NVIDIA DLSS 5 Pisses Off Everyone - Kinda Funny Games Daily 03.17.26

Summary

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Kinda Funny Games Daily 03.17.26 NVIDIA DLSS 5 Pisses Off Everyone

Date: March 17, 2026
Hosts: Greg Miller & Andy Cortez
Podcast: Kinda Funny Games Daily

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Episode Overview

This St. Patrick's Day episode dives into the explosive reaction to NVIDIA's DLSS 5 announcement, highlighting controversy around AI-driven visual 'enhancements' in major games. Greg and Andy break down why gamers—and especially artists—are upset, discuss broader tech trends, field a range of hot takes from the community, and round up news about Starfield, PlayStation Portal, Nintendo Switch updates, and more.

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Main Discussion: NVIDIA DLSS 5 Controversy

1. Announcement & Context

[08:00 - 10:30]

• NVIDIA at GTC announces DLSS 5, claiming it brings "real-time neural rendering" for photorealistic graphics via AI, landing Fall 2026.
• Supported by major publishers (Bethesda, Ubisoft, Capcom, etc.) and featured in upcoming titles (Starfield, Oblivion Remastered, Resident Evil Requiem, etc.).
• NVIDIA's pitch: "DLSS5 will redefine graphical realism, bridging the gap between in-game graphics and Hollywood-level visuals."
• Internet reaction: Overwhelmingly negative, with widespread accusations of AI 'filters' ruining game visuals.

Quote [11:04]:

“DLSS5’s effect will be under our artist’s control and totally optional for players.”
— Bethesda's response to IGN on Starfield

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2. Backlash & Critical Reception

[10:30 - 14:40]

• Media headlines:
  • IGN: "NVIDIA announces DLSS 5 injecting even more AI into games"
  • Kotaku: "New NVIDIA DLSS tech gives characters AI slop faces"
  • GameSpot: "Everyone’s laughing at DLSS 5’s Yassify filter"
• Audience reaction: Massive mockery, especially at "slop faces" in Starfield and Hogwarts Legacy demos.

Greg [14:24]:

"As one of the co-founders of this company, right, this video sucks. Period. End of statement. No way to defend it... This has gotta be the worst way to fucking show this."

• NVIDIA pins clarifying comments on their own announcement videos, insisting devs keep full control and it’s “not a filter.”

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3. Technical Details & Artistic Concerns

[21:39 - 23:29]

• Andy:
  • Equates DLSS 5’s effect to Midjourney/AI deepfakes—an "uncanny, ugly look" especially on faces.
  • Warns it disrespects artists and overrides their labor.

Andy [17:22]:

"It just gives me the vibe of during the pandemic... what if Lord of the Rings was an 80s movie? ... It's still images that are kind of moving a little bit. That's what it looks like to me."

• Greg references NVIDIA’s FAQ: Developers have tools for masking and tuning the effect, but the showcase erased unique artistry and aesthetic choices.
• Key concern: Inconsistent look between “with DLSS5 on” and “off,” with AI making characters look like celebrities or generic faces—a possible IP nightmare.

Greg [25:50]:

“What the fuck are we talking about? ... The way you’re cranking it up is making it look like the AI slop we’re all sick of seeing on our social media.”

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4. Mixed Industry Responses

[12:40 - 13:01, 26:01 - 27:03]

• Some dev support:
  • JP Kellums (Platinum Games, ex-Capcom) tweet: Calls critics “insane,” argues it’s a leap like going from candles to electricity.
• Andy counters: Writing isn’t art direction; artists are being overridden.
• Community sentiment:
  • Many compare the faces to deepfakes or Instagram beautify filters—heavy uncanny valley.
  • Speculation about AI "training on porn," causing gender/race bias in outputs.

Andy [27:03]:

"DLSS5 on just looks like it’s, you know, it’s a PNG face with the mouth hole cut out and the eyes cut out and it’s just like a puppet thing kind of moving and it just doesn’t feel right."

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5. Potential Uses & Final Thoughts

[29:51 - 36:40]

• Backgrounds vs. Faces:

  • Some acknowledge potential for improving background objects/textures but overwhelming consensus: AI should NOT touch faces or main characters.
  • Resource concerns: Demo required two RTX 5090s—costly and unrealistic for consumers.

• Public opinion & future adoption:

  • Andy’s initial “yuck” persists; unless devs radically tune it, gamers/artists will resist.
  • Greg: "Prove it's cool. Use it in a way that I go, damn, that is better right where it's (...). Opinions change each and every day. ... Right now, this was a horrible way to show it, but let's see what happens in the fall when it launches."

Andy [39:15]:

"It looks fake and off to me... If you disagree, everybody’s got different tastes, you know... but I just... that stuff looks awful to me and so does the majority of what’s happening with the faces here."

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• "Wrong kind of buzz" [19:50] – On NVIDIA using an unflattering Starfield character comparison for the demo.
• "Let the artist create the art. That’s what makes art special. Fuck AI." [29:51] – Listener super chat, echoed by hosts.

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Important Timestamps

• 05:57 – Show proper starts, St. Patrick’s banter
• 08:00 – DLSS 5 press release & rundown
• 14:24 – Greg’s blunt reaction
• 17:22 – Andy’s detailed visual critique
• 21:39 – Industry tech evolution context
• 27:03 – Uncanny Valley faces criticism
• 29:51 – Audience and panelist: “Let the artist create the art.”
• 36:40 – Andy's take on tech understanding vs. "yuck" reaction
• 39:51 – Final summary and ‘wait and see’ stance

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Additional News Highlights

Starfield Updates & PS5 Release

[50:00 - 55:30]

• Major DLC ("Terran Armada", "Freelance", "Trackers Alliance") arriving April 7; Starfield launches on PlayStation 5.
• Greg: "If you like Starfield, you'll like this. If you didn't, this won't change your mind."

Embark Studios Co-founder Exits Amid Allegations

[45:33 - 50:24]

• Arc Raiders/The Finals studio co-founder Rob Runson leaves after sexual misconduct allegations—investigation “did not substantiate,” but deemed situation “unsustainable.”

The Last of Us Season 3 Updates

[55:30 - 56:21]

• New casting announcements, focus shifts toward Abby storyline.

Nintendo Switch 2 + PlayStation Portal Updates

[56:21 - 57:56]

• Switch: Handheld mode boost to run games at TV mode quality.
• PlayStation Portal: New 1080p high quality mode, refined cloud streaming.

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Tone and Community

• The tone is irreverent, often comedic but passionate, especially discussing art vs. AI in game visuals.
• Strong language and candid opinions, true to Kinda Funny’s brand.

Closing Remarks

The DLSS 5 story dominates the episode—hosts are clear: AI can be a useful tool, but this rollout disrespected artists and failed to inspire confidence. Both demand future tech demos strike a better balance between technical advancement and honoring game artistry.

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For further details and in-depth Starfield coverage, stick around for the Kinda Funny Gamescast and check out their YouTube/patreon for ad-free shows and more.

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Transcript

[Greg Miller]

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[Andy Cortez]

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[Greg Miller]

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[Andy Cortez]

Just so many good brands. Join the Nordy Club to unlock exclusive discounts. Shop new arrivals first and more. Plus buy online and pick up at your favorite Rack store for free. Great brands, great prices.

[Greg Miller]

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[Andy Cortez]

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[Greg Miller]

Your candy stache just got an upgrade with fruity rainbow 5 hour energy shots. Grab the shot. Dive into that sweet boost for your sweet tooth. Order now at 5hourenergy.com or Amazon. Today in the nerdy news you need to know about. Nvidia DLSS5 pisses off everyone. There's a ton of Starfield news and there's a fresh update for both the PlayStation Portal and the Nintendo Switch 2. We'll have all this and more because this is kind of funny. Games Daily. Oh my Shillelagh. What's up, everybody? Welcome to Kinda Funny Games daily for St. Patty's Day, Tuesday, March 17. I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller, alongside the Hispanic heartthrob Texas Street Latino Heat Clicking heads, ripping them to shreds. The globe Trotting Head shotten Rootin Tootin three point shooting Nitro rifle from Twitch tv.

[Andy Cortez]

Andy Cortez didn't miss a beat. Is that why everybody's home from school?

[Greg Miller]

No. I don't know. I don't know why they have the school the day off in San Francisco, but. No, it can't be. It was not that.

[Andy Cortez]

Okay, Kevin, why.

[Greg Miller]

Why would people be home from school today?

[Andy Cortez]

I don't think that's the case. Oh, okay. He just disagrees. Okay.

[Greg Miller]

I don't know. Is. What is. Is Alyssa home?

[Andy Cortez]

I think so, yeah. Or maybe. You know what? Maybe Bear just hadn't left yet. Maybe he was still in the bedroom.

[Greg Miller]

Maybe that's what happened. Right. In that case, a closed bedroom door to me. Everybody off of school.

[Andy Cortez]

Everybody's off from school. Yeah. No, but I'll. No. I'll also tell you what people are saying.

[Greg Miller]

It's spring break.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh.

[Greg Miller]

Ben has spring break April 6, so I don't currently on spring break.

[Andy Cortez]

I think it's spring break in some parts of Texas because my nephew is. Is at my dad's house. And I said, hey, I will pay you 50 bucks if you beat Returnal this week.

[Greg Miller]

Okay?

[Andy Cortez]

Just like. And I'm gonna pay you to stop playing the other games, you know, nephew's 14.

[Greg Miller]

Okay. Okay. Yeah, okay.

[Andy Cortez]

Okay.

[Greg Miller]

Okay. Well, within this.

[Andy Cortez]

And so I was like, you know, trying to give him a little challenge, you know, See what you got. See if you got what it takes, you know?

[Greg Miller]

Now I hate to say it. Andy.

[Andy Cortez]

What's up?

[Greg Miller]

You're not wearing green. Come here.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, no, no, no. He got me. I forgot it was today.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Dang.

[Greg Miller]

Ben introduced it of like. Oh, yeah. He's cognizant of St. Patrick's Day.

[Andy Cortez]

Really?

[Greg Miller]

Over the weekend, we had to make the leprechaun trap because Ben had concocted this thing that he could trap the leprechaun and the leprechaun would leave him a gift. I was like, you know what?

[Andy Cortez]

That's somebody.

[Greg Miller]

I guess so, sir. So we made a leprechaun trap.

[Andy Cortez]

That's not the. We left a little gold coin out there.

[Greg Miller]

Leprechaun came, left 20 bucks.

[Andy Cortez]

Wow. Okay.

[Greg Miller]

Next year.

[Andy Cortez]

Little scheme he set up.

[Greg Miller]

I know, right? But then it was like then of

[Andy Cortez]

course, Jen gotta catch the Easter bun.

[Greg Miller]

Last night Jen was like, oh, Jesus Christ. Jen made sure that I did everything last night. And then this morning she got up and she put little clovers all over the table, like little, little clovers from outside. And then she put green dye in the toilet. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. Then I dropped Ben off at school and his teacher was like, ben, do you want to show. Go inside and show your dad what's happening. There were leprechaun poops and green stuff all the way to the bathroom that had green dye in there and green soap as well.

[Andy Cortez]

I don't like.

[Greg Miller]

I wore the starfield jacket because I wanted to celebrate Starfield, but it's so hot today.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, it's pretty warm.

[Greg Miller]

Very hot in San Francisco.

[Andy Cortez]

We got that little heat wave going on.

[Greg Miller]

Of course we have a lot of news to get into because this is kind of Funny Games daily. Each and every weekday we run you through the nerdy news you need to know about live on Twitch TV. Kind of FunnyGames YouTube.com Kind of FunnyGames podcast services around the globe. If you're watching live super chat on YouTube.com kinda funnygames to be part of the show with your thoughts, your opinions and everything else under the video game sun. Maybe about Nvidia DLSS5. Maybe about other things. Things nostalgic says happy St. Patrick's Day from Ireland.

[Andy Cortez]

Kind of wow. The home of St. Patrick all the way over there.

[Greg Miller]

Great job over there. He drove out the snakes, you know. And then Arturo Tron Robo bartender already. Super chats is my hot take. Prediction DLSS 6 is just Marlago face. Mar a Largo face.

[Andy Cortez]

Mar a Lago.

[Greg Miller]

What's Mar a Largo? I know Mar a Lago, obviously.

[Andy Cortez]

What's Mar a Mar a Lago Face is that once you get close enough with the Mar a Lago, you know, community with the Marlo with President Trump. Yeah, yeah, you're that. You start to just like. It's fillers and.

[Greg Miller]

Ah. Okay, okay.

[Andy Cortez]

Laura Loomer. You know, all these names got. They got some syllables on them.

[Greg Miller]

We couldn't do this without our patreon producers on patreon.com kindafunny so thank you, Carl Jacobs, Omega, Buster and Delaney. The Psalm Twining for now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the rope report. Time for some new six items on the rope report. Number one, Nvidia DLSS5 pisses off everyone. Kevin, there's a video there if you want to just run on repeat while people look at this. Even though I'm sure you saw it on the Internet, maybe you didn't. We will read the press release, of course, from Nvidia itself. Today at GTC, Nvidia announced DLSS5 arriving in the fall, the most significant breakthrough in computer graphics since the debut of real time ray tracing in 2018. DLSS 5 introduces a real time neutral rendering model that infuses pixels with photoreal lighting and materials, bridging the divide between rendering and reality. DLSS 5 empowers game developers to deliver a new level of photo real computer graphics previously only achieved in Hollywood visual effects. DLSS 5 takes a game's color and motion vectors for each frame as input and uses an AI model to infuse the scene with photoreal lighting and materials that are anchored to source 3D content and consistent from frame to frame. DLSS5 runs in real time at up to 4K resolution for smooth interactive gameplay. DLSS5 will arrive this fall and be supported by the industry's biggest publishers and game developers including Bethesda Castle, Capcom, hata Studio, NetEase, NCsoft S Game, Tencent, Ubisoft, and Warner Brothers Games. DLSS 5 will come to games including Aeon 2, Assassin's Creed Shadows, Black State, Cinder City, Delta Force, Hogwarts Legacy, Justice, Naraka, Blade, Porn, nte, Neverness To Everness, Phantom Blade Zero, Resident Evil, Requiem, Sea of Remnants, Starfield, the Elder Scrolls, Oblivion Remastered, Where Winds Meet, and more okay audience, if you're an audio listener, you might not have seen the video that went alongside this announcement that Kevin is looping right now and doing a great job, which goes from DLSS5 on or off to on to show how much they're putting into it. The way the Internet would break it down for you, of course, is that so many people looked at this and said it looks like they're just putting AI filters on everything. It looks like AI technology. The headlines from the around the Internet yesterday pulled no punches. IGN wrote Nvidia announces DLSS 5 injecting even more AI into games Kotaku New Nvidia DLSS tech gives characters AI slop faces GameSpot everyone's laughing at the new look of DLSS 5's Yassify filter. This spread like wildfire yesterday. Wildfire to the point that when you watch the video Nvidia went through and pinned a comment that read Important to note. With this technology, advanced game developers have full, detailed artistic control over DLSS5's effects to ensure they maintain their game's unique aesthetic. The SDK includes things like intensify color grading and masking off places where the effect shouldn't be applied. It is not a filter. DLSS5 inputs the game's color and motion vectors for each frame into the model, anchoring the output in the source 3D content. On top of that they put up a DLSS5 FAQ that we might pull from or might not, but it's there if we need it. Then on top of that it the reaction was so fucking fired up. As we look at the Starfield footage right here, Bethesda responded to IGN Vicky Blake at IGN writes, Bethesda has committed to quote unquote further adjusting the lighting and final effect of Nvidia's controversial this happened yesterday is controversial DLSS5 visuals on Starfield after fans strongly criticized the game's AI like faces when the controversial new technology was applied. That was. That was one sentence that used controversial twice. Good job, Vicki. Countless fans have left comments slamming the quote, unquote AI generated slope visuals demonstrated by Nvidia and Starfield and a range of other blockbuster games including Oblivion Remastered, Assassin's Creed Shadows and Resident Evil Requiem, calling it an AI filter that players, quote, unquote don't want. Nvidia announced DLSS5 yesterday and dubbed and they dubbed it, quote, the GPT moment for graphics. Quote we appreciate your excitement.

[Andy Cortez]

Where you want to be nowadays.

[Greg Miller]

Exactly. We appreciate your quote, appreciate your excitement Analysis of the new DLSS5 lighting here. This is a very early look and our art teams will be further adjusting the lighting in final effect to look the way we think works best for each game, end quote. The company said it also stressed, quote this will be under our artist's control and totally optional for players, end quote. Again, this is, I believe, Bethesda responding because they're the one talking to Vicki there, right? The latter comment stems from complaints that from players that DLSS5 essentially overlays AI generated graphics over the original, with some calling it, quote it insult to your own artists, end quote and pleading quote, please don't subject your art teams to this, end quote. We could jump in there, but in the interest of presenting even more information to this argument over at WCCF Tech, Alessio Palumbo had one an article that was basically not everyone hates this. He recapped everything that's going on and then goes. However, the tech demo also has plenty of supporters. Plenty of supporters, period. One of them is Jean Pierre Kellums, a veteran game developer who started his career working localization and game writing at Capcom on titles like Devil May Cry four, God Hand, A Bionic Commando. He then joined Platinum Games, et cetera, et cetera. He's done a bunch of stuff. Kellums didn't mince words. In a tweeted response to the anti DLSS5 folks, all you guys roasting DLSS5 like it doesn't look better is detracing from the art direction are absolutely insane. The lighting and shading improvements are bonkers. If that was shown as a next gen hardware reveal and not quote unquote AI, you guys would be going nuts. Like the Watch Dogs demo. I get that some very vocal people don't like AI, but guess what? Technology doesn't care if you like it. It's a tool. AI isn't coming. It is here. Just this morning my oncologist was telling me all the ways it is helping cancer treatment and research.

[Andy Cortez]

Okay, you can't use that car. That's unfair. That's very unfair.

[Greg Miller]

Back to the reporter. Kellums then highlighted that AI based technologies could enable marginalized creators to make their dreams a reality. He admitted the transition is likely to be painful for some people, but likened it to similar technological transitions in the past. Like going from candles to electricity, from landlines to cell phones and in from mail to email. Andy. Hey Greg, I have kicked the hornet's nest here. Let all this information out so we can talk about it. However, you know how this show usually works. You as a listener, audio person knows how it usually works. Usually the host number one reads a bunch of shit then turns the host number two and says what do you think I wanted to start instead of giving a right to you to address, I would consider an elephant in the room. Yesterday in our subreddit whenever he was talking about this I saw it come up in the comments. Nvidia has been a great sponsor to kinda funny for quite some time. As you saw they just did the Resident Evil Requiem stream, right? Kicking us off there. And we're always showing off Nvidia tech and doing these different things because Andy and the visual triangle support it so much in that startup. Thank you much. That said, of course we would never be hampered by a sponsoring what it is. And so to start this conversation, well

[Andy Cortez]

first off we have like I need a, maybe a visual meter. Maybe we can get like a UI element in post processing for whoever's editing this later when, okay, that's how we

[Greg Miller]

get to this video.

[Andy Cortez]

We'll get a like a meter of like. Like we have to be above this

[Greg Miller]

meanness to make people Happy?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, no, yeah, we have.

[Greg Miller]

Kevin, please. I want you to loop this thing the entire time we're going, if you don't mind, to start from the top. As one of the co founders of the company, right. This video sucks. Period. End of statement. No way to defend it. I think as we get into this conversation, start going, there's a lot to talk about.

[Andy Cortez]

We.

[Greg Miller]

Where I think I come down of, okay, cool. You're giving developers another tool to use in the Nvidia set. I'm not against that, but this has gotta be the worst way to fucking show this. To come out and be like, yes, all the AI slot bullshit you see on your Instagram feed. We're making the games look like that. And to not have given handcrafted. We went in Starfield. Like the fact that even Bethesda's like, ah, blah, blah to do to jump in here and have the people who are watching the Resident Evil thing, she looks different frame to frame, like, what are we? Like, this is. You should have come in with a curated touch if you wanted to make everyone go, wow, this could be really, really cool.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I, I definitely don't disagree. I was working from home yesterday, still sick, and saw the video go up from Digital Foundry and It was about 10 minutes into going up and me seeing DLSS 5 and going, Holy, what? Like, we just did a sponsor stream for 4.5. I got to watch this. Yeah, Watched it all and immediately just commented, yuck. And I was like this. I, I don't like what this is seeming to do. And all of the, you know, everybody from Nvidia and people who were there saying, no, no, no, it's not doing anything to the geometry underneath. It's not changing the 3D models. And to me that doesn't, that doesn't really matter because it's essentially doing like this. What feels like from three years ago when everybody, when Mid Journey was like the hot sort of neural network thing and everybody would put through Mid Journey, how would Walter White look in Dragon Ball Z? And like that, you know, or, you know, whatever sort of fantasy scenario people come up with and put up tick tocks or whatever. And that's the look that it has. It's a very uncanny, ugly look. And, and that's. Everybody has different visual tastes. Of course there are going to be people in some chats that say, I like the way it looks better and I prefer the way it looks in Starfield. To me, I don't. I think it looks really bad. I think it looks like whenever to Me, it looks like a projected PNG on a 3D model's face that is just kind of, you know, puppeting. I. I need to see it in more motion. I need to see a lot of light movement. I need to see things that would

[Greg Miller]

like, show me if you can pause here. Ke and this Hogwarts Legacy one is the one that is like the most for me, egregious, where it's like this woman, like, I've literally seen that like Instagram, like bring your old photos to life with grandma. She's like, this is the one. You're like, really? This. You thought was going to drive home the point that this is something that's cool, that we should be excited for.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. Kevin, if you could. If you could bring up the tweet that I posted. I put it. Put it in Assets yesterday. But it just gives me the vibe of during the pandemic when mid journey and all these AI things were popping off, people were making what if Lord of the rings was an 80s movie? Or what if Harry Potter was an 80s fashion movie? And it's just a bunch of like, it's still images that are kind of moving a little bit to fake that There is a 3D aspect there.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And that's what it looks like to me. I need first off, to give Nvidia just like the tiniest bit of slack. We were looking at a processed YouTube video of a processed upload of a processed phone camera view on some of those footages, like the Starfield or the. The Oblivion ones. Right. And those are the ones the big

[Greg Miller]

video, not the video we've been.

[Andy Cortez]

Right, right, right.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Like, this video is like a direct video, obviously. And like, I still have a lot of issues with it. Yeah. But I. It. What it's. To me, what it looks like it's doing is here's what we approximate a human has looked like in this similar lighting. Let's use. It looks like it's scraping what a human face could look like in lighting situations like this.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

In the Starfield one with the two characters right there. I think that one is like maybe one of the more egregious ones because of how not on the. They look photoshopped in. They're. They're. The color grading completely changes Again. A lot of this is. We are doing this to test things out.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

These are not final looks. This is what could be possible. But you know, if you want to generate headlines and if you want to generate excitement or just buzz, period, in my opinion, I feel like it was a very calculated move to have that Grace Ashcroft sort of before and after. I think it's a very calculated move on their point on their part.

[Greg Miller]

Here's the one of the most popular games at this moment to show the

[Andy Cortez]

before and after and have her in the after look like when all of the, you know, weird weirdo chuds are like, make her hotter, here's the aloy. Aloy should be hotter. Here's how she should be. Here's this, you know, this 14 year old girl isn't hot enough. Let me make her hotter in this filter. You know, that's like what they do. I that thing felt like a very calculated move to generate buzz.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, wrong kind of buzz problem.

[Andy Cortez]

These companies are trying to create buzz and if they don't generate enough excitement then those shareholders go, oh, you know what, that new thing, maybe I don't want to buy too much into it this time. Maybe I want to drop here and there. Like when we have leaks from an upcoming Apple's like Worldwide Developers Conference and the leaks come out and people go dang, that's what they're releasing and then you see stock prices drop because maybe things aren't exciting enough.

[Greg Miller]

Sure.

[Andy Cortez]

To me it's like I don't really know what you could do a whole lot at this point with DLSS to like aside from just make things better and you know, more efficient. But that doesn't create headlines. This creates headlines, this creates buzz. They are dominating everything. For better or for worse. Mostly for worse. Now granted there are some people who still like the look of it like I was mentioning earlier, Greg, and to me that is a matter of taste. I think you all are completely wrong for thinking that things, these things look better. I mean I think that if you think these, these things look better, you're also probably putting, you know, real life movie, Dragon Ball Z, real life movies, south park and you know, and you're getting super stoked about how what the results are being farted out at you. Like I, I think it looks really bad. I think it was a terrible choice to choose to, to focus on characters so much because of how much things are changing.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I think one of the things I saw in that WCCF tech report, they talked to another or they had polls from another person who had seen it in real life and they were calling out how paper towels and cups in the background suddenly looks so much more real and stuff. And I think that would give you way more leniency of like, oh, maybe this is something that could be Cool. Rather than coming in and dramatically changing everything. I want to and I want to keep this. We're going to talk about this for a long time today, obviously.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I mean like when we talk about the way textures and materials and all those things change, you know, you're about to make me do the. Back in my day, Greg, we used to take photos of textures. We used to take a photo of a cool rock, rock wall and we put it into Photoshop and we would make it seamless so that it tiled correctly so that you could put that texture on polygons to correctly display the way the rocks look. And then, you know, new technology gets invented and now there's photogrammetry where it's all this like, you know, you have companies like Marmoset and I'm thinking of Z Painter. No, it's Z Brushes. I'm blanking on the name of them. But it's like we have gigatons and terabytes of libraries of textures and all this stuff. So you don't have to do that anymore. And those are like thing. Those are ways that the industry does kind of get pushed forward and makes things a bit more easily available for everybody. So you're not always like I would back in the day, constantly Google the same metal rusted texture when I was making bullshit 3D objects, you know, like that all that stuff becomes a little bit more, you know, available to everybody. Things become easier. Now it all is up to the developer on how much they want to implement this stuff. I, I hate the way it looks. I think a lot of people hate the way it looks. I don't think we will see games really utilize a whole lot of this in a serious way. Like I don't know if we'll see a game. Let me look like that.

[Greg Miller]

I want to come in real quick because we're. You're touching on a few things I want to bring in, right? Dexter, super chat and says. Super chats and says DLSS 5. Such a major disrespect to the artists who put all their efforts just to make their work look worse. Also that's about Starfield. Don't worry about that. And I want to jump over to their. What you're talking about.

[Andy Cortez]

That was some Starfield standard. We can't hear that.

[Greg Miller]

No, no, no, no, no. He then pivots. Also looking forward to Starfield and PS5. Greg's enthusiast. I'm like, we'll get to Starfield in a second. Don't worry about it. You got a whole gamescast coming up with me and I'm learning out about what we saw in Bethesda. Doesn't matter anyways, there's that take and then I want to jump to the FAQ and come back to you as the artist part of it. All right. In the FAQ, Nvidia writes, How does DLSS5 ensure image quality is consistent with the artist's intent? DLSS5 honors artistic intent in two ways. One, inputting the game's color and motion vectors for each frame into a model. Anchoring the output in the source 3D content. Two, by providing developers with detailed controls such as intensity and color grading. Artists can use these controls to adjust blending, contrast, saturation and gamma and determine where and how enhancements are applied to maintain the game's unique aesthetic. Developers can also mask objects. We talk a little bit about this. Mask specific objects or areas to be excluded from enhancements. Me back to I think this was the worst way to show something that might be cool. I don't know. And this is not me carrying water for Nvidia, but I don't know. We had a whole conversation yesterday about the difference between AI and generative AI. There's got. There are good uses for AI. I don't think Microsoft co Pilot is it. But again that was yesterday's show. Go watch that. You jump back in here and I think that's what's so off putting about this is that you're showing us this and scrubbing what the art style of the game looks like. And so to sit there and to go back to the game we all know so well. Resident Reckley at the very beginning Kev to sit there and have the idea that I could play this game and have Grace look like she looks with it off and you on your supercomputer rig could go play it with it on and have her look like dlss. That's like. That is crazy of like what the fuck are we talking about? Because this doesn't look like that character DLSS5 on doesn't look like the one we just saw in terms of it. I have so many super chats people comparing it to Scarlett JOHANSSON J DUBLIN. DLSS 5 made Grace look like a combo of Amber Heard and Vanessa Kirby. Which leads me to ask where's the AI pulling from and if it pulls from celebrities, how is that not going to end up in lawsuits? We're into a million different questions looking off of what this tech demo here but it's like I don't know how you show this and if you're cranking it all up right now to show how dramatic it can be. But the way you're cranking it up is making it look like the AI slop we're all sick of seeing on our social media.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. And I, I think if I'm, if I'm in their mindset, first off, it, you know, when I, when I read that comment or you know, earlier you read that comment from, who was it? This is from the developer. John. Yeah. JP Kellums, veteran developer who started his career in localization game writing, who's like, hey man, this, this shit rocks. Be like, yeah, well you're not an artist like you, you work in game localization and game writing. Yeah. And I as an artist see this and go, okay, well that's, that's kind of just overriding everything I did anyway.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And all of that stuff would be accounted for in the development process. You would know. I input this, this is what the filter then does to it.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

I, you know, if I mask this as human face, here's how it's going to look now. It still does just look like floating PNG face. And it's so uncanny to me and I need to see more movement to, to feel like. Okay. To feel more comfortable with it.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Because where it stands right now, I think maybe the Leon shot is the part that I feel the least, the least. Yeah. The least egregious. But everything else just looks like a floating PNG face with pre, pre rendered shading and lighting and nothing else sort of changes. Like there's that one shot later on in the other video in the, in the Digital Foundry video from oblivion.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And there's a moment where the care. I mean, they even massacred Lucy James npc. You know, like that's the, that's the most heartbreaking thing. But yeah, when I look at her, that, that moment of her talking there, the Lucy James NPC with DLSS5 on just looks like it's, you know, it's a PNG face with the mouth hole cut out and the eyes cut out and it's just like a puppet thing kind of moving and it just doesn't feel right. It kind of reminds me of the way they did character faces like in GoldenEye back in the day when it was like, here's a. Yeah, here's a cube and we'll just put like, we'll just put it, you know, Pierce Brosnan's face on it or whatever. But when I go back to the Digital Foundry video that there was a moment where one of the elves is like walking on a bridge and there's dlss off and the tree is providing shadow and then they turn it on and then like, the shadow is just not even there anymore. And it looks like some filter was just turned on. Maybe that was a different time of day in the game. It didn't look like that much change in the background, but the character, like, didn't seem to take any of that into account. And I think all of my feelings were kind of just sort of like, you know, grinded down and they crystallized when I saw this one tweet and I'm blanking on who it was. I'm so sorry, if you're out there listening, you're probably not listening, but I just said I kind of like my video games to look like video games. And because this is in that such. This is in that weird, uncanny, you know, area. Is it something we'll get used to? I hope not. But our minds have been trained to see these weird, you know, deepfakes, when Deepfake was like the tech that was kind of like, you know, running everything. Our mind sees that and go, some, something's off here. We've seen these beautify filters being put on, you know, people, you know, in photos everywhere, right? We've seen what those filters do. They look off to us and triggers something to me like, I don't like that this looks bad. This looks off. This looks like you are wearing the mask of somebody else on top of your face. And it just feels like real world elements being projected onto a 3D model as opposed to, you know, our normal maps look this way and we want them to react to lighting in certain, you know, ways. I just. I don't know. Everything about it just looks off to me. And I think it was a very, very poor first showing.

[Greg Miller]

Agreed, 100%. Maze of Albion says, let the in line with you. Let the artist create the art. That's what makes art special. Fuck AI. It's ruining culture and depriving the world of intelligence and creativity. Then there's this one. I want to toss it tossing. Anakin pops in and says it's fine for backgrounds and objects, but human faces go into the uncanny Valley territory worse than Leia in Rogue One. And again, to talk about this being in the toolbox to be used, right? That's where I could see it being super helpful. If it gets locked in, if it gets worked. There's a million ifs here. And again, we're going off of tech demos that again, did not show well. And would not be how I would have done it. But to the point here of like if you pause here, Kev of yes, Grace. No, I do not want this. I do not like that. But to talk about the backgrounds and to talk about the motion in the overhang here on the cigarettes and what like that looks good. Can they actually maintain that in the game and etc. Etc. Who the knows And I. There's another one here right. Of them talking about needing. You're all. You're all super chatting too much. I love you. Aaron Lime says the fact that they had to use two 50 90s to run these, one for the game and one for the filter is just obnoxious. The. The AI literally trains on porn for women's faces. So it's. It's misogynistic.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, that is a. Yeah, very sort of biased thing where we, you know that. That one famous image of blurry face Obama and they say, hey, AI, what does this face look like? And it immediately became like a darker skinned white man's face because they're just sort of like that. There's that inherent bias with the Internet and data scraping and. The Internet.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Images. I put out another link in assets as well, Kevin, because I'm sorry, before

[Greg Miller]

we go further, but what I'm. The point I'm making here is again, to your point, is anyone ever going to use this? I'm sure someone will, of course, yada, yada, yada. But to talk about the fact of, okay, what if you were able to use this to make the other shit look better or whatever to make backgrounds run better. NPCs. There was another one in here. Again, so many super chats. Thank you so much. Talking about how good the crowds looked in soccer versus what you were seeing from the actual people. Sorry, what did you point.

[Andy Cortez]

I guess the. The crowds at soccer, I didn't really notice a whole lot of it just. I just kept seeing floating face. But we have another example here. This is from a digital foundries video. When I first saw all of this stuff sort of pop off and I like. My problem with the way some of the environments look is that a lot of the environment shots being shown, I'm like, oh, I. I like the game more there. I like the game more here. A lot of this, a lot of, A lot of that just comes down to taste. But like when I. When I see the DLSS5 filter on, I still can't help but seeing a flat PNG of a building that's just kind of like changing Its angle based on how I'm looking.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And that's just my brain. But like you, that this dude has a shadow casted on him when a DLSS is off. And then when you turn it on, all of that stuff disappears. And it's like, here's what we think a human kind of looks like with these proportions.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. Because. Yeah. Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Because dark elves don't exist or whatever. Don't exist in real life. So we're just gonna put a human's faces, you know.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Proportions to the way that your 3D model looks. It just looks off. It doesn't look great. I like the way. Deal. I like the way the. I think Oblivion is a beautiful game. A building remastered. Really, really popped off. Their art team really kicked ass. And I think it looks awesome with it off and their shots with it. I'm like, yeah, I do kind of like the way that looks. But for the most part, I. I just sort of fail to see. Well, I don't feel to see. It's. It's investors and you need to keep pushing for more. And that's always going to be the answer.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Whenever we talk about why even do this. Well, because you can't stagnate. And that's just the sad fact of it all. You can't stagnate in this industry. If you start to slow down, investors go, oh, maybe I'm losing faith in you. I'm going to drop. And then there's reports that Nvidia stock is falling.

[Greg Miller]

We got to keep. I mean, everything. All the money in this industry right now is going to AI. Right. So you've got to keep trying to push and act like AI is something we all want, need. It's going to make our games incredibly better. He looks worse. He looks. He looks demonstrably worse than what we just saw.

[Andy Cortez]

To Will Neff making a great appearance in this video. Shout out to Will Neff. He's awesome. But, like, this shot is another one that really bothered me. And I saw a great post about it saying, you know, cool. It kind of just looks like a cosplayer in front of a bunch of iPhone. Like Photoshops.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And again, these filters are just being applied, in my opinion, at a. You know, they're just turning them on.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

There's no discrimination. They're just like, bam. How does this area look with it on? And that takes away, like the fog in the background that was artfully put there by people. This thing, this area being darker to kind of include the, you know, the player's vision or whatever. I hate the way this looks when it's this sort of, you know, bird's eye view or whatever. I. To me it kind of just.

[Greg Miller]

It looks like way better off here.

[Andy Cortez]

It looks like a weird Google Photos like. And again though we want our stuff to be more realistic, I guess we do. But my brain just tells me that there's something off here. And when I look at the way a lot of these shots look like with DLSS5 on, to me it just looks like whenever you are composing an environmental shot and you have like on this plane we'll have this bunch of trees and on this plane we'll have that bunch of trees and it looks like just a bunch of kind of flat. Again, we are looking at a YouTube upload of a compressed video of a TV screen on the wall or whatever, courtesy of Digital Foundries video. But a lot of those shots just don't look great to me. Yep. Could they look better with more tuning? Of course everything can look better with more artist tuning, but for the most part it feels kind of disappointing and I suspect that when this comes out in fall, get ready to see a whole lot of fucking really bad Steam Next Fest demos in March or whatever. Like we're about to see some real gross looking out there and I'm kind of excited for it.

[Greg Miller]

Just gotta say it's really turning me on to your point earlier you're making. I want to try to get as many super chats in as I can as we make the point. So many people are just doing the same stuff and I love you for that. Thank you very much. Jameson says nobody wants AI face changes. DLSS 5. What we want is more affordability and bigger uplift per generation. Generational uplift has stalled lately and I think it's back to what you're talking about of trying to stoke these fires. And we have to have something new. We have to do something else with this. What can we do? You go put this in here. I want to end on this one because we still have a lot more show to go even though we've done 40 minutes on this. For story number one, Jordan says, what I want to know is now that you have more information on what the tech is doing and that it's not just a filter, do you feel any different to your initial reaction? Andy of Yuck. And do you think that optics will change over time like they have with all the other DLSS features?

[Andy Cortez]

Well, optics never changed over time with me with the other DLSS stuff and I. I know you could hit me right back. Yeah, well, you're sponsored. I.

[Greg Miller]

Wait, so do you like the old DLSS or didn't like the old.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, I loved it.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. Just make sure. Why? For somebody who's new, who doesn't understand what's going on. Yeah, but I mean, we legitimately love that.

[Andy Cortez]

The reason why Nvidia reached out to us was because of my enthusiasm for all of it and getting in really into Digital Foundry and on my hard drive, I have so many, like, before and after images of graphics that are like, he does of like, just, here's what this looks like without. And I never post them because I just, like, make them in my free time, hoping to one day post them. Like, I love this shit. I love tech. I was never one of the naysayers. I was always like, this shit rocks. This is insane that you're able to get this performance out of these visuals when you normally. That shit's just not possible. Do I expect public sentiment to sway on it? I think depending on how it's used, I think DLSS5 could come out and nobody touches it. And we're just gonna get better performance and hopefully my games don't touch it. And then we, you know, we just still benefit from more frames, you know, better CPU performance or whatever. Yeah, but man, like, oh, that just looks like just such a. It just looks like a flat png just like being moved around. It's just so awkward. Looking to the other part of the question, which was now that I have a better idea of how the tech works, I still need to see it in action because what. What I'm being told, how the tech works isn't fooling my eyes.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Like, you could tell me how the tech works. You could tell me that there's.

[Greg Miller]

This isn't a filter. This is.

[Andy Cortez]

You could tell me there's. Yeah. Like, to me, my eyes see you are pulling from neural networks of AI approximations of what human faces look like in certain situations.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

My brain looks at that and says, I don't like the way that looks. And you can't change that. You can maybe lessen it and try to lessen the impact by maybe even here dialing sliders.

[Greg Miller]

Like, what are we talking about? We're off. Looks better. It looks more real than this.

[Andy Cortez]

It. I mean, it's not even just like a realism thing. It's also like an artist in. The artist intent, the light being placed in certain spots. It. Again, this is just them hitting that button on and saying, go buck wild. Yeah, but like, I hate the way it just like automatically brightens everything up. I hate that everything looks like you put it into. Like when you take a photo of somebody and you hit the little magic wand button at the bottom, it looks like everything got that treatment from your cell phone's photo editor.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Where you just hit the magic wand button. It's like, boom. Perfect contrast, perfect lighting, perfect luminance, all that. That's what it kind of looks like and just looks. It looks fake and off to me. And, you know, I. If you disagree, everybody's got different tastes, you know, to. Like I mentioned earlier with the whole, you know, people on. On. On Facebook posting Darth Maul in. In Avatar that, you know, the kid laughing at the jingling keys. Oh, I love this stuff. Like, I just. That stuff looks awful to me and so does the majority of what's happening with the faces here.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. To Jordan's question, I think just to close on this, right? Like, do you think optics will change over time? Like they have. We'll wait and see. Like, I mean, again, like, I'm coming at it from complete gamer perspective. I'm not an artist. I've never made a game yet. This is in the toolbox. Let's see how people use it. And if they make games that look garbagey or that you can even run them, or if they find a cool way to use it and use it in a way that doesn't betray their artists and do all these different things, yada, yada. For me, this comes down to cool. This exists now. There's no way to stop that. Prove it. Prove that it's cool. Use it in a way that I go, damn, that is better right where it's. I mean, look at me playing so many games on my PC now. Because I'm like, yeah, fuck, this actually works now and is great. I'm getting better experience off of this. Like, that's how it is. Like, you know, to plant your feet and ignore new information and not be willing to change and not be. Opinions change each and every day. And that's what we do on the show. I'd like to think we have a nuanced conversation about games and game development and game playing. Like, right now, this was a horrible way to show it, but let's see what happens in the fall when it launches. I'm not saying, like, it's the, you know, the devil, but I would. There's been a bunch of super chats talking about. I want to know how artists feel about this. That is the ding, ding. Ding. I would love that. I would love to hear from more artists out there. Like no, no. I work at Bethesda on Starfield and yeah, we didn't get this but we're excited to because X, Y and Z. Yeah, but we'll see.

[Andy Cortez]

We'll see. Gregory.

[Greg Miller]

Luckily we'll still be here covering it this fall because of your support on patreon.com kinda funny YouTube.com kinda funny games Apple and Spotify of course you can go there. Toss us $10 and get all of our shows ad free. Get your daily dose of me Greg Miller in a series we call Greg Way. Get good karma for supporting an 11 year old 11 person small business. But right now you're not using your benefits. So here's a word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by five Hour Energy Indulge your sweet tooth with a fruity Rainbow Extra Strength 5 Hour Energy Shot. It's basically a candy store in a bottle. We're talking juicy berry bursts, tangy citrus squeezes and a pop of tropical vibes. All hitting like your favorite childhood sweets but with an actual boost. The sweet treat that you won't feel guilty about. Packed with B vitamins, nutrients and that all important caffeine to keep you going. Just as pocket size as your favorite candy, but with zero sugar and zero sugar.

[Andy Cortez]

Crash.

[Greg Miller]

Forget boring. Find the rainbow. Grab the shot. Dive into the sweet boost for your sweet tooth. Visit FiveHouseEnergy.com or Amazon today. This podcast is brought to you by Rula. I know I'm the strongest person you know, but even I, Greg Miller, struggle with mental health and know how important it is to talk to someone when you're going through it. That's where Rula comes in. Rula makes therapy simple, affordable and fast. They work with most major insurance plans and the average session copay is just 15 bucks. That's $15. That's basically the cost of lunch. But instead of a sandwich, you're investing in your own headspace. And with Rula you're not just matched and left to figure it out. They check in and make sure you're actually making progress. Getting started couldn't be easier. You answer a few quick questions about what matters to you and Rula connects you with in network providers who actually fit your needs. You pick the time and you could be talking to to a therapist as soon as the next day. Thousands of folks have already used Rula to finally get the care they needed. Don't keep putting it off. Go to rula.com kindafunny and get started today. That's Rula R U L A.com kinda funny take the first step, get connected and take control of your mental health. This podcast is brought to you by Factor. Somewhere between the first warm weekend and realizing short season is getting close, eating well stops feeling optional. But not if you're like me and have Factor delivered to your door. It's never optional, it's always happening. Get fully prepared meals designed by dietitians and crafted by chefs. Ready in two minutes. No planning, no cooking. Factor makes a mashed potato that would make Andy Cortez blush because they only use quality, functional ingredients including lean proteins, colorful veggies, whole food ingredients and healthy fats. There's 100 rotating weekly meals to keep things fresh and delicious through every season with options including high Protein Calorie, smart Mediterranean diet, GLP1 support and ready to Eat Salads. I love Factor and you will too. Head to FactorMeals.com kinda funny 50 off and use code kinda funny 50 off to get 50% off and free breakfast for a year offer only valid for new Factor customers with code and qualifying auto renewing subscription purchase. Make healthier eating easy with Factor finally, the Williams's have come back to San Francisco and this time they're gonna make Nick and Andy answer for it. Join James and Elise Willems, Nick, Andy, Lucy, James, Max Scoville and more for a live trivia show March 21, 8pm at the Swedish American hall in San Francisco. It's the only trivia show where being funny is just as important as being right. And we all know Nick is never right, so he's gotta be funny. But too bad he's also never funny. Head to kinda funny.com answerfor it for

[Andy Cortez]

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[Greg Miller]

Story number two on the Rope Report Arc raiders comma the Finals Dev Embark Studios parts ways with co founder following misconduct and allegations. This is the one, the only KFGD 2025 award winner Rebecca [e-mail]. embark Studios, the developer behind Arc Raiders and the Finals has quote unquote mutually agreed to part ways with co founder and CCO Rob and I'm going to say Runson, you agree?

[Andy Cortez]

That sounds. That looks pretty good to me.

[Greg Miller]

Got it. Following public allegations that he engaged in sexual misconduct with a popular the Final streamer as well as an external legal investigation that Embark claims, quote unquote did not substantiate and quote the allegations.

[Andy Cortez]

A lot of positivity on the news today.

[Greg Miller]

It's always good on games daily. These allegations shared by an anonymous person first arose about a month ago via the final streamer. I'm going to say Belize. Who read them on stream. The anonymous allegations were later distributed via Google Docs in various the final social communities. In summary, the anonymous person claims that they were in contact with a popular female streamer of the Finals who allegedly spoke to them frequently about engaging in a romantic and sexual relationship with Runeson. The anonymous accuser says the female streamer reported becoming increasingly uncomfortable with Runeson's requests for sexual conversations and favors, as well as concerned about the potential conflict of interest they presented, but felt they could not push back due to becoming financially dependent on Runeson's promotion of her streams. The anonymous accuser claims they eventually went to Embark Community Lead to report the behavior of, but was not made aware of any action being taken to investigate at the time. In response, Embark says it has parted ways with Runson. Here is Embark's full statement. Quote. Our leadership team was recently made aware of allegations against an Embark employee. We take these matters seriously and as part of our process for addressing any types of allegations, we immediately hired a law firm to conduct an external investigation. The investigation did not substantiate the allegations, but we found the situation unsustainable and mutually agreed to part ways with Rob and quote, what the fuck does that mean? Yo, Andy, the allegation. We couldn't substantiate the allegations, but the situation's unsustainable.

[Andy Cortez]

We.

[Greg Miller]

What the fuck does that mean?

[Andy Cortez]

We didn't have enough info, but things great.

[Greg Miller]

The DMs were like alluding to but they weren't.

[Andy Cortez]

So they couldn't.

[Greg Miller]

But we couldn't substantiate. But it's a. What the. Speak plainly.

[Andy Cortez]

This is Dr. Disrespect splitting ways with his game studio and them just being like we think it's better and then everybody going, yeah, but come on, you guys don't actually know what happened. It's like, well, we know why they fucking split ways. We know why this happened. You know,

[Greg Miller]

these allegations come at the same time as another similar controversy. Controversy where multiple male the finals esports players have been accused of inappropriate behavior towards women in the community. In a discord statement from one month ago, Embark announced it would be pausing its current outbound esports efforts while it underwent an evaluation and review of its competitive system. Quote, we have reviewed these concerns carefully, including with external legal counsel, and are confident that at this time, our decisions and actions have been appropriate and within the scope of our responsibilities as a publisher and organizer. I'm trying not to burp.

[Andy Cortez]

Got a burp.

[Greg Miller]

You know what I mean?

[Andy Cortez]

I felt it.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. We take these matters seriously. I was like, it's like, Sonic, like, do, do, do, do, do. I drowned. I couldn't get out of it. First off, obviously, kind of funny. Can't condemn people making each other uncomfortable and taking advantage of people enough. That's always going to be our statement on these matters. Right? So fuck abusing people and abusing your power X, Y and Z. Secondly, the finals is still going and is big enough to have this fucking in the esports community and a community in general. I. That's a game gone. Forgot all about the finals. Yeah, that was a fucking thing.

[Andy Cortez]

No, I mean, Embark was still doing well on development, I think. I think it's still going. But, yeah, awful news like this is. It's, again, just kind of perfectly convenient that we didn't really find anything, but we still think it's best.

[Greg Miller]

Yo. We found no. No misgivings, no problems. But we also don't think it's sustainable that he stays.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, that's. That's the part that kind of just, you know, as you're writing that at the company, you hope that people just kind of gloss over it and, like, just, you know, ignore the rest of it. But that's the part that really kind of makes you go, okay, well, what do you. You know, you're saying it without saying it. Allegedly, of course. But, yeah, awful news. More awful news of, you know, men in power taking advantage of these situations and in an sustainable way. Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Not in an illegal way. In an unsustainable way.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, right, of course.

[Greg Miller]

I'm making fun of.

[Andy Cortez]

You Got to use the wording. Yeah. You have to use the right wording. Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Everybody, don't be fudgeing dicks to each other. How about that?

[Andy Cortez]

Be a dickhead.

[Greg Miller]

Let's finally get to some good news, which we will go through quickly, in brief, because Gamescast is all about it. Number three, Starfield is getting three big updates and coming to PlayStation 5 I'm reading from Bethesda's blog. Bethesda's Game Studios is excited to announce that Starfield is coming to PlayStation 5 on April 7th. The PlayStation 5 launch arrives in tandem with Terran Armada and Freelance. Starfield's next major content drops, releasing on all platforms on April 7th. Starfield on PlayStation 5 takes advantage of the console hardware integrating with light bar, adaptive triggers, touchpad and more. On the PlayStation 5 Pro, players can select a Pro Performance mode to prioritize a higher target FPS or select Pro Visual Mode. Starfield's base edition will be available on all platforms for 50 bucks, welcoming even more players to the universe Back into the end to this DLC they're talking about, right? Terran Armada introduces a new quest line across the settled systems. With new characters, locations, enemies, quests, systems and rewards, players get the chance to shape the future future of humanity's humanity in space as they combat the incursions of the Terran Armada's robotic forces in this brand new story DLC that I believe I need to check my notes for Gamescast cost $10 off the creation Shop.

[Andy Cortez]

God it would be I really, I really fucked up in not taking advantage of just like kind of the news ahead of time and making like a fake trailer where there's a person aboard the ship and they got one of them weird Nvidia DLSS 5 faces and they're like something's off about that.

[Greg Miller]

I don't think he's a human.

[Andy Cortez]

They're not a real person.

[Greg Miller]

He's a Terran.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Freelance is a free UPD that adds significant new features and systems designed to deepen the core Starfield experience for both new and returning players, most significantly, opening up interplanetary travel within systems. With this update, players can use Cruise mode to travel from planet to planet within a star system where they'll experience frequent encounters and activities and spend some quality time on their ship with their crew. And then if that wasn't enough for you Trackers alliance in 2024, the Trackers alliance was introduced to Starfield to give players even more options to experience the settled systems as a bounty hunter. Bethesda continues to build on the Trackers alliance experience with five new Tracker alliance adventures all available to play right now. This update expands the Bounty Hunter experience with new targets, contracts, and rewards. Players who previously purchased the original Trackers alliance content will receive these new adventures for free. New players can access the complete set for 700 creation credits.

[Andy Cortez]

Kevin, can I get the one. With Starfield Baron Trackers Alliance. Trackers alliance and what's the other one?

[Greg Miller]

Terran Armada and Starfield.

[Andy Cortez]

Terran Armada Freelanes and the Starfield Alliance. There has never been a better time to hop in to Starfield.

[Greg Miller]

Crushed it.

[Andy Cortez]

Thank you so much.

[Greg Miller]

I of course went to Bethesda and saw all of this. Talk to Todd, interviewed Tim over there who's in charge of it all. Not our Tim. Tim Lamb. That will be your games cast right after this. Michael Hine from IGN is coming into to shoot the shit with me about it. And then I have a 20 minute interview with Tim Lane to talk all about the Lamb to talk all about this because I love Starfield so much and I.

[Andy Cortez]

What a day for you.

[Greg Miller]

If you want even more about this, I did a 20 minute Greg way today talking about what I'm going to do with Becky lynch, my Starfield character going forward.

[Andy Cortez]

You champing at the bit for this? You're stuck dude.

[Greg Miller]

Trackers Alliance. I made sure it's installed over there. So as soon as I'm done with my shows today and go get this because they got a Mantis bounty, there's another motherfucker pretending to be the Mantis. I'm going to kill this kid.

[Andy Cortez]

Chat, I was just gonna do something awful. I was gonna piss off Kevin, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Chat, if you want to watch Greg play this instead of me and Nick play Call of Duty let we're gonna put a poll up. You guys decide. Kevin Love. I don't care. Just. Just like the whole setup of it.

[Greg Miller]

That's simple enough, right?

[Andy Cortez]

I don't even know if we downloaded the right Call of Duty.

[Greg Miller]

I assure you it's downloaded. My, my razor blade 16's got Starfield trackers Alliance. Let's go, let's go.

[Andy Cortez]

As we're getting close to the to KFGD starting Kevin's like Andy which what do I install? I was like I think it's just Call of Duty. The main thing. 270 fucking gigs. No, no, no no no. You got like 800 gigs. How much? It was like. No, no, no. I think it was 750 gigs. It was insane. No, you got to like uncheck the right ones. Okay. Is it Warzone? I think it, I think it is. Why isn't Mike here? Mike's sick.

[Greg Miller]

Mike sick?

[Andy Cortez]

Just been a whole day this morning.

[Greg Miller]

How do you do a poll?

[Andy Cortez]

It's happening. Somebody put it up. Let's just do it. Let's just give it to him. Wow. They want it so bad.

[Greg Miller]

I told you they'd want it.

[Andy Cortez]

For God's sakes, please vote for. I also got to play more Cribs in desert, so.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah, me too. But I don't. I'll take. I mean I'm going to play this no matter what.

[Andy Cortez]

Star split, baby. So you are like this is talk about in game saving grace.

[Greg Miller]

We got Michael there. Well, Satan grace. I already like Starfield. It's very much what Todd said on Gamescast. If you like Starfield, you're going to like this. If you thought Starfield sucked, you ain't gonna like it like it's more Starfield. So are you in or you out? They did a bunch of quality of life that we'll jump into and have a big conversation about, but we'll do that.

[Andy Cortez]

Mike couldn't even download the correct one on his own personal PC.

[Greg Miller]

Number four on the Rope report that we have some season three casting news for the Last of Us. This is Rosie over at deadline. HBO's the Last of Us is gearing a major season three and possibly its last with promotions of Ariela Bearer, Tati Gabrielle and Spencer Lord, as well as the official additions of Jason Ritter and Patrick Wilson, of course from the cuckoo universe in reoccurring roles.

[Andy Cortez]

You got to put your hand on my shoulder whenever you do that.

[Greg Miller]

Well, you're too far away now. But yeah, you see of course they're talking about yeah, obviously Patrick Wilson, Jason Ritter, who you probably know and they were at the top of the thing and then here, of course they're talking about. Yes, Mel, Nora and Owen are all becoming reoccurring stars since obviously this is going to be an Abby season. So congratulations to them.

[Andy Cortez]

That's exciting. I didn't finish season two.

[Greg Miller]

You never know how it ends.

[Andy Cortez]

Damn. Damn.

[Greg Miller]

Number five on the rope report. We have updates for the Switch and the PlayStation Portal. Let's start with the switch to a whole bunch of stuff but the important bits are say you can save notes about your friends on your friends list.

[Andy Cortez]

Okay.

[Greg Miller]

Andy, don't trust him.

[Andy Cortez]

I'm going to keep some stuff there for you.

[Greg Miller]

New game chat features, new features for airplane mode. But then it's going to be great

[Andy Cortez]

whenever somebody picks up my switch, like in a post apocalyptic world.

[Greg Miller]

Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Still works.

[Greg Miller]

But here's the biggest one. Handheld mode boost. Handheld mode boost will cause compatible switch software to run as if it was in TV mode, so certain functionality may be affected. Please see the on device description for more details.

[Andy Cortez]

This shit rocks.

[Greg Miller]

That's really cool.

[Andy Cortez]

I did it yesterday. Pokemon Arceus.

[Greg Miller]

Hold on one second. Cole. Come here, Cole. It's just, I'm sure they work here. Whoever you're barking at works here. Come here, Cole. All right. The Weiner dog's here today and he's pissed off out there.

[Andy Cortez]

In order to activate it, you go into settings, then like or system settings, and then you go to like, system at the very, very bottom. And then you got to go to like some weird option near the bottom. And there you have to. You have to tap it on because it'll say like, hey, doing this means that it's going to consume more battery and more power. But I ran Astral Train on it last night. Now, unfortunately, games are still locked at 30. That doesn't change how the game runs. But when it is running, Astral chain was in 1080p. Looks super sharp.

[Greg Miller]

That's Nick.

[Andy Cortez]

Pokemon Arceus looks super sharp.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

You know, it's still 30 frames per second, but it's like super crisp and it looks awesome. It doesn't look super muddy.

[Greg Miller]

Hell yeah. That's great. I love that. Great update.

[Andy Cortez]

Very cool.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, look at this. Starfield running away with it. 71 of the vote.

[Andy Cortez]

Wow.

[Greg Miller]

There we go, everybody. Let's go after this Mantis pretender, you and me. Oh, you're. You're barking at Michael Hyam. No, no, we love Michael. PlayStation Portal update adds 1080p high quality mode and refined streaming experience. Here's what's new. This is Vicki Blake at IGN. Sony said it's continuing to evolve its PlayStation Portal remote player with a new system software update introducing improvements designed to, quote, deliver high visual fidelity, smoother interactions and a more seamless overall experience. The update, which is rolling out now, comes as Sony announced its cloud streaming Monthly users are up 162% year over year. Over 50% of portal users also use or, I'm sorry, are also PlayStation plus premium subscribers, a stat Sony claims shows quote, a growing engagement with the cloud experience. So the three bullet points here. 1080p high quality mode. Players can now select 1080p high quality mode during remote play and cloud streaming. Refined cloud streaming experience and a smoother onboarding experience. I was using my portal last night.

[Andy Cortez]

Wow.

[Greg Miller]

Always a fun time.

[Andy Cortez]

Some updates are always great.

[Greg Miller]

They are. But sometimes these updates, like Trackers alliance, they're just too dang big.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Andy, if I wanted something smaller, say what came to the tiniest news I needed to know about shops, where would I go?

[Andy Cortez]

You'd go to our last story. The Weed news channel where we cover all the small news items you need to know about.

[Greg Miller]

Number six, Wii news. Noble reports my little puppy is coming to PlayStation 5 alongside the Nintendo Switch version on May 29th. Of course, it's already on PC and I have it installed on my rog ally, but I'll probably wait for my Switch beyond words is launching April 9 on Xbox Series, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and PC. Super Metroid's official soundtrack is now available on Nintendo Music. Gamatsu reports that IO Interactive ends minds Eye publishing collaboration.

[Andy Cortez]

Damn.

[Greg Miller]

Build a Rocket boy to a assume publishing responsibilities going forward.

[Andy Cortez]

Unfortunate.

[Greg Miller]

Aw, nuts about that one. And then kinda funny. Best friend and Stella's boyfriend Joel has put out a game, Dice with Death. I'm sorry, Dice with Death is a dice building Roguelite. Unfortunately, you have already died. Fortunately, Death is up for some friendly competition. Collect new dice and relics, create damage stacking combos, and even cheat Death himself to emerge victorious. Check that out on Steam. Everybody Dice with Death.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, also shout out to Mike Gabori. Oh yeah, Mike Gabori with his game Monster Battler Rush. I forgot the name of it. I really choked that man. I'm so sorry.

[Greg Miller]

I threw up.

[Andy Cortez]

That three pointer just bricked.

[Greg Miller]

I appreciate it.

[Andy Cortez]

It's. It's a. It's.

[Greg Miller]

You got time to find it.

[Andy Cortez]

It's a boss.

[Greg Miller]

He's been tweeting about it

[Andy Cortez]

game. Obviously. It's like one of the 30 festivals that Steam rolls every year

[Greg Miller]

in these spotlights. I'm glad you're saying it. I've been saying it for a long time.

[Andy Cortez]

I'll look for it right here.

[Greg Miller]

All right. Anyways, that's it for WE News. Some of the super chats to get through again. So many people came in and talked and I think I got through a lot of them, not all of them. By your stress imagination, we love you. But Hatch says with the super chat and you listen up for one second. Okay. Huh. Started this tiny game last night that I haven't heard anyone talking about. Certainly nobody kind of funny. It's called the King is Watching and stayed up way too late. What a game. Seriously though, you undersold it, Andy.

[Andy Cortez]

That's okay. Fuck you. First off, and I know you're having a little. You're having a little go at me, but that's why I was fist pumping earlier. I read that super chat.

[Greg Miller]

Oh yeah. Excited.

[Andy Cortez]

The people are listening and the King is watching. All right. Yeah, New DLC just came out. Loads more content again. This game came out. Did you know that? Not an early access game.

[Greg Miller]

I didn't know that.

[Andy Cortez]

That game stayed off of my top 10 until chat told me the night before, hey, this is. This game's out. It's not just early access. Like, oh, damn, you hate to see that. About 80 hour or 100 some hours in it. King is watching Goaded.

[Greg Miller]

And now they got DLC, right?

[Andy Cortez]

Well, they've had plenty of DLCs, but now, like their first, like another big gigantic, you know, addition just came out.

[Greg Miller]

Okay, a few more super chats that weren't about Nvidia and Anger. Krogan clinician said enough of Greg this and Greg that. He ain't no Andy. We need an Andy vlog. Let's eat. Room tour. And perhaps a body pillow. It's.

[Andy Cortez]

It's funny you bring that up. I was just replying to an Instagram story from friend of the show Alana Pierce, where she was like, I'm doing a room tour.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I saw that.

[Andy Cortez]

And I replied, like I've said many times, no amount of money in the world. Do it for Greg way tomorrow would. Fuck, no.

[Greg Miller]

Let me come over into your room.

[Andy Cortez]

Fuck no.

[Greg Miller]

We'll wear gloves.

[Andy Cortez]

It's embarrassing. I'm just embarrassed.

[Greg Miller]

So what?

[Andy Cortez]

Like, I like no amount of money. Okay, no amount of money. Thank you for the offer, Chris.

[Greg Miller]

Bab says election day today. That's why there's no school.

[Andy Cortez]

That's.

[Greg Miller]

That's not.

[Andy Cortez]

That's.

[Greg Miller]

This is America we don't do.

[Andy Cortez]

The game is called Rogue Monster Rush from Mike Gabori. Rogue Monster Rush. And it's like a little, you know, tower defense thing, but you're also like, gathering Pokemon. Pokemon, yeah, yeah, of course. Put him on the floor. Battling. Hello. Destroying things.

[Greg Miller]

Yes. Is there school today? Thank you so much. Yeah, see, no, there's school today. I called Tim's alma mater, Law school, White House. No, I call America. We ain't giving you the day off at work. We ain't giving you the day off of school to go vote. What are you talking about? Democracy. Take it up with your employer. Gondor's Condor says Irish film suggestion for all. Song of the Sea. I always watched Darby o' Gill and the Little People. You ever watched that one?

[Andy Cortez]

Wait, Song of the Sea. Isn't that the song of the deep? Sword of the Sea.

[Greg Miller]

No. Sword of the Sea. Turnabout. Adam says, happy Patty's Day. From north of Ireland. The north of Ireland, love. Kind of funny. My birthday is the 12th of July. Very fortunate. If you know, you know. I don't know. I assume it's something Irish that I have to worry about.

[Andy Cortez]

4th of July.

[Greg Miller]

No, the 12th. 12th of July, it's already gone. And then our final one comes from Dustin, who says birthday tax for my son and I. My son Theoden turns one on Sunday and I turned 35 today. Love you guys. Jesus Christ, I nailed that.

[Andy Cortez]

Theoden.

[Greg Miller]

What did I say? I said Theoden.

[Andy Cortez]

Theoden.

[Greg Miller]

Here's what I'll say. Bad name you got there with the first four letters. Theo. We should have called him Theo. We should have named him Theo. God, Theo.

[Andy Cortez]

It's gonna. I'll tell you this right now.

[Greg Miller]

Can I get the one? Kevin?

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, God.

[Greg Miller]

Dustin, it's me, Greg Miller. Nobody has the day off for St. Patrick's Day and or the election, but what they do have is the ability to go to their local city hall and change their son's name from the Odin to Theo. Because then you could just be like Theo Huxtable. Malcolm Jamal Warner, rest in peace. We'll never forget.

[Andy Cortez]

Now for wrath, now for ruin. And the red dawn stayed in king thetan.

[Greg Miller]

I haven't talked enough about Starfield, so it's time to get to Gamescast, everybody. This has been another episode of Kind of Funny Games Daily. We love you, we appreciate you, thank you for watching, thanks for hanging out and thanks for having a bunch of good super chats in there. Like I said, gamescast is up next. It's me and Michael Hyom having a very intimate Starfield discussion about everything we saw at Bethesda when we went there last week. Talking about all the dlc, watching a bunch of videos and having a great time. If you want to be a part of that. What? What?

[Andy Cortez]

Largehog gamer says bro donated and got his bloodline roasted.

[Greg Miller]

Keep watching. Apparently I'm streaming Starfield again after the Kinda Funny podcast, which I'm super stoked about. Lots of good stuff happening here. So of course, if you're watching live, nowhere to go unless you're on YouTube watching live, you have to click to the different videos. If you're watching or listening later, come on over to YouTube.com kindafunnygames like subscribe, share, catch all of our stuff, but most importantly, go pick up a kinda funny membership. Patreon.com kind of funny. YouTube.com kindafunnygames Apple, Spotify, you give us $10 and Kevin, give me the one. You give us $10 and you support this dog who's got this whole skin condition thing. He's allergic to something. We got to keep taking him to the vet all right? You think that's cheap? You think that's cheap, Portillo? He hit all the medical expenses after 10. That's when the legs started breaking and all that stuff. I got this one three years old, like a rotten pumpkin in my arms. All right, don't make me put this dog down. Go to patreon.com kindafunny YouTube.com Apple Spotify Am I tuning tomorrow to find out? If I don't see the number go up today, we got problems. It's Starfield Day. Until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you.