brings attention to "Saros", teased during the State of Play. Described as a follow-up to Returnal, "Saros" introduces new gameplay mechanics centered around permanent resources and progression. At [09:54], Mark explains, "The key gameplay distinction between Saros and Returnal is permanent resources and progression, making every death valuable." This feature ensures that each player's journey evolves, adding depth and replayability.

Ninja Games Flooding the Market
The conversation shifts to the surge of ninja-themed games slated for release in 2025. Damon humorously states at [11:00], "This is probably the highlight of the state of play for me. It's coming from Lizard Cube, which are the devs behind Streets of Rage 4." The panel debates the variety within the genre, debating whether these titles lean more towards traditional platformers or incorporate modern, dynamic elements.

Konami's "Darwin's Paradox"
Further exploration of Konami's offering, "Darwin's Paradox", reveals its unique blend of 2D platforming and puzzle-solving. Justin Davis remarks at [16:00], "It legit looks like it's inside inspired. That's what I said." The game's distinctive art style and engaging mechanics earn praise, positioning it as a standout among the new releases.

---

Game Review: "Elden Ring: Night Rain" [34:33 - 47:07]

Gameplay Experience
The episode transitions to a comprehensive review of "Elden Ring: Night Rain", a multiplayer iteration of the acclaimed Elden Ring. Mark Medina shares his positive experience, noting, "I played it. It's fun. If you love Elden Ring, there's going to be a lot to love here. It's a bit easier, so that's cool." The game introduces battle royale elements within a PvE framework, emphasizing cooperative play and strategic progression.

Mechanics and Features
Key features include:

• Leveling System: Players can upgrade their characters through runes, enhancing attributes rapidly to keep pace with evolving challenges.
• Relics: Upon completing rounds, players select relics that offer permanent upgrades, fostering a sense of continuous growth.
• Fast-Paced Action: The removal of stamina costs for sprinting ([36:27]) and the introduction of streamlined combat mechanics make the game more accessible without sacrificing depth.

Overall Impression
Damon concludes at [44:33], "I think the game's pretty damn fun. I do think it's worth it." The panel agrees that "Night Rain" successfully marries the challenging essence of Elden Ring with the engaging dynamics of multiplayer gameplay.

---

Game Review: "Avowed" [50:41 - 65:37]

Initial Impressions
Avowed, reviewed by IGN with a 7/10, receives mixed feedback from the hosts. Sam Claiborne describes a "rocky start" due to its linear and generic fantasy beginnings but acknowledges significant improvement as the game progresses ([50:54]).

Narrative and Side Quests
Mark Medina praises the game's side quests and world-building, likening it to titles from Obsidian like The Outer Worlds and Pillars of Eternity. He notes, "The side quests, they do kind of like intermingle," highlighting the game's cohesive narrative structure that intertwines main and side storylines seamlessly.

Gameplay Mechanics
Sam points out the completionist-driven mechanics, such as:

• Area Clearance: Once players eliminate all foes in an area, those enemies remain defeated, enhancing the feeling of accomplishment.
• Inventory Management: The game encourages efficient looting and resource management without overwhelming the player.

Mark adds, "It's a very Pillars of Eternity, Baldur's Gate thing," emphasizing the rich lore and immersive environment that fans of the series will appreciate.

Character Development and Interaction
The panel discusses the character interactions, noting some shallowness in early companions but appreciates the depth added as the story unfolds. Sam reflects, "It becomes that Fallout loop where you're like, I'm gonna go in this building, I'm gonna find all the junk inside."

Overall, the hosts recommend "Avowed" for its engaging progression and robust world-building, despite its initial narrative shortcomings.

---

Listener Interaction: 20 Questions Segment [66:57 - 87:04]

Game Identification Challenge
In the 20 Questions segment, the panel attempts to identify a Nintendo-published game from a listener's suggestion. The game in question is "Fortune Street", a board game integrating characters from the Mario and Dragon Quest franchises.

Process and Discovery
The hosts navigate through various clues and reach the conclusion that the game features an ensemble of beloved Nintendo characters, including Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Bowser, and Donkey Kong, along with characters from Dragon Quest. Damon humorously summarizes the discovery at [85:36], "Mario Luigi, Yoshi, Bowser Toad, Donkey Kong, Wario, Waluigi, Princess Daisy, Birdo, Diddy Kong, Bowser Jr., and Princess Peach. We're all in the game."

Guest Contributions
Mark Medina and Justin Davis share their nostalgic memories and humorous observations about "Fortune Street," appreciating its multiplayer dynamics and character crossovers. Sam Claiborne adds insights into the game's unique blend of board game mechanics and video game elements, reinforcing its appeal to fans of both genres.

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Conclusion [87:04 - End]

As the episode winds down, Damon encourages listeners to submit their game suggestions for future episodes via email. The hosts extend their gratitude to each other and the behind-the-scenes team, wrapping up another engaging session of Game Scoop!.

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Notable Quotes:

• Damon Hatfield [02:18]: "Did get a bunch of release dates. We saw two games from 2026. There's some interesting stuff in here."
• Mark Medina [03:49]: "It stars Jennifer English who played Shadow Heart and Baldur's Gate 3. Yeah, we're supposed to see more gameplay for that. It looks incredible."
• Mark Medina [09:54]: "The key gameplay distinction between Saros and Returnal is permanent resources and progression, making every death valuable."
• Sam Claiborne [50:54]: "It's a bit easier, so that's cool. Which makes sense. It's a multiplayer game. They're going to make it a tad easier."
• Justin Davis [66:00]: "I didn't even know there was a win or lose condition. I didn't know what it ended."
• Mark Medina [54:47]: "Every time an enemy dies, that enemy is dead. They are not coming back."

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*For more detailed discussions and the latest in gaming news, subscribe to Game Scoop! on your preferred podcast platform or visit Geek.com.

Transcript

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[Damon Hatfield]

What's up everybody? Welcome to IGN gamescoop. I'm your host Damon Hatfield and joining me this week are Sam Claiborne.

[Justin Davis]

We're back.

[Damon Hatfield]

Justin Davis Scoop and Mark Medina joins us this week.

[Mark Medina]

I'm here. Damon, I saw you in real life last week.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep.

[Mark Medina]

But I couldn't be on but yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

You'Re mean old boss Nick Limone would Not let you be on the show.

[Mark Medina]

That's right. We've got a great show for this week.

[Damon Hatfield]

We've got a great show for this week. Our review of Avowed is out and I know Mark and I think Sam have both been playing that. Both of you.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Damon Hatfield]

So we can talk about that. And Mark has played Elden Ring Night Rain, so we'll get his views on that. And I have to say, right at the top, I'm very excited for this week's 20 questions round. But first, we are less than 24 hours after the latest State of Play PlayStation State of Play. But at the time we're recording this, so let's get to it by the numbers. Sony showed off 27 games by my count in this show and not a single one of them was Ghost of Yotei. There are zero Ghosts of Yotei shown in this state of play. Even though 27 other games were shown. Did get a bunch of release dates. We saw two games from 2026. There's some interesting stuff in here. Overall, I think it was, I think, sentiment, correct me if I'm wrong, I think people are a little underwhelmed with the state of play.

[Justin Davis]

Only people that really like action action games. Yeah, there's a lot of those would be excited.

[Mark Medina]

So I, so I was stoked.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. You don't like them all though, right? Like you're, no. You don't play the bayonettas, right?

[Mark Medina]

Oh, no, I love bayonetta.

[Justin Davis]

I, I, okay, so you should be stoked then.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I think, I think my sentiment was that I, I like the state of play more than other people. But that's, that's fine.

[Justin Davis]

Mark's team liked it more than other people. Mark's team covers these very difficult action games for their jobs and a lot of the games were of that genre. So we're gonna, we're gonna have a good year of guide videos coming up.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, so like Tides of Annihilation, Mark.

[Mark Medina]

That's, that's, yeah. No, that looks amazing. It stars Jennifer English who played Shadow Heart and Baldur's Gate 3. Yeah, we're supposed to see more gameplay for that. Well, by the time this airs, it'll be yesterday. No, it looks incredible. I like that. It's just a really normal looking girl. Like, like when you play Stellar Blade, it's like a normal, she kind of fits, right? No, she's not normal. Where it's like in this game, it's just a very like normally dressed kind of girl just killing people. Like I Don't know. I think it looks really cool.

[Unnamed Speaker]

This is a standout game for me as well. Like, out of the whole. This is my favorite thing that was announced at the state of play.

[Justin Davis]

What about that octopus game?

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, I want to talk about that octopus game.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

No, I mean this. Like, first of all, I like new stuff, right? Like, you know, anytime there's something new and something surprising, like new world, new characters like that, immediately, like, I'm biased.

[Justin Davis]

Shades of gray. There's so many different ones that I haven't seen before.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I don't know.

[Mark Medina]

This takes place in a, like, dilapidated London. Like, that stuff's always cool.

[Unnamed Speaker]

The imagery just seemed really cool. And like, you know, London, big boss. Right. Not a city that I've seen done a million, billion times. So, you know, like. Yeah, I'm really into this. And it reminds me of sort of the old school God of war games. That's exactly what it makes me think of.

[Justin Davis]

Is someone going to actually just make a Shadow of the Colossus game finally. So I can just play that. This. They always tease it. They're always. Games have these big bosses you can climb, but there's never this. That. Well, should have been a genre. Damn it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, but they announced the next game from that creator at Game Awards.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

I forget what it's called now.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, that's right. Yeah, I remember that.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. This looks. This. Whatever it's called what's it called now? Tides of Annihilation. That looks interesting.

[Mark Medina]

Annihilation.

[Damon Hatfield]

And I thought maybe. Maybe instead of having 27 games on, just cut some of those out and we could focus more on games like this. Like, do we need to have a Digimon game in there? Does that have to be in a state of play?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I don't know. Did there need to be two Onimusha games?

[Justin Davis]

The good news is that there is more of this because ign, by the time people are listening to this, is going to have exclusive gameplay.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

This looks cool. I also like that some of the games are starting to show the PS5 Pro logo. And that game showed a PS5 Pro logo. So that was cool, because then, you know, you're getting a real pretty version of that game on PlayStation.

[Damon Hatfield]

I was surprised there was no Ghost of Ghost of Yote, though, being that it's supposed to be out this year.

[Mark Medina]

It's.

[Damon Hatfield]

We're midway through February. You know, give us some gameplay and then give us a release date so we have something to look forward to. I wasn't expecting Death Stranding, too. Just because they recently announced Kojima is going to be at south by Southwest giving a presentation.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. I was completely convinced that Death Stranding 2 would be there until they announced.

[Justin Davis]

I thought they do a trailer and then the south by Southwest thing, there would be a deep dive. Like, I just.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, you remember how many things there were leading up to Death Stranding, so. So many of those things were not in Death Stranding. In the end, like, it was just like, he made more trailers than game. And like, I, it's just, it's just a weird. It's a weird scheme. This time it doesn't feel as Kojima, but hopefully he'll be just a total nut at. At.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

South by Southwest.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Well, I was the no show for me. Even though look like it's completely unfair. Like, there's no expectations that it should be there or at any other show. But it was bloodborne.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

After all, everyone wants every time after.

[Mark Medina]

All those DMCA takedowns.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yep, exactly.

[Justin Davis]

I think they should start faking people out with Wolverine and just start showing, like, Wolverine and other games and be like, oh, and Marvel Rivals is getting an update. They're giving the new yellow costume to Wolverine.

[Mark Medina]

I, I thought that they were gonna show Wolverine. So that was, that was my big, like, it's whatever.

[Justin Davis]

Not this year. So.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I, I, that's not happening. But Saros looked cool. Like, when it comes to first party stuff, that game does look cool.

[Justin Davis]

Far off there.

[Damon Hatfield]

Does look cool. Yeah, for sure. That's. That's a 2026 game. So this is from House Mark. This is the follow up to Returnal.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

I think it's a little bit odd that it's not returnal 2 because it seems very similar.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

But it, there's a hint in this trailer that shows that it's like, it's still just Housemark, which I love Housemark, but it's like there's a part where it zooms in on Rahul Kohli's eye and you just see a bunch of, like, little particles, like in a pattern, and you're like, okay, we're still good. We're still. It's still Housemark. He's still going to be dashing around and it's still going to be.

[Unnamed Speaker]

It does seem like maybe it actually is. I, I don't know. I didn't read the logline. I only watched the trailer. So I don't know if this has been confirmed, but, like, it seems like it could be a sequel, just not called Returnal. To like, it might be set in the same universe or have some connection to it. That's. I mean, that's clearly the vibe that they're evoking.

[Damon Hatfield]

What they said was that they wanted Returnal to stand on its own.

[Mark Medina]

Well, never could be a return. I don't know. I trust Housemark, though, man. They. They only make good games.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yep.

[Mark Medina]

So I'm not worried one bit.

[Damon Hatfield]

This is from. This is on Saros. Does anyone know what Saros means?

[Mark Medina]

Nope.

[Damon Hatfield]

I looked it up. It's a period of time that's a little bit over 18 years, and people can use it to predict when lunar eclipses will happen. There you go.

[Justin Davis]

That would be funny if that whole trailer was for a game that was basically just a little particle 2D shooter. Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

You remember. Remember Resogun?

[Damon Hatfield]

How good does that get? The best game.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yep. Superstar.

[Justin Davis]

It's like, it has these, like, intense, elaborate, acted cutscenes, and that's what we're getting teased to.

[Mark Medina]

This is.

[Damon Hatfield]

This is on Sarah's from the PlayStation Blog, and I think people are going to like the sound of this. A key gameplay distinction between Saros and Returnal is permanent resources and progression, making every death valuable. After every death, you'll face a changed world. But in SOS you'll be able to choose and permanently upgrade your loadout from an evolving set of weapons and suit upgrades to come back stronger.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Cool.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Okay. All right.

[Justin Davis]

So that's because. So to make. You're talking about a roguelike, right?

[Unnamed Speaker]

Rogue Light.

[Damon Hatfield]

Rog Light.

[Justin Davis]

Rog Light. But the. But that's not what Returnal was. You always had to pick up everything to get through the run.

[Mark Medina]

No, Returnal did have permanent upgrades, but it was not like. It was not super prevalent like you. It did have them, though.

[Justin Davis]

Got it.

[Damon Hatfield]

This is. You know, we're in the year of the Snake. As Lunar New Year was really soon celebrated. But there is some sort of mistake that has been made. This is actually the year of the Ninja, because there are so many ninja games coming out this year.

[Justin Davis]

True.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

We have a new 2D Ninja Gaiden. We have Ninja Gaiden 2 black that was just shadow dropped. We have Ninja Gaiden 4 coming later this year. And now we get this new shinobi that was shown in the state of play last night.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah, this is.

[Damon Hatfield]

I mean, this is probably the highlight of the state of play for me. It's coming from Lizard Cube, which are the devs behind Streets of Rage 4. And Streets of Rage 4 was awesome.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. But it does look like kind of a fighty platformer. Move to the right though. Nobody thinks this is a Metroidvania, right?

[Damon Hatfield]

It's a brawler and it's. It's Steam page does not make any mention of it being Metroidvania. They're just calling it an action game.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, okay. Oh, cool.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

But it does have this stuff though, which is not. Not a Streets of Rage type thing. You don't usually platform through no Streets of Age.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's not about platforming.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. So. So I think that is an interesting difference. I mean, this, this type of movement looks cool, right? Like, it looks neat, but, you know, also looks like it could be hard as hell. I hate levels. Like that contrast type thing.

[Damon Hatfield]

Or you're on a kitsky Ninja Turtles do that too.

[Unnamed Speaker]

This is just the.

[Justin Davis]

Certainly do.

[Unnamed Speaker]

The best way to bring back these 80s and 90s franchises, we've said it on Scoop before, is like, what's tired is like taking one of your first party studios and having them make some big AAA version of like Shinobi that like nobody cares about and is going to get a 7, right?

[Justin Davis]

Like the Bionic Commando reveal.

[Damon Hatfield]

That was.

[Unnamed Speaker]

What you should actually do is like take some. Take some indie studio that like, has this love for those classics in their DNA and then match it up with like your intellectual property. And then like, and then everybody wins, right? Like, they get to stay employed, make a hit game. You get to keep, you know, you get to keep your franchise around with, you know, delivering on something that the mega fans want. Like, I'm so glad that, like, I feel like Japanese companies, you know, the Capcoms and Konamis of the world have really kind of figured this out over the last few years.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Go Sega. It's a great idea.

[Damon Hatfield]

And then.

[Mark Medina]

Can I make a confession?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Mark Medina]

In front of the game Scoop audience.

[Unnamed Speaker]

No.

[Mark Medina]

And in front of God.

[Damon Hatfield]

This is a safe space.

[Mark Medina]

I. I think, I think I'm too old for Metroidvanias. I. I don't really like you're too.

[Damon Hatfield]

Old, but we like them.

[Mark Medina]

I think I'm too old for them.

[Damon Hatfield]

What does that mean?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I'm too old for them, but.

[Damon Hatfield]

I'm not too old.

[Unnamed Speaker]

We need, we need more, like, say more than that.

[Damon Hatfield]

And I'm 100 years old.

[Mark Medina]

Try to play them at least. When I try to play them, I just, I just don't think I like them anymore. Maybe you're old age.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Maybe you're too young. You're too young for them.

[Justin Davis]

Have you played, have you played any of the good ones?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I played a couple of the good ones. Like, I name.

[Justin Davis]

Name. What. What's your examples of the good ones?

[Mark Medina]

Like Symphony of the Night, of course.

[Unnamed Speaker]

What about.

[Mark Medina]

Okay, but like, what about Hollow Knight? It's the, it's the Vania in Castle in Metroidvania. Yeah. So, like, I've never played Hollow Knight, and I tried to go back. I tried to play it last year, and I was just like. I was like, oh, I can't go here.

[Justin Davis]

I don't.

[Mark Medina]

You know what?

[Justin Davis]

I don't care. I'm not gonna go against the Hollow Knight fans. And I, I like Holiday.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Oh.

[Justin Davis]

But, like, that is not a good example of, you know, like, get a. You know, some people are gonna bounce off Hollow Knight because it's hard and it, and it's. And it's monotone, and it's not the same as a Metroid. So what I'm saying is that Metroidvanias are great and Castlevanias and Metroids are great, but Hollow Knight's a different type of game. I don't think it's the same thing.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Oh, man.

[Justin Davis]

I think, I think it's. I think it's a combat. Combat game more than it is a shooter like Metroid, and more than it is a whippy game like Castlevania. But I love it.

[Mark Medina]

I also didn't like Animal. Well. And I also didn't. Didn't like. Didn't like is not correct. Like, I just couldn't get into it. And then the Prince of Persia game from last year. Yeah. Whatever that one was called. I don't know. I just. The moment it becomes this thing where it's like, all right, now you gotta backtrack. You gotta, like, hunt around. I'm just like, I don't know. Oh, this whole discussion changed.

[Unnamed Speaker]

This hurts my heart so much.

[Mark Medina]

I'm sorry.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I know. I know that we're on a podcast and it's a conversational podcast.

[Mark Medina]

I thought this was a safe space.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I don't. I think it's an incredibly hostile space. Like you. Some things you can just think them. You don't have to say them. No, I mean, whatever. Like, I, I, I, like, I don't know what. I'm just gonna leave it at that. I don't have any points to make.

[Mark Medina]

Will be about this week, so I can't wait from them.

[Justin Davis]

What if. What? Here's an experiment, a little experiment you can do. Since you like Symphony of the Night a lot.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

You should try one of those Castlevania DS Game Boy. Advance era games and see if that sticks with you. Because for some reason you like the Castlevania formula of Metroidvanias and you don't like the other stuff.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, maybe.

[Justin Davis]

Maybe it's like I've bounced off Metroidvanias. Like I don't like that. The Axiom Verge games, like I've never gotten through them. They're in. The second one is really interesting but like, mm, it's not. I didn't stick through it, you know, but like I could play these Castlevanias as a desert island.

[Unnamed Speaker]

What was our Aria of Sorrow? Is that the one that people like the best?

[Mark Medina]

I think so. There's another one as well. I forget what it's called.

[Justin Davis]

It's hard for me because I like Portrait and Ecclesia the best so.

[Damon Hatfield]

The DS ones are good too.

[Justin Davis]

It's all confusing. Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, speaking of Konami, they had a new game in the state of play last night and it's. I think this is completely insane. Like it's a cool looking new indie game where you play as an octopus. But like the gameplay seems to be like an inside. Like, like an interesting 2D platforming and sort of puzzle solving game. Like when was the last time Konami put out something new that wasn't just a collection of their old games?

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah, I mean, you know what the rumor was that Konami, it was sort of. They'd been reduced to basically just being like a holding company that was just, you know, wasn't really employing developers anymore and was just trying know, do what I was describing before, like pair up their brands with people that wanted to make games based off it.

[Mark Medina]

So like Blueberry making Silent Hill.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Apparently those rumors were slightly overblown. No, this looks rad, this really cool.

[Mark Medina]

It really does.

[Damon Hatfield]

Plays an octopus. Is it going to the description?

[Justin Davis]

It legit looks like it's inside inspired.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's what I said. Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Because. Because that car scene, that's. That's 2D. But it like has. It looks 3D. Like. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

And just, just the themes of viol, escape and stuff like that too. Like it's just all really interesting. But I like how it looks. I. I think it's like it's like a mixture of cute and dark. It's cool.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Looks great. Can't wait to play it. And I like the idea of a sticky platformy protagonist. Like that's fun. Like it moves different. An octopus in this case moves differently than other movements.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I've played. I've played one game where you play as an octopus. And I loved it. So, you know, it's a great one. Yeah. Octodad.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it's great game.

[Mark Medina]

This is the prequel, actually.

[Damon Hatfield]

The PlayStation Blog said Darwin's Paradox brings all the vibrancy and hues of the ocean floor, thanks to HDR support and volumetric shadows and lighting and ray tracing. Plus, it sports a beauty mode in 4K and 60 frames per second. I've never heard it called a beauty mode before.

[Unnamed Speaker]

He didn't have to do all that.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, nobody.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Nobody's asking for that.

[Damon Hatfield]

So that looks cool. And then, of course, Konami also had Metal Gear Solid Delta and we got the release date for that. That'll be August 28th.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

But then one day after that will come Shinobi.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

And this will just get forgotten.

[Justin Davis]

This looks. This looks like an incredible remake. I mean, Kojima not being involved in this, you know, like, that's so super weird. It is weird, but it looks like the remake that I think, that people that like Metal Gear Solid three, not me, would really want.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

I've never played Metal Gear Solid three, so we'll see.

[Mark Medina]

The only Metal Gear Solid game I've played is Death Stranding. So.

[Damon Hatfield]

Wow.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Three is a really cool. Three is a cool camo system. I don't know, it's a little bit hard. Like, it's a game you have to meet halfway. Like, a lot of Kojima games that. They're most Kojima. But like, it's got a lot of really interesting ideas in it.

[Justin Davis]

It's got some long cut scenes in it.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

And then I think it could be improved, honestly, like, it already had like a bit of a remake with. What was it called? Snake Eater, Twin Snakes or whatever it's called. But yeah, I think. I think this. I forget what it's. Remember how it had, like, the. The version where you could rotate the camera?

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay. I. I've never played metal gear sol.

[Justin Davis]

Well, it basically had a remake on the PS2 after it came out for PS2, which is like, super strange. Like almost like a director's cut. But yeah. I don't know. Like, there's. There's quality of life things you can do with this game to make it make it, I think, a little better. That, like, a lot of people at the time were like, well, that's what makes it great is because it doesn't tell you how to do this stuff. And, you know, you should experiment. But that. That comes off, I think, a little frustrating these days. So we'll see how it goes.

[Mark Medina]

See how it goes.

[Damon Hatfield]

Sam you don't want to play?

[Justin Davis]

I don't remember this. I don't remember that month that. I don't remember the eight being in. No, it's a reference, I think, but I don't remember.

[Mark Medina]

Well, the. The Xbox version, the trailer is different and it ends with Bomberman.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, no, wait, really?

[Mark Medina]

Something like that. I. Somebody typed the words Bomberman to me earlier, so. Jobert, bring it up. It is something different, though, because obviously ape Escape is PlayStation.

[Unnamed Speaker]

It's probably Master Chief.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

My man is Hudson, but maybe Konami owns Hudson now. I don't know.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I think there's something like that. But there. There was some kind of. There's some kind of monkey game. It's been a long time.

[Damon Hatfield]

Ape Escape. I can't remember Ape Escape.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, no, in Metal Gear. That's a reference to something that is. Was in Metal Gear 3. I believe that they're maybe making, you know, Ape Escape as part of. But I don't know. I don't know what's going on. And also, there you go. There's Bomberman.

[Mark Medina]

There we go. I'm not crazy.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah, that's the Bomberman. So there was. I just occurred to me there was another remake of this on the 3DS, so it's already been remade or updated twice already. And I Definitely played the 3ds version.

[Damon Hatfield]

And then there's Borderlands 4.

[Justin Davis]

Like to suffer.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, but you got a release date for that? September 23rd. People are starting to put release dates in the back half of the year. Do you think they know or think they know when GTA 6 is coming?

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yes, yes, definitely. Definitely. I mean, I've heard with Borderlands in particular, Right. That, like, it's a little bit of a signal that gta, you know, might be a little bit later in the year than people thought. Otherwise they would. They would get. They would get Borderlands out of the way of it otherwise. Right?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

I thought this little.

[Mark Medina]

That's smart.

[Justin Davis]

This little part of Borderlands 4 looked better than the last time they showed it. Yeah, I thought it, like, showed up a little bit more of its new personality and like, what it looks like and it doesn't look. I mean, the joke is that it's, you know, the same game with a new number. Right. But it's like.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

That coming from Sam?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it's coming from. There's a very bad rainstorm here right now.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, same here. Also, Jober, I don't know if you know, but Sam's frame is cutting into Damon, I don't know if that matters to you or not. Yeah, it is.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. The fire truck was coming down Mission street and then over to ours, so we'll see what's going on. But I think there's downed trees and stuff right now. But we have power.

[Damon Hatfield]

It was raining very hard here earlier too.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Yeah. Like sideways rain is.

[Mark Medina]

Is. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Really crazy.

[Unnamed Speaker]

We had a full on blizzard here earlier.

[Justin Davis]

Oh my God.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Really canceled school. It was the whole thing.

[Justin Davis]

Are the kids still home?

[Unnamed Speaker]

That was yesterday. So they went back today.

[Justin Davis]

Goodness gracious. All right. I don't hear any more sirens.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Did you finish your thoughts, Sam, or.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, no, I was just saying the joke is that it looks so much like Borderlands, but I thought this particular slice looked a little like they intentionally tried to make it look a little bit more like what to expect. That's new and different and for some reason really emphasized like melee and gore, which I thought was kind of interesting.

[Unnamed Speaker]

It's a very interesting tone. Right. Like, I feel like they're deliberately playing it close to the vest of like Borderlands games are normally very, very sort of writing forward. Right. Like personality forward and scenario driven. And a lot of Borderlands 3 from the run up sort of focused on the villains and the scenarios. And obviously Borderlands has always been very zany and kooky and it's like, is that still here? Like, you know, I think. I think that it's smart of them to focus on gameplay because look, whatever you thought about Borderlands 3 and I don't think it went over that well from a. You know, nobody liked the villains and stuff like that, but like from a class design and like co op shooter standpoint, like it's best of breed. Right. Like, it's incredible. They're so good and like that seems to be what all the emphasis on is on for four in the run up.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I agree. It's. It's weird to be like, what's the story?

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

But it's true. It's like we've only like it's not life service. But that's just how it kind of looks right now. It just looks like a shooting game with no story elements. So. But we still got a while. Oh, and I didn't they say that they're doing a state of play specifically for.

[Damon Hatfield]

Just for Borderlands.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

So which maybe they'll finally delve into story and characters there.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Classes.

[Damon Hatfield]

So Justin was lamenting the lack of bloodborne in the state of play. You were not satisfied by a days gone Remastered.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I, I, no, I didn't, I didn't.

[Mark Medina]

Know what to think when that, when that dropped.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I mean, I haven't played Days Gone, so I don't really want to goof on it.

[Damon Hatfield]

I haven't either. I can't comment on the quality of the game, but I don't think I know that it has its fans. But, like, whereas were the fans even asking for a remaster of Days Gone.

[Justin Davis]

You got to remaster something.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yep.

[Mark Medina]

Well, because it's like with the Last of Us, you know, that they were trying to capitalize on the show and Last of Us is a flagship series for them. And then same with Horizon, Horizon's a flagship series and, and all that stuff. But it's like Days Gone for the. From, from Ben's admission is a dead ip. So it's kind of weird that they're like, maybe this is them testing the waters because now that Ben's game got canceled, you know, their live service game, maybe they're like, well, let's, let's, let's see if this sells and then we'll let you guys do Days Gone too.

[Unnamed Speaker]

That's actually a pretty reasonable hypothesis. And that's something that, you know, we've talked about remasters a lot on gamescoop over the years, but like a kind of lesser discussed part of it is that like these remasters, a secondary reason why they come out is to keep a franchise warm. Right. Like, we're going to reintroduce it to new audiences. We're going to make sure that if you want to start at the beginning and play the first one or two games, like, there's a way to do that on modern consoles and that they look their best. But, but to your point, like, that's not Days Gone. So, like, maybe you're right. Right. Like, maybe this is them. Like, you know, let's get this out the door. And depending on how it does, maybe, maybe they would greenlight a sequel.

[Mark Medina]

Well, and, and just like Horizon was, so there's really no excuse for it. This game already has a PS5 patch with an unlocked frame rate and all that. So it's like, it's cool that they're adding all the like, remastered stuff. And it is also worth noting that it's only $10. Like it's not that much money, but that's the upgrade.

[Justin Davis]

10 bucks?

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, only if you own the 10.

[Mark Medina]

Bucks if you, if you own daytime. Yeah. So if you're buying it fresh, then, yeah, then it's full price.

[Unnamed Speaker]

What if you. What could you buy like a used copy at GameStop for 16 and then get the upgrade. 10 bucks.

[Mark Medina]

I'm pretty sure you can. Because what they do and it's, it's too late for digital, but like Horizon's been on sale forever for like 10 bucks. Right. And then they just like, I can't remember that. Either removed it from the store or jacked the price up once they announced the remasters. That way people couldn't just like jump in.

[Damon Hatfield]

So you're close.

[Mark Medina]

I don't, I don't know. It's a strange one, but Days Gone is good if you guys are.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I was gonna say, I feel like I would enjoy this game. Like it got goofed on so much for like its goofy protagonist and storyline, but I feel like as just a run around and goof off in an open world. Like, you know, it feels like I would enjoy it.

[Mark Medina]

It's 100% just an open world. You play as Darth Maul and you're just like, he's just muttering to himself because he's crazy and it's just an open world game. I think it's really fun. I liked it quite a bit.

[Damon Hatfield]

Why did you call him Darth Maul?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, because he's played by. What's his name? Sam Witwer.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I was not picking up what you were putting down at all on that.

[Mark Medina]

It's because he kind of like, I don't know, he's kind of like. He's kind of like, I don't know, crazy in the game because he's, you know, it's post apocalyptic. So he like weirdly mutters to himself. I don't know. It's weird.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah, but there's also like, when these characters are by themselves, they have to like. I think I see something over there.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh my God. Remember Aloy in Forbidden West? Oh my God.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Save this for later. Justin, you're close. GameStop sells pre owned copies of Days Gone for 19 bucks.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Ah, there you go. But, well, use your power.

[Mark Medina]

30 bucks for a rematch.

[Justin Davis]

I don't know how that would work though. You. You would throw in the disc, then it would presumably install and the installed stuff would be what you buy. I don't, I don't.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I don't actually know.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, me neither. Don't run out and buy it on account of any of the knowledge I have because I don't know.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay. There was another game called Directive 8020 and this is from what's his Dark Pictures. Is that what the series is called?

[Mark Medina]

Well, it said super massive. Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, so also the studio behind Until Dawn.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. And Quarry and all that.

[Damon Hatfield]

And also the Dark Pictures thing. I'm correct about this. Okay, so a lot.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. The Dark Pictures is just like an. An anthology. That's not. You know. It doesn't.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Mark Medina]

It follows. It's like a shared universe almost.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, directive 80 20. I think I know what the 8020 means. This is the description of the game. The ship. The spaceship takes place in outer space. The ship is infected with an alien organism. Unfortunately for our crew, this organism can transform into any one of them. While you may be human, others in your crew may not be. And killers can hide behind familiar eyes. Where have I heard this premise before? So 8020 means it's 80% a thing ripoff and 20% something.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I mean, you know, but it's tough to like. Like, yes, blatantly a thing ripoff, but like, you know, no one else is doing the thing. So, you know, I. I think it's like. It's free reign after a certain point.

[Damon Hatfield]

The thing remaster was just released.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Okay.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah, that's a good point. I just like. It's something that, like, I don't feel like it's saturated. Like, I want more of it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Sure.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Parent. More. More paranoia.

[Damon Hatfield]

Games as an IP or franchise, the Thing is woefully underexplored.

[Mark Medina]

You're.

[Damon Hatfield]

You're correct about that.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

I was really hoping that 8020 was. Because you. That was like a really sick skateboard trick you could pull off in the.

[Damon Hatfield]

Game in outer space. You can do 80 20.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Yeah. You could do an 8020 and. Right. You know, you'd be running from monsters a lot, but mostly you'd be skateboarding.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Mark, have you seen the Thing?

[Mark Medina]

No, I don't know, Adam.

[Damon Hatfield]

Cool. Yeah, cool.

[Mark Medina]

I would have never. I would have never come to that conclusion. Is Is my thoughts there. Also, this kind of game isn't for me, so. Whatever.

[Damon Hatfield]

It looks cool, but we'll see. You mentioned there's two Onimushi games. I haven't. I've never played any Onimusha, but I think Way of the Sword, the one coming out next year, looks pretty cool. I like the slicing through enemies. Like, the combat is apparently all about actually slicing through enemies.

[Mark Medina]

Nice.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, it looks cool.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah. Like Fruit Ninja.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's like Fruit Ninja. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ninja. Ninja.

[Justin Davis]

Add this to the ninja. You're the ninja.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, yeah. Well, yeah, you're right. You're exactly right. The only thing. I don't know how I feel about this. They're using Toshiro Mifune's likeness for the main character. And Toshiro Mifune is the most famous Japanese actor who appeared in all these old, you know, Seven Samurai and Rashomon and all these old samurai movies. I love Toshiro Mifune, but I don't know how I feel about, you know, you can get permission from his estate, you can compensate his estate, but it's not the same thing as having permission from him. And I know that he's not available, but still, I just don't know how I feel about it.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I mean, I just feel. Just feel good about it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, okay. That's easy.

[Justin Davis]

I think one thing you can feel good about is that awesome Capcom logo that's using, which is like an old movie cinematic style Capcom logo.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I mean, you are right about the lightness thing though, right? Like, we talk a lot about it with De Aging and Star wars and bringing back, it's like, it just, you know, it's like, you know, it's sort of the infantilization of like, you know, all of our pop culture of just like, I don't want any of my toys to ever get old and I want to be playing with Luke Skywalker forever and just make Luke Skywalker movies for the rest of my life till I'm dead. And it's like, and, and no, people don't get old and my heroes don't die. It's like, give it. We don't need to do this. Give us something new.

[Mark Medina]

I guess what's like, also weird is like when you watch what Star wars was it with Peter Cushing, like, like Rogue One? New what? Rogue One. Right. And so you're like, okay, it's a, it's a CGI Peter Cushing, but like, but it's the character, so that makes sense. But it's like this is just. It's just using somebody's likeness. So I guess I would ask why.

[Unnamed Speaker]

In the context of a video game, it hits a little different. Yeah. It's not like a narrative reason why, like, you know, we had some specific desire to bring this face back.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, it's just like this. This is a cool actor. People like this actor. Let's put him in our game. I am, I am looking forward to checking out the game though. I think on emotion looks cool.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Those are the highlights for the state of play for me. If there's anything you guys want to shout out, please feel free to do so. But I think it was a little underwhelming. I think if they had just ended with, you know, a little bit more of a tease of Ghost of Yote, all would have been forgiven. I would have said, oh, that was an amazing state of play.

[Justin Davis]

Or Wolverine.

[Damon Hatfield]

Or Wolverine. Or Knights of the Old Republic.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

No way. No way. It's dead.

[Damon Hatfield]

They have not officially. It's not officially cancelled.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

In theory, Mark, somewhere on earth that game is being.

[Mark Medina]

Someone's working on it right now. Sure. Absolutely.

[Damon Hatfield]

In theory.

[Mark Medina]

They're cursing. They're like, I'm literally designing the game. No one's working on that.

[Justin Davis]

I'm too old for RPGs.

[Mark Medina]

Oh. It's funny because what I said earlier.

[Damon Hatfield]

I got it. Okay. It's a choose your own adventure episode of Game Scoop. Mark, would you like to talk about Elden Ring, Night Rain or Avowed first?

[Mark Medina]

Let's do, let's do Night Rain.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay. Night rain, turn 26.

[Justin Davis]

First of all, everybody will have played Night Rain by the time we have this conversation. Because you can play it starting at three in the morning Pacific time.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Which is Exactly a scant 12 hours from now.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. I'm not crazy about the Times because another time is 3 to 6am tomorrow. 7 to 10pm7 o'clock on.

[Mark Medina]

On Valentine's Day.

[Damon Hatfield]

On Valentine's Day.

[Justin Davis]

I know.

[Mark Medina]

And my wife give me a lot of decisions.

[Damon Hatfield]

My wife's been in New York all week.

[Sam Claiborne]

She just got home.

[Damon Hatfield]

So now on Valentine's Day I'm supposed to be like, sorry, I'm going to be playing video games from 7 to.

[Justin Davis]

10Pm you just have an appointment. Yeah. You're just going to have to do Saturday at 3:00am instead of Thursday at 3:00am yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Not crazy. Anyway, Mark, you played Elden Ring, Night Ring. Tell us about your experience.

[Mark Medina]

I played it. It's fun. If you, if you love Elden Ring, there's going to be a lot to love here. It's. It's a bit easier, so that's cool. Which makes sense. It's a multiplayer game. They're going to make it a tad easier.

[Justin Davis]

So what we call that, you know, because the journalists all had to play a hard mode of Elden Ring before Elden Ring came out. That's true. That's a true fact. We all to beat it on hard mode. So we call an easier Elden Ring now. Public mode.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. You guys get to play the easier versions that none of the journalists got to play when we played Shadow of the Erdtree.

[Justin Davis]

How do you like that? How the tables have turned.

[Damon Hatfield]

I like them.

[Mark Medina]

You'll never know what we went through.

[Justin Davis]

You'll never know.

[Mark Medina]

Gosh, Shadow the erdtree so hard. But also like, because this, this game's meant to be super fast paced. You have people with you, so that makes it easier because, you know, aggro can kind of like switch between. So it's like, it's easier. And then also like, again, it's super fast paced. So like one of the most notable things in my opinion, which is weird because it's just button change, is the sprint is just your L3 now, which is clicking the left stick opposed to holding circle so you don't have to like claw the controller anymore. Yeah. There's no fall damage. You could just fall from the greatest heights and it.

[Justin Davis]

If they could have made your character fast this whole time, why didn't they?

[Mark Medina]

Because that's not Elden Ring. This is Night Ring.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Justin Davis]

I just.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, you're not speeding through Elden Ring.

[Justin Davis]

This was possible the whole time just to make it seem like a regular ass action game.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, but then it would be a regular ass action game and it wouldn't be Elden Ring Ring.

[Justin Davis]

Okay.

[Mark Medina]

You can kick up walls. Like, if there's a cliff, you can just like parkour up it. So that's fun. And so basically what you're doing is, is it's just kind of like I. My preview starts with me saying it's not a battle royale. But here's all the things that kind of make it sound like it's a battle royale, which is like you land, a circle's closing, you're running around, you start at level one, you're running around, you're killing mobs to level up, you're grabbing loot. And it's kind of like a roguelike. So basically everything, every weapon, you can hold six weapons. Every weapon has like a buff. And all of those buffs like count towards. Towards your weapon. Right. So if you get a dagger that has bleed and then you pick up a spear that has, let's say, status build up. Right. You're not going to use the spear, but it. That status build up counts to it. So. So it's kind of a roguelike in the way that you're like trying to build, like, and you keep all those, you said through. Through the game, through that round. But then once the round's over, you. You. You don't have anything except for a relic.

[Unnamed Speaker]

It sounds fun.

[Mark Medina]

So it's. It's fun because it's like you. It is that sense of like, you know, like a Roguelike, right. Where it's like, you're like, I want to be a poison guy. And the game will say, nope, you're not doing poison this round. You're doing this. And so it. It's kind of just like making you. You know, it'll kind of push you a certain way. And that's. I always find that kind of fun.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Look at how you dropped in on, like, in the B roll, just watching you dropped in on, like, the Elden Ring battle bus.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. You kind of do the eagle.

[Justin Davis]

That's a quick travel thing, right. You pick up an evil eagle and they go up in the air and then get somewhere quickly.

[Mark Medina]

That. That is. That is also just how you start the game is you. Everybody starts you. Like, you leave the round table hold. It's like a dilapidated roundtable hold, and you leave on eagles and you drop in. And so the battle royale thoughts of it are, is that a circle's closing, and so you and your team, you're running around just getting as much loot and leveling as you can. And then once the circle closes all the way, there's a boss. And so it's, you know, day one, night one, and the knights are the bosses. Day two, night two, and then the final boss, there's no technically day three, and. And the goal is just to. To see if you can win. Right. So it's like. It's a battle royale in the sense of, like, if it was a PvE battle royale. Right.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

So I think it's fun.

[Unnamed Speaker]

It sounds really fun.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, it's really cool. If you've played, which I'm sure nobody here has, but in the audience, if you played Naraka Blade Point, it's kind of like that.

[Justin Davis]

Does it. Does it feel like the mobs and the bosses are more kind of like hack and slash ready? Like, you can do XXY stuff instead of like, well, you know, if they drop this bus and I. I need to play this seven more times before I can even have a chance.

[Mark Medina]

Right.

[Justin Davis]

You can't really. You can really go chop up a camp from the start. Like, you're powerful.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Yeah. During the day, almost everything. And. And the tech test will be more or less a pushover. Like, you'll climb up a castle and there'll be a. A noble God skin. Right. Which. And Elden Ring should terrify you. And this, you're just like, okay, you'll just burn him. Right? Like, that's fine. It's the night bosses that'll get you. Those are still very.

[Justin Davis]

I don't see. You know, there's no HUD in this footage. So is there still stamina and health bar?

[Mark Medina]

There is, yeah. Stamina, health. Your items would be on the bottom left. You can.

[Justin Davis]

Do you expand your stamina and health slots by, you know, getting playing more? Or is it. Is it that just all the say the same all the time?

[Mark Medina]

So every class. There's four classes in the tech test. What you. How you level up is you. Is you collect runes just like an Elden Ring, and you run up to a site of Grace and you just. Every class has a predetermined leveling path. So you're. It's all about speed, right? So you're not being like, I want more stamina. No, no, no. You're just. I have enough rooms to level up three times. You're just clicking confirm three times and then you're just getting those stats and then you're off. You know, you're not spending time building a character. There's no time.

[Justin Davis]

So what makes you more successful versus less successful on that final night?

[Mark Medina]

Leveling Leveling, like for one, like if you. If you finish night one, like the things you'll start to learn is like if you finish night one and you're level like four or five and you just destroy the Night one boss, like you're. You're off to a great start.

[Unnamed Speaker]

You gotta go fast.

[Mark Medina]

You should. Yeah, you should be level 12 or so by the time you fight the night 2 boss.

[Unnamed Speaker]

It's like Vampire Survivors or like everything's getting stronger and you have to get stronger faster than everything around you gets stronger.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. I say in the preview, like, so, like if you die during the day, you just respawn at a sight of grace and you drop your runes, Elden Ring style, and you can go get them again. But the biggest thing you lost from dying is time. You've now spent a minute or so fighting a boss that you didn't get any loot from. And it's just. It's. It's a waste of time. You. You always just need to keep moving because you're just gonna fall behind.

[Justin Davis]

Is there like a play style that it's selecting that everybody just has to play as? Like, is it all perfect parries and. And counter attacks and stuff like that? And. Or else if you can't do that, you're screwed? Or is it more like you don't need to know any of that stuff?

[Mark Medina]

Not. Not so well. Elden Ring is. Has never really. Like, if you're playing the Guardian. Yeah, you're gonna use your shield.

[Justin Davis]

That's what I'm saying. So, yeah, I was wondering if it selects that play style for you as opposed to, like, you know how Damon.

[Mark Medina]

From a distance, there's the Wilder, which is like all around, just kind of like the warrior. There's the Guardian character they're showing is like.

[Justin Davis]

That's like a super fast.

[Mark Medina]

That's the Duchess.

[Justin Davis]

All that person's doing is running in and slashing. That's all that's happening there.

[Mark Medina]

Well, it's not what's great. The Duchess is amazing. For one, she can flip around when she's dodging. But also she has an ability. Every class has an ability. And then an ultimate Duchess. Her ability, which has a really fast cooldown, repeats the last 1.5 seconds of damage. So not only are you attacking, but it's not just your damage, it's the whole team. So you're also just, like, looking at their health bar, and if you see them take a huge spike of damage, you do it, and it'll just. It'll spike again. And so it's. That's never really a way you play a Dark Souls game where you're just, like, staring at their health bar. So she is very fun. And then the last one is the recluse, which is the magic wielder person. So you're choosing how you want to play. And people can play the same class. You can go in with four. You know, you can go in with four Duchesses if you want to.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah. Four white mages.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Good.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay. I agree. It looks fun. And I think it's cool that there's a new Elden Ring thing coming out less than a year after the last Elden Ring thing. But here's my question.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Since it's so much more limited in scope compared to Elden Ring by design, over this network test, do you think some people are going to see everything the game has to offer?

[Mark Medina]

They're gonna see everything the network test has to offer. Absolutely. I played it for three hours, and my thoughts were, yeah, I've. I've kind of like. So the one permanent progression thing you do get from this is that depending on how like, not to like, you get a relic, and the relic is better the further you got. And so at the end of the game, you'll be presented with three relics, and you get to pick one. And those you can equip to your character. That's the only, at this moment, permanent progression. So you can. You're dropping in with not a huge advantage. But a little bit of an idea of like what your build could be. Right. But yes, I do believe after my three hours I wanted to keep playing. But I will say that I, I, I experienced a good chunk of it. So if you get into even just 2 of the network tests, yeah, you'll have played everything. But, but there's gonna be eight classes when the game comes out and they say so this area, it's not limb grave, it's Limfeld. They say it's going to be a lot different when the game actually releases in May. So I think they're holding a lot back because I would ask them things and they just would not answer because I, I was like what's the max level? And they're like, nah, nah, we're not telling you that. It's also worth noting this game is not Miyazaki directed. So it's like this isn't taking from anything. Like I know people sometimes have that gut reaction where it's like why isn't he just making Elden Ring 2? And it's like he probably is.

[Justin Davis]

This is, I have that about George R.R. martin. Like this is taking away from his writing of the book.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes it is.

[Mark Medina]

This feels like a, a game jam, you know, like, like from software. Go and do something with the Elden Ring engine and, and let's see what you come back with. And this was just a really cool idea that so, and they're like cool, let's make this, let's extend the, the Elden Ring name. But so far, especially for 40 bucks which is, you know, was the price of Shadow of the Erdtree as well. And it's standalone. You don't have to own Elden Ring to play this game. I sound like an advertisement. All I'm saying is I think the game's pretty damn fun. I, I do think it's worth it. We'll see when it comes out. If it's just the tech test with eight characters then maybe not because it's probably like a weekend of fun.

[Damon Hatfield]

You don't have to own Elden Ring to play this game, but you should own Elden Ring. It's pretty great.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah, you should just own Elden Ring.

[Sam Claiborne]

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[Unnamed Speaker]

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Hold with my current provider trying to break up with them. I mostly use it to just scroll on social media and click things that I like anyway. So why am I paying like several.

[Damon Hatfield]

Hundred dollars a month to do that?

[Sam Claiborne]

And so yeah, easy to use Mint Mobile website, easy purchase, easy activation. I am pretty stoked on it. Switch to Mint and new customers can get half off on unlimited plan until February 2nd. To get your new wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month and get the plan shipped to your door for free, go to mint mobile.com gamescoop that's mint mobile.com gamescoop $45 upfront payment required, equivalent to $15 a month. New customers on first three month plan only speeds slower above 40 gigs on unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply. See Mint Mobile for details. Ready to eat healthier in 2025 factor has chef made meals that make eating well easy? They're dietitian approved and heat up in 2 minutes so you can feel right and feel great no matter what life throws at you. Factor arrives at your door fresh and fully prepared, perfect for any active, busy lifestyle. With 40 meal options across eight dietary preferences on the menu each week, it's easy to pick meals tailored to your goals and taste. Choose from preferences like Calorie Smart, Protein plus or Keto. Factor can help you feel your best all day long with wholesome smoothies, breakfasts, grab and go snacks and more add ons. Reach your goals this year with ingredients you can trust and convenience that can't be beat. Eat Smart with Factor get [e-mail] Scoop 50 off and use code Scoop 50 off to get 50 off your first box plus free shipping. That's code Scoop50OFF@Factor Meals.com Scoop 50 off to get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box. Here's a scoop for anyone who rents. Earning points on rent is now a reality. When you pay rent through bilt, you don't even have to check with your landlord to start earning points that you can use toward flights, hotel stays, fitness classes, or even your next rent payment. Let me break it down for you. There's no cost to join bilt, and as a member you'll earn valuable points on rent and on your everyday spending. Built points can be transferred to your favorite hotels and airlines and even the ones you haven't heard of. There are over 500 airlines and 700,000 hotels and properties around the world. You can redeem your built points toward. Points can even be redeemed towards a future rent payment or unique experiences that only BILT members can access. So if you're not earning points on rent, my question is, why the heck not start earning points on rent you're already paying by going to joinbuilt.com Gamescoop that's J-O-I-N-B-I-L-T.com Gamescoop make sure to use our URL so they know we sent you joinbuilt.com gamescoop to start earning points on your rent payments today.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, Avowed reviews are out for a vowed IGN gave it a 7 out of 10, which is pretty much in line. I think on Oprakit it gets it currently has an 81. Yeah, let's start with Sam. What do you think about Avowed?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah. So I so if you're going to play this game, expect a rocky start because it has a very generic, very linear, like get to know this fantasy game beginning and you play through a bunch. You're like, is this really what they expect me to do this whole time? They kind of make you do a stealth for a while. They have some battles that are like a little bit hard for you early on. And then all of a sudden you're in a town at a dock and there's a big map you can hit pause, suddenly there's a map and you can start exploring and the game becomes exactly what you want it to be. If you're looking for a Obsidian RPG because you have a kind of a suddenly the first two people that are with you, you can optionally pick up another one. They're just super like, lame. They're just thinking there's nobody to talk to you. You don't care. One's kind of whiny, the other one's a woman. You don't know why you let her out of jail and doesn't really have any kind of interesting conclusion. But Then all of a sudden, you get a big green lizard boy on the dock, and he's. He's like a noir character and kind of like bioware Obsidian feeling, right? Like, really cool feeling. And you start going exploring this area, and there's side quests you can take on. The first side quest to take on is this one, actually. It's wacky. It's not written well, but it has an interesting conclusion, kind of. And it takes you off the path. You can just stop in places on the way, and you realize all the things you bought in the village you could have just gotten for free. And then you start playing this forest and, like, you're like, oh, you can go hunt mobs and stuff. And miraculously, this is weird. You can start clearing out the whole map map. And then they just stay dead, which is good and bad, right? Like that. That's. I. For me. I like that because I kind of am methodically going through and making sure I do everything. And then I feel like, a sense of completion. There's like a completion tracker that it gives you for the things to find, and it becomes that Fallout loop where you're like, I'm gonna go in this building, I'm gonna find all the junk inside, I'm gonna use it to make stuff, and then I'm gonna get my weapons better, and then I'm gonna go kill more stuff. Does. Is the stuff that interesting? Not really. Are the conversations interesting? Half the time feels like Fallout 4, you know, it's like. It's like it. And it's just. You just also should have the. The. Either the. You should have the foresight, whether this is good or bad, to know that, like, unlike Fallout 4, you're not going to get bored at hour 80, because there isn't an hour 80. Our reviewer played it in about 60 hours and did a ton of stuff. Now Mark's played it for. For more than me and less than that and can tell you about hitting the wall and stuff. And it stayed easy for me as a magic user. That's all I can say about the difficulty. Anyway. I actually would like. I hated this game at the beginning. I forced myself to play a lot more, and then I was like, this game is totally recommendable and fun. You just have to be ready to get over that hump. It's not a long. Is that accurate, Mark?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Yeah, I'll. I'll start with the good as well. Is like, I. I agree with Sam. I. I like the side quests. They're kind of mandatory when it Comes to, like, leveling. Yeah, I'll get to it in a sec. But the leveling system in this game is weird. But the side quests, they do kind of like intermingle. So there's like a side quest at the beginning that has you. Well, so what's funny is, so Sam mentioned this lady, you break out of jail, she actually does have an ending. There's another side quest where you're. You're helping these people escape from, like, the shantytown area of the town. And they're like, yeah, but now the. You. You know, so you're doing all the things to help them. And then the last thing they say is that they. Is that the. The people that are going to help them escape are. Are strong, arming them for money. If you go there, the lady's there that you save from jail, and she's like, oh, well, you helped me. Okay, so they can go for free.

[Justin Davis]

So that was just for one second. If people are watching one second. If you're watching this episode, watch what's happening right now, because we gotta talk about the RBF that happens in this game. The resting bioware face. It's really bad.

[Mark Medina]

And then there was another side quest where it's like, this lady wants your help with something and she's like, she doesn't trust you because you're. You're kind of. I don't want to say you're the bad guy, but you're like high government here to cut from another, like, continent area. I don't know that much about Pillars of Eternity, but you're totally a year.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, you're.

[Mark Medina]

You're there to.

[Justin Davis]

And without any accountability, you're, like, overpowered. You don't have any restrictions. And so, like, the way that you make decisions, like, you really impose yourself in a lot of situations. You're like, this is. That doesn't feel like a good character to play.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah. You. You could be evil because, like, your character inherently is evil. But I choose to be nice.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it's interesting. But she'll be like, slant on what normally you play, you never feel heroic.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah. And so she's like, well, how can I trust you? And like, one of the options, when you get to the options, it's all the side quests you've done, and you get to select one and be like, I've helped all of these people. And so I like stuff like, that is cool. Sam's also correct where it's like, every time an enemy dies, that enemy is dead. They are not Coming back.

[Damon Hatfield]

I like that.

[Mark Medina]

And Travis Northup reviewed the game for us and he has a really cool line. So this game works like outer worlds where it's, it's, it's not open world, it's open zone. And there's. So once you're done with this first area, which is called Dawn Shore, you move on to the next. And he says that, like, by the time you're ready to move on, you feel like, you feel like a, a set crew is about to come and take all the decorations down. They're just like, get out. You're done. You've done everything here. There is nobody left to talk to. There's nobody left to kill. Go.

[Justin Davis]

It's, it's like, it's actually empty. He shows like running across the landscape and it's completely empty.

[Mark Medina]

It's very, it's just barren. But it's, you know, because the completionist in you is like, I've done everything here. I can just leave.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, no, I, I, I, I think it's refreshing. I'm, I'm sick of respawning enemies. I know that's like a big part of souls. It's a big part of roguelikes. Like, I'm over it. Okay. Yeah, I, I do want to feel powerful at some point and, and completely, you know, ridding an entire area of everything living, including bears. There's a lot of bears.

[Mark Medina]

So many bears.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. It feels good. And what's interesting is that even if you're underpowered, well, first of all, there's areas which are harder. But if you're underpowered, you can go and fight one bear and then warp back to your base and like heal and then go fight that other bear and like, again, like, that's, that kind of, it's kind of the Bethesda RPG Jank, where it's like you're just saving over and over again until you get through a part, because you can just like barely get through it, you know, like, it's that same type of thing. It just lets you do stuff like that, which I think is very video gamey and fun. By the way, the campsite is like Red Dead inspired, which nobody's talking about it really is, where it's like, if you go for any save back to your camp, everybody puts out their tents, everybody has their little conversations you can have before bed. And you know, it's like the, the bioware scenes on, on a, you know, the spaceship or, or just Red Dead or whatever. Like, it's very funny.

[Unnamed Speaker]

It's a Very Pillars of Eternity, Baldur's Gate thing. So.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah, like. Well, and just like In Baldur's Gate 3, you'll get, when you go to sleep sometimes you'll get like an extra cut scene instead of from your guardian. It's. It's from this, like, you know.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

From the beginning you can be awake.

[Justin Davis]

For like one hour and kill one lizard, you know, or. Which would be like two and a half minutes of game time and then just go back to bed again, talk to all your buddies. It's very funny.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I am gonna love this game. I can already. I mean, so I loved, like, look, I. A couple things. This is in the Pillars of Eternity universe, right? Which I think is such a good, like pillars of Eternity 1 and 2 are great games and I think they have great writing, I think they have great characters, but I think they, I think they have an even greater. Like to me, like the fantasy lore and like the world of that game is even better than the games. Like it's, it's incredible. Like it's one of the best fantasy worlds and like, you know, the lore and the world building that's in it is among my favorite out of any fiction or any video game I've ever played. And so for that reason, I'm so glad that they got another chance to make like another style of game in that world. And you know, if people don't know pillars of Eternity 1 and 2 are, you know, top down isometric RPGs like the old school, like Baldur's Gate, like Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 and you know, then Baldur's Gate 3 was a modern interpretation of that. And so this feels like the fact that it's open zone and not open world, like that's what those games were, is it's like the entire game that would last, you know, 30 or 40 hours was like, you know, kind of just like 30 map screens, like 30 areas that you would click on on a map. And like now you're in a forest, now you're in a town, like now you're in a cave. And like that would be the whole game. And this being kind of open zone in that way of like going to different spots on the map that are distinct from one another, feels more like pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, but zoomed in in the first person than what I was expecting. And so to me, like, you know, that's going to turn some people away, but that really appeals to me, actually. I think I'm going to love it.

[Mark Medina]

Well, in this game, like, it could be open world, right? Like, they could just take those four zones and just be like, cool, here's the map. But like, I kind of like this. Like, yeah, this. Like you're just in this region and then, okay, there's a loading screen and then you're in the next region. But like you can go back to Dawn Shore. Like, they're just. That's just how Obsidian. That's exactly how they made Hates going.

[Justin Davis]

Backwards in a game. So that's where he draws the line the moment.

[Mark Medina]

It feels like a metro. Metroidvania. I'm like, I'm too old for this. But I. I also like Dragon Age, right?

[Justin Davis]

Like, yeah, Honestly, it is shocking how similar this game is in the telling of it and then how different it feels in the playing of it. They are different games that if you describe them to somebody, you would just say the exact same words. It's very hard to describe why they're different.

[Mark Medina]

There's also just like cool video game things like Bethesda. Things that aren't in this game. Like sprinting doesn't cost stamina. Awesome. There's encumbrance also. You could just. There is, but it's only your weapons and you could just push X and it goes send to camp. You could just send everything to the camp.

[Damon Hatfield]

So what's the point? Like, what's even the point though?

[Mark Medina]

It's wet.

[Justin Davis]

It's. They just. They're just trying to get you to declutter. Damon, there's. It is interesting. The weapon sets are like super. I mean, I haven't got, you know, as far as maybe this changing, but like, you really do just stick with like the first sword you found because you can upgrade it the whole time. You, you get sword, you get spear, you get wand. Doesn't matter how you get those things then. Then you have an upgrade tree going for it. It's very silly. Like, it's like, it's not like, well, you know, you're gonna go find this amazing upgrade or some like crazy, you know, treasure chest is going to help you in that way. It just doesn't. So your loot, you don't get over encumbered in that same way.

[Mark Medina]

And the bows, there's bows and guns. There's no arrows or ammo. They're just. It's just.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, dude, dude.

[Mark Medina]

Because, like, why try?

[Justin Davis]

Like, why play as an archer? Absolutely impossible.

[Mark Medina]

It. It's just boring. What I'm saying is there's no ammo in the sense of like. Because the Game doesn't make you carry ammo. Everything just has infinite ammo is what I'm saying.

[Justin Davis]

That's fine. Yeah, yeah, that's a good part.

[Mark Medina]

Sam is saying that playing as a bow character is, sucks and I kind of agree. I didn't, I don't like the Ranger. Well, it's like, But I was just.

[Justin Davis]

Saying that first of all, there's only like three types of enemy in the game and they all just rush you. So it's like, why are you gonna play as a bow and arrow character? Like, you get one bow shot off and all of a sudden there's things in your face smacking you. Like, it doesn't make sense.

[Mark Medina]

You do the strangle route. But I, I just, I, I, I've played all three fairly extensively. The Ranger's boring. I don't, I don't care. I think the magic character is super fun.

[Justin Davis]

It is fun. And you get very op spells to start, right? And they kind of train you on that. Like now you're gonna run out of your salmon or whatever. But yeah, like setting something on fire or freezing something and then just like whipping a bunch of like dorky wand like attacks at it is like basically the game. And, and by the way, you really obscure your screen when you, when you play as the magician. Like, like I'm used to running around with a sword in front of you, but no, you're holding a book the whole time there's a book on screen and then you get a wand and a wand is on screen. You're dual wielding. It's so strange when you have all these. You can make fire out of nowhere, but you can't hide the book that you're using.

[Mark Medina]

It's because the book is providing the fire. You could spec into fire and you could dual wield wands if you wanted. Wanted to.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Good.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Just a strange choice I'm excited about. I mean, you know, they're not calling it pillars of Eternity 3, but it is, it takes place a few years after Deadfire, and Deadfire was unfortunately not widely. Like everyone played the first game and nobody played the sequel. Right. And like, but Deadfire is really interesting. Like really interesting stuff. Yeah. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's like, it is, it is secretly pillars of Eternity 3. And like, I'm sure it's a fresh start. Right? Like, don't. That shouldn't scare people away from trying this. But like, as someone that loved those two games, I'm actually pretty pumped to see, you know, some character cameos and you know Things like that. I, I, you know, it makes me really interested.

[Justin Davis]

And I think it has more crossover with Super Mario Brothers than it does pillars. Right. Because it takes place in the Mushroom Kingdom. Is that right, Mark?

[Mark Medina]

It's, yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Here's my, here's my, here's my question. When they first showed off about my big qualm was that, yeah, characters were not using a British accent and they're in this fantasy land and they just sound like regular, regular ass Americans in the year 2025. Is that the case in the final game?

[Justin Davis]

About that.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. That's why that guy sounds like a noir character because he sounds like a 30s detective.

[Mark Medina]

The one thing that'll drive you crazy, it drove me crazy, is that, you know, you're the Envoy, but some half the characters call you the Envoy. Like it just switches between the two. Sometimes they'll just be like envoy and then they'll be like envoy and you're like, which is it? I'm afraid to say either now because the comments are going to make fun of me. But they call you both in the game.

[Justin Davis]

So it's Envoy.

[Mark Medina]

It's on point.

[Justin Davis]

There's that book.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, that's the book.

[Damon Hatfield]

Throw the book at him. Well, I will definitely check out about.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

And Justin, report back after you've checked it out as well.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah, I'm gonna love it. I already know. I can already tell.

[Justin Davis]

Hey. Yeah, just real quick. I lost my first game of Civ. I didn't know that there was a lose state. I got to, I made a bunch of planes and I was working towards a rocket to the moon. It was all going great. And then the game ended and it said, you lost. Nobody was fighting me though. I took care of those civilizations.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

But then I looked up in our guide what, what the game is actually about. So my first game of Civilization, I didn't even know there was a win or lose condition. I didn't know what it ended. Turns out it ends like, you know, when you can do rocketry. But yeah, very confusing, extremely confusing game to have played for the first time. And I'm gonna try it again now and see. And I looked up like the paths and I was like, oh, there's an engineering path that I was kind of working on for that last stage, but I couldn't get to it. So I'm gonna try that now.

[Damon Hatfield]

Cool.

[Justin Davis]

Turns out there's more video game than I thought there. But the game, the game didn't bother telling me about any of that.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I mean, you know, in real life, The United States got close ish to a cultural victory. But, you know, things are looking a little bit shaky now in 2025, so we'll see what happens.

[Damon Hatfield]

We're about to discover the loose state for ourselves.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yep.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, let's check in with the listeners.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Hey, listeners.

[Damon Hatfield]

Listeners. Remember, you can always reach us at the email address gamescoopgn.com Just like Kenny did. And Kenny says. Hey, scoop crew. I'm a week behind on releases, but on a recent episode, Damon mentioned wanting to see the instruction manual for Kung Fu Master for Game Boy to verify if the story for the game is as deranged as the Vintage magazine suggested. There are a couple groups that have collated a bunch of the Game Boy instruction manuals. I've attached some images containing the full game manual. I don't think you'll be disappointed. So, yes, this is the third episode in a row I'm bringing up Kung Fu Master for Game Boy. And, Mark, this game you probably have. You didn't hear us talking about it. So before I read you the actual story from the manual, Mark, what happens in, as it was described in an issue of EGM is that you are a Kung Fu master who has to go to the Middle east and attack this ruthless dictator named Daddy Long Legs. Because he's putting. He's putting scorpion juice in the petroleum.

[Mark Medina]

That's what I mean.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's what.

[Mark Medina]

It's all the backstory you need.

[Damon Hatfield]

So here you go. This I'm reading from the instruction manual of Kung Fu Master. This is the story section. Alone again. We're seeing Kung Fu Master alone at his mountain retreat. Super agent Bruce Leap was enjoying. Was enjoying another day well spent. He had remained from dawn to dusk in his secluded cedar logs dojo, sharpening his techniques in the various martial arts. A strict diet of rattlesnakes and iguana stew had served to heighten Leap's confidence and replenish his soul with vigor. Then late last night. Last night, Leap received the top secret and confidential directives from CONTROL Central, which he was expecting. Leap broke the seal, tore into the packaging and retrieved the papers inside. Papers which, for the time being anyway, would decide to.

[Justin Davis]

Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it. There's a masked chainsaw guy just chainsawing Bruce Leap's face right now.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah, I can tell you.

[Justin Davis]

Look at the chainsaw go.

[Damon Hatfield]

I could tell you the name of that. Of that character for the manual. Leap's hunch about the contents of the documents proved right on the money. His boss, the Lieutenant Colonel, was indeed Ordering him across the border, deep into enemy territory, where under the hot desert sun, dangers lurked. For this mission, Leap would have to forego the luxury of the. Turn the page here.

[Mark Medina]

Where are these enemies falling to? Like in his world, the look, he's just on a skinny platform.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, that's true. The luxury of all automatic weapons. In fact, he'd have to rely almost entirely, entirely on his fist to punch and on his feet to kick sinister foes away. He also could not depend on motorized transportation unless he jumped an enemy train. Leap would have to walk the hundreds of miles necessary to reach the pyramid shaped factories of Daddy Long Legs.

[Justin Davis]

See, he's on a train mark. Are you happy now?

[Damon Hatfield]

Factories were a lethal concoction of scorpion juice and petroleum. I feel like this should put. This is the important part. Factories were a lethal concoction of scorpion juice and petroleum was being manufactured with evil intent. Reaching Daddy Long Legs factory is certain.

[Sam Claiborne]

To be a fight filled task.

[Damon Hatfield]

Various bodyguards and goons will strive their utmost to prevent Leap from getting to their master. But get to Daddy Long Legs Leap must.

[Justin Davis]

So. So the scorpion juice addition to the petroleum is not to ruin everybody's gasoline. It's to make a lethal concoction. So it not only burns poisons to hurt people. A lethal concoction.

[Unnamed Speaker]

There's a few. So obviously there's a lot of insanity in that instruction manual. A few things jumped out at me. One, he's practicing the martial arts.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep, the martial arts.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Which ones? Irrelevant. Doesn't matter. He's just practicing them. His favorite ones or some of them.

[Justin Davis]

Well, this one has a very dainty leap. I don't know if you've been watching this.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, when he jumps, it's go with some pirouette.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

And then, and then I. And then I like that he's fighting goons. Like you know, I don't know, I just like that word. I like hired goons.

[Justin Davis]

Hired goons.

[Damon Hatfield]

The levels are laid out. So first you start out in downtown. I don't know what downtown you're in. The stage two is Pyramid Port. There's a port at the pyramids. Then you take the train ride in stage three. Stage four is at Pyramid.

[Mark Medina]

Got it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Pyramid Manufacturing limited.

[Mark Medina]

I mean, I need to say that while you were reading that instruction manual, it seems like he's beat the game. Or at least.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, he's only on Pyramid Manufacturing limited. This is only the third level.

[Mark Medina]

But like how long is this game?

[Damon Hatfield]

The chainsaw guy is called Chainsaw Freddy. That's a little on the nose.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, that's. That's awesome.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I like it.

[Justin Davis]

I like it. I think they. Well, yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Okay.

[Mark Medina]

I like when he jumps backwards.

[Justin Davis]

It should be Chainsaw Jason. Right. We can all agree on that.

[Damon Hatfield]

Here's hoping there's yet another reason to bring up Kung Fu Master for Game Boy next episode for the four people. And that brings us to video game 20 questions. Oh, sorry, what was that?

[Justin Davis]

Well, I just can't wait for the point we get to in reality in which there's little platforms that move across gaps like that that we can take very carefully around a factory.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah, he doesn't. He's not. There's no OSHA in Daddy Long Legs country or an arch that black.

[Mark Medina]

That back was pretty sick.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, that brings us to video game 20 questions. Our suggestion this week comes from Justin from Birmingham, Alabama, the Peach tape. And Justin said, I had no idea this redacted existed. I would be curious if the panel could get there. And like I said in the beginning, I was looking forward to this one. So with that, let the questioning begin.

[Justin Davis]

We've been on losing streak. So I have one question for you, Mark. Are you young enough to still play 20 questions?

[Mark Medina]

I don't know. I've never been. I've always been too old for this game.

[Justin Davis]

Okay.

[Mark Medina]

But I'll give it. I'll give it my best.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Did this game come out in the 70s, 80s or 90s?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Justin Davis]

All right, can we just pick the easy one that we didn't pick from last week?

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah. I feel like part of the redacted is that this must be sort of an unusual sequel or spin off. Is this part of a. Like a long established franchise?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Justin Davis]

Is this published by Sony or Nintendo?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Mark Medina]

Is the franchise like, is there currently games in development or a game in development for it?

[Damon Hatfield]

If there are, they're not relevant to us.

[Unnamed Speaker]

What's that mean for checkout machines?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Okay. Except it's.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Except it's Sony and Nintendo.

[Justin Davis]

It.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Was this game published by Nintendo?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes. That's five.

[Unnamed Speaker]

But not in the 70s, 80s or 90s.

[Mark Medina]

Not relevant to us.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Can you play this game on the Nintendo Switch?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, maybe it's like a Japanese only series in Japan.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I mean, maybe. I don't know. It could mean. Could mean any number of things.

[Mark Medina]

So it was published by Nintendo? That's what we established.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Published by Nintendo from 2000 or later, but not on the Switch.

[Justin Davis]

Does this have 2D graphics?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Justin Davis]

Probably not a Game Boy advance game?

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah. Although there was a couple FPSs on the GBA. But yes. Okay. Did this game originally come out on the. On the GBA DS or 3DS?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Mark Medina]

So we're looking at what we.

[Justin Davis]

We did this come out on a system with we in the title?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. All right.

[Justin Davis]

Was there prime. Was there. Was the main mode of operating this game motion controls?

[Damon Hatfield]

I. I'm not. I cannot answer that one.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Interesting, interesting part. The answer was yes. It's part of a long running series. So it's not something weird like Wii Music or some sort of weird Nintendo Miyamoto flight of Fantasies see something. It's like, I think it's Link's crossbow training.

[Mark Medina]

But it's like if they're making a new one, it's not relevant to us or not.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Like, I'm not trying to met a game Damon on this one. That's like, like here, here's why.

[Mark Medina]

I just don't even know what that means.

[Unnamed Speaker]

But here's why. Here's my line of thought. It's like there's not a new Zelda game announced. Like, is Nintendo going to make another one? Is there going to be another one? Yes, but how do you answer a question like, you know, are they making a new game in this series?

[Mark Medina]

Does this game star somebody on the Smash ultimate roster?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes. That's 10.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Justin Davis]

Star.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Is this game in the Zelda or Mario franchise?

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, let's just say. All right, wait, I mean, I.

[Mark Medina]

It's hard because like Donkey Kong, is he in the Mario franchise? Like, maybe be.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, this game, this particular game is not in the Mario or Zelda franchise.

[Justin Davis]

Does this game have characters from multiple different Nintendo franchises in it?

[Damon Hatfield]

That one's difficult to answer.

[Justin Davis]

Wow. Wow. Hitting a lot of dead ends here.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Do we think this is like Nintendo Land?

[Justin Davis]

No. That would be an obvious yes to that, right?

[Unnamed Speaker]

I mean, I don't, I don't really remember that. I remember it having minigames, but I don't remember if it's got like a bunch of like.

[Mark Medina]

I'm confused by that. There wasn't a yes or no to the motion controls that he just refused.

[Justin Davis]

To answer or that there's characters.

[Damon Hatfield]

Not a refusal. I don't know the answer.

[Mark Medina]

That's what you said.

[Damon Hatfield]

I don't know the answer.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, you don't know. Okay, I thought, I thought you said I can't answer that. I took it as like, I. Okay, I get it. I get it.

[Justin Davis]

I think it didn't count as a question.

[Mark Medina]

Let's see.

[Justin Davis]

Can we. Should we just get this out of the way? If it's a Wii U game.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Sure, sure.

[Justin Davis]

Should we not care? We cannot care about that.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I care. I care.

[Justin Davis]

Okay. Is this a Wii U game?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Okay.

[Mark Medina]

All right.

[Unnamed Speaker]

What if it's.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, what if it's like one of those weather apps or something? Or the Me Plaza app.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah. So original Wii or Wii Fit?

[Justin Davis]

Because that has a Smash. No, but then.

[Unnamed Speaker]

But he said part of the franchise.

[Justin Davis]

Well, specifically Mario.

[Mark Medina]

Well, the Wii Fit Trainer is in Smash.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I mean, so you know.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Donkey on country returns.

[Mark Medina]

You know, Is this a Wii game that when you play it, you use a peripheral other than the Wii Mo or Nunchuck?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Mark Medina]

D.

[Unnamed Speaker]

There's something weird, something hinky is going on here that we're. That we're missing.

[Justin Davis]

Did this game ship as a disk in addition to being probably a downloadable.

[Damon Hatfield]

I don't know about the second part, but it shipped on a disk.

[Justin Davis]

It did.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Okay, maybe Metroid Other M. I think.

[Justin Davis]

These are all too basic.

[Unnamed Speaker]

There is a punch out on the Wii.

[Justin Davis]

Mm.

[Mark Medina]

And what got us to Wii but that we eliminated? Oh, I guess because I was gonna say GameCube, but I guess he would know that. A GameCube.

[Justin Davis]

Well, we asked if it had the Wii in the name and we eliminated Wii U.

[Mark Medina]

Got it. Okay.

[Unnamed Speaker]

A Nintendo published Wii game. Like, we definitely. We definitely should be able to get this. There's. There's Punch out. There's Metroid Other M. Did this game have Wii?

[Justin Davis]

Oh, wait, I can't. I don't know if we can ask this, but does this game have we in the title?

[Damon Hatfield]

It does not. And that's 15.

[Justin Davis]

Jeez.

[Unnamed Speaker]

There was a. There was a what? Like an Excite Truck or something like that on the Wii or whatever it was. And the character, it stars a character that's in Smash. We can definitely get.

[Justin Davis]

I don't know why he would know that. It doesn't have cross character characters in it. There was that weird game that was specifically about cross characters that was like Tomodachi Life. No, it was like you played Tingle or something on an island and there was like Birdo is in it and it's like a fever dream Japanese game.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They made a what? They made like a board game, but not Mario Party.

[Justin Davis]

Well, that's called Fortune Street.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Fortune Street? Is that not what you're referring to now?

[Justin Davis]

I'm referring to a Japanese only game.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Is it helpful to know if this is sports?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I can, I can. I can now answer the question. Does it feature characters from multiple Nintendo franchises?

[Unnamed Speaker]

If you like, does it cost us a question.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Well, wasn't it. Wasn't it? Are they from the Mario or Zelda universe?

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, that's. That was the question, or.

[Justin Davis]

Well, no, no, no. That was a different question, and you answered affirmatively.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, the answer. You somehow asked if it was if it featured games from multiple Nintendo franchises. I know the answer now.

[Mark Medina]

Okay. Yeah, let's hear it.

[Justin Davis]

Well, just Justin doesn't want to hear it.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I mean, I don't care. It doesn't help me, like, narrow things down, but if it helps you guys.

[Justin Davis]

Narrow it down, then it doesn't help me. I, I. Fortune Street's an interesting proposition, but that wouldn't be an ongoing series, but maybe it would be, and it's not relevant.

[Unnamed Speaker]

To us, so there's. There's a. There's a couple Kirby games on the Wii. Oh, wait. No, we know it's. We know it's Mario or Zelda, right?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

I don't know what Fortune street is.

[Justin Davis]

It's a. It's a board game that. That was based on a series that involves the Mario characters, but that series is, like an independent thing that's happened, but only one of them's ever come out here.

[Unnamed Speaker]

There's a WarioWare on the Wii.

[Justin Davis]

Should we just deploy the hack and then go from there?

[Unnamed Speaker]

What is it? Have we mentioned this game? I have mentioned a lot of weird games.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Still narrow it down a little bit.

[Justin Davis]

Have we mentioned this game yet, Damon?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, it probably.

[Justin Davis]

I think you got it. I think you got it with Fortune Street.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Did Nintendo publish that?

[Justin Davis]

Well, I don't know. Is this a board game?

[Damon Hatfield]

It is a board game.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Okay. Okay. Do we still have a question left? And then a guest.

[Damon Hatfield]

You have two questions, and I guess.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Okay, so is there some reason why it can't be a Mario Party?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, because Mario Party, Mario Party of Orson street, they're. They're still in development, and they're absolutely relevant to us.

[Justin Davis]

1. Just ask if it's a Mario Party game. We have. We have a question.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Is it a game in the Mario Party franchise?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Okay. Okay. Yeah, it's fortunate.

[Justin Davis]

How many. How many more questions?

[Mark Medina]

We have one more question in the game. So how do we narrow down Fortune?

[Justin Davis]

So here's. I played Fortune Stream. I own it. I remember there being dice rolls. I remember it having Waluigi in it.

[Mark Medina]

We could just do a stupid hack and be like, are we mentioning the game right now?

[Justin Davis]

No. No, I can't do that. No. Yeah, I think we. We. I don't know. I don't know what else to do. Can you think of anything else? I. I think we just need to end this. But like, that's probably what it is.

[Mark Medina]

Anything about it?

[Unnamed Speaker]

I don't know. What is it? Just called Fortune Street. I know there's a bunch of them.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it was called like for Fortune Street 3, the Revenge of Shinobi.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Just do it. Just do it. Sam.

[Justin Davis]

Is this Fortune Street?

[Damon Hatfield]

It sure as hell is known as Itadaki street in Japan. And there's lots. And it goes all the way back to the Super Nintendo. And I think they're still being released today. Just not here. That's why it's not relevant to us.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah. I. I don't know what this is at all.

[Damon Hatfield]

And do you know?

[Justin Davis]

So it's Stella and Rose.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's characters from the Super Mario franchise, but no, no Zelda characters. So they're all Super Mario. But it also shares characters from a Square Enix franchise. Do you remember which one, Sam?

[Justin Davis]

Parasite Eve.

[Damon Hatfield]

No. Dragon Quest. So it's a. It's a Monopoly like board game.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, yeah, y'all, you should have asked.

[Mark Medina]

Me that one second later right there.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah. Like board game where with character. With Mario characters and Dragon Quest characters.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Cool.

[Damon Hatfield]

Localized Fortune street right here. Yeah, we gave it a seven out of.

[Justin Davis]

Very interesting game. Not a bad game. Did I make you play this with me in a.

[Damon Hatfield]

Not this.

[Justin Davis]

One of our capture bands.

[Damon Hatfield]

We played Mario Party, not this one.

[Justin Davis]

Okay.

[Damon Hatfield]

Interesting little footnote. Yeah, that's Justin's redacted was. I had no idea this Mario game existed.

[Justin Davis]

Now I just saw Wario. But I do remember Waluigi being in that. I wonder that accurate. Look at that Wii logo. Oh, I miss it.

[Mark Medina]

Yep.

[Damon Hatfield]

Mario Luigi, Yoshi, Bowser Toad, Donkey Kong, Wario, Waluigi, Princess Daisy, Birdo, Diddy Kong, Bowser Jr. And Princess Peach. We're all in the game.

[Justin Davis]

Do you remember that Birdo game I'm talking about? It's called. It was called like Captain something.

[Damon Hatfield]

A Birdo game.

[Justin Davis]

Captain Rainbow or something like that. It was like a. It was set on an island and it was for Wii and it had like Tingle and Birdo and it's a game.

[Unnamed Speaker]

This. The Wikipedia page says Fortune street was known as Boom street in Europe and Australia.

[Justin Davis]

Captain Rainbow. That's what it's called. Look. Look at. Look up. Captain Rainbow. It's a Nintendo game and you're like on this island, you explore it and it has like a bunch of Nintendo characters in it. Weird Devil World and stuff.

[Mark Medina]

I like how that guy runs well.

[Damon Hatfield]

Nicely job and thank you for the suggestion, Justin. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for a video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address game scoop.com and that's all the scoops that we have for you this week. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Justin. Thank you, Mark. Thank you to everyone working behind the scenes here in our LA studio to make this episode possible. My name is Damon. This is IGN gamescoop. And we're out. Oh, it's raining really hard again. I can hear it.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Sa.

[F]

Listening to a podcast should be time well spent, and I promise it will be if you'll give this podcast a try. It's called Something you should know. I'm the host, Mike Carruthers, and in every episode I talk with leading experts on topics I know you will find fascinating from why people can't keep secrets, what your favorite music says about you, why your pet acts in strange ways, and so much more. Something you should know is designed to give you information you can use in your life and give you great intel that you can share with others. I'm told it's a binge worthy podcast and with over a thousand episodes, there's a lot to binge on. Something you should know has been ranked in the top of the Apple podcast charts consistently for a long time. I know you're gonna like this. I just need to get you to try it. Something you should Know. It's available wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Mark Medina]

Contained herein are the heresies of Radolph Bantwine, erstwhile monk turned traveling medical investigator. Join me as I study the secrets of the divine plagues and uncover the blasphemous truths that ours is not a loving God and we are not its favored children. The heresies of Redolf Bantwine. Wherever podcasts are available.